Post Match Pints

22. On yer bike! Le Tour de France

A sport which is always dominated by doping scandals, cycling is up there with the most strenuous of the human body, probably the reason so much is done to help riders recover. A far cry from your local cyclist who pull out all the stops to cause traffic issues, the real cycling world evolves around preparation and participation in Le Tour de France. A sporting spectacle known around the world by those of us still wanting to use stabilisers. The tour covers large areas of France but has also had stages in other European countries – occasionally riders and teams will fly between stages.

The Basics

The Tour de France take place over 23 days and covers over 2000 miles. The route for the race changes every year, with some stages always making an appearance. The final stage has been held in Paris since 1975 and usually sees a procession rather than a race (most of the time the overall winner is already crowned). The final sprint down the Champs-Élysées the grand finale.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is DSC_8666.jpg — The final stage heading away from Champs-Élysées.

Each day is known as a ‘stage’ and these can last up to 6 hours. A stage winner is declared at the end of each one and a number of coloured jerseys indicate winners of certain categories (more on this later).

Of the 23 days, the riders only get 2 rest days, meaning 21 stage wins are up for grabs. There are 8 flat stages, 5 hill stages, 6 mountain stages and 2 time trials. In 19 of the 21 stages, riders all start together. During the other 2 time trial stages, riders set off alone and get to the end in a sprint race to the finish. Riders are kept 1 minute apart at the starting point, with many trying to catch up for the all important slip stream.

Millions of people around the world watch the Tour de France on their tv screens and tablets, with viewing numbers peaking for the final stage as it heads into Paris.

Hundreds of thousands of people line the route of the race each day, and some people camp for up to a week to ensure they get a good view. Because of the crowds and the excitement, there is often a party or carnival atmosphere.

Before the cyclists ride past the crowd, there a lots of cars and vans advertising the race sponsors. They can take almost an hour to pass by, and are known as “the caravan”. Often they throw out souvenirs at the crowd, and everyone tries to catch something. Once the caravan has passed by, the police clear the road and then the cyclists ride past, often in a Peleton.

The History

The first race was held in 1903 and it was classed as an individual event, rather than the team format we are used to. In the early days, it was sometimes forbidden to bunch together, as this made the ride easier. Nowadays the large Peloton pack of riders is one of the main spectating attractions. The Tour was cancelled during the years of war and therefore celebrated its centenary in 2013.

Since 1919 the overall leader of the tour is awarded a Yellow Jersey to wear the following stage. The overall winner of the tour is awarded this at the end of the last stage.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is banniere-tdf-montagne.jpg — The Peleton pack on a mountain stage

The youngest ever winner of the tour was Henri Comet (fitting) who was just 19 years old when he took the 1904 title. In contrast, 36 year old Firmin Lambot took the Yellow Jersey in 1922 and remains the oldest competitor to win Le Tour.

French riders have won the most Tour de France races (21 cyclists have won 36 tours between them). Belgian riders are in 2nd place, with 18 wins, and then the Spanish are in 3rd place with 12 wins.

3 Briton’s have won the Tour de France – Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and Chris Froome in 2013, 2015 and 2016 and Geraint Thomas in 2018.

Women are not allowed to compete in the Tour de France, although since 2014 there has been a women’s race on the final day, called “Le Course”. The first winner was the Dutch cyclist Marianne Vos.

4 men have won Le Tour de France 5 times. Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Lance Armstrong had won 7 tours but had every result and prize he won between 1998 and 2012 stripped due to his doping habits!

The Jerseys

Apart from your usual tight cycling gear, the science behind the clothing is rather advanced. To allow easy identification of certain riders, the inclusion of special jerseys was introduced.

The Yellow Jersey – Given to the overall leader pf the tour.
The Polka Dot Jersey – White with red dots is given to the King of the Mountains for the rider with the most points from the mountain stages.
The Green Jersey – The sprinters jersey is worn by the best sprinter or time trialist.
The White Jersey – The best youngster is given to the best overall rider under the age of 26.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 4-Jerseys022p.jpg — The 2017 final Jersey Winners

2019 Tour de France

The 2019 tour is the 106th edition and will cover 2162 miles. It began on the 6th July and will conclude in Paris on the 28th. To honour the 50th anniversary of Belgian Eddy Mereckx first tour win, the first stage took place in Brussels with a further 2 stages in Belgium. A total of 176 riders are competing from 22 teams. Each team is allowed a maximum of 8 riders and 30 countries are represented.

After 11 stages the current classification has Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe wearing the yellow jersey after his stage 4 win. he currently holds a 1 minute lead over defending tour champion, Brit Geraint Thomas.
The current King of The Mountains is currently held by Tim Wellens but he is closely followed by fellow Belgian and Lotto-Soual teammate Thomas De Gendt.
The overall points leader (green jersey) holder is Peter Sagan of Slovakis who has a 73 point lead ahead of Ella Viviani and Sonny Colbrelli.
The White Jersey lies with Colombian Egan Bernal who has a 30 second lead over Spaniard Enric Mas.
The team classification has 2 teams out way ahead of the others. Movistar team currently have a minute and a half lead over Trek-Segafredo with their nearest competitor over 15 minutes behind!

Grand Tour

No, not Jeremy and his two mates – this is the name given to the 3 big cycling races of the year. Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a Espana and of course Le Tour de France. While races are held in June, July and August, these are the main calendar attractions for cycling fans.

So suit up, get those legs shaved and get out an annoy your local taxi drivers.

Cheers!

21. Dunluce Links – Royal Portrush

“the belt…on all future occasions, shall be open to all the world”

The 148th Open Championship will be held in Country Antrim, Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush Golf Club. It will be only the second time in history the competition will not be played on the isle of Great Britain.

The Open.

The oldest of the major championships, the British Open is regarded as ‘The Open’. The only major tournament played outside the USA, it was first played at Prestwick Golf Club in 1860.

The championship is always contested on a links golf course. Links courses are by the sea side and are considered the purest form of golf – in keeping with the style of the home of golf, St Andrews Old Course. Links courses are generally open to the elements, sandy grass with undulations naturally formed rather than built. With the shore line so close, wind and weather can have a massive part to play in links golf, with the climate changing from day to day.

The Opens most notable prize is the trophy – The Champion Golfer Trophy. Known more commonly as the Claret Jug. The trophy was created after 1872 when Young Tom Morris won the original prize (Challenge Belt) 3 times in a row. The first presentation of the Jug took place the following year in 1973. The original jug is presented and kept by the winner of the open until the next year, when a replica is gifted to the player.

The prize.

The Claret Jug with the famous Yellow Open Scoreboard in the background

The winners gold medal is presented to the champion as a mark of the prize in 1872. The Claret Jug wasn’t ready at the time, so the medal was a substitute. Since then, this tradition has been presented to all champions.

On top of the physical prizes, a wallet bulging amount of cash is also presented. Sharing a purse of nearly $2m. The Open had been the only major to award winnings in £, but this changed in 2017 to reflect the rest of the major tournaments.

Over and above all this, you get to play loads more golf. If you come out winning you get the chance to play every Open until you’re 60! You get the next 5 years of each of the other 3 majors: The Masters, US Open and the PGA Championship. You also get into a number of World Golf Championship and Professional Golf Association tournaments.

