Babe Of The Month - All Dressed Up To Go To The Palace

The Worst Sporting Champions of All Time ! - Part Two!

This is the second installment in my series looking at and 'celebrating' those undeserved 'Sporting Champions' - those teams and/or individuals that were actually top of their field, yet were still pretty rubbish.

Last time it was Blackburn Rovers who felt the wrath of my written tongue, as I described their 1995 Premiership winning team as pretty crass. This time I am sticking with the sport of football as I look back to 2005 and 1982, and poor cold water on a couple of English teams 'glorious' European triumphs!

There are plenty of folk, especially in the Greater Manchester area, who insist that Liverpool's Champions League winning team of 2005 were indeed the worst European Champions of all time!
Despite their dramatic penalty shoot-out final victory over Milan, in the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul - they have a point!

You can't be picking players like Djimi 'gauche' Traoré or Harry 'supersize me' Kewell and expect to receive much in the way of props. But in their defence the Reds did at least have the decency to 'somehow' defeat several quality teams along the way such as Milan, Juventus and Chelsea and to a lesser extent Bayer Leverkusen.

However Liverpool only made it through to the knock-out phase of the competition, ahead of the 'mighty' Olympiacos of Greece on goal difference, after finishing runners-up to AS Monaco in their qualifying group.
The Anfield side did finish a semi-respectable fifth in the league during their cup-winning season.

Similar claims of beating reputable opposition on their way to European glory cannot be made for Aston Villa's 1982 campaign.

Villa that season 'officially' became the worst side ever to lift the most sought after European club trophy of the modern era!

The old adage of ' you can only beat what is put in front of you ' still sadly fails to make their triumph seem anymore than futile.

Villa won their solo European Cup (in the days when it was a straight knock-out competition) by beating the muscle of Valur Reykjavik, Dynamo Berlin, Dynamo Kiev, Anderlect and in one of the most tedious finals held in Rotterdam, the most toothless Bayern Munich side in living memory, care of a 67th minute Peter Withe goal.

Meanwhile back home, Villa defended their 1981 domestic league title with a complete lack of aplomb, by losing 15 games and ending the season in 12th place - no European champions have ever finished as low - quite a feat and in doing so simply re-emphasising their title as ' the worst side ever to lift the European Cup! '

`-` model & actress joanna krupa `-`

Pretty Joanna Krupa is a Polish-American model and actress. The 31 year old beauty has appeared on many well-known magazine covers and also named the Sexiest Swimsuit Model in the world. She was a Miss Howard TV model for the month of December 2007.

 

Why Don't I Dream?

I'm one of those people who scare the crap out of roommates by opening one eye on you when you get too close to me when I'm sleeping.

I don't dream, or at least so it seems. I close my eyes, then I wake up. Every single night for more than a year.

Perhaps I move around in an astral body, floating between time and space learning the vast secrets of the universe then return to my physical body where I am not allowed to remember such things.

Perhaps I have the same vivid and graphic nightmares every night that I had as a child and my mind blocks out these images because I can't stand the mental trauma.

Whatever it is, I know that as far I'm concerned I don't have dreams.

They say a dream is a wish your heart makes. Maybe I don't have any wishes, so I don't have any dreams. But that doesn't make any sense. My wishes for the world are so grand that I could easily be labeled an "idealist."

It could be a chemical thing, when I went puritanical (straight-edge) for awhile my dreams sort of came back. At least occasionally anyway. Maybe alcohol and marijuana disturb my sleep. I like that one, my understanding of science agrees with the notion that each of us have unique body chemistry that reacts differently to compounds released into the bloodstream.

I believe our dreams are significant to understanding our psyche, and I feel cheated by not knowing what they are.

It's kind of hard to start a dream journal, like some have suggested to me when I mention this to them, when every entry would read "no dreams last night."

Another explanation might be that I expend all my creative juices with my constant flights of fancy and then when I fall asleep my mind is fresh out of imagery to dance in front of me.

