England’s favourite coach was now in the clear and a step further towards taking the country’s most prized job, England manager.

But in the early evening, an even bigger story broke.

‘Capello resigns’ was the headline plastered on news websites and tickers across television screens all over Britain. Newspapers were, understandably, quite furious with the timing.

A series of events, sparked by the complaint of a Queen’s Park Rangers fan to police about John Terry’s alleged racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand, had led to the resignation of the England manager.

While the timing came as a shock, it wasn’t a complete surprise to anyone that Capello was gone before Euro 2012.

There had been mutterings that the English Football Association had been considering replacing the Italian soon after the Three Lions qualified for the tournament.

Capello would be on his way after Poland/Ukraine and the FA was worried that the constant media scrutiny and uncertainty over his successor would be a fatal distraction.

That’s not to say that the FA conceived the whole John Terry captaincy saga to deliberately undermine its coach. There’s no doubt that it thoroughly believed it was the right thing to strip him of the armband.

But Capello is someone who above all else, demands support from his employers. He felt betrayed by the decision.

A national team coach doesn’t appear on a live television interview and criticise his employers without knowing the repercussions of his actions.

Capello was fully aware the FA would have to act after his interview on Italian TV, where he criticised the Terry decision.

It was near enough to a ‘back me or sack me’ ultimatum and the FA’s comment that it went into Tuesday’s meeting with “an open mind”, suggests it wasn’t about to back him.

The Italian tendered his resignation after open conversations with the FA and as soon as the news hit, all eyes turned the man whose path had just been cleared to take over.

From journalists, to office workers, to street vendors, it seems everyone southeast of Hadrian’s Wall wants Harry Redknapp to become the next England manager.

There is a great connection between ‘Arry and English football fans. They seem to see a little bit of themselves in the working class football hero.

But most importantly, they want him because he is the highest-rated English manager around.

England’s less-than-inspiring performances since Capello took over from Steve McLaren reignited fervour that the manager of England has to be English, or at the very least British.

The mood was captured perfectly by Peterborough’s Director of Football, Barry Fry on Sky Sports News.

If everything isn’t done to try and persuade Spurs chairman Daniel Levy to let Redknapp take England to Euro 2012, there will be Barry Fry-style outrage all over the country.

While fellow English coach Alan Pardew completely ruled out any intention of going for the job, the media savvy Redknapp told the cameras he "is just concentrating on Tottenham”. This is media speak for, “I’d like to, but you need to ask my boss”.

The FA seems happy to wait until after the completion of the Premier League season to appoint its man.

Chairman David Bernstein said in the press conference that while it wants to act quickly, it also wants to get it right.

England has just one friendly until that time and the administrators believe that everything a manager can do until the squad gathers for its pre-Euro camp in May, has already been done.

But is Redknapp really the right man for the job?

The Tottenham boss is not the kind of coach who needs a lot of time to implement his style of play on a team.

His focus is on finding good, technical players, organising a basic structure and giving the players confidence and freedom to do as they wish.

In the short-term it should work well for England, particularly after the regimented Capello approach, where it was felt that the squad lacked confidence.

But if the goal is to play like Spain in two or four years’ time, then Redknapp is not the kind of coach who can achieve that kind of football.

For that they will need a Josep Guardiola or even a Brendan Rodgers – coaches who have shown they can develop a possession-based style of play over a long period of time.

A Sky Sports News poll showed just how unlikely such an appointment is, with Guardiola receiving one per cent of the vote on who should be the next manager.

Quite astonishing, considering he has won more major trophies than any other coach in the past few years and his team has been labelled one of the best ever.

So it seems there is only one man destined to be England’s next manager, and it’s not Mike Bassett.

Capello wins again

Don’t be fooled. Fabio Capello’s “resignation” from his job as England national team supremo just four months before Euro 2012 is another win for the Italian. If England does poorly in Poland-Ukraine it will be because of his absence. If the Three Lions do well, it will be because of what Capello built since being appointed.

Having said that, I find it perfectly correct that the English FA be free to appoint or sack the captain of the national team. All this power that coaches are supposed to have over everything and everybody defies any logic.

Now, be ready for Capello to replace Claudio Ranieri at Inter Milan. He has had spells in Milan twice before, as a player and then as a coach for AC Milan, and liked what he saw.

Oh and be careful if you visit England. The country where you are guilty until you are proven innocent. As John Terry can testify.

Corruption in Italian football worse than expected

The number of matches affected by the football scandal in Italy continues to grow. There had been some attempts to keep Serie A away from this disgrace but, they have failed.

The team from Bari, relegated from the top competition at the end of last season was apparently nothing short of a hotbed of crooks. Most players were involved, bringing midfielder Sergio Almiron to call his team-mates a bunch of money-hungry crooks.

Bari was involved in fixing the result of the match against Brescia (0-2 on 6 February 2011) plus a few others. Also under investigation are Napoli v Sampdoria (4-0 on 30 January 2011), Brescia v Lecce (2-2 on 27 February 2011) and 12 matches from Serie B.

Meanwhile, there have been two more arrests as the number of people implicated continues to rise.

One is Angelo Iacovelli, released under house arrest after four days in prison, a male nurse very close to Bari players.

The other, Piacenza goalkeeper Mario Cassano, who was considered a huge prospect when he made his debut in Serie A at just 16 years of age, 11 years ago.

Iacovelli has also accused former Italy international striker Marco Di Vaio and Daniele Portanova of involvement in match fixing.

Arabs raid Italian football, too

Italy here we come, is the catch cry of Arab investors, willing (and able) to put their money where the round-ball is.

Ahmub Zubeidi, representing the Ama Group, attended a media conference with Palermo chairman Maurizio Zamparini.

He said on that occasion that his group intended to bring to Italy billions (yes, billions, not millions) and bring the Scudetto to Palermo within three years. He’s got to be joking.

Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentis is also talking to Arab investors despite the fact that the club has made it into the list of the top 20 richest clubs. Not in terms of results but on the basis of the revenue it generates.

Real Madrid is still tops, for the seventh year running.

Coppa Italia worth a spot in UEL

The semi-final of the Coppa Italia between Siena and Napoli is much more than it may look at first sight.

Given that one of the finalists is going to be Juventus or AC Milan, and given that those sides are almost certainties to finish first and second in Serie A (therefore qualifying for UCL), the other finalist will be handed a spot in the Europa League.

For Siena it would be a dream come true. For Napoli a minor consolation following a very disappointing Serie A campaign.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic managed to strike again, this time in the Coppa Italia match against Juventus. After hitting Salvatore Aronica in the Serie A match against Napoli – and copping a three-match suspension for his trouble – he did it again. This time the victim was Juventus’s goalkeeper Marco Storari. More suspensions to come for the uber-aggressive Swedish striker?

Apia Leichhardt scares the old Lady

Apia Leichhardt did itself proud at the youth tournament Coppa Carnevale in Viareggio, Italy.

The young team from Australia gave Juventus a hell of a fright at the prestigious competition. It went close to scoring before it succumbed to an Alberto Libertazzi goal in a 1-0 defeat.

All I get is bitter and a nasty little rash

It was five years ago to the day when an old, blind beggar woman at the train station told The Circus to beware the day a cat upstaged a Brad Friedel clean sheet at Anfield.

The Circus tossed some coppers her way and laughed contemptuously. ‘Brad Freidel?’ It thought. ‘He's allergic to cats. I'll never have to worry about that mad old woman and her peculiar gift for seeing into the future again. Never ever again.’

But when The Circus's google alert for "cat and Brad Friedel and Anfield and clean sheet" finally picked something up, you better believe it broke into a sweat colder than the grave itself:

The Circus isn't the only one concerned. Kenny Dalglish looks like he's trying to remember when he signed the cat... and why he didn't sub it for Andy Carroll earlier in the match.

Perhaps this diagram would help him work it out.

Now, as The Circus shivers under its covers waiting for the dire consequences of the soothsayer's prophecy, it wonders which others of the old woman's predictions will turn out to be true - like the one about John Terry being bad news for Italian bosses, Harry Redknapp becoming coach of the same nation that had just unsuccessfully tried to fry him for tax evasion or Joey Barton being a dick.

It’s elemental

Since the dawn of time, human kind has dreamed of controlling the elements, bending them to our own will to perform all sorts of miraculous feats. Seems Michael Rios has finally worked it out:

Keen observers will note the wind was so strong during that match it even turned the video the wrong way around.

The elements had nothing to do with Rodrigo Palacio's utterly unbelievable effort, however, unless some wind emanated from the same location he pulled this back heel from:

A numbers game

Sepp Blatter has given $250,000 of his organisation's money to families of victims of Egypt's football lunacy, which resulted in 73 people dying. That works out to be about three grand per family, or 0.004 per cent of FIFA's "surplus"; surplus being the term non-profit bodies use for "profit".

Put another way, the figure represents 0.075 per cent of $40,000 bribes allegedly offered to Caribbean officials.

And Harry Redknapp's judge thinks football has lost its way!

artful dodger

And while on the topic of 'Arry's judge, his instruction to jurors sitting on the Spurs' boss tax evasion case centred on ignoring football when considering their verdict.

