Freefall

Talk about falling from grace. Can you believe Derby are actually bottom of the championship?

Yes they were clearly out of their depth last season, but you kind of expect a relegated team to be somewhere in the top half of the next division down don't you?

Paul Jewell said afterwards it was the best they had played so far this season too!

I did try to find out if there has ever been a team relegated in two consecutive seasons but I haven't been able to find anything out. Do any of you know better?

I don't really want to seem mean spirited. It's not kind to laugh at someone else's misfortunes, especially not now I appreciate the pain of relegation myself.

Of course if it was Leeds or Bolton I wouldn't hesitate to enjoy the experience. But that's understandable isn't it?

Rock And Roll

I didn't get to Cheltenham to see Leicester play in the end.

Which is a shame as we beat them 4 0. Yes I said 4 0.

Which makes us top of the league. For the first time in my fanship.

Rock and roll!

And talking of rock and roll, how great to see the Arse stuff Newcastle (sorry Mosher!).

It might have been a bit more interesting if Newcastle had turned up.

I'm telling you there is trouble there. Did you see the way Nicky Butt completely blanked Keegan at the end of the match?

I have some sympathy. Try as I might I can't warm to a man who comes from the Keith Chegwin school of charm.

Rock and roll he ain't!

All You Need Is Love

Tonight I'm going to talk about love.

The role of love in football.

It's a tricky subject in some ways. We all have our definition of love and it takes many different forms.

The kind of love I want to talk about is the love we have for the people we work with and for.

Let me explain what I mean.

It is one of my fundamental beliefs that an organisation needs love in it. People who work for it, whatever their motivation, need to feel appreciated, valued and believed in.

That doesn't mean people don't want constructive feedback and challenge. But those things have to happen within an environment of care and respect.

And of course although we talk about this thing called an organisation, it is actually a collection of people.

One of the things someone once said to me when giving me advice about fundraising for my organisation was that people don't give money to organisations. They give it to people.

What that means is that individual relationships are a critical part of how an organisation functions.

So what has that got to do with football?

Well it's no secret that those managers who are most successful are those who are fundamentally loved by their players. Love made up of respect, care and trust. Just look at how Wenger's players relate to him. Or Fergie.

That's not to say there can't be other emotions too. Fear. Dislike. Awe.

But an underlying relationship built on love can overcome those to bring out the best in people.

Which brings me to Mr Capello. A man with a reputation for being a 'disciplinarian'.

How much love has he managed to engender in his squad since becoming the England manager?

One of the things I was really struck by when I watched the last England match was how miserable they all looked.

Now I know you cynics will be saying "so they should they played so badly". But it was more than that. They just looked downtrodden of spirit, lacking in any shared mission or understanding and even a bit scared.

I'm not suggesting all of England's problems are down to such intangibles. There are technical issues too about the choice of team etc.

I can't help thinking, however, that some proper love in the England squad and first team could make a significant difference.

Maybe then players would not be so keen to arrange operations or claim not to be fit enough to play.

They're Doomed!

I know it's only two games into the Premiership season but you can't help speculating who will be the first manager to get the big El Bow.

Alan Cubishley has to be a hot favorite. The Hammers poor start, coupled with an indifferent season last year are likely to be making him feel very insecure, whatever he says. A matter of when rather then whether I should have thought.

Then there are the reports that Special K is at war with his board, Dennis Wise (but to be fair, who wouldn't be) and anyone else who's up for a fight. The results on the field aren't too bad yet though so that may help him stay in his seat for a while.

'Sparky' at Man City has definately had a shaky start one way or another, although it is still early days.

Then there's Megson at Bolton. No reason to think he may be sacked imminently but we can always hope........

And of course Mr Ramos at Tottenham. If he's in his job by the end of the year I'll say "I love Leeds United" three times out loud (I reserve the right to keep my fingers crossed though).

They're doomed I tell you. Doomed.

One Jump Ahead

You know how I sometimes say "You heard it here first"?

I just want you to know its the truth.

For example I was talking about this issue back in August last year.

And do you remember the time I predicted Gary Megson would become the Foxes' manager? And I was right of course (although to be fair, with the advantage of hindsight I wish I hadn't been)

Now it seems some people are recognising that the idea of team GB is politically driven. Like I said earlier this week.

I told you so is not a very nice expression.

But you did hear it here first - didn't you?

What Larks Pip!

I'm loving being second in the League table - even if it is League 1.

Probably not as much as Hull fans will be enjoying being above Manchester United in the Premiership though.

And I wonder how we will get on tomorrow night against Fulham in the League cup. We did well last year - beating Aston Villa and only just losing out to Chel$ea .

