Wordsmith with Martin Smith

JOSE'S a gonner then.

All that pout and pose leaving football just when it needs more characters, not fewer.

With no Mourhinho or Warnock to liven the place up the Premiership is a decidedly duller place.

You wouldn't have known it but Mourhinho had a bit of a soft spot for Bramall Lane.

One of his sayings has United as the heartbeat of English football.

"Places like Bramall Lane are the soul of English football," he said after they came and won 2-0 ain Sheffield last season.

"The crowd is magnificent saying: '**** off Mourhinho' and so on."

Makes you glow with pride.

Cat's entertainment

WHY in the name of Valerie Singleton's floral hotpants would the BBC want to rig the naming of a Blue Peter kitten?

The kids voted to call it Cookie but a late and suspicious surge of votes made programme officials think there was a concerted and dodgy campaign for Cookie to win.

Apparently there may or may not be some sexual innuendo attached to the word Cookie. So they named the winner Socks, the runner-up choice, just to avoid any teenage sniggering over Cookie. Why?

John Noakes would have named the cat Cookie, Pussy or Richard Bacon if that's what the kids had voted for, had a giggle and got on with it.

I don't really imagine any wholesale corruption at the BBC, more a cutting of corners, but that kind of flip-flopping around suggests the modern Blue Peter is a show that lacks any confidence in its own judgement. Indicative of the corporation as a whole perhaps.

Does anyone know what Cookie is the slang for?

Sheffield rocks on

GOOD to see yet another Sheffield band riding high in the charts.

Reverend and the Makers are in at number four this weekend with their debut album The State Of Things.

The all action north Sheffield band led by the charismatic Jon McClure are making their mark nationally after building up a big and loyal following in this area.

Rumour has it that Jon McLure has taken to asking members of other bands on their current tour to call him The Reverend at all times.

You can catch them tonight at Razzamataz in Barcelona if you fancy it or you can wait till October 15 when they play Octagon in Sheffield.

Bless you.