21 February 2011: Told you

See?

In other news, I started a new job and for some reason they observe today ("President's Day") as an official company holiday, so I have the day off. Nothing for Easter, of course, so the next holiday is Whitsun, or 'Memorial Day' as it is over here - last Monday in May.

Upsides of new job, however, include more vacation overall, very little travel and (therefore) the ability to work remotely (ie from home). Overall, a pretty decent deal and less travel should mean more time for other things, including Hannah (now six months old!), carpet shampooing and (unusually for me) a computer game - specifically FIFA 11 ("FIFA Soccer 11" over here of course) on the Wii.

This came about after a recommendation (and a trial play) from nephew Matt over Christmas, in between him and Jamie playing Lego Star Wars (at which I was not so good, nor so interested). Matt has the XBox360 version, so no online play for us, but it was fun and relatively easy to pick up the controls and worth getting...

So here I am, mid-season in the classic 'Battle for Glory' (ie league play) mode - yet to try the one where you make a player up and take him from street soccer to the Premier League. Naturally I'm playing as Plymouth Argyle, but it's weird (1) to see certain players (Maclean) who were/are rubbish for Argyle having to play as they have the highest rating, and (2) to see players who have now left the club (Bradley Wright-Phillips, Reda Johnson etc) playing for Argyle... seems wrong somehow.

Except that I just hit the midseason transfer window. I tried to sign half-decent players but in the end decided to just plump everything on one superstar player. Wayne Rooney refused to join Argyle (well, who can blame him) but his mate Berbatov wasn't averse to moving to Jannerland, so my strike force became Berbatov and Wright-Phillips. Then Kevin Phillips (Bong*) became available, so I signed him as well.

Thus Argyle won the League Cup this morning.

In the real world, administration came knocking, as did the official ten-point deduction, and the reminder from the media that tax bills are due and the club hasn't payed the player's wages since November.

Trading while insolvent? Only argument is whether Argyle can be classified as 'trading'. Sinking would be nearer the mark. Ridsdale has people lined up and pre-packed Admin is the rumour of the day.

But it can really go so wrong from here.

On the flip side, Saturday night saw us (unusually, actually) watching telly, and there was another one of those spit-drink-out-of-mouth moments that last occurred when I turned the TV on and saw Premier League football on ESPN. This time it was even better: a commercial for breakfast cereal.

Not just any breakfast cereal.

Crunchy Nut Cornflakes.

Oh, yes. They've been launched over here, only about thirty years after the rest of civilisation. I sat jaw-opened pointing at the TV screen like a complete ninny. Went and bought two boxes the next day. There's something weird about seeing Crunchy Nut boxes with the big word 'NEW' emblazoned over the top of the carton, but it's one for the record books.

And one less thing to bring back whenever we visit the UK. Now, as for Alpen...

(* polled no votes at all.)

18 February 2011: Argyladministration

After so long with no blogs, and much to discuss, the first blog for ages is naturally about football...

Rumours out of Home Park this afternoon are that a Board Meeting took place and the decision was made to place the club into administration. Don't know who the administrations are (better not be Andy Android) and further rumours are it's pre-packed admin - ie a buyer has been found, provided the debts are reduced. And HMRC have been paid for the most part, so they won't have more than 25% of the debts.. so a CVA should be possible (see earlier Pompey discussions for how Pompey cheated their way around that one).

Watch this space. Or Pasoti, for better inside info than you'll get here...

Update: Peter Ridsdale denies Argyle 'are in' administration but it seems very carefully-worded. Hints now at end-of-day today or at the latest, Monday. There's another tax bill due on Tuesday. Either way, it's all kicking-off... Argyle relegated again no doubt due to points penalty... hopefully can stay in the league next year. And yet less than a year ago we played a league game against Newcastle, currently in the Premiership.