The 2005/2006 Irish football season concluded with the customary Irish Cup final. Sponsors, Nationwide, in their final hurrah of supporting the historic competition, got what the general public had wanted. A Big two final between Linfield and
Glentoran.

Normally a match up between the two Belfast giants is enough to get the juices flowing but this was a season in which the blue half of Belfast took a clean sweep of domestic trophies.

The season began back in August, with the terrible news that Coleraine FC was on the brink of closure and losing their place in the Irish League. News came from the club that they owed thousands of pounds to Inland Revenue and attempts to come to an agreement were slim. However, a glimmer of hope emerged and the clubs went into administration and were allowed to take their place in the league.

As is custom in recent years, the League Cup kicked off the Irish football season, amid much criticism from fans. It is viewed as an inferior competition and most clubs would prefer to kick start the season with the beginning of the Irish Premier Division. The final was another Big Two occasion and Linfield gained first blood over their Belfast rivals with a comprehensive 3-0 victory, with Glenn ? Spike? Ferguson scoring a sublime hat trick.

The League kicked off shortly after the Group stages of the League Cup and with news sponsors in Carnegie. Linfield immediately set the pace and one of the highlights of the opening few rounds of matches was the 9-2 victory over Institute. The goals were flowing for the Windsor Park side and Linfield striker Peter Thompson gained recognition for his goal scoring accolades with an international call up. Thompson proved to be a key figure for the Windsor Park outfit and scouts from across the water were in regular attendance at Windsor Park.

Elsewhere in the league Portadown and Glentoran were leading the rest of the chasing pack with Dungannon Swifts also fighting it out, in what was a magnificent season for Joe McAree?s side.

The league may still be the main prize on offer for Irish League sides but the All Ireland Setanta Cup was proving to a be a huge hit, in only its second season. Linfield had become All Ireland champions in the first inaugural final at Tolka Park against Shelbourne and they faced a tough task of retaining the trophy when they were placed in a difficult group of Derry City, Shelbourne and Glentoran. Linfield breezed through to the semi-finals and in their final group game they thumped local rivals Glentoran. Unfortunately the Belfast side found the going tough against a slick Drogheda United side and after the game Linfield maestro Davy Jeffrey hinted at the need for full time status in Irish league football. Drogheda edged out Cork City in
the final and capped off a wonderful campaign with the All Ireland title.

Everything was not so rosy at the bottom of the Irish Premier Division and homeless Ards were propping up the table and with several other clubs facing the prospect of relegation to the second tier. Relegation proved to be the end of Omagh Town and it is something feared by the Premier division sides.

Linfield went the entire League campaign undefeated until they were torn apart by Lisburn Distillery on the day they received the League title, ending their unbeaten domestic run.

Ards will be playing in the First Division next season and Institute who were defeated by Donegal Celtic in the relegation play off joined them. This was an historic occasion for the Suffolk Road based side and they joined the top tier for the first time in their history. However, doubts still remain as to whether they can have their ground up to Premier League standards. If not they could perhaps share Solitude with Cliftonville.

Stephen Baxter guided Crusaders straight back to top tier as they went up as champions.

Linfield dominated the County Antrim shield once more and they were lucky to defeat a plucky Ballymena United side, which enjoyed a fairly successful season with Kevin Kelbie proving to be one of the discoveries of the season.

The Irish Cup was a major attraction once again this year and the achievements of Newington YC were a great boost for the competition. They reached the quarterfinals and were unlucky to be defeated by Larne. The semi finals kept the ? Big Two? apart and as predicted we witnessed a Belfast Big Two final at Windsor Park. Linfield completed the clean sweep with Thompson scoring the winner in an eventful game, which was incident free. Something the organizers were keen to have after last year?s scenes at the Oval.

Further down the divisions, Ballyclare and Ballymoney will be playing second division football and Portstewart and Ballinamallard have taken their places.

