Well, here's a surprise. Peter "Prudent Financial Genius" Ridsdale is at the head of a club that is facing administration and battles with creditors. Sound familiar? Of course it does... because our friend Peter is responsible for the fall (and to be fair, the meteoric rise before that) of Leeds United Football Club. I'll never really be too harsh on him, because I hated Leeds, but really... who hires an administrative head who spends £250,000 a year on tropical fish, £11m on Robbie Fowler, and gives Seth Johnson a first and final contract offer of £50,000 a week.

Well, Cardiff City did.

I'm not sure what exactly they had in mind when appointing Ridsdale as Chairman, but it certainly wasn't common sense. Ridsdale was initially appointed in 2006 as Vice-Chairman to help with Cardiff's project for a new stadium (this is the man who borrowed £60m against future gate receipts at Leeds, and lost the stadium in the process), but was made Chairman when Sam Hammam stepped down. Quite what struggling Cardiff expected, i'm not sure, but they also seemed to have ignored the fact that in between these two forays, he was responsible for buying Barnsley and almost sending them into liquidation.

Ridsdale has now warned Cardiff fans that the club could go into administration if they lose their legal battle against Swiss firm Langston, who are their biggest creditors. Cardiff owe them £30m, and the Bluebirds are insisting that they don't have to pay the money back until 2016, whereas Langston want it NOWWWW.

Said P.Riddy - "If we were to lose we would go straight into administration - it's a straightforward situation, the club's Championship status would be determined by the amount of points we collect come the end of the season, minus 10." Recently relegated Leeds and Luton have both suffered the 10 point administration penalty, and it's no joke for a struggling side.

Amusingly enough, the Stadium project which he was brought in for over a year ago is still unfinished. The Cardiff City council had granted them unconditional funding for the project, which involved a new stadium and accompanying athletics facility to replace the ruinous Leckwith Athletics site in the city. However, this is severely in doubt now, and if the club went into administration, the council would most certainly rethink its decision for unconditional funding.

Said P.Riddy again - "In terms of the stadium it would depend who buys the football club, whether they prove to be an acceptable partner for the council and whether they have enough money to finish the stadium, which would probably be about £20m."

Excellent stuff Peter! Cardiff now have to find approximately £50m pounds to complete the stadium AND satisfy their creditors (assuming the case is lost).

Merry Christmas to Inter Milan fans!

Love,
Dida Claus

This will sound especially bizarre after Portsmouth's humbling at the hands of Liverpool today, but Harry Redknapp was the right man for the England job. That's not to say that Fabio Capello won't do well, but Harry had everything that was needed. He's great at getting the best out of what he has, he's worked with several of the players before, and he likes his teams to attack.

Sven Goran Eriksson was by far the most successful manager that England have had in recent years. Critics complained that he had failed to win England a major tournament, but then who had? They're a side that haven't done fuckall since 1966, and the unfortunate Sky and Premiership hyperbole seems to have players and fans alike believe that the England squad is far better than it actually is.

What ultimately really got the fans on Sven's back, was that England didn't play exciting football. They played result-oriented football, to the best of their abilities, and when faced with the world's best, like Brazil, Portugal and France, they couldn't survive. They always managed to compete though, and were never massacred, but the players weren't upto the level of technique where Sven could trust them at.

This year, after City's rousing start to the season, the press asked Sven why England never played like that, and his simple and honest answer was that he never had a player like Elano as England manager. That's the basic truth to all this - the present England players are lacking heavily in technique and skill, and so they have to be organised in a way that compensates for this, and that requires a tremendous amount of humility, which the players simply don't have.

Capello is an angry man with a big personality, and he will make sure the players do what he says, and he won't mince his words. But if people thought that Sven's brand of football was uninspiring, they will be in for even worse with Capello. His only focus is winning, and he doesn't care about style or substance or anything as long as he gets 3 points.

