I agree 1864 with your assessment. Militating against Brum are: - Bruce's managerial ability. - Brum have to build a promotion squad from the bottom up with the number of sackings they've had. - Very few relegated clubs back bounce at first time of asking; Sunderland and Baggies are the recent exceptions and they were BIG CLUB's fellow travellers in distress so have to be contenders again. - Southampton, Norwich and Palace will be desperate to go up as this is the last season of relegation parachute payments for them. Besides which we will have the entertaining thought of Simon Jordan and Gold/Sullivan making polite conversation before the Palace v Brum games.

Not playing as well for England as for Newcastle? That conjures up the thought of some truly horrific performances in the white jersey. Didn't SGE tell the fake sheikh Owen was unhappy at Newcastle? No doubt Owen had some explaining to do to FF after that came out. It might even have screwed up an Owen escape plot to get out of the loony Toons. THis whole episode is about Owen getting even and has very little to do with the deeper interpretations going on here in my view.

I thought that was Rebecca Loos (PS I'd forgotten her name so I typed Beckham's mistress into Google- there probably needs to be an allegedly in there somewhere)

There is a very interesting article in this morning's New York Times. As it is a registration site I have copied it out: Op-Ed Contributor A Soccer Scandal Made for Television By ALEXANDER STILLE Published: July 9, 2006 THROUGHOUT Italy's ride to the World Cup finals, the team has produced moments of beauty, grit and creativity before a cumulative worldwide television audience estimated at 30 billion or more. But lurking ominously behind the Italian team's exploits, and perhaps even driving a desire for redemption through victory, is the scandal that has engulfed Italian soccer for months. It's a scandal born of two elements certain to be on display in today's championship game: the competitor's drive to win and the power of television to shape commerce and culture. The scandal emerged from within the Italian leagues, where a handful of dominant teams are accused of trying to rig the national sport in order to ensure victory and, as a consequence, command a disproportionate share of television revenues. Indictments by prosecutors in Naples, based in part on thousands of wiretapped conversations, depict executives of the nation's most successful teams bullying and bribing referees to guarantee victory in key matches. In one alleged instance, Luciano Moggi, the former general director of Turin's team, Juventus, punished uncooperative referees by confining them in a locker room. An executive of A.C. Milan, the team owned by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, apparently had no such trouble; he can be heard on tape brazenly calling another referee "our man." That Berlusconi's name should appear prominently in this business is hardly happenstance. If Italian society and Italian soccer resemble each other, it's in part because both have been dominated so thoroughly by him. The richest man in Italy, Berlusconi oversees a vast empire that includes the biggest publishing and movie production companies in the country and a virtual monopoly on commercial television. When he took over A.C. Milan in 1986, he bought up the best players, then presented his new stars by landing them, via helicopter, in the Milan stadium, accompanied by the blaring strains of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie." Other teams went into debt trying to compete with Berlusconi's showmanship and deep pockets. While Berlusconi pauperized opponents with one hand, however, he enriched them — or some of them — with the other. He began using his private television company, Mediaset, to bring big money into the game. In the past, Italian soccer had rarely been seen on TV. The state-owned television network, worried that fans might not fill stadiums if they were able to watch matches at home, generally showed only one match per week — and only the second half of that. Berlusconi's network changed everything, eventually televising several matches a week. Stadiums indeed became emptier. But through rising television revenues, soccer was transformed into one of Italy's biggest businesses, worth about $6 billion a year. And Italian soccer teams now depend more on television revenue than teams in any other major European country. Television led to a winner-take-all economy. Indeed, a group of young Italian economists published a series of economic studies of Italian soccer on the Web site La Voce that more or less predicted the current disaster. Because networks are almost exclusively interested in broadcasting the matches of big-city teams with national followings (like Turin, Milan and Rome), smaller teams (Como, Brescia and Parma) have received a much smaller piece of the pie. With less revenue from television, these smaller teams have less money available to compete for star players. It probably didn't help matters that the league chose as its president Adriano Galliani, the head of Berlusconi's team. Not surprisingly, he negotiated a television contract with Berlusconi's network that mainly rewarded A.C. Milan and the other wealthy teams. Even in the throes of scandal, Italian soccer has resisted mechanisms like revenue sharing and salary caps that help to maintain the health of American sports leagues. Television not only provided incentive for corruption, but some of the venues, as well. Italy's soccer mania is fed by a seemingly endless supply of TV talk shows that dissect and analyze each match, including the behavior of referees. Some of this commentary was allegedly for sale. The host of one of the most popular shows was recently forced to resign after wiretaps revealed him seemingly taking orders from Moggi, the former head of Juventus, on how to talk about a match. In response to the scandal, there is talk of punishing four teams, including A.C. Milan, by demoting them to the minor leagues. Several important sports figures risk going to jail for their actions and 26 are under indictment. But whether any of this will lead to genuine change is far from certain. The Italian national team's marvelous World Cup play demonstrates that when players are freed from a corrupt system and allowed to compete fairly, the results can be truly exhilarating. Team Italy has had a beautiful run to the finals. Let's hope that, regardless of who triumphs today, the Italian players don't return home only to resume a tainted and ugly game. Alexander Stille is the author of "The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country With a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi."

