The Hot Seat

So following on from the last post, who are the likely candidates for the Valley Parade managers chair? Various forums have already seen numerous 'former player X was there' posts. Here are some only occasionally sarcastic thoughts on the bookmakers lists:

Dean Windass, 4/5. This would I think be hugely unpopular. The man who berated referees weekly and always managed to be conveniently suspended at Christmas, preaching team ethic? Puh-lease.We would never get a thing out of referees, for one.
John Hughes, 5/2. An interesting candidate, having taken Falkirk into the SPL. Couldn't possibly be as bad as the last useless-oaf-for-a-Scottish-manager we had.
Alan Knill, 5/1. Has done terrific job on next-to-no resources at Bury, usually making the playoffs. Wouldn't mind him. Under contract though, which means compensation we can't pay.
Wayne Jacobs and/or David Wetherall, 8/1. Wetherall has publicly said more than once he doesn't ever want to manage again after his last spell. Half the crowd used to shout fearsome abuse at Jacobs most weeks when a player. Wouldn't be popular.
John Hendrie, 10/1. Talked a good game on BBC Radio Leeds. Has been out of front line football for 10 years since Barnsley fired him.
Terry Dolan, 10/1. As above. 22 years since he last managed us. Particularly ill-fated spells at Hull, York and Guiseley since then. Would make a good assistant.
Andy Scott, 12/1. Took Brentford up two seasons ago with no money at all, established them in L1 the year after, then fired this. Harsh. Outside chance.
Brian Laws, 12/1. Did a good job with Scunthorpe over the years. Sheffield Wednesday are seemingly permanently bankrupt. Last seen comprehensively wrecking Owen Coyle's fine work at Burnley. Pass.
Gary Johnson, 12/1. Given the 'old boys'/nepotism argument with Taylor, employing someone who takes his son to every team he coaches (except Latvia, obviously) would not appease the fans on that score
Phil Parkinson, 12/1. Famously 'empty chaired' after turning down Huddersfield at the last minute. The worry would be, like at Colchester, one good season and he'd be off again.
Martin Allen, 12/1. To paraphrase the old guy of the Vicar of Dibley, No. No. No, no, no. NO. The modern day John Beck: a long-ball touting loon.
Lawrie Sanchez, 12/1. Thought to be the 'This is the only club I'd come to this division for' candidate last time. Made a career out of knocking one P. Taylor out of the FA Cup with Wycombe. It's ten years since!
Keith Hill, 12/1. Would be mad to leave Rochdale for this mess.
Iain Dowie, 12/1. Last seen seen scuttling the good ship Hull City. Didn't survive Coventry City's 'Operation Premiership' either.
Kevin Blackwell, 14/1. More hoofball? No thanks. And all that grandstanding to the supporters of L***s U****d about what a great set of fans they are? Piss off.
John Coleman, 14/1. Count me as a fan. Ten successive improvements, three promotions on gates of less than 2,000.
Chris Wilder, 14/1. Minor miracle in getting Halifax to a Conference playoff final. Got Oxford back in the league. Wouldn't mind him.
Dean Saunders, 16/1. Wrexham are third in spite of him, not because of him, according to fans on the WSC forum. I still hold that injury time miss at 4-4 vs Derby in the PL in 2000 against him personally.
Peter Jackson, 16/1. Modus operandi: come in, save club, fall out with all star players. Results go south. Get fired. We'd be doing this all again in 12-18 months.
Charlie McParland, 16/1. Fired by Arab millionaires con-artists Munto for not winning L2 by Halloween last year. Comes across as a bit of an arse.
Paul Trollope, 16/1. Learnt at the knee of one Lennie Lawrence at Bristol Rovers. That's a no, then.
Colin Todd, 16/1. Run out of town once for dull football, you think we want him back after Taylor-ball?
Paul Hart, 18/1. Last seen on a sinking, bankrupt HMS Portsmouth. Has done bugger all, managerially.
Lee Sinnott, 20/1. Once a bright star on the rise from his time at Farsley, ill-fated sojourns at Port Vale and Bradford Park Avenue (1988) FC
Nicky Law, 20/1. Is it April 1st?
George Burley, 20/1. Was good, once, with Ipswich. Since sacked by Derby, Hearts, Southampton, Scotland and most recently Crystal Palace.
Alan Irvine, 20/1. Fired by both Preston and Sheffield Wednesday in short order. No thanks.
Neil Aspin, 20/1. He'd probably have more money to spend at Halifax.
Chris Turner, 25/1. Good first spell at Hartlepool. Not so good second one, or spell at Sheffield Wednesday. Unwitting co-star in the Leyton Orient documentary 17 years ago.
Paul Simpson, 25/1. Fired by Shrewsbury and Stockport inside a calendar year. Not a chance.

