Fabio Capello’s resignation dominated the day. James Sharman & Kristian Jack give their take on England’s new dilemma.

Kristian chats with TFC manager Aron Winter about the Best XI he ever played with or against.

James chats with Toronto Maple Leaf players Carl Gunnarsson & John-Michael Liles about their soccer obsessions, Liverpool & Man Utd, respectively.

It’s your segment, ‘Avin It or Not ‘Avin It.

Missed THE FOOTY SHOW tonight? Catch the replay at 11pm EST or Thursday at 12:30pm & 3pm EST.

Not to worry Footy Show faithful, we didn’t forget today was Wednesday. This edition of ‘Take Your Kick’ was dominated by the shocking news that Fabio Capello had resigned as England manager, just minutes before we jumped in the studio.

We got to a slew of questions from the footballing world though, and JT was already going to be a topic of conversation. TFC and Canadian National Team defender Adrian Cann joined us in studio and had quite a few laughs with James Sharman, Kristian Jack and Thomas Dobby who did whatever they could to earn the most meaningless points from Dunlop. Follow @AdrianCann on twitter.

Steve Kean’s successful future at Ewood Park, the MLS schedule, Neymar’s century mark at the age of 20 and even our long time celebrity crushes were discussed.

Listener discretion is advised. The David Seaman movie collection has a few more titles…sorry.

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These words reported by something called Italpress, and reprinted on Football Italia. Hard to confirm their authenticity, but if true, consider this bridge burned:

“What really hit me and forced me to take this decision was the fact the much-vaunted Anglo-Saxon sense of justice, as they are the first to claim that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

“In Terry’s case, they gravely offended me and damaged my authority at the head of the England side, effectively creating a problem for the squad.

“I have never tolerated certain interference and crossing of lines, so it was easy for me to spot it and take my decision to leave.”

It must be stressed these remarks have not been confirmed as authentic. But they’re on a website, and this is a blog, so…

UPDATE: Late report that these remarks are indeed a pile of crap:

Capello denies quotes attributed to him on Italian website. Threatens legal action #pafabio

— Ben Rumsby (@benrumsbyPA) February 8, 2012

As the Independent’s Jack Pitt Brooke tweeted:

Harry Redknapp started the day in the dock, and ends it on top of the (English) football world.

— Jack Pitt-Brooke (@JPBIndy) February 8, 2012

But let’s take a few minutes to contemplate the absurdity of the thing. Redknapp is by far the most popular choice. He’s English. He’s done superbly well in his time with Tottenham. And, that’s it.

But unless the FA is willing to allow Redknapp to somehow (how?) manage England as kind a ridiculous part time job at least until the end of the current Premier League season, I don’t see any way he’ll repay the faith of Tottenham supporters during his tax evasion trial by telling them to sod off while he manages the most over-hyped team in World Football. He could start in May, though.

So who else then? David Beckham? ALAN SHEARER!?! Good lord, maybe Capello might change his mind?

From the FA website:

The Football Association can confirm that Fabio Capello has today resigned as England Manager.

This follows a meeting involving FA Chairman David Bernstein, FA General Secretary Alex Horne and Fabio Capello at Wembley Stadium.

The discussions focused on The FA Board’s decision to remove the England team captaincy from John Terry, and Fabio Capello’s response through an Italian broadcast interview.

In a meeting for over an hour, Fabio’s resignation was accepted and he will leave the post of England Manager with immediate effect.

Which means I can now use this very apt jpeg:

It’s probably not the stuff-of-dreams for those interested in the big names of European football in a contest against what many believe will be the Ivory Coast (the game is in progress as of writing), but the narrative here is about as emotional as you’ll find in sports.

In 1993, the Zambian first team died when their rickety Zambian Air Force Buffalo DHC-5D crashed into the ocean just outside Libreville, Gabon, the host nation of the current ACN tournament, and the site of this year’s final. An engine caught on fire and an under-slept pilot switched off the wrong one.

In the AfCon tournament the following year, the Zambian replacement team made a miracle run to the finals, only to lose to Nigeria (see above). In the intervening years, their fortunes have been decidedly more mixed.

Jonathan Wilson penned an excellent piece today on the rise of Zambia in recent years, whom he ascribes to the current president of the Zambian football federation:

Look at all that is good about Zambian football and you will see the hand of Kalusha Bwalya. He scored a hat-trick when Zambia beat Italy at the 1988 Olympics. After the air-crash of 1993 had wiped out almost the entire team, he was the rallying point the new side was built around. And, as Zambia look to reach their first Cup of Nations final since that remarkable renaissance side of 1994 in Wednesday’s semi-final against Ghana, it is Kalusha, now president of the football federation, who drew the blueprint.

