Geraldo Wendel to Spurs | Antoine Griezmann to Liverpool | Sol Campbell to Hull

Observed every morning through the Mill’s emerald prism of rumour, half-truth, lies and things that appear in the Daily Star, football can look like a deeply envious kind of place. To the Mill’s unblinking green-hued gimlet eye this is a world of jealousy, grasping aspiration and sweaty men in shiny suits who make stuff up and have meetings in horrible wine bars with other shiny-suited men, at least one of whom is a nervous BBC journalist with a camera hidden in his satchel, in order to make more stuff up.

It’s natural in this world to want to be someone else. The Mill, for example, has always assumed it would be happiest as a long-serving and inoffensive Premier League full-back slash defensive utility man. The kind of faithful club servant who plays for 10 years without ever convincing anyone he’s actually very good, but just hangs in there maybe picking up a Carling Cup medal, maybe playing a single chaotic season in the Europa League, and never having to appear in the newspapers having opinions, or get booed for some tribal faux pas, just turning up and being OK. But through it all still being able to live in a monogrammed palatial converted bog draining plant in Cheshire with a cinema room and gold leaf Jacuzzi hot tub, and retiring at 35 to do nothing but play golf and be rich and mooch around Dubai with Steve McManaman. This is the Mill’s mediocre dream of a life cushioned by the dumb luck of unmerited riches.

Failing that, The Mill wouldn’t mind being an apparently indestructible heavily-tattooed multi-millionaire lumbering Italian center-forward. A kind of Christian Vieri-style figure, nothing to prove any more, but still stumbling around from Turkish league to the Denver Chicken Bucket to some mid-to-lower tier Premier League club picking up an endless final lap of honor pay day.

Which brings The Mill to news in this morning’s Daily Mirror that Luca Toni is threatening to “go on strike” at Bayern Munich unless he’s allowed to make a series of unconvincing appearances for West Ham, buy a nice flat in the docklands, injure his ankle or his calf or his earlobe, disappear completely for about six months and then jet off to Al Baargh of Qatar with an enormous severance cheque. “The trainer told me I should play for the reserves and get the chance to play 90 minutes. But I don’t think that is a good idea,” Toni said from his sofa yesterday, making a “what-ever”-style gesture and opening another packet of Pringles.

Leeds want to swap Chris Taylor for Oldham’s Alan Sheehan. Manchester United and Liverpool are “battling it out” to sign inevitably disappointing and fitful Real Sociedad “wonderkid” Antoine Griezmann, who sounds like the kind of surly, white-coated designer-stubbled man who might turn up on Saturday Kitchen making a soufflé in an atmosphere of forced and empty bonhomie that ends with everyone grinning glassily at the camera and saying “Antoine. Absolutely delicious. Now…”

In the Mail, Phil Brown thinks it’s a good idea to sign Sol Campbell in January, but only if he can “beat off” some invented “interest” from Genoa, Sampdoria, someone in the middle east, The Brisbane Flip-Flops and a crushing sense of overwhelming and deathly futility. And for some reason Big Phil “Luiz Felipe” Scolari says Zico stopped him signing Yuri Zhirkov for Chelsea, which sounds like a good idea for a radio panel game show called I’m Sorry Zico Stopped Me Doing It, hosted by Jack Dee or Stephen Fry. Zico once stopped The Mill getting to a wedding in Sussex on time, by accidentally filling up the Mill’s Austin Maestro with diesel rather than two-stroke when we stopped at the BP garage just outside Horsham. Beeeep. Sinitta? Yes, it’s a Zico Bluff. Five points.

In The Sun, Phil Brown has attempted to turn things around by taking his players for a walk on the Humber Bridge. He’s also defended giving Liam Cooper a nightmare debut marking Fernando Torres. “”It was a Catch 22 situation. If you’d asked him whether he wanted his debut at Anfield, he would have said ‘Yes’,” Brown explained, furiously scribbling over the text of his copy of Joseph Heller’s classic novel of war-time absurdity and re-writing the entire 454 pages into the moving tale of an 18-year-old defender being humiliated by a world class centre forward for no apparent reason.

According to Goal.com Spurs are snuffling around after Bordeaux winger Geraldo Wendel. “”I’m glad to have clubs like these who are interested in my football,” the Brazilian announced, gazing at his very interesting football. And Curtis Davies could leave Aston Villa in January in a tiff over not quite having played enough games to be given the huge sack full of gemstones, parmesan cheese and £2 coins stipulated in his contract, but wanting it anyway despite having spent most of the last year in a bath chair smoking a pipe.

