Hunter and Edward

Freakonomics talks to Ralph Steadman:

Q: What’s your favorite personal story about Hunter Thompson?

A: Hunter had a Mynah bird called Edward. He kept it in a big iron cage. Then he would creep towards the cage and bang the wires loudly and say menacingly, “I’m coming to get you Edward,” and the bird would start to squawk.

Hunter would open the cage and grab the bird amidst more squawking and Hunter saying, “You cannot escape, Edward! I have you in my power,” and the poor bird would struggle and peck furiously at Hunter’s hands which held the creature. “Yes! Edward!! It’s me and you are doomed. There is no bird god who can save you now. It is futile to struggle — and I am hungry, Edward. Hungry!!”

Then he would simply allow it to jump back on its perch. I think they tormented each other for fun. The bird often sat on Hunter’s shoulder.

There’s no relevance to Fulham. No news today at all. I did a big long piece on the failings of the French team, but it didn’t seem worth posting. In short, you go out of a tournament, playing like that, and don’t pick Sagna, Clichy, Mexes, Diarra, Flamini, Menez, Cisse, Nasri (much) or Ben Arfa, well, what’s going to happen? The French revival could be swift and effective once they tweak things a bit.

Anyway. Roy’s presumably busy in Austria or Switzerland, so no news for us over here.  Russia v Sweden tonight.   I suspect it’s games like this that Roy will watch very very carefully.   Also, Tamas of Romania, anyone?

I thought he looked alright.

Rangers sign Lafferty

Interesting. Lafferty was, of course, a Lawrie Sanchez target. What intrigues me is the possibility of Rangers being a Northern Ireland attraction. We know that the blue half of Glasgow and the North part of Ireland are aligned through religion, just as Ireland and Celtic are linked; I wonder if Chris Baird can be moved that way?

Steve Davis apparantly wants to stay with Rangers, Lafferty’s gone – why not Baird? I would assume that the player could do a pretty good job up there, and Rangers might see it as a good chance to pick up a decent enough player at a time where his transfer value is low. Makes sense, right?

At this point Baird’s wages and his squad status (presumably ‘not needed’) mean that he should be shifted for whatever we can shift him for; why not say to Rangers “okay, you can have Davis for £3million, but take Baird”?

I don’t usually go for ‘what if’ posts because they’re usually silly, meaningless, whatever… but this just makes too much sense.

While we’re talking about Northern Ireland, Aaron Hughes has divided a lot of people with his quiet efficiency at the back. I’ve just finished the Brian Clough book and Clough’s attitude to team building was (and this is over twenty years ago, of course) to buy the best goalkeeper, centre-halves and centre forward you can afford and go from there. He also stressed that he wanted players who would intimidate opponents with their presence and tackling, players who would throw their opponent off their games (while not picking up unecessary cards). He had Larry Lloyd, and later Roy Keane, to do this.

I read this and thought about Aaron Hughes, and I’m sure Clough would’ve looked for more presence from him. People on the message boards have talked about Hughes’ lack of presence, and I didn’t really understand how this would help as long as he was doing his job. I think I’m getting it a bit more now. Hughes and Hangeland are a very ‘nice’ pairing; Murphy and Bullard aren’t exactly bonecrushers in front of them. We probably do need a heavyweight in there still.  As long as he can pass.

Fulham Review 07/08 coming soon…

I’ve just received the first ‘test’ proof. I can’t tell you how excited I am by this book. Strange, but I’ve never really been proud of anything I’ve done in my life, things have always been as expected. This though… I dunno, just hugely exciting. A new format (see above), great contributions from Jamie, Rob, Chopper, Martin, Daniel from WithAPlum, Colin, and some photos from Jon Hall (Ormondroyd). I’m just sorting out the final version (it’s going to be 112 pages now so I have a few things to add to get to there) then it’ll be off to the printers. Probably a run of 100 or so at first and I’ll see where things go from there.

Times are changing

This is staggering.

LeighGenesis?

