Big game in the Premier League tonight 🤝

Gary Lineker once joked that Ceefax was the best way to watch Wimbledon, and Vinnie Jones didn't see the funny side one bit. “If I’d got hold of him I’d have ripped him a f****** new a***hole.” Fast forward to England's trip to Dublin in 1995. Vinnie happened to be over there for a mate's stag do, and before the match against Ireland was abandoned over crowd trouble, the pair ended up staying in the same hotel. Vinnie clocked Lineker at breakfast and started pelting him with toast, shouting as he went. “Say something now, you big ears c***.” Lineker didn't bite, so Vinnie kept going. “Well, you want to say something now, big ears?” It didn't end there either. A year on, Lineker called Vinnie “no benefit to the game,” and Wimbledon hit back by saying he had the “charisma of a jellyfish.” A full English with a side of flying toast. Breakfast was never dull with Vinnie about.

£4.30 for lamb kofte and chips at Wrexham. Can't fault the price. The presentation, on the other hand, needs a serious rethink.

Classic 😂 I really do miss the early years of Twitter, feel like when people were just getting to grips with social media, that was when we got most gold 😂

Valencia's former president didn't hold back on Gary Neville: "That Englishman we had, he was honestly the worst coach I've ever seen in my life."

Walter Smith gave Paul Gascoigne a week off at Rangers with a single instruction: keep out of the papers. Gazza headed to London to stay with Chris Evans and Danny Baker. First night, he fancied doing something daft, so they piled into Chris Evans’ chauffeur-driven Bentley and made for the West End. Near Marble Arch they pulled up in front of a double-decker and stopped it. Gazza hopped out, sat down next to the driver, sweet-talked his way behind the wheel and had the entire bus belting out: “We’re all going on a summer holiday.” Still not enough. Once he'd handed the bus back, he clocked some road workers and wanted a go on the pneumatic drill. Hard hat on, earphones on, and there he was on Oxford Street drilling away. “I hadn’t realised they were so heavy.” Next he flagged down a taxi and offered the driver a signed England shirt to let him drive. Deal done. Chris got in the back, Gazza set off and pulled over to ask a bloke on the pavement for directions. “You won’t believe who I’ve got in the back of my cab.” The bloke leaned in. “It’s Chris Evans!” He peered into the back and said: “Nah, it f****** isn’t.” “It’s a wind-up.” Night two. Chris in shorts, slippers and a T-shirt. Gazza in a dressing gown and nothing else. They were cruising about, drinking in the back and shouting at people, when Gazza spotted Noel Gallagher’s house in Hampstead and said he knew Noel and had been round for drinks before. Chris's reply: “If you know him so well, go and knock on his front door and ask him to come out to play.” Out got Gazza. Off went the car. So now he's banging on Noel Gallagher’s front door in a dressing gown while Chris Evans has driven off and left him. No answer. He's getting cold, so he asks a bloke nearby if he can come in and warm up. “Certainly not.” “I’m Paul Gascoigne. You know, Gazza.” “Never heard of him.” Then he noticed a man watching from an upstairs window over the road, so he started waving and miming making a cuppa. The man laughed and waved back. No money, no taxi and properly worried by now, Gazza was finally rescued when Chris Evans rolled back into the street in the Bentley in tears laughing. Some of the papers did report the binge, and he went back to Rangers expecting the worst. Walter Smith was actually fairly impressed that was all he'd got up to. “By Gazza’s standards that was a quiet week off.”

Incredible we live in a world where AC Milan are visiting little old Bournemouth for a European fixture 🔥

The night Fernando Torres brought E.T along to Anfield for a match, and we're still not over it… Pink cap, hood up, blanket on. Phone home after the final whistle.

Balti pie, curry chips and a pint of Guinness at Walsall FC, all for 💷 £7.50. Proper matchday scran at a price that doesn't need a second mortgage.

And so the argument over who's allowed to talk about football on telly carries on...

