The curious case of Fabien Delph

At 19, Fabien Delph was touted as a great talent and a future England player.

Dream move!

After sealing a dream move to the Premier Leagues' Aston Villa in August 2009 from a lowly Leeds United outfit (I must profess to being a long-term Leeds supporter) plying it's trade in League One, it appeared that young Delph had hit the jackpot.
Already in his short career he had earned a handful of caps for the England Under 19's and 21's, been named Leeds players' player of the season and won the Football League's Young Player of the Year. So when the substantial amount of almost £8m was paid to acquire Delph's extremely sought after signature, many onlookers weren't too surprised by the hefty fee.

Another award!

Fast track forward almost three years and the contrast could not be more stark. The now 22 year old Delph's Villa career is hanging in the balance due to an alarming loss of form (admittedly not helped by long term injuries and being played out of position) and most notably a huge lack of confidence in his ability.
(He certainly hasn't repaid the large sum of money Villa forked out for him in the first place in terms of quality performances that have been few and far between.)

After seemingly falling out of favour with their much maligned former manager Alex McCleish, the latest manager to fill the dugout is rising star Paul Lambert who will surely decide Delph's future at the club.
Will he be deemed surplus to requirements or under Lambert's tutelage will he reinvigorate this once precocious talent?

After trawling through vast amounts of forums, topics and articles on Delph, it appears the general consensus for the transfer was welcomed by the Villa faithful to the point of genuine excitement upon his arrival just over three years ago. Unfortunately that enthusiasm and optimism has slowly seeped away, deteriorating into an overwhelming and almost universal disappointment.

With just 34 appearances for the Villains in almost four seasons, many managers would have been forgiven for letting the youngster attempt to seek pastures new.
At times he has definitely not helped his cause as just a few months ago Delph, Chris Herd and former teammate James Collins were involved in a what appeared to be drunken brawl, though the trio claim they were sober, in the early hours of the morning outside a nightclub in Birmingham. Despite issuing a remorseful apology the players were still reprimanded by the Club and fined for their callous actions.
Last season was certainly one to forget for everyone involved at the club, maybe none more so than Delph. So will he and should he be given that second chance?

Perhaps the fact he has had to endure several severe injuries in his short career, Delph is still a bit of an enigma and has not been given sufficient time to blossom, which is why he still remains at the club.

This question was instantly quelled by many supporters who commented that Delph was unable to pass consistently to teammates, make a telling contribution on games and picked up several bookings in the process for needless challenges. Yes he has had a series of debilitating injuries but is that enough to justify his inability to perform the bread and butter facets of the game? Surely not.

England glory days

A 'false dawn' is perhaps an accurate and succinct way to summarise Delph's career at Villa to date, but many still hold high hopes for the former England Under 21 International. Every now and again there has been a spark of promise in a pre-season game for instance, giving fans the belief he might have regained that swashbuckling, bullish and confident character that exhibited his intangible ability to excite, engage and uplift a club that deserves better.
Though it has been said before and it may be said again, now is the time for Delph to really show what he is made of.

Despite rumours of Delph possibly being loaned out for the 2012/13 season according to a source at the Sun newspaper, (not the most reliable source of information it has to be said) this did not come to fruition and Lambert made it clear that he is part of his plans for the club to move forward.
After impressing in pre-season there was renewed optimism that this was the season Delph would finally deliver. Yet again, however, his hopes were dashed after not being included in the matches against Swansea and Newcastle and was an unused substitute against Everton.
What is puzzling is that Delph started the first game of the season away to West Ham, putting in a solid yet unspectacular shift, but since then hasn't tasted any Premier League action. Coincidentally Delph impressed against Tranmere towards the back end of August but surely the outlook for Fabien Delph is bleak if he is limited to just Capital One Cup, formerly known as the Carling Cup, games against lower league opposition.