2019.

The Course.

Just the 2nd time in history that the Claret Jug will be up for grabs outside of Britain, and for the 2nd time, Portrush has the honour. In 1951 Englishman Max Faulkner won The Open with a score of 285 (-3 par). The Dunluce Links course is a Par 71 and measures 7,344 yards – all fairly standard for today’s professionals.

There are several signature holes on the links. In particular holes 4, 5 and 16.
Hole 4 – Fred Daly’s. Names after the first Irishman to win The Open and play in the Ryder cup. It’s notorious Out of Bounds down the right and knee high rough down the left, followed by a guarded, undulating green makes this 480 yard par 4 an early score wrecker.
Hole 5 – White Rocks. The relatively short par 4 is helped with its downhill nature. Doglegging to the right the green is perched on the ledge of the beachfront with the Dunluce Castle as a backdrop.

Hole 16 – Calamity Corner. Known more simply as Calamity. Says it all really. An uphill 236 yard par 3. With water protecting the front and right hand side and large hollows protecting the back and left of the green – a par is a great score here.

Who’s going to win?

All the usual suspects are at the top of the betting slips for this one. Brooks Koepka, Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, defending Champion Fracnesco Mollinari. The list pretty much repeats for the major champions. However, the Open has the ability to throw up some more interesting names given the nature of golf required.

Rory McIlroy -11 top 10s this year with two wins – been playing his best golf in years. He has been targeting this tournament ever since Portrush was announced. Will have incredible support and if he was to win it would be his greatest ever.

Henrik Stenson – The 2016 Open Champion had been having a slow season but now has three top 10s and could be coming in to form at the perfect time.

Matthew Fitzpatrick – The Englishman has good pedigree on links courses and has had two runner-up finishes this year. The introduction of Billy Foster on his bag could be the key to unlocking a Major for the five time European Tour winner.

Tyrrell Hatton – Such is his results on links courses – two Dunhill Links Championship wins, and top 5s in the Irish and Scottish Opens and at the 2016 Open Championship.

Tommy Fleetwood – The Ryder Cup hero is still looking for his first major win. A top 25 in all three other majors gives him a chance here at Portrush.

Bernd Wiesberger – The Austrian has turned a corner – with three top 10s including a win in his last five tournaments. Last weeks Scottish Open win was his second in 2 months with a casual 61 along the way!

Weisberger celebrates last weekends Scottish Open win

Selected tee times for Thursday;

6.35am – Darren Clarke, James Sugrue (A), Charley Hoffman

7.30am – Padraig Harrington, Matt Fitzpatrick, Andrew Putnam

7.52am – Phil Mickelson, Shane Lowry, Branden Grace

9.14am – Henrik Stenson, Xander Schauffele, Graeme McDowell

9.58am – Francesco Molinari, Adam Scott, Bryson DeChambeau

10.09am – Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey, Gary Woodland

10.20am – Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler, Kevin Kisner

12.53pm – Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Thomas, Thorbjorn Olesen

1.04pm – Brooks Koepka, Louis Oosthuizen, Shubhankar Sharma

1.26pm – Jordan Spieth, Marc Leishman, Danny Willett

2.48pm – Tony Finau, Lucas Bjerregaard, Justin Rose

2.59pm – Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Keegan Bradley

3.10pm – Tiger Woods, Matthew Wallace, Patrick Reed

3.21pm – Jon Rahm, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Cantlay

Enjoy the golf, folks.

Cheers!

20. Afternoon tea.

Cricket is a game which is striving to be more popular while firmly hanging onto the traditional posh clobber. Various forms of the game now provide a healthy living across the world. The introduction of the shorter game series really has helped push audience numbers up. It reminds me a lot of darts, most spectators are there for a piss up and some good patter.

The forms of the game.

Pink ball used for night games, Red used for test matches, White used for limited over and ODIs

Test Cricket – the red ball and oldest form where games are played over a number of days. ‘Overs’ (the bowling of 6 balls) are unlimited and its a slog until the batting side have no one left, teams then swap sides and do it all again for another 2 days…a tough watch.

20/20 Cricket – the game that makes it much more bearable. 20 overs batting, and 20 bowling for each team. Basic, faster and more aggressive form of the game. Teams send out batsmen looking to score big runs, and quickly. 4 runs for a ball reaching the boundary after hitting the ground, 6 if it flies over!

50 over Cricket – the world cup form sees 50 over cricket in a round robin structure and this year featured 10 teams: England, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and South Africa.

The ICC Cricket World Cup.

Like most world cups, the cricket world cup comes round every 4 years. Although formats have changed over the years, the One Day International and ‘White Ball’ format certainly suits the number of games required to play! Preliminary qualification rounds take place throughout the years and given the popularity in India and Pakistan, the world cup is regarded as one of the most viewed sporting events around the globe.

The story so far…

With the round robin format, each team played 9 games and the top 4 seeded teams would then qualify for the Semi-finals. Over the first 6 weeks the group stage games were held between England and Wales in a number of stadiums. The results means India, Australia, England and New Zealand all went into the Semi finals with everyone else packing their bags.

Semi Finals

India were widely expected to walk into the final but a shock defeat to New Zealand meant a large number of the viewing population now didn’t have a team to follow. New Zealand won by 18 runs at Old Trafford (no, not the football one) on Wednesday.

England kicked off their semi final on Thursday against Australia and made light work of it. Bowling first at Edgbaston in Birmingham, Australia were all out for just 223 runs. England surpassed that with 8 batsmen still sitting with their cup of tea.

The final.

Neither side has ever lifted the World Cup with current world number 1’s England losing in the final 3 times and New Zealand’s best result their runners-up medal in 2015.

New Zealand enjoyed a long unbeaten run at the beginning of the tournament but saw their form dip in the latter stages of round-robin competition, they were the last team to secure a place in the top four. England beat New Zealand by 119 runs in the group stages and finished with 12 points, qualifying in 3rd spot.

Kane Williamson has carried much of the responsibility for ensuring the Black Caps have scored enough runs. Williamson is the only Black Cap to have scored a hundred in the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

Kane Williamson of the Black Caps

New Zealand have bowled very well to make up for some poor batting. Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry have sent 49 batsmen on their way over the course of the tournament.

While for the English – Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow have reached the century mark twice while Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and skipper Eoin Morgan have all made hundreds.

Bowlers Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer sent the home team on their way by helping dismiss the Aussies for 223.

The pitch…

The 22 yard long surface at Lord’s has always had a reputation of being suitable for all. Although pitches can differ in so many ways, it seems everyones content with the Lord’s pitch.

In four matches played at Lord’s prior to the Cricket World Cup final two teams have managed to get past 300 runs and both sides won. All four games won by the team batting first. In three of the four matches, the side batting second has been bowled out rather than reaching the 50 over limit! They say pitches evolve in cricket, so winning the coin toss might be the most important part on Sunday.

Lord’s – The home of Cricket and host of the final

Sunday

Although not my personal highlight for Sunday viewing, the Cricket world cup faces strong sporting competition with the Wimbledon mens final and the British F1 Grand Prix. If you do chose to watch this over either of the above, be sure to enjoy it!

