Wednesday, August 27, 2008

WHINY FOOTBALLERS: BUT IT'S SOOO RAINY

[Didier thinks you should shut up now.]


Nemanja Vidic is keeping it real. Very real. Unnecessarily real.

"I will never stay to live in England, that's for sure. You get only a brief glimpse of sunlight before it's all cloudy again. The winters are mild, but in summer the temperatures seldom go higher than 20C. And it rains, rains, rains.

In future, I would like to test myself in another top league. I'm thinking of Spain. At least there will be no reason to complain about the weather. In future, I would like to test myself in another top league. I'm thinking of Spain. At least there will be no reason to complain about the weather."

Yeah, rain sucks, doesn't it? Talk of Spain does bring up a halfway worthy question though: does playing for Man U give you some sort of La Liga tunnel vision or something? Two other, er, notable United boys have traded Manchester for sunny Spain in the past or have spent an entire summer whining about really wanting to.

He continues:

"Throughout the week they all work so hard. They only talk to people at lunch break. Then in the evening they come home and watch the telly, so they can get up early for work the next day.

The only time to meet friends is at weekends, but for football players it's the busiest time of all. It was much easier for me to adapt to Russia than England. In England I had no one to talk to."


Working hard when you're being paid to do exactly that -- tough stuff. Not to mention thoroughly uncivilized. Glad that's not the case where we're from. Slack, make a cup of tea, slack, check your e-mail again, slack, get overly excited about Maurice Greene slated to be on next season's DWTS. Join us over here. We'll talk to you!

Vidic told Man U's site that his quotes have been taken out of context. "I spoke about the difficulty I had settling in to life in Manchester, but that does not reflect how I feel now."

[via the Beautiful Game]

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posted by TIET at 2:38 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 1 comments

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: SOCCEROOS

[Photo thievery: via MRWF. She's got a good eye.]


And some bonus Kewell as well. Anyone up for a scouting trip down under? We can drop by NZ on the way there or something. Clearly, this is a region that requires our presence.

(Time for lunch!) Bits and pieces:

There's one American left at Fulham. One. It's not looking like he's the manager's favourite either. Is Fulhamerica dead?

UF with a communal bitch-about-Becks session. Interesting bit from the lads: "Do you know how many women have gotten more interested into soccer because of Becks? the more, the merrier, and if it takes a bit of sexing up the players who want to be sexed up, rock on." Yes, exactly. In fact, that's why he should take a bit of time off England -- to focus that energy on having even more shirtless and pantless photos taken of him. There can never be too many. Because nothing puts a woman in a mood to sit down and watch some quality footie other than a grimy underwear campaign ...until they realize that football isn't actually about underwear. Doh. 11 years down the line, we're still feeling ripped off.

Wenger attempts to explain the Senderos move to us. Grunt, shrug, shift in your chair. Fine.

Ronaldinho spent most of his Olympic games subjecting innocent women to wedding proposals. The horror.

Abi Clancy is actually an idiot. Any woman with half a brain wouldn't let Elen Riven put one foot through the front door never mind help them decorate it. That type of tacky is contagious. She'll plaster your home in gold leaf and then throw a vat of botox over it or something. You can't trust that bitch.

If the Aussies don't do it for you today: a Fernando Torres refresher might. Just to be clear, we do not in any way support Mistress C's claim that Nando 'has awesome hair' -- the man practically founded the Hair Watch thread all on his own. Have you learned nothing from us, MC? NOTHING?!

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posted by TIET at 11:17 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 2 comments
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

OF THE MOMENT: BLAME FLAMINI, SUNDERLAND, HAMMERED

[Nothing has happened this summer than cannot be irrationally blamed directly on Flamini or Hleb. In this case, Flamini. He totally talked Senderos into this.]


MLS Hottie: Devon McTavish. And do you know why he gets the title again? This.

EPL Hottie: Daniel Agger. He's back and he's hotter than ever.

Most Hated: Philippe Senderos going out on loan. We'd rather see him f*** up for Arsenal team than any other team in the world.

