Canada is an interesting country to be living in now. As a pseudo-Canadian I get to watch what has been going on over the last two weeks in Vancouver with a slightly detached point of view.
But Canada has seemed to change in the last two weeks.
It seems odd to me that a sporting event can change a nation’s attitude, but these Olympics have inspired a new type of patriotism in the country — a type of patriotism that is genuine, unforced and confident. I can’t remember when I heard Canadians singing their national anthem. But here they are all over the country singing along every time the country wins a gold medal. People are partying and having a great time and are unabashedly proud of the country, the athletes and games.
There also hasn’t been the navel gazing debate about it either.
Canadian patriotism has always seemed a bit odd. More marked by anti Americanism or anti British-ism than something unique and self confident. Canadians have always felt a tad embarrassed by the flag waving yanks and their My Country Right or Wrong braggadocio. Canadians have always envied the Australians and the pride they show in their country.
Canadians have inherited that British liberal embarrassment at displaying patriotism in anything other than an arch, ironic way. But the constituent British are very patriotic. They might think they are not but they can be as draped in the flag as any American. Watch the Welsh at a rugby game, the Scots and their golf the English and their football. The Last Night at the Proms is silly but it is all about patriotism. The main difference is that the Brits tend to be aware that there other nations in the world.
Canadians have always apologized for any overt shows of patriotism. But the national identity is changing. I think it began with the war in Afghanistan. Canadians have been proud of their troops and patriotic in honouring the dead. Suddenly waving the flag isn’t seen as fake and American.
It is also interesting that this new found pride is a ground up type of thing. No one is trying to organize this. Canadians are not being told to be patriotic or to get into the streets and wave the flags. This isn’t some TV generated phenomena. People are genuinely expressing themselves and unashamedly so. It is quite refreshing.
I was in India once and some Brit asked me where I lived. I said Canada. He said “Ah, the quiet achiever.” I felt like telling him to f off. Today, I would have.

As the winter Olympics gets going, I find myself in the odd position of having to pick and choose which team to root for. As I watched the Canadian go for gold in the moguls I was rooting for her. And I think in all the sports in the Winter Olympics I would be rooting for the Canadian. Even if the UK had a hockey team in the tournament I would still be supporting the Canucks.

Come the World Cup, however, if Canada ever made it into that tournament (an unlikely proposition I grant you) I would definitely be roaring on England. Ditto Rugby, and cricket.

Strange isn’t it? I mean I would be rooting for Canada in soccer if they were playing the US or Mexico or almost anyone else. Probably really rooting if it was Scotland or France. But it is like praying for anyone playing against Arsenal or Man U. In last year’s Champions League final, I wanted Barcelona to win. Big time. That is treason in some people’s mind. But it is Man U.

There is also the “anyone but the yanks” thing going on too.

So it is strange duality. It is also an odd thing this fandom thing. But it is rooted early and doesn’t lend itself to age. I might root for the Canadians, but I don’t have the same level of tension, anxiety, pain and joy as I do supporting those teams I grew up with. So while I might be happy with Canada lifting gold in the Olympic hockey tournament, I will be insane if England won the World Cup.

Thankfully, the UK generally sucks at winter sports so it never is an issue of who to support on slope or ice. Oh, and before you say curling, I only watch women’s curling and then I root for the best looking team. I may be English and Canadian but I am still a guy.

My heart sank when I saw the name Jenas on the team sheet for yesterday’s game against Wolves. Sank with the realization that what would likely unfold would be a gutless, weak and disorganized shower of a game, wherein Spurs would lack any creativity and plod along to a tie or worse yet, another loss at the final whistle.

I am pleased to say I was wrong. We lost to an early goal. Everything else was correct.

I keep saying to myself, look Spurs are down to a dozen games left, within one point of a Champions League spot and the equal of anyone in the league on our day. Spurs have kept five clean sheets since the beginning of the year, and has a better goal difference than any of the rivals for fourth, fifth or sixth place. They are having the best season since the 1960s.

