By Michael Sinnerton

This week has seen some of the craziest stories of the season. Here are my favourites.

• 1) BBC Sport: Ex-England footballer Paul Gascoigne has said that football clubs should not stop players from drinking.

This titbit, which is more ridiculous than Joseph Fritzl offering parenting advice, came following Harry Redknapp's vow to ban alcohol following Ledley King's arrest on Sunday morning.

"It's a little lesson for Ledley King. That's OK. He'll learn from that, there's not a problem, leave the kid alone. What can you do?" said the self-confessed wife-beater about the man arrested on suspicion of GBH.

• 2) Simple but brilliant. The French club Le Mans have just appointed Arnaud Cormier as their manager, with Yves Bertucci serving as his assistant. At the beginning of the season, Bertucci himself was the manager - and his assistant was...wait for it ... Arnaud Cormier.

• 3) (Taken from FourFourTwo.com.) Boca Juniors' hooligan group has begun unofficially offering services to tourists by taking them into the stadium and keeping an eye on them. For a total charge of just £50, apparently less than tourists are usually fleeced, the visitors also get a courtesy call the next day to make sure they had a good time. I wonder if the Glazers might try it.

By Michael Sinnerton

Footballers have managed to get themselves in the news for all the wrong reasons again this week. First Nicklas Bendtner was pictured leaving a London nightclub at 4am on Wednesday, something which goes some way to justifying Arsene Wenger's claims that some of his young stars were in for a marvellous performance that evening. Bendtner's reputation took a boost inside the club when onlookers saw him take some of his most potent shots in weeks. Amusingly whilst the ‘great' Dane has apologised, Wenger, luckily having seen footage of the action having ‘not seen it' at the time, has claimed Bendtner was set-up.

"I was angry - but he has been set up," Wenger said. "People make the story that he was drunk. He was not drunk. He did not put his trousers down, somebody did it for him and somebody was posted there with a camera."

Bendtner's late night made it Arsenal's second humiliating exit of the week, with a source in the Mail saying: "Nicklas was with a group of friends inside the club, and just seemed to want to wind down after his match. But for some reason, his belt was undone as left at 4am and his pants started to slip."

Ledley King, of course, is only fit enough for one night out a week. Tottenham insiders were said to be pleased that King had made it through the action unscathed, especially as there is still the matter of Gareth Bale's victory night out next weekend...or the weekend after...or..

King's ‘chronic knee injury' that prevents him training may well be the new metatarsal with rumours of similar injuries for Dimitar Berbatov, Robinho and Marlon King yet to be confirmed.

by Joe Walton

Martin O'Neil and Harry Redknapp last night showed why they are such well regarded managers by masterminding their clubs' safe passage out of the UEFA Cup.

Both managers sprung selection surprises to bamboozle their opponents into victory. The policy of selecting youth paid off to wow the fans who have paid hundreds of pounds following their teams around the continent in a gloriously unfulfilling campaign.

Speaking after the game O'Neil said: "We had to make changes to the team to ensure that we left Europe in order to concentrate on our league position and qualify for Europe." Villa picked a team lacking 8 regular starters for the away tie against CSKA Moscow, one of the best teams in Eastern Europe, to ensure they were fit for the mouth-watering visit of Stoke on Sunday.

Redknapp was equally aware of the need to prioritise, he said: "Look, I had to make changes to my team. I wasn't going to risk my best players for a second rate competiton, I need them for the Carling Cup." The Carling Cup represents something of a failure for Redknapp, his team meet Manchester UTD in the final despite his best efforts. Who can forget the brilliant way a weakend Spurs team conceded first to Watford, only to blow it all and come back to win.

These two managers must be applauded for taking these tough, long term decisions. After all what do we expect of these mega-rich, super-fit football players? For them to play football?

By Michael Sinnerton 

In a shocking deadline-day twist Tottenham made two late undisclosed bids for Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Carrick. Daniel Levy, through a mouth full of linguini, muttered they were not trying to recreate the team that suffered through pasta-gate. Late moves for Anthony Gardner and Steed Malbranque were mooted but not made in time and may be relived in the summer.

Asked whether it mattered that Tottenham seemed to be moving backward rather than forwards, Levy snapped "We're spending money aren't we?!" David Bentley and Luka Modric have been marginalised and Redknapp is hoping for a line up of: Gomes;Chimbonda;King;Dawson;Assou-Ekoto;Lennon;Jenas;Zokora;Bale;Keane;Defoe. Club sources are said to be heartbroken, and frankly surprised, that Blackburn wouldn't part with Paul Robinson.

