Happy Grayson Day

Happy Grayson Day everyone.

That's foxed you hasn't it? Today is the second anniversary of Simon Grayson's tenure at Leeds United beginning and thus has been decreed (by Thom Kirwin, Yorkshire Radio's Leeds commentator) Grayson Day.

It's been a remarkable two years for the young manager and his team, having taken over a team that was struggling badly under former Leeds captain Gary McAllister, Grayson guided them to the play offs in his first half-season in charge. Promotion followed in the second and now they sit second in the Championship on a run of nine games without a loss.

It was an easy choice for Grayson in the winter of 2008 to take the job. Born a Leeds fan in Ripon he started his playing career at the club but would only manage to make two starts before leaving for a successful career at Leicester. When Ken Bates came calling Grayson was at Leeds before they and his former club Blackpool had managed to sort out any form of compensation. The fee for his services wasn't agreed until April of 2009.

Nine straight defeats and a first game against the league's runaway leaders, and the club Grayson had captained into the promised land of the Premier League, Leicester meant he was thrown in at the deep end straight away. 1-0 down and looking increasingly likely to take their losing run into double figures Grayson threw Robert Snodgrass on for the last 14 minutes and the scott repaid his manager with a last minute equaliser.

In the next 20 games the whites only lost four and charged into the play-offs on top form. Grayson had moved quickly to shore up an increasingly leaky defence with the loan additions of Richard Naylor and Sam Sodje. While big name loan of Lee Trundle never paid off Naylor and Sodje formed arguably the best defensive pairing in the division.

The play-off defeat to Millwall was a hard pill to swallow for Leeds fans but, rather than wallow in a common post-play-off slump Leeds charged out of the blocks at the start of the next season. It all looked so good for the man they call Larry and his team. Top of the league, long unbeaten run and a cup tie against their most hated of rivals Manchester United.

It was that cup tie that started the hardest part of Grayson's tenure at Elland Road. The team had ridden the wave for over a year, nothing could stop them. The feeling of injustice at the play-off loss had urged them on yet again into the new season. The addition of Patrick Kisnorbo proving to be yet another astute signing by Grayson. Then came the day out at Old Trafford. In the 19th minute Jermaine Beckford latched onto Jonny Howson's long ball forward and the rest was history. After years in the wilderness Leeds fans were ecstatic, their closest rivals out-played and comprehensively out-sung by a team from the third division.

Then came the transfer request. Higher teams had long coveted the striking talents of Jermaine Beckford. The striker, plucked from a life repairing car windows, had scored more than 20 goals in every season Leeds had languished in League One. Newcastle were sniffing around and Beckford's agent knew there was more money on offer than Leeds were willing to pay. The next match against Wycombe should have been a celebratory day, a day when the fans and players rejoiced in the previous weeks victory. Instead a stunned and quiet Elland Road watched a dispirited team trudge to a 1-1 draw. Beckford may have withdrawn his request soon after but the wheels were already in motion. Leeds proceeded to loose to the likes of Exeter and Swindon, no real signs of the old team could be seen.

Then, when the wheels were seemingly completely off Grayson pulled it out of the bag again. Since his transfer saga the talismanic Beckford's form had nosedived. It got to the point where the unthinkable happened and Grayson dropped his lead scorer, preferring to pair the energetic Max Gradel with the ever present Luciano Becchio. The two struck up a good partnership and the ship was steadied to an extent. By the time Beckford returned the team was limping its way to promotion. A 4-1 demolition of MK Dons, in which Beckford showed he was truly back, put them in pole position for the final game.

It came down to one game, one game where four different clubs could all seal the second automatic promotion spot, each would occupy that spot at some point during the afternoon but it was Leeds who came out triumphant. Max Gradel lost his heat late in the first half and was sent off, having to be dragged from the pitch by his team-mates. Then, the moment all Leeds fans dreaded. Bristol Rovers took the lead. Another season in the third tier of English football beckoned. Grayson threw on Jonny Howson, dropped because his impact on games had diminished over the previous few months.

In the 59th minute Becchio layed the ball off to Howson, the young Leeds fan, 25 yards out and he hit it. Thirty-seven thousand people watched as the ball flew beyond the desperate grasp of Rovers' keeper Mikkel Anderson and into the net. The comeback had started, the noise inside Elland Road went up dramatically and exploded 5 minutes later when, captain for the day, Beckford bundled the ball home for a second goal. Leeds had finally made it back into the Championship.

The summer was a tricky one for Grayson, Beckford left for a contract at Everton, Kisnorbo was out with a bad injury suffered in a home loss to Millwall a few weeks before and his only usable left back was a central midfielder by trade. Come the start of the season a much changed side lined up against Derby in a new 4-5-1 formation. It was an up and down start to the season. Victories against Watford and Sheffield United were sandwiched between collapses against Barnsley (5-1), Cardiff (4-0) and an embarrassing 6-4 loss to Preston having been 4-1 up. There was no real problem up front but the defence was leaking far too fast.

