Twitter: Careful what you wish for

It’s a dance as old as time, or perhaps just as old as autograph hunting. Wide-eyed fan approaches sports star/film star/pop star and is met with a barrage of hurtful and utterly unexpected abuse. Everyone has story or knows someone with a story of being unceremoniously snubbed by a hero.

Me? I was once told to “fuck off” by a star of Emmerdale in a nightclub in Leeds. She wasn’t a hero of mine and I certainly wasn’t after an autograph but to a degree I wear my “abused by a celebrity” badge with pride.

It is perfectly normal to be shocked in those situations. The personality of well-known individuals can often be just a media construct but as is the way these days, we often feel as if we know each of them personally. Twitter has broken down barriers even further and has been a remarkable tool in public relations.

Many “stars” from various fields of achievement now use social media to interact with their fans. It allows the famous to build a never before seen rapport with those that love them. In marketing terms it can be a dream too. Fans feel far more connected to their idols and are far more likely to buy into the idea of brands surrounding the object of their affections.

However, as recent events have shown, this can be a two-way street. Twitter has created a world where the disgruntled or the merely plain stupid can directly address someone in the public eye and be pretty sure their remarks will be read.

Olympic diving star Tom Daley was the subject of trolling on Twitter after failing to secure a medal at London 2012. The boy responsible for the abuse of Daley was arrested and received a formal warning for harassment.

Every day seems to bring a new “Twitter storm” and yesterday’s happened to involve the football club which I support, Tottenham Hotspur. We are currently in the midst of the usual pre-season transfer quagmire. Every team is trying to improve their squad are Spurs are no different.

One of the ongoing soap operas of the summer is the “will he, won’t he?” tale of Emmanuel Adebayor’s move from Manchester City back to Spurs, a club he played at on loan during last season. The major sticking point appears to be Adebayor’s wage demands.

Last season, the player’s parent club subsidised an enormous pay cheque. Adebayor was reportedly on £170,000 per week, £100,00 of which was being paid by Manchester City. It is no secret that Tottenham employ a rigid wage structure and fitting the Togolese striker into that as a contracted Spurs players has been tricky.

Understandably there are many Spurs fans that would love to see Emmanuel Adebayor sign permanently for the club. At times last season he was excellent and the club is currently down to Jermain Defoe and teenager Harry Kane as their only recognised strikers.

However, there are also fans that think Adebayor’s wage demands are too high and that the player who scored 18 goals in all competitions last seasons should take a huge pay cut to join the club. One fan, Dan Cohen felt so strongly about this matter than he decided to contact Adebayor directly via Twitter.

“@Sheyiadebayor why don’t you u come to work with me for a few ‘years’ to really see what it’s like to earn your weekly wage #greed #COYS”

Rather than just ignore this seemingly inoffensive request, Adebayor fired back with a less than refined response.

“@DCSuperSales because u shit and stupid that’s why you earn that!”

Taken at face value this would seem like another footballer acting like a complete moron but I’m not entirely convinced that’s fair on Adebayor.

Had Mr. Cohen merely suggested that Adebayor join him to see how fans get by on much less money there would have been no response. As soon as he accused Adebayor of being greedy there was an element of “baiting” about the tweet. Lo and behold, Mr. Cohen gets a rise.

Suddenly there is a sweeping “we don’t want Adebayor at our club” sentiment from Spurs supporters. “Look how he talks to Spurs fans!” some wailed. Adebayor’s sentiments might have been crude but he was merely responding to an unsolicited remark about the way he chooses to act within his professional life. It’s not really anyone’s business what he gets paid.

Football fans are always at a disadvantage in situations like this. Primarily because of a love for the club involved. Most fans care little what a player earns turning out for another team. Conversely, when it comes to their beloved outfit there seems to be an assumption that anyone would and should crawl across broken glass to don this particular shirt.

No football club is unique or special on a wider scale. Of course it appears that way to its supporters but the rest of the world couldn’t give a rat’s . I love my daughter very much and think that she might be the most amazing addition to the human race, ever. Nonetheless, it is just me and her mother that think this, nobody else is obliged to care. The same applies to supporting a football club.

Why shouldn’t Emmanuel Adebayor hold out for as much money as possible? He’ll be long time retired and once he is, in the minds of those who praise and abuse him now Adebayor will be a distant memory. I’m not particularly fussed either way if he rejoins the club. I trust in Daniel Levy to do what is best for Tottenham Hotspur, I’m certainly not going to get my undies in a bunch about wages and loyalty

However, Adebayor’s wages are not the issue here. The issue is social media and how fans choose to use it. This episode can be summed up in one sentence. Fan baits Adebayor, Adebayor responds, fan runs off whining about mean old footballer.

If you address someone directly, whether it be face to face or on the Internet you clearly intend for them to be aware of your opinion. If you make derogatory remarks about a person in the same circumstances it is churlish to then complain if they react in a way in which you find distasteful.

Twitter has been fantastic at opening up avenues of discourse in ways we could never have imagined and we have a responsibility to use those avenues carefully. By all means criticise someone but don’t be surprised if one day they bite back.

