Saturday 21st June 2025
Blog Page 2182

Arshavin on way to England?

Jack Pitt-Brooke
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Arshavin on way to England?

After a disappointing fifth placed finish in the RPL, there could be an exodus from Zenit St Petersburg this January.  Leading the way will surely be their talisman Andrei Arshavin.  His agent, Denis Lachter said this week that the player and club have reached an understanding that it is team for him to move on – with Arsenal and Spurs said to be circling.

But isn’t the most obvious move to another London club? Arshavin has made clear his desire to play only for Champions League clubs, thus ruling out Spurs or big spending Manchester City.  If Arsenal are to spend £20million next month, it would surely be on a world class midfielder – Barry, Alonso or Senna rather than another mercurial forward.  But who needs unpredictable genius more than Chelsea? Scolari’s Plan A has been completely found out in recent months.  They are in need of something different up front, having failed to get Robinho to fulfil this role.  And how hard would it be to convince Abramovich to shell out for the chance of seeing one of his compatriots starring at Stamford Bridge?

Review: Gonzo

Sophia Satchell Baeza
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Review: Gonzo

Hunter S. Thompson, the gun-toting, drug-addled, American cult literary figure and inventor of ‘Gonzo’ journalism, was a man always looking to challenge convention. A shot from the film shows Thompson driving a motorbike at excessive speeds as Johnny Depp reads out his words: “The Edge…there is no other way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over”. Thompson regularly pushed himself as close to the edge as he could, and finally went over, in a suicidal shot to the head on the 20th February 2005. For such a daring writer, why does Alex Gibney’s new movie about him play it so safe?

This relatively conventional take on the literary legend that has inspired so many wannabe journalists to write on drug and alcohol-fuelled rampages, offers no new or interesting take on the Gonzo myth. What it does offer, however, is a rich variety of material: rare, often unseen footage, audiotapes, interviews with his acquaintances, film clips from other movies (like Terry Gilliam’s film Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, starring Depp as the Thompson character Raoul Duke), and rare photographs. The sheer scope of material, however, in Gibney’s directorial hand, becomes confusing, as one tries to piece together a chronology, or even work out the source of the material through the vast offerings and time scale jumps. There is much to be said in favour of this safe approach- the 60’s/ 70’s soundtrack is superb, and Thompson’s audio-taped excerpts reveal the true nature of Gonzo in a way that Depp’s removed narration does not. One has always had the sneaking suspicion that Johnny Depp is a lightweight; anyone who has watched those pirate films will understand. His addition to the film is negligible; indeed, it casts a veil of triviality over the proceedings.

The point the movie does make is that it was the popularity of Gonzo that brought about its decline; like Kerouac and the Beat movement, at Gonzo’s peak, he was already a washed-out myth. The key to Gonzo is the presence of the writer at the centre of events, constantly spontaneous and self-referential, which does not allow for an objective identity. Thompson’s success as a political reporter in the 1972 campaign trail for Rolling Stone, was partially a result of his anonymity. So as the movie progresses, along with Thompson’s fame, his journalistic career begins to deteriorate. Moreover, the film’s emphasis on the 1972 election is not sufficiently well crafted to interest a non-specialist, and loses sight of the film’s subject. A strong theme of the film, and possibly its best strand, is the focus on that elusive American dream which underpins so much of American literature and politics. The film makes parallels between the politics that Thompson covered and the Bush presidency, in a manner which is not profound and has a slight smell of the cheap shot.

The film should have ended on the extraordinary statement from Thompson’s first wife, a woman of the utmost dignity, who describes his suicide as a cowardly act, rather than the honourable one that others had built it up to be. Alas it didn’t. Any film about the founder of Gonzo could not fail to be watchable. Sadly this is no more than that.