I think we should also all write to Sheffield Wednesday FC for taking a certain Mr. G. Megson off the job market the other week. Knill or Coleman would probably do me, provided they were given the time to rebuild and not be in the top 3 in most fans minds come next September.

Musings on BCFC

It's sad to have to begin on such a note, but news broke this morning of the passing of former Bantams defender Dean Richards, after a long illness, at the age of 36. He made a goalscoring debut for City in the 1991-92 season, in a 3-1 win at Bournemouth in the last days of Docherty-ball, aged just 17. He would appear only sporadically in the next 18 months, before he established himself in the team in the preseason of 1993. Strong in the air, and superbly composed on the ball, it wasn't long before scouts from higher divisions began making their way to BD8. I remember so many games where he would step out from the back four and roam through midfield and into the final third, creating play. It was a rare talent in the third tier, and you knew that - in the way of McCall and Hendrie before him - that if the team didn't advance up the leagues, he would. So it was that in early 1995, with Lennie Lawrence's team collapsing into mid-table from a played five, won five start ,that he was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers for a then record outgoing fee of £1,800,000. He slipped seamlessly into the Wolves team, and recognition with the England U21 side duly followed. The money obtained from his sale was reinvested in numerous players in the following year; some hit, some miss, but two - Ian Ormondroyd and Mark Stallard - would combine to seal City's promotion at Wembley a year later.

For all Wolves' spending in that period, they couldn't make the final step to the top flight, and Richards was out of contract at the end of 1998-99. Of course, his last game for Wolves would happen to be that game at Molineux on May 9th, 1999. He conceded the (missed) penalty City had that afternoon when Jamie Lawrence had got in behind him, and had to bundle him over. It was typical City to miss; the score would have been 4-1 with 15 minutes to go and a very long victory lap, it became 3-2 and nails bitten almost immediately afterwards. There was much talk that summer of Richards coming back to Bradford. He was on a Bosman free, would have complemented the developing Andy O'Brien, and with Wetherall also at the club it would have been some defence. Unless it was a 3-5-2, I suppose, because we all know how well we do when we employ that formation. Richards eventually chose Southampton. Under Glenn Hoddle, he finally had top tier football, and began to win more plaudits, and when Hoddle moved to Spurs in 2001, Richards followed for £8,100,000. Injuries and illness began to take their toll, and he played only 74 games in four years before retiring, aged 31. Had he remained fit, maybe there'd have been an England cap or three along the way. Glen Johnson has 29 for goodness sake.

It turns out all three of Richards ex-sides that played won today. I suspect that the other two games were not as dramatic as the one at Valley Parade this afternoon. Stockport, in the bottom two, were the visitors. Managerless. Six points behind. Old foes who more-often-than-not win at VP, with strikers down the the years who would always score against us; Kevin Francis, Andy Preece, Alun Armstrong. Bad omens everywhere. In typical fashion of late, I slept through the first half (being seven hours behind is such a pain sometimes). While I was waiting for Bantams Player to start, my phone told me we were losing 2-1 to 10 men, and had missed a penalty. "Oh, one of those games". Twitter told me the same: one-nil up, terrible equaliser, Stockport handball on the line, man sent off, penalty missed, second goal for Stockport. Very definitely one of those games. Fortunately for us, a second Stockport  red card for a swinging elbow made it eleven against nine. Steve Williams redeemed himself for an apparently terrible error for the first Stockport goal by equalising. The relief of the fans was evident on the radio. There was still time for Gareth Evans to win the game in the 94th minute, where everyone in VP and on the #bcafc hashtag lost their collective marbles for a few minutes. There have been precious few such times in the last ten years. Eight points clear of the drop, where it could have been three, with last-placed Barnet winning. Relegation would be unthinkable financially, given the cost of playing at Valley Parade.