If only Graeme Souness or Frank Farina had been part of the 12 no such direction would have been necessary.

The spoken word

"I do know Man United fans are going to try to make me feel uncomfortable. But I have to tell them, they are going to spur me on if they whistle at me."

- Friend of disadvantaged black children Luis Suarez says cat calls from Mancester United fans will only inspire him to greater heights when Liverpool travels to Old Trafford on the weekend. One can only wonder what inspired him to kick Scott Parker in the chest in his comeback game on Monday.

I'm always amused when pundits attribute poor performance to 'lack of desire'. How does one know another's desire? It's a given that any professional player who steps on the field IS and should be motivated otherwise they've no business taking the field.

Francis is spot on, although it’s not necessarily the pundits to whom this sentiment should be attributed. Most commonly the people who come out with this kind of nonsense are coaches, and usually after their team had suffered a loss.

I’m bemused by it too for I have long ago learned that coaches who blame losses on the players’ lack of character, desire, pride etc., usually do so because they are bankrupt in being able to identify the tactical or technical cause of the defeat.

They do this either because they are unable to propose a real solution to their teams’ tactical and technical problems or because they want to deflect blame from themselves onto the players. Or both.

This has happened all too commonly recently in the A-League with a number of coaches questioning their players’ character and capacity to fight for a win after a certain defeat.

Sometimes players themselves will do it because, being players, they are loath to publicly criticise their coaches’ tactics, selections and strategies. So they elect to nobly blame themselves.

Recently Terry McFlynn, the Sydney FC captain, spoke in the media blaming himself and his teammates for their lack of mental fortitude when reflecting on Sydney’s 5-2 home loss to Newcastle.

And then his CEO, Dirk Melton, got in on the act too, saying: “I was surprised, to be honest. I really would have thought they would have given more.”

It’s all bull. I saw Sydney’s loss to Newcastle, as I did the heavy losses by Adelaide United and Melbourne Victory, both to Perth Glory.

In none of those games did I see the slightest evidence that the defeated players lacked character, desire or pride. All they lacked was the tactical ability to find the way to avoid defeat.

It happens. It’s called being outplayed. That’s what happened to Sydney against the Jets. The Sky Blues were simply outplayed by a team that was better on the day.

This is not to say, of course, that character, belief and pride, don’t play a role in the outcome of football contests. The most common occasion when such qualities become relevant, and can even turn a game, is when a highly rated team meets an underdog.

In such cases the underdog tends to lift mentally, fuelled by ambition in an attempt to compensate for a lack of experience or ability, and the favoured team, which may be complacent, can end up on the wrong end of a shock result.

We have seen this in the FA Cup for a hundred years.

Neither am I saying that players are blameless when suffering losses or putting in bad performances. Of course not. It is they, after all, who do the kicking of the football.

But those who too readily claim that well paid professional footballers lack mental character and pride are mostly wrong. Those players know well that such qualities are critical in getting a result, as critical as being able to trap the ball or make an accurate pass.

The great Ferenc Puskás once told me that he was never motivated by any coach when he was a player, simply because he didn’t need to be and that it would have been an insult to him if he was.

It would have been no surprise to the players he later coached that he never tried to motivate them either. He had too much respect for them and at South Melbourne, where he coached in the early 1990s, the players loved him for it.

In my long experience as a football watcher and student of the game the most common reason for a defeat has been the simple fact that the defeated team had been outsmarted and outplayed. It happens and the losing team should accept it and move on.

The greatest team in the world today, Barcelona FC, not only plays beautiful, creative football. It is also a team manned by players with a fierce capacity to fight for a win. There are no so called prima-donnas at Barca and neither are there at most of the professional teams that I observe day to day.

It is time to stop blaming the players indiscriminately every time a team loses or at least insulting them by questioning their character by people who would be much better advised to look at themselves in the mirror.

Coaching opportunities beckon

What we now know, and thanks for having us freed from our collective miseries, is that come the end of the season there will be at least two coaching vacancies in the A-League.

Vitezslav Lavicka will leave Sydney FC and John Van’t Schip will depart the Melbourne Heart, leaving us in the cafes and pubs with something to debate, namely who will or should replace them.

And maybe there will be more. I can think of at least two more A-League coaches who have at least one foot already out the door.

I love this stuff I have to admit. Chinwagging with a mate over a coffee or a beer on what happened to the last coach and who should replace him is part of the lifeblood of football.

So let’s ponder.

In the case of Melbourne Heart, when it comes to choosing the next coach there is an issue about technical continuity. Van’t Schip has over his two years impregnated the club with the technical culture of Ajax Amsterdam.

This filters down to the youth team as evidenced by the way young Craig Goodwin slotted into the Heart method in the recent derby and the wonderful senior debut that he made.

Goodwin may have been news to you and me but at the Heart he has already been a known commodity being fashioned as a future first teamer. A successful debut was not a matter of if but when.

Van’t Schip will leave a fine cultural legacy which the club is not likely to allow to go to waste.

My guess is the Heart will replace the coach either with someone from Holland whom he recommends and who understands the technical culture, or with a deputy, like Ante Milicic, whom Van’t Schip himself has cultivated during his stay here. My preference and hope is for the latter.

Sydney FC and the matter of who will replace Lavicka is a different question.

Lavicka, for all his qualities, leaves no technical legacy. There is no identifiable technical imprint on the club he leaves behind. Under him the club won the double in 2010 but there was never any evidence of a technical legacy with which the club would want to be identified long term.

So the door is open for a new coach who, one hopes, is mandated to bring a technical culture that readily identifies with what the club wants to be: a glamorous, iconic brand synonymous with the city it represents.

The key man in the transition process is Gary Cole. It is he who will be advising the board on who the next coach should be. I can’t claim to know how Gary thinks and which way he naturally leans when trying to identify a new coach.

What we understand is that it was he who first recommended Ernie Merrick to then Melbourne Victory chairman Geoff Lord. In hindsight it can’t be claimed that it was a dumb recommendation.

There will be legitimate calls for a local appointment, perhaps the repatriation of the talented Tony Popovic, Lavicka’s former assistant now at Crystal Palace in England. Or, of course, there will be attempts to make a grab for Graham Arnold or Ange Postecoglou.

Another approach, given that Sydney FC by its own admission wants to build itself a brand associated with glamour, is to go for a glamour appointment, such as a so-called ‘big name’ from abroad.

Such a person would have to be someone whose credentials are unchallengeable, much more so than was the case with Pierre Littbarski, Terry Butcher, Rini Coolens, Franz Straka or Jim Magilton. With young Australian coaches queuing for jobs in the A-League there is simply no sense in importing mediocre coaches with mediocre track records.

Such a coach would have to be demonstrably better than anything we have here and would have to leave a legacy for his club and for Australian football as a whole.

Philippe Troussier springs to mind.

The Frenchman, who was once a candidate for the Socceroo job (which he should have got), fits the Sydney job description perfectly, including being familiar with the Asian football landscape.

Troussier is currently coaching Shenzhen Ruby in the Chinese Super League. But his long love for the notion of coaching in Australia still burns.

Tough justice

Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Hughes has a very important question. Why doesn't the British justice system revolve around Anton Ferdinand's holidays?

The courts have fixed a date for John Terry's trial for his alleged racial abuse of QPR defender Ferdinand.

It's set to begin on 9 July. A date that, as Hughes points out, can only have been chosen to have deliberately interrupted Ferdinand's pre-season training, while making sure to have as little impact as possible on Terry preparations for next season.

"If [Terry] goes to the Euros, it [the trial] impacts on his holiday," raged Hughes, brandishing his copy of The Beginner's Guide to British Justice. "It probably doesn't impact on his pre-season because he will get rest after the Euros.

"It's just in his downtime. It's not in Anton's downtime. Anton is involved in the case, they have been given a date and that's slap bang in pre-season from my point of view and from Anton's point of view."

"I don't know how they have come up with the date," Hughes continued, ditching his Beginner's Guide in favour of flailing of passers-by with a gavel. "They haven't discussed it with us – they've certainly not discussed it with me."

Another person the courts failed to consult before fixing Terry's trial date was Joey Barton, although he could have his own appointment before the judiciary very soon. Barton is outraged that the law of the land applies to him and his Twitter account.

The man with 1.2 million online followers is currently being investigated by the British Attorney General for tweets he made about Terry's upcoming defence, which may constitute contempt of court.

Barton, not for the first time confusing freedom of speech with freedom from repercussions of speech, says he is willing to serve time for expressing his opinion.

"I will gladly go to jail for a month in the name of free speech. I have no problem with what I said. Make me a martyr. What are they going to do, put everyone who exercises freedom of speech in jail? They'll (sic) be a revolution, if they try that," he twattled, sweetly unaware that contempt of court legislation existed before he was born and has so far failed to generate even a slightly disgruntled mob.

"What is the point of living, if you cannot express your opinion," Barton opined, prompting Hughes to consider speeding up his martyrdom.

