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Following Taylor being a prick tonight, I posited has there ever been a greater disparity between talent and likeability in sport than with Phil Taylor.

On Twitter The Camel suggested Floyd Mayweather or Alex Ferguson.

So, concentrated sporting knowledge of Blonde - what reckon you?

Ian Botham

Christiano Ronaldo

Phil Hellmuth?

Carl Lewis, just a horrible horrible person imo.

Prepared to be flamed here but I really don't understand the widespread dislike of Fergie.  He sticks up for his team and guys and does what he has to to win which is to be expected.  Always thought he was a decent bloke outside and I used to have a few dealings with him in a, erm, professional capacity and always found him to be thoroughly decent and pleasant to deal with with a sense of fun.  That allied to his political beliefs and work makes me warm to him and I am really no United fan.

Can someone give cliffs on what Taylor did tonight?

el hadji diouf pre leeds

terry

Yeah to echo what Red said. While being somewhat ridiculous in his defence of his club and players, Fergie is a decent bloke imo.

Botham always gets credit for snubbing the rebel tour to South Africa, despite the money on offer, after listening to Viv Richards explain exactly what the situation was in SA for people like him.

There's nothing nasty about Ronaldo, just the smugness which pervades many footballers.

Hellmuth - panto villain.

Lewis - interested in hearing more Mark. The next Lance Armstrong?

British mentality to hate winners for some reason. Would rather like people with traits that make them seem like themselves, Ronnie or Jimmy in snooker for example. One of the best players to pick up a cue has the nickname 'Interesting' as a sarcastic put down.

Taylor is the best there has ever been, what's not to like?

Disagree about Taylor not being liked. Acted an abso Dick tonight and much of the crowd favoured Barnie, but Taylor the most popular player in PDC, just listen to the crowd during premier league nights.

Andy Murray. liked him for a day during Olympics then went straight back to being my a prick

Chris Eubank.

Lewis, yeah the next Armstrong but even more of a self promoting egotistical douchebag. There is literally no doubt in my mind that he took steriods throughout his career, yet he consistently runs down his peers who got caught. No of whom liked him.

The ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about the Seoul 1988 100m that was made this year, is all you really need to watch to get a perspective on what a collosal prick Lewis is.

A good example for my theory. Went up in everyone's estimation when he cried after losing again.

Carl Lewis Taking about failing drug tests, but coz there were hundreds at it who cares.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2003/apr/24/athletics.duncanmackay

love Jimmy and Ronnie tho and Steve Davis was nearly my dad. :)

Jrb

People hated Steve Davis before he was shit

That's what I said.

Back story to the Nugget nearly being your pops?

Don't get the Murray hate at all.

He's obviously a very shy guy who is uncomfortable in the public spotlight.

Great player.

+1  ;popcorn;

One word... He's Scottish

it's not as good as it sounds but pretty sure the story is in the  'Claims to fame - The B list' thread. will dig it out tomorrow as onmphone right now.

This.

Nowhere near as annoying as the others mentioned.

The German National football Team

I've always really liked Andy Murray, don't get it either.

My flatmate has known Andy Murray since he was a junior tennis player and says that his public perception as being dour was entirely down to his shyness - he actually is a really nice guy and has a very dry sense of humour which can come across as aloofness (something I can relate to).

In other tennis player gossip:

Nadal - the nicest guy you could ever hope to meet.
Federer - keeps himself to himself but a decent guy
Djokovic - bit of an arsehole

Botham is a good call.

Really dislike him.

Alan Shearer.

I don't think many dislike Shearer

Other end of the scale? Most likeable talented people?

Messi
Man City
Rory McIlroy
Wiggo
Spose Phil Ivey and Tiger Wood before respective scandals

Was Ivey ever likeable?  In fact of that list I would only really say Wiggo is eminently likeable.

Don't think you are getting it George.


I really like Tikay..

Maybe you have to be a bit of a cock to be talented

Taylor and Fergie great shouts

Lololololololol

'Hey - here's a million, billion, million pounds. Can I buy one of those Premier League things?'

Yup but all the United haters love em

Another excellent call.

Remember when Toon knocked out a non league team in the cup and some joe schmo asked to swap shirts and tv cameras caught him saying "no, you can fuck off"

'arry

Surely Rooney makes the list?!

We have a winner......

Or maybe joint winners...

