Attacking absences do not excuse Mourinho’s lament.

SHORT of some fiendish combination of brainwashing, kidnapping, bribery, rule-bending, and sending time’s arrow into reverse, Ireland’s only hope of seeing Jack Grealish grace the Aviva Stadium in the summer is if England top their Euro 2020 group and so contest a round-of-16 game in Dublin, potentially against Germany.

SO, it was Man United against lower league opposition in the Cup, and it was a six-goal winning margin to boot but, really, it was the mud what done it.

How very West Ham. The club’s owners twice gave Manuel Pellegrini an ultimatum that he must win his next match to avoid the sack, and twice saw their side win.

Greetings from Tbilisi where, after a long haul that saw us checking into our hotel at 4.30am, a modest proposal formed in my addled brain: I think Istanbul should be twinned with Limerick Junction.

Wow, this Aaron Connolly kid looks pretty good, are we sure he’s not English? Like, really sure?

Aston Villa cruised into the Carabao Cup fourth round, with substitute Jack Grealish sealing a comfortable 3-1 win over a young Brighton side.

Jack Grealish has stressed the importance of Aston Villa cutting out the mistakes following Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Bournemouth.

As Fulham found out last season, spending is no guarantee of survival in the Premier League.

Newly-promoted Sheffield United are closing on a €6.6m move for Ireland international striker Callum Robinson.

So that’s Thursday nearly wrapped up. Here are some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

Jack Grealish and Declan Rice would still be playing for the Republic of Ireland but for weak relationships between former manager Martin O'Neill and underage coaches, according to Stephen Kenny.

Deep into this summer like no other for in-demand Luca Connell, the green of Ireland rather than Celtic constitutes his main attraction.

Following three championship campaigns where the Galway management’s consistency of selection was near impeccable, the county’s hurling team no longer picks itself.

Anthony Daly I was below in Cork the day that Galway played Carlow two weeks ago. It never even entered my head to check the result because I thought it was a foregone conclusion. Yet when I heard Carlow were just three points behind with eight minutes remaining, I honestly wasn’t that surprised.

The star of Stephen Kenny’s Ireland U21 soccer team, Connor Ronan, has assured Ireland fans that he has no intention of emulating Declan Rice by defecting to his homeland, England.

David Clifford is in line to make his first start for Kerry this season as he is named in the full-forward line in tomorrow’s final round Division 1 game in Roscommon.

Sunday’s league semi-final will tell Galway manager Micheál Donoghue whether the fringe players he has persisted with throughout the spring are capable of making an impact come championship, according to former Galway forward Niall Healy.

Josh Cullen is a London-born midfielder and West Ham United employee and he has just been called up to the senior Ireland senior set-up for the first time as a late addition to Mick McCarthy’s squad.

Galway advanced to the semi-finals of the Allianz League thanks to an impressive display in the second-half when they were playing against the wind at Pearse Stadium.

As The Who once put it: meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

For such a brilliant football team it is amazing how many boring football matches Manchester City are involved in

There used to be a sign in Dalymount Park that read, “Stay off the pitch — the club can’t afford the fines and neither can you.” The self-effacing humour meant the sign hit home more than the sombre PA announcements before matches you hear nowadays, but recent events have brought the issue of football fan behaviour back in the spotlight and it’s no laughing matter.

Birmingham City fan Paul Mitchell, 27, has been jailed at Birmingham Magistrates' Court for 14 weeks for assaulting Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish.

Here are all the latest headlines this lunchtime...

A 74th minute strike from Shane Bennett decided a game of two halves in stormy weather at Walsh Park this afternoon.

Galway split their squad at the weekend, with half of them playing Ballygunner in a challenge match in Claregalway and the remainder brushing Laois aside in their opening game in Division 1B yesterday at Pearse Stadium.

Alan Hutton's superb solo goal sealed Aston Villa's thrilling 4-2 derby win over Birmingham.

It might only have been a cameo in training but Martin O’Neill seems to have been much taken with the impression made by Michael Obafemi on his first day with the senior squad in Abbotstown.

Martin O’Neill has described the idea that he should have capped Declan Rice against Moldova last year – and thus secured the player’s future as an Ireland international - as “kind of crazy”.

Even on the back of a painful hiding, one game into a new campaign might seem a bit too early to be talking about crisis.

Once when asked to describe jazz, the famous pianist Thomas Fats Waller replied, “if you don’t know by now, don’t mess with it”. The quote is both sanitised — a four-letter word other than mess was used — and often misattributed (to Louis Armstrong).

Martin O’Neill has appealed to Irish supporters not to be too quick to judge Declan Rice after the manager revealed the player is weighing up his international future and, consequently, has not been included in the latest Ireland squad.

International football is these days resembling a transfer market and this time Martin O’Neill is nursing the bloody nose.

Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce has warned Tottenham there is no cheap solution in their pursuit of Jack Grealish.

The visit of Pope Francis to Knock at the end of August has impacted on club championship matches in Mayo.

Aleksandar Mitrovic has continued his remarkable goal-scoring form for Fulham.

Aston Villa owner Dr Tony Xia has challenged their Cork-born midfielder Conor Hourihane to perform his Irish dance party-piece if Villa secure promotion back to the Premier League.

Declan Rice may have a decision to make on his international future after England boss Gareth Southgate revealed he was monitoring the Ireland U21 midfielder.

All three Aston Villa goals were scored by Irishmen.

Ireland won’t be part of the summer World Cup spectacle but there remains some burning issues for the game here in the year ahead.

Liam Mellows claimed their first Galway SHC title in 47 years with a composure that belied their final inexperience in Pearse Stadium.

For the first time this summer, Limerick’s U21 hurlers were made to sweat.