Post-holiday blues have set in and blogging is a chore. Don’t worry reader, I’ll be back on my bike soon and roaring, or raring, or whatever it is, with enthusiasm to get to grips with the issues.

So what irks your dmitriship this very day?

What is wrong with managers? Ferguson, you snide, Ronaldo has got away with cheating and diving and showing no respect at all for years. He gets a duff one, and you “defend” him. I know you have to, after all, as you’ve done it with all your stars, but most of us who saw it will feel he was harshly dealt with yesterday but hey, ain’t karma a bitch? You won, anyhow, against a team two points off relegation. As for Scolari, how can you have the brass neck to seek an apology for a blown ref call. He then blatantly accuses the refs of conspiring to keep the Arsenal team in the title race. Didn’t take him long, did it?

Windybricks beat some team from the home counties by three to zip – goals provided by The Great (x2) and Son of an ugly Manc, who looked mightily impressive – in the second round of the Football Association’s Challenge Cup brought to you by a German Power Firm. Our reward in the glamour 3rd round is to face a team near Scotland, or a the Not So So Solid at our humble establishment. The MAGIC of the cup. At least Leeds lost in their Cup Final.

Australia annihilated New Zealand in the second test – I’d missed the first which they won comfortably. Brad Haddin scored 169 in this test to become the next Big Ears. However, quote of the week has to go to Matthew Hayden who came out with this absolute belter…

Were you taught from a young age that you are in it to win it always?
Within anything there is competitiveness to our culture. There is a perception that Australian people will win at all costs. That is true. We are very strong believers in winning, but winning ethically.

I laughed. Read more of this self-aggrandising bullshit here.

Bangladesh completed their test series against South Africa with two more demoralising innings defeats. Nothing more to say. They’ll come good. I’m sure.

Miami won their game in unimpressive style against the St Louis Rams who have been buried by just about anyone they’ve been playing recently. Miami do seem to live down to their opposition, and have creaked past old crap like the Seahawks and the Raiders. However, there is a real chance to win 10 games this season, and that would be a great achievement even though that would still not get them in the play-offs in all likelihood. Both conferences suffer from having one division that is absolute toilet and can hardly beat anyone outside their own confines. The AFC West has one reasonable team, Denver, and three rancid ones, while the NFC West has a load of old cack and a half-decent Arizona team. Hence win records are buffed up against the old garbage that the AFC East plays (each team gets 6 games a season against West foes) and the records in other divisions are high. Miami need to get past two of the Patriots/Jets, Colts and Ravens and to do so would probably need to run the table – and that means winning in Toronto against Buffalo, and winning in New York against the Jets.

Talking about the Superbowl favourites, New York Jets (see September post), having beaten the Titans in Nashville last week, they let it go straight to their heads and were demolished at home by Denver. My fancied dark horse, the Steelers helped out the Jets by handing the Patriots a mullering in Foxborough. The AFC is an open book this season, and although the Jets seem to have the most impressive resume with wins in Nashville and Foxboro, the Titans must not be overlooked. The Broncos won’t scare anyone but can rack up points at will, and the Steelers are so tough that they can, on any given day, shut down a team. Writing off the Patriots would also be premature.

On the non-sport front, the arrest of Damian Green is an interesting one. I feel decidedly ill at ease about politicians, especially opposition ones, arrested for leaks, but then also I see politicians thinking “let’s change the law and make us immune”, which would be rich as they are the biggest cheats, liars and charlatans going. With all the CCTV, with the logging of records, the desire to bring in ID cards, the health fascism denying people care, with people being booted out of jobs for calling jobsworth tossers “Nazis”, the police state is just a few years away. We need to be saved from ourselves.

On a final note, I care not who wins I’m A Celebrity, Strictly Come Dancing or the X Factor. This is TV for the mindless, and I can’t for the life of me see how it makes the newsflash part of the BBC News website. Add to that BBC Breakfast News becomes a puff piece for the latest BBC reality show or series after 8:30 (and I had a win double on that show with Tim Moffatt and that Hollins cretin in the space of 10 minutes), and it is the perfect start to the week. The only way I’d watch I’m a Celebrity is if there were a bushtucker trial involving carving open PJ and Duncan (non-convicted fraudsters).

Back to sport – England’s rugby team completed the grand slump against the tri-nations, being hammered by two of them, and only soundly beaten in the other. Still, Danny Cipriani has some consolation. Wales actually managed to beat someone of consequence at the fag end of a long tour, so I suppose we should congratulate them as they are now absolutely in the top flight of world rugby. I’m trying to work out how Argentina are ranked above World Cup runners-up England in the seedings for the next Rugby World Cup, but there you go.

England’s cricketers are not decided on whether to return to India. I am not in the least bit surprised. I am disappointed, though.