If an update once a week is not enough for you, and I can understand why it wouldn’t be, we’ve researched some other footy sites for you. In fact we were up all night checking out the ol’ interweb, finding out what’s hot and what’s not. We’ve even created a blog-o-meter giving ratings out of 5 for different aspects of the blogs.;

1.       How often is it updated? 1 being hardly ever and 5 being daily

2.       How true is the news? 1 being equivalent to libellous tabloids and 5 being the Reuters of footy news

3.       What’s it about? 1 being everything, 2, premiership, 3 other leagues, 4 International, 5 Other

Each week we’ll add some more blogs for your enjoyment. Here are the first five.

101 Great Goals / www.101greatgoals.com

101 great goals is not exactly Ronseal. However it does go a long way to summing up goals from around the globe in a somewhat sporadic way, Italy, Romania and the US are the first three. What it lacks in depth it makes up for with goal links. There’s a decent stream of news, again coming from around the globe.

Caught Offside http://www.caughtoffside.com/

Lots of posts on this site, many of which are used to generate comments from users.  The ‘Who is the one player you would like to sign in January’ feature is a great idea and is sparking off a war of words between fans. Six is a nice feature too; fans have six words to sum up their feelings at a point in time., towards a player, team or coach.

Climbing the Ladder / http://usasoccer.blogspot.com/

Our love for American Soccer could be slightly blinded by the way they do things. They manage to make even football confusing, there are stats about everything, from corners per game to MVP, that’s Most Valuable Player. This years MVP ST is none other than ex Norwich City star Darren Huckerby. All this and more averages, confusing stats and information can be found on Climbing the Ladder.

EPL Talk / http://www.epltalk.com/

EPL talk is...wait for it...about the English Premier League. It has a certain quirkiness about it that I’ve not yet encountered in blog sites...If the EPL was in the USA where would the teams be located; On Hull City, “No offence to its residents, but the most appropriate location for Hull in the United States would be in the middle of nowhere: Kansas City.” Definitely one to check out as it offers a different take on our EPL.

Footballocks / http://www.kickette.com/

‘For those who love the players as much as they love the game.’ I am intrigued. Amusingly, it’s a site about...well, footballers, their thighs and other body parts. From the perspective of someone who loves the game for what it is this site is genuinely funny, Michael Ballack doing card tricks and the comments that follow are comedy gold.

Got a blog that you want reviewing? Let us know and we’ll have a look.

Can you help us out - put yourself in the referees position and see if you are the next Graham Poll or Pierluigi Collina.

1. It's a very hot day and at half time you take on excessive amounts of water, with 15 minutes remaining you can't concentrate becasue you need the toilet. What do you do?

2.  You have awarded a penalty and as the penalty taker is about to kick the ball an oposing player shouts out a remark about the penalty taker's wife. He slips and miskicks tha ball wide. What action should you take?

3. A Player takes a shot from distance and it's travelling well over when it hits a pigeon. The ball deflects into the net over a bemused looking goalkeeper. What do you do? (I do not know the answer to this so would really appreciate your help!!)

Probably not, but in 2003 the President-elect saw the Hammers whilst visiting his half sister in London. erm....that's it

Know any other famous football fans?

Let us know now!

A week is a long time in football. Two weeks is the equivalent of a year for a 7 year old. Let's think back two weeks.

Arsenal had finished their demolition of Everton, Stoke had just seen off nine man Spurs, Liverpool and Hull were winning and Manchester United and Chelsea had thrashed West Brom and Middlesborough respectively. 

So, what's happened since then? Well, Arsenal have hit freefall, a hilarious loss to Stoke and a foolish draw with Spurs has led Arsene Whinger to start talking some complete nonsense "Sometimes in England we feel 'he didn't fancy that' - of course we didn't fancy that because that is not football" and has also caused some of the team to also start talking nonsense "We still believe we can win the title and it will be like that until the season finishes,"claimed little Nicklas 'lol' Bendtnar. 

Liverpool were beaten (but really should have won) for the first time this season at the hands of bottom-of-the-league-but-too-big/good(delete as appropriate)-to-go-down-Tottenham-Hotspur.  Something to do with 'Arry Redknapps superlative tactics. After watching Rafa Benitez show an A3 piece of paper to Ryan Babel with crosses, boxes and probably alegbra on, 'Arry told Roman Pavylechenko to "Just run around!" He did, and his running around was rewarded with a last minute goal.

