Despite the fact that the domestic seasons have ended across Europe there has been no hold up in the number of stories going around, and the last few days has seen some interesting developments. Perhaps the story to make people sit up and take notice the most is the strong rumours that are emanating from Southampton FC. The club could really do with some sort of positive news, there relegation to League 1 in April and the ten point deduction that awaits them next season is a far cry from when Gordon Strachan managed the Saints to an FA Cup final just six years ago.
The information that has come out so far indicates that there is a strong likelihood that the club will be taken over today by the Pinnacle Group, which is fronted by former Southampton chairman Leon Crouch. The takeover is tantalising for the clubs fans as it promises the return of Matt Le Tissier in the capacity of chairman of the new board. On top of this there is an intriguing will he, won't he sub-plot that Kevin Keegan is also involved with the takeover.
At what level this may be is not clear though, after the way he left Newcastle it would be hypocritical if it was in a Director of Football capacity, although he has done the role before at Fulham. On the other hand, would he really make another managerial comeback in the third tier of English football- that would be a sensational coup? However people mocked Keegan's return to Newcastle, he still showed that he has an ability at that level and it is quite clear that Mike Ashley and co. would not be in their current predicament if he had stayed as manager last season.
Before any Saints fans get ahead of themselves though, there has been no formal confirmation of Keegan's involvement from either him or the Pinnacle group. Their hope remains that this kind of conjecture is usually quite close to the mark, and the wait should not extend beyond today's expected announcement. Keegan is almost as big a cult hero for Southampton as Le Tissier is, or Alan Ball was (at least as a player), he was prolific in his two seasons at the Dell, scoring 37 goals in just 68 games and pushing the team into the top six. If he does return then it will be fascinating to watch whatever happens, it could be a car crash but Keegan has a tremendous record in getting clubs promoted and it would be foolish to bet otherwise.
Now, for all of you who believe in omens, a good one for England came to fruition on Wednesday. It takes the unlikely form of North Korea who secured their qualification for next summer's World Cup after a 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia. The despot country secured one of the four automatic qualification spots alongside South Korea, Australia and Japan. As far as the omen is concerned, North Korea have only qualified for one previous World Cup finals and that was 1966 In England. They had a memorable tournament as well as some other nation did, defeating Italy on the way to the quarter-finals before blowing a 3-0 lead over Eusebio inspired Portugal!
We all know what happened in 1966, how can we forget, it is after all the perennial yard-stick that every England team since has been compared against. It doesn't really equate to much, but for those of you who like to cling on to every positive, it is certainly a nice statistic to keep ticking over until it all kicks-off next June. North Korea meanwhile will be ecstatic to be playing on the big stage again rather than being over shadowed by their rivals South Korea, who have routinely qualified for every tournament since Mexico 1986 and were famously led to the semi-finals under Guus Hiddink in 2002.
Turning back to the ongoing Confederations Cup, it has been a reasonable tournament so far, with the predictable fore-runners being Spain and Brazil in their respective groups, but perhaps the most entertaining team thus far has been Egypt. The African Nations champions pushed Brazil to the limit in their opening game of Group B, surprising everyone with their capacity to come back from a 3-1 deficit to equalise. The winning penalty that Howard Webb gave to Brazil was correct and fair, but it has been cast into doubt over the way that the referee came to his decision to give it.
It’s an unusual argument when both sides can honestly claim to have the upper hand, but in this case that is what’s happened. The penalty was just, but FIFA have reacted to Egypt’s complaint that Webb used the fourth official in his decision, by removing the monitors around the dugouts. In that way the fourth official will not be able to see television replays on contentious issues and so wipe away some of the doubt over his influence on the referee.
Moving on, Egypt last night managed to overcome their disappointment in the best possible way. They defeated the World Champions Italy 1-0 thanks to a superb headed goal from Homos, that came five minutes before half-time. Even more satisfying for the Egyptians was the fact that they were good value for their victory, they passed the ball well and haven't been intimidated by Brazil or Italy.
The Italians meanwhile have looked sluggish so far and in some respects were lucky to catch a break against the USA in their opening game, in the second half with Egypt they naturally pushed forward and came close to an equaliser but it wasn't necessarily deserved. Marcello Lippi and Italy will have it all to do against Brazil in their final group match if they're to qualify for the semi-finals.
Finally, talking of semi-finals, the England Under-21's made the last four stage of the Under-21's European Championships on Thursday evening. Stuart Pearce's team soundly defeated their Spanish counterparts 2-0 and so made it two wins out of two following on from their defeat of Finland in the first group game. Whilst the performance against Finland had been criticised nonetheless, the game with Spain saw a much more settled and confident England who were even able to afford a missed penalty from James Milner.
Luckily for Milner he was able to atone himself for the miss and scored England's second goal with a little over 15 minutes left, after another superb display of pace from surprise substitute Theo Walcott led to him pulling the ball back for the Aston Villa player. England's first had come five minutes previously thanks to Frazier Campbell who cut inside and finished with aplomb from all of 25 yards. It remains to be seen if Campbell will be joining Hull this summer or if he will attract interest from a more attractive club on the back of his England Under-21's involvement.
England will face Germany in their final group game in a fixture that is always keenly followed, whatever the level may be. It isn't quite a dead rubber as if England were to lose they would then qualify as group runners-up rather than winners, regardless of that the squad should be confident of improving on their semi-final in the last Under-21 Euro's. It may just be that Stuart Pearce has found his management calling for now, I just wonder where or when he will end up back in club management- ideally after lifting the World Cup next summer!? As for his predecessor at Manchester City, we shall soon know if football is due yet another comeback from 'King Kev'...