(delayed) Monday Moan 4

Jeremy Watch

Endless excitement in the Hunt household about the brilliant part being played by South West Surrey in the Olympics success story.  Huh?  Yes, SWS has won 12.7% of all Olympic contracts (being such a well-known hotspot of manufacturing), the torch is being carried through Godalming (thanks to Jeremy’s lobbying skills) and, best of all, SWS even has an Olympic event – the Road Race will whizz through. Hopefully the riders will not be too startled by the Dorking Cockerel.

Whether to worry about the weather forecasts

OK, British people love to moan about the weather so maybe this isn’t news, but I’ve had it with the weather this year.  It’s past midsummer and I am still being tempted to put my heating on in the evenings. My Arctic duvet has not been put away yet. On Sunday we had sunshine – except for the 20 minutes I went to the shops, when it bucketed down and left the washing on the line as wet as it had been four hours earlier when it was put outside.

Isn’t it about time the Govt did something? I’m sure the last Administration would have acted by now.

Euro and out

So, England are now out of the Euros (football story, nothing to do with the economy), after a poor and mind-numbingly unadventurous display against the kings of the defensive approach on Sunday.  At least we have been spared the bleatings about how unlucky we were and how our ‘golden’ generation of footballers just needed a good leader for them to be able to rule the world (think back to South Africa 2 years ago – or any tournament in the last 10 years).  No, at least this time most people recognise that we were lucky to get away without an embarrassing scoreline against us and that we probably got further than we deserved.

That won’t stop pundits telling us what we need to do to resume our rightful place at the top table.  But stop for a minute and think what our rightful place should be, and you ought to conclude that it’s not at the top table at all.  Since we won the World Cup on home turf in 1966, England’s position in world football has been somewhere around the middle band of performers – occasionally near the top of the group, but not very often.  And that won’t change until players learn how to control the ball when it is passed to them, how to create space so that those with the ball have somebody to pass to, and how to pass the ball to such colleagues rather than aimlessly hoofing it upfield hoping that someone will be able to ‘get on the end of it’. 

Mogadon for the masses?

Talking of the Euros, I find myself in a difficult position regarding the Germans.  I remember when Man Utd were playing Bayern Munich in the Champions League final a few years ago and an ex-boss of mine, who was a Fulham supporter, said “Man Utd or the Germans, it’s a difficult decision isn’t it?”  Well no, actually I thought it was easy – Bayern got my vote without a moment’s hesitation. 

But this time it’s more difficult.  I should be supporting Spain – who play ‘beautiful’ football, where they love the ball and do wonderful things with it.  I loved it when they won the last Euros and the World Cup.  They had so much skill and even played with a striker or two.  But, but….. Am I the only one who thinks this Spanish team is now sucking the life out of games, sending opponents, crowds and tv viewers into a deep sleep with their endless pit-pat passing and no end result?  The latest stat being presented for us to admire is how many passes each side is making in a game.  The Spanish win this one every time, but isn’t that because they indulge in endless short passes back and forth without ever looking to make a run forward, or an attempt on goal? Mogadon for the masses? 

I have to say I prefer the German approach which allies supreme ball skills with something I recognise as football – exciting play designed to beat your opponents and create chances for goalmouth action.  I hope they beat the Spanish in the final – assuming both teams get there. 

Julian Assange – just too creepy?

The Julian Assange saga continues to rumble on – his court appearances and attempts to play the system resembling those of Cap’n Hook Hamza.  So many threads to this, but how about just two – didn’t he ever think what might happen once he upset so many people by his self-centred conceit that he knew better than everyone else what should and shouldn’t be considered private?  And why do we have a legal system that seems incapable of reaching a conclusion in a reasonable amount of time, preferring instead a seemingly never-ending series of appeal possibilities?