Most take their dreams for granted, most hardly give them a second thought. But take them away from someone and they would feel a loss.

Well I don't miss what I barely ever knew.

Dreams, for me, are like treasures denied to me. I envy you dreamers, you all have something I have not had in years. It is a gift, to dream in the mind eternal.

***

Get this:

I wrote the above text last night before going to sleep. After writing this, I dreamt last night. I guess it served as a dream journal, priming my mind to draw the dreams denied to me for more than a year to the part of my brain that allows me to remember them.

They were weird dreams, extremely weird.

The first dream was me cleaning out the trunk of car with Bill O'Reilly helping me. No seriously, I'm not kidding that was really my dream. We were having some sort of political debate, the context of which I cannot recall. The part that stands out is that he made some kind of point to me while we dug through the crap in my trunk and I was parsing this comment by saying "you are right about..." and then he interrupted me to say "damn right, I'm right!" Last part I remember of that dream was me giving him a sour puss as we aired out a dirty comforter.

The second dream was more like my typical dreams that I have remembered from the past: it played out like a horror movie. I was on a house boat, or a barge, with a big hole in the middle of the deck leading down into the water. There were people diving underneath us (I don't know who the other people were) and a big crane running a rope down into the water. Suddenly the rope snapped and there was screaming coming from whoever was with me. I was panicked and staring down into the water, which was amazing blue and clear like the waters of Hawaii or Jamaica, and felt as if someone I cared deeply for was in danger. The last image of the dream was a huge black octopus coming into view in the depths of the sea.

Pt.2 THE RISING NON-VIOLENT MOVEMENT IN PALESTINE

THE RISING NON-VIOLENT MOVEMENT IN PALESTINE

MSNBC Slams Fox News For Being Racists "Akin to KKK" 3/22

Adventures In Modern Marketing

The Great Internet Marketing Guru takes a few questions and concerns from his clients.

Let's listen in:

"My internet ad campaign was a total wash. I ended up taking a bath and nobody even visited my site!"

"Did you put boobs all over it like I told you to?"

"No, I thought that was too superficial and sensationalistic."

"And that would be why you failed. You forgot your audience is nothing but superficial and craves sensationalism."

"So what do I now?"

"Take a picture of your penis and put it on Craigslist."

"Okay ... but what is that gonna help?"

"Nothing. I just want you to relive the shame of former roommates of mine."

***

"I saw this ad making a claim I shouldn't buy a product. Should I believe it?"

"Of course! Ads were created to tell you what not to buy, not what to buy. So when an ad tells you to buy something, you know it's fake because they are trying to advertise to you. But when an ad tells you not to buy something, you know it's real because they are not advertising to you."

"Wait ... what?"

***

"So I got all these people reading my blog about tech and travel but I want to use my blog audience to expand my business promotions as well. How can I retool my blog without loosing readers?"

"It's easy: Dramatically announce you will be leaving the blog, probably the whole Internet, forever. Send that out and then wait a few days, then come back with some false tale of woe and then start selling hub caps and spark plugs off your blog-doohickey."

"That really works?"

"Oh yeah, totally! People usually use it to switch from catatonic to mildly psychotic instead of non-monetized to monetized, but all blogging is pretty much the same thing."

***

"I was thinking of opening up a singles dating service online and..."

"Get the hell out of my office."

***

"I heard that Twitter was the new tool for marketing professionals with the hottest and latest ideas."

"Who told you that?"

"That guy in the rabbit suit trying to give out fliers."

***

"Someone told me you could market products on Facebook more effectively than using banner services."

"Depends on what you mean by 'market.' If by that you mean annoy people and be ignored, then yes it is very effective."

***

"I bought up all my domain names and registered on every social network that exists. Is there anything else I should do before I set out to rule the digital landscape?"

"Yes. Hire a mafia. You are late to the game, the only way you'll get any traction now is to break kneecaps and go gangsta on Google."

***

Thus concludes another session of ultimate wisdom from The Great Internet Marketing Guru.