Prediction – England win.

Cheers!

19. It’s BACCCCCK!

It seems to have come around so quickly, but last night the competitive club football returned. European qualifying rounds have began with the 2 Glasgow sides kicking off their campaigns.

Celtic

The champions of Scotland started with a 3-1 away win over FK Sarajevo. Going down 1-0 to the Bosnia and Herzegovina champions meant a spirited comeback was required. An equaliser from Mikey Johnston put the teams in level at Halftime before second half goals from Scott Sinclair and Odsonne Edouard. Celtic take a 3-1 lead back to Glasgow next week with every expectation of building on that aggregate scoreline. The winner of this tie will play the winner of the Macadonian Champions Shkeddija or Estonian outfit Nomme Kalju.

Rangers

The other side of Glasgow will take a healthier 4-0 win back with them as they defeated Gibraltarian side St Josephs. A very comfortable result which saw all the goals in the second half from Jack, debutante Ojo, Goldson and Morelos. The result will likely see the Ibrox side face Cork City of Ireland or the all too familiar Progres Niederkorn from Luxembourg who famously overcame a 1-0 defeat at Ibrox in 2017 to go into the second round of qualifying.

Aberdeen

Thursday 11th of July will see Aberdeen kick off their 6th successive European campaign. They will face RoPS Rovaneimi of Finland. The Fins were runners up in the Finnish Premier Division last season and are already 15 games into their league. Although sitting 10th of 12 teams, the match sharpness will be interesting to see against a fresh Aberdeen team. Expectations would have Aberdeen going through but their potential 2nd round tie gets a bit more awkward. CS Fola Esch of Luxembourg or FC Chikhura Sachkhere of Georgia await the winner of this tie.

Kilmarnock

18 years after our last adventure. We make our way down to Rhyl to play Connah’s Quay Nomads in the first leg. Connah’s made their way to the Scottish Challenge cup final last year before losing 3-1 to Ross County. They are a physical team who seem to live off long balls into the box. A 0-0 friendly draw with Aberdeen last week could be good prep for the Welsh side. Killie have a couple of new signings that could feature but with all change at the Killie wheel, it’s a strong test for Angelo Alessio’s side. FK Partizan, or Partizan Belgrade as they are better known, will face either of these sides on the 25th of July.

New Killie keeper Larry Branescu on loan from Juventus

So that’s that. A short preview of the Scottish sides who are beginning their competitive games in Europe. More to follow as teams progress…hopefully!

Cheers!

18. FIFTEEEEEN, LOVE!

Its that time of year again when previously derelict tennis courts around the county start to see some activity. It’s Wimbledon.

Wimbledon

Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and takes place just outside London every year. The tournament originally started as a croquet event, how very English! Known as the “All England” club, Wimbledon dropped the croquet tradition and concentrated on lawn tennis. Matches began in 1877 with amateur players only participating until 1968 when professionals were invited to qualify. The current format surrounds 16 events played over 2 weeks, the big 5 events are Gentleman’s singles and doubles, Ladies singles and doubles and the mixed doubles event.

The Setting
Wimbledon houses 55 courts. 20 are used for the grass tournament with another 22 grass courts hosting practice sessions. A number of mixed surface and indoor courts make up the remaining numbers.

Centre court in the foreground with court No1 behind

Centre court is the main court and is home to the final each year. A stadium like court has a retractable roof which allows play when the inevitable summer time rain comes. Court No1 is also a stadium like court, with this year showcasing its new roof! Courts 2 and 3 are smaller again but seating areas allow for a good viewing experience.

The Queue
Before even getting that far, most people need to encounter the Wimbledon queue. Having experienced it myself, the sunshine and picnic certainly made it easier. Buying premium tickets is a strange notion for such a large sporting event, but these can be bought on the day. Most people spending the night in the hope of Centre court or No1 tickets. The tradition looks set to stay as the Brits love a queue!

Strawberries and cream
Just one of the many traditions at Wimbledon is the sale of strawberries and cream, a far cry away from a half time Scotch pie. The team of military ball boys and girls are also envied in the tennis world. Keeping with the English tradition, the Royal box hosts the clubs Patrons each year, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Murray Mound/Heman Hill – either of which is a good viewing point with big screens allowing the less fortunate outside the stadium courts to get a glimpse of the action.
The playing tradition of all white is strictly enforced throughout the tournament. Any non while clothing that could become visible during play is banned – tighty whities only! The blandness of the all whites goes back to the days of allowing the game of tennis to take centre stage!

Memorable Wimbledon moments past

The Infamous outburst – John McEnroe (1981)
Every sport needs a bad boy, and John McEnroe filled the shoes for the sport of tennis – along with his fantastic skill and playing ability, his personality and controversy was apparent. When McEnroe’s ace was called out he approached the umpire and began shouting for all of No. 1 Court to hear. His outburst gave us not only the most famous catchphrase in tennis, but one of the most famous in sport overall.

The Youngest Ever – Boris Becker (1985)
9 years after 20-year-old Bjorn Borg won Wimbledon, Boris Becker defeated Kevin Curren at the tender age of 17! He then followed it up with another Wimbeldon win in 1986.

The 9 time champion – Martina Navratilova (1990)
Of her 18 grand slam titles, half came on the grass of SW19. A Wimbledon record which still stands saw her win 6 titles in a row from 1982 to 1987 against some of the biggest ever names in women’s tennis.

The greatest ever final – Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal (2008)
The final of 2008 saw what most critics have called the greatest ever final – some even say the greatest ever match. Nadals victory stopped Federers attempt to match the record 6 in a row titles and the 5 set match gave the crowd a handsome return for their money.

The Marathon – John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut (2010)
A first round match that’ll live for a long time. Lasting 183 games the game started on a Tuesday and ended on a Thursday. The final result going a 3-2 win for John Isner – winning the fifth set ending 70-68 in games! Over 200 aces and 980 points amassed and now the introduction of fifth set tie breaks, means this will never be beaten.

The 76 year wait – Andy Murray (2013)
Although regarded as Scottish most of the time, Britains Andy Murray became the first Brit to hold the Wimbledon title since Bunny Austin in 1938 – defeating Serbia’s Novak Djokovic. A 3 hour match saw Murray win in straight sets having lost the final the year before to the greatest ever.

The greatest ever – Roger Federer (2017)
2017 saw Federer comfortably bean Marin Cilic and clinch his 8th title at Wimbledon. The only gentleman with 8 titles as he surpassed Pete Samprass and William Renshaws 7 titles. The 2017 title saw Federer not drop a single set, and become the oldest singles champion of the professional era.

Wimbledon 2019

Could this be the year Roger Federer clinches his ninth Wimbledon Championship win, adding to his 100 titles during a 19-year career?

Or will the world’s top-ranked player, Novak Djokovic repeat his 2018 success? Outsider bets include former champion Rafael Nadal, John Isner and South African Kevin Anderson.

In the ladies tournament, Serena Williams is currently the bookies’ favourite with commentators expecting a return to form. Her challengers could include big-serving Czech Karolina Pliskova and Petra Kvitova.

Also worth a mention are 2017 winner, Spain’s Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber, who beat Serena Williams in last year’s final. Cori Gauff has stunned fans with 2 wins after being the youngest player to ever qualify for the main draw, shes only 15!!

