News Selection Box

The International break has rather helpfully coincided with me being fairly well occupied at work and at home. There's been little Fulham related news to discuss so I've happily not felt the need to scratch around for something to write about. One or two things have popped up this week though that I wanted to discuss.

Firstly England have made the Rugby World Cup Final! I'm stunned. I know it's not Fulham or even Football related but I'm too excited about this to let it pass. We seemed to have recovered a little during the six nations and I was hopeful we could at least put on a decent display, but then early group results suggested we were as bad as everyone said we were. I watched the destruction by South Africa with a sense of growing realisation that we would be lucky to even qualify for the next round. Even following our stoic victory over the Aussies I could not see us performing that well again, and having been mightily impressed with France's equally stubborn defeat of the AB's was expecting the home nation to take their place in the final. Having already exceeded my expectations I won't be upset if we lose to the South Africans in the Final, but there's also the chance the boys can prove me wrong yet again and claim an historic second World Cup in a row. If you're going to the Derby game you can even stay and watch the final at Craven Cottage.

Tom Willie has written an interesting piece on ESPN soccernet. Tom highlights the need for Fulham to start picking up points and that Sanchez must ensure he guards against complacency. I think he's spot on, Sanchez has removed a lot of the old squad for precisely those reasons and, whilst he obviously needs to keep confidence high, he must ensure the new squad don't fall into the same trap.

Papa Bouba Diop will be booed even louder on his next appearance at the Cottage following the news that he has decided to skip the recent Senegal Internationals because of a slight concern over his hamstring. Right, thanks a lot for that Bouba, and why exactly did you not take this approach when you played for us? Maybe Harry's found a way to make it "worth your while" to stay? *Cough* ... Allegedly!

Following his sterling efforts collecting for Sparks in the Hammy End, Volzy has updated his diary. It doesn't look like he'll be fit enough to replace Mr Baird for a while yet so fingers crossed Chris can show us he really does have what it takes. Volzy has also been having a go at Sepp Blatter's suggestion about limiting foreign players. It's the view I had also held until recently but now I'm not so sure. Either way having a go at Blatter is always to be encouraged so bravo Moritz.

Who Ate All The Pies have been on a bit of a Fulham role of late. A Bullard double with this video of Jimmy cracking up during an interview and this shit lookalike. They also picked up on Volzy's Blatter dig and found a rare picture of our teutonic hero in the current home kit. We get a mention in their Top 50 Footy Chants for our Al Fayed song and finally Chris Baird gets some further punishment by being selected for their team of Premiership Flops. Incidentally Clint Dempsey made their team of Premiership Hits but it's too far back for me to find the link!

The Offal's got some good articles as well. Seol Ki-Hyeon joins the blogging fraternity with his own fortnightly blog. There's a nice "Where Are They Now?" piece about Les Barrett and an equally interesting read about the FFC Academy. One last link of note the Reserves match against Spurs has been moved to Craven Cottage. Jimmy B's return perhaps?

Crikey! That was a bit longer than I intended. Maybe I'll stick to daily posting in future!