Andy Carroll: better than you think

Name a better English striker than Andy Carroll... Go.

OK, Wayne Rooney you can have, even if he has more miles on the clock than a B-reg Austin Allegro. Rumour has it he named his son Klay after what it looked like he was running through this season.

Right, who else? Jermain Defoe? Gives you 10 of those great goals a season when he cuts in from the left and pings it into the far corner. And literally nothing else. There's a reason trusted Emmanuel Adebayor - a.k.a. the least reliable striker in world football - down the stretch this season.

Daniel Sturridge? Terrific goalscorer, but almost

April 17, 2011. Stoke City have just battered Bolton Wanderers 5-0 in the semi-final of the FA Cup. Around 40 minutes after chants of "it's just like watching Brazil" have faded from the end of Wembley occupied by delirious Potters supporters, Tony Pulis makes his way into the national stadium’s media conference room and, as is his style, maintains a standing posture as he addresses the press.

"We have a plan that is in place," says Pulis. "When we got in to the Premier League the aim was to build gradually and slowly. We knew we would be criticised for certain things that we do, and would

Real Madrid is a complicated club at the best of times.

Much like Bayern Munich, a long-standing culture exists where the players - particularly those from the local area - are little princes and even kings, a culture that can be seen to develop beyond their careers on the pitch and into the fabric of the club.

Sporting directors, special advisors, members of the technical staff... ex-players form the structure of the club, its history.

As a result coaches, no matter how impressive their CVs and reputations, come and go, rarely lasting more than two or three seasons and often barely completing

Imagine a Tottenham fan had bet his Arsenal-supporting friend £1 that Spurs would finish higher in the Premier League in the 1995/96 season.

And suppose that at the end of each campaign the fans had played 'double or quits'.

The Spurs fan would now owe his friend £131,072.

That's the consequence of 18 consecutive seasons of North London supremacy for the Gunners.

If we go back to August 1995, that Spurs fan's bet might not have looked so stupid.

That February Arsenal had sacked George Graham, and although Stuart Houston led them to a Cup-Winners' Cup final (in a word: Nayim) he was replaced

David Beckham will bring down the curtain on his 21-year career as a professional footballer when the French champions Paris Saint-Germain visit Lorient in their final Ligue 1 match of the season on May 26.

Still only 38, somehow we can't see Becks fishing, playing golf or meandering down the local bowling club when he hangs up his boots. Not with his obvious good looks and charm. So what will Becks, worth an estimated £165 million smackers, do with the next chapter of his career? An emotional Early Doors is in mourning this morning, but has picked itself up off the floor to come up with a

So the interim one becomes a special one. Not THE special one, but certainly A special one.

Branislav Ivanovic's header in added time earned Chelsea a rousing 2-1 win over a technically superior, but profligate Benfica in last night's breathless Europa League final. More poignantly, it ensured their temporary - and probably outgoing - head coach Rafael Benitez of a unique place in the club's folklore.

Whether or not his detractors can stomach it, the much-maligned Benitez will depart Stamford Bridge having enhanced his reputation as a man of character and coach of real substance.

Millions of

If Chelsea win the Europa League tonight, Rafa Benitez will not bask in the adulation of the fans as Roberto Di Matteo did a year ago.

Grateful players will not toss him joyously around like Pep Guardiola or Jupp Heynckes.

The best he can hope for is to be ignored while everyone else celebrates a success devised by him.

Even outside Chelsea, there is not much sympathy for Benitez, but Early Doors reckons he has taken on an impossible job and performed remarkably well.

Don't believe ED? Let's do what the man himself would, and examine the facts:

FACT: Rafa Benitez’s record as Chelsea manager:

The news emerged last night at 10:24pm that Roberto Mancini was being "relieved of his duties" by Manchester City. In blunt British football terms, this is traditionally known as the sack.

At around 12:04am this morning, the chirpy cockney tones of the former City and England forward Rodney Marsh could be discovered on radio discussing what the new manager-in-waiting Manuel Pellegrini will bring to the job.

With Malaga’s Chilean coach apparently poised to succeed Mancini, Marsh seemed a sound enough commentator on the topic having turned out for three years at Maine Road in the early 1970s.