'Remember when I said you'd stay captain... I lied'

Is Arsene Wenger sounding more like Arnold Schwarzenegger each day? I’ve heard the question mentioned a few times in the recent past and I’m slowly but surely giving it some credence. Perhaps this whole professorial image of his is burdening Wenger.

Maybe teams see him, and by extension his team, as a bunch of chin stroking softies. Perhaps he’s actually been toughened up by the bad times that haven’t seen an open top bus tour of North London in three years? Or maybe it’s just how men of a certain age from central Europe sound when speaking English.

Once again Wenger is facing into the prospect of heavy criticism as his Arsenal side – apparently tearing apart at the seams – face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. I’m sure he wishes Frank Lampard’s sending off midweek meant he missed this game because, as much as we dislike Fat Frank here at ODF, he is a pretty damn decent player, not to mention a fantasy league goldmine. On the subject of which don’t you hate cheering on players you’d otherwise hope had their legs broken so that they can get you a few bonus points in your work league? A sad existence really, but then it’s the life that the majority of us lead.

Anyway, prediction one… 2-1 Chelsea to lay on more hurt for Arsene’s girly men.

Prediction two, and it will most likely come back to haunt me, is that Man City will beat United for the third time on the trot in the league for the first time in 50 years. Elsewhere…

Aston Villa v Fulham: I think this has nil-all written all over it. But then my instincts are balls so what the fuck – 3-2 with at least one missed penalty and something like this happening midway through the first half.

Middlesbrough v Newcastle: JFK celebrates his contract with a draw I’d say – 2-2.

Stoke v Hull: Hull are getting their shit back on track and I’d say they will grab the three points here. 1-2.

Sunderland v Bolton: Surely a home win – Sunderland have created loads of chances in their last two home games and have been shafted by a combination of luck going against them and having fools like Diouf or Ferdinand in their side. Keane still has to explain all his odd signings in the fullness of time but he should get the win here.

Wigan v West Brom: Wigan actually played quite well against Everton and that did help as I started watching that game with verrrrrry low expectations. Everton were shite. Again. Anyway… a surprise of sorts with a 1-1 draw.

Sunday, 30 November

Portsmouth v Blackburn: Pompey might suffer in the comedown from the game against Milan and play poorly here. Maybe some light at the end of the tunnel for Ince at last, 1-2.

Tottenham v Everton: See aforementioned ‘Everton/shite’ comment above. 2-0

Monday, 1 December

Liverpool v West Ham: No Torres, no form… but I’m just too optimistic for my own good. Keane hat trick – 3-0. Well maybe no a Keane hat trick but I’ll stick with the score.

Later, JJ

CL Coma

I know it has been mentioned before, here and on most football websites, but this Champions League business is a bit crap isn't it?

Tuesday and Wednesday night showed us the worst of the CL action, I flicked between the 2 televised games on each night, and almost couldn't decide which was worse. Watching Arsenal huff and puff to blow Kiev's house down, Villarreal defend against United's impotent attack, Liverpool squander possession against Marseilles, or Chelsea faffing around the place against Bordeaux (to be fair, Bordeaux equalised late on, and Lamps was sent off, so that is the winner).

After 5 matches, 13 teams have already qualified, with only group A & B in the balance. As far as teams hoping to win the group and thus earn themselves the chance of an easier draw in the second round, it's hardly riveting is it? And with Chelsea, Liverpool and Real Madrid currently occupying second in their groups, there's not much of an incentive to finish top.

In group A, Chelsea need to beat Cluj at home to progress, while Roma should be able to tackle Bordeaux at home. In group B, there is excitement, the 2 European powerhouses, Panathinaikos & Anorthosis Famagusta go head to head for qualification. But that won't be on TV.

No, we'll see Chelsea winning at home, and Liverpool doing the necessary away to PSV. Man Utd will be shown showboating around whilst crushing AaB, and Arsenal will try to draw against Porto to seal top spot.

So that's all done and dusted then.

Over to the UEFA Cup tonight (no, wait!) and Pompey take on AC Milan. Milan will be resting players, so the story goes, and even old Sheva is likely to get a run out.
Tony Adams meanwhile has said that it is nights like this that made qualifying Europe so great, and it is the biggest match in their history. He then went on to say that he wants to looks at some of the lads who have been out of the team and it is important to stay in the Premier League. Is he mad?

