Compiled by EMMET MALONE
Go figure: Ireland prop up money game as Spain reign
There was some interesting stuff yesterday in the FT.com’s blog Alphaville where they report on the boys at Italian bank Unicredit’s attempt to predict how Euro2012 will turn out by assessing the teams on the basis of aggregate player valuations.
Obviously these guys know how to work the numbers and the stunning upshot of all their high-falutin formulas is that they are tipping Vicente del Bosque’s Spain.
More dispiriting, though, is that they reckon that Giovanni Trapattoni’s Republic of Ireland squad are worth the least (around €60 million in total) and would therefore, if such a thing was possible, finish last.
At this point, we feel obliged to point to the shambles the country is in and ask: just whose spectacular miscalculations got us here?
There … nuff said.
Clever clogs: Kelly and Duff lead the way in quiz stakes
Inside the team hotel meanwhile, there were no surprises in the market for who would come home first in the latest squad quiz, according to Richard Dunne . . .
"Yeah, we had a quiz the other night and [Stephen] Kelly and the Duffer were on the same team. They won hands down and I think we all know why that was," he says with a laugh. "Kelly has books in his bag, alright, but they haven't been seen. They haven't come out but he even looks clever. We all love him and he is without doubt the cleverest man in the squad."
Kelly's high hopes: Henderson could be a happy Hammer
While insisting that Shay Given will be ready for Sunday, and observing that even if somehow something happened that prevented him playing Keiren Westwood would be more than ready and able to step into the breach, Alan Kelly was also upbeat yesterday about the prospects of 24-year-old goalkeeper Stephen Henderson at West Ham where Robert Green is about to move on.
"He's obviously gone to West Ham with the intention of breaking into the first team," he says, "and he's obviously gone there in the expectation that West Ham would get promoted and I think that Stephen will be looking at, if Rob Green goes, being the number one for next year."
However, Kelly cautions against taking anything for granted given that current manager Sam Allardyce's former Bolton number one, Jussi Jaaskaelainen, is being linked with a move to the club, as is former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson, but after a strong first half to the season at Portsmouth, Henderson's career definitely looks to be shaping up nicely.
The friendly bank: Sopot the place to go for a loan
The town of Sopot is an attractively leafy little place fronting on to a very nice beach and those fans planning to base themselves here for the Spain game are likely to be well pleased with the choice they made.
A striking symbol of the scale of change Poland has been through in recent years is the ridiculously informal looking Getin Bank on The Heroes of Monte Cassino Street (a reference to the second World War battle for an Italian monastery that Polish troops helped to capture in May 1944 rather than the heroes of Montecatini which are, of course, our lot). Back at home, a more appropriate name for a financial institution would be, of course, for all sorts of reasons: get out.
