Wags to riches…
Worried footballers are beefing up security after the latest in a series of raids on their multi-million pound homes.
Manchester United star Darren Fletcher became the 14th premiership footballer targeted by violent robbers while he was in Italy for the Champions’ League clash against Inter Milan.
A gang threatened his fiancée, Hayley Grice, at knifepoint, ordering her to hand over her £30,000 engagement ring, after breaking into their £2 million home.
The robbery comes just months after similar attacks on the homes of Steven Gerrard and Emile Hesky, must have left petrified WAGs across the country wondering if they will be next.
I can’t begin to imagine what it feels like, but I do know how scared I am when I stay in the house alone – and I don’t have any expensive jewellery or a fleet of luxury cars sitting in the driveway.
But some people are saying that is precisely why they are being targeted.
It’s no secret that footballers earn millions and flaunt that wealth by turning up to training in flashy cars or treating their WAGs to huge diamond rings.
And everyone knows when footballers are going to be away from home - in this case Fletcher had been photographed flying out to Italy for the game just hours earlier.
But they can’t be blamed for it when all they are doing is enjoying their hard-earned cash.
How many people can honestly say that if they had the same amount of money in their bank account, they wouldn’t go out and buy everything they wanted and then show it off?
Whether they are targeting the rich or poor, it’s the thugs who are to blame, not the footballers and their girlfriends for simply spending their own money they have worked for.
Written by Gemma
Scolari sacked as Chelsea manager…
Another day, another Premier League manager loses his job - but will Luiz Felipe Scolari go down in history as the first manager of a 'big four' club to fall victim to the credit crunch?
Appointed in the summer to replace Avram Grant, who committed the cardinal sin of only leading an aging team to second in the league and within an inch of glory in Europe, Scolari was hailed as the man to deliver silverware missing since the departure of Jose Mourinho.
But even as the ink was drying on his £6.25 million a year contract surely the cracks were there for anyone except the most blinkered Chelsea fan to see.
Scolari sacked as Chelsea manager.
Only one summer signing - Deco's arrival from Barcelona for a cut-price £8million (how many big name stars have gone onto better things after leaving the Camp Nou) - was, if nothing else, a sign of what lay ahead.
Then came the Robinho fiasco when Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich decided he was not prepared to meet Real Madrid's asking price for the player - and all of a sudden there was a grey cloud hanging over Stamford Bridge.
All this at a time when the rest of the country was trying to scrape enough money together to fill their car up with petrol which cost £1.20 a litre - and with daily news headlines of redundancies and bank bail-outs.
So, come on, did Blues supporters seriously believe their club would not fall victim to the global economic crisis?
As one of the shrewdest businessmen in the world, with and with a reported personal fortune of upwards of £15 billion Roman Abramovich will have had his finger of the world's financial pulse as its life - and a sizeable chunk of his wealth - ebbed away to all but a virtual flat-line.
Some estimates claim the Russian oligarch may have lost as much as 80 per cent of his fortune, that's a staggering £12billion, over the last 12 months. Oh, and there is the small matter of the near £600million Chelsea owe their owner in an interest-free loan.
Fast forward to January, and the transfer window, and edgy Roman battoned down the hatches and did the unthinkable - he kept his hands firmly wedged into his pockets like a meek schoolboy trying to keep his last few Ready Salted crisps out of the clutches of the classroom bully.
Add to that equation the emergence of Aston Villa, who under one of the most intelligent men in football, seem hell-bent on giving the so-called Big Four a 'wedgie' while whipping the Champions League rug from under their feet - and all of a sudden Roman's expensive toy looks to have run out of batteries on Christmas Eve.
So where did that leave Scolari, you may ask? Answer: About as high and dry as the Hollywood stars who ploughed their cash into Bernard Madoff's Ponzi investment scheme.
The only question remaining is; Who will be next?
Written by Doug
They think it’s all over…is it now?
ITV have made a sheepish apology following their embarrassing blunder which meant millions of football fans missed the winning – and only – goal of last night’s FA cup game.
Lifesize Tic-Tacs instead of goal.
After 118 minutes of the fourth round replay between arch rivals Everton and Liverpool, the game was still 0-0 and only a few nail-biting minutes were left.
But as a neutral football fan, I was actually looking forward to the tense penalty shoot-out that seemed to the certain destination for this game.
So when the image on my TV suddenly changed from the game to adverts for Tic-Tacs and VWs, I wasn’t that worried.
We’d sat through all but a couple of minutes of the two-hour game without a goal, so what was the likelihood of anything happening now?
Apparently, there was a very good chance.
Stunned is the only word to describe how I felt as the game flickered back on to my screen to show Everton fans celebrating youngster Dan Gosling’s winning goal.
And without a huge interest in either team, I’m guessing my shock was just a fraction of that felt by die-hard Liverpool or Everton fans after missing the most crucial moment of the game.
The gaffe has been blamed on a ‘technical problem’ – apparently an automated system for screening adverts was still in place, which didn’t take the game’s extra-time in account.
But it’s not the first hiccup the channel has had when it comes to the FA Cup this season.
Following Leeds United’s shock 1-0 defeat by non-league Histon, ITV went into the dressing room to see the underdogs celebrating their win, only to be confronted with a naked player live on camera.
And then, instead of leading their highlights with Manchester City’s humiliating loss to Nottingham Forest, or Hartlepool’s unexpected win against Stoke City, they focused on Derby’s victory over Forest Green Rovers – one of the most predictable results of the round.
But I’ve got to say I actually feel a little bit sorry for ITV after this latest slip-up.
Of the 120 minute match, it’s only in the 30 seconds that the game disappeared from the screens that goal was scored.
Now, that is what you call some major bad luck.
Written by Gemma
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