Recent reports over the weekend suggested that Chelsea were planning a £80m bid for Milan’s Kaka. Milan officials confirmed the story whilst Peter Kenyon denied any such bid. However, there were reports suggesting that Scolari was interested in the Brazilian.

But does Kaka really fit into Chelsea’s system?

Scolari’s appointment represents the first coach after Mourinho with credentials enough for fans – or rather, the owner – to start expecting a change in approach to the playing style. Whilst Scolari has been a disciplinarian, he also oversaw one of the more entertaining international sides during the 2002 World Cup. And his focus on buying players of finesse gives us a peek into what he wants to introduce into the Chelsea midfield.

But at the core of it all, the current Chelsea side is very much Mourinho’s side, months after his departure. Their strengths lie in raw power and physicality as flair players have increasingly found their positions under threat. The purchase of Deco and Kaka will attempt to add sparks that Chelsea have seemingly missed over the past two years – despite giving Manchester United a good run. However, it will come at a price.

At the moment, Chelsea have Deco, Ballack, Essien, Mikel and Lampard who play in the centre of the park. They already have rich talent there even if Lampard is to leave for Inter. If they do buy Kaka they will have an undroppable player who will have to be accommodated at all costs. In order to make use of their strength in central midfield, they could go with a diamond formation with Essien in front of defence, Ballack and Deco in front of him, and Kaka in the ‘hole’ behind the strikers. But that would take a player like Joe Cole out of the equation, unless he is played alongside a striker.

Alternatively, they could play a formation they are familiar with: a three man midfield of Ballack, Deco and Essien with Kaka and Cole/Kalou/Malouda out wide and a striker on his own. (Losing a player like Drogba, however, would make it difficult for them to employ a lone striker effectively.) But this is again unfamiliar territory for Kaka, who has reveled in an attacking role through the middle, although I wouldn’t bet against him being successful out wide. But in an unfamiliar role, and in an unfamiliar league and environment, stranger things can happen – see Andriy Shevchenko or Thierry Henry.

The purchase of Kaka could be the spark that could make Chelsea watchable, but it involves considerable tinkering with the squad. It is also an attempt to fix what is not broken; midfield is the least of Chelsea’s worries, if any. A top striker that can replace a want away striker like Drogba should be their priority.

Continuity has been Manchester United’s forte over the past couple of seasons of success. In fact, despite their three year drought, it has been a feature of Alex Ferguson’s reign where squads were rebuilt gradually rather than overnight. Chelsea would do better by maintaining a sense of continuity than go the Real Madrid circus route of squad overhauls following every underwhelming season, which is why buying Kaka may not be the brightest of ideas.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Last week, Ahmed wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece on why Americans suck at soccer. I believe he enlisted seven points to back his claim — some based on truth whilst others said in jest. Of course, a lot of people thought he actually believed most of what he wrote and hence received a less than complimentary response.

[I don't do humour all that well, so I'll assume a serious tone in writing this piece. Therefore, you will be justified if you attempt to rubbish the rest of this.]

There have been countless debates on the state of the world game in the United States, and the growing noise has been more apparent ever since I set foot on American soil, a couple of years ago. I was of the impression that Americans didn’t really care for the game, but closer observation and time spent in the country taught me otherwise.

Let me get the obvious out the way first: Soccer is the most popular recreational sport in the US. Everyone grows up playing the game here. It is only in the teens, when they reach high school where peer pressure and lot of other factors, which we will get into in a minute, causes the more athletic and capable ones to use their skills in more glamorous sports like Basketball and American Football (we’ll call it football here after).

And now this becomes a vicious cycle. If you are in the east coast or up north, soccer competes with baseball, ice-hockey, football and basketball — lot of glamour games where there is promise of big money and profile. So young soccer players move on to greener pastures. And as long as these established sports keep their collective hold of the sporting market and public perception, soccer will get second, third or fourth choice athletes who couldn’t quite cut it at other games.

