Middlesbrough shocked most football fans when they sacked Gareth Southgate on Wednesday.
Southgate managed to survive last season’s relegation and was doing well this season, having guided the club to within one point of the top of the Championship. So why did the axe suddenly fall?
90minutesonline spoke to Andy Morgan and David Meehan of ComeOnBoro.com about the current situation, and a few other things besides.
It has been argued for the last ten years that the Premier League is the best domestic league in Europe and therefore the World. There are strong arguments for it, although it could be said that it's mostly an English mantra. At the same time many foreign players have also endorsed the view, namely those that have played in it.
Meanwhile La Liga is usually the other domestic league to be named as a potential rival to this crown. Judgements are based upon the wealth of each league as well as other factors such as attendances and of course the stature of the players the clubs own. We know that as far as attendances, the Premier League wins hands down.
Benfica reportedly have the most fans in the world and in the 1960s were arguably the best team in the world. They won what was then the European Cup - now the Champions League - twice and were runners up three times.
Now they’ve gone five years without winning the Portuguese league, sit firmly in the domestic shadow of Porto, and are playing in the Europa League. 90minutesonline spoke to PlanetBenfica about the club’s present and future.
Robert Lewandowski silenced some of his critics as he scored the only goal in Lech Poznań’s 1 - 0 win over current Ekstraklasa champions Wisła Kraków.
Lewandowski slipped between two defenders to collect Semir Stilić’s looping pass and coolly slide the ball under Wisła keeper Mariusz Pawełek.
In doing so he subjected Wisła to their first defeat of the season and reined back the runaway leaders. Wisła now sit only three points ahead of Ruch Chorzów, but still have a comfortable eight point cushion between them and Lech Poznań.
Crunch time came and went on Wednesday night for several nations hoping to qualify for next summer's World Cup. A lot of the group winners for the European qualifying section had been decided before it's final matches. Instead most fans imagination came to rest on the fate of Argentina, who were dicing with missing their first tournament since 1970.
Of course the South American power- house is perennially mentioned as a possible favourite for each and every World Cup. They are a nation who's past achievements seem to fore go any need to worry about form and players, as with Brazil and Germany (amongst others) there is a fear and an aura when it comes to facing them.