Could be the best thread ever on blonde.

Best of blonde recommendation after 3 pages?

Everyone in my office thinks i am crazy for this but one person I really cannot stand is Peyton Manning.    I understand he is a great, great player but I find him intensely dislikeable and whats more I cannot describe why.

Next year the family are going to gather around the TV on Christmas day and gamble between us on the colour of Arry's shirt when he does his Christmas day speech thru the car window on his way home from training.

At which club's training ground?

 ;ifm;

Actually tonights NFL game could be billed the battle of the two most dislikeable owners in sport!!

A lot of people do hate Murray cos when asked who he wanted to win the world cup he replied whoever is playing England.

For me he survived Dunblane, good luck to him i say, i hope he gets the lot.

Christ, that was a joke.

Even if it wasn't, anyone English would say the same in the unlikely event of Scotland making the WC finals.

'Arry for sure, how could he get the england job with a tax evasion court case?

i know that but a lot of people took it as gospel

maybe this is why

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-_6TYfM1bM

David Haye, if he had more talent. 

Mayweather has to be up there for me. Brilliant boxer; scummy, classless human being.

Michael Irwin - as a player and as a broadcaster

Just reread some of the stories. Cracking up. But here is the story behind my comment.

Joe Calzaghe, arguably the best British boxer ever, but has the charisma of Phil Taylor's piles.

Go and sit in the corner and think about what you just said!

Pfffft, <3 Calzaghe, also <3 arry.

Tal, it is easy to argue the fact that Calzaghe is the best British boxer ever.

think plenty do

Hypocritical so and so he is

Michael Irvin, not Irwin

great player, terrible broadcaster to be fair



Ray Lewis is another one. Google's your friend on his history

Don't dislike Fergie despite the recent comments.

Heard a few stories to confirm Shearer is a massive prick.

Big Murray fan.

Much <3 for O'sullivan.

Who doesn't like Messi ?

Mayweather/Taylor both seem like massive *****. Someone mentioned Taylor always gets a great reception in the Prem Lge Darts, only been once and he got booed all night, I was pretty suprised at the lack of support for him.

Kevin Pietersen. Huge talent, complete arsehole

John Higgins....

44-0 is a great record and obv makes most top tens but do me a favour on Greatest Ever!

Randy Turpin, Sir Ennery, Kid Lewis (who had 300 fights and only lost 44), even Lennox would be above him.

Prob for another thread, granted, but I needed to say that!

What?

Lewis was a good fighter, but far from great. As for  the others you mention, really as great as Calzaghe? Start a new thread on this topic and put the case forward that showd that Calzaghe can't be argued as the best British boxer ever.

There's an easier argument to say he has charisma...

Well said

So untrue its unbelivable.

Usain ~Bolt would come under both groups i guess! The man just ozzes class an charisma

Start a new thread if you like. He isn't my favourite British fighter every but I could see how people could easily argue why he is the best.

Beat the very best of his time (Lacey, Eubank, Hopkins, Jones Jr), 21 successful title defences, at time of retirement he held record for longest consecutive time as world champion of an any active fighter, won spoty, won pretty much everything in boxing, was successful even after moving up weights, oh yea and was undefeated as you said. Don't think your Lennox comment deserves a response tbh.

You see now that's where I get annoyed: he did beat who was in front of him, but none of those you've listed were at their best when he fought them. You can only beat what's in front of you so huge credit to him for that. The Lacy fight was excellent.

No point starting a thread tho as Boshi's comment was he was arguably the greatest British boxer and we're arguing about it, so point proved :)

Not sure if this is still true today but I remember Aryton Senna being pretty disliked in the late eighties and early nineties. Didn't seem like the nicest person in the world either as I remember it.

Lord Sir His Highness Lester Piggott.

I'm in the 'dislike' camp for many reasons, and it's no surprise to see a Leicester City fan in the same group.

Why the hate for shearer? Have I missed something?

35 seconds in

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPp0teYYi70

Post-event he was widely believed to have told the FA that if they charged him with anything he would never play for England again.

Billy Bremner & Johnny Giles.

In fact, Revie's Leeds.

gotta love Batty at 51secs!

