O'Neill was a hugely animated figure and was lectured by referee Jeremy Simpson after straying from his technical area and down the side of the pitch once too often.

The former Republic of Ireland boss helped Forest win the European Cup twice as a player.

This past week, I was speaking to a well-known journalist with a keen interest in all sports, including golf and soccer. I remarked to him how surprised I was at the manner of Manchester City’s first-leg defeat by Liverpool in the Champions League, despite their Premier League dominance all season, writes John McHenry.

It’s a doozy, as quiz questions go: When did James Ryan last lose a game of rugby?

In many ways it was the perfect Champions League moment, writes Tommy Martin.

The daily newspapers had hardly been bundled onto shelves around the country on Wednesday morning when word arrived that Peter Schmeichel wouldn’t talk about Roy Keane when he arrived in Dublin yesterday.

Jonathan Sexton has called on Leinster to learn from last weekend’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Clermont Auvergne, as the province get set for a return to Guinness PRO12 duty against Glasgow Warriors on Friday.

There’s been some fanciful talk that, with Manchester United’s 0-2 win away to Zorya — and its confirmation of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s belated arrival as a significant influence — Jose Mourinho might well have negotiated one of those famous ‘turning points’ so beloved of teams in, to put it at its most charitable, transition.

A photo in the papers on Thursday morning, from the previous night’s PSG-Man City game, pretty much sums up where we’re at as football negotiates the fabled run-in.

Mike Sherry believes the majority of Munster supporters still have the players’ backs but the hooker would rather the naysayers either go on board with them or stayed away from games.

Ronan O’Gara believes assumptions Ireland will “take” France at Rugby World Cup is dangerous talk, and warns the French players have never been fitter during the Pierre Saint-Andre reign.

Arsenal are just one player short of being ready to dominate Europe, according to shareholder Alisher Usmanov.

Jose Mourinho insists he is not motivated by the thought of matching Roberto Di Matteo’s achievement of winning the Champions League with Chelsea.

Jose Mourinho can build a Chelsea dynasty to rival Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United reign and become “the greatest manager of all time”, according to Harry Redknapp.

An impressive snapshot. It’s the mid-1970s. Flanked by two of Germany’s greatest ever players, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller, Noel Campbell strides towards the dressing rooms.

As far as Real Madrid are concerned, there is no debate to be had – Alfredo Di Stefano was, quite simply, “the best footballer of all time”.

I don’t think I’m alone in this, but more and more recently I find myself saying something which I once thought would be the last words I’d ever say: I hope Liverpool win the title.

It’s a very easy question to ask Martin O’Neill, but a fiendishly difficult question for Martin O’Neill to answer.

It’s almost three years to the day that ESPN’s fabulous 30 for 30 series came into this column’s life.

The French Rugby Federation is on a collision course with clubs from the Aviva Premiership and Top 14 as the dispute over the future of the Heineken Cup continued to escalate.

Man United fan Jim Cahill has followed the club all his life. He writes about what it was like to be a fan before Ferguson arrived and what it might be like after his departure

AMLIN CUP QUARTER-FINAL:

Size, naturally, depends on your perspective.

A top French rugby official insists he has no concerns about the future of the Heineken Cup.

Brendan Rodgers warned that Liverpool “can’t keep looking in the rear view mirror” after admitting they were nowhere near challenging at the top of the Barclays Premier League.

Set the Giddy-o-Meter to ‘eleven’; in the Van Persie deal, United have found the means to attract, sign, and then pay, a genuinely top class, peak-of-career player, for the first time in years.

In May 2002, France were in much the same situation as Spain 2012. For one, they were undeniably among the greatest international sides of all time. Two, they were chasing history as the opportunity presented itself to become the first country to win three major trophies in a row. Three, their players were absolutely dominating the club game and, four, their youth system was the envy of Europe.

The sight of Glasgow’s players doing a lap of honour in the wake of defeat in Saturday’s RaboDirect PRO12 play-off captured perfectly the fact this was a game where they had everything to gain and Leinster everything to lose.

The life of a great football team is brief: as the great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann observed, “the third season is fatal”.

Ryan Giggs, Dimitar Berbatov and Patrice Evra were all absent as Manchester United headed to Amsterdam on their first Europa League trip this morning.

PARIS in the springtime, the high veldt in summer, Thomond Park on pretty much any Heineken Cup weekend you would care to choose: none are appealing venues or scenarios for a visiting rugby team.

ROBERTO MANCINI claims it will take years for Manchester City to match Manchester United’s famous mental strength.

JOE SCHMIDT may have been frustrated by Leinster’s missed opportunities but at least he left Bath with a valuable Heineken Cup victory. His opposite number, Ian McGeechan, was equally vexed and had nothing but a losing bonus point to show for his developing side’s efforts on home soil.

Despite the recent power-shift in Irish rugby from Munster to Leinster, one which has seen Jonathan Sexton promoted to Ireland’s first choice fly-half, Ronan O’Gara believes he has plenty to offer Ireland in the World Cup.

RONAN O’GARA has staked his claim to the starting fly-half berth by claiming Ireland’s number 10 jersey is up for grabs at the Rugby World Cup.