Yesterday was a tumultuos day for fans of Tottenham Hotspur. First came the news that Harry Redknapp had been cleared of charges of tax evasion and he emerged from court to a hero's welcome. Then in the evening came the news that Fabio Capello had resigned as England manager. Redknapp of course was instantly installed as the favourite to take over by fans, media and players alike.

There's no doubt that after his performance and goal against Aston Villa in his debut on Sunday afternoon that Papiss Cisse is currently the Toast of the Toon. The new Newcastle hero thanks fans after Sunday's win Newcastle have now won four of their last five league games, and the only real let-down was that second half at Craven Cottage.

Luis Suarez returned to a hero's welcome at Anfield after serving a lengthy match ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra. And four minutes after he entered the match as a substitute, Suarez proved he is not racist by kicking Spurs' old-timey white man Scott Parker square in the belly during the scoreless draw (moving pictures here).

The Flowers of Manchester - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Daniele (from Red Rants) has a written a moving piece on the Munich disaster here's an extract:

Sam couldn't have been more focused if he had been watching a movie, so I moved on: "Harry Gregg, United's keeper, had been thrown out the cabin after the impact along with Bobby Charlton.

Former Rep of Ireland u-21 striker Eamon Zayed (28) became a hero for his new Iranian club Persepolis Tehran after he scored a late,late hat-trick to secure a 3-2 win in the Tehran derby last night.

Persepolis trailed 2-0 with just nine minutes remaining on the clock before Zayed found his scoring boots to fire a hat-trick in just over 10 minutes.

Whatever your view of Spurs' deadline day transfer dealings, don't expect Kevin Bond to be reading any comments after the late captures of Louis Saha and Ryan Nelsen.

Bond did however attempt to ease any disquiet by suggesting that we should all trust Harry and the players he has brought in.

Valencia served a reminder of its proud heritage as a football team holding Barca and then denied Leo Messi a PK goal in the Copa Del Rey semi-finals first leg.

Jonas gave the home side the lead at the Mestalla but Carles Puyol who seems to have made a career scoring very important headers equalized for the Blaugrana.

Lecce managed the shock of the round by stunning Inter Milan 1-0, the defeat bringing to an end the Nerazzurri's six-game winning. Juventus kept their undefeated record intact by defeating highflying Udinese by two goals to nil in very wet conditions in Turin on Saturday. Alessandro Matri was the hero on the night as he claimed both strikes.

Okay, you can all relax now. Turns out that our hero, Arsenal captain Robin van Persie, will NOT be sanctioned for allegedly throwing an elbow in the face of defender Carlos Cuéllar, after all. Had the Football Association chosen to sanction him, and there certainly seemed to be justification for doing so, the punishment to both Robin as an individual and Arsenal as a cohesive whole would have been severe enough, considering the awful timing, to virtually end the team's season on quite a sour note.

Okay, you can all relax now. Turns out that our hero, Arsenal captain Robin van Persie, will NOT be sanctioned for allegedly throwing an elbow in the face of defender Carlos Cuéllar, after all. Had the Football Association chosen to sanction him, and there certainly seemed to be justification for doing so, the punishment to both Robin as an individual and Arsenal as a cohesive whole would have been severe enough, considering the awful timing, to virtually end the team's season on quite a sour note.

Oguchi Onyewu was the hero for Sporting, scoring twice on Sunday in a 2-0 win over Biera Mar. Onyewu opened the scoring with an 18th minute header and used his head again for the second goal in the 27th. He was yellow carded in the opening minute. The win moves Sporting into 4th-place in the Portuguese Liga.

Kuyt was the Hero today with a 88th minute winner to put Liverpool into the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup. The game ended 2-1 and the result seemed so bitter sweet for Luis Suarez who watched had to watch on from the sidelines serving his 7th match ban after the racial incident against Evra in their last encounter.

Kuyt was the Hero today with a 88th minute winner to put Liverpool into the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup. The game ended 2-1 and the result seemed so bitter sweet for Luis Suarez who watched had to watch on from the sidelines serving his 7th match ban after the racial incident against Evra in their last encounter.

After Liverpool's fantastic achievement in beating Man City over two legs to reach the Carling Cup Final last Wednesday night, thanks to Craig Bellamy's goal.
It is now time to look towards beating the other half of Manchester in the form of the Red side of the City.
Our arch-rivals come to Anfield on Saturday afternoon in the fourth round of the FA Cup with it all to play for.

Despite the nonsense about some other matchup in the Copa del Rey right now can't quite remember the names of those rather insignificant teams at the moment the real story is not east, not west, but down. Way down in the third division. Mirandes, a humble little club in the north of Spain, knocked off their third yes, third La Liga opponent to get to the Copa del Rey.

Turn the Heaton szólj hozzá: CCCPhighlite www.1Goals.com Cardiff goalkeeper Tom Heaton booked his side's place in the Carling Cup Final with two penalty shootout saves against Crystal Palace. The Bluebirds progress to Wembley despite Eagles defender Anthony Gardner being the only player to find the net during the two-legged tie.

Ahead of Manchester City's League Cup semi-final against Liverpool, Sergio Aguero has revealed that Michael Owen was his hero when he was younger.

"One of the players who was my idol when I was a boy was Michael Owen," he said. "He was quite small and had an eye for goal, just like me.

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.

So many times he's saved us. The forward bursts through, draws back the hammer and pulls the trigger, eyes not on the ball but on the expectant net only to find that in a whirl the object of his desire has disappeared, swept away by the sweetest of tackles. No bone or muscle, it's the timing that has defeated him.

For today's profile, we welcome back Michael Hudson, a long standing friend of the blog and the mastermind behind The Accidental Groundhopper website. Here, Michael, who can be followed on Twitter at @DolphinHotel, turns his attention to a player on the brink of signing for Southampton, drawing as he does on his immense experience following the game in Asia.

