Ultimtately page impressions matters very little to Google Ads. You need to be generating clicks to earn revenue there and the consistency of the ads on the page makes that unlikely for repeat visitors I think. It’s hard to know where they can generate money but unique content is the most likely, though most costly scenario. Good point about the alternatives though - I’d get a quicker idea of what’s happening (that’s important) in the world from those places, or even Broadsheet or TFK obviously, than from visiting a website like the independent. The Guardian have done a really good job of blending their print edition with online content and keeping stories moving but no idea what sort of expense they incur doing so.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Subday Business Post manages with its subscription service as main successes in premium have been for niché publications.
The Irish Times would do worse than buying out The Journal and trying to merge it with their online editon.
I’m the same, it’s I’m looking for breaking news then it’s more likely that I’ll get it from one of those, here or Twitter.
The Indo will live to regret moving down the road of the Daily Mail in the long run.
The Journal is owned by Daft/Boards.ie isn’t it?
As good a place as any for this - looks to be a photoshop job I’d suspect
That’s horseshit. Off to the random pictures thread with it.
finally a worthy challenger to alison o’riordan in the self involved shite journo stakes. i have spoilered the article because of the very shitness of it
[spoiler]
[size=1]On a recent flight to New York, I was delighted when a stewardess came over and gave me a bottle of champagne. [/size]
[size=1]‘This is from the captain — he wants to welcome you on board and hopes you have a great flight today,’ she explained.[/size]
[size=1]You’re probably thinking ‘what a lovely surprise’. But while it was lovely, it wasn’t a surprise. At least, not for me.[/size]
‘Good looking woman’: But Samantha Brick says that her pleasing looks have been a mixed blessing, with many of her own sex becoming resentful, and have closed as many doors as they have opened
[size=1]Throughout my adult life, I’ve regularly had bottles of bubbly or wine sent to my restaurant table by men I don’t know. Once, a well-dressed chap bought my train ticket when I was standing behind him in the queue, while there was another occasion when a charming gentleman paid my fare as I stepped out of a cab in Paris.[/size]
[size=1]Another time, as I was walking through London’s Portobello Road market, I was tapped on the shoulder and presented with a beautiful bunch of flowers. Even bar tenders frequently shoo my credit card away when I try to settle my bill.[/size]
[size=1]And whenever I’ve asked what I’ve done to deserve such treatment, the donors of these gifts have always said the same thing: my pleasing appearance and pretty smile made their day.[/size]
More…
[list]
[]‘I never compete without full make-up!’ Olympic star Jessica Ennis reveals she likes to run in style
[]‘I love the word FAT’: The larger-than-life fashion bloggers, celebrating plus-size style in a big way
[]‘My body was better AFTER I had a child’: Model Arizona Muse on how she prefers her post-baby looks
[]How to have great sex at ANY age: Flirt while doing the dishes, celebrate your cellulite and fetch him warm socks
[]Spring into shape now: From fitness ‘snacking’ to the three-chew challenge - here’s how to lose that winter flab
[]Thanks to Angelina Jolie, thigh-high slits are now hitting the shops. LIZ JONES tries them on for size - and warns just don’t try sitting down!
