Tuesday 29 August 2006
back to the keyboard
Feel better for that. 9 days without access to blogger. Just hotel television and live witness reports from Upton Park and The Valley to keep me up with the news. Got home late last night from a misty San Francisco after an enjoyable, if not entirely relaxing vacation on the west coast.
We started in Los Angeles, which most people detest, but I like it's strange quirkiness where plastic tits and weirdos meet you on every corner. In between LA and San Fran we drove the Big Sur and had stop-overs in Santa Barbara, which I liked a lot, Santa Cruz, which reminded me of Margate and the wine country of Sonoma and Napa Valley, where as a birthday surprise I was shoved out of bed at 4am to go on a hot-air balloon ride. Fantastic experience and more on the holiday another day.
So 3 games into the Dowie regime and it was rather refreshing not to be a slave to the internet after the results, rushing to put my thoughts from afar into writing. It was nice to let the comments my mate told me in a phone call after each final whistle roll around in my head. The "optimism" after the Hammers game, the "disappointment" following the 2nd half of the United game and "the lack of width" employed by the new manager. Then the burst of happiness and excitement I clearly sensed from him when he was walking away from The Valley on Saturday. "Great performance, like the old days."
A break now for internationals and just two days to go until the transfer deadline. Both Senegal defender Souleymane Diawara and Uruguayan midfielder Omar Pouso could be Addicks by Thursday. Diawara, recently dropped by Senegal because of a breach of of discipline, is said to cost £4 million. Pouso would be a loan deal from Penarol.
The club also wait on whether Christian Bolanas will be given a work permit by the Home Office after today's appeal.
Meanwhile Middlesbrough is set to be the next stop for Jason Euell after they agreed a fee with the Charlton board. No disrepect to Euell, but with Wigan, Portsmouth and Watford all after his signature, it shows how the transfer window has created some real panic buying. ¶ 18:57
We started in Los Angeles, which most people detest, but I like it's strange quirkiness where plastic tits and weirdos meet you on every corner. In between LA and San Fran we drove the Big Sur and had stop-overs in Santa Barbara, which I liked a lot, Santa Cruz, which reminded me of Margate and the wine country of Sonoma and Napa Valley, where as a birthday surprise I was shoved out of bed at 4am to go on a hot-air balloon ride. Fantastic experience and more on the holiday another day.
So 3 games into the Dowie regime and it was rather refreshing not to be a slave to the internet after the results, rushing to put my thoughts from afar into writing. It was nice to let the comments my mate told me in a phone call after each final whistle roll around in my head. The "optimism" after the Hammers game, the "disappointment" following the 2nd half of the United game and "the lack of width" employed by the new manager. Then the burst of happiness and excitement I clearly sensed from him when he was walking away from The Valley on Saturday. "Great performance, like the old days."
A break now for internationals and just two days to go until the transfer deadline. Both Senegal defender Souleymane Diawara and Uruguayan midfielder Omar Pouso could be Addicks by Thursday. Diawara, recently dropped by Senegal because of a breach of of discipline, is said to cost £4 million. Pouso would be a loan deal from Penarol.
The club also wait on whether Christian Bolanas will be given a work permit by the Home Office after today's appeal.
Meanwhile Middlesbrough is set to be the next stop for Jason Euell after they agreed a fee with the Charlton board. No disrepect to Euell, but with Wigan, Portsmouth and Watford all after his signature, it shows how the transfer window has created some real panic buying. ¶ 18:57
