Can Liverpool win the league?

After Ian Wright claimed at the weekend that Liverpool are his favourites to win the league, is the former player right? Can the Reds finally win the league title?

The Premier League top-four is a select group filled with the English heavyweights of football, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. This so-called ‘untouchable’ mini-league fight for the title each year, they boast some of the best players in the world, respected managers and endless bank balances.

Even as a Liverpool fan, I must admit Liverpool have failed to merit their place in this exclusive group over recent years. Despite Champions League success, Liverpool have had an average squad that has simply trailed off during the season. But even though as I write this it is not even half way through this season, I believe as a pessimistic (or maybe realistic?) fan, Liverpool have a real chance of League success for the first time in 18 years.

Early season results and league positions have put Liverpool in a strong position. Victories against Chelsea and Manchester United have demonstrated the team’s capacity to fight and beat the top teams. But these early season wins will mean nothing if Liverpool don’t keep winning. One problem with them has always been consistency. They have had good spells before but then they nose-dive, falling away as Manchester United or Chelsea pull away.

Another problem that has plagued Liverpool’s seasons has been the quality and depth of the squad. Even though I still feel there is room for improvement (a right-sided winger being the obvious weak point) the squad is defiantly better this year.

Benitez has brought in Albert Reira to other width on the left and Robbie Keane to support Fernando Torres up-front (though I am still not convinced that £20 million was really worth it!) When you combine this will Liverpool stalwarts like Gerrard and Carragher the squad finally looks worthy of title contention.

But the competition is stronger than ever and Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal have just as much chance of winning the league this season. Manchester United, as defending champions will still be favourites to retain their crown, and who could bet against a team that includes arguably the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Chelsea, under the guidance of Luiz Felipe Scolari have a new energy and attacking style that will make them hard to stop. And despite the recent problems I believe when Arsenal perform, no team can match their style of beautiful football. The reoccurrence of Torres' Hamstring injury will also hinder Liverpool, they need the Spaniard back fit and scoring as soon as possible.

But despite the quality of the opposition and unfortunate injuries I believe Liverpool do have the abilities to mount a serious title challenge. Manchester United may have the best player in the world on their team but I am unsure whether he is still a Manchester United player at heart, or if he wishes he was plying his trade in Madrid.

Chelsea may have advanced under Scolari's management but Liverpool's and more recently Arsenal's victory at Stamford Bridge shows that they are beatable. After Arsenal's recent troubles I am unsure whether Wenger's young guns can mentally and physically challenge for the title.

Liverpool may be underdogs (they are only third favourites with bookmakers for the title behind Chelsea and Manchester United at the moment) but if they continue to keep up with the pace and hold off the challenges of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal the title may be within the reaches of Rafa Benitez and Liverpool for the first time in many years.

(Image from The Sun)

The Gadget Show - G1 Google Phone

(posted on YouTube by The Gadget Show)

This is my first attempt at adding video to a post. I found the process very straight forward and after posting videos on many of my other posts I found it very useful. I am a regular user and a big fan of YouTube so I feel that blog posts really benefit visually and cotent wise from adding videos.

“We are going to redefine what journalism is” says new Wall Street Journal editor.

Photo by SOPHIE BORAZANIAN

Neil McIntosh, the new editor of the European edition of WSJ.com, spoke about the change in print and online journalism at a guest lecture at the University of Westminster.

He commented on the change in journalism and predicted that many regional newspapers; including The Herald and The Scotsman, could suffer because of the competitive market and the increasing popularity of online journalism.

Despite McIntosh claiming the industry is in “dark times” he was optimistic about the future of journalism. “It's an exciting time to be a journalist,” he added.

As the departing Head of Editorial Development at the Guardian.co.uk he spoke about the newspaper’s successful online edition. On Thursday it was announced the website had a worldwide audience of 25 million unique users, making it the most popular UK newspaper website. The Guardian is also moving to a new multi-media newsroom at Kings Place.

A successful part of the website has been blogs and comments. McIntosh revealed the Comment is free page on the Guardian's website increased page views up to 10 million. He also commented on the importance of blogs to journalists and aspiring writers, “it’s a place where you can show what you can do and experiment with multimedia,” he said.

McIntosh has previously worked as a feature writer, production journalist, reporter and columnist on various newspapers. He joined the Guardian in 1999 as the technology section’s deputy editor and in 2004 he became the assistant editor of Guardian Unlimited. At the end of the year he is joining the Wall Street Journal.

The Internet and the elderly links

• The University of Sydney study - A study from 2005 that is looking at those over 55 and not working in Australia.
  
• BBC News - Older people missing out on services because they dot use internet
• Forbes - Old people like web video, the online video audience is older than thought.
• Old man in Canada Blogging
• PC Plus - a survey about older people using internet to only check their emails
• Telegraph - Surfing the net is the top past-time for the elderly

Above are the links I found for a class activity we had to complete. I have found that linking is very important and beneficial to blog stories and I have found it useful to link out to news stories that I may be commenting on or other blogs.

The Times are changing....

When I flick through a copy of The Times or browse the website Times Online , I can clearly see that the two meduims may be from the same company but the differences in style, content and audience are clear.

Firstly the website is aimed at a younger audience, with a more modern design and style. One example of this is the logos; the newspaper has a traditional style title with the Times logo while the website has a modern colorful title, without the traditional logo.

The website also displays a lot more stories than the newspaper. This may be because the website is trying to appeal to a wider audience (rather than the newspaper addressing its target audience) by publishing a range of stories, from the more serious hard news to the softer, more popular news.

The Times Newspaper and its online edition are clearly separated from each other (a different approach to other newspapers like The Guardian). The newspaper is not interactive and has very few links to the website. The website, on the other hand, is very interactive. It provides links to videos, podcasts, Times Online TV and it helps readers navigate through the website with most read links and tag boxes of the most popular searches on Times Online.

The Times newspaper has a high readership in the ABC1 25-44 category. I think that the website provides a more modern, immediate, interactive and wider ranging coverage of the news for readers of different ages, genders and tastes. 

(Image from treehouse.org)

Talent not necessary, personality and/or sob story essential!

Gone are the days when the talent show was purely based on talent. The British public now demand more important characteristics when earmarking a star of the future; a great personality or a heart-wrenching sob story. What does the 'X' really stand for anymore?

In the past week popular TV talent shows have been thrown into controversy. On Saturday night Laura White, one of the favorites to win, was sensationally booted off the X Factor. This was followed by the even more bizarre result of Political broadcaster John Sergeant surviving another week in Strictly Come Dancing.

In the history of the X Factor and its predecessors (anyone remember Pop Idol?) there have been some surprising results and rarely has the show been out of the news. When it first started audiences fell in love with stuttering teen Gareth Gates but they still voted for the more talented Will Young to win. But these days the sob story of reasonable singer, Daniel Evans, gets more votes than the talented Jazz voice of Laura White.

Peculiar public voting has also effected Strictly come Dancing. Who could forget Kate Garraway continually being saved last year, despite scathing judges comments, terrible scores and continuos injury. 

This year's underdog, is lovable but truly terrible dancer, John Sergeant. Despite low scores and negative comments, Sergeant; dancing's version of Winnie the Pooh, according to judge Bruno Toniello, is still in the competition after a number of weeks. Whether it is based on sympathy, his warm personality or the public's desire to see him attempt a humiliating and painful Jive, Sergeant is still in the competition and may be for many more weeks.

Despite complaints from judges and viewers about recent results the public have spoken. While they still have the power to vote, audiences love the underdog, even if it is at the cost of a talented performer.  

 

(Image from unrealitytv.co.uk)