Stop Your Euro Moaning

The two years of waiting for an international tournament are over. It’s here! Euro 2012 got off to a cracking start last night as Poland and Greece drew 1-1 and Russia walloped the Czech Republic 4-1.

Months of anticipation were finally rewarded and not a “cagey opening game” in sight, brilliant. However, in spite of all the excitement swirling around, one thing seemed to be just as prevalent as an appreciation of the game. Moaning.

This wasn’t moaning about tactical naivety though, it wasn’t even a complaint about the petrol station ball chosen by UEFA. No, once again we were treated to the incessant whines about how bad terrestrial TV’s coverage of football is.

Standard gems along the lines of “oh look, Alan Shearer knows nothing” opened proceedings. When the BBC had the temerity to show an interview with an England player during half time we got “Poland are playing Greece. I couldn’t give a flying fuck about Scott Parker”.

Firstly, Alan Shearer being a bit simple is nothing new, we have known this for a while. You might as well remark on the fact that you blink, on average every four seconds. Secondly, it should come as no surprise that a national broadcaster with no rolling sports news channel should show an interview with an integral national team member when it has the opportunity.

Many fans have benefited from the fact that certain bloggers lock themselves away for weeks on end poring over the intricacies of the Greek squad. The previews on offer from independent sites have been more detailed than ever before and this is undoubtedly a good thing.

Podcasts have taken centre stage ahead of the tournament alongside these blogs too. I now know that I can probably run faster than at least 25% of Croatia’s starting back four following injury concerns over Dejan Lovren. I have also been reminded that Ashley Young’s alleged predilection for web cams is best avoided in Poland and Ukraine.

On top of this there’s even a regular video update from Scott Johnston, the brains behind the excellent TheFootyBlog. With this wealth of information at your fingertips I have one question. Why on earth are you stupid enough to even watch the terrestrial TV build up to games, let alone whine about them like a child who’s had a toy taken away?

An analogy I have used before is that you wouldn’t buy a shirt you didn’t like just to sit around moaning about how bad you look whilst wearing it. Why on earth would you subject yourself to the inane nonsense spouted by Chiles, Shearer and company? We all know what time the kick off is and we know how long half time lasts. Save your blood pressure and just don’t tune in until the game starts.

The coverage provided by the BBC and ITV isn’t intended for the more knowledgeable fans. It would be nice if this wasn’t the case but both broadcasters operate on a tight time schedule. This doesn’t leave much room for in depth tactical analysis and in all honesty, most fans just don’t care about it.

You can draw parallels between the football blogger and the train spotter. I use trains a lot and I quite like them. They generally get me from A to B with little fuss and that suits me perfectly. However, there are people that can tell me what year the train was made, how many journeys it’s taken and the route history of the driver. I appreciate that this information exists but I’m just not that interested.

Football bloggers can tell you exactly why a 3-5-2 formation can be tactical suicide. Or where Franciszek Smuda buys his barczsz and uszka and how it impacts his choices on a holding midfielder. The truth is that the average fan couldn’t give a rat’s chuff about this sort of detail. They’re quite happy for Alan Shearer to tell us that “he’ll be disappointed with that” when a striker misses from 3 yards. And you know what, that’s OK too.

We live in a world in which knowledge is available like never before. It’s incredibly easy to find football coverage tailored to your tastes. Rather than let your blood pressure go stratospheric at the sight of Mark Bright, just mute the telly and give us all a rest.

Thank You & Goodbye: Why the game is up for Harry Redknapp.

When a debate surrounds an emotive subject it can be hard to view it from a rational standpoint. When the subject of the debate is Harry Redknapp it becomes, for many Spurs fans, almost impossible.

When Redknapp was appointed by the club in 2008 I had my misgivings. I didn’t particularly like Harry as a man and I was less than impressed by his managerial track record. However, Spurs were in a sticky situation at the foot of the Premier League table with only tw…oh, you’ve heard this one?

The 2009/2010 season saw my expectations blown out of the water. A natural pessimist, I was stunned when Tottenham finished fourth and ultimately qualified for the Champions League. Even Redknapp’s biggest detractors had to concede, this was an impressive achievement.

I was almost immediately back on the anti-Harry offensive though as Redknapp signed former Chelsea and Arsenal defender William Gallas. I was even proved wrong about that as after a stuttering start Spurs beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, Inter at home and Milan over two legs.

It was a strange sensation but I was coming around to Redknapp’s side. It made me feel a little like I needed a bath but as fickle as fans are, the success of your chosen team generally supersedes the moral high ground.

After a shaky opening to this season there was some more judicious signings and Spurs went on a run in the league that saw them lose just one game in nineteen. This included victories over Liverpool and Arsenal. Even when that spell came to an end with defeat at Manchester City the team bounced back to beat Wigan.

Next up was Liverpool away during Redknapp’s court case for tax evasion and Spurs garnered a fortunate point at Anfield. Redknapp was acquitted of all charges shortly after that game and celebrated by watching his rampant team destroy Newcastle 5-0.

Spurs had created a ten point gap between themselves and Arsenal and talk of a title race including Spurs was on. There was even a cherry on top of that cake. Fabio Capello had resigned as England boss and Redknapp was many people’s choice to succeed the Italian. Everything was truly coming up “Harry”.