The Prize

Other than the biggest accolade in world tennis, theres a few quid to be one as well. With the prize money for the male and female singles the same, each winner will take home £2.35million. Even if you go out in the first round, a £45k cheque will be in the post!

Wimbledon allows tennis to be gripping and in focus for 2 weeks of the year, when its almost always otherwise forgotten. So sit back, enjoy and be sure to mute if the grunting gets a bit too much.

Cheers!

17. Fake vs The real thing.

The kids of today are growing up in a world of virtual reality, where everything isn’t quite what it seems. Sport is also being dragged along and there’s no longer the requirement for real grass pitches with the introduction of “4G” artificial grass.

While much is said about the potential advantages of 4G pitches, there are drawbacks involved with their use.

What is a 4G pitch?

A 4G pitch is the name given to an advanced artificial playing surface that comes close to replicating the experience delivered by a traditional turf pitch. Previous generations include the standard field hockey sand filled carpet!

The “grass” height can be altered according to a club or association’s preferences at the installation stage. A shock-pad layer ensures maximum shock absorption, and layers of sand and rubber are used to create as smooth, level and sturdy playing surface as possible.

The black pellets that get in every nook and cranny!

What are the advantages of playing on an artificial pitch?

Most clubs, leagues and forms of sports are adopting these 4G pitches for their all weather qualities. Football, Ruby and American football are all using these in either training or match days. The layers below the surface allow water to easily drain off the top layer and therefore keeping water-logging to a minimum. Generally, postponements are massively reduced with 4G pitches, especially at amateur levels of sport.

There is a very clear economic benefit involved with the installation of 4G pitches too. With no grass to water, no seed to plant, tear-ups to repair or ground to thaw, cash-strapped clubs can almost dispense with all maintenance and repair. Line painting is about as much maintenance is required for an artificial surface – saving several thousand pounds every year.

The most current crop of pitches are comparing their play with that of grass. Technology ensures a bounce that is more true, and reflective of what a real pitch delivers. Training on 4G pitches gives players the opportunity to ready themselves for the exact playing conditions they’re likely to experience on match day – regardless of the weather.

What are the disadvantages of playing on an artificial pitch?

The biggest disadvantage is the overall experience of playing on artificial grass. Its not considered the normal experience and that which we are all most used too. Even the best artificial pitch cannot replicate the feeling of playing on a proper grass park.

Although the overall maintenance costs of an artificial pitch are low, the expenditure to get one installed is the opposite. Depending on the specifications required, this cost can be up to £400,000, and payment is usually required upfront. None of this try before you buy stuff.

Despite the popularity of your local 5 and 7 aside pitches, there are some people who just do not like them. Professionals are often critical, mostly due to playing on bowling greens every other weekend, which is completely understandable. Premier League teams have refused International teams to play members of their teams if the surface isn’t up to scratch (Ryan Fraser of Bournemouth was denied representing Scotland on Kazakhstan’s national 4G pitch).

To me it’s clear that the advantages of 4G pitches far outweigh the drawbacks, which is why so many local clubs and associations are choosing them over traditional turf pitches. And as more and more youngsters get used to playing on these surfaces, the chances of professional clubs going 4G grow ever larger.

In Football

In the Scottish Premiership, 3 clubs currently have artificial surfaces; Kilmarnock, Livingston and Hamilton Accies. Now, up until recently, none of these teams really struck fear into the other teams in the league. Killie and Hamilton have been battling at the lower end of the table for the past 7-9 season, while Livingston performed a rather unusual U-turn and installed their 4G after winning promotion on grass.

As I’m a Killie fan its natural to talk about our pitch. Its came under heavy scrutiny from everyone, Killie fans, Steven Gerard, Celtic FC and the list goes on. The blinkered approach is something that staggeringly coincides with when Killie started beating teams…
Kristopher Ajar of Celtic injured his knee at Rugby Park and the pitch forks were out, ready to rip it to shreds. Fans alike blasting the surface for injuring Ajar, although he had spent the entire season before on loan at Killie and had no injuries through his time. That is just one story of many where the blinkers are on and the blame goes straight to the pitch.

So, is grass really safer?

The following research was carried out by the British Journal of Sports Medicine

Participants: 290 players from 10 elite European clubs that had installed third-generation artificial turf surfaces in 2003–4, and 202 players from the Swedish Premier League acting as a control group.
Main outcome measure: Injury incidence.
Results: The incidence of injury during training and match play did not differ between surfaces for the teams in the artificial turf cohort: 2.42 v 2.94 injuries/1000 training hours and 19.60 v 21.48 injuries/1000 match hours for artificial turf and grass respectively. The risk of ankle sprain was increased in matches on artificial turf compared with grass (4.83 v 2.66 injuries/1000 match hours; rate ratio 1.81, 95% confidence interval 1.00 to 3.28). No difference in injury severity was seen between surfaces. Compared with the control cohort who played home games on natural grass, teams in the artificial turf cohort had a lower injury incidence during match play (15.26 v 23.08 injuries/1000 match hours; rate ratio 0.66, 95% confidence interval 0.48 to 0.91).

Conclusions: No evidence of a greater risk of injury was found when football was played on artificial turf compared with natural grass. The higher incidence of ankle sprain on artificial turf warrants further attention, although this result should be interpreted with caution as the number of ankle sprains was low.

In Rugby

Pro 14 Rugby side Munster’s new 4G pitch was the latest conversion from natural grass to plastic and joined Glasgow Warriors and Cardiff Blues as none grass playing teams. While Premiership Ruby also has 3 teams playing on the synthetic pitches – Gloucester, Newcastle and Worcester.

The RFU (Rugby Football Union) done some Premiership number beating and the report said for that season 608 injuries were recorded on grass, 170 on artificial surfaces. With just three pitches the exposure to plastic was less, but returned injury rates of 129.1 per 1,000 hours compared to the grass rate of 89.6 per 1,000 hours, the total hours representing 25 matches. The average severity for match injuries on grass was 32 days, compared with 37 days for artificial turf.

As stated in the official report: “The overall burden of injuries on natural grass was 2,481 per 1,000 days compared with 4,740 per 1,000 days on artificial turf, a staggering difference.”

The NFL

Exactly half of the 32 NFL teams use a style of synthetic ‘fields’ as they like to call them! Although the games are completely different, the impact on joints is similar to football.

Offensive linemen in the NFL are encouraged to wear knee supports, on grass or ‘turf’. The lack of reactions to the ball is outweighed by the reactions to players and movement. A game built on a base of quick feet means the strains on the lower body is massive in American football.

That said, a Reuters Health research in New York has deemed that more ACL injuries take place on turf over grass, in the NFL. It did conclude that knee and shoulder injuries were less frequent than on grass. The survey also concluded that college and high school players preferred playing on turf over grass – a sign of growing with the times, perhaps?

The NFL isn’t short of cash, and other than climate, there doesn’t seem to be any other factor in play to determine what surface a team plays on. Half of Oaklands old surface was the dirt used on baseball fields – so thats that for the other side of the pond!!

The difference between amateur and professional?

