Season Predictions..

So, the new season is almost upon us, it soon comes round quickly. It’s going to be a strange one for me personally as I’m still unattached going into the opening weekend, however, I am going to give my opinion on who is going to perform this season and who is going to struggle.

First up is the Championship, I always look at the recently relegated Premier League sides and it’s one of those who I think will be up there in pole position. Here’s my teams to watch :

Promotion – Birmingham City

Relegation – Watford

Dark horses – Southampton

For League one, I think it’s a tougher call as it could be anyone’s title. A lot of good teams in this league this year.

Promotion – Huddersfield Town

Relegation – Hartlepool United

Dark Horses – Bury

League Two is the one I should probably get spot on as I have most experience in this division, but I also know that every year anyone can beat anyone so it’s a incredibly tough to predict. Normally it’s the sides that start the best and get up a head of speed. Anyway, here goes….

Promotion – Oxford United (Crawley will be up there too)

Relegation – Hereford United

Dark Horses – AFC Wimbledon

I’d love to have included my former team Morecambe in there somewhere but I do still think they’ll have a good season. I predict around 8th or 9th, being within a shout of the play-offs right up until the end. What does everyone else think? Feel free to comment, especially if you think I’ve got it massively wrong. I’ll be doing the Premier League and the BSP next week…

Busy Summer

It’s been a busy transfer window so far for many clubs. Some more than others such as Liverpool and Manchester United, but probably the most active has been Sunderland, who could almost field a new eleven with their new players. So, with that in mind who do you think will prove to be their most successful buy out of the ones mentioned below…

If you’ve voted other feel free to comment on the player you think could be a dark horse for the coming season. Oh, and click on the subscribe button on the right if you haven’t already

Dodgy Quotes

We all know that us footballers don’t have a great reputation when it comes to brains. I certainly don’t like the stereotype that a lot of people adhere to and try and prove otherwise when challenged with that view. However,  there are many players who don’t help at all and it’s usually in pre or post match interviews that they show their flaws. So here is a collection of my favourite daft quotes from people in the game…

On signing for the Reds Harry Kewell came up with this blinder, “I’ve always been a childhood Liverpool fan, even when i was a kid.”

Kevin Keegan seems to be the master of these sort of quotes, or should I say dunce, one of his best was “Glen Hoddle hasn’t been the Hoddle we know. Neither has Bryan Robson.”

David Beckham might be fairly eloquent these days, but one of his classics was “My parents have always been there for me, ever since I was about 7.”

Another ex Liverpool striker Ian Rush didn’t cover himself in glory with this one, “I couldn’t settle in Italy, it was like living in a foreign country.”

There’s loads more where they came from and I’m sure you can all come up with some more so feel free to comment, having said that I’ll leave you with one from the legendary Danny Blanchflower that kind of shows you what we’re up against with this negative stereotype. He once commented that “Everything in our favour was against us.”, I rest my case your honour…

What’s in a name?

One of the recent headlines from the celebrity and football world has been the birth of the Beckhams’ first daughter, Harper Seven. An interesting name to say the least or should I say number? Anyway, with that in mind I thought I’d have a think back to memorable names in the football world.

First up is Paraguayan full back Francisco Arce, lovely surname, although unsure as to the rumours that he was always sliding on it. To make it even more memorable is his nickname of “Chiqui”. Yea, that’s right “Chiqui Arce”! He is of course not to be confused with unfortunately named 70′s Algerian footballer Ars Bandeet, honestly I didn’t make him up! On a similar part of the body there is also former a Sunderland player who seemingly had a fire started underneath, rather than having a kick up the backside, that is of course Bernt Haas.

Moving away from the backside area and indeed the body parts theme altogether, my other personal favourites include the musically religious Congolese footballer, Bongo Christ, the probably assumed name of a terrible liar, Seychelles international Johnny Moustache, the player who makes money sound scary, Zimbabwean defender Danger Fourpence and to round things off my personal favourite, the man whose parents took their history lessons far too seriously, the quite brilliantly named Australian goalkeeper Norman Conquest!

If you can think of any more then feel free to comment or let me know via my Twitter feed..

Sporting Excuses

With last night’s fight fresh in the memory and David Haye inexplicably blaming his defeat on a broken toe I thought I would have a look back at sport’s other horrendous excuses for defeats and poor performance.

