Smashing

When your luck's not in, it really isn't in. There was Albert Luque thinking life couldn't get much more depressing on Tyneside, only for his Chelsea tractor to get a puncture on the way to Newcastle Airport yesterday afternoon - and then get smashed into by a lorry. Fortunately for the Spaniard, Lady Luck didn't completely desert him - he was unscathed in the incident and is due to play when we kick off in Frankfurt in less than an hour's time.

Seriously, though, what is it with our players and car crashes? Luque joins a long and ignominious list including Kieron Dyer, Andy Griffin and, most recently, Titus Bramble. The roads would be safer if none of them was allowed to get behind the wheel...