Blatter off his meds

First off, I must say I've never liked Sepp Bloody Blatter. He's always been the source of stupid ideas - golden goal, silver goal, whatever. What's worse has been his almost authoritarian leadership of FIFA: it's almost as if he's the be all and end all of world football, the god of that global religion football. Well, he can kiss my ass. His latest ramblings about the ills of foreign players, as exemplified by the all "English" Champions League final, are the ultimate in dumbness. Setanta has done a little "what if" scenario, and of course Arse seem to come off worse.

Some obviously stupid implications of Blatter's "quota" proposal:

1. Yes, the top teams seem to be heavy with foreign players. But so too are the middle-ranked teams. I'd hazard that it is precisely with these foreign players that the likes of Bolton, Newcastle, City, etc can even dream of competing. If not for the foreigners, what we'd have at a league of identical Preston North Ends. In the Newcastle team that lost to Chelski over the weekend, we had six foreign players.

2. The problem is not the invasion of foreigners. It is foreign money. Two totally different things, Mr Blatter. Sure, put a quota on things. Romano Bloody Bitch will still buy up all the best English meat, if only to put them on the bench. After that, he'd get bored, take all his money out, and leave Chelsea following Leeds into the dustbin of history.

3. Now then, Blatter talks about "countries" and "foreigners" in his quotas - aimed obviously at the "English" teams. Maybe then he should once and for all end this little anomaly of having separate English, Scottish, Irish leagues (and national teams), and merge them all into one proper "British" league, composed primarily of British nationals holding British passports. Wouldn't this fit in better with his concerns of nationality? Maybe Blatter would take the next obvious step and have a GB&I team as well, since he's talking about "nationality". Wanker.

I suppose it's his Swiss, rather insular, xenophobic side talking. If he keeps at it, first he's going to piss off Euro legislators and bureaucrats by wasting their time, and even if he succeeds, he'll probably also succeed in creating a darts-like chasm in the world governing bodies of football.

On to more important and immediate concerns...Le Boss is saying that he will look into buying one "powerful" central defender. Yes, obviously. This Independent report then asks the "what about" question with regard to Kolo. I don't see it as an issue. We can't simply have two central defenders and hope that these two last the entire season. Three world class dudes would be the best. Kolo's been comfortable on the right (as cover for Sagna), and I would say he would be comfortable in the middle of the park too (which is where he started?). He's the ultimate utility player, if you asked me.

Ade has made some nice noises about staying at Arse "to make history", in saying no to Barca. He's right there. Keep you head down, boy, concentrate on the next 3-4 seasons, and let's review the situation then. Ade clearly has had his ups and downs this season, and for now, his goals have tipped the balance. The key, as the boss has said, is to make sure that he keeps on improving. He has still a few too many improvements to make -- which should keep his head from getting too big.

That's it for now, methinks. For some reason, there're still stories out there going on and on about Flamini's departure, whose fault it is, and to whose detriment. Well, just stop it I say. Remember Edu? He left for free too, and with a much sweeter memory than Flamini. We also didn't see anyone making a fuss when Wiltord left for free.

Losing Vieira was especially tough, but it happened too. I think Patrick left with a bit less bitterness than Flamini as well. So enough of this storm in a teacup. Le Boss has said his final piece in slamming Flamini's greed. Touché. What the rest of the media world has to say is irrelevant. We're still moving forward and improving as a team. Nuff said.