In the words of Mariah Carey

Kristian Walsh
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In the words of Mariah Carey

All I want for Christmas is…

To see Tim Cahill score a goal, approach the corner flag, unload his pathetic three-jab combo and watch the recipient hit him back twice as hard in the eye. And as he hits the ground and writhes in agony, he sees the linesman flagging for offside anyway.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Five men to watch in January

Jack Pitt-Brooke
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Five men to watch in January

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, holding midfielder, 28, Zenit St Petersburg and Ukraine

The man whose defensive solidity gave Andriy Arshavin the freedom to make magic in the final third, Zenit’s captain could leave now the 2008 Russian Premier Leauge season is over.  The Ukraine vice-captain (who has won 78 caps) was a stalwart for Shakhtar Donetsk for years before taking Gazprom’s rubles in 2007.  He won the Russian Premier League and UEFA Cup last season, but Zenit finished a disappointing sixth in the RPL this year.  With coach Dick Advocaat and star man Arshavin set to leave this winter, could captain Tymoshchuk follow them out of the door? Zenit have already signed an effective replacement, Russian regular Igor Semshov from Dinamo Moscow.  There are not many holding midfielders of his quality and experience on the market – look at the price Real Madrid had to pay for Lassana Diarra.

 

Matthew Upson, central defender, 29, West Ham United and England

With West Ham in a dire financial situation, all of their players are open to offers.  But England international Upson could represent their most saleable asset.  Started off at Arsenal but struggled with injuries and loan moves for years before settling at Birmingham City.  West Ham paid £6m for him in the January 2007 window, where he has looked (when fit) like a dominant and dependable old fashioned centre half.  Available for cheap (West Ham surely couldn’t turn down £7m) and not cup tied in Europe, has been mentioned as an option for Man City or Arsenal already.

 

Lukas Podolski, forward, 23, Bayern Munich and Germany

With Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni keeping him out of the Bayern team, ‘Poldi’ is prepared to leave for some first team football.  Stocky, quick, and with a low centre of gravity he plays like a low-key Wayne Rooney, either behind a front man or from the left wing.  Already has 60 caps and 31 goals for the German national team, having decided to represent them rather than his native Poland.  This should make him an attractive prospect but Bayern are yet to receive a bid matching the €10million they paid FC Koln for him in 2006.  Bayern Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge admits he’ll leave in the summer, but a strong bid could land him this year.  Has been linked with Spurs, Everton and Dortmund.

 

Elano, attacking midfielder, 27, Manchester City and Brazil

A severe personality clash with Mark Hughes will see Elano sold in January.  Bought by Sven-Goran Eriksson for £8m from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2007, he immediately settled into the Premier League playing in the hole.  He lost form and fitness in the new year, but finished as City’s top scorer in 2007/08.  Has not enjoyed Mark Hughes’ intense fitness training or club discipline, and has had to play central midfield in a 4-3-3.  Hughes accuses him of undermining his leadership and stirring up the Brazilian players against him – and dropped him from the 18 for the trip to West Brom.  Lazio and Espanyol are interested in a loan move.


Jimmy Bullard, midfielder, 29, Fulham and England

The all-action midfielder’s wage demands since his England call up – after a rise to £50,000 from £25,000 per week, apparently – have not been met by the Fulham board.  Despite his high profile Fulham’s success this season as been more to do with Danny Murphy alongside him and the Brede Hangeland-Aaron Hughes defensive partnership.  Roy Hodgson said that the club would listen to offers, which will surely be forthcoming.  A hard working midfielder whose Premier League experience and deadly free-kicks make him a very attractive prospect, Bullard will surely attract Spurs at the least.  Not cup tied for European competition, should Man City, Aston Villa or even Arsenal be looking for another body in midfield.   

The problem with Mark Hughes

Jack Pitt-Brooke
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The problem with Mark Hughes

I spend a lot of time thinking through what’s gone so wrong this season. How can last years squad + Robinho = relegation fodder? It doesn’t add up. Clearly, something deeper is wrong. We’re suffering from a severe lack of confidence. I don’t mean confidence as a function of results, either. There can only be something wrong within the club which is impacting confidence, which in turn damages results. So what is it? Why has the confidence been drained from the squad?