Firstly, I'm sure all the players want to test themselves against AC, and a good performance will do wonders for their confidence, while being left out is sure to infuriate . Secondly, why reward players who are out of the team with a start against the 7 times European Cup winners? They are out of the team for a reason. Thirdly, Portsmouth have a good team, and thus have a good chance to win the competition, and after their 3-0 loss last time, need to pick some points. Do you really want to be despised like Megson & Bolton after their shameful antics last year?
Fourthly (I think I need to stop after 'fourthly', in fact, I'm not even sure it's a word.), Tony says "What we need to be focused on is staying in the Premier League" - no Tony, you need to be focused on going far in the UEFA Cup and qualifying again via the league with your expensively assembled squad.


Mark

‘This is the Champions League baby…’

Who has the better ‘baby’ – Dunphy or Costanza?

It’s a question for the ages. Anyway…

My predictions of late have, like a recovering alcoholic in winter time, been a little on the shaky side. Therefore I approach tonight’s Champions League fixtures with a fair amount of trepidation. There are teams deemed to be in crisis, teams with little to play for and, of course, there’s Celtic, whose continued redefinition of being pants on the road has to end at some stage… or does it?

Go through this season’s Champions League and there’s been a fair few surprises (Villareal getting the draw in Manchester, Cluj winning in Rome, Madrid losing twice to Juve, Chelsea coming unstuck in Italy, everything that’s happened involving Anorthosis Famagusta), yet when it comes down to it, the top seeds from each group will most likely end up in the last sixteen. But that doesn’t make the odds of me calling any of the below correctly any better. Fuck it though, here goes…

AaB v Celtic: Celtic’s general inability to score in the Champions League has been pretty painful to watch this season. All in all, they just aren’t a very good side and they tend to play woeful football once they leave the confines of that Sunday league they play in each week. They might sneak a draw though. 0-0 or 1-1.
Arsenal v Dynamo Kiev: Prepare for another round of articles on the genius of Wenger after a 2-0 or 3-0 win here. Really the press are so bloody up and down when it comes to Arsenal this season. They lose to Stoke and they’re in a state of crisis not seen since the mid-nineties, all of a sudden they beat Wigan reserves at home and they’re a collection of Peles. Throw in a win over Man United, followed by two comprehensive defeats and column writers are once again going from deifying them one day to writing them off the next (I’m looking at you Kevin McCarra). They may well pull of ‘a Liverpool’ and be brutal in the league and go far in the CL this season. Like I said, two or three nil here.
BATE Borisov v Real Madrid: Madrid, so says Sid, have been absolutely woeful of late but my poor man’s cable package has meant I’ve only seen CL highlights of them for the most part. They have to beat these guys though surely? Surely? 0-1.
Bayern Munich v Steaua Bucuresti: Ah, a meeting of the old guard in Europe, lovely. Bayern shoudl win this and march towards the next round. Oh, and if you haven’t seen this vid of Frank Ribery by now, feast your eyes. Genius. 2-0.
Fenerbahce v FC Porto: So bad I forgot to put a score in here in my first edit of this blog. We’ll go with 1-3.
Fiorentina v Lyon: Could be a good one here, Fiorentina have to win to have any chance of progressing but may bee missing Mutu and are also hampered by having Gilardino up front who, in the finest tradition of Andy Cole and Robbie Keane, takes ten chances to score one goal. Much like the Bayern game last time out, I’d say they may take the lead and try to hang on, but they won’t though. 1-2.
Villarreal v Man Utd: I hate this – a tasty looking fixture that has its balls ripped off by being a pointless game at the end of the group stages. It happens every year in the Champions League and at any major tournament as well – as anyone who watched Holland and Argentina at the 2006 World Cup will no doubt agree with… wait a minute, did I say Holland and Argentina? That gives me an excuse to show this…. Where was I? Oh yeah, 1-1.
Zenit St Petersburg v Juventus: Home win this time out with Juve licking their wounds after the weekend. No one wants to see an old lady licking her wounds. 1-0.

And on that note…

Later, JJ

What could go wrong?

