Peter Crouch? Are you sure? To the boys I was out for lunch with the other day. I know you enjoy reading my rantings about hotel shower gel, well let me tell you for the third morning running yesterday I had to masterfully extract something out of nothing from a 50ml shower gel bottle. I don't get it, sorry but it winds me up. My only logic is that rations still exist from the days of this place being a magistrate's court!

My son and I played out the world cup final today. There was a big crowd, both his Nanny & Grandad were watching, and England beat Brazil 4-3. I was Brazil and Ronaldo was looking incredibly overweight let me tell you. Anyway, I was rather disturbed to find out that Peter Crouch is my son's favourite player! To rub salt in the wound, he even 'did the robot' after he opened the scoring.

By the way who remember's the Panini Sticker Books? I bought my son the 2006 world cup one a while back, and he is just as obsessed with it than I was back in the day and there is no end to his knowledge of Swiss footballers. Makes me proud. Anyway off on a stag weekend tomorrow. Wish me luck.  ¶ 20:31 |

  Chicago 38th most expensive city to live in world Chicago has been rated the 38th most expensive city to live in the world and the 4th in the USA behind New York (10th in world), Los Angeles (29th) and San Francisco (34th).

Chicago actually dropped two places from 2005, even though I think it has gotten more expensive in the two and a half years I've been there.

Other American cities that appear in the top world's top 50 are Miami and White Plains, NY.

London is the 5th most expensive behind Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul but surprisingly it is Moscow that comes out top, although the disparities between rich and poor I imagine are immense.

The survey was carried out by human resources consulting firm Mercer and covers 144 cities across 6 continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. The guide is used by multinational companies and governments to determine compensation allowances for their expat employees, which may explain why Moscow comes out on top.  ¶ 06:00 |

  Rather be watching Mrs Bucket The World Cup back in London


I normally get more excited about watching old repeats of Keeping Up Appearances on BBC America than watching England games. I really do give total credit to those poor souls who gives up their lives and probably most of their money following the national team around the world. Today was like another visit to the dentist, but thankfully our interest continues, at least until we play someone half decent.

It was very welcoming listening to the BBC team in the studio rip into Eriksson and his tactics time and again. After all of this time, he still hasn't a clue about his best team or system. A certain Darren Bent would have been more suited to the lone striker role, as would Defoe because it's not natural for Rooney but Beckham, who I wouldn't even start, rescued us not for the first time. I thought Carrick was ordinary but less so than Lampard, who looks a different player when he doesn't have the Chelsea midfield around him.

Later: Well if the England game was Keeping Up Appearances then the Holland, Argentina game was an episode from 24! As drama turned into farce and I found myself willing more Portugese players to be sent of in injury time as it became obvious the Dutch couldn't score in a, ahem, brothel.

I have always had a soft spot for the Dutch after their valiant efforts in the 70's but they didn't deserve to score with the awful Kuyt up front, with Van Basten amazingly not turning to Van Nistelrooy from the bench. Therefore fate pairs Scolari against Sven again. To coin a phrase, "we will get better," gawd help us.  ¶ 00:25 |

  A date at the Embassy I landed at Heathrow this morning at just before 11am. A couple hours of kip, couple of films, Glory Road (quite good), Pink Panther (quite pants), some awful airplane food and now I'm settled in my hotel room with fumfy dressing gown on ready for the England game to start in an hour or two.

Tomorrow I am off to the American Embassy at Grosvenor Square to have my visa extension interview. My 3-year visa runs out on July 5th, which was 3 years from the date it was originally applied for, not 3-years from when I actually started work in the States. The immigration authorities have agreed to the extension, but I still have to go back to the Embassy to prove I am who I say I am and not Osama bin Laden. My interview time slot is at 11.15am, but that means diddly and I quite expect to spend all afternoon there waiting with the great and the no-so good.

I don't know if you have ever seen the American Embassy on Grosvenor Square, but what was once a grand building, now resembles a no go area. Security and minutia are the key words there and the slightest slip up on my paperwork will not be good. After my interrogation, they keep my passport to 'process' and then send it back to my parents with, hopefully, a new visa. The challenge there is for me to get that back before I fly home on Monday. No passport, no flight back to Chicago. Simple as.

In all honesty this week being home (I noticed I've called both Chicago and London home in the space of 3 lines!) works quite nicely for me. I was getting pissed off listening to the American World Cup commentaries and just being here and the timing of the games will allow me to see more of it and be engulfed by it, although tonight's result could put a dramatic halt to that of course.

