Michael*

Where's IRS when you need him?

Be honest now, would you wear this shirt?

I found it forgivable in the context of a generally fun performance but man alive, what a terrible mess Matt's accent was in the Arrowverse.

Interesting to see Colin Farrell mentioned in connection with the part of Jason Blood there, since there were a lot of fans on the bandwagon for him to play John Constantine not too long ago. My feeling at that time was that Guy Pearce would have been a better fit for Constantine's physical design, although he'd be a much older lead now than audiences are accustomed to seeing in comic book movies these days. I always thought Rebecca Ferguson would make a great Zatanna.

There's always the chance I suppose that Grayson, having managed him at Leeds, could again unlock something in McCormack, but we'd probably have to find an unsuspecting mark willing to take Lens or Kone off our hands before we were able to pull out anything resembling a significant fee. Same presumably goes for Elphick, who I must confess, I don't know a great deal about. It's hard to imagine him lowering the overall quality of our backline too much though, the entirety of which appeared to be comprised of holograms rather than humans during the Celtic game.

On balance, I think Besson was a little too preoccupied with showing off the world he’d created to tell an interesting story. It was an exhilarating ride and there were things in it that were positively jaw-dropping at times, but the end product was more like a series of cool episodes laid out one after another than a cohesive movie. Give it a look if you've got tenner to spare and nothing to do on a Tuesday evening.

Yeah, I often find that too. In the run-up to movies like this one, there's almost always a small part of me that wishes I hadn't already seen some of what was in it. Thinking about it now, the original Guardians of the Galaxy probably did quite well out of that, since the property didn't have a great deal of name recognition beforehand. People knew it was a Marvel product of course, but not too many were familiar with the characters and consequently, were able to go in completely blind and just enjoy the surprises.

A bit of a curious case is Elmo. We played him at full-back, where he looked like an out of position winger and at right midfield, where he looked like an out of position full-back. It wasn't until he followed Steve Bruce to Hull that the idea of trying him as a wing-back was belatedly hit upon, and he seemingly became a decent performer. A lot of our fans would have probably turned their noses up at the prospect of re-signing him, but honestly, I'd take him over a crapkicker like Billy Jones in a heartbeat.

PSG will be thinking of the Neymar deal as more of a coup d'état than a transfer. Sure, they'd be getting one of the biggest stars in the game as part of the bargain, but being seen to wrestle him away from one of the world's most prestigious clubs affords them more street cred than any individual player could offer. Based on that premise, the more obscene the outlay, the bigger the statement.

I wouldn't be surprised, what with them having an actress of Cate Blanchett's calibre in the role, if Hela was subbed in for Mistress Death in Infinity War. Some of the recent comics have seen Marvel do just that.

No doubt there'll be people out there who think they have the entire story arc, spoilers, timelines etc worked out based solely on what's in the trailer. We shall see.

The critical reception really has been pretty rapturous so far. I anticipate this drawing far less fan criticism than Interstellar did, but for some reason, the closer we get to the release date, the more I've come to think of it as a back burner film rather than a must-see. It's kind of interesting though to watch Nolan seemingly moving further away from telling stories about characters and towards exploring ideas and experiences.

Marvel and ABC continue to roll out the trailers. This one finally offers a glimpse of Medusa's hair in action.

Adnan Januzaj, almost certainly a candidate for Sunderland's all-time uninterested and/or twisty-faced XI, off to Real Sociedad for an eye-watering £10m. The rumours of Jose crossing the days off his calendar until the lad found his way back to Old Trafford were obviously wide of the mark.

I would have to believe that even a Bellazon XI could give New Caledonia a run for their money.

Congrats!

Trailer #2 is upon us.

With Asia having nine places it honestly wouldn't be a bad thing for New Zealand to follow Australia's lead. They would still have a reasonable chance of qualifying and more opportunity to improve. It can't be easy, especially factoring in their pedigree in rugby, to create public interest in international football when their team only ever plays the likes of Tahiti.

I was actually hoping for Phoebe Waller-Bridge but this is still something new and fresh, which the show had been crying out for for a while. Honestly, as much as I like Peter Capaldi as an actor, the last two series have been something of a drag for me.

Having joined AFC principally to avoid play-offs with the likes of Uruguay under the old format, I'd be interested to know if Australia feels aggrieved at New Zealand now having a virtual clear run to the finals. You'd hope not of course, since the current arrangement affords them the long term benefit of competing against better opposition and their club sides now meeting teams from China, Japan and South Korea in the AFC Champions League. The USA and Mexico could do well out of following a similar path, although they may have to burn a few bridges with CONCACAF in order to make it happen. Mixing it with South American teams would give them tons of experience, which will always be more conducive to making real progress at the highest level. It would be a good idea too to work towards having MLS representation in the Copa Libertadores.

Yeah, there's no option except to settle for conjecture at this point, but a lot will depend on whether there's a long term vision in place for their domestic league. The money they're ploughing into it at the moment seems to be going mainly on marketing and raising the standard at club level, which is only going to benefit the national team if there's similar investment in infrastructure and producing young talent. If that were to happen, it would probably only be a matter of time until they became a real force.

Absolutely, and that's an equally valid point because there's qualifying for a major tournament and there's what you do when you get there. As things stand, while Africa has more competitive nations, it's probably as difficult to imagine them producing a potential World Cup winning side as it is for AFC or CONCACAF, although there's still a chance of course that some of them could step up their game significantly before the new format is implemented. The scope for growth in Asia is going to be staggering though and with China pouring billions into the game, they may be a factor by 2026 or dare I say even a major power in the future. India could be dragged along too and the likes of Iran could continue to progress.

Here's a new publicity shot of Alicia as Lara, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. Sadly, no pictures of her locking the butler in the cupboard have surfaced yet.

His form during Juve's Champions League campaign did seem to suggest that he's still got more than most, even at 34. If, as expected, Guardiola now has to settle for getting Kyle Walker instead, PSG's securing of Alves could start looking more and more like a bargain as the season progresses. Not that City will be bothered about the money of course, they make such purchases with the same deliberation that most of us apply when buying a loaf of bread.

Friday 12th June 2026 will be the day to mark in our diaries - England 1 Panama 2. For all the talk of African regression over the last few years, you could certainly still make the argument that extra spaces for them would be a good call. Since 1990 about a dozen different African sides have qualified and in that same time frame, only six different CONCACAF teams and eight from Asia, which suggests that the strength in depth of those confederations doesn't quite stack up. I would say South America has the most quality overall, all ten teams are in the top 50 of FIFA's rankings.