By Tim Stannard

1) Pep to clear out Champions League chumps

While Pep Guardiola manfully seems to be taking defeat to Monaco in the Champions League on the chin, admitting that the failure came from his inability to communicate the concept of scoring goals in to his players, the Man City manager might have very different inner thoughts. “I couldn’t convince them to attack,” sighed poor Pep.

Those thoughts perhaps see himself as a contender in ‘Storage Wars’ – taking ownership of a pile of junk and having to make the best of it. But without looking like Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Thursday’s chattering press in England has Pep planning a complete clear-out of the club’s playing roster with a potential turnover of 18 footballers from an out of contract Yaya Toure and Jesus Navas, to those on loan such as Joe Hart and Sami Nasri to the hopeless. Yes, you Sergio Aguero. Time for Pep to put on that Grateful Dead t-shirt, make some lemonade and get ready for the mother of all garage sales.

2) Mourinho looks to avoid same Manchester fate

Jose Mourinho is probably having quite the chuckle at Man City and his old nemisis’s’s’s’s’s’s expense. But let’s see how long that lasts with Manchester United also in European action in the Europa League and looking to avoid a second competition exit this week after an FA Cup knockout to Chelsea.

Chances are though that United should prevail with a 1-1 draw from the first-leg against Russian outfit FC Rostov and the second game being played in Old Trafford.

The tastiest tie of the day in the last 16 second-leg action sees Roma taking on Lyon and trying to claw back a 4-2 deficit. That game is live on beIN SPORTS Canada from 4PM ET / 1PM PT and is preceded by Krasnodar trying to overcome a 1-2 first leg loss to La Liga outfit, Celta Vigo.

Tune into the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT for all the best highlights from the Europa League.

3) Karanka kicked out by Boro as Wenger lauds week for Arsenal  

In one of those trees-falling-in-the-forest-will-anyone-know…or care…moments, relegation-threatened Premier League side, Middlesbrough, have sacked manager Aitor Karanka. Boro are currently second-from-bottom of the table, three points from safety.

In cheerier news, it’s Thursday so Arsene Wenger has been opining away on all manner of things, especially on what a good job he is doing at Arsenal. And the Frenchman definitely doesn’t want to hear about unhappy fans.

"Nothing is good enough any-more. You try to do as well as you can,” said Wenger who claimed that it was a good week as his team did not lose. Technically speaking they did not play either…

4) Zlatan does not say no to Napoli

Zlatan to Napoli! Probably not, but technically speaking the King of Old Trafford did not exactly deny the story either in an interview with the Italian media. The super Swede is still ruminating on where he will bless a club with his presence next season and Napoli could be a prime pick. "A move to Napoli? You never know...,"

5) King Kyrgios edges towards world domination

Interesting. Very interesting.

Just a fortnight after Sports Burst reported that the bad boy of men’s tennis, Nick Kyrgios, might become the main man of men’s tennis, the Australian has done it again. That ‘it’ being beating Novak Djokovic for the second time in two weeks.

The 21-year-old disciplinary nightmare defeated the Serbian world number two in Indian Wells late on Wednesday night to set up a quarter-final clash with Roger Federer, who defeated Rafa Nadal.

WHAT IS SPORTS BURST?

The life philosophy of Sports Burst is that if you are not upsetting someone, then you are not trying hard enough. SB is a daily trawl and troll through the morning's sports news to bring you fact-nuggets to make you both smile and swear. Hopefully at the same time.