While heartwarming, it should be noted that relatives of the victims of that crash are still awaiting 19 years-on for an explanation as to why that plane was ever allowed to leave Zambia.

At last, the cardiologists of Rome can rest easy. “The heart is designed to palpitate,” said Daniele De Rossi when asked in November how much longer he planned to keep Roma’s fans waiting to discover if he would sign a new contract with the club. On Sunday, those tense tickers got relief when it was confirmed that the midfielder signed a new five-year deal that ties him to the Giallorossi through to 2017.

Some contract it was too—€5.5m per year in guaranteed salary, plus further bonuses that will in reality take it to at least €6m. That would be enough to make him the joint-best paid Italian player in Serie A, alongside Juventus’s Gigi Buffon. According to Gazzetta dello Sport’s numbers, it also represents about one tenth of the club’s total turnover. Of greater importance to the fans however was that, despite initial reports to the contrary, the deal did not include any release clauses.

De Rossi could hardly be blamed for taking his time to make what was a very significant decision. This would likely be, he noted, the last major contract of his career, and the alternatives were not inconsiderable. Among his suitors were clubs as storied as Real Madrid and as rich as Manchester City. Both De Rossi and Roma’s general manager Franco Baldini acknowledged that he had been offered “silly money” to play elsewhere.

What was noteworthy, though, was the explanation he gave for his decision to stay. De Rossi said money was a factor – while noting that he could have had much more elsewhere – as was his love for the club he supported as a boy. But also important was his desire to continue working with a man who had at one point stood accused of undermining the club’s Roman values: the manager Luis Enrique.

“He was fundamental. He has relit that flame which all footballers need,” said De Rossi of Enrique, the Asturian tactician appointed by the club’s new American owners during the summer. “He is the best manager I have ever worked with.”

That is high praise from a player who has been coached by Fabio Capello, Luciano Spalletti and Claudio Ranieri at club level, as well as Marcello Lippi and Cesare Prandelli with the national side (indeed, the latter had also worked with him during an extremely brief tenure at Roma in 2004). Enrique has only been working as a coach for three-and-a-half years, and his only previous post was with the Barcelona B team.

The truth is that De Rossi was taken with Enrique from day one, and was heard departing his first meeting with the new manager in July saying, “This challenge really excites me too, with you we will do great things”. Il Giornale’s report of that meeting cited sources at Roma’s Trigoria training ground saying they had never seen the player appear more motivated.

To some, De Rossi’s warm welcome for the new manager came as a surprise. The club’s other great homegrown hero, the captain Francesco Totti, had made plain his scepticism over the new regime – heralded as it was by statements from Baldini on his pleasure at finding a manager “uncontaminated” by the Italian game. To Totti’s mind, and to those of many supporters, Enrique’s appointment was an unwelcome attempt to impose foreign values on a team and a city that takes great pride in its heritage.

“Above all I hope that he who is born a Romanista, and who has given much to this club, will always be granted the respect they deserve,” wrote Totti in a column for Corriere dello Sport on the day of Enrique’s unveiling. Within weeks, newspapers were thick with reports of a rift between the forward and his new manager, a situation exacerbated when the player was left out of the starting XI for a the first leg of a Europa League qualifier against Slovan Bratislava, and substituted in the second.

It would be a mistake however to assume that De Rossi would share Totti’s outlook. Yes, they are both Romans and both have spent their entire careers representing the club they adore, but that is where the similarities end. Where Totti was a “predestinato”—one whose natural gifts meant he was destined to reach football’s highest stage—De Rossi was at the other end of the spectrum, an unremarkable young player who, as James Horncastle noted in a recent piece for Fox Soccer, achieved success on the back of hard work and desire.

Likewise, while Totti is always outspoken, De Rossi is more withdrawn. “We have different characters,” said the latter in November. “Francesco is the classic Roman, he seems to come from a different era. He is cocksure, confident in himself, he has a big personality … And he can also be a bit touchy.”

Of course, it is also true that each has been treated very differently by the new regime. Totti suffered the ignominy of being left out in favour of the 22-year-old Stefano Okaka, the 18-year-old Gianluca Caprari and the newly-signed 21-year-old Bojan Krkic for that first game against Bratislava; while De Rossi was told from day one that he was integral to the new coach’s plans.

