It’s the end of the calendar year again and although there may not any silverware up for grabs it’s time to award and recognise the stand out individuals from all of the teams competing in UEFA competitions.

Although nominations for the Balon D’Or are only open to a select group of international coaches, captains and well respected journalists one thing fans can have a say on is the UEFA team of the year.

This is the tenth year that fans have been able to vote for the stars that have wowed over the duration of the year See this link to make your choices. http://www.uefa.com/community/teamoftheyear/index.html

Although this is a great way for fans to take an interactive role in the sport they love I have to say I have some problems with the system; the most notable being that you have to stick to a very rigid 4-4-2 diamond system- which to me is absurd.

This has lead to the peculiar predicament of having to play Ronaldo as a right midfieler whereas Messi is a left forward- do they not play the same roles? What’s more, and I say this through gritted teeth, Wayne Rooney has been left out as a potential candidate. Granted, he is in terrible form right now, and had a poor world cup, but he was imperious for Manchester United last season. It baffles me that the young Lukaku can be picked ahead of him.

At the same time it is great to see players from smaller clubs gain some recognition. It’s great to see Fulham’s Hangeland, Fenerbache’s Diego Lugano and FC Twente’s Douglas stand for nomination- although it is suprising one of them hasn’t been excluded from the short list to make way for Vidic. At the same time the inclusion of Kuyt and Cassano baffle me, both have had quiet years.

What would your team be? For the record I picked:

Iker Casillas.
Philipp Lahm, Gerard Pique, Lucio, Asley Cole.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi, Sneijder, Andres Iniesta.
Lionel Messi & Diego Forlan

Manager: Jose Mourinho

I’m not a big fan of Big Sam, to me he seems an arrogant toad with a somewhat inflated ego. That being said, he was doing a solid job for Blackburn, with minimum funds.

Without doubt the reason for his sacking was the poor form Blackburn have found themselves in of late; 3 defeats in the last 5 games isn’t going to set the world alight. Lets not forget however that two of those three defeats came against Man U and Spurs; although the 7-1 thrashing they were subjected to at Old Trafford is humiliating by anyones standards. A 2-1 defeat to local rivals, with a man sent off, is also far from satisfying but the 3-0 win against Wolves and the 2-0 defeat of Villa surely send out signs that Blackburn is hardly a club in a state of crisis? Well, maybe they are now. 

If Blackburn won the game against Bolton they would be sitting sixth in the Premier League, instead they occupy 13th- five points clear of the relegation zone. It seems to me that the new owners had no intention of keeping Allardyce as a long term manager, much like Man City seemed to have no real desire to keep hold of Mark Hughes, and have jumped on the earliest possible opportunity to get rid of him. Who will replace him though?

Perhaps Martin O’Neil could step up? Other than the O’Neil I can’t see any particularly suitable candidates on the market, certainly no one with bigger credentials than Sam. I think the new owners have made a critical, but not fatal mistake. Blackburn will not get relegated this season but the squad has certainly suffered a massive blow, as stated by manager Ryan Nelsen. Big changes are going to be happening at Ewood Park and it is in periods like this that it is essential to keep morale high in the dressing room; sacking a manager who many players had respect for is only going to compromise this. Have they learned nothing from Chelsea’s unjust dismissal of Ray Wilkins?

Perhaps more should be done to protect the rights of managers….

Talk about taking a picture at precisely the right moment!!

I saw this guy on Howe Street a few days back, great voice, touching lyrics. If you’re in Vancouver, try and check him out!

http://www.bodhijones.com/

This is why you always play to the whistle

This is an article that I wrote for Pitlane F1 magazine prior to the Bahraini Grand Prix. I’m putting it up in wake of the news that the seven time world champion will be staying for the 2011 season. Naturally I’m very against it. I can’t stand him. Anyway check out this article and prefer for a rant or two from me in a few days…

Statistically he is the greatest grand prix driver of all time. It cannot be refuted. He has won more world championships than anyone in the history of Formula 1, more races than all the drivers on the grid put together and set more fastest laps than Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost combined. So why has Michael Schumacher’s return to action been met with as much scepticism as it has support?