Since that Newcastle game Tottenham have taken six points from a possible twenty-seven. This has included the ignominy of watching Spurs throw away a two goal lead to lose 5-2 against Arsenal. There has also been the small matter of a 5-1 humbling at the hands of Chelsea in the FA Cup semi final.

With each passing week the sound-bites from Redknapp have been changing. It has gone from, “there’s no reason we can’t win the league” to, “if we win all our remaining games we’ll finish fourth”. There have been various staging points along the way between those two remarks. Ultimately it speaks of a man incapable of arresting Tottenham’s slide down the league table.

By my own admission there were times this season when I thought that this Spurs team were the best I’d seen in my time supporting the club. Fast, incisive, intelligent and surprisingly for a Tottenham side, reasonably resolute in defence. So what went wrong?

The uncertainty over Redknapp’s future is a convenient excuse for Spurs’ 2012 failings. It would be all too easy for the club, manager and players to claim that speculation over the England job has derailed Tottenham’s season. Does the malaise run deeper than that though?

One of the biggest arguments about Redknapp is how tactically astute he is. There are those that say Harry’s success is purely down to man management skills, that tactics are an abstract art form which hold no interest for him. People point to the apocryphal tale of Redknapp telling Roman Pavlyuchenko to go on and “fucking round about a bit” as proof of this.

In a now infamous interview with The Sun, Rafael Van der Vaart gave an illuminating view of life under Redknapp, “there are no long boring speeches about tactics like I was used to at Real Madrid”. This view seems to have borne itself out this season with some strange choices in personnel from the Spurs boss.

All too often we have seen Spurs play with their best players out of position. Gareth Bale will end up on the right or through the middle. Tottenham’s most influential midfielder, Luka Modric will be played on the left. Then there is Redknapp’s bizarre insistence on playing a 4-4-2 formation which leaves Spurs woefully exposed in midfield.

There seems to be no plan B with Harry Redknapp. No rotation of players to keep his stars fresh. Questions have been raised about the players’ conditioning too. When asked about the rotation issue Harry will often cite injuries as an excuse but he has many players still at the club that he clearly doesn’t trust to do a job.

Redknapp has now had seven transfer windows at Tottenham to build a squad he believes in. What he has done is to build a first XI he trusts with very little in reserve to challenge for a title. It could be argued that Spurs are not a title challenging team but we must take the manager at his word on these topics and judge him by those words.

Reports emerged after last weekend’s game with QPR that there had been some kind of altercation at the club. Various players were said to have fallen out with Redknapp. Others are meant to have organised a meeting to ask Harry his intentions about the England job.

It is fair to say that the wheels are coming off Tottenham’s season at the moment. It is hard for Spurs fans to watch, especially when considering the fact that Tottenham were London’s best placed club in the Premier League by a distance.

In relation to Tottenham Hotspur it is hard to describe Harry Redknapp as anything other than the club’s most successful manager of recent times. Harry has proved me wrong on a number of occasions and there were even times when I found myself defending him. However, I can defend him no more. It is clear to me that Redknapp has taken these players as far as can. England job or not, at the end of the season it is time for Daniel Levy to say to Harry, “thank you and goodbye”.

Disability In Football Part 4: What next for CP Football?

In the last twelve months I have written three pieces about disability in football. The whole project began life as a study into how easy it would be for someone with cerebral palsy like myself to play competitive football. Very quickly I discovered that there already existed a huge CP football community. From an FA backed England national squad to grass-roots teams popping up all over the country, there appeared to be something for everyone. Along the way I have met and spoken to some incredible people. From Jeff Davis, the FA’s national manager for disability football to parents who are coming to terms with their child’s condition. The one constant throughout this series of blogs though has been Dermot Dolan. Dermot is the National Sports Development Officer for the charity CP Sport and he has been a great help not just to me but to the large numbers of families looking to get children with cerebral palsy into competitive sport.

I met with Dermot back in September at one of the CP Sport football development days in London. Just prior to that Dermot had explained that the charity would be taking a back seat as far as CP football went. CP Sport has always kept up dialogue with the FA over the best way to take the grass-roots CP game forwards. It had reached a point where the FA was genuinely concerned about maintaining a good level of interest in the lower reaches of the sport. Whilst it is safe to say that the FA’s heart has always been in the right place on matters of disability football they haven’t always been singing from the CP Sport hymn sheet.

The differences in opinions between CP Sport and the FA are entirely understandable. The FA exists, as far as disability football is concerned, to create a clear path for young players to go from local football to possibly playing for the national sides. CP Sport is run as a platform for people of all abilities to be able to participate. As a member of FIFA and UEFA the FA has to stick to strict guidelines set out by those organisations. Restrictions on mixing age and gender can tie the hands of the FA in some instances. They are in a position where they can’t be seen to be backing youth football where those rules are broken as it could lead to sanctions from those bodies above them.

