In life, as in the work place, one has to stand up for oneself and avoid situations which could see you being "walked all over" by companies, bosses or colleagues, if you are to make a success of your career.

Daniel Sturridge is a bright young prospect who graduated to Manchester City's main office in 2006 and has since proven to be one of England's brightest young stars. His performances have been made even more impressive considering the form of players such as Stephen Ireland and Robinho.

For the 19 year old forward to be upstaging such famous names is surely a sign of what is to come.

There is no doubt in my mind, if Manchester City hadn't been bought over this summer, Sturridge would be a first team regular, probably in place of Brazilian superstar Robinho.

Unfortunately, as with any business, new owners means restructuring, new goals and new ideas.

The amount of foreign players in the Barclays Premier League has been an issue over the last few years with many people suggesting that the amount of foreigners in England was hampering the national team.

I had been inclined to think that way myself until I stumbled on the Inter Milan squad list while researching another article. It was flooded with foreign players and it got me thinking, does England really have too many foreign players and is this actually hampering the national side?

For my research, I took the top four sides (judging by league tables as of the morning of the 7^th February 2009) from Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A and England's Premier League and worked out how many foreigners they had as individual clubs and national leagues. I chose the top four as these are the players likely to be representing each country in next years UEFA Champions League.

Having first got the idea for this article while looking at Inter Milan, I'll start by looking at Serie A. The current top four in Italy are Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus and the surprise package of 2008/2009, Genoa.

On the day Portsmouth Football Club decided to take legal action against the Daily Express for alleging the south coast club were lining up Alan Curbishley to replace underperforming manager Tony Adams, one thing remains clear, Adams is surely favourite to be the next Barclays Premier League boss to be relieved of his duties.

Portsmouth refuted the newspapers claims on the their website this morning and Alan Curbishley has also denied any knowledge of the story but none of this speculation will be doing anything for Adams sleepless nights.

The former England and Arsenal defender has failed to live up to the standards set by predecessor Harry Redknapp before the latter jumped ship to Tottenham Hotspur and has in reality seen the pressure increase on his position as Portsmouth manager from day one.

It is not usual for a club to threaten legal action as soon as they see a story in the press and the fact Pompey seem "edgy" probably relates to just how much pressure is currently on their chosen manager. The Daily Express is not a tabloid "gossip" newspaper and the may well just have got it wrong, this time.

His rise to Portsmouth boss

Referee Mike Riley and Chelsea's Frank Lampard may have kissed and made up after Sunday's red card incident that cost Chelsea any chance of a point at Anfield but that controversy is just the tip of the iceberg.

Underneath lies an inconsistent Football Association incident review system that has apparently just looked favourably on Chelsea.

No one has any issue with the fact Frank Lampard's red card has been rescinded as most would agree it wasn't a red card, but my point lies with a certain Jose Bosingwa and his late Kung Fu kick that went unpunished as Chelsea lost 2-0 to title rivals Liverpool.

The incident took place at the corner flag, right in front of the assistant referee who has more than enough authority to get the Portuguese player sent off.

Amazingly, after an apparent review of the incident, it was decided that no further action would be taken. This would have been all well and good and we might even have forgotten about the incident had the FA not charged Shaun Wright-Philips with violent conduct just a day later.

Once upon a time, Tottenham Hotspur had a foreign boss, well Spurs have had five bosses and it hasn't always been a fairytale, at least not until they leave.

Believe me, I have looked at the facts, life after White Hart Lane tends to be pretty good for foreign bosses but it is the end of the road for English managers.

Well only because Blackburn Rovers aren't a bigger club than Tottenham, otherwise let's face it, Spurs fans would be wetting themselves.

According to Harry Redknapp, this will be the last job of his career? I don't know about that but it will be the best as no Spurs boss has gone on to bigger things since Terry Venable's in 1991.

Anyway, back to these five foreign managers.

There are many transitions in a young footballers career with none more important than fulfilling ones potential but unfortunately not all young players can follow that road.

Many instead go from promising hard working kids into a stage that can only be described as "spoiled brats" and for me, two young Barclays Premier League players proved this week, they are on the wrong road.

Charles N'Zogbia was once described by Sir Bobby Charlton as "gifted" and you'd be hard pushed to disagree but as we all know, being gifted just isn't enough.

His reported refusal to pull on a Newcastle United shirt is a slap in the face to loyal Newcastle United fans (apology or no apology) who have kept coming to watch their, in all honesty, poor side, for prices most families could never afford. He has a contract that those fans help pay for that states he is a Newcastle player. What makes Charles N'Zogbia think he is above that?

The Frenchman has only ever showed glimpses of his true potential in the black and white of Newcastle and has hardly spilt enough blood for the club (like Shay Given) to be honoured in a way that would see the Magpies stand aside to let him choose his own future.

Welcome back to the second Barclay's Premier League Hot or Not inside a week, with the dust having barely settled from the midweek action, Manchester United had the chance to extend not only their lead at the top of the table this weekend as Chelsea visited Liverpool but also a chance to stretch their new clean sheet record.

HOT

And that is exactly what happened, another 1-0 win (United's seventh in their last ten games), this time at home to Everton, extending the Premier League clean sheet record to twelve straight shut outs. Remember boring, boring Arsenal? Why not boring, boring Man United?

Edwin Van Der Saar clocked up quite an achievement himself this weekend after he broke the all time English football record for minutes played, without conceding. Not hard behind Nemanja Vidic however, Van Der Saar has actually been on holiday with Sir Alex Ferguson trusting Edwin's Madame Tussauds wax work between the sticks.

We heard a rumour the Dutchman didn't actually make a save in three or four of the games. The 38 year old must have an electric dog tag on, otherwise how does he stay awake?

Football is not blighted by all the money or by the 24 hour coverage it receives today. In truth, football is probably better now than it has ever been thanks to technology and better training methods, players are all fit and have to be able to kick the ball and not just the opposition in order to get a game.

That said, it is the lack of kicking the opposition that this article is all about.

Diving is the real "achilles heal" for modern football and it personally, makes me sick. Maybe it is because I was never able to dive, in truth, it never ever came into my mind but that is probably why I'm writing here and not being written about.

My old coach Clive Hands inspired me to write this after he gave me the headline, "look at me and I'll fall over" during a recent conversation. Diving is an embarrassment to the beautiful game and it is so annoying to hear our game called a "soft" sport because of the diving epidemic.

Sadly, the only reason that diving has become acceptable is the amount of top players in top leagues that would rather spend 90 minutes on their arse than put themselves about like the game was intended to be played.