@Sidler28 thinks the season should twit off already!

I have to admit it, and they say admitting it is the first step, I have an addiction. I definitely don't have an addiction to sex, or drugs or alcohol for that matter, nor is it gambling so you can stop worrying for my well being, not that you were. I'm not about to make some sad announcement that I'm addicted to football, though I probably am. No, my addiction is social media based.

Yes that's right people my addiction is a current trend in the world especially, it seems, in the footballing world. Of course I am talking about twitter. It really is the last thing I check at last night on my phone, the first thing I check, not only in the morning but also, as soon as I finish work or go on my break at work. I check it when I'm out with friends, sat with family just whenever. In recent times it has been the medium on which I have found out about the finding and killing of Osoma bin Laden, the recent tragedy in Norway and the brilliance of Stuart Broad's hat-trick.

(At this point the Sidler picks up his phone and checks Twitter- not that much has changed as it's only been 5 minutes since I last checked so what was I really expecting? (Added note that I made sure I checked twitter at this point both when I wrote the blog post and then when I typed it up)

Twitter has become big business in football and mainly for controversy. It all started when Darren Bent moaned, whilst still at Spurs, that his team had rejected a transfer offer from Sunderland even though he wanted to go. Now of course the man under the spotlight is @Joey7Barton or just Joey Barton for some of you. Some have criticised Barton's rantings against his employers as stupidity I see his use of twitter as a personal monologue and press conference brilliant. And not forgetting his own personal list of 'My favourite quotes'.

So in tribute to the likes of @Joey7Barton, @rioferdy5, @JackWilshere, @DiegoForlan7, @GNev2, @RobbieSavage8 and @WayneRooney I have decided to write my season preview in just 140 characters per team;

@AFC will face real struggle for 4th if Cesc no replaced well. Combative CB + CM also a must. Arsene must prove himself again with trophies

@AVFC have lost last seasons top 2 players but bought in quality in NZogbia + Given. Big Eck must hit the ground running. Top 8 at very best

@BRFC the Venky boys must continue to be patient with Steve Keane. They want top 10 + Goodwillie could fire them there. Hoilett is important

@BWFC if they get over last seasons end of year dip Bolton will be up there again. Will need another striker, hopefully Sturridge. Keep Cahill

@CFC how do you solve a problem like Torres? Aged squad and Essiens legs also issues but AVB will have Chelsea in the hunt. Need a CM and RB

@EFC keep Jagielka, get Saha fit, make sure Cahill is scoring, start well and find a new investort- otherwise all could go wrong at Goodison

@FFC welcome back Jol, you've been gone too long. Hodgson + Sparky did good things.Gera and Foster good signings but Europa could distract

@LFC lots of money spent but is it good money?Downing for 20 mil is over the odds but Suarez is world class. Should come 4th ahead of AFC

@MCFC callengers ready? Hell yeah they are- Aguero maybe the X factor they've missed. Will go well and finish at least 2nd even if Tev goes

@MUFC champions ready? of course, does SAF do it any other way? Young, de Gea and Jones good additions. Sneijder still to come? Would be great

@NUFC Nolan out, Jose + Joey to follow?Still not replaced Carroll though Ba is a good player.Tiote must be kept but lucky to get to 10th

@NCFC if Hoult cuts the Colman's Mustard then Norwich may stay up. Laberts side master of the late goal shows fantastic fitness. 15th?

@QPRFC oh fuck- Warnock's back in the Prem, can't stand him. Bernie won't give him any money though. Taarabt is excellent but should go down :D

@SCFC Tony Pulis is a genius and his team get results. Juggling Europa will be a big difficulty. Need another striker, could be C Cole

@SAFC plenty of experience signed and plenty of money spent. Bruce must start well or be under pressure. Either sacked or top 10 finish

@SWFC glad to have the Welsh side in the Prem and fans will be incredible but enjoy it while it lasts relegation beckons. Very talented manager

@THFC remember the Bernabeu and San Siro? Good you'll need the memory. Back into the pack despite Bale. Need a world class striker, LB + CB

@WBFC a great end to last season and need Odemwingie to keep firing.Chris Brunt is an excellent talent.Could still struggle but stay up

@WAFC I tipped them to stay up last season but can't rule it out this year. Need goals now NZogbia's gone but who from? Need more consistency

@WWFC up,down,up- what a last day it was. Doyle and Fletcher get goals and new signing Johnson will steady the defence. Will stay up again

@PL top 4 MUFC, MCFC, CFC, LFC. WAFC, SWFC. QPRFC bottom 3. Aguero, Hernandez, Suarez top scorers.

