So the Football Transfer Window is about to slam shut for the summer in 40 minutes time (as I type this) and for the first time in many seasons Leeds have actually come off rather well! OK, they lost Aaron Lennon due to wage issues and Eirik Bakke has gone on loan to Aston Villa until January (although if they want to pay his extortionate wages then they’re welcome to him). Other names such as Julian Joachim, Clarke Carlisle, etc have gone but with all the new signings over the summer they would struggle to get a place in the new, improved Leeds United First Team anyway.

I can’t see Leeds missing Joachim the striker who score 2 goals last season

Away from Leeds probably the most major signing of the summer (if you forget about Chelsea’s regular shopping spree) is Michael Owen’s surprise move from Real Madrid to Premiership strugglers Newcastle United.

Newcastle have been chasing Owen for some time and if I am perfectly honest I didn’t think he would go to Tyneside and thought something fishy was going on. I believed the chairman who is by far a fans favourite was making the bid as an exercise to win fans over although had no real plans of making the signing. Obviously I was wrong although the fans did make me laugh today. Sunday, after losing 2-0 to Manchester United they were chanting “Sack the board” now they are singing the chairman’s praises – the word “fickle” comes to mind.

Owen looks over the moon to be playing for a club 19th in the league

Lastly everyone keeps saying how Owen is a “Proven” 20 Goal A Season Striker. Wrong! Owen has never scored 20 LEAGUE goals for either Liverpool or Real Madrid so I don’t know where that statistic has come from. Don’t get me wrong I rate Owen. He is one of the best English strikers playing today and Newcastle have a star player but the £17mill they paid for him is far too much in my opinion. Still, as an England fan I wish him well and hope he can improve his skills and fitness even more ahead of The World Cup next year.

It’s been a good Bank Holiday Weekend. Firstly as I mentioned the other day, Super Leeds United beat Norwich City 1-0 and England’s cricket team beat The Aussie’s to go 2-1 up in the series.

I also managed to watch all three Star Wars prequels (Phantom Menance, Attack of the Clones and went to see Revenge of the Sith). All the reviews were right, Phantom Menace was rubbish and Jar Jar Binks was very annoying, he reminded me so much of Vanessa from Big Brother. Attack of the Clones was good but the latest Star Wars movie Revenge of the Sith was by far my favourite of the three. The transformation of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vadar across the movie was excellent.

I’ve also been watching the highly acclaimed television series Lost. I did start watching this last year but for some reason never got into it. I’m watching the Region 1 DVD at the moment and am up to episode 8 (so ahead of Channel 4 viewers now) and am really enjoying it (I’m off to start DVD#3 after this blog entry).

The weather’s been great this weekend as well so I didn’t spend the whole time inside watching DVDs. Saturday night I had a barbecue, quite possibly the last one of 2005.

Most of today was spent outside enjoying the sunshine while listening to the Ten Hour Takeover on BBC Radio 1. I did enjoy this, across the day listeners texted in their requests and they were then played… well supposedly. I requested Timmy Mallets version of “Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini” and the Leeds United song “Marching on Together”. Neither got played! Still the variety of music across the day was interesting to say the least, my favourite track of the day being an extended version of the theme tune to children’s TV show Dogtanian :o)

It’s been another win for Leeds today against another top team and another clean sheet beating Norwich City 1-0 in their own backyard.

The quality in performance from the Leeds players easily equalised that of the former Premiership team but went one step further by putting the goal in the back of the net and grabbing all 3 points.

Delia’s 12th man wasn’t with her today

For the first time in a long time it feels very good to be a Leeds fan. Hopefully it’s not too pre-mature but I am feeling optimistic for this season and strongly believe The Whites can win promotion to The Premiership.

To make things better this weekend England are doing well against The Aussies. Hopefully they can win this test, then the Ashes and send The Aussie Convicts back down under all upset.

As Delia Smith famously said – “Let’s be ‘avin you! C’mon!!!”

