Gary Neville has the charged by the FA with “improper conduct”. For showing some passion in the game (which all football fans want – thats why some fans don’t like Sven as England manager). The charge is absolutely rudiculous! This was after Gary ran 60 yards to celebrate in front of the Liverpool fans by grabbing his shirt and “gesticulating widely”. As Gary said “You are caught up in the moment and for a few seconds you go bananas”. The inconsistancy of the FA is so annoying. He shows some emotion when we scored a last minute goal against one of our biggest rivals and he cant “go bananas”. In the Manchester derby the other week, Robbie Fowler went to the United fans and could of been interpreted as inciting the fans but he got no warning and anything at all. It looks like the most he will get is a fine so at least he wont miss any matches.

I dont like to say it but its seems there are different rules if you play for Man Utd. Sir Alex Ferguson has said he is angry at the charge. He mentioned other players from other teams who had recently done similar things and got no warning or anything at all. Talking about the Liverpool derby “Gerrard and Carragher ran the full length of the field with their fists raised at the Everton fans recently and not a word was said.” “At Manchester City, Robbie Fowler ran past our fans showing five fingers (indicating the 5 European Cups Liverpool had won). Our fans surged to the front and the stewards had real trouble dealing with them and not a word was said then either. ”

“In terms of Gary, all we have seen him doing is celebrating. To whom? There is no evidence, so I think the FA have a hard case to prove.”

In other United news, Ronaldo has been charged with misconduct by Uefa after he stuck his middle finger up briefly at the Benfica fans after he was substituted. He had been booed throughout the match. The hearing will be on 2 February. If Ronaldo is found guilty he will more than likely be forced to serve a suspension.

Related link(s):

BBC Sport

Ole Solskjaer looks set to sign a new contract with United. His current contract ends this summer but he has recently come back from his long term injury and has so far done well since he has come back.

If you don’t know Ole Solkjaer is one of United fan’s favourite current players and also all time favourite players. Part of it is down to him scoring the winning goal in the Champions League in 1999. Another reason is the loyalty he has shown United.

Related link:

BBC Sport

Some great news today. I heard this afternoon that Friends will be returning for 4 double bill episodes. Each star has been paid $5m each. It will be on our screens next year. There could also be a new spin-off starring Matt Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc called It’s A Guy Thing. This could all be just one of those rumours and turn out to be untrue. However, the producers of the show have said its all untrue and the show is not coming back. We will have to wait and see what happens.

UPDATE: Looks like Friends is not coming back. Link

Other good news I have just heard is that Sven-Goran Eriksson will leave as England coach after the World Cup this summer. Woohoo!! About time we got in a proper manager – its too late to get a new manager in now.

United beat Liverpool 1-0 today with a late goal from Rio. He scored about 1 minute into injury time at the end of the match. Almost better than the actual goal was Gary Neville’s celebration. Instead of going to celebrate with team mates went over to the Liverpool fans and grabbed the badge on his shirt, jumped about like mad, almost taunting the Liverpool fans etc. LOL. I have heard that he may get in trouble with the FA for this … I hope not. It just shows passion for the game and how much it means to him. After all the taunting and verbal abuse from the fans against him for 90 minutes, surely a minute of taunting them a little bit was alright!! Watch Neville and Rooney celebration here.

Considering our midfield of Giggs, Fletcher, O Shea and Richardson I was worried how we would be against the likes of Gerrard and Alonso.

Rooney played really well as usual but it was also good to see Giggs play really well too. Evra played the full 90 minutes are did well.

Overall a good weekend with Chelsea drawing and Arsenal losing (and City losing) but its still very likely Chelsea will win the league.

In other sport news I watched the 2nd half of the Masters Snooker final – it was a brilliant match. It had it all, great shots, fantastic breaks, misses, kicks. John Higgins won 10-9 in the end – I wanted Ronnie O Sulliven to win but oh well. It was the last finals held in Wembley.

On a sadder note, the whale which got lost on Friday and found itself in the Thames died yesterday. Rescuers managed to winge him up when he got close to them at low tide and then onto a barge. The whale died from breathing problems later on at about 7pm. Even if it did not die on the barge it may have died later on anyway. Experts seem to think that they had to do anything and they couldn’t just leave it to die in the Thames. It was clearly confused. The whale is now being examined by experts

Related links:

BBC Sport – Man. Utd 1 -0 Liverpool
BBC News – Dead whale is examined by experts

United played Burton Albion last night in the 3rd round FA Cup replay. United won 5-0 and overall played well. Rossi was easily the man of the match setting up a couple goals and scoring 2.

Burton did really well over the 2 matches. In the first 5 to 10 minutes of the match last night, they were the better team and I was preparing myself for another frustrating game. Thankfully Saha scored after 7 minutes which settled us down. Saha had a good first half but poor second half and should have scored at least 3 goals.

It was great to see Ole Gunnar Solkjaer playing at Old Trafford again after being out injured for so long. He was captain for the match. It would have been brilliant if he managed to score but didnt really get the chance. He played OK putting in a couple really good crosses in.

Silvestre thankfully played better tonight but Fletcher still couldnt pass. Richardson did really well scoring a really good goal and supplying the great cross for Saha’s goal.

Next up Liverpool …

Other football news, it looks like the next wonderkid is going to sign for Arsenal. Its good to see that with all the money in the world Chelsea did not manage to sign him. Walcott (who is only 16) will cost Arsenal £12.5m – ppl are saying he will the most expensive teenager or something like that. Maybe I have heard it wrong but Rooney cost about £27m. Also if they are talking all teenagers and not just British Cristiano Ronaldo may have been a little more (from memory it was about £12.5 too).