[*]How Samantha Brick became an internet sensation by saying women hate her because she’s beautiful
[/list][size=1]While I’m no Elle Macpherson, I’m tall, slim, blonde and, so I’m often told, a good-looking woman. I know how lucky I am. But there are downsides to being pretty — the main one being that other women hate me for no other reason than my lovely looks.[/size]
[size=1]If you’re a woman reading this, I’d hazard that you’ve already formed your own opinion about me — and it won’t be very flattering. For while many doors have been opened (literally) as a result of my looks, just as many have been metaphorically slammed in my face — and usually by my own sex.[/size]
[size=1]I’m not smug and I’m no flirt, yet over the years I’ve been dropped by countless friends who felt threatened if I was merely in the presence of their other halves. If their partners dared to actually talk to me, a sudden chill would descend on the room.[/size]
Taken: Samantha with her French husband Pascal Rubinat. Ten years her senior, he takes great pride in hearing other men declare that she’s a beautiful woman and always tells her to laugh off bitchy comments
[size=1]And it is not just jealous wives who have frozen me out of their lives. Insecure female bosses have also barred me from promotions at work. [/size]
[size=1]And most poignantly of all, not one girlfriend has ever asked me to be her bridesmaid.[/size]
[size=1]You’d think we women would applaud each other for taking pride in our appearances.[/size]
[size=1]I work at mine — I don’t drink or smoke, I work out, even when I don’t feel like it, and very rarely succumb to chocolate. Unfortunately women find nothing more annoying than someone else being the most attractive girl in a room.[/size]
[size=1]Take last week, out walking the dogs a neighbour passed by in her car. I waved — she blatantly blanked me. Yet this is someone whose sons have stayed at my house, and who has been welcomed into my home on countless occasions. [/size]
[size=1]I approached a mutual friend and discreetly enquired if I’d made a faux pas. It seems the only crime I’ve committed is not leaving the house with a bag over my head.She doesn’t like me, I discovered, because she views me as a threat. The friend pointed out she is shorter, heavier and older than me.[/size]
Blushing bride: Samantha on her wedding day, left, and right, at home with Pascal. She laments that not one of her girlfriends has ever asked her to be a bridesmaid - perhaps from fear of being overshadowed by her looks
[size=1]And, according to our mutual friend, she is adamant that something could happen between her husband and me, ‘were the right circumstances in place’. Yet I’m happily married, and have been for the past four years.[/size]
[size=1]This isn’t the first time such paranoia has gripped the women around me. In my early 20s, when I first started in television as a researcher, one female boss in her late 30s would regularly invite me over for dinner after a long day in the office.[/size]
[size=1]I always accepted her invitation, as during office hours we got along famously. But one evening her partner was at home. We were all a couple of glasses of wine into the evening. Then he and I said we both liked the song we were listening to.[/size]
[size=1]She laid into her bewildered partner for ‘fancying’ me, then turned on me, calling me unrepeatable names before ridiculing me for dying my hair and wearing lipstick. I declined any further invitations.[/size]
[size=1]Therapist Marisa Peer, author of self-help guide Ultimate Confidence, says that women have always measured themselves against each other by their looks rather than achievements — and it can make the lives of the good-looking very difficult.[/size]
[size=1]‘Many of my clients are models, yet people are always astounded when I explain they don’t have it easy,’ she says. If you are attractive other women think you lead a perfect life — which simply isn’t true. [/size]
Hard work: Samantha takes pride in her appearance. She works out - even when she doesn’t feel like it - she doesn’t drink, she doesn’t smoke… and rarely does she succumb to chocolate
[size=1]‘They don’t realise you are just as vulnerable as they are. It’s hard when everyone resents you for your looks. Men think “what’s the point, she’s out of my league” and don’t ask you out. And women don’t want to hang out with someone more attractive than they are.’[/size]
[size=1]I certainly found that out the hard way, particularly in the office.[/size]
[size=1]One contract I accepted was blighted by a jealous female boss. It was the height of summer and I’d opted to wear knee length, cap-sleeved dresses. They were modest, yet pretty; more Kate Middleton than Katie Price.[/size]
[size=1]But my boss pulled me into her office and informed me my dress style was distracting her male employees. I didn’t dare point out that there were other women in the office wearing similar attire. [/size]
[size=1]Rather than argue, I worked out the rest of my contract wearing baggy, sombre-coloured trouser suits. It was clear that when you have a female boss, it’s best to let them shine, but when you have a male boss, it’s a different game: I have written in the Mail on how I have flirted to get ahead at work, something I’m sure many women do.[/size]
[size=1]Women, however, are far more problematic. With one phenomenally tricky boss, I eventually managed to carve out a positive working relationship. But a year in, her attitude towards me changed; the deterioration began when she started to put on weight.[/size]
[size=1]We were both employed by a big broadcasting company. One of our male UK chiefs recommended I take the company’s global leadership course, which meant doors would have opened for me around the world.
