Another great pub John took me to was run by ex-Everton winger Gary Jones called The Albert in Lark Lane. It was another place I spent time in when I should have been elsewhere but that’s another story.
Ditto.
Another great pub John took me to was run by ex-Everton winger Gary Jones called The Albert in Lark Lane. It was another place I spent time in when I should have been elsewhere but that’s another story.
Ditto.
I was not looking forward to today - I've spent enough time as an Evertonian to know that confidence is a killer. But at last we're beginning to show why the season started with so much optimism. I was gutted that Fellaini was ruled out, but thought that as long as we have Cahill and Arteta we're capable of winning any match. When I thought Jags was out and Torres was fit I was disappointed we wouldn't be treated to seeing the Spaniard in the Yorkshireman's back pocket.
Of course it all came good, but I just wanted to share this:
That should have been the cue for a rout, as Liverpool teetered. Everton evidently do not possess such a streak of cruelty. They sat back, almost challenging their opponents to make a game of it. Liverpool could not
I wonder if Henry can get a refund?
Update: I feel genuinely sorry for Roy Hodgson. He's someone I've always had a lot of respect for, but it just seems that the RS can turn anyone. His comments after the game where baffling, and he seems to be a dead man walking.
Of course it's obvious who should share the lions share of the blame for the mess Liverpool are in - David Moores for deciding to sell to Hicks/Gillet, and Rafa Benitez for spunking away all their money. I know they like to despute the *fact* that Benitez spent more than anyone other than Chelsea or Man City, but focusing on transfer fees underreports his outlay. Under Benitez their wage bill went from £65m a year to £107m (during the same period ours went from £33m to £49m). Indeed Hodgson suffers from the same fate - despite *only* spending £26m this summer, he's paying 90k a week for Joe Cole, and 100k+ for Jankovic. The problem is that their fans seem to think that greater spending is the solution to their problems - but you can't borrow your way out of debt and you can't spend your way out of having an expensively assembled, overpriced squad.
I was stunned when Poll later defended his decision by claiming that he didn't disallow if for encroachment, it was because he'd blown for full time.But he hadn't blown his whistle! And there was at least 15 seconds left in the game!
You might remember this, it was a while ago now but I was interested to see Poll provide more details about his decision:
With the game goalless, Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld collected the ball in the final seconds.
I jogged back to the centre circle, checked my watch which showed that time had elapsed and blew my whistle as I thought Westerveld had booted the ball upfield.
Unfortunately, he had kicked it into Don Hutchinson and the ball was on its way into the Liverpool goal. I stood firm and the 'goal' did not count.
I was wrong back in April 2000 and have to apologise to any Everton fans that I meet even now – they never forget!
Andy Burnham (a politician I've admired) explains the leadership lessons he's learnt from David Moyes:
He's a wonderful role model; the Moyes textbook would be on my desk as leader. Let me give you a few examples:
* Loyalty. He sticks by people who are loyal to him. That's one of my traits.
* He's brought stability: that's a great strength in a leader.
* He doesn't flip about in the wind and do one thing one day and one the other.
* He doesn't do some of the things other Premiership managers did, like grabbing a microphone on the pitch and lecturing players on the pitch; he doesn't go in for showiness.
I love this story (also see here) because it draws together the key insights of my prediction markets and behavioural finance classes so well. I've probably encountered dozens of people that have referred to "Paul" as if there is something of value in following his predictions - flippant lines such as "we should have heeded Paul the octopus, he was right". The proportion of those people who subsequently revise their strategy to actually place a bet based on Paul's insights, is 0%. It demonstrates the efficiency of markets (i.e. it's inherently arrogant to believe you know the true price of an asset better than the market), and the fact that humans' yearn for narrative. Most chartists are merely following the advice of Paul the octopus - most financial analysts are Paul the octopus.
Now, bearing in mind that there's two teams playing in the final, consider this:
Bookmaker William Hill is so impressed by Paul's predictive powers that it was offering even odds that he will pick the winner of the final on Sunday, between Spain and Holland.
William Hill are "so impressed" they think there's a 50-50 chance he'll be correct?
I'm sure you can think of other types. I wonder what this says about our broader political and philosophical beliefs. There are some people (neanderthals) who simply support England, no matter what, until the death. Are they more likely to vote BNP? Or Tory? Are free-marketeers more likely to say "Brazil" are the best, I like to see that rewarded. Are those who plumped for Honduras (or Slovakia) anarchists?
On another note, I'm hoping readers that understand more about the politics and culture of Africa can enlighten me. I find it offensive and patronising that British commentators all seem to think that African's were all supporting Ghana last night, that "that was a goal for Africa". It's not as if I'll be supporting Germany today simply because they're European.
But is this naivety on my part? Is the sense of continental solidarity stronger in Africa (and the sense of national sovereignty weaker) on account of the arbitrary colonial interventions? Are the civil wars and rivalries caused more by outside influence than any endogenous tensions between African nations?
In short, are commentators being patronising when they infer that all Africans will support other African nations ahead of anyone else?
Update
No. 8: I support the country that has the largest population
This is the utilitarian impulse that was the reason I wrote this post in the first place...
For no real reason I thought I'd see how Everton have done over the last 10 years or so, looking at the points we've won (as opposed to league position). I suspect this is more of an absolute measure of performance. I also added in the points total that would lead to Champions League qualification (i.e. the 4th placed team) and relegation (18th). What do we learn?
This must be the first tournament since 2002 that I've looked forward to - the last 4 I've been either revising, studying, working, etc. This time around I intend to watch more than one match and to actually pay attention. With that in mind, I've just entered a sweepstake. Here are my picks:
Winners: Spain
Runner's up: Brazil
3rd place: Argentina
4th place: Germany
Quarterfinalists: Uruguay, Holland, Serbia, ItalyOther group qualifiers: Nigeria, England, Slovakia, Chile, France, United States, Cameroon, Portugal
Pretty uncontroversial. Let's hope the real thing throws up a few surprises.
"If I play football with my friends back in France, I can love football," he says. "But if I come to England, where I knew nobody and I didn't speak English … why did I come here? For a job. A career is only 10, 15 years. It's only a job. Yes, it's a good, good job and I don't say that I hate football but it's not my passion.
"I arrive in the morning at the training ground at 10.30 and I start to be professional. I finish at one o'clock and I don't play football afterwards. When I am at work, I do my job 100%. But after, I am like a tourist in London. I have my Oyster card and I take the tube. I eat.
Footballer in rare - speak the truth - shocker. I think the reason Rooney was so latched onto at Everton was because he's not like the above. He treated a Premier League match in the same manner as a kickabout on the street, and clearly just loves playing the game. He's clearly at ease with his teammates. But fans appreciate that because it's rare. For every Rooney (and I'd add others like Tony Hibbert, Leon Osman, Tim Cahill), there are far more players who treat it as a job. It's just refreshing for a player to be so honest, and I actually think fans might respond to that. Landon Donovan came pretty close to expressing part of this argument when he said that for him it was just 10 weeks but for the fans it's life. He fully recognised that it didn't mean as much to him as it did to the fans. No-one chooses a job solely for the money, but we understand that plays a role.
It would be nice for the term "mercenary" to lose it's negative connotations. As long as players are honest to fans, and are *worth the money*, I don't have a problem with it. And genuine mercenaries, professional mercenaries, are likely to do that.
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