EURO 2008 Round Up at Fryday

So as Thursday drifts into Friday, and I receive a panicked phone call from good pal, and fellow blogger, Tom – it is with a blissful ‘knowing’ serenity that I realise that for the first time we have missed Euro 2008 Random Round Up Thursday (didn’t I say last week that Thursday was the new Friday)… And thus, please bang your kettle drums; shake your rattles and blow ‘dem horns – for this is Euro 2008 Random Round Up Friday!

And as our first port of call of this voyage around the net, is the nifty new idea from Adidas to send Interesting big names to small places. For example, according to worldcupblog.com, the likes of David Beckham and Steven Gerrard will visit the Isles of Scilly, home to the world’s smallest football league (with just two teams). Well, they won’t be doing much else this summer will they? Perhaps they could send Ashley Cole to Basra?

Meanwhile, the Austrian first team coach has thrown somewhat of a curveball by selecting the 38 year old attacking midfielder Ivica Vastić (pictured below with small child) for his provisional squad. The wily old dog (I presume he must be if he’s that old) however has scored 13 goals in 31 league matches for Linz this season – and despite not playing for the Austrians since 2005, has amassed 46 caps in his career. Could he be the next Toni Polster? We watch and wish!

Also – an interesting comparison is drawn to the Italian World Cup Winners of 2006 by Ivan on the Russian Football blog, as he surmises that Russia’s Euro 2008 may well be made up solely of domestic talent. Of course, there are a number of Russians plying their trade across Europe (amongst them Fulham’s Alexi Smertin of course) – but their chances of being in the squad look pretty bleak.

Oh – and for a totally neutral perspective over the next few weeks, why not pop over to Aaron Stollar’s blog, where he will be talking look at each of the groups and giving his professional opinion on how Euro 2008 might just go!