Reference: http://www.buzzle.com

Dave Cameron’s Etonian Cabal – My Hot Tip for the 2010 at Westminster

Usually it is the Conservative Party conference that is profoundly depressing (and to be the fair to the bastards, I am sure they won’t disappoint this week as they prepare for power by taking it in turns to smug up to the lectern and denounce as demented anyone who has the temerity to call for a small windfall levy on those whose properties have risen from £300,000 to an easy million and in the process earned their owners, tax free, as much as a teacher or nurse might make in a career). But even so it will struggle to be more deflationary than Labour’s effort in Brighton which, with Peter “Suits you, sir” Mandelson as camp impresario, was an end-of-the-pier show to end end-of-the-pier shows.

The polls and the odds don’t lie: the Tories are back and this time they’re Etonians. The only question to be resolved is which sport they will choose to adopt. For the past decade there was a symmetry between New labor and New Football as both attempted to combine traditionalist supporters loyal to their roots with swing voters attracted to the glitz. It was pork pies and prawn sandwiches. Little wonder it sometimes felt queasy.

Now it is the Tories’ turn. Cameron and Osborne can hardly do football. The leader-in-waiting’s support for Aston Villa is as convincing as Prince William’s (a fellow alumnus, which means that should the Queen and Prince Charles simultaneously fall under a bus the monarch, the prime minister and the mayor of London would all be Old Etonians). As for Osborne, the nearest one can envisage him to being at a football match is scalping tickets for it outside the stadium.

Nor can the political Ant and Dec really do rugby or cricket. The former because it sends out the wrong message, the latter because it is very hard to wing a love of cricket (those that don’t know cricket, will not cricket know). Moving down the list, there’s motor racing, but that brings Bernie Ecclestone into the equation and, God forbid, maybe Jeremy Clarkson into the cabinet as car czar. Then there’s tennis, but cuddling up to Andy Murray doesn’t immediately appeal as a vote winner. And after that there’s horse racing. This, I think, would be quite clever. There would be something refreshing about an incoming prime minister ending his induction speech with a “keep it under your hat, but I don’t half fancy Alfred Nobel for Saturday’s Guineas”. However, being a pair of spivs, the last thing Osborne and Cameron will want to be seen as is at all spivvy. Which leaves swimming …

Or, I’m afraid, football. And if England win the World Cup next year (which they won’t because one player, almost certainly at the quarter-final stage, will do something stupid and the rest of his team-mates will not possess the collective wit to stage a recovery) the first man to the microphone will be Dave, hailing: “Johnny Terry and his boys for proving Britain can be Great with the right manager and the right prime minister …”

That’ll put a dampener on things.

Reference: http://www.buzzle.com/

Ankush Claims First Gold For India In Shooting :: CommonWealth Youth Games

Pune Oct 13 : Hosts India opened their medals tally with Ankush Bharadwaj capturing the first gold of the Games by winning the 50 meters Pistol event for men aggregating a tally of 509 points, on the second day today of the third edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) in progress at the Shiv Chhatarapati Sports City, Balewadi here.

It was indeed an irony that only two competitors figured in the event with Middleton Murray of Falkland Island despite scoring 26 points being declared as ‘did not finish’.

Later talking to mediapersons, 18-year-old Haryana lad Ankush said he was far from satisfied with his performance today. “I should have done much better despite having no pressure at all.” Ankush mustered a tally of 536 points in the Guwahati national shooting championship. The lad, however did not hide his unsatisfactory performace but said it gives him the pleasure of winning the first gold for India to open the medal tally.

Ankush trains under coach Subash Chandra who said,”he could have brought a much better tally as he faced no competition.” On the other hand, 15 year old Murray Middleton said he was never in contention for any medal but has come to India to gain much needed competition experience.

“I treat the Pune visit merely for experience having set my sights for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi,” the shy teenager said.

With only two competitors in the fray, only one medal was at stake as per the rules.

Aquilah Sudhir gave Singapore its first gold, finishing top in the women’s 10 meters Air Rifle event posting a tally of 102.0 points.

In a keen competition, the silver was bagged by Monica Fyfe of Canada recording 102.1 points to her credit and Nur Ayuni of Malaysia had to rest content with the bronze with a tally of 100.2.

