As Beetface’s lot saunters towards the league title without playing particularly well, there’s a truly scary proposition for the rest of English football to gnaw upon after the club announced record profits in Q4 2012.  Without the Glazers sucking out the profits from the club like anaemic vampires, how much further ahead might the quieter side [...]

It’s always nice to have midweek games in the Premier League. It’s sort of like putting on a coat you’ve not worn for a while and reaching into the pocket and pulling out $20, an unexpected and pleasant break in the normal mundane routine during the week. And it also allows us to watch football [...]

A very thin gruel today, both in terms of punditry and rumours. But there’s some rare brilliance from the good folks at the Oxford Internet Institute, who used Twitter to track where supporters of different clubs actually live and find out if the fanbase of Salford’s finest was actually concentrated in Surrey. It was a good [...]

When Roman Abramovich pitched up in the west end with his petroroubles and grand ambitions, it pretty much guaranteed the football hacks who populate Fleet Street would never, ever have a dull news day. And with charming characters such as Choc Ice and football’s Nick Griffin in the change room, well there’s no end to [...]

It’s international week *long yawn* and it always makes me just a little sleep zzzzz.  Sorry dozed off there for a second. It’s actually sort of amusing watching Fleet Streeters trying to find some fresh angles to hype for Friday’s qualifier between the Three Lions and San Marino, which should be about as competitive as the average [...]

@RICO
A little busy at work today so please post this afternoon after England’s match.
A quiet day for intelligent commentary as Fleet Street (sharpens its knives/clears its throat) to (gut Woy Hodgson like a freshly-caught flounder/trumpet the Three Lions to win the 2014 World Cup) based on tonight’s result against the 141st ranked team in FIFA’s thoroughly discredited rankings. [...]

MANCHESTER CITY
Ins: Gael Clichy (£7m from Arsenal), Stefan Savic (£7m from Partizan Belgrade), Sergio Agüero (£35m from Atletico Madrid), Samir Nasri (£22m from Arsenal PENDING)
Outs: James Poole, Javan Vidal, Patrick Vieira, James Wood (all released), Scott Kay (free to Macclesfield), Shaleum Logan (free to Brentford), Andrew Tutte (free to Rochdale), David Gonzalez Giraldo (loan to [...]

Plenty of interest in England’s cosmopolitan and exotic northeast from Fleet Street beardstrokers, where Ian Sherlock sees optimism blossom at the Stadium of Light following a major recruiting drive during the summer. Luke Edwards suggests Sunderland’s busy transfer season has provoked jealousy on the Geordie Shore
Mark Ogden wonders where it went wrong for Federico Macheda.
Gossip
Courtesy of [...]

Friday night
It’s the first tournament of the year and I’ve just spend six hours on a bus with 18 11 and 12-year old boys and their parents. Before I decamp to the liquor store in an attempt to repress that memory, let’s take a look to see what the Big Thinkers out in the [...]

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put in a decent shift on Saturday against United, showing a deft touch, decent vision and sizzling pace. Even before this, there were plenty of pundits offering the 17-year-old midfielder advice, with Chris Cox suggesting he should ignore the overtures of Arsenal and Manchester United.
Dominic Fitfield, meanwhile, sees Oxlade-Chamberlain as the latest success [...]