Tootenham or Reading in Fourth round

Paddy Crerand is happy with the draw, i suppose it would have been nice to get a lower league team, and with the amount of premier league teams that got knocked out, there was more of a chance of it happening. I am fed up of people going on about the magic of the FA cup and what it means to players and fans. The fact that hardly any ground was full even for some of the more high profile games tells you all you need to know where it stands in the priorities of most clubs. I still love the FA cup but lets face it, even for us it comes a poor third in the trophies we hope to win at the start of the season. So for those clubs that statistics say over the last ten years have no chance, that's everybody outside the top four, how can you really blame them for not taking the competition seriously, especially with the financial implications of staying in the premier league being so great.
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={B4CEE8FA-9A47-47BC-B069-3F7A2F35DB70}&newsid=521658

Thaksins wife is arrested as she re-enters Thailand
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2237153,00.html

Australia v India, it is hard to know who is wrong and who is right in all of this. The Aussies have got one hell of a record for upsetting countries from the sub continent though. Here are a variety of comments on sledging, Indian racism and Steve Bucknor being stood down from the next test.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article3150974.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/01/07/ucnich107.xml
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mike_marqusee/2008/01/india_in_denial.html

The Guardians Iranian correspondent has seen his attempt to renew his visa to stay and report in the country fail, he has been kicked him out in other words. In his final article he gives us his summary of the country and its people and where it's at, and where it may be heading.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2236340,00.html

A piece about the continuing hunt for Nazis in South America
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2236927,00.html
What caught my eye was the postwar Argentinian governments efforts at persuading escaping Nazis to settle there, as they were desperate to lure skilled people to the country. I knew that Nazis went there, but i had no idea that Peron's government actively encouraged it.


Music
Beth Gibbons and Rustin man - Beth Gibbons and Rustin man : I loved Portishead, Bet Gibbons is a cracking singer, so it's a shame they have put so little music out. It has took me a while to get round to listening to this, but if you liked Portishead you will probably love this.
Black Lips - Good bad, not evil : I remember reading about this groups stage antics after deciding to listen to this, and then wondering whether this was really for me. One of them manges to drink his own piss as part of the act. To me that kind of thing is just a gimmick to divert attention from the mediocrity of the music usually. But not in this case, it's a quality album, with hints of The Velvet Underground, the Cramps and sixties garage.
Felix Da Housecat - Kitten and thee glitz : Quality techno, i had heard his excursions album from around the same time 2002. I liked that, though it is more of a DJ mix album, where as this more of a proper song based album.
Miles Davis - Jack Johnson a tribute :One of the great Jazz rock or fusion albums, what an album. Though i would categorise it as a rock album with a magnificent Jazz trumpeter at it's heart. I am a big fan of bitches brew, but i have to say this effort tops that in my book. Now i will have to listen to On the corner.
Ray Davies - Working mans cafe : The kinks seem woefully under appreciated to me, so it's great to hear Ray Davies putting out a couple of solo albums over the last couple of years. I saw him in town a few years back when he was doing his one man show reading passages from his book, and he was a class act. He doesn't break any new musical ground, but you get what you expect from him, catchy tunes, that make you want to sing along.
Robert Plant & Allison Krauss - Raising sand : A lot of critics had this down as one of their albums of the year, and i can see why. The songs are great,the two singers more than do their job and the musicianship is superb. They are talking about doing another album, it will be hard to beat this effort, but if it's half as good it would still be worth getting.