I think the root cause lies in Hughes’ misunderstanding of our last season. He has cast himself, very publicly and consciously, as the anti-Eriksson. The complaints that the players were insufficiently fit, the taking of them all on that German fitness camp, saying that Sven had brought the wrong sort of players for the Premier League, the establishment of the ‘football factory’ – the expulsion of agents and girlfriends from Carrington – it was all part of one project: to define himself as an order-destroying manager.

Everything he said and did put out this message that the Eriksson regime stood for comfort, for laziness, whereas he and Bowen would introduce an era of discipline and rigour and physical fitness. I think that this overhaul of approach and methods at the club is the best explanation of the general decline in confidence: most noticeable in Dunne and Richards, but also to varying degrees in Elano, Hart, Gelson and Hamann. Not only is it a radical and disconcerting change in routine, it also quite insulting. For Dunne and Elano to be told that the Eriksson season, in which they played such big roles, was a failure and a bad example cannot be good for their confidence. The fact that the two players most improved under the Hughes regime, Ireland and Garrido, did not look fully at home under Eriksson further supports this point.

Based on this reading of last season, Hughes has torn down much of the Eriksson system, and tried to rebuild it in his own image. Such transitions are always painful in the immediate term. If our bad performances looked like a simple by product of these changes, with an improved team around the corner, I could accept them. But that’s not how it looks at all. Today was an improvement on the last few games, but we still lost to West Brom. And it took a big change in approach – no Brazilians, no 4-3-3, just getting the ball quickly to Vassell and Benjani. It seems quite clear that the Hughes approach is nowhere near to reforming City into a quick, physical, fit unit, but has merely drained the squad’s confidence.

The real shame of this is that the Hughes interpretation of 2007/08 is wrong. Yes, it wasn’t a great season. It ended with the sort of shapeless, spineless, goalless shit that we’ve been enjoying this November and December. But before then we played some good football, and as the media love to remind us, we were fourth at this stage in the season. 9th place and 55 points is at least respectable. To get to 55 this year we’d need 37 from the last 20 games: an average of 1.85 points/game, which would translate to a 70 point season – somewhere between fourth and fifth place last year. On current form we’re right on 1 point/game, which is enough to stay up most years but a total embarrassment for a 55 point squad + Robinho.

So where does this leave Hughes? I fear that after five months of fitness training, strict discipline and so forth we are too far down the Hughes road to simply bring back the Eriksson way. While SGE himself may be unwilling to return (although I’m not sure he’s loving it that much in Mexico), there are other similar characters we could look to: if we want a relaxed, continental, multilingual manager of superstars we could surely tempt Frank Rijkaard: a coach who got lazy Brazilians to do special things. But that being the case, would we be wisest to stick with Hughes? While Hughes surely deserves the censure and humiliation of sacking, I still believe that his age, track record and transfer nous make him the best man for the job in the long term. Unless we can find someone to carry on down the Hughes path, without being the man himself – Martin O’Neill surely has too much honour to abandon Villa for our money – we may just be safest in sticking with Hughes.

 

Welcome!

Jack Pitt-Brooke
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Welcome!

Welcome to Cherwell’s new football blog, ‘Saturday 12.45’. If you’re spending your holidays watching Sky Sports News, playing Football Manager 2009 and desperately waiting for the transfer window to re-open, then this can be of your new sources for football news, gossip and debate. Written by five recent Cherwell staff members (including four former Sports editors), this is going to be a hive of activity during the vacation, Hilary Term and beyond.

We’ll be previewing the transfer window (with ‘men to watch’ features upcoming), and keeping on top of all news and gossip throughout January from all over Europe. As a Manchester City fan I’ll be particularly alert to what’s going on, as Mark Hughes assembles a team to break the 130 point barrier in the Coca-Cola Championship 2009/10.

