By Cathal Dervan

SOCCER: Roy Keane is about to announce his next port of call which explains why a host of cameramen are still camped outside the door of his Manchester home. They are also following him on his daily walks with his by now world famous Labrador Triggs, and caught the dog and his master on camera in front of a “men at work” sign on Tuesday. Clearly Keane is not one of the men at work at present, but all that will change in the New Year, more likely than not in Spain. Good luck to him. I’ve never been to Madrid and will welcome an excuse to go there.

GAA: It must almost be time to pack up the laptop and try out a new career, maybe as a 1970s disc jockey on the 40th birthday party circuit, seeing that everyone I grew up with on the sports pages of the Meath Chronicle is bowing out. First Sean Boylan lost his job as Meath manager, then Kepak ended their years as sponsors and finally, on Monday night, Fintan Ginnity was voted out as chairman of the Meath County Board. Is it time to join them? On second thoughts no. That would please too many people in the Bronx and Cork.

SOCCER: The French boss Raymond Domenech is none too happy at the fact that his team has been drawn against Switzerland once again for next summer’s World Cup finals in Germany. If he has a real problem with facing the Swiss for the third time in as many years I can think of about 50,000 Irish fans who would gladly swap places with him as we look forward to life as fourth seeds for the next European Championship qualifiers.

GAA: Matty Forde may be an Ireland international and probably the best footballer ever to come out of Wexford, but that clearly doesn’t cut much mustard down his part of the country, considering the great one has just been left out of the Purple and Gold team for 2005 which honours the best club players in his native county. Incredibly Matty is only on the bench for the representative side!

SOCCER: The Irish FA have rowed in behind calls for a testimonial game to remember the great George Best. “Northern Ireland should be involved in a major match where all proceeds would go to charity,” said Irish Football Association President Jim Boyce. Quite right. How about a game against the Republic or a rematch between an All-Ireland side and Brazil like the one played at Lansdowne in 1970s?

SOCCER: The Blackburn Rovers players went fancy dress for their Christmas party this week, and Ireland international Steven Reid joined in the fun by dressing up as a Catholic Cardinal. Bet that helped him pull the birds! Sorry.

HERO OF THE WEEK: Irish rugby is crying out for a few new heroes ahead of the forthcoming Six Nations championship, and the Leinster coach Michael Cheika may have just unearthed such a gem in 19-year-old winger Rob Kearney. The former Louth minor football scored two fantastic tries in the demolition of Bourgoin on Saturday and possesses the sort of pace and intelligence that suggests he is going to be a big hit on the international stage very soon as well.

IDIOTS OF THE WEEK: Some people just don’t want to learn, nor are they inclined to own up to their mistakes. Many of us may have given the former Celtic and West Ham striker Paolo Di Canio the benefit of the doubt when he was alleged to have made a Nazi salute during the Rome derby last January, but this time there can be no excuse for the Lazio star. He repeated the fascist salute, banned in Italy, after the defeat at Livorno at the weekend, then claimed he will do it again. What a prat!