Peter Taylor signed off with a win. You could argue he has been the least popular manager since Docherty, twenty years before. It just hasn't worked for him. I only saw two games under his charge, the games against Stevenage and Nottingham Forest last August. The two were so wildly different. Against Forest, a team 59 places higher in the league the season before were contained, and beaten. Stevenage were beaten, but the football was appalling and a 1-0 win was achieved with eleven men in the area for corners, and greeted with boos. And that probably sums Taylor up as manager: containment. Bottling the opposition up and winning 1-0. And after ten years of ever-worsening league positions, I can understand the frustrations of the fans at having to watch such apparently poor fare; I'm lucky in the sense that I only get to see it once or twice a season now. So who next for the hotseat? Since Jewell, we've tried: internal candidate (Hutchings), scottish (Jefferies), lower leagues (Law), reclamation project (Robson), veteran (Todd), rookie (McCall), and 'promotion expert' (Taylor). We have apparently sought Accrington's permission to speak with John Coleman. To bang my own drum for two seconds, I would have liked that appointment last year. Ten successive years of higher league position, three titles, almost the mirror image of our ten years of failure and three relegations. To keep avoiding relegation and improving league postion, year-on-year, on average attendances of 1,634, 1,414, 1,977 and 1,707 the last four years borders on miraculous; his budget must be half or a third of ours. 

I think first and foremost, people would like to enjoy watching proper football again. Taylor-ball (like Docherty-ball) is not what football is about. It's about attacking the opposition, ball on the ground, entertaining. And we'd all like it back.

Heritage

You wait months for a hockey-related post, then two come along at once. Yesterday was the Heritage Classic game here in Calgary, held just down the road at McMahon Stadium. A temperature of -10 C at the beginning meant that the ice quality was not far short of terrible (apparently, it becomes too brittle and cracks), and it would doubtless have been uncomfortable viewing for the 41,022 there as it got colder as the sun went down.

From a Flames point of view, a win would have taken them into sixth place in the Western Conference, remarkable to think about given their dead last position last November. The fear was the players minds would be distracted by all the media hoopla that had been going on and the disruption to their gameday routine, as well as the longer break before this game. Given other teams around them had multiple games in hand following the Flames last game on Wednesday, we'd all been watching the out of town scores very carefully. Thursday and Friday were not so good, Saturday and Sunday were pretty good on that score. Would they put it all to one side and win?

One very ill omen: their special, one-off uniforms. Teams that play in claret and amber, not choking on the big day? We've seen it all before, I'm afraid.....

Some of the sights and sounds of the day shown below. CBC does its usual thing:

The entrance of the teams. A bit overdone for game 61/82 if you ask me.



An apparently famous country singer does the national anthems.

The flypast went straight over Beige Towers. Very loud, they were. And so to the game highlights. No choking after all. The team is now 17-4-5 in its last 26, and have scored 57 goals in the last 14. Fifty-seven goals!! This is the low-scoring-dull-but-grind-it-out-defensively-Calgary-Flames, right?

Avalanche

There's been very little mention of hockey on here this season. For the first two-and-half-months, the Flames were terrible, forcing a change in the General Manager's chair between Christmas and New Year. And have gone on an almighty run since; they were 14-18-3 (W/L/OT) in the early going, before a run of 15-4-5 since, hauling themselves off the bottom of the western conference into 8th place. Last night, the Flames travelled to Denver to take on the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs edged the Flames out of the playoffs last year, on the back of worldy goaltending, lots of blocked shots, lucky bounces and not much else. Four times they beat the Flames 3-2, in games they should have lost handsomely, but for Craig Anderson; those eight points were essentially the difference between the sides. 

