I have to say, Leon Clarke’s hat-trick for Chesterfield against Carlisle did make me smile. My joy for Clarke had nothing to do with any personal feelings towards the on-loan striker, it was more a case of how it went down with his parent club Swindon Town. And in particular with manager Paulo Di Canio, who booted him out of the club after a bust-up earlier this season. The message to the Italian from Clarke was loud and clear; ‘You threw all your toys out of the pram on plenty of occasions when you were a player, and you’ve now done it as a manager! That is my response!’.
My smile grew even bigger when I got back to the car, turned the radio on and heard about Louis Saha’s rant on Twitter about not being picked. The reply from his boss David Moyes… ‘Good, I don’t want players who are happy when they’re dropped!’ The contrast in man-management skills couldn’t have been more different.
Onto the next game for me then, it’s post-match interviews for Sky on Wednesday night, West Brom’s Roy Hodgson and Everton’s David…. Moyes!!!