How Much Is A Human Being Worth?

Ans: About the market value and resale value of a jar of table salt.


Element - Mass of element in a 70-kg person

oxygen 43 kg

carbon 16 kg

hydrogen 7 kg

nitrogen 1.8 kg

calcium 1.0 kg

phosphorus 780 g

potassium 140 g

sulfur 140 g

sodium 100 g

chlorine 95 g

magnesium 19 g

iron 4.2 g

fluorine 2.6 g

zinc 2.3 g

silicon 1.0 g

rubidium 0.68 g

strontium 0.32 g

bromine 0.26 g

lead 0.12 g

copper 72 mg

aluminum 60 mg

cadmium 50 mg

cerium 40 mg

barium 22 mg

iodine 20 mg

tin 20 mg

titanium 20 mg

boron 18 mg

nickel 15 mg

selenium 15 mg

chromium 14 mg

manganese 12 mg

arsenic 7 mg

lithium 7 mg

cesium 6 mg

mercury 6 mg

germanium 5 mg

molybdenum 5 mg

cobalt 3 mg

antimony 2 mg

silver 2 mg

niobium 1.5 mg

zirconium 1 mg

lanthanium 0.8 mg

gallium 0.7 mg

tellurium 0.7 mg

yttrium 0.6 mg

bismuth 0.5 mg

thallium 0.5 mg

indium 0.4 mg

gold 0.2 mg

scandium 0.2 mg

tantalum 0.2 mg

vanadium 0.11 mg

thorium 0.1 mg

uranium 0.1 mg

samarium 50 µg

beryllium 36 µg

tungsten 20 µg


Humans are cheap. From a logical and scientific perspective we are nothing more than deluded carbon, salts and simple sugars thinking to ourselves we have some value beyond decaying in the soil to nourish plant life.

I personally don't accept a purely scientific view of the world and the life all around us. But this here is the solid truth when people ask what a human life is worth, what value a human has to the world.

It's something like $ 2.50, or less. When we are disassembled to our base components there is nothing to look at except a small pile of materials from the chemistry room. Rather mundane ones at that.

That is provided we define "worth" as having to do with money, which we all know is the only thing that matters anyway.

NAACP Receives Racist Death Threat

After the passing of this week's resolution to encourage Tea Party leaders to repudiate racism within their ranks, the NAACP has received a number of death threats at local units and chapters around the country.

The following chilling voice message was left at the NAACP's Hollywood Bureau.

Warning: the language is intense, disturbing, and definitely not safe for work. The FBI has been notified.

I just got done talking to a conservative in live chat saying just about the same thing to me, minus the death threat only because an admin was watching.

No doubt this outright death threat ala "the streets will run red with blood" fails to represent all conservatives out there, but I really need people to stop fooling themselves here: this brand of hatred is not uncommon and not unheard of when we are talking right-wing politics.

All you have to do is take a look and a listen to the real live conversation going on and not the bullshit filtered form of mass communications via the Internet. These people make entire media empires built on the bedrock of hate for blacks, for the poor, for immigrants, for civil servants, for liberals, for everyone but themselves.

People in the U.S. need to stop acting so surprised when rabid dogs taught only how to attack and incite violence by their media overlords stand up and express themselves like this man did.

There you have it. That's why I hate conservatives so much, because they take the time to talk like this directing their comments directly at me. And why? Because they don't like anyone messing with their lies and racist comments, they seriously believe they can spread hate speech unchallenged.

I'll never stand down. You'll have to kill me to get me to stop speaking the truth. The only thing I did wrong was ever let a lowlife conservative get under my skin, even the highest caliber among them are not worth the mental effort. You can't fix stupid.

This phone call from a tea party racist is a great example of why the unpatriotic tea party is nothing but the destruction of American Democracy from within. These vile people are not welcome in this blog and not welcome anywhere near me. Since they refuse to reject the racist scum in their mix, they are all racist scum now as far as I am concerned.

