Bebe wants to work hard

United's latest Portugese signing wants to work hard and emulate compatriot Ronaldo. Well we can only hope he doesn't mean engineer an £80 million transfer to Real Madrid. Though i'm pretty sure the Glazer's would be more than happy if that came to pass.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/7951430/Manchester-Uniteds-Bebe-wants-to-emulate-Cristiano-Ronaldo.html

Ferguson admits that he hadn't seen Bebe play when the deal was done. Usually he likes to watch players we buy at least once, how to explain Liam Miller then, Bellion, Djemba Djemba etc.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/17/manchester-united-transfer-window

He went on to decry the kamikaze spending of un named rivals, unsurprisingly believed to be City.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/7950709/Manchester-United-manager-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-decries-rivals-kamikaze-spending.html

James Lawton's latest Indie column asks whether Mancini will be successful with the biggest gamble in football history.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/james-lawton-mancini-has-raised-the-stakes-in-the-greatest-gamble-in-football-history-2055201.html

David Conn discusses the surprise announcement that Arsenal are to offer Arsenal fans the chance to buy into the clubs shares and start to build a fan custodianship. Full marks to the Arsenal supporters trust and to Arsenal football club. I had hoped that United would be the first to go down that route, but my consolation is that if as club a big as Arsenal is to go down this route it makes the chances of this happening at old trafford more rather than less likely. It will be a long term goal, but if everybody is behind the scheme it must have a good chance of success.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2010/aug/18/arsenal-kroenke-usmanov-owners-fanshare

Henry Winter writes that the Arsenal scheme is the path all premier league teams should follow
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/7950987/Henry-Winter-Arsenal-Fanshare-should-be-adopted-by-all-Premier-League-clubs.html

John Harris looks at the news that profits from Blair's new book will be donated to the British legion. He makes a good point about new labour, i'm not thrilled by the lib dems part in the coalition and don't really see how on earth i will be able to vote for them at the next election. But i'm not very comfortable about voting for a labour party that is still infected by the new labour warmongers and city loving types that took over the party in the 90's and 00's.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/17/tony-blair-book-journey-over

Samira Shackle asks whether Simon Hughes is setting himself up for a tilt at the lib dem leadership when things go wrong. Whilst this morning he said a centre left coalition was still on his agenda.
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/08/lib-dems-party-election-hughes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/18/lib-dems-should-be-able-to-veto-coalition-policies-hughes

Jonathan Freedland writes that even if you disagree with their policies you can't deny the first hundred days of the coalition have been a success. I'm afraid i still belive it will be all downhill eventually.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/18/100-days-coalition-government

Mick Hume's Spiked column looks at the economic forecasts that seem to vary from day to day.
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/9412/


Music
Crystal castles - Crystal castles 11: The Canadian duo deliver the goods once again on the second album. I'm not sure what genre you would bracket them as but i like the experimental side of their music as well as the more radio friendly side ( that's radio 6 friendly, not radio 1 ).

Stanley Clarke - Children of forever: There is some brilliant playing on this classic mid seventies jazz rock or fusion album. The songs aint bad either.

Teenage fanclub - Shadows: The latest album by one of my favourite indie bands. They rarely disappoint and this is no exception. They have always ben great songwriters and there are more gems on this.

The Drums - The drums: The debut album from the New York based outfit shows it joy division influence openly but there is more to them than that. This is a cracking album chock full of top tunes. Album closer, the future, does a pretty good impression of pets sounds era beach boys.

The Long blondes - Someone to drive you home: The Sheffield based indie outfits debut album has its moments but the second album is a more solid effort for me. That's not knocking it though, there are some seriously good songs on there.

We are scientists - Barbera: Another solid album from the new york based indie outfit. I love the track, you should learn, even though it reminds me of the formulaic end of U2 that i'm not so keen on.