True to his word, Enrique installed De Rossi immediately in the heart of his new system, deploying him as a deep-lying ball-winner and play-maker, a role in which the midfielder, after two indifferent seasons under Claudio Ranieri and Vincenzo Montella, has thrived. De Rossi comfortably leads the team in both passes attempted (a staggering 71.3 per game) and opposition passes intercepted (3.8 per game). Indeed, he ranks second and third in the league respectively in those two categories.

And there is no doubting that De Rossi is most content when he is made to feel indispensable. “[Enrique] values me, he gives me lots of responsibility,” said De Rossi after signing his new contract. “Doing little tasks is not for me: I like to be at the heart of the manoeuvres, to be the cause of victories and at time defeats.”

One other area in which he differs from Totti, however, is in the number of titles won, having made his first-team debut in October 2001, a few months after Roma’s last Scudetto. Although De Rossi, like Totti, became a world champion with Italy in 2006, domestically he has never won anything greater than the Coppa Italia. In agreeing to stay, he also made it clear that he believes that can change. “At Roma you can be great without Scudetti or medals,” he said. “But I have a great desire to put something in the cabinet.”

“[James] Pallotta made a good impression on me,” added De Rossi of the club’s new majority shareholder, who threw himself clothed into a swimming pool at the club’s training ground last month in order to ram home a point to his team about playing without fear. “He wants to win without losing any time.”

In other words, he wants to get those hearts palpitating once again, but this time because of what happens on the pitch rather than off it.

Despite Simon Kuper’s wishes to the contrary, there is single set of Sabermetric data that can be used to pinpoint why one team is great and one team is crap. Liverpool’s performance this year however is a statistician’s dream, ironic because Liverpool are supposed to be Damien Comolli’s pet Moneyball project.

The Independent, taking data from Infostrada, created this nifty chart which points out the nature of Liverpool’s problems so far this season (for larger version, click here). Cheers to Zonal Marking’s Michael Cox for Tweeting the link.

Defensively, the club rank well in goals conceded, but in attack, where football data has yet to catch up with on-field performance, their statistics are awful. Liverpool have the lowest chance conversion rate in the Premier League. And yes Thomas Dobby, Demba Ba’s conversion rate is 30.2% to Suarez’s 6.6%.

If this is some sort of ad for “Soccernomics,” I would say Liverpool have a lot of work to do. To be fair to Simon Kuper, his recommendations for English football went far beyond a sensible transfer policy, and spoke to the very nature of how most football clubs are run. Comolli is not football’s Billy Beane, particularly as figures like Jean-Michel Aulas at Lyon provide a far better example of the kind of effective transfer policy Liverpool are still miles from implementing.

Whatever the problem at the club, if some of their transfer decisions in recent seasons are indeed based on the most cutting edge data available, soccer is still in search of its WAR.

NOTE: this piece initially said Liverpool don’t rank well in goals conceded. It has since been corrected. The Whittall regrets the error.

Tomorrow’s Thursday, the day when we take your calls, tweets and emails on THE FOOTY SHOW Podcast!

Call TFS’s voicemail and tell us in 30 seconds or less what’s on your mind in the football world this week or pose a question to the crew. You can call us right now, in 10 mins, tomorrow, ten years from now, the line will be there long after Portsmouth FC have disbanded, reformed in the eight division and worked their way up to the League Two. Can’t sleep? Have a quick rant you need to get off your chest? Are you a lawyer who wants to set us straight on FA regulations?

Give us a call! 1-855-42FOOTY (1-855-423-6689).

That’s not the only way to get in touch with us of course. Tweet us and use the hashtag #FootyChat. It’s your show, so ‘ave your say!

The Lead

Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric have both been found not guilty of tax evasion related to payments made by the former Portsmouth owner to the then-manager to a Monaco bank account. The prosecution failed to make the case the payments were performance bonuses, rather than personal investment money. The BBC:

The defence said the money was an investment made by Mr Mandaric while Mr Redknapp said he forgot about the account and had very little to do with it.

The prosecution claimed the first payment of £93,100 was a bonus for selling striker Crouch for £3.25m profit.

Redknapp appeared to have admitted to a News of the World reporter at the time that the payment was indeed a bonus for the Crouch sale, but then told the court he was “lying” because this was a journalist after all, not police.

At the end of the day, the English public have their hero back, ready to take over with the national team once Fabio Capello leaves after the current Euros. It’s clear some newspapers queued up their Harry Redknapp career retrospectives in case of a guilty verdict. Now these read as a celebration of the unfairly maligned wheeler ‘n dealer.

