Tifo display in Section 8 last night before the Chicago Fire home opener against the Philadelphia Union. The Fire won 1-0.
Sam Jethroe rounding first, 1951
Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Boston Braves
Braves Field (Boston)
photo by George Silk
Today, Aston Villa reported a record loss of $85 million for the last financial year, because finishing ninth just isn’t as lucrative as finishing sixth.
Arsene Wenger is like Schrödinger’s cat, or one of those particles that are supposed to be able to exist in two places at once: it’s impossible to measure him accurately because we don’t know enough about the constraints he’s under at Arsenal. If the board is pleading with him to spend money and he’s responding by humming loudly and composing an oil painting about youth development, then he’s a dogmatist who should probably be fired. If the board is counting out bills in ones and scowling when it hands them over, then he’s doing a miraculous job adapting to a difficult situation. We don’t know which it is, so we don’t know whether he’s an exhausted idealist or a pragmatic hero of Arsenal, as Jonathan Wilson recently pointed out in SI:
And it’s true: to qualify regularly for the Champions League while spending as little as he has done is astonishing. But idealism has its limits; sometimes holes have to be filled. If Wenger really is refusing to spend when money is available, then he has ceased to be an idealist and has become a fundamentalist.
If, though, as seems more likely, the money is not available, and he is sticking to a budget given to him from the board, then that in itself raises questions. The move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006 was supposed to generate the funds that could allow Arsenal to compete with the very best — even if it meant short-term retrenchment while interest on the loan was paid off. Recent figures suggested that Arsenal’s matchday revenue is so great that in two games it outstrips what Sunderland makes in a season. Yet that money is not being spent. Why? Because of Wenger’s ideals? Or because the owner, Stan Kroenke, is refusing to release it?
7 April, 1994 exhibition game: White Sox vs. Cubs. Featuring: Harry Caray interview w/ Michael Jordan, who went 2-for-5 w/ 2 RBI.
Klaus and David
Damn
Villarreal’s tiki-taka exhibition
15 passes in about 20 seconds? Barcelona may have mastered the art of tiki-taka, short one and two-touch passing (normally formed in shifting triangles created by three footballers), but Villarreal showed us this past weekend against Valencia that the likes of Borja Valero are on to you, Xavi. The best part of this clip has to be the reaction of the fans. This sequence didn’t lead to a goal in the end, but it was a stunning passage of play that received a well-earned standing ovation.
