Danny Shittu vs Lionel Messi

Danny Shittu. He plays for Nigeria, you know. He also sits on the bench for Bolton Wanderers.

Lionel Messi. He plays for Argentina, you know. He also wins Champions League titles with Barcelona.

No contest, right. So, it is with great joy, that I draw your attention to this interview with Shittu in The Daily Telegraph where he says, and I quote, "It is about going out there, having a good time and making something of yourself, so I am looking forward to it."

I'm not sure that playing in the World Cup Finals is really about "having a good time", but I suspect it will be Messi not Shittu that has a good time in the Argentina v Nigeria Group B opener.

See: I managed to get through that whole post without making any snide references to Shittu's last name.

Capello In Really Rather Rubbish Shocker!

I woke up this morning and found that everything I knew was wrong. I had gone to bed under the mistaken impression that Fabio Capello was an extremely able and - most importantly - successful coach that knew what he was doing. Maybe it was the 4 Serie A and Champions League titles with AC Milan, the two La Liga titles with Real and a host of other trophies that gave me this false impression.

Cos, when I woke up this morning, I found out from the English media that Capello is actually an incompetent buffoon who has been chancing it all these years.

Just take a look at some of these headlines:

'Flapello' and 'Are You Sven in Disguise' (from The Sun)

'Slap Down' (from the Daily Mail) and 'Capello's Midfield Move Backfires' (Express).

And the reason for all this uproar? Well Capello announced his provisional England squad and, guess what, there were a few surprises that the media didn't guess.

So, because the media got their predictions wrong and don't agree with some of Capello's choices, they've turned on him in typical English style. How pathetic.

When one - just one - of these journalists wins a league title as manager anywhere in Europe, that's when I'll trust their judgement over Capello's. Until that point : shut up and stop whining.

Earthquakes, Budget Airlines and Zulus

I don't know if you saw this, frankly ludicrous story in the Daily Star last month? I somehow missed it, which is a shame, because I would have ridiculed it at length on this very blog.

Basically, the gist of it is that there's going to be an earthquake during the 2010 World Cup Final in South Africa.

However, close reading of the story suggests that, well, there isn't going to be an earthquake during the World Cup Finals.

What the Star have done is taken a prediction by Dr Chris Hartnady, who says it is "inevitable" there will be a major earthquake in Southern Africa, and somehow contrived to sensationalise this into a 'world cup in peril' story.

The fact that Dr Hartnady never mentions the World Cup or even the year 2010 and the fact that the last major earthquake in the country was in 1890 is somehow overlooked.

Anyway, the reason I bring up this, er, extremely well researched and responsible piece of journalism now is this. Budget South African airline Kulula have used the article to drum up some trade for their airline with this publicity stunt and advert. Good on 'em.