He's also a stereotypical Italian tactician, and his lack of English is going to hamper his communication to his players. Additionally, he's never managed an international team, so it will be interesting to see how he does with England, since he only has the players together for a few days every month. My guess is that he'll strip the play down to the bare essentials, and the fans won't like it. Neither will the media, and that battle is one of the biggest for an England manager. If the media starts to get on your back, the wheels might just start falling off the wagon.

Now Capello is a strong enough character to deal with all of this, but he's going to have to conduct quite a reality check once he starts. In his first spell at AC Milan, he had Van Basten, Rijkaard, Maldini, Gullit and co. Then at Real, he had Raul, Morientes, Suker and Mijatovic. Back at Roma, he had Totti, Batistuta, Cassano, Tomassi and Emerson. At Juventus, he had Buffon Ibrahimovic, Vieira, Del Piero, Emerson, Camoranesi and Nedved. And then back at Real, he had Raul, Ronaldo, Beckham, Cassano, Robinho, Van Nistelrooy, Gago, Guti, and Casillas. That is an awesome array of talent to always have been supported by.

Who does he have with England? Well... Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, and Joe Cole. Gerrard as well is probably just a little bit overrated, but that's essentially the issue. Rio Ferdinand can play a bit when he's not busy with orgies and booze, and Peter Crouch can be a jack-in-the-box, but essentially the England squad is full of very, very limited players, and has no goalkeeper (surely, only the most deluded of fans still believe that Paul Robinson is "world class?).

At his previous clubs he's always been able to request the players that he wanted, but international management doesn't have transfer feers unfortunately. Granted, that's more than OK if you're the manager of Brazil, or Italy or France, but not quite with England. The core group of England players might be as talented as some top sides, but in terms of depth, there's not much. So the key is getting the best out of the players that you have, and that is where Harry Redknapp is excellent.

OK, he is a bit of a wheeler-dealer on the transfer market, but those who've followed him for many years know that it's not what he relies on. Constant injury problems, lack of funds, and switching of clubs mid-season have shown that he organises the team according to the players he has, and can innovate very well. He's never won anything major, but he's shown he can beat the best, and play attacking football.

Also, across the various clubs he's been at, he's had Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Jermain Defoe, Glen Johnson, David James, Peter Crouch, Theo Walcott, Rio Ferdinand, Anton Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Sol Campbell playing for him. That's the core of the England squad right now, and he knows them in-and-out. Plus, he's been a Premiership manager for years, and knows the rest of the players quite well. This is as opposed to Capello, who admittedly says he doesn't know too much about the Premiership, and intends to do homework with watching loads of videos.

Having said all of this, Capello and Redknapp are in two completely different classes of manager. One could take the Italian comparison, and compare Capello to Lippi (two highly succesful, legendary club managers), and Redknapp to Donadoni (canny managers, who have managed small clubs, and not won anything, but know how to organise teams).

I'm in favour of Redknapp in this case, because he would have cost a fraction of what Capello did, and would not have put the pressure on England in such a big way. Now, they've gone for one of the biggest names available, on one of the biggest salaries available, and if they still fail, they one of football's proudest nations will end up as a laughing stock. It's a miracle they aren't already, because anyone who hired Steve McLaren should be.

Just thought I'd bring you this short (and classic) Cruyff snippet from news of the Netherlands hopes of jointly bidding with Belgium for the 2018 World Cup.

It's common practise for federations to get famous (/ex-)players and coaches to act as ambassadors for their bids (e.g. Pele, Beckham, etc), and so it came as no surprise that Harry Been, the secretary of the KNVB (Dutch Football Association), wanted Cruyff to be involved in the publicity surrounding the bid.

Cruyff, being Cruyff of course, says he's ready to be involved as long as HE has control over the submission process of the bid. In a quote form Voetbal International magazine he says:

"In principal I am positive about such initiatives in the Netherlands. If I can help them, fine. I am of course obstinate. I had the chance to train Holland in the past, but that went wrong because they didn't allow me to choose my own staff. I only want to take on the responsibility if I get the full power of decision-making."

