Sweet Nothings

In this first post-Fergie season, it wasn’t terribly surprising that Manchester United continued to dominate the headlines, albeit not in the manner to which they were accustomed. Although in some ways a shame that they didn’t put up a great fight to defend their crown, it’s so often the case in sport that great champions don’t just slowly fade away, their declines instead being sudden (check) and total (which now rather depends on Mr van Gaal). It’s interesting that journalists chose David Moyes’s clearout of the club’s backroom staff as one of the biggest sticks to beat him with. After all, most managers bring their own people with them to new clubs. Either the likes of Mike Phelan and future-ex-Fulham-boss Rene Meulensteen were gods amongst men, or United are a textbook example of all that’s gone wrong with football - a toxic bubble where Fergie was God, and players and fans alike are bloated with self-important, preconceived notions of the club’s ‘way’. Moyes was th...

Two posts in one day, I hear you cry? (In my head, I actually have a readership.) Don't worry - this one is purely a rant. I now hate Liverpool FC more than any other club. Of course I can't stand Chelsea, who've bought their success and are chock-full of despicable characters, or Man U, who are just Man U - too arrogant and too damn good. (Arsenal are the only member of the "big 4" who I have any time for, as I like the fact that Wenger sticks bloody-mindedly to his principles even though they might have become a detriment to the club's success.) But the Scousers are even more detestable precisely because they're not very good. Four games so far this season, three very lucky victories with the winners coming in the final minutes, and one godawful boring nil-nil today at Villa Park. Despite having spunked hundreds of millions on several new teams, they're still no nearer to playing decent football and challenging for the Prem under Rafa as they were un...

Right-wing think tank Policy Exchange has published a report which pretty much suggests that several northern cities are absolute shitholes, and aren’t worth the bother of redevelopment. From BBC online: Cities in northern England such as Liverpool, Sunderland and Bradford are "beyond revival" and residents should move south, a think tank has argued. Policy Exchange said current regeneration policies were "failing" the people they were supposed to help. The Policy Exchange report said the three million affordable new homes planned by the government should be built in London, Oxford and Cambridge to enable people to migrate south. People should be told the "reality" to avoid them becoming "trapped" in less prosperous parts of the country. Clearly none of the authors of this report live in London, or else they would know that it’s not exactly lacking in people already, and the last thing we need is a million Scousers coming down and clogging it up...