The Lunacy of the System

I haven’t written on here for a while, but this week, there have been a few things that seemed so strange that I had to highlight them. As a bit of background, for those that don’t know, I am currently out of work, and as such am claiming Job Seekers Allowance. For those fortunate enough not to know, this involves fortnightly attendance at the job centre to sign your name on a piece of paper and talk to an ‘advisor’, about what you have been doing for the past 2 weeks to find work. As part of this you have a Job Seekers agreement to say certain things you will do to look for work – mine says about looking on various appropriate job vacancy sites to see if there is anything suitable. Ok, so now to this week. On Wednesday, my signing day, I was unavailable in the morning as I had a job interview elsewhere. This not only involved an interview but I also had to do a presentation on the analysis of some statistical data I had been sent a week previously. Now, as a result of this task, I spent most of the last 3 days or so working on the data analysis and presentation, to try and make sure it was as good as possible for Wednesday morning. Presentation & interview completed I then went to the job centre that afternoon to do my signing. Now I will admit now that I didn’t take my record sheet of what I had done over the previous fortnight with me as funnily enough I had my mind on other things on Wednesday morning, but I thought ‘I’ve been for a job interview and spent the last week preparing for it – surely that’s evidence enough I’m looking for work’. However, it turns out that that isn’t how it works. I spent 3 days preparing for an interview, but apparently because I hadn’t been looking on the relevant websites for jobs in that time, the ‘advisor’ was threatening to send a request to head office to make a decision on whether I was still entitled to my funny. Now this is what I find strange about this – I was under the impression that the aim of the job centre was to get people out of unemployment and back into work. If this is the case, then how can it be more important for me to look at websites that may or may not have any more suitable vacancies than to prepare thoroughly for a job interview that I already have? The system seems designed around a box-ticking exercise to give the impression you are doing something, yet doesn’t allow for those who would much rather be in work than out of it. Surely my time is far better spent trying to get a job than filling in pieces of paper to show I am looking for one? The day I am penalised for trying to get a job rather than looking for one is a very strange day indeed and it would be nice if some degree of common sense could be implemented sometimes. The whole thing appears to be set up to be ‘seeking work’ not to be ‘getting work’ – surely if that is the case it is the wrong way round and just encourages those who never have any intention of finding a job at the end of it. Anyone can fill in a sheet to say they have done certain tasks to look for work – particularly if it involves looking in newspapers or on job search websites. The key point for me is if you find something suitable to do something positive in an attempt to try and get the job – which doesn’t appear to count for anything on the score sheet of the advisor I spoke to on Wednesday!

The Silence of Summer

As a football supporter, there is nothing worse than the period between the end of May and the beginning of August (unless there is a world cup or European Championship to occupy your time for a few weeks). There is too much time with too little happening and you have to rely on idle speculation from newspapers and the internet – and we all know how reliable they are.

The problem is, it brings unrealistic expectations from most fans – as they are constantly linked with expensive players that they couldn’t possibly afford – but the media like to fill column inches. These deals then don’t happen and the fans then feel they are let down by their club for not buying the big name they were linked with in the first place.

I realise that this is a frustrating time of year, but supporters need to learn a few skills during the summer.

1. Patience – most clubs don’t do their dealings in the first week of June, the summer is a long time and just because you don’t hear anything doesn’t mean its not happening.

2. Realism – Most clubs have limited funds to spend on wages, transfer fees etc. They aren’t suddenly going to become overnight billionaires without any obvious signs of new ownership. As such, if you haven’t sold a player for £10m recently its unlikely you are going to sign one for that amount in the next week. Managers work within their means, particularly in the current economic climate. Nobody is going to spend what they don’t have.

3. Aims & Ambitions - Sometimes it is not who you buy – its who you don’t sell that is the key. For a club with limited finances, sometimes the main priority is to hold on to your star players over the summer. Sometimes the easy option would be to sell a big name for £20m to reinvest, but there is a skill in keeping your squad together as well that of buying a new one.

4. Trust – As an Everton supporter, I am in a fortunate position that I trust our manager to know what he wants and what’s best for the club. This is real life – not Football Manager, if the manager wants or doesn’t want a player – trust their judgement that they will add something to the club.

It is hard not to get frustrated over the summer, when your club aren’t signing players and your club don’t appear to have any money. However, don’t worry, in 6 weeks the transfer window will close and we can forget about it all til January and just concentrate on winning and losing football matches instead – won’t that make a refreshing change.

Vettel and Valencia

So, another race and yet another display of dominance by Sebastien Vettel.

This weekend’s race raises 2 questions; firstly can anyone stop Vettel, and secondly, is Valencia worth its space on the calendar, given the crowded nature of the F1 season already.

