The faces change but the calibre of people employed by the owners don't be it Shaw, Agnew, Senior, Waggott, Broughton etc these aren't the calibre of people which a club that should be striving for the Premier League should be employing. This O'Brien transfer with the clauses/obligations are the sort of thing that a club aiming for the Premiership or trying to survive in the Premiership do in the January window and we have made a pigs ear of it but not only of this but of the whole January Window. Steve Waggott has no business being at a club wanting to get to the Premier League, he was at Charlton for 2 years during which they were relegated to League 1, he was at Coventry when they were in the bottom half of League 1, then he was at Gillingham. There aren't many £10 Million deals if promoted to the Premier League done at those clubs. Then you look at the Director of Football who bragged about how prepared we were for this window, that was him not for the first time talking a good game but not for the first time he failed to back those words up. You also have to ask what credentials does he have to be Director of Football at a Championship club from what I can see all he has ever worked in previously is academy football. The owners have not learnt a thing in the last 12 years they still put their faith in cheap blaggers who in reality are out of their depth. There is no chance of us ever getting back to the Premier League until they are gone, I've always had my doubts but the shambolic last 2 January windows when we have been in positions of strength have confirmed that for me.

Attendances dropped pretty much throughout the country in the 80's mainly due to rampant hooliganism and record unemployment. Every club in the land gets bigger crowds when they are doing well (other than those few that sell out every week regardless) but 15 years after we had won the league and a decade after Jack had died we were still getting average crowds of 25K.

Two windows for Broughton and the only striker he has been able to get through the door was Hirst. Shocking stuff.

Brentford are a club owned by a very good intelligent businessman in Matthew Benham. During their 6 seasons in the Championship they made over £150 Million in player sales. This is our fifth season back in the Championship and we have made around £15 Million in player sales, with only Raya and Armstrong sold for substantial fees. Bretford were selling 2-3 first team players a season in order to reinvest and refresh their squad. Lenihan, Rothwell, Nyambe & Brereton would not have all walked away from Brentford for nothing. And you look at our squad that will be left in the summer there is nothing there that would net say £8-£10 Million, I'm not even sure there is anything there that would get fetch even £5 Million. Us and Brentford are no in no way comparable. A Premier League club we are comparable with is Everton a once proud club brought low by hopeless owners who have wasted hundreds of millions, hired dud after dud to occupy the dug out and are now only able to attract players who are either cheap free or on loan.

A completely pointless game but if you are going to have it then have it as a start of the season curtain raiser instead of the MCC game.

You have to fear on this showing that the Ryder Cup could be now entering a period of US dominance. You look at the depth of their Golf at the moment and it is frightening as well as these 12 players here all of whom have plenty of years left in them they have the likes of Na, Horschel and Reed not in this team. Not to mention some very exciting young players coming through like Burns, Zalatoris and Wolff. On the other hand on the European Tour I don't see a huge amount coming through at the moment, hopefully this might be a wake up call for it. Harrington has to be down there with Faldo and James in the worst ever European captain stakes, whilst we were always up against it this week some of his decision making has been very odd, even going back to over 2 years ago when he chose to give himself one less pick. As for some of his pairings this week it seemed like they were just drawn out of a hat.

Very strange pairings again this morning from Harrington, so far his captaincy is down there with Faldo's in terms of selection and attitude. Surprised to see Casey in after two lethargic showings yesterday let's hope Hatton can liven him up a bit at least Hatton has a bit of fight and fire in him. Stunned to see Fitzpatrick and Westwood out again especially together also very surprised that Fleetwood and Lowry won't play any foursomes, Fleetwood was 2-0 in foursomes last time out and I think foursomes would Lowry's game nicely.

Harrington put his faith in experience and it has badly let him down. McIlroy and Casey sent out twice and hardly holed a thing between them, it was also a very strange decision to put 2 rookies out with Casey. Poulter a captains pick just doesn't have the game for this course. Westwood who only qualified thanks to Harrington opting for just 3 picks looked like an old man up against this young long hitting US team. This could well be all but over by tea time tomorrow.

A tough first session. Rahm and Sergio complemented each other beautifully, Casey and Hovland played decently but were beaten by a very high quality performance from Johnson and Morikawa. Fitzpatrick and Westwood seemed a strange pairing (especially in foursomes) and so it proved both looked what they are out of form players, it wouldn't surprise me if we don't see either of them until Sunday. Poulter is another one who may well not been seen until Sunday he was never going to be the right pick on this course and in his current form, he's in the side due to former glories.

After 2010 a lot of Somerset fans wouldn't be too disappointed to see Somerset bowled out cheaply tomorrow.

Who said that? It was debatable if it was even a foul but it certainly wasn't a red card. The ref didn't even give a foul initially.