Most Loved: Sunderland. What's the worst that could happen? Someone breaking a leg, then spitting on someone, then busting someone's lip outside of a nightclub. God, we love you, Keano. Honourable mention: Berbatov's sulk on the bench every weekend. It's a little bit funny, you've got to admit.

Most Annoying WAG: Claudine Palmer. Mostly because we literally cannot tell the Liverpool WAGs apart anymore. It's all one blur of tall, blond and big boobs.

Barf-line: 'Blackburn boss Ince prepared to be Hammered by Upton Park faithful' -- Daily Mail -- Do you know how many 'hammered' headlines have surfaced in anticipation of Ince's return to Upton Park? Countless. Zillions.

'Round the Neighbourhood: We miss the Olympics already.

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posted by TIET at 2:00 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 6 comments

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: MIGUEL TORRES



We're admittedly not the biggest Spain fans. The Spaniards that we do spend time yammering about either don't play for the full team much or are Cesc Fabregas. Case in point: Miguel Torres. The man is far and away the prettiest Spaniard. Do you see those abs? Do you see them?!

Mid-morning bits and bobs:

Deep breath... Philippe Senderos has shipped off to Milan. On loan. He's coming back, right? Possibly not -- this is looking like one of those loan-to-buy sort of deals. Excuse us while we go mop up our tears.

Speaking of, is Serie A becoming a retirement home for ageing footballers? If so, what does that make MLS? A funeral home?

More from transferland: Baros to Galatasaray, Robinho is on his way to Chelsea... any minute now, Bellamy is apparently not for sale.

And if Miguel doesn't do it for you today: here's some squeaky clean Steven Gerrard. Absolutely no nakedness in sight and yet we're blushing. [via TCC]

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posted by TIET at 10:20 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 2 comments
Monday, August 25, 2008

KAKA, THE LADY AND THE BABY



Some sort of higher level of maturity must have washed over us at some point this summer because upon viewing these lovely photos of Kaka and the missus, we no longer felt those familiar pangs of jealousy we usually do. This was simply an 'ahh, that's nice' moment for us.

Kaka and Caroline were spotted in Sardinia.
---

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Friday, August 22, 2008

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: CECH

[And yes, this photo is from last century's England/Czech R. game. Interesting quote from Cech on the match: 'If the home team doesn't have a shot on goal every two minutes everyone is whistling and booing ... With the England team, it's always the same story.']


Petr Cech and his pretty arms are up for UEFA Goalkeeper of the year. You know where our vote stands on this one.

In other news, we're back, bitches [thanks for the well wishes, btw!]. Last week was fun: your girl spent a few days strung out on Nyquil (a new discovery for us, if you can believe it) and, during her few lucid hours, got reacquainted with the world in between Tyra and Dr. Phil. We also watched tons of Olympics. To the point where we want be Usain Bolt now. Golden shoes included.

Afternoon bit and pieces:

Very important question: What is it about David Villa? Read: there is nothing wrong with the soul patch!

While we're on the Spanish footballer tip, Sergio Ramos got a slight hair-chopping. Nothing to write home about: headband hair, fluffy fluffy-ness. During Euro we decided that Sergio's hair is always going to look better long. Not that we care: homie is ridiculous from the neck up.

Jo Beckham and two of Jermain Defoe's other ex-WAGs were at the same club last night. Shrug. Dani Lloyd's hair looks different.

David Beckham kicked a ball into the crowd whilst wearing a really baggy tracksuit at yesterday's Olympic closing ceremonies. Would've been more fun if he ripped the mic away from Leona Lewis and started belting out Bleeding Love, don't you think? A clip of Becks rambling about how great London 2012 is going to be here.

In the world of transfers: Anton Ferdinand is off to Sunderland (as is everyone... this team is going to implode), Cesc fuels Xabi transfer goss, Sheva has peaced out (why are we slightly sad about this?)

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posted by TIET at 12:41 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 4 comments
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

HAIR WATCH: GOOCH'S BEARD

[We've also run out of ways to describe Kljestan's hair.]


As you can see, your lovely blogger-lady has taken a momentary hiatus from the blog. (Who gets stomach flu during the only week of the summer without any rain in the forecast? Who?!) We anticipate to be back to our full obnoxious stalking strength by week's end so no worries.