Cheltenham on Saturday. I was planning to go but when I tried to get some tickets today I found out they are sold out. One of the penalties of playing in League 1 I guess is that the grounds are mostly smaller and therefore have less capacity.

Sandy, who follows Cheltenham's progress, reckons the tickets are like gold dust as everyone wants to see Leicester play.

We can understand that can't we.

Which reminds me. I had something of a dilemma this weekend.

You may recall some time ago I told you my lover and I were looking into having a radio show on our local station. Well we did our very first radio broadcast on Saturday afternoon. And have been invited to do a regular slot at that time.

Now what would you do girls? Take your chance to be famous or follow your heart and your team? When Saturday comes and all that.

So what did I decide?

A compromise of course.

We are going to broadcast every other week, leaving time for the odd day out to the Walkers or away trips (subject to there being any tickets of course!)

What larks Pip!

Grumpy Old Woman

I'm worried I might be turning into a grumpy old woman.

I am not usually known for my cynicism but recently I have found myself increasingly at odds with the world in some respects.

For example the governmental promises to shower our successful Olympians from the Beijing games with honours.

Now don't get me wrong. I have huge admiration for the sports men and women who represent their country at the peak of their game. But I struggle with a government that has spent most of its term in office discouraging competitive sports in state schools and selling off the sports fields, now championing the cause of beating everyone to glory.

And what are we doing hosting the games in four years time? For goodness sake. We are a tiny island.

What makes it even worse is that once again everything is being centred around London.

Hey guys - the Millennium Dome, paid for by all of us, was a flop because it was too expensive and difficult for most of us to get to. London really is not the centre of the Universe. Trust me.

Now we are all going to have the privilege of paying towards the next Olympics with every likelihood that there will be minimum, if any, positive impact on the lives of the average Brit.

I suppose the one potentially good thing is that someone somewhere has spotted that there are quite a lot of footy fans on these fair isles. Definitely an audience worth capturing. Which would explain why Sir Alex has apparently been asked to manage a British Football team.

My theory is that people have looked at what happens in this country when there is a major international football tournament (one we manage to qualify for that is!) and thought "We need some of that. In fact a lot of that"

They're unlikely to get it with a bit of pistol shooting or dancing horses I suspect, no matter how good they are.

I will wait with interest to see if football can be the vehicle that will galvanise Britain into popular support for the Olympics. If not, then I fear another Dome but on a vaster, and more expensive scale.

Thrills And Spills

Well yesterday proved an interesting day in the English football league didn't it?

Fulham v the Arse - Oops! Another furrow in Wenger's forehead. You couldn't say they were robbed though could you

Tottenham v Sunderland - I have thought for some time that Sunderland are going to offer us a few surprises this year. I'm not sure what's happening at Tottenham though. Maybe it has something to do with selling all their best potential goal scorers (Defoe, Keane and now probably Bergatov). I can't help wondering what's really going on there

Liverpool v Middlesborough - Although still far from their best Liverpool do seem to be starting to warm up, with some further (if still tiny) flashes of what might be to come in the Keane/Torres partnership. The Borough are looking OK too though to be fair

Stoke City v Aston Villa - Ouch! That must have hurt. Although as a Leicester City fan it pains me to say it, City are playing some really good football. Some great smooth passing and the pass resulting in that second goal was excellent, as was the strike.

Charlton Athletic v Reading - Those poor Royals. Cummon boys. Sort yourselves out or your gonna be in trouble.

Coventry City v Bristol City - I knew Coventry should really have been relegated last season not us. Clearly out of their league

Bristol Rovers v Hereford - Bless!

Leicester City v Tranmere - Yeeeeehaaaaah!

Say It With A Song

If you had to choose songs that summed up some of the Premiership football club managers what would they be?

Scolari?
Megson?
Wenger? (that was meant to be ironic btw!)
'Arry?
Demi-god Sir Alex?
The delicious Roy Keane?

And what song might suit me?

This seems to fit the bill.

Lost In The Wilderness

I'd like to avoid talking about you-know-what but you can't really can you?

What a shambles.

I don't agree with people that it is a lack of passion on the part of the England players. I do think they lack confidence and belief as a team though. Partly because of how badly things have gone in recent times and partly because they know as well as we do that the formula simply isn't right.

This is about strategy and tactics. There was no evidence that the players were not following Capello's instructions. There was just no evidence that they all had a shared understanding of what they were supposed to be doing in any given situation.

They just seemed lost.

I feel ill just thinking about it so lets move on to nicer things.

Like our upcoming match against Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.