“Since it is my first international, I am happy with my performance,” said Aquilah.

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Michael Fennel presented the medals to the winners at the ultra-modern shooting range.

Following are the results : Finals Men: 50M Pistol: Ankush Bharadwaj (India) 509 pts (Gold) Muray Middleton (Falklands Islands) 236 (DNF) Women: Aquilah Sudhir (Singaore) 103 pts (Gold) Monoca Fyfe (Canada) 102.1 pts (Silver) Nur Ayuni (Malaysia) 100.2 pts (Bronze) UNI IS/GS AB DS1507

Source: http://living.oneindia.in/

Are Commonwealth Youth Games green games!

None of the green projects for the Commonwealth Youth Games have actually seen the light of day. Instead of planting more trees, 7000 of the existing trees were cut to make way for road widening projects for the games..

TOUTED AS the ’green games’, the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) have now started. While there has been a lot of talk about the ’greenery’ of these games by the organising committee, all the projects related to the ’green’ aspect have just remained on paper. It has just been used to give the games hype with hardly any groundwork to make these games environment friendly.

Early this year, the CYG organising committee, which is also the organising committee of the Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi in 2010, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), projecting the Pune games as environment-friendly games. In the undertaking given to UNEP, the organising committee said that the games would focus on waste and water management, forestation, anti-litter campaign and sustainable transport, with the ride-and-return-cycle project.

“Rainwater harvesting, waste water treatment and recycling plant, insulated roofs, heat reflecting surfaces, low floor sanitary fittings, solar water heaters and cross ventilation are some features of the under construction buildings in Balewadi,” the presentation said. However, none of these projects have actually seen the light of day. According to details from PMC’s garden department, instead of planting more trees, 7000 of the existing trees were cut to make way for road widening projects for CYG.

While no provisions are in place for rainwater harvesting at the Balewadi facilities, there are hardly any arrangements to even drain out the wastewater from the rains. The tennis stadium is open air, and rainwater flowing down the roof over the spectator area falls into the playing area and remains accumulated there in absence of a requisite slope. The world-class standard open-air 50-mtr shooting range is also plagued by a similar fault. The range is entirely done up in wood, but without any arrangements to protect it from rains. We found that the rainwater has literally drenched the wood.

The other projects like solar water heaters, cross ventilation, waste management, anti-litter campaign, sustainable transport, no plastic at Balewadi, extensive tree plantation etc, have failed to take off. In fact, amid protests from residents at Uruli Devachi village, which houses the city’s dumping ground, the garbage bins around the city have started overflowing.

The much publicised ’Ride and Return Cycle Project’, which was touted as being the legacy for the city, as a sustainable transport system, has also fallen apart. The project involved a 200-kilometre cycle track on the main roads, with cycle stations at intervals of 20 kilometres, where people can rent a cycle at a nominal cost and deposit it at any other station.

Ranjit Gadgil, a Lead India finalist, who was to head the ride-and-return-cycle project, confirmed that the project had fallen apart. “The organising committee had called me to implement the pilot of the project as a part of the games. The pilot needed an investment of Rs 50 lakh and later the organising committee told me that they were waiting for the money to come from the municipal corporation, which never came and I came out of the project. The project was being implemented haphazardly, with no planning. They had not even prepared a DPR of the project and now the project has fallen apart.”

Source: http://www.merinews.com

Rooney Eyes Perfect 10

After leading England to an impressive 3-1 victory over Belarus last night, Wayne Rooney has set his sights on finishing World Cup qualifying with a perfect record…

The Manchester United star netted twice in Minsk as England claimed their fourth consecutive win to increase their stranglehold on UEFA Group Six.

The Three Lions will be aiming for five in a row when they take on the Ukraine in April, but Rooney is looking even further afield.

“It would be nice to win all the qualifiers,” he said in the Daily Mail. “The two most difficult games, in Belarus and Croatia, we have got out of the way and we have managed to come out with maximum points. I don’t see any reason why we can’t win all the qualifiers now.”

England have fallen pray to complacency before with major tournaments on the horizon; few will forget the embarrassment they suffered last year when they failed to qualify for the EURO 2008 finals.

However, things have gradually improved since Fabio Capello took the reins. His tactics, teams selections and disciplinary policy continue to cause the odd stir, but the results are there for all to see.

Rooney, like the rest of the squad, is determined to ignore the hype and focus on improving game by game.

