It's hope, that's all...

King Kenny. Hope. What's the difference? When Rafa Benitez left Liverpool last week by mutual consent, it began. Nobody likes change at the best of times, but usually a managerial change at a football club is a result of things not going too well. In that respect change is easier to accept as it offers hope. And hope is where we all fall down!


To my memory Benitez and his £6million settlement is probably the most expensive scape goat in town. I'd happily do it for half! That Liverpool finished seventh in the league, dropped out of the Champions League early and failed to reach the final of the Europa League are footballing key performance indicators and commonly used to judge the success of a football club. When they come up short as happened this season, the person accountable for the footballing side of the club is the person with whom the failure is laid. That doesn't really tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.


That being the unstable ownership of the club, no clear strategy or direction, debt previously unknown and a changing climate in which the economics of football are played out. A club can not aimlessly pay millions of pounds in transfer fees each season regardless of other non-footballing key performance indicators and rightly so. Liverpool it was reported in the Guardian recently suffered from not heeding that principle even under David Moores and Rick Parry so it is not a new practice that should lay accusingly at the feet of the current owners. Spending within your means is valid on a personal level right through to large corporate organisations to governments and countries. That lesson can be seen wherever you turn today. 


One of the many issues that contributed to poor on-field results was that of money. How much and how to spend it. Gareth Barry's protracted non-transfer, Rick Parry's departure and Rafa's new contract are all examples of that. One of the clearest mantras a manager in any business can have is 'no surprises'. Ability means you can manage with what you have, so long as you know what you have in a timely manner. That Benitez was perceived to have spent poorly in the transfer market was not a measure of his ability but more an outcome of the lack of timeliness in agreeing what funds were available. A fact that seems lost amongst poor results and a slide down the league table. 


So how does all that relate to hope? As a manager sets out the philosophy, identity, values and beliefs of a team he or she managers, then new manages bring about revolutionary change. And if, as is often the case, the old manager left because things were bad, then revolutionary change by default is good, yes?


That leads to hope that things will be better in the future. Sometimes it is, often it isn't. Hope is currently what is fuelling media speculation and more generous journalism. Reality hasn't yet had it's chance. And when it does...?


The reality for Liverpool tempers hope. Same owners, same debt. Same players since no money is available to reshape the team. Less money as there will be no Champions League revenue. So who'd want the job? Speculation in this area is endless but misses the point. Look more closely at Benitez's departure and the clues are there.


Who sacked him (mutually of course!)? Martin Broughton, the new Chariman. And why is Broughton at the club? At the behest of the owners to sell the club. So why is someone who is trying to sell the club sacking the current manager? It would appear there is sufficient circumstantial evidence to suggest in parting with Benitez he was going about his business of selling the club.


If new owners wanted Benitez gone it could have cost £16m. New ownership and new money and Benitez probably would have not taken the £6m compromise. Benitez was also hugely powerfull: first team manager, overseer of the reserves and the academy and solely in charge of transfers. All of which have been shaped in his image. A change of owners and a change of approach and that is a large, well paid obstacle in the way!


So maybe Broughton let Benitez go to satisfy potential buyers waiting in the wings. Or maybe just to get his house in order before attracting investment. Either way it seems it was done for a purpose. Which brings us once again to the issue of hope.


If the above theory is correct, why would Liverpool appoint a manager before selling the club? Unless prospective owners have identified the person they wish to take over? A more sensible tactic would be to appoint someone in the interim. Someone to carry on the work of Benitez without the investment required in huge personnel changes. In my opinion this would be where Sammy Lee would step forward. The media are focusing on King Kenny but I am fairly confident Sammy would be the chosen one, probably mentored or supported in an executive capacity by Dalglish. Keeps things neat, tidy and cheap, and the seat warm for someone else in the future. 


Reality versus hope. Who wins? You decide!

The Flickr experiment: part 2

IMG_0410[1]
Originally uploaded by benchadwick

This post is the output from the Flickr website apps to blog a photo. Just playing around to see how it works. Nice little bit of code given to tag the post, interested to see if that works...?

tags: Technology, Flickr

Finally mastered the Flickr iPhone App!

I downloaded the Flickr iPhone app around the same time as Adobe launched their Photoshop app. Having played around with both I'd come to the somewhat rushed conclusion that Flickr allowed multiple uploads whilst the Photoshop app allowed you to edit photos. Why I'm not a professional product reviewer I'll never know!


My experience of both apps pretty much stopped in its tracks after that. I'd no real use for them and the experience of using Flickr was still preferable from a laptop as opposed to the iPhone. However a random set of circumstances involving a new personal project (just bought a house) and a boring train journey from Liverpool to London yesterday has changed my perception somewhat. 


As many a novice to DIY will testify, speed dial 'home' on your mobile tends to be dusted off form it's University days of calling for money, laundry advice and how to poach an egg! I've found myself constantly on the phone to my Dad seeking advice for the more mature issues of sanding floorboards, using Polly Filler (incidentally this is a great advert that my Dad found!) and finding the right pipes to plumb the washing machine in.