A team with a proud history it would seem, having boasted such renowned players as Dixie, Bunny, Pongo and Nibbler.

In addition to the Dixie, Bunny, Pongo and Nibbler era, which would seem to have been something of a heyday, they have also had what Wikipedia describes as a "wilderness period" - which lasted forty seven years!

I wonder if this season will be described in the future as a 'wilderness period' for the Foxes.

If so - let's hope it doesn't last that long.

Not Everything Can Be Cured With Antibiotics

I made myself some tea tonight and settled down to watch the England match.

Only to find it wasn't on. Not on any of the four channels I can receive anyway.

What should I do? Go upstairs and listen to it on Five Live over the Internet? (I try to avoid having to re-tune my radio because I'm not very good at it)

Or would the allure of a programme about embarrassing diseases prove too much?

A bad dose of psoriasis, group breast checking and a discharging foreskin later I am now sitting at my computer, the dulcet tones of Five Live ringing in my ears.

And my heart sinks to learn we had already gone one down.

Hooray - we've equalised. Scored by Wes Brown.

I thought he was a defender. What's he doing up there?

What do I know - I'm just a girl.

Rats! They've scored again.

Beckham has apparently just done a "cushioned header"

Bentley now stepping forward for "his moment"

Frank Lampard on.

Downing has given the ball away sloppily.

Yes!!

No!! Offside

Four minutes of added time

In the back of the net!

Who cares if it's untidy

Lucky too...............

...........It's over!

We drew- which is pleasing of course.

We played rubbish though.

What are we going to do? Why can't anyone fix the England team? Are they incurable?

Maybe the best we can hope is that whatever they've got is contagious and everyone else in the World Cup competition catches it.

Tales Of The Unexpected

A few unexpected things have happened today.

There was of course the appointment of John Terry as England captain, which was a surprise since virtually all the predictions I had heard were that Rio Ferdinand would be the preferred choice.

Then there was the announcement that Emmanuel Adebayor will be staying at the Arse after all, despite the summer-long speculation that he would be leaving.

I got home this evening to a letter from someone I met when I worked in a Wimpy bar aged 17 (for those of you who remember Wimpy). I haven't seen or heard from her for years so how spooky that she suddenly decided to write.

The best surprise of all though, was a telephone call from my stepson in America. As sometimes happens in families we haven't spoken for over two years directly, although we have sometimes communicated a bit via Facebook recently. The call came out of the blue but was very welcome.

We caught up on his news and talked some baby talk. And then we talked about football.

I haven't yet met his wife Betty as I was away when she came to England. But she is apparently learning about football too - the proper game that is not the American one.

Of course that means there are two people in that household that could become Chel$ea fans unless I can bring my influence to bear.

I will have to plot a strategy.

I think this calls for something unexpected.

False Dawn?

Money might not be able to buy you love but it can buy you a football team.

Add the additional magic ingredient in the form of the right manager and you get - Chel$ea.

Or so it would seem if you believe the various commentators over the weekend.

Yes they did play very well together. Yes it is probably the best football we have seen from them, certainly since I have been following our beloved game.

But for goodness sake - it's just one game. Let's see whether they can deliver that sort of quality consistently week in week out.

Not that I am not impressed mind you. If they do manage to replicate that sort of play on a regular basis I might start to feel warmer towards them. And I do feel somewhat disappointed with the Arse's performance on their first Premiership display of the season. OK they won but by all accounts it wasn't that convincing.

And Special K certainly gave Sir Alex a little shake in his tree yesterday. Maybe this will be Newcastle's year.

As for the Foxes, we are now in third place in League 1. Which means if you believe the predictions made about some of these other teams based on just one game, we are dead certs for promotion.

Let's hope it's not simply a false dawn.

Poetry In Motion

Interesting huh? You can't help thinking that Sir Cliff and Cristiano must emanate from a shared gene pool somewhere along the line.

I'm not one to start rumours as you know but there has been a suggestion that a certain knight other than Sir Alex has been heard to shout "Get in there my son".

And Ronaldo has apparently requested this when he scores in future.

I'll say no more.

I'm In Heaven

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder.

It's not always true.

For example, because I am not seeing much of this man these days, this man is rapidly replacing him as my trigger for a slightly increased heart rate and general object of my affection.

And his team played great football against Liverpool this afternoon. Although that goal from Torres was class I have to admit.

But as a general rule, I do think absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Why else would my lover and I be celebrating the return of the Premiership season with a football fest?

The morning spent gardening, listening to the buildup on the radio. The early afternoon spent listening to the Arse just about manage to beat WBA, then the Foxes only manage an unlucky draw. And late afternoon at the pub with half a Fosters and a bag of Mini Cheddars watching the Sunderland/Liverpool battle.