In spite of these hurdles there is light at the end of the tunnel and CP Sport are now working with Andy Millington to try to bring back league football for CP players. Andy runs a cerebral palsy team in Yorkshire and one of his sons also plays on the FA regional development squad for the area. Andy contacted CP Sport with a view to getting a CP football league up and running again. There was a league in place until recently but due to  the aforementioned issues with the FA it stopped operating. I spoke to Dermot last week and he was kind enough to outline what Andy and CP Sport are aiming to achieve by working together.

From February next year it is hoped that there will be CP football development days run around the country. As part of these days there will be a chance for teams to play each other in a league format as well as having training sessions with FA registered coaches. When describing to me the interest in such events one thing was particularly evident, “people want leagues and the kids just want to play games. As soon as they get to the venues the first thing the children want to know is when they will get to play matches”. As a principle that sounds simple but due to the nature of CP Sport’s work with other athletes it can be difficult for them to run such sessions. Dermot explained to me how he hoped that these days would become a “parent owned initiative with financial backing from the charity”. Again, this sounds like a perfect solution but as with so many things in disability sport there are other factors to consider.

One of the most surprising things I discovered when I attended development days earlier in the year was the distances that families were prepared to travel to be involved. Indeed, Dermot has spoken to many of the parents of children wishing to play and they have reiterated this willingness. I asked Dermot how many people he expected to have at these events and he hoped that at their peak there would be around 100 players per day. In an ideal world this would be fantastic but there is still reticence from some parents to get their hopes up. There have been schemes for CP football in place in the past and these have been taken away, the next plan is then unveiled only to fizzle out again. Parents are getting to a point in some cases where they are not prepared to get the hopes of the children raised only to have them dashed again . As Dermot mentioned, it is all about “creating a good infrastructure” so that parents and carers can have complete faith in letting their children play.

It is hoped that by starting the new development days in February a domino effect will be created and it will lead to teams being set up all over the country. As it stands the FA regional CP squads are only providing players with 4 games per year. Aside from the fact that not all CP players will be selected for these squads there is a feeling that if more and more teams keep appearing then it will inspire others to start a local side. In turn, if there are more local teams obviously the player pool gets larger. More players means less need to mix ages and genders and this will hopefully result in FA backing as their regulations are adhered to. In the long-term Dermot has hopes that the FA regional squad events can be held on the same days and same venues as the CP Sport development programs. It would really give a chance for the young players to see a clear path for their own football progression.

An overriding hope for these days is that it will really push CP football on to another level of participation. The new development events will begin in an Olympic year and Great Britain will have a CP team at the Paralympics. It is important to give today’s young player the belief and support they need to become the next national team players. What is equally important though is that CP football is accessible to all who want to play the game. Able-bodied football caters to the entire spectrum of players. From Leo Messi all the way down to the kids in the park and the rotund goalkeeper from your local pub team. It is vitally important that people with cerebral palsy are offered the same opportunities. I have seen first hand the positive effect that playing football has had on many of these children’s lives and I would hate to see that curtailed in any way.

If you have any queries about the development days or the work that CP Sport does you can contact them here. I would like to thank all of the people who have helped me during the process of this series but most of all a huge thanks goes to Dermot Dolan. You’d struggle to meet a nicer man and the work he does for cerebral palsy sports as a whole is utterly phenomenal.

Saturday December the 3rd.

Good afternoon.

Just a quick post to say that if you’re free on Saturday afternoon/evening and in London and fancy watching some football with some other bloggers, myself and Chris Mayer, (The Belgian Waffle) will be meeting at No.1 City Road, (nearest tube stations are Old Street and Moorgate) from about 5pm. The late Premier League kick off is Aston Villa v Manchester United and there’s sure to be some Spanish football on afterwards too. All are welcome, (click here for map). Hope to see lots of you there. Give me a shout on Twitter or in the comments section if you fancy it.

George

Changing Faces

“I’d put up with another 10 years of rubbish results just to see Spurs batter Arsenal tonight”.

January 2008 and it was the day of the Carling Cup semi-final, second leg. The pessimistic Spurs fan in me saw little way that Tottenham Hotspur could beat the oldest of enemies, ‘the scum’, to reach the final of the league cup. In almost 10 years Spurs had failed to beat Arsenal and the gloating from that end of the Seven Sisters road was too much to take. The constant jibes had fostered a real hatred of the Gunners within me and I was desperate for a chink of light, something to crow about.

I got what I wanted that night, Spurs did batter Arsenal  and crow I most certainly did. It made it all the sweeter that at the time I worked on Green Lanes in Haringey, slap bang in the middle of Gooner country. I worked with what felt like an entire building of Arsenal fans and I hated them. I didn’t just hate the fans, I hated everything connected with the club. The players and the bespectacled buffoon of a manager. If you’d have introduced me to the tea lady I’d have probably hated her too.

It is hard to say where this hatred came from. It was very real but why was it there? I’m not from Tottenham so it’s has never been based on regional pride. I can only assume that it was borne out of a misguided belief that this was how ‘real’ fan behaved. Stories on The Spurs Show podcast just reinforced these ideas. Fans who would hold their breath when on the tube and the doors opened at Arsenal station. People who wouldn’t spend money at Costa Coffee because they were part of the Whitbread group and a board member at Whitbread had an Arsenal season ticket. I loved all of these tales and bought into the idea with gusto.