Loanees were brought in in the shape of George McCartney and Andy O'Brien, another who had been a Leeds fan growing up. But the real change was a change in formation. With the defence leaking so badly Grayson decided to shore it up with two defenders in an anchor role. The 4-2-3-1 formation also allowed Howson, Snodgrass and Gradel license to attack with the free-scoring Becchio.

These four players have played a huge part in Grayson's time at Leeds, repeatedly being the players he can turn to if he needs inspiration. And thus a the current nine-game unbeaten run came about. Leeds now sit above their tormentors Cardiff in the automatic promotion spots in the Championship. The highest position they have held since relegation from the holy-land of the Premier League in 2004.

The work is far from done, but Grayson's job has never been easy. It would be far to easy to say right now that he has been amazing and done nothing wrong, but that would be untrue. Loanees like Trundle, Lee Dickinson and Peter Capaldi have simply not been up to standard. A continuing problem with a leaky defence still troubles Leeds and the job of getting back into the top tier is far from done.

Today he can look back at what he has done with pride, a far bigger task than the one he faced when he took over at Blackpool. The pressure of the Leeds job is immeasurably bigger. Grayson has taken Leeds a long way. The ever-faithful Leeds fans can only hope this continues.

Supersticious minds?

I thought about writing a blog about how England were playing so well in the Ashes yesterday, all about the way the team had pulled together and shone and so many individuals had stepped up when needed. I was also going to write about how the Aussies were nothing to be scared of any more.

I didn't, which now seems like a decent idea. The reason I didn't was superstition, I didn't want to jinx the rest of the test, although now I think I might as well have written it.

Yes, I'm superstitious, live with it. I once said hello to a magpie, as I do every time, while walking along with a mate of mine. He looked at me as if I was mad and asked what I had just done. On explaining he was incredulous: “But you're the one with a science degree? How can you be superstitious?”

He's right, I do have a background in science, I did physics and maths at A-level and I have a reasonably useless degree in automotive engineering sitting at home gathering dust. And yet still I can't help but retain a superstitious mind. I find myself automatically breaking off in the middle of a sentence to say “hello Magpie, how's your family” whenever I see one. The sight of two together makes me feel better about the rest of the day (a black cat crossing my path makes me positively delirious about the future).

So how can this be? How on earth can years of learning how the world is only affected by physics make me think that simple things like that might make a difference?

The simple answer is I don't know, all I do know is that they make me feel better. It's an unexplainable world most of the time, scientists have figured a lot of things out, but there's still a lot we do not understand. Even some of the things we do know seem incomprehensible to us. The fact that electrons can disappear and reappear somewhere else. The fact that if we know where one is we cannot know how fast it is going and vice-versa. It's very, very odd and at the same time very wonderful.

So it's comforting in a world of unknowns to have something like that in your life. It's a routine, one you cling on to and remains constant no matter what happens. The next time a group of you are watching a sports match and one of the group says something like “we've won this now” I can guarantee that the rest of you will shush him. It's human nature.

It's the uncertainties in life that make it more exciting sometimes, but a lot of the time they make you nervous. You don't know what's to come, and it could be bad. So we compensate by having comforting superstitions. It's like wanting to be close to your parents after something bad has happened even if you happen to be grown up. In your head you know they can't protect you fully or make things better, but it's comfortable, and they make you feel better.

So the next time you automatically do something strangely superstitious, or see someone doing just that, remember that you do the same without knowing it. You do certain things in a certain way because that's the way you know, the way you feel comfortable with. Someone with superstitions is doing it for the same reason you put your pants on before your socks, it's what they've always done and what they will continue to do.

It's just human, hello magpie how's your family? Nature, and in reality, in a cold world it's a nice comforting thing to see.

(This blog was sponsored by Ian Brown's song F.E.A.R)

Is life actually a bitch?

Life isn't fair.

That's what they say, life isn't fair. Is that really true? Is life not fair to any of us? Or is it just that we all look upon the things that we would prefer not to have happened as being unfair?

I don't actually have a job at the moment, my life consists of sending out my CV to various newspapers and magazines and hoping that one of them gets back to me. I spend the rest of my time watching TV, reading up on the news and sport, and eating. At first that sounds like a fantastic life, but after about four hours its too little for me.

For a background to this story I've just finished a journalism course and am now trying to get myself into one of the most competitive industries there is. A few of my friends have managed to find jobs, they're good, they deserve them. At times the fact that I'm sat here doing nothing starts to feel a little unfair. But is it really?

I got a text earlier off a friend about an interview he'd just had. I'll admit that as well as feeling happy for him a small part of me was annoyed that I've not had such an experience yet. I've passed some exams that he hasn't, surely I should be there first?

Grumpiness goes hand in hand with boredom. Of course I shouldn't have that chance, he went for it, he's got it. I'm pretty sure I didn't apply for that job, I'm also pretty sure that he's just as good at what we do as I am. In terms of reporting news he's probably better. So why do I feel annoyed?