[/size]
[size=1]All I needed were two personal recommendations to be eligible. As everyone in the office agreed I was good at my job, I didn’t think this would be a problem.[/size]
[size=1]But while the male executive signed the paperwork without hesitation, my immediate boss refused to sign. When I asked her right-hand woman why, she pulled me to one side and explained that my boss was jealous of me.[/size]
Forced out: While Samantha has previously admitted to flirting to get ahead at work, she also says jealous female bosses have made some jobs so unbearable she has been forced to leave
[size=1]Things between us rapidly deteriorated. Whenever I wore something new she’d sneer at me in front of other colleagues that she was the star, not me.[/size]
[size=1]Six months later I handed in my notice. Privately she begged me to stay, blaming the nasty comments on her hormones. She was in her early 40s and confided she was having marital problems. But by then I’d had enough.[/size]
[size=1]I find that older women are the most hostile to beautiful women — perhaps because they feel their own bloom fading. Because my husband is ten years older than me, his social circle is that bit older too. [/size]
[size=1]As a Frenchman, he takes great pride in hearing other men declare that I’m a beautiful woman and always tells me to laugh off bitchy comments from other women. [/size]
‘I find dinner parties and social gatherings fraught and if I can’t wriggle out of them, then often dress down in jeans and a demure, albeit pretty, top’
[size=1]Yet I dread the inevitable sarky comments. ‘Here she comes. We’re in the village hall yet Sam’s dressed for the Albert Hall,’ was one I recently overheard. As a result I find dinner parties and social gatherings fraught and if I can’t wriggle out of them, then often dress down in jeans and a demure, albeit pretty, top.[/size]
[size=1]But even these ploys don’t always work. Take last summer and a birthday party I attended with my husband. At one point the host, who was celebrating his 50th, decided he wanted a photo with all the women guests. Positioning us, the photographer suggested I stand immediately to his right for the shot.[/size]
[size=1]Another woman I barely knew pushed me out of the way, shouting it wasn’t fair on all the other women if I was dominating the snap. I was devastated and burst into tears. On my own in the loos one woman privately consoled me — well out of ear-shot of her girlfriends. [/size]
[size=1]So now I’m 41 and probably one of very few women entering her fifth decade welcoming the decline of my looks. I can’t wait for the wrinkles and the grey hair that will help me blend into the background.[/size]
[size=1]Perhaps then the sisterhood will finally stop judging me so harshly on what I look like, and instead accept me for who I am.[/size][left]
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124246/Samantha-Brick-downsides-looking-pretty-Why-women-hate-beautiful.html#ixzz1r6CsYrDi
[/spoiler][/left][/left]
Surely a WUM
Must be Thraw.
Tim Dowling of the Guardian penned this response
Like Samantha Brick, I have been hated for my good looks
Tim Dowling read Samantha Brick’s article in the Daily Mail about women resenting her beauty and knew just how she felt. Here, he tells how men hate him for being too handsome
Last week I was waiting at a bus stop when an attractive younger woman reached out, touched my elbow and pointed at a pound coin lying on the ground near my foot.
“That yours?” she asked.
“Probably,” I said. “My keys sometimes make a little hole in my pocket.” She giggled nervously as we both glanced down at my slim-fit chinos. I blushed a little as I bent over, with her watching, to retrieve my money.
You’re probably thinking: “What a selfless act of random kindness!” It may have been kind, but it was hardly random. Ever since the hole appeared just after Christmas, this has been a regular, almost weekly occurrence.
As a fit, good-looking man I’m used to women coming up and finding excuses to talk to me, to touch me. In fact, if I had a pound coin for every time it happened, well, you can do the maths. Don’t forget to factor in all the pounds I would have lost if those women hadn’t said anything.
