Being a Part Timer

I have to be honest and say that I didn't expect to be playing part time football by the age of 27 again. I left Queen's Park aged 20 and football was in a decent enough state in Scotland. Clubs were paying good money, the First Division was relatively strong with teams like St Johnstone, Inverness, Hamilton, Queen of the South and Partick Thistle all quite strong. Now the first division is pretty weak, clubs aren't paying any money, players are not making a living in football anymore outside the SPL. So part time is the option that people are taking and also being forced into. I am hoping to do some part time football, make some money doing something else on the side for a short time and try and get back full time or move abroad. It wouldn't be easy moving abroad, but if I can convince KA that Norway, Sweden or Denmark would be a good idea for both of us then maybe we will up sticks for a wee while.
One thing I have noticed about not training every day is how much harder it is to get up to the speed and sharpness where I feel like I should be. I have been in the gym a lot and training twice a week, but it is only this week I have actually felt sharp for the first time. I can hopefully get up to speed with 90 minutes in the next few weeks, starting with a return to Hampden on Saturday to play QP. It is always fun going back there where I have so many good memories.

I am looking forward to enjoying playing football and scoring goals again. I loved my time at Falkirk where the team had some great success and the fans, especially on the road, were fantastic. But since then I struggled to motivate myself and felt like I was falling out of love with the game. But in reality I knew once I got back to playing I would love it again and I can't wait to get a run of games. It isn't ideal only training twice, especially since some people can't always make training due to work commitments. You never get the same connection with your teammates on the pitch as you do if you see and train with them every day. Unfortunately that's how it is and I have to try and make the most of it, get my head down and work hard as I have always done throughout my career. I know if I can get my confidence up I will score and create plenty goals for the team and that can only help me personally. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

With tickets going on sale (well, you can apply for some) for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year I have been asked to do a run down on what is worth going to see and where you should go and do it. You can get a list of all the venues here so you know where all the events are situated. Obviously not everyone will agree with my opinion but here is the top 5 venues and events to apply for tickets to and the Scottish athletes to look out for:

1. Athletics at Hampden Park - Obviously the big attraction of any major multi-sporting event is the athletics. Hampden will be getting adapted to include having the running track round the football pitch, and with top athletes like Usain Bolt expected to be involved it should be a great day out. *Eilidh Child won silver at the last Commonwealths and finished 5th in the recent World Championships, look out for her to be going for gold in the 400m hurdles.
2. Cycling at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome - British cycling has never been more in the spotlight with 2 Tour de France winners and continued success on the track. The atmosphere will be amazing in the velodrome and you can expect plenty of medals from British competitors. Lets just hope that the Scots beat the English. *Callum Skinner is a young prospect on the track who recently won the British track cycling championships and should be in with a chance of a medal in the sprint.
3. Rugby 7's at Ibrox - The rugby 7's is always an exciting event with plenty of tries and tackles. It will be held at Ibrox which is a great venue for it, and since it is rugby, get yourself a few drinks while you watch, enjoy the sport and have a good time. *Being at home and also since all the top nations won't be here, maybe Scotland can get a medal, who knows?
4. Swimming at Tollcross International swimming centre - The swimming centre will be filled with 5000 fans and it will be a great atmosphere and potentially a great opportunity for Scotland to win some Gold medals. This should be a great event and definitely worth a visit. *Michael Jamieson won a silver medal at last years Olympics and the Glasgow born swimmer will be going for Gold in his favourite event the 200m breast stroke. 
5. Cycling on the streets of Glasgow - The road cycling event will take place round the streets of Glasgow and it will be a free event you can go out and support on the course. It is on the same course that held the British road race in the Summer. I went to watch some of that with my brother, and I can recommend standing at the top of Great George Street in the West End. It is right at the top of the biggest hill on the course so the riders won't be flying past you. That is unless you want to be in Glasgow Green for the finish. *David Millar is Scotland's best rider and genuine top level cyclist. He will be going for Gold in the Road Race and the Time Trial 
 

Michael Jamieson will be going for Gold

Since I have so much spare time at the moment, Karen Anna finally decided to try and sell her Arga Ankan stuff, so we have opened a shop together. So that is online with a few things to buy just now, with more to come in the next couple of months. Cards, mugs, wrapping paper and a few other things will be coming into the shop so go and buy something if you want and check out her website and facebook.
Click on the link below!
Angry Duck Shop

Friends for life...or at least while I'm here

I always think football is a funny job when it comes to making friends. It is a highly emotional game with ups and downs every week, lots of different characters in the dressing room and plenty of egos, but there is a great bond between teammates throughout your time at a club and for most players they will do anything to help their mates on the pitch. You will spend every day with them training, share your problems, talk about life, share the ups and downs of a team, socialise together and become very close friends with a lot of them. Obviously not everyone can be friends, like everywhere in life their will inevitably be a clash of personalities, but very rarely will teammates have a proper fall out or fight.


