SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15
JOE HART made two mistakes in Euro 2016 and the accusations were heard across the continent.
Sergio Aguero misses penalties by the sackload and continues to be described as a world-class striker.
It is the curse of the goalkeeping class that no one forgets his mistakes.
The next goal by Aguero and he will be forgiven easily.
Today, Aguero’s unimpressive penalty is saved by Everton’s Maarten Stekelenberg who goes on to stop another. But the general reaction is “that’s his job”.
Palace’s Christian Benteke misses against West Ham with one of the worst penalties I have ever seen and we all just shrugged.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16
NO doubt Ched Evans is satisfied to have been cleared of rape.
And already there is talk of demands for huge compensation, possibly in six figures.
Evans should be ashamed even to consider it. The fact is he and his pals treated a teenager as easy meat.
He left the hotel hurriedly through a side entrance. The girl was paralytically drunk and couldn’t even remember what happened to her.
In Evans’ view at the time, it was all right to take advantage.
It makes me angry to think the girl’s reputation is utterly destroyed while Evans will be a kind of hero when he next scores for Chesterfield.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 17
MPs keep agreeing with themselves the FA is not fit for purpose.
Surprise, surprise, they are at it again today when the committee for culture, media and sport assembles to give the association another jolly good talking to.
Up steps FA chairman Greg Clarke to tell them not very much about Sam Allardyce’s appointment or why the then England manager suffered memory loss over the newspaper sting.
As to whether he left with a £1million pay-off, Clarke, tut tut, cannot say.
The committee agree the money would have been better spent on grassroots then adjourn, sheathing the bluntest swords in political history.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18
WAYNE ROONEY is upbeat about Man U’s chances of challenging for the title.
Not if they have to count on the way they played at Anfield, they won’t. Otherwise it could be the dullest challenge since heavyweight champ Sonny Liston refused to budge from his corner.
United played to the manager’s orders and were no doubt pleased with a draw. Jose Mourinho got what he came for — avoidance of defeat — which scarcely reflects the confidence of his benched skipper.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19
IT isn’t hard to imagine Joe Hart’s smile as he watched successor Claudio Bravo’s blunder in Barcelona.
I suspect Hart, sacked for his lack of ball skills by Pep Guardiola, would not have panicked and tried a David Silva-like pass or handled Luis Suarez’s shot, either.
City’s boss held back Sergio Aguero, his leading gunslinger, until late on, 3-0 behind and down to ten men. Bit like Tombstone without Wyatt Earp.
Guardiola stands by his tactics. As their success rate has earned him his reputation it’s hard to argue. But I’m a woman and no expert, so I will.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20
CHRIS BRUNT has spent a month in total standing on one leg during his recovery from a knee cruciate injury.
It makes me tired just seeing a graphic of the West Brom midfielder’s get-fit regime during his eight months with the physios.
Brunt, 31, completed the equivalent of ten triathlons, lifted 40 elephants and can now jump seven per cent higher.
With his record of absences, West Ham striker Andy Carroll must be Superman-plus.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21
A well-known former owner of my acquaintance once said on appointing a foreign boss that no one had heard of: “He is the manager I have always wanted.”
Ellis Short said something similar on making David Moyes his seventh Sunderland manager in seven years.
At West Ham, Short will already be wondering what he will do if his winless team face another survival scramble . . . and if Moyes is the man to do it.
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