IF you ever find that following your favourite football team becomes too depressing or even boring, then you could try and go ‘virtual’.  According to a report in The Sun Newspaper, the Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott try to get one over on Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney after Rooney’s spectacular goal won the Manchester derby.

A good friend of mine is currently awaiting news of whether he will lose his job. He works for a local authority which employs over 7,000 people and is looking to axe 600 by the end of March.  That scenario is being acted out in both public and private organisations throughout the country as the financial crisis sweeping the UK tightens its grip.

MOST young boys who dream of becoming a footballer want to be a star striker, and it is easy to see why – they grab all the headlines and quite often most of the money:  Struggling Premier League side Aston Villa splashed out £18million (the deal could eventually rise to £24million) for Sunderland forward Darren Bent last week.

FOOTBALL fans are fickle creatures and this was clearly illustrated over the weekend when both Manchester clubs secured wins to leave them in the top two spots in the Premier League.

It is only a few seeks since Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney and Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez were expressing dissatisfaction with their current employers and seeking pastures new.

A few years back my wife and I spent a short holiday in Barcelona, a fabulously vibrant city which I can heartily recommend (although beware of the pickpockets!).

Whilst there we took advantage of an open-top bus tour of the Spanish city which included a stop outside Barcelona’s impressive Nou Camp stadium.

THE most dreadful aspect about the controversial goal scored by Nani for Manchester United in their 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on Saturday was not that it was allowed, because there are arguments both ways on that issue, but the pathetically weak behaviour of referee Mark Clattenburg.