Sureshot

The problem with 'Arry, as has been highlighted elsewhere, is one of his major strengths is wheeling and dealing in the transfer market and making stars out of relatively unknown foreigners. He won't have either of those opportunities with the England team. He also doesn't have top managerial experience, which could go against him, but Van Basten and Klinsmann have proven it's not an absolute requirement. In saying this however, I think our gambling days are over, at least for the time being. We (and the FA) cannot afford to take anybody else on other than someone with a proven track record at the highest level in our current situation. I think if they hired Redknapp (or anybody with a similar track record) the backlash from failure would be even more immense next time if it all went pear shaped, and you would probably see some resignations. Barwick and Co. simply cannot take the risk if they have any desire to keep their jobs.

And here we go: Click

I don't think Mourinho will take it. The FA should really have no hesitations about getting on the blower to Capello.

Capello reaffirms interest. Would be cracking, in my opinion.

As pointed out in another post, Capello would be the obvious option. 4 reasons: 1/ No club at the moment 2/ Said a year & a half ago that it would be 'a dream' to manage England 3/ Has great coaching ability 4/ Would kick some serious overpaid, underachieving players' arses.

Indeed, utterly hilarious: What the hell are they doing?

Andy Gray is apparently still a Villa fan: Click

Have they been shopping at Tescos lately?

Since when is Austria in Scandinavia? I'm glad we're bolstering our youth prospects though, they sound like promising guys.

What, no story? Mate's 2nd cousin's dad is a jet pilot and happened to see Defoe in a window of the hotel on a detour over Aston?

You could always start on snuff instead, the Scandinavians are crazy on that.

I don't mind smoke in pubs too much, as long as the ventilation is adequate. Unfortunately, some places completely disregard this and you wake up smelling like you went to a Marlboro convention the night before. They don't have the ban yet in France, but apparently it's on the cards. I can see it being a REALLY unpopular move over here, though. But, the smoking ban does work pretty well from my experience. When I was in Sweden earlier this year, they enforce the no-smoking rule in pubs and clubs (at least all the ones I went to), and there's usually a designated balcony area or similar for people to go out and have a cig. Definitely a pleasant experience, and it was so nice not to be smelling of smoke each morning after.

Condolances, Wigan.

From The BBC:

R Lerner, eh

If only it wasn't TribalFootball

Click

No idea where the Lahm link has come from, it would be some coup to land him though.

Agree.

Nowt that I can see, Davis linked to Fulham again on the BBC though.

The OS have Fabiano on their rumour mill now, not sure if that's coming from the TF article though.

Heh strange, I was randomly reading his Wikipedia page the other day. Apparently his mum got kidnapped in 2005 by gunmen and wasn't rescued by police for 61 days!

Bouma will be on the plane to Thailand tomorrow with the Dutch squad handing out brochures of Bodymoor Heath and giving a carefully rehearsed sales pitch on behalf of Mon and Aston Villa. We will then sign the whole of the Dutch national team in the next ten days. Sorted! Sounds good, on the proviso that Boulahrouz misses the plane

As for RB, I reckon Heitinga is worth a punt. Might take some to prise him from Ajax now that they're in the CL next season though. Sonic needs to put in a few words for us with him and his mate Wesley