But the niggling thought that keeps me from being all positive and rosy is that for the last month, Spurs have sucked. Spurs have only won once since the beginning of the year, only scored three times, had to take a replay to overcome a third division team in the FA and seem to be going nowhere. Uninspired and lacking any creativity the team look tired and bereft of ideas. They are not hitting their stride, they are hitting a wall.  The only reason why Spurs are not wallowing in sixth or seventh is that Aston Villa, Liverpool and Man City are all sucking somewhat too. What is so frustrating is that Tottenham should have sewn up fourth place a month ago. Now, the team face the very real prospect of finishing out of the Euro spots again.

The reality is that with Aaron Lennon in the side, Tottenham are a Champions League team. Without him, Tottenham have looked like mid-table chumps at best. And when you look at the money spent on this team, it is very disturbing. Redknapp keeps saying it is a great squad, and better than either Liverpool’s or Arsenal’s. If so, why aren’t Spurs third?

Without the speedy winger, Tottenham look ordinary and predictable. Bale, Modric and Bentley have been playing reasonably well on the wings, but there are no goals going in. So based on results –  they are not replacing Lennon. Defoe has dried up. Crouch ditto and Redknapp doesn’t play Pavlyuchenko and we loaned out Keane — so where are the goals coming from? Certainly not midfield or defence any more. The likes of Dawson, Lennon, Bassong and Krancjar scoring was one of the great plusses earlier in the year. Where is Tottenham’s Roy Keane? Where is the guy to step up and drag the team up a notch?

Tottenham need to find a plan B and fast. The loss to Wolves is just the latest in a number of recent sub par performances and Spurs can’t rely on their rivals to continue to sputter. Any team that puts a run of wins together is going the drive off into the distance and sew up fourth. Spurs need to solve the Lennon dilemma as it doesn’t look like he is coming back anytime soon.

The sickening thing is, this year was the best opportunity for anyone to join the top four – Liverpool and Arsenal were there for the taking. But Spurs may have blown their opportunity. Both of those other teams are schooled in working through their problems and now watch for them the step it up and grind something out. Spurs’ fine start may be for nought unless they can find another gear and figure out how to get the goal in the net.

The run in for the last third of the season is a tough one. Next up are Wigan (a) Everton (h) Man City (a) Blackburn (h) Stoke (a) Portsmouth (h) Sunderland (a). The away games are tough. Wigan will be fired up after the 9-0 shellacking, Man City will want revenge and Everton are on a run. Stoke are notoriously difficult to beat at home and have already beaten Spurs once. After this run, Spurs have Arsenal (h) Chelsea (h) and Man Utd (a) back to back to back. Those three games will probably decide where Spurs end up. Three loses and that will be it. Four points might be acceptable. Please let Lennon be back for them at least. Two final games, Bolton at home and Burnley away maybe irrelevant or be two winnable games with which to sew up a CL place.

Redknapp pulled Jenas at half time last night so maybe he has finally seen the light. One can only hope.

Spurs have Notlob in the FA Cup on Sunday. Come on you Spurs, we are due for a FA Cup, albeit a year early.

Museum for Human Rights

If you drive through downtown Winnipeg, you may be excused for thinking it is the berg that development left behind. The same empty buildings, the same tatty graffiti-tagged derelict dumps waiting for some deus ex machina to drop in and solve the core’s woes.

But the funny thing is, Winnipeg led the nation in growth for building permits over the last two years. Now, that is growth rather than value, but it is an odd stat.

It also points to a continuing problem. There isn’t a lack of money in the city, or a lack of confidence in building, but there is a distinct lack of either will or ability to direct that money and willingness to build toward the downtown.

Each morning, I drive by a couple of large and interesting buildings being built at the Smart Park at the University of Manitoba. I know the concept is to have these research facilities close to the teaching and science centre, but imagine if Winnipeg had someone figured a way to get all that development downtown. What an interesting place the downtown could have been. And with all those boffins and egg heads downtown, the sort of housing and support businesses would also have been pretty cool.

But alas no such luck.

It is also pretty clear that the key to more downtown development is residential. So where are the incentives to put reasonably affordable apartments downtown? There are developers and money enough for this, but most incentives haven’t worked. So time to put up the incentives.

The area near my house has condos and seniors’ places going up all over the place. Why isn’t the city leveraging its money to get some of that development into the Exchange and downtown? And not just more expensive condos on the river drive.