Ballinamallard have enjoyed much success at every level this season and their youth team lifted the Harry Cavan Youth Cup, defeating St Oliver Plunkett in the final at Mourneview Park. The future bodes well for Ballinamallard and they could spring a surprise or two in the First division next season.

Barcelona’s European Cup victory still hasn’t helped Swedish striker Henrik Larsson get over the heartbreak of Celtic’s defeat to Porto in the 2004 UEFA Cup Final.

While Larsson was instrumental in Barcelona’s victory over Arsenal after coming on as a second half substitute in his last game for the Catalan club, he told Scottish newspaper the Daily Record that the defeat at the hands of Jose Mourinho’s men still haunts him.

“Years and years ago I would watch the European Cup and hope that one day I’d get the chance to play in it and even win it.

“Now I’ve realised that dream and it’s something I can always look back on with a huge amount of pride.

“But you can’t say that it erases the memory of losing the UEFA Cup with Celtic. That was a different team and I will always feel sorry we lost that game.

“Whenever I watch a UEFA Cup final I will be disappointed that I didn’t win it with Celtic.

“But at least now every time I watch the Champions League I can hold my medal and be incredibly happy that I achieved that.”

Henrik Larsson is now returning to his native Sweden to play for Helsingborgs.

Been a while since we seen a convincing headline like that but on the back of an exciting run to UEFA Cup qualification (I refuse to look at this as sloppy seconds anymore, it’s a stepping stone to the Champion’s League and a damn fine European tour for the travel starved loyal Spurs fans) it’s one we may be seeing a bit more of.

I’ll admit I’m not too clued up on either Bulgarian football or too much on the Bundesliga but Dimitar Berbatov is joining Spurs with a great goalscoring record in a proper European league (no more Rebrov easy goals for Kiev type stats) and he seems to have the mentality and all round game to make him a great hit in the Premiership. ?10.9m is a lot of money for thrifty Danny Levy and the board to be throwing down on one Eastern European player, especially after the last regime got burnt so badly on the aforementioned “Ridgeley” Rebrov, but Damien Comolli and Martin Jol seem convinved of his pedigree and that’s good enough for me.

Berbatov has been speaking out himself and it’s heartening news so far:

“I had a meeting with a representative of Manchester United and he told me that they have been following me for a while.

“But Tottenham showed me clearly how much they want me there and United wasn’t really convincing.”

“I’m happy that I will play in a club with high ambitions. There were people from Tottenham watching me playing for a while but I was watching them too and I really like the way they play.

“The team tries to play beautiful football, which I like very much, and the manager is exceptional. The players have great respect for Mr Jol and all he wants is for his team to play beautiful football.”

“I think I’ll adapt fast because I know the language well.”

Keep telling us how you turned the Mancs down, score against the Goons and lead us to the Champion’s League next season and with a little beautiful football along the way, I think you and me will get along just fine Dimitar.

Dennis Wise has been named as the new manager of Swindon Town with his former Chelsea teammate Gustavo Poyet being unveiled as his assistant.

Wise takes over from Iffy Onoura who has turned down an offer of a reduced role at the club and will now leave, possibly to be followed by fellow coaches Alan Reeves and Ian Woan.

Dennis Wise has some experience of management having led Millwall to an FA Cup final defeat by Manchester United during a turbulent 18 month spell in charge but is relatively untested in the lower divisions having played most of his career in the top flight, most notably for Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang and Chelsea.

The pair have verbally agreed to sign for Swindon and contracts are due to be drawn up later on Thursday at the County Ground.

What a game. After Saturday’s FA Cup Final I thought it would be a long time before I saw another that matched it but the 2006 European Cup final certainly got close.

Thierry Henry missing a sitter after two minutes, Lehmann self destructing and reaping the effects of the bad karma he’s built up in the Premiership over the past two seasons and Sol “Judas” Campbell scoring his first goal of 2006 to put the Arsenal a goal up despite being down to 10 men after Eboue took a dive to win the free kick. What a first half. If you were an Arsenal fan that is. For the Barcelona inclined “Neutral” it was more than a little hard going.

