"I hate to speak badly of them - but they are crap."

- Sky Sports' pundit Rodney Marsh chooses to be kind to Manchester City after their display against Aston Villa on Saturday.

"Now all we need to do is lose against Venezuela!"

- Brazilian newspaper Lance contemplates the ultimate South American footballing indignity after Brazil's defeat by Ecuador.

"He's as intelligent as I am about Tottenham and the tradition here."

- David Pleat intimates that Glenn Hoddle's reign at Spurs will be unsuccessful.

"Like Spurs fans I got mugged into believing this Adonis of the football world was the be-all and end-all in man-management, tactics and skills . . . but he's a has-been, a man living off his past success at Arsenal."

- Alan Sugar intimates that he has, in hindsight, some misgivings about appointing George Graham as Spurs boss.

"If Ronald Koeman had been sent off before he scored in that infamous defeat in Holland, we would have qualified and who knows what we might have achieved."

- And there was you thinking former England player David Platt had no sense of humour.

Emlyn wins name game

Our sympathies to former Liverpool legend Emlyn Hughes who made the news last week when his Sheffield home was burgled, with the lousers taking 30 of his designer sweaters, 40 polo shirts, 30 pairs of trousers (Imelda Marcos how are ya), jewellery, cash, golf bags and whisky bottles that he had been awarded for being manager of the month at Rotherham last century. "It was horrible, they ripped things to bits - if they came in and left a thank-you note that would have been okay," said Hughes, sadly concluding that burglars have no manners these days.

Football 365 produced our favourite report on the whole sorry business, largely because it included this fantastic snippet of information - Emlyn has two children, one called Emlyn Junior, the other called Emma Lynn. They swore they didn't make it up and we believe them - you couldn't, even if you tried.