Has the sun set on Delph's short and sporadic Aston Villa career? Well not for the foreseeable future at least as his contract runs out in 2015 but will Lambert cut his losses and try to sell him before then or loan him to a club to try and regain any sort of form? The loan route would surely be the sensible option if he is not in Lambert's immediate plans, but Delph appears up for the fight, 'if I get a setback I'm never going to let my head go down and give up, I'm going to keep fighting'. He will need all the fight he can muster as he is currently fighting for his future at the club it seems.

'That Goal' against Brighton

Whatever happens with Fabien Delph, I do hope he rekindles that form where many heralded him as one of the best young talents the country had to offer, that won him all those accolades and a handful of England Under 19 and 21 caps. The form where his elegant but powerful runs left defenders trailing in his wake, the insatiable desire to win the tackle and those goals..... The 30 yard screamers, that audacious long range lob at Stockport and 'that goal' against Brighton, voted goal of the season in 2009, where the then teenager ran a full 70 yards before showing stunning composure and outrageous quality to curve the ball past a hapless, stranded keeper; ah those were the days.
My instinct tells me that Delph may not be a Villa player for too much longer or at least he won't play a big part in Villa's plans this season which would be a bitter pill to swallow. For such a young talented player to not fulfill his vast potential and light up the Villa Park crowd as he did so effortlessly on numerous occasions at Elland Road is a real shame. But maybe, just maybe, he is not cut out for the fast paced and ruthless Premier League and is truly out of his depth, only time will tell.

So will it be sayonara Fabien or will he become very much part of the Villa furniture? I truly hope that the latter will eventuate sooner rather than later.

Isn't it about time a Paralympian won the Sports Personality of the year award?

In light of the recent, spectacular and eye opening Paralympics I have had a change of heart carrying on from the previous thread (where I put forward the cases of messrs Bradley Wiggins and Mo Farah to claim the gong). I feel compelled to write this about our British Paralympic heroes and their respective chances for the coveted Sports Personality award so here goes.

Since the Sports Personality of the Year award's grand inauguration in 1954, 57 proud male and female athletes have deservedly won the most sought after British sporting accolades in recognition of their achievements.

The likes of Sarah Storey, Ellie Simmonds, David Weir, Tanni Grey Thompson, Lee Pearson, David Roberts and Mike Kenny have collectively accumulated an astonishing gold medal hawl of 69, at an average of almost 10 golds per athlete, astounding isn't it? If they were able bodied athletes surely they would have won the award by now.
So why has a Paralympian such as these brilliant athletes never won Sports Personality of the Year?

Who will lift this trophy in 2012?

Exposure for one. Until very recently, a Paralympic athlete will never attract as much media coverage, attention and sponsorship as able bodied athletes such as Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps or Jessica Ennis which is a great shame.
Secondly the Paralympics have, wrongly but undeniably, always played second fiddle to the Olympics in terms of crowds, ticket prices and prestige.
The fact that the Paralympics only became united with the Olympics in Athens 2004 illustrates how little interest there was in the Games until only a decade ago or so. These reasons explain why the likes of Tanni Grey Thompson (she has won the welsh version several times and good on her!) or Mike Kenny
 (the most successful British Paralympian of all time who recently vented his displeasure at being 'airbrushed out' and not given the recognition he deserves with knighthoods being given to many athletes with a far inferior medal tally)
have not held the Titular award but to hardly ever be nominated seems wrong.

Once, twice, thrice, four times a winner!

David Weir, now a British sporting legend, commented on his first Paralympic games in Atlanta 1996 that he 'could only count five people in the crowd at times, it was very disheartening and I fell out of love with the sport'. Luckily the Brit was inspired by the endeavors of the victorious British Paralympians, most notably Tanni Grey Thompson, at the Sydney Olympics four years later and vowed to 'never let himself down again' and boy has he not!

Since the Paralympics commencement in Rome 1960 the event has slowly but surely continued to grow and now the the greatest ever Paralympic games descended upon London, giving the British Public, as the channel 4 broadcasting team brilliantly put it, the chance to 'Meet the Superhumans'. Truer words have never  been spoken right? These athletes really are superhuman.

The Superhumans!