Brainaic returns to Sky One this evening for a brand new series. The light hearted, exciting science show is presented by Top Gear’s Richard Hammond who is accompanied by Dr. Bunhead, John Tickle from Big Brother 4 and a group of other Brainiac “scientists”.

This series promises to show us at what temperature a sausage on a barbecue will burst into flames, what kind of child needs the strongest sunscreen, how many people you can fit into a caravan and if it is possible to walk in a tub of golden syrup. All issues man has wondered for hundreds of years but has never found out – until now. With shows like Brainiac to educate students it is no wonder GCSE grades are improving.

Brainiac is on Sky One this evening at 8pm.

The England cricket team start their fourth Ashes match of the series tomorrow against Australia. I’m not really a cricket fan but like millions of other Brits have been drawn into supporting our national team across the summer tournament.

It’ll be tough but hopefully England can do it, the crowd will certainly help. So for the crowd tomorrow and the fans staying at home to watch the match here are some football style chants to sing (all in fun of course)….

Jason Gillespie. He may be a Australian international but he looks like a tramp. In the true football fan tradition feel free to taunt him with Gypo! Gypo! Gypo!

Australia will be good but if their game does slip you can remind them how crap they are by singing
Are you Zimbabwe?
Are you Zimbabwe?
Are you Zimbabwe in disguise?
Are you Zimbabwe in disguise?

Shane Warne, great player but since returning from a drugs ban he has lost a little pace and is getting old and fat, tell him so and remind him of this drug taking past….
Who ate all the pies?
Who ate all the pies?
You fat bastard!
You fat bastard
You are all the pies!

Shane Warne couldn’t play West Indies because he got high,
He couldn’t play Bangladesh because he got high,
He was left at home for The World Cup and I know why,
Because he got high,
Because he got high,
Because he got high,

We all know the Aussie’s originated from British convicts don’t we….
You’re going home on a criminal ship!
You’re going home on a criminal ship!

In football when the referee makes a bad decision the crowd let him know. Umpires are normally better but if they mess up let them know….
76 for 2 to the umpire
76 for 2 to the umpire
76 for 2 to the umpire….

Good luck England!

That’ll do lads, two more goals, three clean sheets.

Marching up together up the football league and in the cup.

Leeds United and every other Football League club (apart from Southend and Southampton who played yesterday) will start their Carling Cup campaign this evening.

Leeds will face League One side Oldham Athletic at Elland Road. Leeds are the favourites and will probably win the game although nothing can be taken for granted in cup competitions.

The last three seasons have seen Leeds progress to the third round of the competition so it would be nice to see a better cup run this year especially with the new players at the club.

The opening few games haven’t always been the best quality football either. I was at the Huddersfield game last August and although Leeds won 1-0 it was a dire game.

Memories of losing to Sheffield United, losing to the Man Utd reserves and having to rely upon a last minute equalising goal from goalkeeper Paul Robinson to beat Swindon Town are all best forgotten about (although Robbo’s equaliser was a true magic moment).

Still, onwards and upwards, Marching on Together. We can win tonight. C’mon Leeds!

I have no idea what is going on at Leeds United at the moment. I got back from work this evening to learn that they have just signed Richard Cresswell from Preston North End for £1.15million. This is in the same summer as spending big money on Rob Hulse, Robbie Blake & Daniel Harding as well as bringing in Ian Bennett, Rui Manuel Marques, Steve Stone and Eddie Lewis as freebies and Jonathan Douglas on a season long loan.

Premiership, here we come!

Where on earth are they getting the money from? Not only to make these singings but to pay the players? It is only 7 months ago that Leeds were under the old board and with massive debts about to go out of business all together, now we are behaving like the Chelsea of the Championship!