Tomorrow night I will catch up with my brother and some mates in town here, Tuesday is a work day, with some meetings and beers in the evening. Then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I will see my son, which I can't wait for, and will drive down to my parents down in Eastbourne.

All this before a stag weekend in Newmarket. Racing, beer, and, well more beer!  ¶ 16:05 |

  Seven charged with plot to bomb the Sears Tower "We are as safe as we have ever been, and as safe as any city can be," Chicago's Mayor Daley today.

Five suspects in an alleged plot to bomb the tallest building in the US, Chicago's Sears Tower, and other buildings appeared before a federal judge in Miami today. Another defendant was scheduled to make a court appearance in Atlanta and it was not clear when the seventh suspect would appear in court.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said "the efforts of 'homegrown terrorists' who reached out to an informant posing as an Al Qaeda leader represent a new twist in the war on terror." Five of the defendants are U.S. citizens, one is a legal permanent resident and one is an illegal alien.

The planning was in its earliest stages, according to Gonzales, and neither the indictment nor comments by authorities in Washington and Miami offered any information to indicate that the men had actually acquired explosives or weapons or taken other practical steps to mount attacks. Gonzales said "the charges reflect a desire by the Justice Department to nip possible attacks in the bud, before they are well enough developed to pose possible harm." He went on to say that there is "no immediate threat" to Chicago or Miami. (more)  ¶ 19:41 |

  American's exit with pride bruised The World Cup seen from Chicago


I decided to take the day off today and was rewarded with thunderstorms this morning so I sat in and watched the USA v Ghana game. I would've loved to have seen the Americans win, which would have seen them progress, but despite plenty of possession they didn't have the craft or skill to unlock the Ghana defence and the African's were generally just quicker to the ball in midfield. The introduction of Eddie Johnson was too late and although Brian McBride headed against the post, the toughest 1st round group proved too much for the team jokingly rated 5th in the world.

Coach Bruce Arena, whose future is now in doubt, said afterwards: "I think we were among the top half of the teams of this tournament. I think in the future I would say to FIFA they should be seeding 32 teams and not having groups like this." (more + USA Today report)

The American's I feel did have good reason to bemoan some awful refereeing during their last two games. Referee Markus Merk was far too whistle happy, gave a suspect penalty and missed another flailing elbow, when Eddie Lewis had to go off with a cut. But it was the Czech game that did for them, and it was more of a shock after that performance to see them also finish up on the plane home. It puts England's 'poor start' into perspective doesn't it?

I don't know what the media and people here will make of the USA's exit from the world's greatest sporting competition. Tonight Jay Leno joked about American's finally withdrawing their people from foreign lands but one thing that was a joke, was ESPN's insistence on showing about 70 people standing in Times Square watching the game on a big screen! Christ, you would have more people crowded around a black and white portable in a village in Ghana than that!

Anyway, later I was well chuffed for my Aussie mate that another late goal ensured that the Socceroos qualified at the expense of Croatia. They will play Italy on Monday in the last 16.  ¶ 01:13 |

  A tough looking start to season A tough looking start was given us today when the fixtures machine churned out the 2006/7 Premiership games. I won't be planning any trips back home just yet as Sky, BBC, Uncle Tom Cobbly and all will have their little say in changing games to suit them and not the fans.

West Ham away on the opening day, August 19th, followed by home games against Man Utd and then Bolton on my birthday. Then after the opening two European Championship qualifiers (England play Andorra at home and Macedonia away) we visit lucky hunting ground Stamford Bridge!

A bit of other Addick news today was that 19-year old French defender Kelly Youga signed a new two-year contract. Youga follows a healthy trend of young hopefuls signing extended deals recently after Darren Randolph, Rob Elliot, Nathan Ashton, Michael Carvill, Myles Weston and Alistair John all signed new contracts. Dowie wasn't scared at Palarce to play up and coming youngsters, so let's hope we see one or two of these names in the first team squad next season.  ¶ 20:52 |

  The Heat is on After what feels like a season lasting two and a half years this week finally gave us a winner of the NBA finals and the ice hockey's Stanley Cup.

In American sports there is no need for 90 minutes of nail biting drama, with sudden death if required, not if you can play each other umpteen times in front of television camera's broken up by adverts for beer and viagra every 5 minutes.

Actually Basketball is an American sport that I have come to appreciate. 5 huge men sprinting up and down the court, throwing themselves around, interchanging quickly an threading a ball into an eye of a needle from impossible distances.

