Rather like me, Stoke head into the midweek programme looking to shake off a bit of a hangover from the weekend. I got stung by a foolish estimation that Manchester United would continue to score goals by the hatful at Wolves as well as surprises at West Ham and Wigan while Tony Pulis’ side just got a bit of a going over by Chelsea, who are now just one match away from yet another cup final.Read the rest of this entry »

It’s still difficult to figure out what exactly Robbie Keane was thinking of when he turned down a couple of other offers and agreed to head to Celtic for the rest of the season a few weeks back. Sure, the club means a lot to a great many Dubliners and the Ireland captain may well have harboured a genuine ambition to play for them before he hung up his boots. On this front, though, Roy Keane had the right idea when he stopped by Parkhead immediately before packing in playing and embarking on an even more colourful career in management.Read the rest of this entry »

Unless you’re prepared to bit of time and effort into it, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that betting on friendly international games is a foolish enough affair. Having neither the time, on the day of the game here in London, nor the energy, after have seemed a long few days here, to put in the effort, I’m sort of aware that I should probably steer clear of most of the midweek programme although to be fair, there is enough information at hand to suggest that Brazil look a decent bet to beat Ireland at the Emirates this evening.Read the rest of this entry »

Your more obsessive football fan tends to view perspective a little like Superman views Kryptonite. How can anyone, after all, be expected to really get worked up about sport if they are constantly thinking: “Well, at least no one died”. It’s the sort of thinking that leads to something like Bill Shankley’s observation that; “football’s not a matter of life and death, it’s much more important than that,” being hailed as a little demonstration of the man’s genius when, really, it’s little more than an amusing quip. People wear t-shirts with the quote emblazoned across it and good luck to them, but I doubt very many have ever worn one to a funeral.Read the rest of this entry »

Regular readers of these pieces may well have gathered by now that I have a slightly ridiculous habit of forming minor attachments to football clubs for pretty much the flimsiest of reasons. And there are precious few I keep an eye on for flimsier reasons than Crystal Palace but the bottom line is that I’ll still be cheering for the Londoners very quietly tonight even if I am betting on them to lose.Read the rest of this entry »

It had been far too since we’d had a ridiculous Stephen Ireland story and so it came as a welcome relief really when the Manchester City midfielder was back in the papers this week on the rather curious basis that he has spent £100,000 on a fish tank. Perhaps next time it emerges that he has told his manager that a relative has died he can put it down to a simple misunderstanding involving a lie-in and the fact that his boss is Italian.Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a little surreal to see the Champions League return just as the licensing programme for the League of Ireland is, more or less, completed this week. The continent’s top 16 clubs will be back playing for prize and TV pool money that might amount to something in the region of €50 million to the winners by the time it’s all totted up at the end of the campaign. Several of this country’s top, meanwhile, will embark on the new domestic campaign with weekly wage bills of less than €5,000.Read the rest of this entry »

I never tire of hearing about the financial lunacy that pervades most, but particularly the higher, echelons of professional football so David Sullivan’s observations on the various outgoings at West Ham cheered me up no end. Likeable as they seem to be, Gianfranco Zola and Steve Clarke do seem to have done rather well for themselves in landing contracts worth a combined £3.1 million annually from the former owners although clearly not nearly so well as the far less agreeable Kieron Dyer who gets a few quid more than that all to himself primarily, it seems, for spending all his time on a treatment table.Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a funny, though probably not that surprising, thing that last night’s wins were my first since the time a couple of weeks back that I noted what a good run I was on. In the days since, I blew about half of my accumulated winnings and while I was obviously partly to blame, I’m still looking for someone to explain to me how Sheffield United didn’t manage so much as a draw at Watford a week or so ago.Read the rest of this entry »

It’s become something of a truism about the English game that in the face of the huge spending by clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, you really can only buy success and, as Manchester City are currently demonstrating; even with very deep pockets indeed there are absolutely no guarantees.Read the rest of this entry »