It is exactly 1 week until Leeds United start their 2005/6 Coca Cola Championship campaign against Millwall. Do they have a chance of promotion this time around? Most definitely!
They are in a totally different position to which they were 12 months ago. They are financially stable, have spent money on good talent over the summer and are full of confidence. Anything short of a 6th place (the play offs) at the end of April will be a bad season.
So for those of you who support rival teams or just those who want to find out a little bit about what all the fuss is about, here is a mini guide to some of the players to look out for next season.
| Neil Sullivan | |
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Won the “Player of the Season” honour for 2004/5, Sullivan is quite possibly the best keeper in the Championship. Sully saved a large number of penalties (5 or 6 I think) as well as producing Premiership quality saves. |
| Paul Butler | |
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The big captain, he may be getting on a bit but the former Wolves man is still a strong centre back. He plays hard and fair, a no nonsense player, any Cristiano Ronaldo wannabes should not try any fancy footwork around him as they risk ending up on their back. |
| Daniel Harding | |
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Will not be receiving a warm welcome from Brighton fans. Harding saw sense this summer and moved up north to a bigger and better club with a proper stadium. A young lad with lots of potential. Harding is a defender who can also play in midfield, will be a great producer of the ball for strikers. |
| Sean Gregan | |
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Received a lot of criticism after he signed last September for being unfit and slow, since then though he has grown in fitness and emerged as a strong central midfielder who can also stand his ground if thrown into defence. |
| Steve Stone | |
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A football veteran. Players should watch out for him running up the wing, feeding the hungry strikers and occasionally grabbing a sneaky goal from unsuspecting defences. |
| Gylfi Einarsson | |
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“We have joy, we have fun, we have Gylfi Einarsson, and the fun may it last the bastard can run fast”. Quick, strong midfielder who also has a eye for goal as Burnley found out last season. |
| Simon Walton | |
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A young lad who is growing in quality. Arguably played more games than he should have last season and will probably feature a little less in this campaign as he matures in the reserves. This said, Walton will inevitably have a run of first team games in midfield where he seems organised and goal bound. |
| Shaun Derry | |
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He may look like a tramp but Derry is no bum. A very stable and hard working midfielder. Bought in the second half of the previous season he made a real impact in a short space of time, just think what he can do across a whole campaign |
| Eddie Lewis | |
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Who said Americans know nothing about football or “soccer”? Well, probably me somewhere on this website. Lewis may be a Yank but looks a very good quality player, signed this summer from Preston North End he should spend most of next season on the wing setting up many chances for the strikers. |
| David Healy | |
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A Northern Ireland international, top scorer for his country in fact. Healy signed from Preston last season and made an immediate impact, turning Leeds from relegation fodder to a promotion challenging team. As he joined late he was not able to make a full impact on the season, especially as he was used on the wing where he is wasted. With other new signings Healy is set to take up a strikers role where we will see him score lots of goals, I guarantee it. |
| Rob Hulse | |
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Spent a few months on loan with Leeds from West Brom late last season. In such a short space of time he became a firm favourite at Elland Road scoring some very impressive goals. He is now officially a Leeds players after being purchased from The Baggies. Like David Healy, Blake should make a major impact in the 2005/6 season for Leeds. |
| Robbie Blake | |
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The most recent singing for Leeds from Birmingham. He only joined the Blues in January and failed to make an impact. Prior to that, Blake was at Championship rivals Burnley where he scored many goals (something like 12 in his first 4 months of lasts season!). If his performance for Leeds is anything like that of Burnley’s then he will be a “20 Goal a Season” striker. |
and two players who will please the opposition if on the teamsheet
| Michael Ricketts & Jermaine Wright | |
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Both slow and sluggish players, whatever people say Ricketts has had more than enough chances, he only scored 1 goal last season – in the League Cup against Swindon Town. He must leave. Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell seems to like playing Jermaine Wright even though he is shit. He cannot pass, is slow and never where he should be when called upon. I hope both these failed signings move on asap. |
I went to Bath this evening to go to cinema to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; I normally go to Bristol so this was a first time for me. Before the film started I went to Nandos which is in the same complex.
This was the first time I have been to the restaurant and I must say I was very impressed. The meal I had was beautiful. The menu is nearly all chicken, so if you’re a veggie or a steak man this isn’t a great place for you.
The film was also very good, well cast and entertaining. However, without giving too much of plot I was I did find major faults and annoyances with the plot. Firstly, where on earth is the film set? England or America? Charlie’s family all have English accents although use American words “candy”, “vacation” and “band aid” (as in a plaster, not the music concert), the local currency is even dollars! The funniest line of the film though was “Charlie, wash your pants, they’re covered in mud!”
It is also a surprise how Willy Wonka’s factory is still in business. If it were real life The Environmental Health department or Inland Revenue would have shut down his factory a long time ago…. assuming they are actually in England
In the interest of Health & Safety – Do NOT eat Wonka Bars
Here is a list of major flaws in Wonka’s dodgy business
1 – Up until the Golden Ticket winners, nobody had been in or out of the factory. Wonka appears to be blocking regular, mandatory visits from Health Inspectors.
2 – The state of hygiene in the factory is worse than that of a dodgy side street kebab shop. Factory visitors including dirty children and decrepit old men are allowed to walk into a food preparation area, without taking any hygiene precautions.
3 – Who actually are the Oompa Loompas? From the storyline it clearly appears they originate from another country. So Wonka has gone to another country, bribed locals to illegally enter the country and work for far bellow the minimum financial wage.