Samuel Eto’o hitting the post, Henry missing another sitter and constant Barcelona pressure with no serious openings were really doing my heart no good at all and as the rain came down in torrents in Paris there were growing doubts in my mind whether the best footballing side in Europe could get the vital goal to make their numerical advantage count.

Offside concerns aside it finally came from Eto’o with a fabulous move and through ball which he banged inside the near post to send the Barcelona fans into raptures and one interested observer in Northern Ireland absolutely ballistic watching on TV. When Belletti and Larsson combined five minutes later to net the eventual winner I almost needed resuscitation. The goals had been coming with immense pressure being put on the rapidly tiring Arsenal defence but it’s one thing having the pressure and quite another actually hitting the back of the net.

Ronaldinho poked and prodded but rarely got his proper rewards for his invention and skill while Ludovic Giuly, Deco and Eto’o take most of the plaudits for their own invention and movement all night. Giuly in particular was integral to Barca’s attacking play down the right hand side and should use this performance to help him get over the disappointment of missing out on France’s World Cup squad. If they can afford to leave Giuly out then they must have some squad.

Arsenal’s players worked hard but were always fighting an uphill battle after Lehmann’s deserved sending off on 20 minutes. Thierry Henry worked hard but his usually immaculate finishing left him once again in a big game and one does have to ask now if his true world class quality is real or just perceived and blown up by the English media. Maybe a move to Barcelona to replace the departing Henrik Larsson would show us the real level of quality Henry has.

One thing neither Henry nor his manager have is any class when it comes to losing. To come on TV afterwards and blame the referee for giving Barcelona some decisions and then not mentioning the blatant dive from Eboue which won Arsenal the free kick from which they scored is childish and immature and for such a supposedly cultured player as Henry, a tad embarassing.

In the end justice was done and as Carlos Puyol lifted the European Cup there could hardly be any football fan in Europe who didn’t feel that Barcelona deserved to be champions of Europe after the football they have played this season.

Long may their reign continue.

There will be a full blow by blow account of the European Cup final coming soon on State of the Game, until I write it we’ll have to make do with the first of the Lehmann funnies to hit the web.

(Great work by skinandi from From The Lane messageboard)

Reports are leaking out of Teeside that Middlesbrough are close to agreeing a deal with former Barcelona and England manager Terry Venables to replace Steve McLaren in the hotseat at the Riverside.

Venables has a brief history with Middlesbrough after a spell in temporary charge of the side during their relegation battle in 2001 under Bryan Robson’s failing regime and was credited at the time with saving Boro’s Premiership status.

The intervening years under McLaren have solidified Boro’s place in the premiership and the constant yo-yoing between the top two tiers under Robson has made way for silverware and UEFA CUp final appearances.

Quite what chairman Steve Gibson expects the 63 year old Venables to bring to the table now is an interesting conundrum. Venables hasn’t had the same managerial midas touch since he was forced to leave the England job to concentrate on his court cases involving some dodgy business interests and there are plenty of fans at Portsmouth, Crystal Palace and Leeds United who would have a few stories to tell Boro fans by way of warning.

There must be something in the water up in the North East that makes the chairmen go temporarily crazy from time to time with Sunderland having looked to Howard Wilkinson and Newcastle to Graeme Souness as their saviours in recent seasons. Neither was and their outdated managerial approaches were ripped to pieces all too easily by opposing teams and their own demanding fans.

Maybe Venables does have one last hurray in him, for Middlesbrough to gamble their Premiership lives on him would be a bet they may come to regret.

French coach Raymond Domanech continued the trend of shocking 2006 squad announcements on Monday by calling up Jean Alain Boumsoung and winger Franck Ribery while not naming Arsenal’s Robert Pires and Fenerbahce’s Nicolas Anelka.