This brings me back to my original point.
Paralympians' achievements are perhaps more remarkable and unlikely as they have had to go through the likes of Amputation, Cerebral Palsy, Visual Impairment and Spinal Injuries, than those who are not handicapped by any physical or mental ailments.
And yet year after year non-disabled athletes fill every nomination with not even a mention for these 'superhumans' (bar a superhuman effort from the then 13-year-old Ellie Simmonds in Beijing who won Young Sports Personality of the Year) which is mystifying and even unjustified.

However finally it seems the rest of the world has got its act together (of course with the wonderful British public's support leading the way) as this years Paralympics was by far the greatest of them all and one none of us will ever forget.
Though Sydney really got the ball rolling with record crowds over 1.2 million, a whopping 300 million viewers tuned in and an impressive 13,000 volunteers turned out to make the Games as Tanni Grey Thompson beautifully put it 'a magical athletic Disneyland'.
Athens and Beijing have helped to build the momentum of the Games further still but it is right here in our own backyard that the Paralympics has snowballed into this colossal phenomenon.

Golds galore!

According to the London 2012 Paralympic website, almost 3 million tickets were sold (almost a million more than Beijing), a record 150 hours of TV broadcasting hours, the highest ever amount of participants, volunteers and countries involved, ground breaking revenues and best of all the most successful Team GB medal haul for over a century.

What was previously seen as an event in the Olympics shadow may even be on a par with it but more importantly it is finally getting the attention it deserves. Seb Coe spoke of the Games having a 'seismic shift in shifting public attitudes' whereas others have rightly claimed it as a 'seminal moment for Paralympic sport'.
To once again quote Seb Coe, it would be a 'seismic shift' to see a Paralympian win Sports Personality of the Year.
The statement by UK Sport Chief Executive Liz Nicholl encapsulates this momentous occasion so perfectly. 'The London Paralympic Games will be remembered as a time when we saw ability first and disability second'.
Whoever wins the award deserves it but surely after such an eye opening couple of weeks, a Paralympic athlete should at least get nominated, and nominated more often in the future, and possibly even win it.
It is important to not go down the sympathy route and say 'they should get it as they are disabled'. They should win it because they have worked just as hard, if not harder than everyone else because of their disability, and because they have achieved a staggering amount of success against the very best.

What a team GB makes!

So London 2012 has drawn to a close in an unforgettable sporting summer. Wasn't it uplifting that for once we could talk about this rather than getting bogged down in the economy and the government for example, and instead we have rejoiced and marveled in the wonder of sport. I think we can all safely say that over the last few months we have been oh so proud to be British!

Mo Farah or Bradley Wiggins for Sports Personality of the Year?

The Greatest Team GB ever!

History has been made, a record breaking year for British sport has left us absolutely spoiled with riches over the past few months, with so many incredible triumphs from teams and individuals all across the board. The now dubbed 'Super Saturday' will live long in the memory where three Athletics golds were posted, most notably from the face of the Olympics, Sheffield's very own poster girl Jessica Ennis. Honorable mentions and headline grabbers will go to the likes of Chris Hoy, Ben Ainslie, Victoria Pendleton, Katherine Grainger and Nicola Adams, and those Paralympic superhumans of Sarah Storey, David Weir, Hannah Cockroft and Ellie Simmonds to mention just a handful in a pot of many great champions in this the most competitive sporting year, arguably of all time!

It is wrong to say one achievement is greater than another as the Brits were dancing with the stars this summer but for me two athletes in particular stand out.

Wiggo the time trialing machine!

The all conquering European, World and now Olympic Champion Mo Farah and Bradley Wiggins, Olympic Time Trial Champion and Tour de France extraordinaire!

Lightning Bolt meets the Mobot!

So who will earn one of the most coveted accolades Britain has to offer - the 'Mobot' or sideburns 'Wiggo'?

