Footblogger's block

Since the end of Euro 2008, I have felt to some degree a writer's block...blogger's block if you will. Given that I started this blog bang in the middle of an international tournament, there was never a dearth of thoughts and words and opinions, since each game is a performance that can be told as a story, a play that can be critiqued or a topic that can be debated.

Not so sundry football news and gossip. Ronaldo has gone to Madrid and stayed at Manchester a million times this summer. Ditto Lampard, Inter and Chelsea. Ditto Adebayor, Milan and Arsenal. Ditto Drog...... you get the picture. Having observed the maddening ways of the transfer days for some years, I have come to a stage where I rarely read these stories. Unless a headline comes along which has the word "Official". Then maybe its time to catchup with the movement.

So transfer gossip does not excite me...but what about transfers themselves. Some very interesting ones have of course already happened - Flamini, Deco, Modric, Giovanni dos Santos, Dani Alves and many more. Some very intersting moves and many woth watching. Will especially look at Modric and Giovanni closely (partly becuase EPL is the most easily available on TV and partly becuase Ramos I predict has it in him to take Spurs up on level). Away from the mega star names one move I'll watch is Danny Guiza's to Fener to join his country boss Luis Aragones. If Guiza can have another bumper season (that too in Turkey) I expect he could be one of the biggest value players for next year. But that's a wait and watch.

Anyway, I think I will save my actual comments om transfers for much later (closer to the closing of the window or maybe around the start of the season). As of now there's too much confusion here.

What else then do I write about? Sticking with transfers, there are players I think will suit certain clubs (e.g. Podolski at Chelsea) and this gives me an idea for a post on players I would buy if I were at certain clubs (keeping in view their styles, budgets etc.). So expect that soon.

A few other stories have interested me in the last few days - the 6+5 rule, Wenger's admission that Arsenal are under pressure to sell as they need to generate cash of 24 Mil GBP payments for the stadium for the next 17 years, Laporta's survival of the confidence vote but his uncertain future at Barcelona, Milan's and Italian football's financial slip-down with ManCity outbidding them etc. In another continent, Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito from became the first club from Ecuador to win the Copa Libertadores, South America's Champions League, in the 49-year history of the competition.

So yet more ideas flow in. While I have read and re-read views and counter-views on 6+5, and shaken my head at the knee-jerk reaction to Wenger's admission by Gooners, I think on both these subjects I have views which still need expression. So maybe i'll get down to doing that. And how about spending more time on the Americas, Asias and Africa? That should broaden my horizons a bit. Maybe one day it could lead to some writing as well.

Managers is a subject I have to touch. I am one of those who can enjoy a manager's performance more than a player's and this one subject and its personalities I will surely explore. In terms of new assignments this year will see the spotlight on Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Luis Scolari, Mark Hughes, Jurgen Klinsman, Luis Aragoners, Marco van Basten and oh so many more. This will be a fun season and I look forward to writing a lot about all these guys and many many more.

Season-previews...how can I forget them. They need to come as well.

Oh and my own football diary...the story of my 5/6/7 a side games.

Then what about how I fell in love with the game...through its great writers...through Sports Star....through Brian Glanville....

Oh man...so much to write so little time.

It's blogger's unblock again....Yipeeee!