Seen out and about

"It is an absolute privilege to be going out with someone who is likely to play a pivotal role in the future of this great club. I believe Lucia's father has a shedload of cash which he is going to invest so that the club can continue to pay my modest wages. I would prefer however of he gave it to me direct, as I shun, and at times despise, the behaviour of these modern-day football agents with their 10% for negotiations and advice"

Marouane Fellaini, January 2012.

The African Cup of Nations

Peculiarly the African Cup of Nations importance as a football event is measured more by the influence it has on Premiership squads in late January / early February rather than on the quality or otherwise of the tournament itself.

This year’s event, which kicks off on 21 January has an additional (if minor) point of interest in that it will be the first continental championship for nations which will feature a player who played virtually all of his football in the League of Ireland.

Although he may currently be contracted to an Iranian club, Eamon Zayed has played 224 games in the League of Ireland, scoring 101 goals on the way. Most recently with Derry City, he has also played for Bray Wanderers, Drogheda United and Sporting Fingal.

Zayed broke into the Libyan national squad in October 2010 and has played four games for them since then, a friendly against Niger, followed by three games at the Pan Arab Games in December against Sudan, Palestine and Jordan. The latter three have come after the liberation of the country so it would appear that any political or power changes that have come post-Gaddafi have not impacted his chances of selection.

The national team donned new colours for the first game under the new transitional regime in a 1-0 African Cup of Nations qualifying victory over Mozambique on 3 September 2011, a game played behind closed doors at a neutral venue in Cairo, Egypt. One gets the feeling that an inspirational team talk by the manager would not have been needed for this one and it is a testimony to the power of football that in the middle of a fierce civil war, the organisation was able to fulfil the fixture and move a step closer to qualification.

An added interest in the competition this ear then - while it appears that he has not yet cemented a starting position in the team, here’s hoping that the “little Z” gets a run.

So you think you can tell Heaven from Hell

Hard to think that Pink Floyd could have produced anything better than Dark Side of the Moon but they did - the title song to their subsequent album is probably their finest piece. A lament to the departed Syd Barrett on his downward slide into depression. Close the office door and put this on high - then get back to work. You'll feel better for it.

Romance of the Cup, Leeds and the Punt

It’s FA Cup third round again and a weekend that is close to all our hearts. It was the weekend that brought the potential promise that your football season would be rejuvenated through an extended cup run, and maybe even a live televised appearance at Wembley in May. You could forget about the home defeats to Crystal Palace and Derby in the League, your mid-table mediocrity, and even the League Cup exit at Middlesboro (after two replays).

The Cup was here and the draw might be favourable.

This weekend it’s Spurs home to Cheltenham, Everton home to Tamworth and Chelsea home to Portsmouth – three home bankers surely.

So what of Leeds?

Last year we lamented the luck of the draw for them as they drew in North London for the second year running and lost the home replay by 3-1. Well what have they gone and done but drawn the Arse away again. Two years in a row.

It’s going to take a real shock for them to progress to round 4 but then again they’re no strangers to shocks. Man United 1-0 away in 2010 with Mike swinging from the rafters springs to mind. But so too sadly does 0-1 to Sunderland in 1973 and arguably even more notably this eventful day:





















Colchester United 2-3 on the 13th February 1971, two days before decimalisation.

I have memories of using the “new money” for the first time, on a Monday, upstairs on the number 5 bus. To this day I believe I was short changed and the accountant in me hasn’t lived well with that fact since. However all was not gloom as Leeds, the prior season League Champions and Cup runners-up, had been dumped out of the FA Cup by Colchester United of the Fourth Division over the weekend and that by extrapolation increased our own chances. A hope which ultimately proved to be short-lived (Liverpool 0-1).

So here we are in 2012, and a potential currency change only weeks away again. Welcome back to the decimalised punt – we missed you – like Leeds you deserve to be there with the finest – with Ted Heath’s sterling in the First Division. Go start the rehabilitation at the Emirates.

Ten people I'd love to have met - Lee Miler

Often think about the question "Who in the world, living or dead, would you have liked to have met and why?"

I decided to work through this issue over time and list the top ten on CD&B - in no particular order, all the more so as the list is not yet fully compiled at this point in time.

