Alan Irvine leaves Everton to manage Preston.

Anyway, as you probably didn't hear it first on here yesterday, Alan Irvine has put pen to paper, it beats using blood, on a three-and-a-half year deal to manage Preston North End.

After being regular features in the play-offs over the last few seasons, PNE currently sit in 21^st and Irvine has quite a task on his hands to drag them away from the drop zone.

He'll no doubt be looking to bring in new faces in January as Preston have suffered immeasurably since the loss in the summer of players like Dixon Etuhu and David Nugent…speaking of whom, has anyone actually seen him kick a football this season?

It came as a surprise to everyone that Irvine was the man in the frame to take over at Deepdale but it was an opportunity that he was never going to turn down, no matter how well things are going at Everton.

Irvine said of his move to Lancashire: "You have to take great opportunities when they come along, and management was something I had to do before I finished in football."

You can't really argue with that and I'm sure everyone will have an eye on PNE's results over the next few weeks!

And now Moyes must search for a new number two and, former Everton player, Brian Kidd heads the list along with Steve Round, who is probably the most Mr Men sounding person in football.

Kidd's achievements alongside Alex Ferguson are well documented and, with an unsuccessful stab at management with Blackburn and a successful recovery from prostate cancer now behind him, he is back in the game working alongside Brian Robson at Sheffield United.

And if he does take the chance to re-join the Blues it's likely that he could well ask Moyes why he got rid of that Biffa fella and the Bash Street Kid that plays left back.

As for Mr Round, see I told you, he's currently working alongside fat head at Newcastle after stints with Jim Smith at Derby and Steve McLaren during his incarnations as both Middlesbrough and England boss.

Seeing as I've mentioned both McLaren and England in the same sentence it seems that I should make some mention of tonight's game.

The only thing I can say is stay away from your local tonight as it will be full of twats in shirts with Gerrard 4 (or Gerrard 8) on the back…I'm checking the cinema listings right now!