Journalism is my escape ...

Is is this time of year already?

2011-11-10T21:31:00.001+00:00

The latest installment of the ‘Call of Duty’ series was released on 8th November and as expected there was a flurry of excitement and interest. Amazon reported that they received 32% more pre-orders on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 than they did on Black Ops, the installment previous to Modern Warfare 3.

The game hit the shelves as the clocks ticked over to Tuesday morning and approximately 1.5 million people across America lined up outside stores to get their hands on a copy and I guess, spend the rest of the evening playing it. No official number of sales have been released however, some analysts have predicted sales of 9.3 million copies on the opening night alone. If that proves to be the case then these sales will trump any previous Call of Duty, and indeed any games sales ever.

People have split opinions over the ‘fad’ that is the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 or MW3. Many people claimed that MW3 is just a recycled version of MW2 and don’t forget the original Modern Warfare game. Critics say graphics are almost exactly the same as MW2, and that the new addition to the crew should be called MW2.5 rather than 3. Was recycling an version a good idea after EA released the long awaited Battlefield 3? Only time will tell.

Call of Duty will always sell, the name carries a massive reputation in the gaming world. No matter how the game plays the game will sell, this is of course great news for Activision. This however could cause a problem for the fans, the people that made Call of Duty and Activision so popular. Will the makers of future Call of Duty games start to become slack and almost lackluster in there approach to the creation of future versions?

I haven’t personally been fortunate enough to have a play of MW3 so I cannot comment on any of the gameplay and can only go off what I have seen and read. I have however been able to play some Battlefield 3 during the beta stage and was very impressed. If you were to take the names away and sit someone in front of a television to play each game which one would they prefer?

Either way I will probably still buy the new Call of Duty at some point and will probably end up spending quite a few hours playing it because even though it may be a old game with a new name it is just like all the other Call of Duty’s released in the past. Mildly addictive.

Rooney's No Goer

2011-10-14T19:43:00.000+01:00

Wayne Rooney once again caught the headlines earlier this week when he rashly kicked out at Montenegro's Miodrag Dzudovic, all this after his dad was arrested for betting scams. Foul play seems to run in the family.

At the time of Rooney's dad's arrest Fabio Capello backed Wayne to play against Montenegro and a poor result was marred by Rooney's sending off. England only managed to get a 2-2 draw against Montenegro with no help from Rooney but rather his ManchesterUnited teammate Ashley Young who performed well.

Rooney has once again been backed, this time by legendary striker Alan Shearer. Shearer believed that England should still take Rooney to the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, but why should a player travel when he cannot play any group stage match? A red card that was entirely Rooney's wrong doing and cannot be defended by anyone, but god they will try. Other players, who have been working hard for their club to try and represent their country deserve a chance to show their worth in place for someone who has thrown his away. Rooney is worth nothing to England until his suspension is over, and unless England get a ludicrously easy group containing nations that they could beat with their eyes closed (which is unlikely because they wouldn't have qualified), taking Rooney along would be a mistake. Another mistake would be to take Darren Bent, but lets not start on that.

Daniel Sturridge should be given a chance, he is what England need. I am a Chelsea fan and will defiantly get called bias by many people for putting across that view. England would do well to have a player like Daniel in the squad. He possesses great pace, finishes well and never stands still, he is a nightmare to mark for any defender. I know that due to Daniel's lack of international experience he is unlikely to be chosen for Euro 2012 but he is always one to watch out for, and for any narrow minded Manchester United fans out there your Daniel wouldn't be a bad choice either.

One For The Future: Tom Cleverley

2011-10-05T20:35:00.001+01:00

One of England's rising talents Tom Cleverley has had to be patient with his chances at Manchester United having to compete with big names in the middle of the park, but for Cleverley patience is key.

Relatively unknown Cleverley actually made his debut for Manchester United back in 2008 against Kaizer Cheifs in pre-season. If that wasn't good enough he scored the third of United's four goals in that game. The future looked bright for young Cleverley as he was given the first team shirt number of thirty-five also in 2008, a fringe player at Manchester United at the age of 19 there was obviously a lot to come from this young man.

