Football greats

So I haven’t posted in a while and this is overdue. It’s about two greats of the football world who have died recently, Pele and John Motson. I started to get really interested in footie around the age of 9/10. As well as playing I started to watch Blackpool FC and did all the boys’ soccer-mad stuff like collecting cards and accumulating, my proud and joy, numerous books on football. Of course there was no internet back then in the Middle Ages and little tv coverage of the game. So books were where I learned about the international game. And I became fasciated by Brazil and in particular by Pele. It was not just because he was a footballing genius; he was known by his nickname but how many knew then that his real name was the exotic Edson Arantes do Nascimento? I did thanks to my books.  And he was proud to be named after the genius inventor Edison.

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From the ridiculous to the simply brilliant

Well here’s a little twist on the theme of yesterdays’s piece. First up the ridiculous; this time it’s about a car, a very rare one. The car isn’t the ridiculous item, in fact it’s rather beautiful…

Oh Jimmy, Jimmy

So it was sad to learn of the death of Jimmy Greaves today, probably the best natural goal scorer the English game has ever seen.  He didn’t score 30 yard screamers and very few headers; his technique was to pass the ball into the net. And he did it for every team he played for – Chelsea, AC Milan, Spurs, West Ham and England. So why am I so interested? Well he was probably the first footballing hero I can remember.

Random thoughts

Well dear readers for the first time in a very long time I thought I’d do a posting not linked to a single theme but just a series of random thoughts zapping around in my mind at the moment. Each of these could be the subject of a separate posting but I thought I’d just shorthand it for fun.

It’s how you say it…

Well I mentioned in the last post that I thought Matt Hancock was the crappest person in the UK because of his atrocious performance in the role of Health Secretary. And within days Dominic Cummings had delivered evidence of private text messages with Boris J confirming that he (Boris) also agreed that Hancock was totally fucki*g useless. Not my words; the Prime Minister’s. It’s nice to know that people in high office agree with you but also damn scary that Hancock’s still in control of policies around the NHS response to the pandemic whilst his boss, the Head of the UK Government, thinks he’s a complete fuckwit. Thank god we don’t have rapidly rising cases of a new variant affecting us. Oh we do? FFS how many waves and restrictions do we have to endure because this fuckwit of a Minister cannot get a firm final grip on the problem? I suspect it’s because Johnson only wants to retain him as the sacrificial scapegoat when the inevitable enquiry makes its findings and appoints blame. Keep your real feelings discreet eh Bojo?

Finals

So a third posting on football-related maters which is unusual for me. But I couldn’t let today go by without congratulating my home time team Blackpool FC having won promotion to the Championship from the Div 1 play-off final. Wey hey. They beat Lincoln City 2-1 at Wembley after conceding a first minute own goal. Kenny Dougal was the 2 goal hero and a bit of a poster boy. Do you know that Blackpool are the play-off kings having won 6 finals – a record! God knows how they’ll do in the very competitive Championship but that’s all for tomorrow. After the years of mis-management by the detested Oystons it’s a time to celebrate. Let’s have a look at one of the goals being scored…

Super young man

I’ve got 4 grandsons who constantly make me incredibly proud of what they are achieving. You probably think I would say that but I am amazed by how socially conscious they are, with firm views about what they want to achieve and how dedicated they can be. I remember my youth and I was hard working but nothing like as dedicated to achieving something. That came far far later in my life.

MoTD

So last night was the final Match of the Day programme of this extraordinary football season. Although the Premiership title and relegation had already been decided there were enough final day issues to make this a really enjoyable show; Champions league places to resolve, players’ final matches, managers leaving, careers over and so on.