I've also noticed that most of these calls are accompanied by the iphone photo! A picture really does paint a thousand words. I'd call, explain my problem then email over a couple of photos to illustrate my point. It seems to work well and the rates are cheap! All of which has culminated in a growing collection of photos on my iPhone that have a theme, a link and warrant being collated into something approaching a photo set, something the other random photos on there certainly don't. 

So, bored on the train, I decided to see what would be involved in uploading the floor renovating photos to Flickr. The results were pleasantly encouraging. You can add each photo to a set, give it a title and description and upload them as a batch instead of singularly (restriction of the Photoshop app). The T-Mobile WiFi on Virgin Trains is flaky at best so I was surprised at how well it coped with the task. The outcome was that I could relatively simply upload albums to Flickr from my phone whilst genuinely on the move. 


There were a couple of notable restrictions, however: you can't easily share the album from within the iPhone App and you can only email out one photo at a time. I'm such such basic functionality with be added in due course. 


So now I have a couple of sets on flickr, the old floor and the new floor albums which are the final output from an iphone enabled process. Documenting projects and experiences such as DIY using the iPhone camera and Flickr app is a great example of how the iphone technology can really underpin and support day to day activities in a way that is non intrusive and effective. That might sound a little deep, but I think it's important to establish reasons and use cases for technological advances rather than the pure innovation and technical development.  

The Google Chrome Comic Book

I stumbled across this comic and thought it might be of interest. A non-techy story of what Google is doing in terms of browser development.


http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/

BBC Test Match Special Widget

Introducing the new Test Match Special Widget to my blog. You can find it within this post or it's more permenant position at the bottom of the sidebar. If you use it, let me know your thoughts.

The Mendelssohn Effect

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's music is growing on me. I fear it may too be growing on the South Liverpool Rehearsal Orchestra's conductor too, although he probably would not admit to it.


I've always liked Mendelssohn and studied the Hebrides Overture at A Level. Although our analysis focused on the Scottish influences to the overture rather than studying Mendelssohn's music in particular, I find it is easier to identify a piece as Mendelssohn more so than other composers (not least because his name is written on the music in front of me!). With the orchestra we've already played the Scottish Symphony and now we've moved onto the Italian. What stands out is how relatively simple it is to hear the cultural heritage of both symphonies. My immediate impression on the first run through was that this is what the soundtrack to The Sopranos would have sounded like had television and HBO been around during Mendelssohn's time!


Like Schubert's Unfinished symphony that the orchestra played last year, Mendelssohn elicits strong melodic lines that I find myself repeating in the car from rehearsals and over the next few days. I also like the way he tends to couple the Trumpet (I'd say Brass section but there's only me and a Horn!) with the Horn in similar fashion to a lot of music we play by Beethoven, Dvorak, Rossini, Schubert etc., then almost from no-where send them their separate ways. The Trumpet part in particular often bears little resemblance to what's gone before and I confess it often takes me a few passes to piece it all together. The result is often quite an astute and poignant decoration of a more dramatic or climatic section of the music. (I hope I don't insult with the inclusion of 'astute'. It is meant to convey subtle, discrete writing that captures the poignancy of the Trumpet accompaniment).


The Mendelssohn isn't the only piece that has caught my attention this term. I'm really taking a liking to a lot of the repertoire. At the moment Beethoven's Egmont Overture and Tchaikovsky's Orchestral Suite No 4 (better known as 'Mozartiana') in addition to the Italian symphony make quite a set list during rehearsals. The Egmont offers some dramatic Trumpet blowing and the Mozartiana, although lacking in serious employment for the Trumpet, is great to listen to (while counting, obviously!). 


The concert is planned for the end of May, more details to follow.

YouTube and the IPL: Error Message!

I'm not all that bothered about the IPL or indeed T20. I watched a few internationals and a couple of the tournaments on TV but I still find there is something undignified about it. In short, too many 'non cricket shots' for a purist such as myself.


I was however, mildly interested to see how YouTube's handling of the IPL would work out. Streaming competitions on the internet, free to all, is undoubtedly the future and I'm sure for YouTube and some as yet undiscovered start ups there will be a huge amount of commercial success in such a venture. I'm just not convinced the IPL would be the platform I'd choose to launch it. 


I've found when trying to catch the odd IPL game over the past couple of years that I simply don't know enough about it for the game in front of me to be engaging. I barely recognise the team names, let alone 80% of the players. That makes it very hard to grasp at a hook with which to become interested. Exposure through YouTube and ITV4's coverage will help in that regard, but it's difficult to watch a game of cricket on TV as a neutral.


Like it's first day coverage (see picture) YouTube's broadcast venture with the IPL may have gotten off to a sticky start, but I'm sure the business model and technical challenges will be established and overcome through the IPL experience. 


In a few years when we're signing in to watch the latest stream from the Olympics, the IPL experience will seem insightful.