That's magic, with Mario Balotelli

For all those readers worried about how Mario Balotelli was going to spend his four matches on the sidelines for trampling on Scott Parker, The Circus can reveal he is working on his second career – becoming the next David Copperfield (the magician, not the 19th-century Dickens character).

As all good illusionists know, the secret to a good trick is distraction, so watch Mario carefully and see if you can spot how he does it:

Yup, bet you were watching the can disappear and didn't even notice Mario creating an exact clone of himself on the opposite side of the table.

The spoken word

"I got booed by the CFC fans today. Well done guys, thanks for inspiring me and the lads. That's like fuel to me." – The Stamford Bridge faithful seem to have confused Rio and Anton Ferdinand. Perhaps to some Chelsea supporters all Ferdinands look the same.

A year is a very long time in football and Paciencia’s smile has now been replaced by frustration as the promising coach struggles at Portuguese football’s poisoned chalice, Sporting Clube de Portugal.

At the turn of the century it appeared that the ‘Lions’ would finally be consistent competitors to Benfica and FC Porto for the league title.

Two championships (2000 and 2002) in three years as well as a UEFA Cup final appearance in 2005 seemed to confirm those beliefs.

By that time Sporting was starting to reap the benefits of the large investment it placed in the club’s academy.

Ricardo Quaresma, Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani all prospered in the first team before being sold for handsome profits.

Under current national team boss Paulo Bento there were a few second place finishes and even a couple of League Cup trophies.

But with the cantera drying up, the 2009-2010 season proved an utter disaster as the whimpering Lions finished fourth, 28 points behind champion Benfica.

Bento left half way through that campaign but it failed to improve Sporting’s results the following season.

Early in 2011 the members went to the polls in one of the most pivotal presidential elections in living memory.

Godinho Lopes, a long time servant in the Sporting administration was the favourite, but there was a dark horse who was shaking up the establishment.

The youthful Bruno de Carvalho claimed he had Russian investors and promised to spend 50 million euros in the transfer market, as well as sign Marco van Basten as coach.

He resonated with the club’s younger supporters.

Election night turned into a drama to rival the USA’s 2001 presdential vote.

In a CNN moment, De Carvalho was declared the winner by a member of the administration. There were celebrations outside the stadium but confusion reigned.

Soon after, the electoral committee dismissed that declaration and Lopes was pronounced president.

There were demonstrations outside the Estadio de Alvalade as joy turned to anger with members voicing their disapproval of the electoral system, but legal threats from the vanquished never materialised.

Lopes took charge and decided to bring back the two men that were credited as the brains behind Sporting’s 2000 title triumph (its first in 18 years).

Luis Duque may have put on a few kilos and Carlos Freitas a few more wrinkles, but the CEO and Football Director approached the 2011-20112 season with a tried and tested method; spend money on talented players.

A decade ago, before every street corner had a specialised scout, putting together a talented squad capable of competing for the Portuguese title could be achieved with a relatively reasonable budget, but today top euro needs to be spent.

So for one European summer at least, the cantera was overlooked as Sporting shelled out $35 million euros to bring in talents like Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Diego Capel and the most expensive player in the club’s history, Elias.

The man charged with moulding these pricey purchases into a formidable outfit was Domingos Paciencia.

The former FC Porto striker had already cut his coaching teeth at Uniao de Leiria and Academica before taking Sporting Braga to second place in the league and a Europa League final appearance.

But many rising Portuguese coaches had been consumed by the Lion’s den before, as Jose Peseiro, Paulo Bento, Carlos Carvalhal and Paulo Sergio will lay testament to.

Still, it felt as if there was a new dawn at the Alvalade this season.

As with all revolutions, it was a slow start, but round four appeared to be a watershed as Sporting came from two goals down to defeat Pacos de Ferreira 3-2.

The Lions roared and went on a run of seven straight victories in the league. The Paciencia effect was taking hold.

But a derby loss to Benfica in November, and an injury to vitally important ‘number 6’ Rinaudo, halted the juggernaut and cracks appeared.

Sporting has won just twice since the derby as patience with Paciencia begins to wear thin for the Alvalade faithful.

A 1-0 loss to Gil Vicente in the League Cup (a week after the club from Barcelos upset Porto) fuelled rumours Domingos was on the way out.

So far the club's powerbrokers are dismissing such talk but Sporting is five points behind Braga in the race for the UEFA Champions League play-off place.

After such a large investment in the squad, if Paciencia fails to deliver the UCL, Portuguese football’s poisoned chalice may claim another victim.

The governing body has lifted a moribund game at club and national level to unprecedented heights under trying circumstances since it came into office less than a decade ago.

However it also raised many eyebrows in the last few years by its penchant to get things blatantly wrong when commonsense appeared to suggest a different course of action.

The North Queensland Fury, Gold Coast United, World Cup bid fiascos are still fresh in people's memories.

FFA has now baffled us all again.

Australia's under-23 team is fighting for a place in the 2012 London Olympics and on Sunday night (AEDT) it played group leader Uzbekistan.

As if facing the Uzbek side in its own backyard in Tashkent was not a hard enough assignment, the Olyroos had to contend with sub-zero temperatures that forced organisers to make an eleventh-hour decision to bring the match forward from its original 8pm kickoff to 3pm local time.

So with the prospect of playing in freezing conditions on an icy surface, where do you think the Australians chose as a base to prepare and acclimatise for the match?

Surely, it had to be somewhere cool … like China or Korea Republic.

Nope, FFA's choice of base camp for the match was … wait for it … Dubai!

The average temperature in February in the United Arab Emirates is a high of 25 degrees and a low of 15 degrees and last week in Dubai it was no different.

Tashkent was hit by extreme conditions this weekend.

The barometer read minus 11 degrees on the day of the match which was a fall of 31 degrees for Aurelio Vidmar's boys from last week's average temperature.

Even if the weather in Tashkent were to be typical of this time of the year and not so extreme as it has been the last few days, FFA should have known beforehand that the Uzbek capital in winter is hardly a tropical island paradise.

Tashkent's temperature in February usually is still a high of eight degrees and a low of minus two degrees.

And, remember, the match was originally scheduled for the evening.

FFA is believed to have picked Dubai as the Olyroos camp for the following reasons:

Firstly, it wanted to stay as little as possible in Uzbekistan because of the risk of food problems after Jason Culina and Jade North had a nasty experience during the Socceroos' visit to Tashkent for a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier.

Secondly, the extreme weather conditions in Tashkent would have made it practically impossible to train adequately and often enough.

Thirdly, the Olyroos were unsure if they could have 'confidential training' at a venue provided by the Uzbek FA and under the prying eyes of the local football intelligentia.

And fourthly, Tashkent is only a three-hour flight from Dubai and is in a similar time zone.

These are valid reasons but they do not explain why a Chinese or Korean venue was not chosen ahead of Dubai.

My point is they should have avoided Dubai not spend more time in Tashkent.

Not surprisingly, the bronzed Aussies were severely handicapped by the icy and impossible conditions in Tashkent but they nonetheless offered stiff opposition to the locals, who won 2-0 only after goals from Jason Hoffman and Mitch Nichols were controversially disallowed.

The Olyroos' defeat puts their participation in the London Games in serious jeopardy.

Only a sporting miracle, it seems, can save the Australians because they have yet to score a goal after four matches and are clearly struggling.

Having only three points, they are bottom of their group that also features United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

One would have expected FFA to show a bit more smartness in its preparation for the campaign.

It is not the first time that meticulous manoeuvres off the pitch helped various Australian representative teams overcome massive odds on the international scene.

The FIFA World Cup playoff with Uruguay in 2005 springs to mind.

FFA organised a special charter from Montevideo designed to make sure that the Socceroos arrived in Sydney for the return leg in total comfort and well before the South Americans so as to get a better preparation for the match.

It was a tactical and psychological triumph over a crafty street fighter that may have contributed to an epic victory on penalties that gave Guus Hiddink's Australians their ticket to Germany.

The Olyroos would have every right to feel that FFA dropped the ball as their campaign to qualify for the London Games was reaching its climax.

The poor lads had a snowball's chance in hell of surviving their ordeal in central Asia and they deserved better after all the hard work they had done.

Not good enough, FFA.

Zambia:

Boasting the best moniker at the Cup of Nations, the Chipolopolo (the Copper Bullets) provided the first major upset of the tournament by shooting down favourite Senegal on the opening night. This was no flash-in-the-pan performance however, as gutsy efforts against Libya and Equatorial Guinea showed.

Zambia relies on a pacy, direct style of football and some impressive, powerful forwards. Captain Christopher Katongo is leading by example with two goals, including the winner against Equatorial Guinea. In young striker Emmanuel Mayuka they have a real talent – second top-scorer in the Swiss Football League this season, Mayuka added to his three strikes in qualifying with goals against Senegal and Libya. Look for more backflip-laden celebrations if Mayuka continues his scoring ways.

Should Zambia reach the final in Libreville it will be a bittersweet occasion. The Gabonese capital was the site of one of the nation’s darkest footballing moments – in 1993 twenty-two national team players and coaching staff lost their lives when their aeroplane crashed into the ocean en route to Senegal for a World Cup Qualifier.

