Since i last posted, here are just some of the faces that have set their own destiny on football’s ever-slippery pole.

Taxi pleeeeaassse!!!!

King Kev illustrates just how much he loves Mike Ashley

Guys, the goal is THIS WAY!!!

Anton, you're supposed to be defending this bloody goal!

OK, fair enough, I'm off. (Wait 'til Elton hears about this!)

A Director of Football can work, dammit!

For every down, there’s an up …

I'm your man guv'nor, trrrifffic.

What's wrong with a cockney mafia?

Who said it's grim up north, mate? Why Aye Man!

We’re only a few months into the season, so who ’s to say the top lot won’t replace the bottom lot by season’s end. Stranger things have happened, you know?

Did i miss anyone out? Who would you have added to this lot?

For how long, who knows, but COTAHT is back.

The Bitch is Back.

The quarter finals are here, and every match-up makes the mouth water. Well, the Turkey-Croatia game will be good, at the very least.

Germany-Portugal, Turkey-Croatia, Holland-Russia, and Spain-Italy has a little something for everyone. Each game promises much and, fingers crossed, will deliver. 

This is definitely ’sqeaky-bum’ time, but in a refreshing way, winning in this tournament seems to have been more about how well you can attack than how well you defend. Spain, Holland, Russia, Croatia, and to a lesser extent Portugal, have all shown that a positive approach to the game (meaning let’s go forward and score as many goals as we can) will bring rewards. This is marvellous to see in a day and age where many ’big teams’ have resorted to playing with a single striker and a packed defence/midfield. Winning ugly, i think it’s called, but is it the beautiful game? That’s up for argument. 

So on to today’s game, Germany-Portugal. Can Ronaldo live up to his increasingly large reputation as the current world’s best player (with the dodgiest haircut)? Will Podolsky keep on hammering them in? Will Germany’s entertainingly dodgy keeper ensure an early bath for his side? All questions, no answers yet, but i’d get the taps running now, Jens, if i were you.

Sweden out. The team which always makes it to the qualifying rounds of every  tournament were a shadow of their former selves. Jlungberg, Larsson et al looked a step behind and a yard back from the nimble Russians.  Sad to see “Henky” exit without a goal, but at 36, playing in elite international tournaments is beyond him (and a few others too). See you lads, good luck when you get home! (to a merciless Swedish press!) 

But as Sweden were bad, Russia were exceptional. Quick, slick, and mercilessly naive, they attack at every chance and play the type of one touch football that has sportscasters drooling (when it’s Brazil). 
Lucky Guus has (yet again) turned a very ordinary national team into genuine contenders. And as i  mentioned in an earlier post, their key players are now turning up. If they play to their potential, and seize their moment, great things could happen.  If they choke, it’s one ‘dreadful flight’ and they’ll be ’Back in the U.S.S.R.’

 The Russians meet the Netherlands on Saturday, which surely is the purists’ pick of the quarter final matches, no? Either way, it promises to be a cracker.

P.S. Makes you wonder why this man has never been seriously considered for the English national team job, given his knack of making the proverbial silk purse from sows ears.