This week, this is what I mostly think will happen... (obscure Fast Show reference explained here)

Aston Villa v Man Utd: This game is built for United. Villa, a team on the up but perpetually scared of the United crest coming within 100 yards of them, will collapse at some stage here. It might come late but they will collapse. United on the other hand have injury worries but the best frontline on the planet so they should be fine, though no doubt Ferguson’s post match press conference will make it sound as if without Ferdinand, Brown and Berbatov they were down to the bare bones (copyright: Arry Redknapp). 1-3
Chelsea v Newcastle: Farckin ‘ell Joe Kinnear’s not done too bad has he? The resurrection of Damien Duff, Oba Martins playing well again and not caving in to Michael Owen. Good man. He’ll get the shit ripped out of him here though. 3-0
Liverpool v Fulham: Hmmm… It’s been Steven Gerrard week on the ‘Pool’s official website as he’s celebrating 10 years in the first team. Will he mark it with a controversial return after his England absence? I hope he does as it’ll annoy Garth Crooks, which is always a good thing. Anyway, with or without him it’s a home win. Most likely nil all at half time but a win nonetheless, particularly with Torres likely to start. 2-0
Man City v Arsenal: Ooooooooh tough one, this should be a cracker and why it’s not on live TV is beyond me. Robinho should find plenty of space what with most of Arsenal’s defence reusing to go within ten yards of William ‘Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me’ Gallas. What a complete tosser this guy is though. First he says he has no friends at the club, then he rubbishes Theo Walcott’s style of play, has a strop at Birmingham, embarrasses himself with the team talk in their game against Chelsea last year, plays pretty poorly for the majority of his time at the club and even found himself out injured for eight weeks after kicking himself up the arse in training. Prat. Go on Citeh, increase the pain. 2-1.
Middlesbrough v Bolton: Oooooooh pointless one this… I shall talk no further. 1-0. Barnstorming.
Portsmouth v Hull: Hull stopped the rot last week and fair balls to them, I think they’ll lose a tight game here though as Donkey Kong continues to see Pompey improve after their substandard start to his reign. 2-1.
Stoke v West Brom: Oh dear. Let’s hope West Brom’s penchant for actually passing the ball helps them out here against a woeful to watch Stoke side. 0-1.
Sunderland v West Ham: Considering most of the Sunderland defence used to play for West ham, if they have any chance of a clean sheet it should come here. More pain for Zola I’d say – 2-0.
Tottenham v Blackburn: The big one, well it is for me as I’ve bet that Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs will all be up at half time in their games. Foolish considering I already said Liverpool might take a while before beating Fulham, and even more foolish considering I think Spurs might struggle here. But screw it; the betting slip is in my hands now. 3-1 Spurs, hopefully 1-0 at least at half time… poppa needs a new pair o’ shoes.

Later, JJ

Tevez & Mother

Andy Reid

Above is Zidane.
And above is Andy Reid.
This is what journalists and pretentious people like moi call a juxtaposition.

So everybody, give Il Trap a bit of credit and please don't get so upset with Ireland's midfield, which, as the manager has stressed, is to a specific system. We're not England, we don't have to shoe-horn incompatible players into the system that is working so far for us.

Mark

Predictions...

That time of the week again folks, and while some people will be concentrating on the egg chasing over at Croke Park this weekend I’m sure us decent folk are rubbing our hands together in anticipation of the big one – Bolton v Liverpool… wait, come back, there’s always United and Stoke in the afternoon… stop running, what about West Brom and Chelsea… wait, stop!!

Okay so admittedly the fixture list this weekend has the air of George Lee news report about it but here’s a rundown of what I think will happen. (Oh and here’s a rundown of what Lawro thinks will happen. Here’s Lawro making a very strange noise. And here’s a video of what Mark gets up to in his spare time. Possibly.).

