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⚽️ TEMPLATE ANALYSIS The end of Manchester United as a football force? 🥅 🏟

16 Sunday Mar 2014

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

When Muhammad Ali was beaten by some one called Trevor Berbick, it was clear that the world of boxing was witnessing the end of an era.
Was the same happening at Old Trafford today where Liverpool outplayed the once mighty side called Manchester United to win 3-0.
There were three penalties – two of which were converted by Steven Gerrard – and the killer blow that ensured David Moyes’ men were out of it was made by their star striker Luis Suarez, who no doubt was the reason for the appearance of Diego Maradona in the crowd.
At least two of the penalties were questionable, but Brendan Rogers’ men had numerous other opportunities against an oppostion that despite fielding Robin Van Persie and the highly paid but sadly overrated Wayne Rooney showed no sparkle.
Currently, the Premier League Champions look a pale shadow of that triumphant side which looked unstoppable for season after season under the stewardship of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Of course, they need major surgery although the haste to sign Wayne Rooney for a massive contract or some of the other additions like Fellaini have not helped David Moyes’ cause.
Whether Van Persie will remain next season despite his claims to wanting to stay is another matter given the likelihood that the current Manchester United side may not even qualify for Europe – unless they win the Champions League title.
So are we looking at the end of an era?
Well, four sides are now clearly breathing and functioning in the absence of the great man. The board at Old Trafford will of course stick with their man but if they are in the same position this time next season and the side will look as hopeless as they did today they will find it difficult to justify keeping the under pressure Moyes.
At the moment, United look a top seven side side will little chance like say Spurs of breaking into the top four. That can change for a team the size of this club with the right signings. And one other thing Aberdeen have just won Scottish Cup, their first trophy since Ferguson left their club for an up and coming one called Manchester United.  Are the Old Trafford faithful who so memorably supported their side today despite an abject performance prepared to wait that long for their next taste of success?

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Protected: Farewell Tony Benn, the Leftwinger who kept the Tories in power

14 Friday Mar 2014

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Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Comment, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, UK, Women

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ARSENAL BLEW IT AGAIN

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

No one gave the Gunners a chance last night as they attempted to overturn a two goal deficit against the European Champions on their home turf.
Surely, lightning doesn’t strike twice, surely last year’s 1-0 win at Bayern Munich was a freak result.
Well, for the first twenty minutes or so it looked like Arsene Wenger’s nearly men were never going to get a sniff of chance at the opposition goal, as the powerful Germans played lockdown.
For the rest of the half Arsenal had their moments but nothing more.
And when Bayern’s Bastien Schweinsteiger grabbed a goal early in the second half, it looked like the floodgates had opened. But then something astonishing happened when the German forward Lukas Podolski literally brushed aside a Bayern defender and fired in the equaliser against his old club.
Podolski had expected to be booked but Arsenal had got back in and the manner had stunned the opposition who like the powerful national side folded now they were under the cosh.
After this Bayern looked ordinary as Arsenal had numerous opportunities to seal the deal. Trouble is they just did not have the quality up front to make that happen.  Mesut Ozil the man who had missed that penalty in the first leg and who could been the made the difference here had been subsituted for the second half of this leg for what later turned out to be a hamstring injury.
It could have been Arsenal’s day – a fact underlined by Bayern’s Thomas Muller missing a penalty in the last minute, after Lukasz Fabianski dived the right way and then dived again to prevent a follow up.
But Arsenal blew it – sure there were positives, Wenger’s men had made the superhuman Germans look ordinary, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was energetic, but he like the rest of the fowards just didn’t make it count.
And with that it another year out of the Champions league for the Premier League’s great underachievers.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Comment, Europe 🇪🇺, Football ⚽️, Sport 🏏 🎾 ⚽️, UK

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS Farewell, Bob Crow, Working Class Hero

