Showing posts with label Man Utd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Man Utd. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Most expensive Tweet ever

Before people get too carried away feeling sorry for babbling Ryan Babel who has to cough up a £10,000 fine for tweeting a pic of a referee in a Man Utd shirt, let's get some perspective.

Babel's tweet was 13 words and 49 characters depicting Howard Webb as being a Man Utd fan. The fine works out costing him £770 per word or roughly £204 per keystroke.

While this could be dubbed 'the most expensive tweet ever' and bad judgement, let's not forget Liverpool signing the former 'hot prospect' was an even worse and more costly decision.

To throw a few statistics out there since signing for the reds for over £10million the hotly touted attacking winger Ryan Babel has scored a measly 12 goals for the club.

In the four years since his arrival, the player who was once dubbed 'the next Henry' has cost the club £833,333 per goal – that's excluding his wages.

Babel's lucrative weekly pay packet has been reported to be around the mark of £60,000-a-week.

If that were true, Babel would have been paid just under £6 a minute from the club, for every day and night, for the last four years.

The player, who reportedly refused a move to Birmingham last year because of his high wage demands, has spent just under four hours (228 minutes) on the pitch this season.

This would cost Liverpool £4,511 for each minute that Babel has spent in a red shirt.

Maybe it is Babel, not Howard Webb, who should be running around the pitch wearing a black and white strip.

Wednesday, 7 April 2010

3D glasses - hot or not?

Twenty years ago they said computers made you look silly and that the technology wouldn't catch on.

Now critics are repeating the same phrases for 3D glasses after two Litherland pubs were among the first in Merseyside to pioneer next generation 3D football this week.

Both The Priory and The Netherton pulled pints for up to a hundred people wearing the required glasses on Saturday to watch Manchester United's defeat to Chelsea.

One local resident at The Netherton summed it up when he said: “I've only had 2 bevies but with these glasses on I feel like I've had twelve not to mention the fact I look like Roy Orbison!”

Pubs that screen the exclusive Sky 3D football matches have to fork out a cost of around £2,500 for the initial system set-up.

The huge cost helps fund the separate special camera that is required for 3D viewing in the stadium and currently the only one set-up is stationed at Old Trafford.

But the landlords of both pubs believe the technology to be popular amongst customers despite the lack of Merseyside 3D coverage.

Ray Pennington landlord of The Priory said: “It is definitely something unique and different but I think it will catch on.

”People were saying there is not much difference at first but the closer the camera is to the pitch the more impact it has. Like when the camera zooms in for throw-ins and replays it really is impressive.

“I think to feel the full impact of it though we would need to see more Merseyside games being covered.”

Gary Butcher landlord of The Netherton added: “We wouldn't have been that busy without it. People liked it and it was a big hit with the customers. I feel it has rekindled a lot of interest in going the pub to watch football as it brings a new experience.”

The top of the table clash was broadcast live by Sky in 3D to more than 1,000 pubs.

Sky will be showing another five Premiership games before the end of the season starting with Manchester United against Blackburn this weekend before the Manchester derby.

The company will find out the true popularity of the 'Roy Orbison glasses' when Sky 3D is rolled out to UK home TVs later this year.

In the meantime I think i'll sit back and wait until they invent 3D contact lenses or 3D laser eye treatment.