A bright future isn't enough nowadays as Sir Alex sent Cleverley out on a season-long loan to Leicester City playing in League One, the perfect place to develop. And a stirling first season of two goals in fifteen games came to an abrupt end after he received a nasty injury setback and returned to United for treatment. Even though Cleverley was injured at the end of the season he still received a League One winners medal.

Watford is where Cleverley burst onto the scene and came into his own showing a very high potential to be a top player. His ability to score goals from midfield was evident scoring an average of one every three games, very comparable to one of the best goal-scoring midfielders of modern times, Frank Lampard. But once again in April, Cleverley's season was brought to a shuddering halt with a knee ligament injury. As reward for Tom's stunning season he was voted Watford player of the season.

After such a brilliant season with Watford you might have thought that he would stand a chance in the United midfield, especially with the likes of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes nearing the end of their careers, but after Giggs and Scholes reaffirmed there stance of staying on, Cleverley's chances faded and he got given what could be his best chance to show Sir Alex he was worth keeping around when he was loaned to Wigan Athletic on transfer deadline day.

Wigan was Cleverley's first chance to prove himself in the Premier League, and he dually delivered with a string of impressive first-team performances. He also scored his first Premier League goal of his career against West Ham United. Although the loan agreement between Manchester United and Wigan was only until January, Cleverley performed so well that Wigan opted to extend it until the end of the season where he would end up scoring the decisive goal against Wolves in their 2-1 victory. This kept Wigan in the Premier League for another season, with Cleverley being a first-team regular and stand out performer for the Latics.

Once again Cleverley impressed in pre-season for Manchester United and even played a full ninety minutes against easily the 'best' team in the world, Barcelona. After this match manager Alex Ferguson praised him after stating that he was the 'best player' for United, a 'strong possibility' that he would feature in the opening Premier League Fixture against West Brom. But he chances came much sooner than expected as he came on as a half-time substitute and assisted a beautifully constructed goal to bring United back in the game.

Sir Alex's words were true as Cleverley started his first Premier League game and did so well that he was involved in United's second game of the season against Tottenham. Things were really looking up for Tom as he was involved in the game against Arsenal which would be considered as one of their biggest games every season without fail. Everything was looking amazing for Tom, England coach Fabio Capello had faith in him and called him up to the squad to face Holland. Unfortunately the game was cancelled due to the rioting in London. He received another call-up for the European qualifiers against Bulgaria and Wales but never made the full squad. Things slowly got worse for Tom as he suffered damage to his ligament in his foot and was confirmed out for at least a month.

Now at 22 Tom has a lot of hard work to do. When he returns from injury he needs to be as sharp as be was during the start of the season. It's not the first injury in Tom's career and every time he has come back stronger so now's the time he proves he can be an England international.

Managerial Roundabout

2011-10-04T20:30:00.000+01:00

After another disappointing result for Blackburn Rovers at the weekend Rovers fans are calling for the head of Steve Keen. On Saturday hapless Rovers lost 4-0 to a misfiring Man City team who have problems of their own with the 'Tevez saga'. The fact that Keen could be axed caused a bit of a stir in the footballing world with Alan Shearer stating that "you don't just become a bad manager after seven games."

With managers constantly bearing the brunt of the poor performance of players I decided to have a look into how easily a manager gets sacked if they lose a couple of games. We'll start with what probably is the biggest hot-seat in football, the managerial job at Chelsea. Ranieri, Mourinho, Grant, Scolari, Hiddink and Ancelotti have all managed Chelsea within the past seven years, all down to the over-watching eye of oil merchant Roman Abramovich. If you compare that to the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson who has managed Manchester United for a massive twenty-five years!

After getting to the final of the prestigious Champions League in 2008 Avram Grant seems like the harshest decision made my Roman Abramovich and looks like Grant was blame for John Terry's penalty miss. If Terry had scored that penalty Grant would have kept his job.

Another manager would seemed a bit short of luck is Gerard Houllier, who's heart problems seem to be costing him his jobs, but then again, he's not the best manager in the world. So if you are an owner of a club and you want a new manager my advice is, check your managers health and dental records and don't allow your manager to let a centre-back take penalty kicks!

