Well it’s Thursday and time for another Thursday blog. It’s a short week for the blog after the last one was on the Saturday meaning it’s just a 5 day interval until this one. This means the real life part will be a bit shorter than normal, well I think it should be but since I haven’t written it yet then I might be lying. Apart from the real life section there will be the usual update from Club Brugge, where things are a bit quieter than normal thanks to the disappointing opening day result in the Top 100. I am also introducing an old friend of mine who will be splitting Thursday’s with myself but I will tell you more about that later on.



This week in the Kinnear household can only be described as lazy. No one has done any serious housework, just enough to keep the place presentable, no one has made a dinner with all 5 days being a takeaway. Saturday chip shop, Sunday McDonald’s, Monday Chinese (except me), Tuesday another chip shop and last night everyone for themselves which featured KFC, kebab and god knows what else. I passed last night after having a late lunch at work. Laziness like this is a rare event and not part of the norm so please don’t think I have a bunch of slobs around me. The reason for all this was that everyone was finishing work at different times and, let’s face it, no one likes to come home and have to make a dinner if they have had a busy day at work. Tonight will be different as I will make the dinner since Thursday is my day off.
There was good news on Monday as Janene passed her theory test as she attempts to become the fifth driver in the family. This was her third attempt and at least she was consistent as she had failed her first two by the matter of one point in the question section and this time passed by one point. All the same, she has now passed and it is now up to her to get through the actual driving test for which she has no date booked as at this moment. While we are on the subject of Janene, her boyfriend was here once again on Tuesday and I don’t know what came over me (no I didn’t shake his hand on his choice of girlfriend) but I actually felt sorry for him and felt this thing that I have never felt before. On explaining to the wife, she told me the feeling is called guilt. The reason for this was that when I went down for a pee, I decided to go into the kitchen and pick up a Ski yoghurt. Now, I mention Ski by name because it is the only yoghurt that I like. It has to be the ones with the fruit pieces in them and peach is my favourite closely followed by pineapple. I have noticed that Ski yoghurts are getting harder to find in the shops and when I think back, their popularity must be subsiding as they used to be the most popular yoghurt on the shelf. This Mullerlite shite is one I do not like and if I see that bird Swatanigger or whatever her name is one more time on the telly with a bit of yoghurt on the tip of her nose, I swear I will put my boot through it. Ok maybe not the telly in the bedroom but one of them will get it. Anyway, back to what I was saying, I told you before that I sometimes stray off the subject and that was one of they times. Feeling ‘guillty’ as the wife put it. So, I came out of the kitchen with my yoghurt and it was perfect timing for Janene and Ross/Russ/Shrek coming out of the living room to go upstairs. There we were at the bottom of the stairs. When I had a glance (yes we will go for glance) at the boyfriend, his face looked a bit red and he also looked terrified, as if I was going to land one on his chin. I was a bit sad at that to be honest as I am not an ogre (where as he is. Shrek, get it lol. I crack myself up at times haha) I went upstairs first and sat on top of my bed with the laptop on and actually felt a bit guilty (I am getting used to that word). Maybe I am being too harsh on the boy. It is a strange situation for me to be honest. Janene is my baby girl and her having a boyfriend is quite tough to take. Do I feel threatened by this? I don’t really know and I wonder if I am feeling that this guy becomes the number one man in her life. This is hard to take you know but also pretty stupid. When Elise had a boyfriend there was no problem. I actually liked her boyfriend and he came on holiday with us to Turkey and fitted in really well. Unfortunately, that relationship fell by the wayside and Elise is single again, although I don’t even know if she is looking for another boyfriend at this point.
The other main thing of the week was last night when Alison informed me that she was/had applied for a job in Dubai. How did I feel about this was the main question. I am ok with it and would be happy to move out there if the situation arose. What would I do over there was probably the first thing that entered my mind. Nothing, Alison said. Her job would be well paid and enough that I wouldn’t have to work. Now we are talking. Retirement at 53 is very attractive. It’s not as if we would be going into a new chapter of our life blind. Janene and Elise have a friend, Nicole, and she comes to our house quite often to see us. She usually comes for her dinner and stays overnight which is handy for her as she works alongside Janene at the stables. I mention her because she lives with her grandparents here in Scotland because her parents are out in Dubai. Her father is very successful and has more money than I have cells in my body and Nicole goes out to Dubai 4 or 5 times a year meaning we have heard all about the place and along with homework we would do ourselves, we also have Nicole’s parents to lean on for any information we would like about Dubai. This, of course, is all in the future as she has only just applied for the job. The girls are split on the move with Elise wanting to stay in Scotland but Janene happy to come to Dubai. We will see what happens and make the decisions as we come to them.
Really, that’s all that is worth mentioning for the week and I will tell you about any turn of events in the next Thursday blog, which will be in two week’s time.