Adebayor

Pains me to say it, but in all honesty this thread would be incomplete without the inclusione of Mr Roy Keane

So many reasons it seems churlsih to pick one, but leaving the RoI World Cup camp has to be high on the list.
Although this probably tops it
#Invalid YouTube Link#

There has been no mention yet for the greatest ever footballer - Maradonna. I heard a story told by a sports agent on 5 live radio that when he signed for Napoli he had and agreement from the chief of police in Napoli that he could drive through red traffic lights.

David Amos. Cannot believe it. Lost for words

<3 batty, get him off the pitch!

Roy Keane is a true sporting great. I have no idea how anyone could dislike someone with such focus, drive and commitment.

Contrast gazza crying in the World Cup semis to Keane dragging united through when both would ultimately miss the biggest games of their life

No one is saying he aint a great. Its about likeability, and to almost everyone that aint a Man U fan, he sure qualifies as unlikeable!

LOL

Roy Keane. Great player, extremely dislikeable player

If Alfe-Inge Haaland was on this thread....

Yup so it comes down to a dislike of Man U rather than Keane himself as usually does when it comes to United

I guess you are a Utd fan Mr B?!

George - I agree, and that CL semi-final in 99 was part of what makes him eligible for the thread.

But you can't escape the truth and he's never been likeable. Some heroes have feet of clay, Roy Keane is a classic example

Not for me it doesn't

I have nothing but love for the man but guess I'm biased.

C
You seriously dislike him? It's akin to disliking fergie and being a united fan. Wow

Nothing against Man U at all here, but Roy Keane?

I'd say he was top ten disliked Premiership footballers of the last 20 years, among stiff competition!

Definitely biased George :-)

Oh.

John Terry.

He was proper class though.  Led that team by example.  I didn't "like" him as such, but I certainly respected him and he was worth every penny he earned.  Not like some of the overpaid garbage today like half of QPR's squad.

Lol - I am talking about Keane not Terry!  Can't put Terry and "class" in the same sentence, good though he is.

He's on the first page obv.

One of the things that annoys me about Taylor, is that someone like Roy Keane wouldn't give a monkeys that people don't like him whereas Taylor seems much more needy.  I HATE his interviews.

Hated Roy Keane as a player, however when he retired some of his interviews have been amazing.

Shocked he hasn't been mentioned or have I missed it?

Gary Neville

Gary Neville & Keane easy to include in the dislike list when playing - now though, I find them pretty compelling, good characters. Shearer is still a prick though.

In their pomp I found it easy to dislike a number of Aussie fast bowlers - Glenn McGrath & Craig McDermott in particular, seemed dour, joyless and ever so earnest as players - particularly early to mid career.

Think Gary Neville has changed a lot of people's views since being on sky sports. Before that I understand he was hated.

Does becks break the mould for talented but likeable? Huge success. Married a spice girl, cheated on her. Gave his kids ridic names and still everyone loves him

TV punditry has completely changed people's views on G Nev. Simply because he is brilliant at it

Becks is talented and well liked, by both sexes, any indiscretions/mistakes always quickly forgotten


In general lots of opinions change as players retire. Steve Davis was mentioned earlier. I used to find Hendry dull as...once he's not winning anything, probably not taking himself so seriously, people warm to the character that is not shown publically when they are so driven

Not really sure why Beckham's complete and total dullness is so readily overlooked.

Have you ever read his autobiography? It's very good.

It makes me like him - but there is a chance that my criteria for liking people might be different to others :)

Agree - the vacuity makes him difficult to actively dislike though

 ;gobsmacked;

Pietersen is a cracking pick.
Caught an episode of A League of Their Own where Freddie and Warne were arguing over whether it was the England team or the aussies that gave Pietersen the 'figjam' tag

Agree that Neville is an incredible pundit - although it pains me to admit it.

Shearer is more of a cock now than when he played IMO

caught that too, it was very funny

I think many on here will disagree after the RC but from those who know him, Ian Poulter.

I cannot explain this next comment at all.

But I just cannot dislike Roy Keane. I am off to wash my mouth out.

Freddie Flintoff and Chris Broard obv.

@r$enal fan, so yep.

Same for Mo, obv.

Kobe Bryant
Earl Strickland
Tiger Woods
Stefan Effenberg
Wayne Rooney
Ashley Cole
Joe Hart
Javier Mascherano (love him)
Luis Suarez (love him too)
Andre Agassi after reading his book
Shaun Murphy
John Higgins
Riddick Bowe
Rivaldo
Anatoly Karpov anyone? :)

Wash your mouth out.