An Idea!

2011-10-04T19:56:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone I was on twitter having a look at posts and tweets and for some reason I had an idea! (incase you didn't already have an inkling after reading the title). I would, every Friday try and post a post about a specific football team that has been in the news over that week. It's a shame I didn't think of this earlier I would have had a lot to write about Fernando Torres' dreadful miss against Manchester United. I say that I promise in every possible way that I wouldn't be biased to Chelsea but it's difficult as I am a Chelsea fan. I will possibly start posting before Friday this week just to get wheels into motion! I guess I'll update you soon!

Barca Reject Set For Chelsea

2011-07-21T21:38:00.000+01:00

Numerous internet based sports websites across England and Spain are reporting that Chelsea are close to securing a deal to sign Barcelona starlet Oriol Romeu for a deal believed to be around €5 million.

Romeu never really hit the jackpot of becoming a Barcelona first team player and decided to find a new club that would assure him more playing time. Having made numerous appearances for the Barcelona B team, formally managed by Barcelona legend Luis Enrique, Romeu got his first La Liga appearance for the first team last season against Deportivo de La Coruna. However, he only played the last ten minutes.

Chelsea are suffering of late due to an injury to key team member Michael Essien, and are struggling to find cover. Andre Villas-Boas has seen Romeu both as cover and a talent for the future to help Chelsea get to the next level of European football. Michael Essien's past injury woes have sparked confusion over his future at Chelsea and indeed his future in football, so maybe bringing in youthful rather than experienced cover is the right shout.

Sources reporting this formally reported that Chelsea signed 18 year-old Barcelona striker Gael E'tock but no future announcements have been made since then which means there are doubts about this recent release. Chelsea's new ethos seems to be recruiting youth which was implemented by Villas-Boas and backed up by announcing a deal to sign Thibaut Courtois from Genk.

After having a very experienced team over the last few seasons, and still failing to become the driving force in English football ahead of Manchester United maybe youth is the key. The main thing is that Chelsea don't turn out like Arsenal, always looking towards youth and not winning a thing.

Tottenham Would Be Lucky To Hold Onto Luka

2011-07-10T22:05:00.000+01:00

So, all it takes to get you angry on a Sunday evening is reading any article containing Luka Modric and Chelsea, and you can't get away from it because it's everywhere. Every sports orientated website has an article, and even The Guardian have a segment especially for Luka.

I will of course have an opinion bias towards the 'Chelsea' side of the argument considering I am a Chelsea fan, and have been all my life. So therefore I am jumping on the 'let Modric leave' bandwagon, and in all fairness I can't see why Tottenham won't allow him to leave. He may be under contract but if a player doesn't want to be there then he should have a right to leave, and because Luka doesn't want to stay at Tottenham it means he won't put in 100% and that could have a negative affect on Tottenham as an entity.

Chelsea need a new creative midfield as Lampard really isn't showing the ability of a few seasons back, plus he is at increasing risk of a long injury just like he sustained last season. And with Essien picking up an injury in pre-season training and with no clue as to how long he will be out, a new midfielder seems like the perfect first signing for Andre Villas-Boas. Modric isn't the only creative midfield in the world and not the only one that Chelsea have been interested in. Javier Pastore is one name that has been thrown around, but with a £44 million price-tag on the head of a player that is relatively new to the scene it's just too much.

I would say that if Chelsea bid nearer the £35 million mark for Modric they would probably be successful. And there are more than enough players of the market for £35 million that Tottenham could sign. I personally think that Milan Badelj is just Modric but 3 years younger. He started his career in Zagreb just like Luka Modric and is more then capable of filling his boots if Luka moves to Chelsea. If Tottenham wanted to go for real youth and try and build someone to be better than Modric then Šime Vrsaljko, also of Dinamo Zagreb would be a decent punt. Only 19 years old and already made a senior appearance for his country.

Whatever happens to Luka Modric the stories will be going on throughout the summer and if a move were to be completed I would expect it to be done very late in August. So, belt up, this could take a while.