Interview of Jyle Dupuis: The Footie Blogger

The Footie is a blog dedicated only to football (soccer). This is one of the sports blogs under b5 media and I am a regular reader of the blog. In fact, I have been following the blog over the last one year. The Footie covers several news and information about club football as well as international football. The interesting thing about the blog is that you can find variety of news about football events like transfer rumor, individual player information, interesting videos etc. For example, I got a video titled Worst Soccer Miss Ever! in the blog.

I sent an email to the blogger of The Footie, Jyle Dupuis yesterday with some interview questions and he quickly sent me the reply. So, enjoy the interview:

Razib Ahmed: Give us a brief description about the blog The Footie?

Jyle Dupuis: The Footie is a blog that covers the latest in world soccer news. I try to focus more on the MLS but also cover major events like the Euro-Cup, World Cup etc… The Footie also tries to cover new about individual soccer players as well. I think people want to know what their favourite players are up to.

Razib Ahmed: What is your most memorable event that you cover in the blog?

Jyle Dupuis: The best game I ever watched was when Italy played France for the Euro-Cup. I was in France at the time, and when they won in what can only be called a miracle, I was caught up with everyone else in the excitement.

Razib Ahmed: What do you think are the ways to increase the popularity of Major League Soccer (MLS) across the world?
Jyle Dupuis: We need to make soccer popular in North America first. It’s not an easy market here. People love to play the game but not watch it. With basketball and hockey being so action packed a slower game like soccer is hard for some to sit through and enjoy. The MLS needs to take things slow and get people excited at the local levels. Make tickets more affordable and get the players involved in the communities.

Razib Ahmed: What do you want to take the blog in future?
Jyle Dupuis: I would like to see my blog become more MLS oriented and get people commenting and getting excited about their local teams.

Razib Ahmed: Do you think that worldwide credit crunch has affected world football anyway?
Jyle Dupuis: No doubt it has. But it makes me sad to see ticket prices go up to support the increased wages of soccer players. If things continue the way they are headed no one will be able to afford to watch a game.

Razib Ahmed: Do you think David Beckham’s arrival at Los Angeles Galaxy increased the popularity of MSL?
Jyle Dupuis: It has but not to the extent I was expecting. It seems that it was more of a publicity stunt than anything. Having Beckham play for the LA Galaxy didn’t help them one bit. If Beckham is supposed to be the saviour of soccer than he needs to step it up and play for the money they are paying him.

Interview of Brad Ney: Blogger of Brad Blogging

One of the things that I enjoy most in life is taking interviews. I have worked as a journalist for over a decade and I have interviewed dozens of people from all walks of life in my country. Since I started professional blogging on March 2006, I have enjoyed interviewing people even more. So, I am always on the look for interviewing bloggers. Today, I like to introduce you Brad Ney. No, he is not a famous sports personality. He is a blogger but even he does not write about sports. Yesterday, I accidentally stumbled upon on his blog called Brad Blogging and I spent around one hour reading the content there. Brad’s blog is about “Personal Blog Tips And Blog Help”. If you are a blogger then I would surely recommend you to visit there and I am sure that you would enjoy his blog. I took the interview by email and here it is for all the readers of Sports37:

Razib Ahmed: How long have you been blogging? How many blogs do you have?

Brad Ney: I have been blogging for around 1 year now and run just one blog (for now).. BradBlogging.com

Razib Ahmed: Your blog is about “Personal Blog Tips And Blog Help”. There are many blogs related to this field and some of them are indeed very successful. What do you think that your blog’s uniqueness in this field?

Brad Ney: The unique thing about my blog is that I do my very best to actually help people with their blog related issues and/or questions. Many blogs post general “Tips” on various topics within blogging, but I often encourage any user to send me an email with their problem for a personal response and resolution. If the questions are broad, I can sometimes even write a post about them to help other people, with the same general question.

Razib Ahmed: For a newbie blogger what 3 important tips you would like to give?