“We have worked really hard to be in the position we are in and we’ve got to keep working hard,” he said. “We are in a comfortable position and we need to get as many points as possible over the remaining games.”

Rooney’s brace in Belarus took his tally to five goals in the last three games – an impressive response from a player whose goalscoring record has been widely criticised.

The former Everton player added: “I always believe I’m going to score when I go out there. I’m a confident person.”

Kieran Quentin

Source: http://www.goal.com/

Khade sinks 50m butterfly record

V.V. Subrahmanyam

PUNE: Olympian Virdhawal Khade claimed a gold and two silvers in the pool while the Indian wrestlers won three gold medals in the third Commonwealth Youth Games at the Shiv Chatrapathi Sports Complex here on Wednesday.

The 17-year-old Khade, who finished with a silver in 200m freestyle in the first event of the evening, came back strongly in the 50m butterfly event with a new Games record of 24.25, beating the mark of 24.66 set by Corney Swanepoel of New Zealand in 2004.

Scotland’s Daniel Scott (24.38) and Thomas Barrett of Australia (24.87) took the silver and bronze respectively.
Outstanding effort

Though Khade was placed fifth in the qualification timings, he came up with an outstanding performance to live up to his billing as one of the favourites.

“I did not really tire myself out in the qualifying round and just focused on making it to the final round,” Khade said.

“I was terribly disappointed with my showing in the 200m freestyle event (1:49.86). I think the endurance level of gold medallist Ryan Napoleon of Australia (1:49.62) was truly exceptional,” he added.

Edwar McKendry of Australia (1:51.93) was the bronze medallist in 200m freestyle.
Tough

“Yes, it was really tough for me to recoup after the first event. I am happy I could do it,” said a delighted Khade.In the 4×100m freestyle relay, the Indian quartet of Khade, Aaron D’Souza, N.A. Sandeep and Ashwin Menon took the silver in a time of 3:30.20.

Australia won the gold and South Africa the bronze.
Gold rush

There was a gold rush for India in wrestling with Amit Kumar (50-kg), Jitendra (54-kg) and Rahul Aware (58-kg) finishing on top of the podium.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/

Viswanathan Anand draws with Kramnik

Press Trust of India

Thursday, October 16, 2008 (Bonn (Germany))

Viswanathan Anand held an upper hand with an extra Pawn but settled for a draw in a tense encounter with Vladimir Kramnik of Russia after 32 moves in the second game of the world chess championship now underway in Bonn.

In a daring strategy, Anand abandoned his pet King Pawn (1.e4) on the first move and opted opening the game with the Queen Pawn, thus aiming to surprise his Russian opponent.

Thus, Anand seems to be aiming to sidestep Kramnik’s ploy which worked well for him against Kasparov in 2000 World Championship match.

Avoiding both the Petroff or the Berlin system of the Ruy Lopez against 1.e4, Anand may thus be trying to reach dynamic positions and invite Kramnik to come out of his shell.

If this is going to be Anand’s strategy with White pieces for the match, the world of Chess will definitely be treated to some open fights on the even-numbered games, as witnessed on Wednesday.

Starting with 1.d4 for which Kramnik responded with the Nimzo Indian Defence, Anand went in for an Open middlegame position with irrational Pawn structure, thus making his intentions clear to have an open fight.

With his unconventional 8..f5, Kramnik aimed to surprise his opponent in turn and the game entered a tense middlegame, where Anand enjoyed a slight advantage due to his Bishop pair.

Understandably, this being the early stages of the match both traded slight inaccuracies between moves 14, 17 and by move 18th, Anand had once again regained a slight initiative, though Kramnik managed to exchange Queens

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/

Improving the image of Indian football

One wonders why the All India football Federation (AIFF) took all of a dozen years to apply a concrete structure to a tattered National Football League (NFL) and make it I-League. Come to think of it, the federation didn’t have any set goals. NFL was conceived and implemented in a flash. The federation may have eyed a broader representation but somehow it was limited only to a few traditional football pockets.

One of the biggest bane is that talent flow has come from only one academy – Tata Football Academy. The AIFF has been guilty on this count, they have hardly encouraged any academies to set up shop.

While the I-League still flip-flops between a 10 or a 12-team format with national coach Bob Houghton as the guiding force, the event could still have expanded with more teams. Though the India coach talked about a 20-team EPL-like format, it seems to be nothing more than just

Source / Reference : http://sports.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/3510739.cms