What?!  How many people will come to watch the team because it’s not Leigh RMI anymore, but LeighGenesis?  How many people will stay away because of the change?  By all means have a rethink about kits, badges, etc – sometimes you do have to move on – but LeighFuggingGenesis?  Please.  What’s next: Accrington Megadrive?

Process

This is a great post by Paul DePodesta, who works for the San Diego Padres baseball team.  I think it summarises Roy Hodgson’s approach down the stretch last season very nicely.  Do the right thing and trust that it’ll work.  I’ll never forget that Portsmouth game, where the team kept tight, concentrated on making sure that Portsmouth’s good players were kept quiet, and trusted that our own good play would create the chance required.  This would’ve been incredibly hard to do, but Hodgson reasoned that you win football matches by playing a certain way, and that this approach or process is as valid in the 74th minute as the 1st.   He was proved correct.   It’s not as black and white as the grid suggests but is nevertheless a good way to think about things.

Hull!

Hull away to start the season!

It’s illegal to copy fixture lists so here is the link.

Then Arsenal home and Man Utd away.

My birthday fixture is Sunderland away (following Sheffield Utd away and Bolton away in the last two seasons).

Boxing Day is Spurs away again.  Pretty good.

We finish the season Stoke home, Chelsea away, Villa home, Newcastle away, Everton home: The Great Escape 2 will have to go through some tricky games.

Catching up: Danny Murphy signs

Confirmed here.

If there is such a thing as a ‘football man’ these days I think it’s Danny Murphy. A player whose play is quite cerebral in this hurly burly age, a player who has pedigree and performance, and a decent bloke whose contributions on the pitch are more important than they might first seem. He cares. I was quite upset to see some of the negativity posted about him on the internet last season; watch carefully and you can always see Murphy making himself available, cajoling colleagues, and mucking in in a number of midfield roles. No, he wasn’t well suited to Sanchez’s style – he wasn’t alone there – but his performances in the run in were obviously vital, particularly on that bright and beautiful day in Portsmouth when he saved our season and proved that Roy’s overall approach that day (“stay calm; the chance will come”) was the right one.

So yes, welcome back, Danny. His game isn’t about pace so losing it won’t hurt all that much, and as part of Roy’s passing game Murphy’s able to drop in seamlessly. I’d assume that his time on the pitch will decrease as this contract goes on, but that’s fine: he’s generally reliable out there and has his teammates respect.

Incidentally, Murphy seems a sort of throwback player, a player who would’ve worn a moustache in the early 80s and probably looked like John Wark or Mick Mills or one of those types. I’m tempted to… no, here it is:

See.  I took care to use colours from his beard in the new moustache too.

Anyway, this leads me to a brief aside:  Duncan Hamilton’s “Provided You Don’t Kiss Me: 20 years with Brian Clough”.   I’m reading it, and enjoying it, but my word is it badly written.  The book won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, but it’s absolutely littered with really awful.. similes… clunky efforts at livening up prose, all sorts.   The story’s good enough to get away with this, but that’s sort of the point:  he didn’t need to do this; just tell us what happened!   I seem to be alone in my thinking this, but there we are.  Recommended(ish), but not on my list of top football books, which I’ll save for another day… but read John Foot’s “Calcio”.   Also, Jonathan Wilson, who wrote “Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football” has a new book out soon: a history of football tactics.   Should be a cracking read.  Wilson’s up on Lobanovsky, the Hungarian sides of yesteryear, all sorts.   Can’t wait for that.

Danny Murphy.  A useful player, Roy’s sort of player, and the nearest thing we’ve got to an old fashioned number 10.  Excellent (re)signing.

Catching up: Zoltan Gera

As you know, I’m very excited by the new Fulho-Hungary Alliance.  That History of Hungary book is quite a curiosity:  the cover is printed upside down, so, were I to try to read it on the tube, it would need to read it cover side down and inside words up.  I would appear to interested bystanders that I was reading upside down, a la President Bush.   I have not read the book yet but will accelerate it up the To Read pile now.  I doubt Zoltan’s in it.

