Of all the great quotes attributed to former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly down the years, perhaps one of his more memorable musings concerned centre half Tommy Smith. Describing his uncompromising defender back in the 1970s, Shankly stated that ‘Tommy Smith wasn’t born, he was quarried.’
It may have escaped your attention last weekend that Paul Scholes scored the opener on what was his 700th career appearance. It certainly didn’t make the headlines in the same way that Hillsborough and Handshakes did. But coming in under the radar is nothing new for Scholes, on or off the field.
This time last year, Scotland manager Craig Levein returned from the world cup 2014 qualifying fixtures meeting. Judging by his demeanour at the time, it's fair to assume Levein was content with his lot - particular emphasis, we were told, had been placed on getting off to a good start in the forthcoming campaign, and two home games against teams considered to be among the weaker sides in the group fitted that bill nicely.
Two wins in three, three in four if you count the Community Shield, Manchester City have made a decent start to their first ever Premier League title defence. With this early season form in mind, it would be easy to forget that City have carried a relatively off colour David Silva as well as being without the goal scoring prowess of Sergio Agüero and Mario Balotelli. The reason these absences haven’t really been felt? That would be Mr Carlos Tévez.
Back in the day, it was customary growing up as a football fan in Scotland to have an English team to support. It didn’t matter a jot which Scottish team you preferred, you had to declare an allegiance to a club south of the border if you wanted to be part of the in-crowd.