By Chris Wright

Early on Saturday morning Nottingham Forest owner and former chairman Nigel Doughty was found dead, aged 54, in the gym at his home in Lincolnshire.

A Forest fan from birth, Doughty saved the club and I don't use that term flippantly from being reduced to it's component parts and being flogged off to the highest bidders when he bought his football team using nigh-on £11 million of his own personal wealth back in 1999.

By Chris Wright

After three years in charge, a promotion from League One and decent finish in the Championship last year, Leeds United have seen fit in their infinite wisdom to sack manager Simon Grayson with the club 'languishing' in tenth position after losing 4-1 at home to Birmingham last night.

January was another interesting month at the Lamex Stadium. After an unbeaten December and with Stevenage now in the shake up for the League 1 play-offs, Graham Westley was a wanted man. GW and his team were snapped up by Preston North End after weeks of uncertainty over his future. A new era has begun at Stevenage with Gary Smith appointed as the new manager.

Blackpool goalkeeper Matt Gilks tasted Premier League football last season with the Tangerines and now the shotstopper is looking for his side to make a swift return to the top flight.
The Seasiders sit just one point off the play-off places in the Championship table in seventh spot, in what has once again been a very competitive league this term with any side capable of getting a result in any game.

Leeds United have signed MLS star Robbie Rogers on an 18-month contract from Columbus Crew.
The 24-year agreed personal terms on January 10 but had to wait for his work permit to be approved before he could become officially part of the squad at Elland Road.
Rogers was given a taste of football in England in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Newcastle last week but was unable to feature for the reserves because not all of his paperwork had been completed.

A name that has been cropping up since Graham Westley's departure last week is Gary Smith. In fact, Smith is currently the favourite for the job with bookmakers and is reportedly on Phil Wallace's 6 man shortlist along with the likes of Paul Buckle and Paul Ince. However, Smith is the one candidate that not many supporters know much about.

By Alan Duffy

Blues Brothers...

All blessed with good footballing names, Rio, Cole and Jay Dasilva are the latest youngsters to be snapped up by the big boys, after the Luton Town youth players were signed up by Chelsea, each for a five-figure sum.

Well, this is unique. Luton Town announced today that Chelsea have signed three players from the Hatters' youth academy.

According to the Luton Town website:

Brothers Rio, Cole and Jay Dasilva have signed terms with the Blues in separate transfers each worth five figures which will in total net the Town a suitable sum.

Liverpool are considering a January move to sign Swansea City attacker Scott Sinclair after a succession of glowing scouting reports left Anfield boss Kenny Dalglish readying a potential bid for the former Chelsea man.
Dalglish has been monitoring a number of prospective attacking additions as the Scot looks to beef up Liverpool's fire-power after seeing his Merseyside club struggle to find the back of the net.

Liverpool are considering a January move to sign Swansea City attacker Scott Sinclair after a succession of glowing scouting reports left Anfield boss Kenny Dalglish readying a potential bid for the former Chelsea man.
Dalglish has been monitoring a number of prospective attacking additions as the Scot looks to beef up Liverpool's fire-power after seeing his Merseyside club struggle to find the back of the net.

It's a story that has dominated the club over the past 10 days or so. Rumours began flying round that Preston were interested in Graham Westley just a couple of days before the 3rd round FA Cup tie against Reading. At first it just seemed to be rumours. But the rumours didn't stop. Instead, they just gathered pace and it became clear at the beginning of the week that Preston were not only interested in Westley, but that Westley was interested in Preston.

With world champions Spain firm favourites to retain their European crown, it's probably no surprise that their record scorer David Villa features heavily in the betting to be Euro 2012′s leading marksman.
The Barcelona striker is 10/1 to be the tournament's top scorer but will the 30-year-old be in Vicente del Bosque's squad?

