WHAT’S HOT NOT WHAT’S
HOT GARY ROWETT
THE Birmingham manager released Colin Doyle from his squad last summer but will run the London Marathon tomorrow to raise money for a charity set up after the goalkeeper’s young son fell ill. Rowett’s connections to the club go back 18 years and it shows. TONY PULIS NEWS that Saido Berahino may be offered a new contract at West Bromwich Albion does not mean that Pulis believes the striker will stick around. It means that an experienced manager is putting the ball firmly in the court of a player who he suspects sees his future elsewhere. Clever, that.
BEN STOKES
THE England all-rounder says he is surprised that he didn’t receive more criticism for his failure with the ball in the last over of the World T20 final. What Stokes clearly doesn’t realise is that without daring players like him, nobody would have watched the tournament in the first place.
EDDIE JONES
GOOD managers still spot the problems during the good times and the England coach’s warning to a handful of preening players in the wake of Six Nations success was well-timed. He didn’t name the offenders but we can be sure they know who they are.
NOT ROY HODGSON
THE England manager understandably wants to defend his players ahead of Euro 2016 but he was wrong to be so accepting of Jamie Vardy’s verbal assault on referee Jon Moss. Any repeat in France this summer and Vardy will be checking Eurostar timetables quicker than he thinks.
MANUEL PELLEGRINI
WE WISH the Manchester City manager well in the Champions League semi-final but to claim the announcement regarding his future has adversely affected his players was startling. The stats show that City’s form fell off a cliff about a year prior to that and never really recovered.
THE WRONG CALL
ROCHDALE’S stadium announcer no doubt thought he was on message when he asked for a car driver to nip out and turn off his lights during the League One clash with Gillingham. Callum Camps (above) no doubt would have obliged had he not been playing in midfield at the time.
THE FA CUP
IT’S an old complaint and not always easy to find someone to blame, but the first of this weekend’s semi-finals will be played too late for many fans to get home, while the second will be overshadowed by important Premier League fixtures. Can it really be that hard to get these things right?