Coming back after two weeks holiday it appears that nothing has changed. Manchester United are still insisting Cristiano Ronaldo is going nowhere even as the player himself is preparing to pack his bags for the first available flight to Madrid.

Frank Lampard is still a Chelsea player, though nobody thinks that will last too long. And Gareth Barry is still heading to Anfield any day now. Seriously, any day now he will go. It is, according to Aston Villa's manager Martin O'Neill, finally a matter between the player, his agent, Liverpool and Aston Villa. Which makes you wonder, if that is a

At the end of his first year in charge, Fabio Capello has done many things for the England football team. He has organised them well, given them purpose and direction, won a few World Cup qualifiers. He has managed to give a semblance of order to an outfit that before his appointment looked rudderless and hopeless. Naturally, this has encouraged those who always get a little over-excited the moment England win a game or two into making extravagant claims once again about the possibility of South Africa. Capello though has remained level-headed and refused to stoke up the wild expectations. He

Running on Sky television at the moment is a show called Wayne Rooney's Street Striker. In it, England's principal footballing talent fronts a series of challenges designed to test the skills of the country's back street players.

As Rooney conducts his search, what a contrast there is between the presenter and the contestants, between the wannabes and the superstar. While they are all cocksure swagger and streetwise lip, he looks lost, a shy, self-conscious presence who appears to wish he were anywhere other than in front of a camera.

Compare that to his demeanour on Wednesday night at Old

There was much mockery (some of it possibly emanating from this blog) before a ball was kicked in Euro 2008 about the television schedules. Without a home nation in contention, the chortling went, how amusing will it be for executives to have to shift ratings-bankers like soaps and light entertainment in order to accommodate matches no-one will want to watch? The game that was used as a prime example was the Czech Republic against Turkey. Tee hee, we all sniggered, you can imagine the fans of Coronation Street being delighted to see their favourite fix shunted to find room for that. No-one,

There is an odd contradiction at the heart of our attitude to the longevity of football managers in England.

On the one hand, when a chairman starts to meddle in the dressing room, undermining a manager before dispensing with his services, we tut and shake our heads and say, well you'll never achieve anything without continuity. Look at Arsenal and Manchester United: what do they have in common? Yes, it's length of service in the manager's office. There is no coincidence that they have been two of England's finest teams over the past decade: while other clubs have gone through managers like

It was Alan Hansen who was the first to come out and say it. And with it the man whose analysis of football is second to none demonstrated that even he could get things wrong some times. Two days into Euro 2008, after watching the first four games of the tournament, Hansen declared that England could have won it.

Normally, such wilfully optimistic assessments require England's participation in a competition. But this time, here was the country's foremost television football pundit installing England as favourites in absentia.

To be fair his point was a good one. Euro 2008 is so open a

There has been something moral at the heart of Euro 2008. It has been almost like a biblical parable. Those teams who have endeavoured, who have strived, who have attacked and entertained, have prospered.

The Dutch, the Russians, the Turks, the Portuguese, the Croats: for them boldness has been rewarded. While those who have been stilted and unadventurous - the French, the Greeks, the Swedes - have had just return for their caution and have been quickly dispatched home. Or in the case of Austria and Switzerland, have stayed put. The poor Greeks did not quite put up the worst defence of the

Even from a distance of several thousand miles, the Champions League holds sway. In California, Ruud Gullit, manager of the LA Galaxy and Feel Football Champion has been watching the tournament pan out with fascination. Last week, he watched the semi-finals, convinced that there is a pattern to them, which has been firming up over the past few years.
"I think the best four teams left were there anyway, so that was good," he says. "But for me, what was very obvious was that it says again how much of an importance it is if you play first away and then at home, because Liverpool in the previous