Anyone with a functioning brain feels the same at this point. This shit has run its course, it's time for the conservative racists like Breitbart and Beck for be called out for the pieces of trash they are.

Not One Red Cent For Fox News

Until today I was a subscriber to the only (pseudo) liberal voice on Fox News.

No more.

How do I cancel my subscription with PayPal?

* Log in to your PayPal.com account, and click the profile link to update your credit card.

* Click History, then select Basic.

* Filter the results by Subscriptions to locate your Fox News Radio subscription

* Then, click the cancel button.

Read more: http://radio.foxnews.com/2008/12/29/podcast-faq/#ixzz0uO3qAXfy

"This subscription has been canceled."

I'm not giving one more red cent to this racist enterprise.

On the long list of voices to hear on talk radio Alan Colmes is hardly the evil cretin that others prove themselves to be on a daily basis, but he is a man who sits there and allows outright harassment to take place against himself and others then proceeds to try and defend the haters at the expense of the victims.

As long as he doesn't open his mouth about Fox News bull crap all is dandy in fact-checking respects, but I've grown tired of his inability to stand up for the people that matter.

I'm proud to cancel my small amount of dollars going to Roger Ailes and the rest of the racist goon squad at Fox News.

Since the only person they would ever hire not a Nazi racist is someone like Alan Colmes, I don't think they deserve any support even for their so-called "liberal voice."

Sherrod, Spooner and Breitbart (News Media BS)

For all the lies told up until this point in regards to Shirley Sherrod's supposed "racism" it might have been wise for some of these conservative race baiters (Sean Hannity, Andrew Breitbart) to actually talk with the "white farmer" (Rodger Spooner) in question before they report this non-story as anything but Chapter Two of the Racist Witch Hunts via Breitbart.

SPOONER: "I've never been treated no better ... I don't know what started the racism mess ... they just want to stir up some trouble, it seems to me."


Just like the racist witch hunt against ACORN, and prior to that Van Jones, this is all a perfect example of why conservatives are not to be trusted in the media. They will lie at the drop of a hat and care nothing for the consequences of spreading hatred, racism and bigotry. If even one person checked out the facts before running this story on any cable news network, it never would have aired in the first place.

And shame on Obama for bending over backwards in each of these cases to people who obviously are nothing but fascist, racist scum.

The sooner Obama sees that no conservative anywhere wants anything but to lie and deceive the better off we will all be. Anyone not sick of this bullshit at this point is obviously not interested in truth, democracy or freedom. They have their racist talking points and their scape goats and they will burn the United States to the ground before they give them up.

What Is Art?

The Newsweek cover story for this week examines the issue of "The Creativity Crisis."

If there is any truth to a decline in creativity in the U.S. it likely stems from a lack of value for the arts and a lack of healthy national discussion over the value of art itself in our society.

But the discussion almost always goes straight to:

I like to go through it backwards, because I'm weird.

Renaissance art is soft-core porno. Or ... pornography is art. No cheap smut film can match a masterpiece, that's not what I am saying. It is just a matter of prudish mentalities that separates one form of nudity from another.

The truly obscene becomes a form of art all on its own. Even without the creator ever holding such an intent. It's really, really bad art. But what the SCOTUS defines "protected obscene speech" is bunk. The more obscene something becomes the more we should be taking cares not to expose young impressionable minds to this art, but I would defend it as free speech even when I find the expression itself downright immoral and disgusting.

I do draw some lines, however. The most recent example that helps to define my view of what art is would be the SCOTUS ruling on 'crush' films as protected. This violates my standard of harm being caused to living creatures for the sake of art, therefore I must stand opposed to protecting 'crush' films for they are not fictional animals being slaughtered for entertainment. This standard of mine applies to all art forms, as long as no harm is done in course of making your art I have no desire to shut you down even if you produce a product I find more than merely questionable in nature.

One example of 'questionable art' finding its way into American Culture would be the appearance of anime featuring a naked young vampire girl slaying people on Hulu and YouTube with partial white blurring over the scene. I found that single scene not only offensive but outrageous. However, I would be upset to hear of people trying to get the videos pulled for the crime of poor taste.

