Well done Wolves!

Although I’m not a Rugby fan, the two teams that attended Wembley Stadium today for the Challenge Cup Final, the other team being Huddersfield, were well behaved.

There was no segregation of fans, which has to be done regarding soccer.

In all, it was a carnival atmosphere, with some fans dressed as convicts, other men wearing flowery pink dresses.

When Wolves picked up the cup, many supporters of the losing team clapped their hands.

It’s the first time since 1974 that Warrington has won the Cup, so congratulations all round to them.

Some of their fans decided to stay in Wembley, visiting The Greyhound pub that’s approximately 100 yards away from the Stadium.

It was nice, seeing their fans - grown men, women and their children, sitting on the green opposite the pub, enjoying the rest of the warm, sunny weather, which was crowned by a fabulous result.

As I said to some of their fans leaving the Stadium, congratulations on the result and I hope to see some of you again next year.

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Chelsea is on top of the league!

The 3-0 result is sure to help show they are determined to break the lock Manchester United has on winning the Premiership league.

As for newly promoted Burnley, please learn from the mistakes of recently regulated out of top-flight football West Bromwich Albion (WBA); you can’t stay in the Premier league with First Division players.

I know that’s ruthless to say but that’s the way it is – this explains why Stoke City and Hull City, the other clubs who were promoted with WBA to the 2008-09 Premier League, are still in the Premiership League.

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Manchester United only just got victory today against Arsenal, thanks to Abou Diaby’s own goal.

United only just got their victory, which does bring forward the belief whether the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo has weakened this team.

Only time will tell.

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Speaking of Arsenal, it’s not surprising that UEFA has stepped in to the whole issue regarding Eduardo’s behaviour Wednesday evening.

The Euro football chiefs have charged the striker with deceiving the referee by diving to win a penalty against Celtic, in the Champions League qualifier.

Again, I think this is a case of where, as I stated regarding Drogba’s outburst during last season’s Chelsea UEFA match against Barcelona, of letting the linesman have as much say as the main referee when looking at such issues.

I must admit to being surprised by Eduardo’s actions on Wednesday, as I remember the nasty left ankle dislocation he received in February 2008 that threatened his career-playing future.

For most people, it’s a defining moment where you look at what’s important in life and it usually includes sportsmanship.

Hopefully, both Eduardo and his manager, Arséne Wenger, will come to realise this in the coming months.

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I watched Big Ron – as I still call him – doing Celebrity Wife Swap a few weeks ago with Olympic gold medal winner Tessa Sanderson.

I remember this man as the showy-with-clout manager of Manchester United, who put the glam into a club that was then synonymous with supporters wearing brown cloth caps and long matching coats – i.e., dowdy.

Along with a team that had a successful streak in the 1980’s, Ron Atkinson was a man who invented the word bling and made Manchester United a trendy team to follow, before he was removed to make way for a then unpeeraged unknown-to-mainstream-English-football manager, called Alex Ferguson.

Big Ron was responsible for introducing black football players on a mainstream scale to English football. This was particularly the case when he managed WBA, before becoming a match commentator.

So rather than ponder on the foolish remarks he said about Marcel Desailly in 2004, I hope he gets further involved in the academy in Newham, London, that Ms Sanderson is helping to run in preparation for the 2012 Olympics.

Mr Atkinson has an amazing talent, which clearly showed when he was being a manager of a local Newham football team during the swap.

He is a man you can believe in; that quality is needed in a football manager.

I also saw the home – well let’s face it, mansion – he lives in with his wife.

It just goes to show, like Kevin Keegan, there has always been some football professionals who had their financial heads screwed on before the arrival of the Premiership league in 1991.

I for one hope Celebrity Wife Swap is not the last we see or hear from Big Ron.

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That leads me to what I mentioned during my last blog about recommending books to read regarding sport.

For Father’s Day this year, I brought: Beyond A Boundary, by CLR James.

My mum isn’t a cricket lover but decided to take this book with her to the hairdressers, as she usually spends all day at the salon and found this book good to read and realised why certain cricket matches are called a Test.

I decided to read it and realised why this man was such an inspirational figure for independence and self-rule during his lifetime.

I wrote a biography piece about him for Pride magazine, featured in February 2006 – the feedback the office received about it was fantastic and was responsible for that edition being a sell-out.

The e-mails and phone calls to the then editor praising this article were daily and continued for the whole month.

My only regret was seeing the sub-editors take my name out. My thanks go to those who liked reading it – it took me a whole week to finally produce that article, such was the extent of work and essays that Cyril Lionel Robert James produced.

Another book I’d highly recommend is Paul Gascoigne’s autobiography, Gazza: My Story, with Hunter Davies, first published in 2004.

It’s a truly warming book that made me laugh, cry, get annoyed with Mr Gascoigne and generally feel his pain. It’s a warts and all revelation about him; a genius midfielder who sadly never achieved his full potential during his playing days.

I so wish that Sir Alex Ferguson had signed him from Lazio.

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I’m now being kicked off the computer I’m typing this on, so I’m signing off now!

Please don’t hesitate to visit my other internet site: www.andriagreaves.com

Until next time.

Light and Peace

Andria

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