Zoltan Gera.  The Official Confirmation.  Three years with an option for one more.   29 now, so 32 or 33 at the end of the deal…

West Brom fans discuss.  In short:

Rats.  Can’t believe he only went to Fulham
It’s the money
He wasn’t that good
He was
He wasn’t.  We have James Morrison who is better
He isn’t
Rats.  Can’t believe he only went to Fulham

etc.

This is very exciting to me.  West Brom have been carving Championship teams apart for some time now.  Gera’s been a big part of that.  Whoever Roy’s new centre-forward is will benefit from this.  Gera can also create, and is an all around attacking threat.   Supposedly a good man too, which helps.  BIG signing.

Kits, etc

Further to a link by White Noise on Saturday (it had been spammed because it had several links in it – sorry about that), here’s an interesting (to me) thing about kits.

The link is to the entire FA handbook, which doubtlessly covers all sorts of interesting nuggets in its 509 page entirity.

It’s interesting though.  I guess I just imagined that the teams turned up and played, using common sense to avoid kit mixups.  But no, it’s all submitted in advance.  Also, no more than 8 outings for an away kit.  That seems quite low, although thinking about it, how many other teams wear white?   We seemed to be wearing the red and black every week during The Great Escape.

The new shirt must be out now.  I shall wait to see the away one before buying anything, I think.

Catching up: Andranik

Right, catching up on what is, to most of you, very old news.  Let’s start with Andranik, the Iran midfielder picked up on a free.

Incidentally, I’ve seen him before: Iran v Angola, Leipzig, World Cup 2006.  We were there, baking in the German sunshine.

Anyway.  He looks quite good on YouTube (doesn’t everyone?) and the official site stressed that he’s in for defensive midfield cover.  That’s important because Leon Andreasen is plan A for that role and plan B was, until this signing, probably Danny Murphy or Moritz Volz, neither of whom are best in that role.

Before we get too excited, it’s instructive to look at what Bolton fans thought.  The consensus seems to be that there is no consensus, thoughts can be summed up as:

He showed some potential and scored a couple of goals that led some supporters to rate him very highly
He never really got a run of games to show if this potential could be anything tangible
But perhaps this is because he was never that good.  He had four managers at Bolton and none of them gave him a regular role
But he’s a worker with a good attitude and might do alright in the right circumstances

So… I’m guessing we’ve just signed a good squad player.

Clever from Roy, eh?  This is exactly how the wise modern manager has to think:  for every £4million spent on a Steve Davis, £0 can be spent on an Andranik.  And while that might be unfair to Steve Davis, it might not be (most likely scenario is that neither makes much impression at Fulham), and there probably isn’t £4million difference between the two.  If Andranik doesn’t work out you haven’t spent too much finding out.  Sam Allardyce made some bad signings but he had all this sort of thing worked out, getting more for less, finding freely (or cheaply) available talent; Roy seems to be thinking in the same way, which just underlines how lucky we are to have him.

Back home

We’re back.

Six nights in Spain, perfect, perfect Spain.

To cut a long story short we left last Sunday: an interesting 5am drive to Stansted featured a long slooow convoy behind carfulls of local… youths?…. I repeat: 5am; 25mph; central London; weird.

Airport found, aeroplane upped and downed, we were in Spain.  Hade did the honours and drove us an hour into the mountains on the wrong side of the road.   Beautiful, beautiful town: Cadaquez.  Quiet, blue, bustling.  A Cuban night on the main square first night; Mojito might be considered somewhat passe in London, but on a hot Spanish night, made fresh, they’re lovely.

Football in the evening, Germany beat Poland, nothing much to rock our worlds there.

Monday: to Salvador Dali’s house in a quiet bay around the coast.  Not open Mondays.  Hang out on the rocks, watch the day go by.

Netherlands destroy Italy with some lovely football; great how they seek to move forwards so directly, but with the ball under control.

Tuesday: back to Salvador’s house, totally dig it all, as they say.  It’s pretty crazy, but getting past all that and you’ve a converted fisherman’s hut on a quiet bay with loads of original and interesting features.  Hmmm.  Kind of want to live there.

