FOOTBALLERS, what are they like? This week we were reminded of how they don’t actually live in the real world when Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero ended up in a car accident, in Amsterdam, where he’d popped across to on his day off, just to see his favourite band. What ever happened to going to the bookies or having a game of snooker?

Aguero will feel sore with bruised or broken ribs, and embarrassed given he had his crash in a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Yup, there is still one running, or at least it was until it hit a pole.

Which reminds me of my tale about that very make and model, that in turn, has a sporting theme. Several years ago at the snooker in Sheffield, a friend of mine got chatting to some Belgians, who by chance, were also in the car trade, with the continentals revealing they were over trying to source one car in particular - yes, the Chrysler PT Cruiser, then a popular model in Belgium.

My mate,Wizz, popped out to make a call, then came back to announce he’d found six of them, and named the price. The Belgians wrote a cheque there and then, and Wizz shipped the cars out within 24 hours. A lucky find? Not really.Wizz had them 18 months and couldn’t shift them!
 

In ‘My Sporting Saturday’ last weekend, Sky’s Ian Crocker admitted; “It bores me when I receive tweets saying I shouldn’t call it the Old Firm any more. I can and I will!”

At 6.55am, the first online comment read: “Don’t bother with the truth...Eh? The Old firm died when one of the clubs crashed and went bust in 2012. Following the myth promoted by the SMSM , SFA and SPFL. Today is the day that the Newco Sevco Rangers ... get a lesson.”

Quod erat demonstrandum anyone?

I saw on the twittersphere yesterday that on the 29th September, 1971, St Johnstone beat SV Hamburg 3-0 at Muirton Park to reach the second round of the UEFA Cup.

I don’t have many recollections of that match, but what I do remember was the discussions in the press over the next few days about the Saints following the Germans lead, by changing their name to SJ Perth. How very continental.

As history shows, that radical change didn’t happen and St Johnstone have been with us ever since. But who knows how that name change might have changed things.

Could we have had Stuart Cosgrove with a Kevin Keegan tattoo?  

It is great to see Owen Coyle (and Sandy Stewart) back in football. Anyone who covered football in the early 90’s in Scotland will have their own anecdotes about this pair and the Airdrie team they played with; Alex MacDonald, John Martin, John McVeigh.

Robert ‘Boab’ Duvall.

We have seen nothing like it or them since.

Back in the day, I once called Owen at home to do a preview piece and his mother answered the phone.

“Hello, it’s Stewart Weir at the Evening Times. Could I speak to Owen please, Mrs Coyle?”

“Aye son, of course you can,” she replied. “But is it young Owen, old Owen or oany Owen you want?”