F-f-f-f-oooootball - Your 'Aving a Larf... September 18th 2000 and Ten.

This week it's all about managers who don't turn up, and some who do.

FUNNY OLD GAME
Roy Hodgson is refusing to set any targets for his first season in charge of Liverpool.
A wise decision maybe, as former Scouse boss Rafa Benitez GUARANTEED Liverpool would finish in the Top 4 last season, only for them to finish 7th.
Rafa is now at Inter Milan, who ARE in the Champions League this season and in the group stages play last season fourth best Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur.

SACRON BLEUR
THE current French Football Teams Technical Director and occasional Aston Villa manager GERRARD HOULLIER is another man who refuses to get too carried away at press conferences.
He told Villa fans he hopd he would get the team back to a position 'between 6th & 12th in the Premier League.
With ambition like that, it's easy to see how France crashed out of the World Cup in the group stages in South Africa losing To Mexico & Uruguay.

STOKE 2 ASTON VILLA 1
Stoke announced before kick off that manager Tony Pulis would not be at the game due to the death of his mother (he actually arrived on the touchline 4 mins after k/o)
With Gerrard Houllier missing for Villa, this must be the first time a Premier League match has kicked off WITHOUT AN ACTUAL MANAGER.
A Premier League match without a manager?? Maybe it COULD catch on...




GRANT Granted Time Off For Religious Behaviour
Avram Grant has been allowed to miss the forthcoming fixture against Stoke to observe Yom Kippur.
So that's two matches Stoke have played against managerless teams. Perhaps they've been doing their own praying.

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EUROPE

MAN UNITED 0 RANGERS 0Resting 10 players from saturdays game against Everton backfired on Sir Alex Ferguson as they failed to beat Scottish champions Rangers.
In future he'll only rotate that many players against Wolves.


Messi at The MarshesLionel Messi was on Hackney Marshes on wednesday, part of a promotion for a boot sponsor, he also went to Brick Lane but never had a curry.
If only Orient had been able to reschedule the Brentford cup game forward at short notice.
Messi may have graced the La Liga, the World Cup and the Champions league, but it could have been a career highlight for him to have played at Brisbane Road in the JOHNSTONE PAINTS TROPHY.
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