Probably the worst case scenario for Harrington today with both Wiesberger and Westwood qualifying automatically. I was hoping we'd be able to get Lowry, Rose, Sergio and Poulter in the team. Despite his great history in the competition on current form you'd have to leave Poulter out from those 4. As for the US team Stricker's pick's looking even more baffling after today, in leaving out Horschel and Na he has left out two players in great form. Their team looks as though it has been picked to try and overpower both Europe and the course.

Hope the young lad isn't looking for a work/life balance.

For coach I'd go with Mike Hesson, as for the captaincy that's a decision for him and who he thinks he would work well with, just as he did with the New Zealand captaincy. In terms of my squad for the Ashes I think we need to move on to a new era instead of going back to players who have had numerous chances and not done enough. The likes of Ali, Bairstow, Buttler have all played numerous times against Australia and have poor records and I've seen nothing from any of them to suggest that it will be any different this time around. Anderson has been a great bowler and can still win tests in England but he isn't going to win you test matches in Australia. Malan is 34 and isn't the answer long term or even short term, he's just another unimaginative backward looking suggestion. So my squad for the Ashes tour fitness depending of course would probably be something like the following. Sibley, Burns, Crawley, Root, Hain, Clarke, Pope, Stokes, Foakes, Leach, Parkinson, Broad, Robinson, Woakes, Overton, Wood, Mahmood.

What an outstanding advert for women's golf the Solheim Cup was. Three days of high quality golf and to cap it all of a European victory. Can't wait for the Ryder Cup now.

The first summer in 20 years without a home test series victory and 3 test series in a row now without victory. To go to the Ashes with this coach and captain is tantamount to cricketing suicide, both are totally out of their depth in their respective roles.

I'm beginning to wonder if we value being in division 1 of the under 23's league as more important than developing under 23 players. The likes of Butterworth, Pike, Vale, Brennan, Annesley and McBride are either in their 20's or soon turning 20 and between them have a handful of senior appearances. You can only develop so much playing age group football when you are getting into your 20's you need to be starting to play senior football regularly. Magloire is probably 6th/7th choice and turns 23 in a few months playing under 23's football is of zero benefit to him, he should have been moved on by now. The Greek goalie isn't going to gain much from playing under 23's football he's already played senior top flight football in Bulgaria, he'd be learning much more out playing in league 2 say or the National League.

Burke's an interesting player he looked a very exciting talent at Forest and then started well at Leipzig but since then has bounced around a few clubs looking to live up to his potential. When I saw him play a few times for Sheffield United last season he had a lot of raw attributes but little end product, he reminded me a bit of a poor man's Adama Traore.

A clean sweep for the South in the quarter finals. Also nice to see 3 counties with non test/100 grounds in finals day that will annoy the ECB.

The first packed house sporting event that I have been to in 18 months or so and what a fantastic atmosphere it was at Taunton last night. No gimmicks needed just a sell out crowd getting behind their historic county. In knock out one day games the Taunton crowd is always worth an extra 15-20 runs and they got Lancashire rattled last night as was shown by some comedy fielding. Roll on Monday and the return of the Championship.

The Royal London Cup isn't being played because the ECB are prioritising it over the Championship as you said, in fact the ECB have done everything but prioritise it. The reason it is being played now is that something had to either be scrapped or downgraded to make way for the Hundred and the Royal London Cup is that competition. The Hundred has completely messed up the cricketing schedule in the country this season and has been prioritised over everything. Even if Championship cricket were being played now there is a fair chance that someone being called up to the test team would not be playing it as they would be in the hundred. But even if they were playing Championship cricket they would be playing against mainly second XI attacks (as most of the first XI attacks would be at the hundred) and that is no sort of preparation for facing this India attack. English cricket is heading back to the dark days of the 1990's I fear and the main reason for that is the appalling way in which the ECB has been running the game in this country.

As a league the MLS is a poor League but your national team at the moment has some very good young players coming through and I think come the 2026 World Cup (part of which will be played in the US) the US could well be viewed as contenders. Come 2026 the likes of Pulisic, Reyna, Dest, McKennie, de la Fuente, Weah, Sargent, Robinson, Musah and Adams are all going to be around their peak. However quite a few of those players have been developed outside of the US and very few of them have played MLS.

Do you really think the ECB are prioritising the Royal London Cup? I don't think you could be anymore wrong the Royal London Cup has been completely disregarded by the ECB and downgraded to basically a 2nd XI competition. The only thing that is being prioritised by the ECB this summer is the Hundred which they have recklessly and needlessly gambled the future of English cricket on.

And that's how you get a tail ender out pitch the ball up and bowl at the stumps. What a humiliating defeat that is and from the toss to todays tactics to the tail that is perhaps the worst display of captaincy in the history of test cricket from Root. England put healing Anderson's ego above winning a test match.

Looking like we should just about cling on for a draw but that this morning from Joe Root was some of the worst captaincy you will ever see on a cricket field and it took England from a commanding position to ending up battling for a draw.