Tony Blair has emerged from the shadows to remind everyone that "look, guys, none of this was my fault", fresh efforts to find peace in the Middle East have kicked off and Stephen Hawking has effectively declared war on God.

But tonight brings with it the event to trump them all -

Sky Sports News' blue riband event, their poor man's version of a general election or the X Factor final has passed and the big, bright clock will be solemnly ticking down to 00:00 February 1 2011 off-screen for the next four months. ...

10hrs 22mins and counting...

Transfer deadline day: the day of the year football journalists up and down the country dread.

Frantic last-minute activity as desperate players and clubs - and even more desperate agents - try to wangle late deals before that hypothetical window is slammed shut is not conducive to a quiet day at work for some.

The bigger the names involved, the bigger the speculation and the greater the stress incurred. ...

But, as it is, it will be

Early Doors is a cynical old boot, and it has never understood the supposed imperative to support English teams in Europe, but it has to admit it is rather pleased at Tottenham's qualification for the Champions League proper.

It is eight years since an English side reached the Champions League group stage that wasn't one of the 'Big Four' - that was Newcastle in 2002/03. And it is 48 years since Spurs were in what used to be known as the European Cup. ...

Early Doors thought about just copying and pasting The Sun's splenetic back page lead in full today, so bizarre and entertaining is it.

Basically, the story revolves around the selection of the England Under-21 squad to play Portugal in a European Championship qualifier next Friday.

It's an important game, so thank goodness Jack Wilshere and Andy Carroll are in there, right?

Wrong. ...

So that's what £350 million does for a football team, then.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan witnessed firsthand for the first time what his invested millions have bought him - and he cannot have failed to be impressed. No wonder why he has a big smile on his face.

A weekend goal splurge in the Premier League has got the juices flowing alright.

The opening round's impressive tally of 26 goals was eclipsed by an incredible 35 over the past couple of days - and there is still one game still to go. ...

Jamie Carragher claims Joe Cole is a 'God' in Liverpool, but if so the man upstairs must have two left feet, as the new Anfield number 10 has had a shocking start to life at his new club.

Cole was sent off on Sunday for a truly silly scissors challenge on Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny.

Then last night he saw a poor penalty kick saved against Trabzonspor. It was the first he had taken in a competitive match since he was 13. ...

Familiarity breeds contempt. In the ongoing, somewhat ravaged environs of professional football, familiarity breeds only content.

Drowning under the usual dosage of sweltering transfer stories yesterday afternoon, one was quick to pick up on the news from Germany that Sami Hyppia had been forced to discount a return to Liverpool because of Bayern Leverkusen's desire to retain him. ...

As far as debuts go, there have been better.

Tottenham took their bow in the Champions League last night amid much hope and expectation against opposition as 'lowly' as Young Boys.

The relief of being paired with the Swiss side was almost audible in North London the other week when the draw was made in Nyon. ...

What does Craig Bellamy bring to a club? Or more to the point, what has he brought to your club? A sprinkling of gold dust, or a whole heap of trouble?

These are the questions which started swirling through Early Doors's fairly gnarled mind this morning as reports gathered pace suggesting Bellamy, possibly the last great maverick of the modern Premier League era, was poised to shuffle down a division to Cardiff City in the Championship. ...

It was a day of joy for the club unparalleled since the glory days of the 1950s. ...

'THE BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD!'

It is impossible to hear those words without imagining them spewing from the face of a Richard Keys, a Jim White or some other satellite TV mouthpiece.

Such is the ludicrous hyperbole with which Sky have infused English football that the sentence quickly transformed from an opinion to a statement of indisputable fact, then to just an alternative name for the Premier League. ...

Fabio Capello managed to steal his own show last night by ending David Beckham's England career in a pre-recorded interview broadcast before kick-off.

Today's papers are full of it. How dare he treat Becks so disrespectfully, booting him into retirement without telling him in advance? It's disgusting, and shows just how little he knows about the English game. And so on...

But hang on a minute. ...

The idea of making the appointment for today was simple: surely nothing could be a more powerful analgesic than the prospect of sitting through an evening of meaningless international friendlies. ...

It was more like he was strapped to a giant steam catapult, one which was repeatedly slamming his cranium into the tungsten-reinforced walls of Fort Knox.

Yet despite that, ED is struggling to have any sympathy for the Northern Irishman the morning after he walked out of the manager's job at Villa Park.

Okay, so he was being given an impossible task. ...

Doesn't anyone want to play for England any more?

Hours after Fabio Capello gave Paul Robinson and Wes Brown a lifeline to escape the international wilderness, both decided they rather liked the solitude and rebuffed the call-up.

There was something magnificently warped about the logic Robinson used to announce his retirement. ...