Iconoclasm: journalism, doping and Federer

Every time I come to write this blog, or just check the sports news for that matter, doping seems to occupy an ever-increasing amount of column inches, being pushed further and further in the agenda by the press. Whilst this is good in some respects, the quality of the writing and insight offered from the usual sports journalists is, frankly, poor. That is not to say that they are poor journalists, rather their pieces lack any fresh ideas and seem only to retrace the footsteps of those who have written and argued so much about the scourge of doping in sport over the last few years. The Guardian’s drugs in sport special of last week exhibited these flaws.

Voices in the crowd: Vaughters and Wenger

Since the early hours of Thursday morning and the last instalment of Bleeding Edge, some smarter than average bears have had their say. Arsene Wenger and Jonathan Vaughters are two of the more interesting and insightful voices in football and cycling respectively and equally forward thinking in their approaches to team management. The point that both unifies and sets them apart from their peers is their willingness to speak out with little regard for the way the wind is blowing.

Australian Sport's Blackest Day: Instructive.

The sky is falling in Australian sport. The peptide raindrops are flooding the fields of the Australian Football League and the dark water is running over the parched ground, doubtless leaving few sports in the dry. Indeed, it may only be a matter of time before the same level of doping is revealed in sport in the UK.

Fingers in the socket.

Meanwhile, in the sparkly clean world of cycling….

You've got to start somewhere...

… so this seems as good a place as any.

Let’s begin with a little bit of autobiography shall we?