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The Tanner Report

There is life in the old embers after an eventful victory versus Newcastle yesterday. In his programme notes Felix Magath spoke of “positivity”. I am not sure if such a word – though often used – actually exists,  but I get his drift. He is big on the attitude of the team, [...]

March 16, 2014 // 2 Comments

One for the men in green

There are plenty of things imperfect about rugby union’s Six Nations tournament – not least the fact that it is a hugely commercial sports product of a cosy, self-serving cabal of ‘old world’ countries specifically designed to preserve the existing Northern Hemisphere order – but each [...]

March 16, 2014 // 0 Comments

Cheltenham

I have been to Cheltenham a couple of times and not enjoyed it. As with many English racing sporting institutions, it’s incredibly hard to reach and leave comfortably. I recall being stuck in a scrum for buses for over an hour. Also I do not identify with, let alone participate in, the [...]

March 15, 2014 // 0 Comments

Arsenal and Bayern Munich

Arsenal, whilst eliminated, gave a performance against Bayern you might classify as satisfactory or creditable. They suffered from the absence of Szczesny, Wilshere, Ramsay, Walcott and Gibbs who might have narrowed the contest even more. Whereas, though you cannot seen any deficiency in Bayern, [...]

March 12, 2014 // 0 Comments

Fiorentina file

Fiorentina lost 0-1 away to ther hated rivals Juventus on Sunday and now play them this Thursday and the following one in the Europa League. The bitterness goes back to 1982 when the scudetto went to the last game.  Juve were at Catanzaro and awarded a late penalty, whilst Fiorentina were refused [...]

March 11, 2014 // 0 Comments

Drugswatch: horse-racing

At the risk of mounting a one-man crusade, today I am beginning a series of occasional pieces highlighting instances and developments on the general subject of ‘drugs in sport’. By which phrase, I mean everything from detection efforts to performance-enhancing substances, performance-stopping [...]

March 11, 2014 // 0 Comments

Wales humbled at HQ

That’s the odd, and compelling, thing about sporting contests. They very rarely pan out as you think. Or, to put it another way, sometimes the result does – but not in the way that you had anticipated. In advance of yesterday’s England v Wales rugby match at Twickenham, I was forced to give a [...]

March 10, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report

We are down. Oh yes, I know there are 6 winnable games to come, but only if you have a collective will to win and an ability to defend a lead and I do not see either. I am not sure what to make of Felix Magath. Initially we could only evaluate him through the distorted and absurd prism of our [...]

March 9, 2014 // 0 Comments

It wouldn’t have happened in my day …

The technical quality of BBC television programme production has been plummeting this week and you don’t have to be a telly insider to notice it. On Thursday evening, the distinctly average The One Show on (BBC1, weekdays at 7.00pm) – a programme whose audience consists mostly of people [...]

March 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Dire England

One of the features of the national team as long as I can remember is the failure to reproduce the performance  of club form internationally. Liverpool under Rodgers have been a revelation this season – a free scoring side that ‘s easy on the eye. Yet Sterling, Sturridge and Henderson [...]

March 6, 2014 // 0 Comments

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