大象传媒

I cannot believe Bent didn't pick himself!!

I think the only reason Darren Bent did not pick himself in the England stiker selection was out of modesty. Rooney and Defo start all the way for me (well, I am a Spurs fan!).

Cold curry can be nice, especially 'Madras'! Though cold pizza is definately a no no!

I am surprised that Bent did not pick Harry's wife, given how highly Harry rates her!

So that's why the shirts cost so much, to pay for chicken caeser salads with perfect poached eggs.

Great blog as ever, Football Focus is going from strength to strength! There is always somethig magical about a cold curry, especially on the bone Tandoori Chicken.

Good to see the consumate professionalism of the 3 on the couch even in the face of a wobbly camera. Why do all these issues always have to happen in a world cup year

Gotta take issue with you on the cold chinese thing. Nothing is as good as cold pancake roll or even cold chow mein is a great mid-morning pick up snack.
So the new england kit is figure hugging? like the wales kappa one of a few years ago? To the shame of my fashion concious wife I had one. Not one for wearing unless you have a perfect washboard stomach, and how many football fans do you know with one of them?!

Cold curry? Eugh. Cold chinese is far superior!

And i'm curious as to which desert the kit was unveiled before. Was it the sahara?

Can we expect anything on the European Championships group draw this week Dan? I personally am very much looking forward to it, the usual list of teams Wales should beat but will probably lose to in really disappointing fashion. At home. I'm buying a bumper bag of peanuts just for the occasion. Doubly interesting this time because Capello's going to say stuff about John Terry.

Interesting beard on Darren bent there. It's almost Chiles-esque in its scruffiness.

2. At 10:50am on 04 Feb 2010, Cameron wrote:

Though cold pizza is definately a no no!


That my friend is absurd - cold pizza is quality, even if i am not full when eating my pizza at night i leave a couple of slices for brekkie i find pizza with jalapeno peppers and chicken go down lovely the following morning!!!

umm mouth watering as i write!!

What kind of shorts have Umbro been testing that irritate a player by rubbing their calves?!? I think they may be confusing them with Trousers!! Ridiculous..

Poached egg front.. I have purchased these 2 rubber/silicone things that look like they are bra inserts. you crack egg into these bad boys which float on the water.. Boom! You will get a perfect poached egg 70% of the time... everytime!

...coffee mug, bit of cling film loosely lining the mug, crack the egg into that, twist the top, lift out, then poach in a pan... perfect and far cheaper than the silicone thingies!

Thanks for explaing the camera 'crash' Dan, though I was wondering - does anyone get in trouble for that? Or do mishaps like that tend to get laughed off?

I've just gotten into eggs, would love to hear where you stand on omelettes one week.

Also, forget the umbro shorts and shirts! I like the look of those crimson robes you're posing with. Those could be interesting at the World Cup...

Cold Pizza is the way forward- actually on par if not better than when it is actually hot.

Beans on toast with two poached eggs on top. Don't forget the freshly cracked black pepper and a dash of Hendersons Relish.

Doesnt sound like the design team at Umbro have spent too much time on the actual apperance of the shirt, much like the current home strip (essentially a white polo with a couple of emblems on it). I've not got a problem with this though. I prefer the simple, retro style offerings we get these days rather than the lairy colour explosions we got in the 90s! Wouldnt expect to get much change out of 50 quid for it unfortuantely.

Glad to see the food chat continues apace. I love cold food to the level where I think there are few meals which dont actually taste as good if not better as left overs the following morning. Cold pizza is great, especially the stuffed crust varieties, with a liberal splashing of salad cream. Chinnese is fine too, even bolognase is good. Chips and roast dinner would be where I draw the line.

Focus 5 chat - Would play acting in football be significantly reduced if we took a hint from rugby where an injured player is classed as inactive and can be treated by medical staff as the play goes on around him? Works fine in rugby if you ask me.

My my my twitterface, my my twitterface! Great blog Dan, thanks for explaining the camera kerfuffle. I thought he slammed himself into a wall! Cold chips can be a beauty don't forget... As for Englands strikers, I reckon Rooney, Defoe, Cole and Crouch will go. I think Capello would like a big striker and Crouch would be his man

I like this blog a lot, nice mix of news and behind the scenes news. I am going to google the England kit now see if there are any pics online. Also this got me thinking - who do you think is a better player John Terry in his prime or Martin Keown in his prime? They are both similar but Keown was very fast - I would give it to him.