So here goes with No: 1 - Lee Miller the American photographer.

Probably most notably remembered for a photograph which she did not take - of her sitting in Hitler's bath in his Munich apartment not long after the Allied troops liberated the city in April 1945 - Miller was born in 1907 and established an early career in modelling, appearing on the cover of Vogue at the age of 20.

















Her interest in photography came from her father and between the wars she worked in the industry in Paris, Cairo and London. When the WWII broke out she became a photojournalist as the official war photographer for Vogue documenting the Blitz, and was enlisted into the U.S. Army as a war correspondent for Condé Nast Publications from December 1942.

Miller entered France a month after D-Day and recorded the first use of napalm at the siege of St. Malo, the liberation of Paris, the battle for Alsace, and the horror of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. The photograph of her in Hitler's bath was supposedly one of her washing away the dirt from the Dachau deathcamps.





















The photographs taken by her are remarkable in that not only do they allow us to see the true horrors that were perpetrated by the Nazi regime and by war in general, but they are superb feats of technical skill in the age when the routine processes behind photographic reproduction were alien to what we know now. She also dared to be there.





















Above : László Bardossy, Fascist ex-Prime Minister of Hungary, Facing the Firing Squad, Budapest, Hungary 1946

So why the appeal or fascination - after all I could as easily have chosen Karl Mydans or Robert Capa or another of the great war photographers - yes, true, it is probably because she was a woman and a beautiful one at that, but there's also the sense of spirit that embraced travel, adventure and danger - she was probably lucky enough to have these options or choices available to her but she went ahead and took them.

She died in England in 1977.

Racism in football - Liverpool?

Contrast the behaviour of Liverpool and Chelsea in recent weeks in reacting to the allegations of racism against one of their players. While Chelsea did the correct thing in not commenting, and preventing their players from wearing shirts proclaiming Terry's innocence, Liverpool allow their misguided players to take the field with t-shirts in support of Suarez. The club also comes out in support of the player with an official statement which has a worrying underlying tone of victimisation against them in the handling of the matter by the FA.

Any deep-lying fondness I had towards towards Liverpool as a club is quickly being eroded with their current crop of representatives - a board which won't condemn racism; a manager who is becoming as blinkered and biased as Wenger by the day; and a legion of ineffectual superstars who continually fail to live up to their promise.

This club needs to stop living off the flawed heritage of the earthy "bootroom", the perceived social injustices inflicted on its' long-suffering supporters (the boys from the black stuff) and more recently the sympathy evoked as a result of the Hillsborough tragedy.

Get real and face up to your responsibilities - Suarez needs to answer for his actions.


Liverpool statement:

“LFC considers racism in any form to be unacceptable – without compromise. It is our strong held belief, having gone over the facts of the case, that Luis Suarez did not commit any racist act.

Ed - surely their assessment would be a little one-sided?

“It is also our opinion that the accusation by [Evra] was not credible – certainly no more credible than his prior unfounded accusations. It is key to note that Patrice Evra himself in his written statement in this case said ‘I don’t think that Luis Suarez is racist’. The FA in their opening remarks accepted that Luis Suarez was not racist.

Ed - the issue is not whether, or to what degree Suarez is a racist -it is whether he committed a racist act.

“It appears to us that the FA were determined to bring charges against Luis Suarez, even before interviewing him at the beginning of November. Nothing we have heard in the course of the hearing has changed our view that Luis Suarez is innocent of the charges brought against him and we will provide Luis with whatever support he now needs to clear his name.

Ed - the "victim" card.

“We would also like to know when the FA intend to charge Patrice Evra with making abusive remarks to an opponent after he admitted himself in his evidence to insulting Luis Suarez in Spanish in the most objectionable of terms. Luis, to his credit, actually told the FA he had not heard the insult.”

Ed - a valid point maybe, but what relevance to the Suarez case?

Happy New Year

Been a bit quiet towards the end of last year so it's time to get blogging again. Firstly best wishes to all our readers in Mount Merrion, Sandymount, Brussels and Blackrock for the New year.

I look forward to continuing the banter and even more so to our next Premiership trip to meet an as yet unidentified star who lost in the final of the FA Cup iin the seventies while we ate pizzas in Sutton.