Sudan:

It wouldn’t be the Africa Cup of Nations without some surprises, and in Sudan the quarterfinals have a real dark horse. Compact and resolute, Sudan conceded just three goals in six qualifiers, holding group winner Ghana to a nil-all draw in the process. Indeed defensive frugality was its secret weapon – after a 2-2 draw with Angola, and with both sides beating Burkina Faso 2-1, it was Sudan’s ability to limit a star-studded Ivory Coast to a solitary goal that saw it secure second in the group courtesy goal difference.

With an exclusively domestic-based squad there are no obvious stars for the Falcons of Jediane, although with the likely front six against Zambia all teammates at Al-Hilal Omdurman, cohesion could be a factor. With two goals against Burkino Faso and a brilliant assist for Bashir’s opener against Angola, look for young striker Mudather El Tahir to be at the heart of most things for the Sudanese.

Equatorial Guinea:

With less than 160-odd caps spread across the entire squad, don’t expect ‘experience’ to be the hallmark of this predominantly foreign-born side. Yet faced with the daunting prospect of Ivory Coast in the quarterfinals, perhaps not having been there before is the greatest asset the Nzalang Nacional have.

Playing in their first ever Cup of Nations and roared on by a fanatical home crowd expect the Equatoguineans to come out strongly. Whether they finish that way however is another matter.

In a squad devoid of household names, FIFA’s second highest ranked Guinea (behind ‘classic’ Guinea, but just shading Guinea-Bissau, and Papua New Guinea) will look to former Real Madrid winger Javier Balboa for inspiration.

If, as expected, the ‘Mighty Ducks’ of the 2012 Cup of Nations succumb to the power of Ivory Coast, the players at least won’t go back to their respective homes disappointed; playboy billionaire, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, and son of the President, Teodoro Obiang, has already rewarded the squad $US 1 million for its win against Libya.

Ivory Coast:

It’s been twenty years since Africa’s top ranked side last won the Cup of Nations, but with the talents at its disposal, many feel that this time round it just has to be Ivory Coast’s tournament.

Boasting superstars Didier Drogba and Yaya Touré, the Ivorian supporting cast isn’t too bad either – throw in English Premier League stars Gervinho, Salomon Kalou, Kolo Touré and Cheick Tioté, and it’s hard to find a weakness in Côte D’Ivoire’s line up. The Elephants rarely looked stretched during the group stage, winning all three matches without conceding.

With defending champion Egypt failing to qualify, and rivals Senegal and Morocco eliminated in the group stage, an Ivory Coast v Ghana final seems pre-destined. If there is a banana-skin in these quarter finals however – this is it. Facing the relatively unknown quantity of Equatorial Guinea, an early goal coupled with vociferous home support could rattle the more fancied Ivorians. It’s a long shot, but stranger things have happened at the Cup of Nations.

Gabon:

For entertainment value at this year’s tournament it’s hard to go past co-host Gabon. Full of running and optimism the Panthers hurried and harried their more fancied opponents Morocco and Tunisia, allowing very little time and space, especially in midfield. The flipside of this is that at times Gabon could be accused of naivety – needing a calm head to slow things down and avoid letting sides back in, as they nearly did at the death against Morocco.

Look to Gabonese footballing legend Danny Cousin to provide this leadership, as well as a few headaches for opposing defenders.

Complementing the physicality of Cousin is the skill and speed of Pierre Aubameyang who has been a real revelation at this tournament.

Of all the quarterfinals, Gabon v Mali seems the most evenly balanced. Again, home ground advantage could be a deciding factor, with the Gabonese spurred far beyond expectations during the group stages. On paper the Malians should be the better team – they’ll need to lift their game and their energy levels though if they’re to stop the Panthers from slinking to their first ever semifinal.

Mali:

Form often counts for little come the knockout stages of major tournaments, and Mali will be hoping this is the case, given its concerning lack of it during the group stages. Arguably outplayed by Guinea, the Eagles were far from impressive against debutant Botswana, and showed a disconcerting lack of ambition against more fancied Ghana.

Despite this, there are several key reasons why Mali can be confident going into this tricky quarterfinal fixture. If anyone knows the weaknesses of the Gabonese, it’s manager Alain Giresse – the Frenchmen spent four years in charge of the Panthers before jumping ship to Mali. In Seydou Keita the Eagles also have one of the key players at the tournament. Despite some quiet performances so far, it was Keita’s goal against Botswana that saw Mali progress, and don’t be surprised if this big game player has a decisive influence once the stakes are raised.

Without former African Footballer of the Year Freddie Kanouté who retired from the national team in 2010, this Mali team will do well do emulate its semifinal appearances in 2002 and 2004. For the Eagles to soar the onus will be on young up-and-coming strikers such as Modibo Maiga and Cheick Diabaté to take advantage of Kanouté’s absence and announce themselves on the world scene.

Tunisia:

It wouldn’t be the business end of the Cup of Nations without Tunisia – the North African side has qualified for the last ten consecutive tournaments, making the quarterfinals on seven of these occasions.

In captain Karim Haggui the Eagles of Carthage (as opposed to the Eagles of Bamako) have a real leader – a seven-season regular of the Bundesliga, he’s also the only man at the tournament who knows what it’s like to win the Cup of Nations, having done so in 2004. Striker Issam Jemaa is another to watch for – he’s Tunisia’s all-time leading goal scorer, and he showed all his experience in snatching a 90th minute winner against Niger.

Facing an all-star Ghanaian side is however another prospect altogether. Needing to beat Gabon to avoid the Black Stars in the quarterfinals, Tunisia showed a remarkable lack of ambition.

Ghana:

This is almost the same squad that nearly became the first African nation to reach the semifinals of the 2010 World Cup. In 2008 Ghana finished third at the Cup of Nations and in 2010 second – what odds that the Black Stars go one better in 2012?

Star striker Asamoah Gyan appears to have lost no sharpness after his shock move to the UAE Pro-League, scoring a brilliant curling freekick against Mali before turning provider with a cheeky backheel for Ghana’s second. The scorer, André ‘Dede’ Ayew, is another key performer for the Black Stars – the Olympique Marseille winger has looked dangerous so far, and 2012 could just be the tournament in which the son of African footballing legend Abedi Pele cements his own fame.

January 7: While denying Leeds United manager Simon Grayson is under pressure, chairman Ken Bates takes the opportunity to explain why the club is running smoothly. "The reason why Leeds are successful financially is that we do our budgets. I add up all the income, deduct all the expenditure, use it as a credit balance, take off a sum for contingencies and then say to the manager, 'That's how much we have to spend, wages and transfer fees'."

February 1: Sacks Grayson: "We are over 30 percent over budget on players wages. What I don't understand is why we are where we are with what we have spent."

Winter wonderland

A big freeze gripped Europe this week, causing widespread hand-rubbing and emergency application of snoods (away from FIFA's prying eyes, naturally). Football, of course, must go on, and it's well done to Inter Milan's Joel Obi for unravelling one of the tiny mysteries of football in frozen lands – what groundstaff do with the snow which has to be scraped off the pitch before kick-off. The Circus wishes him well in his recovery.

Homegrown Burnley hero Jay Rodriguez's powers of recovery are strong enough not to let simple comedy howlers stand in the way of a good game. Which is lucky, because this is what happened on Tuesday when Rodriguez stepped up to the penalty spot to put Burnley 2-0 up against Nottingham Forest. (He later scored his second for the game to seal the win).

Finally, at the end of a black week for Egyptian football let's celebrate some of the beauty the game in the Arab world's most populous country can produce. That's Haras El-Hodood midfielder Mohamed Tarek over near the touchline, delivering what is probably the most audacious assist you will see this season.

WAG watch / shopping corner

Buy Sylvie Van der Vaart in Barbie form (if, you know, that is how you roll). 'Talking John Terry' Ken dolls have, regrettably, been pulled off the shelf.

The spoken word

"1 goal in 18 games this season ... We might as well have signed Tim Howard."

– A fan teaches Tottenham Hotspur a valuable lesson after Spurs chose to allow unfiltered Facebook comments alongside each story on their relaunched club website. The following (presumably short-lived) comments also accompanied the news that the club had signed Everton's Louis Saha on the final day of the transfer window:

- "Utter sh_te."

- "What the f--k? Exactly what we DIDN'T need, another old, lazy, injury prone striker! We need to bring in more young talent if we seriously want to compete as a top team."

- "awful signing"

- "I heard about this and fought it actuly was a joke I hoped it was anyways but cum (SIC) on here and FFS it real :'("

Football and racism

Lazio supporters will never run the risk of winning any kind of “fair play award”. They are among the most unruly, they are branded as “fascists”, rightly or wrongly, and they are renowned in Italy for being racist. The latest instalment of their racist behaviour is linked to Djbril Cisse’s departure for London and Queens Park Rangers. The player has been described on twitter as “negro bastard” and “big monkey”. His reply? Scoring a goal in his debut for QPR, something he had found difficult to achieve in a Lazio shirt.