A large chunk of the building in Winnipeg is government funded. The University of Winnipeg buildings, the airport, the museum for human rights, the WHRA building. But this isn’t sustainable. The idea is an expensive one —  that if you build these types of buildings the support infrastructure will move in. It has yet to be proven. Winnipeg has a long history of urban renewal projects that have failed. Time to be radical.

The time is here for the city to make some assertive and aggressive efforts to redirect development away from the ‘burbs and back to the downtown. Create communities and development zones that can take the drive, capital and creativity of those who are willing to build in the donut around the core and direct it downtown. Build it and they will come.

It is time for a plan, and a bold vision. For once.

One of the things about being a new father is the understanding you gain of how responsible you are for the behavior of your child. If your kid repeats the same bad behavior or continually gets into the same predicaments, don’t get mad at the kid, get mad at yourself for putting them into the same position. Your kid doesn’t know better.

This is a long way to get to the point of this blog, namely that Harry Redknapp should wear today’s cock up in Birmingham not Jermaine Jenas.

Everyone knows Jermaine Jenas is a useless tit. He can only pass sideways or backwards. He runs around like a chicken with a spastic colon, gets the ball passes it backwards and then runs at the opposition goal. To what end know one knows. He doesn’t tackle, score often or set up goals.

Jenas completely changes the dynamic of the team. No one wants to pass to him as they know the ball is going to go backwards. The defence doesn’t trust him to protect them and therefore sit further back, with the full backs uncovered. The other central midfielder has to pick up more slack and the attackers have to come back to collect the ball. I didn’t see the game against Liverpool, but all the comments I read said Jenas was awful and largely responsible for the loss. Last weekend, he was awful and responsible for Leeds’ first goal. Today he comes on with a minute left in regular time, he gives the ball away, leaving Corluka up the field, tracks back where he gets the opportunity to close down the winger who crossed to the eventual scorer but stands around and misses it while a knackered Curluka looks like a goat for missing the scorer. Nice work for three minutes.

But here is the point. We know Jenas is crap. The rest of the team knows it and the fans in the ground know it. But he is going to go out and play when he is asked. It is not his fault.

The fault lies with Redknapp. I don’t want to knock a guy who has kept Tottenham in the top four for the last three months. He knows what he is doing. In reality the team has only lost once in 12 games and is having its best season since the 1960s.  So why does he have such a blind spot when it comes to Jenas? Why keep playing the guy who is apparently getting worse and is directly responsible for goals against. Why can’t the manager see this? If it is a problem with squad depth, why did he bring him on as a sub? Why did we ship O’Hara to Portsmouth? The team was playing well until then. They worked hard to work an opening against a tough team. It was a huge let down after a strong effort. Redknapp should ship Jenas if only to stop the temptation of playing him again.  

And with all the rivals for fourth winning today, it puts huge pressure on the team and with Man city playing last place Portsmouth tomorrow, it is likely that three teams will be within a win of Tottenham by tea time.

Winnipeg in Winter

I think I am finally a Canadian. I now am getting smug about how freakin’ cold it gets here. It is a Canadian disease. It may have a contagious element or maybe repeated brain freezings bring it on. Whatever it is, it is the tendency to take pride in how ridiculously cold it gets is a particularly Canadian affliction. There is a strange pride in living in a place that can get to minus 40 degrees C. I wonder if people who live in the north of Sweden or Norway are like this and the southerners in Oslo and Stockholm have to endure northerners rabbit on about just how cold it can get up in the Arctic and how tough they are as a result and it’s a dry cold. I am sure they get asked the same question I have always asked…why on Earth would you choose to live in such a place?

So now having drunk the Canadian cool aid, I have watched with some level of glee at the fate of Britain and its complete collapse under the weight of a couple of inches of snow. It was quite amusing to see the BBC reporters talking about the country coming to a halt and the fears for the elderly as the temperature “plunged” to minus seven Celsius.

Of course, here is sunny Winnipeg it was minus 20 something and a couple of inches of snow is a light dusting. It was somewhat funny to think of those English chavs stuck in their homes with nought but pot noodles and some old tins of Hemlin. Puddles are freezing. Oh the humanity.

Now, I read that England is struggling with a rash of potholes. Welcome to my world.