It wasn’t just Arsenal that got my footballing ire pricked either. There were the none too insignificant spectres of Chelsea and West Ham looming over Spurs as well. Detesting them was also a badge of honour worn by all ‘proper’ fans. There exists, as a Spurs fan, a sliding scale of dislike. A hierarchy of hate if you will, and it goes like this. Spurs fans support any team playing Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham. This only changes when the three start to play each other and then it’s Chelsea over Arsenal and West Ham over Chelsea. I would say that I still basically adhere to this theory but something has definitely changed. I no longer ‘hate’ any of the three rivals.

It has been a gradual shift in my attitudes towards Tottenham’s nearest and, well, not quite so dearest. A large part of this is purely down to winning. The dislike of other teams is often directly linked to results achieved against them. Spurs’ performances against Arsenal and Chelsea have ceased to be an ever-expanding list of misery. Recent league outings against Arsene Wenger’s charges have generally been kind to Spurs of late whilst games against Chelsea are now real pick ‘em affairs.

As with so many things recently, Twitter has been behind a lot of the changes in my footballing opinions. It has been a real education to learn that you can support your team just as well without resorting to behavioural extremes. One of the things I have grown to dislike about football in general is the amount of importance placed on abusing your team’s rivals. I regularly go to Oxford United games and regardless of the opponent, the cry of “stand up if you hate Swindon” is never far away. To my mind it’s a pretty redundant chant at any game, it’s no secret that Oxford United and Swindon Town are not the best of friends. Yelling “stand up if you’ve got more than three fingers” would generate a similar result. Surely the team would be better served by the fans getting behind the players they support.

Another strange personal trait was an obsession with Arsenal’s results. I’d get almost as much pleasure in their failures as I would in Spurs’ successes. At times it felt like I was more of an anti-Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham fan than a Spurs fan. It could be argued that all of this is part and parcel of supporting a football club but it has begun to seem like a strange way to go about things. Many Spurs fans were absolutely thrilled by Manchester United’s 8-2 annihilation of Arsenal but I was more concerned by the fact that Tottenham had just been hammered 5-1 at home by Manchester City earlier that day. To many it seemed to be a case of, “it doesn’t matter how much we lost by, look at that lot. 8-2!”.

In the past there hadn’t been room for even grudging respect of Arsenal. I now watch and marvel at the abilities of Robin Van Persie and Jack Wilshere. I still think Theo Walcott is a bit rubbish but I’d think that whoever I supported. I feel the same about Chelsea. I’ll always dislike John Terry but that’s more to do with him as a man than the shirt he wears. The ‘Fat Frank’ Lampard jokes are getting tiresome now, (they probably always were) and any team with Juan Mata playing in it is one I’d happily pay to watch.

I have grown to realise that you don’t need to be a complete zealot, foaming at the mouth to support your team. Validation does not have to come in the form of how much you hate another club. I cringe a little looking back at the ridiculous behaviour of a few years ago. The mantras I quoted and my attitude towards other people based on the club they chose to align themselves with were daft at best. I still passionately hope that Spurs win their derby games but the vitriol surrounding them in the past has dissipated, within me at least.

Ciao Marco

The death of a celebrity affects people in different ways and displays of public grief have always left me slightly bemused. I assume that the reason for this is very simple, I have never felt particularly ‘connected’ to anyone well-known. People I admire greatly have passed away and I have felt little more than a pang of sympathy for the deceased’s family. When Ayrton Senna died in 1994 I was 15 years old and although I was stunned there wasn’t a sense of sadness. I suspect this was more to do with the fact that Roland Ratzenberger had died at the same race meeting and due to massive safety improvements in the preceding 10 years Formula One had become a much safer environment. It was a real shock that a sport I had naively regarded as almost bullet-proof had claimed two lives in such a short space of time.

The stunned feeling appeared again when I woke up on the 17th of October to discover that Dan Wheldon had been killed during an Indy race in Las Vegas. Again, I felt terrible for Wheldon’s family. he had left behind a wife and two young children and being a parent myself thoughts inevitably turned to how hard it would be to raise kids on your own in those circumstances. Being a British driver it was understandable that the media was full of stories about Wheldon. His peers were rightly splashed across the TV and newspapers paying tribute to the popular man from Buckinghamshire. For me it was a regrettable racing accident but the world kept turning, as callous as I am sure that may sound to some people.

With all this in mind then, it has become very hard to deal with my emotions concerning the death of young MotoGP rider, Marco Simoncelli last weekend at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia. Simoncelli lost control of his bike and in the subsequent fall he was hit by two other riders, Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards. Simoncelli was pronounced dead within the hour, unable to recover from the injuries sustained. Another, it would seem, regrettable racing accident. If this was just another terrible day in the litany of motor racing tragedies why do I still feel such utter sadness when faced with pictures or tributes to Simoncelli?

By my own admission I am not an enormous MotoGP fan. I have watched a lot of races and I can tell from numbers or helmet designs who the top 5 or 6 riders are but to call myself an avid watcher would be patently untrue. In the last few years I have become friends with a few biker and as a result of this I have even more respect for the men who race these two-wheeled behemoths. The danger of the sport has been brought home to me in vivid detail over a beer in the pub with these friends. As a person who grew up surrounded by four-wheeled motor sport I almost took driver’s safety for granted as technology moved forward. The very act of riding a motorcycle means that the rider is in degrees of danger for large amounts of the of his or her time in the saddle and this is vastly increased when placed in a racing environment.