Hmmm interesting blog, stop feeling sorry for yourself and eat plenty of fruit. Missing meals is careless so is missing sleep but that can't be avoided sometimes. Meals however you can do something about.

Hi Dan,

Great blog again. I have a penchant for cold chilli, or just cold mince, after last night's mince and tatties. In fact, any mince based food is fine cold with me. Stick it in between two bits of loaf....hold on, we've moved on from last week!

Focus 5 question - Is Billy Davies the ideal Championship manager?

It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments - my wife was watching Football Focus - when the camera thing happened. I was expecting some sort of on-screen explanation and it never came, leaving her to comment that maybe it was meant to happen; that the programme was so dull it needed a jolt, so I'm glad for the belated words though, Dan, you rather give yourself away as a Trekkie with your 'bird of prey' similie.

7. At 11:09am on 04 Feb 2010, Clartmaster wrote:

And i'm curious as to which desert the kit was unveiled before. Was it the sahara?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haha, good spot that Clartmaster!

Re: Darren Bent, I expect even he knows he's not going to get a seat on the plane. Micheal Owen must be thinking the same which is a shame. But why is everyone only suggesting 4 strikers? Surely 5 forwards is the way to go after the disaster or 2006. Rooney, Defoe, Crouch, Heskey and Owen if you're asking!

If Lawro, Lee and Martin ALL said that Terry should lose the England captaincy, they're just tabloid mouthpieces. If Terry had an affair with Bridge's EX-girlfriend, that's between him and his missus. As long as she doesn't do a Bobbitt on him, there's no reason it should affect his football or leadership in any way. If anyone should lose their job for being an embarrassment, it's the tabloid editors.
BTW: You need a proof-reader, mate. "I wanted to have my picture taken WHICH the new kit...", "between the main course and DESERT...". Dearie me.

Dan

Whats with the taking ages to moderate posts???

Hope it doesn't end up like McNultys'

"I am surprised that Bent did not pick Harry's wife, given how highly Harry rates her!"


I was thinking the same thing! It would've made for some excellent banter!

Dan, have you ever tried a potato waffle sandwich? 2 or 3 waffles between white bread with a generous helping of ketchup!! Bliss

Good blog as usual, but Focus 5 looked a bit like a pub scene. That sofa does not fit 5 people on it comfortably so ask someone to put another seat on the end of the sofa. Rant over.
Do you know when the rest of us see the new England kit? If its as bad as you describe it I know I wont be buying my replica

Why don't you shut up about Twitter?

re; the new kit - will I curl up in embarrassment and shame again when the shirt is revealed with the blue lion emblem of King Christian 1st of DENMARK on the badge, instead of the golden lions of old (French) Lionheart?

My hat's off to Bent. Modesty when it could cost you something is as common in big sports as pigs with wings. I'd just been thinking if I really had to pick an England team to play for my life, I'd make Rooney-Defoe the first striker pair, and Bent-Crouch second, even if they sound like a workout routine, redundancy or new position. Heskey's been very good so far, but I have the feeling he's a good pick against weaker teams. Against the Spains and Brazils it'll take two dangerous strikers.

Finally, have to disagree about cold pizza. I've never found its charm. There is a short list of dinners, I believe, which improve in the refrigerator: chile, fried chicken and alfredos are the only ones which come to mine, though curries don't do badly, from what little I can remember. (Yank=loads of pizza, not so much curry).

Or indeed the use of the word 'Boom' if you are Kirk Broadfoot poaching an egg... Boom!

Cold Chilli is an excellent shout.

Cold Chinese is amazing!!

#29

What is your problem with twitter? Its a quick and easy way of getting messages across to people

Dan, if you are not fond of the lack of sauce in chicken Tandoor let me make a suggestion: order (or cook, if you cook) chicken Tikka and ask for extra sauce, which is yoghurt-based. I typically cook this in large quantities, and by the time I walk home from lecturing at the university, the missus will have eaten much of the left-overs, cold! She claims that it is the most delicious Indian dish served hot, and the most delicious cold, because the yoghurt (and touch of citron if made properly) cuts through the garam masala. You can even pop it into a (cold) nan, drop some more yoghurt on it, and you're good to go. One winter when I was a visiting professor in Illinois I practically lived off of the stuff because there was an excellent chicken farm nearby, and it was too astonishingly cold to venture out.

I love the current kit, it's gonna take something quality to outdo it imo.

If we go down the road of five strikers then surely Agbonlahor is the way to go, he's looked bright in the team before and brings a level of pace no one else can (other than Lennon and Walcott, Lennon I think is going if fit and Walcott should be left behind judging by this season).