And that is Johan Cruyff in a nutshell for you - arrogant, obstinate, outspoken, but also gifted and legendary. Whether it's Ajax, Barcelona or the Netherlands, he's always got something to say, and apparently something to contribute as well.

Let's see how his involvement works out, but could you imagine Pele or Beckham being put in charge of their countries respective bids? HAH!

Some fantastic matchups await fans in Austria and Vienna next summer, after the group stages for Euro 2008 were drawn in Switzerland today. The groups are as follows:

Group A: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey

Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland

Group C: Netherlands, Italy, Romania, France

Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain, Russia

That's some fantastic competition, and although all the groups are tough, Group C will easily be the Group of Death for the tournament.

Group A is interesting with hosts Switzerland joined by the more attack minded Czechs, Portugal and Turkey. The Swiss didn't concede at single goal at last year's World Cup, and their young side will have matured even more now. The Czechs unfortunately suffer from a reliance on the ageing Jan Koller that has been ingrained into their playing style over the years, and the creative burden falls almost entirely on the injury prone Tomas Rosicky. Portugal will be as strong as ever, with clubmates Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani providing attacking wizardry, Deco pulling the strings, and Carvalho, Ferreira, Meira and Miguel provide class and experience at the back. Unfortunately their strikeforce is still suspect - Nuno Gomes is over the hill, and Hugo Almeida is still unproven. As for Turkey, well they will be as unpredictable as ever. They did well at Euro 2000, then finished 3rd at the Korea-Japan 2002, and then failed to qualify for either Portugal 2004 or Germany 2006. Temperamental but gifted, they boast an array of German-based (and German-born!) talent in the Altintop brothers, Nuri Sahin, and Yildiray Basturk. Then there's Nihat (Villareal), Emre (Newcastle) and Tuncay Sanli (Middlesborough). The living legend Hakan Sukur is still soldiering on (37 years old, 112 caps, 51 goal), and Besiktas defender Gokhan Zan is one of Europe's brightest young stoppers. Russia-based striker Hasan Kabze might just have a surprise impact. The Swiss-Turkey match is likely to be bad-tempered and exciting - they fought during the Germany 2006 Qualifiers, after the Swiss knocked out the Turks.

My picks: Portugal and Turkey. Portugal have too much talent and experience. The Czechs no longer have enough quality. The Swiss lack goalscoring ability. The Turks have a huge collection of imaginative, dangerous attackers, and if they click they will cause problems.

Group B will have Germany joined by neighbours Austria and Poland, and nearby Croatia (well, Europe isn't all that big anyways). Austria are severely short of any real talent, and despite the home backing, they're likely to fall short. Croatia have become an excellent unit, with depth in every position. Luka Modric and Niko Kranjcar are fantastic midfielders, and Arsenal striker Eduardo should be settled, fit and in-form by the time the tournament starts. Germany are stalwarts as ever, with Joachim Loew continuing the good work he started en route to Germany 2006. They have a batch of new talents, many of them with question marks over their heads, and a lot will depend on the fitness of Michael Ballack and how quickly the goalkeeping situation is resolved - if Lehmann continues to be on the bench for Arsenal, and Hildebrand continues to start for Valencia, then the latter will be Number 1. Poland qualified very easily, but are an ageing side that lack any genuinely top-class players. However they work well as a unit, and Rasiak and Zurawski work well together up front. 'Keeper Boruc is underrated, and could be one of the best at Euro 2008. This group should see a lot of intense matchups because of the presence of the hosts, and the regional/political rivalries of some of the countries, and the Germany-Croatia encounter will be a fascinating tactical matchup.

My picks: Germany and Croatia. The Germans will cruise through, and Croatia will be too classy and clever for the rest. The Poles might ruffle a few feathers, but will not cause any real surprises. Austria will be happy to get a draw or two.

