Just two more matches to go for Man Utds season, the two biggest games of our season without doubt. Firstly a game against Wigan, a game I’m more than confident about in public, but privately I’m brickin’ it. Secondly is the European Cup final against Chelsea, which is now two weeks away.

Firstly there is Wigan this weekend, if we win, we’re Champions unless of course Chelsea beat Bolton around 25-0, which really isn’t going to happen, so we need to focus on that, amazingly we only have two injury doubts before this game, both of whom should be fine, first was Vidic who was suffering from concussion which is an automatic 10 day rest (which he’s had) and secondly is Rooney who was injured weeks back against Blackburn, but Ferguson believes he will be back, so I suppose he’s the man to listen to.

If we don’t win the title this season it would be a travesty, we’ve played the best football consistently, we’ve scored more goals than anyone else, scored 4 goals or more in matches more than anyone else (quite amazing how often we’ve done it) and conceeded less than anyone else, but Chelsea have been very efficient (read: boring) and if we slip up they’ll be ready to pounce.

Then we have the final in Moscow… I most likely won’t be able to watch the match and it will probably be the most uncomfortable match to watch of my life (thus far).

Wish us luck.

Has anyone else been watching this? I personally love the show, it’s a million miles superior to the UK shit we have here despite the last chef arguably having the greatest chef to ever live, Marco Pierre White, the man who trained US Hells Kitchen host and media celebrity (as well as damn good chef), Gordon Ramsey.

Seasons 1 and 2 were very good, 3 was perhaps a different matter, because despite the entertaining fireworks it was clear from the first 5 minutes of episode one that Rock would win, and he did.

Season 4 however is a lot more open, not because the chefs are all excellent, in fact, none of the chefs are actually stand out good, just so many of them have mouths they’re all too willing to run with abilities that are a million miles from backing them up. If I had to strain for an answer, the best chef is probably Jen, but I can’t stand her, she’s an egotist who at the age of 24 thinks she’s a lot better than she is.

At the other end of the scale though we perhaps have a record for lack of talent in a reality show based around specific abilities, this being cooking. The rason for that is that most of the chefs aren’t really able to. In fact, I’d say my father is better than quite a lot of them, and I can think of at least three that I am superior to, and that’s a crying shame.
It shouldn’t come as so much of a shock though, because whilst all of the contestant call themselves chefs, not all of them are, in this series alone we have a ’stay at home father’, a ‘party planner’ and an ‘electrician’ and others, not exactly what you’d call tested chefs. My problem with this is that the actual prize for Hells Kitchen is perhaps as good, if not better than any prize on any other reality show, a position at Gordon Ramseys new restaurant in the US, London, but a position that’s actually worth $250,000 a year as well as priofits.

That’s not just a good prize fullstop, but for chefs it’s a dream job and something that as far as I can see, is far out the reach of the ability of those on show this year. So what of those incredibly talented sous-chefs, or those learning their trade from World Class chefs such as Ramsey himself? Do they have every right to feel aggrieved that an electrician might get a job they go to sleep dreaming of at night? I certainly think so.

So far this season, which is now 6 episodes in, we have seen chefs with the inability to cook fried eggs, send out raw fish, send out raw chicken (to a child no less), and both massively undercook and overcook steaks to order, such as Medium-Well sent out Rare and vice-versa and I swear, if I see any more chefs fail to season food again I’ll personally hunt them down and end them. It’s really not hard to add some salt and pepper to adiquately season a meal, it’s easy and it makes all the difference. I watch a lot of cookery shows as well as read a few magazines on the sly and you pick quite a lot of theory up, perhaps some of those that call themselves chefs should do the same.

And then there’s Matt… Frighteningly he actually has a position as a sous-chef professionally.. the man cannot cook… at all… he’s useless. More disturbing is how he looks, acts and talks in the kitchen, the man thinks he has talent. He’s a useless, talentless schmuck. I can’t believe he has survived so far, I’m hoping he goes very, very soon. It actually annoys me watching him.

Most annoying of all though is that almost EVERY contestant is a smoker. They are supposed to be preofesisonal chefs (or attempt to be), it’s a known fact that smoking affects taste pallettes and smell, it really bugs me how often they all seem to light up, even Ramsey mentioned it in episode one.

I’ve been a massive fan of the series, and one of the most rewarding things to do for myself is creating *the* tactic, a tactic you can use and use and use as your main tactic, whether it be against easier or harder teams, something that’s balanced with a strong defence and a killer attack and after 4-5 seasons in charge of Man Utd, I think I’ve made one for Football Manager 2008.

Now as with any tactic, it does need changing for some games, but I used this as my majority tactic for 5 seasons and it worked a charm against the top European sides and the lowest English sides, so feel free to use this tactic and if it works for you, let me know.