Schumacher’s career has been riddled with controversy. Not only is he the only driver to be disqualified from a world championship, he has also been involved in several championship deciding collisions and often benefited from numerous amounts of contentious team orders. During his career he angered a large proportion of the Formula 1 fan base and had some very public quarrels with his rivals, it is therefore not surprising that some fans will not be welcoming the German’s presence this season.

The first of Schumacher’s moments of controversy was the infamous collision with Damon Hill during the 1994 championship decider at the Australian Grand Prix. The race was a one on one dog fight for championship glory between the two drivers. Schumacher was leading the race and seemed to be in control of his own destiny until lap 35 when his Benetton ran wide and hit a wall side on. The incident allowed rival Damon Hill to close in and make a move on him going into the Flinders Street corner. Although Hill had the racing line Schumacher blocked his effort to overtake which forced the two into a collision. The Germans car was mounted onto two wheels and eliminated immediately from the race, Hill simply had to finish the race to be crowned World Champion. The damage to the Britons car however was terminal and Hill was forced to aguishly retire in the pits. The collision was deemed a racing incident and allowed Schumacher to win his maiden world title by default.

Earlier during that same season he was disqualified from two Grand prix and banned from competing in another two. During the British Grand Prix he failed to take a ten second stop and go penalty for overtaking Hill on the warm up lap. He then continued to race despite being black flagged. He was later disqualified from the final classification and handed a two race ban which he took during rounds twelve and thirteen at Italy and Portugal. Prior to the ban being emplaced on him he was also disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix, round 11, due the skid block under his car being excessively worn thus giving him an unfair aerodynamic advantage.

All these controversies however make Schumacher’s achievement to become World Champion that year all the more impressive. His points tally was so commanding that he won the title despite effectively not competing in four Grand Prix and retiring from another; a light of supremacy shining through his darker side.

In 1997 Schumacher became the first, and only, driver to ever be disqualified from an entire World Championship season. The penalty happened following an “instinctive” manoeuvre to block Jacques Villeneuve to overtake him on lap 48 of the European Grand Prix at Jerez. The Canadian had out braked Schumacher turning into the Dry Sac corner and was ahead of the German when suddenly the Ferrari of Schumacher turned into the side of Villeneuve’s Williams. The incident forced Schumacher to retire from the Grand Prix but Villeneuve raced on, despite suffering heavy damage, to finish in third and take the crown. Following the incident Schumacher was disqualified from the Championship but allowed to hold on to the statistics he had accumulated during the season. The incident was the second championship deciding collision of the German’s career.

Despite the controversy created in 1997 Michael Schumacher had proved that Ferrari could once again be competitive. At the time the Italian giants had not produced a world champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979. The German had taken on a dangerous risk moving from Benetton to Ferrari and his class was shining through.

Controversy followed Schumacher into the 1998 season. One of the most bizarre moments came when he won the British Grand Prix despite not serving a ten second stop and go penalty that was imposed on him for lapping Alexander Wurz under the safety car. The penalty was imposed with twelve laps to go. Rules state that a driver must serve the penalty within three laps of it being handed out, Schumacher didn’t serve the penalty until twelve laps later. Ferrari claimed to be confused on the conditions of the penalty being imposed on him and argued that they believed ten seconds was going to be added to the Germans race time. Schumacher finally served his stop and go penalty at the end of the final lap but due to the layout of the pit lane, Schumacher crossed the finish line before he reached the Ferrari pit. After much debate no penalty was imposed on the German and he was awarded the victory ahead of Mclaren’s Mika Hakkinen.

Later on during the same season Schumacher became involved in a heated argument with McLaren’s David Coulthard following a collision under heavy spray during the Belgian Grand Prix. A furious Schumacher marched to the McLaren pit to argue with Coulthard forcing Ferrari and Mclaren mechanics to hold back the respective drivers. 

In the new millennium the seven time world champion managed to avoid moments of serious controversy until the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. Ferrari team mate Rubens Barichello had dominated the event throughout the weekend, qualifying in pole position and leading the race from the start until the final few metres where he was forced to yield to allow Schumacher to win the race under the orders of Jean Todt “for the sake of the championship.” The event severely tarnished the credibility of Formula 1 racing and to this day remains a sensitive issue for Barichello and Formula 1 fans alike.

