Tattoos, Bums and Hotels

All the newspapers are running a defiant picture of David Beckham today. The photographers were telling me that they spotted Becks had a new tattoo on his upper arm whilst they were taking the shots. They asked him if it hurt as it was on the delicate area on the inside of his arm. The poor love said he cried all the way through the operation. A little ripple ran through the bar most of us were sitting in the other evening for a small libation after work. David James turned up in a huge black limo to say hello to one of the photographers. It's just as well he didn't hang around. Later that same evening one of the writers had to be rushed to hospital after a dog bit him on the bum. He'd been eating at a table outside the restaurant when a local resident with the dog walked by. His newspaper colleagues were on hand to check how deep the teeth had gone...and to take plenty of snaps to be shown round the bar later that night. Most of the footballers' wives are staying in one hotel in the centre of Baden Baden, the same hotel a large contingent of tabloid reporters have also checked into. I'm told, on hearing that the hacks had booked this hotel many months ago, the Football Association asked the hotel management to cancel their booking so the wives could be assured of their privacy. The management refused. Could be an interesting meeting of minds in the mixed sauna. Soren, my Danish cameraman, is very disappointed that Denmark didn't qualify for the tournament. I'm quietly quite relieved. Out in Japan four years ago he was so gutted after England beat the Danes that he wouldn't talk to me for a day. Wasn't the easiest of working environments…