6 Star Albums

Part 2: 8701 - Usher

Back in the day, before Usher discovered Euro-Dance beats and signed a boy named Justin Bieber, he released this masterpiece; arguably the best R&B album in the last fifteen years.

Released in July 2001, hence the name, 8701 shines as a relaxed, chilled out, and well produced album. From the opening bars of the first song, the album springs to life, and flows seamlessly through each track, making it an album than can be listened to from start to finish, with barely a need to skip any songs.

The album's best songs fall into two categories, firstly, slower paced songs such as 'U Got it Bad', and 'Can You Help Me', whose sparse instrumentals leave Usher free to provide a masterclass in vocal gymnastics. The second category is made up of faster paced songs such as 'You Don't Have to Call', with its bouncy beat that perfectly suits its message of moving on after the end of a relationship. Other high-quality upbeat songs on the album are 'Pop Ya Collar', and 'TTP', and the accompanying videos for these songs are a treat for any dance fans. The man is undoubtedly talented, and his dancing shows how his hero Michael Jackson influenced him.

8701 is not without its faults, and a couple of songs fail to hit the same heights as the others. These are 'Hottest Thing', which is maybe too much of a standard R&B song, with not much to say, and 'U-Turn', maybe some kind of attempt to create a new Macarena, but which lacks the catchiness needed to start a dance craze. 

Those songs apart, 8701 is a classic album, with a tracklist of great songs; an album which runs the full range of emotions, and has a song for every mood.

Legends Leave Serie A

After 19 years in the black and white stripes of Juventus, Alessandro Del Piero will move on this summer, leaving the team he has been a symbol of for so long. Del Piero is one of the best examples of a player who has represented the essence of their club for many years, and with players such as Steven Gerrard of Liverpool, Carles Puyol of Barcelona, and Francesco Totti of Roma, is a breed of player that is getting rarer. It seems criminal, but Del Piero's contract will expire this summer, with the board of Juventus having decided not to offer him a renewal. As an Inter supporter, Juventus are probably our biggest rivals, and not a team I'd often want to compliment, but Del Piero has always been a player you had to respect.

Worthy of respect not just for his skill and ability, especially during the glory days when he and David Trezeguet formed one of the best strike partnerships in Europe, he has always been a model professional and followed Juventus down into Serie B after Calciopoli, when he could have gotten a move to any of Europe's top clubs. Del Piero should be respected for being a player who led by example, and who was a gentleman every time he stepped onto the pitch.

Del Piero played his last match for Juve yesterday, but could not sign off with a win, as Juventus lost 2-0 to Napoli in the Coppa Italia final. Luckily he will not yet hang up his boots and has been tipped to move either to the United States, or the English Premier League. I would love to see him in England scoring more of his trademark free kicks for a new audience.

As well as Del Piero leaving Juventus, this season there seems to be a changing of the guard as a whole in Serie A, with so many legends leaving their clubs. At AC Milan, Filippo Inzaghi, goal poacher extraordinaire is also out of contract, while Alessandro Nesta, who formed one of the best centreback pairings ever with Fabio Cannavaro for Italy, will also move, probably to play in the United States. Gennaro Gattuso is another who won't be renewing his contract at Milan; he has expressed a desire to return to play for Glasgow Rangers, but may be stopped by the club's transfer ban.

Clarence Seedorf, the only player ever to win the Champions League with three different clubs, and always an awesome pundit for the BBC, could move to Brazil where he already owns a home, to play for Botafogo. At Inter Ivan Cordoba will leave, but I would like to see him back in some capacity as a member of the backroom staff, as for many seasons he was a stalwart in our defence and a leader of the team. Finally, Marco Di Vaio, perhaps unjustly underrated as a striker, but a hero to Bologna fans for the past four seasons, will also leave his club this summer.

It seems like the end of an era in Serie A, and I want to say buona fortuna; good luck to all the departing legends, and thanks for the memories.

Chelsea and Inter: Twinned for 2011/12

This season there have been more than a few similarities between the Premier League's Chelsea and Serie A's Inter Milan. Both clubs started the season aiming to challenge for their respective championships, but now sit in lower positions than they would want. Currently both are 6^th in their leagues, with fading hopes of qualifying for the Champions League through league position, although Chelsea still do have the chance to qualify directly by winning it on May 19.

Both clubs have faced accusations of having aging squads, with their senators being accused of being past it. Players such as Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard for Chelsea, and Diego Milito and Esteban Cambiasso for Inter, who in the past have been key to the success of their teams, have all come under fire.

Another similarity the teams share is that they both sacked established managers in March, and promoted younger individuals from within their existing set-up; Roberto Di Matteo, former Assistant Manager to Andre Villas-Boas at Chelsea, and Andrea Stramaccioni, who was the Inter primavera youth team coach, replaced Claudio Ranieri.

Both Di Matteo and Stramaccioni were initially brought in as caretakers, to steady teams that were desperately underperforming. In Villas-Boas' last few weeks Chelsea had been on a run of just three wins in twelve matches, and senior players were unhappy with his team selections. At Inter, after seven straight league wins in December 2011 and January 2012 seemed to herald a new dawn, the team slumped to a run of one win in ten league matches and Ranieri was accused of not being able to fit Wesley Sneijder into his formation.

Since taking over, both Di Matteo and Stramaccioni have managed to turn their teams fortunes around, with Chelsea winning the FA cup and reaching the Champions League final, and Inter going from being 10 points behind the final Champions League qualifying position in Serie A, to within three points now. On Sunday Stramaccioni also led Inter to a 4-2 derby victory over AC Milan.

Following the derby win Inter's billionaire owner Massimo Moratti confirmed that Stramaccioni will be kept on the bench for next season. Personally, I hope he is given time and patience to build a team, as it would good to see a young Italian coach given the opportunity to take Inter back to the top.

Despite the FA cup win and scheduled Champions League final appearance, Di Matteo has not yet been given the same backing by Chelsea's own billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich. Chelsea's owner has never been known to make sentimental decisions on the club and despite a lot of calls from the media for Di Matteo to get the job permanently, Abramovich may still decide to go for a glamour name. It has been rumoured that he hopes to try and persuade Pep Guardiola to forget about taking a year out of the game, and move to Stamford Bridge instead.

As we approach the end of the season, both these parallel clubs will now look forward, in the hope that young managers can take them into the future.