In the meantime though, anyone know what's going on with Gooch's beard? It feels sort of sudden. Consider yourself on hair-watch, sir.

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posted by TIET at 1:45 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 7 comments
Friday, August 15, 2008

A NEW SEASON IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER... BUT

[No, we don't think Aston Villa will crack the top 4 this season. The real question: will the lady-fan mainstream finally realize how hot Gareth is?]


The obvious: We're heading into a brand new season of Cristiano's gloating, JT yelling at referees (and hopefully taking hi-larious PKs) and dashed hopes of your favourite team winning the league (or perhaps your team winning the league ...again).

The not so obvious: Um, the Olympics are still happening.

This is a problem.

It's a problem because the first match of the weekend (Arsenal v West Brom) kicks off at 7:45AM ET while Olympic athletics -- and really, Olympics to us means athletics -- coverage starts about a half hour before that. Cutting it close, guys.

The mens 100m final actually starts right in the middle of Stoke City v Bolton which is a tiny bit annoying. And if you're paying any attention to Olympic football, the men's quarter-final (Nigeria v Ivory Coast) kicks off at around 9AM ET -- also in the middle of it all.

Essentially this means that your girl plans to spend tomorrow camped out in front of her TV. It's a labour love. Or perhaps more accurately, a 'being a lazy-ass all morning' of love.

[Tottenham seriously missed out. Hahahahaah. Good.]

As for predictions, we don't really do those or at least not well. Our hopes for the upcoming season are decidedly humble: plenty of shirt removals and scandal is all we ask for. Oh, and some crazy-bad haircuts. Those amuse us.

The best of the internets predictions perhaps over at The Offside. That's on Point and TwoHundredPercent have also got the goods as per usual.

So, best of luck to all your favourite teams this season. Worst case scenario, you can come here and bitch about it if you like. Or else you can take refuge in that age old footie cliche: the ball is round; anything can happen. You know, unless you're Derby (oh, we hardly knew thee), or Stoke, or Bolton, or Fulham... Or... Did we go for the easy joke?

Of course -- it's a Friday.

***

Just as a note and something for TIET regulars to look forward to, we do plan on hosting a few of our fun little live-blogs this season, similar to the ones we ran during Euro. Look out for those!

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posted by TIET at 5:21 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 8 comments

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: ROBBIE ROGERS... AGAIN



After much stalking and, er, stealing from other bloggers, we've finally tracked down another shirtless Robbie Rogers photo. It's small, but it is what it is. And 'what it is' is mostly about that curious looking tattoo on his arm. No clue what it says or is. It doesn't appear too be one of those annoying Olympic rings tattoos that every Olympian has or stupid Roman numerals that every footballer has stamped on them. Knowing Rogers, it must be something more sensible. Like say, 'Property of the Dame of Extra Time.'

Morning newsy bits and pieces:

First up, Cheryl Cole was not wearing her wedding ring at the X Factor launch. Previous reasons she's used for not doing so: she's too skinny and it doesn't fit on her finger. No clue what's up now. Don't think we really care at this point but we'll, you know, keep you posted and such. [EDIT: And the next night... Cashley and Cheryl are holding hands.]

Scary stuff happening with the De Rossi family.

Robinho's agent is flapping his lips. He thinks Robinho will be 'sad' if Real don't let him go. That is literally the word he used: sad. He might as well just have thrown 'slave' in there as well.

More transfer stuff: Say bye to Justin Hoyte, Gooners; Julio Baptista's off to Roma; Benny Feilhaber to some team in Denmark; Man City up their bid for Roque Santa Cruz to £15m.

Spain's squad for next week's (Aug 20th) Denmark friendly announced: here. Marchena, Arbeloa, Fabregas are all missing. Man-child Bojan's been added. Denmark's squad here. It'll be the first time we've seen Agger in a Danish kit in a hella long time.