Its often been the case that the biggest difference between amateur and professional games is the standard of play, from the level of skill, to the pace and the surface its played on. Now my conclusion is this:
Artificial pitches aren’t ideal, and everyone wants to see football played on proper grass – until its mid December and a boggy grass park doesny look as appealing!
They aren’t ideal, but they are no where near as bad as some people make out! Good players play on any surface!

Brechin Citys Glebe Park – The Dream surface?

It basically seems you’ll find a report to suit your argument for and against these artificial pitches. There are “facts” and figures supporting from the world of sport, so make up your own mind!

Cheers!

16. First, you have to finish.

A quote by arguably F1s greatest driver, Michael Schumacher.

I’ve been a follower of F1 for a number of years, like lots of others, speed and skill to drive these machines is undeniable. The glitz and glamour surrounding F1 is ever growing but sadly the sporting competition is dwindling away. 2019 so far.

2019 so far.

So we have had the first 8 races of the 21 race season. So far 6 wins for Lewis Hamilton and 2 for Valteri Bottas – it has been nothing more than the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (F1 loves a sponsor name) show. It might as well be called “Formula turn 1 decides each race”, because going back to last season, if either of the 2 Merc drivers has been ahead of the other heading into turn 1, they have won 9 of the last 10 races.

This past Sunday’s French Grand Prix was a new low for the sport, even for this frightfully boring season. For the 6th time in the last 7 races and the 4th consecutive race, it was Lewis Hamilton driving away from the field to add to his win total. That’s the 4th time in his last 5 wins where he has lead every lap of the race….

It’s been 3 seasons since an American consortium took over F1, promising to make it more appeasing to the fans, more affordable and most of all, more competitive on the track. The heaps of social media comments following races surrounds the lack of excitement from the cars and the racing.

Lewis Hamilton 2019 F1 Champion.

As of now, its difficult to imagine anyone else being crowned champion other than Hamilton. There is no doubt his silver arrow Mercedes is the strongest car by some distance, and he is also outperforming his team mate by a considerable margin. A lot of people bigged up Valtteri Bottas at the start of the season, but that’s starting to look like wishful thinking – there was hope that the 2 Mercs could at least fight it out to make things interesting. Right now the championship battle needs to be injected with some real drama in the coming rounds to have any hope of it going anywhere close to the distance.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is fcc2fbac04c0603f5141fb421bf0a132.jpg — *The rest of the pack are trying to catch Hamilton’s No.44 car*

The issues with a dominating performance such as Hamiltons is the lack of appreciation it takes while they are doing it. Its the same issue that faced Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull and Michael Schumacher 10 years before that with Ferrari. Fans current concerns about the lack of motoring spectacle will linger on and unfortunately those will be mixed straight with frustrations of Hamilton’s dominance. Its very difficult to praise such an achievement when the story line is so one sided.

Why i$ Hamilton domina£ing?

Money dominates sports and F1 is no different. The difference here is the way money is divided. Merc have been the 2nd highest paid team for the few seasons, despite dominating the Championships. Ferrari have been the highest paid team since the new payment structure was introduced in 2013. They are the only team on the grid to receive a Long Standing Team payment, which was $73million this year – its basically a payment to stop them from threatening to leave the sport. Each team gets $35m for starters, then a payment for their previous years finishing position and other prize money is flung about in no real structured way.

The total prize money of just over $1billion can be shown below how its expected to be split;

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image.png

The money received correlates directly with the facilities and personnel available to the teams. Ferrari employ over 950 people and have another 400 employees for their engine and aerodynamic department. Compare this to the smallest team, Haas – an American owned team, who have been punching above their weight with only 250 employees…in total!

The team!

Drivers always credit the less glamorous side of F1, the guys and lassies from the factory. They are responsible for the design, testing and building of the cars and its parts. There is also a dedicated team who monitor the systems, meticulously checking performance and feeding information back to engineers at the track. Sometimes working through the night – depending on race location. The pressures that come with F1 are there for everyone to see. You need to be trusted as one of the best 20 drivers in the world to take part in an F1 race. If you’re extremely lucky, you might get a test drivers seat. Then there’s the teams. A crew of engineers – specialist in all things from; mechanical, electrical, hydraulics, PLCs and computer systems. Its no great surprise that such specialist are required given the complexity of the cars. The logistics surrounding the work is also rather incredible (100,000 miles a season with races and testing!). There’s a lot of stuff to move, a lot of times.

So that is the internals of the race team, but it stretches much much further than that. You’ve got the personal trainers, chefs, personal assistants and chauffeurs. Not to mention the number of sponsors, family and friends drivers take with them each race. It really is the bachelors life!

Highs of F1 2019

The middle of the pack.
The battle for the “middle” of the pack basically sees every team except Mercedes and Williams. The fight between Ferrari and Red Bull is close – but not as close as the remaining 6 teams. The rest of the pack are separated by only 24 points which creates drama even when the front runners are lapping them!

McLaren.
Its good to see McLaren no longer the laughing stock of F1. They have found a good partnership with Honda which only looks to get stronger. The experience of Carlos Sainz and the young blood of Lando Norris gives a good balance to a team who will be looking to push Red Bull and Ferrari hard next season.

Young drivers.
A number of drivers are in their rookie season with others only having 1 or 2 years behind them. The 3 rookies – Williams’ George Russell, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon – spent 2018 competing in Formula 2 (and finishing 1-2-3 in that order, with Russell as the season’s champion). Antonio Giovanzzi take his first seat for Sauber’s full season after racing twice for the team in 2017.

Not so Highs of F1 2019

Williams.
Sitting on the opposite end of the spectrum from Mercedes, they are the only team yet to score a point in F1. Bringing in the F2 Champion George Russell seems to have no effect when hes trying to drive a washing machine. The return of Robert Kubica has also failed to live up to the hype, again because of the car rather than the man himself.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is WilliamsF1_4_HiRes.jpg — Kubica and Russell have really struggled to get a grip on the 2019 season

Lack of fight from Ferrari.
In 2018 we all thought that Ferrari had closed the gap enough to have a real chance this year. The addition of Charles Leclerc also gave hope that Sebastian Vettel would be wary of his team mate. Its proved so far that the competition isn’t nearly close enough for Ferrari to challenge Mercedes and team orders in the first race put Charles well down the pecking order in the Ferrari garage.

Daniel Ricciardo.
Without doubt the most likable guy on the grid. Down to earth and who really loves what he does. The F1 documentary on netflix (which is a must see) showed the moment he moved from Red Bull to Renault. His ambitions are clear – he wants to be the best, as do all of the drivers, but this move has put him further away from that dream. Sitting 9th in the standings, Renault don’t look to be threatening any podiums this year.

How can F1 improve?

Now, as someone who has been to a few F1 race weekends. Its a great spectacle. The weekend is full of events, F1, GP, GP2, GP3 (all forms of lower class racing) along with the Porsche Super cars. Its not a case of waiting for F1 and heading away. 2 trips to Spa Francorchamps in Belgium and one down to Silverstone made great sporting events. Camping chairs,beers and decent weather help along the way! The event from sitting in your living room can definitely be improved though! Some radical ideas to improve F1 below.