Afternoon to Figueres: it’s Dali Day, and we take in the museum bearing his name and carrying most of his life’s work.  Full of schoolchildren, English schoolchildren at that.  Secretly wish them all to be somewhere else, England perhaps.  Museum might be good but in foul mood.

Lifted as Spain trounce Russia 4-1.  I didn’t think they were *that* good, but you can’t argue with four goals.  Sweden beat Greece and I am half-asleep so only vaguely remember the goals.

Wednesday: out of our hotel is the main Cadaquez bay. Today we turn right and walk around the coast.  Climb rocks, feel full of the joys of life.  Climbing on rocks is great.

So are Portugal, surely the most gifted team of recent times.  Kevin McCarra in today (Saturday)’s Guardian is spouting off how we may *never* see a Zidane/Henry partnership (c.2000) *again*.  What absolute bollocks.  This Portugal team can play with anyone.  Turkey amuse me greatly with a spirited win over Switzerland in a downpour.  Fantastic spectacle, and you have to hand it to Turkey: there’s something thrilling about watching them; a great, proper centre-forward’s goal to equalise, a wonderful goat-bugger of a deflection to ruin Swiss dreams and send Turkey ballistic. Football, eh?

Thursday: the best day yet, weather-wise. Everything is deep blue, so blue I could use that awful cliche “azure”.  Sea: blue; Sky: blue; everything else: stuck between all the beautiful blue.  We go the other way round the coast and find a series of secluded mini-beaches; first one has two ageing nudists spreading legs unappetisingly: no thanks; second has old lady reading.  We patiently wait her out, seize the beach, and have a wonderful afternoon lounging, having noughts and crosses tournaments (8 wins for me; 7 for Hade; 6 draws).  It’s suuuuch a perfect day, etc.

Croatia pick off Germany; Austria draw with Poland.  My TV turned off after 88 mins: “That’s that”.  Woops.   Austria awful though; may as well have sent Fulham to play in the tournament.

Friday:  Bad weather, bummer.  Sit by sea watching overly optimistic man try to sail in high winds; capsizes frequently; wife looks on with mixture of pride and concern.

Evening meal in seafood place (first seafood of the holiday! I know!  but I don’t *do* seafood!  I’m from Bedfordshire!  We grow Brussels Sprouts!).  I get the fish with its head still on.  I knew it!

France crumble under Dutch onslaught.  Holland have it all worked out it seems: be brilliant, have a couple of hard-men, win games.  I suspect the light blue socks have something to do with it too.

Saturday: home.  Booo!

Back to Fulham tomorrow.  Thanks for keeping things up to date, lads: great reading!

Saturday 14th June – open thread

I think I’m coming home today.  See you later.

Rich

Friday’s open thread

It’s Friday 13th isn’t it?  Ha.

Thursday’s open thread

Yep.

Wednesday’s open thread

Anything today?

Tuesday’s open thread

What’s happening?

It’s Monday!

Anything to discuss today?

Sunday open thread

In case you didn’t read yesterday’s post, I’m on holiday.

In my absence, feel free to add any news or rumours from the Sunday papers/elsewhere to the comments section.

Saturday morning open thread

Hi all

I’m going on holiday this week.   We’ll be in Spain, in Cadaquez, north of Barcelona.  Should be great.

One of these posts should appear every day.   If we get news, feel free to add a comment to that day’s post.

So if we sign Ronaldinho on Monday morning, please click in the Monday post and add a link, your views, etc.  If Diomansy Kamara signs for Real Madrid on Tuesday please discuss on the Tuesday thread.  You get the idea.  Let’s see how free discussions go (if at all).

As ever, please keep comments constructive:  Player A isn’t great because x,y,z is fine; Player A is sh1t is not.   Player A is sh1t because x,y,z is probably okay, but not preferable.

If there’s no transfer news, feel free to post anything else Fulham related that you think other readers might find interesting.

Alright then.   Hopefully I’ll come back from the wilds of Spain to find out that Roy’s done some amazing things.  Or not – who knows?

Cheers then

Rich

Not Fulham

but this is very funny.    From The Onion – lots of swearing.