However, the day will come when you have to move on to a different club, and it is at this point you find yourself in a new dressing room, with a new set of mates and you find yourself in the exact same situation as you were at your old club. So with your time being taken up training and spending time with new teammates, it becomes harder to keep up with old teammates. You basically go from team to team and make new friends every year or so, depending how long your contract is, and how many new players come into or leave your club. It becomes difficult to keep up with everyone particularly if you have to move city for a new club, and also when people train at different times and have new teammates of their own.

It is always nice to walk into a dressing room and know people who are there before you get started. Obviously the older you get the more players you know, so it is likely you will come across an old teammate somewhere. For me, signing for Stirling for 4months was made easier by knowing 4 or 5 of the boys before I signed. Also it gives you an idea of the standard of the team when you know the players there and how good they will be. I knew I'd be coming to a winning team so that helps!

football friends

After moving to Edinburgh I have realised most of my best mates in football all live in the West, it isn't ideal especially when they are all starting to have babies. I spent 3 years at QOS so I had a great time there with my car mates, Reidy and Bob Harris. Plus I used to love listening to Mckenna moaning and wee Burnsy telling me he always sets up my goals. At Falkirk with the team being full of teenagers I felt properly old, so it was nice to have the Grandad of football Darren Dodds there and Mikey Mcgovern to keep me younger. I went to the races with Blair Alston a few months back and he won a fortune, so I'll be taking him back their for a few tips. The best thing about the football dressing room will always be the banter. I'm sure it is a unique environment from most work places. There is always something going on and I definitely miss it happening daily, I'm sure it is one of the main reason ex pros will miss football. Everyone who I have met in football will be remembered in a different way, good and bad. But one thing is for sure, it is a fun job, but don't let that fool you, because it is very hard work.

Arsene Wenger

I was reading an article about Arsenal the other day, it was by Talksports Adrian Durham telling us what he would have done this Summer as Arsenal manager. So it got me thinking, what would I have done, and what would everyone else have done? Arsene Wenger hasn't done a lot, except promise signings and not deliver. Personally I would have bought 4 players (goalkeeper, central defender, holding midfielder, striker). For me it is obvious Arsenal don't want to break the bank on players or wages, but I think to keep up with the top 3 in the league, they have to start or they will end up as also rans. Here is who I would have bid for:

1. Julio Cesar or Tim Krul
2. Pepe or Felipe Santana
3. Marouane Fellaini or Toni Kroos
4. Higuain(I'd have paid the extra) or Benteke

 I know it might have cost a lot, but surely they should have signed someone. Obviously I am not a manager for a reason, but I think with some of those players Arsenal could genuinely compete for the title, something they won't be doing this season. It is a shame because they have some fantastic players, a great stadium and a great pitch, but I think it might be time for Wenger to go and for Arsenal to look in a new direction.

Life after Football

As I get towards the middle/end of my career I have started to realise more and more how important it will be for me to be ready to move into 'the real world' and have a career path for the rest of my life. It is a common stereotype that footballers are all stupid, have no qualifications and would be no use in a working environment. Well, luckily for my I got a degree before I started football (I don't talk about it much) so that at least gives me something to fall back on. I am not naive enough however to think that I would just walk into a job as soon as I need to. I have started looking and planning out what I want to do, and with this blogging going on, other writing possibilities and my love of most sports it seems like something I should try and get into.
I am not claiming to be a great writer or have a fantastic vocabulary, but I am sure that is something that can be learned and practiced like everything else. I do have a passion for sport, a very good knowledge and grasp of a variety of sports, and hopefully from my football background I have some contacts that could come in handy (It's not what you do, it's who you know).

Something else that I am looking into is coaching. I don't know if I want to be a coach or a manager but I do think I have a decent understanding of the game and have picked up a lot of good ideas throughout my career. I think to be a successful coach would be hugely rewarding and to become a manager, although it would be stressful, would be a nice responsibility to have and is something I can look into. One problem however is the sheer volume of players and ex players who go down this route, so finding a job once you are qualified wouldn't be easy, but... it is who you know, a familiar theme.

With so many young players turning full time it is obvious they don't have any qualifications, and the biggest problem is that every single player thinks that they will make a living and a career out of football. Admittedly more and more youngsters are getting chances in first teams, but that doesn't mean they are making a lot of money that will support them if they live away from home, it just means they are getting good experience. This will hopefully help them move on, but not all of them will be able to, and it is at this point they will realise how difficult it is with no qualifications.
The PFA does help put them through highers and further education courses, but often they won't be taken seriously and therefore they aren't passed.

