Hull and International Week

Hull City claim that the Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas spat at the feet of their assistant manager Brian Horton on St. Patrick's Day. If Hull are so adamant in their spitting claim then why did they not meet a deadline set by the Football Association to submit evidence.

That deadline ended yesterday.

However, the Football Association granted them an extension until Monday.

Hull chairman Paul Duffen said: "We applied to extend the deadline as many of the people who witnessed the incident are away."

I assume that the Hull chairman is talking about his players that are on international duty.

Out of the 43 players in Hull's squad, seven are on international duty. They don't report back to Hull until next Thursday at the earliest.

The extended deadline set by the Football Association is Monday. Go figure!

Peter Shilton is England's most capped player with 125 caps. He says Fabio Capello would be making a massive mistake if he picked Manuel Almunia.

Almunia is Spanish. He is set to apply for a British passport which means that he can play for England if he chooses. Let's look at Almunia's competition:

Ben Foster - Battling it out to be Man United's reserve team keeper with Tomasz Kuszczak (the Polish number two);

David James - 38 years old. Failed at Liverpool and Villa. Seen better days.

Paul Robinson - He has conceded 50 goals against Arsenal alone.

Scott Carson - Watch his England debut against Croatia. Exactly!

Looks like England need Almunia in goal. I would find England a lot more tolerable with Almunia as their number one. I would also find it hilarious that England cannot find a manager who is English or a keeper.

Tony Cascarino was a born and bred Londoner who played 88 times for Ireland. Yet in his autobiography, "Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino" he admits that he should never have been allowed to play for Ireland. He qualified on the strength of a maternal grandfather Michael O'Malley from Westport.

Cascarino admits that O'Malley was not his mother's natural father, rendering him ineligible under FIFA rules.

Ireland and other countries have used the grandparents ruling for years. Isn't it about time that England started to use the citizenship ruling - like other countries have (Croatia)? Or would that be (along with the hiring of a foreign coach) another realization on how far England have declined as a footballing world power?

1966 was last century.