Pop Buzz UK

I’ll tell you right here and now that I am not a journalist. I am a freelance writer, and a professional blogger, and some of my work comes close to be what you’d describe as journalism, but still I would never assume to call myself a journalist. I don’t earn enough from what I do for starters.

However, I am more of a journalist than Coleen McLoughlin ever will be, which makes it slightly absurd to learn that is what she has entered as her occupation on the wedding banns for her forthcoming marriage to England footballer Wayne Rooney.

This is a joke right? Coleen McLoughlin is a WAG, nothing more, nothing less. Good on her for bagging a young footballer who went on to become a great player for Manchester United and England, but I think its time for a reality check.

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Just a year after moving out to Los Angeles, it looks like the Beckhams American dream could be about to end, as rumours emerge of a desire to leave LA and head back to the UK.

Last January it was announced that David Beckham had signed for the LA Galaxy, ending his successful stint at Spain’s Real Madrid, and signalling a future in the States for the footballer and his untalented wife.

At the time, Beckham secured a five year contract worth £120,000 (about $250,000) a week, but seeing as he spent most of his first season “playing” at the club on the bench, I’m not sure that was such a good investment.

The celebrity couple were welcomed to LA by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, who threw a massive party for their new showbiz mates… although it didn’t work and Becks hasn’t signed up to become a Scientologist.

Now, according to a source speaking to OK! Magazine, Becks is eyeing a possible return to the UK, stating he would be happiest if someone bought out his contract with Galaxy, enabling him to play in England while still earning the same sort of money.

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Oh God, here we go again, the Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne story has gone public again, this time with the former England footballer being sectioned under the mental health act, after being arrested at a hotel in Gateshead.

It seems not a few months can go by without some story or event happening in the life of Gazza, and drag his name, kicking and screaming, back in to the media.

For those that are too young to remember, Paul Gascoigne was one of the most talented soccer players England has ever known, and when he was on form, for both his various clubs, and country, he was up there with the best in the world.

Unfortunately, he was also very highly strung, and didn’t seem to be able to switch off between games. When he was injured just after signing for Lazio in a career making move to Italy, he descended in to a downward spiral of boozing which meant the second half of his career never matched up to the first. Basically, he had a touch of the George Bests.

This latest twist to the saga that is his life, started after he stayed at a hotel near his home town of Newcastle to recuperate from a hip operation.

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David Beckham is currently in Australia, and training at the Olympic Stadium ahead of a friendly against Sydney FC tomorrow.

He and his L.A. Galaxy team mates today had their first training session in front of new manager Rudd Gullit, although the crowd watching the training session was a lot less than the 80,000 expected to attend the full match tomorrow.

Beckham has suffered from multiple injury woes while he’s been at L.A. galaxy, joining with an ankle injury, and seeing his first season with the team plagued by flare ups, meaning he only managed to appear 5 times for his new US soccer team.

Beckham had a kick around with local football stars n a pontoon close to the Sydney Opera House and Bridge, where he kicked footballs, rugby balls and played a bit of Australian rules football too.

He didn’t seem to show any signs of having injury troubles, although earlier in training he did seem concerned about his left ankle. Gullit was convinced Beckham would be playing all 90 minutes of the match though, and is relishing the chance to see all of his players in action for the first time.

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Oh dear, what a week that was for English sport. First of all we had the England football team putting in a shocking display and losing to a controversial penalty against Russia. A result which may lead to us not reaching the Euro 2008 finals, and also manager Steve McClaren being fired from his job. You can read the full post about that here.

Then on Saturday, England played South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final in Paris, and lost 15-6. Okay, we weren’t expected to reach the latter stages of the competition in the first place but once we’d reached the final there was a massive amount of expectation on the team. In the end it came to nothing as South Africa just managed to pip us at the post, quite literally.

It had started so well, and looked like carrying on the same vein until England had a sure try unjustly disallowed. It looked perfectly good to me as Cueto sailed in and stuck the ball over the line.