Martin Jol has refused to comment on speculation linking him with the job, only muttering under his breath "we should have had the chilli" over and over.

22:18: Pickles the cat settles down on my chest ready for MOTD.

22:23: Carson does a Carson. He always does that.

22:25: Pickles runs away because I wasn't paying her enough attention.

22:26: Carson makes a great save, but it's too late because he's already fucked everything up.

22:29: Tony Mowbray looks like a haunted Robbie Keane.

22:33: The studio pundits are looking fantastically orange.

22:35: Liverpool's vile match against Stoke is inexplicably up second. I hope they show Gerralt's dive.

22:39: Record signing Kitson misses another chance and has yet to score for Stoke, who should probably buy someone slightly more expensive to stop him from being the record signing.

22:41: £20m striking sensation Robbie Keane remains on the bench at the expense of 1) a clearly unfit Torres, 2) the lumbering Ryan Babel, 3) Benitez not fancying bringing on a third sub.

22:42: The MOTD propaganda machine fails to show Gerralt's spectacular dive.

22:44: Benitez has started to go a little bit mental.

22:48: Phil Brown is wearing an elaborate scarf which sort of looks like a big snake wrapped around his neck.

22:49: Marouane Fellaini scores, in spite of his hair being a good yard offside.

22:56: The post-match interviews are filmed in Shakeycam.

22:57: Mikel Arteta appears to be wearing makeup and looks like a beautiful lady.

23:03: Owen has yet another "he usually scores those" moment.

23:05: The commentator keeps bleating on about how West Ham v Newcastle games usually average four goals in an unconvincing effort to disguise the fact that all their commentary is dubbed on afterwards.

23:07: In a borderline racist statement, the commentator says that players from Italy are good at protesting their innocence.

23:09: The racially confused Andy Carroll scores an equaliser. The man looks like a complete tool.

23:16: Ricky Sbragia looks like one of those characters from Beauty and the Beast that were transformed from an inanimate object into a living creature by magic.

23:29: Gareth Southgate appears to have styled his hair like Kazuya from Tekken.

23:35: Gary Megson names only four substitutes who he encouragingly describes as 'just free transfers and kids".

Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro  Lawro 

Joe Walton

This time last year, Harry Redknapp was working out a deal to sign Jermain Defoe at Portsmouth.

This this time this year, Harry Redknapp has worked out a deal to sign Jermain Defoe from Portsmouth.

One of them sulks to the media when he doesn’t get his way, doesn’t turn up to training, follows the money and goes back to a club he left in rancorous circumstances. The other is Jermain Defoe.

After going to the press on numerous occasions, putting pressure on his erstwhile colleague Tony Adams, Harry Redknapp has brought back to Tottenham the same player that left a year ago, but for nearly double the fee.

After the shoddy way both have treated Adams, Portsmouth and clubs before, they deserve each other.

by Joe Walton

What a week it’s been in the Redknapp household. Harry has got a new job which he’s doing rather well in; Jamie has been granted access to a bewildering amount of media with which to praise his dad; and Louise has mastered Mario Kart on the Wii, who would have thought that flopping about like a pissed homeless was the perfect technique?

But anyway back to Harry. 

When I heard that Harry had left Portsmouth for Tottenham I was initially shocked, however that quickly passed as I realised just how much sense it all makes. Throughout his career that cheeky chappy Redknapp has made a point of turning his back on clubs who’s financial clout doesn’t live up to his expectations and moving on to greener pastures. As one website’s headline had it, ‘Rat sinks (another) sinking ship.’

When, just two weeks ago the media was suckling at Redknapp’s teat, as so often they do, talking about how great his 25 years of management have been, nobody mentioned that he left Bournemouth just before they hit real financial trouble. At West Ham he demanded at £10m transfer fund, something he knew he couldn’t get and which made his relationship with the board untenable. At Portsmouth he muscled his way into the job through the role of director of football at the expense of Graham Rix and then quit when Avram Grant was appointed to the same role. Now, just when Portsmouth have financial worries, exemplified by the appointment of Tony Adams on a cut price contract, Redknapp has done it again.