And finally, if Robbie doesn't do it for you, would yet another clip in the endless stream of leftover Spain Euro part-ay-ing do the trick? Do note Sergio's very dorky sitting-down dancing and Xabi looking a tiny bit like your uncle who desperately wants to fit in with 'the kids' but falls a bit short. When will we ever get sick of these? [TY: the clearly on crack -- in a good way! -- ladies at ONTD_FB]

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

DO THEY DO THIS EVERY TIME THEY LOSE?



A country that gives us footballers who feel the need to whip off their shirts and do scary yet kind of cool tribal dances needs to be heralded. So, New Zealand, this is us herald-ing.

TIET TMI du Jour: To answer our own question, we're guessing they don't. We saw NZ's junior team play live once. They lost and they didn't do the haka then ... this must've been an impromptu thing? Or maybe it's an oly-whites/all-whites thing? And why are they doing it after the match? If we cared enough we'd look this up...
---

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posted by TIET at 5:55 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 5 comments

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: IKER



Question: How is it that the only topless vacation pic we have of Iker is this grainy little specimen that looks like it's at least two centuries old? Have we seriously dropped the ball here? If so, please get in touch with your nekkie Iker pics please.

In other news not at all related, your humble blogger-lady stayed up until half past two in the morning last night watching men's Olympic gymnastics -- a sport she didn't think she cared about -- and then nearly cried when that German kid fell off the high bar. Times are weird, ya'll.

(nearly afternoon!) Bits and bobs:

Lamps is staying blue until he's old and grey. Jose is going cry until he can't cry no more.

Angry Keeper alert: Kasper Schmeichel wants to leave Man City real bad.

Canadian squad for the Jamaica (Aug. 20th) match announced. No David Edgar? No David Edgar.

Surprise, surprise, we're still stalking Michael Bradley.

The transfer rumour that won't die: Spurs want more cayash for Berbatov.

Speaking of... there's a nasty rumour going around that Berba's a 20-goal striker.

Rude of us not to mention this earlier: Djibril Cisse's lady had a baby or something. On July 27th. They named the poor child Prince Kobe.

The Scottish Prem. League has kicked off. So have the fighting psycho morons.

And finally, if Iker doesn't quite do it for you, here's reason number 163 why you should start caring about Olympic football: Boys from Belgium being shirtless and, er, shirtless.

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posted by TIET at 11:54 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 7 comments
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

VIDEO: X FACTOR IS REALLY, REALLY TOUCHING ...OR NOT

As previously discussed, Cheryl is crying on the X Factor. And lots. But it's not because the contestants' performances are so great or because their personal stories are so heartwarming. The tears are mostly because psycho Dannii Minogue is trying to force feed her. Don't be fooled, people.

Anywhoo, the trailer for the upcoming season -- Cheryl doing the 'f*** off Dannii!' pretty-cry at :50.

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posted by TIET at 9:37 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 3 comments

ZIZOU IN IBIZA



Well, hellooo, Zidane. It's a been a while.

The man will go months not being seen and then pop up at a charity match or half-naked on a yacht or beach somewhere. Such is the nature of retiring ridiculously rich -- dropping the kids off at school is probably the most strenuous thing he has to do all day.

Zizou, Veronique and the kiddies were spotted in Ibiza.
---




source: Zinedine Zidane on his huge yacht!

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posted by TIET at 4:47 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 7 comments

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: FROM THE ARCHIVES... OLOF



From the dusty, dusty archives indeed. It's clean-shaven Olof Mellberg! No idea how old this photo is but it looks like it's from around the time Freddie's hair was still red or perhaps dates back to before Freddie and Ollie were getting into punch-ups on the training ground.

(Afternoon!) Bits and pieces:

Yanks are out of the Olympics after losing 2-1 to Nigeria this morning. We're beginning to think it's partially our fault. Our track record isn't exactly great -- when we start supporting a team they automatically start sucking.

Canadian ladies at the Olympics: Lost to Sweden on Tuesday. They take on the US on Friday in the quarter-final.

Meanwhile, hilarity continues at LA Galaxy. According to the lads at UF, Bruce Arena might be getting the job.

What is the single most annoying thing that can happen to Arsenal right now? That's right, Fabregas is broken.

Slightly more amusing: Joe Cole is comparing Arsenal to the Harlem Globetrotters.

