Some great news and some dreadful news

The Great News

Seems "The Special One" and Roman can no longer co-exist. To me, this is about the greatest thing to happen so far this season. With this parting, the team that built Rome in a day will now watch their empire crumble. Seriously, Mourinho leaving the Chelskis drops their worth considerably. Watch all the fickle, plastic fans panic and doff their blue shirts in favor of red ones with "AIG" written on the front.

And now, a song:

"YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL!
YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL!
YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL ANYMORE!
YOU'RE NOT SPECIAL AAANNNYMORE!"


The Dreadful News

F me... This is somewhat of a nightmare. The number of times my fragile nerves can survive seeing any more of Sami Hyypia (faithful servant, yes, but he's not much to write home about, these days) isn't more than a handful. Who to partner alongside Carragher in those times of need when Hyypia is spent or just isn't up to it (see: yesterday at Porto)? Jack Hobbs? Arbeloa has, in fact, played center back in the past. He was tossed around as an option earlier this season, remember, when Carra went down. But since Carra is Superman, Arbs didn't have to worry about playing in the center. I'm thinking he could do a job of it, though.

As for losing Xabi? Well, with Gerrard still a slight bit gimpy and Momo Sissoko healing from a minor knock, Alonso's news comes at a bad time. However, there is plenty of cover in central midfield with Mascherano, a healthy Gerrard and Sissoko, and perhaps Benayoun will be able to fill when not used on the wing. If needed, of course. Youngers Leto and Lucas are raring to crack the lineup, too.

Thankfully, the away CL match against Porto is out of the way. Even while playing horribly, yesterday, we have to be very pleased with this result. I had figured that we'd only come away from this game (and perhaps @ Besiktas, too) with just a point. Good result for such a shit performance.

- We missed Xabi tremendously.
- Pennant is a petulant child.
- I'm still outraged that Hyypia got the start over Agger (but now, I at least know why).
- Kuyt MotM by a mile.

I don't think anyone is upset with the RESULT. The disappointment from most people stems from how we played. The result is an excellent one, no doubt, but it looks even better given how sloppy we looked with respect to our shaky opening half in defense, our difficulty in stringing passes, and Pennant's mental breakdown. But a point from our most difficult fixture in the group stage? Gotta like that. Bring on poor, poor Birmingham this weekend.

Donovan McNabb race-card revisited

Excellent op-ed from columnist Jason Whitlock regarding the latest Donovan McNabb witch hunt. Whitlock's probably the only guy with the balls to put McNabb's "controversial" comments about feeling more pressure as a black QB into context. I'm a big McNabb guy, frankly, and couldn't help but nod my head in agreement after each paragraph.

However...

Shed no tears for McNabb, model of consistency and superstar that he is. Peyton Manning, the whitest guy around, had more than his fair share of undue pressure. Until he finally won the big one, that is. What am I saying? I'm saying that winning the Superbowl cures all if your focus is simply quelling the masses. People en masse don't have time for the intricacies of any given story. Just feed them the headline and move them along. It's a sound-byte, SportsCenter-driven world we live in. And when you've got the talent like McNabb does, guess what? You're going to get steaming piles of undue praise and criticism (depending on your most recent performance) because you're a superstar quarterback. Black or white. Hell, it took all of one statistically impressive season for the nation to fall in love with Daunte Culpepper even though he underachieved in Minnesota with regularity. Vince Young averages something pitiful like 125 passing yards per game, yet he's got a bandwagon the size of Tennessee.

But people don't have time to dwell on the fact that you've never had a supporting cast to get the ball to. Sadly, nobody outside of Philadelphia (and even then...) is looking to Jeff Lurie to rectify that situation. As far as the nation is concerned, McNabb should be good enough to overcome his offense's general lack of talent (Brian Westbrook accepted). That is what's unfair. Is it racist? Well, not really so much as it is stubborn on the part of Lurie and Andy Reid. Reviving Whitlock's comparison of the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, yes, Bob Kraft finally broke down this summer and got his QB some receivers after some squawking from the locker room and an all-too-telling performance in the AFC Championship game punctuated what Brady had been griping about for the last two Superbowl trophy-less seasons. But I suppose when you're thrown under the bus by your teammates for not being "black enough," it is hard for these types of concerns to gain traction with the higher-ups in the organization.

Anyway, all told, I'm still a McNabb guy. He's still not 100% as evidenced by the loss on Monday night. Should be interesting to see when he breaks down this season. I still think the Eagles are good enough to win that division. Even with the death knell of an 0-2 start.