The young Chicago Bulls were celebrating their 2nd consecutive appearance in the play-off's back in April, when the city still had snow on the ground. They ended up losing bravely to a powerful Miami Heat team and last night, 2 months after the 'regular season' ended the huge but ageing Shaquille O'Neil with young marvel Dwayne Wade helped Miami to their 4th consecutive victory, 3 in Miami and the last but most crucial one in Dallas to win the NBA title series for the first time.

The 24-year old Chicago born Wade has been inspirational in the final series and has found the consistency he has been accused of not having. His points totals of 42, 36, 43 and 36 in the four Miami wins only begin to describe his domination of the Mavericks. He is the latest in a long line of young men to be tagged with the new Jordan moniker, but Wade probably has the strongest claim yet.

Whilst most of the country is basked in 90 degree heat ice hockey's Stanley Cup continued in vain and finally produced a champion this week, the Carolina Hurricanes. The much travelled franchise (it has operated in 5 cities), now settled in Raleigh, North Carolina beat off a fierce come back from the Edmonton Oilers to win game 7 of the series 3-1 on a sweltering night in the RBC hockey rink on Monday.  ¶ 01:13 |

  Robbo joins Worthing I have promised my son that I'll take him to my parents local club Eastbourne Borough next season. However I might have to take him further along the coast to Worthing as they today signed Charlton old boy John Robinson.

Robbo, who has played for both Crawley and Lewes in recent seasons and also runs a successful coaching school business, will play for his former Brighton schools pal Danny Bloor and will make his debut against his first club Brighton in a pre-season friendly. (more)  ¶ 15:20 |

  Valuable lesson The World Cup seen from Chicago


I learnt a valuable lesson last night: Don't go drinking after an England game with two twentysomethings because nothing good will come out of it. Something my stomach found out this morning.

Anyway from what I remember we looked like world beaters in the first half with Rooney lively and Joe Cole doing his best Pele impressions, the Swedish goalie called his goal lucky! But after the break we looked like we couldn't beat an egg as the back four became Steve Dowman clones. Oh well it was enough for us to avoid the Germans and another probable brave but utlimately futile exercise and we limber up on Sunday afternoon against Ecuador instead.

I will be back in London on Sunday so it will be nice to be squashed into a pub full of fat drunk English blokes and not some of the clowns that were in Fado yesterday, three in particular who insisted on shouting complete twaddle to each other during the game. Clearly footie-pub-watching etiquette does not belong here.

The Swedes on the other hand were very entertaining and worth watching though! And someone please remind me again why Eriksson took Theo Walcott?  ¶ 15:00 |

  Morts joins Bees as assistant Any worthwhile news about the Addicks, writs aside, at the moment is scarce but I did notice this weekend that old boy Paul Mortimer has been appointed assistant coach at Brentford to new boss Leroy Resenoir.

Mortimer played and lived with Rosenoir at Bristol City and has recently coached academies at Arsenal and MK Dons. (more)

Rosenior also played 3 games for us during the 1991/2 season while on loan from West Ham. Good luck Paul and teach them all about that shoulder drop.  ¶ 00:34 |

  Courageous effort from Yanks despite referee The World Cup seen from Chicago


I watched the USA v Italy game around at a friend's place (below). He and his brother are American-Italians, whose parents immigrated from the south-east of Italy in the 60's and they both hold very strong ties with their motherland. They had invited all their buddies around, who were all American except for me, and it provided a charged atmosphere, although thankfully no sending off's!

I went there with all intentions of being neutral but soon found myself rooting for the Americans, who took the game to their more illustrious opponents in the early stages and looked a completely different side to the one that capitulated against the Czech Republic.

But poor marking again let them down as Gilardino scored but then an almost impossible own goal brought them back level before the referee decided to put his mark on the game. Whilst De Rossi had to go for a terrible elbow attack on McBride, I thought that the foul by Mastroeni was a yellow at worst and then Eddie Pope was very unfortunate to pick up a 2nd bookable.

Despite the best efforts of the Uruguayan referee, who was once suspended by his national association for "irregularities," the game remained wide open and Beasley was unlucky to have a goal disallowed with 25 minutes left.

It was a big performance from the Yanks and it has made good press here, grabbing most of the sports headlines. It also means that they go into the last game of the group stages knowing that they can still qualify if they beat Ghana on Thursday and Italy beat the Czech Republic. There is huge incentive for the Italians, they will avoid the pre-competition favourites Brazil, if they finish top of Group E.  ¶ 01:05 |

  U-S-A, U-S-A! Zzzzz The World Cup seen from Chicago


Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly has picked up on the difference in the crowd songs at a football match compared to those heard in American sports stadia.