Harry Redknapp had his day in court, and was declared innocent of tax evasion. Fine. The verdict speaks for itself, and on the evidence, seemed to have been the right one at least as far as the legal process is concerned. But few of those currently back-slapping themselves over the HM Revenue and Custom’s poor case will take two steps back to look at the Redknapp/Mandaric relationship as evidence of the cronyism that characterizes one of the stupidest “businesses” in the world, English football. Wherein a club owner will pay one of its employees money into an offshore account to for fun investment money, and then make another payment for investment losses, is merely par for the course in a professional working relationship in football.

Instead, Harry Redknapp left the court room to the  rapturous applause of journalists and fans alike, and is now first in line for the most coveted managerial job in England. Mandaric meanwhile will go back to seeing Sheffield Wednesday out of League One.

Not anywhere to be found on the major websites this morning: forgotten Pompey cannot pay their players. Newspapers don’t have a wide angle lens, so its on to the next courtroom drama…

Canada

Some Canadian reactions to the LA Galaxy getting Juninho back on loan.

Surprise! De Ro delay in DC United contract negotiations.

England

Fabio Capello “increasingly isolated” in FA row over Terry captaincy.

Terry meanwhile may lose Umbro as a sponsor.

Ravel Morrison’s homophobic Tweet. Man, this kid is a winner…

Alex McLeish shows off his man management abilities by telling Charles N’Zogbia to “work harder.”

Obvious story about Luis Suarez at Old Trafford.

Some nonsense involving Bale, Arsenal and Barcelona.

Italy

Arsene Wenger “surpised” by Antonio Conte’s reversal of fortune with Juventus.

Luis Enrique dampens expectations of Roma.

Christian Chivu’s future still uncertain.

Spain

The development prospects of both Real Madrid and Barca have aided all of Spain, says Andy Brassell.

Jose Callejon believes Mourinho will stay at RM beyond the end of the season.

Germany

Rafa Honigstein on the rise and fall of Hoffenheim.

Takashi Usami wants out of Bayern.

Bits and bobs

Copa Libertadores preview.

Senegal sack manager Traore.

Port Said tragedy becomes political focal point in Egypt.

And that, give or take, is the story so far…

You see it on THE FOOTY SHOW every Wednesday on theScore. This is the segment driven by you! Each week you come up with some great suggestions for ‘Avin It or Not ‘Avin It. We’re looking for more!

What are you ‘avin or not ‘avin this week? Come up with the statements and Dunlop will read the best ones on-air to James & KJ. As always, VOTE for your favourite goal of the week on our facebook page! Man, there’s some seriously good ones this week.

We’ll hit you with the ‘Take Your Kick’ Podcast Wednesday afternoon, as TFC defender Adrian Cann joins us. Then get your visual fix on THE FOOTY SHOW at 6pm EST on theScore (replay 11pm EST & Thursday at 12:30pm & 3pm EST).

There are now countless FIFA 12 bug vids that make light of EA’s much-touted Player Impact Engine, which, according to this breathless post, is “revolutionary not evolutionary”:

The game-changing new Player Impact Engine will drive FIFA 12 on the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system. Fans will experience the way real-world footballers challenge each other for the ball, win possession, and test each other physically. The Impact Engine processes decisions continuously in real-time at every point of contact on a player’s body to create an infinite variety of natural and believable outcomes in every collision. Players now feel more resilient, push and pull during the fight for possession, and recover from light challenges more easily.

I think they left out “most of the time” somewhere in this release. Anyway, this vid’s been floating around since November, and was linked by the Telegraph which is the official way we know it’s played out. But it made me laugh, so, yeah.

Football Italia with the replay rules following the suspended Catania-Roma match, which was halted in the 65th minute on January 14th because of a waterlogged pitch:

Under Serie A regulations, the tie will resume from where it left off at 19.00 UK time on Wednesday.

Only players who were signed to the clubs at the time of the original game can take part in this ‘mini’ encounter.

Therefore, Catania cannot field Marco Motta, Felipe Ignacio Seymour, Osariemen Giulio Ebagua or Juan Pablo Carrizo, while Marco Biagianti and Giovanni Marchese were suspended for the original match.

Meanwhile, Roma substituted Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi during the original match, so they cannot come back into the game tomorrow.

The game will start with a throw-in by Catania at the 64th minute. I don’t know why but I find this all completely, ridiculously wonderful, like Tracy Jordan recreating Smooth Move Ferguson on 30 Rock.

