Did they, USA, think that this stupid move will work?! Creating a news channel in the Middle East and publicly announcing that it is backed by the government of USA, actually the U.S. government spent $350 dollars from taxpayers on this project, if they just asked, they would have known that this project is simply not going to work. The funny thing is that they thought they will be spreading democracy in the Middle East through such a channel.
So although here in the Middle East we know for a fact that its a flop, you know there in U.S. they love surveys and polls, so a new survey done in six countries in the Middle East stated that only two percent tune to the channel as a first choice for news source.
“Arabs sit in their homes in front of the television, and they surf like crazy,” said Hisham Melhem, a Washington-based anchor for al-Arabiya. “You rarely find someone who says they watch al-Hurra. It may be number 10 on their dial. But definitely not first, not second, not third, not fourth.”
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June 24th, 2008
We waited and waited, and waited, some said its a done deal, some said it will happen today, tomorrow, next week. Now we can finally say that Samir Nasri who some like to call him “The New Zinedine Zidane” or “The Next Zidan” is a Gunner. Arsene Wenger was not the only one who wanted to sign Nasri, Athletico Madrid joined the bidding war and tried to affect the deal.
There were some issues in regarding to the wages, but either way it seemed that this was only going to be decided after Euro 2008. So France is out from Group Stages, less than two days later he is taking the medical and signing a four years deal with Arsenal. It had been said that Nasri had a buy-out clause of £13.5 Million.
He effectively can play on both wing sides, Nasri have scored six goals in thirty matches he played for Marseille.
Does this signing have any direct effect on who is leaving Arsenal?, Milan are heavily after Adebayor and it sure looks like he will be their man eventually, and hleb, who Nasri is believed to be filling his place, is wanted by Inter and Barca, but he is heading to Barcelona because I think Inter Milan will be getting Roma’s Mancini instead.
Samir Nasri is a very talented player, a great addition to Arsenal, but what is next? We clearly need more players, Arsene Wenger needs to get an established player, like Nasri who is great, but we need more players in other positions. Around two months are left, lets see what happens.
And now have a look at the new gem that joined the Gunners:
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June 20th, 2008
I love comedy shows, who doesn’t, and believe me I love Ikbis too, I am actually an Ikbis user, and I do find their contest ideas interesting, Airplane Contest Singing Contest and so on. They even have a new contest choosing the best of your uploaded images to be hanged on their wall, you might end up getting an Ikbis mug, I know its not much but still new and nice way to engage the users. They are trying to build an interactive community, so that is great.
Their latest “thing” is a new Comedy show named “Ground Zero”, Only 2 episodes have been released til now, and more to come for sure. They are very short episodes, each episode has 3 segments, Movie Dubbing, Lost in Translation and Coming Soon Movies. The show has some other tiny segments, such as the intro and the end bits. I will be a liar if I say I didn’t laugh, I did laugh but I think, and after watching both episodes, the only “FUNNY” part of the show is the “Doblage” Movies Dubbing segment.
The other segments are simply NOT FUNNY, the intro is ok the Movie Dubbing is Hilarious, the Lost in Translation segment were they translate English sentences or proverbs into Arabic which could sound funny is not really funny, but the really really REALLY annoying segment is the last one where a pirate appears and start speaking in English and tries to crack a joke or two and then they show a movie’s trailer, that I can easily say is not funny and even ANNOYING.
The two guys, Mike V.Derderian and Mohammad Jaradat are talented, and I see potential in the show, and it might end up to be a net sensation, but they really need to reorganize their show, cancel segments and add new segments. The possibilities are endless here.
Here are both Episodes…
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June 1st, 2008
Report after report, rumor after the other, linking the 22 years old Frenchman to multiple clubs such as Juventus and Inter Milan. In the end AC Milan is where he will be heading this summer. Flamini told his friends in Arsenal about his move this summer.
Well, I feel that Flamini is a good player and I think him moving now at this time is not a good choice for him. He has well established himself in Arsneal and if he just be patient enough he will be a big star, but it looks like his heart is set on leaving.
On the other hand, another Arsenal player is moving, Aliaksandr Hleb is also expected to head to Italy and play for Inter Milan. I guess he will be replacing Figo.
The real question now is what does Arsene Wenger has in mind? Will we see another season of barely buying players, or getting unexperienced youngsters.
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May 2nd, 2008
News of the World is claiming that Henry is looking forward for the summer to leave Barcelona, its also believed that he prefers to be back to EPL, specifically London. Well we all know that he did struggle this season he only scored 7 goals from his 25 appearances, so the news was not a shock to many people who follow his news.
So its not wether he would leave or not, its where is he heading. Many Arsenal fans are looking forward for him to be back where he left last season, but I really doubt that happening. Actually I see that Arsenal is better without Henry, and don’t look to our status now we did suffer heavily from injuries. I think the players felt more at ease when Henry left and they became more creative, I believe that Arsene Wenger himself wont allow him to be back.
But the excuse he is using to leave Barca is that he is not seeing his daughter “Tea” as much as he wants after he broke up with Claire Merry. So what?! he didn’t know this would happen before signing for Barcelona!! Please…. Anyway its expected that Chelsea will most likely end up getting his signature, other team such as Newcastle and Manchester City are also watching and trying but it would take something so special to lure him.
A while after “News of the World” broke the story the Barca chief dismissed the news and ruled out his move. But I guess this is just playing games.