This other time, when I was caught travelling on a peak-time train with an off-peak ticket, the (female) train manager smiled and said to me: “I should charge you the full single peak rate, sir, but this time I’ll just charge you the difference.” My savings, in this case, amounted to nearly £12.
It’s not always about money, though. There was the lady on a flight to New York who, apropos of nothing, suddenly turned and offered me a breath mint. Just last November a woman I’ve never met stopped me outside a supermarket to give me a poppy. The incidents may be varied, but the reason is always the same: my exceptional outward appearance. While I admit I’m no Philip Schofield, I’m tall, slim, brooding – and very easy on the eye.
If you’re a woman reading this – or, more importantly, looking at the pictures – you will know exactly what I’m talking about: you probably feel like telling me there’s a wasp near my hair, just so you can reach out and muss it up a little.
If you’re a man, on the other hand, you’ve doubtless already formed an opinion about me. You almost certainly find me a threat – a threat to your career, your relationship, your masculinity. It’s not something many men will dare to speak publicly about, but being terribly, terribly handsome is a double-edged sword. For every female Starbucks employee who made it her business to remember my name, there was a male employer telling me to do up my top three shirt buttons in the office. I can’t tell you how many male acqaintances have stopped speaking to me over the years for petty “reasons” (unpaid debts, being alleged source of unpleasant rumour, refusal to appear as character witness), when jealousy is the transparent cause. I’ll probably never know how many women have been too intimidated by my looks to talk to me, but I know exactly how many men have been angered enough by my face to try to punch it.
I don’t invite the attention. I’ve come to dread the sarcastic, whispered comments in the gym about my physique, my chiseled jaw, my loose-hanging tank tops. At times I’ve found it so stressful that I’ve even taken steps to play down my physical beauty. I tried wearing a hoodie all day, but they wouldn’t let me into Harrod’s food hall, where the lady at the cheese counter sometimes gives me free samples, even though I hardly ever buy anything. More recently I decided to grow a beard, just to blend in with “normal” men. It helps a little, but there are only so many parts of a face a beard can cover. You can’t grow hair on soulful, beseeching eyes, for example. Also, stuff gets caught in a beard – food, small leaves, postage stamps – which just gives women another excuse to strike up a conversation, and their jealous partners another reason to roll their eyes.
Perhaps you’re quite a good-looking bloke yourself, and have experienced a fraction of the bastardness I’ve encountered at the hands (and once or twice, the boots) of insecure, embittered males. Maybe you can in some small measure empathise with how difficult it is to live in a society where a man is constantly expected to look his best, but is then punished for looking better than anyone else. Is it any wonder that Piers Morgan has moved to the US?
I know some people (men) will feel obliged to cast aspersions on my looks – believe me, I’ve heard it all before – but I won’t apologise for the truth. I can already anticipate the global backlash my courageous honesty will generate: the nasty tweets, the threatening emails, the bad-mouthing from Jeremy Vine (it’s beneath you, Jeremy, it really is). That won’t stop me. I’m prepared to meet my critics face to face, on social media, to put my case. I’ve dug down and exposed an issue very few gorgeous men are prepared to talk about. And I intend to keep right on digging. After all, your hatred only proves my point.
I can only empathise with him.
IT may not be the most politically correct assertion in a week of Heineken Cup hype, and certainly not the most popular among northern rugby supporters, but the fact is that an Ulster victory on Sunday would be bad news for Ireland and national coach Declan Kidney.
Having three provinces in the last eight in Europe has created a self-congratulatory undercurrent among Irish supporters and pundits ahead of the weekend’s quarter-final action, but this ignores the altered landscape following the World Cup and Six Nations failures.
The IRFU’s much-derided Player Succession Strategy has assumed even greater significance post-Twickenham, which very few have acknowledged, and it is encouraging to see how this policy has already begun to produce positive returns. Tommy Bowe, Roger Wilson and James Downey are all being repatriated after spells abroad, while Leinster’s capture of Hurricances prop Michael Bent this week was another step in the right direction.
