There was a time when the names Diego Armando Maradona, Carlos Bilardo and the Argentine National team were synonymous with success. The magical run to the 1986 World Cup made both men house hold names in the sport, and heroes back home.

Boy, does that seem like a life time ago.

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"If I don't become a bitter old jealous man by then I might continue." Russia coach Guus Hiddink, on whether he might continue coaching after the 2010 World Cup Click to continue reading...

Seems Fabio Capello's appointment as England boss has caused a huge sigh of relief in Roberto Donadoni's house. It was an odd situation to have such an experienced manager out of work while such an inexperienced manager was in charge of the Azzurri. But Capello not only grabbed the (well-paying) England job with both hands, [. Click to continue reading...

It's still not 100% official, but we're 99% sure that Fabio Capello will be England's new £6 million a year manager any day now [update: it just became official] It seems like the smart appointment, particularly as England need someone unafraid of star players, unaffected by tabloid silliness and unwavering in his tactical discipline. Click to continue reading...

After dangling himself in front of England for the last couple of weeks, like a donut just out of Homer Simpson's reach (and making the English media drool accordingly) Jose Mourinho has finally himself unavailable for work yesterday afternoon. Proof indeed that the essence of being The Special One is the essence of "what if? Click to continue reading...

South Korea have bucked the trend in international football by hiring... a South Korean. Huh Jung-Moo has already done the job once, from 1998 to 2000, but was appointed after the South Korean FA got a "non, merci" and a "thanks but no thanks" from Frenchman Gerard Houllier and Irishman/Yorkshireman Mick McCarthy respectively. Click to continue reading...

The Socceroos finally have a new manager and it's.... another Dutchman. Pim Verbeek is the man chosen to guide the Aussies through their first Asian World Cup qualification experience, with the obvious goal of being amongst the 32 teams taking up hotel space in South Africa come 2010. Fellow Dutchman Guus Hiddink is arguably Australia's [. Click to continue reading...

Apologies for the awful pun, but that's the sort of thing happens when someone is about to break football's number one rule: never go back. Word from De Telegraaf is that Frank Rijkaard is on the KNVB's four man shortlist to replace the departing Marco van Basten as Netherlands coach post-Euro 2008. If your memory's [. Click to continue reading...

Netherlands boss Marco van Basten and his assistant John van't Schip will be stepping down after Euro 2008. It's been an interesting spell for the former AC Milan striker. He had no first team managerial experience when he took the Dutch job, but had spent a few years studying coaching and also some experience with [. Click to continue reading...

Dick Advocaat has finally almost said sorry to Australia for the dramatic flip-flop that saw Tricky Dick sign up as the Socceroos new coach in August and then pull a u-turn to stay at Zenit St Petersburg in November. What he actually said was "I feel very sorry for them" because Australia still have no [. Click to continue reading...

When you think of great names associated with the World Cup, Lothar Matthaus' name has to come somewhere near the top. Matthaus represented Germany on the big stage five times, captaining the county's 1990 World Cup winning team. As has been the case with other former great players, Matthaus hasn't had as much success as [...] Click to continue reading...

When you think of great names associated with the World Cup, Lothar Matthaus' name has to come somewhere near the top. Matthaus represented Germany on the big stage five times, captaining the county's 1990 World Cup winning team. As has been the case with other former great players, Matthaus hasn't had as much success as [...] Click to continue reading...

They are a country that does not train at home, play games at home and where the majority of the players do not live at home. Despite the obstacles Iraq miraculously captured the 2007 Asian Cup. Will this success carry over through 2010 World Cup qualifying? We will see in just a [...] Click to continue reading...