Computer Games..

I must confess I got my inspiration for this blog from another blogger who blogs about IOS gaming on her site. Check her out here: The ramblings and rants of a strange girl. Now I wouldn't really describe myself as a massive gamer but I am not going to lie there is no better feeling than completing a certain game, even if it did mean going a few days with no sleep and limited food and bathroom breaks. I haven't done that for a while though with any game. In the past few years, I have spent hours on games like Skyrim, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty and Football Manager. At one point I was even obsessed with an NFL game, I still don't get American football properly. Although my housemate is doing her best to change that by making me watch it every time it is on. More recently it has been GTA V that has grabbed my attention and got me into the mindset that I am 3 master criminals but only one player. But for me there is something missing from all these games that I have been playing and that is real face to face human contact. Yes, I know you can play online GTA and Call of Duty is only any good when you actually play it online in my opinion. But this is with friends or strangers who are not actually with you, yes it is a good thing that we can share our experiences with people from all over the world. Maybe not so good when 13 year old American boys beat you on COD, that happens to everyone right?

 For me, there is nothing more appealing than sitting in a room with a group of other like minded people and playing FIFA. Now my friends will vouch for me, I really am not the best at this game. I'm not as bad as my friend Ollie who has to play with World IX all the time and me Burnley but still, we both love it nonetheless. It feels great to score a last minute goal against your opponent, especially when he is sat across from you so you can celebrate like England have just won the world cup. Or if you are losing badly/know you are going to just getting as many of your players sent off as possible so the game gets abandoned. Everyone else does that right?  

What is wrong with the England National Team?

The good thing about being English is that as a nation we are always optimistic right? Now I am not naive enough to think that we put one of the best sides ever out against Chile last week, although I would start Jay Rodriguez every time & why hasn't Danny Ings got a call up yet to the senior squad? Also while I am on the subject, how can you leave somebody with the fire and passion that Joey Barton shows out of our national team? Most men would love Roy Hodgson's job as the England manager and we would all probably make lots of changes to the side that is starting tonight against what can just about be described as a German reserve side. The last time we played a full strength German side we lost 4-1 so maybe I am a little bit glad of that. 

I saw a stat before tonights game that showed 48% of German players play in the Bundesliga compared to 26% of English players playing in the Premier League. Now I know straight away people will say, "but the Premier League is the best league in the world". No, it is not. What the Premier league is, is everything that is wrong in this world. It is full of players who came to play in England for the highest bidder of their "talent". Once they are here, they either move around to the club who offers them the most money or pretend they want to move so their current club gives them more money. We only have to cast our minds back to this summer and the exploits of Rooney, Suarez and Tevez to name a few to see this is the case. For a start to stop this being the case, we need to introduce wage caps into the game across at least all the European teams. This needs to be put in place sooner rather than later. I totally think that quotas on the amount of foreign players in squads in the EPL should be put in place. This will force clubs to develop our own national talent at grassroots level. This used to be the case, before the Bosman ruling many leagues across Europe placed quotas on the amount of foreign players allowed in a team. In fact in the Champions league and UEFA cup, UEFA had a rule that prohibited teams from naming more than 3 foreign players in these competitions!. 

Until all this happens England have little chance within the next few decades of dominating world football. Who am I though to say what must and mustn't happen for the England national side to be successful. I am too young to remember Euro 96 in our own country. The first memories of me watching England are France 98 with the likes of Scholes, Beckham, Owen and Shearer playing. In the second round we came up against Argentina, Owen scored THAT goal, Beckham got sent off and we lost on penalties, I cried. Admittedly I was only 11, but still thats how much it meant for me to see the the national team do well. That is how much it will always mean to me. That is how much it should mean to each and every player, every coach, and every manager every time they go and and represent our country friendly or not. Everyone saw the heart and passion Greece played with in Euro 2004, maybe just maybe if England can recreate that, we might have a glimmer of hope next year in Brazil.   

      

Burnley, top of the league?

I had always flirted with football at a young age but didn't really support a particular team. I had been to a few Burnley games with family but my dad was a Liverpool fan and Man United were the team of the moment. But it was James Mcdonough who swayed me to be a true claret. Since I have known him he has always been Burnley mad and by year 8 at school we had a season ticket together with some of our other friends and started following Burnley home and away. Stan Ternent was in charge and we finished second in the old division 2 as it was then. We were many people's favourites to come straight back down after that but we finished agonisingly close to the playoffs twice, something even a last minute Paul Gascoigne free kick couldn't help us with. I can't even remember where we finished the seasons that followed but it was somewhere in mid table, still I was sad when Stan Ternent left the club. He was the only manger I had known being in charge of the club and his last game was an emotional one for me. Steve Cotterill followed and quite frankly to be honest we were lucky to stay in the Championship while he was in charge with some of the results including a 19 game winless streak in 2006/2007. By 2008/2009 Owen Coyle was in charge and led us to the promised land of the Premier League, many people argued that our demise back to the Championship was the result of him leaving to our local rivals Bolton.

Since our relegation we have been mediocre to say the least but this season we have had the best start ever to a season in history. Yesterday we won 2 nil at home to the much fancied for promotion QPR with players in their side probably on double or triple the wage of our players. What I was impressed with and have been impressed with this season is the belief and confidence our players have against any team. For towns like Burnley, when the football team does well it lifts the whole town. If you have ever been to Burnley, you would understand the key part the club plays. Take a look around and there is not much there and for many people the only thing they believe in is the club. Pundits always seem to be amazed when our club does well, we are far from financially comfortable and have one of the lowest wage expenditures in the league. Just like the town our club is in, it has one of the lowest average wages in the country and some government advisors in a recent report have even said it should just be forgotten. Well our little football team is making sure that doesn't happen. We have the squad, manager and belief to carry on playing well and keep making our little town happy. Dare we dream of the promised land once more? YES WE DO!!!