I know the job hasn’t even been offered yet, but why on earth would Harry Redknapp consider taking the England manager’s job full time? There has rarely been a less popular set of players playing for England, whereas Spurs look set to embark on the best period they have experienced for decades. Furthermore, love him or hate him, Redknapp is never out of the limelight, but the current idolisation of him in the press would be extremely unlikely to last long if he was to become the England manager, as our “free and honest” press would immediately be delving further into his past to uncover indiscretions of any nature or magnitude. The headlines immediately following Stuart Pearce’s appointment as caretaker-manager for one match should have triggered immediate alarm bells for Redknapp, as an alleged racist remark from 25 years ago was dredged up, together with the dubious political allegiances of Pearce’s brother. Incredibly petty stuff, but in an age where everybody seems desperate to dig up dirt on everybody el

Oh AVB, you really are a tiresome little man. Once again, your side’s inability to take three points from a match is the fault of the referee. Not your indisciplined players, not your tactics, not the other team having played well, in fact nothing other than poor refereeing. Maybe pressure from above is starting to tell on the manager, but everybody is against Chelsea apparently, including our top referees. Admittedly, it is a struggle not to intensely dislike a team which is managed by such a bitter man, which contains more than its fair share of thoroughly distasteful individuals, whose fans see fit to throw abuse at Rio Ferdinand because somebody had the temerity to accuse John Terry of allegedly racially abusing Rio’s brother, whose lawyers have sufficient influence to delay Terry’s trial until July for his club’s own benefit when you or I would have been dealt with many weeks ago, and whose idea of propriety and respect was to send the nauseating Peter Kenyon (thankfully no longer in his position) up to

The January transfer window may not have matched last season’s in terms of over-inflated fees paid for players who haven’t lived up to their billing (Torres, Carroll, Luiz etc.), but it has provided several players with a potential new lease of life that may well pay off in the short term at least for their new clubs. I often wonder whether I would be happy as a professional footballer drawing a salary of £50,000 + per week but not playing football regularly, particularly as it is a relatively short-lived career, but with the top clubs stockpiling talent they have no intention of utilising, it seems that many players are indeed happy to simply collect their salaries and sit on the bench. Perhaps when they look back at the end of their careers, they will regret not having bitten the bullet and pressed for a transfer elsewhere, perhaps sacrificing a proportion of their salary in the process, but at least gaining the chance to get on the pitch regularly. Steven Pienaar and Wayne Bridge are just two of those who