First to our cycling phenomenon, no not Chris Hoy, (he has already won it!) introducing the brilliant Bradley Wiggins.
To win an Olympic medal is an incredible achievement, to win a gold medal is just monumental but to win 7 Olympic medals, 4 of them gold, defies belief!
Not content with his 6 medals prior to the London 2012 Olympics, 'Wiggo' sought to conquer the grandest and toughest cycling event of them all, the Tour de France.
Wiggins accomplished this with considerable aplomb, dismissing all competition with apparent ease.
Team Sky's controlled and assured assistance helped to increase the margin of victory further still, winning by a commanding 3 minutes 21 seconds (more than the combined total of the past two Tour winning margins) to become the first British winner of the Tour de France in the Tour's 107 year history.

Let us rewind back to 2010, where the picture was far from rosy, an out of sorts and disheveled Bradley Wiggins probably would not have even dreamt of being a Tour de France contender, let alone future winner. Why is that I hear you ask? Well after a very respectable 4th place finish in the 2009 Tour de France, expectations were even higher the following year and now as team leader of newly formed Team Sky the pressure to deliver grew tenfold. Unfortunately these plans failed to materialise as Wiggins had a poor Giro d'Italia coming 40th and an equally disappointing Tour de France finishing in a lowly 24th, almost 40 minutes behind the eventual winner.
A time of reflection and re-evaluation occurred, mainly due to a tongue lashing from Sky Chief Dave Brailsford on the back end of the 2010 Tour. Wiggins it seemed had gone backwards and personally admitted 'I couldn't carry on like that, 2010 was a year of disappointment and public humiliation'. Never again!

Through sheer dedication and meticulous planning involving new training methods (altitude training in Tenerife, increasing power outputs and sophisticated scientific training plans introduced by Physiologist Tim Kerrison, British Cycling doctor Richard Freeman and personal coach Shane Sutton) a reinvigorated Wiggo roared back into life in 2011. After winning the Criterium du Dauphine, the main warm up event to the Tour, Wiggins claimed he was 'in the best shape of his life' exhibiting a boisterous and confident mood ahead of that years Tour.
Lady luck however had other plans. The Londoner's Tour hopes were dashed early thanks to a nasty fall culminating in a broken collarbone effectively ending a distraught Wiggins Tour hopes for another year.

Injury heartache

Wiggins, who had shed 6kg after ending his track career to concentrate on the Tour in 2009, lost a further 2kg ahead of the 2012 season in an effort to improve his optimal power to output ratio in the lead up to the 2012 Tour de France despite a strong 3rd place showing at the Vuelta a Espana.
The 2012 season started with an ominous warning shot to his rivals as he became the first man ever to win the prestigious European events of Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie and the Criterium du Dauphine titles on the spin.
This undoubtedly enhanced his Tour de France credentials and he was billed as the hot favourite to win the holy grail of cycling trophies, the Maillot Jaune or the Yellow Jersey. And he didn't disappoint did he?
Wiggins turned on the style to win the biggest cycling event in the world at a canter as the opposition were left trailing in his wake. Not only did he win by over three minutes to second placed teammate Chris Froome, who played a huge part in making this victory possible, who rode with him every pedal turn of the way, Wiggins won both time-trials with apparent ease to boot.
Tour de France Champion. Let me say that again, TOUR DE FRANCE CHAMPION! It really does not get any better than that surely. The amiable, bloke-next-door, family man has now joined the cycling legends of Armstrong, his hero Indurain, Hinault and Merckx, a phenomenal achievement.

Right, that is it; I am convinced he deserves the award. Wait there is more?

Victorious!

Of course there is! Bradley's golden, or should I say yellow, summer wasn't setting just yet.
Once again this cycling machine rode away brilliantly from his competitors to cap off an incredible few weeks by winning the gold medal in the Olympic Time Trial in front of the British masses. Let us not forget that this was not even a fortnight after his lung busting victory at the Tour which makes this feat all the more impressive.

So there you have it; from doom and gloom just two years ago to Tour de France and Olympic Time Trial champion. Can anyone match this feat?