Fast forward to this season. Flames lost the first game 6-5 in a ridiculous game, before winning the next two. Last night saw the Avs on the back of an eight game losing run. And here's what happened in game four:

That the NHL should choose the Altitude video is even more amusing than the scoreline; the Altitude feed is one of the very worst (and believe me, they have some competition) TV teams out there.

As A Former Labmate Of Mine Once Said

"oooooooooh, shiny"

So after nearly 3 years here, I finally bought a phone. Whether it's a late birthday present or an early 3-year anniversary present is moot, but it makes meeting up with people much easier, now that they can let me know they'll be late, or vice versa. It is by far the swishest phone I have ever owned, with the interweb and camera and everything. It's also a) impossible to keep clean, being a touchscreen, and b) very difficult to type on. Three cheers for the keyboard, then. I can now be just as engrossed in it as my friends are with theirs. And people say TVs killed conversation....

Tunnel Vision

One of the major promises newly elected Mayor, Naheed Nenshi, made to the Calgary electorate last October was his desire to construct the much debated - and much rejected - airport tunnel. In a nutshell, for those unfamiliar with the tale, the airport is reaching its capacity for aircraft movements and will build a new parallel runway, with construction beginning in April. The location means the closure of Barlow Trail NE, as shown on this map. The problem: spend $195m on a tunnel now, before the runway work began, or spend numerous multiples of that by delaying until the runway was open, then tunnel under an operating runway at Canada's fourth busiest airport. The road would connect to Metis Trail and the outer ring road., giving the NE a high speed, east-west connection, with the airport on the way. Seems a no-brainer, right?

You'd be wrong. 

I watched some of the debate on TV on Tuesday night. A rock and roll way to spend a Tuesday night, to be sure. It was interesting for a couple of reasons. Number 1: it was on TV. How many local councils in the UK have televised sessions the public-at-large can view? I bet it's nice round number, like zero. Secondly, I was surprised that a city of more than a million people has only 14 councillors and a mayor who has a casting vote in the event of  a tie. Sorry to have to flog a dead horse again, but guess how many councillors are on Bradford Council? Ninety. Nine Zero. Ninety people, plus chief executive, either salaried on expenses.  For a city one third of the size. Scandalous. But I'm digressing from the point.

The thing that I found most revealing was that although the vote only passed 8-7, the mayor deciding it, the majority in favour were, in the main, new councillors, who had canvassed the opinions of the citizens in their ward, who were in favour by a 2:1 margin. And often from wards very far removed from the airport and its surroundings. Generally, those against were the established, long-time members of the council. Who were worried about reckless spending. Like Councillor Farrell, she of the Peace Bridge, and the inane claim that people who use the C-Train lose weight. Let me be clear; I think more bridges over the Bow are a good idea, but not ones which are 400 yards from another one. In two directions. $25 million very well spent. She lives in a very glass house when it comes to profligate spending. She needs to stop throwing stones.

I can sort of understand the point of those that voted against, in that $195m would and could be spent on multiple other projects; for instance, solving the horrible traffic problems at Crowchild/24th and Crowchild/Kensington. Or some easement of the situation regarding the south-west portion of the ring road (an insuperable problem). But for once, solving a problem, before it became a problem, was evidently beyond the world view of the seven who voted against. The NE quadrant of the city will now have much better traffic infrastructure than it otherwise would. Did any of those councillors seek the opinions of those who elected them? I think you probably know the answer.

