Dear Misses Layhoon Chan (President FC Valencia),
Dear Mister Joan Ribó i Canut (Mayor Valencia),
Dear board of the Champions League,
As a tourist, I’m always happy to come to Spain to enjoy the hospitality of the Spanish people.
I really love Spain as a country, for his atmosphere, for his people.
So, I was super excited when I saw the draw and we could come to Valencia for the Champions League.
Up to there, my enthusiasm...
Last Tuesday, I really was and I’m still really shocked.
The first hours in Valencia (as a tourist) were great - except the weather :-) - until the ‘police of Valencia’ showed up in large numbers.
The hospitality was suddenly gone.
There was only time to provoke us, to jeer at us, to knock on us without any reason!!
We were really...
Sport
Steve McClaren is yet to win a game since taking charge this summer, and the midweek cup exit has done nothing to improve the atmosphere around the club.
In the wake of Newcastle 's disappointing defeat by Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup, the club's managing director has reached out to fans.
Steve McClaren is yet to win a game since taking charge this summer, and the midweek cup exit has done nothing to improve the atmosphere around the club.
But Lee Charnley, in an open letter to supporters, has called for unity.
Charnley wrote: "We made a pledge to communicate more effectively with you and when we did so, we were aware this must be the case through thick and thin, in the bad times as well as the good."
He added: "There is no hiding from the fact that this has...
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Dear fans of MS Dhoni,
I’m writing you this letter to show my appreciation to you. No, not the ‘fans’ who were abusing him yesterday and are cheering him today; I’m not talking to you lot. And if you are the type of person who will worship the ground he walks on today and stone his house after a failure tomorrow, I urge you to stop reading right now. READ: MS Dhoni: What makes him such a successful batsman?
I’m talking to you, the fans who actually had faith; the ones who stuck by a man who is, in all probability, in the twilight of his international career. This letter is addressed to the ones who knew, deep down, that despite his recent shortcomings Dhoni is not past his prime. The ones who realised that while Dhoni is not the finisher he once was, he still has an integral role to...
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A winning Wales team in a fantastic World Cup gives every one of us the resolve and incentive to push forward to a bright future for the game here.
Warren Gatland has moulded a rugby force at international level which truly inspires us to follow their pathway to success.
The gritty performance against Fiji just four days after an epic win over England shows the rest of us just what can be achieved when expertise and preparation are complemented by pride, determination and courage.
It is timely that tomorrow (Sunday) our clubs will gather at the Vale Resort near Cardiff for the WRU Annual General Meeting where I will call on them to grasp the opportunities ahead.
Hard work across the past year has helped us deliver a record turnover of £64.2m which enabled us to allocate...
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We've seen a lot of footballer's get too big for their boots over recent years. In fact it seems as though they all take cues off of one another when they decide to be difficult.
Now it seems that one time loyal Sam Byram has been watching a little too much of Raheem Sterling and the result is that he's been refusing to sign a new contract. It is sad to me that players will become the perceived talent and talisman of a club and the players reward this status with a reluctance to sign a new deal.
Fans and club a like know that no one is bigger than the club, after these players have been and gone, with their careers fading away into the background the club will long be there.
What is interesting is that a club with a strong youth policy will bring the likes of Byram up from a...
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Dear Michael Vick,
My name is Andrew Yori, but most people call me Roo. I think it's important to start out by letting you know that I was not one of the people opposed to you getting a second chance. I was also not one of the people who called for a boycott of the NFL.
My wife and I did adopt one of the dogs that was rescued from your Virginia property back in 2007 though. The rescuers named him Hector, and he was featured in media across the country. I did my best not to talk out against you throughout the process because I was hoping that you would learn that what you did was wrong, why it was wrong, and become one of the best advocates for the cause.
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Photo: Printz Photography
I knew it was going to be...
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Dear Monsieur le Professeur:
It's been a while since I felt compelled to write you directly and once again, I do so with a heavy Gooner heart. On the face of it, Saturday's high farce at Stamford Bridge shouldn't qualify for a cri de coeur. After all, I'm normally only moved to go public after a goal differential of half a dozen (you know, like 8-2 or 6-0). Mon Dieu!
But in some ways, this weekend's 2-0 laydown to Chelsea is both more embarrassing and more illuminating than our usual epic beatdowns. You see, Arsene, for all the hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing about Diego Costa's WWE-style tactics, Jose Mourinho's gleeful condoning of said antics, Mike Dean's buffoonish refereeing, and Gabriel's staggering naiveté, no one has commented on your role in the fiasco. As much as you like...
3,248
After Aston Villa's recent League Cup match with Birmingham City I read that the Blues boss Gary Rowett had claimed he had been informed of Villa's starting team.
I suppose this sort of thing has been going on for a long time and can be expected, but it still surprises me that there are people who would leak this information...I mean does it really give you an upper hand? and as a professional manager and team wouldn't it be realistic to expect to see a team's strongest offering?
I think that Sherwood dealt with this claim correctly when asked if it was worrying: "Of course it's not. Did he tell you who it was? It's interesting why he even mentioned it. It's strange."
I personally would like for Rowett to have said who leaked the team, whether they were wrong or right, why not...
6,295
I was interested to come across the news that the German International footballer Marcell Jansen had decided to retire from football as he couldn't bring himself to play for another club other than Hamburg.
It raised a few thoughts in me that varied from respecting his loyalty, to disbelief that someone my age could comfortably afford to retire. That isn't to say that Jansen will not go into another profession or even coaching, but perhaps I am just shocked at the actual loyalty that a footballer has shown, after all it does appear to be a rarity!
It was announced that there was nothing wrong with Jansen in regards to his fitness, in fact he had received a lot of great offers from other clubs but continuing to play wasn't an "option" for him, saying:
“In the last few years I was...
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I have long loved the style of Arsenal's play and entirely respect Arsene Wenger for the attacking mentality and fluidity of play that he creates. Of course there will be ups and downs throughout a season and this has been evident over the last few years, but the question on everyones lips is why Arsene isn't willing to spend more?
I completely understand both sides of the argument and I'm going to briefly outline my understanding of them below.
Why he doesn't spend:
- he has faith in his existing squad
- he wants his existing squad to believe they are capable of winning a title without the need of additional players
- he doesn't want to spend
- he likes to develop players rather than buy them in
Why he should spend:
- is he being naive to think he can get away without...
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