As my respect grew for the riders of MotoGP I began to take more notice of their personalities off the track. Casey Stoner loves a moan, Jorge Lorenzo knows how to celebrate a win properly and Marco Simoncelli? Well, he was just a stone-cold nutcase. Routinely criticised by other riders for being too dangerous on the track. Far too big to ride a race bike and a hairdo the likes of which we hadn’t seen in professional sport since the Brazilian World Cup squad of 1974, what a man he was.

I am not going to pretend I knew just how good he was but talking to those who know the sport inside out he was destined for great things. I had watched an interview with Marco after the Australian Grand Prix , a week before his death, where he had just finished in second place, his highest MotoGP result. It genuinely seemed that he was moving on to bigger and better things and I think this is where the root of my sadness lies, it was such a waste of an outrageous talent.

Any loss of life in these circumstances is tragic but when it happens to someone yet to fulfill their potential completely it is somehow harder to bear. The deaths of people like Senna and Wheldon are absolutely awful but the saving grace, if any, was that they has reached the pinnacle of their chosen sports with titles and big race wins. With Simoncelli we will never know just how good he could have been and for that reason, personally, I feel this loss enormously.

Haye We Go Again.

Apparently, one definition of madness is to repeat the same actions over and over whilst expecting different results. I found myself thinking about this as I read an auto-translated version of David Haye’s recent interview with German newspaper Die Welt this morning. David Haye, I’m sure you know the chap. He was the man who was going to knock out Wladimir Klitschko and then retire back in July.

I would imagine you are all aware that is not quite how the story panned out. Haye was by no means entirely embarrassed in the fight. He just singularly failed to live up to almost every pre-match boast he had made. The icing on the cake of that particular evening was the assertion from Haye that a broken little toe had cost him the fight. However, David isn’t the first fighter to make a himself look stupid and he won’t be the last. The trick with these situations is to make sure you learn from them and don’t let it happen again. Except, like Bill Murray waking up to find that Andie MacDowell still isn’t next to him, here we are again. Groundhog Day!

It would appear that Vitali Klitschko, (fresh from his late stoppage of Tomasz Adamek on Saturday) and David Haye are close to agreeing a fight. After Haye’s loss to Wladimir there seemed to be an immediate suggestion that the “definite” retirement would be put on hold. Bearing in mind that retirements in boxing are often seen as a mere sabbatical, the prospect of seeing ‘The Hayemaker’ back in the ring doesn’t come as an enormous surprise. Sadly, another thing that hasn’t shocked me today is the fact that Haye doesn’t seem at all chastened by his experience on that wet night in Hamburg back in July.

Haye describes last Saturday’s fight in which Klitschko beat Adamek, (like Haye, a former cruiserweight) as boring. I have no problem with that. I wasn’t exactly on the edge of my own seat either. Haye goes on to claim that a fight between him and Vitali would be more exciting. Really? The last time I was genuinely excited by a David Haye fight was over three years ago when he fought Enzo Maccarinelli. Fighting at heavyweight has robbed him of the fear factor he used to hold over boxers at cruiserweight. Monte Barrett knocked Haye down and since then he’s fought on the back foot. People might point to the Audley Harrison fight as evidence against this but we all know that bout was an utter farce and Harrison belonged nowhere near that ring. Wobbling Nikolai Valuev, whilst impressive, doesn’t make you a supreme knockout artist. In fact, it’s worth noting that despite being labelled a devastating puncher Haye has only ever knocked out three opponents. The south London boxer has stopped a lot of fighters but whilst he’s criticising Vitali for failing to knock out the likes of Adamek and Shannon Briggs Haye might like to cast a look over his own record.

In the interview David goes on to criticise Vitali’s choice of opponents. The same man who fought Audley Harrison and John Ruiz has the temerity to suggest that the older Klitschko sibling goes for easy opposition. The more I read of the interview the more I found myself getting annoyed but then I cast my mind back to an interview Haye did before the Wladimir fight with BBC 5 Live’s Sportsweek. At the time Haye was asked about the trash talking element of his promotions. His general response seemed to show a belief that all the great boxers did it and fighters who didn’t try to belittle their opponents got nowhere. I think it’s fair to say that many people’s choice for today’s pound for pound King, Manny Pacquiao might disagree.

It was suggested to me earlier that Haye is only behaving like this to secure and subsequently sell a fight with Vitali. While this may be true I am not sure it is entirely necessary. Whatever anyone thinks of David Haye he is still probably the third best heavyweight in world boxing today, the fight sells itself. If anything Haye is danger of putting people off. Trainer Bobby Rimmer remarked a while ago that David had been pulling the wool over people’s eyes and I would have to agree. First with the Harrison fight and then again with the Wladimir match up, shouting his mouth off, promising XYZ and then struggling to deliver half of X. Fans are getting tired of hearing it and a number of them remarked to me that they would be going against the habit of a lifetime and actively supporting a British fighter’s opponent should this bout happen.

