Football Notebook

You can never be sure when telephoto lenses are out to catch you in an uncompromising situation so it was probably wise of England coach Peter Taylor to avoid being snapped with Norman Wisdom in Albania last week.

Thank you to reader Alistair Gourlay for writing to say how much he enjoyed last week's Notebook lookalike of Roy Rogers and Alex Ferguson. Mr Gourlay says that Rogers did indeed have a real link with Scottish football.
Back in 1954, the cowboy actor and his horse, Trigger, were the half-time entertainment at a Stirling Albion match when Rogers was touring Scotland. Beats West Ham's cheer-girls any day, he adds.

Another football film is on its way. Mike Bassett: England Manager will star Ricky Tomlinson out of The Royle Family.
The first premise stretches the imagination a little because he's supposed to be a successful Norwich City chief called up to manage England. The second surely doesn't because the producers say the film will also star comedian Phill Jupitus as "a bitter newspaper reporter who actually wants England to fail".
Only reasons of space prevent me from naming the real life hacks he could be modelled on.

Can't quite see Sven-Goran Eriksson reacting like this but you never know.
When Mick McCarthy was told in a lift at Barcelona airport that Luis Figo had scored a last-minute equaliser for Portugal to draw 2-2 with Holland (which meant his Republic of Ireland side went top of World Cup qualifying Group 2) he punched the air and shouted: "You f****** beauty!" Good man.

Among the many oddities about the change of guard at Tottenham is that as George Graham exits stage left, in walks Hoddle's assistant John Gorman.
These two, of course, had a finger-jabbing, touchline row after Southampton beat Spurs 2-0 at The Dell at the end of December.
Shortly after, Gorman spoke about the incident saying: "It was certainly a bit of aggravation between us. We exchanged a few cross words - and it wasn't banter."
Gorman also went on to talk about Graham's position: "The problem George has had with some Spurs fans is that he is tarred with the Arsenal brush. That's been hard for him and because Glenn was so popular at Spurs, he'll always be linked with going back. But we've got a job to do at Southampton and the team is really taking shape."
Three months is a long time in football.

Jumpers but not for goalposts ... if you want proof that it really is a mad world how about the fact that robbers decided to break into Emyln Hughes's house and steal his yellow jumpers.