Reilly says in his back page article this week that if "you're lucky enough to attend the most watched event in the universe - the World Cup - you've got to go to one of England's games. The French make the best wine, the Swiss build the best watches. But the English make up the best chants." (more, but unfortunately for SI subscribers only).

Reilly's favourite is a Blackburn ditty which goes,

"Away in a manger,
No crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus
Looked up and he said
We HATE Burnley."

Of course we are used to such originality and humour in grounds but these are severely lacking at American games as all you ever get is "crappy old U-S-A! U-S-A!" or at every other sporting event whether it be baseball, basketball or hockey, "Lets go *fill in team name*" Yawn.

Anyway Reilly has a new idea and Blackburn fans would have been proud. He suggests this for future American games:

"We are the Yankees!
We are not afraid!
You beat us tonight!
Thursday, we invade!"

Maybe a touch too much irony there for our American friends.  ¶ 20:04 |

  Madge rocks And she truly did. Two hours of non-stop action that was more Cirque du Soleil than a pop concert. The Michigan born Madonna apologised to the audience after singing 'I Love New York,' before abusing the non-dancing middle aged folk in the front row for not getting down (a regular feature of her tour apparently).

But down they did as the gay majority in the audience whooped and jumped with her every move. My, how Boystown must have been empty on Wednesday night.

Madonna looked incredible and moved like a 15-year gymnast in her selection of tight leotards and not the 47-year old it is hard to believe she actually is. There was never a dull moment as swarms of lithe dancers and roller bladers whizzed around the big stage which moved as expected from the camp to the kitsch with added big doses of sexual domination, 70's disco, crucifiction's, political messages and attitude.

Her voice I guess has never been the greatest but she played to her limitations, even crashing about on an electric guitar. Most of the stuff was from her recent album 'Confessions on a Dancefloor,' which I have never listened too but there was some old stuff too like my old favourites 'Live To Tell' and 'Lucky Star.'

I had no expectations before I went, only to hope that I had a good night but I did that with spades. She is one hell of a performer, and although I didn't leave the United Center thinking that I had witnessed something truly memorable, like other bands and artists I have seen in my time, I'm very glad that I went and she made a younger man very happy!  ¶ 08:28 |

  Screwed by Sven The World Cup seen from Chicago


With relief came certain realism today after a dreadful performance against a Trinidad & Tobago side made up of Gillingham, Port Vale, Wrexham and Falkirk players. Whilst I am sure at home lager and national pride are prevailing over pure veracity, here 4,000 miles away it is hard to get even slightly moist at the thought of England's longevity in this competition.

We are crawling into the next round at a snails pace with a broken metatarsal with dull as dishwater tactics, no shape, invention or firepower and very little, sorry I mean no excitement whatsoever. Beckham's delivery, goal aside, was terrible, Owen was awful, again and Crouch is frankly a joker. I wonder what Darren Bent and Jermain Defoe make of the whole thing back at home? And Walcott is in the squad for what reason exactly?

As I sat in the pub rather impassively with a couple of mates I actually found myself willing the white bloke from Port Vale to score in the 2nd half, which surely would have prompted a multi-million pound bid from Chelsea.

We need someone to blame of course, and it's bloody easy really. New York Addick sums it up very well here. So where is the accountability? Well Sven has screwed around quite successfully during his time as national manager and now he's signing off by screwing the rest of us, while we and the FA just watch.  ¶ 19:04 |

  Birthday breeze My job means I have to keep a close eye on the hurricane season as I spend most of the day advising chief risk officers and managers on protecting their assets against a host of things that can go wrong including natural catastrophes. To some degree companies can plan for hurricanes, unlike say earthquakes, but still the sight of this year's first named windstorm marauding across the gulf coast has left me cold.

The National Hurricane Center today issued a hurricane warning for the part of the gulf coast of Florida stretching from the very beautiful Longboat Key near Sarasota to the Ochlockonee River south of Tallahassee. 20,000 people have already been evacuated.

If Alberto does come ashore it will be the earliest hurricane in 40 years. The World Meteorological Organization is responsible for naming storms which reach tropical storm intensity and these names go in a 6-year cycle, with the more infamous ones retired and replaced with new ones. Just in case you are wondering this is what the US has to look forward to this summer:

Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie and William.

One of the countries leading research institutes at Colorado State University are predicting 17 named storms this season, with five of the hurricanes sustaining winds of 111 mph or greater, i.e. a category 3, 4 or 5. More on hurricane categories here.

