Good morning to you and happy St Patrick’s Day to you all.
I was going to do something with the blog and make it all green but I’ve been up since 6am drinking and now I’m so drunk I can barely see. So you’ll have to make do with this vaguely St Patrick’s Day themed image instead.
Right, amidst all the revelry and what have you, we have a game of football tonight. Hull travel to the Grove for the FA Cup 6th round tie with team news still a bit up in the air. The boss has confirmed Gibbs will play, while Aaron Ramsey is not in the squad at all.
Andrei Arshavin is ‘desperate’ to play but after 8 stitches in his foot it seems unlikely. The player himself says:
I can’t even step on my foot now. It’s like a knife cut – not very deep but quite painful. I hope to recover in four or five days. I’ll do everything possible to be fit by Saturday’s match against Newcastle.
Cheers, Blackburn. There’s still Theo Walcott (described by the boss as incomparable to the one from a year ago), Carlos Vela, Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner to provide the attacking options. The latter can, apparently, use Emmanuel Eboue as an example, according to the boss.
I know what he means but I think it’s a bit of an unfair comparison. The grief Eboue got came after a prolonged period of poor performances, poor behaviour and attitude. The Wigan game was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.
Bendtner is a 20 year old striker in double figures for the season who is going through a poor spell in front of goal. I’m sure if he keeps the head down and works hard the goals will come.
The comments the manager made about Eboue’s contract, “We have already tied up Eboue’s contract – that has been done for a long time”, has led to stories about him being offered a new deal. I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. Firstly because a couple of goals in two games does not warrant a new contract after everything that’s gone before, and secondly, and more importantly, Eboue signed a new contract less than two years ago and I’m positive that’s what the boss is referring to.
Anyway, to the game. We know Hull are not a bad side. They beat us at home this season so there’s a measure of revenge to be had tonight. They caused us problems up at their place in the corresponding fixture too and with their league season going down the swanny they’ll be right up for this one, I reckon.
If we can match the verve and energy of recent performances though I think we’ll have too much for them. Should we win it’s Chelsea in the semi-final at Wembley.
There was bad news for Tomas Rosicky who has had another little setback in his recovery. The boss was expecting him back in full training but it’s going to be another couple of weeks before that happens. It’s no real surprise and no real problem beyond more frustration for the player himself. After so long out I always thought it was unrealistic that we’d see him this season and given the seriousness of his injury it might just be better to get him through a full pre-season before he starts playing first team football again. Good luck to him though.
And that’s that. I’m off to have my breakfast of Guinness, with a Guinness topping, a side of Guinness, followed by Guinness Crumble and a pint of Jameson 12 as a little digestif.
Have a good one. Till tomorrow
