Mind the Gap

I've had Radio 5 on in the office today, listening to all the latest football news, revelations, specualtions and transfer debates. Listening to the amounts of money being splashed about quite off the cuff blase from the presenters and reporters... John Terry "earning" £135,000 "a week". Wasnt Terry on the bench for half last season too, oh, and now out for a possible month - what's that, just over half a million pounds, for 'light' training for a month? Last week it seems Alan (broken leg last season) Smith has gone to Newcastle for "£6 million", with all these exchanges flying about and the money exchanged for Tevez over the past year or so, and so on and so on... I just had to listen harder to what really is happening just those 3 divisions higher than the club I follow...

The below is stuff I know you all know, but to put into context read on: The owners of these "big" clubs are a mix of American Football club owners, Russian Oil Tycoons, and new to the "big" club bracket are wannabes Manchester City with an ex-Thai Prime Minister with the vault. Their managers splashing that bottomless pit of off-shore Swiss bank account cash on said wages excessing £100,000 a week, players owning penthouses and property across the world, racehorses, owning any cars they want, the clubs they play for have megastores the size of an average Tesco and selling as many products as Tesco with the club Trademark stamped on everything. Fair enough...

Come down just 3 divisions, and the club I follow, the owner is the guy who owns the Ford dealership on the corner next to the ground, the club shop (the size of an average house lounge) sells home and away shirts (shorts if in stock), a couple of scarves, 3 styles of pin-badge, a bumper sticker and the official calendar... and thats about it. Some players house-share (in a case well documented, a player houseshares with the chairman), the players are often spotted in the local pubs and doing the food shopping in ASDA with the Mrs - i've spied a couple since working in Wrexham and wandering around at lunch. The top player is on maybe £1250k a week, which may stretch to a semi-fancy car and a semi-detatched house in a Midsomer style village just outside the town...

I know it's early (super early!), but I "so" want a cup-run and a lucky draw to take on some Premier League club and give it a go again (we could do with the money). The enjoyment of watching Neil Taylor kick Blackburns Bentley all over the pitch in pre-season isnt enough.

And so, the new season draws ever closer. The gap between leagues pulls further apart. "Fuck the Gap"

To post in July

To keep us with a succession of at least a post a month...

Stewart Lee. He's been getting about the media the last couple of weeks! Spotted on Channle 4's "8 out of 10 Cats" last Friday night. Randomly scanning the radio frequencies the next morning, I hear his voice talking about Joe Pasquale being a "thief of material" on Jonathan Ross' Radio 2 showwith David Baddiel and James Dean Bradfield also in the studio - a superb interview! All promoting his month long Edinburgh Festival run. I recently got his new "un-official/official" DVD (Distributed by Go Faster Stripe, Cardiff)... all totally new material, and he just keeps getting better. Stewart Lee a comic sage of the times. Those familiar with his "official" DVD release in 2004/5, will be familiar with the 9/11 opening... this time it opens with 7/7, and off into territory of why 'hopefully' Lee will always remain a relatively underground comedy circuit / BBC 3 / BBC 4 / Radio 4 / the occassional Channel 4 appearances, and controverial writer of plays, director, producer and novelist (i need to get his novel!)... figure.

Football: Just got the new Wrexham 07/08 home shirt! It'll make its debut tomorrow night, and maybe another sweaty run-out in Thursday nights 7-a-side training. I've joined the village 7-a-side team - who play in a 7-a-side league setup across Flintshire and Wrexham district (a squad of about 20 or so, so theyve got options, and are not just stuck with me as left-back!), season starts end of August! My 4th week on Thursday, it's brutal, i mean, seriously hard going... a Connahs Quay Nomad playing between the sticks though! I won't go on about Wrexhams Pre-Season stuff, or the Kaid Mohammed debate, only i can't wait for the 07/08 season to get underway!

I'm sure Dave will be on shortly/hopefully with his New York exploits. From the snippets ive heard mailed to me from some internet cafe on Times Square, i need to hear more!

Start Spreading the News...

In April my girlfriend Laura and I booked a week long holiday in New York for late July. As someone who spent their childhood reading Spider-man comics and watching Ghostbusters at least once a fortnight I can’t overstate how bedwettingly exciting it is to be able to visit this city. I don’t intend to be all pretentious about my stay. I’m not particularly bothered if I miss the ‘real’ New York. I want the full unashamed NYC experience, the Empire State Building, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty etc. I want to see a baseball game, a show on Broadway, I want the works!!! And with the pound being so strong at present there’s a good chance I can afford to do it all.

Over the past couple of months I’ve been looking into what’s on during our visit. My ideal choice of Broadway show would be Spamalot. I wouldn’t mind seeing The Producers again but it’s coming to Cardiff in the autumn so it’s kind of a waste. That said the roles of Roger De Bris and Leo Bloom are to be played by Russ Abbott and Joe Pasquale for the end of the British tour so I might not attend the Cardiff leg. Sportswise I’m not fussy, preferably baseball or basketball. Although I understand getting hold of tickets is notoriously difficult. I could settle for some soccer action with New York Red Bulls (cringe) with their new signing ex Villa player Juan Pablo Angel. I went on their official website earlier, in their last game they drew 3-3 against Kansas City Wizards (double cringe) It says that both teams played in the 6-2-2 formation…It’s a wonder anybody scored. I might give that a miss to be honest. I also wanted to catch a music act while over there but for weeks I was having no luck finding something that took our fancy. Rage Against The Machine are headlining a hip hop festival called Rock the Bells. Other acts on the bill include Cypress Hill and the Wu-Tan Clan. Sounds pretty cool but I feel it’s a little too hardcore for us and we could quickly find ourselves out of depth. That left a choice between Meatloaf, The Police, Michael Buble or Minnie Driver. The term ‘middle of the road’ doesn’t cover that pile of crap.

Then out from the darkness came a huge surprise. I switched from the usual websites I’d been scanning to a different one and about a minute later found exactly the kind of thing I’d been searching for. One of my favourite bands, The White Stripes, playing the world famous Madison Square Gardens…bingo, we have a winner!!! We purchased the tickets pretty quickly for a tidy $124.00 which worked out £64.00 for the pair of us. I was shocked at the amount of add on fees the Americans have when you by a ticket. I thought Ticketline UK were bastards for demanding a one pound booking fee, it’s nothing compared to them. But hey it’s worth it, I’ve wanted to see the White Stripes live for a while now and it’s going to take me leaving the continent to do so. If you take away Jacks ill advised Coca Cola advert from the equation they really are what a great band should be. I bought their new album Icky Thump yesterday and I’m really getting into it. Took me a couple of listens but I found that with the last one. Stand out tracks for me so far are Rag & Bone and I’m Slowly Turning Into You. Great to be able to warm up for July by watching them on the BBC interactive at the moment, if you haven’t caught it yet please press the red button!