Peter Taylor apparently does not care for pronouncing the surnames of overseas players during little slices of punditry. This suspicion appeared to be confirmed when Taylor - a former coach of the England U21 side among an endless list of unfashionable clubs  - could be discovered analysing the current crop of English prospects against Ukraine in the European Championship.

After watching reruns of the England goalkeeper Frank Fielding saving from Roman Zozulya in the second half of a 0-0 draw, Taylor turned to the host of Sky Sports' coverage of the tournament and commented: "I'll leave that

There are times in life, whether in friendships, relationships or work, when it is wise to be where other people are not. Without fraternising with a cracker-barrel philosophy, sometimes it is not what is said, but what is not said that delivers those tell-tale signs of impending doom.

In the curious case of Alex McLeish and Birmingham City, what was said and what was not said was a dead giveaway that McLeish was a dead man walking. Judging by the soundbites emanating from his mouthy chairman Peter Pannu at the end of a season in which Birmingham plunged back into the murkier waters of the

A decade or so after they dedicated a film title to David Beckham's unique ability to get some action on a football with his Predator boots, perhaps they should consider a revamp for forthcoming times. 'Bend it like Beckham' could easily be rebooted as 'Angle it like Adam' for the 2011/2012 Premier League season.

There appears to be three certainties in life, or at least in the versatile ranges of football these days: death, taxes and Charlie Adam snaffling a lush transfer to a leading Premier League concern in the close season. Adam is a figure who is unlikely to be skulking around the

Growing up in the West of Scotland in the 1980s as a kid immersed in football tended to be a simplistic, but always rousing experience. Back then the country had four outstanding teams: Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United and Rangers.

For the majority of that decade, the club to be feared were not Rangers or Celtic, but Alex Ferguson's roving Aberdeen unit. Fergie departed Aberdeen for Manchester United in 1986, a time when they were not only the outstanding force in Scottish football, but one of the slickest sides in European club football, champions in every sense of the word. 

Having overrun

The season is over, but there remains time to put the boot in. For a manager who only inherited a job because another manager was wrongly sacked, one would think Alan Pardew would be a bit more choosy with his words when referring to the fruitful work of his plucky predecessor.

It was Chris Hughton rather than Pardew who laid the foundations for Newcastle to remain in the Premier League, not that there will be much bunting being unearthed to remember Hughton's contribution around owner Mike Ashley's manor if the Pimm's is flowing this summer.

Against this backdrop, it is difficult to know

For a man whose critics deride him for lacking decorum, dignity and class, Neil Lennon has been doing a fair impersonation of such a figure over the past few days. Having failed to deprive Rangers of the trophy on Sunday, Celtic's much-maligned coach congratulated the Scottish champions and their manager Walter Smith on winning the Premier League by saying that "if I was going to lose to anyone in the SPL, it would be Walter".

This was followed by his condemnation yesterday of the bookends of a Celtic support who continue to feel the need to bellow out IRA songs on their travels. It must be

Face contorted with rage, wild eyes bulging and arms moving as freely as windmill sails, he cut a figure of fury when it was all over. This was not the Celtic manager Neil Lennon after last week's much-maligned Old Firm match in the Scottish Cup, but Arsene Wenger venting his spleen after his Arsenal side had been stuffed by Barcelona in the Champions League.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the referee Massimo Busacca's decision to red card Robin van Persie last night, Wenger's reaction was no better or worse than the Rangers coach Ally McCoist whispering 'sweet nothings' in the ear of Lennon

It is perhaps a bit rich, literally when you think of how many bags he made out of the game, for Alan Sugar to offer some sort of frank solution to the financial problems football faces. The BBC programme 'Lord Sugar Tackles Football' was watchable, but rambling without ever building to a taut conclusion.

The English actor David Morrissey has recovered sufficiently from his role in Basic Instinct 2 to sound convincing in narrating an 'investigation' that felt as predictable as an episode of Midsomer Murders, i.e., we find out who commits the murder, with or without a cricket bat, but it is