blades blog What chances Goodison Lane?

Posted: August 21st 2008
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Nah nah nah nah, he’s a Blade and he’s a Blade,
Nah nah nah nah . . . .

Re-write the Blades celebrity XI - Sheffield-born Paul Goodison nailed his Blades credentials to the mast and brought home the gold from the choppy China seas.

What you mean who the hell is Paul Goodison? Only the four-times European Laser Champion who a couple of days ago beat the world’s best laser sailors to win the Olympic gold medal in Beijing – that’s who.

Sadly, Paul wasn’t allowed to have the Greasy Chip Butty song played instead of the national anthem but how mightily proud he would have been had this been so. His victory even prompted a football name-check from the  perky, but strangely irksome, Hazel Irvine who said the sailor would probably be doubly delighted “because his beloved Blades have beaten QPR 3-0”.

Apparently, back in June landlubber Kev Blackwell and ex-manager Nellie Warno joined Paul for a sail in a genuine race around the Isle of Wight and ended up finishing fifth with the management duo performing admirable crewing duties, thus cementing a sports-celebrity-pal-o-the-Blades-type relationship between club and laser sailor. Goodison has his own shirt with name on it and will be presented to the crowd at BDTBL when he’s back in the country.

So, in the spirit of the current trend in re-naming everything in the name of The Beijing Chosen Ones (Adlington Pool in Mansfield and the Hoy something-or-other in Scotland) should the Blades go for broke and announce a ground-change to Goodison Lane? I think not.