Just saying... :)

Karpov isn't one I've studied much tbh. Bobby Fischer would likely be the most controversial figure in chess history

Is Tim Henman allowed? He didnt have much talent but i have never disliked any sportsman more than 'tiger' Tim. I have such dislike for the cockfaced nob!

He was fourth in the world so I think he'd be allowed. Wouldn't see him as controversial personally but fair enough.

None come close to Earl the Girl imo on that list

Have to say I love the Pearl.

King of the world!

Going to spell his name wrong now, but Michael Schumacher.

Disqualified from Wimbledon for assaulting a ballgirl. The hooligan.

I've read loads of book on the 'natural talent vs hard work' debate, and all of them pretty much prove that most of the people we view as having a natural talent were actually just incredibly hard working and put in loads more hours of practice than their rivals.

With that in mind I think how a lot of elite performers can be pricks makes sense, they are much more like workaholic CEOs who are so driven that good behaviour goes out the window, than naturally blessed people who should be thankful for what they have.

Have we had Gary Linekar in the talented but likeable list yet?

I wouldn't think so

I'm not entirely sure why but whenever I see Cristiano Ronaldo's face on the television I have the desire to punch him in the face. And I'm not even a violent person!

That's a good point. Di Canio, Zola, Beckham and probably any other player with particular skills were always known to be first on the training pitch and last off.

George Best worked so hard on his left foot he became left footed!

Garry Kasparov has said he doesn't regard himself as being a natural chess player but that he has a gift for concentration, which enabled him both to study harder than everyone else and to perform better over the board.

It's a lot easier to put the hours in when you're naturally talented though. I'm sure Beckham wouldn't have put those hours in if he'd only had an average right-foot.

In rugby league, Sam Tomkins. The Lionel Messi of the super league and yet disliked by many outside Wigan. Was booed by Leeds fans when playing for England.

envy?

There are lots of very talented sports people, who don't try hard enough to become successful.
I can't prove anything, but it wouldn't be a big surprise if there were a decent number of kids of Beckham's age group, who could kick a ball as well as him at say, aged 12/13, but didn't work as hard as him.

Oh, I agree.  There are also lots of others who put in loads of hours of practice and effort and still fail to make it.  There are also others that put loads of effort in and manage to be 'decent', but will never be able to get close to those who have the talent and apply themselves.

interesting

there are players in the football league and even in the bluesq (at a push) that have or at least had more natural ability than some players in premier league mid-lower placed squads.

they either carry massive baggage, have not worked hard enough at there game or on the very rare occasion have just not been in the right situation (management e.t.c)

I actually think the 'talented' kids who pick these things up early had an environmental helping hand along the way. Tiger Woods was coached by his Dad from age 2, the Williams Sisters were genuinely conceived to play tennis, Andre Agassis family owned a tennis ball serving machine, Floyd Mayweathers dad is a former boxer and trainer, the list is endless. I'm sure somewhere along the line Beckham had some extra curricular help from his parents, maybe his proximity to a football field, a good sporting facility at school or some other outlier which helped encourage him to train more.

In the late 1990s, I think four of the top ten ranked table tennis players in Britain were from same road in Reading, which just happened to be the road where a former table tennis champion and coach lived. I know British table tennis is a poor example to end on, but there is a ton of data out there which suggests its all down to environment and hard work.

Speaking of which, three cracking reads:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Talent-Code-Greatness-born/dp/0099519852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357056824&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bounce-Myth-Talent-Power-Practice/dp/0007350546/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1357056824&sr=8-4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Talent-Overrated-Separates-World-Class-Performers/dp/1857885198/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357057411&sr=1-1

Bounce in particular is a fascinating read coming, as it does, from a former elite level sportsman.

Its funny actually, all three books came out at round about the same time and they are all equally as good.

Talent is Overrated is best at debunking the idea of natural talent
Talent Code is best for explaining the actual neurological and biological science behind ability
Bounce is best, as you say, for breaking down how elite sportsmen and women train and perform differently to the rest of us, it won a sports book of the year prize iirc.

Steffi Graf father coached her from a very early age too.  Every night after school, and at weekends from the age of 6.  Even sawn a tennis racket in half so she had a adult racket head, but a small handle to cope with her small hands.

She did pretty well too!