I knew you loved the Hendo's Dan. I'm thinking of buying the company, making billions then becoming the 'investor' that Sheffield Wednesday are still spin doctoring about. But the company won't give me the secret recipe and refuse any communication from the Umpa Lumpa types that make it underneath the streets of Sheffield. Mind you mate, we don't need it now we have Alan Irvine as our Gaffer. The boys have to put a shift in now.

The way Sunderland are playing, i'm not surprised Bent didnt put himself in the England team. I have watched better episodes of 'the one show' than the game on Monday night.

With your love of food always included in your blog, will you be trying any pies while in Burnley.

28. At 3:32pm on 04 Feb 2010, Dan Walker wrote:
Right, cake was good. Time for part 2.

ZEUSFC (#11) I am a big fan of the silicone thingies...............
---
Aren't we all mate???

Nice effort as usual sir, glad you didn't take Keown's criticism to heart and kept the food links in.

Congratulations to fellow regular poster anightatthechopra for getting his question asked on the focus 5 section of FF, which I thought for a first effort went rather well.

Gotta ask, if it was a secret launch of the new England away kit how did you know when and where to turn up? (Sorry, couldn't resist)

How have we forgotten the mighty Donner Kebab!?!?! I regulalry finish gobbling these calorie-laden beauties the morning after purchasing them from a grease riddled take-away while intoxicated. The girls I work with hate it when I bring a pungent smelling cold kebab into the office the day after a mid-week night on the booze. Ohh I'm peckish - nearly tea time. Then I might go out tonight.....

this morning lavished upon me a cold burrito that the girlfriend had cooked the night before. along with cold lasagna and turkey pie, it took all the plaudits. (revisiting this paragraph, i am loathe to admit i completely forgot about cold sausages. gold medal material).

im interested, friend Walker, whether you were invited as a guest of football or culinary lumieres? i would hope the latter would be acknowledged to some degree at least!

Dan,
I've got to say that Focus is so much better now than it used to be and your enthusiasm is a big part of that. For me now, it's a lovely sleep on Friday night and then up for Soccer AM. This finishes at 12 but it is pretty much ending by five to twelve, so at about four minutes to twelve I rush in to the kitchen and that gives me a cool nineteen minutes to make lunch before Focus starts. This is brilliant because you can make anything in nineteen minutes; sausage sandwich, sausage and bacon sandwich, fish finger sandwich, tuna mayo sandwich or my personal favourite a crisp sandwich!
But besides from this perfect timing, I want to ask, is there any chance you could have a few more features which really interact with the audience. Like some best-video competitions, or some picture-of-the-week competitions or best-blog competitions, just so viewers can send stuff in through the week and see it up on screen. You could even have a Football Focus badge like the Blue Peter badges...Or maybe not, I dunno!
Apart from that, just want to say, you and Jake Humphreys are clearly two of the best young presenters around at the moment, really good inspiration for people like myself wanting to move into sports journalism. And FINALLY...Martin Keown is a revelation! He is very articulate and bright and is a real find! Focus is getting better and better, congrats..

Thanks for picking my question Dan! Here's another one; when is the new kit officially unveiled? Keep up the good work!
p.s. my vote goes to cold pizza, not too sure about curry though

How did you manage to wangle an invite to the kit launch in the first place? Doesn't seem to have much journalistic merit if you're not allowed to feature it yet. Can we put it down to a happy perk of the job?

My seven year old is football mad. He plays footie on Saturday morning for a couple of hours, then loves watching Football Focus.
I appreciate the programme is aimed at all sections of the public, and Terry was the leading story of the day. However, watching with a young lad, I found the Terry discussion dragged on and on. It was followed by a fairly long piece involving investment bankers and Manchester United's finances. Again, this leaves young football fans cold.
I could feel my enthusiasm for football draining away as the 大象传媒 covered essentially non-sporting matters for a large proportion of the programme. This was the only daytime football programme my son can watch on a Saturday, and he saw very little in the first half which he understood or could get excited about. The seamier side of football and footballers is adequately covered in the tabloid press for those who are interested in it.
Please focus on the football when compiling the show!

re: my question on Focus 5

Oh my goodness, did I really? I've been wondering about that, but it seemed self-involved to ask. Terrible tale of woe on that one. I got my days mixed up for the Australian Open final, having got in from my Friday night's excursions at 4am I decided I'd just power through the full day of sport and not bother sleeping until the end of 606.