The Premier League is nearly here ladies and gents, and I for one can't bloody wait. If nothing else, it means they'll be something interesting on Twitter!

A Golf in Class

I don't know about you but I bloody love summer. Okay it's not quite like my younger days when you could savour that moment the final school bell of the year went and you rushed out of the hellish building as quickly as was humanly possible- on a side note the hellish building I attended no longer exists- and the weather might not always be the greatest but there's a certain feeling in the air when it's the summer, everyone's more relaxed and smiles more.

One man who's smile will certainly be beaming across his face from now until the end of the summer, and no doubt longer, is Darren Clarke. The Northern Irishman became the first British winner of The Open since 1999- yes I am talking about Golf, look at the title of the post!

As Clarke finished his final round with a bogey on the 18th there could not have been a sports fan who didn't smile, sigh and nearly cry all at once (I did and I was sat on a train from Leicester with limited signal on my radio). This wasn't just because of the relief of a Brit finally winning the only golfing major not in America for the first time in 12 years but also because DC has gone through what no man should and we have all shared into his emotion and lived his pain with him. In 2006 Darren lost his wife Heather after her long fight with breast cancer, it left Darren and his two sons without a wife and mother, without a rock to support him. You could never blame a man for crumbling in those circumstances, in wanting to hide away from the world for a while and yet Clarke was not that kind of man. Instead he made himself available for the Ryder Cup just six weeks after his wife's death and got picked as a wild card. He didn't just make up the numbers though, oh no, the former World Golf Championship winner went and won 3 points from his 3 appearances and helped Europe beat U.S.A whilst adding to his already impressive following.

On top of all this the man known as 'The Prince'  won the title at the age of 42, a quite remarkable feat- especially when the likes of Colin Montgomerie have started righting world number 2, Lee Westwood, out of winning a major due to his age and the amount of previous chances he's already had. Clarke has made himself the people's sporting champion of this quite remarkable summer by being so likeable, by having such a fantastic story and by asking the R & A if he could drink Guinness out of the infamous Claret Jug. 

And what of the contenders to his people's champion crown? Well after an enjoyable Wimbledon Andy Murray eventually succumbed to Rafael Nadal in the semi final. Should this rule Murray out of our affection? Surely a Wimbledon losing semi finalist is endearing to us all, after all a man named Tim did this over and over again and we loved him for it, heck we remember those should be lazy summer evenings with the sun starting to set over the horizon as Tim finally lost a battling 4 setter vs Pete Sampras so well that we still shout out COME ON TIM when Andy is playing. Then there was the big fight, David Haye vs Wladimir Klitschko. The tough talking, fast moving, Londoner against the robotic, boring, never been tested Ukrainian. Of course the Ukrainian won, not only won he destroyed Haye in a way the Englishman had suggested he would do to the Eastern European with Haye barely throwing, never mind landing, a punch in the first 11 rounds. Afterwards 'The Hayemaker' blamed his ickle toe which was broken 3 weeks earlier. Now us Brits love a loser but we love a plucky one and not an excuse making one who dies on his arse during his biggest test, the moment that could make him. 

I tell you what, that golf though, it's a real sport..... What's that?!? It's only 25 days till the Premier League season starts, 18 days till the Community Shield and 16 days till Paul Scholes' testimonial (which I'll be at)... Finally! I can stop pretending this other rubbish matters. Don't get me wrong I do really like other sport, especially when it allows me to be patriotic but it's not the football season. It's time we kick started the greatest 9 months of any 12 month period!

After all anything else is just a Sunday walk ruined.

North London- It's only 930 miles long!

Rivalries in football always make life much more interesting. Who doesn't look for their team's derbies when the fixture list first comes up?

For certain those members of the Glasgow fraternity will always look for the Old Firm matches. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately if you happen to be a policeman in Glasgow or a member of the SPL's disciplinary committee, Old Firm matches are a regular occurrence with 4 league games every season and the possibility of a cup game- or three- to look forward to.

