This past weekend saw the 50th British Grand Prix to take place just down the road from where I work at the Silverstone Circuit. The track where the Formula 1 World Championship began. There were three Brits on the grid, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Max Chilton, with Lewis being in the best car, the Mercedes, and Jenson and Max not expecting much. It didn’t work out the way you would have expected on Friday, with Lewis qualifying down in 6th place, but Jenson managed a very commendable 3rd. The race, however, couldn’t have gone much better for Hamilton, the Great British Hope for a 2014 Wold Champion. Not only did he win the race comfortably, but his teammate and main rival for the title, failed to finish – which evens out some of the luck after Lewis had technical difficulties in 3 races so far this year. It was almost a perfect day for the British fans. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Jenson had managed to pip Daniel Ricardo on the line for 3rd place and the final spot on the podium. As it was, he finished just under a second behind. Jenson has never been on the podium at Silverstone, and it would have been extra special for him to do it this year, his father having passed away back in January. Known as “Papa Smurf” in the pit lane, Jenson has carried a tribute to John Button on his helmet this year, and he went one step further in his home race. John was famous for always wearing a pink shirt on race day, and it was fitting for Jenson to paint his helmet pink to match the sea of pink in the crowd. One last thing. Props to the crew at Silverstone who were able to change a damaged crash barrier in just under an hour. If only all road repairs took place so quickly.
Stowe Gardens, Buckinghamshire
This past weekend I visited the very beautiful Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire with my family. It’s a National Trust property, and this was a ‘free’ weekend. It normally would have cost us £30 to get in but because they were having a membership recruitment drive, it was free! Always good to get something for nothing in my view. It was a lovely day, quite warm but not too hot. Perfect in fact for wandering around a proper English Garden. Anyway, here are a few of the photos I took. On top of the walk around the gardens, Jeremy got very excited because he saw FIVE Ferraris on the journey there/back. Probably due the proximity of the gardens to Silverstone. Hell, we passed Silverstone’s entrance on the way back, which he also got very excited about. However, one of the said Ferraris was blue. Which is just wrong. Ferraris should be red, black or yellow, but never blue. It was a very nice blue, but it’s still wrong.
Not a Single Fig Was Given
In the few spare moments I have these days, I’ve been looking back at a blog I wrote under my secret pseudonym and it strikes me that I’ve mellowed somewhat over the past five years or so. Looking at posts from 2007/2008 there was a lot of comment on current events, much of it sounding like an ‘angry young man’ and wanting ‘something done about it’. There was a post on Knife Crime, one on strange charges laid at criminals who should have been charged with worse, one on the malaise of the country and pleading for an election in 2008… it goes on. All sorts of topics. All of them making me sound like a reporter for the Daily Mail – Angry and Outraged etc, etc… So what happened? Why do I now not seem to care so much? Why do I look at the state of our country, our football system, our politics, anything at all really, and instead of getting angry and demanding ‘something be done’, I just shrug my shoulders, accept that nothing will be done and get on with my life as best I can – looking after me and mine first and everyone else can worry about themselves. Perhaps it’s because I now realise, with the wisdom of middle-age and parenthood, that nothing can be done (or will be done at any rate), and just have to get in with life as best you can. It’s all a bit sad really.
Let it Snow, Let it Snow… Let it Snow
Well, it’s Friday and, as predicted, we’ve had a dumping of snow, so I thought I’d share some pictures I’ve been able to take. These first four were taken earlier in the week, after the initial snow-dump on Monday. And I took these on Thursday night after a ‘light dusting’. And Finally, a few shots from Friday lunchtime.
Saunders can do a Job
I’ve got to say, I really like the noises coming out of Molineux following the appointment of Dean Saunders as manager.
