Aston Villa Are a Breath of Fresh Air

For years now, the Premier League’s top four positions have been dominated by the same teams every year. Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have been setting the standard for the rest of the league for what seems an age and no-one has even come close to knocking them off of their pedestal. However, it seems that there is a ‘David’ to stand toe-to-toe with the ‘Goliaths’ of the Premiership, that team is Aston Villa.

When Martin O’Neill was appointed Aston Villa manager, back in 2006, he said ‘Trying to restore it to its days of former glory seems a long way away - but why not try?’, and it seems that they have done a lot more than just try. With English youngsters such as Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor and James Milner all playing key roles in the team, he has brought Aston Villa into the eyes of the public again by breaking into the, elusive, top four.

Aston Villa are currently sitting in 3rd place with 47 points from their 23 games and they are undefeated in their last 8 games. In spite of their fantastic league form this season, the Villa boss still feels that his youngsters have much to learn if they are to break into the top four and claim a place in Europe.

If Aston Villa manage to uphold their strong league form then they look odds on to finish in the top four, but who will miss out? Well, I’m sorry to say, but Arsenal look the weakest out of the four, they are not scoring enough goals and they are lacking a real leader in defence. If any one is to loose out then it can only be Arsenal to have to make do with a 5th place finish.

This attack on the top four by Aston Villa can only mean good news for the Premiership as it may inspire other lower teams to press forward and challenge the top guns for their throne as “the top four”.

The Cheating World

Finally, the misery comes to an end. You come out of college; it’s been a very hard day, English coursework, ICT coursework and an extra ton of homework in you bag, just waiting to suck up hours of attention tonight. It’s raining; you are saturated to the skin, and now the waters seeping into your bag. The cleverly mapped out ink on the first page of your English coursework is now dripping, like oil from a car, into the bottom of the unknown. Your feet feel frozen solid, numb, and your head feels heavy, as you struggle to keep it up. You finally near the point of where painful walking needn’t happen any more. Suddenly, it strikes; like a 20 ton train hitting you. Your heart sinks, making you feel empty, worthless and alone. Your lungs contract, it’s hard to breathe, and loss of all energy makes you feel unstable. The tears build up, but won’t expose their selves to the coldness of what has just happened. As the sweat streams from your forehead, you focus on the only thing left in front of you. The lock that needs no key.

Being a victim of crime twice now, just in the last month, has made me come to the disappointing realisation that we can’t have anything nice nowadays, without others wanting it, and in soul destroying situations, getting it. Even more soul destroying than this, is that fact that everybody reading this knows exactly what I am talking about. Whether they know it as stealing, thieving, nicking, jacking, mugging or bag snatching, everybody, either being a victim themselves, or knowing someone else who is has to live in the unsafe world of today. Isn’t it sad that we live in a world like this, insecure, not being able to have what we want.

"We are being made the mugs"

My experience has been a garage broken into and a bike stolen, only minor crime to some, yet a major obstacle to me, and they don’t stop there. 392 people got mugged in 2007 alone, 135 of those poor victims were re-mugged again. It’s not little old grannies anymore; they still carry around phones with a credit card sized sim. No, it is us; we are the prey to the scavenging vultures. Are they that desperate? Do they really need our goods that much? Most of our stolen items, through mugging, theft and burglary are used to fund drug abuse. The scale is so big, that the UK pays out £15 billion a year in health and crime bills. They don’t necessarily take our stuff because they want it, but because they need it. They are the ones getting pleasure, whilst we are being made the mugs, picking up the tab.

Theft and crime has been going on for centuries, back in the days where farmers would steal each other’s crops, to inventors taking each other’s ideas. The world runs in an unfair manner. There are the workers, the people who get jobs, earn money and buy things. Then there are the rest, who are jealous of them, and want to take it away from them, who are the thieves and criminals. You could say, there are the honest, and the unworthy.

Crime is an unbeatable villain who just keeps attacking, and finding new ways to break the chains of law. Security doesn’t exist anymore, there is no such thing as secure. We cannot be secure in this world of a food chain, and unfortunately, we are at the bottom. Teenage crime is bigger than most, and around half of teenagers aged from 11 to 16 are victims of crime each year. This is one of the most shocking facts of our country, and applies all around the world. We are the easy prey, and we are getting bullied.

We all have to face it. The world is a cheat. But, the main question is who to blame? We, the hard working, poor, wounded honest citizens? Or them, the low life, drug taking villains? Of course there’s always hindsight, but we shouldn’t blame ourselves. If the world was rid of criminals and thieves, the problem would not exist. If they only put a bit of effort into life, get an honest job they can become one of us, instead of a parasite, depending on us. We would be able to sleep more soundly at night, knowing tomorrow will be another hassle free day to be free, fearless and forget our troubles. Fear is the control factor here, they want us to live in it constantly and to be frank, I’ve had enough of it.

One Step Forward, Six Months Back!

Harry Redknapp has been in charge of Tottenham for just over three months now and things started off well for the ex-Portsmouth manager. He took them out of the relegation zone within two weeks, picking up wins against the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City and even managing a draw with North London rivals Arsenal. However, it seems now that the honeymoon period is over and things don’t seem all that perfect at White Hart Lane.

