The artist formerly known as England's Brave John Terry. Again.

Innocent or guilty, right or wrong the time has come for the Chelsea captain to leave the Three Lions, and the circus surrounding them, behind. Permanently.

An era passed

It's difficult to argue however much I disagree with the Football Association's decision to relieve Terry of the England captaincy in wake of the racist abuse trial he faces in July.

Superstitious Manchester United fans will be glad when the transfer window closes after TV quiz Countdown seemed to predict Wayne Rooney's departure from Old Trafford. The word game through up the letters 'ROONISOUT' during today's show. The timing could not have been eerier for United fans, just hours before the transfer deadline day circus gets [.

Time to have a look at the circus that is the European Cup for Nations. The EC, in shorthand, or the "EK" in Dutch. As perennial World Cup runner ups, at least we won one of those. Once. A long time ago actually. I'm getting older. But I still remember [read more]

Wait, what???

Seeing Red

Well color me surprised. It seemed that this bit of business was all done and dusted last month. Now comes the revaluation that Seyi Ojo has, in fact, agreed a deal to join Liverpool. The 14-year old deemed that his future would be better served on Merseyside, hence the change of heart.

Argentina is still not likely to go to the World Cup. At home, they did not manage to go beyond a 1-1 against the weakest side in South America, Bolivia, and the Argentines now only have 4 points for three matches. It was a well-deserved trashing that the local fans gave Messi and Company, a group of stars who should be in a circus rather than on a football pitch.

South African's Golden Arrows keeper Virgil Vries makes a hash of Robyn Johannes timid back-pass as the Arrows lose 2-1 to rivals AmaZulu in Circus like fashion.

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For all the panic and soul-searching, then, England have qualified for next year's European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, although their performance last night was again patchy and hinted at a team that is likely to struggle against the very best in Europe next summer. Moreover, England's night which should, or might, otherwise have been an evening for celebration of some sort was further soiled by the decision of Wayne Rooney to take a kick at Miodrag Dzudovic with just over fifteen minutes of the match left to play and get himself a red card and a suspension for the start of next summer's tournament.

Why do I think this could spell the end to Manchester City rise. According to the Daily Mail Manchester City players are going to claim they 'didn't hear' Carlos Tevez's refusal to play in the Champions League. This is starting to sound like it could turn into a circus.

David Beckham is being courted yet again by Tottenham. (Getty Images)

It should come to no surprise that EPL side Tottenham wants to sign LA Galaxy midfielder David Beckham. ESPN had this report this morning about how the EPL side is hoping to sign Beckham after his contract with the Galaxy ends later this fall.

A day of many distractions with the country apparently up in arms and rioting for, erm, well, no particular reason that any of the ill-educated scrotes who've been asked can articulate and for Forest fans certainly the circus of the Wesley Verhoek transfer. Despite the attempts by the local media this wasn't 'Derby day' it was, for me at least, a banana skin fixture that for local peace of mind at least we could really do with not losing [.

Why Blackpool boss Holloway will be right at home in this season's crazy Championship circus

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. We'll be slowly introducing you to them over the coming weeks so that by the time the first ball of the 2011-12 season is kicked in anger, you'll be firm friends.

By Chris Wright

Bob Mancini has let slip that Manchester City have shaken hands with Corinthians over a fee for Carlos Tevez (reportedly £40 million plus £5 million in add-ons) with the homesick Argentinian now set to begin discussing personal terms with his former club.

Whooooooo?

Genting is a Malaysian company whose core business is built around casinos and tourism, although they also own property and energy businesses amongst other things. They reportedly own the largest number of casinos in the UK, including the Circus Casinos in Hurst Street and Star City.

By Chris Wright

"Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know..."

Word on the wire is that call-centre-chic enthusiast Sam Allardyce is all but set to be appointed as West Ham's new manager at some point later today, with a £3 million, two-year contract being mooted by most of the major news outlets this morning including the good old Beeb, and why would they lie to us?

Obviously, someone's been hanging out too much with Dani Alves, eh? Yup, that's the trademark "We're cool" hand gesture of the Brazilians although it's generally used without explanation frequently. But don't take our word for it and use it against your next churrascaria waiter.

via www.chicago-fire.com

Right now, the Fire's hottest position battle is at Center Back. It was widely anticipated that opening day starters Josip Mikulic and Cory Gibbs would start once Gibbs had recovered from a hamstring injury. Instead, Carlos de los Cobos felt that Cuesta had earned a place in the lineup and started him over Mikulic.

"And that was that." -- Ace Rothstein, "Casino."The tent is packed up. The elephants are in their cages. The clowns have squeezed into their tiny car.The circus has left town.Or at least that's the way it seems this weekend in as the English Premier League turns.Right up front I have to get this out of the way, the dog kind of ate my homework this week.

Who did well out of yesterday's circus? 1. Newcastle United They pocketed a brief British transfer record fee for a player with less than six months of Premier League experience and managed to crudely convince the media and public that the player had been the driving force behind the move. 2. Helicopter pilots There were [.