Euro 2008 - a bit of football

Euro 2008 is on the horizon and obviously there isn't much of a buzz around because England have failed to qualify. I am sure that the hosts will be rather glad that the cohorts of lager swilling English louts will not be descending upon their streets in June. The dire football England have played over recent years will be missed about as much as our supporters.

The remarkably bland Owen Hargreaves described England supporters as the most 'colourful and supportive' around when interviewed today on the radio, an interesting choice of words given their behaviour at Euro 2004 and 2000, I guess the blood on their shirts makes them colourful and their ability to wage war makes them supportive. Owen probably couldn't risk offending a large number of Man United fans that make up a significant percentage of these travelling English hooligans.

There certainly promise to be a few decent games in the group stages, especially in Group C which contains Italy, France and the Netherlands. Obviously a few Arsenal players will be in action, Cesc and Spain must have a decent chance of success this time around, while hopefully big Phil can give Ronaldo a tackle to remember. All in all I'm starting to look forward to this little festival of football.

Meanwhile Arsene has made his first signing of the summer, snapping up a young Frenchman by the name of Francis Coquelin. Yet again it appears that the big drawing factor for the player was working with Arsene. One young player who is being tipped to be on the verge of breaking through is Nacer Barazite, a pacey dynamic inside forward with an eye for goal, even though I've only seen him in brief glimpses he does look rather handy. While we while away these close season days, I thought I'd leave you to digest this little quote on censorship, it has a bit of relevance to many forms of media that we enjoy in the modern age:

"Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime."