1. “There’s no question that he was. He won the world championship at 21. There’s no question that he was a superb bike rider. I wouldn’t dispute that at all. I would dispute that he was a seven-time Tour winner. I don’t think he would ever have won a Tour without doping. I think [Tyler] Hamilton said Armstrong may have been able to win one Tour.
“If you look at his career pre- and post-cancer, he never, ever, ever looked like a Tour winner before ’99. That would be my view — fantastic bike rider, but not a Tour winner. I would say no: He would not have won a Tour without doping.”
Journalist and writer Paul Kimmage talks to Bicycling.com in a wide ranging, and fascinating, interview.
2. “While the curve on the Premier League’s financial graph soars ever upward, the statistical performance on the pitch is much less impressive. In this year’s Champions League group stage, the quartet of English clubs have won fewer matches and conceded more goals than during any other season in the 10 years since the Premier League was given four entries.
“The change is also vividly dramatised by a comparison between the semi-final lineups of the past three years and those of the three before that.
“From 2006-07 to 2008-09 the old English big four – Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool – provided nine of the 12 semi-finalists, three in each of the respective years. From 2009-10 to 2011-12, only two of the 12 clubs reaching the last four came from the Premier League.”
Richard Williams of The Guardian highlights a lapse in defensive solidity as the reason for English teams’ relative failure in recent Champions League campaigns.
3. “The Euston to Milton Keyes train, Sunday morning. Two AFC Wimbledon fans are passing the time. One, iPhone in hand, reads out the football league tables. He works up from the bottom of League Two while his friend grunts a “yeah” for each club’s ground he has visited. As they go up through the leagues, English football’s unwieldy form takes shape. “Northampton, Bradford, Bury, Oldham.” Each club has an association; a friend who supports them, a piece of trivia, a cup run which caught our imagination before it slunk back into the morass of the 92.
“The pair reach the top end of League One. “MK Dons,” reads the phone holder. They both laugh and move on. The supporter on the train had, of course, never been to the bizarrely spelt Stadiummk, the home of MK Dons. He’s not alone; many clubs’ supporters have boycotted the fixture when their team has played away at Milton Keynes over the past decade. Dubbed Franchise FC, some are simply unwilling to recognise Pete Winkelman’s team.”
Tom Young on last week’s divisive FA Cup tie between MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon.
4. “There is no way to sum up the horrific, tragic murder-suicide by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher in a cliche or a 20-second soundbite. The issues of domestic violence in football, gun control in America, playing in an NFL game in a stadium where someone killed himself in the parking lot 30 hours beforehand—these are not Around The Horn issues.
“The tragedy occurred less than a week ago, and in my opinion (and I don’t claim to speak for anyone else), the proper course of action as journalists should be to wait for all the facts to come out and respect the families of Belcher and slain girlfriend Kasandra Perkins before drawing any 30,000-foot conclusions about weighty issues like domestic violence, gun control, murder, and suicide.
“Of course, that hasn’t stopped some of sports media’s biggest shills from offering their two cents on the topic.”
Jake Simpson, writing for TheAtlantic.com, on the fallout from last weekend’s tragic event at Arrowhead Stadium.
5. “He has made a number of programmes for TV in which he and some chums attempt various pointless stunts around which a celebrity vehicle is created. He is also a regular on the kind of sporting celeb quiz/panel show circuit, which has all the trappings of the waiting room for oblivion, in which a display of incessantly gormless affability is the only essential skill participants require.
“So why did Flintoff decide to jump in the ring and get his melon bashed?”
Writing in the Liverpool Daily Post, Sean McGuire is left cold by Andrew Flintoff’s lack of sporting focus.
