Jumping the Gunns

*The English sack race bagged after just ONE game??? League One Norwich have fired their coach Bryan Gunn after 90 minutes of the new league season, a 7-1 home hammering by Colchester. Here are the Canaries in better days beating Bayern Munich at the Olimpiastadion in the 1993 UEFA Cup with an all-British eleven. Check out Lothar Matthaus' assist on the first Norwich goal.

*Speaking of Bayern, Franck Ribery (above), the summer market's most glittering prize, is once more crying 'come and get me'. Here's Franck in a music video with Rai music legend Khaled; the opening looks a bit like the start of 'Don't Tread'.

* Arsene Wenger finally admits he is a liar (page 2) and that he loves The Deer Hunter.

* This week I called my friend Jonathan Wilson, author of the terrific 'Inverting the Pyramid' book about the history of soccer formations...over an hour later he was still waxing lyrical on 352 v 442, such is his unbridled enthusiasm for talking tactics. Here is a flavor of his mind at work.

*A couple of videos - a drunk Lionel Messi on a bus celebrating Barcelona's season; FYI the giant Chupa Chups is with him because it is manufactured in the city, its logo was designed by Salvador Dali no less.

And finally, Gooch might not be fastest footballer at AC Milan, so who is? Italian TV show 'Striscia La Notizia' ('the news slithers') decided last season to set up a speed gun outside Milanello to find out...



And oh yeah, the EPL starts again today. Good luck to the four and a half clubs involved.

-Sean O'Conor