"Frank"ly

After taking a minor month long sabattical from the blogging world, watching in dismay Liverpool's results (not so much performance) from the sidelines, I am back to whipping up my thoughts into words. Needless to say, it is the internationals that has got me writing again.

Most of you know my view on international weekends - especially the useless kinds. One of the visible side-effects of these internationals(useless or not) is the unwanted injuries for many players. Somehow, players have a knack of getting injured when they are on international duty. Not surprisingly, a handful of them got injured during/before/after the weekend - Robin Van Persie, John Terry to name a few.

I know it is not right to feel excited when players get injured, but ever so often, fans of rival clubs look out for any injuries for players from fellow rival clubs. Well....

But to be "frank", there is this one particular player who, when he gets injured gives me a personal satisfaction - even though he has done me no harm "intentionally". Well, a lot of his goals were not intended to hit the target either. But.........

I do wish him well though...

A Long Weekend

The EPL took a week long break to accommodate the oldest competition in football - The FA Cup. I didn't mind the FA Cup weekend as there was still football on TV unlike the international weekends, where you hardly get any football on TV.

If you notice, I had mentioned "didn't mind" the FA Cup weekends. Till last year, there were atleast 3 or 4 matches on a Saturday and 2 matches on a Sunday for all to see. So you hardly missed the lack of the EPL, since you still got to see some football. But this weekend, the first weekend of the FA Cup for the big teams(3rd round), there was ONE match shown on Friday, ONE on Saturday and ONE on Sunday.

What has the public done to deserve such a sparse weekend of football on TV? Has the importance of the FA Cup - "The oldest competition in football" - hit rock bottom that the media doesn't care about how many matches they are showing? Or has the credit crunch hit them too, that they cannot afford it?(I don't believe that)

Thank goodness for La Liga, I still got some football this weekend.

Friendlies or Spoilers?

Benitez has been screaming his heart out for quite some time and I think its time the FA gave it a serious thought. Yes, I'm talking about ridiculous international friendlies right in the middle of the season for no reason other than upsetting the managers (Money apart of course). And the effect was there for all to see this past weekend.

When was the last time the top four of La Liga fail to win and the top five of the BPL fail to even score a goal let alone win. All in the same weekend mind you. And all after a bizarre round up of international fixtures last midweek.

This is inevitable.

Most of the footballers have to travel halfway across the world to play in an absolutely baffling friendly and make their way back in a span of 3 days. Now I dont blame them. I would give anything to represent my country. But the after effects are inevitable. They are undoubtedly tired and jaded and most of them hardly turn up for their respective clubs (not literally) the following weekend.

The managers are obviously not pleased about this and they have to make changes and give their players a rest. But this means the team put out may not be the best team and the quality of the game is going to be below par.

Forget the footballers, the managers and even the clubs for a minute. I am talking as a football fan. We deserve some good football during a weekend. Hell, some of us manage to pass the week by the thought of the upcoming football weekend. But would you rather spend your hard-earned money on KFC Chicken(:P) or watch your team give a sluggish performance. If any of you had seen the Middlesbrough-Bolton game this weekend, you will know where I'm coming from. Half the stadium was empty. I was wondering why the other half turned up.

FA....WAKE UP...