Hull have started to lose, albeit to Chelsea and Manchester United (just) which is good news for the rest of the league, becuase, much as we enjoy watching a team trying really hard and doing really well, oh, and constantly suprising us, it's good to see them get beat everynow and then.

Back to  Chelsea and another 5-0 demolition must have put them in high spirits for their trip to Roma, but the Italians showed them up and tore them apart with a 3-1 victory that not even a late John Terry; goal, come on, fist in the air and run back to the half way line, placing the ball on the centre spot rouse could help avoid (I love seeing Chelski lose). 

And what of United, well, they just keep on creeping up the outside and with Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov starting to shine, even without a right back they will continue to creep and it will be a race to the wire this season. 

There is 6 points between bottom and 7th place and 6 points between 1st and 6th, so it's anybody's league, (Villa are 150/1 with Liverpool 5/1) it's anybody for the drop, let's just hope it's Arsenal!

Maradona!

A brief history....

• ·         Born October 30^th 1960
• ·         Scored 311 goals in 690 games during his career.
• ·         Need we talk about the hand of god?
• ·         Suspended for 15 months in 1991 for testing positive for cocaine.
• ·         Sent home from the 1994 World cup for drug use (they should’ve known).
• ·         Got really really fat after he retired in 1997 due ongoing drug addictions.
• ·         Suffered two heart attacks and had gastric bypass surgery.
• ·         Last year he was admitted to hospital for Hepatitis and alcohol abuse.

Right.  So going on that info he’s the perfect candidate to take over as manager of Argentina! Some might say the good outweigh the bad; we’ve delved into the archives to see whether or not this is a good move for the Argentinean FA. The country is third in the World Cup qualifying table with Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay close behind. It would be a travesty not just for the Argentineans if they don’t qualify but also for the rest of the world, denying us one of the finest footballing nations and one of the most promising players of this generation in Lionel Messi.

His first game in charge will be against Scotland, a country that has a special fondness for Diego Maradona. Why? Well El Diego claims;

“I'm going to a country where they adore me because of the goal against the English.

That would be ‘the hand of god’ right? He also states,

"The English and the Scots get on horribly - serious bad blood.”

Yes indeed, I assume that he is referring to the war in the 13^th Century during the reign of Edward I.

"But now we are going to play a game against Scotland, where they are going to treat us well."

Haggis all round. Although I’m not sure if that is part of his regime! Nevertheless Diego and co will pay a visit to England a little before when he meets Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez. The former is rumoured to be his first choice captain, whilst Tevez is constantly in the middle of one farcical debate or another. Sheffield United, West Ham and the Manchester United bench to name but a few.

Argentina has real quality and strength in depth. So much so that it looks as though Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso are likely to be evicted from the squad to face the Scots, but there might still be space for Juan Sebastian Veron.

In 1994, just a year and a half after returning from a 15 month ‘coke’ ban Maradona was sent home in disgrace from the World Cup after a failed drugs test. Clearly he was in distress and further drugs problems led to a heart attack in 2004 and a stomach stapling operation that cost him 30 pounds (in weight!). Doesn’t really bode well for a football manager, according to an Independent article nearly half of all football managers suffer from heart problems. Graeme Souness and Gérard Houllier are among those who have had major heart surgery. In 2003 Dario Gradi had a heart valve replaced and a pacemaker was fitted to Sir Alex Ferguson, it doesn’t stop there, interim Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear and Barry Fry (twice) have both suffered heart attacks. We’re just touching the surface here. So what of an international football manager who has had constant heart problems? 

Maradona has proven over the years that he can come back from being down and his desire to manage his country has shown massively over the past few days so an 80 hour week travelling around the world and South America shouldn’t affect him too much. Let's not forget that he was also one of the greatest footballers of all time, however his coaching career is a little less recognised. He’ll have a top quality backroom staff and the fact that Maradona is back will give a huge lift to the whole nation as well as the players.

I for one back the appointment and if he can graft Messi into his mould (no I’m not talking cakes biscuits and cocaine) but the wonder player that made so many of us delighted during the 80’s then I’m all for it.

What do you think? Let us know your Maradona views.