More than just a story concerning the football clique, England’s bid to be World Cup hosts in 2018 has earned column inches in the front of the paper too. Unusually, England are overconfident in their expectations with little reason in view of the competition and Deputy Prime Minister and occasional Lib Dem politician, Nick Clegg was leader of the blindly convinced by claiming England’s bid was ‘unbeatable’ as reported by BBC News.

Whether it’s a tabloid or broadsheet the story was in all the papers. Perhaps unsurprisingly The Sun decided to offer a different angle by largely ignoring the facts of the bid and instead showed its support by ploughing ‘back the bid 2018’ into a field. It brings a tear to your eye and makes you proud to be English doesn’t it?

The story proudly filled the The Sun, which approached it in the stance of a British bulldog with a St Georges flag painted on its face, but Elle, 20, from Hertfordshire was concerned about the psychological impact Fabio Capello would have on the selection committee.

In the Premier League, Newcastle crowned their return to the top flight with an emphatic 6-0 win over Aston Villa, with local lad Andy Carroll netting a hat-trick. He was rewarded with witty headline courtesy of The Metro.

Joey Barton’s decision to shave his newly grown moustache after Newcastle’s first league win dominated the attentions of The Sun though. His impact on the back pages didn’t end there, as during the celebration of his and Newcastle’s first goal he appeared to make a Hitler inspired Nazi salute towards the crowd. He explained it was because the ‘tache was coming off and surprisingly for a man with such a chequered past, he was freely absolved of any blame and The Metro was happy to laugh it off as ‘a close shave.’ How Hitler would have laughed at the mix-up!

Having spent the summer boring people to tears as a pundit with ITV, the 37 year old former Dutch international Edgar Davids has decided to spare TV audiences’ further anguish and has signed on a pay-as-you-play contract with Championship side Crystal Palace, after a two year absence from the game. Instead of focusing on what a coup the signing is for Palace, The Daily Mail was fixated with the fact that Davids specialist glaucoma glasses kept slipping off his head.

In a scene straight from Oliver, Gary Coleman’s stunt double Jermain Defoe publically pleaded with Spurs manager Mr Bumble for more time before he goes under the knife for a persistent groin problem, so he can help Spurs into the Champions League and compete in the latter group stages. Thankfully for fans he came through the match unscathed, scored a goal and according to the Daily Mirror has avoided the soaps he apparently dreads in the process.

Scenes of jubilation were expected to erupt form Spurs manager ‘Arry Redknapp after his side successfully overturned a 3-2 first leg defeat against Young Boys Berne to qualify for the Champions League for the first time, but the motor-mouth was seemingly humbled by the occasion. Instead it was reported in the Guardian’s excellent Fiver blog that that was enough excitement for one evening and he would just go home and have a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea, much to his wife’s disappointment.

The draw for the group stage re-ignited ‘Arry’s bullish attitude though, as he claimed “we won’t fear Inter” in The Sun in what was describes as a Spurfect draw for the North Londoners, who are clearly excited to have big cup football back at White Hart Lane. The Sun’s generosity knows no bounds though, as they gifted readers to a second Spurs based pun on their impending meeting with Inter Milan. Is it Christmas already?

Vila fans had been hoping prior to Thursday nights re-match with Rapid Vienna that their opponents name would be used to emphasise their rapid propulsion into to the group stages, however their evening ended in embarrassment and The Daily Star seized their opportunity to highlight this. The Sun stuck the knife in further by wishing goodnight and farewell to Kevin MacDonald as Villa manager.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Friday August 27, 2010.
Tags: Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United