At what point will a team’s over-achievement stop being called a surprise?

It’s a fair question when you consider that with René Girard as coach, Montpellier have confounded expectations of the club for the last three years.

In Girard’s first season in charge in 2009-10, they finished fifth as a newly-promoted side; at this stage last season, Montpellier were only four points off second place before a spring slump dropped them to 14th place; this season, they have only been...

The Ajax board in happier times

So, for reasons my non-Dutch brain can’t comprehend, Johann Cruyff’s victory in blocking the appointment of bitter rival Louis van Gaal as Ajax CEO precluded the resignation of the entire board en masse, including Cruyff himself:

The resignations of the five members follow an Amsterdam court decision on Tuesday banning the naming of Louis van Gaal as CEO. As well a Cruyff those standing down include Edgar Davids, the chairman, Steven ten Have,...

When Saturday Comes‘ William Turvill adds to the lengthening discourse on the difficult relationship between players and social media, which is basically a euphemism for Twitter (you don’t normally expect to read about Ravel Morrison being a horrible person on Bebo, for example). The article follows a familiar trajectory until the end:

The most simple and logical solution is to stop players from referring directly to club affairs and make clear their opinions are personal and not representative of their employer’s....

The Lead

Before we get to that, here’s what we know so far. Stuart Pearce will take over national team duties in the interim, and helm England in their friendly against Holland on February 29th. The FA also confirmed Fabio Capello’s resignation was the result of the FA stripping John Terry of the captaincy, and the chiding over his subsequent remarks to the Italian media. Meanwhile Capello released a short but gracious statementof his own. The Guardian has...

Well what do you think the boys talked about on THE FOOTY SHOW tonight?

Fabio Capello’s resignation dominated the day. James Sharman & Kristian Jack give their take on England’s new dilemma.

Kristian chats with TFC manager Aron Winter about the Best XI he ever played with or against.

James chats with Toronto Maple Leaf players Carl Gunnarsson & John-Michael Liles about their soccer obsessions, Liverpool & Man Utd, respectively.

It’s your segment, ‘Avin It or Not ‘Avin It.

Missed...

Not to worry Footy Show faithful, we didn’t forget today was Wednesday. This edition of ‘Take Your Kick’ was dominated by the shocking news that Fabio Capello had resigned as England manager, just minutes before we jumped in the studio.

We got to a slew of questions from the footballing world though, and JT was already going to be a topic of conversation. TFC and Canadian National Team defender Adrian Cannjoined us in studio and had quite a few...

These words reported by something called Italpress, and reprinted on Football Italia. Hard to confirm their authenticity, but if true, consider this bridge burned:

“What really hit me and forced me to take this decision was the fact the much-vaunted Anglo-Saxon sense of justice, as they are the first to claim that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

“In Terry’s case, they gravely offended me and damaged my authority at the head of the England side, effectively creating a...

As the Independent’s Jack Pitt Brooke tweeted:

Harry Redknapp started the day in the dock, and ends it on top of the (English) football world.

— Jack Pitt-Brooke (@JPBIndy) February 8, 2012

But let’s take a few minutes to contemplate the absurdity of the thing. Redknapp is by far the most popular choice. He’s English. He’s done superbly well in his time with Tottenham. And, that’s it.

But unless the FA is willing to allow Redknapp to somehow (how?) manage...

From the FA website:

The Football Association can confirm that Fabio Capello has today resigned as England Manager.

This follows a meeting involving FA Chairman David Bernstein, FA General Secretary Alex Horne and Fabio Capello at Wembley Stadium.

The discussions focused on The FA Board’s decision to remove the England team captaincy from John Terry, and Fabio Capello’s response through an Italian broadcast interview.

In a meeting for over an hour, Fabio’s resignation was accepted and he will leave the...

It’s probably not the stuff-of-dreams for those interested in the big names of European football in a contest against what many believe will be the Ivory Coast (the game is in progress as of writing), but the narrative here is about as emotional as you’ll find in sports.

In 1993, the Zambian first team died when their rickety Zambian Air Force Buffalo DHC-5D crashed into the ocean just outside Libreville, Gabon, the host nation of the current ACN tournament, and...

At last, the cardiologists of Rome can rest easy. “The heart is designed to palpitate,” said Daniele De Rossi when asked in November how much longer he planned to keep Roma’s fans waiting to discover if he would sign a new contract with the club. On Sunday, those tense tickers got relief when it was confirmed that the midfielder signed a new five-year deal that ties him to the Giallorossi through to 2017.

Some contract it was too—€5.5m per year...

Despite Simon Kuper’s wishes to the contrary, there is single set of Sabermetric data that can be used to pinpoint why one team is great and one team is crap. Liverpool’s performance this year however is a statistician’s dream, ironic because Liverpool are supposed to be Damien Comolli’s pet Moneyball project.

The Independent, taking data from Infostrada, created this nifty chart which points out the nature of Liverpool’s problems so far this season (for larger version, click...