Arsenal v Aston Villa: Well perhaps it’s not all bad as this one usually provides some decent entertainment. Arsenal should be full of confidence while Villa have been pretty poor of late, which frankly I find hilarious. I can see Arsenal going behind then coming back to win 3-1.
Blackburn v Sunderland: Royston is not best pleased with life at the moment but considering Blackburn are also a pretty poor side I’d say Sunderland will nick a point anyway. 1-1.
Bolton v Liverpool: I’ll watch it but I’m pretty sure I won’t enjoy it. Hard fought 1-2.
Fulham v Tottenham: For the sake of all our sanities please let the Harry Houdini bollocks stop here and now. Hopefully Andy Johnson can do another one of his famous pirouettes in the penalty area and grab a spot-kick here. Roy Hodgson’s team can play some decent football and will almost certainly score against Spurs – well they definitely will considering I now have Vedran Corluka in my fantasy league team – so I reckon they can halt this alarmingly brilliant run of form for Harry’s men. 3-2.
Man Utd v Stoke: Two nil by half time, three nil or three one by full time. Though it will be interesting to see how the unusually nervous United defence of late deal with the Delapidator.
Newcastle v Wigan: Robbie Earle reckons Joe Kinnear is a nice bloke, but then again he appears to get on well with Andy Townsend who is clearly the antichrist* so perhaps his opinion isn’t much to go on when judging someone. Nothing to do with the game but thought I’d mention it anyway. I’ll say home win – 4-1.
West Brom v Chelsea: 0-3.
West Ham v Portsmouth: Two teams who have been wobbling of late, both managed by pretty decent blokes who will eventually be fired once their shortcomings in management become all too apparent. This weekend however, I fancy Gianfranco Zola to get some joy at last. Pompey played poorly and won last week, West Ham played excellently and lost in freakish fashion to Everton (Saha barely touched the ball before he set up one goal and scored two more). Karma says 2-0 West Ham.
Everton v Middlesbrough: Meh… 1-1.
Hull v Man City: City have been brutal on the road of late but I’d say they’ll get three points here… 1-3 maybe.

Have a good weekend folks, JJ

*Andy Townsend may not be the antichrist. Tests have proved inconclusive. Shit pundit though, that was confirmed.

Cassano and the cornetti

“I made friends with one of the waiters. His job was to bring me 3 or 4 cornetti after I had sex. He would bring the cornetti to the stairs, I would bring the girl and we would make a trade: he took the girl, I stuffed myself with cornetti. Sex plus food, the perfect night.”
Antonio Cassano. Prince among men.

His autobiography is out now and frankly go buy it (well if you understand Italian, we can only hope there’s an English version out soon, but here’s a few excerpts to get an idea of how it differs from the ‘I went to the World Cup, I played shit, here’s my book’ approach of most Premier League stars). He hates everybody, has sex with every woman in sight (including young Rosaria here) and eats his way across Europe. What a guy, oh and here’s his Fabio Capello impression. Antonio Cassano - one of life's more wonderful nutjobs.

Later, JJ

Andrea Dossena

Andrea Dossena cost Liverpool 7 million pounds. I just wanted to remind everybody of that.

Mark,
ODF

Christmas comes early - Pat Dolan, Burger King, Grafton Street....

The chunky cheeseball that is Pat Dolan is snapped in Burger King - for those of you outside of Ireland he's an awful, awful pundit with Setanta. Previously he's had the piss taken out of him by Apres Match and is pretty much loathed from one end of the nation to the other.

Is he starting up some kind of Native American chant or does the food go in so quick his hand becomes merely a blur? Fat Pat, ever the mystery.

Later, JJ

Who ya gonna McCall? (Sorry)

By early August I had been alerted by a mate that Andrea Dossena may well be pants. Liverpool had just signed him for £7 million and while his absence from what was already a poor Italian defence during Euro 2008 worried me at first, I still had some hopes that perhaps Rafa Benitez had spotted a diamond in the rough as Sky pundits and assorted Eastenders clichés say.

“Generally, he stands there with one hand up his hole,” was his learned (learned son, it’s pronounced learned, sorry couldn’t resist) verdict, based on watching Dossena line out in several pre season friendlies. Now, getting this right out of the way, I fully agree at this point that the former Udinese man is pretty poor, but that really wasn’t what I wanted to talk about.

The idea of watching Carling Cup games over the next two nights has about as much appeal as those pre-season friendlies just mentioned – and frankly they seem to have as much importance these days. When it comes around to January, stick the FA Cup in there as well. All these games are pretty much on the same level of those August walkabouts nowadays, with the only ones seemingly fighting against the grain being the TV companies who are trying to flog advertising time by eulogising about the magic of the Carling Cup and FA Cup in particular.

You’ve probably seen it already (via Martin Kelner), but Setanta’s intro to their coverage of the first round of the FA Cup is the latest bit of painful TV exec nonsense that tries to sell shit as shitola (FAmous Cup anybody?). Okay it does say that it’s something uniquely English, so as an Irish blog we can hardly be judge, jury and executioner but surely there has to be several fans over in Blighty who agree that the thrill is well gone.

It certainly is with regards to the League Cup, which prior to the Champions League explosion often provided the first big ‘event’ game of the season, as silverware was handed out in March. In this year’s competition, watching Arsenal’s kids destroy Wigan might be entertaining; seeing the various reserve hopefuls from Liverpool, Chelsea and United do battle could also be kind of intriguing as well but not enough to sit through 90 minutes for – anyway how many major talents have announced themselves on this stage in recent years?

