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Is Harry The Only One To Blame?
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Tottenham threw away a 13-point lead over Arsenal and have ended up in the Europa League once again. Did they stick when they should have twisted in January?
F365's Pre-Season Predictions, Revisited
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We like to poke fun at Mark Lawrenson for his predictions, so it's only fair that we take a look at the ones F365 tried for the season. Summary: it didn't go well for many of us...
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Free-SPN
Manchester City against Fulham might not necessarily have been one we were all ear-marking in our diaries at the start of the season, but it could yet prove a fixture of some significance. ESPN are offering coverage of the game free to non-subscribers in an effort to, well, durrrr, get people to subscribe.
Seems they're following the model of the friendly neighbourhood drug dealer who gives the kiddies their first ten-bag for free in a bid to get them hooked. Incidentally, the classic tabloid scare story of school-gate drug dealer freebies never seemed to be rooted in fact when either of us was growing up. Where were our free drugs, goddammit? Anyhow, if for some mysterious reason you've never seen a game on ESPN, Saturday's your chance.
We think we're right in saying that it's the first-ever free-to-air live Premier League/Premiership game. Some of the more breathless corners of the internet are speculating that this might be the thin end of the wedge, what with all the free illegal ways to watch football online, and that Portsmouth pub landlady with her Greek satellite feed, and that maybe the PPV model for UK football may be in for tricky times ahead. We strongly suspect this is bollocks, at least in the mid-term, but there you have it: free top-flight football on the telleh.
Hard-Up Hansen
If by some miracle the BBC ever managed to get the rights to live Premier League football (stop sniggering - it could maybe happen) then they might have to trim budgets elsewhere. The Daily Mail's Charlie Sale, rhyming names and sports news correspondent, reports that Alan Hansen is taking a 'considerable pay cut' in order to keep joshing about golf with Lineker once a week on a professional basis. It sez here that he's on £1.5million a year, but is obviously keen to keep working for the Beeb (in the way that a man whose job it was to help Mila Kunis get undressed after a day's filming would probably be keen to keep working), because he lives in Southport, which is kinda near where the BBC's new sport mothership will be, so he'll take a hit in the paypacket. THANK GOD HE'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT.
That Night In Barcelona/Rotterdam/Rome/Er, Where Am I?
From the same column, we learn that Peter Drury and Jim Beglin will not have their contracts renewed after Euro 2012. This would seem to mean even more work for Clive Tyldesley, and perhaps a chance for one of ITV's second-tier pundits to step up. We're enjoying Efan Ekoku doing the African thang and feel he needs a promotion. Who would you like to see get a bigger gig on the channel?
Football On Trial
You may have been following the proceedings at Southwark Crown Court this week as the trial of Harry Redknapp progresses. We wouldn't dream of saying anything about the trial itself just yet (relax, Sky lawyers), but we have noted that 5live and especially Mark Chapman have been referring to it as 'Harry's trial' which struck us as overly chummy when talking about important legal goings-on. The facts of the trial have been reported without comment but the feeling that it is a mate of the station in the dock has been inescapable throughout.
Incidentally, to us, seeing and reading Redknapp out of a football context is like that feeling you got when you saw one of your teachers outside of school on a Saturday afternoon. They looked odd, uncomfortable, were wearing weird clothes and appeared to be being led around town by a woman with a face like a butcher's thumb. Football seems to exist in a definably separate bubble from normal life, so when it leaks out into the real world, it feels as though something is not quite right with the universe.
If It's Thursday It Must Be Italy
When the Europa League is in hiatus, Thursday night TV offers the football obsessive few choices. You could try leaving the house and getting a life, but that way is madness and pain, better instead to watch ESPN's coverage of Serie A which is a Thursday regular and most welcome in our households. We enjoyed bottom of the league side Novaro's 1-2 loss to Chievo this week precisely because it features Novaro who we had not heard of and about whom we knew nothing and thus had no prejudices. Football played by strangers, by men of whom you have not heard, is curiously liberating because you are free from pre-ordained dislike or love and can enjoy it for what it is. Turns out they've risen from Serie C2 in the last 15 years, a bit like Wigan we imagine, only noisier and with actual fans. We like seeing unfashionable European football teams as well as the high rollers and though ESPN presents its Italian football with no frills at all, no pundits, no studio, just a commentator, it is nonetheless a pleasurable way to pass the weirdness that is a Thursday night.
Nerd Alert
Another finely sliced, tasty cold cut of football media we enjoyed was Thursday's superb Football Weekly Extra podcast on the Guardian website hosted by James Richardson. We have reminded you of this many times over the years but that's because the football chat is sparky, informed, varied and funny but never descends to banter. This week, importantly, Jonathan Wilson pops up to talk all things African Cup Of Nations. An absolute football swot of the first water, JW is the kind of articulate nerd who really warms the Pointdexter in our hearts and we highly recommend him.
We don't listen to many podcasts but the Guardian's remains indispensable as does ACJimbo's Friday morning Euro papers round-up video, an indispensable reminder before a weekend of Premier League hyperbole that the rest of Europe is much more concerned about its own league than ours, contrary to what you might sometimes be led to believe by certain broadcasters.
John Nicholson and Alan Tyers
Johnny's written a new book - it's called 'The Meat Fix: How A Lifetime Of Healthy Eating Nearly Killed Me', and you can order it here.
And you can still get his other book, 'We Ate All The Pies'.
Or check out Alan's 'CrickiLeaks: The Secret Ashes Diaries'.
Follow Alan on Twitter here or Johnny here.
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