September is normally a lovely month weather wise but this one has been a bit stormy don’t you think?
Still we’ve got lots to look forward to, including;
13 days till the Ryder Cup golf starts in Paris (28/9/18)
22 days till the new Doctor Who series, with the first female Doctor (7/10/18)
43 days till the clocks go back (end of British Summertime) (28/10/18)
46 days till Halloween (31/10/18)
50 days until my birthday (just putting it out there! 4/11/18)
51 days till Bonfire Night (5/11/18)
And it’s now 100 Sleeps to Christmas! I know far too early to even mention it but things are hotting up in preparation.
Elton John has signed-up to star in the new John Lewis Christmas advert.
The 71-year-old agreed to feature in the festive commercial for a whopping £5million.
The Rocket Man singer has spent four days at London’s Pinewood Studios and
the finished edit, which is expected to be broadcast in November, will be soundtracked by his much-loved track, “Your Song.”
Child actors play the superstar as a youngster on Christmas day, opening presents with his family.
Then, the advert climaxes with John playing the piano as an adult.
A source on the set said: “John Lewis wanted to win the battle of the Christmas adverts this year and it has cost them a significant sum to do it, but they think having Elton on board will guarantee its popularity and blow Marks & Spencer out of the water.
“It’s a tear-jerker but also very sweet, and follows Elton from a child, through his teenage years, into how he is today.
“It is all very, very charming and the exciting crescendo at the end will be Elton playing his famous piano.”
Elton has also announced the first UK & Irish dates of his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour.
Sun June 09 2019 – Hove Central County Ground
Wed June 12 2019 – Dublin 3Arena
Thu June 13 2019 – Dublin 3Arena
Sat June 15 2019 – Cardiff City Stadium
He will also play Madrid on Weds June 26th 2019.
Back to the Christmas ads and pressure is on John Lewis as it didn’t perform too well in last years ads and has just announced half year profits down 99%. One of its rivals M&S have just signed Holly Willoughby as its latest brand ambassador which is a very shrewd move. She’s the queen of daytime TV on This Morning and this winter she’ll be on our screens live from the jungle in Australia, co-presenting I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
Data firm 4C Insight scoured millions of posts on social media, analysing the public’s reaction to last years Christmas adverts and scored them accordingly to create the top 10 of 2017.
1. Aldi
2. Boots
3. Tesco
4. Lidl
5. Sainsbury’s
6. Vodafone
7. Coca-Cola
8. Waitrose
9. M&S
10. John Lewis
England were beaten by Spain last weekend in the new Nations League. Spain looked a different team under Luis Enrique and you wonder why they performed so badly at the World Cup Finals. The sacking of the Manager wouldn’t have helped and it’s more or less the same squad of players but Enrique has chosen to throw in some youngsters such as Asensio and Saul. England continued their good form and I thought they were unlucky not to get at least a draw. Spain went on this week to thrash Croatia 6-0 in their next game, Croatia of course being the team that England lost to in the World Cup Semi Final.
I noticed a lot of the UK media marveling about the performance of Marco Asensio. A lot of them were asking why England can’t produce a player like him. I’ve watched Marco since he made his debut for Real Mallorca in 2013 and even then you could see he was going to be a great player. Watching football here virtually every day with my sons either training or playing You can see that all kids are encouraged to play out from the back & keep the ball on the deck. Until they get to the professional level all kids play on AstroTurf so their touch has to be spot on. If I compare that to how I grew up playing football and speaking to friends back in the UK it’s still very different. I think there has been a change in how players are brought up now and that’s been proved with England’s performances both at the World Cup and at the other age levels where they’ve started to win trophies. But looking at our group of players do we have a “Marco Asensio”? The biggest problem with our big players is a lot of them are struggling to get into their clubs first team. Of the 11 that started against Switzerland last week half don’t regularly get into their clubs first team.
Butland: plays in the Championship for Stoke
Walker: plays in Man City’s first team
Tarkowski: plays in Burnley’s first team
Maguire: plays in Leicester’s first team
Alexander-Arnold: plays in Liverpool’s first team
Loftus-Cheek: doesn’t play regularly in Chelsea’s first team
Dier: plays in Tottenham’s first team
Delph: doesn’t play regularly in Man City’s first team
Rose: doesn’t play regularly in Tottenham’s first team
Rashford: doesn’t play regularly in Man Utd’s first team
Welbeck: doesn’t play regularly in Arsenal’s first team
It’s a debate that will run and run and I for one am looking forward to watching live the Spain v England return match in Seville in mid October.
Real Mallorca beat Cadiz last Friday with a last minute Alex López goal and are currently second in La Liga 123. In midweek the reserves beat Real Oviedo by 1-0 with a lovely goal from Fran Giner who was out injured the majority of last season and means they progress into the next round of La Copa Del Rey. Luckily enough in Friday’s draw they got a bye into the round of 32 where hopefully they will draw one of the big boys. Good to see the whole squad play in those last two games, I’m really impressed with the atmosphere at the stadium and this week they went through 10,000 season ticket holders. They are away in Elche this weekend and their next home game is a week on Sunday against Albacete which is a 12 midday kick-off.
Enjoy Your Weekend!
Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday 07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone, Android, The Tunein Radio App and on the Spanish TDT TV service. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!
Feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com
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