Art of value is able to invoke any topic and any feeling without being merely obscene, but I have always argued that the only way we will ever be able to discover and reveal the great works of art to be found in our times is to loosen our neck-ties about what exactly we call "art" in the first place.

My medium is words, mostly written but spoken word as well. I used to be able to produce illustration that did not stink, most recent attempts looked like I was five years old. I have focused too much on my writing and any drawing talent I have has fully withered at this point. I've also always enjoyed pottery especially wheel pottery. I have never produced a painting I would want to show anyone, and having so little success with that medium I have never been privy to its joys.

This here is art, this post and this blog and this account. It's a hybrid art, something like 'HTML Art' should apply here. Some of you might think I'm playing games or being annoying with something I post, but this is just a place to express for me. And the art I find most interesting is usually the art that pushes out our sensibilities and confronts the subject matter directly.









And that is essentially what I think art is: all creative expression under the limit of doing real harm. I wonder if anyone has a shorter definition and if anyone thinks the SCOTUS definition of "socially redeeming value" has any merit. I personally think that such an absurd and arcane definition of art in the United States and the absolute lack of focus on the importance of the arts in our mainstream culture is why the Torrance study cited in Newsweek showed a decrease in the creativity in our kids.

Until we out-grow our puritanical stage, we cannot grow as a larger society.

KPOK! KPOW! YOU WIN, SCOTT PILGRIM!

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
Not a review.
KPOK!!!
KPOW!!!
THONK!
WHUMP!
KLAM!



It's a real epic of epic epicness.
Though not the kind of epic you know.
There's Superman, Captain America,
Flaming swords, crazy ass sonic battles,
And a whole lot of video game noises.
It's like a video game geek's epic.
With silly fights and weird characters.



I LOVE Scott Pilgrim.
The comic, I mean.
The movie, I like.
LIKE, not LOVE.
But it's still pretty epic.
(Update after 2nd viewing: OK scratch that, I LOVE the movie too)



Maybe it's because I read the comic book.
I LOVE the comic book
(Except the last one though. It seemed like he ran out of ideas)
The movie is almost identical to the comic.
Very comic book feel,
Very video game-esque.



It's COMPLETELY devoid of logic,
And can be a little silly sometimes.
But who CARES???
That's not the POINT!
The point is this is just a fun fun ride!
It's SCOTT PILGRIM for gawds sake.



Michael Cera was alright though.
It's essentially him playing himself.
Not a bad performance.
Just not a very new one.
I liked the comic Scott more.
Comic Scott was blur but AWESOME.
Movie Scott was just BLUR.
(Update after 2nd viewing: OK scratch that, he's pretty good)



That Mary Elizabeth Taylor chick quite hot though.
In person as well.
And so is that Ellen Wong girl.
Cleavage rating? Er... not enough for me to notice.
Dammit.
(Update after 2nd viewing: Scratch that, Mary's Cleavage Rating: 8.5!)



Anyway...
By the time you read this, I'd have watched this movie TWICE.
Which is WEEKS before you'll ever get to watch it.
MUAHAHAHA!
Ok enough gloating.
I need to get a life.
KPOK! KPOW!!!

All The Latest Transfer Gossip

With the beginning of the new domestic season rapidly approaching, unsurprisingly the gossip and rumours regarding the movement or otherwise of players to new clubs is rife. Here is the very latest.

Chelsea, Aston Villa, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Inter Milan, Arsenal, Everton, West Brom, Bristol City, Burnley, Sheffield Wednesday, Odense, Manchester United, Blackpool, Sunderland, Crystal Palace, Newcastle, Birmingham, Tottenham, Bolton, Benfica, Celtic, Rangers, Stoke, Blackburn, Nice, West Ham, Galatasaray, Borussia Dortmund, Sunderland, Fulham, Wolves, Newcastle, Ipswich, Cardiff, St Etienne, Trabzonspor, Southampton and Marseille are all currently caught up in transfer gossip.

