If you are a big football fan, you should check out football scores for today.
Joey Barton was Newcastle's undoubted player-of-the-season last year. The pinpoint accuracy of his crosses ensured Andy Carroll scored bags of goals in the first half of the season, and ultimately led to Newcastle's securing an outrageous £35 million for the big lad. Not subject to the chance of the roulette-wheel, Barton's crosses made the ball land on the number nine every time.
Argentine hotshot Sergio Aguero has signed for Man City in a deal believed to be worth £38 million. He's regarded as one of the most promising players in the world. Could he be the final piece in the moneyed jigsaw that is Manchester City? Comments please.
Robinho was influential in Brazil's 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland. How it pains me, an Irish Man City fan, to see Robinho, a man who couldn't score a goal to save his life at City, score one and set up another against Ireland. He's been having a go at Mancini in the press, so unless the Italian is gone by the time Robinho's loan spell at Santos runs out, I can't imagine him playing another game at City. I wonder if his return to form will yield bigger money for the Blues than would have been possible before he was let go on loan?
In yesterday's Irish Times, Andrew Fifield lamented the relative dearth of quality films about football. And he's right: when compared to Field of Dreams, The Full Nine Yards, even Friday Night Lights, football can't really compete with traditional American sports. The Firm, Green Street, Bend It Like Beckham, each one worse than the next. The Damned United, he argues, is just about the only decent film about football. And still, he's right.
Only he forgot one, an all-time classic in my household. There's Only One Jimmy Grimble has everything you want in a family film: high farce, Manchester City, adversity overcome, dreams realised and Robert Carlyle. And, more than most films about football, it feels rather authentic. If you haven't seen it already, you should.