Enter Mo Farah.
Like Wiggins, Mo Farah has come on leaps and bounds in an extraordinary career.
The first time Farah came into the public's consciousness was by bursting onto the scene in 2006 when he agonisingly lost out on a gold medal in the European championship 5000m but redeemed himself later that year by storming to the European Cross Country Championship. Finally it seemed, Mo Farah had arrived.

At just 24 years of age many tipped this precocious Somalian born athlete, now British International, for greatness after a stellar season. This greatness however was put on hold during the biggest year of racing in Mo's life, the Olympic year.
The Brit toiled in the clammy, humid conditions of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and disappointingly failed to make the 5000m final. Understandably Mo cut a dejected and forlorn figure as he exited the Bird's nest with his tail between his legs but, like Wiggins, for Mo Farah, although it didn't seem like it at the time, the only way was up from here on in.

Off season altitude training in Africa

What followed in 2009 was a rejuvenated Farah breaking the long-standing British indoor record in the 3000m, a 3000m gold medal at the European Indoor Championships and strong performances in the European Cross Country and World Athletics Championships. Undoubtedly what aided his improvement during another impressive season was his prolonged training in Kenya with the world's top athletes. An optimistic but deflated man entered the hot bed of long distance running and the man that returned was a supremely fit, confident individual primed and ready to make an assault upon the best the world had to offer.

He did not have to wait too long as Mo struck gold twice just a year later by claiming the 5000, 10000m double at the European Athletics Championships, only the fifth man in the competitions 66 year history to do so.
Mo Farah had destroyed all his closest challengers by some margin and there was no question that he was the best...... in Europe, that is.
Despite his fantastic victories many still considered him to be out of his depth when facing the African giants,
an issue Mo sought to address immediately. Although the Brit was a very talented, world class runner he wasn't quite the finished article.

Mo constantly talked about crossing the divide and finally ending the Africans long distance running stranglehold over this distance. An impossible dream? Mo certainly didn't think so.
Before we embark on the long steps Mo took to achieving Olympic gold, let us just consider the mountainous task Mo was about to undertake.
He was attempting to beat the Kenyans and Ethiopians at Long Distance Running, where African athletes have only failed once in the last 30 years to claim gold, an event which has become synonymous with both countries. This is like trying to beat the New Zealand All Blacks in their own backyard, the Jamaicans at sprinting, Canadians at Ice Hockey or an American at a hot dog eating contest. It really is almost impossible!

In the boldest move of his career, Farah split from long term coach Alan Storey in 2011 and acquired the prestigious services of former marathon runner Alberto Salazar, uprooting his family in the process to Oregon in the States. Mo said the reason behind it was to 'find that extra one per cent' that would take him to the next level.
Salazar sought to address Mo's lack of physique through strength training on which he commented Mo 'was the weakest I had ever trained' but 'has more heart, more guts and more soul than any athlete I've ever seen'.
Salazar's tactical astuteness came to the fore as he urged the Brit to go from 600-800m out as the Africans tend to leave the sprint to the last lap which was their greatest strength but also a sign of weakness.
The new partnership was soon put to the test and despite a slow start at the Istanbul World Indoors the pair gathered momentum ahead of the 2011 World Athletics Championships where Farah blossomed into one of the best athletes in the world winning a gold in the 5000m and silver in the 10000m.

Double Olympic Champion!

And the rest, as they say, is history.
Mo Farah not only became the first Britain ever to win a long distance gold at the Olympics, he is now an exclusive member of the now seven man club to win the 5,000 and 10,000m double at a single Olympics, equalling what Kenenisa Bekele, considered by many as the greatest long distance runner of all time, achieved four years ago. You run out of superlatives to describe Mo's stunning achievements this year, the icing on the cake in a glittering career, but a Sports Personality of the year award would go some way to explaining what a monumental accomplishment it has been.

So there you have it. Two sporting legends who conquered the world respectively. Both have come such a long way in a relatively short period of time. So who deserves it more?
We really do need a photo finish for this one but I think Wiggins just shades it perhaps by just a tyre width.

And just as I finish writing this, Andy Murray brilliantly wins the US Open. Well that will certainly put a spanner in the works, talk about timing!