Any match any of us attends or even watches will end up with a post of some sort. So as well as Premier League reports and analyses there will be stuff on the Champions League and UEFA Cup, as well as the domestic leagues of Spain, France and Italy at the very least. And the international calendar starts again soon, so we’ll have stuff on that. As a City fan, I’ve taken to staying up till 4am to watch Robinho, Elano and Jô in action: so expect reports on the Selecao’s progress here too.

Running this jointly with me is Kristian Walsh, Anfield season ticket holder and one time Social Secretary of Somerville College Football Club. Also on board are Jake Richards (Spurs fan, Somerville), Adam Wynne (Man United fan, Somerville) and Sean Lennon (Arsenal fan, Wadham).

As well as news, gossip and match reports we’ll be a forum for debate. We’re going to spend Hilary Term arguing over a World XI – which is going to feature yet another rehashing of the Gerrard v Lampard debate for those of you still interested. Plus player of the year, goal of the season and so forth – as long as we can successfully embed YouTube.

 

Brown’s Moral Imperative

Joe Shapiro
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Brown’s Moral Imperative

A familiar plague is sweeping its bloody way across the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is the plague of village massacres, mass rape and other acts too unspeakable to ever appear in the British press. This troubled country has lost millions of its citizens to rebel fighting over the last few decades, but the recent escalation of violence has now caught the attention of the ‘international community’. The 17 000 UN peacekeepers currently stationed in the Congo have been unable to cope with the scale of the brutality.

In desperation, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, asked Gordon Brown and the EU for help. They said no. Despite pressure from the EU Foreign Policy Chief, Javier Solana, and other EU leaders, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced at the European summit in Brussels earlier this month that Britain would not be donating troops to help stop the bloodshed in the Congo. Such a decision comes despite the existence of a joint Anglo-German Battlegroup that could be quickly deployed. Our leaders have decided is best left inactive. The reasons they cite are that the Battlegroup is designed for a longer lasting mission than the task in the Congo demands (in four months the EU troops could be relieved by UN reinforcements), and that they do not want to create a situation of dual authority with the UN force.

“The government’s excuses pale in comparison to the suffering”

Our government’s approach displays a shocking failure to prioritise properly. Granted that the soldiers in the Battlegroup were prepared for a longer mission, would their adaptation to a new situation be more agonising than thousands more Congolese women being raped? Having two separate allied forces in the same warzone may be confusing, but is a little tension between generals a worse outcome than continued mass slaughter? When one attempts to truly empathise – impossible as this is – with the innocent victims in the Congo, the government’s reasons for excusing itself from involvement pale in comparison to the level of human suffering.

No argument against intervention which champions national sovereignty can apply here. Such concepts are entirely irrelevant when a government cannot prevent the scale of nationwide killing that the Congo is experiencing. Nor should we let the debacle that was Iraq prevent us from ever using our troops again. With a clear exit strategy, such as a phased withdrawal in four months once UN reinforcements arrive, an EU force could help to stem the tide of violence and stabilise the region.

“Brown’s brazen hypocrisy”

Milliband announced in Brussels that the matter should be left to the UN. But while it is true that a larger UN force would be preferable, this is not yet a reality. Gordon Brown has displayed a brazen hypocrisy by resisting intervention at the Brussels summit. Less than twenty four hours earlier he had given a speech marking the sixtieth anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which he mentioned the need of the Congo and stated, “we must not, and will not, turn our backs and walk away.” Mr Brown has since marched a mighty distance from the agony of the Congo, and neither the Congolese people nor, one hopes, his conscience will forgive him for it.

Review: Baz Luhrmann’s Australia

Joshua Williams
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Review: Baz Luhrmann’s Australia

Baz Luhrmann has never been a man to bow to cinematic convention. He is a film-maker who can genuinely be described as a visionary, and thus far he has got it right every time. From ballroom dancing in the award-winning Strictly Ballroom to the Bard’s “star-cross’d lovers” in the acclaimed Romeo + Juliet, Luhrmann has yet to put a foot wrong.

