All in the Game: Sheridan and Perth go head to head

If Bayern Munich’s 8-2 drubbing of Barcelona wasn’t mad enough for you on Friday night then the aftermath of Dundalk’s 2-2 draw with Waterford might have taken things to the next level.

After seeing his team fight back to earn a point at Oriel Park, Dundalk manager Vinny Perth was ready to hit out at comments made by Waterford manager and former Ireland international John Sheridan.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Perth said Sheridan had described the League of Ireland as “a shambles” and “a pub league” – something the Dundalk manager was having none of.

“He may have one up on me, he may have one up on me for the next few weeks and may take the high ground, but you’ve got to have a bit of class about you,” said Perth.

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“This league means too much to people like me. It’s a good league, full of quality, and that behaviour is not good enough.

“He can take the high ground and good luck to him but it’s not a pub league, not a shambles. ‘The reason you are playing at Dundalk is that you are shite’, that sort of stuff.”

Sheridan – who has managed and left seven clubs during his career, including a sacking at Notts County for “gross misconduct” – fuelled the fire further in his own post-match interview by claiming not to know Perth’s name.

But aside from all of that, if Sheridan really does think the domestic league in Ireland is a “pub league” and if he doesn’t know the name of last season’s title winning manager, it probably doesn’t reflect too well on his own CV to be in charge of the team that sits fourth in that “shambles” of a league…

Stoke sitting proudly at Europe’s top table

When Glen Johnson lined out for Liverpool against Chelsea in the 2005 Champions League semi-finals he probably didn’t realise that he would be getting relegated with Stoke City 13 years later alongside a host of other players who have played at the same stage.

After Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting sent Paris Saint Germain into the semi-finals on Wednesday, Richard Jolly revealed a stat on Twitter that seems completely implausible but is, in fact, true.

If Choupo-Moting is to make an appearance for PSG against RB Leipzig on Tuesday it will mean the relegated Stoke squad of 2017/18 will have had players who played in the 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020 Champions League semi-finals.

If you have a few minutes spare try to work out who they are. The full list can be seen on @richjolly on Twitter.

Quote of the week

“You’d want to be selling a lot of pencil cases in the club shop for that” - Brian Kerr is doubtful that any other club could raise the money to pay Lionel Messi €1 million a week.

By the numbers

€5 million: That’s how much Barcelona will have to pay Liverpool if Philippe Coutinho goes on to win the Champions League with Bayern Munich because of a clause in the transfer deal when Liverpool sold the Brazilian. You’d have thought it was enough humiliation that Coutinho came off the bench to score twice against his parent club on Friday…

Word of mouth

“I would describe it now, as the highest form of spoofology” – Brian Kerry never fails to disappoint when on Champions League duty and on Friday he was pretty scathing about Arturo Vidal’s comments that Barcelona are the best team in the world. Turns out that Kerr’s response was definitely more on the money than Vidal’s comment.

“Why are Barcelona playing out from there?!” – Steve McManaman doesn’t seem to realise that Barcelona, rather well known for their passing game, have advanced past hoof-it-out-from the back tactics.

Neymar richer than Atalanta

It’s usually the early rounds of the FA Cup when a big Premier League team plays a club from well down the football pyramid that the stories float around about how half of one team’s bench earns more than the yearly revenue of the entire club they’re playing and so on.

However, you wouldn’t expect to see such a story in the last eight of Europe’s elite club competition. But perhaps it shows just how much Atalanta achieved to reach the Champions League quarter-finals when it was revealed that the entire squad’s yearly salaries combined to less than that of Neymar.

The Brazilian is thought to earn around €35.5 million a year at Paris Saint-Germain, according to L’Equipe, while La Gazzetta dello Sport reported last week that the entire Atalanta wage bill is around €33 million.

And yes, that is ridiculous money for one player to earn in a year but it doesn’t come easy. Don’t forget that a clause in the Brazilian’s contract stipulates he gets a bonus of €375,000 per month (that’s €4.5m a year) for … turning up on time, speaking to reporters and making time for supporters.