I have seldom felt as excited coming away from an Ireland match as I did the evening of April 22, 1998.

Eight years ago this month, I stood behind the goal with the Swedish fans at Boavista’s Bessa Stadium to watch the match that finished off Giovanni Trapattoni as Italy coach.

Manchester City paid £38m for Sergio Aguero because he is a player that can perform rare feats of brilliance with a football.

It is a peculiar feature of this Premier League season that the only team in the top six that has had a season they can really be proud of is Newcastle United.

Chelsea’s demolition job on QPR reflected the euphoria coursing through a club that might be about to record one of their finest seasons under Roman Abramovich with the worst team they’ve had since the Russian arrived.

Things have come to a strange pass when a win for Real Madrid, courtesy of a goal by the world’s most expensive player, feels like a victory for the underdog.

David Moyes’ most formidable enemy at Everton is not the reduced financial circumstances of the club, but the endless adaptability of the human spirit.

Roberto Mancini is not an easy man to work out. After listening to his strange comments after Manchester City’s defeat at Arsenal yesterday evening, you had to conclude he is not an easy man to work for either.

The recent book on judgment and decision-making, Thinking, Fast and Slow, by the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, should be required reading for the people who run football clubs.

Roberto Mancini spent most of last week in a foul mood and Mario Balotelli took the brunt of it.