Well it has been a while since I blogged, so might as well get back in to the swing of things. It seems an age ago that I left Sweden and finally made it back to England! The summer (if you can class it as that) has so far been an enjoyable one, after 3 weeks at home not doing much, I ventured back up to Sheffield to start 2 months of training with the Hallam team that was going to Poland to compete in EUSA as the Great Britain representatives. It was good to be back with the boys and the ensuing banter-fest for the past 2 and a half months. No offence to the swedes/danes/rest of the world, but it was good to be back people of the same understanding of humour as myself. The past 2 months has provided many memories from days and mostly nights out, including certain jokes that made me cry with laughter, an interesting game of never ever ever, casino's, Mcdonalds at 5am, Callum's 'quiet' birthday celebrations, house mate's fighting, broken beds and living room carnage. Oh yeah there was also a world cup..... I could probably go on for days on end about the world cup so will try to keep it short. In short England were gash, Rooney wasn't fit, for the 100000000000000th time we found out fat frank and stevie g CAN'T play together, for the 3,000 good centre backs we churn out each season, not many of them can stay fit for more than 5 minutes, the world cup confirmed John Terry is some what of defensive liability against any half decent team, Midget wright phillips will run and run and run, even if he lost the ball 2 minutes prior, Heskey should not be classed in the 'striker' section of any squad list; carrick, dawson and joe hart's tickets where a waste of money, even though i think Hart should of been 1st choice GK, countries that went further than us had younger/inexperience keepers and it worked for them, Joe cole should of played more than the 5 seconds he got over 4 games. I was shocked at the calls for Capello to go, the players need to face up to the fact that they need to shoulder most of the blame, people questioned Capello's various methods, but they seem to have worked for him during his time as England coach, people weren't calling for his head after they battered Croatia, not once but twice. I dont understand how the players mentality changed from the style in which they qualified to the abject world cup, the group they had, they played against teams that were the same calibre as teams they brushed aside in qualifying. The Manager can only do so much, his record speaks for it self, 6 Serie A titles, 2 la liga titles and a champions league. When the whistle blows, its up to the players to put into action what they have been told and England just didnt. Think thats enough ranting about england. To be honest the world cup wasnt great, my highlights were Diego Forlan, Luis Suarez's handball the guy is a hero and anyone who says they would not have done what he did is a liar and the French doing what they do best and giving up.
Anyway, after the world cup came the trip to Poland, 9 days of volleyball fun. The trip started well, being delayed for good 5 hours, meant we got to Warsaw at about 3am the next day. Then we got to enjoy 2 days of +38 degree heat, and training in a greenhouse, i have never sweat so much in a training session. Then it decided to rain for the majority of the trip so we felt more at home. We ended up finishing in 9th spot, which was a good achievement for us, as our goal was to finish top 10, we lost to Lithuania, Poland and Turkey whilst beating Finland (the hard way), portugal and giving the Germans an absolute kicking, was a very sweet way to end the competition. I think we did our best for international relations, and we seemed to forge a bond with the serbian male and female teams and some of the boys took a shine to the swiss girls. Also one of the highlights was a wonderful perfomance by callum, tim, bake and kendray on an out door stage. The other stories can be left for another day(what happens on tour, stays on tours and all that pish). Then it was back to Sheffield to pack my life in my bag and return home, it was strange leaving sheffield as I don't know when i will be back, it has been my 'home' for almost 3 years and i have made a lot of good friends through out my time there and it seems strange that i don't know when i will see them again, hopefully in the near future, but who knows. So now i have a few weeks to relax, then back to Sweden for the new season and to see my friends that i made over the past year, and maybe even make some new ones, although it will be sad not to have Carlos and Jen around.
Quotes of the summer
"Damn girl"
"This isn't the first time the Germans have marched through Warsaw"
"Shmeeeeee"
any stuttttttttttttter abuse to millsy
"moleeeeeeeeeee"
"yeah, pish laugh"
"Lemon chicken?"
If i find any good videos will put them up
#41 Thanks for the memories
RIP fat cat
The End
