For every TNT or Sky Sports cheerleader who would have you believe that the Premier League is without question the best league in the world, there are plenty of fans who insist it’s not even the best in England. And while Football Daily stands firmly in the latter camp, today is probably not the time to champion the Isthmian League Premier Division as the best of its kind in the world, even on the spurious grounds that our local team plays in it. Entry to nearby home games only costs around a tenner, you can drink beer in the stands and nobody really cares who wins.

Much further up the football food chain, the Championship is once again making a compelling case to be a far more intriguing, if not “better”, competition than the supposedly superior league above it, if only because of its inherent stone-hatchet mad unpredictability. After all, in what other league in the world could an apparently doomed team such as Sheffield Wednesday go on an unlikely streak of five wins out of six matches without moving a single place up the table?

Following the Owls’ latest win over Plymouth Argyle last night, their manager Danny Röhl could scarcely have been more pleased. “When you see now, it’s the first time we are not some points behind the line, it’s just the goal difference now,” said the German with the boyband haircut that belies his 34 years. “It’s massive, massive! Today, I take this win and we go forward and we go again.”

While Wednesday may remain second from bottom, so compressed is the lower half of the Championship that neither relegation nor a late surge towards the playoffs can be entirely ruled out. And while bottom side Rotherham’s relegation is now a mere formality, the nine teams directly above them are separated by just four points. So unpredictable is the English second tier, that with their team occupying the comparatively lofty position of 10th, albeit on a run of five consecutive defeats, longsuffering Sunderland fans daren’t look up for looking down.

The Mackems’ latest defeat came at the hands of league leaders Leicester, who had Jamie Vardy to thank for arresting a worrying three-match losing run. The Foxes remain clear at the top of a table in which three of the top four places are occupied by teams relegated from the top flight last season, as well as the comparatively impoverished church mice of Ipswich who came up from League One. In any other season with 78 points to their name and just 10 games to go, Ciaran McKenna’s Tractor Boys would almost certainly be guaranteed automatic promotion but in this particularly bonkers season, Championship safety is their only current cast-iron guarantee.

Join Simon Burnton at 8pm GMT for red-hot updates on Manchester City 4-0 Copenhagen (agg: 7-1) in their Big Cup last-16 second leg, while Taha Hashim will be on hand for Real Madrid 3-0 Leipzig (agg: 4-0).

“No one said ‘no’ to being the club captain, it was just for certain games … but they didn’t want to say it themselves, they had other people come up to me and say it. It was disappointing. It’s a different generation, it’s Gen Z. It’s petty and shows a lack of ambition” – Ole Gunnar Solskjær on the allure of the Manchester United armband in his time at the club.

And toppermost of the poppermost (some say top of the pops) in the tempting fate charts is this from Big Website. Germany will now probably go and win it won’t they ... on penalties ... against us” – Noble Francis.

Re: Monday’s snow joke section – oh, how quickly people forget the USA USA USA v Costa Rica in March 2013, a match almost stopped in the 56th minute due to the snowy conditions at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in usually sunny Colorado. But to be honest, I’m not sure how much merit I place in claims of advantage due to environmental conditions. After all, the announcements at Colorado Rapids matches, for instance, make a big deal of the fact that teams will be playing at altitude (it’s at about a mile above sea level). Anyone who’s ever followed the Rapids knows that this advantage is rarely reflected in the actual results” – Sarah Rothwell.

If Nottingham Forest fans decide to leave a game at the City Ground early as a result of a dodgy refereeing decision- do you suppose the seats will go ‘Clattety, Clatt, Clatt, Clattety, Clatt?’” – John De la Cruz.

Fascinating and in many ways predictable to see that under the new regime Manchester United have decided to radically shake things up by transferring their scattergun recruitment efforts from the pitch to the boardroom, with presumably the same expectation of delivery? Ashworth, Berrada, Freedman, who’s next? And how many of them will be already on gardening leave by the time you finish reading this sentence” – Jeremy Boyce.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Jeremy Boyce.

Paul Gascoigne has described himself as a “sad drunk” and said he is living in his agent’s spare room, as he revealed the extent of his battle with alcohol addiction on the High Performance podcast. “I don’t go out and drink, I drink indoors. If I want to make it a bad day, [all I need to do is] go down the pub. If I want it to be a good day, I get my flying rod out and go fishing,” he said. Gascoigne also said he recently attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Arsenal have been criticised for failing to stop a pro-Palestine rally after Jewish fans said they had felt intimidated into walking away before the Women’s Super League game against Tottenham last Sunday.

Southampton’s Championship encounter with Preston, that was scheduled to kick off tonight at 7.45pm UK time, has been postponed due to a large fire breaking out in a building next to St Mary’s Stadium.

Lawyers for Australia and Chelsea Striker Sam Kerr will attempt to have a criminal charge of racially aggravated harassment thrown out in a UK court hearing in April.

Sheffield Wednesday will not be following up their interest in the defender Nico Schulz after an outcry from a fans’ group. The free agent appeared in court last month charged with assaulting his former partner on three separate occasions in 2020 and was ordered to donate more than £128,000 to five charity organisations over a three-month period for the case to be discontinued.

Carlo Ancelotti had reason to raise an eyebrow even higher than usual after news emerged that a Spanish prosecutor is seeking a prison term of four years and nine months for the Madrid boss who is accused of avoiding €1m in taxes on image rights.

In other Madrid-related news, Jude Bellingham has been handed a two-match ban for getting right up in the referee’s grill after the official blew time about 0.0003sec before his headed “winner” in the 2-2 draw with Valencia.

Kylian Mbappé actually broke the net with one of his two goals for PSG in the 2-1 win at Real Sociedad that took the renowned European bottlers into the Big Cup quarter-finals 4-1 on aggregate.

Regrets, Jordan Henderson probably has a few, but leaving Liverpool is not one of them. “I think it was the right time for me as a player but also for them as a team,” he parped before adding that he was “shocked” when he heard Jürgen Klopp was leaving and said he wants a “fairytale” Anfield ending for the cuddly German.

And Liverpool were given a huge boost when Henderson’s old mate Mo Salah trotted on to the training pitch after two weeks out with hamstring-twang.

It’s approaching that time of year, when some EFL clubs jet off for warm-weather training during the international fortnight and leave fans cold and bored back in England. Unless you’re a lucky Hull fan, that is. You see, the Tigers chief suit Acun Ilicali wants to take 100 fans to his homeland, Turkey, so they can experience his “beautiful country” for themselves. “I am very excited to be welcoming more City supporters to my beautiful country of Türkiye,” he whooped. “Since arriving in Hull, the support has been incredible. I feel comfortable whenever I am in your company and because of that, I want to thank you and give you the opportunity to experience my home country!” Fans will accompany Liam Rosenior and his players on a flight to Antalya on Monday 18 March where the temperature will be 20c. Right, how do we enter?

Have you ever wondered which players in the Premier League are exceeding their personal xG? Ben McAleer of Who Scored has the answer.
No team in the top flight is winning games by similar margins and with Arsenal’s consistency. Nick Ames assesses the Gunners’ resurgent title charge as their confidence grows.
Authorities in Germany are building for Euro 2024 with a joined-up approach thanks to their world-famous efficiency. Right? Wrong, writes Jonathan Liew.
Which European Cup winners took the shortest time to be relegated? Get acquainted with this week’s The Knowledge.
And heavy snow has hampered matches in the MLS recently but tweaking the calendar is a bad idea, writes Ryan Baldi.

Sticking with the wintry theme, here’s the late Jimmy Greaves preparing for a training session (or should that be snowball fight) at White Hart Lane way back in 1966.