21 February 06 - 18:52European football is weird sometimes

Arsenal won the first (and away) leg of their tie with Real Madrid 1-0 making them the first English club to win at the Bernabeu. I did hope that Arsenal would score there, but I didn't expect Arsenal to keep a clean sheet themselves. Nobody expected that in fact as this season their defense has been as leaky as a very leaky thing. But they did it! What makes it strange to me is how European form can be so different to league form. Arsenal are only 5th in the English Premiership, but finished top of their Champions League group only drawing one of their games and now they'll host Real Madrid at Highbury with the advantage of that all-important away goal.

By contrast Manchester United are 2nd in the Premiership and failed to make it through the group stages of the Champions League. Liverpool FC are 3rd in the Premiership and had an unbeaten run in Europe up to tonight when they finished their match at Benfica 1-0 down to the Portugese side. Last season as we know, Liverpool won the Champions League but only finished 5th in the Premiership and had to be granted special dispensation by UEFA to enter this season's competition. I'm still not expecting Arsenal to win this this year, but the comparison is uncanny as Liverpool were not at all fancied last year either.

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21 February 06 - 14:36Gary Neville: Stop whining at take it like a man

Today Manchester United captain Gary Neville was found guilty of a misconduct charge by an FA disciplinary panel. This was in relation to his goal celebration in a Premiership match against Liverpool FC. A celebration that involved him running the length of the pitch from where teammate Rio Ferdinand had scored, to do the full Tom-Cruise-on-Oprah's-sofa act infront of the Liverpool fans who had been verbally abusing him earlier in the match.

He did however escape a ban and was fined only £5000 - next to nothing for a top Premiership player. And even though this is a textbook case of crowd incitement - something the rules are very clear about - Neville has the audacity to react like his fundametal rights as a player have been infringed. He says: "I believe it to be a poor decision, not only for me but for all footballers. Being a robot, devoid of passion and spirit, is obviously the way forward for the modern-day footballer.''

No Gary, lots of goals are scored each week and very few players are booked for removing their shirts or diving into the crowd. And it's very rare for someone to be charged by the FA for their celebration. Alan Shearer doesn't get booked for his goal celebrations - is he a 'robot, devoid of passion'? What Neville did was totally over the top anyway, but to go out of his way to do it infront of the Liverpool fans is completely wrong. To not have the decency to admit it and even complain about the punishment just shows how self-righteous the Manchester United attitude to discipinary matters is - manager Alex Ferguson is in full agreement with his players.

This goes back some years as well. There was the incident in 2003 when Arsenal visited Old Trafford and played an ill-tempered match which came to a climax when United were awared a penatly in the dying seconds. Ruud van Nistelrooy took the penalty kick and missed and the celebrating Arsenal players mobbed him as the referee blew the final whistle. The FA looked into that one and charged five Arsenal players with misconduct and two Man U players for their involvement. The Arsenal players admitted the charges and served bans which was the right thing to do. By contrast Manchester United played the "they started it" card, denied the charges and were found guilty. Even so they only had to pay fines which were, again, small to a Premiership footballer and yet they still complained like children. It looks like nothing has changed since.

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06 February 06 - 18:05Two of the best quotes ever

I'm cross-posting this to my personal blog as well as to The Racing Blog because I think these quotes are so great they deserve a bigger audience even though they are both from the world of motor-sport.

I mentioned the Ask Nigel collumn on Autosport.com before where he answers questions submitted by readers. In one question he's asked if it is "fair" that Valentino Rossi should be able to jump straight into Formula 1 with a top team when other drivers have built their whole careers on getting that same seat. It's not the answer to that question that got my attention though, it's the quote from Frank Williams..

Frank Williams said, years ago, after the death (from cancer) of 28-year-old Gunnar Nilsson, "Don't make the mistake of thinking life should be fair - life is not fair, and the sooner you accept that that's the case, the easier it will be for you."

What I like about that quote is that he doesn't just say "life isn't fair, deal with it" like a lot of people do, he says "don't make the mistake of thinking life should be fair". He's telling you accept the unfairness for your own benefit. Lets not forget that aside from his experience with Gunnar Nilsson, Williams himself was left paralysed from a car accident in 1986 and has gone on running his Formula 1 team with great success from a wheelchair. He is truely an inspiration, not only in what he's achieved, but in the outlook on life that's let his achieve it.

The other quote is from Nigel Roebuck's 'Fifth Column' in Autosport magazine. I don't know whether he's quoting someone else or whether he came up with this himself, but it's a good one. Talking about Ron Dennis signing Fernando Alonso to drive for his McLaren team in 2007 - a whole year ahead of his becoming available, he said "Long ago Ron Dennis realised that the things that come to those who wait are the things left by those who got there first."

I don't take that to mean you should go out and grab whatever you can, hoarde it and stuff everyone else. What I think it means is when you have an opportunity to do something great, don't spent too much time worrying about whether it's the right thing or whether it's a classy thing to do. Just do it!

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