Twitter

No one seems to be blogging these days so I have decided to go on to twitter. Catch future updates on http://twitter.com/alexporter123

Hopefully will blog one day soon, we will wait and see.

Foreign Footballers

It has been a while since I have blogged about something random and not relating to me or to drinking fuelled fun. Today's post will be on the sudden influx of English players jumping ship and playing abroad. In previous years English players have not had great success playing abroad and very few have tried. Names like Bekham and Owen have been the biggest stars of my era to try their luck abroad with a mixture of results. Beckham had a pretty terrible few seasons at Madrid before winning the league in his last season before going to LA Galaxy (terrible move) and on to AC Milan where again he proved to be a success. Owen had a very good goal scoring record for Madrid but played very rarely which culminated in him being sold (for more than he was bought for) to Newcastle. Other players from yesteryear have also 'had a go' with people like Robbie Keane, Paul Ince, David Platt and Gary Lineker never really achieving the success they thrived.

This season has all of a sudden seen English players swarming overseas. Matt Derbyshire, Darius Vassell, Jermaine Pennant amongst others that have completely vanished from my brain at present are now abroad and it will be intriguing to see how they get on. I doubt any will do brilliantly and will probably end up back in England in 3 seasons time playing for the reserves of a newly promoted club in the premiership. No doubt a few of the big stars will be rumoured to be going to one of the Milans or to Real or Barca which wont end up happening but it is these average British players leaving that will be interesting to watch, as in this country you see hundreds of average Spanish and Italian players quite happily making a wage, in years to come will you see an English manager managing in La Liga with an English dominated team such as you see with Rafa or Arsene now?

Flashback

Not quite sure why I am blogging on this but suddenly remembered this from last night at the club and it made me laugh...

Gary: Just look at all the unemployed people they are all so tanned.... I want to be unemployed....Just look at Covey he's black
Covey: Grrr I'm not fucking black

Probably doesn't even sound that funny but made me laugh

Oh Roger

Slightly odd post today as I am slightly bemused as to what happened yesterday. As many of you know I am a huge Roger Federer fan as he is quite simply brilliant, however, yesterday something wasn't quite right. We are lucky enough to see a guy playing some of the best tennis ever witnessed, breaking all sorts of records that if he continues to play (which he says he will) may not be broken again in our lifetime. This is very arguable and will prompt further debate at another time but for now he is doing something very special. To have won what he has won and in the way he has won it is incredible but yesterday something wasn't quite right. He played well obviously but was no where near as dominant as he had been in previous rounds, again this could be due to a very in form Roddick throwing his heart and soul at him. Some of his tactics were questionable and confusing at times and his general demeanour strange at times. To cap it all off he then took the piss in the interview at the end telling Andy not to be too upset as he had been in his position before....yes ONCE and he had got over it, the difference being that Roger who had won 13 grandslam titles at that point last year compared to Andy Roddick's 1! On top of those comments, which visibly riled Roddick he was wearing his nice fancy new jacket with 15 embroidered into the side! Slightly pretentious? Or maybe it is that sort of thing that makes a legend great, if anyone can pull of something like that Roger can. I very much doubt should Roddick have won he would have pulled a baseball cap out his bag with a big number 2 on it, or would be playing next years tournament with a Wimbledon trophy splashed across his Babolat trainers.

Anyway I know that was a bit of a rant, and I do admire Federer a lot, and do think that his warm up attire etc brings an added element to the game, however, was slightly disheartened by how he acted yesterday and was truly gutted that Roddick didn't win. Roddick is a man who obviously puts his all into every single point and competes, wins and loses the way any tennis player should. If its any consolation Andy just look up to the player's box to see who you will be taking home...Brooklyn or Mirka tough choice!!

Lack of Blogging!

I have been very poor at blogging recently, especially as I have been out every night since I have been back and no doubt had countless stories to recall however, it has now hit me how poor I actually am and I have been having a crack down on the job websites today. Nothing very exciting. Having just stated how poor I am, I am off to Beaconsfield tonight, which will no doubt be expensive, I have a tennis tour to BOUUUURRRMMMMAAFFFFFFF this weekend and a holiday to save up for....how I am meant to save when I have no income is one I will have to work out!

Anyway I did/will make a bit of money from the gambling over these Wimbledon Championships. I will refer you to my previous betting blog post where I put up these thoughts in the middle of the French:

Federer - 11/5
Roddick - 35/1
Verdasco - 79/1
Soderling - 84/1
Monfils - 299/1
Berdych - 399/1

At these prices and on their form at the time I backed Federer and Roddick but decided to leave the others until I had seen the draw/which half they were in. On doing this Berdych had a relatively simple route through to the QF against Roddick (who I had already backed) but the others all had pretty tough draws. I also then decided to back Tsonga and Blake as their recent form/favourable draw made them a good shout. Tsonga could not win convincingly in his first 2 games meaning his price did not fall and then came up against Ivo Karlovic = mistake 1. Blake (Queens RU) then got dicked on in 3 sets by an Italian who is crap on grass = mistake 2 (although I still claim this was his fault not mine). Apart from those blips and also backing Davydenko for a small amount to cover my Berdych bet all has gone well. I cashed in for £12 on Berdych before he played A-Rod and now have money on Roj and Randy both to win. Although Randy's odds have fallen Roger is such an overwhelming favourite I am going to leave my bets as they stand and hope for a Roddick win as although it is highly unlikely it would be a big pay out if it happens. On the other hand should Roger win (which he will in 3 sets) he will cover all my other bets for the championships meaning I wont finish on a loss which is good news!

Back on it!

No rest for the wicked. I am back and I have fallen into that trap again where I can't see when I am going to get a night off. I am not very good at saying no, and I fear for the sake of my wallet/liver (notice how wallet came first) I need to and soon. Arrived back on Sunday so a trip to the club/RE was in order. Monday B obviously followed. A trip to Uxbridge with J and Daz yesterday, with an impromptu visit to Ickenham was highly entertaining complete with shots from J, quiz machines, hot barmaids, I was pissed! Tonight is Watty which I feel could be the most extreme so far. Chops has demanded a BIG Friday night and I am sure something will happen on Saturday as it is a Saturday obviously!!

HELP

Anyway a proper post will arrive shortly, when I have sorted my life out a bit

Odd

Today was my last day of placement and I will no doubt fill you in on all the stories another time however I have been plagued with tons of work, packing and other tasks too boring to mention. This weekend I am leaving the house I have lived in for over a year and perhaps more poignant I am leaving the area of the country in which I have resided in for the last 5 years possibly/probably for good. I am not going to start getting sentimental or any of that but it is certainly odd.

I will return home on Monday with absolutely nothing to do (apart from the small matter of a Dissertation, organising a holiday and competing in the Lowlands Ashes). I also return home with less than no money. Being completely self dependent for some considerable time without earning any money has certainly taken its toll. That leaves me slightly dubious as to what I can do when I'm home, I certainly don't plan on missing much bent, but bent may have to be capped or moderated to ensure cost effective nights, more so than ever before! I also have to get a job, and it is going to be extremely strange looking for a full time job, without having technically qualified or finished my masters yet. This is going to make it hard to get a job to start with, but there is very little point getting a crap job to tide me over til February and then having to go through the hassle of finding alternative employment then, however that is what I foresee happening.

Anyway the purpose of this blog was mainly to make sure I got a post in before it goes into a second week of no blogging and also to make sure all heads are raring to give me the pick up I need when I return home.
See you all soon!!