Speaking of Joey, photos of he and his lady out for lunch earlier in the week here. Carly's rocking yet another pair of fugalicious shoes.

The BBC website is totally shipping Robbie/Nando. But who isn't after seeing that glorious photo?

FourFourTwo with the 15 greatest (and weirdest) goal celebrations. Yeah, we still don't get what Corradi was trying to do.

And finally, if Olof doesn't do it for you today: Metzelder gave us a sneak peak yesterday against Eintracht Frankfurt. Whatever happened to taking your shirt off completely? Call us old fashioned...

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posted by TIET at 12:43 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 2 comments
Tuesday, August 12, 2008

HAIR WATCH: BENTLEY GETS SLICK, KOLO AND RICARDO



Next in the David Bentley hair saga: slick mafioso hair. Is there no where to go but down? Or, er, to a humongous vat of hair gel? There are other options, you know, David. No need to take the Cristiano way out.



Meanwhile, Kolo Toure has contracted mushroom hair syndrome -- a jheri curl [Ed.'s note: Looking at you SD. You must have had something to do with this.] 'fro with the side bits shaved down. Not sure Arsenal can handle this right after the infamous Gallas hair fiasco of 07/08.




Aside from his hair getting increasingly triangular, Ricardo Quaresma got two hunks of metal pierced into his face at some point this summer. See: bottom lip and eyebrow (click to enlarge). Must we start a stupid-piercings-watch thread also?

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posted by TIET at 3:38 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 12 comments

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: STEVEN AND XABI

[Meta moment: With this post topping up the last two, the TIET front page is looking hella gay right now. Love it.]


As a precautionary measure, and even though Xabi transfer rumours have died down somewhat, we're going to go ahead and post any residual Xabi-Stevie Liverpool photos we've got in the tank while we still can.

Morning bits and pieces:

Can we talk Olympic fashions for a moment? Yeah, we're like a weekend and two weekdays late but still. Best dressed? Worst dressed? Our pick for worst dressed athletes: Canada, hands down. Thanks for nothing HBC. The casual wear is even worse then whatever they were wearing at the opening ceremonies.

Everyone's making their EPL predictions right around now, so is Jose Mourinho: Liverpool will win the league and Arsenal are without depth.

Jens Lehmann has retired from international football and we're absolutely inconsolable. What if this is a prelude to him quitting football altogether? Or, worse yet, to quitting punching random photographers in the street? The Angry Keeper thread was practically built on Lehmann's back after all. A sad day indeed...

Is everyone at Everton either breaking or broken? And, in the same vein, should fans be at all concerned that they haven't signed a single player so far this summer?

Lofty goals for England: Capello says they'll qualify for the World Cup and 'be okay.'

Stoke City captain, Andy Griffin, foolishly resurrects the 'slave' chatter of July and thinks TV should help keep footballers grounded.

If the Liverpool boys don't quite do it for you this morning, an excellent collection -- the best we've ever seen -- of Jose photos over here [compiled by TIET regular, cheryl_bites, actually. Well, done.]

**While we're on the topic of the mysterious world of El-Jay. Have you heard of ONTD_football? We're ONTD obsessives, admittedly. No seriously, the better part of our 2007 procrastination time was spent being pathetic and exchanging rude comments about ANTM and Britney Spears with ONTDers -- it is the single best thing to happen to the Internet since (before?) illegal football streaming. So do forgive us if we're more than a little excited about this particular spin-off. Go buy one of ONTD_F's amazing Iker shirts!

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posted by TIET at 7:00 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 3 comments

LOVERS IN A DANGEROUS TIME: SACHA'S FEELING THE LOVE

[BTW: Baby B's hair is fluffy again isn't it?]


Because there comes a time when all that can be said about the 'Why did he jumppp?!?!' issue has been said and you just need to sit down, sigh and stare wistfully at a photo of Sacha getting felt up by a few of his Yank teammates.

Teammates including TIET stalk-ees, Robbie, Mo and Baby Bradley.

It's just one of those days, you know?

Hell, if you don't right-click-save this right now then there is something wrong with you.

