Wembley minute's silence gives way to respectful applause

This got a mixed reaction when I posted it on Twitter. It's spontaneous applause from the FA Cup semi-final between Hull and Sheffield United at Wembley.

It broke out within seconds of the referee's starting whistle. Compare it to the moving silence at Anfield before Liverpool's clash with Manchester City hours earlier.

It was as if Wembley was commemorating and Anfield was mourning.

There were those who understood the clapping. But some expressed that it seemed to celebrate the fight for justice rather than commemorate the dead.

25 years on and the wounds of Hillsborough will never quite heal completely.

Jimmy Bullard: football legend

The term "legend" is used so glibly these days. But not so when applied to Jimmy Bullard! The Hull City midfielder, who put Phil Brown firmly back in his box with this goal celebration at Manchester City, has done it again.

Watch and enjoy this advert for Wash n' Go. Take two bottles into the shower? Not our Jimmy!

Sign him up! Sign him up! Sign him up!



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Marlon King should be shunned by the Premier League

By GREVILLE WATERMAN. Greville's signed for the Soccermongery and points his Brentford-maddened focus upon another Premier League star heading for jail.

Smarmy agent Tony Finnegan did his public image no favours by smugly proclaiming there'd be a queue of teams lining up to sign Jailbird Marlon King once he served his 18 month stretch for assaulting a student.

And even the normally sane Arsene Wenger endorsed his view with "you would consider signing someone like that".

Has the world gone mad and can the recidivist King who has amassed thirteen convictions since 1997 expect a continued demand for his services?

In the Greed Is Good Premier League, there's seemingly no moral compass. Previous miscreants like Tony Adams, Jermaine Pennant and Joey Barton have all returned from incarceration into the forgiving arms of their clubs who judge that on-field performances outweigh any moral obligation.

Maybe in this instance, the grin will be wiped off King and his agent's loathsome faces - and the reason will be purely financial.

In the Premier League madhouse, Marlon King is apparently "worth" £35,000 per week - the thick end of £2million per year.

And what does that get you?

A journeyman 29-year-old striker with a decent record of 108 league goals in 345 matches. But when you look more closely, you'll find half his goals were scored for Barnet and Gillingham, and all that after a promising spell in the Premier League with Watford. King's never been more than a squad player at the higher levels of the game with Wigan, Middlebrough and Hull.

It's an indictment of the game's finances that managers have been prepared to spend so much for so little - but maybe there is a ray of hope.

King will probably find some manager prepared to overlook his dreadful behaviour when he's released, but given he's obviously more accurate at hitting the target in nightclubs than on the pitch, I'm sure he will no longer receive such an obscene salary for his mediocre talent.

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