Make no mistake, Wayne Rooney was as shocked as everybody else was that he was left out of the Manchester United side to play Real Madrid - the biggest game of United's season, to be sure.
Astonished
For the record I thought it was never a red card for Nani.
By way of comparison, do you remember when Newcastle's Fabricio Coloccini almost kicked Demba Ba's head off in the Premier League and there was no penalty and no yellow card?
But this is European football and incidents are treated differently. Roy Keane made the point that Nani gave the referee an opportunity to send him off.
Yes, Nani's eyes were on the ball, but he had to be more aware of what was going on around him particularly as it was unlikely to have been critical if he hadn't won the ball in that area of the field.
It was totally unintentional but on the other hand Nani's foot was high. Tellingly, every single player on the field was running into position for a free-kick without arguing that Nani should be sent off and everybody was astonished when the referee pulled out a red card, including me.
Confidence
Last night it was lovely to speak to Neil Lennon, albeit after Celtic's exit from the Champions League.
To my mind he's changed so much in the course of this Champions League campaign; he's grown and matured, gaining confidence and self-belief.
There was a lovely moment before the second leg against Juventus when David Tanner asked Neil 'what have you learnt' from this season? Neil replied "I've learnt how to manage".
In recent years he's come through some torrid times - the sort of things that no manager should be asked to come through - and at times he's become defensive in himself.
Now he's an expansive, charismatic character who is full of passion on the touchline. Even when Celtic were 5-0 down on aggregate, he was still out there giving it everything.
Will he stay at Celtic? It's a phenomenal club that is guaranteed Champions League football, so it's a hard call because there's no doubt that he'll lose several of his best players.
I think his future depends on the quality of any offers that he gets. If an established Premier League side with a track record - or even one of his old clubs - approached him, then that might tempt him away. But if I had to say one way or another right now, I'd expect him to be at Celtic next season.
Jeff's Gem of the Week
It has to be Portsmouth, who won at the 24th time of asking in all competitions by beating Crewe 2-1 away. I have as much idea of what the future holds for them as their fans, their players and their manager have - in other words, not much. They may still be bottom but remarkably they've scratched and scraped together a team each and every week and on Saturday they managed to earn a win. David Connolly, who scored one of the goals, didn't have a club for a large part of last year - and he's a goal-scorer! It was a fantastic effort all round.
Jeff's climbing Kilimanjaro!
Just as Hartlepool have a mountain to climb this season, so have I because in June I'm going to attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with a couple of ex-footballers - Colin Cooper and Craig Hignett. A couple of years ago Colin set up the Finlay Cooper fund in memory of his two-year son, who tragically choked to death. We're aiming to raise money for all children's causes but principally children's hospices. The easiest way to donate is to visit
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/giving/ and search for my name. Any donations large or small will be more than welcome.
