It's been a quiet weekend for our exiles in Britain with just three Irishmen finding the net for their clubs in league games on Saturday and few of the contenders for places in Brian Kerr's team against the Norwegians doing much to catch the manager's eye.
Away from home
Steve Finnan, Kenny Cunningham and Steve Staunton (a 19th-minute sub for Villa in their win over Chelsea) all helped their teams to wins that pretty much wrapped up Premiership status for next season, while the likes of Shay Given, Dean Kiely and Kevin Kilbane were reported to have played well in their respective team's defeats
John O'Shea missed the win over Blackburn and Roy Keane started it on the bench while at the other end of the league Richie Foran sat out Carlisle's defeat by Rushden and Diamonds due to suspension.
Somewhere in between, Graham Coughlan (Plymouth Argyle), Brian O'Callaghan (Barnsley) and Sean Devine (Exeter City) all managed to find the net.Performance of the week, though, goes to Richard Dunne who helped Manchester City to the club's first way win of the year with a strong showing at Tottenham on Friday. Kevin Keegan seems intent on ditching the Dubliner at the end of the season while Dunne says he is desperate to stay.
Gazza cracks in China
For anyone who was fooled by the unnamed airport worker quoted in the Daily Mirror this week into thinking that Paul Gascoigne was back on the booze, clarification has been provided by his old mate Jimmy 'Five Bellies' Gardner.
"I asked him where he was going," said the airport worker. "He said 'I'm going to China', then staggered straight on to the plane bound for America.'
The widespread assumption was Gazza was on his way back to the Arizona clinic where he has previously been treated for his alcohol problems. Not quite so, says Gardner. True, he's off to Arizona but the problem this time is depression, fuelled, it seems, not by drink but by life at Gansu Tianma, the Chinese club where he coaches and, occasionally, plays.
"He is fine," said Gardner on Sky Sports. "It is nothing to do with alcohol, he is a little bit depressed. I speak to him three or four times a day," he continued. "He needs to get his head sorted out. He's depressed, he's not happy," Gardner went on, clearly anxious to drive the point home. "You'd be depressed if you were over there. It's not very nice for him out there, it's not a nice place to live."
It would seem safe to assume Gazza will be turning his back on the Chinese game when he recovers from this bout of depression. Well, no actually. "He's not finished with them yet," insists Gardner, "definitely not, (but) they have not got a game for 34 days."
No French leave
Quite a bit of excitement on the Birmingham City website over the weekend with much talk about the interview contained in today's matchday programme for the game against Southampton in which Christophe Dugarry answers the $64,000 question, "do you still expect to be at the club next season?"
Only last week, of course, the Frenchman was quoted in a national paper as saying (with just a hint of glee), "my agent has told me that we have a few other opportunities for next season. I am free in the summer. I can go. I can choose my destination."
Maybe we're just cynics but here on Planet Football but we're betting that the former Bordeaux player was feeling a good deal more settled when he did today's interview.
Cop a load of that
When the Georgian government assured UEFA last week there wouldn't be any trouble during Russia's rescheduled game in Tbilisi at the end of this month it seemed a a rather hollow assurance. After all, the fans had pelted Irish players with all sorts of missiles during the second half of our game there.
UEFA ordered the game to be played behind closed doors and the game is now expected to be played in front of just 150 people, half of them journalists, the rest officials from the two associations. The local authorities, though, are still taking no chances, it seems. At the weekend it was announced that there will be 3,000 police in the ground during the match.
Striker foots the bill
We all know what an influence footballers can have on our young people and so it's to be applauded when clubs take action to stamp out particularly irresponsible behaviour on the part of their top players.
Still, it did seem just a little harsh when South African outfit Kaizer Chiefs announced this week they would be fining former international striker Phumlani Mkhize for indiscipline after the player accidently shot himself in the leg at his home.
"We are sorry about what happened to the player but he is setting a bad precedent," said a club officials.
Blades
Forget all that pasta guff, it was revaled this week that over at Sheffield United they feast on baby food before heading out for big games.
"The team has worked incredibly hard on fitness all season and we're always willing to try different nutritional products to boost the players' energy and performance," said Dean Riddle, the club's fitness coach. "The players love the Cow & Gate Chocolate Rice Sandwiches that we have been providing for them and they're a great snack for the players to improve carbohydrate levels before and after a game."
Quotes of the week
"We're pissed off."
- Bayern Munich president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge explains the thinking behind Franz Beckenbauer's claim that the club might resign from the Bundesliga and apply for membership of Italy's Serie A over allegations that Bayern had acted improperly by agreeing its own marketing deal three years ago.
"We'll be back next season (but) not necessarily in the Premiership."
- Could Mick McCarthy be hinting at life in the first division for Sunderland next season?
"I understand the club is in a difficult position but I cannot go to the supermarket and buy groceries for my family with shares."
- Jaap Stam (currently on 40 big ones a week at Lazio) points out the flaw in the club's request that the players accept their pay in shares for the remainder of this season.
"It would be good if he (Solskjaer) came out now and said publicly it (the alleged elbow by Sol Campbell) was an accident. But it was a Manchester United player, so we don't expect him to do it."
- Arsenal's Patrick Vieira bemoans the demise of the Corinthian spirit.
