It appeared to us an act of desperation – the very last resort, Plan B (or, more appropriately, Plan Z), or any well-worn cliché – and it, well, was. For Manchester United, bringing back Paul Scholes seemed a step back. Truth is, it's gone better than we'd envisaged back then, ever since it was revealed ahead of the FA Cup 3rd round tie against Manchester City back in January.

In the same way that a classroom descends into carnage when a teacher leaves the room for any extended period, the Tottenham dressing room has become a violent and confusing place while Harry Redknapp is away attending to his legal affairs. Yesterday, Spurs winger Danny Rose posted a video on his Twitter showcasing teammate Sandro's full range of high kicks and martial arts poses.

After getting thru the anti-climax that was QPR, Chelsea have announced that John Terry will miss the trip to the Liberty Stadium, coincidentally in line with the week his trial for racial abuse commences. More, after the jump:

M.I.A.

In a late-night conversation with The Doc, we both agreed that John could profit from a stretch of rest.

We review the USA's 1-0 win over Panama in the Camp Cupcake climax. It was Klinsmann's third straight victory as USMNT coach...so why did it feel so disappointing?

By Chris Wright

As your probably aware, Pies suffered a pretty large hack attack yesterday, knocking us off air for almost the entire day hence the reason we're slightly late with this one, but it's a goody so we hope you'll forgive the tardyness.

What we have here is Lionel Messi scoring the third goal of an obligatory, barely-worth-mentioning hat-trick against Malaga on Sunday eve instantly made great by Gol TV co-commentator Ray Hudson (a long-time Pies hero) reaching a point of euphoric climax in the process.

My dear beloved Forest, what on earth has happened to us? We used to have such great times and were so happy together and now we just seem to be drifting apart. Your flowing moves used to excite me to the point of distraction, and the climax to those moves was often unbelievable. Your passion and commitment used to warm me on a cold Saturday afternoon when we spent time together, but now your caresses have become cold and uncaring.

My dear beloved Forest, what on earth has happened to us? We used to have such great times and were so happy together and now we just seem to be drifting apart. Your flowing moves used to excite me to the point of distraction, and the climax to those moves was often unbelievable. Your passion and commitment used to warm me on a cold Saturday afternoon when we spent time together, but now your caresses have become cold and uncaring.

There has been plenty of hype surrounding Tom Cleverley over the past year or two which reached a climax this summer once Paul Scholes announced his retirement. Cleverley was tipped by plenty to be the successor to one of the most gifted midfielders this country has ever seen.

Fortunately for the lad, and for the team, Cleverley dealt with the expectation well, and confirmed his place in the starting XI at the start of the season.

There has been plenty of hype surrounding Tom Cleverley over the past year or two which reached a climax this summer once Paul Scholes announced his retirement. Cleverley was tipped by plenty to be the successor to one of the most gifted midfielders this country has ever seen.

Fortunately for the lad, and for the team, Cleverley dealt with the expectation well, and confirmed his place in the starting XI at the start of the season.

December was another unbeaten month as Stevenage continued their climb up the League 1 table. There was also progress in the FA Cup as the Boro progressed into the 3rd round of the FA Cup after a professional display against non-league Stourbridge.

Boro progress into 3rd round of FA Cup

A comfortable win away at Stourbridge sent Stevenage into the 3rd round of the FA Cup and a tie with Reading at the Madjeski Stadium.

Ladies and Gentlemen, as the end of the year draws nigh, so does the end of our current score prediction competition. It is currently reaching it's thrilling climax with the top prizes still undecided even in the last game! Anyway, this article is just to let you know if you don't already, or need reminding, [.

Liverpool earned a valuable away win against Aston Villa with two early strikes by Craig Bellamy on 10 mins and a Martin Skrtel header five minutes later.
Villa were there for the taking, however Liverpool failed to press home their advantage.True, Luis Suarez had two great shots hit the woodwork but mostly the reds played a subdued brand of football, unsure of whether to go all-out for the jugular and hammer home their advantage or to keep things tight and keep a clean sheet away from home.

