...feeling particularly jetlagged. More posts soon.

"I've not been over-encouraged by Peter Kenyon's words that he does not want to sign Rio. For a chief executive of a Premier League club - with the recent history they have had - to sit in a restaurant like that is amazing".

So says Alex Ferguson, who evidently believes that Peter Kenyon's choice of eating establishment doesn't suit him. Or perhaps he felt that Kenyon was just sat awkwardly.

Once again Ol' Rednose is in a bit of a tizzy because Chelsea are showing an interest in one of his players. So what? It's not as if Ferguson has no history in tapping up. And in any case, Man Utd still have the choice over whether to sell Rio or not.

Meanwhile, Football365 simply can't make their mind up: Cole refuses to commit himself to Arsenal; Cole "committed" to Arsenal.

I'm sat listening to Radio 5 where Jonathan Pearce and Mark Lawrenson have already noticed that Juve "fans" are throwing objects, including seats, onto the Liverpool fans in full view of (!) the Delle Alpi stewards.

A busy few days ahead for UEFA, but before I come to that a quick suggestion; after last night's convincing display of crowd management, perhaps frisking should be introduced to Italy's stadiums. After all, it can hardly be possible that fans were actually allowed to carry hundreds of flares into the San Siro without anyone noticing? Unless the stewards turned a blind eye...

It was a shocking night on all accounts, apart from the beautiful goal scored by Shevchenko. But even that had a bitter aftertaste given that Andriy should've walked in the second minute for a clear headbutt on Materazzi. We'll come back to that later though. Inter were desperately unlucky, as everyone else bar Milan fans would agree that Marcus Merk missed a obvious penalty, as well as disallowed a perfectly good goal. It was the latter incident that proved too much for the Inter "fans" who, if common sense prevails, will not experience live Champions League football for at least a year.

Of course, the decision for this will be down to UEFA, whose response to Shevchenko's headbutt has been to bury its head in the sand. A UEFA statement has said: "It happened in front of the assistant referee, who did not indicate anything to the referee." It seems video evidence counts for nothing when one of the Champions League big names is in danger of missing the next 2 or 3 games.

With all of this in mind, it will be interesting to see how UEFA approaches last night's events. However, regardless of their decision, it would be sensible for UEFA to advise the Italian FA that all these problems are doing their 2012 European Championships bid no favours. Especially as this all came after a weekend in which 85 policemen were injured and scores of fans were arrested after outbreaks of violence at five different Italian matches. As James Richardson points out, much of the problem is down to the power of the Ultras inside the stadiums (and inside the clubs themselves). Worryingly, it appears as though this is all building up to something tragic, as was the case in English football 20 years ago.

UEFA are apparently fuming that Jose didn't follow their guidelines by sending the Chelsea fitness coach Rui "Itchy Ear" Faria and striker Mikael Forssell to the pre-match press conference, instead of turning up himself along with a "big-name" player.

A UEFA delegate said that "Bayern's manager, captain Oliver Kahn and Owen Hargreaves were there but Chelsea did not even bother telling us who they intended putting up."

Apart from Jose riling the men in suits again (something we all enjoy surely), did they really expect he was going to turn up wearing his "I Love UEFA" t-shirt and simply toe the line after being banned for two matches? You can't have your cake and eat it chaps.

As for sending Forssell to the conference instead of one of the big names, well UEFA shouldn't be too unhappy. They got a player known to German football fans (he used to play for 'Gladbach), as well as someone who's considerably more articulate than Joe Cole.

Portsmouth have just unveiled their new manager. Let's just have a look at his last few periods of employment (via the Beeb):

2002: Given manager's job at Marseille and pays a French domestic transfer record for Didier Drogba
Jan 2004: Sacked by Marseille after poor run in French first division and later linked with job at Southampton
July 2004: Named manager of Al-Ain in United Arab Emirates
Oct 2004: Sacked by Al-Ain after a poor run of results

What a CV. With David Pleat alongside him, Southampton fans will still have something to laugh about even if they go down this season.

Liverpool...it could've been a glorious 2-0, but another goalkeeping fluff means Juve have "the vital away goal".

PSV-Lyon...it's too close to call.

Milan are through. If I'm wrong I'll eat a hat-shaped cake.

Finally, Chelsea take a two goal advantage to Munich, although Bayern have the two away goals, the second the result of a very, very dubious (I think) penalty. You probably all watched the game so I won't bang on about it, instead I'd like to make a suggestion; surely someone could've taken Bixente Lizaruzu aside before he chose '69' as his squad number?

So they've kissed and made up (figuratively that is), but that hasn't stopped their captain from expressing his annoyance at the whole affair.

"Our dirty linen has been hung out for the country to witness yet again...I'm very angry still and very frustrated by it all, especially when things had been going so well and the spirit within the camp has been so good over the last few month".

Although they seem to have gotten off lightly, it'll still be interesting to see how the Newcastle fans react to them once they return from suspension.

Btw, for those of you how haven't seen it; the Bowyer-Dyer incident. In Swedish.

*It's the last time I'll use this title. Honest.

According to the Guardian, Ron Atkinson has accused senior players, including Dwight Yorke, of costing him the job as Trinidad & Tobago's head coach.

Personally, if there was a more unsuitable candidate for the job then I'd like to see him.

Ron has expressed his disappoinment through his column in the Sunday Sport (cough) "newspaper"; "I believe they think I am a racist. Something I never was and never will be..."

Now that those pesky men at UEFA have made their minds up regarding his punishment (a fair one I think, although I still find it hard to believe that Rikjaard got lost in his own stadium), Jose can get on with business, including his forthcoming chatshow.

With topics to apparently include the Portuguese Premier League and his job at Chelsea, the boys at the Londonist have already thought of what form the show may subsequently take:

"Portuguese football has not been the same since I left, Chelsea has been much better since I arrived."

"And now music from The Kaiser Chiefs."

A dour Scottish manager and several young stars with disciplinary problems; all members of a team that's struggling to keep up with the cream of the Premiership. But enough about Man United for now.

It seems every time I'm asked by Ben and Paul to contribute to the next 'View From The Away End', a fresh incident throws the Toon Army's world into disarray and I'm forced to carry out a thorough rewrite. So perhaps I shouldn't be at all surprised at yesterday's events given that this month's topic was to be Newcastle's team spirit.

Until yesterday afternoon, I was going to say that the recent trips to Dubai intended to be "team-building" have been effective. Since February, United have performed well both in Europe and domestically. Furthermore, the trips have been incident-free and haven't ended as source material for an episode of Footballer's Wives (a la Leicester City). Souness has apparently turned Newcastle round and his players are now doing what they're told. Even Laurent Robert understands the concept of a “team”. (The rest of this post can now be found at Black And White And Read All Over).

*I couldn't resist

How did Roy Keane manage to stay on the pitch yesterday after his tackle on Blackburn's Mokoena? Studs up, on his ankle, with the ball already miles away. There wasn't even a yellow card to show for it. Home bias by the ref perhaps? At Old Trafford? Surely not?

Is Steven Taylor already a bookies' favourite for the Best Actor award at next year's Oscars?

Chelsea; home and dry?

Bowyer and Dyer? A topic for the next post I think.