There are no guarantees of success, and Bent may turn out to be the next Clint Newland – we will not know for sure until we see him in action next season, but at least he is Irish qualified in the position (tight-head prop) where Ireland’s need is greatest.
The immediate prerogative for Kidney is to the formidable three-Test summer challenge in New Zealand, and this is why he should be hoping Munster make it past Ulster on Sunday.
Spine
For, while it has been good to see the spark returning to Ravenhill over the past two seasons, there is no escaping the fact that the spine of the team is non-Irish qualified and affecting the touring prospects of Ulster’s Ireland hopefuls.
John Afoa – We saw in Twickenham what the New Zealander’s presence is doing for Tom Court’s chances of coping at tight-head.
Johann Muller – Second-row status means one of either Lewis Stevenson (increasingly impressive) or Dan Tuohy will be on the bench.
Pedrie Wannenberg – Will keep Willie Faloon out of the side and Chris Henry out of position if Stephen Ferris is cleared to play.
Ruan Pienaar – forcing Paul Marshall to make his name as an impact sub.
Stefan Terblanche – Ian Whitten and a group of talented Academy backs that were seen fleetingly in the RDS a few months ago are missing out due to the ageing Springbok.
There is no doubting the quality of these imports, and they have been central to Ulster’s progress to the knockout stages, but the issue here is game time for Irish-qualified players.
This is not to say that Ulster have not been bringing through indigenous talent: Craig Gilroy is starting regularly, Darren Cave is first choice when fit and Paddy McAllister has emerged also, although not as first choice.
However, with the senior Ireland squad, Ulster’s representation in recent years has centred around the established names of Ferris, Rory Best, Paddy Wallace and Andrew Trimble, and their overseas reliance has to be a factor.
As for Munster, their South African props Wian du Preez and BJ Botha are also directly affecting the progress of John Ryan and Stephen Archer. As exiled prop John Andress noted in these pages last week, you can get all the tips from older players and scrum machine practice you want, but the only real way for a prop to learn his trade is the hard way – out on the pitch.
Lifeimi Mafi could also be seen to be an obstacle in the career path of Danny Barnes, Ivan Dineen or even JJ Hanrahan – who is still young enough for the Ireland U-20 side but possesses the sort of talents that may have been tested earlier were he in Australia.
However, the province can still point to the graduation of Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony, Donnacha Ryan and Keith Earls into the Ireland set-up in the past few years and, while some may claim this is down to the vagaries of Kidney’s selection policy, that quartet do not have negotiate a non-Irish qualified player to get into the side.
Kidney needs as many Irish players playing high-intensity rugby as possible between now and the tour, and it is not bias, merely fact, to state that Ulster’s over-reliance on overseas players does not help him in this regard.
Within the narrow context of next Sunday, that dependence makes Ulster a formidable proposition in Thomond Park, and Munster coach Tony McGahan believes the province’s South African influx has brought a steel and assurance to the side.
“They (the South Africans) bring a real confidence, hardness and doggedness to their play and a real unshakable belief,” said McGahan. "You have seen the way they galvanise and bring other players through in and around them.
“You have seen that growth last year and even more this year, and when you add Ferris and Paddy Wallace, Rory Best and these quality international players to that mix, you suddenly are ballooning that experience and hardness up to about 10 players.”
Rather than tap into the South African knowledge within his own squad to get a handle on the opposition, McGahan says Munster will be “focusing on ourselves”. However, while every thought is directed towards Sunday, the Munster coach did express his hope that some of the players he has brought through over the last few seasons and who are set to start this weekend can go on to contribute to Ireland’s summer tour.
“Over the next 12 months, and depending on the philosophy of what the tour to New Zealand is about, there is full merit there from these guys (to be called up)… Stephen Archer, (Mike) Sherry, who was called up to the World Cup and James Coughlan – there has been no stronger or more consistent player over the last two years – and we’d be delighted for those guys to get that opportunity, if not for this particular tour then in the next 12 months.”