One car team.
Previous bosses have suggested make the teams 3 cars rather than just 2 – probably to increase their dominance even more. Given the expenditure in F1, 2 car teams are difficult enough to fund, so why not half the costs and possibly attract other manufacturers. The likes of Audi, BMW and Jaguar have big ties to other Motorsport, so could they be lured back with an all eggs in one basket approach?

Change of Strategy.
Most F1 races are now just a single pit stop. 2019 has introduced the simplification of the naming tyre selections – soft, medium and hard. However in this there are actually 6 different compounds split into these 3 groups. Could a team choice of tyres and a changing tyre from qualifying to race make thing more interesting?

Punish driver error.
The French GP at the weekend had massive run off areas, forcing drivers to avoid anyone coming back onto the track. The error at a the likes of Monaco (or another street circuit) shows the drivers on the absolute limit of their ability. With massive run off areas, they can afford to be more relaxed about the consequences of going off the racing line.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is TELEMMGLPICT000167311963_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqkzRVrpaG8pgYx8zuruU0oLxVMM-N2Dh3uu4C0ivbnMw.jpeg — *The enormous red, while and blue run off area of Paul Ricard circuit*

Whats next?

The good thing is that F1 has just 1 week between last weeks race and Sundays Austrian Grand Prix. The Red Bull ring in Spielberg will host the 9th race of the season where the cars will interrupt the stunningly quaint scenery. The Red Bull ring has been on back on the F1 calendar since 2014 with previous locations in Austria hosting. The Red Bull Ring has just 10 turns and is just over 2.6miles long making it a 71 lap race.

The first corner always has drama in F1 – no exceptions here. Last year saw a 5 way challenge to emerge as leader after turn 1. Last year saw both the Mercedes drivers fail to finish with Mechanical failures! Kimi Raikkonen set the all time lap record last year with a time of just 1:06.957.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image.jpg — The uphill fight for turn 1

The weather is looking like the rest of Europe with the sun splitting the skies – no need to bring the wet compound tyres this week. Track temperatures are set to hit 50 degrees Celsius! This could lead to interesting tyre strategy given the extreme heat effecting the degrading as the race gets into its later stages.

No surprises that my prediction sees the two silver arrows at the front. Pick your order. Bottas or Hamilton, either way, I would be surprised to not see them hold out the front row. Expect a strong race from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen – its a circuit he likes and has finished strongly since his debut in 2015. Sergio Perez of Racing Point could get his pink mobile up the filed. He has only failed to score a point (positions 1-10) once in his appearances in Austria.

The rest of the season.

After Austria. The logistics take hold before taking a month break. Here is the remaining schedule of the F1 season;

Austrain GP, Spielberg, Raceday – 30th June
British GP, Silverstone, Raceday – 14th July
German GP, Hockenheim, Raceday – 28th July
Hungarian GP, Buapest, Raceday – 4th August
Belgian GP, Spa-Francorchamps, Raceday – 1st September
Italian GP, Monza, Raceday – 8th September
Singapore GP, Singapore, Raceday – 22nd September
Russian GP, Sochi, Raceday – 29th September
Japanese GP, Suzuka, Raceday – 13th October
Mexican GP, Mexico City, Raceday – 27th October
United States GP, Austin, Raceday – 3rd November
Brazilian GP, Sao Paulo, Raceday – 17th Novemeber
Abu Dhabi GP, Yas Marina, Raceday 1st December

Who said F1 wasnt International…

Cheers!

15. VAR..

Ever since I can remember there has been chat about technology in football!

With the Women’s World Cup showing VAR in the spotlight again, for both good and bad – time to talk about VAR.

The first major change in recent years saw goal line technology came into effect – which has been relatively successful. Its easy – was it a goal or was it not? Its decisive and the referee gets a decision in seconds. This success lead onto the video ref chat to come up again. Other sports use video assistants, including in American football, rugby, hockey and cricket. All of these sports have seen their video ref controversies and football is no different. Get used to it folks, VAR is here to stay by the looks of it…

Goal line technology has been a major improvement for the EPL

The Video Assistant Referee supports the work of the on-field referee and assistants. They can review incidents as they are not only watching the game, but they also have access to multiple replays and different camera angles. They are so far from the real game, that they are rarely in the same city, never mind the same stadium.

Whats VAR all about?

After it was used in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and last year’s FA Cup and UEFA Champions League. As mentioned -it’s also being used during the current FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.

The general intention of VAR is to sort out incidents the on field referee got wrong. The VAR is there to check for the following 4 key decisions;

Goal or no goal decisions (offences leading up to a goal)
Penalty or no penalty decisions
Direct red card decisions (not second yellow cards)
Mistaken identity

A On-Field Review can only be conducted on the recommendation of the VAR. This ensures that the referee always makes an on-field ruling and does not rely on OFR’s for every close decision. An OFR can be conducted when the ball is out of play, or where the referee stops play for the express purpose of conducting one

How does it work?

The chief VAR has 1 main display which is usually the TV camera view. They also have a second screen which allows them to see 4 other camera angles. They are in direct communication with the on field ref, just like in Rugby. There are then two more VARs. VAR1 keeps the others up to date with play, while another incident is being reviewed. VAR2 is dedicated to offside decisions and have screens dedicated to the goal areas. They are meant to anticipate if there might be an offside offence l while play continues.

So suddenly the officiating crew consists of. 1 on field ref, 2 line assistant refs, 2 goal line assistant refs, 1 main video assistant ref, 2 assistant video assistant refs and 1 VAR …and yes, they really do get fully kitted up in the VAR room! More refs are even brought in if required. It needs to be a big room to house this team along with the IT gurus operating the replay technology!!

The main hub of the VAR room with the 4 full kit w*nkers!

Controversies a’plenty!

The whole idea behind VAR was not to rely upon the Video Assistant to make correct decisions, unlike in Rugby. The VAR is to help confirm after an event if there had been anything missed by the on field officials. Referees and assistants have been ordered to make their decision and allow VAR to sort it out afterwards i.e assistants shouldn’t raise their flag for an offside if they aren’t sure.

2018 World Cup Final

The 2018 World Cup final was balanced at 1-1 approaching half-time when the VAR took centre stage in Moscow.A corner was flicked on by Blaise Matuidi and the ball struck Ivan Perisic’s hand, although the midfielder seemed to know little to nothing about it.
Initially, referee Nestor Pitana gave just a corner, but a VAR review was initiated. The Argentinian ref looked at numerous replays and conversed with the VAR ref. He then overturned his original decision and awarded the penalty. Antoine Griezmann duly converted.

Schalke vs Man City

Manchester City’s 3-2 first-leg win over Schalke in their Champions League last-16 clash in February 2019 was dominated by another VAR controversy.
The controversy surrounded the amount of time referee Carlos del Cerro Grande spent to award the Bundesliga side the first of their two first-half penalties. Grande did not review the incident himself at the side of the pitch, apparently because of a technical glitch, while there were also no replays on the big screens or any other indication of what was happening to the crowd. The below was the first anyone knew!

How do we improve VAR?

As with any new system, the current way of working with VAR will lead to a lot of bumps in the road. So here are some ways that improvements could be made to allow VAR to be a normal, non intrusive element of football.

