Kevin Pietersen defied both coaching manuals and belief. He had just pulled off something that surely no-one else in the cricketing world, past or present, has done and in the process has given the umpires more things to think about. Are new rules going to have to be written?

Are they going to put their future in the hands of Austin Healey, Will Greenwood, Richard Cockerill and Neil Back or are they going to make a move for Springboks,  Dick Muir and Jake White.

Rangers fan is back having been on the most fantastic European tour which culminated in a dismal performance last Wednesday in Manchester. Rangers pure and simply did not turn up and put in the kind of energy the true fans exuded. I never thought we would beat Zenit, and they were there for the taking. I thought it would impact on our League season, and a miracle is needed tomorrow night.

However back to Manchester last Wednesday, and think about all the press you have seen and the blame that has been placed at the feet of Rangers fans for the trouble and shambolic and embarrassing scenes. Firslty before seeing the article I have attached a link to, I have been defending Rangers fans by saying when 200,000 people descend en masse to one place, and 200 misbehave, this is a minority. A minority of mornic twats who have no shame at all. However read this article and tell me why more has not been said.

http://blogs.notw.co.uk/newsoftheworld_scotland/2008/05/english-rent-a.html#more

Arsenal are lining up a ₤10 million bid for Barcelona midfielder Yaya Toure, according to reports…

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger will be looking to bolster his options in central midfield over the summer following the departure of Mathieu Flamini for AC Milan.

The January sale of Lassana Diarra and the declining form of Gilberto Silva leaves Arsenal rather thinner in the middle of the park than they would like, sparking speculation that Wenger will splash out in the transfer window.

And according to The People, the Frenchman has pegged Toure to fill the void left by not only Flamini’s departure, but that of former skipper Patrick Vieira in 2005.

The former AS Monaco man has been linked with Arsenal several times over the last six years, due to the fact his brother and fellow Ivory Coast international Kolo Toure plays for the club.

And with the Toure the elder set to receive the captain’s armband next season, and Barca preparing to enter a new phase under Josep Guardiola, the time could not be riper for Toure the younger to make a ₤10 million switch to North London.

The last time we had a few famous sons racing in Formula One  was a decade ago when Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve raced together at Williams.

Now we have three sons driving at the highest level.

Nelson Piquet Jr  son of Nelson Piquet Sr   has had 3 races for Renault

I went to Hampden last week with the expectation that Scotland would not quite manage to overcome Italy and unexpectedly and miraculously ascertain the second position in the group of death battle with the World Cup Winners, France, and Ukraine. The referee got decisions wrong for both sides, but let's be honest, Scotland the Brave were brave and bold but just not good enough! Alex McLeish is a good manager; he proved it at Rangers and to steer Scotland through as well as he did, was an achievement in itself.

Now to England; what a joke! The squad of players at McLaren's disposal ar easily good enough to win a tournament. So who do you blame and where did it all go wrong? Let's start with the latter. The players were not, or at least did not appear to be motivated. There is something wrong if you can't motivate yourself to play and win for your country. These are highly paid players who apparently pride themselves in wearing the 3 Lions jersey, however last night's display did not evidence this. The players sat back, they did not engage in battle with the Croats or show the passion to tackle and get dirty. It was sad that England got themselves back in a postion to qualify and decided to sit back and absorb the Croats. So to the blame. the pitch was awful but both teams had to contend with it. The FA? They should shoulder the blame for appointing McLaren. McLaren should not be blamed. He has never achieved anything in his career. He is not a man-motivator. He is tactically naive. Terry Venables should shoulder some blame as well as No.2 for not guiding McLaren better, but McLaren was put in a position he should never have been put in, and it was an inevitability the consequence of last night.

Alex McLeish for next England manager?

Most football fans would be excited if their team had seven points from three matches in the "Group of Death". That excitement may be about to be short lived. I am a Rangers fan and have been for 29 years of my life. I bleed blue, never wear green and go up to the matches as much as I can. I went to the Stuttgart and Barcelona home matches and watched the Lyon away victory from abroad. Wednesday I will be at the Nou Camp in the echelons of the stand, at the very back, musing that the excitement of contemplating qualififcation from the group is coming to an end. Yes we have done well, but anyone who follows Rangers can not appreciate the negative tactics of 4-5-1 or 4-6, even in Scottish football where last weekend we could not beat Dundee United. We got lucky against Stuttgart and with Lyon it could easily have been a draw as they hit the bar three times. Now to get a point to Barca is fantastic, and to absorb their pressure for 90 minutes may be one way to do it, however as a fan you want to see your team have a go, make an effort on target, challenge for the ball, and not simply let a classier team stroke the ball around and constantly pepper the goal. So we go to Barcelona thankfully having not lost any more ground on the Septic in the SPL, and I expect that Barca fresh from their 3 nil victory tonight with Henry and Ronny getting a brace, will be fired up and give us a good pasting. We then have to go to Germany, where I expect Stuttgart to take something leaving us with a crunch final game at home to Lyon who will porbably still be able to qualify if they beat us. And we are bottlejobs, hence the excitement dwindles!