Good news for the LA Galaxy and CONCACAF Champions League neutrals (ha ha, kidding, the latter don’t exist). From the LA Galaxy website:

The LA Galaxy announced today that the club has reached an agreement with Brazilian club Sao Paulo that will allow midfielder Juninho to return to the Galaxy on loan for the 2012 MLS season. Additionally, the Galaxy have completed the signing of former Sao Paulo defender Leonardo, who joins the club permanently on a free transfer. Juninho and Leonardo each played for the Galaxy during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, helping the club repeat as Supporters’ Shield winners and win their third MLS Cup last season. Per club and league policy, terms of the contracts were not disclosed.

As Ives Tweetered:

Multiple reports out of Brazil have Juninho coming back to LA Galaxy. IF LA pulls that off, they’re CONCACAF Champions League favorites. WOW

— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) February 7, 2012

Best protect ya necks.

Kristian Jack returned from his Super Bowl adventure to join James Sharman & Brendan Dunlop on today’s FOOTY SHOW Podcast. The trio chatted with ESPN analyst Janusz Michallik.

The former US international and ‘Footy 100‘ contributor had a interesting take on Andre Villas Boas’ time so far at Chelsea and is excited for Euro 2012 to kick off in the country of his birth.

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Sir Alex Ferguson spoke to CNN in condemnation of recent allegations, proven or no, of racial abuse in the Premier League and English football as a whole:

“This is a moment where we have to take stock and we should do something about it if it’s surfacing again, and be really hard and firm on any form or shape of racism.

“There have been a couple of examples recently which is not good. In 2012, you can’t believe it. It was obvious maybe 20 years ago and the improvements have been for everyone to see.”

There are several different perspectives one could take on the recent back-and-forth allegations of racial abuse in English football. The obvious one, and Sir Alex’s take, is that English football is clearly taking a turn for the bad old days. Players today apparently feel free to say racist things today (which presumes they weren’t before this season). And fans in turn are doing things like boo Rio Ferdinand because he’s Anton Ferdinand’s brother, who didn’t even make the allegation against Chelsea defender John Terry in the first place (we’ll get to that in a moment).

The other line, and one I happen to believe, is that despite all the odious controversy of this past season involving players like Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez, Anton Ferdinand and John Terry, the fact racism is stealing all the headlines in the UK at the moment is a good thing. In fact, the uncomfortable mood in top flight football, and via Twitter and the rest, represents the beginning of the end of passive acceptance of casual racism in the UK.

Consider how recent incidents came to light. Luis Suarez admitted to using the Spanish word for black repeatedly against Patrice Evra in a football match. While there’s some evidence Evra may have exaggerated Suarez’s use of the word (and the ugly variation thereon), we know from Suarez’s own mouth he did in fact use it.

Perhaps Suarez took a calculated gamble that the unofficial rule of footballing gamesmanship would prevent Evra from complaining. It would be, after all, a matter of he said/he said. Instead, Evra felt confident risking his reputation in coming forward, with all the subsequent controversy it subsequently brought about.

In the Terry/Ferdinand incident, a third party witness was apparently key in coming forward with evidence that Terry may have use racially abusive language toward Anton Ferdinand. Clearly he or she felt it important to report to police what they believe Terry may have said to Ferdinand.

It’s certainly the case that the multi-camera, closely-televised coverage of the Premier League means players and fans are more secure their testimony will be corroborated by filmed evidence. But this technology, while advanced compared to even a decade ago, doesn’t in itself explain the rash of complaints of racial abuse, either from fans or fellow players.

It’s also naive to think that players have only in recent seasons felt comfortable shouting horrible things on a football pitch. Note how Sir Alex Ferguson’s point of reference to the bad old days was not fifty or a hundred years-ago, but a mere two decades. That implies racial abuse was fairly commonplace in England as recently as the early 1990s, and anyone who’s ever lived or traveled in the UK in the last few years likely has a whack of anecdotal evidence casual racism hasn’t exactly disappeared from Blighty since then.

What has slowly shifted over the past few decades however is the general feeling of abhorrence toward overt racial abuse, the fact that it’s now culturally unacceptable across all possible worlds, whether on a football pitch or in an office conference room. I would argue the difference between this season and previous seasons is a new-found courage among players in coming forward, because they know something might be done.

So how to explain the accompanying flurry of racial abuse incidents on Twitter or in the football stands? Whenever an unsaid rule is broken like players accepting racial abuse and “just getting on with it” as many, many commenters have repeated over the past few months, certain fans feel more confident in breaking the unwritten rule that it’s okay to harbour racist views but not to express them publicly. So they take to Twitter to call Sammy Ameobi a n**ger. Additionally, under the warped logic of “partisanship,” some casual bigots regard racist gestures as a demonstration of solidarity with the accused on their team.