@BBCSporf, #SneijderToQPR and the Power of Twitter
This past Thursday and Friday, we had a wonderful example of both the power of Twitter in 2013 and the way that Football has sold it soul to a media that laps up everything to do with it, no matter how dubious the source. @BBCSporf is a classic example of a parody twitter account. It has nothing to do with the BBC, but uses a similar logo to con people into believing the “news” they post may have so truth to it. It doesn’t, of course. It’s all jokes and made up stuff. They readily admit that. Their aim is to make you smile. And usually they succeed. Always entertaining, if you like sport but don’t follow them, you should. At 7PM on Thursday evening, this tweet appeared in my feed. Well, that’s clearly a joke. A player being chased by Man Utd, Arsenal & Liverpool is about to rock up at bottom of the table QPR? Yeah, right. Still, you can see the number of times this got retweeted. And with other people picking up on it and using the hashtag, it wasn’t long before “SneijderToQPR” was the number one trending topic in the UK. Then, we get this… Really? Really? No, that’s a joke, right? Channel 4 News aren’t that stupid as to believe this was real, are they? By 9PM, we get this from Sky Bet… So that’s two major media organisations that have picked this up and either through lazy journalism or sheer stupidity, have believed there’s some truth in it. But it gets worse. National “newspaper”, The Sun, ran the story on their back page on Friday morning. Of course, The Sun claimed it was genuine and they had quotes from Harry Redknapp to back it up. But the quotes from Harry were in response to a question he was asked about this after the fake storm had broken on Twitter. And besides, Harry’s quotes were basically a diplomatically worded, “You’re joking, right?” And finally, the story appears on the actual BBC’s website, with a classic quote from the player’s agent. So there we have it. One joke tweet is picked up by media organisations that should know better. But it involves, football, and more specifically, the media’s favourite topics, Harry Redknapp and a London based club. You couldn’t make it up. Except, of course, someone did. The original tweet, that is. The rest is all true. Sad, but very, very true.
Then & Now
This is one of those Meme-things that goes around from time to time. Same set of questions, asked about yourself from various periods in the past. I found the questions (and answers at the time) in a blog post I made in 2007 on my Blogger site. Thought it might be nice to resurrect it. 20 Years Ago – January 1993 1.) How old were you? 18 2.) Where did you go to school? Sneyd Comprehensive School in Wolverhampton– I was in Year 13 by then, getting ready to sit my A-levels 3.) Where did you work? I didn’t, I was still at school. 4.) Where did you live? At home, with Mom & Dad, obviously. 5.) Where did you hang out? At School. Yeah, I know, it’s a bit sad really. 6.) Did you wear glasses? Yep, was still a couple of years off getting contact lenses. 7.) Who was(were) your best friend(s)? I guess that would be Paul and Nick. And Ste, of course. 8.) What car did you drive? I didn’t. Not yet. 9.) Had your heart broken? Sort of. I guess it felt like it at the time (1991) but looking back, was it really all that bad? 10.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: Single – and probably a bit bitter because of it. 15 Years Ago – January 1998 1.) How old were you? 23 3.) Where did you work? At this point I was in my ill-fated appointment at Willenhall Comp. God, was that ever a mistake. 4.) Where did you live? Ashamed to admit that I’d moved back in with my parents after 4 years away. 5.) Where did you hang out? In my room, marking books and preparing lessons. 6.) Did you wear glasses? Sometimes. But lenses for the most part 7.) Who was your best friend(s)? That would have to be Sandrine – my future wife. Ahhhhh. 8.) What car did you drive? This is shameful, but I still didn’t drive – I rode everywhere on my bike. What a saddo. 9.) Had your heart broken? Yes, but I’d gotten over it by then. 10.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: Taken. 10 Years Ago – January 2003 1.) How old were you? 28 3.) Where did you work? A Solicitors in Northamptonshire! Which is where I still am. 4.) Where did you live? My first home with Sandrine – a two bed semi. 5.) Where did you hang out? Didn’t really do much ‘hanging out’. 6.) Did you wear glasses? Yep. No corrective laser eye surgery for me. 8.) What car did you drive? I think I still had my old Rover at this point. 5 Years Ago – January 2008 1.) How old were you? 33 2.) Where did you work? Same Solicitors! Although this was the year I became a ‘manager’. 3.) Where did you live? Same little two-bed semi. 7.) What car did you drive? I still had my 306 Estate back then. 9.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: Married for 3 and a half years with a just-turned-two year old son. NOW – January 2013 1.) How old are you? 38 and feeling it. 2.) Where do you work? Yep, still here. Almost part of the furniture now. 3.) Where do you live? Moved to a new house in the same area two years ago. 7.) What car do you drive? 406 Saloon. 9.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: Still married, and now have a little girl as well who’s coming up to her 1st birthday.
