First Euro semi-final tonight

Germany take on Turkey this evening and must be confident of making the European Championship final. Their opponents are paying the penalty for earlier round bookings and will have just 13 outfield players to choose from. Turkey have battled well throughout the tournament but lacked genuine class and have ridden their luck with several late goals to make it this far.

Greece, of course, did exactly the same thing and manage to win the event last time out, but I can't see the Germans being beaten this evening. A comfortable and controlled German win this evening and the focus will move to the Russia v Spain match tomorrow.

Good to see Osei Sankofa secure a new contract with Southend where he joins ex-Addict James Walker. Both will be keen to join the growing number of former Charlton players plying their trade elsewhere in the Championship who have managed to net against us, and invariably end up on the winning side.

If there is any prospect of selling Zheng Zhi on for £4m or that sort of figure, the fact that he looks likely to miss the first games because of national duty at the Olympic games is a further incentive to let him go. In the meantime, the "Undecideds" have precious little transfer news to inspire that important season-ticket renewal. I appreciate that there is probably a lot more effort going into this than the club can share with us, but it's frustrating that it seems to take us longer than rival clubs to get our deals done. Perhaps it suits our budget and negotiation tactics? If there is any truth in that, we really need to look at the impact it has on our start to the season. This will be potentially crucial this year in view of the start we have our need to get off to a flyer. Whinge over.