Some of the pictures have been quite beautiful I must say. I think I can count on one chillblained hand the number of times it snowed in Ramsgate as a kid. Slush and it was gone the next day. Now, I am like an Innu I can tell about 20 different types of snow.

My wife asked how I dealt with my first winter here in Canada. I must say it seemed OK at the time. I had gone out and bought an absolutely ridiculous parker with a tube hood that would be good for the winter on Baffin Island. I soon ditched it in favour of the much more fashionable ski jacket. Much colder, but much easier to get in and out of a bus. I did manage to freeze my ears solid one afternoon walking to my friend’s house. Turning your ears into rubber isn’t nearly as painful as thawing them out. I did walk home one evening and was so cold I wanted to lay down and die. I elected instead to buy a car. It isn’t really as bad as it sounds – minus forty. It is just crisp and bracing and you dress for it. And you just get on with it and appreciate the heat when it arrives. It is also incredibly sunny here in the winter and the sky usually clear and blue, which is very different from the slate grey of an English winter.

There is a city here now and all the amenities of a city and lots to do in the winter. The one questions I have is those Scots who turned up here 200 years ago and said “aye, minus 40 and nowhere to live, let’s stay here!” Grand.

Roman Pavlyuchenko on his way out the door

I will not let myself slip into pessimism here but Wednesday’s game against Man City even at this stage of the season will be the defining point of the season.

After a very strong start that saw Spurs in the top four, the last month has been patchy to say the least. In the last few games, Tottenham have outplayed both Aston Villa and Everton and come away with ties. On Saturday, the team folded to the footballing powerhouse that is Wolves, a team destined for relegation again.

If Spurs had not conspired to give up two late goals and miss a penalty in extra time against Everton and then lose to those suburban brummies, they would be a point behind Man United and in third. As it is, Spurs are now in fifth and only just point aahead of Man City and Liverpool and behind Villa.

The team has to develop the killer instinct of those top teams. Tottenham all too often can’t break difficult teams down. We like our free-flowing, sexy football, but get a team that wants to kick us around and keep eleven men behind the ball, then we fold and end up giving up a lame set piece and losing. It is the sort of thing Chelsea and Man U don’t do. They can get dirty and get stuck in. They can be patient and work the problem.

I think the team misses Modric more than they know. The little Croat knows how to change games and he can produce that minute of magic. The problem is the rest of the team has to learn how to hang onto the ball, be patient and wait for that moment.

January will, of course, bring the mid-season trading season and there may be a couple of people shown the door, but Redknapp really must keep the core of the team together and get rid of a few of the distractors and get one or two really solid additions.

Obviously, Bentley will be gone, he really is a tit and a self obsessed pretty boy who is wasting his talents because he is lazy; Bale was just brutal against Everton – he looked like I would have looked out there — he can’t defend and isn’t fast enough to be proper left winger. Pavlyuchenko just isn’t fitting in and, finally, Redknapp just doesn’t like Hutton.

So what do Spurs need? Other than a kick up the arse? A left sided winger, who isn’t afraid to get stuck in and a solid experienced full back. Of course Spurs will pick up another striker and a centre back.

Wednesday won’t break the season, but it will show whether the team have to cojones to beat the nearest rivals, to pick themselves up after the Wolves fiasco and prove they can deal with the pressure that is now on. The season doesn’t get easier from now on and people are getting the measure of Spurs. Don’t expect too many more 9-1 thrashings.

Crouch gets it started

Well that was fun wasn’t it?

Spurs pump nine goals past Wigan’s goalie and the team is back in the top four.

It was probably the one of the best performances I have ever seen by the team. How many would we have scored if Modric had been playing?

And a special plug to Harry Redknapp, who after the game, rather than gloating or bragging was very classy in expressing sincerely his concern for how Wigan’s coach was feeling.

Admitedly, Wigan were pretty awful and hardly played after they went 3-1 down. But take nothing away from Spurs, they were spectacular. The defence and Gomes barely had anything to do, but all the midfield were magnificent and Defoe was fantastic in bagging five.

This was the highest scoring Premier League win in 12 years, the first time a player had scored five since Shearer scored did it in 1999 and the second fastest hat trick in the league’s history.

I remember watching the last time Tottenham scored nine…against Bristol Rovers when Spurs were down in the Second Division for year long time out. I think Martin Chivers bagged a hat trick that day back in 1977. That was a happy day too.