Brad Ney: Hmmm, 3 important tips.. Here are some that I personally use when I run my blog:

1 - When running a blog, it only gets easier as time goes on - The hardest part about blogging is deciding a niche and content “mindset” (if you will) about what you are going to write about, your writing style, etc. Once you have that down and begin writing great content.. People will visit.

2 - If somone pirates your content on to another blog WITHOUT attribution to your original article, (it has happened to me more than once) don’t over react. There are numerous guides that help you through the process of removing the article and/or making the author credit you.

3 - Try to respond to your readers. If someone leaves a comment/opinion about an article you have written, write a response and leave it under the person’s comment. This shows that you actually care about what your readers think and provides them a different point of view.

Razib Ahmed: What is your future plan regarding your blog?

Brad Ney: Future Plan.. I think the route I’m going to go with Bradblogging, is to just keep doing what I’m doing.. providing useful content for readers. I’ve currently hit record high RSS Subscribers & Traffic, so I think I’m doing something right :D. Another thing I will do in the future is run a large blog contest, as my last one was very successful.

Razib Ahmed: I noticed that your blog does not contain any advertisement. Is there any particular reason for that?

Brad Ney:- Haha, Well, Finding some has been difficult for me. I don’t really blame myself though, these rough economic times could explain it.. Everybody cutting back on spending. As far as PPC (pay-per-click) goes, I didn’t really see a decent return on placing ads inside of the articles, so I ditched them entirely. I also find that too many ads can distract visitors from your content.. which is never a good thing.

Razib Ahmed: What is your favorite blogging platform (Wordpress, Blogger, Movable Type etc) and why?

Brad Ney: Wordpress is my favourite blogging platform for two reasons: One, because it is the only one I’ve ever used and Two because it has loads of plugins, coding support, and users that are always creating something cool for the blogging platform.

Razib Ahmed: Are you a sports fan? If so, let us know something about your favorite team and player.

Brad Ney: I enjoy watching NBA basketball, my favourite team would probably be the Phoenix Suns.

Razib Ahmed: The ongoing economic crisis has hit the blogosphere hard as we saw many big blogs and blog networks either getting shut or down or trimming down their blogs and bloggers. Do you think that 2009 would be better or worse?

Brad Ney: As I stated in #5, the economic crisis never helps the financial situation of the larger blogs and networks. It really depends on whether we are able to pull out of this depression that we are currently faced with, which would most likely balance all of the instability of the system.

Razib Ahmed: Something about your personal and professional background.

Brad Ney: During my spare time, I also manage a small web design firm called, “Fresh Never Frozen Design” which I really enjoy doing.

Interview of James Ryddel of Manchester United Blog

We regularly try to post interviews of sports bloggers in this blog. Today, we are going to share with you an interview of James Ryddel, one of the writers of Manchester United blog.. which is one of the popular blogs on English club Manchester United. Ryddel is a dedicated fan of United and follows Manchester United as well as other premier league matches regularly. Manchester United blog.. is regularly updated and the blog shares reports and opinion about different issues of the club with its readers. There are four writers in the blog. Recently, we caught up James Ryddel and took an interview concerning different issues of Manchester United. So, let us go through the interview here:

Razib Ahmed: Many people think that Manchester United may not pay £22 millions for their Argentine striker Carlos Tevez who comes on the pitch as a substitute most of the time. Now, what do you think about it? Do you think that Carlos Tevez is worth paying £22 million for?

James Ryddel: Yes, I do think Tevez is worth £22m. Remember whoever United end up buying it will cost them at least £20m, because as we have seen so often where strikers are concerned the Reds always end up paying over the odds. Tevez is worth the money, IMO, he’s been treated unfairly this season and I believe that the reason he’s been on the bench so much is because Fergie is trying to reduce his valuation by marginalizing the player’s worth by leaving him out.

Razib Ahmed: In one of your recent articles, you talked about the retirement of three veterans: Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes. Well, do you think that the year 2009 is the right time for the trio to hang up their boots? If yes, then who do you think are the players likely to succeed the three United greats?

