Thoughts on West Ham's Loss to Chelsea

I realize I mostly blab about books, writing, reading, RPGs and such here, but I right now I just have so many feelings about West Ham's first league game of the new season. I realize that "American fantasy author" doesn't scream "expert on football" and I am not claiming to be! I am learning. It's a process. But I do watch every game that I reasonably can, I stick around till the end (in this case I was out the door after Chelsea's second goal, but only because I had a professional obligation and had to get on the road) I have done as much reading as I can manage about English football in general and West Ham in particular, I follow several of the major West Ham blogs and social media sites religiously even if I don't comment on them. In no particular order: 

-Of course Ayew got hurt inside his first half in claret&blue. Of course he did. That is the most West Ham thing possible. It is maximum West Ham. 

-Even when he was out there nobody seemed to have any ideas in the final third other than "give it to Carroll and pray" and it didn't work at all. Why does West Ham have so many damn wingers if none of them can get a cross into the box for Carroll to do something with?

-Antonio is not a RB. His confidence is shattered. Would anyone really blame him if he actually turned in a transfer request because he's tired of getting played out of position and being mercilessly picked on by every opposing offense? 

-Costa should have been red carded for his attempt to break Adrian's ankle. 

-That being said, Adrian needs to reign it in and stop trying to be cute. Pick the damn ball up. That is literally the advantage you, and ONLY YOU as a keeper are given in that area of the pitch.

-Valencia is unplayable. Sell him for a bag of practice balls. Take the first offer that comes in. I admire his approach and professionalism but he was a net negative today. 

-I do not believe that the club are "happy with our attacking options," when the Ginger Pele scored the only goal on the only real threat. I love Collins but he shouldn't be our best attacking threat. 

-Did Tore do anything positive?

-Nordtveit was dreadful. 

-Lest anyone think I'm just picking on the new signings, Noble and Kouyate seemed overmatched. 

-Masuaku was pretty decent. 

-For the love of all that is holy please let Byram start the next game at RB and let Antonio play forward, where he belongs, and might actually create a scoring threat. 

There. I don't know if I will do this regularly, or ever again, but this stuff needed to get out of my head. 

Old Man Yells at Internet

Greetings! Welcome to my inaugural blog post here on the brand new, official Daniel M. Ford, author of The Paladin Trilogy website.

That's a mouthful. Let's try again.

Hi. I'm Dan. I write fantasy novels, and I'd love it if you'd read them.

In this space, I plan to write pretty regularly about the things that interest me. Right up front I'll let you know that there'll be some self-promotion; I do want folks to read Ordination and the books that will follow it. I'll occasionally link to reviews or spaces online where I'm talking about the book, or someone else is. I'll list any appearances I happen to be making.

More than that, I'm going to use this space to talk about the things I like and love. What are those things?

My oldest persistent love is fantasy and science fiction literature, with a heavy emphasis on the fantasy end of that. I live and breath baseball, especially the Baltimore Orioles. In the past few years I've learned to love football, particularly West Ham United. I love to cook, to drink good single malt Scotch, craft beer, and local wine. I read comics, play games, watch movies, collect toys, and generally try to stay connected to the geek zeitgeist.

Right here and now, I want to make one thing clear about the approach I'm planning to take on this blog. Though I may title it “Old Man Yells at Internet” I'm really not going to do a great deal of yelling, except about the things I'm excited about. I'll yell, happily, about the things I love, in the hopes that some of you love them as well and then we can yell in joyous unison. I'll tell you about the book I just read and can't stop talking about; I'll obsess over the Orioles and what West Ham is doing in the transfer market; I'll geek out over movies and share pictures and reviews of toys I buy; I'll talk about the RPG campaigns I'm running and playing in.

But what I'm not going to do is harp about the things I don't like. I won't come on here to complain about a book I hated. I won't link to bad reviews of work I didn't like, or angrily expound about a show or a comic I didn't enjoy. There's plenty of bile and negativity on the internet, and I don't mean to add to it. That doesn't mean I won't talk about important causes or things I believe in, but when it comes to the geek stuff, let's talk about what we love and why instead of cawing angrily about what we hate and wondering how anyone can read/watch/collect/enjoy it.

What do you say, internet? Let's share what we like with each other.