With all the pain of the play-offs and the heartache of relegation, should you bring up your kids as Forest supporters? Neil Heath didn't think twice [...] Read the original post on Seat Pitch

Will be relishing a return to a more familiar position

Arsenal and Leeds United become the last 2 teams to play their 3rd Round match of the FA Cup as they take on each other tonight at the Grove. There was no giant-killing acts in this round as what the romance of this competition usually alludes to.

Ah new year, new MLS season. I've said that ad nauseam now, but it's true. And with a new season comes, well, new everything! We'll see new players, new tactics, new matches, new business partnerships... really the door is wide open.

As such, I've decided to compile a list of 2012 predictions.

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.

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has his eye on young Swansea City midfielder Joe Allen and after a lengthy scouting assessment the Anfield manager is said to be considering making a move for the Welsh international.
The pint sized 21 year old has been in fine form this term and has managed to adapt well to life in the top tier and shown maturity beyond his years as he helps pulls the strings in the Swansea City midfield.

Barcelona's system and style is being emulated all over the world by teams at all levels. As accomplished as Barcelona's fluidity and control on both sides of the ball can be, it also appears that they have copied a page out of Marcelo Bielsa's playbook in regards to his high pressing and back 3.

Deportivo Quito are the new champions of Ecuador following their 2-0 aggregate victory over Emelec in the final of the domestic championship.

In order to qualify for the play-offs Deportivo won the second stage of the league, which was played from July to December, topping the table after 22 games with a four point margin over Barcelona de Guayaquil.

Preston chairman has wasted no time in stamping his authority in club, sacking the club's manager Phil Brown barely a week in the job.
Brown took over the Lancashire club last January and was immediately plunged into a relegation battle.
Those who bet on the Championship certainly fancied Brown's men to lose their fight against the drop, which they duly did, given the desperate nature of the situation it did not reflect poorly on Brown.

Bayern Munich are Autumn Champions. Barring a highly unlikely flurry of goals for and against the right teams. More than the virtual trophy, Bayern will cherish the three-point gap, they opened up at the top of the table, taking maximum advantage of the slip ups of both Borussias.

Tigres are the new champions of Mexico following their 4-1 aggregate victory over Santos Laguna in the Torneo Apertura (Opening Championship) final.

Tigres had finished in third place in the regular season table with a record of seven wins, seven draws and three defeats from seventeen games, before going on to defeat Pachuca CF and Queretaro FC in the play-offs on their way to the final.

Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has won the Philips Manager of the Year award after guiding the national side to their first major championship finals in 10 years.
The Italian was in competition with Dublin football manager Pat Gilroy, who led the capital side to their first All-Ireland title in 16 years, Brian Cody, who lifted the Liam McCarthy trophy with Kilkenny, and Leinster's Heineken Cup-winning coach Joe Schmidt.

The FFA and Adelaide United held their breadth at the Asian Casino last night...and won.
United have won direct entry into the Asian Champions League - meaning Australia now has three teams in the group stages for the first time.
More exciting than watching Lou Sticca's fundraiser in Melbourne?

It didn't come as a surprise. Jeonbuk Motors led the K-league from early in the season and were the best team for most of it. Choi Kang-hee's men should have won the Asian title too but had to make do with the domestic title to add to the 2009 crown.
The inevitable came to pass on December 4 in the second leg of the Championship play-off final against Ulsan Horangi.

Evening falls over Sutton, and with it comes the final match of the Second Round of this year's FA Cup. Gander Green Lane has been here before, of course, in 1989 when the team in amber and chocolate knocked Coventry City out of the competition the last time that a non-league club knocked one from the top division out of the FA Cup and also in 1970, when a scarcely-credible 14,000 people packed in here to see Sutton United lose 6-0 against Leeds United in the Third Round of the competition.

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors are South Korean champions for the second time in three years following their play-off triumph over Ulsan Hyundai.

Jeonbuk were huge favourites going into this year's final having finished top of the regular season standings whilst their opponents Ulsan had knocked out FC Seoul, Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Pohang Steelers en route to this year's showpiece.