Group C is going to be the highlight of the early part of the tournament, and sees two pairs of qualifying opponents rematched. The Netherlands have a lot to prove after repeated failures at major tournaments since Euro 2000 was played on their home soil. They have superbly talented players, but too many egos, and poor temperament. Van Persie, Robben and Van Nistelrooy make up a deadly attacking trio, with Van der Vaart, Seedorf and the amazing Sneijder providing the ammunition. The Dutch have one of the most talented squads in the world, but doubts remain over their defensive ability. Italy are Italy, and will always be tough. There are no new names or faces, although Totti has retired from Internationals. Gilardino is in much better form for his club now, and should provide more of a presence. Toni is banging in the goals in Germany. Apart from Pirlo, Italia don't have much creativity, but that's never been their strong suit, and they will always grind out results and get important goals. Romania are a talented but fragile team. They beat the Netherlands in qualifying, and they have a magician in Steaua playmaker Dica. They can also call on Fiorentina attacker Adrian Mutu, and Inter's Cristian Chivu, one of the world's finest defenders. They have a squad full of good technicians, many of whom ply their trade across Europe's top leagues. Finally, France will want to continue their post-Zidane resurgence. They have their old collection of big names like Henry, Trezeguet, Vieira, Thuram and Makelele, but they will be looking to the younger Franck Ribery for creative inspiration now. Ribery's former colleague at Marseille, Samir Nasri, and the two other French-Arab youngsters Hatem Ben Arfa and Karm Benzema (both from Lyon) are capable of sublime attacking magic. Much will depend on Domenech's willingness to give the new faces a chance. In Gregory Coupet, Mickael Laundreau, Sebastien Frey and Ulrich Rame, they have a varied but error-prone set of 'keepers. Apart from the obvious France-Italy and Holland-Romania grudge matches, every game in this group will be fantastic. The Italy-Holland games will be a fantastic battle of wits, tactics and skill.

My picks: Netherlands and France. The Dutch kids will finally come good. France are formidable, and already beat Italy in qualifying. Romania are too inexperienced and fragile. Italy have gotten away with having easy groups in past tournaments (not to mention "friendly" referees), but they will struggle in this mix.

Group D is unlikely to throw up too many surprises. Reigning champions Greece are still coached by German tactical magician "King" Otto Rehhagel, but are unlikely to be able to repeat the surprises of the last tournament. They have an ageing squad, with a sparse amount of attacking talent, and an unproven collection of strikers. But you can never say never. Sweden have always had a tradition of achieving results with average, workmanlike squads with a few gifted players. Previously with Dahlin, Brolin, and Larsson, and now with Ljungberg and Ibrahimovic, they benefit from a solid coaching setup, and a great understanding in the squad of how to play and compete. John Elmander is a very talented young striker who could have an impact. Not much can be said about Spain that hasn't already been said. Traditional flops at the major tournaments, but always blessed with world class players, they will arrive at Euro 2008 with Fabregas, Torres, Alonso, Casillas, Ramos, Puyol and so many other brilliant players in every position. Russia just managed to sneak through after finishing poorly. Hiddink is a great tactician, but with a harmful ego. Kerzhakov is their main attacking threat, and young 'keeper Igor Akinfeev is one of the best in the world, but he might not be fit for the tournament. The Spain-Sweden game is another rematch from the qualifiers and will be the highlight.

My picks: Spain and Sweden. The Spanish will get through the group stage easily enough, whether they can have the impact they should on the rest of the tournament remains to be seen. Sweden might have a few problems, but they will be able to get results. Greece are clever and can take points off the bigger teams, but are one-dimensional. Russia will be lost in the mix. 

Stay tuned during the tournament of course, for all kinds of updates from OleOle - videos, podcasts, blogs, news and more. We might even have a few contests running beforehand for you, and don't forget about our Tickets & Travel section, which will have some great deals to let you watch some great games.