Boumsong is familiar to Premiership watchers as he has been given the blame (along with Titus Bramble) for much of Newcastle’s recent defensive woes and is likely to be sold during the close season. Ribery is a shock because though he is an exciting and talented young player, he’s yet to feature for the national team and he’s on the roster while Barcelona’s Ludovic Giuly has been left off. The reason may be that Dommanech wants a team made of players who can play a variety of positions and Ribery is able to play any of the midfield positions.

There’s no way to guess which French team will show up. The vision of Thierry Henry, and the pace and late season form of both Djibril Cisse and Louis Saha could make France the most exciting team to watch, excluding Brazil. But the age of Zinedine Zidane plus the defensive mindedness of the best French midfielders Claude Makelele, Alou Diarra, and Patrick Vieria could make for a team holding out for 1-0 wins. And did I mention that Jean-Alain Boumsong is in the squad?

Luckily for France, their group is winnable to the point where Domanech could have the luxury of using the matches to find out which formation and lineup will work best in future rounds. The French should comfortably get past South Korea (as they are not playing in Korea this time and Guus Hiddink is off to Australia), Switzerland (lucky to make it to the Finals), and Togo (just happy to be in Germany).

In the Round of 16, France should meet Tunisia, sending another African team home. The quarterfinals could see France meet an Italian team that may not be beaten this summer, and I think Les Bleus would hold their heads up high going out to the Azzuri at this late stage after the humiliation they faced four years ago.

Despite the distinct possibility of Ashley Cole, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires signing off on their Arsenal careers after tomorrow night’s Champion’s League final, Arsene Wenger believes that a golden era is about to commence at the club and has indicated that he could be persuaded to extend his stay at the club beyond the two years he has left on his current contract.

Wenger told The Sun:

“And do I see myself finishing my coaching career in charge of Arsenal? Yes.

“I must admit that I’ve no ambition to be the coach of an international team.

“In fact it’s the opposite. At a club like this you have the cream of the world’s football talent to spot, sign and develop - and what could be more challenging than that?”

“Yet if you are a national team coach you’ve only got what the country’s generation of players provides for you. If you’ve got a bad bunch then what can a coach do about it?

“Every time I sign a young kid the parents ask me whether I’m going to stay or not and I always point out I’ll definitely see out my contract.

“Now I feel I’m beginning all over again at Arsenal, that a special new era is commencing.”

Whether a victory in tomorrow night’s battle against Barcelona would be enough to persuade his star striker to stay is another matter and even Wenger doesn’t know exactly what Thierry Henry has on his mind when it comes to deciding where he will play his football next season.

Keep an eye out for Henry swapping shirts at the end of the game though, it could be an early premonition of next season at the Nou Camp on the Stade de France pitch.

After many months of speculation, Tottenham Hotspur have finally announced their first signing of the summer and luckily it’s not another Balkan Beckenbauer or Slovenian Trevor Brooking but internet casino group Mansion in a ?34m four year shirt sponsorship deal.

Despite missing out on Champion’s League football on the last day of the season, Spurs have proven that they are headed in the right direction both on and off the field and in signing one of the ten largest shirt sponsorship deals in the world, Mansion are showing that big business can see the positive effects of being linked in with the Tottenham brand.

Enough positive marketing spin, let’s get down to dirty numbers. Mansion recently pulled out of a deal to sponsor Manchester United for undisclosed reasons and Spurs appear to have reaped the benefits by mving in there quickly and getting their hands on the money. With a UEFA Cup campaign to prepare for and another charge at Champion’s League qualification in next season’s Premier League I can see another round of spending being prepared in the White Hart Lane corridors of power to help give us that extra push back where we belong amongst the top clubs in not only England, but in Europe as well.

Money won’t do that by itself but a large wedge like that stumped up by Mansion should go a long way towards getting players like Dimitar Berbatov in over the door. What happens next is up to the players and coaching staff.

One last thing, thank God we’re finally rid of that horrible Thomson red logo on the shirts, no more red logos ever on a Spurs shirt please Enic. Wait a second, what do you mean Mansion’s logo is…