Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

FABIO Capello and Harry Redknapp have been the names in the headlines this past week but for the majority of football clubs in England there are more pressing matters.

Apparently those wise men at Fifa are planning to scrap the emergency loan window (whereby clubs outside the Premier League can loan players outside the main transfer windows) in 2014.

Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

THE Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard got a bit miffed on Saturday.

Not only did he get a blow in the mouth causing him to bleed, but a nasty television cameraman had the nerve to move in for a close-up whilst the England player was receiving treatment on the touchline.

Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

IT'S not been a good few days for being a professional footballer.

Yes, I know some of them earn bags of money, drive flashy cars and learn to do hip dances when they score a goal.

Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

THE transfer window may now be closed but its after-effects are still being felt.

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger claimed it was a traumatic period. The summer saw him lose two of his best players in Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas and Wenger was then left with a rather frantic scramble in the last few days of the window to bring reinforcements in.

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.

THE fixture list was extremely kind to Sky TV on Sunday, providing their football subscribers with three local Derbies in one day.

And the viewing public were not disappointed. Liverpool and Everton served up a cracking 2-2 draw, Sunderland and Newcastle battled it out for a 1-1 stalemate and in the Midlands, Birmingham and Aston Villa also tied 1-1.