I will start by discussing the second question first.

Given the current F1 season, there were great hopes going into Valencia that this could also provide a race that would live up to the excitement of Canada. Even at Monaco, a circuit notorious for being predictable and a lack of overtaking provided an exciting race – (sadly the final act was denied by a red flag and the chance for all competitors to put on new tyres).

However, in Valencia, there were no variable tyre strategies, so safety cars and very little overtaking. The circuit is a street circuit, but without the closeness of barriers of Monaco to punish mistakes. The fact that all 24 cars finished the race is indicative of the margin for error on the circuit.

The introduction of Valencia into the calendar was always strange – given the number of countries that wanted a race – but the popularity of Alonso swayed them into the decision. Now I feel that unless something is done to change the nature of the race, the future of Valencia may be very short.

Moving on to the dominance of Red Bull and in particular of Sebastien Vettel. The dominance in the race is helped greatly by their dominance in qualifying. The FIA changed a few rules thinking it would help; they will change a few more for Silverstone in a couple of weeks. However, to my mind the rule that needs to change most is that of the DRS.

The fact that you allowed to use it wherever you want in qualifying but only in a limited section in the race means that qualifying and race pace are always going to be different. In my opinion, the Red Bulls benefit most from this as their car seems to have better downforce and they can make more use of the DRS over a whole lap than many of the other teams.

My suggestion would therefore be to outlaw the DRS during qualifying – it is an overtaking aid and overtaking is not required during qualifying anyway.

The other point to make about Red Bull, is there was always potential for this dominance to happen. Last year they dominated qualifying but made mistakes and had reliability issues. This year they have sorted out their reliability and Vettel is driving with the confidence of a world champion.

The other drivers have already conceded the title and assuming reliability remains this good- its easy to see why.

Manchester City in the Champions League – Good or Bad

So, the last Champions League space has been decided after a 1-0 win by Manchester City over Spurs last night. The issue now is how this affects the balance of power in the Premier League in the future.

In the past, when Everton and more recently Spurs reached the Champions League space there was no resulting seismic shift in the status of Premier League clubs – but last night’s result could be different.

A win for Manchester City gives them the basis to develop their team further, with the pull of the Champions League and the extra finances, few players will be able to resist the lure of the City of Manchester stadium if approached. If this proves to be the case, then they could be able to establish themselves as a long term occupant of a Champions League space for a while to come.

But, there is also an alternative side to this – for the last 10 years or so people have complained that the Premier League is too predictable and only a small number of teams can win it – this is reasonably accurate, but the potential of another consistent challenger for the Champions League spaces means to few spaces for the number of teams competing so there is potential for a scaling down of finances for a number of teams as the lucrative Champions League is no longer an end of season guarantee.

The other thing about Manchester City is their current potential doesn’t always match their future success. Yes they have the financial backing – but many supporters will tell you that all the money in the world won’t always buy you the best team – it just helps a lot. It is here Mancini (or whoever it maybe) has to earn their money – by assembling a team not just a bunch of individuals – take note from the Real Madrid ‘galacticos’ a few years ago – arguably the best players in the world – but very limited additions to their trophy cabinet.

Mancini also seems to work on a theory that teams can’t play twice in a week – so there is still the danger to City that their Champions League adventure might damage their league form and open the door for others – especially if there is the continued squad rotation of this season – I’m not sure there are many Man City supporters around who could tell you what their best XI is (maybe not even Mancini).

So where does this leave the rest – keeping their fingers crossed that City fail (or Arsenal, Chelsea or Man Utd for that matter)? Certainly Spurs appear to have the resources to finance a further challenge – but without the lure of the Champions League will they still have the same pull for players. There are even questions over whether Spurs know their best XI as they chop and change players so often and have an abundance of midfield players but no consistent goal scorer – a lot of the emphasis was on Van De Vaart – who’s form dipped after his initial burst onto the scene (there are a supporters of other clubs who could probably have predicted this as they experienced similar!).

Liverpool have undergone a revival under Kenny Dalglish recently – but how much money do they have to build further (is it a coincidence that Liverpool’s revival has come with Gerrard injured and an inability to rely on their midfield general?).

From my perspective, I am still unsure as to whether Man City in the Champions League is good or bad as there are still a number of questions to be answered. However, the one thing I am reasonably confident about is that this weekends FA Cup final will not be the turning point it could be for others. A win would mean a lot to City fans given their years without a trophy, but they have already done enough to enhance their global status without needing a cup win to boost their profile.

The Sporting Upset

As a supporter of Everton Football Club and the England cricket team, I have a rather interesting perspective on the views of an upset today.