  

Scottish fans break the bar after beating England at Wembley in 1977

For anyone that is not a football fan, or has not being paying any attention to international football, Scotland play England this week at Wembley in a 'friendly'. Personally, for whatever reason, I am not that excited about it. I think perhaps the years of abject performances at Hampden have left me a bit of sick of Scotland. I don't really have a club team, so Scotland is the only team I really support (unless someone else plays England), therefore I usually go to Hampden for all the home games in qualifiers and some friendlies. Unfortunately since I started going there has been a distinct lack of good results which is leaving me a bit disillusioned with the team. There have been some great nights,  they have mostly ended in glorious failures, but some have been great wins and both wins and failures stick in the memory. The highlights for me include:

• Beating Netherlands 1-0 in 2003 (Lets not mention the return leg)
• Beating France 1-0 in 2006 (then repeating the feat away)
• Losing 2-1 to Italy in 2007 (glorious failure 1)
• Losing 3-2 to Spain in 2010 (glorious failure 2)
• When Iwelumo missed (below) against Norway in 2008, I called the headline 'Iwel Oh No' in the next mornings paper, a personal highlight.  

 It would be great to beat England, purely for the bragging rights, but the reality is we haven't qualified for a tournament since 1998, we are already unable to qualify for Brazil 2014, and the way the team looks, it could be a long time before we get close to qualifying for another one. Not since England beat us 2-1 on aggregate to qualify for euro 2000 in the playoffs have we genuinely come close, and it has been a downward spiral from there. Hopefully in my lifetime it happens, but the future doesn't look too bright, especially the way the club game in the country is heading.

 

The Season Started without Me!

So the football season started without me last week for the second time in 3 years, and it makes it very difficult on a Saturday afternoon watching the scores coming in and not playing. I find keeping myself busy instead of watching scores helps to keep my spirits up and doesn't let me get too down. I know a lot of footballers are in the same position as me, waiting on something happening or remaining undecided on what they want to do, so it is comforting knowing a lot of people are having the same feelings as me. It was good to see Falkirk, QOS and St Johnstone all winning at the weekend as my former clubs started the season well.

St Johnstone in particular have had a great start to the season. Defeating Rosenborg in the Europa League is a fantastic achievement, and it is testament to the hard work of the players over the Summer to get fit and ready to play games of that magnitude in the middle of July. The Norwegians aren't the team they used to be, but they are still a big club, so for a club in Scotland to beat them is great for the game and huge for the club. Now they look destined for the first round proper after a great 1-0 win away in Minsk, in the following round.

It is at times like these that it is good to have a supportive family and friends around you to help stay motivated and keep believing in yourself. Depression in football is often overlooked, and I am not saying I am depressed, because I'm not, but it is understandable at this time of year that somebody could start to feel depressed. Luckily for me I have girlfriend who keeps me going and believing that I am good enough, and also parents who have supported me throughout my footballing life.

At the opposite end of the football scale from me are the transfer sagas currently going on in the English Premiership. With Bale, Suarez and Rooney all seemingly wanting to leave for a combined total of more than £160m from their respective clubs, it is fair to say that this is a completely different world from the struggling game up in Scotland. Supporters inevitably become restless and start to vent their frustrations about their top players leaving for new clubs, but they are all understandable in my opinion. Bale can go to Real Madrid, who wouldn't want to go there? Suarez was one of the best players in the Premiership last year but he is at a club who have no Champions League football and no hope of winning the league. Rooney has been at Man United for 9 years and given everything he has for those years. Now he wants a new challenge and to play in his favoured position, so it makes sense to me.
One of my main gripes with football fans is when they say there is no loyalty in football anymore with players. The truth is that clubs have no loyalty either and as soon as a player has a bad season then he doesn't get his contract renewed or he is sold. I think sometimes the supporters forget that football is a job, particularly in the lower leagues and especially in Scotland. It is a job that can instantly be lost through serious injury, and since it is a game of opinions, all it takes is a new manager to not like you and you won't play and can end up without a contract. Therefore while it lasts it is important to make as much money as you can, and also prepare for the future(I'll discuss this in my next edition). Supporters always say they hate it when players move for the money, but honestly, who can say that they wouldn't switch companies to earn twice as much money than their current job doing the same thing?

The USPGA starts this week in Rochester, NY, and being the last major of the year, it is the last chance for eight months for someone to win a big one. Tiger Woods had a massive win at the Bridgestone at the weekend so that sets him up, again, to win his first major since 2008. He has won 5 times already this year, 4 of them being against all the top players(WGC Cadillac, WGC Bridgestone, Players Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational), but he hasn't managed to get a major, even though he has been in contention going into the weekend in more than one. The old Tiger used to be unbeatable and it was inevitable he would win on the Sunday, but nowadays he is beatable, and I don't think he will follow up last weeks win with another this week.
Mickelson will be high in confidence going in and will be right up there, but a first major win for Jason Day is my tip this weekend.
I hope Martin Laird has a good week for Scotland, and as usual I'll be betting on my cousin hoping he can win me money for a change. He has won 3 times on tour, none of which I have bet on, but I continue to bet on the majors and hope that his game comes together for that particular weekend.
Defending champion Rory McIlroy hasn't had a good year so he won't be one of the favourites, but if he plays the way he did last year he has a good chance. Unfortunately for Rory, the switch to Nike hasn't helped his golf, but he is too good a player to remain winless for long, so who knows, it could be this week.