Also remember, most tactics take several games for your players to become accustomed to, so don’t expect to wallop teams your first few games out. For your benefit I’ve also listed my team, all of which were bought completely legitimately when in charge of Man Utd. Obviously some players are expensive and can’t be bought by every team - at least not right away - so I’ll list some alternate players for your benefit. I’ll also make a list of players to buy that I recommend.

(Click to read more…)

Down to GAME I went at Midnight with Matthew in Redcar and unsurprisingly there was trouble outside with the scum of the earth… Teesside chavs. Nothing really happened, but there was abuse being shouted and all that jazz.
Anywho, there was a queue of about 40 people and we were in there for around 35 minutes where I picked up the Xbox360 version, a free poster (Vlad/Niko) and 500ms points (which was a nice surprise). I was marked down on the pre-order list by Catherine for both versions so that I could pick whichever I wanted when it was released which was awesome, unfortunately there was no way to tell the exact amount available to purchase both the Playstation 3 version and Xbox360 versions.

To get it I traded in Call of Duty 4 which I got £27 on trade-in, which was nice, and I used up the £8 gift card credit I got from when I bought Football Manager 2008. In total, £9.98 got me Grand Theft Auto IV on the Xbox360, so I can’t complain too much.

So I’m gonna give it a good playing over the next few days… So I apologise if I’m not posting all too frequently.

I’m hoping it’s a really good game, I actually don’t know anything about it as I’ve stayed away from all news, gossip, rumours, reviews etc.. about it in an attempt to be introduced into a fully believable world. I quite literally know what I’m an Eastern European character called Niko and that there is a character called Vlad (thanks to the poster)…. yeah… so as I said, sorry if there aren’t too many updates this week.

Karl.

We did it! We are in the final of the European Cup thanks to a Paul Scholes wonderstrike from 30 yards.

All season Man Utd fans have been shouting “shoot” only for Scholesy to play a pass to someone else or dink the ball into the air which has become tiresome for 2 reasons, 1 is that Man Utd are useless in the air and 2, Scholes has a fantastic shot on him from range - well he turned back the clock and pulled something from the turn of the millenium out of the top drawer for what could well be the most important strike of his entire career… and what a strike.

Ronaldo ran through the middle, beating a couple of players before getting tackled by Zambrotta, Ronaldo forced him into a rash pass backwards across his own back four, where Scholes picked the ball up, took a touch and then unleashed from 30 yards into the opposite top corner.

Unfortunately it took the imputus off us in terms of attacking, where we took the nervy approach of trying to hold out for 75 minutes. We did defend incredibly well though with Ferdinand cementing his place as the best Center-Back in the world and Wes Brown having the best performance of his career. Everyone worked hard, Tevez was an absolute machine, Park had the heart of a lion and Evra wasn’t afraid of putting his foot in despite the knowledge that a booking would seal his fate of missing the final - and all without the injured Wayne Rooney.

Now we’ve guaranteed our place in Moscow alongside either Chelsea or Liverpool, neither of which I really fear, but both of which are capable of beating us… who do I want? Probably Chelsea. Chelsea are undoubtedly a harder prospect but could you imagine losing to Liverpool?

That would be the worst thing ever!

Edit: It’s Chelsea!

ell, it’s the ending of a terrible week as a Man Utd supporter, even though nothing has gone tragically wrong, but it’s certainly disappointing.

Wednesday was the big Champions League clash with Spanish outfit, Barcelona at the Nou Camp, Barcelona’s 120,000 seater stadium in which Manchester United gave one of the most lifeless, effortless and uncreative performances I’ve ever had the misfortune to watch. The players not only froze, but Sir Alex Ferguson made the wrong calls at the wrong times starting with the negative tactics in a negative formation. The saving grace of said performance was that it ended 0-0, unfortunately that doesn’t tell the story. It was a game in which Barcelona had over 20 efforts at goal and Man Utd missed a penalty for an all important Away Goal.

It’s not the end ofthe world, but it is disappointing, but I’m hoping it will get turned around in the next leg at home where if we win, we extend our record of consecutive home wins.

Unfortunately the week got worse today, when we met Chelsea, the team 2nd in the league and the only team with a chance of winning the title bar ourselves, so imagine my disappointment when I see Ferguson has named the same negative formation and taken out some key players such as Evra, Tevez, Hargreaves, and Ronaldo. Not good.

Sadly we slumped to a 2-1 defeat leaving Chelsea dead level with us. First half it was the worst performance I’ve ever seen and it was clear to see Ferguson had ‘had words’ at Half-Time and we came fighting back thanks to an equaliser from Rooney. Then Ferguson removes Anderson…. the one player linking defence and midfield, the one player fighting for everything…. and we go totally flat… I mean, TOTALLY FLAT. It was pathetic and we sadly slumped to a 2-1 defeat after Carrick conceeded a penalty which I felt was a little harsh as he was moving his arm. Unfortunately we were robbed of a clear penalty when Ballack held Ronaldo down to the floor from a corner without looking at the ball. We also had 2 cleared off the line, first from Ashley Cole and the second from Shevchenko.

