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Mandaric talks some drivel!

Leicester chairman Milan Mandaric doesn’t half talk a load of drivel. He has set himself a deadline of the second week in June to decide on the future of former Plymouth Argyle and current Leicester manager Ian Holloway after City’s relegation to League 1. Personally I would like to see Holloway out of the job for the sake of Leicester and the footballing world as Holloway is all talk and very little action, he’s a media man (football pundit anyone?), not a manager. Yes he did well at Home Park, made some inspired signings and made Plymouth a top half Championship side. But he also screwed Argyle over royally when he left paving the way for many of our key players to leave Home Park. Anyway, Mandaric is also deciding his own future, whether he should remain chairman. Which I think is ludicrous as he isn’t going to take any other role unless of course he sells up and cuts his losses. But Mandaric has only himself to blame sacking manager after manager last season if they didn’t deliver instantly and Holloway was a huge mistake. Holloway talked a good game but in reality didn’t deliver, actually in a way he did; he did promise to take Leicester out of the Championship, and he did that, albeit not the direction he was indicating I would presume!

Portsmouth won the FA cup for the first time since 1939 beating Championship side Cardiff City 1 – 0, let’s hope world war III doesn’t break out in two months time eh? Cardiff pushed forward but never really looked like they were going to find the back of the net. Pompey broke the deadlook on 37 minutes, Kanu reacted sharply to Cardiff keeper Enckelman’s fumble to lift the ball into the back of the net. Kanu had an earlier chance to take the lead but hit the post after rounding the keeper. Cardiff did have a goal disallowed for handball just before the half time break. Glenn Loovens controlled the ball with his arm before letting off a looping shot into the back of the Pompey net. Portsmouth had the better of the second half possession looking the more likely to score but couldn’t find the second goal to seal the game but one goal was enough to see them through to victory. I didn’t really have a vested interest in the game but I would have liked to see a non premiership team win the FA Cup, also there is a former Argyle player among the Cardiff starting XI in the form of Tony Capaldi. I would have liked to see Liverpool in the final but The Reds fell to Barnsley in the 5th round, and Chelsea in the quarter finals before Barnsley fell to Cardiff at the final hurdle after knocking out two of the big four, it’s a shame as I would have liked to see Barnsley win!

In Cricket, things aren’t looking so good for England in the first test at Lords after day three because of rain interuptions. England were in a commanding position after day two bowling New Zealand out for 277, and knocking up 68 for no loss of wicket. England could only add a further 21 runs in the 8.5 overs that were bowled on day three. So this test is looking like heading for a draw after day three was all but rained off. Assuming that days four and five have good weather, England’s only hope is to set New Zealand and huge target and bowl them out without needing to bat again. But with the weather looking unsettled for the next few days, a draw is the most likely outcome. How many times have England’s efforts been scuppered by rain over the years? But I guess that playing cricket in England has always been like this, you never know whether a match will take place or not because of weather.

While on the subject of cricket, former England wicketkeeper Alex Stewart has suggested that all test grounds should have permanent floodlights. I think that it would be a great idea to have floodlights, at least there wouldn’t be the need to leave the field for bad light constantly like in day two of this test. And it makes me wonder, what’s the feasibility of putting a roof on our leading cricket grounds. Is there sufficient technology available that would allow for such a structure to be free stranding without the need for supports on the field of play? If that was possible then with the addition of floodlighting there would be no need for disruption in play that currently blights domestic and international cricket!

Now for something non sports related, the plastic bag issue! Many of you will probably have noticed that free plastic bags are disappearing from your local supermarkets. The said supermarkets are starting to charge for a ‘bag for life’ and compostable paper bags. Although in principle I am in favour of this; will it make any difference at all? The so called bag for life is a hard wearing plastic bag which cost 10p each, at least it does it my local Co-op! My point is that while it only costs 10p per bag, people will just swallow the 10p cost as it’s a nothing amount and just buy new bags each time they go shopping. I actually take a couple of bags to the shops with me, not to save money but it’s minimal effort to help save the environment. But most people wouldn’t bother so it doesn’t tackle the problem, it just adds more money to the supermarket’s coffers. Again it’s another government initiative that has been poorly thought out, a total ban on plastic shopping bags would be more sensible forcing everyone to use re-usable shopping bags, but that is too obvious isn’t it? Now if the government forced supermarkets to do more, for example; how about less pointless packaging on their products, how often do we buy things where the packaging is much larger than the product inside. Do frozen products really need pretty boxes around an inner package which is sealed anyway? Why not just put a label directly on the foil or plastic container? Also while talking about the Co-op; if you are a regular reader you’ll know that I used to work in Derry’s Restaurant and you wouldn’t believe how much the kitchen throws away, not just vast amounts of food that takes up loads of landfill space but boxes that the food gets delivered in. Why doesn’t the government set targets for companies to meet instead of passing the buck onto the consumer, but like any government in the world, they are pro big business so won’t do anything to piss off these companies, simple as that!!!

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