I would say he lacks on the talent department.

On the natural talent debate i still don't get how someone like kin can debunk the idea of a deity so easily but somehow believe kids are born with 'special abilities'

lol, superb

It's a combination of nature and nuture.  Of course some people are born with 'special abilities', but without application they won't be successful.  Show me a sprinter who doesn't have the ACTN3 protein.  It's nothing to do with a deity, it's to do with genetic make-up (a process governed by evolution).  Nature provides the resources, and then nurture and application is required to reach the top.

I used to be pretty good at basketball. Then at about 14 years old, everyone got bigger, faster, stronger.  I didn't.  I trained harder, played harder and yet some of the other players were just naturally so much better than me, and even without putting in the hours they were just better than I was.

A few of them also trained very hard. They went on to play at a decent club level, whereas some of the others with the 'natural' talent didn't try as hard to apply themselves - and they didn't do as well.

I kind of have to relate to chess a lot as it's something I've had a fair bit of exposure to.

I was a latecomer at 9½ to chess but there a few kids who start at 3 and the majority of the better players start at 5. On the junior circuit, there are a lot of parents who force the game on their children (I suppose like any other game - note kinboshi I didn't say sport!) and I've seen some utterly deplorable sights wherr a parent is shouting at - even smacking - their ten year old son for losing a game.

There was one particular lad who I encountered very early into my chess "career". My parents got chatting to this lad's parents outside the tournament hall (moms and dads aren't allowed in because there's far too much opportunity for cheating and it cuts down on the pressure on the kids). This lad was the same age as me but had been playing for a few years already. His dad told my parents "Charles eats, sleeps and breathes chess. He goes to bed at night with a chess video on so that when he wakes up in the morning he has been dreaming about the game."

Mom and dad couldn't believe their ears. Then this lad loses his next game and is visibly upset when he comes out of the tournament hall. His dad wasn't worried about that tho, demanding to know what went wrong and making this poor lad recant each of the moves. He pulled the lad by the arm and within a few seconds this boy in a chess T-shirt was in tears.

Not only did I beat him in the tournament, he stopped playing a couple of years later (presumably when he was old enough to tell his dad he liked playing something else instead).

There's the odd special talent that comes through but quite a few have an early gift and then aren't seen afterwards.

Football is one of a small number of sports where by the age of 15, if they're good at it, it is fairly likely the child won't want to do anything else (studies, girls, boys, whatever). There's a famous story of Dwight Yorke and Brian Lara being from the same area in Trinidad and one being the best footballer and the other the best cricketer (but the other way round!). Phil Neville was a good cricketer too.

If he were born into that sort of family, Paul Scholes could have been a golfer.

Football is working class sport and there aren't many people who play at Eton and go on to play professionally (altho the referee David Ellery was a house master there IIRC).

It's def a case of nature and nurture.

Tal, Charles didn't work hard enough.
His parents also made the mistake of not giving the correct name. They should have called him Vladimir. Martina Hingis was named after Matina Navratilova and the parents clearly started early.
As for Elleray, he was taught at 'the other place', Harrow.

Ah fancy getting a Harrovian confused with an Etonian!

Charles wasn't talented enough. The point is Hingis, Woods and the-like were thrust into the game AND happened to be extremely talented at it as well.

I played football so much when i was younger i got very good, getting scouted by clubs and paying county level. I had knee trouble and stopped playing at 14, took it back up at 28 and now i'm toss, i would struggle to get a starting berth in a pub side. Purely the hours and hours of practice that got me to that level.

That's a good point. I could work solely on chess for a few years and possibly - only possibly - get to International Master level. I definitely couldn't get to the next level of being a Grandmaster tho. That requires another level of talent. No one is a Grandmaster by work alone.

Probably like being a scratch golfer. You can get down under 5 by being quite good and working hard but it takes more than commitment and a decent set of bats to be a club pro.

As with my scratch golfer comparison, there is a huge gap then between a professional player and the world's best. This thread is mainly about the elite of course.