Just as it would be good to see Gilroy, Marshall and McAllister make the step up – but for this weekend it is the senior professionals who are likely to have the biggest impact, and none more than Pienaar, who is held in the highest regard by McGahan.
“He has been a real pillar for them with regards to their attacking structures,” he said.
Would McGahan prefer to see Pienaar start at scrum-half or out-half?
“I’d prefer to see him on the bench.”
With New Zealand looming, he may not be the only coach in Ireland to share that view.
- Hugh Farrelly
Irish Independent
Farrelly is a noted retard
Also, the doyenne of Wexford GAA writing noted this week that the kettle is starting to boil in the clubs of Wexford.
Wonderful choice of words.
Shocking stuff
[font=Verdana][size=3]
The two are also both on social networking site Facebook – to boost their constituency profiles, no doubt.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=3]
However, Mr Lowry has almost 2,000 more “friends” on the popular site with his 5,003 compared to Mr Hogan’s 3,059.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=3]
:strokechin: :strokechin:[/size][/font]
I actually saw that headline on the website earlier and resisted clicking on it because I knew it’d sicken me. And so it has.
Hogan in row over coursing
Friday April 06 2012
ENVIRONMENT Minister Phil Hogan was defended yesterday for his attendance as guest of honour at a hare coursing meeting, writes Fionnan Sheahan.
Mr Hogan attended the Sevenhouses coursing meeting in Danesfort, Co Kilkenny, earlier this year and presented the prizes.
But the Irish Council Against Blood Sports said it was “beyond belief” for the minister to be “fraternising” with those involved in coursing.
Last night, Sevenhouses secretary Pat Loughlin said the club had a long-standing relationship with Mr Hogan.
“We’d net hares on the Hogan family farm. He caught hares with us when he was young,” he said.
WTF :lol:
Why are these clowns even getting column inches. Who is he in a “row” with?
Well that’s 8,062 that need the death penalty.
Harsh Totti.
Some people may like both pages.
I honestly can’t get my head around this piece from 365, not sure he’s even convinced of what he’s writing himself, he’d have been better off pulling the stomach out of himself for an hour instead of writing this shite.
[size=“3”]Everyone loves Nwankwo Kanu, though not in the way they love Ronaldo, Messi or Robben and their relentless brilliance. Instead, Kanu is frail and fallible. He inspires that fond, warm affection that modern footballers rarely do.
Such adoration is understandable. Claiming to be 35, but widely believed to not be a day under 41, Kanu is a genuinely unique player.
Kanu has carved out a career by looking like he’s about to fall over, before beating his man with a ludicrous piece of skill. He often does fall over, incidentally, but that merely adds to his charm. He is slow, ungainly, lanky; but with vision and awareness like few others. And in a sport where players now boast staggering fitness levels and often identikit physiques, Kanu’s defining features make him all the more endearing.
David James, his ex-teammate at Portsmouth put it best in a recent Guardian column.
‘Kanu never trained. He never even walked up a flight of stairs. We only had one flight of stairs at Portsmouth’s training ground, but Kanu would always wait for the lift. He was practically incapacitated, but on the field he could do amazing things. One match, he came on, ran three-quarters of the length of the pitch, scored - and then travelled home in a wheelchair.’
Kanu is referred to as simply ‘King’ in Nigeria (this is, to a degree self-styled: his website is kingkanu.com and he wears baseball caps plastered with the moniker). But anecdotes like this belittle his career, which has been magnificent. Kanu is the most decorated African player in history. He has won a Champions League medal, a UEFA Cup medal, three FA Cup winners’ medals and two African Player of the Year awards, among others. Most recently, he became a hero at Portsmouth, winning the club the FA Cup in 2008 with the only goal in the final. They call him King at Fratton Park too.