I hope he stays at Mancs- the booing crscendo is going to be fun!

I know a bit premature but the Observer only publishes on Sundays- I liked this: http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup200...1816453,00.html I don't know why but this World Cup has left me remarkably unmoved. No highs, no lows, no surprises, no disappointments, no anger. It was better than OK- just.

Perhaps Owen is just making sure we remember who he is. The latest prognosis is that he will miss all of next season.

That is why Le Pen was moaning about the French team- another reason for wanting a French win.

For a footballing preview, this one by David Pleat in the Guardian this morning is the best I have read although I disagree with some of his player rating numbers: http://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/...1815722,00.html

Yes folks, it is the most eagerly awaited game of the year. The one we all hoped and prayed for, not. The Krauts are vanquished to play Christina's diving school in the 3rd place play-off (we'll all be watching that one won't we?), SGE and Walcott but a distant memory and South America's (where's that?) finest were no match for the colonial masters. That said the Brits' spin-offs were long gone- only Ghana and Australia surviving to the knock-out where they got knocked-out and America and Trinidad & Tobago proving to be each others' equals. So Frogs v Wops. Snail's and pasta and not a good time to be a clove of garlic in Berlin tomorrow night. Far more erudite and better footballers than me will cover column hectares in anticipation so I will just say this. FRANCE- Bartez left his clown's make-up behind but perhaps he's saving the outsized boots, spinning bow tie and shiny nose for the big top? The defence has been effective and Makelele has rolled back the years in midfield. Ribery went from overblown to downright dangerous in the course of the World Cup and he can always scare the Italians by just looking at them. We haven't yet seen a sublime Henry moment and he's not been as effective as he can be- yet. ITALY- Buffon looks impregnable, the defence are achieving miracles for such little guys and why did Materazzi let a class of four year olds draw on his arms? What I really admire about the midfield is that when it gets tight, the pace of the pinged passes safe in the knowledge that the recipient will instantly control the ball and ping it on. On that basis the Italians are the most technically gifted team at this World Cup. Up front, all the Italians are dangerous without a single stand-out player. A lot is made of age and fitness of the two teams but this is the World Cup Final so they'll go the distance. For the football purist, this should be a treat- the ref is a good one (boohoo Rooney) so the game should flow. Whether we will get exciting explosive goal mouth action I doubt as the defensive midfield/defences are just so good. Which alphabetically leaves us at Z or even better ZZ. Simply the most technically gifted player I've seen in my lifetime and to think if Uncle Jack had carried on spending in the summer of '95.... I'm going for France, for Zinadine Zidane and for a quiet night's sleep in Malta on Sunday night.

I'd love to see Dunny come back to Rovers but I think that comment is tempting fate USA! As for the invitation to Oklahoma to do the equivalent of an Alcoholics Anonymous confession, alcoholism is controllable but I don't think being Portuguese is.

Not surprised about Real going wholesale to the Italian clubs' scrapyard- they need half a dozen class players to live with Batca next season. The needs of the other mega clubs are nowhere near as great which is why Rovers should be in with as good a chance as the other vultures. That said, if Mido turns us down, it will not enhance the club's credibility. Knowing the way Rovers work, the way the Mido issue has gone quiet is slightly encouraging.

