I think Fabio Capello has three realistic candidates to captain England: Terry, Ferdinand and Gerrard Of these John Terry stands head and shoulders above the other two as a leader. It has been notably this season how his behaviour has improved and now rather than leading the referee-baiting he is pulling players away, and it was striking in the Champions League final how it was he pulling Manchester Utd players away from getting into further trouble with the referee rather than Ferdinand.

With England having failed to qualify, how to decide which country to adopt?

My mates who are City fans are right browned off about Sven's sacking; in fact it's taken this for them to register even a smithereen of disdain for Thaksin Shinawatra. "He may be an abuser of human rights you know," I'd say. "Who cares? We've got Elano," came the reply. "Here, he's sacked Sven..." "What?

From: BBC - Capello's optimism masks reality on England's lacklustre performance against France: As one Italian observer remarked, perhaps cruelly: "England do not just need an Italian coach - they need an Italian team."

Lincoln City's climb away from the foot of League Two has brought an unusual reward. Manager Peter Jackson asked for the office to be redecorated when he joined the club last year. Chairman Steff Wright suggested an incentive scheme, providing carpet tiles for every point the Imps won. "We've gradually been putting the tiles down", said Wright, "and over the past couple months the colour of the floor has changed from worn-out green to bright blue tiles.

From: The Guardian - Sid Lowe finds the Spanish media desperate to put some kind of gloss on the unthinkable - that their rivals across the Med play better football Over here, people think Italian football is dirty, cynical, talentless and boring. Few Italians have succeeded in Spain because they are rubbish, they say, while few Spaniards have succeeded in Italy because the football is rubbish - and full of cheats.

Conference South side Havant and Waterlooville show the FA Cup is still alive

...this week, 16 Scotsmen played in the Champions League. Only 14 Englishmen could say the same. And three of those - Peter Crouch, Owen Hargreaves and Theo Walcott - were substitutes. From: Guardian Unlimited: Sport blog: The killer stat that demands a response

The Times are reporting that Spurs' UEFA cup game tonight (Thursday) is likely to be Martin Jol's last in charge: Martin Jol's reign as Tottenham Hotspur manager looked to have ended last night after he accepted a £4 million compensation package to leave the club. An announcement is expected this morning. Juande Ramos, the Seville coach, has accepted the job but may not be in place until the start of next season.

England continued against Russia where they left off against Israel, cruising to another 3-nil victory.

Despite injuries to star name players England cruised past a standoff-ish Israel.

After a number of blunders Paul Robinson's England place is rightly under threat. Rightly, because no player should be guaranteed the position in the team. But, the quality of his potential replacements still cause concern.

With England 2-1 down to Germany at Wembley, McLaren chose to substitute both strikers, Smith and Owen. Without Rooney, Bent and Johnson through injuries, who did he turn to? Not Jermain Defoe.

After an encouraging start England faded to defeat to an understrength Germany, leaving the the hosts still looking for there first victory at the new Wembley.

With a treacherous board behind them, and a notoriously fickle set of supporters, who in there right minds would want to be manager of Spurs? Spurs were reported to have met the Ramos camp over the weekend before telling Jol his job was safe providing he delivered Champions League football. From: BBC - Ramos ‘snubbed huge Spurs offer' Martin Jol has turned the club from an average mid table club into the most likely challenger to the almost impenetrable ‘big four' of Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.