Random news of the week

I'm still busy with Club World Cup stuff, so here's a few tidbits to keep you entertained...

The latest news in the West Ham saga is that Alan Curbishley has been named as their new manager, replacing Alan Pardew. Curbishley has got quite the challenge ahead of him in dragging them out of the relegation zone, although he did a solid job at Charlton -- where his replacement, Les Reed, is not exactly setting the world on fire. Personally, I'm wondering what the odds are of Pardew ending up at Charlton by this time next year.

In the midweek games, Chelsea beat Newcastle 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Didier Drogba, to pull themselves within five points of Manchester United. Arsenal climbed to third as they scraped a 1-0 victory over Wigan 1-0 with a late winner from Emmanuel Adebayor. The Gunners were once again without Thierry Henry, who's reportedly going to be out until the new year. I'm not really sure what's wrong with him, though; I suspect he pulled a muscle from shrugging too much.

Broadcasting news: The Score has outbid Sportsnet for the rights to Premiership games in Canada starting next year. This sucks because The Score isn't one of the channels I get, which means I'm going to have to either upgrade my cable package or spend even more money in the pub.

Also, TSN will be broadcasting Euro 2008 matches, which is great as long as they won't be using the ESPN feed like they do for the Champions League, because that makes me want to stab things.

In other random news, the British Ministry of Sport is thinking about eliminating doping sanctions for athletes caught doing recreational drugs. Which is good news for Rio Ferdinand. Allegedly.

Joey Barton comments on footballer autobiographies: "England did nothing in the World Cup, so why were they bringing books out? 'We got beat in the quarter-finals. I played like s**t. Here's my book.' Who wants to read that? I don't. I watched the World Cup and there wasn't a team. It seemed to be individuals playing for themselves." He's actually made me like him for once.

And finally, your bizarre and amusing link of the day: Liverpool players in costume for the club's Christmas party. I have no words, really.