James Ryddel: I believe the end of the current season could be the right time to call it a day for the veteran star trio, but I wouldn’t rule out them playing on for another season - which could coincide with Fergie retiring.

Razib Ahmed: Signing Dimitar Berbatov in Summer was a big money deal (around £30.75 million) for Manchester United. Now, after observing the Bulgarian striker half of the season, how do you evaluate the Summer deal?

James Ryddel: I happen to believe that the arrival of the Bulgarian has somewhat upset the balance of the forward line, because we are missing the industry of Tevez. With that said, Berba has been key in United’s last two league games and without him the Champions would’t have collected the last six points. As for the Berba’s transfer fee, we have to thank Manchester City for their part in ensuring the Reds paid between £5m -£10m over the odds, because without their unwelcome interjection on transfer deadline day United would have paid a lot less and of course we lost Campbell to Spurs for a season into the bargain.

Razib Ahmed: In another article, you said that newly signed Serbian duo Zoran Tosic and Adem Ljajic could well replace Nani and Park Ji Sung in Manchester United squad. What did you see in Tosic and Ljajic that made you think that the Serbian duo might outclass Nani and Park?

James Ryddel: United must continually strive to entertain, because that is what the club has been about since the 1950s. To that end, United should be looking beyond mediocre players like Park and Nani. Both players suffer from the same problem, that is all too often there’s no end product. Ferguson, to his credit, has down the years tried to plan ahead and the arrival of the Serb duo is apart of the manager’s long-term planning. Whether or not they actually go on to become regular first-team players, time will tell, but they’ve been earmarked to fill the wide left berth and right side of midfield slot, where Nani and Park play respectively…

Razib Ahmed: To what extent do you think that global credit crunch has hit English football? What do you think English clubs should do in order to avoid the bad effects of credit crunch?

James Ryddel: Sadly, it hasn’t made that much difference at the top flight clubs yet. When I say sadly, I mean I’d like to see ticket prices being slashed to help cash-strapped fans. However, that scenario would no doubt impact on the said club’s ability to compete in the transfer market - so it’s a difficult choice.

Razib Ahmed: English clubs like West Ham United, Portsmouth are facing financial problem. Chelsea has already decided that they would sell first before buy in January transfer window. Do you think that these are some of the indications of credit crunch hitting English football?

James Ryddel: These problems are indeed related to the credit-crunch and these scenarios have come about partly because the owners of the said clubs, who have bankrolled new signings from personal wealth. In other words, clubs like Chelsea aren’t operating on the same level as many other clubs on the continent. In Germany for example, they have much more stringent regulation where the financial affairs of football clubs are concerned. Perhaps it is time to look further into Platini’s suggestion that clubs need to be seen to operate from self-generated funds, in other words, do not live beyond your means.

Razib Ahmed: Manchester United signed the Serbian duo for £16.3m and manager Sir Alex Ferguson already confirmed there would be no more transfer deal for United this season. Amidst current economic slump, how do you evaluate the signing of two Serbian players?

James Ryddel: I cannot evaluate the new signings at this moment as like many fans, I have only seen a few short video clips, but I consider myself to be an excellent judge and so once I have seen the star duo play a couple of times I will be better able to to give a considered opinion on their chances of success at United.

Razib Ahmed: There was a time when Italian and Spanish clubs were ahead of English clubs in terms of big-money signings. However, it has been a number of years now English clubs like Chelsea (now Manchester City) have been making big-money deals. This has been reflected in their results too as two out of last four Champions League titles went to English clubs and there was at least one English club in the Champions league final for the last four seasons. Now, due to global economic crisis, do you think that the dominance of English clubs in Europe will decrease?

