Bloomsday was a great day to launch a public beta, I'm only disappointed that I've been too busy to try out the Bloomsday release.

Diego and team, congrats. There's a pint (or two) of the black stuff waiting for you when you venture over here!

He's back!

This time he's back in Ecuador for good, looks like I was too optimistic back in November. It's a shame that Tino never got a chance to have a good shot at the Premiership, but with injuries and a strike force more prolific than all of the strikers England have taken to Portugal he never had the opportunity to break into the Saints side.

A quick thought about Euro 2004, is it the World's top soccer championship?

Yes, I know it hasn't got the mighty Brazil or Argentina, but other than that there are no teams of note missing from the championship. This is rather different to the World Cup finals where there are perennial no-hopers like Saudi Arabia.

The top of the FIFA World Rankings suggest that Mexico, Turkey (knocked out by England and Latvia in qualifying), USA, Cameroon, Republic of Ireland (knocked out in qualifying), and Iran(!), are significant omissions. But to be honest this only highlights how seriously flawed the FIFA rankings really are.

Take Mexico's record for instance - they're fouth in the rankings somehow - and apart from a 1-0 win over Brazil 12 months ago they have only played friendlies, one of which was a 0-0 draw against 65th ranked Iceland. Or the USA's record - ranked 9th - where they have no wins over any significant opposition since beating a mediocre Portugal 2 years ago at the World Cup.

Euro 2004 vs World Cup 2002? My money says Euro 2004 is the better tougher tournament.