By Mutual Agreement

Hi All,

We all knew it was going to happen, but the Football Association of Ireland wait until past our bedtimes to tell us that Stan had parted by mutual consent. We were deprived of sleeping soundly and dreaming of Jose because those buffoons thought it would lessen the media attention by not sacking him until after the deadline for the morning papers. What do they take us for?

In a way it's sad to see a player with more than 100 caps have the mickey taken out of him in the media, and have torrent of abuse reign down on him at matches, but his hapless, distrustful & shambolic management style has brought it about. Ireland had a bad manager, but some very good players (Given, Finnan, Dunne), good players (Ireland, O'Shea, Doyle, Keane) and they failed miserably,. most importantly, in terms of performance, and in terms of points. Stan wouldn't have been sacked if we achieved plucky moral victories while showing team spirit and resilience, he was sacked because of the players attitude, his attitude and the inability of anyone to change things effectively.

I'm sure there will be more about in the coming weeks, but the managerial position now up for grabs should not go to any of - Souness, Venables, any Irish ex-pro with no experience, or mercenary types like Philippe Troussier. Please FAI, pick up a youngish manager from Europe with some experience of success and pay him what he wants, performance related, on a contract until the World Cup.
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The Champions League last night threw up plenty of great goals. Arsenal's 7-0 victory was superb, as was United's attacking play in Kiev, while Rangers did well to get a draw with Barca. All 3 British teams should be in the last 16.
To tonight's matches - Liverpool are away to Besiktas in a kinda-have-to-win-but-must-not-lose encounter, but they are lucky in that Turkish football is absolute crap these days and Besiktas have lost their first two matches in Group A without scoring a goal.
They do have a couple of decent player to trouble old man Hyppia though - Edouard Cisse (ex-West Ham), Ricardinho (21 caps for Brazil, World Cup winner & ex-Boro!), Rustu Recber, Matias Delgado and Marcio Nobre.
So, not all plain sailing for the 'Pool, who have a few injury problems, but they should be strong enough.

Benfica play Celtic, and they really should look to break their Champions League away form hoodoo, and Benfica are not up to much really. However, it is more than likely that Celtic will remember their 3-0 thrashing in Portugal last year, and cave in again.

Finally, Chelsea play Schalke, and I fancy them to scutter through it, primarily for the reason that German teams have been poor in the CL for a few years now and also that John Terry is injured, so they should be more solid at the back. Peter Lovenkrands and Kevin Kuranyi could cause trouble however but it is hard to see anything other than a home win.

Mark,
http://www.okeydokefootball.com/

Here's Sissoko, Oh No, Now Marseille Have It....

These Champions League reflections are much easier than predictions, so with ease of mind, I'll get started.
Liverpool - Benitez is assuming the look of a desperate man (and no, I'm not talking about his 'goatee deflecting attention away from fatness' look) and he has started blaming his players outright. The players he bought.

"Everything was wrong" he blubbed, "it is the whole team who played badly". The team you picked, Rafa.

"Today the team was not good enough". "We were not controlling the middle".

It is hard to control the middle when you have the position-insensitive Gerrard buzzing around the place, and Momo Sissoko, the professional footballer for whom the old quote applies - he can control it further than I can kick it. His misery of attempting to control a football was shown last season against Man Utd, when he attempted to solo the ball, but instead kicked it 20 yards up in the sky. Last night he gave another reminder of his ineptiude.

So, tough times for the 'Pool, but they plays Spurs at home next, which should be the perfect chance to get their season back on track, and take the heat off Rafa. And if they can't, what fresh excuse will he dream up?

Man Utd - another lack lustre (like an empty can of pear halves) performance, but another 1-0 win. Roma had good chances to at least draw the game. Nani showed glimpses of his talent in his best game so far, but his play-acting and poor decisions are reminiscent of the old, bad Ronaldo. Anderson's cameo was lively enough, but he looks a bit lightweight yet. United have Wigan at home to continue their run of wins but the absence of Fletcher, Carrick & Hargreaves will probably mean the horror of O'Shea in midfield.

Arsenal - another game, another win, how long will it be before everyone is tipping them for trophies? Doubts remain, but they are cruising so far.

Chelsea - is the old spirit back? No, it's Carvalho. A fantastic player who made vital interceptions and organised the back line well. That John Terry fella looks like a good player with him in tow. Terry and Ferdinand must get together and pray that their co-defenders never get injured again. Sheva must wish he invested in an English teacher rather than make the move to London to learn the language. Nobody missed his witless presence last night.

Celtic - they are short on quality but they held their own against a Milan team who didn't look too bothered about the whole thing until they fell behind. Gave away a ludicrous penalty but fought back well and received their just rewards. They are handicapped by having an extremely annoying, jumped up runt of a manager and idiot supporters who think it's a good thing to run onto the pitch and caress Dida's breast.

Rangers - I thought they'd head to France and get a draw but they surpassed themselves against Lyon. Poor oul Alain Perrin must be feeling the heat over this one. 6 points from 6 for Rangers mean even a spectacular collapse should see them into the UEFA Cup.

So, it's all action this season, it's UEFA Cup time tonight but that won't get interesting until next March, join us from tomorrow morning for the podcast, where, among other things, we hate Jamie Redknapp. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

Mark,
http://www.okeydokefootball.com