Aston Villa 0-2 Manchester United

Not the best performance, but we are in the hat for the fourth round, so mission accomplished. Although United struggled to get their game together until Rooney came on, at least, most of the blame for this turgid affair must surely be laid at the door of the home team. Alright they got a right going over in the league earlier in the season, but that was possibly United's best performance of the season. So with United minus Rooney, Tevez and Scholes in midfield i was expecting a hard game and for Villa to have a real go at us. As it was they just sat back for almost the entire ninety minutes hoping that they would be able to exploit a set piece from which they seem to have scored a lot recently. But surely, even for that negative tactic to have a chance of working, you have to attempt put some concerted attacking play together.
It is a good job United seem to be a bit jaded and out of sorts after the Christmas period, because a fully fit and fired up United yesterday, would have beaten them even more comprehensively than we had done in the league. As it was United themselves rarely threatened the villa goal in the first half , though we were in such total control there wasn't much to panic about. The only moments to get anybody of their seats was a run from inside his own half that Anderson made about half way through the half, that saw him manage to get a pretty tame shot away at the end of that Carson saved easily. The other chance fell to Giggs just before half time after a shot from Ronaldo was parried by Carson to him just outside the six yard box. Unfortunately it seemed to take him totally by surprise and he never got his feet right and ended up hitting a pretty embarrassing effort the wrong side of the post.
The first twenty minutes of the second half saw a similar pattern of play, United having all the possession and Villa sitting back. The one promising aspect of United early second performance was that they seemed to put their foot on the gas and stepped it up a level. But although we had one or two chances, their wasn't much quality on show. A big part of the problem had been identified by Schmeical at half time, Saha looks a shadow of the player he was. I am beginning to think that his injuries have taken their toll on him. Ever since he got back in the team i have yet to see him run flat out. He used to win most headers outside the box, or at least his fair share, but that part of his game has diminished badly also. That was a big part of his game, putting balls over the top for him to run after, or balls to him for him to control with his back to goal and then release to others running from deep or give it out wide. Sadly we saw almost none of that on Saturday, and Giggs didn't really have a partner to play with. I thought Park looked as if he wasn't really ready for two games in a row. He didn't do anything wrong, he just couldn't get into the game as much as he would have liked. So it was a toss up who went off and park lost as Saha stayed on the pitch when Rooney came on for Park and totally transformed the game.
Straight away there was more pace, more movement, more enthusiasm and most of all more class. The change to 4-3-3 seemed to completely throw Villa as United seemed to have a lot more space all over the pitch for the first time in the match.It was interesting to see Ronaldo's game pick up as soon as Rooney came on, he had been having one of those games where he couldn't seem to beat his man or make the right pass. But as soon as Rooney came on, and the pace picked up he looked a different player. A brilliant interchange of passes between the two almost saw Rooney score after being fed by an inch perfect cross from Ronaldo, but he hit it too well and it blazed over the bar. But a couple of minutes later United took the lead after a neat interchange of passes on the left led to Giggs crossing for Ronaldo to sneak in at the far post and bundle it home. He can't stop scoring even when he doesn't have that great a game this season. Just to complete his almost perfect twenty minutes of action Rooney managed to strike home the second after Ronaldo's shot was blocked and came back to him just at the edge of the box.
The support did themselves proud yesterday, with no inspiration coming from the pitch they made a fair old racket for almost the entire ninety minutes.

Fergie lays into indipendent United fans

Henry winter says Fergie should listen to disenfranchised fans
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml;jsessionid=ADKAUHKOZDXFXQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/sport/2008/01/05/sfnwin105.xml
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/30438/Fergie-fans-the-Flames_
All this after the support he was given in his dispute over "that" race horse by those same fans in his dispute with Coolmore. And we have learnt since he was entirely in the wrong. And all this that led to the situation which split our fans, and priced out a lot of hardcore fans who did stay but couldn't afford the ridiculous price rises. I still respect him as a manager, how could you not, but nothing else. He could just stay quiet, but to continually take the piss, he will never be regarded in the same way as sir Matt.

More about Johnny Evans loan move to Sunderland
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/sunderland/article3134430.ece


Britain not fit for purpose
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/05/computing.egovernment
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/howard_jacobson/article3310025.ece
And public transport is garbage, privatisation is no answer to anything. I am not saying old fashioned nationalisation was brilliant, it wasn't, but it was better than what we have now.
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article3310022.ece

Oliver Kamm responds to Oliver James article on selfish capitalism
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/oliver_kamm/2008/01/enlightened_selfish_interest.html
I agree with his basic premise that governments should only aspire to provide everyone a with a reasonable standard of living, and make sure you have a safety ladder you can't fall below. After that it is up to individual choice, governments can't be worrying themselves with the mental state of the population.

John Harris on the myth of the return to form
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/01/the_myth_of_the_return_to_form.html
I think he is probably right that most bands or artists have only a limited time in the creative sun and then it is either breaking up or just plodding on living off your back catalogues. But that means as he says that the greats must be truly great.