Now comes his latest unorthodox move, Australia: an epic ode to his homeland. A vast undertaking, this is not only a romance but also a War film and a Western: it is a collage of cinematic form. At its heart though, as in all great epics, lies the love story: the unlikely pairing of Nicole Kidman’s aristocratic Englishwoman, Lady Sarah Ashley, and Hugh Jackman’s hardy herdsman. The latter is a sort of Clint Eastwood meets Crocodile Dundee figure, named simply ‘Drover’. They are stock characters; Kidman is a truly absurd caricature of English aristocracy and Jackman is a rough diamond with a heart of gold but a body of steel.

This is an epic trying to live up to the example of the sumptuous cinematic feasts of David Lean, in particular Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) as well as Victor Fleming’s Gone With the Wind (1939). Luhrmann uses to full effect the truly awesome natural advantage afforded him by his titular location and so creates some of the greatest shots that we will see this year or the next.

However, behind this cinematic bluff lies a film that never matches its great predecessors. The cinematography may indeed be truly awe-inspiring but the film itself is let down by heavy handed screenwriting, desperate to impart on us the tale’s moral to the point of condescension. We will surely never forget that Clark Gable didn’t “give a damn” or that “it would have been lovely if we’d met before” for Zhivago and Lara, but will we in quite the same way remember that ‘Drover’ enlightened us with his “welcome to Australia”?

Something in me wants to be proved wrong here, because Australia is not a bad film. Overblown, overlong and over-budget, the film is no masterpiece, but it is hugely enjoyable. Luhrmann is a long way from stealing Lean’s crown as the epic director and Kidman and Jackman may not be toppling Clark Gable, Peter O’Toole or Omar Sharif any time soon, but Australia is a visual feast and in spite of its heavy script is eminently watchable. It could lose a good half-hour and gain a little more direction, but it is driven by quite brilliant vision and some very strong performances. Not least is that of our narrator, a debutant plucked from obscurity by Baz himself for the role, thirteen-year-old Brandon Walters, who plays the young aboriginal adoptee of ‘Drover’ and Lady Ashley.

Australia is quite some spectacle and though it may never enter the canon of great romantic epics it is an ode to a nation with a troubled history and identity. There is a sense of catharsis in this film for its Australian cast and direction team as well as the thousands of Australians flocking to see the film already. This is an enjoyable if flawed film, and one that means a lot to a lot of people, not least, lest we forget, the Australian tourist board who will enjoy perhaps even more than us the glorious and inspirational panoramas that dominate Baz Luhrmann’s Australia.

Three Stars.

Somerville to be fined for food fight mayhem

Mark Dayan
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Somerville to be fined for food fight mayhem

A food fight broke out at Somerville’s Michaelmas dinner, causing a member of staff to be taken to hospital and damaging valuable college property.

The food fight broke out at the end of the dinner after Senior Common Room members left the 150-person capacity hall.

Among the college property damaged by the food fight and ensuing chaos was one of the Hall’s portraits, and an ornate silver jug from the High Table.

A member of staff injured her wrist after slipping on food and was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital for X-rays. She was discovered not to have broken any bones.

“Appalling and irresponsible”

In an email circulated to the undergraduate mailing list James McDonnell, a Biochemistry tutor and last term’s Dean at Somerville, condemned the “appalling conduct” and “irresponsible behaviour” of attendees at the dinner.

Although admitting that “most people did not take part in the food fight”, McDonnell stated that “disappointingly, this was not an act of just a few individuals”.

He added that he intends to levy a fine against the collective JCR budget to recoup the college’s costs from damage and repairs.

McDonnell said the process of disciplinary action was “still ongoing and is unlikely to be resolved until Hilary term”.

“No one stopped them”

However, some Somerville students have voiced objections to the college’s apparent plans to fine the whole JCR.

One first-year student said, “collective punishments never work – if you punish everybody, no one’s punished.”

She also questioned the reaction of the hall’s staff during the incident, “what seems odd is that no one stopped them.

“Staff were obviously around, they could have possibly done something. Then the damage would have been limited.”