The media coverage of his move has been nothing short of scandalous. There are a number of unanswered questions and concerns. Journalists working for national newspapers should be questioning the time line of the whole affair. Ramos was sacked in the evening and Redknapp was appointed only hours later, however, he claimed that leaving Portsmouth was the ‘hardest decision of his life’. Is it really believable that he could have made this decision so quickly, without some prior contact with Spurs? How much compensation was given to Portsmouth and how has this deal been hammered out? What wage is Redknapp bringing in?

If it is possible, the converage of Spurs now that Redknapp is in charge is even worse.

At the end of Setanta’s coverage of Spurs’ victory against a profligate Liverpool side, Jon Champion closed with “What do we call him? Harry Houdini, Harry Hotspur or just plain Happy Harry?” Someone needs to inform Mr Champion that the use of a prefix does not make ‘Happy Harry’ a plain moniker, it does the opposite. This remark is symptomatic of the incredibly sycophantic coverage that follows Redknapp wherever he goes. Just because he has a laugh and joke with the journalists does not allow them to give him an easy ride.

Worse still are the pundits. It seems that anybody who has ever played football has been obliged to praise ‘Arry and his man-management techniques. Everybody knows that he is a top motivator, but what is he doing specifically at White Hart Lane?

For his part, Redknapp has been fairly understated in the press and has heaped praise upon his players. However, in an interview with Goals on Sunday he told Chris Kamara that he decided to join Spurs because it was his last opportunity to join a ‘biggish club’. A strange statement to say the least. Could he possibly be giving himself space for a bigger move in the future when he outgrows Tottenham?

It will be interesting to see what happens now with Redknapp, not least to see how far his strict recruitment policy of only appointing members of his backroom staff from the Setanta match day team. They still have the same players and the same problems with balance, but they now have a manager who can communicate well, something that Ramos was woeful at. Redknapp needs to keep picking up results until he can redress the balance of the team in the January transfer window.

by Michael Sinnerton 

With all four Premier League teams either top of their Champions League groups or having taken maximum points it's time for that age old argument about the best league in the world.

The Premier League is the most watched league in the world, has the European Champions, the European runners-up and the top four have all made the Champions League final in the last 3 years.

The League still has a veil of unpredictability with Arsenal already losing to Fulham and Hull, Liverpool being held by Stoke and Manchester United by Newcastle. Admittedly the top four will probably end up the same as last year (Aston Villa may challenge Arsenal) but then Spain's top four is likely to contain at least 3 of Barcelona, Sevilla, Atletico and Valencia whilst Italy's will surely contain at least 3 from Inter, Juventus, Fiorentina and Roma.

However the league's second tier sides are where the argument has weakness. With Everton going out of the UEFA cup to Liege, Tottenham bottom of the league and struggling past Wisla. (The two teams to most closely challenge the top 4 in recent years) whilst Valenica and Espanyol (Getafe amongst others) regularly do well in Europe as do AC Milan, Sampdoria and sometimes Lazio.

Having said that Valencia struggled last year, and it may be that Aston Villa and Manchester City may be the Premier League's next strongest representatives rather than an Everton team who may have peaked (at least temporarily). Both Vila and City have the finanical capacity to go one step further something which Spanish and Italian teams probably lack.

The League's wages are higher, the clubs spend more money on transfers and this is bound to attract the best players and managers. If England had Spain's climate there would be very little reason for foreign players not to move.

Despite this there were less goals/game in the Premiership last year than in most of the other European leagues, with the Bundesliga the best value for goals. La Liga still has an element of the unknown and is the breeding ground for young South American talent. The likes of Messi, Aguero, Fernandez and Dani Alves (to name but a few) were always much more likely to join LA Liga, partially due to a technical capacity for football that can arguably not been found in the Premierships  "kick-and-rush" culture.

I am a huge La Liga fan but I don't think you can beat the Premiership for pure excitement and adrenalin.

But my favourite League in the world, despite it's dimunitive size and lack of status has to be the Isles of Scilly (where else) Football League which is a scilly little league with only two teams.

http://www.worldssmallestleague.co.uk/html/league_table.html

The Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers make up the League (a massive 12 game fixture list) as well as having four cup competitions. The league whilst perhaps more predictable than the Premiership (the same two teams make the finals every year) has a charm about it that I can't help but love. Obviously I've never seen a game but the Gunners are running away with the league this year largely thanks to the hugely unheralded Adam May, a part-time retailer who you shouldn't expect to be gracing our shores any time soon despite his impressive goal record.

The Garrison Gunners against Manchester United for a best league in the world title? Don't count on it.