If there was any doubt at this point who we're very casually supporting at the Olympic football tourney, it's the Yanks. Any other sport and we'd practically have our citizenship revoked for cheering this nation on.

[TY: Amanda -- who is threatening an intervention on our, now full-blown, Sacha problem obsession.]

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posted by TIET at 5:00 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 3 comments

OF THE MOMENT: THE TIME HOLDEN GOT FELT UP BY STRANGERS, SACHA AND THE QUEEN

[Absolutely revolting, vile behavior. Partly because Stewie is a child that needs to be protected but mostly because no one invited us to this party.
--Photo thievery: kainam13 via NoHandsBall]


MLS Hottie: Sacha Kljestan. Also our Olympic hottie. If it's wrong, we don't want to be right. Just to be clear, this does not mean Sacha is off hair-watch -- the long hair needs to be parted with immediately.

EPL Hottie: Daniel de Ridder. When did he ship off to Wigan? How'd we miss that one? Liverpool's new signing, David Ngog, has also pinged our interests. He looks like a tall and refined Usher/Patrick Vieira mix. And you know all about our non-sensical Paddy love, right?

Most Hated: The Olympics. Remember when the WC was in Japan that one summer and it completely messed up your sleep schedule? Feeling a bit of deja vu? We can barely keep our eyes open for the nightly psycho Phelps madness. It's total love/hate at this point.

Most Loved: The off-season finally ending. Counting the days, hours and seconds. Ligue 1 started this weekend. Bundesliga and Premiership start this coming weekend. La Liga and Serie A start at the end of the month. You know, as if you needed reminding...

Most Annoying WAG: Alex Curran. Queen of the WAGs, apparently.

Barf-line: 'Move over Alex Curran, there's a new WAG in town' -- Daily Mail -- Cruel. The 'Queen' reigned for all of ONE WEEK before they tried to give her the heave-ho. Tough world, the British press.

'Round the Neighbourhood: What in the hell is happening in LA? We turned our heads for one second and then the internets exploded with Galaxy weirdness. Also, the ladies do the Community Shield thing too and -- ahem -- Arsenal is winning things.

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Thursday, August 7, 2008

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: RAFAEL VDV

[It's sad when we can't be bothered to spell out your entire surname isn't it?]


Do you know what happens when a transfer 'saga' clogs up our news reader for half a century? We start to investigate. By investigate we mean doing flimsy posts like these discussing what said transfer looks like sweaty and shirtless after a match. Sorry, that's just the price you pay, Rafa. Good luck at Real.

Newsy bits and pieces we're thinking about this morning:

Cristiano went to go see Julio Iglesias in concert on Tuesday night. Not gay at all. Hey, remember that time he also wasn't gay at that Enrique Iglesias concert with Nani?

Also, he's staying in Manchester 'for at least this season'. Snore.

Freddie Ljungberg has left West Ham. Or West Ham has left Freddie. Whichever way you put it he's getting something like £6m out of it and we've been left a slightly frightening question: Could it be time for Freddie to hang up his boots for good?

Ladies soccer got started at the Olympics in China yesterday. Canadian ladies won their match against Argentina 2-1. Keep it up, girls.

The mens matches get rolling today. You can be sure that our sneaky Sacha obsession will only get worse now. Especially if he keeps up that scraggly facial hair that we have to pretend isn't there. It takes quite an imagination and we've reached the point of no return.

If you've ever felt 'indignant and deeply hurt' at a football match when someone unfurled an offensive banner or say, booed your national anthem you might be in for a pay day. Some dude in Napoli's getting £1,190 for 'existential damages' suffered at an Inter match.

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posted by TIET at 5:00 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 4 comments

VIDEO: THE FA'S NEW REF RESPECT CAMPAIGN



So, when they say 'respect' are they including John Terry in that general umbrella or does being England captain get you a free pass? Just saying...

Learn more about the FA's Respect campaign at the official site.

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posted by TIET at 3:00 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 2 comments
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: MEXES AND HIS THIGHS

[Try to look past the obnoxious arm tattoo for a moment.]


Hats off to the fellows at Roma who's pre-season jaunting really has us convinced. Just keep hiking up those shorts boys.