11 Tuesday Mar 2014

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ANALYSIS – I have often thought that when I am at the gates of the hereafter,  negotiating an admission into Paradise, that there would be only one man I would call on to argue my case –  Bob Crow, the RMT leader, whose sudden and completely unexpected death, was announced at 11:02 today. Bob Crow was a larger than life figure,  the kind of man that was made for the Trade Union movement,  a man who cut his cloth under that other great and formidable champion of the  working man Arthur Scargill. Quite, what the NUM leader would  think of his protégé’s six figure pay salary and expensive dining and holidaying  habits is of course another matter. But Bob, unlike his mentor, was admired by most – his legions of supporters in the RMT union, as well as his many opponents and political adversaries such as the London Mayor Boris Johnson who was one of the first people to offer his sincere condolences. Except to those national newspapers to whom he was a left wing radical, a member of the Ken Livingstone club, it was rare to hear a bad word said about him – even from London’s long suffering commuters who were at the sharp end of the many RMT strikes to hit the capital. For his opponents respected and understood that at the end of the day, his stand however formidable and trenchant in appearance was only reflecting the wishes and aspirations of his members whose numbers swelled in the decade or so that he became their leader.
So, perhaps the most fitting tribute to come so far, has been from the London Mayor who observes that when it came to settling a dispute he found his ideological opponent to be most the most practical and least extreme of the union leaders that he has crossed swords with.

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Will Pakistan’s army finally pacify its lawless tribes 🇵🇰

07 Friday Mar 2014

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ANALYSIS  – At the beginning of last century when the areas now known as the federally administered territories were under the loose control of the British Empire, Winston Churchill used a new technique to pacify the rebellious tribes – bombing.
The Pathans of the North West Frontier never accepted outside rule then, especially when they were not Muslims.
When the nation of Pakistan was formed they were the first to offer their allegiance to the newly created Islamic republic.
But they never changed their ways and customs – lawlessness is and has always remained part of their way of life.
The question is will they finally behave now that they have the threat of the Pakistan army hanging over them.
Using first rate intelligence and backing it up with a single deadly airstrike or a bullet from an assassin, Pakistan’s military has pushed the ‘Pakistan Taliban’ to the the negotiating table. But the attacks have continued with a horrendous assault on a courtroom in Islamabad which brought today’s warning from Pakistan military that a full scale operation could be launched as early as this month if there is no end to the violence.
The people of Pakistan have already made their feelings clear about what should happen to the so called Tehreek e Taliban, even the politicians are united on this issue.
Only Nawaz Sharif who has attempted to bring them with in the political process has stood in the way.
The first wave of deadly Pakistan operations began after a number of Pakistani soldiers were beheaded by the Taliban. A pause in operations came after the Taliban leadership clearly afraid for their lives announced they were ready to talk.
A splinter group has been blamed for the courthouse attack, but that will not be good enough if there are any further atrocities. The question is of course have the lawless tribes finally got the message.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Asia 🌐, Comment, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, Terrorism, UK

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Russia has sent a message to the outside world

02 Sunday Mar 2014

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ANALYSIS – The pictures unfolding on our television screens show well armed ‘professional’ troops patrolling the key sites of the Crimea.  By all accounts, the atmosphere is calm and everyone is carrying on their daily duties with some waiving Russian flags, others Ukranian. When they are asked whether they are Russian, the troops do not reply. Since the takeover in Kiev, hundreds of such men have arrived in the Crimea and have  occupied key strategic areas. Initially, they were there to protect the Russian speakers who form the majority of the province but the longer they are there the more this looks like a complete takeover of what to Vladimir Putin is a vital part of his nation’s identity. Russia has been accused by the Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen of putting peace at risk in Europe. The US President Barack Obama has threatened Moscow with economic and political sanctions. Ukraine says that Russia has declared war on her, but could the highly dubious government in Kiev really risk more bloodshed against a far bigger and more dangerous bully than the one it fought for its freedom on her own streets? Russia has sent a message to the outside world – it wants to be treated with respect, and part of that includes no lectures on international law from nations that play fast and loose with its principles when it suits them. As for Ukraine, if it wants to continue with the current political state of affairs in Kiev, it will not only lose its cheap gas supplies but also the Crimea.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Comment, Europe 🇪🇺, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, Russia 🇷🇺, Terrorism, USA 🇺🇸

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Could there be a war over Crimea?

01 Saturday Mar 2014

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ANALYSIS – With thousands of Russian troops now reported to be in the Crimea, armed gunmen thought to be Russian in control of Parliament and the governor of the province appealing to the Kremlin for assistance, could we be seeing  conflict unfolding in this vital region along the lines of Georgia?
Those who are quoting international law may find that Moscow is in no mood to be dictated to, given what has gone on in Ukraine and of course the Middle East and North Africa.
Crimea is in Russia’s sphere of influence and anyone who wants to argue with that like the former Georgian President did during that conflict will find themselves out in the cold when looking for allies and like that conflict will guarantee a sealed breakup of the country.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Comment, Europe 🇪🇺, France, Germany 🇩🇪, International News, Politics 💼 🗳 🪖, Russia 🇷🇺, Terrorism, USA 🇺🇸

