nov’s over

Well that’s nearly November over. Interesting month; C’s mum Isobel passed away towards the end of last month and we scattered some of her ashes and interred the rest just recently. Had my 55th bithday. Where on earth is time slipping away? Still no news from the bank re the UK house sale. Hey ho. C&I made a flying visit to our home in Italy and harvested the olives and got the oil processed and pruned half the trees. Loved that, molto bene. Our main car’s engine packed up as did our cooker element on the rayburn just yesterday. Deep joy. England lost out in the Euro 2008 qualifications but I picked up two major clients in football and cricket for my sponsorship consultancy. Didn’t see enough of my family nor friends but had lovely meal with C&K and looking forward to seeing L&S tonight and G&M, J&D and M&J shortly. Life could be a lot worse.

Advertisement

Harry’s game

Well I know ‘arry Redknapp was a lot of people’s choice for the next England manager but surely that’s unlikely following his arrest yesterday by Fraud Squad detectives investigating alleged corruption in football. I heard Harry’s press conference earlier where he explained that he was simply questioned about the financial payments made between the agent Willie Mckay and the player Amdy Faye which he fervently denied had absolutely nothing to do with him, his  CE Peter Storrie, former Chairman Milan Mandaric nor his club Portsmouth. I can absolutely believe him and his annoyance at the timing of this but you sense that the FA, who were themselves caught scandalously with their pants down only recently, will steer clear of appointing any manager with the slightest whiff of trouble about them. So no chance now for Harry (sadly) nor Big Sam and no way back for El Tel, Sven and Glenn. It’s looking like a 2 horse race for me  O’Neill or Capello unless you know something I don’t….

watches; batteries not intelligent

I’m quite a fan of watches. I probably have 4 or 5 between here and Italy. Nothing too expensive. I’ve acquired them not because I’m a collector but more often than not I’ve gone out without wearing one, mistakenly, and have popped into Next or somewhere to buy another one – I cannot stand not knowing what the time is. Stupid I know but that’s me.

d’you know juninho?

Late last night I checked in by accident to the C5 coverage of this week’s exhibition match between Sydney FC and LA Galaxy played in front of 80,000 fans at Telstra Stadium. It ended up 5-3, a bit of a cracker despite the ‘friendly’ status of the match. David Beckham , who the bulk of the crowd had turned up to see, scored an absolute cracker of a free kick to bring the scores back to 3-2 at one point. He really does have incredible world-wide appeal. But the star of the show was probably Juninho who had a first half blinder, laying on two goals which gave Sydney a 3-0 half time lead.

jimmy’s just desserts

I was delighted to read that Sepp the mad hatter Blatter has done something positive for once by rewarding the squad players from 1966 and previous World Cup winning teams with their winners’ medals too. It was outrageous to think that all these guys had received, formally, before now was the £1000 per man that was awarded to all the squad by the FA (which Bobby Moore had to argue for) plus the commemorative track suit which the FA issued freely to all squad members. How big of them. I think you all know how annoyed I was that several of the WC final team were awarded knighthoods whilst people like Alan Ball got the equivalent of a Boy Scout badge. Either Bobby M got the award as captain or they all got it was my view. The non-knights have belatedly been recognised with a Cabury’s Creme Egg or something but at least the forgotten squad members have now had their medals and Blackpool’s finest have at long last been recognised. About time too.

pp

Louis, who he?

I heard this morning that Jose Mourinho has issued a come and get me statement to the FA saying he’d welcome the chance to be the next England manager. I’m not sure I believe it to be honest, surely he’s got at least one more big club job to try first. And don’t forget I forecast his departure from Chelsea and appointment at Real back in the summer (albeit it very tongue in cheek!). But if he’s serious that’s interesting. What’s not so interesting but is amusing was Louis van Gaal’s announcement yesterday that he has a release clause in his contract with AZ Alkmaar (they’re big) allowing him to go for major international jobs. Well thank you very much Louis. I know you’ve had a crack at Barcelona and Ajax before now but don’t you think your stocks fallen a little since then? From AZ to FA is surely a leap of faith even Brainiac Barwick wouldn’t attempt. Isn’t it….?

otis will be turning in his grave

One of the most soulful songs in contemporary music history has been adopted for a so-so car ad I’m sad to say. The song of course is Otis Redding’s Dock of the Bay and for some inexplicable reason Renault’s advertising agency have used it as the sound track to the TV ad for their new Laguna model. It’s a hauntingly poignant piece of music delivered by one of the all time great soul singers but, that apart, I just cannot see the relevance of the song to the car or the marketing message. This goes something like some people pick a car for it’s safety features, or its looks, or its performance etc but the Laguna has them all. Umm if you say so Renault. But how this relates to a guy passing time just watching ships coming in and out of port escapes me. Am I missing something? Sorry not a bad ad but a complete mis-match with the music. 5 out of 10.

billy no mates

Well the final one of my pre-season forecasts for the Premiership managerial chop, Billy Davies, lost his job at Derby today. No big surprise; Derby are adrift at the bottom of the league and Davies has been talking himself out of a job (and into a pay-off) for weeks. He’s been ranting in the media about the lack of quality at the club and the need for at least 6 new players ie blaming the board for a lack of investment. Bye Bye Billy.