Incidentially Colorado State University is situated in Fort Collins, CO which is only a short hop from where I will be tomorrow and as hurricane's have become a regular feature in my life in Chicago it's kind of apt that What was the score? will celebrate it's 2nd birthday tomorrow just a gust of wind away from one of the world's leading hurricane experts.  ¶ 01:43 |

  Get real The World Cup seen from Chicago


The American media have laid into the US team after they were well beaten by the Czech Republic today. Before the start of the competition the mass media had built up the team to be world beaters, American's expect nothing else, with so called experts suggesting that this was the best squad that has ever been assembled. The people in the know, know that to be crap, and it looked like the better known players such as DaMarcus Beesley and Landon Donovon carried the world superpower's weight on their shoulders as they struggled to create anything against a vastly superior side.

The trouble is that the 'soccer' uneducated population would consider only an actual world cup final victory as success, which is showing their ignorance in both world football and the outside world in general. As a friend tonight said, Americans expect the size of the gross national product to have a similiar impact on world sport. Hey, if American teams can win the world series and hundreds of medals at Olympic games why can't they stuff nobody's like the Czech Republic and Ghana?

Unfortunately todays' defeat almost spells an early exit for the American's, unless they can do the impossible against Italy on Saturday.

Coach Bruce Arena who can always be relied upon to give an honest opinion, normally in the face of an uniformed media, laid into individuals after the match.

"Landon (Donovan) showed no aggressiveness." Kasey Keller for "putting the ball upfield where we have nobody," and finally the ex Chicago Fire and now PSV winger, "we got nothing out of Beasley on the night." (more)

Hmm, reverse psychology or just defeatism? One thing is for sure, the people have already written them off because their ambitions and world reality don't add up.  ¶ 20:56 |

  I have a confession Last night I went to see The Break-Up, a film hotly talked about here in Chicago as it stars their favourite son Vince Vaughn and was filmed here in the city two summers ago hot on Jennifer Aniston's break-up with Brad (you may have remember reading about that little bit of tittle tattle!)

The film was pretty shite actually and only held my interest because it was filmed in Chi-town and included many of it's more famous and less widely known spots.

Today I took my camera along to Ferrari's on Oak Street, which is an annual event for Ferrari owners in the Midwest to show off their motors. I'm not a petrol head by any means but I know 'nice' when I see it and there was a lot of nice today. Oak Street between the Lake and State St, is commonly known as the most exclusive throughfare in the city and expensive boutiques were added too by rich men and young beauties strolling along with ridiculous shades on in overcast weather.

This morning we played our last game of the spring 'soccer' season and got roundly beaten to finish bottom of the table. Tuesday and Wednesday this week I will be in Colorado with work but will fly back in time see Madonna in her Confessions tour.

Ok, hear me out. A work friend got some freebie tickets and after he suggested it I realised that despite never actually owning any of her albums, there have been enough Madge songs over the years that I have liked that she might be worth a watch and male intuition tells me she's probably quite a performer. I remember some mates and I tearing up the dance floor in Bournemouth to 'Holiday' as a 17-year old on my first ever holiday without my Mum & Dad.

Hold that thought.... that is a bloody good memory. Oh well I will see if she has aged as well as me on Wednesday!  ¶ 13:02 |

  No pressure Kasey, honest. The World Cup seen from Chicago


The World Cup is getting more media coverage than I imagined and although Chicagoan's seem a bit confused by the fuss and the size of it all, it is competing pretty well in sport orientated conversations in competition with the Miami Heat v Dallas Mavericks NBA final and ice hockey's Stanley Cup between Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers.

Work is still a 'mare frankly but I have pencilled in numerous external breakfast, lunch and afternoon meetings over the next few weeks. In fact will be in London for the last week of the month, returning to the US for the semi's.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with Uncle Sam and the Czech Republic in the American's first group stage game. I will join a few friends for an early beer and sandwich tomorrow to cheer them on. It's important for the continued interest in the competition here and future growth of the game Stateside that the Americans make a mark on the competition and advance to the 2nd Round, although they are in an exceptionally tough group. But, don't worry it's alright Alexi Lalas (remember him?) has just said that "Kasey Keller is the best goalkeeper in the world," so they have nothing to worry about!  ¶ 12:38 |

  David Beckham v Paraguay The World Cup seen from Chicago


8am, and there I was tired eyes, dressing gown and a cup of tea but I should have gone back to bed after I had finished the last mouthful. Blimey, it was hard work and not a scratch on yesterday's games or the Argentina, Ivory Coast one after.