Universidad de Chile made club history last night by reaching their first ever continental final in South America. The Chilean champions defeated Brazilian giants Vasco da Gama in last night's Copa Sudamericana semi-final 2nd leg by two goals to nil and, thus, went through 3-1 on aggregate.

Gustavo Canales and Eduardo Vargas were on hand to score the goals for Universidad who became the first Chilean team to reach a major final of a South American club competition since Colo Colo played in the final of the Sudamericana in 2006.

This week's Non-League Videos of The Week are a day late, but we think that we they are are worth the wait. This week, we are concentrating on the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy. With a place in the First Round of the competition at stake, this is a competition with a very tangible prize at the end of it a day out at Wembley come the end of the season.

Dear Michel,

You do allow me to call you Michel I hope? I have seen you play at least a dozen times when I was a kid in the Parc des Princes and your unforgettable goals against Bulgaria, Yougoslavia, and Spain to list just a few. I consider you as my favorite player of all times.

I know I'm a few days late, but I was not impressed with this MLS cup. People are talking about how great and "best" this LA Galaxy team is. I'm thinking far from it. It has taken 3 years under the "Beckham Experiment," as SI Soccer Analyst Grant Wahl put it, to finally get the MLS Cup final victory (they were there before but ended up losing to Real Salt Lake).

If Cardiff City's line up for their 2-1 victory at Reading at the weekend was shorn of the strutters that were on show at the time of their last visit to the Madejski Stadium during last May's play offs, the XI still had a familiar ring to it. Refreshingly, the club - and Malky Mackay in particular - have done a lot to win friends among supporters of opposing teams over the past half year.

Following the completion of the Euro 2012 Qualifying Play-Offs, from which Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic and the Republic of Ireland all qualified this week, all sixteen teams that will be participating in Poland and the Ukraine next June are now known.

The Play-Offs saw the eight runners up of the qualifying groups comepte for the four remaining places at next year's tournament and the outcomes of all the games proved reasonably predictable.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In this week's review section, we congratulate The Czech Republic, The Republic of Ireland, Portugal and Croatia on Euro 2012 qualification, while Guus leaves Turkey and Suarez makes the back pages for the wrong reason.

Join the guys as they review United's last dismal push at the end of the season. They also grade overall player performances, pick their best 11 and review the play-offs and make their predictions for the upcoming MLS Cup between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo.

Guus Hiddink is pondering a move back to England after Turkey sacked the Dutchman following their failure to reach the Euro 2012 Championship Finals, going down 3-0 to Croatia on aggregate in the play-offs.

Grab your Euro 2012 Kits at Soccer.com

Presumably there will be consequences for Robbie Keane failing to return to LA Galaxy to prepare for the MLS Cup game on Sunday. We doubt he gives a crap, though. Image: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images.

A bumper edition of results for you today, including the odd sneaky reference to games we *may* have neglected to cover at the weekend.

By Chris Wright

Even Damien Duff can't believe what he saw. No sneaky handballs. No dodgy refereeing decisions. Just delicious, organic, line-caught wild Alaskan qualification.

Thanks to their stonking 4-0 first-leg victory in Talinn, the Republic of Ireland breezed their way unencumbered past Estonia with a 1-1 draw in the return-leg in Dublin last night enough to see Ireland emerge from the play-offs with a 5-1 aggregate winning margin and a spot in the pots for Euro 2012 safely tucked under their belts.

The Euro 2012 play-offs are over and we now know all 16 teams who will be competing in Poland and Ukraine next summer. Barring any injury issues, there will definitely be some Villa interest as the Irish saw out their considerable advantage from the first leg against Estonia to book their place in the finals with a 1-1 draw in Dublin.

Cristiano Ronaldo scores a 40 yard screamer to give Portugal a 1-0 lead against Bosnia and Herzegovina in their second leg Euro 2012 play-offs.

Grab your Euro 2012 Kits at Soccer.com