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Enjoy today’s links with a nice dose of Brian Clough xenophobia

Thomas Vermaelen says life at Arsenal is “like a circus”
[The Telegraph]

Cristiano Ronaldo’s earrings aren’t doing it for the ladies
[Kickette]

The gay kiss that is rocking Honduran football
[101GG]

Carlos Tevez was set to miss the Manchester derby, and he’s still set to miss the Manchester derby
[Sky Sports]

Very important news regarding Arsenal WAG Radka Kocurova
[Caught Offside]

We’re doing Tweets and all sorts of Twittery nonsense - come and join us
[Twitter]

Our Sony Ericsson World Cup 2010 competition is closed. Super lucky Spoiler reader Tom Deane wins a fabulous FIFA-branded Sony Ericsson W995 mobile and the chance to win a ‘Golden Ticket’ for South Africa. Well done, sir!

David Peace’s excellent book gets the big screen treatment

The beautiful game has a long tradition in the world of cinema, upheld by fine films such as When Saturday Comes, Fever Pitch, and Soccer Dog: The Movie. The latest addition to the football film canon is The Damned United, which chronicles Brian Clough’s disastrous 44-day stint at Leeds United, the league champions at the time.

The part of Cloughie is played by Michael Sheen (the guy who plays Frost in Frost/ Nixon, not the guy from Apocalypse Now), and also features Jim Broadbent and Timothy Spall.

The 2006 David Peace novel upon which the film is based is very high on The Spoiler’s required reading list, and is revered as one of the greatest football novel ever made.

However, the controversial book, which the author describes as “fiction based upon fact”, has been heavily criticised by Clough’s widow and family, and many loyal admirers are also choosing to boycott the new project.

The film has much to live up to, and we’ll get a chance to see it in UK cinemas on March 27th.