Sportingly Random

I was hoping that this blog would get written a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve since learning that blog posts don’t write themselves. My first in August…I am officially a disgrace. A couple of my favourite sports writers, Steve Kim of Maxboxing and Peter King of SI, write some of their thoughts in brief flurries and bullet points….and I like it. Sometimes better than just read long sentences, simple as that. Here goes with some of my random thoughts on sport.

I think that the cancellation of UFC 151 is a dark day for MMA. In a nutshell, the challenger in the title fight got injured, the Champion refused to face another guy put forward, and the UFC cancelled the show. I would have been fuming if I was attending and had flights and hotel booked. Fortunately, that cancellation means Jon Jones is going to fight on the Toronto card in September that I may just be going to. Despite any good fortune for me, I am going to boo him. If you want to read more about it, this is the best balanced piece I have read on it all.

I think that Fernando Torres is going to have a fantastic season. Chelsea will play to his style and strengths now Drogba and Anelka are out of the way, and I think it will pay dividends.

I think that I am not late in predicting anything NFL with the season starting in one week. I find predicting a Superbowl winner to be pretty tough as so much is dependent on injuries in this sport, but my tip for surprising outsiders? The Kansas City Chiefs.

I think that sadly, as much as people have made an effort to publicise and promote the Paralympics, very few people will realise it is happening on their doorsteps. Hopefully a couple of British stars will somehow emerge and that will just spark some interest.

I think that if you were not aware, the Football Association have spent £120m on a brand new National Football Centre in Burton-upon-Trent….and it looks amazing. Whether it proves to be a success however depends on the people, the processes and the mentality…..and there is plenty of room for improvement in those areas.

I think that the last few days of the transfer window are going to be frenetic in England. The Euros delayed the market kicking off, but it is in full swing. I am expecting two more Everton signings to put a smile on my face….and yes, I’ll be pressing refresh on my phone from Paris on Friday night and racking up my mobile phone bill.

I think I will be pretty annoyed if the NHL and the players do not resolve their issues and get this season going. Nothing good is going to come of it aside from some dollars being shifted in one direction from the other. Disillusionment among the fans is the most likely outcome, and particularly in those cities where they struggle for support as it is. Sort it out.

I think that Falcao is the best striker in world football right now. It is a matter of time before he moves (I heard he was linked with Chelsea today), and I would love to see him playing in England. If only Arsene Wenger and Arsenal would splash £40m on a player.

Eyes Wide Shut

Football is great and I love it. I am talking about real football, not the egg-shaped football that some claim to be the real football. I love NFL, but football edges it just. It has been an interesting week or so in football. Despite Everton’s poor result against West Ham taking the gloss off an otherwise fascinating week of football, there have been some great developments in football and the next week is another hugely anticipated week.

What am I talking about? The transfer window! This time of year, along with the summer, is when every football fan wakes up in the morning, and scours his newspaper and the internet to see which players are being linked with their team. First port of call – the BBC Gossip Column. I would love to know the number of hits they receive on this one page, and I’ll bet it is up there with their most popular pages at this time of year. Then I’ll put Sky Sports News on – if my boys have signed somebody, I will hear about it there first.

I am an Everton fan in case you were not aware. They are skint. They have less than zero money. That is not a good situation to be during the transfer window. There is a far greater chance of one of our players being signed by another team, than us signing somebody and that is not a nice situation to be in. Yet, I still for some unknown reason check the Gossip column and all the fan websites wanting to get a sniff of who we might be signing. We have lost Pienaar and Yakubu this transfer window, yet for some inexplicable reason, I hold out hope that we are going to make a signing of the century and it will propel us up the league.

There is no logic to that at all, but how many people do the same? My guess is a huge percentage of fans in England especially. The media sell transfer stories and speculation to us to sell their newspapers or boost their viewers. This was more common in Spain and Italy historically with teams like Real Madrid deliberately feeding information to Marca to keep their profile at the forefront, unsettle players they are interested in, and to claim an interest in another player when they are bargaining with one club for a different one and trying to force the asking price down.

England and the Premier League has gone one step ahead now. The transfer window was hardly greeted with delight when it first came into action as newspapers had months in which to make up ludicrous transfer stories when general news was quiet. That has all changed now and the media have clearly seen a niche and they put huge resources into promoting it now. Wait until transfer Deadline Day and see what I mean. It is actually pretty enticing stuff – watching SSN or surfing the internet to get all the latest rumours and gossip. Sadly for me, that is what they will likely remain, rumours and gossip. But I will hold out hope until the door shuts. Somehow, hopes and dreams across the world have been raised artificially, and then that big door just slams shut. For most fans, it will close with disappointment after a month of hope and optimism, all of which has magically been generated by the media.

I am not criticising it, I enjoy it as much as anybody. It is just an amazing phenomenon which has developed in the last few years. I shall be tuning in on Transfer Deadline Day waiting to see who my boys will be ‘close’ to signing, who they just missed out on, and who they wanted but could not agree a deal for.