The Circus

Romanians tell Benitez to lay off the treats
Leading this edition of The Circus' Media Watch, the Romanian press have got a hell of a way of digging for quotes with one of the English Premier League's shrewdest media handlers.

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez lobbed in Bucharest amid claims his team's hit-and-run travel arrangements were disrespectful to Europa League opponents Unirea Urziceni. Well, the disrespect was mutual, with the media throng pushing Benitez on taunts he was on the verge of being sacked, asking how much money he would demand to coach in Romania and wondering aloud what was responsible for his portly dimensions?

"Mr Benitez," one scribbler inquired. "The last time I saw you was at the 2005 Champions League final, and your, erm, silhouette seems to have changed since then. Why is that?"

The response? Typically unruffled: "It is the stress of having to answer so many questions from the press. Thank you and goodnight."

Australian gold and Dutch metal  
Olympic gold will get you on the front page of most of your nation's newspapers, most certainly when you win your country's second of the Games and fifth of all time.

Yes, we congratulate Lydia Lassila.
 
But the Dutch, inspiration for such phrases as 'Dutch courage', 'Dutch uncle' and a few others The Circus will keep in the can, have been reading about the winter games on their front pages for another reason.

The collapse of the Dutch coalition government has been bumped inside the local rags, with the disqualification of Dutch speed skating star Sven Kramer holding rank. Never mind the Dutch prime minister has stood down over the Netherlands' extended military presence in Iraq.

Kramer raced to a record time in his signature 10,000m event, but was disqualified for incorrectly changing lanes at his coach's insistence.  

"It's a national tragedy. It's all anyone is talking about," a Dutch newspaper correspondent said.

He could well have been referring to an ongoing political crisis. He wasn't.

Somebody find me a drama-free left back
England manager Fabio Capello has shown he's not afraid to get involved in his players' off-field affairs and with his top two preferred left-backs now unavailable in the build up to South Africa 2010, he may just have to make some more personal enquiries when selecting a replacement for Wayne Bridge.

Scorned by former England teammate John Terry, Bridge has ruled himself out of national selection for the World Cup. But with Ashley Cole sidelined with a broken ankle (and embroiled in his own cheating scandal) Capello is in a pickle.

The four men at the front of the queue to replace Bridge are Joleon Lescott (Manchester City), James Milner (Aston Villa), Leighton Baines (Everton) and Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa).  

All four are controversy-free, but The Circus deems Warnock and Milner the two most likely to avoid controversy from hereon in and therefore Capello's best bets for the vacant left-back position.

Our flimsy evidence? Well, back in April last year, Warnock presented flowers to the Liverpool Kop on behalf of the Blackburn Rovers to honour the 96 Liverpool supporters who died in the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989. Flower giving, unless it's to your Seattle-based mistress, is controversy free. Milner? Well, he has always been well grounded since his early days. Good enough for us.

The numbers game
28 – Age of Australia's newest gold medallist, Lydia Lassila
2 – knee reconstructions Lassila had either side of the 2006 Winter Games
214.74 – Combined score for Lassila's two gold-medal-winning jumps in Vancouver
13 – Australia's place on the Vancouver medal tally

Quote of the day
"Once I'm out on that field I've got a really deep desire. If I threw that away I don't know what I'd become. I don't think I'd be where I am now. I think the injuries would have killed me off a long time ago."
- England rugby star Jonny Wilkinson puts the fear of God into any budding union players who may be susceptible to injury.   

Headline we'd like to read
Capello out of options, appoints Billy Elliot to left back


:: More of The Circus