Published: Today
Saturday, January 1
The Sun
AMONG the late greetings cards waiting for me at Upton Park is one from Iron
Maiden. Their album last year topped the charts in 30 countries - a
slightly better record than West Ham's. We're very proud that bassist Steve
Harris - the only founder member still with the Maiden - was a junior at the
club.
And wherever Steve is today, he'll be chuffed with the win over Wolves
taking us out of the drop zone for the first time this season.
Sunday, January 2
CALL me cynical but I smell a rat in the 'Beckham for Spurs' reports. They
may feel he could help their rival bid to ours for the Olympic Stadium. The
link is this: LA Galaxy is owned by Philip Anschutz - whose company AEG is
Tottenham's partner in their stadium bid. I admire Beckham as a football
champion and I'd hate to see him being used as puppet for AEG.
Monday, January 3
ALEX McLEISH is definitely not a whinger, so when he asks if the FA is
prejudiced in favour of bigger clubs he should be given a hearing. McLeish
is too sensible to defend the stamp by Lee Bowyer on Arsenal's Bacary Sagna.
But he is suspicious of 'one law for the rich and one for the poor' in the
FA's choice of video reviews. He'll have struck a chord among those who know
how hard it is to get penalties against Man U - as West Brom found on
Saturday.
Tuesday, January 4
AN INSIDER tells me Blackburn are deadly serious about their bid for Brazil
superstar Ronaldinho. But I fear it would be a debacle. It's obvious Rovers'
new owners Venkatesh and Balaji Rao want to make a splash by linking their
name with big stars such as Ronaldinho and Beckham. Such publicity comes
cheap but can turn out to be expensive in terms of future credibility.
Wednesday, January 5
A SHOCKER at Newcastle where Avram forgot his lucky scarf and West Ham
forgot to play. We have some interesting neighbours in Queer Street as
Liverpool and Villa are within five points of us. Allow me to be womanly for
a moment and say the manager I'm most sorry for is Roy Hodgson because he
looks such a nice man. Hodgson would never make it in a million years at
Anfield because he doesn't have an ounce of rascal in him.
Thursday, January 6
A PREMIER League director's text last night read: "5-0 down, 5 mins to go,
but all is not lost - look for the floodlight switch." I'll leave it to you
readers to guess whether it was the same director who called this afternoon.
He says he was befriended by a charming young woman at a Christmas party and
while they were up-close-and-personal, one of her friends took a picture
which she promptly sent to a social website. He's now praying it doesn't
fall into the wrong hands... his wife's.
Friday, January 7
VILLA'S Steve Sidwell seems about to sign a full contract with Fulham... and
I wish him a lot of luck. I had to tell Steve that for various reasons -
none his fault - we had changed our mind about signing him on loan. This was
a filthy task but in the end it was decided that, with 13 midfielders and
most of the injured about to return, we couldn't promise him regular
first-team football and he'd hardly be in a better position than at Villa
Park.
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