OK, the bigger vultures are Real, Barca, Arsenal, Mancs, Chelsea, Liverpool and Bayern. Do those seven have the vacancies to take Juve's 15 man first team squad? No, I don't think so either. Then there is AC's squad up for grabs- are the seven big vultures taking four super-paid super-ego'd players each? No Outside of those seven clubs, Rovers can broadly hold their own in terms of transfer attractiveness. That's why we are linked to the AC full back (makes a change to the Neill to AC stories anyway).

Such as?

JUVENTUS RELEGATED From the Times of Malta: Juventus lawyer seeks lighter punishment – papers [06/07/2006 - 10:06] Juventus believe relegation to Italy's second division could be an acceptable punishment in an alleged match-fixing scandal which has rocked the country's soccer establishment, newspapers reported. Juventus lawyer Cesare Zaccone was quoted as saying that, if the club were found guilty, 'an acceptable punishment could be that of the other clubs, in other words (relegation to) the second division with points deducted'. A prosecutor has charged Juventus and three other clubs with sporting fraud and has recommended the Serie A champions be sent down to at least the third division while AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio be demoted to the second division. So if the defense are arguing for "only one relegation and points reduction", Juve are not going to be playing in Serie A or Europe next season. So lets get stuck into that player list again.

Poor deluded lechuck. Big Phil took a Portuguese side way their natural exit point in this World Cup and won the last World Cup with an inferior Brasil side to this year's. Coaches matter. I would have been horrified if Rovers had appointed McLaren. Why shouldn't I feel the same way about him running England?

Here is a real world way of working it out. What would Coventry have offered? Perhaps the fizzy pop average of £175K a year plus a bit. Rovers: "you can go to Coventry or come here for a bit less but with the possibility of Premiership striker earnings (£1.5m a year) if you perform like a Premiership striker".

I think we are missing the point. There were no other English-born strikers good enough to take.

Italy much the better side and two wonderful goals after two strikes on the woodwork. Only problem is the blessed Italians carcading all round the island. Its bedlam here- no sleep tonight

Capello leaves Juve: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/football...ello/index.html

Thanks- do go there. It is as diverse as China but less than 1% the size!

And that comes down to rank bad self-indulgent management. Gerard didn't look like like that taking penalties for Raffa in CL 2005? Lampard is hardly going to tap the ball to Brad when Chelski get a pen at Ewood is he? etc etc etc The difference between the Portuguese and English is that they had professionalism and pride.

Good point Eddie. If the under-performing England players hadn't carelessly tossed away their chance, Ewood would have been full 30,000 every week next season. Look what happened to Div 1 attendances in 66/7.

Go to The Sunday Times Tuesday, July 4, 2006 Breaking News You can't try me, key defendant tells Italy tribunal [04/07/2006 - 12:05] The first day of questioning in Italy's biggest soccer trial began with one of the most high-profile defendants arguing he should play no further part in proceedings. The lawyer representing former Italian Football Federation (FIGC) official Paolo Bergamo announced that his client had surrendered his membership of the FIGC and was not therefore liable to be tried by the sports tribunal. Bergamo used to conduct the draw that assigned referees to Serie A matches. 'This morning Bergamo has taken the difficult decision to resign from the FIGC after 40 years of activity,' said Gaetano Scalise. Scalise criticised the tribunal's decision to allow intercepted telephone calls to be used as evidence and attacked the 'media circus' around the trial. Bergamo has been at the heart of the scandal since telephone intercepts revealed him discussing refereeing appointments with former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi during the 2004-05 season. Four clubs - champions Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio - as well as 26 officials face charges of sporting fraud and unfair conduct at the trial in Rome's Olympic Stadium. Clubs risk being thrown out of the top Serie A league and European competition if found guilty of conspiring with refereesto rig matches. Individuals face bans. From the Times of Malta

"best in Premiership bar none SINCE 2001" Grabbi was IN 2001. Anyway, Roberts cost us £2m after Whelan knocked £1m off the asking price according to the Mirror.