There have been rumours circulating that quality striker David Healy will be sold as something has gone on behind closed doors leaving the Northern Ireland International unhappy. Leeds manager Kevin Blackwell has denied this and today said that Healy would be staying. Although I have heard statements like that in the past which have turned out to be lies I tend to believe the manager this time.

Cresswell is a quality striker, he banged in 16 league goals for Preston last season and was a massive part of them reaching The Championship Play Off Final. Hopefully he will do wonders for Leeds as well.

Blackwell seems to like playing a burly striker (like Hulse or Ricketts) alongside a small, fast paced striker (like Healy or Blake). Cresswell is a strong, well built striker so should fit in well, maybe it’ll spell the end of Ricketts’ Leeds career. If any of the Leeds strikers are to leave I would certainly favour Ricketts (actually Ian Moore but I dunno what’s happened to him at the moment).

Hopefully Cresswell will prove a brilliant signing and maybe with this mysterious, new found wealth Leeds fans should start singing the Chelsea favourite
WE’RE FUCKING LOADED NAHAHAHANANAHANAHA
WE’RE FUCKING LOADED NAHAHAHANANAHANAHA

I went karting in Bristol today for a friend’s birthday, tremendous fun! I have no experience of driving karts before and very little skill of driving an actual car (besides a few lessons around a car park on a quite Sunday afternoon) but that wasn’t a problem – apart from crashing into a few fellow drivers and tyre barriers!

Apologies for the crappy picture, I only had my mobile camera!

Speeding along the track at 40mph+ is a great experience, 40mph may seem pretty slow compared to road travel about but when your in the small kart with no walls, no roof and just inches above the track it is bloody fast!

I went along with a group of seven, six of whom were racing although there were 28 drivers in total as we completed in practice sessions, heats and a semi final, there was a grand final but neither my friends nor I got that far!

Overall I didn’t do brilliantly, I think out of the 28 taking part only 5 finished behind me although in my defence it was my first ever experience of karting and it seemed many of the other contestants took part on a regular basis. I also think people who drive and even ride bikes for sport had a far greater advantage. Over the sessions I did improve so next time I try hopefully I’ll earn a far more respectable finish. Those are my excuses and I’m sticking to them :o)

Here we go with Leeds United, we’re gonna give the boys a hand,
Stand up and sing for Leeds United they are the greatest is the land,
Everyday we’re all gonna say we love you Leeds, Leeds, Leeds,
Everywhere we’re gonna be there we love you Leeds, Leeds, Leeds,
Marching on together, we’re gonna see you win,
We are so proud, we shout it out loud,
We love you… Leeds! Leeds! Leeds!

Isn’t football a funny old game? When your team wins your in a great mood for days after the game and if your team loses you enter a taste of depression and wander around like Frank Butcher for a week.

Luckily I will not be doing my Mike Reid impression this week as Super Leeds beat Wolves 2-0 this afternoon, what’s great is that Wolves are real promotion challengers and until today unbeaten in a massive 21 league games. Another good reason is than Glenn Hoddle is a twat and doing one over him is always good.

Glenn Nice But Dim

New American signing Eddie Lewis, who by all accounts had a great game got an early goal for United who then sat back for the rest of the half while Wanderers totally dominated. The same continued into the second half until Rob Hulse grabbed a second goal for Leeds. The Whites then took full control of the game, taking 3 points and moving to 5th place in the league.

Thursday and Friday I watched the other two films in the Star Wars Trilogy. Must admit, like with A New Hope they were thoroughly enjoyable and I understand why so many people love the movies (although I still don’t get the fanatics). Ordered myself Episodes I & II as I think its only fitting I see the prequels. I thought Harrison Ford was excellent as Hans Solo and has really encouraged me to dig out the old Indiana Jones boxset to watch another classic trilogy.

I’m off karting tomorrow afternoon in Bristol for a friends birthday, should be good fun although I have never done it before! Then Monday I’ll be back to work after my two week break. Still not to worry, Bank Holiday weekend the following week and best of all the football season is back! Get in!