I found myself losing interest in the 2nd half as Erikkson's substitutions strangled the hell out of any creativity. If the first half was ordinary, the second was just tedius but at least we found out that Joe Cole isn't actually a striker, no last time I looked in my son's Panini sticker book that page belonged to Defoe, Bent and Johnson. Why not throw Walcott on for 15 minutes or are we saving the 12-year old for the final?

The most excited I got was when Robinson hit the huge bloody television hanging over the pitch. What is that about?

The game was live on ABC and I'm sure did nothing to convince American's to skip brunch over the beautiful game. The American commentators drove me mad too, as they only seemed bothered by David Beckham who we were informed was married to "Victoria Posh." But never short of a meaningless stat, they did announce that “there has never been a one nothing game decided by an own goal in the World Cup before.” Good to know. At least I will be in a noisy pub on Thursday.  ¶ 20:46 |

  "Football, as most of the world insists on calling it...." "Christianity, with more than 2 billion believers, ranks 2nd among the major religions of the world. Soccer is first. It is not clear how many people attend the church of soccer - or football, as most of the world insists on calling it...." Today's Chicago Tribune has woken up to the fact that on Friday the globe's biggest single sporting event begins, even though a girls high school match actually got more column inches in today's paper.

Whatever American's think, the NBA finals, the Stanley Cup final and Barry Bonds steroid assisted record bore will find very few column inches everywhere else on the planet as it gets ready for the beautiful game.

If anyone Stateside wants to see the TV schedule (credit to ABC and ESPN as every game is being shown live), then click here (scroll to the bottom of article).  ¶ 23:56 |

  Dans Le Noir When I was last in London I went to a restaurant called Dans Le Noir, which served up one of the worst meals I had ever had the displeasure to experience. The idea of the Clerkenwell Green restaurant was taken from its namesake in Paris, which I am told has been open a few years and been very successful.

The intention of Dans Le Noir is that you sit in the dining room in absolute darkness, which allows your senses and not your eyes to respond the "aroma's, tastes and atmosphere" of this quite freaky experience as well as enabling you to emphasise with nonsighted people.

To help manoever you around the dining room are waiters, of which all are blind, but not we were told the chef, which would have at least given us an explanation to whatever it was on our plate. Our waiter Carl whilst not having a clue about the wine or the food was a bit of a character and he did take our mind of the food.

You also realise quickly that you are sharing a table with other people, which could have been a recipe for disaster (bit like the one the chef had read that morning) but we actually ended up having quite a laugh with our faceless neighbours and ended up going for a drink with them afterwards.

The reason this forgetful encounter occurs to me this morning was that I was sent this hilarious link from The Times which explains the whole experience superbly.  ¶ 12:19 |

  Charlton try damage limitation with Young Another Laurel & Hardy moment this morning at the FA after they told Charlton's officials that they have no need for those airplane tickets to Porto because actually England never did had a qualifying entry. But not to worry, in true Eurovision style I will switch my support to Haverfordwest County AFC.

I also note today that Billy Davies has left Preston for Derby County. A move that I imagine most Preston fans will find hard to comprehend, but my curiosity will make sure that I take an added interest in Derby's season.

Confusing news out of the Club today about Luke Young's future. I believe What was the score? was the first blog to announce that our captain would be on his way to Upton Park in the summer - I have it on very good authority - but like most fans I was pleased to see that Charlton had offered him a new deal today.

However later today it was materialising that the board are trying a damage limitation pact with Young and his agent, who it was reported had already put in a transfer request. My sources tell me that he has already made up his mind despite the belated new contract offer a week after Jon Fortune got offered his at the same time Chris Perry got shown the door.  ¶ 04:41 |

  Murray: It wasn't all about Curbs An interesting but if a not heart on sleeve timely riposte from Richard Murray today: “Alan did a wonderful job, but if everybody thinks that this club is only where it is today because of Alan Curbishley, then they do not know this club very well, I am afraid. Alan did not do any of the transfers. He did not raise any of the money. We have raised tens and tens of millions of pounds. If people think Alan built this stadium here, he did not. It is from the pockets of people like me. I just do not shout about it. I do not like doing a column and I do not particularly want to shout about it now. I have got a huge amount of time, money and emotion tied up in this club." (more)

Meanwhile today some Charlton directors bought more 50p shares at 40p each. Richard Murray was the biggest contributor and now owns over 25% of the club  ¶ 00:35 |