For the last few years, many silent racists—the ones who aren’t BNP members outright but sympathize with their cause—were content to keep up appearances. Now some feel the gloves are off. As more and more players come forward over allegations of racism and racial abuse, there will be more push back, more brazen public declarations of racism from fans, and not a few of them either. The ugly side will be exposed for what it is, and the public outrage will alert leaders like Ferguson of the work that still needs to be done to combat the problem, perhaps starting with what they believe constitutes harmless banter at a football match.

Fighting racism isn’t just a matter of a Kick it Out campaign and a few CPS prosecutions. Cultural shifts takes years, decades, whole lifetimes. So as ugly as the the headlines have been over the past few months, they’re just the beginning of the long, final death throes of an ugly, unseen foe.

Part of the problem with fan protests is that, unless they involve saving a club from liquidation or winding up (you know, something important), they’re often gawdawful. If it’s not a bunch of half drunk punters walking down a street with black armbands and banners, then it’s almost certainly someone calling for fans to put garbage bags over empty seats.

Perhaps it has something to do with the psychology of the person who would go to lengths to organize protests over a football club because they’re not playing very well. There is after all a lot of cognitive dissonance involved, part of which involves the assumption that busy, independently-wealthy board members will give a toss what a tiny collection of banner-carrying fans think, particularly if those fans have already paid for season tickets and will continue to attend games and buy merch.

Sadly, the latest embarrassing call to protest involves the unofficial Footy Show FC, Aston Villa. Someone paid real money for the domain and hosting, for this. Clearly they didn’t have time to bust out the HTML for Dummies. Perhaps it will improve over the next few days, but I wouldn’t count on it. And this is the message they dearly needed to impart:

Fed up of the poor results and awful football? So are we! Time for Villa fans to unite and make a stand and show the club we will not accept this. Before we get abused and told we are not “real fans” for doing this, how can you call yourself a FAN if you are prepared to do nothing and watch OUR GREAT club fail

Not exactly Horatio Nelson-esque. And isn’t going to do much for the tens of thousands of Villa supporters who sympathize with the end result, but not the sophomoric means.

The Lead

With Harry Redknapp’s trial not yet finished, Fabio Capello’s situation with England at a quiet detente (although the Mirror is going all out on this story), and papers reluctant to report on the only thing we really care about—the Anfield Cat of course (see special section below)—all they have left is a possible talking point from the dour 0-0 draw between Liverpool and Tottenham last night at Anfield.

That came when Luis Suarez, having been on the pitch for approximately four minutes, kicked Scott Parker in the stomach. It was a bad thing to do, yes, but more careless than deliberately aggressive (although with Suarez, one never knows). And so Parker writhed around, and Suarez got his yellow. Had the story ended there, it could have provided a bit of lunch meat for an op-ed sandwich.

But then Wayne Rooney, whom Mourinho may have called a voyeur, took to Twitter to talk about how it should have been a red card, which apparently makes it “news.” This follows a similar pattern. A player takes to Twitter, like Joey Barton offering his unsolicited opinion on John Terry’s guilt in the Anton Ferdinand case. After which media coverage, by telling us what we already know in official “news-speak,” ossifies the event, transforming an ephemeral 140-character utterance into a matter of public record.

You can understand the need to provide filler in a fairly slow soccer news day, but there will come a time when the public realizes they no longer need to rely on newspapers to report on Tweets available to anyone with an Internet connection, and that they can think for themselves, the “public record” be damned.

Canada

The Vancouver Whitecaps draw the Seattle Sounders in a “feisty” pre-season friendly.

Former TFC academy product Keven Aleman goes back to Spain to play for the Vallodolid youth team.

Paul James on Soccer ep. 41.

Canada’s June friendly against the USA will air on NBC (via Waking the Red).

England

Jury’s literally out on Harry Redknapp’s tax fraud trial.

FA chief David Bernstein to confront Fabio Capello on Terry captaincy. Paul Hayward believes the money the FA paid Capello should have bought the Italian manager’s undying loyalty.

John Terry won’t quit England.

Kenny Dalglish says the Suarez ban was “wrong” to begin with.

Shanghai Shenhua in talks with Stoke’s Matthew Upson.

Arsene Wenger says Arsenal won’t pay £30 million for Eden Hazard.

Demba Ba staying put.

Turmoil with McLeish at Villa.

Italy

Cesare Prandelli keeps his Italy selection options open. Wide open.

Massimo Moratti says Inter players must “fight to the death.”