The television match official watched replay after replay before deciding that his foot had narrowly gone in to touch before the ball was down.

I’ve since watched the replay numerous times myself and still think it was too close to call a definite out. Surely we should have had the benefit of the doubt given?

The Springboks took over from then on, and in the end easily beat our boys.

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England displayed a combination of a poor performance and terrible bad luck as they lost 2-1 to Russia in this latest Euro 2008 qualifying group game.

This result leaves England on 23 points in the table and needing a minor miracle to get through to next year’s Euro 2008 finals.

We are now relying on Israel either beating or at least securing a draw from their game with Russia, and us beating Croatia at Wembley on November 21st.

Wayne Rooney scored an incredible goal on 29 minutes to put England ahead, and make fans up and own the country truly believe we had a chance of getting through. Victory in Russia would have virtually secured England qualification to the Euro 2008 finals but a super sub and what manager Steve McClaren described as “five minutes of madness” spoilt the party.

Russian player Roman Pavlyuchenko came on as a substitute in the second half, and scored twice to deny England the win they probably deserved. His first goal was a 69th minute penalty as a result of a reckless Rooney tackle, which replays show was actually outside of the box, and should have been a free kick at best. He then scored as a result of a blunder by Egland goalkeeper Paul Robinson, and ruined millions of Englishmen’s days to boot.

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Both David Beckham and Victoria have rushed back to the UK in the past 24 hours after David’s father had a massive and very sudden heart attack.

Ted Beckham was rushed to hospital by ambulance after complaining of chest pains. Beckham senior apparently almost died on the way to Whipps Cross hospital in East London. After being treated for a time there, he was swiftly moved to a specialist heart clinic.

Becks was told the news in LA where he is currently plying his trade as a footballer for LA Galaxy and immediately made plans to come home to be with his family. He arrived in the UK this afternoon, landing at Heathrow airport at about midday.

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Wow, call me stupid but I didn’t see this coming. I know Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and owner Roman Abramovich have had a difficult relationship and results haven’t exactly been outstanding this season so far, but still the ‘Special One‘ has gone, and I’m in shock.

It’s reported that Mourinho has left the club by mutual consent, but does that mean he resigned in the face of criticism from the top, or did main man and club owner Abramovich fire him? Mourinho is said to have texted the senior players with the news of his departure, that would have included captain John Terry and midfielder Frank Lampard.

This news comes just 24 hours after Chelsea only managed a dismal 1-1 draw with Rosenborg in their first Champions League game of the new season. It seems this result and the fact Chelsea are sitting in a lowly (for them at least) 5th in the league was enough to draw an end to Mourinho’s 3 year reign at the club.

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David Beckham has got yet another injury. He limped out of the SuperLiga trophy final game against Pachuca last night with a suspected knee injury.

Becks could be out for 6 weeks with this new injury, the latest in a long line of recent injury woes.

The LA Galaxy club doctors fear it is strained knee ligaments, an injury which you can’t rush back in to action from. He is set to undergo a scan tomorrow morning which will reveal the full extent of the damage.

This not only means he’ll miss some MLS games for new club LA Galaxy, but also means he’s a big doubt for England’s crucial Euro 2008 qualifiers with Israel and Russia.

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David Beckham scored his first goal for LA Galaxy on Wednesday against DC United. Here’s the video of him scoring, a trademark free kick, very reminiscent of some of his goals for former clubs Manchester United and Real Madrid…

It seems David Beckham has had a good start to his American soccer career then, let’s hope it continues. Beckham said of his goal:-

“The free kick was the first I’ve taken for eight weeks, so it was quite pleasing,” he said. “I felt I was going to score as soon as I had the ball in my hands.“

The commentators seem to be going wild over him and his style, as do his team mates. But is he worth $1 million a week?