Football and gratitude

Gratitude is in short supply in football. The latest episode sees our protagonist Attilio Tesser, recently sacked as coach of newly-promoted Novara. He had taken the side to Serie A after a 55-year absence. The club gave him a squad clearly ill-equipped to survive at the top level, but now it's paid him the ultimate price by getting rid of him. Enter Emiliano Mondonico. This time last year he was fighting for his life against cancer. OnThursday he led Novara to another defeat, at home , 1-2 against Chievo.

How “Italian” is Italian football?

Another newly-promoted side, Siena, is doing better than Novara. Not only is it out of the relegation zone, but it's performing well counting mostly on Italian players: 11 out of 11 in the last couple of games. Foreign players have been used mainly as substitutes. The last time a situation such as this has occurred was on September 26, 2010, nearly 500 days ago. Sampdoria played 11 Italians against Udinese in a match that ended 0-0. Quite a contrast with the Inter Milan team that took the field in the final of the UEFA Champions League against Bayern Munich in 2010 without a single Italian player. Marco Materazzi was used as substitute towards the end of the game.

Fiorentina on strike

We have heard about players going on strike or even referees refusing to perform their duties. Now Fiorentina has provided us with a novel way of protesting. The club’s Board of directors has gone on strike on the occasion of the derby against Siena, leaving empty the first row of the main stand, normally reserved for club officials and local authorities. Owners and directors are sick and tired of the constant abuse they suffer at the hands (and tonsils) of Fiorentina supporters.

Roma: how to win families and lose matches

AS Roma Chairman, Thomas Di Benedetto, has launched a new initiative to entice family to go and watch the team’s home matches at the Olympic Stadium. He has officially opened the “Cuore Sole Village”, the Village of Heart and Sun. The area is dedicated to entertaining supporters, parents and children. “The first objective of the club is winning”, he said in his official speech at the opening. After which Roma lost 2-4 to Cagliari at the end of an awful performance.

Cold snap, early start

It has taken a cold snap of unprecedented proportions for Italian football authorities to finally acknowledge that night football and winter weather don’t mix. Next Saturday and Sunday all matches will kick off at 3pm. Whether television networks like it or not. This is a revolutionary move in a football country where televisions, basically, pay for 99 percent of football costs, and demand in exchange substantial powers in deciding kick off times for all matches.

AC Milan and Napoli struggling

AC Milan’s loss to Lazio in Rome (0-2) did not come as a surprise to those who like following statistics of the round ball game. The rossoneri never do well against their main rivals for the title. In the two matches against Lazio, Milan has conceded four points to (2-2 in Milan and 0-2 in Rome). They have also been defeated by Juventus (0-2), Inter (0-1) and Napoli (1-3). And talking about Napoli, the team seems to struggle against strugglers. In the last four matches Napoli has drawn with Bologna, Siena and Cesena and lost to Chievo.

It’s also the time when many kids are subjected to the wrong type of training and put through tortuous physical regimes which they are neither developmentally suited nor need, in order to learn how to play football well.

Football Federation Australia’s National Curriculum carries all the correct philosophical pointers any coach needs at any level, particularly for teams under eighteen years old - for which the primary driver must always be learning to handle the ball accurately at speed and developing game awareness, both individually and within a system.

According to FFA’s curriculum, analysis of football in Australia reveals:

"Strengths: Physical & Mental Competitiveness."

"Weaknesses: Technical & Tactical Abilities"

"As a result the domestic game at all levels is still very much a traditional “long ball-second ball” type of game while the modern game is one of “effective possession,” it states (Page 2, FFA “The Building Blocks’).

"In Australia the development of general physical attributes is already strongly emphasised outside of the football environment (school, outdoor life etc.)"

Therefore:

“ No waste of precious FOOTBALL training time!” - Page 13, FFA National Curriculum.

I’ve been banging on about this for years and as I travel around there is no doubt the message of the curriculum is getting through. There is a great deal of new thinking and changing paradigms within junior clubs and individual coaches.

But for all that progress, I am still hearing plenty of horror stories about kids being made to run sandhills, perform mini marathons, attempt military-type physical training and other ridiculous methods.

Is it really any wonder we are struggling to identify high-quality young technicians to populate the A-League - kids who are capable and confident enough to break a game open, to execute complex techniques under pressure and demonstrate technical qualities of the highest level in the world?

As the curriculum points out, our kids already have a number of factors going against them - such as the lack of an integrated development pathway, resulting in our most talented kids typically playing for several different clubs, elite academies and schools at once, all with different training regimes and technical foundations or visions of the game.

In young years, most players train less than their counterparts in Europe or South America, particularly with the declining phenomena of free play in the neighbourhood that produced so many great players decades ago. It is absolutely vital to our future that every moment, in every training session, for every child, is fully maximised.

At any rate, as the curriculum points out, it is dangerous to work kids too hard physically in the growth spurt years between 14 and 15:

“Sudden big increase in height limits physical capacity (injury prone),” it states (Page 27, FFA National Curriculum). “In this phase the intellectual learning ability is bigger than the physical learning ability.”

There is absolutely no need for our young players to be traipsing around a field doing laps or climbing ropes. They need to be learning the game to become accomplished players.

Take it from me, sand hills will not help them play good football, unless they want a role on Bondi Rescue.

Still, in some quarters the message is slow to permeate. For those who are still in two minds, here's a link to an excellent instructional video featuring the one and only Jose Mourinho, coach of Real Madrid.

Regardless of your preference for a club or even personal characteristics, no one can argue with the simple fact that Mourinho is one of the world’s top three or four technicians, one of the most highly trained coaches anywhere, with a background both in sports science and physical education as well as football methodology.

Mourinho understands what is cognitively and physically best for young players, quite aside from having a very deep understanding of how to translate complex football principles across to each age group, and then form these players into a cohesive unit.

This is a real specialty, and the more we research and take an interest in youth development the more we realise that we need to produce our own specialists who know the child, understand the science of teaching and can instruct children in the concepts of football in a manner that suits their age, development and technical qualities.

In this video, Jose points out very clearly that everything in every session for children and youth players must be done with the ball.

According to Jose, running children without the ball does NOTHING for their capacity to play football efficiently and intelligently. The only way to train to play football well, is to train for football. Precisely the same message you’ll find in the national directional documentation.

Jose says that making a young player run without the ball is like making a pianist get up and run around the piano.

I reckon it’s a fantastic analogy.

A youngster is, in essence, a football pianist who needs to learn his or her notes, keys, technical dexterity and musical competency to become both a virtuoso soloist and an important member of the orchestra that is a football team.

So next time you are tempted to get your players to do laps or head to the beach for a sandhill session, please remember the wise words of Mourinho, get the ball out and play.

Be well. Fozz

Yet for every loser there is a winner. When you highlight Egypt’s embarrassing failure to qualify you take away from the stunning achievements of Niger, which bested the seven-time champion, ‘Bafana Bafana’, and Sierra Leone to take part in its first ‘CAN’. Throw in fellow debutant Botswana, conflict-ravaged Libya and Sudan, and unfancied hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and what you do have is one of the most unpredictable, exciting and engrossing editions in recent memory.

What’s not to love about sports-obsessed Gabonese President Ali Bongo rebuilding a 35,000-seat stadium in a town with a population barely larger than that – so that his country can host the third largest football tournament on Earth?

In co-host Equatorial Guinea, you have a one-stop media circus – the ‘Miron Bleiberg’ of African football. Ranked No.151 in the world, the tiny oil-drenched nation drag-netted an Armada of foreign-born players – 10 Spaniards, five Cameroonians, a Brazilian, an Ivorian, a Liberian, a Columbian and a Nigerian (alongside two native Equatoguineans) to strengthen its campaign. Less than a month out from the tournament, however, the former France national coach Henri Michel quit his post as manager, citing ‘third party interference’, but presumably also in fear of the performances of his rag-tag crew.

Yet what have we seen so far? Upsets, some spectacular goals, and high drama to boot.

Those that had the good fortune to watch Gabon v Morocco were treated to an exhilarating game, complemented by an exuberant and colourful home crowd in the throes of jubilant hysteria. With 70 minutes gone, Morocco was a picture of composure, playing the football that saw it considered a realistic chance of lifting the trophy. Yet buoyed by the talismanic presence of Danny ‘The Panzer’ Cousin, the Gabonese began to launch forward in waves of attack. A sublime volley by the impressive Pierre Aubameyang followed by an inspired Cousin finish in the space of three minutes had the ‘Atlas Lions’ reeling.

As the ululations from the crowd rose to fever pitch, Morocco was gifted a 91st-minute lifeline via the penalty spot. Having seemingly revived its flagging tournament hopes, the 1976 champion breathed a sigh of relief. But deep into Fergie-time, with eight extra minutes played, up stepped Bruno ‘the Gabonese David Beckham’ Mbanangoye, with a sumptuous curling free-kick that made his namesake’s effort against Greece in October 2001 look like a tap-in. As pandemonium broke loose in the stands, a close-up of Morocco coach, Eric Gerets, said it all – the vastly experienced Belgian had seen almost everything in football, but he’d never witnessed this.

