Tuesday 16th August

Swansea didn’t get off to the most promising starts in the premiership last night, losing 4 nil but it wasn’t all bad of course.

They played some very good football in the first 20 minutes and held their own most of the first half. The problem was when the first goal went in, the floodgates opened and Swansea were opened up regularly.

Apart from the fact that manchester city have the most expensive squad in the world, there was another major difference for me.

When a Manchester player had the ball, he usually just brushed away a Swansea city player with ease, because he was bigger and stronger, not necessarily quicker!

The same happened when Swansea had the ball, they were often pushed off the ball in a legal way by a stronger man city player, in fact it happened heck of a lot!!!

I trace this problem to what I saw of local football players over the last 15 years, they simply ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH, they are quick enough but not strong enough and need some serious strength work!!!

It makes me puzzled when I hear that Cardiff city for example only had their magnificent training facilities in place 2 years ago, despite getting £24 million in debt by spending on players, isn’t that crazy?!!!!!

My recent work with younger football players confirm what I expected, they are encouraged to do lots of running but little or no advice on strength work and certainly not much on diet!!!! I could go on record and be really blunt about the way they train at junior level in the professional clubs, but I want to come across as constructive and not negative, but things HAVE TO IMPROVE!!!!

It is criminal the lack of knowledge these clubs have and are too pig-headed to do anything about it!!!!!

Why are they spending money on all these players yet they could easily improve on what they have by making their current players fitter and stronger, and getting their diets so much more efficient and nutrient rich, I repeat again, THIS IS CRIMINAL IN TERMS OF WASTING TALENT!!!!!

The highest paid sport in the world and you have a proportion of their organisation at best ill-informed and if you had to be nasty about it, you would call them amateurs!!!!!

Welsh rugby is in far better shape now with conditioning.

I blogged before about the junior international I was training, and in his WRU diet, he was told to eat jam sandwiches as a snack!!!! Jam sandwiches I need to repeat that!!!!! What a joke they were and this was back in 1998/99!!!!! LUCKILY, they have come from there and got their act together!!!

It seems to me that football needs to get its act together and the swans need to get bigger and stronger, and could even improve their speed. How they are light years behind some sports is mystifying and must be very frustrating for their fans!!!!

Bellamy grabs the bulls by the horns

Great news yesterday that craig bellamy joined cardiff city.

He may irritate some people but thats his character and allows him to get the best out of himself.

He also does a huge amount for charity he never talks about so we have to give the break. His work in africa with young kids is already legendary behind the scenes.

He has given cardiff city a huge boost in their quest to get into the premiership, and its a huge gesture to come back down into the championship when he’s still at the peak of his powers. He was rated as 3rd best premiership player last year on stats alone, so forget any negative press, this man is on a mission to bring premiership football to wales!

Bellamy has this infectious character that can get the very best out of his team-mates. He won’t put up with big ego’s and will literally slam ANY player who is not pulling for the team. He will spot the pampered, lazy trainers a mile off, and there will be a completely new attitude down cardiff for the rest of the year.

So rather than be turned off by this misunderstood character, you should admire his hugely competitive spirit, his fighting nature even when the chips are almost completely down, and the level of hard work he will bring to youngsters all over cardiff and beyond.

There are already signs of his arrival. The club shirts have all sold out, season tickets have gone through the roof, saturday’s gate is likely to be massive and the influence he will have on the next generation will be immeasurable.

From this post, you can guess i like the anti-hero, the McEnroe’s of this world, the Botham’s, the Maradona’s, Daley Thompson etc. All the athletes who stick two fingers up at people who are trying to do the wrong thing and stifle the game, stuffyness has held back sport in this country for far too long.

 These athletes were freedom fighters in my book, and will do more good in one day than all the guys in blazers in the FA, the cricket associations, the athletics boards etc.

These people put bums on seats and flat-out inspire people to take up sports, to play with passion and create the next generation of champions.

So the bottom line is that im expected about bellamy being in cardiff, and long may the benefits he brings continue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!