James Ryddel: That is a very interesting question. First off, I don’t think it matters who wins the Champions League, because for me personally, the most important thing as far as the final is concerned is the entertainment value, unless of course United are involved and then the most important thing is actually winning it…. It goes without saying that I love watching United when they are playing well. In truth though, both of our most recent CL final performances haven’t been complete, largely because of the tension of the occasion. However, the Reds were fantastic in the first half of the Moscow final. One of my favorite teams of the last 30 years, was that of Ajax under Louis van Gaal who had all those wonderful young stars like Seedorf and Davids. So what I’m saying is I like to be entertained no matter which club is involved and United are the ONLY English club who have continually striven to play what I call entertaining football for the last 50 years.

I will try to answer your question now… we cannot escape from the fact that the dominance of the English clubs in Europe has come about due to the influx of cash into the Premier League. While the PL model has been held up as a shining light among Europe’s top leagues to follow, that is only half of the story because personal wealth has also been a major factor where investors are concerned. Despite the credit crunch, I do not see things changing that much, not until Platini interjects with his proposals to impose more regulation - which WILL happen if English clubs keep on dominating the Champions League.

Razib Ahmed: One of the finest examples of strong youth policy in the history of English football was set up by Manchester United way back in 1950’s that eventually paid back with dividend as Matt Busby’s Manchester United dominated English football in 60’s and 70’s. Even, Ferguson’s success with Manchester United was also largely contributed by some of his young guns like David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Neville brothers and many others. Comparing to 1950’s and 1990’s youth policy, how do you evaluate Ferguson’s current youth policy at Manchester United?

James Ryddel: United do have a long and glorious tradition where their youth policy is concerned. I hear different opinions on how the club is doing in this area currently. Rivals City appear to be doing a much better job is a commonly held view. United, will hopefully continue to promote from within as it’s the best way forward.

Razib Ahmed: Tell us something about your ‘Manchester United blog’ (http://a-kick-in-the-grass.blogspot.com/). What is your future plan
with your blog.

James Ryddel: My blog is a labour of love, I only write it for fun. It gives me a chance to get on my soapbox and get things off my chest. I might well develop if further, but at this moment in time that is not on the agenda.

Interview of Denise: The Blogger of The Chelsea Blog

Denise is the blogger of one of the popular blogs on English soccer club Chelsea: ‘The Chelsea Blog’ which was voted the Best New Blog of 2008 by the readers of Soccerlens. This blog mainly covers different issues and news concerning the club. A die-hard Chelsea fan, Denise, always expresses her neutral opinions, thoughts and ideas about different issues of Chelsea. She does not even feel shy to come down hard on his favorite club if needed. Recently, I mailed Denise some questions concerning different aspects of Chelsea and English football, and Denise replied with the answers of the questions, sharing her thoughts and ideas about some of the issues regarding Chelsea football club as well as English football. Here, I am going to share the interview of Denise with you:

Razib Ahmed: Do you think that global credit crunch has finally started to have its impact on English football? To what extent, do you think it might affect English football and deteriorate the dominance of English clubs in Europe?

Denise: I think it’s natural that the credit crunch will have had an impact on football to an extent. I know it’s certainly been mentioned enough in terms of Chelsea’s lack of spending although I think it’s probably fair to say Abramovich had already started reining his millions in way before the credit crunch. Without a doubt, it’ll have an effect on football in general, with clubs being a little more careful around transfers and salaries but I don’t think this will be specific to England. So, in terms of English clubs in Europe, I can’t see any changes being down to the credit crunch.

Razib Ahmed: In terms of success (winning titles), Chelsea takes the last place among the Big Four clubs of premier league. You might not disagree that Chelsea has least number of fan base around the world among the Big Four clubs in premier league. What do you think Chelsea should do in order to increase its fan base across the world?

Denise: Increasing your fan base across the world, despite what Peter Kenyon might think, isn’t just a matter of marketing, it’s about sustained success over time. Of course our fan base increased during our title winning seasons but I’m sure a lot of fair weather ‘fans’ have fallen by the wayside already. So, in terms of what Chelsea could do to increase the fan base, they need to get the basics right consistently, i.e. get it right on the pitch first!