Oh to be an Arsenal fan however!

Few issues in relation to Spurs require discussion on this forum?

Has the treatment of Jol been a disgrace? Does his job role of Coach merit that treatment? Has his purchases added to his downfall? Is 4th place an unrealistic target?

You can only feel sorry for Jol. Look at the positions Spurs have finished in consecutive Seasons. He has brought stability to a Club that has constantly underachieved. Daniel Levy may argue this is because of the infrastructure at the Club and the fact players are bought for Jol, however Jol still has to get the best out of these players and gel them together and bring a fluidity to the team. Jol took the job knowing what it entailed and he can't complain about the structure in place. Jol has only ever signed two of his own players, one of whom was Mido, and you can see why Levy and Commoli do all the player purchases etc. Jol never wanted Bent either which begs the question, why?

The way the Board treated him after two games was shambolic but Jol came out and acknowledged these things happen in football and in fact he got a better contract after informing the Board of interest in him last Season. The Board have indicated they must get into the top 4. Is this realistic? Should this target not have been set pre-season as opposed to after the first couple of games (defeats)?

Many questions, not so many answers. Spurs lose another couple of games, what are the odds of Adios Senor Jol?

Unless I have missed something, there seems to be little discussion about David Beckham. Some may be grateful for this, but having watched the Beckham documentary on ITV, it strikes me that he is not only a great footballer, but a very personable, determined and charitable sort of guy with family values, who loves the game of football. You can not fail to be impressed with the way he recovers after each knock down, whether it be the England dropping episode, or the Real Madrid shenanigans. No matter how much money you earn as a footballer, if you are a genuine footballer, you want to play, and to be dropped at the highest level has to hurt. Beckham knuckled down and forced both his National Team Manager and Club Manager to back down from their positions and it reaped dividends. Now he has moved to America for a huge amount of money. Is he doing it for the mone. I am sure family financial security plays a part - but how much money can you have? - but I genuinely think he wants to bring some success to LA Galaxy and increase the exposure the sport gets out of the US and encourage participation. It can only increase the revenues to the sport as well so I see it as a win-win for all parties. I hope Beckham is successful, but if not, at least I am sure he will have given it a good try. He seems like an honest chap after all!

Look at the money that governing bodies reinvest into their sport, stadia, communities, and good causes. If television broadcasters did not pay all that money the sports would be in a decrepit state. So now the Premier League, French Tennis, French League and a host of other companies spread across the world are suing Google and YouTube for permitting broadcast clips (uploaded by users) to appear on the website infringing their copyright and breaching exclusivity. YouTube say they can not filter, but it is amazing that other sites can. Is it that YouTube don't want to do anything as the reason Google paid in excess of $1billion is because the sites makes money and the infringing clips create revenue from the advertising alongside? YouTube can not succumb to the rights owners and their whole business model would go out of the window, so watch this space for regular updates of Premier League and Bourne (an independent US music publisher) v Google and YouTube. It is David v Goliath in the Sourthern District Court of New York.

So you pitch up to Roland Garros and expect to see a fantastic ladies final. Henin v Ivanovic. It was set up for a classic....NOT! Henin won in all departments except for looks. Ana is a wee stunner. She started off quite well and at 2-1 it was set up for a classic final. They were each battling for every single point and the partisan crowd was behind Henin making it even more of a bigger and even more difficult challenge than she already faced. The crowd attempted a mexican wave as soon as it became obvious the final was going to  be a formality; that failed. They then started competing with Henin and Ana chants; didn't last too long. They then started chanting "Allez Justine, Allez Juju" until that got on the nerves of individuals sitting in front of the streaker. It was one of those days. Did you know the delay on the television coverage is three (3) seconds to ensure that in the event of another streaker (there was one a few years ago) that it is not broadcast. Talk about upholding the integrity of the competition! I think the Grand Slam tournaments should all uphold the same whites dress code, and none of this flamboyant colourful branded gear. It was however a great experience by the way!

If you have any inane thoughts or are bored, please let me know. I am off to watch Nadal batter Federer.