Anyway, with that little rant out of the way here’s footage of Stuart McCall falling over a car while pissed. Now had Setanta included this at the start of their intro to the FA Cup they might have got me watching. Just a suggestion lads.

Later, JJ

CL Round Up

Hi All,
It's been a while, and I'm glad to back.

However, I'm not glad that whilst downloading an episode of Heroes last night (sssh!), I looked up to the TV to see a large fore-headed buffoon pirouetting and crashing to the ground. Flicking over from Strictly Come Dancing, Liverpool had won a penalty in the 94th minute, which Stevie G rammed home. Overall, a draw was probably deserved, though Atletico provided some menace on the counter attack. Though, it didn't matter, did it? Marseilles and PSV are 5 points off the (slow) pace in group D.
In group A, Chelsea are stuttering through as per usual, Inter have a 3 point lead in group B, while Barca and Sporting will qualify in group C.

Am I just like Barry Glenndenning and have become sick of football? Or is this now a borefest, at least where the English teams are involved? Mostly yes, and I need to start watching Inter, who rescued a 3-3 last night against Anorthosis, or head on over to group F, to see if Fiorentina can catch Lyon. Or even group G, where there should be a 3-way battle for second.

So, on to the predictions:

AaB v Villarreal, Gp E
After the last 6-3 goalfest, the law of football says this must a narrow away win for Villarreal, 0-1

Celtic v Man Utd, Gp E
Hello, are you still with me? No really, this is a battle of Britain, it'll be... eh... a relatively easy game for United, interspersed with the odd high tempo efforts from Celtic, United will rotate and settle for a draw, 1-1.

Fiorentina v Bayern Munich, Gp F
The Italians need to win to help their qualification chances. Bayern are no great shakes, though Ribery has returned from injury, Fiorentina will nick it, 2-1

Lyon v Steaua Bucuresti, Gp F
Lyon, the most implausible team in the CL - just give up and stop qualifying, you are never going to do anything in this competition, except flatter to deceive. A Benzema inspired win, 2-0.

Arsenal v Fenerbahce, Gp G
A handy walk in the park for Arsenal after the Stoke unpleasantness, which will involve goalmouth incidents galore, and a victory at a stroll. Even Alumnia can't mess up in this match, can he? 4-0

Dynamo Kiev v FC Porto, Gp G
Porto need a draw at least to keep in touch with Dynamo in the battle for runners up behind Arsenal, and they should get it. 1-1.

BATE v Zenit St Petersburg, Gp H
Wow, Zenit are crap aren't they? What happened to the UEFA Cup winners? Maybe their players are being disturbed by large wads of money being offered to them or maybe, whisper it, the UEFA Cup is a low quality tournament. They'll go for the win to try to defend their crown, by finishing 3rd in the group.

Real Madrid v Juventus, Gp H
Del Piero showed the last time out that he has a bit of life left in him yet, but, despite Juve's recent good run, they are still missing some players, and Real have quality throughout the team. The opposite of their previous result - 2-1

Enjoy,

Mark

P.S. Darren Bent has 6 goals in 14 appearance this season, and a couple of assists. I'm so happy when I'm right

Champions League predictions... and that fuppin puppet

Afternoon folks,

Roll out the theme tune, tis Champions League time again…

Roma v Chelsea, (Gp A): What with Roma losing their last five games and Chelsea generally resembling a slightly more functional version of the Harlem Globetrotters against many sides of late, this should be a foregone conclusion. That’s even taking into account that Roma need a result tonight as a flaky Bordeaux side will be hard pressed to beat Cluj. I’d say the Romans might scrap a draw but no more. 1-1.

CFR Cluj-Napoca v Bordeaux, (Gp A): Two absolute fruitcake sides; Bordeaux barely won out in the reverse fixture, getting a one nil victory and even that came from an own goal. However, Cluj may have – like Rangers last year – peaked early on. At a push, I’ll back the Romanians to get a narrow 1-0 win.

Anorthosis Famagusta v Inter Milan, (Gp B): Does anybody find that Setanta puppet of Jose Mourinho funny? Anyone? It’s fuckin woeful frankly. Glad I got that out of the way. Anyway, Inter have been a bit patchy in the league of late but should win here. 0-2.

