Window Cleaner

So, friendly against Glos today and tomorrow. I see that Middleton opened with Organ. Info a bit hard to come by but it looks like, as of 50 minutes ago, Organ and Gubbins are both out and Hants were about 30/2.

Been playing pretty well for them. Practically got them to the final in the eliminator by himself, made 87. I see that the points structure for the CC has changed for next season. Only 5 points for a draw and batting points start at 250. Not sure that that bodes well for us.

His time should have been up before he got here.

Well, I gave up cpommenting on the football a long time ago but this merits at least a WTF.

Klopp would be my choice yes, doubt that he wants the job though. I might ask Arteta to consider the role. I think English football needs to broaden it's horizons, don't all but one of the English players play in the Premier League ? Only one of the French side regulars plays in France, the rest are dotted about the European Championships. Might make them more flexible perhaps. Just a thought.

So France-Morocco. Genial, nigh on two hours of whistling and then some street riots to follow. Morocco ar a couple of players down I think, unless the red card they got doesn't count for the semi/ Don't think that their CB will be fit though. On the England front, Southgate needs to step down, he's not going to win a major tournament anyway with his team selections and we might as well start with a new bloke for the euros.

With 48 teams from 2026 onwards that's a big,big organisation. So countries group together to spread the load involved. As far as Australia is concerned, do they ever bid for the WC football tournament? I mean they probably have at some stage in the past but for 2026 there weren't many bids if I recall correctly. Just the triumvarate who got the nod and a late bid from Morocco, who are bidding again for 2030. Other than them the 2030 candidates seem to be mostly groups of 3.

England got the job done and that's all that counts in these 4 week tournaments. The Germans were awful against Japan and looked wobbly against the Spanish. They'll still probably qualify though and that's all that counts.

But Mexico only got it the second time because Columbia couldn't organise the tournament that they'd been awarded. Can't remember why exactly, some sort of crisis no doubt.

I thought our ball control in general was pretty poor all round; Thought Shaw played pretty well. The Americans were particularily motivated, probably because a defeat would leave them in a dodgy position because Iran didn't look all that bad against Wales....who were pretty dire. Iran-USA is going to be a pretty tough match with the winner getting to the knockout stage. WE need however to run at the Welsh, they're a poor side just about everywhere and will have no answer to pace at the sharp end. So Rashford and no Kane.

Probably need to give Kane a rest, not doing very much at all. Start Rashford and leave midfield to the midfielders. Oh and don't start Sterling, utter waste of space yesterday. We must have better available.

Qatar, Iran, Australia, Costa Rica..... all piss poor sides . You can only really judge the sides that hammered them when they come up against decent opposition.

Not mine, don't have one. Just watch the games. Denmark up next, should be a better watch. Some decent players on both sides.

Indeed, reflection on the easy life at PSG. Most of the Ligue 1 opposition have annual budgets of not much less than Mbappe's annual salary. Playing against 3rd rate africans is pretty easy. I watch Clermont so I'd know.

Argentines look dreadfully slow. Probably need to drop Messi and get bit of ooomph into their midfield. Don't know if they have any of that available though. Good game from the Saudis though, very impressive physique.

Regional competitions. Happens every WC, good European sides don't qualify because the competition is fierce and awful sides from footballistic deserts make the cut. I mean look at Qatar yesterday, absolutely rank, but they still won the Asia Cup last time round.

Alehouse football here from Iran.

Absolutely, no point in having 3 fine wicket takers if you get bowled out for less than 100 a couple of times in a season.

But only for blokes if I remember correctly. Don't think that homosexuality between women has ever been illegal. Frowned upon certainly but not illegal. (I found that out from Gentleman Jack, unless of course it's just a bit of poetic licence to fit the story line )

I see that Hassan Azad has been released by Leics. Left-handed opener averages just under 40 . Is he any good ? Or is D2 bowling just that bad, although they were in our group last year weren't they ?

Ah! One last reflection on the season. Ball changes: Has to be sorted out. Every time that the bowling side don't think they're getting anywhere fast they start whingeing for a ball change. Yesterday Gubbins and Fuller didn't look in any particular difficult and then they got the ball changed for one that started zipping about again. It's like having a semi-new ball whenever you fancy it. I'm not sure what exactly are the criteria for a ball change but they have to be tightened up. It wastes time and breaks up the rythm of the game.

So at the end of the day we lost second place because of the 2 points deducted for slow over rate although Lancs had 6 points deducted for prior misdemeanors. The moral of all this ? Don't lose matches. 8 points for a draw is better than or the same as all the bonus points that you can obtain in a match. See you all next season.

They need all of them. It's like United and Chelsea, they don't need the players they buy, they need for other teams not to have them.

I'm not convinced that either of them will improve our first team in the near future. Seemingly the selectors aren't either. Prest is erratic as of yet and if he'd been capable of opening this season, then I'm sure he would have done so. The fact that we played Brown as a batter with his fingers taped up for the last two games tells me the management don't see Prest as an option-------yet.

Don't see what difference it makes, they're both one day cricketers. and we have far too many of those already. For next season we need at least an opener and a spinner who'll actually play a few championship games. If we aren't getting Abbas back for the whole season then we'll need another quick bowler, Wheal isn't good enough. Brown hasn't shone with the bat in the later part of the season, I ask myself if we really needed to play him at all with his fingers taped up. There must be other options...musn't there ?