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🪖 What now for Ukraine – a split in two? 🇷🇺 – 🇺🇦

20 Thursday Feb 2014

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ANALYSIS – When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991,  there was bloodshed, perhaps not as much as feared, but it was still awful with wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia and the attempt by the people of the Caucasus to finally rid themselves of the long bondage of Moscow that resulted in bloody failure. One of the first European nations to emerge free of the old Soviet bonds was of course Poland. And the pictures on our television screens of protesters in Kiev clashing with police, armed with riot gear using live ammunition to disperse the crowds, suggests that that other European nation to a share a border with Russia, called Ukraine, is once again playing out its long struggle for freedom. Of course, Vladimir Putin for whom the collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical disaster of the end of the last century is not going to let go of a country where he has stationed his Black Sea fleet for another 100 years and where Russian speakers form a majority towards the east anymore than he was going to let go of Chechnya. But this time he faces a powerful foe namely the European Union backed by the US who will not tolerate the kind of widespread and indiscriminate slaughter by ‘security forces’ that was witnessed in the killing fields of Grozny. So, is a split inevitable and would that be the best solution?
Western commentators clearly think so, whilst those from Russia don’t think there’s anything to talk about – President Victor Yanakovich has been urged to do his job properly namely disperse the crowds of Nazis, thugs and hooligans that are being trained by the West and who have been warned to stay away from the Crimea.
And of course, there’s the nationalists who are now on the streets spilling blood as well as attacking the police and who would never accept the breakup of their country. Ukraine may be the last European nation to break free of Russia but it is going to come at an awful cost.

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Why Premier League sides don’t cut it in Europe

20 Thursday Feb 2014

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

There was a depressing familiarity to Arsenal’s defeat to Bayern Munich at the Emirates stadium last night.
Arsene Wenger’s men are currently sitting near the top of the Premier League where they have been for most of the season, and yet that didn’t matter when faced with the current European champions.
Like Manchester City the night before, Arsenal were taught a lesson by the German Champions who many argue are a stronger side this season than the one that destroyed Barcelona in the last.
After a strong start the Germans took full advantage of a penalty miss by Mesut Ozil in the first half to put the game out of Arsenal’s reach in the second with goals from the highly rated Toni Kroos and Thomas Muller.
Arsenal like City face an uphill struggle when they leave the comfort of their own turf for the second leg of this tie.
Already, winning this competition looks well out of their reach, and that of Manuel Pellegrini’s side whose outstanding performances in the Premier League now looked to have flattered to deceive.
Of course, the impartial observer can’t wait to see Pep Guardiola’s German side face the Spanish side he built up into the European Champions.
But that still leaves the English sides who are at the moment a yard short when they line up against the European elite.
And that doesn’t bode well for England’s chances in the World Cup later this year – or for the chances of any Premier League manager like David Moyes who is hoping to attract talent like Toni Kroos to a team that was once called Manchester United.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Comment, Europe 🇪🇺, Football ⚽️, Sport 🏏 🎾 ⚽️

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TEMPLATE REPORT: Barcelona teach Manchester City a lesson

18 Tuesday Feb 2014

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TEMPLATE REPORT

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Etihad Stadium

MANCHESTER CITY 0 BARCELONA 2

Just how good and how far have Manchester City come this season – that was the question on everyone’s mind as the blues took on Lionel Messi and the highly rated and much respected side called Barcelona at the Etihad Stadium tonight.
In the first half, City had the best of the chances despite the dominance of Barcelona who played in the way that they have done so often, possession followed by more possession, wearing down the opposition through silky passes that called on the hometeam to chase after the ball.
In the second half though, the game was out of City’s reach once Messi had slotted in a penalty following an advance that reduced the Premier League’s most exciting side to ten men.
The second goal from Danni Alves in the 90th minute ensured that there would be no way back in the second leg of this tie.
Barcelona are virtually threw to the quarter finals and they had not even got out of first gear – remaining throughout the nintety three minutes compact, assured and ever dangerous when given a sniff of a chance.
City were taught a lesson today by a side that is used to success at the highest level. The team that has dazzled us all in the Premier League were outclassed in a game their opponents never looked like losing.
And still they will be many who will question whether Barcelona have what it takes to win this competition.

Posted by | Filed under Analysis 🙌, Comment, Europe 🇪🇺, Football ⚽️, Sport 🏏 🎾 ⚽️

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