And there is still MOTD to come.

What a great day.

The Missing Dimension

Doesn't the picture at the bottom of League 2 look bizarre.

The bottom 3 teams, Rotherham, Bournmouth and Luton have all started the season with large points deductions - 17, 17 and 30 points respectively. You'd be laughing if you were one of the other teams wouldn't you.

By the same token though if I was a fan in one of those other clubs I think I would feel as if there was a missing dimension to the season.

No missing dimensions to our's though. Apart from being in the wrong division of course.

We face Stockport tomorrow again.

Fingers crossed for the boys.

Happy Drugs

I'm very proud to announce that we are a team that can now string together 2 wins in a row! The first time for 16 months!

We beat Stockport 1 - 0 Tuesday night in the League Cup. On Saturday we play ... er ... Stockport again in the League. At their gaff this time.

And good old Luton beat Plymouth 2 - 0 in the same competition. Fair play to them I say. They deserve some good fortune.

One person who isn't celebrating today however is Adrian Mutu, who has been ordered to pay Chel$ea £13.68m for breach of contract after he was sacked for testing positive for cocaine.

Which just goes to show that happy drugs are not where it is at. There is no greater high than simply winning.

Shaken And Stirred

Well well well!

Rafa and the boys had a bit of a run for their money tonight didn't they?

I know Liverpool were missing a couple of midfielders to the Olympics but deary me! Those Belgians were all over them. They were very unlucky not to have been awarded that first goal attempt which hit the post but in my view was batted away by the goalie over his own line and should therefore have been allowed.

Disappointing too that we didn't get to see any of the Torres/Keane partnership in flow, other than a few glimpses of what might be.

Good old Arse fared better though didn't they.

Meanwhile in other news, I was very surprised to learn that John Terry has given his support to the Respect campaign. That would be the same John Terry that led the frequent aggressive displays by Chel$ea last year, surrounding referees and generally trying to intimidate them.

It will be interesting to see how the campaign progresses and what if any changes it effects in players' behaviour.

We'll see!

It's Not For Girls

Having just bought my latest copy of FourFourTwo (last month's copy is now a dog-eared addition to my paper recycling box), I was interested to learn that a rival magazine called Football Punk is being released.

Even more interestingly, both are deemed to fall within the "thinking man's soccer mag" genre. Presumably then girls who read them don't think or such magazines are not for them.

I mean is it any wonder we girls feel excluded sometimes from football?

Presumably the assumption is that girls would only be interested in the 'celeb gossip' and 'macho eye candy'.

Not that these things would go amiss you understand.

But come on editors. You are missing a trick here and more importantly a money making opportunity.

Meanwhile girls I'm afraid you will have to be content with this blog as the best you are going to get until things change.

Roll on the revolution!

Opportunity Lost Cost

One of today's footballing headlines is the payout to Ben Collett, former ManUre reserves player who was injured in a bad tackle and has since had to retire from football.

All the reports about the outcome of the court case have been fairly matter of fact but I can't help wondering if there will be any repercussions. Last season there was significant focus upon dangerous tackles and of course poor Eduardo was the victim of a particularly horrible injury.

Could this case pave the way for more litigation? Might clubs start suing each other just for losing a player to injury for a period where poor or vicious tackling is to blame? What sort of impact might that have on the way people play?

Not that I'm suggesting he did not deserve the payout. You could weep for a lad who has come up through the academy of a top team, is viewed as a potential star of the future, then has his career cut short in such a terrible way.

I wonder if anyone could be held responsible for not encouraging me into a career in football? I mean who knows - I could have been the modern day Lily Parr.

Now There's A Thing

Henry to the ManUre? Surely not.

Crouchy in blue kit? How weird is that?

Fergie playing mind games? Well I never.

The Arse being beaten by McLaren's lot? I don't think so.

Kaka to Chel$ea? That will be interesting.

Leicester City winning their first opening day match since 2002? Now that's a story!

Teflon Coated

A couple of things have cheesed me off today.

Firstly my new Leicester City away top has not arrived. I got home to a letter of apology from Jako, with promises I will receive it later this month.

All I can say is I had better.

Fortunately we were playing at home today so I felt justified in wearing my blue strip.

The other thing that cheesed me off was an interview Mandy gave to The Guardian. Whilst he doesn't particularly go in for 'spin' in the usual sense, which does give him considerable credibility points as far as I am concerned, I can't help thinking his account of what went wrong last year is a bit 'Teflon coated' with none of the blame sticking to him.