But we are here not to debate on the state of soccer; not even how to just improve the state of the game — but to make it take off in a big way, sort of like giving it steroids to really launch and fly [Note: Steroids, metaphorically speaking]. And I’ll say it now itself — bringing Beckham was not it.

My solutions, I believe, haven’t been discussed on Soccerlens previously, although I have seen it mentioned in other sources.

ESPN

Let me give some background here. According to stats I managed to dig up, this giant of a sports network has a penetration of 58% of the American household. This translates to about 65 million homes, and if you assume, conservatively, an average of 1.5 people per household watch the channel, it adds upto about 97.5 million people. That’s close to one-third of the country’s population.

If ESPN pick up rights to the English Premier League, soccer will explode over the course of a nine-month Premiership season. FOX Soccer Channel and Setanta are doing a good job, but their penetration is minuscule. And, actually, even they have managed to generate buzz about the game.

ESPN is the one big answer to any questions raised about how to make soccer huge in the United States

One may talk as much as he wants about MLS having done little despite ESPN’s coverage, the fact that the Premier League (and La Liga) display football at a much superior level to the MLS — with packed houses and deafeningly loud crowds — makes a Premier League game instantly watchable. I have seen MLS games and they don’t do much to me, except perhaps, the atmosphere when Chicago or Toronto play in their respective stadiums.

Another factor that goes against the MLS is its scheduling where, at times, it’s played late night on working days. The same could be said of ESPN’s coverage of the Champions’ League where it plays in the afternoons on weekdays. The Premier League that way is perfect: it’s in the mornings on a weekend, usually before any of the NFL/NBA/college football games kick off and so fans would be able to take in a few games of soccer rather than having to watch them instead of other sports.

A case in point is the coverage of the Euro 2008 championships, which was a success thanks to commentators like Andy Gray and Adrian Healey (in addition to the peerless Derek Rae). I actually had people, soon after the tournament, asking me which clubs some of these soccer stars play for; some of them have actually started furiously refreshing Newsnow for updates on transfer rumours!

Americans love television, and if ESPN brings top level soccer to the living rooms of a big chunk of the American audience, and for a good part of the year (unlike the once in four years nature of the Euros and the World Cups) soccer is in for a revolution.

The Trickle Down Effect

So how is all this going to help US soccer? As I said, Americans need idols to look up to. Growing up playing soccer is one thing, but growing up playing soccer whilst watching your top stars play for the big clubs makes it an entirely different situation.

[As an aside, I think girls should find guys playing soccer in high schools hot. Otherwise they are going to play football or basketball... you know the adage of a woman always behind a successful man!]

To put it simply, more people playing soccer would increase, by way of probability, more quality players coming up. Which would enrich the MLS.

Men’s Team in College Soccer:

I was astounded when I heard that a men’s soccer team in college sports is a rarity in the US. For those who aren’t aware, the major factory of youth athletes in the US is the college sports system.

There is a reason why the US women’s soccer team is among the best in the world — and the reason, in no small part, is the presence of women’s soccer teams in colleges. I can’t believe why there are no incentives given by MLS clubs to colleges to develop a men’s soccer team.

Yes, some colleges do have men’s teams, but most of them don’t give them their due and exist more out of the community than being officially sanctioned by the respective University — typically relying on the likes of the NSCAA for sports scholarships. It benefits the MLS to have an actual college draft system from the big colleges that actually have good athletics programs, rather than using feeder clubs.

At the end of the day, Americans are natural athletes and have a strong sporting culture, however you see it. Their will to succeed can rival the best; about that there is little doubt. The question, however, is how many of them can actually start caring about soccer enough to generate a buzz, and hence increase the talent pool of American soccer.

RR runs Red Rants — a Manchester United blog.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Soccerlens regulars may have recognised the Manchester United bias in this site. Of course, this is not entirely intentional — the main man, Ahmed, is a Manchester United fan and so is yours’ truly — as there are a good number of articles from fans of other Premiership clubs, and in some cases, other European leagues. All in all it is, more or less, a general football blog, with the obvious bias at times. Sorry for labouring a point so much while stating the obvious.

