Euro 2008

Qualifying starts in earnest tonight.

Can't wait!

There are 7 groups, 6 of them comprising 7 teams, the other group comprising 8. The top two teams in each group will join co-hosts Austria and Switzerland to make up the 16 tournament hopefuls. I just hope for the 'home' nations to do well for once. Wales and Northern Ireland never seem to qualify for a big tournament and it has been a long time between drinks for Scotland. Even the Republic of Ireland haven't had any major tournaments to look forward to since World Cup 2002. Trouble is they're in some very tough groups. Republic of Ireland and Wales share the same group with Germany and the Czech Republic, Scotland have France, Italy and the Ukraine to contend with, and Northern Ireland have Denmark, Spain, Sweden and Latvia. Even England are not a shoo-in with difficult games against Croatia, Israel and Russia in prospect.

The Euro 2008 Official site is a magical site. Check out all the groups there, all the info you could ever need to know, it's as addictive as the World Cup official site!

And most of all, cheer on the Republic of Ireland against the Germans at 6:30am Sunday morning, (3/9), ESPN. Be there or be square!

Tevez to West Ham?

Don't tell me this is true. What would that footballing genius want to do at the (S)Hammers? Only a second season back up in the prem and maybe getting Tevez and Mascherano. Unbelievable if true!

Well a busy transfer window about to come to an abrupt halt. Jonathan Douglas coming back to Leeds this time on a permanent deal. Doesn't fill me with huge excitement but not a bad squad player. Will have to be a first time regular for a while I imagine, what with the state of our midfield. Hopefully Killa will be staying put. And where's the loan goalie we need, sending back Warner is bad news but apparently his wages were too high for us...

Well I'm editing this now a couple of days later to say YES it has happened. I think there's something fishy going on. MSI owned Corinthians their former club (the reason this broke club could have great players in the first place). It is rumoured that Abramovich is the money man behind MSI and so he set off the chain of events to prevent Tevez and Mascerano making their way to Man Utd or Arsenal, bring them to London to acclimatise and see if they're worth taking off West Ham's hands at the start of next season (Mascherano would make a perfect replacement for Makelele). How else could West Ham afford their so called "undisclosed fee" as they are worth much upwards of 30 million pounds in combination. The other thing to note is that MSI are attempting a takeover at West Ham, so perhaps this is something to do with that. Whatever the reasons - there is something fishy going on!