1. “No one overrates himself quite as self-deprecatingly as Harry, it must be said, and the excerpts on the big job constitute his self-elevation into that exclusive club of Greatest England Managers That Never Were.
“The only thing he doesn’t seem to have the answer to is why in the name of sanity he Never Was, despite having been cleared of tax evasion two hours before Fabio Capello resigned.”
Marina Hyde takes a good long look at Harry Redknapp in The Guardian.
2. “Rowan’s cage name was Freight Train, but he was more like a caboose — plodding and slow, a bruiser whose job was to fill out the ring and get knocked down.
He was what the boxing world used to call a “tomato can.” The term’s origins are unclear, but perhaps it’s as simple as this: knock a tomato can over, and red stuff spills out.
Rowan certainly wasn’t in it for the money. He was an amateur who loved fighting so much he did it for free.”
The New York Times’ Mary Pilon (with the aid of some stunning illustrations) gives cage-fighting some of the glamour of boxing’s bygone days.
3. “This flick and score, in the most northerly game of Gaelic football ever played, is a seminal moment in the history of Gaelic games. It says little of where we have come from, but a whole lot about where we are going.”
4. ”To heighten England’s sense of injustice, it was Koeman who stepped up to score. His first effort was charged down by Ince, but he made no mistake second time around, with ITV commentator Brian Moore’s prophecy of “he’s going to flick one, he’s going to flick one” proving accurate as he curled the ball into the top corner.”
20 years on from Graham Taylor’s infamous moment, Tom Rostance looks back at a pivotal game in English football history for the BBC.
5. “It’s become an urban footballing legend that Germany’s away shirt is green in homage to Ireland being their first opponents after the end of World War II. Except it’s not true.”
PogMoGoal.com go all Mythbusters on us for this history lesson before Friday’s defeat to Germany.