So, as a Manchester United fan, it pleases me to introduce you all to another prominent Manchester United blogger, who certainly writes a million times better than me over at the Republik of Mancunia blog. Although I doubt this would be so much of an introduction to most Manchester United fans as they might have already heard of this blog. Scott has been at it for over a year now, and just recently switched from Blogger to the more superior WordPress. He is also now a part of the Football Media network, which is a good thing for all of us.

So, we now have two Manchester United blogs in the network! While at Red Rants, we try to discuss the daily happenings at our favourite club quite often drifting into lazy rants and poor attempts at humour, RoM guarantees you quality articles that, I am sure, will be well worth your time.

So go ahead, check out Scott’s blog, and leave your comments there.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Alright. Today, you won’t be graced with the enlightening presence of Ahmed who, it seems, was allegedly found partying at a night club till the wee hours and is hence hungover and unable to carry out his duties for the weekend. While speculation is rife questioning his commitment to the cause, an inside source rubbishes such speculation, suggesting that Ahmed has been confused with a certain toothy Brazilian who turns out for Barcelona. While it is not known who said toothy Brazilian is, we could wait for the official word in a couple of days time.

Till then, though, allow me to fill in with some punditry of my own.

Now that the international break is before us, it gets especially frustrating for those of us who have as much interest in international breaks as Paris Hilton would have on global warming. So it might be a good time to sit back and reflect on, what has been, a rather interesting Premiership season, so far.

One way of looking at things would be to do it on a team by team basis, but I don’t think I am that qualified to comment on each and every team. So what I would do is break things up into Winners and Losers and list certain teams/players/managers in them who, in my opinion, fall in that category.

Ready? Here goes:

The Winners

Arsenal
Undoubtedly, the winners of the season, so far. Both, on paper and on performances. They have continued to go their usual one-touch pretty footballsy ways, but it is their ability to eke out wins when things aren’t going their way that has caught everyone’s eye. I, for one, had reserved my judgement for quite sometime this season until I saw their win against Sunderland. They showed enough character to win the game after the Mackems had done good coming back from a two goal deficit. As a Manchester United fan, it makes me feel happy for old times sake; the fierce rivalry we’ve had with the Arse, that had been temporarily derailed by the Mourinho-led Chelsea, is going to be back this season. It makes for an appetising set of fixtures against them.

That said, I never thought of ruling them out of the race at the start of the season despite what the media had to say. After all, United were in a similar state, at the beginning of last season, after the loss of Ruud and little business in the transfer market. It’s interesting, now, how everyone is going head over heels over the Gooners after their upturn in fortunes.

Man City
Again, it pains me to write how Man City, under Sven Goran Eriksson – of all the people, is having a brilliant season. Third in the table, they are playing some great football. And, if anyone had doubts the Newcastle game is ample reminder of the presence of undoubted talent in their ranks. Of course, primarily, credit should go to Elano and Micah Richards.

Elano has been the heartbeat of their attacking forays and his contribution has rendered their lack of a decent striker irrelevant. Other than that, their defence has also been vital. Ask anyone in the red half of Manchester and they would say how important Micah Richards has been.

Sterner tests lay ahead, though. They have seemed lightweight in the middle, and were savaged by United’s midfield, despite the Reds ending up on the losing side. A European berth looks highly likely although, a Champions’ League position depends on how well one of the Big Four plays in the rest of the season.

Aston Villa
Astutely led by Martin O’Neill, Villa have shaken off a certain dourness that characterized their game for much of last season; they used to be hard to beat but struggled to convert draws to wins. This season, they have been blessed with a very good midfield — Reo Coker seems to have recaptured his form of two seasons ago and Barry has always been dependable — and an explosive forward line. Agbonlahor, Young and Carew have that creativity in them to make things happen. They have already scalped Chelsea and so nearly routed Spurs 4-1 before a remarkable comeback pegged them back.

Their next game against United would be a test for either team, and that says enough about how good they have been.

Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic
This would have to come up somewhere. While I’ve tried to write most of this article after having removed my ‘red’-tinted glasses, my eyes do hurt at times. So allow me this much licence.

When the real stars of the season from Old Trafford come from the defence, it goes to say how strange a season the Reds have had. The team has had an underwhelming start despite being two points off the pace and playing some dour stuff for most part. Blame it on new players integrating, suspensions or injuries, the only reason United were managing to stay unbeaten for so long despite having scored a goal per game, for most part, was due to a water-tight defence. They get my thumbs up. Of course, the team seems to have gotten its swagger back after the Wigan game. Let’s see if the international break disturbs this rhythm.

The Losers

Derby County
Maybe promotion came a little too early for them. But like everyone says, they are the worst team anyone has seen, in a long time, to grace the Premiership. They are even more dire than Mick McCarthy’s Sunderland. They also seem well on course to break records in the goals against column.

Tottenham
This was easy, really. Actually, I don’t think Jol is doing a bad job. There is just too much stuff going on in the boardroom that he isn’t afforded the peace of mind to get on with his job. Of course, he ought to have realised well before that the Tottenham midfield was lacking a decent erm… midfielder. They haven’t really managed to replace Carrick, and their defence is really bad at the moment. Nothing else to say, really. But I have to ask, once more, 16 million for Darren Bent? What was Levy smoking?

They can still do well this season. They have enough quality in their ranks. But a fifth place finish might seem a tad optimistic, what with a lot of other middling clubs having significantly improved.

Chelsea
The craziest move of the year had to be the ‘sacking’ of Jose Mourinho. While Roman’s desire of wanting to watch Chelsea play beautiful football might sound noble, his hands-on approach on footballing matters in the club has made even the hardcore Manchester United supporter feel sudden respect for the Glazers. In fact, scratch Chelsea… the real loser is Roman Abramovich. His sacking of Mourinho has effectively ruled Chelsea out of the title race for this season.

Rafa Benitez
Before ‘pool fans begin hurling vitriol at me kindly care to listen. Rafa might be an astute tactician who, according to some people, likes to play the ‘shit on a stick’ brand of football — whatever that means. He made some great buys this season, make no mistake. But he has managed to keep his best players out of the more crucial moments thus not letting his team settle into some sort of rhythm. Rotating players is one thing, but making wholesale changes to teams is an entirely different matter. So, like it or not, Rafa is rotating Liverpool out of contention.

Honestly, most of us United fans are quite happy with the job Rafa is doing. If he were to be fired tomorrow and Mourinho recruited in his place, that would get United fans worried. I apologise for the bias over here, but it is extremely hard to write something objective concerning Liverpool. To be fair, though, they haven’t done much wrong this season. They still have an excellent squad capable of challenging for the title. There, I have said it. But so has every Liverpool fan, for a long time now.

Sammy Lee
They say you wouldn’t know the value of certain people until they are gone. The same can be said of Sam Allardyce. He was the glue that kept things together at Bolton, despite all the harsh things that Phil Gartside had to say about him. Whatever criticisms one may have levelled at the club, be it their ‘boring’ brand of football, or their rather small stature, Big Sam ran an army of eleven players that would follow his instructions to the T and with that sort of an organised setup, they were mixing it with the relative bigger guns and playing in Europe. Now, sitting near the bottom of the table, their fall has been quite spectacular, although not totally unexpected.

And as if all this weren’t enough, Sammy Lee got into some spat with senior players, and has even managed to keep Kevin Nolan out of their squad. Troubling times ahead.

Honourable mention
Among Winners: Arteta, Lescott (both of Everton), Blackburn, Portsmouth (who have continued to look impressive) and Sam Allardyce, who has made Newcastle look decent this season.
Among Losers: Fulham, Middlesborough (who should actually be par for the course rather than disappointments) and Sunderland (who have yet to live up to their pre-season hype).

Phew, there. That settles it for now. All dirt that needs throwing on yours truly can be done at the dirt throwing section comment section. If you are not satisfied hurling your abuses here, you could do it on a more regular basis on Red Rants, the place where I rant more often these days.

