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The Importance of Sport (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Mick Harper
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People do think I'm a dick. I'm ambivalent about this since (a) people always think people who disagree with them are dicks and (b) I am actually a bit of a dick.
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Mick Harper
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Man City 1 Inter 0

Since BT never offers half-hour highlights of important games -- only ninety-minute ones! -- I was obliged to watch this in the full. It seemed to be surprisingly physical but otherwise was a routine Man City total possession performance. So routine that I switched to the double speed version allowed by the Virgin digibox. Even this found my attention wandering. I realised that I didn't even particularly care about the outcome since (a) I knew City would win and (b) it would actually be better in some ways if they didn't. I only looked up the score this morning. 1-0 sounds as if I didn't miss much.

England note: It appears that Grealish is now definitely to be preferred to Foden.
Pedants note: Referring to Inter-Milan is like referring to Arsenal-London. Pedant? Pedants? Pedant's? Pedants'? Pedantic?
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Wile E. Coyote


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Mick wrote:
you having the same condition is interesting. In such a small sample and such a rare disorder, decisive even.


We actually have a few people who annoyingly keep forgetting who posted what, I would name them if only I could remember who they were.
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Mick Harper
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I formally challenge this. Post up your evidence (of posts).
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Wile E. Coyote


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It's Bellingham to Real Madrid, Rice to maybe Arsenal,. Manchester United are pursuing Mount. Stones is looking like a central holding midfielder (what Wiley calls a fake sweeper) because he has to ignore the vogue for heading to a bigger team as he is already in the best. Good for him.
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Mick Harper
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It'll be great if Bellingham, Rice and Mount all play regularly in their respective first teams -- I'm speaking from the general perspective of watching good footballers as well as parochially from an England point of view. Stones, as you indicate, requires a more complex analysis.

As a centre half he was mainly not in the City team but often in the England team. Now, he appears to be a regular as a Guardiola odds-and-sods man in the middle of the park but towards the back (to use the technical term) but has no chance of playing this role(s) in the England set-up. So if he plays as a stopper-for-England (as we call contraceptives round my way), he'll be right out of practice (as this woman was saying to me quite recently).
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Wile E. Coyote


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He will be in the England team, as he has become what Gareth Southgate always aspired to be.
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Mick Harper
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That's a very good point. He was a real bits-and-pieces player too, wasn't he? In fact I'm going to write a monograph "The Role of Projective Identification in the Selection Policies of Football Managers." [Marissa: find out where Pep Guardiola played? No, not in Spain, on the pitch.]
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Mick Harper
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Rum carryings-on at the York Hall. Our old friend the Norfolk Nightmare was in action early doors and it was early doors for his opponent. Then we had a series of fights between unbeaten British prospects and saggy elderly foreigners with records of twelve-and-umpteen. I won't bother you with the results, you may have got there before me.

Then we had a genu-wine IBO European title fight. Except the Umbrian challenger was looking round for his mammy during the ref's instructions, got knocked down three times in the opening round and was wandering round the ring like a drunken Umbrian until the ref took pity on him and told him to box on. His corner had to throw in the towel on his behalf. He flinched. The towel came that close.

Top o' the bill was the one we had all been waiting for. Unbeaten David Adeleye, from Ladbroke Grove, defending his Euro-heavyweight crown against a tough Serb. (Ain't they all.) Adele (as we don't call him to his face) couldn't live closer to me if he was kipping in my spare bedroom. Which he's welcome to, the card in the newsagents says, "No blecks except genuine contenders." Suffice it to say the Serb wishes he'd stayed in the war-torn Balkans. But, and it's a small but, just because Dave's my idol doesn't prevent me pointing out he's the dirtiest, sneakiest fighter from round here now my sister's retired.
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Mick Harper
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Tough At The Top

De Bruyne’s eldest son, Mason, who is seven, is a huge Haaland fan and even has the same hairstyle. “All three of my children have long hair, I see it with the kids at my son’s school. They all have hair like that," De Bruyne said, as he reflected on no longer being the No 1 player in his own household. Guardian

Become a recluse, Kev! I never have this problem.
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Mick Harper
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Tough at the Bottom

Leeds are on course to be under new, North American ownership after the 49ers Enterprises agreed a full takeover of the Championship club on Friday night, from Andrea Radrizzani, now part of a consortium currently completing the purchase of the Italian club Sampdoria Guardian

This sounds like good news. American owners are always vastly to be preferred to Italian ones. But we've just found out with Chelsea this might not be true after all. So what's this?

49ers Enterprises has valued Leeds at £170m. Had they retained Premier League status last month, that price would have been around £400m.

Blimey, they're dafter than the Chelsea moneymen if they think the underlying value of a football club is dictated by whether they've just been relegated or not. What was it Don Revie used to say? "Fucking hell."
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Mick Harper
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The big problem in world cricket at the moment is trying to persuade cricketers to play in test matches (for relatively low money) rather than in limited over tourneys (for relatively large amounts). The apogee of test cricket has just been reached with a match between India and Australia, ranked one and two after the most recent cycle of series.

Dunno who won, I'm never interested unless England are playing, but I was interested in what happened next. The World Cricket Bigwigs (WCB) confiscated the Indian players' match fees for slow play, and eighty per cent of the Australians' dosh for the same offence. That's not what interested me -- remunerating cricketers sufficiently to play test matches is their business -- what I want to know is how anyone noticed slow play in a test match?

PS What about squad members who didn't get to play? They must have been paid to be there but surely aren't responsible for the slow play, so cannot be fined. Being rewarded more for not playing than playing is the chief problem facing test match cricket at the moment.
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Mick Harper
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Thank God the season is over and we can get back to what's important, the transfer window. Harry Kane is facing a ticklish problem. He is worth a hundred million plus on the open market and, with only a year left on his contract and no chance of him renewing, it is expected that Daniel 'The Levy' Levy will have to let him go. "And don't forget," said one of the pundits on Sky Sports Transfer Special [8 and 10 am, 2, 4, 7 and 10 pm daily] "Kane is thirty in a few weeks so his value is only going to go down." He's missed the point. Even if Harry is only worth eighty million plus in a year's time, he will be out of contract by then so the eighty million is all his.

You feel sorry for Daniel Levy sometimes, don't you? No, go on, make the effort.
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Mick Harper
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"Arsenal are in pole position for Declan Rice."
"If they can fend off Man City"
"My understanding is the family are reluctant to leave London."
"There's not many clubs that can afford the money, that's for sure."

The big question for the whole transfer window is "Who can?" Chelsea have already spent, Levi at Spurs never spends, Man City have got a FIFA enquiry looming and can't hide any more money, leaving Man Utd, Liverpool and Newcastle. Abroad (i.e. not in England) Real Madrid are still big in the market but Barcelona aren't. PSG and Bayern can still walk the walk and maybe an Italian club or two.

That's a pretty thin market. If I was a wantaway football star (which I am absolutely one hundred and ten per cent not) I'd be worried. Not for myself, you understand, but for my agent. That's not many opportunities for a fly-and-dine. And they're going to have to sit a written FIFA exam in October if they want to carry on as agents. My agent can't even write a letter. Leastways not in the last few years.
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Mick Harper
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Who will win the men’s Ashes this summer? Virgin Media Edit

They're playing too? Good-oh.
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