Ahead of the game: Ireland Appoint Trapattoni
The news in 60 seconds
IRELAND APPOINT TRAPATTONI
Giovanni Trapattoni has been confirmed as the new manager of the Republic of Ireland, ending a 113-day search to find a successor to Steve Staunton. You can hardly blame the FAI, though. After getting it so wrong with Staunton, they couldn't afford to mess up again.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article3363185.ece
LAMB BACKS LEAGUE PLAN
Keith Lamb, Middlesbrough's chief executive, has lent cautious support to the plan to play a 39th round of Premier League games abroad. "If we can get £5 million out of playing in a foreign country, it's a big help," he said. Not if you spend the cash on Mido, it isn't.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/middlesbrough/article3363292.ece
COUSIN DECISION DELAYED
Fifa will not make a decision on Daniel Cousin's proposed transfer from Rangers to Fulham until next week, leaving him free to play in the Scottish club's Uefa Cup tie against Panathinaikos tonight. Cousin played for Lens in August and Fifa rules prevent anyone from representing more than two clubs in a season. Fulham hope they'll make an exception in this case, possibly because any player who wants to join them must be desperate.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article3362553.ece
KALOU KEEN
Salomon Kalou says Chelsea proved they can challenge for the title by coping without their players involved in the African Cup of Nations. The Ivory Coast winger watched two of his club's games while he was in Ghana. "The team did well," he said, which was generous of him.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/chelsea/article336979.ece
ARSENAL UPBEAT
Alexander Hleb says a run of four consecutive victories has enabled Arsenal to erase the memory of the 5-1 thrashing by Tottenham Hotspur in the Carling Cup. You suspect Spurs fans might be reminding them about it for a while yet, though.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/arsenal/article3364015.ece
KANU EYES AUSSIE SWITCH
Kanu's legal representative says the Portsmouth forward could move to Australian club Gold Coast Galaxy in the summer. The newly formed side, who have close links to Los Angeles Galaxy, are waiting for a licence to play in the A-League.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/portsmouth/article3363887.ece
DIDI'S NEW DEAL
Dietmar Hamann has signed a one-year extension to his contract at Manchester City. The 34-year-old has impressed under Sven-Goran Eriksson having struggled with injuries when he first joined the club.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_city/article3362012.ece
YAKUBU RECALLED
Everton have recalled Yakubu Ayegbeni to their squad for the Uefa Cup tie against SK Brann tonight. The Nigerian forward was left out of the squad at the weekend as punishment for returning late from the African Cup of Nations. With at least three players injured, Everton manager David Moyes couldn't afford to keep up the tough guy act.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/everton/article3359803.ece
LIVE MATCH TRACKER
Remember, you can follow all the action from tonight's Uefa Cup ties live with our match tracker.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/live_match_tracker/
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If you've got another couple of minutes
CAKE KIDNAPPING
AOTG is quietly concerned by the spate of thefts at Liverpool players' houses, but it must confess to a sneaking admiration for the fans that kidnapped Jamie Carragher's birthday cake. Decorated to look like the defender's jersey, the cake was stolen by the Nieces and Nephews of Nessie (NNN) supporters' group ahead of Carragher's 30th last Sunday. Apparently, he was upset by the audacious robbery and unwilling to meet the ransom demands, which included requests for the former England player to apply for the "soon-to-be-vacant" manager's job at Anfield and to give each member of NNN a drive in his new Ferrari. A photograph sent to Liverpool Echo, which showed one such fan standing over the cake while brandishing a knife ready to tuck in, also failed to sway the defender. His tough stance paid off, though, as the group returned the cake before Liverpool's match against Chelsea on the big day. "What we set out to achieve has been reached," a NNN spokesman said. "There are no personal issues as we admire Jamie Carragher and believe we should have a team of Carraghers."
SKINT STATTO
AOTG is sorry to hear that Angus Loughran, aka Statto on the Fantasy Football TV show, has been declared bankrupt. The BBC betting expert and Daily Telegraph betting columnist clearly has not been backing the right fillies.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/racing/betting/3363432.ece
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>>>>>THE TABLOID TALE<<<<<
Text-mad Ronaldo fined £8K - The Sun
What you need to know: 1) Sir Alex Ferguson fined Ronaldo £8,000 for using his mobile phone in training. 2) Fergie issues a £2,000 fine every time a player sends a text during practise. 3) Ronaldo sent four in one session. 4) AOTG isn't sure if he sent them to Fergie, but it wouldn't be surprised.
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A quickie before you go, sir?
