Sir Alex on Charlie Rose, Wilshere Up In Smoke, Europa League, Weekend Previews, Messi's House

Jack!

We might as well begin our Friday with the Europa League. Everyone's favorite second-tier competition provided Wigan with their first ever win in Europe. Spurs won, Swansea won. There really were not many surprises. Here's a round-up.

On to something much more fun. England's latest hope, Jack Wilshere, was seen smoking. He says it was a prank. He tweeted about it. His gaffer is non too pleased.

Right. Might as well stay in England (and Wales) and look at the weekend ahead. Here are 10 Things To Look Forward To. Sadly, there are no real lovelies on offer, at least on paper. You've got a London Derby with West Ham going up to Tottenham, but Spurs should be able to handle that. Manchester United's trip to Sunderland could be interesting. Everton at Manchester City might be the best on offer. It will be interesting to see how City respond in front of the home crowd after being stomped by the Germans. Arsenal at West Brom should be pretty tight as well. Although, according to Michael Palin (he's hanging with Lawro this week -- see below), it'll be 8-1 to the Brommies. Here's a preview of all that stuff. And some Team News. As we said, some people want to predict what will happen. In addition to Palin, that would be Lawro and Paul Merson.

On to Italy, where we've got a real clash on our hands! Unlike the rather uninspired fixture list in the Premier League (and La Liga -- see below), Serie A gives us Inter vs. Roma domani. And Domenica? How about Juventus vs. Milan and Lazio vs. Fiorentina. Sensazionale!

And in Spain, Real Madrid are under pressure as they head down to Valencia to face Levante. Here's a preview of all the La Liga weekend acción.

Messi's house looks like a soccer ball from above. That's all.

La casa futura de Messi?

The Big Interview today is Steve Bruce. The Hull manager speaks on redemption in East Yorkshire, the task ahead of David Moyes, looking like Mrs. Doubtfire, and that club name change.

For some reason there hasn't been any MLS Friday Forecast lately. We miss it. Here are the latest Power Rankings from a few days ago.

We'll conclude today with Sir Alex Ferguson and Charlie Rose. If you've got an hour to spare, here's the whole bloody thing:


Have a great one!

-SSN