Not that I hold him entirely responsible. But his twenty twenty hindsight about Hollow Way is somewhat galling. The reality is that he was under considerable pressure not to sack him simply because he had dismissed so many others in such a short space of time. The problem was essentially cumulative - nosediving from the sacking of Martin Allen (which remains shrouded in mystery). I would have had just a tad more respect for him if he was a little more honest about his part in all of that, rather than the odd "maybe I had something to do with it" comment.

It's not use crying over spilt milk at the end of the day though. And it's hard to stay cross for long when your team has won a good 2 0 victory (we love you Matty Fryatt) over a team that could and should have presented a considerable challenge.

Logically of course it is complete nonsense to start predicting great things on the basis of one match. Within the context of being a football fan, however, it is entirely acceptable, if not expected.

So I confidently predict that we are in for a cracking season, where the ball will regularly slip into the goal for us, and the only sticking point will be our goalkeepers gloves.

Teflon Foxes 'til I die!!

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Tomorrow we travel home.

It’s always sad to end a holiday when you have had a great time – which we have.

It is the first time my lover and I have really been away together. And our little caravan certainly makes for an intimate experience.

So will I be shedding a tear or two as we hitch up our Puck and zip up our suitcases?

Let me see………

Access to the Internet again…….. First match of the season against MK Dons on Saturday…….. My new away shirt waiting for me at home.

I don’t think so.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

I can’t believe how hard footballs are!

I have to confess my ‘keepie uppie’ practice is not going as well as I had hoped.

As with acquiring any new skill, however, it’s important to learn from your mistakes.

Here are the things I have learnt so far:

It’s not as easy at it looks
It doesn’t work well in flip flops
Heading a ball with your head hurts
It’s not the most graceful activity for a forty-something woman without particularly good coordination skills

Still, it’s provided my lover with a bit of entertainment so that’s good isn’t it?

The Invisible Men

There is a new football book published this month called “British Asians and Football” by Dan Burdsey. The book is based on research aimed at establishing the reasons why there are so few British Asians in football.

The author interviews various British Asian people, ranging from Harpal Singh, a former Leeds player who crumbled under the media spotlight trying to cope with the burden of being the first to break through at the highest level of football, through to non-league players.

His conclusion is that the key issues include:
Media pressure
Racial stereotyping
Pressure to be ‘one of the lads’, compromising Asian culture
Absence of a role model

Drawing parallels with other areas of life where certain groups of people fail to achieve, I would put money on it that the reasons are far more likely to be sociological than physiological.

It just goes to show that the hardest ‘isms’ to crack are the invisible ones.

Incommunicado

Standard de Liege seems to be the nearest team of any significance around here.

Judging by the posters in the bar where we had ‘bier’ and some ‘frittes’ at lunchtime, it would seem they were the champions last season (2007-8).

I’m not sure of what. Are they Belgium’s ManUre I wonder?

I think they play in red and white although the shop window display I saw was a little ambiguous.

I don’t know anything else about them.

Oh for access to the internet.

Dear Sir

Dear Sir

I couldn’t help but disagree with a letter I read in the correspondence section of the August edition of your magazine FourFourTwo (page 11).

Oli Kristall of Leeds (where else?) seems to be suggesting that because England’s top players are playing each other week in week out in the Premiership, the fierce rivalry then prevents them working effectively together when they are brought under the England banner.

What a load of old tosh.

I do, however, not disagree with his suggestion that some of the top English players need to play abroad for a while. Not for the same reason as Mr Kristall however. I believe having a more complex and wide breadth of experience within the squad and the team itself would develop the English game. Add a manager who can manage the mix and bingo!

You’ve got a winning team.

Yours faithfully

Georgina Best
Foxes Fan

PS: If I am lucky enough to be chosen as the star letter could I please have the Samsung T10 MP3 Player in pink.

Hidden Treasure

Great news!

I thought I had forgotten to bring my FourFourTwo magazine with me but I found it in the footwell of the backseat of the car.

I’ve been dragging it around with me ever since, like a child with a teddy.

I’m going to apply myself over the next fews days and read that magazine cover to cover.

Adverts, the lot.

Tricks And Stunts

My lover is a man of tricks and stunts. On occasions.

If you recall, it’s his fault I am fated to publish on this blog everyday.

Fortunately I’m more wily to his ways these days (true to my fox nature!)

So when he tuned into the cricket on Radio 4 today (the only English channel we can get), I was half expecting it when the conversation moved towards the idea of me finding out more about cricket and maybe I could even think about writing a blog on the subject.

All that trouser rubbing and LBW’s. I don’t think so.

That’s about as likely to happen as Drogba getting through a game without a dive.