Donadoni wants Parma to emulate Ajax youth program.

Germany

Dortmund are back on top the Bundesliga, and they plan to stay there for a while.

Whether Lewandowski will be with them in the future though is uncertain.

Hertha Berlin meanwhile continue their free-fall.

Spain

Barca were initially unconvinced Lionel Messi could make it as a pro.

A look at La Liga’s second tier with Andy Brassell.

A look at the Tuesday papers in Spain.

Anfield Catstravaganza

The Telegraph.

The Daily Mail.

The Guardian.

The Mirror.

Bits and bobs

Renewed loan interest from Corinthians for Carlos Tevez?

Report to show Europe rife with match-fixing.

Argentina to rename top flight in honour of ship sunk in Falklands War.

Jonathan Wilson on Keita’s emotional win with Mali in ACN.

And that, give or take, is the story so far…

The Liverpool v. Tottenham match was on in the office on two TVs while theScore staff worked diligently away. But a cat on the field—total chaos. This loveable little critter stopped off to say a sweet hello to Tottenham’s American keeper Brad Friedel, before a steward picked him/her up before almost certainly snapping its neck smothering it with kisses off camera for adorably delaying the Premier League fixture for thirty seconds.

An idea: anytime things get ugly, fans start singing racist songs, players crowd the referee, the fourth official should release a kitten on the field.

James Sharman & Brendan Dunlop chat with Serie A commentator Paul Visca following another interesting weekend in the Serie A. There may have been a lack of goals from the top teams, but there were enough goals in Rome and elsewhere to make the scudetto and Champions League place races very interesting.

As Visca explains, all is not well in the AC Milan dressing room, Inter have plenty of questions that remain to be answered and Juventus seem to be the model that everyone wants to get to.

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Another picture of the fog at Anfield does not look great. twitter.com/Gerrard8FanPag…

— Steven Gerrard (@Gerrard8FanPage) February 6, 2012

No word yet on any delays/cancellation.

How was that for a Super Sunday? James Sharman, Thomas Dobby & Brendan Dunlop recap all of the weekend’s wild Premier League action.

Referees had about as big an influence on the action as commercials did on the Super Bowl. From Stamford Bridge to The Etihad, the boys recap all the goals, blunders and action from the weekend.

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THE FOOTY SHOW Podcast is available Monday-Thursday here on The Footy Blog & on iTunes

James Sharman & Brendan Dunlop discuss Fabio Capello disagreeing with the FA decision to strip Terry’s captaincy and Dunlop shares some Footy knowledge.

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“You must unlearn what you have learned.”

1. What constitutes a Premier League classic

As someone pointed out to me on the Twitter, with regard to the 3-3 draw between Manchester United and Chelsea on Sunday, they don’t normally include “two own goals and two questionable penalties.” But it appeared the media machine differed, as post-match panels spoke breathlessly of one of the most exciting second 45 minute halves they’d ever seen in Manchester United’s Howard Webb-assisted second half comeback from three goals down against a very poorly organized Chelsea. My theory: TV providers were finally thankful that all their Super Sunday hype kinda sorta paid off, and so tried in Orwellian fashion to convince the viewer there were in fact five lights.

2. Andre Villas-Boas is a tactical genius

Hmm, maybe. It’s obviously far too early to say one way or another, and the guy did lead Porto to a Europa League vase. But some are beginning to question Villas-Boas’ dedication to his so-called “vertical” style with Chelsea in the Premier League, and his subsequent tweaks. Michael Cox seemed to compare him unfavourably to Mourinho and accused AVB of overbearing pedantry in discussing positioning with his players, and said his tendency to play Mata out wide is undermining his intelligence. Paul Hayward echoed the “defensive destabilization” analysis. Even Roman Abramovic wanted to watch a Chelsea training session on Saturday to see what’s going on over there.  The aura is gone…

3. Arsenal are finished, Wenger past it, if they lose Robin Van Persie, they’re done

Yes, the first thing you will think is “ten-man Blackburn.” But you’ll recall that this is exactly the kind fixture that often allows the young Gunners to make a pig’s ear out of a silk purse. It’s not every week that Arsenal score seven goals, or for someone other than RVP to score two of them (the former got a hattrick) and to do so in the same weekend that fellow-London club Chelsea earned all the headlines for coughing up three goals against Manchester United, putting Arsenal in kissing distance of fourth place, is not too shabby. The 4-3 result at Ewood Park will linger in the memory, but this result will take some of the media/fan heat off Wenger for a little longer.