On this week's podcast, Damian looks forward to the exciting climax in the Brazilian championship with a host of derbies and the title in the balance.

I'm starting to think I'm missing out on something. Is there a big party that everyone goes to? Something exciting on the telly? Or perhaps it's a free goodie bag for the first 10,000 on to the tube?

It's an age old moan but I am going to go on about it again. Just what is people's (I'm refusing to call them fans) excuse for leaving Arsenal games at the Emirates early?

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish says the club is delighted with the recovery of captain Steven Gerrard, but are refusing to put a date on his return.
The 31-year-old has been ruled out of the weekend's visit of Manchester City after being blighted by injury problems this season, having made just five appearances for the Reds.

South American football blog: Brazil's thrilling season set for exciting climax

This 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. Saturday is South America day, and here's I Like Football Me's Euan Marshall with his take on the week's big issues in the region.

If the 2011 season was graphed based on success and expectation it would look like a literary plot graph. These MLS Cup Playoffs are really there to determine whether events like the third straight US Open Cup, qualification for the CCL Quarterfinals and Kasey Keller's retirement game are the climax, or is there something more to this story?

I have been most remiss in my coverage of the SLeague in recent weeks and I do apologise for that. I hope to take some games in before the end of the season though.
So how do we stand as we enter the final furlong? I think it's fair to say it's a two horse race as the table shows;
1 - Home United 29 22 2 5 72-28 682 - Tampines Rovers 29 21 3 5 60-23 66
Four games remaining and a two point difference make for another exciting climax to the SLeague.

In the cold light of day that was sporting theatre at its finest. Two teams in a bit of a rut gave the afternoon a tension that never left us, and we got a number of notable twists and turns:

Nervous? How about going a goal down after two minutes?

Because of a mistake by our captain.

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The European leagues are about a third of the way through their seasons and the Champions League is in the middle of the group stages, but what about elsewhere in the world?

There have been a fair few strikers that have come to Chelsea and have struggled to find their form for one reason or another. Robert Fleck, Chris Sutton, Pierluigi Casiraghi and Mateja Kezman. All outstanding strikers in football and like I say for one reason or another struggled to make an impact at the club.

Fair play to CLeague champions Phnom Penh Crown for making it to the AFC President's Cup Final last weekend. They met hosts Taiwan Power and of course won 6-0! Nah, did they bollocks! They lost 3-2 and had three players sent off when the ref, whose name may not have been Homer, decided not to award the Cambodian team a 'nailed on' penalty deep in injury time.

Of all the insanity from Barca Milan, this might top it all. Just watch and appreciate. There's little else to say. (The very beginning and Thiago Silva's goal comes around the 3:40 mark.)

It's almost like he's building to a Pato climax in the seconds before the opener. And no, you did not need that imagery, but it's on the house.

Various comments on this site have alluded to a break down in relations between Spurs Chairman Daniel Levy and manager Harry Redknapp. In particular, there may have been issues over the Luka Modric affair where the chairman maintained his stance throughout, insisting that the player wasn't for sale whereas Harry offered suggestions as to how difficult it was to keep a man who isn't happy at the club.

China v Singapore 2-1 (Duric) 17,000
The Lions took the lead in Kunming through the oh so reliable Aleksander Duric on 33' and hopes were high they could secure a famous victory. But substitute Zheng Zhi equalised with a penalty just two minutes after coming on to set up a nail biting climax and four minutes later Yu Hai gave the Chinese a slender lead.

They're up for grabs now! Wenger, right at the end. An unbelievable climax to the transfer window

I can safely say I can't recall the like. What began with the low of an abject eight-goal capitulation at Old Trafford has ended with the high of five new faces to bolster the ranks.

Written by TotalArsenal.