Going back to the issue of selling the fight. A match between Haye and Vitali would sell out most arenas, promotion or not and assuming Sky Sports show the bout then pay-per-view figures are no longer an issue. Sky’s decision to suspend pay-per-view boxing broadcasts are almost certainly as a result of fighters like Haye not delivering PPV standard bouts and cards. All of this means that David could quite easily make this fight and then keep his head down and train. Personally I would love to see a British heavyweight world champion again and with his undoubted ability and career so far you would have to say that Haye probably does deserve it. The problem for me is that his mouth gets in the way and until that changes I’m afraid that I will always be hoping to see him eat his words.

Die Welt interview with David Haye.

This is a Google-translation of an interview with David Haye. It appeared this morning on the website of German newspaper Die Welt, (the orginal can be viewed here). I didn’t write any of this and am not claiming that I did in any way, I just wanted to share it. The original author is a journalist called Gunnar Meinhardt.

The World: Mr. Haye, you will have seen Vitali’s title defense?

David Haye: Of course, along with my trainer Adam Booth.

The World: And?

David Haye: I nearly went to sleep, because the fight was boring. The only exciting moment was the moment when Vitali suddenly in the eighth round on the ground.

The World: Was not that Klitschko has boxed convincing?

David Haye: Who saw this way, the old man wants to flatter. In fact, he looked very weak. He was slow, had no real concept and pumped like a bug. I saw nothing spectacular. Adamek was being tailored for Klitschko.

The World: What prompted you to for this assertion?

David Haye: Adamek got his head away not moved poorly and had no clout. Vitali has been clever, he always seeks out only dead victims. Opponents such as Shannon Briggs, the old, sick and übern mountain, or how Adamek to him because of his physical inferiority can not do anything. To shine against such types, this is no big deal.

The World: Harsh words, Mr. Haye. Why do you always have to blaspheme?

David Haye: I do not blaspheme, but telling you my opinion. And I think it’s an indictment of Vitali, if he can send the Briggs and Adamek not even right to the ground. The have even managed Steve Cunningham and Chad Dawson, who are not heavyweights. I had expected that Vitali makes two, three laps. I will still tell a, Vitali has a hard punch. This is ridiculous.

The World: The Vitali defeated opponents see very differently.

David Haye: You were also no serious challenger. It is also claimed that Wladimir has a deadly punch. This supposed best punch I’ve put away without what happened. These brothers are a bunch of fakes. I can assure you that Vitali beats hit me and certainly not around!

The World: So you’re saying that you would ask him?

David Haye: Yeah, I’m ready for him.

The World: So you are not – as announced – on her 31st Birthday on 13 October’s career end?

David Haye: I did indeed say that I at my 31st Birthday wishes to stop. But I never said that I would like to end with a defeat. If I had won against Vladimir, definitely would have been concluded. If Vitali is a coward but to surrender, I remain in my decision and I hear on 13 October definitively.

The World: And do you seriously believe, to have a chance against him?

David Haye: I hit him whacked I told him smash his chin when he holds out as provocative as the fight against Adamek. But I think Vitali will run away from me.

The World: You’re a loudmouth. They prophesied the same thing before the duel with Vladimir, and nothing has happened.

David Haye Wladimir is but also ran away when I was trying to beat. Or he clutched and pulled me to the ground. Unfortunately the referee had to go through all that was an impertinence. Vitali has indeed harder eggs, but also he is a scared rabbit.

The world: they are a genuine provocateur.

David Haye: Again, I tell you what I think. However, the good in a fight against Vitali would be that he tries not like his brother, to cling to and keep his opponent when it strikes hard. I guarantee: Vitali against it would be a much more exciting fight.

The world: they are but also how one nursed Adamek cruiserweight, much lighter and smaller than Vitali.

David Haye: Sure I can have physical handicaps, but unlike all the other punching me. I hit harder than the two brothers together. I am also much faster, more agile and much, much harder to hit.

The World: Vitali has already signaled that he was disrespectful to your behavior against the brothers have a special need to knock you. He said: “If Haye is lying unconscious on the floor can also be a broken toe no longer serve as an excuse.”

David Haye: Then he should report to my management and bagged the contract. He has the contact details. I’m waiting for him and urge him on: Vitali, introduce yourself, if you’re a man! I do not care where I box against him. I’m also on the moon. No fight in the heavyweight division will bring more publicity than the old Haye against Klitschko. I am the most popular heavyweights of the planet, and I can earn the most money.

The World: How long would you wait for Vitali’s commitment?

David Haye Wladimir wants to fight in December, we could, in February or March in the ring. That would be an ideal time. But still I can not imagine that Vitali has the courage. If you do, I guarantee to send him into retirement. He will fight and never again able to devote himself full time to politics.

The World: Have you any idea how you would promote the fight?

David Haye: This would require not a lot of words. I guess they know the saying: “You can not teach an old dog new tricks” (you can teach an old dog new tricks – dR). Vitali is an old dog that normally he belongs in the home for elderly Boxers.

The World: Have you ever been recovered from the defeat against Wladimir, who is also the world champion of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) is?

