Heatwave

The weather has been ultra kind to us since we arrived on Wednesday. The beautiful Secret Garden was swathed in sunshine yesterday for my mate’s wedding. A week ago we would have had our coats and wellies on.

The wedding was superb, my speech went down a storm, even if I say so myself, and it was brilliant to see so many of my old mates and my family altogether in one place.

Who will be the 3rd wheel?

6 weeks after the mighty reds were promoted up at Carlisle, one of our season-long rivals will join us this afternoon.

We put a dent in both Huddersfield and United’s promotion push during the course of the past season but both would be deserving of a leg up to the next tier this afternoon after spending the whole season alongside Sheffield Wednesday chasing us around the promotion track.

Blue is the colour

Chelsea’s thrilling penalty shoot-out win yesterday was a deserving epilogue to a nail biting end to the season.

As I often do in these situations I began watching as a neutral but couldn’t help be drawn to the Blues as my patriotic juices took me over. I also thought of a good mate of mine, a massive long-time Chelsea fan, who has suffered a dreadful year with ill-health.

He pretty much emptied his bank account to get to Munich and he would have savoured every minute of yesterday’s triumph.

What a final day

When I lived in the States I would often have to defend the game of ‘soccer’, normally at a baseball game when fat drug-ridden blokes were running around catching a ball with a huge glove in front of me.

“It’s boring” they would say and as I took a sip of my lite (sic) beer I would just laugh to myself.

As happy as a pig in muck

That’s why we’re Champions! I thought to myself as I followed the fortunes of the League One Play-Off’s this weekend. I had a strong feeling for both Stevenage and MK Dons but at the halfway stage the stronger sides, on paper at least, hold the aces.

Even though I feel only enmity to MK, I would prefer a lesser team to join us and Wednesday in the next level up. The quicker we get to 50 points etc…. Joking, jo-king!

In fact I don’t know about you but I am still wallowing in last Saturday’s events. Indeed about this time last week we were all still raising glasses. It was quite a season wasn’t it?

United or Wednesday?

Do we have a view?

The race between the two Sheffield massives has occupied the media for the whole season. Who would finish 1st and and who would finish 2nd? Well the story didn’t quite end that way as some little upstarts from darn sarf have done a runner with the trophy. However credit where credit’s due as both Wednesday and United have given it a bloody good go, particularly in the latter stages of the season as they chased us down the home straight.

One of the two clubs could finish the season tomorrow night with over 90 points and not get promoted, which says a lot about our poise and unyielding ability these last 9 months.

Hodgson for England

“West Bromwich Albion have given the Football Association permission to talk to Roy Hodgson about the vacant England manager’s position.” (more)

Bit out of the blue that one, almost as if the FA have flown in the face of the media circus surrounding Harry Redknapp. Reading between the lines, and West Brom have already given their approval, it sounds as if Hodgson is the number one and only choice.

How sexy does that ‘C’ look?

I’ll never get bored of looking at that. 97 points, that’s pretty awesome isn’t it? The last team to finish the season with more than 97 were Luton, who got 98 in 2004/5. Wigan hit 100 points in 2002/3. As the Gaffer says…. 44 games gone, 2 to play.

I was wondering about medals the other day, and a poster on Charlton Life answered all of my questions. Back in the day I thought that a player had to make a certain number of appearances, a third if I remember, to claim a league winners medal, but that was pre-big squads. In the 1980/81 season I think we used just 17 players.

From Barça with love

It was 21 hours from the time the alarm went yesterday morning at 4.30am (after getting in bed at 1.30am), until I got home last night. Today I am shall we say, a little bit fuddled.

But it was all worth it to spend a weekend with a great set of lads and the groom, to whom I am deputy best man, a role I have yet to fully understand except I do have the (dis)pleasure of making a speech at the wedding in a months time.

I left Barcelona with a real positive feel about the Catalonian city. I didn’t get to see anywhere as much of the city as I would have liked, stag weekenders strangely are not always about flying around monuments and museums taking photographs, but those of us that did so on Saturday were joyfully rewarded by a city with spectacular architecture and a bewitching personality.

Fabrice Muamba

One of those moments yesterday when nothing else seemed important. Like every football fan the news of Fabrice Muamba collapsing during the Tottenham v Bolton FA Cup game stopped me in my steps.

There has been an outpouring of heartfelt wishes from the football community and beyond and it also reminded us how fragile life can be.

Black football managers

The number of black professional football managers in England, or should I say Britain has doubled recently to four. The reason I mention this is I was thinking how well Keith Curle has done at County since he took over (5 wins and 1 draw). This is not Curle’s first job, that was at Mansfield where he was sacked after being accused of bullying a youth player. The case was unceremoniously kicked out and Curle was awarded damages and the Judge called Mansfield’s disciplinary process as a “sham”.

Things are not going so swimmingly for Terry Connor, who was about the only bloke who didn’t turn down the Wolves job after Mick McCarthy was shown the door.

Next up: Megson

Milan Mandaric has sacked Gary Megson this evening. Megson who has legend status at Hillsborough and I thought had bought some time with the Wendnesday-ites lasted just a year in this massive job. It is not true however that his severance pay will be put in a Monaco bank account in the name of Megson’s pet whippet.

The only real surprise is that it came on the back of beating city rivals United on Sunday but watching these Yorkshire teams self-combust at thought of chasing us southern softie shandy drinkers is bloody hilarious.

Curbishley turns down Wolves

“The former Charlton and West Ham boss is believed to have dropped out because he and chairman Steve Morgan did not share the same vision for the club.” More.

One has to ask if Curbs will ever work again. As far as I can make out this is the closest he has come to a top flight job since he left West Ham in 2008. In fact I would go as far to say, does Curbs have the fire left in his belly to want to work in 24-hour-a-day under the microscope management job?

Who remembers Alan Kimble?

There are not many twins who have played alongside each other in the same team. However two recent football stories peaked my interest in this unusual phenomenon.

Firstly Blackburn signed Marcus Olsson on deadline day and he joined his twin brother, Martin, at Ewood Park. Sir Alex already has the exciting and identical Brazilian full backs Rafael and Fabio da Silva at Old Trafford. Going back sometime I remember Ron and Paul Futcher at Luton Town and a little more recently Rod and Ray Wallace at Southampton as well as David and Dean Holdsworth at Watford. Both incidentially are now managers at Lincoln City and Aldershot respectively.

Lee Clarke sacked by Huddersfield

Have to say I am very surprised by the news that Huddersfield have sacked Lee Clarke this morning after their defeat to Sheffield United last night. Just goes to prove what an unforgiving business managing a football club is.

Huddersfield have been beaten just 3 times in 55 games and Clarke was said to have a good relationship with the club’s owner. I suppose Neil Warnock and Simon Grayson are available but it still seems an odd decision with Town 4 points from 2nd place.