Werder Bremen v Panathinaikos, (Gp B): Diego got a peach at the weekend and while Werder Bremen have been one of the most unpredictable sides in the Champions League in the last few years they not diving gits like the sodding Greeks they’re facing. I hope it’s 8-0, in all likelihood, more like 3-1.

Barcelona v Basle, (Gp C): Four? Five? Six? Hmmm… I’ll be conservative and say four nil for the home side.

Sporting v Shakhtar Donetsk, (Gp C): Eh… no idea. In the long run I’d say Shakhtar will provide stronger opposition to the top sides in the latter stages, especially when they’re at home so I hope they go through. With that in mind… 2-1.

Liverpool v Atletico Madrid, (Gp D): Well, the recovery starts here hopefully. After… well I can’t even describe what went wrong on Saturday against Spurs (though after a good few late wins going the Pool’s way this season it’s hard to complain overall), I think this is a decent game to head into. Torres back, Keane scoring in Europe at the very least, and a good footballing side coming at them instead of sitting back. Should be a decent match – I’ll go 2-1 home win.

Marseille v PSV, (Gp D): Both very, very poor sides – I’d say Marseilles might nick this one simply because they’re at home and they need a result for any chance of a Uefa place. 2-0.

Later, JJ

Spot on Sir

Howdy people,

After another frankly barmy week of football my favourite quote came from an unusual source. Unusual in the sense that I generally try and ignore anything Alex Ferguson says as it more often than not concerns myopic ideas of what referees should or shouldn’t do and little else.

But this time the Knight of the Realm who once got off a driving charge by using the excuse of having the shits, talked a whole heap of sense. His target? FIFA President, and all round slimeball, Sepp ‘How Tight Can We Get Those Hot Pants?’ Blatter (pictured above being the classy individual we’ve come to know and love)

“I think Sepp Blatter is in danger . . . or has reached a point now, where he is being mocked within the game … Whether he’s getting too old, I don’t know. But things can happen to people in power. Look at some of the despots in Africa.”

Not bad, but he wasn’t finished, “All I’m saying is that, from a position of great power, he has uttered so many ridiculous statements that he is in danger of seriously damaging his credibility.”

To be fair to Ferguson, he’s pretty much got this spot on. To a man like him, and indeed anyone with a bit of sense at all, a political schemer like Blatter must utterly disgust them. Thankfully, one person who Blatter wholeheartedly disgusts is investigative reporter Andrew Jennings, whose BBC documentary on Blatter in the run up to the 2006 World Cup was a window into the shady dealings of the Swiss-born backstabber supreme. His book – Foul: The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals – goes several steps further though, and essentially is an astonishing 250-plus pages full of reasons why Blatter should not be where he is in life.

Originally released in 2006, I bought a newly published edition of the book recently and it’s a tale of rigged elections; bogus payments to officials; dipping into company funds; and appointing similar scumbags like Jack Warner into power. How this can be on general release and yet Blatter remains in his lofty position is amazing. Jennings’ stellar background can be viewed here, and he recently summed up his distaste for the FIFA supremo and others in power, saying:

“Every country in the world should stand up and say stinking fish. So what you’ve got is each continental confederation, we are in UEFA in Europe, now headed by Blatter’s friend and protégée, Platini, there is CONCACAF, covering North and Central America, Caribbean, Africa and Asia and so on. There are six confederations. Once you get to be a Confederation President, such as Jack Warner in CONCACAF, they are very happy, they are making good money in addition to the rackets. They can’t complain. They keep Blatter in power so that they can get rich. They give him the vote. It does make the Mafia look quite amateur… They are the Enrons of sport in that respect.

“So you have this pyramid at the top, and Herr Blatter says ‘I’m elected by the Parliaments of FIFA’, but at the FIFA Congress, you see all of the mice, 600, 700, in one room. They don’t even squeak. They have a wonderful lifestyle. It’s a very sad thing. The only way FIFA is going to get sorted out is by the investigators. Then Blatter will have to go. Sports should be doing this, but rather, they’ll turn to the investigating magistrate, the fraud squad, so that’s how you get Blatter out.”

Give it a bash if you see it in shops. To be honest, and this will tell you plenty, John Delaney looks like one of the more capable and trustworthy football administrators out there after reading this. Now there’s a horrifying thought.

*******************************

Right, after that blast of ‘deep’ thinking, myself or Mark will be back with some Champions League countdown action tomorrow.

Later, JJ