Referral system
My favourite idea is to align VAR to the NFL (American football). Each team has a set number of chances to ask the officials to check a section of play for an offence. It would take the onus onto the teams captain/manager to determine if they feel there had been an error by the match officials. Limit the number of times the teams can challenge the refs decision and minimise the amount of VAR interference.

Let us know!
Like in Rugby, why not allow TV viewers to hear whats going on between the ref and the VAR? It would increase the transparency and allow at least some understanding of how the officials have come to make that call. For even more clarity, mimic the NFL (again) and have the refs address the crowd, explaining why they came to their decision.

NFL ref explaining his decision to a coach…wild to think!

Black and White
Subjective decisions will always cause arguments. People see decisions different ways, its part of the reason pundits exist. Could VAR be used for objective decisions? He was offside, or he wasn’t. The ball was out of play, or it wasn’t. It goes back to the yes or no of goal line technology. Limiting to these black or white areas could allow better flow to the game with less disruption.

Conclusion

VAR was meant to eradicate debate or discussions by fans over any injustice, or perceived injustice over refereeing decisions – in fact, its just made the whole thing even more frustrating! However it is important – the right decision should always be the one having the influence on the game.

From this blog I’ve realised the “challenge” system is one thing that the Americans got right with their sports!

Cheers!

14. Siamo Sulla Nostra Strada!*

*We’re on our way! (Italian)

A new chapter at Rugby Park.

Monday brought the begining of a new chapter to the fresh plastic of Rugby Park. Angelo Alessio might be an unknown name among most of us, but his coaching pedigree is full of familiar names in the footballing world. The Italian emerged as the shock front runner on Saturday and was announced on Sunday midday. It’s a far cry from the Lee McCulloch and Gary Locke days when it seemed like we were searching high and low for anyone who would take the job. The profile of managers who seemingly applied for the role ranged from the decent to the absolute no no’s. Gary Holt, a club legend but not the most inspiring of choices, to Ian Holloway – entertaining but I’d prefer to laugh at him managing another team. Then there was Neil McCann….

Angelos appointment shows how far we have come in such a short period of time.

Who is Alessio?

Alessio was born in Capaccio Paestum in Campania, 100km south of Naples and his career started with his local team Solofra before making his debut in Serie A with Avellino. He described himself as a versatile midfielder, he mentioned he could play anywhere on the pitch!

Numerous assistant roles saw Alessio end up at Napoli, who in the 03/04 season were declared bankrupt and were demoted down to Serie C1. That summer he decided it was time to head off on his own, taking a job with Imolese in Serie C2 (the fourth tier of Italian football). Imolese went onto finish in the lower half of the table, and Alessio moved onto Massese, in the same division.

Alessio bundled his way around C1 and C2 and in 2010 his services were sought after by a former teammate, who was in need of an assistant manager.

Back to the beginning.

Antonio Conte was an up and coming manager within Italy, and proving his worth with Alessio alongside him, they achieved automatic promotion to Serie A with Sienna after the 10/11 season. Conte was lured back to the Old Lady who had suffered in previous years, Conte was brought in to try and bring back the glory years, and he brought his former teammate along for what would turn out to be, a bumpy ride.

The Italian match fixing scandal was rife at the time, world football was taken aback by the reports of club and match officials trying to cash in on outcomes of games. In 2012 Conte and Alessio were accused of not reporting a fix in two of Siennas Serie B games from the season before. Former Sienna player Filippo Carobbio flinging both names into an investigation which saw Conte and Alessio get a 10 and 8 month ban. Both sentences were later reduced to 4 and 2 months and criminal charges were also dropped due to a lack of evidence. Both Conte and Alessio have always denied any involvement to match fixing.

Conte & Alessio during their Juventus coaching days

National pride.

With 3 successive Serie A titles and a domination of Italian football, Italy’s national team came calling for Conte, and as is the norm, his number 2 eventually followed him. Only after being Caretaker manager for 3 months.

Italy prepared for Euro 2016 with the “worst ever taken to a major tournament” (described by Le Nazionale) and went onto have a semi successful campaign, beating Spain before losing on penalties to Germany (shock). Before the beginning of Euro 2016 it had been confirmed that Conte would be the new Chelsea manager.

London town.

On 4 April 2016, it was confirmed Conte had signed a three-year contract and would officially become the new first-team head coach bringing his backroom staff to London. On 17 December, they set a new club record with 11 consecutive league victories in a single season, following a 1–0 away win over Crystal Palace. After securing a 4–2 home win over Stoke on 31 December, Chelsea recorded a 13th consecutive league victory, equaling the record set by Arsenals 2002 invincible’s. Conte became the first manager in history to win three consecutive manager of the month awards (October, November and December). A late goal from Michy Batshuayi at West Brom gave Chelsea the league title with 2 matches to spare. Chelsea would win 30 of their 38 games en route to the 16/17 title.

In 18 July 2017, Conte signed a new two-year contract with Chelsea, keeping him and Alessio at the club until 2019. Chelsea won the 2018 FA Cup final – beating Manchester United with a 1-0 win. However the club missed out on Champions League football, finishing 5th and signaling the end of the Conte era.

Success has followed Alessio in his coaching career

Killie.

The 54-year-old signed a 3 year deal after impressing the Killie board during the interview stages. He has experience in abundance and has worked with some of the very best players, coaches and managers in the game. Angelo will begin work at Rugby Park on Thursday alongside assistant manager Alex Dyer when the players return for pre-season training.

Angelo said: “It is a real honour for me to be named Kilmarnock manager.

“I’ve spent a lot of time researching and gathering information about the club and everyone I spoke to had nothing but positive things to say about Kilmarnock.

“I can’t wait to get to work with the players and staff on the training pitch and building on the strong foundations left by Steve Clarke.”

Director Billy Bowie said: “On behalf of the Board of Directors, I’m delighted to name Angelo as the new manager of Kilmarnock FC.

“We were extremely impressed by the calibre of the candidates for the vacancy but Angelo’s knowledge and passion for the role really shone through.

“This is a hugely exciting period for Kilmarnock as we celebrate the club’s 150th Anniversary and play European football for the first time in 18 years and we’re looking forward to this new chapter with Angelo at the helm.”

Connah’s Quay Nomads

Killie will see our first European trip in 18 years start in Wales on the 11th of July. The 1720 capacity stadium is actually Rhyl’s stadium, with Connahs not able to support the number of fans likely to attend. The option of Wrexham’s Racecourse, which seats over 10k, has been chucked out due to their pitch being relayed – so get ready for a scrap for tickets!

Boomers away!

Killie confirmed that Boydie has decided to hang his boots up. He was the designated club captain for the past couple of years, even though he rarely featured in the starting XI.

Kris’ place in the illustrious history of Scotland’s oldest professional football club is secured with 136 Killie goals in over 300 appearances. His final goal against St Johnstone was his 121^st league goal for Kilmarnock, leaving him level with fellow club legend Eddie Morrison.

A product of the Killie youth academy, Kris was always destined to reach the top, and he made his debut against Celtic in 2001. From that moment on Kris became the SPL’s all-time record goalscorer, capped 18 times for his country and scoring numerous vital goals in the blue and white.