Razib Ahmed: Chelsea is always well-known for its big-buck deals for star players in the transfer market, but they did not buy any star player last Summer and it is less likely, Chelsea would go for a star player in January. What do you think is the reason behind Chelsea being tightened in terms of spending in transfer market? Do you think the economic slump has anything to do with Chelsea’s recent decision of being self-relianct?

Denise: Who knows? Part of me would like to believe this was the plan all along. The club certainly suggests that after his initial outlay, Abramovich always expected the managers to then ‘manage’ without getting handouts left, right and centre. On the other hand, part of me worries the lack of spending could have something to do with Abramovich losing interest in the club now that the initial party seems to be over.

Razib Ahmed: Chelsea sold a number of key players like Wayne Bridge and Shaun Wright-Phillips over the last six months. Moreover, the size of the squad has been smaller compared to the size of the squad Chelsea had even couple of years back. So, do you think that Chelsea squad is gradually losing its strength and depth? Will it result in diminishing Chelsea’s dominance in English football?

Denise: Our squad is definitely a lot smaller than it’s been for years and even then, we send our young players out on loan, so in terms of strength and depth – we haven’t got any. That was probably highlighted when you looked at our bench in our game against United, for example. It’s been a while since I looked at our bench and thought we really don’t have much more to offer than what’s already on the pitch.

Razib Ahmed: How do you evaluate Chelsea’s wish to become self-reliant in the wake of global economic crisis? Do you think that Chelsea has enough resources in its youth side to be self-reliant in the near future?

Denise: Global economic crisis or not, I think our wish to become self-reliant might be quite a way off the club’s prediction. I think the club are heading in the right direction, getting rid of staff they didn’t need in the first place and looking at performance related contracts for the older players for example, not to mention the lack of transfer activity. In terms of our youth side, I don’t think there’s enough there for us to rely on in the near future but I definitely think we should be looking at developing our youth side and working towards bringing them through.

Razib Ahmed: What is your opinion about Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari’s impact on Chelsea players so far? Do you think Chelsea’s performance under Scolari’s guidance has so far been satisfactory?

Denise: Well, a manager’s attitude has to be one of the first things you’ll see reflected on the pitch. With Mourinho, our players had that arrogant swagger and were united as a team because they believed the world was against them. Initially under Grant, the players looked pretty clueless – hardly surprising – until they just did their own thing anyway. Unfortunately, under Scolari, after a bit of confidence initially, what we’re now getting from the players, is the same shrug of the shoulders, can’t be bothered attitude as the manager appears to have these days. As for our performance under Scolari, clearly it’s just not good enough.

Razib Ahmed: You know that Scolari’s relationship with Chelsea players made newspaper headlines a few weeks back. Now, how do you evaluate Scolari’s relationship with Chelsea players?

Denise: I’ve no idea really. I mean, they all seem to be saying the right things about him in the press but to look at the way they play now, you’d have to think there’s some communication problems going on somewhere.

Razib Ahmed: In one of your article, you supported the performance-based contract system and criticized Chelsea for handing a five-year deal to Frank Lampard. However, don’t you think that all the players look for economic security?

Denise: Of course, it’s a short career and players will get the best deals they can. Ballack got himself a pretty good signing on fee anyway from what I understand, so he’d be one of the happier players to negotiate the sort of contract we’re told could be offered. As for Lampard, whilst I agree players want economic security, there are ways and means of going about it and holding a club to ransom for such an obscene amount whilst at the same time telling the world how much you love that club, isn’t the best way to go about it.

Razib Ahmed: Finally, say something about your back ground and your blog- The Chelsea Blog. What is your future plan regarding the blog?

Denise: Born in London and brought up in a Chelsea household, so supporting them went without saying. I started the blog last season, pretty much as a way of offloading my many frustrations around the whole Avram Grant appointment and what was going on inside Stamford Bridge. I guess I just enjoyed it and got a bit carried away although, being voted Best New Blog of 2008 by soccerlens readers has to mean I’ve been doing something right . J A recent change to the blog is that it’s now managed by Football Media and as for its future, hopefully it’ll just continue to grow.