Graphic: Premier League survival rates

The graphic below shows the survival rates since the start of the millennium of teams promoted from The Championship.  It's a direct extension of a similar post authored at about this time last year.


Years continuously in the top division are indicated in azure, while seasons spent outside the Premiership are indicated by burnt red; green indicates years spent in the Premier League after being

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Some regeneration advice for Chelsea from Doctor Who

Courtesy: bandbent.wordpress.com


“Life depends on change, renewal”.



These were some of the first words
spoken by the second Doctor Who, all the way back in 1966. They were
needed because the original actor who played the Doctor, William
Hartnell, had left the series and moved on to a retirement home for
the terminally crotchety; he was replaced by a younger, fitter,
happier – at least

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Graphic: US arena naming rights

The following graphic shows the startling range of companies that have the naming rights for North American major league sports arenas, broken down by company market.  That is, each company is categorised according to its primary industry.



The category "other" includes all companies which sponsored only one arena, eg. Petco Park in San Diego is the only stadium sponsored by a pet service

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Arsenal finally swimming in the deep end

courtesy: guardian.co.uk/football

With
their acquisition
of Málaga's
Santi Cazorla,
Arsenal have for the third time this summer acquired a
potential Premier League star.
At worst, the twenty-seven year old will consign the
somewhat-resurgent Tomas Rosicky and a turgid Andrei Arshavin to the
North London scrapheap. At an unlikely best, his signature may even
convince Robin van Persie to stay

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Book review: Sixty years on the back foot, by Clyde Walcott

The Caribbean has produced several of
the greatest batsmen of all time. However, many of these players
seem to rail against faceless figures of authority. Currently,
talisman Chris Gayle swats boundaries at whim – more often for
lucrative T20 sides than for the West Indies. The chain which leads
back through the likes of Brian
Lara and Sir Vivian Richards – who was rather partisanly
profiled

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Scottish Premier League philosophy

On today's Guardian website, their
football page is headed by the redoubtable Ewan Murray's preview
of the Scottish Premier League. In it, the Guardian's main
football guy north of Hadrian's Wall suggests that Celtic are a
shoo-in for their 8th SPL title in 15 years. With Rangers out of
sight – and lucky to be alive – the SPL looks like being the most
boring league in Europe.




Barring an

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AC Milan: Ch-ch-ch-changes

Silvio Berlusconi doesn't do anything by half measures.



Two seasons ago, his club was perhaps the oldest elite team in Europe.  Although football's Peter Pan, Paolo Maldini, had retired, the Rossoneri claimed the Serie A title featuring almost an entire XI of thirtysomethings (Alessandro Nesta,  Mark van Bommel, Massimo Ambrosini, Clarence Seedorf, Gianluca Zambrotta, Pippo Inzaghi, Massimo

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