4. Barcelona are back!

It’s pretty damn impressive that a Barcelona B team regular can, at the age of twenty, make his first start for the world’s best side and score within eight minutes of kick off. Cristian Tello did just that against Real Sociedad on Saturday, providing the first of two Barca goals to Sociedad’s one. That’s the good news, and part of the reason why they may beat the “three-year rule” after all. The bad news is the injury list is piling up and now includes Sergio Busquets, and the team looks far from the well-oiled tiki-taka monster that pwned Spain and laid waste to Europe. The Champions League could really tell the tale.

5. Football has reached a tactical apex and is therefore over/ruined

The American chess grandmaser Bobby Fischer once complained chess was dead because all you had to do was memorize all the openings in order to play to an intractable advantage. Well, football ain’t chess, thank god. The Guardian’s Five Things crew beat me to this this morning, but they’ve got their finger on the pulse. As Jacob Steinberg wrote, “Now it would appear the meat and potatoes are back on the menu, with games between the top sides this season defined by defensive incompetence instead of strategic elegance.”

While that’s true of English football as evidenced by the Super Sunday clash of the klutzes,  it’s also true at the ACN, where Ghana stumbled into the semis after Tunisian keeper Aymen Mathlouthi failed to catch a routine cross, bumbling it to the feet of Andre Ayew who made no mistake.  Mistakes, while tut-tutted by the usual equilibrists, are what make football fun.

By Elliot Turner

Carlos Tevez refuses to enter game. Carlos Tevez has dispute with Mancini for 100th time. Carlos Tevez leaves for Argentina. Your gut reaction: you hate Kia Joorabchian, the not-quite-an-agent who acts as Carlos’ adviser. You project the Tevez-City problems upon that sleazy smile of Joorabchian and we all light our torches and carry our pitchforks, hoping to kill the third party Dr. Frankenstein behind this monster. But are we overreacting?

A few years ago, the Premier League passed laws against Third Party Ownership and fined West Ham for concealing documents in the Tevez & Mascherano transfers. UEFA is now considering a similar law. Neither ordinance outright criminalizes third party ownership, but rather prevents a third party from “materially affecting” a club. This amorphous standard has never been crystallized—West Ham was fined, after all, for concealing documents, not because Tevez and Mascherano’s player rights were owned by a business. As furor grows, calls for a tougher laws may echo throughout England and Europe, but the ire at agents could inadvertently hurt another key actor in soccer: academies.

First, allow me to address the knee-jerk arguments against Third Party Ownership. Fans of hyperbole sometimes refer to professional athletes in these arrangements as “slaves.” However, this is an inaccurate characterization for a myriad of reasons. Unlike a slave, even if an athlete has a contract, a pro player can retire at any time and choose a different profession. Even so, many are uneasy at the prospect of several different people owning one person’s “playing rights.” Yet millions of people own the “business rights” of companies—it’s called the stock exchange. Just as a player may get injured, a natural disaster or executive scandal can bankrupt a business. Athletes are bought and sold, just like commodities, for often exorbitant sums of money. Risk varies based on the amount and timing of any investment. Agents often point out that Third Party Ownership allows for individuals to invest in a player while spreading out both the risk and reward.

Academies have benefited greatly from a type of third party ownership. In Spain and England, “sell-on” clauses dominate the transfer scene. Basically, an academy will sell a player to a bigger club, but within the agreement there’s a clause that stipulates if another transfer occurs, then the academy will receive a 10% windfall. There are several high profile examples. Michah Richards and Oldham. Ashley Young and Watford. The list goes on and on. When Real Madrid acquired Xabi Alonso, the biggest stumbling block was not the transfer sum but a sell-on clause for Real Sociedad. However, the two clubs waited a month for the clause to expire and then consummated the deal.

Sell-on clauses, a more passive form of third party ownership, play a vital role in generating revenue for academies. Transfers may line agents’ pockets to your disgust, but they also finance the next generation of players. Eliminating Third Party Ownership would prevent potential investors in players from pooling risk, and less risk would mean less opportunities for young players. At a time when the EPL is coming down hard on youth academies, blanket calls to ban third party ownership may harden the blow. The new EPPP guidelines have given the EPL clubs an upper hand in negotiations, and eliminating sell-on clauses could be the straw to break the camel’s back.

So the next time you see Kia Joorabchian’s disgusting smirk, try to think of the children. He may line his pockets, but many deserving people benefit from Third Party Ownership.

Elliott blogs about soccer at Futfanatico.com. He is the author of An Illustrated Guide to Soccer & Spanish.