Monday, March 22, 2010 Previous editions
ON THE face of it, to lose by the odd goal in three at the home of the champions is no disgrace but, for Liverpool, yesterday’s defeat at Old Trafford can’t be interpreted as anything other than another nail in the coffin of the Rafa Benitez era.
IF YOU don’t want to know the results of the Champions’ League quarter-finals, look away now...
SO what was your gut reaction when you heard the England team hotel had been bugged last week?
SO in London on Tuesday, it’s the boys in green versus the boys who will be going green.
AS Fergie might have said, and as Arsenal as well as Ireland now know to their cost: ye cannae win anything with Hanssons.
IT’S reassuring to see that, as usual, England’s preparations for a big tournament are going swimmingly.
IN Dublin Castle on Thursday for the launch of the city as the European Capital Of Sport for 2010, Marco Tardelli was invited to turn his thoughts to another European capital, Warsaw, and the draw for the Euro Championships which will take place there tomorrow.
AS ONLY Sky can, they blasted yesterday’s big match coverage to, well, the sky.
WITH Tom Coughlan being edged towards the door and a new consortium ready to enter, Cork City’s future once again hangs in the balance.
HERE’S one for your next pub quiz: what do Archbishop Tutu, The Edge, Salman Rushdie, Al Pacino, Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Alex Ferguson have in common?
WHO’D be a gaffer? Well, you, me and millions of others is probably the correct answer. Whether we’re in the press box, on the terrace, in the pub or even all alone in front of the domestic box, we’re never slow to express an opinion on the actions of the man in the dug-out, especially when he seems to have got it all wrong.
PELE’S visit to Ireland this week reminded me that I’ve been lucky enough to meet with the five footballers I consider to be the greatest of all time: George Best, Maradona, Johann Cruyff, Zinedine Zidane and ‘El Rei’ himself.
FORGIVE us our trespasses, not to mention our sloppy passes, but with those other Blues fetching up these shores at the end of the week, it was hard not to view yesterday’s grand slammer at Stamford Bridge against the backdrop of altogether more high-stakes games to come in Dublin and Paris.
ON the day of the draw for the World Cup play-off, a few of us found ourselves in the company of a brace of Irish football heroes of yesteryear.
THE biggest surprise about Eamon Dunphy’s hatchet job on Ireland’s performance against Italy last week was that anyone was surprised.
FOR A guy who isn’t even getting his game, you’d have to say that Andy Reid is playing a blinder for Ireland.
NOT for the first time where Rafael Benitez and Carlo Ancelotti are concerned, it’s the Liverpool manager who finds himself three down – except it’s not even half-time yet.
SINCE we’re so desperately short of reality television, here’s an idea for a new one – Gaffer Swap, which is just what you think it might be, except with the added, exciting twist that the managers involved don’t exchange jobs, they exchange personalities.
AND so the last Sunday in September is almost upon us and there’s just a nerve-tingling 24 hours to go to one of the biggest events in the sporting calendar, as two ancient rivals and neighbours prepare to renew battle in the presence of a massive crowd and with millions more tuning in on television all over the world.
IN the great tradition of ‘Private Eye’ – translation: in an act of shameless ripping off – we begin today with an abject apology.
WITH thanks to the late great Ian Dury, it is my rare pleasure today to present reasons to be cheerful (part three).
CORK CITY have overcome some big name opponents in the course of their 25 year history but none has proved quite as formidable as the tax man.
NOW all of 85 years of age, Tomás Mac Giolla made a rare public appearance in the pages of Hot Press this week, reflecting on a colourful and controversial life in Republican and left-wing politics in Ireland.
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