Before I launch into not writing the preview of a game that is barely 8 hours away at the time this is published, I'd like to say What the whaaaaat?

The purple is to make sure the extent of shock is clear. The girl is incidental. Really.

It was ok when Henry lumbered on against Leeds (don't get all self-righteous-Arsenal fan on me now, you know he looked slower.

It looks more and more likely with each passing day that Andrey Arshavin will pack up his boots and leave London during the summer, likely back to Russia with Zenit St Petersburg, where he's still considered a hero. In fact, it seems all of Russia regards Arshavin as some kind of football genius since he was named that nation's athlete of the year again for the fourth time running and is still the captain of his country's team.

Former Celtic hero Shunsuke Nakamura proved his set-piece talent has not diminished since leaving Celtic Park by performing this TV stunt in his native Japan. The 34-year-old, currently playing for Yokohama F Marinos, was tasked with firing a free-kick into a moving bus. The midfielder was positioned in a side-street and watched the bus approaching [.

The United States needed a win to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, and they got it against Jamaica at Foxboro Stadium. Joe-Max Moore was the hero for the USA that day, scoring both goals in the 2-1 win. Moore put the US up from the run of play four minutes in, only for Jamaica to equalize in the 14th minute.

Thierry Henry went from hero to villain in just a matter of days when, following his amazing match winner against Leeds in the FA Cup, he remonstrated with an Arsenal fan to come onto the pitch after the game to have a word with the Frenchman.

Arsenal lost the match 3-2 with Swansea playing some excellent passing football, much in the same style as Arsenal, but won the game following a loose pass from Henry.

Hull legend Dean Windass has attempted suicide twice in recent days, he has revealed. The Tigers' Wembley hero confessed he had tried to end his life as booze and depression took their grip after a series of problems in his personal life. The Soccer Saturday reporter said: "People have this image of me as this [.

Inter's slender 1-0 victory over their city rivals Milan last night threw them back in the title race. A 65th minute goal from Diego Milito was enough to hand Claudio Ranieri's men win the 204th edition of the Derby Della Madonnina.

Juventus who were level on points with Milan before last night's round of fixtures also failed to make most of their match against Cagliari as they were held to a 1 all draw at the Juventus stadium.

Schalke we sing a song for you? Raul got an unusual treat earlier this week when he was flagged down by Schalke fans who passed him a CD of a special recording they had made of his chant 'Senor Raul'. The fans who went to the effort of making the CD know that the gesture [...]

Schalke we sing a song for you? Raul got an unusual treat earlier this week when he was flagged down by Schalke fans who passed him a CD of a special recording they had made of his chant 'Senor Raul'. The fans who went to the effort of making the CD know that the gesture [...]

Liverpool Captain Steven Gerrard has re-upped his current Liverpool contract which will see him end his career at his boy-hood hero's.

Gerrard told Liverpool's official website:
"It's a very proud day for myself and my family.

"This is the club I love and is the club I have supported since I was a young boy.

The San Antonio Scorpions owner Gordon Hartman revealed in a press conference on Monday, renderings and timelines for his new stadium which will be erected adjacent to his Morgan's Wonderland. Hartman's team will play their first season at Hero's Stadium a high school field in the North East Independent School District which is across the [.

Gary Ablett 1965-2012: Liverpool and Everton unite to honour Mersey hero

Merseyside's football rivals have united to pay respects to Gary Ablett. The former defender died on Sunday aged 46 following a 16-month battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2012-01-02 22:00:23 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

There's only one right way to ring in the new year....

Supporter-player/hero makeout session with Joe Everybody and Sunderland's Ji Dong-won. Or: it's not your grandfather's game.

Yes, he was offside. Yes, it's heart-wrenching for the oil-soaked fat cats in the house. But it was worth it, right?

Oldham skipper out to upset hero Gerrard in FA Cup clash

"I actually think I can spoil it for him and we can spoil it for Liverpool," says Dean Furman

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-12-31 22:00:58 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Let's not beat around the bush here and let's tell it like it is. We've seen two managers, drama, controversy, speculation, excitement, frustration and find ourselves at the turn of this year in the exact same position as we did a year ago. Isn't it strange how things have turned out!
This is my review of 2011 and a year on my blog as written by me, a lifelong Chelsea fan giving you my take on everything that happened.

The defending NBA champions lost their first three games of the season. Even worse, the Dallas Mavericks lost the first two games in blowout fashion. However, in Game 4, the Mavs finally got their first win with a 99-86 victory over the Toronto Raptors.

So, who was the hero for the Mavs? It was backup center Ian Mahinmi, he had 19 points, five rebounds, two blocks and a steal.

'Andy Carroll will come good but Kenny Dalglish must sort out his tactics first' Newcastle legend Malcolm Macdonald backs Liverpool striker

Geordie goalscoring hero believes starlet has what it takes to win over Anfield sceptics but only when service from the flanks to to the England international improves

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-30 08:15:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

'Andy Carroll will come good but Kenny Dalglish must sort out his tactics first' Newcastle legend Malcolm Macdonald backs Liverpool striker

Geordie goalscoring hero believes starlet has what it takes to win over Anfield sceptics but only when service from the flanks to to the England international improves

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-30 08:15:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

'You always have to be ready'

Istanbul hero Vladimir Smicer has drawn upon his own experiences to outline the importance of always being ready to seize an opportunity in football.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-12-29 11:19:15 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Arsene Wenger has recently attested to Thierry Henry's greatness. Arsene Wenger has suggested the old hero could even be a top player right now, even at 34 years of age, in the English Premiership. Now it has emerged that Per Mertesacker, the gigantic German defender, has said pretty much the same.