Jens and his socks

As I try to ignore the tedious Championship Manager style speculation that continues around us, it's refreshing to read the odd bit of proper news that isn't just speculation or gossip. I've never supported Germany before but with Jens in goal and given that they're up against Ronaldo's Portugal it's not a tricky decision this time. It turns out that Jens will have some detailed revision notes tucked down his socks again. Good luck mad Jens, we love you.

As if we didn't have enough football on the telly as it is, Young Guns has kindly alerted us to some more quality on our screens in the form of the European under 19 championships. The games can be watched on Europsort on the TV or via the internet with Kieran Gibbs and Fran Merida the gunners taking part.

Carlos Vela has again been in action for Mexico, and on the score sheet yet again. I can't help but think that if Carlos had been a fresh signing this summer then we would be hearing lots and lots of hype about him from certain armchair experts, for some reason because he's already our player he doesn't really merit much of a mention. However he's played a full season in the Spanish top flight, scored goals for both club and country, plus he's still only just 19 years old, not bad really. Some people are never happy are they.

I'm looking forward to France Italy tonight, it promises to be a rather interesting encounter between two ageing sides that have so far underperformed given their reputations. A couple of other things before I lose interest, if you want a version of Newsnow with the rubbish filtered out then try this, plus here is a provisional fixture list for next season so that you can get really excited about all our new glitzy signings pulling their hamstrings in August.