Good morning,

and a happy St Pat Rice day to you all. Today is the day when we celebrate the fact that Pat Rice got rid of all the snakes in Ireland and invested whiskey. Did you know the Irish for whiskey is 'Uisce beatha', which literally, and actually literally and not Jamie literally, means 'water of life'?

Greg has been to the zoo and is mightily impressed with the larger beasts. You might say we are one ourselves these days. Court cases loom but Wolves are up first. Either change the wallpaper or the elephant has to go The Greg Meyer Column Friday 13th January 2012 ... Lucky For Some. The Elephant In The Title Race.

Morning all. Weekends are too short, aren't they?

Still, at least we'll start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel this week. At the moment it's pitch black and scary but soon we'll see that tiny dot and we'll all go into the light and then football will return. There's little to amuse us this morning either, really, apart from a few quotes from Cesc about Robin van Persie's situation.

Despite the String of Missed Chances especially in the first half, I would say that we generally played well last night.
Last season, when asked about who I'd like us to face in the Champions League on our way to the final, I asked for the following teams: Olympique Lyonnais, AS Roma, Bayern Munich and Arsenal – I would have asked for Liverpool or Juventus too if possible.

PhillySoccerPage: What do you see as the most important thing for your team coming out for the second half of the season?

Steve Guppy: Well, we're kind of hoping that everyone can stay fit. It seems that with the group we have we've suffered more than our share of injuries, with a lot of key players being out injured.

"Goats Gore Bulls in Belated Battle of Barnyard Beasts"
That's all I have because that headline would shine brighter than anything I could write about that game. I challenge you to do better. No, seriously please leave your own terrible/brilliant NY Post-style headline in the comments.

It's time for riffing.#5 - The 'Nats are beginning to become a real nuisance to the big boys.Since the last Argentina meetings in 2008, the USMNT has played a total of nine matches against a group or world powers listing the Albiceleste, Brazil, England, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain - the two CONMEBOL monsters and four Euro-beasts.

Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley has always divided opinion in the past, but what do we think of him now? The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy had some advice inscribed on the front of it for galactic residents challenged by such things as hyperspace bypasses, Vogon poetry, Ravenous Bugblatter Beasts and The Triple-Breasted Whore of [.

An atmosphere of ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,' isn't an atmosphere of change or tolerance. Unseen, unheard, unsaid but still there and right or wrong, where will it go?
Former Sky Sports football analyst Andy Gray may sit (unemployed) and wonder why exactly he has lost his job.

For a number of managers in the football league as well as some household names in the Premier League, the new year has brought anything but cheer so far. Five football league managers have already been given the boot this year, with two more – Darren Ferguson of Preston and Brian Laws of Burnley – [.