On a completely different note just a quick word about Celebrity Big Brother. All of them seem to be really unplesent people. The best person is the non-celeb Chantelle. Preston seems OK as well I guess. I have only seen the first 2 and then some bits here and there. Michael Barrymore seems rather unstable always mumbling, Pete is a bully,…. I also dont like Faria – she says she doesnt want to be famous and then she goes on Big Brother, goes on about hoping to be more famous after Big Brother. Anyway, thats enough of Big Brother.

Related link(s):

BBC Sport – United 5 – 0 Burton

Went out on Friday with friends to Mongolian BBQ. I had not been to Mongolian BBQ for years – last time was properly when I lived in Taiwan 15 years ago! It was OK – some food was nice but some ended up quite dry. Also, the food can be a little spicy because everyone elses food and sause merges with everyone elses a little bit. We then went to Kro Picadilly – the new Kro Bar in Picadilly Garden which opened just before Christmas.

Saturday was the Manchester derby but I woke up late so only got up just at the start of the match. I couldnt be bothered going to the pub and was going to go and watch the second half. However, we were already 2-0 down so I didnt bother watching it. The match finished a disapointing 3-1. Ruud scored a great goal, Ronaldo got sent off for a silly lunge, Silvestre was particularly rubbish along with O’Shea and Flecter – we have not central midfield! I have to admit that seeing Stuart Pearce celebrate was good to see. It is good to see a manager with so much passion for the game. Other football related stuff, Chelsea won with another deflected goal (but it was funny when Robben was sent off!!)

Anyway, bring on Burton Albion on Wednesday. I just hope we beat them and get some confidence with a very convincing match before we play Liverpool next weekend.

And theres more Svengate – he was talking to who he thought was a Sheikh but was in fact a News of the World undercover reporter. Some of his revelations (apparently):

Would quit England job if England win World Cup
Rio: ‘He is lazy sometimes .. too talented for own good’
David Beckham would leave Spain and come back to England if he asked him to. “He wants to come to England because he is a bit frustrated.”
Michael Owen is not happy in Newcastle but the money is good.
Rooney has a temper etc because he is “coming from a poor family” and a “rough” neighbourhood.
Shaun Wright Phillips was not worth £25m
Ryan Giggs wanted to play for England

Personally I dont like Sven but as we get closer to the World Cup I hope we see less of this sort of news which will disrupt the England teams preperations.

Related link

BBC Sport
The Sun

What a fantastic weekend of football.

I watched the 2nd half of the Luton – Liverpool match. An amazing match. Liverpool were winning 1-0 and but then Luton scored just before half time to make it 1-1 . After one hour they were winning 3-1. Then Liverpool suddenly started playing and had another one of their comebacks. They ended up winning 5-3 including an Alonso goal scored from his own half. It was right at the end of the match and the Luton keeper had come up for a late late corner. The game had to all including a missed controversial Liverpool penalty (not sure if it was a foul and if it was the player should have been sent off – which he wasnt) and then Lutons penalty (which wasnt really one cause he stood on the keeper).

Another great match yesterday when Spurs played Leiceister. Leicester ended up winning 3-2. Spurs were winning 2-0 after something like 40 minutes are were absolutely crusing. Leicester scored in injury time after 90 minutes. The commentator (Mark Lawerence) said it was offside but I thought it was level – watching the post-match analysis showed that it was in-fact onside.

There were other good results such is Middlesbrough drawing, Fulham losing, Arsenal only winning by 1 goal, Chelsea winning by just 1 goal and also United drawing 0-0 with Burton. Of course being a United fan its not a good result but we were rubbish and Burton deserved the replay at Old Trafford.

Related link:

BBC Sport – Football

Currently listening to:

Hi_Tack – Say Say Say

Essien got injured in a match over the Christmas period against West Ham. He got caught on the ankle by Reo-Coker and looks set to miss the African nation cup. Jose of course has been complaining. As they say “What goes around comes around”.

Related links:

BBC Sport – Essien to miss Nations cup

After taking a break from the Internet (a little bit anyway) over Christmas I have found some time to write some of my thoughts on 2005 and what I did over the Christmas break.

First of all here are the lists:

Favourite movie

Batman Begins

Other good ones include Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Hitch and Wedding Crashers. War of the worlds was pretty good too.

Funniest scene in movie

40 year old virgin – Waxing scene

Favourite songs

My Chemical Romance – I’m Not Okay
James Blunt – You’re Beautiful
Coldplay – Fix You
Green Day – Holiday / American Idiot (I think this may have been 2004 but I played it loads in 2005 and its been on the radio loads)

TV Shows

Lost (season 1 was brilliant, season 2 is not as good in my opinion)
CSI – started watching them this year including all the repeats which seem to be on all the time
The OC
Smallville

Disappointments of the year

Manchester United in Europe – or rather NOT being in Europe)
Space Cadets (the Channel 4 hoax space show)

For new years eve I went to a friends house party. I was not really in the mood for a party cause I was abit ill with food poisoning. Not sure what from though. I met up with friends a few days before for some food and going to the cinema so it could have been the popcorn when watching King Kong (which was OK but abit too long and really slow at the start – good special effects though) or it could have been the Tacos I had from a pub. (Or the load a chips I had – I finish mine and someone elses – cant let food go to waste!!). Back to the New year eve party – we mainly sang karaoke and Singstar all night until about 5am! We watched the celebrations on TV from around the world and UK. The London fireworks looked really good and for one second I though the London Eye was going to disappear!!

The Christmas break was pretty good – went to several parties, ate nice food, got great presents (thanks), had several lie-ins. All good but now back to work Considering been off for so long today (so far) has been OK. Going to go to the gym today, so going to be knackered tomorrow. Going to make an effort to work bit harder in the gym to turn to stomach into a proper 6-pack and not a soft 2-pack kind off thing!!!

Related link:

BBC News