AC Milan defender uses the sexy to get Brazilian’s attention…

Spotted at [ONTD Football]

Spoiler bonus: Check out our extensive Sporno gallery here

Pay attention at the back

1. England aren’t the only country with a dodgy keeper
Madrid - Milan was a terrific match, end-to-end and iced with a couple of wonderful goals. But there were also some dreadful goalkeeping on display, from two men who are in contention to be the custodians for two of the favourites to win in South Africa.
Iker Casillas had his worst game in a Madrid shirt for many years. Not only was he beaten by Andrea Pirlo’s 87 yard strike for the Milan equaliser, but he then made a terrific hash of a standard long ball, to allow the Duck to put the Rossoneri ahead.

2. Serie A is no longer the home of Catenaccio
Things aren’t what they used to be in Serie A. 17 goals in the four matches in which Italian sides were involved this week, shows that the days of tuning into Ch4, to watch Roma and Sampdoria pass the ball around the back four inside their own half, are well and truly over.

3. Frank Lampard needs a team built around him
Much flapping and excitement in today’s press, as the golden boy Frank Lampard returned to form last night with a goal and two assists against the awful Atletico. Less lauded however, was how Lamps was at his best due to once more having three midfielders screening him, allowing Frank effectively a free role. It’s this sort of indulgence that Lampard has become used to, and that Capello is trying to stamp out with England.
Steven Gerrard to a slightly lesser degree relies on the same indulgence - at his best in a free role with three midfielders in behind him. Many would argue the pair are so good, they are worth spoiling. Thespoiler isn’t so sure - Paul Scholes used to score 15 a season playing with just Roy Keane alongside him, let alone two others.

The ones you haven’t seen yet.

Cagliari’s Daniele Dessena, on loan from Sampdoria, shows once more why he is one of the brightest young things in Italian football right now, with this overhead kick against Catania.

John Goosens started his professional career with Ajax, where the famous academy obviously taught him to do things like this.

We here at thespoiler can never get enough of goalkeepers scoring goals, so we loved this one from the Portugese Cup.

Inter’s splattering of Genoa on Saturday night was unquestionably the performance of the weekend in Europe, and Dejan Stankovic’s long-range effort, probably the goal of the weekend in Europe.

Italian PM forgets about all the teams that are better than his

Currently sitting in the bottom half of Serie A with two league wins to their name, AC Milan are struggling to find form under Leonardo. Well aware of this fact, owner Silvio Berlusconi yesterday described the start to the season as “a disaster” while visiting the earthquake-hit region of Abruzzo. However, when he realised a reporter from La Gazzetta dello Sport heard his comment, he changed his mind quicker than a former Tottenham defender at a League Two club:

“Ah, you work for Gazzetta?”"Well, when I said ‘disaster’ I was just saying it for the sake of it.

“It is a difficult moment, but that’s football. It will pass. We’ll see where things stand in the end.”

The Italian ladies’ man - who has suspiciously black hair and perfect teeth for a man who turned 73 yesterday - continued

Also appearing on a computer near you…

Amazing - Chelsea vs Liverpool. In Nigeria. If anyone has the full film, we’ll swap you our life savings and children.

Watford’s Jay DeMerit is out of action after suffering an injury that made The Spoiler cringe for about half an hour. And it’s not a broken leg.
[Daily Mail]

Unsurprisingly, it’s not worth taking anything Ian Wright says in those rubbish adverts for the The Sun seriously.
[The Times]

Want to sound knowledgeable at the office watercooler during the next (inevitable) Calciopoli scandal? Click on…
[Juventus.The Offside]

Evil Ronaldo bobblehead haunts our dreams. We’re sorry for calling you fat! (Not really)
[Dirty Tackle]

Darren Bent twitter update: He’s not visiting Tiger Tiger again, as he got ‘pure hassle’ from Newcastle fans last night. Also, Fraizer Campbell is back on XBOX Live. Hurrah!
[@dbthetruth]

Arsenal youth prospect Mark Randall’s alleged WAG poses NSFW-ishly
[ZOO Today]

World Cup winner shows he’s not made of stone

Much has been made of Emmanuel Adebayor’s irresponsible reaction to the torrent of abuse he received from Arsenal fans at the weekend, but Roma’s Daniele De Rossi was also subjected to offensive chants on Sunday. The Italian, however, dealt with the crowd banter a little differently.

After a mistimed tackle, Siena fans started singing a song about his father-in-law (i.e. the daddy of his not-unattractive WAG Tamara), who was apparently executed in a mafia hit last year. When the whistle blew, the midfielder’s reddened eyes quickly turned into full-on waterworks, as his teammates tried to console him.

Siena manager Marco Giampaolo offered an apology on behalf of the callous fans:

“To De Rossi, I express my solidarity as a man and as a footballer for what has happened.”

[Hat tip: 101GG and Dirty Tackle]

Will new manager bring the second wave of the Blue Revolution?

The same crystal ball that allowed The Spoiler’s to accurately forecast the Champions League starting line-ups has come in handy again. Last Friday, we told you Leonardo would replace Carlo Ancelotti as AC Milan manager today, and of course, this prophecy has come to pass.

Enough cockiness about the well-informed predictions of a handsome blogger though, as we need to find out if the FNG* is the right man for the Blues job.

With Serie A, Coppa Italia and two Champions league titles under his belt, few can doubt Ancelotti’s pedigree as a world class manager. However, as Glenn Hoddle astutely points out in this morning’s Sun, hie experience lies only in Italy, and English football is a completely different kettle of people who are being punished for their sins in a former life fish.

Additionally, there is no telling how much of a rapport he will share with the squad: they warmed to Guus Hiddink very quickly, but with English speaking skills that are currently not much better than those of Luiz Felipe Scolari or John Terry, he may struggle to ingratiate himself with the players.

So, will Carlo become a huge success in the Premiership, or will poor results drive him back to a league where he can smoke himself to death on the sidelines once again? Let us know your thoughts below…

*FNG = F**kin’ New Guy. Get with the times, granddad.

Germans boast the best gates in the world

No one is contesting the fact that the Premier League is the greatest in the world, but in terms of attendances it lags behind our friends in Germany. The average attendance in the Bundesliga is 42,000, compared to the Premier League’s 35,000. Elsewhere, Spain average just 28,000 a game, while the Italians scrape a lowly 25,000 on average.

The popularity of football in Germany may be attributed to the fact that prices are much more reasonable, and six of their stadia can house more than 50,000 supporters - Borussia Dortmund (72,000), Bayern Munich (69,000), Schalke (61,000), Hamburg (55,000), Stuttgart (51,000) and Hertha Berlin (51,000). A further five stadiums can hold over 40,000 fans.

In England, we have just two stadia that can put more than 50,000 bums on seats - Old Trafford (75,000) and The Emirates (60,000). [Ed. - Err, actually St James Park holds 52,000 too - perhaps the source of the stats (The Sun) assumed the Toon Army had already gone down]

Spain, Italy and England have all hosted the best league in the world at some point, so perhaps the Bundesliga will take over when the Premiership bubble bursts?