As I have just mentioned, The Thursday Blog will now be published every fortnight. This because on the other Thursdays there will be a new feature. Anyone who competed in the Gold Championship 427 England will be familiar with the name Fannie Licker. At this point, I would like to apologise to Fannie as last time I mentioned her I spelt her name wrong. I spelt he first name with a ‘y’. This was a genuine mistake and I must have had some other sort of fanny licker on my mind at the time.
Anyway, on to the new feature. Fannie is a journalist and has done a few interviews and also done a couple of match reports for the 279 blog. I am delighted to tell you that I have tempted her to come to the Top 100 to work and together we have decided that her job here will be to interview managers.
What will happen is this - Fannie will randomly select a manager from the Top 100. She will contact them asking if they are willing to take part in an interview about their time at whatever club they are managing. If they are willing then a set of questions will be sent to the manager and he will send back his answers. Hopefully, the questions will be sent out on a Sunday at the latest with the answers having a deadline of Wednesday night. The interview will then be published on the Thursday. The questions will be preceded by a real life personal profile of the manager to let us know a bit about his personal things in life and also favourite things. I am hoping to get together with Fannie tonight and randomly select the first manager to take part. Anyone that has been in the Ashclowbel set up for a while will have seen this before. There will be an initial series of 6 interviews and then we will see how it has went with a view to making it a regular article on the blog.

The mood around the training camp at Club Brugges has been a mood of disappointment. The team lost their opening league match at home to Standard Liege 1-0 and they feel they let themselves, me and the fans down by not doing enough to win the game. It was my job to lift them as the games come thick and fast in this league and we were flying to South America yesterday. To be fair to them, I told them they had done enough to win the game and it was just bad luck that they lost out in the end. They were by far the better team and it was just the bad luck in front of goal that proved to be their downfall. On the flight out yesterday, everything seemed a lot better and by time we arrived here in Santos in a confident mood but also well aware of the task ahead. Santos and their boss Ian D will be determined to make up for the loss they suffered in last years semi final play off when Aquino scored the only goal of the game to send us into the play off Final. Everything tonight seems to be in Santos’ favour with our record of games in South America being no wins in 4 visits and being outscored by 10 goals to 5.  So we have an uphill task tonight but it is one that my boys are up for. Defeat tonight will not be the end of the world and will only be in keeping with the traditional starts that I, personally, usually have.
Bringing new players to the club has been a fruitless task with Division 5 being a hard league to sell to anyone. Our only main signing to date has been Lasse Schone and try as I might there seems to be no one available that can improve the first team. The lack of funds available to me certainly doesn’t help matters and it looks like I will have to bide my time and go with what I have. Don’t get me wrong, the team I have are good enough for this division and reaching the play off Final last season proves that they are. The addition of an international midfielder will hopefully be the difference maker this season but another class defender would certainly bring some competition for places in the defence.
With it being so quiet around here, it has given me time to look at our youth team in more depth and I like the look of what I saw on the training pitch. They are certainly keen but when our coaches, Mr Saville and Mr Harris are around they don’t seem to perform as well and have a kind of nervous look about them in all the training practices. The touching their toes task seems to be unpopular with a few players opting not to take part in that exercise. Myself and my assistant manager may have to look at the Saville and Harris methods and see if there is anything different we can find.
We have 15 boys in the Youth squad with Bjorn Engels being the outstanding player among them. The captain of the you side has certainly been attracting some interest from around the league and we may find it difficult to hold on to him. We did have an interest in Andy Carroll when he was at Zenit and we knew Zenit had an interest in Engels. WE were about to try and offer some sort of deal that would have seen Carroll come here but AC Milan swooped in and took Carroll to Italy where he will be force fed spaghetti, pizza and tiramisu until he fits in with the rest of the useless deadbeats at the club.

Well here is where I sign off for the week and I, as always, thank you for taking the time and reading through this blog. I wish you all luck for tonight’s second game of the season and I, along with Fannie, will PM the manager that has been selected for next week’s inaugural interview and personal factfile.

Ciao

I normally like to do something for the blog when I can, and today I have some free time. Thing is, there isnt too much going on at Levante right now. A couple of strikers will sign for the youth cup at some point today, but otherwise it was a dissapointing start to the season with a predictable 2 - 0 defeat to an Internacional side that I expect to be in the hunt with Genoa, Southampton and West Ham for the automatic promotion spots. We on the other hand are aiming for top 10, despite the chairmans statement that staying up would be enough for him.

