Thoughts on This and That

So, City were relegated yesterday. The 3-0 hammering at Chesterfield merely dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s, we were obviously going down after losing to Orient last week, but it still hurt when it happened or, more accurately, the lamentable lack of fight and effort from the players did. At least our supporters, and those of also relegated Chesterfield, accepted our fate with dignity, which is more than can be said about some followers of the other West Yorkshire side who effectively went down at the same time.

It’s futile stuff playing the blame game, and a major contributor is still the “drag” of Geoffrey Richmond’s legacy at VP, but the current chairman has to take his share of the blame for a string of poor decisions, and the current bunch of players (the worst Bradford City side I have ever seen by some distance) are also largely culpable. From a purely playing point of view Colin Todd is still the biggest reason IMO, his decision to rely on loanees, appalling fitness levels, crap tactics and the state of the dressing room in terms of cliques, lack of belief and confidence consigned us to our fate.

It’s best to try and look forward, though I am a little fearful that we could end up in the same boat of another of Richmond’s former clubs Scarborough, who played their last ever game yesterday before being wound-up, the fact that we no longer own our own stadium is the biggest worry - having to pay rent on a Premiership sized stadium when we are in League Two and bringing in League Two income will be even more crippling than it has been in League One, and to make up for that the playing budget will have to be cut which will mean poor quality players and a vicious circle I am struggling to see an escape from.

Julian Rhodes’ decision to implement the £138 season ticket scheme for next season is either brave or foolish, and possibly both, and the response to it from the public will be crucial. To aid that response a positive managerial appointment is a must, but we are hardly an attractive draw for anyone, so who we will end up with I just don’t know.

An interesting summer lies ahead, I can but hope that we have now “bottomed out”, but plenty thought that after Premiership relegation in 2001, and relegation from what is now the Championship in 2004. Conference by 2010 anyone?

So, the cricket world cup finally came to an end yesterday, the tournament seemingly going on forever only to end up producing the outcome that most would have predicted and expected before it started.

OK, you can’t blame the organisers for the death of Bob Woolmer casting a giant shadow, or Australia winning the thing, but the length and format were ridiculous, and the early elimination of two of the biggest nations in the competition India and Pakistan, for one shock loss each, led to an uncompetetive and everlasting “super eight” stage with wasters like Ireland, Bangladesh and England receiving hammerings galore. I don’t begrudge the so-called “lesser” countries getting their chance, but the set-up ensured that it was to the detriment of the competition as a whole.

I also look back on the tournament as one big missed opportunity to re-ignite cricket in the West Indies. It’s suffered in recent years and hosting a World Cup was a big chance for the game to re-establish itself in the hearts and minds of the people there, however the locals were priced out of the games and once inside the game the traditional West Indian support (musical instruments etc) were banned anyway, as one local commented “it’s not our World Cup, it belongs to the tourists”. Cricket as a whole would benefit from a rejuvanated West Indies side, and this would have been a great chance to start that ball rolling.

The ICC have already confirmed that the next tournament will be at least a couple of weeks shorter, so hopefully they will have learned from their mistakes however I shan’t hold my breath.

Well, I was devastated by Saturday’s result at VP, I didn’t think football could still do it to me anymore but I will even confess to a tear in my eye when that second goal went in.

I’ll post more of a critique on whats happened when the inevitable relegation is mathematically certain (i.e. after Saturday), providing I can get back into my flat that is - I’m out until this Friday at least - which I’m not too impressed about, but what’s a guy to do?

Well, I´ve had a nice relaxing week over here, unfortunately I have to fly home tomorrow, and the flat situation still hasn´t been sorted, so god knows what I´m going to do with myself for the next few days until it is (I can´t afford to stay here unfortunately).

First up was Valencia, the weather wasn´t great so I couldn´t sit on the beach for the weekend, so instead I became culturally active and filled in all the gaps I missed from my first visit here almost two years ago. I won´t bore you with the details of photography exhibitons, art galleries and the like, but you get the picture. Highlight of the weekend was probably taking in the Valencia v Sevilla game at the Mestalla. The stadium is ageing and looks a bit shabby, but it is a great place to watch a game and the atmosphere was superb, no doubt helped by the fact the hosts won 2-0.

On Monday I headed up to a small town in Eastern Spain, Teruel, it´s the least visited province in Spain which probably makes this town a bit of an undiscovered gem, it´s full of remnants from Roman and Moorish rule despite its small size, and it was well worth the few hours I spent there. I spent the night in a cheap pension in the town where I had a nice little balcony to myself with a fine view of the place which I used to sink a bottle of wine while doing a bit of reading and writing, which was nice.

I left there early Tuesday for Zaragoza, which is somewhere I´d always wanted to visit for the odd reason that I used to talk to a girl on yahoo messenger who was from there, how that came about I don´t know. It was a pleasurable enough city to walk around, but not overflowing with sights and, after failing to find anywhere cheap to stay, and being turned away from the HI hostel for not being a member (despite non-members rates being advertised on the wall) I decided I might as well head to Madrid in the evening and stay in a backpackers place there, rather than stay in an overpriced place in Zaragoza only to leave early, so thats what I did, arriving just in time to pop out with some folk from the hostel for hot chocolate and Churros at San Gines, which was nice!

So, Madrid yet again. I´d actually never been here on a Wednesday before (apart from a couple of times when I was leaving early) so I hadn´t visited the Royal Palace (Wednesdays being the free day), I thought I might as well take the opportunity to pay the place a visit, so I did, and very impressive it was too - actually one of the best of the many I have seen in the last couple of years. On a roll I then headed to Aranjuez, a town about 25 miles away, where they have an impressive palace of their own as well as some superb gardens where I whiled away a couple of hours before a short stroll around a pretty unmemorable town centre.

After a moderate night out last night with a couple of Germans I met in the hostel I spent today just lazing around and relaxing, though I did visit the City museum which was a little interesting. I´ve spent a couple of hours in the Retiro topping up my tan and doing some reading, and I´ve just got back from doing likewise in another quality Madrid park the Campo del Moro. My flight back to East Midlands departs at 630 tomorrow morning, so I´m going to hang around the hostel and catch the last Metro up there at 2 and try and get a bit of kip in the airport (how backpacker-y!) before flying home. Before then I´ll just head back out and catch a bit more Madrid sun.

With reference to my last post, I was yesterday told that we couldn’t return to the flat until a week on Friday.

Sod that, it was a tight decision, but for the sake of my sanity I fly to Madrid in the morning!

See you all later!!

We had a fire in the block of flats I’m currently living in today, the electricity is off and apparently could take two or three days to be reinstated, as everything in the flats is run by electricity that poses a few problems, and the block has been evacuated and sealed, so I’m writing this from the old family home it’s driving me crazy, and I’ve only been here since 630.

If I don’t update this thing again it’s probably because I’ve been admitted to some kind of asylum.

I guess the only thing worse than having no hope is having false hope, I guess I should be thankful that I only felt that way for about ten minutes, but Joe Colbeck you are still a silly f***ing moron nonetheless.

As a Briton, I feel I must thank you for todays generous gift to us all.

In fact, I’m so thankful that I won’t even expect you to return the thanks when we get round to sending you a few bomb shaped gifts of our own over the next couple of years.

The worst method of personal communication ever.