With no wins coming from their last four games Harry had to bring in some fresh faces to strengthen his Spurs side and that’s exactly what he has done. He brought in ex-Tottenham man Jermain Defoe from Portsmouth, paying £7 million more than he paid for him a year earlier at Pompy. This was seen as positive move as Jermain is a proven goal scorer and he was reluctant to leave Spurs in the first place. However, it seems that Harry is taking it too far with his latest signing, another former Tottenham player, Pascal Chimbonda.

The French international left Tottenham and joined Sunderland in July 2008 and now he has returned, six months later, to have another go around with Spurs. Chimbonda originally left due to a fall out with, former manager, Juande Ramos, as he was seen as a negative influence in the changing room. In spite of this Harry as seen fit to re-sign Pascal to build up his, short numbered, squad. This transfer has not been well perceived as Chimbonda was deemed a negative influence six months ago, and now he is walking into an, already, ‘shaky’ changing room.

The Tottenham manager has also expressed an interest in signing Tottenham’s ‘old faithful’, Robbie Keane. It’s only been six months since the Republic of Ireland striker left White Hart Lane and it seems that he is unhappy with life in Merseyside. Harry was reported to have said “I wouldn't sit here and say I wouldn't like to have Robbie Keane at my football club, I'd be a liar”; although he has explained that a deal would be unlikely.

It seems that Harry is stuck in reverse and needs to start looking into the future of Tottenham Hotspur, if not then it wont be long until Glen Hoddle finds himself wearing a Spurs shirt again.

To Lose My Life

In case you've been living in a cave for the past couple of weeks, you'll no doubt have heard that White Lies have been tipped as one of the bands set to cause a storm in the Indie circuit. Following on from the Goth chic of Glasvegas, White Lies are the latest band to get miserable. And it sounds great.



Take equal measures of Interpol and Editors, mix in the morose baritone of Robert Smith and add an album full of desolate lyrics about love, loss and death and you've got White Lies' debut, To Lose My Life. As well as producing uneasy tracks with a sense of foreboding equal to that of pressing play on a Britney Spears album, there's also a few riffs in there that are Radio 1 Playlist worthy; E.S.T's rocking chorus and the Franz Ferdinand-esque Farewell to the Fairground to name but a few. At times it seems that the band are trying a little too hard to vie for our attention and I have to admit, a couple of tracks, (Death and Unfinished Business) left me somewhat bored. The title track, whilst failing in the mainstream charts entering at only #35, is the least gloom ridden of the lot of them and is impossibly catchy, definitely one to download if you haven't already.

All in all, they may be one of the finest bands to emerge this year so far, but they have a bit of work to do before they surpass The Cure.
7/10
To Lose My Life is out now.
www.myspace.com/whitelies

Strauss Has It All To Do

After days of speculation Peter Moores has been sacked as England coach, Kevin Pieterson has resigned as England captain and Andrew Strauss has already been named as KP's successor. All of this because of a disagreement over Micheal Vaughan's, correct, exclusion from the test squad to tour West Indies next month. With all of this "chaos" over the past week, it leaves Andrew Strauss with a tough job of reuniting a divided changing before the West Indies tour and, most importantly, the Ashes series next summer.

I do not doubt the new skipper's ability to piece together the puzzle that is the England camp but he needs the backing of his senior members. Players such as Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Paul Collingwood need to get behind Strauss and give him the backing he needs and deserves. This situation will have a big impact on some of the younger, less experienced players and the seniors need to show strong character to put this ugly mess behind them and start planning for the Ashes.

Believe it or not but this situation could have a positive affect on the team in the long run. Star players have rarely made great captains for England and I do not believe that Pieterson would have been an exception. England need to get the best out of KP and for them to do that he needs to be focused on his own game.

Ian Botham's form dropped, dramatically, when he was made captain of the England side in the 1980s and his reign as captain didn't last for long as a result of this poor form. It wasn't until he was relieved of his duty that he started to score runs galore.
As long as KP still wants to play then we have nothing to worry about on that front.

However, I would like to bring attention to selection. I would like to think that the new skipper would want to put his own stamp on the team and the players playing. Promising young batsmen such as Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara have been waiting for a chance to cement a permanent place in the team and after their impressive displays in the ODI series against India, I believe they deserve a run out.

Another selection issue is the current, "lack-lustre", bowling attack, consisting of Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar, James Anderson, Andrew Flintoff and Stuart Broad. The only member of that line up that has earned an unchallenged place in the team is "Freddie" Flintoff, other than that, they are all walking on a tight rope.

Steve Harmison is hit and miss but you accept that as his "hit" moments can change a game completely but Monty, "Jimmy" Anderson and Staurt Broad all performed below par in the India test series and they should be lucky to keep their places in the team.

These are exciting times for English Cricket, with the Ashes series looming, England need to show unity in the West Indies and start building towards the summer to retain the Ashes.

Hello 2009

The New Wave is currently warming up t0 begin a shiny new year of bringing you as much witty banter, wave reviews and journo-cynic satisfaction as you can handle, so bear with us. In the meantime, we trust you all had fun saying goodbye, farewell, auf wiedersehn 2008, and welcomed the new year with open arms and positive thoughts and, (in my case) enough booze to knock out an elephant. We also hope that the festive season has left you as frostbitten, bloated and penniless as most of us are feeling right now... Peace.