There is definitely a degree of survivor  bias in a lot of these theories.  I am sure I wasn't alone in spending days at a time playing football but, ultimately, not being that good at it.  i guess the point is that in all but the most exceptional circumstances you have to work very hard to reach the top irrespective of your natural talent.  When I was a kid, as I said, i played a lot of football and a few of my friends at the time went on to play at a semi-pro or pro level.  None really made it although i have subsequently viewed at a distance a similar process with my nephew who has done well and whilst they all had some natural talent, they also worked hard.  On the flip side the most naturally talented footballer I ever came across was in my  class at school.  He was incredible and the ball seemed like it was stuck to his feet at times.  I was reminded of his talent the other day when i read about him in my parents local newspaper.  He had been found dead in the street of a suspected overdose.  I guess sometimes there are things you just cannot overcome.

Is that really true with Chess? I always imagined if someone had enough commitment and ~average iq they could become a grand master with enough effort. I mean like serious dedicated training full time etc.

Becker was another one.  Good at quite a few sports (including football), but his dad had a tennis coaching club (or something), and so it was pretty obvious which direction he was going to take.

Anthony Joshua is an interesting one.  Only took up boxing when he was 18, after showing a talent in football and sprinting (sub-11s 100m runner). He's a proper athlete (unlike a lot of heavyweight boxers), and will be interesting to see how he gets on as a pro if/when he moves on from the amateur game.  It's also interesting to think of how good he'd have been if he'd boxed from a younger age as well.

Yes I'd say so. A few friends of mine who are IMs say that themselves. Some of them are professionals (well make their money from coaching and books but don't have conventional jobs) so it would be in their interests to be a level higher if they could.

What about the Polger sisters (The two that became GrandMasters)? Their Father specifically set out to rear a chess grandmaster through hard work. I know he himself was a chess player and the argument could be made he had something in his genes, but surely this was entirely due to their upbringing?

They all happened to have talent in chess (if it's a genetic thing, that's easy to believe), although Judit's is extraordinary and Susan's excellent. Probably not dissimilar to the Williams sisters in that respect.

Judit's particular gift is her natural flair for aggression and combinations. She - and to a lesser extent Susan - have incredible ability to visualise positions in their head and that can come from hard training at an early age.

You can have an asset naturally like running quickly, ball control, balance, a strong throw and so on and have it unearthed by chance but then nurtured. Even then, you have to have all the other strings to your bow to make it to the very top and that can't come from coaching alone.

There was no 'control' with his experiment, so you can't draw a conclusion either way.

This is simply not true.  The result of the "experiment" means that it is much more likely that you can nurture a top class chess player.  It doesn't mean that it is now absolutely true that you can nurture a world class chess player but it certainly has an affect on the probabilities because of the extremity of the results.  If only one of the sisters had become a grandmaster then you are possibly right but all three did.  It is statistically very unlikely that their "training" didn't have an impact.

There are hundreds of thousands of parents across the world who have tried to turn their children into chess masters - more in India, Russia and China than anywhere else I'd venture - but only a negligible percentage get to the very top. This can only be IMO due to the skills they were born with, combining with their coaching. Only one of the Polgar sisters became a women's world champion. Yes another sister became a GM and that's very impressive too.

Some will have the skill but not be coached right, of course.

I'm pretty sure Judit is widely regarded as a prodigy.

You can nuture a top class chess player, IF they have the fundamental intelligence and other attributes required.

For it to be a 'good' experiment it would be better to take a number of groups of identical twins and give one half one sort of coaching and training and overall chess education, and give the other half a different form.  Half the groups of twins should be from chess-playing stock, the other half from non-chess playing stock. 

That would give far more interesting results.

Yorke is from Tobago. You're probably thinking of Shaka Hislop, who is the same age as Lara, and grew up in Diego Martin*, near Port-of-Spain, or possibly Ato Bolden, who went to the same Port-of-Spain school as Lara, though he is a bit younger.

Whatever, your point is still well made. Hislop and Yorke were apparently very good cricketers and Lara was a junior international at football and table-tennis, while Ato started as a footballer and switched to athletics.


[*Diego Martin is an extraordinary place. I spent a couple of weeks there a few years ago staying with my then-girlfriend's family, but that is for another thread sometime. Chicken-foot soup, anyone?]

Ah! Close enough ;)

Sam Allardyce.

I like big Sam, his fake twitter account is awesome

His interview on ITV a few minutes ago about his CV versus others and how he's been stopped getting a big job was cringeworthy.

Lol true!

I was gonna ask if Sam was talentless but had like ability

Lewis Hamilton

 Craig bellamy?

Eric Dickerson

Joey Barton