Had a really strong down pour last night and because of that the courts were not open so my regular singles tennis was cancelled and I do so enjoy those games!!!!!
Had to settle for a morning on the couch watching live tennis from France and then live soccer from England…..I know I have a hard life!!!
I want to bring you up to date and what is happening or rather not happening with Paola…the last time saw her was when I took her swimming two weeks ago she told me she was moving house her and her Mum and older Brother were moving into the house of her Mum’s boyfriend, Martin.
I have met Martin once and liked him and he speaks English…….anyway I told Paola I would stop by Martin’s work and find out where she lives and pick her up a week ago yesterday for her dental appointment.
The day before her dentist visit I went to see Martin to get directions to his house so I could get her and he looked really confused and told me that they had not actually moved in with him yet so I asked for directions to where she was but he would not tell me….some strange story about it being complicated anyway he said he would meet me with Paola for her dental appointment on a street corner.
The next day I waited for over 20 minutes for them and they never showed!!!!
So this week I have been by his work three times and not connected with him but I left my telephone number for him and he has not called. I went to the house where she used to live and they do not know where the family moved….I also spoke to the girls that used to come swimming with us and they do not know where she is….I cannot go to her school because she changed schools this Semester and I do not know where the school is…so really I do not know what to do..I will try going by his work place again next week…so obviously I did not take her swimming today…something strange is going on!!!!
This afternoon I took Sara to Costco in the town about 40 minutes away…she stocked up!!!!
Now home and had a long hot soak in the tub I do enjoy those times and just settling down with a good cuppa and watching hockey!!!!
This article impacted me because my dream as a young teenager was to make a life of playing soccer but of course I could not make the grade.. when I read about the academies and kids going there at 9 and 10 I wish and wonder if they had these facilities in my day would I have made it!!!!!!!!! Will never know!!!!
Robbie Savage on what it takes to be a Premier League footballer
In his regular BBC Sport column, Robbie Savage responds to the results of BBC Sport's State of the Game study that shows the restricted playing time for British players in the Premier League this season, and looks at why Arsenal and Manchester United's meeting on Saturday is not the title-decider it once was.
The easiest thing for a English or British player to say if they don't make it at a Premier League club is "well, they bought a foreign player instead". It is a ready-made excuse.
People might argue that more mediocre foreigners coming into the Premier League means our players have less of a chance. But I think the bottom line is that you still come through if you are good enough.
You cannot tell me that if Everton had bought a youngster from a foreign club, he would have stopped Ross Barkley from breaking into their first team.
Premier League foreigners used as excuse when English players don't make it, says Robbie Savage
Yes, it is extremely hard to make it at the top level but it has always been the same.
I was fortunate to be part of Manchester United's famous youth team known as the Class of '92. The likes of Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Gary Neville and Nicky Butt came through from that side because they were very gifted and also because they worked. I have never seen a group of players work so hard.
Would they really have been denied that opportunity if it had been so easy then to go out and buy somebody from abroad and put him in the first team instead?
No. I think those players would still have had the career they did, because they were good enough and they had the right attitude.
You have to have all the right attributes as person to make it - it is not only about being a technically gifted player.
So many different things in all aspects of your life decide whether you become a professional footballer at the highest level and I don't think people realise that.
Making it takes more than talent
The Manchester United Class of '92 - including a young Robbie Savage third from the right
Not everybody is as good as Barkley or the Class of 92 and almost every young player has to be able to deal with knock-backs. I know I did.
I was with United between the ages of 14 and 19, when Sir Alex Ferguson told me I wasn't going to be good enough to play for that football club.
I drove home far too fast with his words buzzing in my head and crashed my car.
Lying in my hospital bed, I felt like my life was over. The biggest thing for me was telling my parents I had been released and it felt like a death sentence.
Not only had I lost my job - although I did not think of it like that at the time - I had lost my best mates, who I had grown up with over the past five years. I was a teenager back living at home and thinking "what am I going to do?".
Dario Gradi phoned me up and I went to play under him at Crewe but, in my first year there, I was nowhere near the first team.
Dario Gradi won a reputation for reviving the careers of young players during his 24 years at Crewe
It was a different way of life to go from playing with Ryan Giggs and winning every week, to playing League Two football against grown men who were putting their bodies on the line to make sure they had a livelihood.
I was used to playing against people my own age and suddenly I was in an environment where I was physically small. I was thinking, "I have got no chance here - am I best off going to do something else?".
So I can see why some young players might walk away from the game when they get released by big clubs, but there was something inside me that made me carry on and I got my break in the end.
It was Bobby Gould who changed my career when he called me up for Wales at the age of 21 and put me in midfield. Until then I had been a centre-forward.
Because of my energy and work-rate that change of position meant I was able to achieve what I did in the game and play over 600 games, more than 350 of which were in the Premier League.
Some players take a different path
The fact is that most young players who are playing in youth teams at Premier League clubs will have to deal with being told at some stage that they are not good enough, and have to go down to come back up again like I did.
That is when their character, enthusiasm and desire comes into play, along with their technical ability and physical size. All of that put together will decide whether they make it back up to the top level.
Liverpool striker Rickie Lambert rebuilt his career in the lower divisions after being released by the Reds as a teenager and is now back at Anfield
It is all very well saying that there are not enough English and British players in Premier League teams, but maybe that is down to some of the ones who have been knocked back choosing different paths after being rejected.
The ones who are playing at that level will have been through so many agonies and sleepless nights to get there - I don't think people realise how hard it is to make it as a professional footballer.
I have a different perspective on it now too, because my 11-year-old son Charlie is in an academy at a Premier League club, and trains or plays four times a week. He has been there since the age of five, firstly at a development centre and now their academy.
Savage on competition:
"I know that 99 out of 100 boys don't make it so the odds are against my son Charlie from the start."
The thing I ask myself as a parent is, "should I have put him into a club at the highest level so soon?". But he is there because he was scouted, went along and enjoys it - and he loves going, which is the main thing.
The only reason I will regret it with Charlie is if myself or the club have to sit him down one day and say they are letting him go. I know how much that disappointment hurts, and I also know that 99 out of 100 boys don't make it so the odds are against him from the start.
Will Charlie be a professional footballer? I have no idea. But, as long as he enjoys it, that is what matters.
Yashi Kochi!!!!
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