TRAPATTONI BLOWS A FUSE
Giovanni Trapattoni was due to be unveiled as Ireland manager at a press conference today, but he decided to stay in Austria instead. This is a shame as the Italian once gave the most entertaining press conference that AOTG has seen. As Bayern Munich manager in 1998, and after a particularly disappointing performance from his team, the Italian thumped his fist and hollered frustrations with a passion that made a Nuremberg Rally look understated. AOTG's German is not the best but it understands that his outburst included the immortal line "Those player were weak like an empty bottle" and "What dares Strunz? ... I'm through", a reference to the Bayern midfielder Thomas Strunz, who had not performed as well as Trapattoni hoped. Lee Carsley better watch out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoSLm9G8o4c
DUNPHY SEES RED
The news that Eamonn Dunphy, Roy Keane's official biographer, has called the Sunderland manager a "bull*******" who is guilty of bland "manager-speak" might surprise fans on this side of the Irish Sea but viewers of Ireland's brilliant equivalent of Match of the Day will be well accustomed to such rants. As a pundit on RTE's The Premiership, Dunphy criticises the biggest names in football with a vehemence that makes Alan Hansen sound like Mother Theresa. This is one of his most famous diatribes. In it, he focuses on Keane but also manages to row with co-pundit Liam Brady, take issue with a Rod Liddle article in The Sunday Times, and call Niall Quinn "a creep". It starts after four minutes and 50 seconds. You would never find it on the BBC.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2008/02/eamonn-dunphy-a.html
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7
Number of Serie A titles that Trapattoni won as manager of Juventus and Inter Milan.
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>>>>>THE RIVALS<<<<<
'Threats' smoothed Mikel move - The Guardian
Clubs furious as League fails to turn on Chinese fans - The Independent
Ferguson: Title race will go to the wire - The Daily Telegraph
Cruyff blasts 39th step - Daily Express
Red hot Rooney is the key - Daily Mail
Rafa may be outta after Inter - The Sun
Mikel cried day he went to Blues - Daily Mirror
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In TheGame
The voting is going to the wire in our poll asking whether the Premier League title race was decided last weekend. As AOTG went to press, 34.4 per cent said no, 27.5 per cent said yes and 38.2 per cent suggested, um, we're being ridiculous. Have your say now while there's still time.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2008/02/was-last-weeken.html
Gabriele Marcotti has responded to your contributions on the podcast debate. Marcotti agrees the Italian press have been hypocritical in their recent coverage of Fabio Capello but the show's co-host does not accept the criticism of his description of Claude Makelele. More of your comments have been flooding in since.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2008/02/all-aboard-the.html
We're looking for new contributors to the Fanzine Fanzone, the best forum for fans' football writing on the web. Think you've got what it takes to join our team? Then email an example of your writing to the page below.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/fanzine_fanzone/2008/02/be-a-part-of-th.html
In the latest entry to the Fanzine Fanzone, our Fulham expert compliments Roy Hodgson for shoring up the defence but suspects he has much to do to avoid relegation.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/fanzine_fanzone/2008/02/heather-mills-t.html
Even the smartest football brainiac might struggle with Bill Edgar's daily trivia question: "Within the past ten years, a Premier League club played an FA Cup match against lower-division opponents who had already lost in that season's competition; four days later, that same Premier League club lost a League Cup tie yet subsequently progressed in the competition. Name the Premier League club." Bill has also posted the answer to yesterday's mind-bender.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2008/02/wednesday-trivi.html
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Joe Bloggs' Soapbox
"Jim Stoddard did indeed make a fine and reasonable point about Birmingham and received your apologies [yesterday's AOTG] but I would like to point out that West Brom is in fact NOT in Birmingham so Tony Mowbray will probably have the delight of living in the Black Country. Go, on Ar Kid!"
Roger Holder, "a proud and geographically-correct Brummie", points out yet another error in what was not a good day for AOTG.
"As an EPL fan living in eastern Canada, I want to express my disagreement with the Premier League's idea of adding fixtures played abroad.
Even though I have next-to-zero chances of ever seeing an EPL game in England, I don't want any games abroad. For one thing, North America is so big that any game played here is likely to be thousands of kilometres from my home. And even with continental drift, Asia isn't getting closer quickly enough.
But my main issue with the idea is that the games would be of very little sporting value. Many of the factors involved in the normal EPL games would be affected, with the absence of home advantage, the players' physical condition (due to jet lag, climate etc), the quality of the pitches etc.
Sure, in an ideal world, I'd like to travel to England and see a game in a stadium with 60,000 other fans. In the real world, however, I am quite satisfied with my life choices, including the choice to live thousands of kilometres away from the place where my favourite sporting competition takes place. With satellite TV and the internet, we have extensive and affordable coverage of the EPL. This is something that we couldn't even have dreamed of 20 years ago. Games played abroad would not add anything meaningful to the competition, quite the contrary."
Pierre Igot, from Nova Scotia, makes a very considered argument against the Premier League's divisive plan.
"The 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be held in the Southern Hemisphere's winter so Sepp Blatter won't have to worry about the heat [yesterday's AOTG]. At night, the temperature in Johannesburg can be zero degrees centigrade. The pitches, however, will be bone dry because there is no rain."
Mike Graham has a better knowledge of South Africa than AOTG, which is hardly difficult given that its geography is hazy north of the Watford Gap.
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Tomorrow's news today
- Richard Scudamore comes out fighting in defence of 39th step
- Have Manchester United overtaken Real Madrid on the rich list?
- Frank Sinclair on his FA Cup return to Chelsea
- Blackburn hope to tie Benni McCarthy down to long-term contract
And expect...
Roy Keane to politely say that Eamonn Dunphy is entitled to his opinion.
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BY ROBERT DINEEN
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