“A sensitive issue”

The college’s Domestic Bursar, Carol Reynolds, refused to comment on the value of the items damaged or on any action her office might be taking regarding on the matter.

Stavros Orfanos, Somerville’s JCR President, said he felt unable to comment on what had become “a really sensitive issue around the college” but offered an apology on behalf of the JCR:

“There’s not much to say, except that the JCR are sorry”.

 

Review: The Baader-Meinhof Complex

Sophia Satchell Baeza
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Review: The Baader-Meinhof Complex

Before you read on, this is one of the best films of recent years, and a must see. Directed by Uri Edel, and with the same producer as last year’s German success Downfall, The Baader-Meinhof Complex deals with the German terrorist group the Red Army Faction (RAF), a group of left-wing revolutionaries and their reign of terror against the West German state in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. However, in its detail and political viewpoint, the film is morally equivocal. Ideologists will be disappointed by the film; at various stages the RAF are described as anarchists, socialists and communists; none of it is terribly clear. Viewers hoping to be enlightened as to their core beliefs should consult the original sources.

Reputed to be the most expensive German film of all time, Baader-Meinhof certainly packed the punches. Arson, murder, kidnappings, bombings, the hijacking of planes, and even a superbly cool 70’s rock soundtrack reminiscent of Bertolucci’s The Dreamers about the same time period (the ’68 Paris riots), Baader-Meinhof seamlessly packs in action, depth and documentary footage into 2 ½ hours of film-making. Too long? No. The opening riot in West Berlin between left-wing demonstrators, the police and the Shah of Persia’s bodyguards, is a terrific scene of cinematography.

The massive budget was apparent, not just in the breath-taking action shots, but in the clever casting of talented German actors, in particular the three central characters. Martina Gedeck’s performance as Ulrike Meinhof, the middle-class mother, intellectual and journalist who joins the RAF and becomes central to the ideology and the propagandist voice of the movement, was subtle and effective. Personally, it was Johanna Wokalek’s portrayal of Gudrun Ensslin, the mother and pastor’s daughter, that stole the show; Gudrun’s blend of revolutionary fervour and ‘terrorist chic’ created a dangerous ambivalence towards the movement’s violent terrorism. Andreas’s rampant sexuality, as the radical homicidal stud, was irresistible. Yet the movie did not shy away from portraying him as the world’s greatest sexist.

The danger of Baader-Meinhof is that terrorism has never looked so sexy. This peculiar phenomenon of attractive, well-educated middle class women and male petty criminals was an aspect of urban terrorism in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. This can also be seen in the film Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst about the terrorist movement The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA); there are also extraordinary shades of it in Charles Manson’s ‘organisation’. The movie built up the attractive, mythological quality of the movement and then shattered it, as the group were slowly whittled down by imprisonment, violent death and suicide, and divided through internal conflict. Brigitte Mohnhaupt, a second generation of the RAF, vociferates this towards the end of the movie, when she states: “Stop seeing them the way they weren’t”.

Baader-Meinhof avoids making direct parallels with current terrorist groups, yet one can’t help but notice the similarities. The list of suspects with their faces crossed has an alarming resemblance with the pack of cards used by the Americans in the War in Iraq. The kidnapping of Schleyer (the head of the Employer’s Federation) and his televised ‘confession’, as well as the hijacking of a Lufthansa airliner to Mogadishu in 1977, have similar contemporary parallels.

However, if one can fault anything about this film, it is its ambivalence towards the fundamental morality of the Baader-Meinhof group. In as much as the film discussed how the RAF funded itself, it seems to suggest that they were self-funded through bank robberies. But no other sources are mentioned. Without attributing sources, the Stazi or the Russian government could have been involved. To make the film popular in Germany, it appears that the film’s makers have papered over a few inconvenient historical cracks. One can’t help but feel that if Baader-Meinhof had seen the film before the premiere, they might have bombed it. The film has that form of liberal dishonesty which they felt such impulsive hostility towards.

5 stars

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