Footballers certainly aren't payed £100K a week for their skills in critical analysis
I have been following the Ruud Van Nistelrooy transfer-saga with only partial interest. I find that when a story like this is dragged out and given an unnecessary amount of attention, I tend to keep up with it only out of habit. I certainly don't think that the story has deserved the coverage it has received- given, V. Nistelrooy has scored a lot of goals for United, but he is an aging striker, entering the final years of his somewhat illustrious career.
One thing that I don't understand is comments like this- Van Nistelrooy claims, as quoted on the Real Madrid website, that he is
"very happy to be at the best club in the world",
that for him, "To come here is a football dream and it has finally become reality",
and that "When Real Madrid come looking, you do not have to think because they are the number one".
This isn't the first time that an advance from Real Madrid has prompted a player to make such a swift decision to switch shirts, as well as such overblown and quite blatantly untrue comments such as these. Basically, V. Nistelrooy has chosen to give up playing with some of the brightest, most talented young football starts on the planet (i.e. Rooney, Ronaldo, and now potentially Carrick), so he can fight for his place in the starting line-up of a squad full of geriatrics. I mean, come on, talk about an over rated team. What have Real Madrid accomplished in the last 4 years?
I suppose I just don't understand why so many players keep deluding themselves into thinking that Real Madrid is the best team in the world, and that a move there will in some way actually help their career. Not that I'm particularly sad to see V. Nistelrooy go- his time is up, and he didn't fit into Sir Alex's 1st team plans any longer. I think it is just symptomatic of one of two things- the complete delusion with which some players view the football world, or the desire of a has been to save some face.
Yesterday I discovered that the modern term 'papa' is actually taken from the vocative of the Ancient Greek word 'pappas', which is an endearing term for one's father, 'daddy'.
I learnt this from a Greek mime I'm currently reading, Theocritus XV. Jon MacKenzie and Jon Wayman bought me a Loeb edition of the bucolic poets for my birthday, which has given me the incentive to start preparing for next semester. For your information, our concept of a 'mime' and 'pantomime' is completely the opposite to that of the Ancient Greeks. In my understanding, Ancient Greek mime was quite a common, often vulgar form of entertainment, with more colloquial language and humour, much like our modern day pantomimes.
Due to a project I have been doing at work over the past few weeks, I taken the first steps towards learning French. The grammar of the language is naturally quite similar to Latin, and I think it would be a good skill to posses.
Has it really been this long since I last updated my blog? I know that many of you have been eagerly checking it every day with great anticipation and bated breath- and for that I apologise sincerely for the disappointment that I probably caused you. I wish I had a valid reason as to why I haven't posted anything in a while. I suppose that when taken out of an environment where I am surrounded by wit and intelligence, ideas just don't come as freely. Plus I am without my most valuable resources for material, namely Jon Wayman and Phil Poots. So what has been happening? Well I returned home to Sunderland at the beginning of June, and had a few weeks to relax before starting work. I am now four weeks into my summer placement at the Rohm & Haas Tyneside works in Jarrow. Here are a few of the most significant things that have taken place so far this summer:
On returning home I was delighted to find my old electric razor which I had previously thought was broken but is now working for some reason. It is one of those Phillips coolskin ones which emits 'goo' from the top, so I have enjoyed shaving in the shower whenever I need to without getting unbearable razor-burn. I also received a few skin care products for my birthday, so I'm keeping myself pretty gorgeous at the moment.
The World Cup- although to be honest I was a touch disappointed. I suppose if you go by previous years and tournaments there was nothing to suggest that we should have expected something incredibly special this year- I really feel as though International football has not been at its best over the last decade. There were some positives coming out of it though- the biggest in my opinion being the demise of David Beckham, and the realisation by most that he does not deserve to be an automatic starter for England. It was also nice to see Owen Hargreaves do well for himself, as well as Aaron Lennon. I also feel that Christiano Ronaldo's actions might actually have done Man Utd a favour- this way they can cash in on him by selling him off to Real Madrid and buy someone else who CAN deliver the end product.
I had the privilege of being awarded the James Forrester prize for Greek from the University of St. Andrews, so was given a little money for that. Haven't read a word of Greek for about 7 weeks, so should probably get on that...
I have been following the Ruud Van Nistelrooy transfer-saga with only partial interest. I find that when a story like this is dragged out and given an unnecessary amount of attention, I tend to keep up with it only out of habit. I certainly don't think that the story has deserved the coverage it has received- given, V. Nistelrooy has scored a lot of goals for United, but he is an aging striker, entering the final years of his somewhat illustrious career.