Watching the progress of Gabon and fellow host Equatorial Guinea reminds me of the magic of the FA Cup, where every few years a minnow captivates the imagination. In the spirit of Havant & Waterlooville v Liverpool, at this Africa Cup of Nations there’s been Equatorial Guinea v Senegal, Sudan v Ivory Coast, and Gabon v Morocco. Imagine the pre-game nerves of David Alvarez (aka ‘Kily’), who traded fourth division Spanish football to mark one of the English Premier League’s hottest marksmen, Demba Ba. The last laughs were with Kily – his 94th-minute long-range belter saw the pre-tournament favourite, Senegal, packing its bags.

Imagine the on-pitch conversations between the Sudanese defenders Najem Abdalla and Amir Kamal. Would they have ever thought they’d be asking each other ‘have you got Drogba, or have I?’

As we arrive at the business end of the tournament, it’s hard to imagine perennial heavyweights Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, with their bag-load of European-based superstars, faltering. But previous aspirants to the title such as Senegal and Morocco have crashed unceremoniously to Earth, adding to the host of big names that fell before the finals had even begun.

A semi-final with surprise packages Zambia or Sudan awaits the Black Stars (should they get by Tunisia), and with the host nation having won 11 of the previous 27 tournaments what odds for plucky Gabon or Equatorial Guinea adding their names to that list?

As the sudden-death matches loom, don’t be surprised if there’s one last twist in the already eventful 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

Utter Foley

Well, it's finally happened. The flood gates have at last been opened. And The Circus for one is relishing the prospect of a world where embittered middle-aged men can do whatever they freaking please to disrupt, delay or otherwise destroy football matches the world over.

Thanks to 46-year-old John Foley handcuffing himself to the goals during play in Everton's triumph over Manchester City, the world is now any crazy man-with-a-chip-on-his-shoulder's oyster.

Foley's gripe is with Ryanair. Why? Who cares. Ryanair is rubbish, we all know that. We all should have been chaining ourselves to goalposts about Ryanair years ago. It just takes one genius/nut job to think of it.

Now that's happened, thank Christ, so The Circus spent all of last night ordering as many pairs of handcuffs Chinese children can make. So, which corporations are in our crosshairs?

Well, that's the beauty of the plan dear readers. They all are. Every company in the world is just a pitch invasion away from PR infamy. Every company, that is, except the ones that - shall we say - contribute in meaningful ways to football's new world order.

Heavy investment in weather control would be nice (Gina Rinehart, The Circus is looking at you) - we all love goals made even more special due to the fact you can't see them:

Also, a sizeable tip in to Harry Redknapp's defence would be appreciated. Surely football cannot lose oratory such as this?

Personal sponsors of John Terry are very much in the firing line, unless they can get him to admit to being a git.

And lastly, but probably most preposterous, if some tech giant out there could devise some futuristic scheme that could conclusively prove if a goal had actually been scored, then that would be great too.

Warming up for le Tour

Kind of kills the excitement a bit when the goal of the year gets belted in in February doesn't it?

Makes your effort look kind of lame, doesn't it Ronaldinho?

Sport as art

This kid may not be able to play football but his smooth leap and graceful pirouette after fresh-airing the ball shows he sure can dance:

Sport as stupidity

Enough said:

The spoken word

"Well, he's an Arsenal supporter isn't he?"

- Alleged tax evader and confirmed geezer Harry Redknapp responds to the suggestion by barrister Lord McDonald QC that he was not a very good player.

Five months after the last transfer deadline day, Sky Sports News and arguably Harry Redknapp's favourite day of the year was back.

Unfortunately for the Tottenham manager (and Sky Sports News) Redknapp had more pressing issues this time so the day went on without him.

In August they told me anything and everything can happen on deadline day. Midway through the extravaganza it appeared that was the case, as the overworked Queens Park Rangers reporter gave live updates of a fire in Shepherd’s Bush.

Fortunately there were no injuries and all the ex-pat Australians breathed a sigh of relief with the nearby Walkabout Pub unaffected.

While QPR was a major player, all eyes were on Manchester and specifically the blue half of the City’s star-turned-nuisance Carlos Tevez.

“It wouldn’t be transfer deadline day without mentioning Carlos Tevez,” the Sky Sports News presenters chirped. Well I wouldn’t quite compare the Argentine with Christmas turkey or crackers just yet, but appears as though the saga will continue. Tevez’s minders reminded everyone that the window is still open in Russia and South America.

This deadline day also fell on a Premier League matchday, so how could the managers of the various clubs possibly keep their minds on the game on this special day?

Quite easily they responded, there’s plenty of staff that deal with these things. That’s where Football Manager falls down in its realism!

UEFA’s financial fair play and economic realities meant there was far less spent in this window than in January 2011, and unlike Football Manager there’s no way to ‘adjust budget’ with special sliders in the real world.

But with half an hour left on the clock, just when everyone thought this was more of a dudline day, up stepped the star of the show, Harry Redknapp.

Not even a court case could keep him away, and he detailed to Sky Sports News all the possible deals Spurs were working on, even if he couldn’t remember which Russian club Roman Pavyluchenko had signed for. “Simon’s telling me Lokomotiv”, ‘Arry said.

In the end Tottenham made two late signings, brining in Louis Saha up front and Ryan Nelson in defence, while Vedran Corluka and Sebestian Bassong went to Bayer Leverkusen and Wolverhampton respectively. It wasn’t Redknapp’s greatest deadline day, but at least he got to do some wheeling and dealing.

Chelsea was the biggest spender in England and the acquisition of Gary Cahill was of prime importance to Andre Villas-Boas. AVB had one eye on the future with the purchase of highly-rated Belgian Kevin De Bruyne, who’ll be hoping the club is in the Champions League when he arrives next season.

QPR wase the other big spender in the window and with the side perilously close to the drop zone it’s understandable why. Mark Hughes inherited a side struggling for goals, so the acquisitions of Djbril Cisse and Bobby Zamora are logical. The defence has also been shored up with the signings of Nedum Onuoha and Taye Taiwo. It should be more than enough to keep the west London outfit up.

The departure of Zamora meant Fulham needed to bolster its attack. In came Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak and in an exciting move for Australian fans, 18-year-old Perth-born winger Ryan Williams also moved to the London club for about $740,000.

New Sunderland boss Martin O’Neill also plugged some gaps with Sotirios Kyrgiakos (obviously sick of the ‘laufen’ at Wolfsburg) and Wayne Bridge. The ‘Black Cats’ were already improving under O’Neill and these two should help it climb the ladder, for a side that was drastically underachieving.

Everton’s troubles in front of goal this season meant David Moyes was ready to go shopping for a striker. The Scotsman is a shrewd operator in the transfer market and he pulled off another coup with the proven goalscorer Nikica Jelavic and the loan signing of Landon Donavon. Also strengthening the midfield is the return of Steven Pienaar and Darren Gibson. It all means the Toffees should start moving up the table and maybe even launch a late raid for the European places.

Perhaps one of the most astute Premier League signings of this transfer window came at the beginning of January. Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has already proved he has an eye for talent and former Freiburg striker Pappis Cisse is the latest name to join the Magpies. The Senegalese striker had already scored nine goals in the Bundesliga this season, while he was only second to Mario Gomez in the goal scoring charts last campaign.

The two Manchester clubs were relatively quiet this window. Manchester City boosted its bulging squad with experienced midfielder David Pizarro, while Manchester United also added experience with the return of Paul Scholes.

Arsene Wenger wasn’t swayed by cries of, “spend some money” from the Emriates faithful. He stuck to his tried and tested method of bringing in a rising star; this time 19-year-old Borussia Dortmund midfielder Thomas Eisfeld.

At the bottom of the table Blackburn Rovers would have been happy just holding on to Chris Samba, but Steve Kean did also managed a couple of acquisitions. Bradley Orr came in from Queen’s Park Rangers, while Marcus Olsson’s twin brother Martin was also brought in. Kean said it’s because, surprisingly enough, he’s just like his brother. Watch out Nevilles, here come the Olssons.

Unfortunately for fans of Wigan, Wolverhampton and Bolton, there were no Knights in shining armour to help pull them out of the relegation fight.

But history has showed, spending big on deadline day doesn’t always guarantee success.

What the Grand Final showed, or at least showed me, is that women’s football is going places, and doing it fast.

We marvelled at the technical standard in Germany (not to say the bulging attendances), especially the glorious passing game of the Japanese who deservedly carried the world title.

But what I do confess I wasn’t prepared for was the technical standard of the young Australians we saw in that boisterous grand final at MacKellar Park.

We blokes, when talking about and praising women’s football, can often be accused of being condescending. And I apologise if that is what I seem.

Many of us veteran males can be entrapped by being inclined to compare women’s football to that played by elite men when assessing the women’s game. This is a mistake. What we should be concerned about, given the historical youth of women’s football in contrast to the men’s game, is the degree and pace of its advancement.

By that measure the news is good. Women’s football is fast blossoming as a package of wholesome entertainment. Those who missed the live experience of the W-League grand final can only regret it.

