Smudger Smith: This evening will be the pits for one German team tonight - and things could get hairy

The Journeyman Pro

In a professional career spanning almost two decades, Simon “Smudger” Smith has played for over 67 clubs and has reinvented himself time and again, from poacher to goalkeeper.

I hate this time of year – the time that we say goodbye to the beautiful game (or as people in Stoke call it, ‘the game’).

The Premiership ended last weekend and we have our final league table and I know one set of fans are delighted to have secured their final position. It went to the wire but congratulations to Norwich on getting that big away win and making sure that they were the ones to bag eleventh place.

Arsenal would also have been pleased to finish fourth although I felt they were very harshly treated on Sunday. Wenger and his boys did well and deserved to enjoy their moment but they were cruelly robbed of their trophy presentation at the end of the game. Still, they’ll have Champions League football next season and we all know what a boon that can be when it comes to signing players. One can only imagine the unproven, junior French players that will now be viable transfer targets for Wenger.

I’ll be one of many supporting Dortmund and their attractive style of play tonight and my gut says that they will produce the most beautiful performance since the first half of that German girl’s video for "99 Red Balloons". One thing’s for sure: this evening will be the pits for one of the German teams and things will be rather hairy for them.

Of course, it’s not the first European final and we saw the heartbreak for so many Portuguese fans last week. I don’t know why they withdraw from Eurovision but I have every faith that they will bounce back with a strong entry next year.

I was surprised that Mike Phelan is going to make way at Man Utd as I backed Alex Ferguson, like the Brighton players, to leave his number two in the dressing room. Still, the managerial merry-go-round is in full swing and it looks like there’ll be more big news on the way. People often ask if I’m going to climb aboard but I’m more interested in the candy floss and toffee apples.