To say I’m disappointed is a MASSIVE understatement and tonight the players and manager especially should be utterly ashamed of themselves for their performances and choices, it’s allowed Chelsea right back in the race. From a season going so well it’s entirely possible that Fergusons sudden change in tactics (a change from the ones where we thrashed teams) could cost us everything and ultimately leave us without the chance to win anything.

I’m pissed off.

The only time I ever venture into the world of FHM is when the Top 100 is announced and the 2008 list has just been announced and…. well, frankly I think it’s pretty poor. I know it’s the public who voted, but they’re wrong :p.

My girl is one of the biggest climbers in the list from last year, leaping from 96 (IIRC) to 24, Sophia Bush. 23 places too low though…

(Click to read more…)

Something I’ve noticed more and more as of late watching TV shows (it’s really all I watch) is just how good the music was in The O.C.. The O.C. was an American TV series created in 2003 featuring Benjamin McKenzie and Mischa Barton amongst others based around a group of Teens living in Newport Beach, Orange County.

The O.C. started off phenominally well and was incredibly popular for its first season (which is undeniably brilliant), however ratings did start to plummet by the end of Season 2, and after a further 2 seasons of low ratings it was eventually dropped by television networks in America. However, one thing that has stayed popular are the CD’s for The O.C. which still sell pretty well now, and with good reason… the music is brilliant.

I used to have a collection of over 100 songs from Season 1 of the O.C. which contained every song used in it and listened to it constantly, so I have an ear for picking out almost any of these songs in other shows in the background. This has been happening more and more now with shows almost every single week using a song picked from Season 1 of the O.C… a show created over 5 years ago.

In recent days I’ve heard Orange Sky by Alexi Murdoch and Dice by Finlay Quaye & William Orbit as well as the music from Marissa’s overdose in Mexico. This is in the space of 2 days on different shows - Dirty Sexy Money & Hollyoaks respectively - as well as many others over time. It seems every major show is now using these songs.

For anyone who hasn’t listened, I recommend you get your hands on the different Mix CD’s or the collection of every song from Season 1 (if you find this, let me know please), it’s really worth it and some of the songs are brilliant.

At just after 12 noon a Parceline van turned up and offered a big, brown box on my doorstep. After offering my John Hancock I took my 3rd Playstation 3 60gb console in.

I was told on the phone by the Sony representative that it would be in a pink box with 2 seals on it (which I apparently should have had before - I never, I was handed a PS3 console (literally, just the console - not boxed or anything). This wasn’t the case (I thought the pink box would be inside the brown box), instead I was given a brand new Playstation 3 60gb console box (so I now have 2) but my hopes at getting new cables and controller were dashed when I opened it.

Inside was just a console wrapped up in some lovely biodegradable protection. Thankfully the console is pristene and quite clearly a brand new case (which squeeks a lot!) which has some lovely protective stickies over the buttons and memory reader flap. I love peeling these things off!

I’m hoping nothing goes wrong with this console and that the Multi AV port is perfect (this is the first thing that I noticed wrong about the last one; something that I informed Inoshishi of straight away but decided to try and live with it). If this one doesn’t go wrong then it’s better than either of my other two. It’s also just in time for the big April 15th update featuring a new store, so I’m gonna hop on now and get updated to the latest version as I have a feeling it will be hella slow tomorrow.

I never realised just how much I missed my PS3 til it was gone. Now I can continue watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer upscaled (something that is necessary for seasons 1 and 2!)

Wish me luck!

Well, we’re one step closer to retaining our Premiership crown thanks to a victory over Arsenal. Overall it was probably the right result, though we were lucky not to be several goals down at Half-Time with Adebayor amongst others being guilty of missing many chances.

We quickly went one-nil down at the start of the second half after Ferguson failed to make any charges. First half I must say one of my worst fears was realised, Paul Scholes started and it’s possibly the worst game I’ve ever seen him play for us. He couldn’t make an accurate pass over 10 yards, he was rubbish and turned over possession goodness knows how many times.

On top of that, Wayne Rooney fluffed far too many chances, not good and would have been worse had we not won. Thankfully we equalised almost immediately thanks to a Penalty from Ronaldo which was absolutely perfect, in fact it was possibly better than perfect as he had to take 2 and slotted both away brilliantly. The retake down to encroachment from Ji-Sung Park - another player guilty of a poor performance.

The change came quickly, Park and Scholes being dragged off for Tevez and Anderson. The former holding the ball and doing what Rooney should have been doing, the latter having another phenomenal performance in a big game and could quite possibly have been Man of the Match; an honour which went to Ferdinand - Not for the first time this season.

Finally we wrapped up the points thanks to a perfectly taken free kick from Owen Hargreaves, a fantastic straight dipping shot over the Arsenal wall when everyone was expecting another blaster from Cristiano Ronaldo.

Two more to go.