How tough has this summer been for us Gooners? It is not over yet. I cannot help it, but the transfer window activities during this summer remind me of Ravel's Bolero. Unfortunately, this is not a reference to Bo Derek's question in the film ‘10': ‘Did you ever do it to Ravel's Bolero?

With one game postponed and more draws than a furniture shop, the opening week of Premier League football has perhaps been something of an anti-climax, unless you were a travelling Trotter at Loftus Road on Saturday. But never fear – there is still...
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Study after study indicates that time spent using the internet is making humans less patient and more neurotic.
From the moment people are waking up till the moment they go to sleep, time spent with the internet changes how people react and behave. Its effects are impossible to ignore.
The speed of the information from the internet is making it harder for people to concentrate on other things in life that are slower to develop and take more personal time, like reading a book or watching a baseball game.

Hey all!

One facet of the Fulham Review we had hoped to do was a sort of round table between a few friends and commentariat. But it got cut from the print edition for a myriad of reasons, namely my inability to edit it in a timely fashion.

Well, I finally got around to editing a few of the questions, and mainly axed conjectures about who the manager would be and whether or not Dio or Gera would still be around.

Move over fellas. The women are the biggest draw around this summer. With the viewing numbers set to be released in the next few days (and expect some records to be shattered), the internet has already revealed a new Twitter record for the Women's World Cup final yesterday afternoon. The match between the United States and Japan drew an average 7,196 tweets per second at its peak, breaking the previously held record of 6,939 set just after midnight in Japan on New Year's Day.

There was no more margin for error in today's WWC quarterfinal game between the US and Brazil. The team that lost goes home, while the winning team books a ticket to the semifinals on Wednesday. Twitter and Facebook blew up as the match progressed and more and more fans logged on to see what was happening.

There was no more margin for error in today's WWC quarterfinal game between the US and Brazil. The team that lost goes home, while the winning team books a ticket to the semifinals on Wednesday. Twitter and Facebook blew up as the match progressed and more and more fans logged on to see what was happening.

January 4th 2001: "There is no doubt Wes is an outstanding young centre half," said Jaap Stam. "He has pace, is good in the air and is a fantastic tackler. He is as good as any English centre-half in the Premiership, certainly alongside Jon Woodgate and Rio Ferdinand. The way he is playing at the minute, he obviously has a fantastic future ahead of him.

Andrew Johnson first came to our attention in the 2001 League Cup Final at Cardiff.

The Telegraph's report tells the story:

GLORY for Liverpool, sympathy for Birmingham City. This was the first English final decided on penalties and rarely has a climax been so cruel.

Three domestic championships were decided in South America this weekend. Vélez Sársfield claimed their eighth Argentinian championship having defeated Huracan 2-0 on Matchday 18 with goals from Santiago Silva and David Ramírez sealing the win whilst their only title challengers CA Lanús lost 1-0 at home to Argentinos Juniors, Nicolas Blandi scoring the only goal of the game.

You've got to be someone pretty special to work in the highest echelons of professional football in Europe, a most arrogant and self-aggrandising industry, and still be singled out for narcissism. As any media across Europe, maybe even the world, will attest though, José Mourinho snugly fits that bill.

We took a few weeks off from our guide to the upcoming weekend's televised matches. It's perhaps an odd time to resurrect it, just after the climax of the European club season but actually perhaps it's more necessary now that we're asking ourselves what exactly are we supposed to watch, now that they're done playing in Europe?

The prospect of a trip to Slavia Prague next season hit Huddlestone like a slap in the faceWhat shall we say about that season then? Rarely in Tottenham's recent history has opinion been so polarised at the climax of a campaign. There are those who plant their flags in the failure camp, claiming that dropping down to 5th and losing so many points in draws is unacceptable and that the current regime is stalling.

Well, what an anti-climax that signing proved to be for all Liverpool fans. This time last year Cole was on his way to the World Cup, safe in the knowledge that he was wanted by several Premier League clubs, including Spurs, Arsenal, and Liverpool. As it happened Liverpool won the battle for the little man's services.