A few football related ones to start off with, where a broken toe might actually be a problem for a player. Instead Mario Balotelli blamed an allergy to grass, the surface on which he plays for not turning out for Manchester City in last season’s Europa League. Kenny Dalglish is winning plaudits for his managerial ability lately but back when he was manager of Newcastle United he claimed that the balls used in their FA Cup draw with Stevenage were “too bouncy”. Also, who could forget Manchester United blaming their 3-0 defeat at Southampton in 1996 on their grey away shirts, saying they couldn’t see their team-mates, the colour blending them into the crowd. Granted, it was a terrible strip but hardly performance affecting.

Away from football, Mervyn King blamed his defeat to Raymond Van Barneveld in a 2003 darts match on the air conditioning, claiming that it didn’t affect his opponent due to him having a heavier dart. Even the mercurial Ronnie O’ Sullivan who clearly hates losing and normally claims he’s going to retire after a defeat used a streaker as an excuse to losing to Steve Davis in the 1997 Masters Final. He led 8-3 when the unannounced visitor entered the arena and Ronnie promptly lost the next 7 frames.

They’re just a few examples and I’ve heard my fair share from players down the years during my career too. I think the moral of the story is to just hold your hands up and say you weren’t good enough on the day or that your opponent was just too good. Future losers please take note..

Website Poll

This site seems to be going well so far. I’ve had lots of good feedback on Twitter, thankyou all for taking the time to have a read and there should be plenty more over the coming weeks. I just want to get a bit of feedback now about if you want any improvements to the look of the site, seeing as it’s very much in it’s infancy. So, here’s my first poll on that subject…

If you clicked other then feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts. After a few more blog posts I’ll be doing a poll more to do with content, so stay tuned. Hopefully what you want in a blog site can be included. Also, don’t forget to subscribe via the window on the right hand side of the page so you can be informed whenever a new blog is posted. Enjoy…

Summer Boredom

Like me, I’m guessing a lot of you already started thinking about the upcoming season as soon as the last game of the previous one has ended. In a summer without any major championship to keep us interested it’s hard as footballers and fans alike to keep ourselves amused. Where’s will we get our competitive edge from? Do we have to turn to alternative sports for that fix or do we get on with that one job around the house that we’ve been meaning to start or finish for the past ten months? If you’ve booked a holiday you can kind of get away from it all for a couple of weeks, but it soon goes by quickly. Even the under-21 championships disappointed with a typical England performance that never got us excited and was over almost as soon as it began. Over this past week I’ve been enjoying Wimbledon, but as soon as Andy Murray goes out then the football fix will get ever more needy.

The other thing that comes with the lack of match action is the endless transfer speculation, particularly in the Premier League. Most of the speculation has concerned Liverpool and they seem to have been linked with everyone, from Jeffren and Bojan at Barcelona to Gael Clichy at Arsenal, with loads more in between. No doubt we’ll see more from big spenders Manchester City soon and Chelsea with their new man in charge. From my current point of view it’s even more frustrating, without a club at the moment and constantly checking my phone for calls or texts. It’s a tough situation to be in, especially without an agent and most clubs at my recent level and below focussing on signing youngsters who they can get from next to nothing in wages. So, I’m hoping I’m not waiting too long and that I get a call out of the blue that I can’t refuse. For now, I’d best watch the rest of Wimbledon without letting my Blackberry out of sight.

If you have anything you like to do during the off season to entertain you while there’s no football then feel free to let me know via a comment or of course click on my Twitter feed and do it that way..

The inside track to football starts here…

You might already know what this blog is about, especially if you have visited this site via my Twitter feed. If not, then basically I’ll be writing about anything and everything to do with football and other things too. My name is Neil Wainwright and I’ve been a professional footballer for many years. I’ve been in the game since I was 16, therefore i’ve seen my fair share of football from the inside for 17 seasons and counting. I have over 400 appearances in that time. My former clubs include Wrexham, Sunderland, Darlington and Morecambe. I’m currently searching for a new club, having been released at the end of last season.

Over the coming weeks, months and hopefully years I’m going to blog about most parts of the professional and amateur game, including coaching, playing, travel, equipment. I’ll also be having guest bloggers too who will give different perspectives on certain subjects, or bringing whole new topics to my page. Anyway, this is my very first blog and I’m still very much learning the ropes so be nice and feel free to comment or subscribe at your will.