Keep it nice though.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

After a long, long gap I am back on Soccerlens to do a small round-up of all things Manchester United. I hope I’ll be able to do this on a weekly basis. Let’s see how far I can go.

So here goes…

It’s been a very good week for Manchester United fans. In fact, if you see the results, it has been good for United for quite a while now. But this week one crucial win was eked out, and another side was thumped comprehensively. Let’s mention the two games very briefly before ending this with a few bits of news that we covered over the week.

Manchester United v Roma

This was the big game for a lot of people. The game was made special thanks to the glorious quarter-final earlier this year where United spanked Roma 7-1. However, the game in itself, while being fairly open, was expectedly more cagey than the last meeting between the two sides.

Anyway United beat Roma 1-0 while not playing particularly well. Nonetheless, the performance was generally more assured and we expected a great one to come pretty soon. You can read our match report here.

Manchester United v Wigan Athletic

This was a game everyone expected to win, and win easily. This was the game where many expected the much promised and much awaited thumping that the side was capable of. It had to happen; Wigan had the worst record against the ‘big four’, and Man Utd in particular.

We had a nervy first half — in our defence, we appeared rattled by the double injury blow and struggled to find our rhythm. But the second half was a performance that must send shock waves across town. Four goals past a team — which, of course, was dire — in one half after being depleted with injuries in defence. Anderson had a brilliant game. So did the youngsters like Pique and Simpson who stepped in. Our detailed match report here.

Hargreaves’ Injury Situation

We had a good lengthy discussion about Owen Hargreaves and his injury situation. We presented facts about his past injuries and posed questions as to whether we should be reading anything into them. This was well-debated in the comment thread, which makes for absorbing reading.

Brazilian Twins at OT and more

We made an observation while watching the extended highlights clip of the Wigan match (posted in the match report here). We found the Brazilian full-backs Fabio and Rafael present in the stands. They are expected to join the club in January. Meanwhile, Gary Neville is expected to make his return by playing against Liverpool reserves. We rubbished rumours of Anderson moving to Porto on loan. And other than that there was a mention of Keano, quotes from Ronaldo and stuff like that.

So that’s about it, really, from the Man United front for the week. Keep reading Red Rants for more updates.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

While Nike brought out a “Best Team You’ve Never heard of” in the lead up to the Women’s World Cup, in trying to espouse on the brilliance of the US National Womens’ Soccer Team, some pub regulars in Birmingham had the opposite ideas.

Being footballers who are generally crap, and turning out for their lowly Lynam Athletic club in the Birmingham Coronation League Alliance Division 3 – they finished bottom last season – the only way they thought they could do any better was to strike fear in the opposition before even a ball was kicked.

This is what they did:

The team needed an inspirational way to strike fear into their opposition – so they ALL officially changed their names by deed poll to professional footballers for the start of this season. With Peter Cech in goal and a back four of Paulo Maldini, Cafu, John Terry and Fabio Cannavaro – their defence sounds like a force to be reckoned with. And the appetising prospects of a midfield of Steven Gerrard, Ronaldinho, Kaka and Christiano Ronaldo would have any manager licking his lips. Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy make up the front line but unfortunately, all are merely a bunch of IT workers from the West Midlands.

Smart move, I must say. I would turn around and run for my dear life if I saw a team sheet with those names. Most notably, though, there is no Arsenal player in the side. I suppose, Arsenal fans have the right to go and fight for representation. I believe the players might be an accommodating lot.

Premier League sides also could do this. Especially Derby County could do with a couple of Kaka’s and Ronaldinho’s — at least Billy Davies can say he’s made decent signings. Roman Abramovich could go one step further at Chelsea by renaming Avram Grant to Jose Mourinho — that way he gets to keep his puppet Grant and strike fear into the rest of the league with Jose’s presence on the touchline, at least in name. He could also realize his dream of signing Ronaldinho by renaming SWP. He could also fit him with a pony tail and a fake buck tooth, for all you know.