Throughout his career there has always been a distinctive difference between Schumacher and his team mate. The German maestro always got the number one treatment. The only exception to this general rule came in the 1999 season where he attempted to help team mate Eddie Irvine win the world championship following an injury which rule him out for most of the season. To some fans the preferential treatment he enjoyed while he was at Benetton and Ferrari make his achievements less credible.

The final moment of controversy in an illustrious career occurred in a qualifying session for the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix. Competition between Schumacher and newly crowned World Champion Fernando Alonso was at its most intense with the young Spaniard consistently beating the experienced German. The difficult overtaking conditions during the race make qualifying on pole a paramount importance. Alonso was very much the on form driver and a desperate Schumacher resorted to parking his car at the Racasse corner in a bid to slow Alonso down and prevent him from securing pole position. It is not known if the incident was intentional or not but the German found himself subject to much scrutiny and was forced to start from the back of the grid by the race stewards.

With so much controversy many people overlook his career achievements, which are as numerous as his wrong doings. On his return to Grand Prix racing he will be the only driver on the grid to have beat Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell in a Formula 1 race. He is also the only driver to have won a race on every circuit that he has competed on and, most impressively, he has won five back to back world titles. Added to this he is the only driver to finish every race of a season on the podium, win seven consecutive Grand Prix and achieve a record 154 podium finishes. Such statistics provide overwhelming evidence to support claims that he is the perfect Grand Prix racer, unfortunately, the amount of controversies he has created make it just as easy to argue otherwise.

There have been times when watching him race has been like poetry in motion. His first win for Ferrari in Catalunya 1996 was a master class of dominance once he took the lead. He spent much of the race lapping three seconds faster than the rest of the field and lapped the entire field up to third place. Following the grand prix Stirling Moss, a motor racing ace, commented “It was not a race, it was a demonstration of brilliance.” Most importantly the win symbolised a welcome return to form for Ferrari.

His performance in Monaco 1997 was equally as impressive, beating second place driver Rubens Barichello by 53 seconds. The winning margin is all the more impressive when you take into consideration the treacherous conditions and the fact that he lost ten seconds of his race time following an error at Sainte Devote where he was forced to take the escape road.

 Many fans will argue that his greatest race was his last hurrah at Interlagos, 2006. Despite not winning, or even finishing on the podium, the German put in a majestic performance to finish in fourth place having won six races earlier that season. During the race he pulled off two supreme over taking manoeuvres on the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella and the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen in a brave attempt to help Ferrari beat Renault to the constructor’s crown. Ferrari eventually fell four points short but Schumacher delivered a performance equal to any of his other career highs.

Off the track too he has conducted himself impeccably. Unlike most sports stars of today he has successfully kept his private life behind closed doors. His finest off the track moment came following the 2004 Tsunami in Asia where he donated $10 million of his own personal fortune to aid the victims. Schumacher was affected personally by the tragedy as a close friend died in the chaos. The amount was more than any other sports star and even tops efforts made by some governments.

Schumacher’s career has seen moments of greatness tarnished by moments of madness and bad sportsmanship. What side of Formula 1’s most successful driver will fans see in 2010?

Laura Marling can sing, these buffoons can’t!

There’s a maturity in Laura Marling’s music that is far beyond her twenty years. Her smoky, edgy vocals combined with an inclination for poetic, lyrical meaning and salient melodies is a far cry from other young artists who chose to manufacture music to fit into the clubbing culture. It is therefore no wonder that her next instalment from Alas, I can’t swim has been pre-empted by much anticipation.

I speak because I can is a stunning feat of musical progression. While her last album largely focused on the burdens of young love (brilliantly I might add) her new work has flowered into a dark, realistic and melancholic diary of real life experiences. Lines such as “why fear death, be scared of living,” taken from the song Hope in the air, as well as “the weak need to be led, and the tender are carried to their bed, and it’s a cold and pale affair, and I’ll be damned if I’ll be found there,” from the song Rambling Man, highlight her prowess as a singer song writer.