Is your Club involved?

Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho is set to reveal that Chelsea defender Ashley Cole is at the top of his wish list of new signings - The Sun

However, Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has reassured fans by insisting that Cole will not be swapping Stamford Bridge for Spain this season - The Daily Telegraph

Inter Milan's 19-year-old striker Mario Balotelli could be on his way to Manchester City in a £24m deal - Daily Mail

Midfielder Stephen Ireland is on his way out of Manchester City after a bust-up with boss Roberto Mancini on the club's trip to New York - Daily Mirror

England midfielder James Milner, who is being courted by Manchester City, will hold talks with Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill today over his future - The Guardian

Villa boss O'Neill fears he may also lose £30m-rated winger Ashley Young, who could be a target for Tottenham this summer - Daily Mirror

West Brom and Bristol City are trying to hijack Burnley's bid for Sheffield Wednesday keeper Lee Grant - Skysports.com

Following the disclosure that both Jonathan Woodgate and Ledley King are both set to miss the start of the season, Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp may be forced to make a move for the Everton defender Phil Jagielka, who could leave for a reported £15m. Arsenal are also reportedly interested in the defender - The Independent

Blackpool and Sunderland are competing to sign Manchester United's teenage striker Danny Welbeck on a loan deal - Daily Mirror

Eric Djemba-Djemba has travelled to England to reportedly hold talks over a free transfer move to West Bromwich Albion. The Cameroon midfielder currently plays for Danish side Odense - Skysports.com

Birmingham City have not given up on Crystal Palace defender Nathaniel Clyne and are preparing a fourth bid for the 19-year-old, which is thought to be in the region of £2.5m - Daily Mirror

George Burley is keen to bring Premier League youngsters Nile Ranger and Ryan McGivern to Crystal Palace on loan. Newcastle United striker Ranger and Manchester City full-back McGivern are not expected to hold down regular first-team spots for their respective clubs in the top flight this season - Skysports.com

Southampton want to sign former England striker Darius Vassell - Football365

David James is expected to arrive in Scotland today for signing talks with Celtic. Neil Lennon wants the England goalkeeper, freed by Portsmouth last week, to replace Italy-bound Artur Boruc - Scotsman

Newcastle hope to sign Marseille winger Hatem Ben Arfa on loan - Daily Telegraph

Marcos Alonso is looking forward to an impending move to Bolton Wanderers after confirming he turned down the chance to join Benfica. Bolton boss Owen Coyle has revealed he is hoping to tie up a deal for the Real Madrid teenager in the coming days - Skysports.com

Rangers could make a surprise move for veteran striker Craig Beattie. The 32-year-old is likely to move on from current side Stoke. Rangers face competition from Beattie's home-town club, Blackburn Rovers, for the player - Daily Record

Wolves are closing in on a deal for St Etienne midfielder Guirane N'Daw - Football365

Nice chairman Gilbert Stellardo has admitted to holding talks with West Ham regarding Loic Remy. The Hammers are known to have made a move for the France international striker, but are yet to put a suitable bid on the table - Skysports.com

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce has closed the door on any prospective move by Turkish club Galatasaray for Australian midfielder Brett Emerton - Daily Mail

Borussia Dortmund and Paraguay striker Nelson Valdez has not ruled out a move to Sunderland or Fulham, but is targeting a Spanish club -Skysports.com

West Brom striker Roman Bednar is a £2.5million target for Turkish club Trabzonspor - Football365

Bristol City manager Steve Coppell has confirmed defender Bradley Orr is set to leave the club - Skysports.com

Ipswich are close to completing the signing of left-back Mark Kennedy from Cardiff on a two-year deal - Skysports.com

Now That Is One Fine-Looking Sucker Punch

Holy shit.
I don't know what this movie is about.
But I sure as hell wanna watch it.
I wonder why....





Zack Snyder? Whodat?

