Overmars and the Nigerians

So one of the most frantic days in football is over, Sky Sports News much wish there were more deadline days as the presenters were ridiculously excited (maybe Georgie Thompson was doing a special dance for them off camera?). A frustrating day for Gooners everywhere, I stayed up till midnight in the vain hope that Arsene would do the right thing and grab Alonso, but it was not to be. The club must've been aware that fans wouldn't be too happy so what did they do? Put an article on the Arsenal website about how much Eboue's passing had improved this season. WTF?? Who made that decision?? Be interesting to see what Arsene has to say, yes we looked good against Newcastle, but we've got some tough games coming up (the next 3 are away to Blackburn, Dynamo Kiev and Bolton) and if (as usual) we get some injuries to key midfielders during the International break, we will be screwed and Wenger will have to take the blame, especially after he said he would sign a defensive midfielder weeks ago.

Man City and Newcastle have been dominating the news for the past couple of days and rightly so. The soap opera that is Newcastle Utd is plunging the depths once more, with yet another Keggy related saga. All sorts of confusing messages are coming out of the club, whilst hundreds of torch and pitch fork wielding geordies baying for Mike Ashley's ample hide lurk outside the ground. It's a shame as they started the season pretty well and seem to have a better team this year (Jonas Gutierrez looks mint). This farce is going to end one way...badly.

As for Man City, they seem to be the new Chelsea. Except they're not, because everyone hates Chelsea (esp Peter Kenyon) and Man City are eminently likeable. "40 condoms, please, shopkeep" Robinho is an unbelievable signing, but he is also a bit of a live wire, have a read of Sid Lowe's article from today's Guardian for more info. The new owners seem to be intent on playing Premiership Championship Manager, much like Abramovich did when he allegedly put in bids of £40m for Vieira and £50m for Henry in 2003 soon after buying Chelsea. This story will run and run over the next week, probably meaning England's vital qualifiers will be overlooked.

Was speaking to Neil this morning about the wonderful world of Championship Manager (now Football manager), a legend of a game that I used to be furiously addicted to (El Wristo guitarist Dave Boardman once spent 26 hours straight playing it), it was easy to confuse reality with CM sometimes, the game even was the basis for several divorce cases earlier this century, with plaintiffs citing it as a cause of neglect, brilliant.

A colleague at work, Cycling eco-warrior David has set up a YouTube channel devoted to video he's taken of him nearly being run over every day on the ride into work, you can view some of his close calls here.

Got Friday off this week as it's Lou and mine's 5 year wedding anniversary, we're off to London for the day to do a tour of the Emirates (which I am stupidly excited about), bum around Camden and hop on the London Eye, will take some pics for Facebook.