The epitaph: Mayor Nenshi flew to Toronto yesterday. His election has set the Torontonian based national media - with its preconceived notions as to what Calgary is, and what the people who live there are like - into frenzy; especially since the new Mayor of Toronto is such an, erm, interesting character. His airfare was paid by an architectural consultancy who had arranged a sequence of events. Councillor Lowe (who also voted against the tunnel) called this, to anyone who would listen, essentially a conflict of interest, despite a) the firm having no apparent business with the city, b) the mayor declared it in advance, and c) he saved the city $750 in air fares. In my mind, a non story. A bit of naivete at worst. But a defeated politician, behaving like a petty, vindictive arse? Surely not?

Two Non Moaning Posts In A Row

I've often meant to post about the ESPN series '30 for 30', the documentary series by the U.S. TV channel ESPN to commemorate their 30th birthday. Every time I watch one, I think "I can't believe the UK doesn't do something like this", before I realise such a program would end up in the hands of the BBC or ITV, be presented by Gary Lineker or Alan Hansen or something, and the unmitigated levels of crapness that would ensue.

I've just finished watching The Best That Never Was, a story about a much vaunted high school football prospect that was seemingly led astray by people eager for a cut of the action, before injury robbed him of his livelihood altogether. Most of the ones that I've seen have been football related (of the North American variety); the last in the series, Pony Exce$$ and the application of the NCAA 'death penalty' for Southern Methodist University in Dallas was an absorbing way to spend two hours. All manner of sports are covered: including Michael Jordan retiring from basketball to play baseball instead; the story of The Two Escobars and the tragic shooting that followed Colombia's elimination from the 1994 World Cup; and the sporting events surrounding the day of June 17, 1994 when OJ Simpson was pursued live on TV by the LAPD.

I don't mind telling you that I got a little, er, something in my eye watching Into The Wind on Christmas Day, which told the story of Terry Fox, a Canadian amputee who, upon being diagnosed with terminal cancer,  decided to run a marathon a day across Canada from east to west to raise money, capturing the imagination of the nation into the process, before his deteriorating health robbed him of the opportunity about halfway, and ultimately took his life. Superb television.

Glass Half Full

It's been a long long time since I had two days in a row at work that I actually enjoyed. In the grand scheme of things, what I've done in the lab could at best be desribed as mundane, but it's getting me ever closer to finishing what'll be the longest manuscript I've ever written (fifty-fiive pages of and counting!). Seventeen compounds fully characterised and written up, only three more to go; by the end of next week, everything should be finished. It's signalling that things are hopefully going to turn out OK.

The mood's been helped by the approval by university admin of my work extension till the end of May. The HR powers that be changed university policy about postdoctoral fellows, such that beyond five years of a PhD you can't take that job title; instead you have to be called research fellow, the position must be advertised, interviews held and so on. I can understand the university wanting to protect the PDF position so newly qualified PhDs can get the job - rather than some grizzled old lag like me hanging on in perpetuity - but at the same time I think such rules should be grandfathered, rather than potentially dumping people out of a job at four weeks' notice. The upshot was that we had to appeal very high up the ladder to the person who wrote the policy to get his OK to waive the requirements.  If you read the letter written by the boss, you could hear violins playing in the background. Fortunately, the OK was  very swiftly granted on Tuesday morning, after a sleepless few nights.

It means that there is no more uncertainty that's been hanging round for months, almost back to last August. First I was finishing at the end of February, then I might be staying. I then had to wait for three weeks, for confirmation, and then I was. Then there was a significant problem. Now the path is clear: finish off my bits of the project. Sponsors visit in April. Finish the end of May. Submit visitor visa application for after the work permit expires (end of August) and entertain any potential visitors this summer. Oh and lose this extra 30-40 pounds that I've been carrying for years.

(come and visit Beige Towers! Pay your way by buying me groceries and IKEA stuff and taking me out for dinner!)

If the residence thing went speedily, I could be done by September. My pay cycle would mean that there would only be July and August to live off the savings, which would be much more doable. So on that front,  almost the best thing about today was this evening; a quick check of that immigration website I was talking about two posts down, has shown that the first September applicant has now received his/her acknowledgement from immigration. Getting ever closer to the front of the queue!