Liverpool win tonight for me, they looked very good against Brentford 👍

Harry Redknapp says he had Jermain Defoe's move to Portsmouth all but wrapped up… and then Defoe's mum stepped in. By Redknapp's account, he'd popped out while the contract was being thrashed out when Peter Storrie burst into the next room: “You’d better come through… we’ve got a problem.” Back in the room, Defoe's mum was pushing for a goal bonus. For a striker. Redknapp says he honestly assumed she was having him on. So he put it to her: “Mrs Defoe… Jermain is costing us £12 million and he will be earning £50,000 a week. What do you think we’re paying him for? To f****** miss ’em?” Her answer: “I thought it would encourage him to score.” And Redknapp's comeback: “We were rather hoping the fifty grand would do that.” Defoe signed in the end, no bonus included.

March 2003, and Celtic headed to Anfield for the second leg of their UEFA Cup quarter-final with the tie level at 1-1 from Parkhead. Plenty had already written them off. Neil Lennon said everyone had “predicted our demise”, yet Martin O’Neill still managed to crank things up before kick-off. He singled out a teenage Shaun Maloney, telling the squad this could be a once-in-a-lifetime shot for him, then turned to the senior players and warned they might never get “the opportunity again to prove a point… to England and Europe that you deserve respect.” By Lennon's account the talk lasted “two or three minutes”, but it left them “ready to go out and run through brick walls if we needed to.” And they delivered. Celtic went ahead and Liverpool were left chasing it. At one point John Hartson was going through a sticky patch and kept losing possession, so Lennon got on at him to “hold that ball”. Hartson's reply: “You shut up or I will rip your head off.” A couple of minutes on, Lennon fed him again. Hartson turned his marker, played a one-two with Larsson and smashed it into the top corner for 2-0 on the night. Lennon summed it up: “That was the best moment for me in the whole tournament… you know that you are 3-1 up with 10 minutes to go and there is just no way back for Liverpool.” Nothing like a threat from your own teammate to sharpen the finishing.

Marcelo Bielsa was spotted in the crowd watching Liverpool Montevideo take on Peñarol in Uruguay. Despite managing at the highest level in some of the world’s biggest leagues, Bielsa still enjoys attending local football matches like an ordinary fan, without any special attention or VIP treatment. A true football man and one of the most respected figures in the game. 👏❤️

Steph Houghton has spoken out on the commercial pay gap between England's men's and women's sides: "When I looked at what they [England's men] were getting for commercial deals, that really opened my eyes. The men and women play for the national teams of the same country and yet they're getting 15 times more than us. How is that fair?" Same badge, same shirt, and a 15x difference in what the deals pay. Its a conversation that splits rooms thats for sure...

What could possibly go wrong for Manchester United today? Easy win ✅

Uli Hoeneß, Bayern's former president, on keeping season tickets cheap: "We could charge more than €120 per season ticket. If we charge €350 per season ticket we would get €2m extra, but what does that mean for us? The difference for a fan between €120 and €350 is enormous and we do not believe that fans are like cows, which are milked. Football has to be for everyone. That is the biggest difference between us and England." Can't argue with a word of it and a sentiment echoed by everyone except English club owners... Bild reports that Bayern's cheapest season ticket for 2026-27 costs €180 for 17 home games, which is still the second cheapest in the Bundesliga 👏

Gordon Strachan says Tommy Gravesen once nearly sent a referee over the edge during a Champions League night when he was at Celtic. Celtic were 1–0 up against Benfica at half-time when the fourth official came across: “Mr Strachan, could you go and see the referee?” Strachan expected a red card, a moan about the bench, something serious. Instead the referee told him: “Mr Strachan, I’m not enjoying the game.” Strachan's answer was pure Strachan: “We’ve all had s*** games pal, don’t worry about it, you will get better.” The referee said that wasn't the problem: “Mr Gravesen keeps talking to me. I cannot concentrate… I’m making bad decisions because he keeps speaking to me.” And it wasn't even abuse. Gravesen was jogging alongside him trying to sort him a night out: “Are you staying here tonight lad? Is your family here? If you want to go out tonight, I’ll take you to places.” Strachan says they assumed the ref was making it up, until they watched the game back the next day and there was Gravesen, pointing and chatting away, with the referee eventually trying to push him off. Offering the ref a tour of the town mid-match is a new one.

Arms out, head back, and a message underneath the shirt that meant more than the goal ever could. ❤️ Still one of the best celebrations you'll ever see.

Jerk chicken, plantain and rice for £6.00 💷 from The Shak at Tooting & Mitcham. That box is absolutely loaded. Proper non-league scran at a price you won't see at many Football league grounds, how can their food be such good value compared to the big clubs?