David Beckham, Becks, Victoria Beckham, Posh Spice, LA Galaxy, Real Madrid, Manchester United, YouTube, UK, America, USA

Debating: Amy Winehouse’ overdose and career implosion

Reading: ‘Marley And Me’ by John Grogan

Playing: Mario Party 8 on the Nintendo Wii

Viewing: The Start of the Premiership Soccer Season on Sky Sports

Watching: ‘Evan Almighty’. NOT as good as Bruce though

Listening: Robyn’s atrocious dance monologue ‘With Every Heartbeat’

Buying: Kate Nash’s debut album ‘Made Of Bricks’

Searching: Lily Allen after her trouble at Los Angeles Airport

Anticipating: Chelsea winning the Premiership again… well hoping!

Learning: There are dogs with two noses

Amy Winehouse, John Grogan, Mario Party, Nintendo, Wii, Premiership, Sky Sports, Evan Almighty, Robyn, Kate Nash, Lily Allen, Los Angeles, Chelsea

What is it about Wimbledon fortnight? It’s meant to be summer in the UK by now, it’s almost July and the sun is meant to be beating down from on high. People should be out sunbathing with hankies on their heads and turning as red as lobsters. But no, it’s Wimbledon tennis fortnight, that magnificent tennis tournament where every year every English woman over the age of 50 gets let down my Tim Henman, and so that means rain, and lots of it.
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A bit of a sporting mash up today courtesy of YouTube and Sky Sports…

Sky Sports decided to advertise the upcoming sporting highlights by mixing 2 sports together. We get to see golfer Ernie Els facing one of England’s Monty Panesar’s vicous cricket deliveries. It’s so tempting to go down the route of a ball joke here, but I’ll stand firm and avoid it.

It’s a great advert, and really works in grabbing your attention and putting those dates firmly in your mind. If only all adverts were this inventive, but unfortunately most of them are utter crap.

Sky, Sky Sports, Cricket, Monty vs Ernie Els, Monty Panesar, Golf, YouTube, UK

The new London 2012 Olympic Games Logo was unveiled on Monday morning, and without fail, everyone said “ugh, what the hell is that?” It’s a shocker, a real failure in terms of design, and putting across the nature and culture of the UK ready for this huge sporting event which virtually the whole world will watch.

The old logo was fine, I liked it, but apparently that was only for the olympic bidding process, which we surprisingly won over Paris and New York. It had the right colours, good wording which everyone could read, and the contour of the river Thames running through it. So why then were brand consultants Wolff Olins paid £400,000 to come up with the mess we’ve ended up with.
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David Beckham is a legend, well at least in the UK, and all soccer loving nations around the world. They may not all like him, as he’s played for their rivals, or put their country out of a World Cup in the past, but they know all about him. And now he’s off to America, to play for L.A. Galaxy for a huge amount of money! So I thought it was time to educate the masses on the other side of the pond about Mr. Beckham, and why, love him or hate him, he’s become one of the biggest footballers in the world, and a pop culture icon.

1. He’s a great soccer player.

First off, this is soccer. Now that’s cleared up… Beckham is a midfielder, normally playing on the right hand side, although he prefers the centre… this means he gets more of the ball, and that does his ego no end of good. Known as a dead ball specialist, his legendary free kicks have bamboozled goalies around the world, and even led to a film being named after him. He played for Manchester United for 11 years, starting as the new pin up boy, replacing Ryan Giggs as the icon teenage girls fantasised about. The first time he came to most fans attention was this wonder goal against Wimbledon in 1996. Soon after that, he made his first appearance for the English national team, which he would later captain. Manchester United won the treble in 1999, a unique feat in British football, and Beckham was an integral part of the success. Beckham eventually fell out with manager Alex Ferguson, probably because there wasn’t room for both their big heads at one football club, and joined Real Madrid in 2003. He became one of the Galacticos, and a firm favourite with the Madrid fans, although he was never consistent enough to please the manager. In January 2007, Becks signed a 5 year deal with the L.A. Galaxy, and will start playing for them on July 1st.
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