4 – Lastly, I saw no evidence of financial records being kept or tax records. Is Wonka VAT Registered? Does the pay tax?
I think if this were real, Wonka would be a failed businessman, probably serving a very long prison sentence. His factory would have also probably have been featured on Dispatches, Cutting Edge, Watchdog and Factories From Hell.
Finally Kermal has been booted out of the Big Brother house. He is the only housemate where my views have stayed the same with throughout the series. I dislike the man; he represents everything which is bad about the new contestants of Big Brother – totally fake and only in it to win it, by acting.
Somehow I don’t think Kermal shops at The Officers Club
This is unlike Eugene who, although a little eccentric, I believe to be totally genuine and although joining late deserves to win. Sparkster.net continues to support him for victory.
“EUGENE TO WIN”
Or in morse code
. ..- –. . -. . / – — / .– .. -.
(wav file of morse code)
Now onto the subject of Podcasting, this is a way of listening to previously aired radio broadcasts by downloading them over the internet and listening to them on either your PC or portable MP3 player.
The BBC are now trialling Podcasting for some of their radio broadcasts. More info on Podcasting can be found here, along with a list of all the BBC radio broadcasts taking part in the trial.
It looks interesting and I’ll probably make use of the Five Live’s Film Reviews, Sport Review and Rumour Mill as well as “The Best of Moyles” from the Radio 1 section.
Funny how “The Best of Moyles” is only 20 minutes in duration while the actual show is on for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Before you take off music and news (which there isn’t much of) that’s 900 minutes of material cut down to 20. Doesn’t say much for quality does it? :o)
I’m currently watching a Dispatches program on Channel 4 which is comparing the quality of chicken meat purchased from mainstream supermarkets with meat from high street butchers where the chickens are reared in different ways.
It is a real eye opener into how the chickens are kept; I always knew these chicken farms treat their birds badly, but not that badly. Some chickens are actually left to die, burning in their own urine being trampled and pecked to death by other birds.
Anyone for KFC?
It will make me think twice in future about buying fresh chicken however chicken pies, curries, Kiev’s etc will be a problem. I like these, they’re very nice but it seems there is no way of avoiding this bad chicken in them. All well, surely it can’t be THAT bad….
One thing about this program which did annoy me was a test carried out comparing butchers steak next to a supermarkets steak being totally biased!
Firstly the chef cooking the meats was a massive supporter of butcher’s meat, surely when cooking he would but more effort into cooking his preferred meat and add more seasoning, care, etc…
The taste testers were flawed too, there were only 12 people involved, in my opinion for a proper reflection at least 100 should take part. The people were all asked together for their thoughts on which meat was best (the butchers or supermarket meat). Surely many votes were influenced by fellow testers. For example if TESTER #6 was unsure between whether MEAT #A or MEAT #B was best and TESTER #3, #4 and #5 said MEAT #B was their preferred choice, TESTER #6 would almost certainly side with the crowd. A private ballot would be the fairest way of conducting the experiment.
The seagull plague I mentioned last month seems to be getting worse. Firstly last week they were dive-bombing anybody who stepped out into my garden. It turned out that a seagull chick was in the neighbour’s garden and they were just trying to protect it, they’re vicious little bastards though!
The seagull’s have now rescued their baby or left it to die and left my garden area. I thought the gulls had dispersed like in The Birds movie until I read this story on the BBC Website.
Seagulls have taken to attacking postmen attempting to deliver mail in one Somerset street – so female posties have taken over their rounds.
A postman fell off his bike after he was attacked by the gulls as he tried to make his deliveries in Highbridge.
And when a manager went to investigate, he too was knocked to the ground by the birds, believed to be nesting nearby.
But when a woman postie was sent, she escaped unscathed. Female staff are now filling in for their male counterparts.
I don’t know the reason why the gulls just go after male postmen. One theory is that women are sometimes referred to as “birds” or “chicks”, maybe the gulls know this and therefore, thinking the female posties are there own kind let them be.
Watch out Pat…. they’re gonna get ya!
Another theory is that the gulls may be after the men’s manhood, sensing a large worm-like organ beneath the navy Royal Mail trousers it may be mistaken for food – i.e. a worm.
Who knows but it would be interesting to place somebody like Nadia from Big Brother 5 who has had a sex change and see what happens.
One final theory of mine is that the seagulls are not a problem at all and that it is just an excuse thought up by Royal Mail officials to explain a poor quality of service. Although for legal reasons I must state the residents of the Somerset street in question may be very happy with their service…. unlike me with mine where my post arrives mid afternoon.
Vote Eugene to win or else he’ll chuck your TV off a cliff
Moving on, Spakster.net continues to back Eugene to win Big Brother 6 and would like to bring everyone’s attention to this great website also backing the hilarious and eccentric housemate. EUGENE TO WIN!
About Me
So you stumbled across my blog. No doubt after searching for something bizarre on Google. Before you hit that 'Back Button', why not stay and have a read for a few minutes?
If you are after a website which gives advice on how to hack an iPhone X, download the latest Steven Seagal movie, or view nudy ladies, you've come to the wrong place and may now press 'Back'.
However, if you would like a lifestyle blog, written by a 30-something chap, living in Bath (England), feast your eyes on this.
You won't discover how to copy PlayStation 4 games. What you will find is a blog, covering life in the West Country, the highs and lows of supporting two unsuccessful football teams, while sharing a house with a wife and rabbit.
All written by a man, somewhere on the sanity-scale between normal and eccentric.