Eyeris @ Comic Con, Day 1: Five Cool Things

What a first day it's been. Between rushing for the Tron: Legacy press conference and then lining up for almost 2 hours to get into Hall H, I didn't get to grab as much swag as I would have liked. But never fear, there are a few more days of Comic Con to go...

Anyway, it's midnight here and I need to go to sleep soon. So here's a quick recap of what I thought was really cool in the first day of Comic Con!

1) Geek God Matchup!
Joss Whedon = Cool.
J.J. Abrams = Cool.
Whedon AND Abrams together in the same panel... = AWESOME!
(Also, Whedon OFFICIALLY announcing that he will be directing the Avengers movie!)

2) The Expendables panel.
Stallone, Lundgren, Stone Cold, Crews, Willis. So much testosterone on stage that Harry Knowles had to be 'the estrogen'. The movie looks absolutely MENTAL.

3) TRON: LEGACY. New trailer up!




4) Superman and Captain America on the Scott Pilgrim panel! (well, sort of)





5) Costumes. Hot babes. 'Nuff said.

Eyeris @ Comic Con, Day 0: Preview of what's to come

Greetings from the San Diego Comic-Con, the greatest geek fest in the world! I just got here like 6 hours ago, and spent three of those hours running around collecting freebies in the Comic-Con exhibition halls during the convention's Preview Night.

Yup, the Comic Con hasn't even started officially yet, and already I've got a bag full of swag! MUAHAHA!

And since it took me around 36 hours just to get here (waiting, delays, flight etc) I'm gonna go crash first (it's almost 11pm here). Besides, the next four days are going to be MAD, so I'll need all the sleep I can get!

Oh, and before I go, here's a nice teaser of what you can see at Comic-Con:

The Worst Sporting Champions of All Time ! - Part One

The World Cup is over, Spain were victorious and they are the World Champions. At the end of the day whilst watching it from my humble abode here in the UK it is in my opinion that Spain were indeed worthy winners, although it was generally a disappointing tournament all-round in terms of the quality of the football played, and the embarrassment and humiliation the England players and management team bestowed upon our nation!

This article is part one of several to come celebrating those undeserved 'Sporting Champions' - those teams and/or individuals that were actually top of their field, yet were still pretty rubbish.

For this reason I shall call them 'Sport's Greatest Ever Pretenders,' starting with:
Blackburn Rovers - Premiership Champions 1995.

How did a team based around the workmanlike talents of Tim Sherwood and Jeff Kenna become champions of England?

Stick nine men behind the ball, hoof it up to Alan Shearer and hope he's not too busy flapping his pointy elbows into some poor old defender's eye socket, and in the interim point in time he whacks the ball into the back of the onion bag. That is how!

Ole, ole ole!.............free-flowing, aesthetically pleasing, champagne football!

That season Manchester United had been handicapped by the loss of the mercurial Eric 'the karate kid' Cantona, following a now well documented altercation with a Crystal Palace fan at Selhurst Park one January evening in 1995. Without the suspended Frenchman it immediately became advantage Rovers, but they still failed to claim their prize with any assumed authority.

They stumbled over the finishing line, losing three of their final five games, the last of which gave Manchester United the chance to snatch the title with the very last kick of the season, if they could win at West Ham. Luckily for Rovers, that final kick fell to United's Achilles heel, Andy Cole's club foot - and Kenny Dalglish's men topped the table by a single point.

They danced and they sang without a hint of ignominy, as this small Lancashire club lifted the Premier League trophy, just four years after the arrival and the aid of the late Jack Walker's dynasty and his millions.

Such end-of-season shamelessness would never be seen again............that was until Chelsea insisted that it 'wasn't all about Roman's f***ing money,' when in June 2003 Ken Bates sold Chelski to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for £140 million, completing what was then the biggest-ever sale of an English football club.

He subsequently spent over £100 million on new players, as they went onto become the fifth English team to win (buy) back-to-back league championships since the Second World War in 2004/05 and 2005/06.

`-` sizzling salma hayek `-`