David Haye: Yeah, everything’s okay.

The World: Even your small right toe, which they had broken in training before the match with Vladimir?

David Haye: Also, the theme is history.

The World: What do you do now?

David Haye: I relax. I was just four weeks in Montego Bay in Jamaica, have spent much time there with Lennox Lewis. We’ve talked a lot about Wladimir and Vitali. Lennox has also given me tips on how I can beat Vitali.

The World: Has he seen Vitali’s fight?

David Haye: Yeah, and he had no other opinion than I do. He also said that Vitali is old and slow and only searches from opponents, who may not be dangerous. Lennox really want to see the fight between me and Vitali. When it comes to that, he is in my corner. He has promised me.

Nice to UFC you.

Glee, Water Polo, adults collecting stuffed toy animals. The list of things I don’t ‘get’ is an ever-expanding one. Until recently the sport of mixed martial arts held about as much interest for me as bog snorkelling. The octagon in which fights take place appeared to merely be a stage for two men wearing cycling shorts to try to strangle each other. This lack of interest has nothing to do with finding the violence abhorrent, far from it. I have been a boxing fan since the 80s and have no problem with watching two consenting adults trying to knock lumps out of each other. No, the truth was that I found MMA boring.

As with so many things these days it was Twitter that acted as the catalyst for viewing the sport in a different light. Micro-blogging has introduced me to a wider world of MMA and the UFC. The UFC appears to be the pinnacle of mixed martial arts, the best of the best if you like, (with less Chris Penn and Eric Roberts, sadly). Conversations with people whose opinions I respect led to taking more of an interest in what many refer to as the fastest growing sport on the planet.

One of the main MMA tub-thumpers I had encountered on Twitter was sports writer Simon Head. Simon writes for, among others, the Mirror’s MMA blog and was extremely helpful in pointing me in the right direction when it came to learning about the UFC. One of the first things he showed me was a montage that is updated and shown before every big UFC event. When I first saw this clip I realised that there was a lot more to the sport than grappling on the floor, Greco-Roman style and it really got the ball rolling. Watching a few old fights shown on Five late at night just reiterated the fact that I had probably got it wrong about MMA. When I finally got round to subscribing to ESPN, (the UK’s broadcaster for UFC events) I was very excited to find out that, (with unintentionally perfect timing) I would be able to watch UFC 134, live from Rio De Janeiro.

From watching UFC president Dana White’s video blog to listening to the excellent ESPN UFC podcast with Gareth A. Davies I had tried to fill in some of the many blanks in my knowledge. When the time came to get up at 1:45 that morning I felt I had a somewhat better understanding of what to expect.

As the night progressed what impressed me most was the boxing skills of the combatants involved. This was a result of a daft assumption on my part that as all fights ended up on the ground, (they don’t) the training given over to boxing was minimal. One of the biggest surprises of the night for me was the fight between Brendan ‘The Hybrid’ Schaub and Antonio ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira. I had been led to belive that Schaub’s biggest chance of victory was to stay off the floor and hope to land some of his renowned big punches. It took just over 3 minutes to prove this theory wrong. ‘Big Nog’ Nogueira, a man whose record shows a love of submission holds turned the tables on Schaub and knocked him bandy with a huge left hook. Despite being only a little over 2 years older than me Nogueira looks old enough to be my Dad and he’d out Schaub-ed Schaub.

A lot is made in the mainstream media of the brutality of MMA. The term cage-fighting is often used to, in my opinion, paint a more dangerous picture of the UFC and its fellow organisations than necessary. That said, there is one aspect of the fights that took some getting used to. In boxing when a fighter goes down his opponent is sent to a neutral corner . It came as a slight shock each time a fighter in Rio pounced immediately on a fallen foe. It is a very well refereed sport though and the phrase ‘intelligently defend yourself’ is one I have heard repeatedly. If the referee thinks you are not defending yourself properly the bout is stopped. Only once was I genuinely concerned over a fighter’s wellbeing and that was when Forrest Griffin was stopped early by Shogun Rua after having his head bounced off the canvas by repeated hammer fists. Happily, Griffin was soon on his feet and seemed to show no lasting damage.

On we went to the main event of the evening, Silva vs Okami. There has been plenty written about Anderson Silva by far more qualified people than me. The best compliment I can give the middleweight champion is that, in victory it looked as though the fight ended exactly when Silva chose it to end. There was a consummate control innate in all elite sports men and women and it was a real joy to watch him fight. It seemed the perfect way to end my first real experience of watching an MMA show.

So that was it. I had watched and thoroughly enjoyed mixed martial arts for the first time. My initial was thought was, yes, but they can’t all be this good though. Can they? The answer it would appear is yes, it can. Judicious match making allied to a seemingly real desire to provide the fans with entertainment. These are just some of the driving forces behind this sport. Boxing is too often concerned with the ’main event’. They use a big fight as a crutch to load weak bills on to, assuming that fans won’t want to bother with the smaller fights anyway. The UFC is proof that you can have a stacked card and it takes absolutely nothing away from the headline bout. In an era where boxing is losing fans hand over fist it could learn a lesson from Dana White and the not so new kids on the block.