It's like cycling in London!

Ok maybe it hasn't been that dangerous, but the amount of incidents the Tour de France has chucked up this year has been unprecedented. Whether it has been fellow riders, supporters or TV cars that have caused the crashes or the general nervousness that comes from the biggest race in cycling it is definitely affected the potential result that could come next Sunday in Paris. Firstly a number of potential top 10 finishers haven't even made it this far including Britain's Bradley Wiggins who suffered a broken collarbone. Add in Astana rider Alexandr Vinokourov (who announced his retirement today from cycling) a number of Radioshack riders (Kloden, Horner and Brajkovic) and Omega Pharma-Lotto's Jurgen Van Den Broeck that's a large number of names you would have expected to be up at the top of the General Classification or going for stage wins.
For some riders a crash and a loss of time or minor injury was their lesser punishment, pre-race favourite Alberto Contador has been playing catch up with the Schleck's and the top riders since his poor team time trial and a further loss of time in an early stage. Johnny Hoogerland suffered a massive crash after been side-swiped from a TV car into a barbed wire fence, luckily it wasnt the concrete bollard that was holding the fence up otherwise he could have been in alot more trouble. Despite all these incidents I hope their don't eliminate the closeness that the fans get to the action, I can't see the organisers will do anything in the imidiate future but the riders safety comes first and the incidents seen this year dont help. However something has to be done about the amount of motor vehicles that are on the road as this causes more chaos than the supporters. Some riders have had success, Mark Cavendish has just recorded his fourth win and currently holds the Green Jersey, the most likely thing that will stop him not having it come Paris will be himself not making it through the Alpes.

Cavendish's jersey to lose

Add into that the success stories for Thomas Voeckler and Thor Husovd in the yellow jersey and British Team Sky's performances (other than Wiggins injury) it has been an extremely eventful 2 weeks of the tour. With one more week left which will ultimately decide the winners and losers anything could happen. I believe it will come down to the time trial around Grenoble, with the favourites all seem to be marking each other in the mountains the time trial looks the most likely place to make up/lose time. This is where I think Andy Schleck will manage his gains and losses the best and will be in yellow come the Champs- Elysees next Sunday. Who's not to say there will be another freak accident that will change the overall result, Voeckler to win in Paris? France would be celebrating all year until the tour starts again in 2012.

No player is bigger than a club, but it can be more powerful than it!

The old saying goes that it’s the name on the front of the shirt and not the back that matters. This trend has changed in the past few years with players demanding (whether agent influenced or not) a move to bigger contracts and bigger clubs. If a player is no longer happy at a club, the determination of keeping the player and letting him rot in the reserves is long gone. Cash in quick to the highest bidder is the new trend!
Tottenham Hostpur announced today that Luka Modric will not be sold, a very sketchy statement which didn’t tell the whole story, the whole football world can imagine what Modric’s agent is doing at this second telling his client he is better than Spurs and deserves a shot at a top 4 club and on a bigger contract (therefore leading to his inevitable 10% cut). I can see Modric like other premier league players leaving mid table clubs aiming for the champions league and beyond. Take Liverpool’s rejected bid for Stewart Downing, how long before he is demanding a move which would then spark a bid frenzy for what I believe is a very average England international.
You can include Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez into the demanding ‘player power’ group, who cites he wants to be closer to be his family back home in Argentina. Odds are that he wouldn’t take the pay cut or drop in playing quality and move to one of the big two in Spain for his now traditional two season spells at a new club. His public willingness to announce his plans to the whole world show that he doesn’t mind upsetting the Manchester faithful and put out a ‘come and get me’ call to Europe’s biggest clubs. Maybe one day a player wont be able to force a move through for a bigger pay packet even with an agent brainwashing them that they are the ‘next big thing’. How long before we hear no agent is bigger than a club?

Since then the Modric saga still hasn't ended and will most likely go on till the last night of the transfer window and Arsenal are the latest club to take an interest in Stewart Downing. Who themselves could have suffered from player overpowering them (Clichy, Nasri, Bendtner and Almunia to name a few without mentioning their club captain!)
This time next week it will be a whole set of new players demanding moves, most likely the inevitable will happen at West Ham. I for one just hope we get good value if we do sell on our best players who took us down!