If Fabio Capello is looking to the future, then he could do a lot worse than turn his glance to the North East of England.

Newcastle United striker Andy Carroll is a player from the old school, big, strong, and he has a good left foot. He reminds me a lot of Toon legends Alan Shearer and Malcolm McDonald.

It might be a bit early in the season to suggesting he should play for England, but his hatr-trick against Aston Villa was very good, and if he keeps that up it might be hard to ignore him.

The main thing will be too see how he gets on in the long run. Obviously he has potential, but there have only been two games played. We have to see how he gets on over a whole season, but I would like to see him do well, and if you know anything about St. Jame's Park you know they have a tradition of producing good strikers.

England have not just been missing strikers like Carroll but also someone like Tottenham midfielder Tom Huddlestone, a big man in the middle of the park, someone with real quality. He can pass the ball well and the national set up needs someone like that.

International footballl is very different from domestic football, where you have more time on the ball, and you need someone who can operate with the ball at his feet anywhere on the field.

Huddleston is also benefitting from playing at Spurs at the moment. Harry Redknapp has them playing at the right tempo at the moment, and they work hard for each other as well.

Personally though, I am more interested in my own team, West Ham. Obviously there will be a bias on my part, but we are certainly not playing to our level at the moment.

The team just haven't been working hard enough, and maybe the players need to look at donating some of their money to charity because they don't look like they are interested.

I'd imagine that Harry is as disappointed as I am in our club, and right now we are lacking in all departments.

There weren't that many surprises in the league this weekend per say, but let's face it, Manchester City have spent the most money and if they don't get results then manager Roberto Mancini will be gone.

I wasn't surprised that they beat Liverpool, Liverpool are still finding their way with a new manager so it will take some time for them to gel as a team.

Elsewhere, Blackpool were bought back to reality, and I think it is going to be a long season for them. Let's face it, Arsenal are a good side who can pass any team off the pitch on their day.

In this case we all expected them to get the points, not knocking Blackpool, but when they come up for the first time they have to adapt and this may not be the only six-goal thrashing they take this season. They haven't played Chelsea yet.

At least Blackpool tried to play football, and all credit to them for that. Blackpool tried to win, and even with a man down, and 2-0 down, they still tried to play football. There is nothing worse then seeing a team go behind, lock up shop, and not tried to concede any more.

With Spain about to kick off, Barcelona beat Sevilla, and for Sevilla they must come back and be ready for the season after they were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers.

They maybe thought that they could coast past Braga but when you look at the Portuguese standings, Braga have been steadily climbing up the ladder and being more competitive.

So if you didn't take them serious they will take the game to you and that's exactly what happen.