After watching Everton fail to turn up and crash to a 1-0 home defeat by Reading on Tuesday night (this after beating Chelsea in the previous round!), I then proceeded to watch England rack up 328 in 50 overs against Ireland. The Irish then slipped to 111 for 5 and I thought I could finally relax, calm in the knowledge that England would comfortably wrap up the game and move on to the next game against South Africa with the 2 points in the bag. However, a fantastic innings by Kevin O’Brien, ably supported by Mooney and Cusack lead Ireland to one of the most remarkable wins in one-day cricket history.  

Sporting upsets happen everywhere, but the delight of them is that they are not that common – if the minnow regularly won, then there would be no novelty, and no thrill or excitement, in most cases the ‘weaker’ side are duly despatched without any trouble – as has been shown on a number of occasions during the world cup so far. The thing about Irelands victory, is that you could replay that match 100 times, and England would probably win 95 of them. As remarkable as Kevin O’Brien’s innings was, and it was a very talented performance - not just wild slogs, the fact is that if he tried to repeat it 50 times, it would be successful on only a handful of them. It is things like this that make it such a remarkable feat, and sometimes as the giant that has been defeated you have to put your hands up and say ‘that’s just the way it goes some days’. 

For the next few days there will be endless pages written on why England lost, and what England should have done better. There will also no doubt be lots of outraged supporters proclaiming England’s poorness at being able to finish off a’ weaker’ side.

For what it’s worth, my opinion having watched 2 games at Bangalore, is that you bat second whoever you are playing, as the nature of the pitch, the ground and the altitude mean that it is possible to score almost any total. As such, it is impossible to bat first and know what a good score is, both India and England thought they had more than enough in their innings and both ended up 20 or 30 short than they could have made. The pitch offers nothing to the bowlers, meaning it is almost impossible to limit the scoring rate unless batsmen lose their heads.

However, having watched & played sport for many years, sometimes you just have to accept that it wasn’t your day and the sporting gods had other plans for that game.

Who am I?

I am 37 years of age, and in approximately 6 weeks, I will be more than likely be added to the latest UK unemployment statistics as a result of the latest round of local government cuts.

The main intention of this blog is to give me something to do with all the free time I am about to acquire. It is not intended to be a rant or moan about the situation I am currently in. I am happily married with 2 wonderful young children and don’t feel particularly unfortunate at this moment in time – there are a lot of people in the world worse off than I am.

No, the idea here is for me to compile thoughts on a number of issues for anybody who might want to read them. They will probably be mainly sports related as that is my major interest – and after all there’s a Cricket World Cup on at present to keep me occupied and give me ideas.

My main interests relate to Everton Football Club and Derbyshire & England Cricket, although I am an interested follower of most sports and try to maintain as much of an impartial view as possible (although it is sometimes difficult!)

I hope some of the things that I write may be of interest to you, and if they are then comment on them or share it with other people, I don’t really like talking to myself!

ICC and the Associate Nations

In the last week the ICC have announced their decision to reduce the number of teams in the next world cup to 10 and as such limit the opportunities for associate nations to take part.  

This was followed very quickly by some very one sided world cup games involving Canada and Kenya thus apparently justifying the decision of the ICC to limit their involvement.

However, on Tuesday I sat and watched the Netherlands put up a valiant performance against England, which brought up the issue once again.

Now, I realise the issue is that the associate nations struggle to compete as well over the longer form of the one day game, and so the ICC would rather they concentrate their development in Twenty20 cricket instead.

But is this not a vicious circle. If teams like Canada, Kenya and the Netherlands are only allowed to compete at the top level in T20. How are they going to learn to build an innings that would make them competitive over 50 overs. The whole nature of T20 is short sharp innings and big hitting – hardly the long patient knocks required to build a competitive 50 overs total. Too many players get out for 20 or 30 already, to concentrate on T20 will only exacerbate the problem.

There is a concern amongst some cricket watchers, that top level cricket will be affected by regular T20 games and a player will lose the ability to bat for 50 overs (never mind a whole day of a test match). For players of slightly lower ability, this will be exaggerated even more so and hamper any development for associate nations whenever they get the opportunity.

Associate nations are already hampered by rules which allow Test nations to take their players so easily, but then they can’t be returned once discarded from their brief appearances. Imagine for example if Dirk Nannes would have been available to open the bowling for the Netherlands on Tuesday! However, his few appearances for Australia have now made this impossible.  

If cricket is going to develop over the world, then associate nations need to be given all the help they can, not hindered at every moment. By all means, reduce the number of teams that take part in the world cup, but make sure they have the chance to take part, otherwise what incentive is there for the better players to stay when the likes of England, Pakistan, Australia or South Africa come calling again.