Marling’s use of Folk music to convey the harshness of life isn’t original, artists such as Joni Mitchell, Nick Cave and Led Zeppelin, with their album Led Zeppelin III,   have all used this medium- but Marling is certainly on a par with them. Her desire to make music in this fashion has distinguished her from other artists in the modern era, instead of being another pretty face in a recording studio creating music with no real soul she has produced a deep, thought provoking album aided all the more by her perplexing vocals.

With the help of producer Ethan Johns, of Kings of Leon and Paulo Nutini fame, Marling has produced an enigmatic album littered with beautiful lyrics about lessons hard learned. I speak because I can is more than just a soundtrack for 2010, it’s an album that you will want to listen to again and again and again.  

Lissie is a Folk Rock artist, raised in Rock Island, Illinois. She shared a few words with me following a superb performance on the Red Bull Jams tent at this years T in the Park festival.

Hey, I’m here with Lissie who’s just got off the Red Bull Bedroom Jams Stage. Congratulations on a great show, what’s next for you?

Thank you that were a lot of fun. Ok so next up we’re flying to London, and we’re going to be flying next week, and then you know, we’ll do some other festivals in England and umm errr we’ll be back in the UK for the end of the year. We’re gonna be doing some shows with The Script and headlining a few of our own shows too in the fall, so we’re just none stop until the end of the year.

Cool, it sounds like a really busy time for you. How do you keep on track of all of this?

Ok, well I like to be healthy so I’m trying to eat healthier, not drinking… too much, and um do yoga and exercise. You know all those things, sort of just staying healthy its sort of what gets me through.

Cool, it’s pretty good stress relief then?

Umm yes it is.

And I believe this is your first time at T in the Park, what do you make of it?

It’s really nice, I wish I could hang around and do some more stuff but we have to leave.

Right now?

Err yea.

No! You’re going to miss Eminem?

Yeah and you know what, I actually love Eminem. Like for a long time since the beginning so err yea we come to these festivals and do these shows and we have to go asap because we’ve got something the next day.

Ok, well it looks like you’ve got to head on so I’ll let you get in your car, thanks for talking to be and good luck.

No problem. And I hope to be here next year, I love Scottish people and we love Scotland. Thanks. Cya.

A Hip- Hop duo from New Orleans, The Knux have been recording music since 2003. Comprised of brothers Krispy and Joey the duo have toured with artists including Common, Travis Barker and Lupe Fiasco in recent years. I was lucky enough to catch up with them following a set they did on the Red Bull Bedroom Jams stage at this years T in the Park festival.

Ok, so I’m here with the Knux. Great show just then. Just very quickly can you talk us through your daily routine when you’re on tour?  The things the public don’t see.

Joey: Err well what they don’t see, a lot of the time, is by the end of the tour an artist is really sick and when they think the artist is acting weird like after the show it’s because their fucking sick from doing so many shows in different time zones. You know we get up at weird hours and we’re usually like not in the best shape.

The other thing which you don’t see is ya know all the people back stage that are going through a set making it look effortless ya know like, it’s mad. We’re managed by the same man as Eminem and it’s weird, people think Eminem just gets on stage and does the show, everybody just does their show, but actually people don’t realise. It hate it when people pan it and say like, that show was bad. That’s what the fans don’t see, we want to really have a good show for them.

Even Em, Em’s the biggest and he still does rehearsals. If it seems like we’re not in the best mood or something like that cut us a bit of slack because we want to do good for the fans. We want acceptance from the crowd and the fans. So give us a break, God damn.

Krispy: What you don’t see as well though is the girls and the glory.

So yea, you said you guys are big fans of Eminem, are you going to be checking him out later today?

Krispy:You know what, we saw him at a few other shows, in a lot of cities so I don’t think we’ll see him tonight.

Haha ok, so you’ve spoke a lot about the stress. How do you unwind?

Krispy: Umm, a lot of drugs man. I just, just get high a lot. I get baked out of my brains a lot.

Joey: And I err, do you know what, I do a lot of cardio. Not just on a cardio and shit like that you know, if I don’t get my cock wet in like a week I get real cranky.

Haha ok, your manager wants you guys to go so thanks for letting me have a quick chat and enjoy the rest of the tour. Go get laid or whatever and enjoy yourselves guys.

Hahaha thanks man, we’ll  be seeing you again.