The Circus

Capello takes a new tack
After the media whirlwind that surrounded the infidelities of former England skipper John Terry, who could blame national team manager Fabio Capello for taking a little time away from his players?

Rio Ferdinand, that's who.

The England centre half told The Guardian that he only found out he had been appointed the nation's new captain via the TV.

One presumes the pair has since had a conversation, given that the Poms faced off in a friendly against Egypt this morning (for a 3-1 win, as it happened) but nonetheless it's a strange situation for a manager to put his players in.

Still, Capello has been a master of man-management throughout his decades in the game and if he thinks the silent treatment will do the trick, who are we to argue?

Meanwhile, the innocent victim in Terry's extra-marital shenanigans, former Chelsea teammate Wayne Bridge, reportedly had little trouble making his feelings known to the Blues skipper after Manchester City's 4-2 win at Stamford Bridge.

The Circus suspects that even if the anecdote isn't true, Bridge has Buckley's chance of refuting the story. And honestly, why would he want to?

Just  a pretty face, and not for too much longer
Mitchell Johnson has proven to be many things in his rise to the elite level of international cricket – terrifyingly quick with the ball, destructive with the bat and a genuine match winner.

However, Mitch's propensity to completely lose the plot – see the Lord's Test match against England last year – still has some Aussie fans uncertain about his ability to handle the mental side of the game.

Following the events of last night's ODI against New Zealand, those fans have reason to wonder whether Johnson is just plain mental.

After all, performing a Liverpool kiss on an adversary wearing a peaked cricket helmet isn't the smartest way to get one's point across.

To rub salt into Johnson's wounded pride, Scott Styris struck a match winning six in the final over but he later confessed he didn't know the shot had cleared the rope as he was too busy sledging the Australian players.

Memo Cricket Australia – any chance of recruiting Styris for the Aussie team? Sounds like our kind of cricketer.

Who need lawsuits when you've got Twitter?
If you've got even a modicum of interest in all things golf, no doubt you've heard that John Daly's PGA Tour rap sheet was made public earlier this week.

Obviously, Long John wasn't too happy about this state of affairs and in his infinite wisdom, he did the only thing a social media-savvy sport star can do these days – put out a call to action on Twitter.

Daly posted the contact details of the journalist, Garry Smits, on his Twitter feed and urged his fans to harass the man who laid his misdemeanours bare for all to see.

However, it appears that someone – his manager? His drinking buddies? – got into Daly's ear and the Twitter posts have since been removed.

Smits received 30-odd messages on his phone in the meantime, but he said none of them were terribly threatening.

Unfortunately for Daly, his success rate in stoushes with the Florida Times-Union mirrors that of his recent on-course form.

The two-time major winner was last year ordered to pay the newspaper $US272,000 in legal fees after losing a defamation suit.

No wonder he opted for Twitter this time.

The numbers game
$50,000 – the reported weekly losses of North Queensland Fury owner Don Matheson this season
$16 million – the combined loss of the A-League's three least-financial clubs (Sydney FC, North Queensland, Gold Coast)
$20 million – the combined loss of the 10 A-League clubs in 2009/10
1 – A-League club that will report a profit this season (Melbourne Victory)

Quote of the day
"Hopefully, there's no more. I was hoping there'd be no more after Danny Wicks so I'm not game to say that."
- Newcastle Knights CEO Steve Burraston can't guarantee anything after a second Knights player was forced to quit the club following drugs charges.

Headline we'd like to read
World Cup-winning England hails mute manager Capello


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