Steve Mogan’s Big Decision
I posted about this on Facebook a couple of days ago, but I’m going to expand on it here. Wolves owner, Steve Morgan, has a massive decision to make in the next few days. Massive. Does he hold his nerve and trust in his initial judgement regarding Stale Solbakken’s appointment as manager, or does he bite the bullet & pull the trigger on his time at the club so he can get someone in before the transfer window closes in four weeks’ time? And make no mistake, they are his two options. Doing what he did last year and waiting until after the window closes before giving his manager the boot—thereby making it exceedingly difficult to get anyone new in and turning our club into a joke for six months—is not an option. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. They say that learning from your mistakes is a mark of intelligence and without doubt, last year’s debacle is one mistake that Morgan needs to learn from. If Steve decides that he was right last summer, then he needs to back Solbakken with funds to buy new players because the players we have are either not good enough to adapt to the style of play Stale wants from them, or they are still “Mick’s Men” and just too stubborn to play for Stale. Personally, I think it’s a mix of the two, but what do I know? However, if Steve decides that Solbakken has to go, he needs to do it now (or, more likely, right after we lose to Luton at the weekend) and get in someone who can work with the players we have, to motivate them the way Mick did and really get the best out of them. Because let’s face it, there is something wrong at our club. This squad of players should be better than 18th in the Championship. They should be better than six points above a relegation place, nine points below the play-offs and God knows how many off the top spot. (Okay, maybe that’s not fair—Cardiff are running away with this division to some extent and it’ll be a massive surprise if they don’t go up as champions. Imagine that—two Welsh sides in the Premiership!) Of course, this damn division is part of the problem, with its wildly unpredictable, anyone-can-and-will-beat-anyone nature. For God’s sake, we’re 18th but only nine points of the play-offs. NINE POINTS! That’s nothing That’s a gap that can be closed in a month with a decent run. Hell, string five or six wins together and you’re right back in the mix. But here’s the problem—with the way things are going, I can’t see where the next win is coming from, let alone stinging together a half-decent run. Just look at our next few fixtures. Our next Championship game is a Friday-night home game against Blackburn. By that time, Blackburn will probably have a new manager in place and the players will, you’d imagine, be doing their best to impress him. Add to that the atmosphere of fear of failure at Molineux at the moment and it’s a recipe for disaster. Away to Sheffield Wednesday? They’re right down there fighting for their lives—that’ll be a toughie, just look at how we performed against Peterborough for evidence of that. Then home to Blackpool, away to Leicester… It goes on and on. Is that typical Black Country pessimism? Probably. But I’ll bet I’m not far off what a lot of Wolves fans are thinking. So, what should Steve Morgan do? Well, firstly, I don’t presume to even try and tell him what he should do. As Jez Moxey once said, “It’s Steve’s club, he can do what he likes.” But I can offer my opinion. And my opinion is that Stale isn’t up to the job. Or rather, Stale doesn’t suit our club. I don’t like saying it. I don’t like calling for a manager to lose his job, but something clearly isn’t working and since we can’t change the whole squad of players in a month, we need to find a manager who can work with what he’s got. I said this time last year that I’d like to see Milton Keynes’ Karl Robinson given a chance. MK play lovely football and while they keep falling just short in their quest for Championship football, that doesn’t mean Karl won’t find real success at the right club—and I think Wolves could be the right club. Either that, or Sean O’Driscoll is available—who seems to be another talented manager looking for the right club to let him show what he can really do (plus, isn’t he supposedly a Wolves fan to boot?) Either way, I’d like to see us get a manager in who will give this crop of talented kids coming through the academy a shot at first-team football. What’s the point of having a top-rated academy if what it produces is sold off before being given a chance to shine? Sheffield Wednesday fans think Danny Batth is the best defender they’ve seen in years. Jake Cassidy tore up League One with Tranmere, Hibs are desperate for Leigh Griffiths to stay and keep banging in goals. And that’s not to mention the supposedly so-talented-he’ll-be-the-first-£100m-player that is Zele Ismail. I’m not going to join the increasing number of people that are calling for Morgan and Moxey to leave. I think the club is in sound hands and is well run. When the football-finance bubble bursts (and it will burst) and the foreign owners get bored and start looking for new playthings, Wolves will be a stable club, standing tall while those around it fall. But in the meantime, I think it would be nice to watch Sky Soccer Saturday and not get utterly depressed every time Jeff says, “To Molineux next…” Related articles Stale Solbakken under pressure at Wolves (dailymail.co.uk) Sean O’Driscoll set for Wolves job (dailymail.co.uk) Where did it all go wrong for Wolves? (footballfriendsonline.com) Wolves boss Solbakken confident of avoiding
‘You can all bite me’: Tulisa Contostavlos hits out at her ‘haters’ with latest Twitter rant
This comes from the MailOnline website (link below if you’re interested). The gist of the report is that Tulisa is once again showing the world just how classy she really is. After a week of being splashed over the front pages thanks to humping a footballer (which completely passed me by last week so I didn’t get Louis’ reference to her being a WAG on Saturday) and then her bizzare rant on Sunday night when she basically told off the public for voting for the wrong person on X-Factor (A person she herself had saved previous – what goes around comes around), she’s now coplaining about all the “attention”. Which is a bit rich, to be honest. Here’s a screenshot from the Mail website showing her tweets This girl displays no class at all and the sooner she crawls back under what ever rock she emerged from the better in my opinion. She clearly demonstrates that she thinks an awful lot of herself – and a lot more than most members of the public seem to think of her. As an aside, read the comments section of the article on MailOnline.