Morning newsy bits and bobs we're thinking about:

Unprofessional Foul made it out to Barca's training session in Central Park on Monday night. Many, many photos to be had. Not as many of Titi's bottom as we would've liked of course.

There are zillions of Cristiano transfer stories swirling. Fergie says the matter is 'closed' and that Cristiano and his hairgel will live to loiter around Old Trafford another day. On the other side of things you've got Real Madrid who are saying that Van der Vaart is their last signing whilst they simultaneously set a prelim. reveal date for Cristiano's big arrival (Aug. 15th, according to some random Portuguese paper). Either way, it's amazing how we've just stopped caring about this whole thing.

Carly Zucker is roaming the streets in our granny's sandals. At least she's combed her hair you know? It's hard being Carly.

Abi Clancy is washing cars for spare change as a part of some commercial she's probably getting paid way too much to do.

Craig Bellamy gets along great with Ipswich fans. Or verbally abuses them. Because what's one without the other, really?

We're scared for Maurice Edu. Period. Please try not to, er, inhale dear.

And finally, if Philippe Mexes doesn't fufill this morning's baller-flesh quota, MXA's got some Roque Santa Cruz that's sure to do the trick. Spent way too long staring at that fourth photo, ourselves.

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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

SYLVIE AND RAFA ARRIVE AT REAL



The whole VDV fam turned up for Rafa's official presentation at Real Madrid, including current TIET girl-crush (it doesn't make any sense, we know) Sylvie and son Damian.

Not really feeling Sylvie's outfit -- the dress isn't 100 per cent there, is it? Suppose you just have to respect the lady for opting out of a scene stealing hot pink number. And although it annoys us as much as it annoys you when people compare anyone who's anyone to Posh n' Becks, the whole scene looks very aspirational.
---

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posted by TIET at 4:31 PM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 0 comments

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: SHEVA



Because after you're done railing about what an over-priced flop he is, it's time to appreciate the goods. Among the Lampards and Joe Coles, everyone kind of forgets that Sheva's not too bad on the eyes either.

So, what newsy bits are we thinking about this morning? Spainpool is about to lose one of its Spaniards to Arsenal according to a few sources. If Wenger does buy Xabi Alonso it could cost the club as much as £18m. Xabi's been 'just about' to leave Liverpool since god knows when so we're going to employ some cautiousness around this particular piece of transfer-tripe. His entire situation is getting tiring.

Van Horseface has retired from international football. Should we feel sad about this? Possibly. Are the horse jokes going away anytime soon? No.

We're also still not completely over Benny Feilhaber's nekkie karaoke misadventures. If you've not yet seen the clip, it is seriously time to click through. It leaves you wondering if -- hm... or perhaps leaves you certain that -- there's more where this came from.

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posted by TIET at 5:30 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 3 comments

ONE FOR THE VAULT: DEAR EVERYONE, STOP DOING IT.

[Is this Robin's 'Oh... dude. WHAT are you doing?' face?]


Ya'll know how we feel about badge-kissing.

It generally means nothing in the 'modern game' -- it's about the most insincere thing a player can do (with a few rare exceptions of course). Hleb did the deed a few weeks ago when he shipped off to Spain and we wanted to cross an ocean to give him a square kick in the nuts.

This past Sunday, in some sort of half-baked attempt to win back the fans, dear Emmanuel Adebayor kissed the badge on his shirt as well. In the process of which, he grossly underestimated and insulted the grudge-holding abilities intelligence of the average Arsenal fan.

Oh, and the man is now officially on hair watch. It's seriously time for a snip-er-roo. That retro 'fro needs to be regulated and/or combed.

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posted by TIET at 2:00 AM, | EmailThis! |  Permalink | 2 comments
Sunday, August 3, 2008

MAN-FLESH DU JOUR: BENDTNER, ARSE-NAL AND EMIRATES CUP BITS-AND-BOBS



Bendtner ain't this week's EPL hottie for nothing, you know. Look at that cute little grin. Irresistible.

That photo is from Stuttgart/Arsenal (A note on that match: Who e