With last weekend’s raft of surprising results in the Premier League, it’s been quite a fun week for football, with the usual number of managers jumping on and off the managerial merry-go-round adding to the sense of drama. When was the last week when we didn’t have a manager getting sacked, resigning or ‘excited by the new opportunity’ at a different club? Getting a new manager is usually a decision made in order to suggest a change in fortunes, but as this blog over at When Saturday Comes points out, clubs such as Sheffield Wednesday have a lot of other issues that they need to sort out.

On a lighter note, we all know that footballers and music aren’t the best idea – Diamond Lights, anyone? – and that Christmas and music doesn’t usually go well together, but what happens when all three of these elements come together like some sort of dark trinity of bad taste? Football and Music have the answer, and be warned, as it also involves Germans. They’ve unearthed a series of collaborations between Bayern Munich and an American lounge singer called Andrew White. No one is really sure how this came about, but what is certain is that this, their Christmas collaboration, has raised the bar when it comes to footballers and music. Congratulations.

It can be quite hard for us to remember great players from before the television era, as we’ve never really been able to see what was so great about them. However, this picture posted at Who Ate All The Pies shows that sometimes you don’t need to: the image shows Sir Tom Finney taking on Belgian defender Marcel Dries during England’s World Cup game in 1954. As the blog explains, the looks on both player’s faces shows just who has the upper hand here. We have to add that Finney’s England shirt also looks pretty nifty.

We’re not sure why seven has been chosen – perhaps it’s a lucky number – but the 7 Reasons site is an entertaining blog which suggests that number of reasons for a particular argument. Their seven reasons for why going to the match is better than watching it on telly is a cracker, and there’s a host of other football related ones up there – including 7 pretty accurate digs at the Sports Personality Awards which took place last weekend.

Finally, seeing as it’s the last Back Of The Net before Christmas, please allow us a little self indulgence. The picture at the top of the page is taken from a photoshoot of Manchester band The Heartbreaks. The band are wearing Umbro’s new House Of Fraser range, which we think looks rather snazzy. You can see more of it here. Also on the web this week was an interview with Umbro’s Rob Warner over at Two Footed Tackle, in which our Design Director talks about football on a global scale. And finally, just a quick nod to those who’ve added plenty of puns to our Christmas Card Caption Competition on our blog. If you haven’t added yours yet, and you think you can do better than this lot, then head over there now…