Tomorrow’s Thursday, the day when we take your calls, tweets and emails on THE FOOTY SHOW Podcast!

Call TFS’s voicemail and tell us in 30 seconds or less what’s on your mind in the football world this week or pose a question to the crew. You can call us right now, in 10 mins, tomorrow, ten years from now, the line will be there long after Portsmouth FC have disbanded, reformed in the eight division and worked their way up...

The Lead

Harry Redknapp and Milan Mandaric have both been found not guilty of tax evasion related to payments made by the former Portsmouth owner to the then-manager to a Monaco bank account. The prosecution failed to make the case the payments were performance bonuses, rather than personal investment money. The BBC:

The defence said the money was an investment made by Mr Mandaric while Mr Redknapp said he forgot about the account and had very little to do...

You see it on THE FOOTY SHOW every Wednesday on theScore. This is the segment driven by you! Each week you come up with some great suggestions for ‘Avin It or Not ‘Avin It. We’re looking for more!

What are you ‘avin or not ‘avin this week? Come up with the statements and Dunlop will read the best ones on-air to James & KJ. As always, VOTE for your favourite goal of the weekon our facebook page! Man, there’s...

There are now countless FIFA 12 bug vids that make light of EA’s much-touted Player Impact Engine, which, according to this breathless post, is “revolutionary not evolutionary”:

The game-changing new Player Impact Engine will drive FIFA 12 on the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system. Fans will experience the way real-world footballers challenge each other for the ball, win possession, and test each other physically. The Impact Engine processes decisions continuously in real-time...

Football Italia with the replay rules following the suspended Catania-Roma match, which was halted in the 65th minute on January 14th because of a waterlogged pitch:

Under Serie A regulations, the tie will resume from where it left off at 19.00 UK time on Wednesday.

Only players who were signed to the clubs at the time of the original game can take part in this ‘mini’ encounter.

Therefore, Catania cannot field Marco Motta, Felipe Ignacio Seymour, Osariemen Giulio Ebagua or...

Good news for the LA Galaxy and CONCACAF Champions League neutrals (ha ha, kidding, the latter don’t exist). From the LA Galaxy website:

The LA Galaxy announced today that the club has reached an agreement with Brazilian club Sao Paulo that will allow midfielder Juninho to return to the Galaxy on loan for the 2012 MLS season. Additionally, the Galaxy have completed the signing of former Sao Paulo defender Leonardo, who joins the club permanently on a free transfer....

Kristian Jack returned from his Super Bowl adventure to join James Sharman & Brendan Dunlop on today’s FOOTY SHOW Podcast. The trio chatted with ESPN analyst Janusz Michallik.

The former US international and ‘Footy 100‘ contributor had a interesting take on Andre Villas Boas’ time so far at Chelsea and is excited for Euro 2012 to kick off in the country of his birth.

Subscribe to the show on iTunes I Download the .mp3 directly

If...

Sir Alex Ferguson spoke to CNN in condemnation of recent allegations, proven or no, of racial abuse in the Premier League and English football as a whole:

“This is a moment where we have to take stock and we should do something about it if it’s surfacing again, and be really hard and firm on any form or shape of racism.

“There have been a couple of examples recently which is not good. In 2012, you can’t believe it. It...

Part of the problem with fan protests is that, unless they involve saving a club from liquidation or winding up (you know, something important), they’re often gawdawful. If it’s not a bunch of half drunk punters walking down a street with black armbands and banners, then it’s almost certainly someone calling for fans to put garbage bags over empty seats.

Perhaps it has something to do with the psychology of the person who would go to lengths to organize protests...

The Lead

With Harry Redknapp’s trial not yet finished, Fabio Capello’s situation with England at a quiet detente (although the Mirror is going all out on this story), and papers reluctant to report on the only thing we really care about—the Anfield Cat of course (see special section below)—all they have left is a possible talking point from the dour 0-0 draw between Liverpool and Tottenham last night at Anfield.

That came when Luis Suarez, having been on the...

The Liverpool v. Tottenham match was on in the office on two TVs while theScore staff worked diligently away. But a cat on the field—total chaos. This loveable little critter stopped off to say a sweet hello to Tottenham’s American keeper Brad Friedel, before a steward picked him/her up before almost certainly snapping its neck smothering it with kisses off camera for adorably delaying the Premier League fixture for thirty seconds.

An idea: anytime things get ugly, fans start singing...

James Sharman & Brendan Dunlop chat with Serie A commentator Paul Visca following another interesting weekend in the Serie A. There may have been a lack of goals from the top teams, but there were enough goals in Rome and elsewhere to make the scudetto and Champions League place races very interesting.

As Visca explains, all is not well in the AC Milan dressing room, Inter have plenty of questions that remain to be answered and Juventus seem to be...

There is a joke here about all that’s happened in the past year. I’ll leave it up to you to make it:

Another picture of the fog at Anfield does not look great. twitter.com/Gerrard8FanPag…

— Steven Gerrard (@Gerrard8FanPage) February 6, 2012

No word yet on any delays/cancellation.