During his 3 spells at Rugby Park, he scored a crucial winner at Easter Road to ensure the club avoided the relegation play-off under Allan Johnston. Josh Magennis helped with Boydie rounding off the scoring in our play-off victory over Falkirk in 2016. Boyd also finished 2017/18 as the Premiership’s top goalscorer with 23 goals.

With the death of his brother a couple of years ago, Kris has become an ambassador for his self named charity, helping people with all forms of mental health issues. His community pay back is always noticeable from social media posts. Engaging with locals as well as the youth set up – who better to learn from that Scotlands most natural goalscorer?

Boydie cuts opinions all over Scottish football. Taking Larsson’s record goals total was a thorn right in the side of Celtic fans – ironic given he struggled to play against them. His goal scoring ability can never be denied.

Boydie will forever be a legend for the club.

Cheers!

13. The transfer window!

Quite regularly us Scots hear about the “pub” league we have representing the top division of football. Most people will agree that the differences in the game North and South are vast, from the fan bases to money and, most importantly, passion. Our game here is known as a tough league, less skill than down south, more physical – but never as easy as some predict. While our southern counterparts host some of the best talents in the world, playing some outstanding football but a lot of the time in stadiums full of plastic tourists. I think its about time the game in Scotland is recognised in its own way. Leagues can’t be compared to each other as the foundations of football are completely different.

Money, Money, Money.

£11.5m is the total “winnings” of the bottom 3 clubs in the English Premiership.
£4.2m is the total winnings of the top 3 in the Scottish Premiership.
Neither taking into account TV money…

Money is getting flung around English football and it’s escalating rather quickly. Not that they aren’t seeing results, both European finals were contested as all English finals, but when will this bubble burst?

English Pounds Raheem…

Lets look back to 2011, when a few members of the Liverpool board produced their card in the ‘mental transfer value’ game. £35m for Andy Carroll. THIRTY FIVE MILLION! Mental money which turned out to be worth 6 goals in one season. Not sure what Sir Kenny was thinking, if he was thinking at all. This transfer will forever appear in the worst transfer business polls, and there are plenty more contenders. Back to modern days, there is speculation surrounding Harry McGuire and that figure is around the £80m mark. Whispers circulating that both sides of Manchester are after his signature. I mean, hes a good central defender, but is he worth more than arguably the best in the world in his position? Virgil van Dijk went for £76m and was twice the player then, never mind now!

£5.7 million for every foot of the Liverpool flop

Teams outside of England are fully taking advantage of the money being tossed about. Shakhtar Donetsk took in a cool £52m for Fred when Man United came calling, his impact has been less than impressive. It doesn’t just effect the big boys though, Fulham have been relegated this year having spent over £100m on 12 new players. These players look to have disrupted a team who were so impressive in the Championship. The season of misery could be summed up by squandering their highest transfer figure of £30m on Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa. A name more impressive than his ability as he has looked completely out his depth in the Premier League. Time will tell how he copes in the Championship. This frenzy of hyperinflation is taking over Europe and its beginning to make its way to Scotland.

Legal tender!

Scott McKenna has enjoyed a good couple of years at Aberdeen, but the greed that surrounds football saw Aberdeen reject a bid of £6.5m on deadline day from Championship side Aston Villa. McKenna has crept his way into the Scotland set up, but has never been someone who’s massively impressed me (apart from that wonder goal vs Killie…). First bit of bias here, for me, Stuart Findlay has had a more impressive 2 years than McKenna but has went under the radar. So, should McKenna be worth more than £6.5m – or are Scottish clubs now waiting for the ridiculous bid they expect will come?

Still bargains to be had.

There’s no doubt there are bargains to be had. I present Frenkie De Jong, bought by Ajax for €1 who has made 55 appearances and scored 5 goals – an excellent return of 0.02c per goal. He has been sold to Barcelona for a profit of €74,999,999 with boyhood club Willem II getting 10% of that fee. The Dutch have some businessmen at the helm of their clubs!

From 1 Euro to 75 million of them – Frenkie De Jong

You don’t get anything for free these days…

The best way to get a bargain deal? Don’t pay a penny in transfer fees. The end of the season signals football agents smelling money while waiting for the phone to ring. Their clients eagerly waiting to see who comes calling. Teams have picked up gems in this way for years, here are a few;

Jay Jay Okocha – Once Nigeria’s most expensive footballer after a £10m move to PSG, he somehow found his way to the North of England when Bolton signed him on a free. He went onto make over 140 appearances and became a club legend.

Andrea Pirlo – AC Milan gifted their Serie A rivals Juventus the charismatic midfielder in a very bizarre transfer. He went onto play 164 times and won the league in every year he played at Juve.

Robert Lewandowski – Another reason for Dortmund fans to hate Bayern. Another player who switched to Munich, this time for fuck all. After Mario Gotze made the transfer the previous year, Dortmund refused to let Lewandoswki leave. He ran his contract down and joined Bayern on a free. The Pole has so far amassed a mere 191 goals in 242 appearances as well as 5 league titles – which isn’t a bad return!

Other notable free transfers over recent years;
Esteban Cambiasso (Real Madrid to Inter Milan) 2004
Henrik Larsson (Man United to Barcelona) 2004
Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich to Chelsea) 2006
Raul (Real Madrid to Schalke) 2010
Demba Ba (West Ham to Newcastle) 2011
Paul Pogba (Man United to Juventus) 2012
James Milner (Man City to Liverpool) 2015

Freebies.

This year is no exception, with a number of big names seeing their time out, they’ll now be looking for the next chapter of their footballing life. A look at some of the key freebies on offer this window;

Hatem Ben Arfa – Often considered a ‘nearly man’ he is a gifted footballer who struggled to really reach his potential at Newcastle. He joined Rennes from Lyon last year and his year deal is done, could he provide a spark and continue his form in 2019?

Diego Godin – At 33 the Uruguayan captain finds his contract at Athletico Madrid has finally come to an end. He rejected a move to Manchester United in January so they’ll naturally be eager to speak to him again. Other clubs including Juventus and Inter Milan are sniffing around.

Daniel Sturridge – The striker has been plagued with injury through his career. It seems a life time ago he was starring alongside Luis Suarez at the peak of Liverpool’s attack. Just days after the Champions League success, he was told he was free to leave. At 29, if he can get fit, he could be a big player in 2019.

Daniel Sturridge is looking for a new club

Other big names who will be looking for employment this year;
Ander Herrera (Formerly of Man United)
Filipe Luis ( Formerly of Athletico Madrid)
Juan Mata ( Formerly of Man United)
Adrien Robiot (Formerly of PSG)
Frank Ribery (Formerly of Bayern Munich)
Arjen Robbem (Formerly of Bayern Munich)
Danny Welbeck (Formerly of Arsenal)

Down the divisions.

Board members, managers, agents and players are all busy looking at where next season takes them. A number of smaller clubs in Scotland regularly offer year long deals, meaning every summer is spent gauging where the strengths and weaknesses of the arrivals and departures sit. The merry-go-round of lower league players takes some from Elgin to Stranraer (270 miles) – part time football at its best. But these guys are making money from a hobby they would likely be doing anyway – so more power to them!

Cheers!