Or at least they did. Kanu hasn’t played since October, despite returning to first-team training this month following a back injury. In March, coach Michael Appleton explained why he wouldn’t be selecting Kanu for the rest of the season. “I can’t afford to start playing players who I don’t think will get through 45 minutes,” he said.
Kanu signed a three-year deal in August 2010 with a view to taking up a coaching role at the end of it. But with forced redundancies of existing coaching staff within the club, that option is no longer available. Kanu did emerge with credit at the time of the deal: while he was entitled to a 12-month extension at wages of around £40,000, it was negotiated to spread the cost over three years. Yet by those calculations, Kanu is still receiving around £13,000 per week. To do nothing.
The player is, of course, legally entitled to his contract. He has a year left to run, with no playing revenue likely to follow. Take the money, use the lift, sit on the bench, retire. However, Portsmouth probably have less than a year to run too. With parachute payments due to stop in May, and the administrator Trevor Birch failing so far to find a buyer, the club needs to completely strip down its wage bill. And Kanu is one of the highest-paid players at the club, despite never playing. He has reportedly been asked to take early retirement by the club, but has so far refused.
Could Kanu’s refusal to slink off into retirement with a carriage clock and a (dwindling) degree of gratitude from Portsmouth fans represent the nadir in relations between any club, its players and fans? Presumably not. Players on far-more-exorbitant wages have committed worse acts of treachery (Tevez’s golf sabbatical - though his wages were suspended), mercenariness (Rooney in his Man United contract negotiations) or sheer greed (Ashley Cole and his horror at a £55,000-a-week wage).
Kanu’s case though, contains a perfect storm of factors that make it so unpalatable.
Firstly, rarely has a club needed to trim excesses so much. Most acts of player greed take place at clubs that can - or think they can - afford the salaries. Portsmouth certainly can’t anymore, despite being a byword for financial excess when they signed Kanu. Now they could be two months away from liquidation. In February they laid off 33 members of staff. They owe money to numerous local businesses including ambulance services and schools.
Compare this desperate need to cut costs with the return on investment from one of their highest earners: Kanu has started just three Championship games this season. It is feasible he will never play competitively again.
Then consider the history between the player and the club’s fans. Kanu was revered as a cult Pompey hero, having won the FA Cup and scoring against AC Milan in a 2-2 draw in 2008. This status usually prompts reciprocal love from a player; a degree of sensitivity to the club and its fans’ plight.
Most importantly, Kanu has made a lot of money from football. A 16-year career at some of the better-paying clubs in world football guarantees that. Unless he’s spent all his money on stair lifts, he should have plenty left.
The final denouement though, is that Kanu is widely, and rightly considered a decent man. This had made his refusal to leave all the more saddening. Most players’ greed can be attributed to a muddy mixture of insularity borne from a lifetime in football and bad advice from advisors looking for commission. Not Kanu, who has greater perspective than many. A man who suffered life-threatening heart problems in 1996, he has given back to charity through his Kanu Heart Foundation that supports children with weak hearts. He is also a UNICEF ambassador.
Perhaps his determination to eke out the final drops of his salary are because of, not despite, his hard-won sense of perspective. Maybe Kanu has weighed up the needs of Portsmouth’s local creditors against those of African children with weak hearts and understandably come out on the side of the children.
We can only guess (he’s certainly not saying). And Kanu shouldn’t be demonised - he has a family, bills to pay and one year left on his contract. Yet Portsmouth fans could be forgiven for feeling that their club is being bled dry - literally to the point of extinction - by a man who won them the cup and now cannot finish a game of football.
Football tends to remember its players in shorthand, using one or two enduring moments. Until very recently, Kanu could be guaranteed that his showreel would be an astonishing second-half hat-trick for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in 1999, or his backheeled goal at Middlesbrough in the same year.
It still should be. Yet there’s a chance that instead, it might be that of a smiling middle-aged man wearing a ‘King’ baseball cap, waiting for the lift, as the training ground doors are locked up for the last time.[/size]