Grave error on many levels, the most glaring of all being that the tennis was on Sunday, the second being that I decided to fit in a couple of hours kip before Focus and made a right old hash of opening my eyes properly, shamefully falling asleep about ten minutes in, in the process also missing out the 3 o'clock kick offs and the drama of the mighty Bluebirds dramatic win over Donny Rovers as well.

So alas, my well-meaning, if somewhat misguided plan, whilst it looked amazing on paper (and I mean that quite literally, there was a timeline with a flow chart and everything) has robbed me of my moment of glory. Imagine a sad face, and that is me right now. Gutted.

Dan, I am hoping is a fake 'cause if it isn't we won't be winning the best dressed team in SA this year.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Right, THE best sandwich in the world, EVER, is to be found in a little cafe in Glasgow.

They call it the Stoofa.

Roast chicken breast, mayo, sage, thyme, red onion, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice on a toasted panini.

Does that not sound good?!?

#55 I think you will find that comment wrong... the best sandwich is the afore mentioned chicken and peanut butter combo with mayo... closely followed by having a sandwich on the remnants of cold Xmas Dinner.. as much as you can get on..

Dan 鈥渄usty bin鈥� Walker. If you were hungry enough would you eat other peoples left overs from their plate the next morning?
I am going to send the wife and kids on holidays for a week and spend the week on the road with you. I think you need someone to hold that clip board of yours just off the camera, so people think you鈥檙e great and its all in your head!

P.S Are you going to South Africa?

Why didn鈥檛 JT do the decent thing and step down himself on Day 1. That way he may have had time to glean back some respect form Capello and be given the armband back for the World Cup. Good footballer, but obviously has the mind and common sense of a 16 year old with too much money.

Brian Laws will keep Burnley up. Give him a chance. Look at Sir Alex when he first started. Looking forward to hearing from Alexandra the Great. When he started his career 18 years ago, he had no idea he would be playing in the premier league at his age and against the world鈥檚 best opposition. Keep her lit Alex.

MB

when does the kit go on sale??? i've already destroyed my replica england home kit through the age old art of putting red socks in the wash!

@ dan really good programmer last week, especially the insight around the ground and in the changing rooms, dug outs and the different camera views around burnley. Can we have similar when you do football focus on the road, maybe the view the player has when going onto the pitch and from the penalty spot if your allowed on the pitch ! remember when you go to stoke to get the free view the fans get in that one corner of the ground.

I bet that journo from the news of the world who you interviewed was disappointed though travelling all the way up north to answwer a couple questions in two minutes, maybe he was up there digging up some scandal on the next england captain to break just before the world cup starts.

@ 45 rossfox 12 minutes to make a crisp sandwich ! does that include nipping down to the corner shop to buy a packet of them ?

Can everyone keep on the topic....best Sandwich Fillings not cold fast food left over from the previous night.

Dan Being as Marouk Felliani is your favourite player, you must have been a big fan of kevin 'Bambi' Davis from birmingham & Ian ormondroyd the bradford city forward. oh, and my team the mariners will be joining crawley in that non league conference thingy very soon.

1. Can we have Ian Holloway, Jimmy Bullard, strachan, Paul Lambert, Dave Jones as guests soon, fixtures permitting.

2. Any chance of some former foreign premiership stars appearing on focus or do they just get saved up for the 大象传媒 world cup MOD coverage where they can get humiliated by the witty punditry and their master of the english language lawro, hansen and o'neil..or are they too expensive

Marcel Desailly
Leonardo
Ruud Gulliit
Frank Lebouf
Bergkamp
Ginola
Markus Babbel
Klinsmann
nobby solano
laurent robert
laurent blanc

thanks

final comment......Shirt selection

Do lee, lawro and keown and guests get to pick theirs ? surely there must be some kind of communication beforehand or the 大象传媒 wardrobe have a large stock of those stripey ones larwo likes ! what if they all turn up in similar louds stripey shirts or they all turn up in a selection of Noel Edmonds from deal or no deal.

If they are 100$ free to choose their attire, how about one of them turn up in a nice hawaii number ? lol

If Darren picked himself it would suggest he thinks that he's already good enough for the World Cup and doesn't need to improve from now till then? I personally believe it was touch not to pick himself :) I can honestly say, I think both Lawro and Garth know more about social networking than myself!

All in all Dan, Another good blog!

I have to agree with Jason Burnett on this one. They do seem to wear similar style shirts as Noel Edmonds as he presents . Is it just a age thing? lol