Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic...he doesn't even have a Swedish name! What a goal, though. His fourth against England shows just how far Sweden have progressed in international football and the defeat shows just how far England have slipped. The Murdoch Empire, epitomised by BSkyB, has ruined English football to the extent that there are no longer enough English players in the top league of English football to give Roy Hodgson a sporting chance of winning any tournament. Forget Steven Gerrard and the rest of the old guard - sling them out and start again. Look into the lower reaches of the Football League, trawl through the Championship and unearth some diamonds who will do the job for England, starting with Charlie Austin. Like Gary Lineker, he knows where the goal is and is currently the top scorer in Europe (my post yesterday did not give him all the credit he is due).

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Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Reading the story about Frankie Dettori testing positive for a banned substance makes you think that the world of sport is a strange place. Surely the only
athlete involved in horse racing is the horse? If any mammal in the jockey/racehorse relationship needs to be tested for performing enhancing substances it's the horse! The jockey just sits on his mount, points it in the right direction and Dobbin does the rest; the only exertion Mr. Dettori shows is when he leaps off the horse in the winner's enclosure. Does it really matter if he's off his face with some "recreational" compound?

Cycling

Talking of  athletes taking performance enhancing substances, I'm torn between two extremes with Lance Armstrong. Even with the very real probability that he used EPO, blood transfusions and other nefarious means to boost his performance, he still won seven (7!) Tour de France races. Watching him and the other cyclists toiling their way up Alpe D' Hueze, it's not surprising he thought he needed a little pick-me-up in order to get to the summit. I'm sure if I did the same and was drugs tested afterwards, the performance enhancing substance I would have tested positive for would have been a helicopter!

Football

Whatever each Swindon Town fan thinks of Charlie Austin and the way he left the club, we would all probably accept that he was one of the most inspirational signings for the club (Wembley bobble not withstanding). Now he's plying his trade with Burnley FC, he's still scoring for fun and is currently the highest scoring player in all of the English leagues. Why, therefore, wasn't he chosen to represent his country against Sweden?