If only Spurs could play like that every week. Today’s game certainly vindicated the first choice eleven as an assertive and ambitious team. Lennon, Palacios, and Huddlestone were always pushing forward, looking for options and fighting for every ball. Today’s performance by Lennon was one of the best performances of the year by anyone in any position and surely he must be a first choice for England now. Krancjar, who has been up and down for me, today showed that he can be a great fill in for Modric.

The next three games are against Aston Villa, Everton and Wolves. These games could cement the team in the top four, especially as Liverpool and Man City are dropping off and Arsenal have to cope without Van Persie. While it did seem like wracking up the score at the end of the game, it does mean Tottenham cut into Arsenal’s superior goal difference and put a few goals between Spurs and fifth place Villa.

Perhaps were could repeat this performance in a couple of weeks when we play Man U in the Carling Cup and we should be gunning for some revenge. As one of my kid’s TV show characters says, that would make my heart super happy!

I usually have this sort of post up by November 11, but was away this year…so belatedly here is something to reflect upon.

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

 I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust conceal’d;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England’s, breathing English air.

Wash’d by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

I was reading a favourite blog the other day that is, quite frankly, much better than mine on the subject of what Americans think of the English. The writer is a Brit who lives in New York and has experienced something I have always found odd too; the propensity for North Americans to assume that being from the UK somehow makes me posh and a bit smarter.

I used to get annoyed at the whole “You have a cute accent” thing . I suspect it was a fear that it was just the first part of a longer comment that concluded “Just as well because you are an ugly git.” But, I eventually learned to accept it and use it for nefarious dating purposes, which probably explains why it has stuck around like a mutated wart. Anything that makes you stand out from the crowd i guess, is a good thing too.

The English have a myriad accents — from Geordie, to Brummie to Scouse to Esturine. My accent has flattened out a little from being over here but most Brits would place me somewhere in the south – Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Hampshire maybe. I’ve been told it changes depending on my mood. Somewhat posh when calm a bit more cockney when angry. Imagine Roger Moore morphing into Jason Statham.  

But over here, even if I came from Sunderland, everyone would think my accent was very posh and hoity toity. I guess it is all about ear….it took me some time to discern that the Ontario accent is slightly different than that of the west. They really do say “oot and aboot” down there.

As opposed to us Brits who all say “ieght and abieght.”

I get “what part of Australia are you from?” a lot. Now, maybe you have a hard time between Australia and New Zealand. But c’mon, a British and Australian accent is as different  an accent as Boston is from Arkansas. I usually tell people I am from Zimbabwe just to screw them up.

Some Brits over here do “posh-up” their accents. You talk to some ex-pat and they sound like they just stepped out of their Lined Rovah after arhftanun tea at Asscut with aych are aych. The look on their falling faces as you ask where in Yorkshire are they from is priceless. “Aye up yar right, how thee guess?”

One of things I hated about England is that whole accent-defining-who-and-what-you-are thing. You have to be English to understand it. But open your mouth and your education, class and status is instantly communicated. And it is rubbish. That’s the great thing about Canada — aside from Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the North End of Winnipeg, there are no accents and they certainly have no bearing on you education level or status in life. But when people try to lord it up over the rest of us with some fake Oxbridge banter, well then you have to prick that balloon don’t you?

People accept that if you have an English accent you must inherently be smarter. Ability to list at least one of the colleges at Oxford or Cambridge is tantamount to being accepted as having gone there. People are a little puzzled that there are actually other universities in England. I dont know where this comes from but it is endemic.

And people don’t believe you when you tell them people from England are just as stupid as everyone else. Well, people who have never met English package tourists anyway.

The flip side of the positive assumptions of being identified as being English is that you are emotionally remote, cold, crap in bed with really bad teeth. I fight the good fight by pointing to the works of Henry Fielding and Byron et al to dispel the bad in bed thing. The bad teeth thing is slightly harder. But the English are very emotional. You should see how I got when Stoke scored that crap goal the other day. But the English are, I admit, not as sentimental as North Americans. I’ve lived here for ages and I still can’t figure out why people cry on television when they win 200 bucks on Wheel of Fortune.

Now to work on my Terry Thomas impression. “Absolute Shah!”