When the W-League was launched in 2008 it was, in technical terms, not a pretty sight. Most agreed that its creation was a good thing and that assuredly it would benefit the development of female players and, ultimately, the Matildas.

But its technical standard was low and difficult to enjoy as a spectacle. Many players, it appeared to me, were picked by virtue of their physical qualities. Tactically most teams were content to ping the ball long, hitting it in hope, in search of some muscular, tall, bustling forward.

This, over just four years, has now changed and radically so. In the grand final we saw two teams trying to play and mostly succeeding. The ball was played quickly, short, and on the back of some sweet off the ball movement, driven not by grunt and power but by intelligence. Many men’s teams might have benefited from watching.

On the field - and this is the thing - were mostly young players with splendid futures. Only five players out of the two squads were in Germany with the Matildas last year, and two of those were goalkeepers.

The dashing Canberra forward, Michelle Heyman, who scored two of the goals, and her brainy midfield prompter, Ashleigh Sykes, stood out among many who are sculpting a terrific future for the Matildas. Tom Sermanni, the Matildas’ gaffer, surely took note.

Jitka Klimkova, the Canberra United coach, has led her team to the title in her first season in Australia in a style that just about relegates any male coach the A-League has imported from abroad in its history.

Except probably Vitezslav Lavicka who hails from the same place.

In any case, Klimkova has made her mark. She’s a winner, she imposed a style of play on the W-League that is both winning and exemplary and one can only hope she will return. This country needs her influence.

All this has been a good thing for our football and its role in making our society more inclusive. As I wrote in a previous column, women’s football can be a powerful instrument by which women are meaningfully engaged and are swayed to embrace the game. We should celebrate this. Football is nothing unless it embraces both genders, all races and creeds.

And we should get away from instinctively comparing women’s football with men’s football, something we never do in other sports where the female gender has a high profile, like tennis, swimming or athletics. A women’s tennis match can often be as entertaining as a men’s match if not more.

Reading between the lines

It was probably about the time that David Beckham released his sixth and seventh autobiographies that the Circus stopped turning to footballers for literary advice.

The UK's National Literacy Trust is made of sterner stuff and has employed the services of 20 Premier League footballers (one from each club) to recommend one adult book and one children's book in a charmingly bonkers bid to boost childhood literacy.

"Premier League Reading Stars underlines the wonderful power football has in engaging young people," hurrahed Premier League honcho Richard Scudamore, perhaps thinking of Mario Balotelli and the incident with the darts and the youth team. And with nothing less than the future of the nation's children on the line, it's full points to all the players who took the opportunity to shamelessly plug books they themselves had written*.

Theo Walcott recommended 'TJ and the Hat-trick', by renowned children's author Theo Walcott. Mark Schwarzer spruiked his own 'Megs and the Vootball Kids' to the youngsters but at least had the decency to point the adults towards an earnest holocaust survival story. Stoke City reserve goalkeeper Carlo Nash suggested adults curl up with the page-turner 'Family Adventures in Style', co-authored by Dr Jill Nash and Carlo Nash.

'Family Adventures in Style', for those wondering, has received two reviews on Amazon UK – both five stars. The first review ("A necessary purchase for all families") has been contributed by a Dr J.H. Nash. The second ("Fabulous for families!") by a C.Nash. Marvellous.

*The Circus uses this term in the sense where 'written' can also mean 'approved a ghostwriter to write as soon as the player's agent pointed out that the book could rake in enough cash to buy yet another snooker table with the player's own name on it'.

Is it because I is Cockney?

Harry Redknapp has been enthusiastically promoted as England's next football manager, in part because of a belief that 'Arry's quintessential Englishness will be A Very Good Thing after the national team's failure to win a major tournament under foreign managers who had players of the calibre of Emile Heskey at their disposal.

Unfortunately, latest revelations from the court hearing into Redknapp's alleged tax evasion suggest Redknapp's Englishness goes even further than many imagined.

"I can't work a computer, I don't know what an email is... I've never sent a fax and I've never sent a text message," Redknapp told police in an interview played to the court after he was arrested in 2009.

"I've never wrote a letter in my life. I couldn't write a letter, I write like a two-year-old and I can't spell."

If only a young Redknapp had read a book by Theo Walcott.

Of course, borderline illiteracy isn't the only reason for 'Arry's predicament.

The spoken word

"He wants to help the players understand what is possible when you get it right, when you are playing for your country and the nation is behind you."

– Interim England rugby coach Stuart Lancaster thinks Gary Neville is the ideal person to inspire his group of barrel-chested partygoers. Here's the inspiring Neville ruminating on getting it right, playing for your country and the nation being behind you. To be fair, unlike England's most recent World Cup rugby captain Neville has never once hit the headlines for an incident involving dwarves. Teletubbies, yes.

In other words, is Brisbane's highly popular approach too cavalier and too elaborate for its own good?

Postecoglou has steadfastly refused to abandon the entertaining style that brought Brisbane the premiership and championship double last season and a record 36-match unbeaten record in the process.

However, immediately after completing this rare feat in Australian sport, Brisbane went off the boil.

It was like a batsman making a century and getting out next ball.

A five-match losing streak and patchy form have virtually killed off Brisbane's hopes of winning the Premiers' Plate.

The distance from table-topping Central Coast Mariners is 11 points and even if Brisbane was to reverse current form and beat the Mariners in Gosford on Saturday, it is very hard to see Graham Arnold's men crumble now that the finish line is in sight.

Throughout this traumatic period that saw Brisbane's roar turn into a whimper, Postecoglou admirably kept faith with his philosophy when it would have been tempting to hang in there, play it safe and grind out results.

He did this essentially because he believes in his system and the players' capacity to practise it.

However his problem is that Brisbane has somehow lost its ability to pummel the opposition into submission, often winning matches in the last 10 or 15 minutes.

It still plays an exemplary type of game that is pleasing on the eye but the cutting edge in attack is not there any more.

In its first eight matches leading up to the record established against Perth Glory at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane scored 22 goals but in the 11 matches since it has scored only 12 times.

The reason is that several teams seem to have worked out how to stop the Brisbane juggernaut.

They are doing this by allowing Brisbane limited space and time in the last third of the field, trying to catch Roar's square defence with penetrating balls straight down the middle and nullifying the influence of midfielder Erik Paartalu.

Opponents are getting plenty of joy by sitting back, applying pressure on the forwards and letting Brisbane indulge in its highly efficient passing game that suddenly has become unproductive.

Saturday's Suncorp clash against Newcastle Jets was a classic case in point.

The Jets were quite happy to put many bodies behind the ball when Roar had possession and were not afraid to let the opposing fullbacks overlap because they knew that Ivan Franjic and Shane Stefanutto would never cross the ball but try to play it back to somebody facing goal.

Brisbane was still able to play its customary triangles on either flank but real openings hardly ever materialised because its attacking players were pounced upon and crowded out as soon as they got the ball and were forced to play it backwards, which of course suited the Jets to a tee.

The Jets won 1-0 with a first-half goal from captain Jobe Wheelhouse.

Brisbane bombarded the Jets in the second half and threw everything at them bar the kitchen sink.

Yet frustrated Postecoglou could only bury his head in his hands as his players failed to find a way past central defenders Tiago Calvano and Nikolai Topor-Stanley, who were immense on the ground and in the air.

So this is the dilemma facing Postecoglou: push on regardless with a system that has brought the club acclaim and success or go back to the drawing board and devise new ways how to win matches.

Postecoglou is the sort of coach who would never contemplate urging his team to try to win ugly if necessary to get out of its predicament. It's just not him and not after all the work he has done the last two years.

But perhaps a less cavalier approach, a more direct style and a little bit of pragmatism in key moments of a game might just do the trick.

The players' quality and will to win are still there and a few tweaks certainly would not rob the team of its greatest asset: an ability to play non-stop, attacking football of the highest level.

Postecoglou has earned plenty of plaudits for the way he transformed a Brisbane side that could never win into one that would never lose.

But the good coaches are not necessarily those who win matches and trophies but the ones who react wisely in trying times and change things around.

This might be the toughest challenge facing Postecoglou in his relatively young coaching career.

Before the group phase proper begins on February 7th there is a brief qualifying round. In the first legs, all six games were won by the home side. Indeed, the away teams only managed a single goal, while the hosts had 12 to celebrate.

Six wins out of six is extreme. But the truth is that away victories are not nearly as common in South America as they are on the other side of the Atlantic. In a comparison between the Copa Libertadores and Europe’s Champions league, and between World Cup qualifiers in both continents the conclusion is the same. It appears to be twice as hard to win on the road in South America as it is in Europe.

Journeys are long – South America is vast – there are differences in conditions, such as altitude, to take into account, and the home fans can create an atmosphere capable of intimidating the visitors and the officials. The extra challenge of playing away from home is just one of the factors that make the Copa Libertadores so interesting.

But let’s be honest. It is not the Champions League. Much as I love following the Libertadores, I have to confess that it loses out to the European competition in terms of sheer quality.

It is at this point that the more extremist South Americans like to fall back on two arguments.