Local derbies are always exciting in build up but not always so on the pitch, a la the first Manchester derby of this season, as the two teams nervously circle each other determined no to lose. It's amazing how quickly a teams usual attacking instincts go out of the window when it comes to derby days. This week we saw, quite frankly, the oddest ever North London derby played over two nights, during two matches, in cities roughly 930 miles away.

On Tuesday night Arsenal, away from home, were forced to abandon their usual glorious marauding style of play as they spent most of the first half of this Champions League derby inside their own half. So much were they on the back foot that, for the first time since 2002, a team managed no shots in a Champions League match. A ridiculous stat from a side that, despite the absence of Theo Walcott, included the likes of Robin Van Persie, Jack Wilshere, Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, and that's before we get to the subs of Andrey Arshavin and Nicklas Bendtner. To simply read such a stat would probably lead you to believe that for once in his life Arsene Wenger had dropped his usual stubbornness and inability to change game plan and had realised that his best chance of progressing on Tuesday was to sit back and defend and see out the game, possibly hitting the opposition on the break. The truth is completely different, the truth is that Arsenal were forced to play only in their own half and because of their love of playing pretty football, no matter where on the pitch, Arsenal gifted the home side their opening goal, and the goal that changed the tie.

In the second half of this derby Spurs played the part of the team that have to forget the way they usually play in favour of defending for their lives as the away side came back at them. Spurs have no doubt been a sigh of relief in the often mundane world of football since Harry Redknapp took over and with the likes of Gareth Bale, Rafael van der Vaart, Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric at his disposal it is no surprise that Spurs prefer the 'we'll score more than you' approach to football. Mid week though Tottenham hung on to their lead as if it was their lives at steak. Whilst they were on the back foot for most of the game the team from White Hart Lane still managed a few shots, two even actually on goal, unlike their North London rivals- this probably had something to do with keeping 10 men on the pitch (a decision that was clearly ridiculous but did not cost Arsenal the match). Spurs of course were not trying to play on the back foot, they would have love to have been attacking the oppositions goal at every possibly moment but the sheer pressure exerted on their midfield and defence did not allow them out of their own half often enough.

As with all derbies there was some real controversy and both sides had chances at the end to clinch the tie or throw it away. Arsenal really should have given away a penalty before they eventually did in the second half, when Laurent Koscielny should have received his second yellow card for two actual yellow card offences. On the other hand Robin Van Persie clearly should not have been sent off. Van Persie's initial yellow card was his own fault but his second was harsh to the nth degree, though I don't buy his claims he couldn't hear the whistle or suggestion he didn't know he was offside, but we'd all had taken that shot- ironically Arsenal's only one. Spurs had little of the controversy but still could have thrown it all away were it not for a William Gallas clearance off the line and Heurelho Gomes' save right at the end following a brilliant move. It could have also been so different if it hadn't been for Bendtner's awful first touch.

Despite all this it is quite ironic that on the nights it was Arsenal who scored and not Spurs but that is the beauty of games played over two legs, it creates compelling 2nd legs. Fortunately for all of us none of the Champions League ties this week were anywhere near finished when it came to the 2nd legs and excitement could be found everywhere and even the most drab of games, including ones that featured sides from North London abandoning exciting football, were exciting because we did not know which way they would go.

If you didn't know I have of course been referring to two completely separate matches. One between Arsenal and Barcelona played in the Camp Nou which featured Barcelona prove why they really are the best football team on the planet as they penned the Gunners into their own half for most of the match and Arsenal couldn't cope, the immense pressure they were under really being shown as Fabregas gifted his boyhood team their first goal and Koscielny giving away a penalty when extra time was still a possibility. The second match was at White Hart Lane and features Spurs and, Serie A leaders, A.C Milan. Milan, 1-0 down from the first leg, did most of the attacking in the game and forced Spurs to play on the counter attack, arguably their favoured way of playing, for much of the match but failed to find away past the resolute defending of Michael Dawson and William Gallas. Yes the difference in class between Barcelona and Milan is hugely recognisable but the difference between going out of the Champions League, like Arsenal, and going through to the quarter finals, like Spurs, was simply being resolute and not losing.

Two matches, two cities 930 miles away, 2 different results, no winners but only one North London derby!