So then, in the spirit of Frank’s post a week or so back, and Gino’s regular Thursday blog, I thought that the time was nigh for me to tell you a bit more about myself rather than the character behind the Karl Marx avatar.


Firstly, the reason for Karl Marx is because I was called Marxy at one point amongst our group, solely because I had long hair and a beard. Mine was considerably less grey though, as you can see.

I have a younger brother, and also a younger sister. My sister is getting married in May of this year, over in Italy by Lake Garda. It’s very exciting, and the whole family is very proud and looking forwards to it immensely.

I am 37, and live with my partner Zoe, and my two boys, Sam who is 11, and 6 year old Charlie.

Chaos has descended around Fenerbahce's training facilities today when it was revealed that early this morning that Noisy had left the club by mutual consent after a season in charge.

Last seasons League winner and Division 2 Manager of the Year has decided to call time on his Turkish adventure and has taken over at Last years Challengers and Divisional rivals Bayer Leverkusen.


Fenerbahce were the most consistent team in the league last season under the now hated Noisy and it has left fans bewildered at the timing of his decision especially with the clubs U21 side due to face Tottenham in the semi finals of the U21 Cup in a little over 24 hours time.

Noisy has no doubt left other Top 100 Managers scratching there heads at the decision to join a League rival.

Aaron Ramsey is the first man into the revolution going on in the better half of Manchester. Not happy with his midfield options manager Will Trafford had this to say:
“Nasri and Fernando, they aren’t bad but come on they aren’t Champions League are they? I mean if they were at Coventry you will say wow those two are cracking. Nasri would still lose the ball, and his temper, but nether less you would be impressed. But this ain’t no Coventry, this is Manchester City. So out they go. I love Ramsey, he gets the ball, he passes the ball, he scores goals. It is simple stuff an exactly what we are going to do this year."

Rumour has it that highly rated CB Baumgartl is also on his way, with 5.5 million heading the other way. Having been there previously he had this to say:

“He’s a good lad. Way off the first team, but what can you do. Time should push him through, especially when we have old man Sagna filling in at the back."

Exciting times for all those on the better half of Manchester.

Manchester City have quickly looked to banish the disappointment of last season, particularly on the transfer front. After failing to settle on a manager over the past year, the Sky Blues have snaffled the previous Stuttgart manager. Not being in the role long this has surprised many fans of the Sky Blues with a few calling it unfair on other manager's who deserved a chance. However, with an impressive CV from previous role's the board feel as though they have got the right man!





Will Trafford has said that the squad needs a massive shake up. "Whoever the last manager was made some right cock ups". He goes on to say that "selling Hart for some dodgy Russian bloke? Yaya for some kids and don't even get me started on the Ribery deal. What the hell was he doing selling Zouma. A right old numpty! At least we have the rock at the back. Oh wait we don't. Some idiot sold him for someone who isn't even at the club. Effectively Ribery and something for Kompany. Crazy. Finally that Sterling deal. I have never seen something so pathetic in all my days. I will try and get him back, but not sure I will have any luck".

Asked on his transfer policy he said "They're all going. Well not all but most of them. I have never seen such a bunch of misfits. I need quality, I need pace and I need to get some youth in the side. But I cannot let us drop a division, we need to balance the changing of this guard."

When pushed on who these players could be he replied " Well let me give you my thoughts on a few of the squad.
Ribery seems to be the obvious choice to go, but who would pay anything for him? Probably stay until he retires I think.
Nasri, well he is already gone in my eyes.
Asaomah and Coentrao, well one will leave. They have to really. One will be LB and one will be Left Back in the changing rooms. All I can see here.
Fernando can go, not Fernandinho. Having both would confuse me,
Isla can go, nobody needs that many RB's in a team. Rafael can stay because of his hair. Unless someone offers me a better afro. Fellaini where are you?
Doumbia is going to lead the line, He won't leading but Negredo can. The beast they called him. All I can say is that I have seen that he has a beast of a belly. But don't tell him I said that!
Dede can go, don't need him.
Destro, Praet, Romeu, Fischer, Leitner, Matip and Milik all stay.
Finally Gotze, well let me tell you now. That boy will only leave for a crazy offer. Crazy I tell you.
Let's leave the kids for another day..."

Strong words from the new man in, only time will tell if he has the credentials and skill to push the Blue Moon back up to where they should be...