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April 20th, 2008
After seasons and seasons of exclusively airing the UEFA Champions League, ART now loses those rights to Aljazeera Sport Channel. Aljazeera won those rights and for the UEFA cup for at least the next three seasons from 2009 to 2012. Aljazeera also got the rights to broadcast the UEFA Super Cups for 2009, 2010 and 2011.
What is really interesting also is that Aljazeera also got the rights to exploit those competitions on the Internet and Mobiles. It is said that Aljazeera will be selling some of he matches to free-to-air channels, those matches are expected to be in the UEFA Cup and not the UEFA Champions League.
At start there has been a few doubts on how Aljazeera Sports Channel will be able to manage to air big number of matches that play at the same time, as we know Aljazeera has now only two free-to-air channels and two “pay TV” channels, with an additional one to start soon, so to clear those doubts Aljazeera announced that they will be adding new channels that works only on matches times.
In my opinion Aljazeera Sports is better than ART, they respect the championships they have rights to, they create appropriate analysis studios they employ capable analysts and presenters. Simply speaking they are well organized, and willing to go all the way to produce high quality coverage.
In regard to ART Sports future it seems they are doomed, although some rumors say that they will be having the Italian League in FULL starting from next season, if there is any true to this it could save them but I really wish they don’t get it in full, Aljazeera is better capable to give this league the kind of attention it deserves. I really wish this Mary go around thing with the leagues ends, I wish one capable network takes all of them so we can just subscribe to one network.
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February 20th, 2008
Arsene Wenger is the ultimate superstar maker, he gets youngsters and within couple of seasons they become wanted by all clubs in the world, and I respect him for that, and I am always happy to hear that new young talented players are joining Arsenal. The only thing I demand from Mr. Arsene Wenger is that I think we need at least one new player who is already a superstar, already a world class and who is already established talented player, you know those who we usually end up selling, such as Henry!
I really wish to see Wenger splash some cash to get a new FAMOUS player, I know everybody thinks that doing that might disrupt the harmony in the team, but I think it might be useful for the youngsters. Actually Wenger himself have said today that he was happy that Lehmann and Gilberto are staying and that it is good for the young players.
Anyway, lets talk about those two new players who do seem to be on their way to Arsenal during this winter transfer window, the first one is an English youngster, which is kind of strange as Wenger is not used to look for English players, with exception of Theo Walcott ofcourse. Luke Freeman is a very talented 15 years old striker who plays for Gillingham in League One. He made history when he became the youngest player to play in the FA Cup when he played for his club against Barnet.
Wenger is always criticized that his squad do not have enough English players, now he says that most of the youngsters he have are English and that he is very impressed by Luke Freeman and very interested in making him an Arsenal player very soon. He did admit that normally he would wait until a young player reaches the age of 17 or 18 but nowadays managers from all clubs are on the watch for those youngsters.
Arsene Wenger said: “I met the boy, I like him, his personality, he looks alert, He is a striker and at 15 years of age to play for the first team sometimes is something special.”
The other young talent that also might be on his way to Arsenal is Dentinho who is an 18 years old striker he plays for Corinthians in Brazil. The plan is to get him this month to get him used to the weather and get him ready to play next season. He have featured 4 times for his club bagging a goal in the process. He is one of the most wanted Brazilian youngsters. So Wenger seems to be looking for Strikers, and I still believe that Wenger needs to splash some cash to get a world class talent.
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January 12th, 2008
Borussia Dortmund announced today that the deal to sign Jens Lehmann this winter collapsed after the player decided he rather stay with Arsenal. Lehmann’s contract with Arsenal expires in the summer, and Wenger have said earlier that he wont stand in the goalkeeper’s way to return to Germany, but it seems Lehmann believe he can regain his position and the trust of Arsene Wenger.
This is what he had to say today: “Although it would have been a very attractive challenge to play for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga once again, I have decided against taking this step due to personal reasons, I am sorry, particularly to disappoint the people responsible at Borussia Dortmund, who have tried very professionally to convince me to move and gave me sufficient time for consideration.”
Ofcourse the Germany coach Joachim Low and team manager Oliver Bierhoff backed Lehmann’s choice. Even Wenger stated today that he is happy Lehmann is staying and that he will be included in the next match against Birmingham. He said: “Lehmann will be on the bench, the indication I can give is that I am happy if he stays because he is an important player in the squad, like Gilberto also. We have such a young squad that these players have a big weight in the dressing room and a big input in the team. I am happy if they stay.”
Although am happy he is staying, but I find his decision a bit odd, he knows Almunia is number one now and it would take more than a couple of bad performances by Almunia to make Lehmann first choice again, what is he depending on, that Almunia is injured?? On the second hand, his national team manager already informed him only players who play regularly with their clubs will be considered to represent Germany in Euro 2008!
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January 12th, 2008
When the transfer window opened Real Madrid offered Manchester United 60 millions euros for Cristiano Ronaldo, but Manchester told Real not to bother by making any offers below 100 million euros which is around £73.9 million. And even then they still might not sell the player.
Personally I think Real Madrid will eventually cave and pay whatever Manchester requests, the player is talented and Real Madrid want his badly, and it will be one of the most additions to the squad in Calderon’s history. But the real question now is who will Real Madrid sell and will this sale disrupt the harmony of the squad.
I wont be surprised if Real Madrid was successful in buying Berbatov from Tottenham and Ronaldo from Manchester United by the end of the transfer window. But at the same time, I expect the sale of at least 2 to 3 players, one of those will be a critical player who played well in the first half of this season. Lets see what happens, but I will be surprised if Real Madrid made no purchases this January.
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January 4th, 2008
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