First, they say that the Champions League is only better because of the money. Of course. This is professional football we are talking about. Players have always followed the money, and have every right to do so. Without professionalism, without the chance to make a good living from the game, there would never have been a Pele, for example. So this is a double edged sword for South American football. One of the main reasons that the continent achieved such early primacy in the game was because, introduced by the British and at first restricted to the elite, football spread down quickly to the poorer sections of society. The onset of professionalism in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in the early 1930s is a vital part of this process. But those same financial inducements that help produce the players also mean that these days the best of them head to Europe.

This brings us to the second compliant about the Champions League made by the South American Taliban – that it is only good because of the foreign players.

This one has an easy answer – so what? In fact, though intended as a criticism, this in reality is elaborate praise for the European competition. It manages to unite the best players (and, with more restrictions the coaches as well) from the four corners of the planet. So it is not just European football. It is the global game, a constant exchange of ideas and experiences.

Barcelona are an excellent example. Much has been made – and rightly so – of the importance of the Dutch model in the philosophy of the Catalan club. It is now so deep in the DNA of Barcelona that they have made it their own. But they have also managed to incorporate into the model the attacking full back play of contemporary Brazilian football.

Ideas merge, and new concepts are created. A player from abroad, a South American for example, would have to be really stupid if he is unable to learn anything from the experience of playing in Europe. (Incidentally, at the recent Soccerex business fair in Rio de Janeiro I spent a few days asking people in the game this very question – what can Brazilian football learn from Europe? All of the players who had spent time on the other side of the Atlantic were effusive in their answers – organisation, professionalism, seriousness, and so on. One person replied “nothing.” No prizes for guessing that he is a director with no playing experience in South America or in Europe.)

Between now and the start of July I will be spending my Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays watching matches in the Libertadores. And I will be very pleased to do so. Indeed I can hardly wait to get back inside a stadium for the first time in a while – next Wednesday when Flamengo of Rio hope to overturn the 2-1 defeat they suffered in the first leg at the hands of Real Potosi of Bolivia. A break from the game during high Summer has been great, but I’m itching for the live stadium experience – the buzz of the build up, the sense of the spectacle unfolding in front of you on something much bigger than a TV or computer screen – even the chance to dwell on the game and reduce it to its essence on the train ride home. I have missed all of this.

But I won’t be fooling myself. There will be plenty of good stuff to watch in the Libertadores over the next few months, lots of dramatic football and good story lines. But I won’t be watching the best. Even if Brazilian clubs are now paying huge money to the big name players, the best and the most ambitious of them will want to be in Europe. Quite apart from any financial motive, shining in the Champions League, among the world’s best, is the way they win the respect of their fellow players.

Indeed, one of the great fascinations of the Libertadores is the chance to pick out youngsters who are destined for success on the other side of the Atlantic – where they truly become household names all over the world.

The love below

Sex tapes and blackmail are subjects usually too sordid for a journalist of the Circus's experience and credibility. But if the Circus doesn't report on the scandal concerning Shakira and her Barcelona boyfriend Gerard Pique, it is going to be left to someone else.

According to TV Notas, a tape exists of the Columbian singer performing a type of tactical manoeuvre on Pique not normally found in Pep Guardiola coaching manuals. Should Shakira not agree to pay a sum of money to one of her minions, the tape will be released, inflicting upon the world the most unnecessary montage of grunting and flesh since the last Shakira music video.

The Circus has not yet obtained a copy of the tape, but it does have this FIFA 12 clip featuring Pique's teammates Carlos Puyol and David Villa.

Money well spent

Colombian officials have defended themselves against allegations they wasted $1m on the closing ceremony of last year's Under-20 World Cup. The total included $12,000 paid to a shaman to prevent rain - $2000 up front plus $500 per day for 20 days. "It didn't rain, so it was a success," organiser Martha Ana Pizarro told El Tiempo. "We'd use him again."[via The Observer]

Referee of the week

Last year, Bulgaria banned a number of referees after they were caught nipping over to South America to officiate a few extra games on the sly.

Luchezar Yonov was one of those banned, and last week he popped up in Turkey, along with three banned assistants, to referee a friendly between Dutch side AZ Alkmaar and the Bundesliga's Werder Bremen. Cunningly, Yonov had evaded Uefa's controls by adopting the name of a legitimate referee, Raicho Raichev.

"I'll take all necessary measures to clear my name," Raichev told the Bulgarian football referees association's website. "What they did is so sneaky."

Werder came from a goal down to win 2-1, and Bulgarian Football Union refereeing commission chairman Kostadin Kostadinov said Yonov's performance vindicated the decision to suspend him.

"I read some reports and they said there was 10 minutes of added time, a controversial penalty and a free kick in the ninth minute of added time," Kostadinov said.

The Suarez gambit

If the Circus remembers its Big Book of Football Excuses, the approach adopted by Brisbane Roar this week is known as the Suarez gambit.

You know the one: it's where you accept the fine/suspension/public beating prescribed by your local football association, while emphasising that you are doing so for any reason other than accepting that the player might actually be guilty.

Besart Berisha will miss tonight's match against the Jets, but only because Roar believes that appealing his suspension for seemingly attempting to goad Pascal Bosschaart into a fist fight would be a disruption.

After explaining the club's decision to accept the suspension "with a great deal of reluctance", Roar CEO Michael Bowers cheered Berisha for impressing "everyone who has come in contact with him with his good natured demeanour and positive outlook".

Presumably 'everyone' in this instance does not extend to Sydney FC players.

The spoken word

"I had never experienced the postman at the door falling to his knees to kiss my feet. The Italians are so crazy about football it's amazing." 
– Germany striker Miroslav Klose is enjoying life at Lazio. "The Italians just have a different mentality," Klose added. "If training is at 3pm, then at 2.50 there are six players sitting in the change rooms. That's a new experience for me."

James Troisi for Cagliari

James Troisi may be the next Australian footballer to play in Italy. Currently in Turkey with Kayserispor, Troisi may be signed by Cagliari in Serie A. It would be a great reward for Troisi, who was a bit unlucky to be released by EPL outfit Newcastle United four years ago.

Coppa Italia Top Four

The Coppa Italia is generally snubbed by Italian clubs. At least until the semi-finals. Now that we have reached that stage, the big boys are out to clinch the title: Juventus, AC Milan and Napoli have qualified, as has Siena. The most interesting semi-final, no doubt is the one between Juventus and Milan, rivals for the Scudetto.

Financial fair-play to assign next Champions League

The 2013 Champions League will not be won and lost on the field of play. The key role will be played by accountants. The main issue is that clubs will not be able to take part if their losses are more than 45 million euros (over $A50 million). Italian clubs are well represented in a list of the 13 clubs which, today, would be unable to take part. UEFA, for reasons best known to itself, has informed us that there are 13 big clubs in trouble, but have not mentioned which ones. However, it looks as if Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus are among the group. They are in good company, joined by the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, PSG, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Bayern Munich and Napoli are the only major clubs with their books in order.

Injury plague in Serie A

The number of injuries to Serie A players is staggering. Top of the list is Lazio with 43 absentees due to injury so far this season. Napoli is the best-performed on the medical front with 11 players missing games because of injuries. In the Champions League Porto (four players) and Viktoria Plzen (three players) are the only clubs to have done better than Napoli. The Neapolitan side had to do with a total of six players absent because of injuries. A stark contrast with the 40 players absent for Arsenal.

Referees a disaster area

Referee Domenico Celi has written the latest chapter in the never-ending disaster story of referees' performances in Italian football this season. In the Coppa Italia match between Napoli and Inter he managed to ignore a violent foul by Wesley Sneijeder on Walter Gargano that deserved a red card, ignore a foul by Christian Kivu on Edinson Cavani, ignore an even bigger foul by Cristian Maggio on Diego Milito deserving a penalty kick.

In this last instance, he added insult to injury by cautioning Milito for simulation. The same Celi only three days earlier in Bergamo had an equally disastrous performance. He ignored in his match report the flares thrown by Juventus supporters at their Atalanta counterparts, resulting in five people being injured and sheer terror among women and children. However he did get Atalanta fined more than forty-thousand dollars because he was hit by a coin.

The “real” Serie A table

The Serie A standings would look quite different if referees’ wrong decisions were taken into account. AC Milan would lead on 41 points instead of 40, followed by Juventus 39 (41), Udinese 36 (38), Inter 33 (35) and Napoli 31 (29).

Mazzarri suspended

UEFA suspended Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri for two matches after his sending-off during the match in Villareal. As a result of this suspension, Mazzarri will miss the two games against Chelsea. If I were naughty, which of course I am not, I would say that Napoli’s qualification chances for the quarter finals have substantially increased. By the way, for reasons that defeat logic, Mazzarri is the highest paid coach in Italy. He has to make ends meet on a meagre salary of 2.5 million euros a year (over $A3 million).

Bobo Vieri to eclipse Fred Astair?

Bobo Vieri, as we told you a few weeks ago, is taking part in the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars. At $A50.000 per episode. Vieri is no Fred Astair yet, but he is working on it. He has been very successful on another front, losing 18 kilos since joining the show. Other footballers taking part are Marco Delvecchio and the great Gianni Rivera.