by Tim Stannard 

1) Zizou faces fight to avoid being bumped off by ruthless Real Madrid show-runner 

Aside from the fact that you can never go wrong with zombies and dragons, one of the great successes of the ratings crushers, Walking Dead and Game of Thrones is that at any given moment, one of the lead characters could be bumped off. Often, very violently. There are no sacred cows. Florentino Perez tends to run Real Madrid in the same haphazard, unpredictable, but ever so entertaining way. No-one is safe. Not even club legend Zinedine Zidane, who is the poor sap on the bench at the Bernabeu these days and in quite the pickle after the Atletico Madrid defeat at the weekend leaves Madrid 12 points behind Barca and seven behind Atletico, who defeated Real Sociedad on Tuesday. 

That gap could widen on Wednesday, with Zizou travelling to bottom-of-the-table Levante with a whole host of players missing, and having to read stories of King Floro already trying to find a replacement for the Frenchman. Let's see if Zidane will be the eternal survivor, that is Glenn from Walking Dead, or Game of Thrones' Jon Snow. Let's face it. The Real Madrid president has no clue what he is doing from day-to-day...so no-one else does either. Catch the game live on beIN SPORTS from 2.55PM ET as it is going to be truly epic. And tune in for all the highlights of the rest of the action in La Liga and all the best reaction at 10PM ET on the XTRA.

2) Leo Messi confirms Barcelona departure to return to Argentina 

That headline will have some coffee snorting out of noses somewhere in America. Leo Messi has confirmed the inevitable truth that will have Ray Hudson weeping into his hankie. The footballer is continuing to grow old and one day, will not be playing for Barcelona. Instead, the 28-year-old has said that he may fancy Argentinean football as a retirement plan, as he is too chicken to play in England (Sports Burst runs off with Ray in hot pursuit).

3) Spurs still have time to 'do a Spurs' despite Leicester City slip-up

Sports Burst has noted in recent burbles that Spurs still had the capacity to 'do a Spurs' at any moment during the season's final sprint and snap defeat out of the jaws of victory. That potential starts today in the EPL, after Leicester City dropped points at home against WBA on Tuesday. Tottenham are traveling to West Ham on Wednesday - not easy - and then have the North London derby on Saturday. Of course, you can catch the highlights of that match on XTRA tonight at 10PM ET, as well as one or two FCC decency regulations being shattered as our very own Kevin Egan - a big Aston Villa fan - shares his thoughts on his team's stunningly bad season, which continued yesterday with a 1-3 home defeat to Everton.

4) Maradona starts Napoli turf war as Inter big wig slams under performing players

Inter Milan VP, Massimo Moratti is not a happy bunny on Wednesday, having suggested that his players appear to have given up on football in general, after the weekend's limp defeat to Juventus. When asked about the future of manager, Roberto Mancini, the answer was inconclusive - "not my call."

And welcome to the pages Mr. Diego Maradona who is unhappy at Napoli owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, who is apparently dodging his calls. Probably because Diego is hinting that he might fancy managing the club he once played for. That can only go well. 

5) Platini keeps fighting on as Galatasaray sent to UEFA's naughty corner

Just because the FIFA elections are over, it doesn't mean that football politics are going to be plonked onto the roadside of oblivion. Michel Platini has decided to go to the court of arbitration for sport - really busy, these days - to appeal against his six-year ban from all football activity. 

UEFA have not so much thrown a book at Galatasaray, as a library, with the Turkish club being banned from all European competition for a season after failing to comply with Fair Play regulations. The ban will come into play the next time the club qualifies for Europe over the next two years. Galatasaray currently sit fifth in the Turkish Super League, two points from the Europa League places. 

As anyone who has ever met an English person will know, they are not to be trusted. It's the accent. It turns out that five EPL clubs met in secret on Tuesday to discuss changes to the Champions League format - let's face it, EPL sides need some help - and maybe even a breakaway European Super League. Barca and Real Madrid's would have pricked up on hearing that notion.