Because life's not fair. That's what some people would say to me.

I'm going to take this space to declare that I'm not going to use that excuse, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. I've had chances other people haven't had, I'll get chances others don't in the future. If someone else has gone out and got something why does that mean that life isn't fair for me?

That's a problems with the world sometimes. A sense of entitlement slips into peoples minds, a sense that things should be there for them. Well they aren't, and just because they aren't doesn't mean that life is being unfair to you. There are people out their who suffer every day of their lives, they have no food, they scavenge for whatever they can get and I bet they complain less than you do if you didn't get a chance someone else got.

So be happy, life isn't being unfair to you, it's being life. You live it, you're blessed to have a life and if you're privileged enough to be able to use the internet and therefore read this you've got a pretty blessed life indeed.

Life is fair, it just happens to be different dependent on your circumstances.

Thoughts on a mid life crisis

As a Damon Hill fan, and a Williams fan to boot, I’m going to try and write this as objectively as I can, but forgive me if from time to time I go a little far with my condemnation.

Despite my personal favouritism I was as excited as anyone to see Michael Schumacher return to the sport at the start of the season.

I watched Michael dominate F1 for the best part of a decade, no matter what you thought of him you’d have to be the most biased person in the world not to admit that he was the best out there. No one could touch him and, even though the car was undoubtedly better than the rest, at times he did things that left you open mouthed.

Michael was so good that after 2004 F1 changed its own rules to reduce the advantage that a win gave to try and rein him in.

If you don’t know the story, or don’t remember, the elder of the Schumacher brothers won 12 of the first 13 races of that season, winning the championship with an unprecedented 4 races left.

Now he’s back - and with him came a whirlwind of excitement and media coverage. Unfortunately what also returned was the dark side of his career.

Michael may have been great - but no one could objectively deny that his conduct was at times questionable and on occasions downright dirty.

Whether he cheated to win the 1994 title when he collided with Damon Hill is a matter for another occasion, but his complete disqualification from the 1997 championship - after ramming Jaques Villeneuve - is an undeniable low point.

This weekend however he challenged that.

The spotlight is on Schumacher perhaps more this season than at any time previously - and it cannot be said that he’s brought his top form to the championship.

Numerous manoeuvres have been questionable when defending positions - after the Canadian grand prix he was condemned by BBC commentator Martin Brundle as having had the worst weekend of his career.

On Sunday he was again in a poorly handling Mercedes, on old tyres, but this time he had his former team mate (and often team bitch) behind him.

Rubens was on fresh tyres and a place away from a point, but, more importantly to him, one overtake away from some small payback for the years of perceived injustice at Ferrari at Michael’s hands.

There was no way that Rubens wasn’t going to go for the gap that opened up in front of him when Michael lost the rear end exiting the final turn at the twisty Hungaroring. There’s only one overtaking opportunity on the whole lap, and this was it.

Rubens charged into the gap to the inside of the seven times champion, quite rightly taking the inside line into the next corner - what he didn’t expect was that gap to disappear with him inside it.

Some may claim that Rubens went into a gap that was too small, some can claim he was at fault for crossing the white line. However, video evidence will show that the gap was big enough when he entered it, and big enough when he was almost fully alongside.

Rubens Barrichello squeezes past Michael Schumacher on Sunday

Michael at the time was clearly watching his mirrors like a hawk and squeezed his former helper towards the concrete retaining wall of the pit lane.

Millions watched as Rubens came within five centimetres of an almighty accident, not only was the wall there, and very solid, but had anyone been exiting the pits at the time the consequences would have been unthinkable.

Michael is a winner, and will go to any length to do so. However with all his ‘chops’ at starts and questionable collisions with championship contenders in slow corners he had never put an opponent in such a life threatening situation before.

After he had calmed down, and the adrenaline had subsided, even he himself admitted that he had been wrong.

This season is putting an ever increasing black mark over his glittering career. While no single season can ruin a reputation that includes 91 victories ­- it will leave a bad taste in the mouth if he continues to drive this way.

He is obviously having problems with adjusting to the new car and tyres - but rather than turning to desperation when trying to keep a meagre position he should perhaps be trying to concentrate on his own driving.

The lack of testing will hit the hardest on someone used to a different F1 - one of high downforce and low mechanical grip - and he needs to be using every moment he has getting used to racing, rather than endangering those around him with stupid driving.

What we need to see is the Schumacher of old - the one we watched and wondered why he wouldn’t just go away because our guys couldn’t get close. The one you had to admire, even if you hated yourself for it.

What we don’t need is a maniac in a high powered open wheel sports car causing the sort of accident Chris van der Drift suffered at Brands Hatch this weekend.

I’d like to see him up front, giving people like Hamilton something to remember - a challenge, and the ability to say they raced against THE Michael Schumacher. At the moment all we’ve got is a frustrated middle aged man living out his crisis on track endangering others. It cannot go on too much longer.