Just when you thought that the pain of reading shallow, tasteless autobiographies of football stars was over…

Steven Gerrard is the latest England player to have his autobiography serialised in the media, and if this first account is any indication it promises to be another indulgence to the already-dangerous levels of self-importance lingering in Gerrard’s mind.

Passionate football is Gerrard’s strength. Intelligent analysis clearly isn’t.

Hopefully this will be drowned out by the Community Shield clash between Liverpool and Chelsea today. Enough has been said in the news about the great ‘rivalry’ – with comparisons between Benitez and Mourinho constantly being drawn, and Liverpool’s squad improvements plus their form towards the end of last season mean that everyone and their mother is calling this season a slugout between Chelsea and Liverpool for the title.

Much as that rankles me, I’m actually happy that Manchester United have been written off by over-excited pundits. So what if no one remembers what we managed to acheive with a threadbare, injury-laden squad last season So what if people think that it’s the players and not the system Benitez is playing that needed improvement

Football predictions are usually bullshit, and so is mine when I say that Manchester United will win the Premiership this year. Oh well…

Other News

Sami Hamdan discusses David Beckham’s omission from the England squad. Kevin Mitchell from the Guardian is having a go as well – of course, no one wants to be left behind in the race to pile it up on Becks (just like no one wants to give up on their quest to rant against Chelsea).

While Premier League referees could start receiving help from instant replay cameras from the 2007/2008 season onwards, I think it’s coming through too slow. Kudos to them for trying though [News item].