Fixing the X-Factor
Following this weekend’s sing off between arguably the two best singers in the contest, it’s fair to say that most people now think that X-Factor has become a bit of a farce. Especially when you consider that Rylan is still there – A man who in proving he could stand on the stage and sing for Gary Barlow, proved he was just as tone deaf as we all thought. So what’s gone wrong with the show this year? I think that’s obvious – it’s been abandoned by it’s guiding light, one Simon Cowell. X-Factor was his baby and he has always been the driving forcing behind it. And while he’s been busy state-side with the US version of the show, the original has suffered, becoming almost a parody of itself. So, how to put it right? Well, what follows are my humble suggestions. None of them will actually happen, but if the producers are reading (which they won’t be ) – give these points some thought. The Judges Like it or not, the judges are the stars of the show, not the constants. And right now, the judging line-up is flawed. Two years ago, what I would consider to the be strongest judging panel in the 9 years of the show was broken up and aside from one, the replacements haven’t been up to scratch. Simon and Cheryl Cole left for the US version (although Cheryl was then dumped because no Americans could understand a word she said) while Danni Minogue was unceremoniously jettisoned. Last year saw the addition of Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos, and Kelly Rowland. And this year, Kelly has been replaced by another American – and a reject from the failed first US series – Nicole Scherzinger, which along with loveable Louis Walsh, gives us the current line-up. Gary Barlow – I think Gary has been a success as a the ‘replacement’ for Simon Cowell. Like Cowell, he talks a lot of sense and appears to want the genuinely talented contestants to do well over the comedy acts. His views, of all the judges,the ones that are closest to my own. So I’d keep Gary – although I wouldn’t be surprised if he walked away after the train wreck that has been this year’s series. Louis Walsh – Once he was loveable, now he’s just annoying. His comments are the same every week, and haven’t really changed from nine years ago. Much like the series itself, he’s become a running joke. It’s time he left. But they tried to get rid of him once before, remember? It seems he’s like a bad penny. Tulisa – Just get rid. Now. The woman brought in to replace Cheryl as the nation’s sweetheart is about as far from that as it’s possible to be. A gobby Chav with a sex-tape. She has nothing useful to say, hates anything that she doesn’t see as “urban” and thinks more of herself than anyone else thinks of her. Get rid. Now. Nicole – She’s been a breath of fresh air and great fun. But she’s also responsible for inflicting Rylan Clark on us and for that reason alone she needs the sack. Which leaves me with one judge. So who to replace the deadwood with? The most obvious choice is to bring back Cheryl, pronto. Some say she wouldn’t come back, but I disagree. X-Factor made her. It turned her from a member of Girls Aloud to the first genuine ‘Nation’s Sweetheart’ that we’ve seen in a long time and a solo star in her own right. Her empathic sway with the contestants, coupled with just the right amount of support, praise and constructive critiques makes her the ideal judge. I’d have Danni back too, but I can’t see that happening with the way she was treated. So instead, I’d give Mel B a chance. She was the best of the guest judges at auditions this year, and I think she’d be great as a full time judge. Finally, since the chances of Simon coming back are less than none, ITV need to find a ‘new’ Simon Cowell. What do I mean by that? Well, remember the first series of Pop Idol? Pete Waterman was supposed to be the star judge. No one knew who Simon Cowell was other than some shadowy record exec. And that’s what ITV need now. An ‘unknown’ (to the public at least) record exec who knows his stuff and isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. Is there one out there? There has to be, surely? Back to Basics Part of X-Factor’s problem is that it’s gotten “too big”. It’s too full of it’s own self-importance. The contestants are stars as soon as they make the live shows – before even. Every stage, from the auditorium audition (nicked from Britian’s Got Talent) to boot-camp, to judges houses to the live shows and even the results show – it’s all too big, too staged, too… too much. It’s needs to be stripped back to what the show is at its heart – a singing contest to find a recording artist. Forget the over top production of the performances at live shows (Rylan again!) the best performances this year have been when a constant just stands there and sings (or plays an instrument and sings). So let the constants stand there and sing. Let them showcase their voice and their talent. What I’d do is go back to the original auditions. Have the contestants in a small room, singing a cappella (or with a guitar/piano) to the four judges. That’s it. Same goes for boot camp – make both stages feel like proper AUDITIONS – not part of the damn show. I think the Judges Houses section is fine, so leave it as it is. But it’s the live shows that need a big make over. First, get rid of that massive stage set and have something a lot smaller. In fact, get rid of the studio based set completely. What I would do, is take the show “on the road”. Each week, broadcast