Oh well, I believe the FA/UEFA might object to this name changing business, which then makes it something that money can surely not buy. Ah! The joy of non-league football.

Meanwhile John Terry, who is the captain of Lynam Athletic has pressing matters like telling Ruud van Nistelrooy and Theirry Henry to cut down on their smoking. I believe they might have issues with each other too. You know it’s hard to play alongside each other when you’ve had heated exchanges while playing for Man Utd and Arsenal. Anyway, JT also has to take care of Steven Gerrard who is half cut on a Sunday.

Whoever said non-league football was easy.

Source: Pub team become Champions League stars

So let’s have it then – who would you include in YOUR Champions League dream team?

Scarlett Johansson pic up top, in full flow.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Watch Argentina v Brazil live online.

I have been, traditionally, a Brazil fan. I don’t remember since when, but I still did occasionally like Argentina. Although that was more due to a certain Diego Maradona. But ever since the departure of that colourful Argentinian my loyalties became pretty much concrete – with the Selecao.

Until this tournament.

Don’t get me wrong. I would still continue to admire and support the Brazilians. There is far too much joy in their game to push you from supporting them. Even their spectacular flop last summer did little to budge me on to another team. (Yes, in international football it is okay to switch loyalties, at times) But in this tournament, the Argentinians showed the kind of free flowing football that would make anyone drool. But it wasn’t so much for the pretty-ness of the Albiceleste as much as it was for the dourness of the Brazilians, that made me start liking the Argies.

After their horrible performance in the last world cup, I was happy with Dunga’s appointment as head coach, because I thought he would bring the one quality that was terribly lacking in the Brazilians – discipline. Despite his relative inexperience I saw him in the Roy Keane mould. An ex-captain who was inspirational on the field. One who led by example. True, the Brazilian game is usually built on the unbridled enthusiasm and self satisfaction that it gives the players. A chaos. But the successful sides always had a method to the chaos; a small element of discipline that characterized their play. This is what I expected from Dunga.

For the first few months I felt vindicated, in my own imaginary self that is. He was true to what I expected. To him the system was more important than just the individual stars. They did well, dispatching Argentina 2-0 in a friendly. The Copa America was meant to be a place where new young talent were given a run out ahead of the FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. But the team, shorn of Ronaldinho, Kaka, Adriano and Ronaldo stuttered their way to the final in dour fashion. Whenever they needed a goal, Robinho helped them out.

In contrast, Argentina played like the perfect football team. Discipline and artistry in football is a heavenly marriage, something I’d have loved Brazil to possess. Argentina played like the Arsenal team that knew how to finish, how not to complicate matters in front of goal.

In the run-up to the final, while comparing the playing styles of the arch-rivals, Andrew Downie wrote on Soccernet that about best sums up the difference between the two teams, then and now:

That’s the way it has always been. Brazil were the ball players, Argentina the ball winners. Brazil played for the fun of it. Argentina played to win, any way they could. As the old cliché goes, it was happy, dancing samba against weary, melancholic tango.
Today, however, after almost three weeks of what can justifiably be considered the most entertaining international football tournament in recent memory, the tables have been turned.
Argentina are the ones playing the fast-paced, silky soccer that has the crowd on their feet; Brazil are dour, defensive and at times even cynical. When the two old rivals line up in Maracaibo on Sunday in the final of the Copa America, the smart money will be on the men in blue and white. Even the Brazilians know it.

But what really happened in the final that brought about this reversal in fortunes.

Dunga reminded us more like Mourinho – not in haughtiness – but the way he saw Brazil’s performance in the tournament. Especially after the win against Uruguay. Dunga said something to the effect of “If we cannot suffer we cannot become champions”. That rang true in the final. Brazil had sterner tests throughout the tournament. They lost early, something that brings team weaknesses well out in the open. In their first game against Chile, their 3-0 scoreline flattered them. Their defence was stretched in most games. Argentina on the other hand were allowed to play their game. So overpowering they were in all their games that teams had no chance to stretch their defence, which was always going to be their achilles heel. Never for once, were they really tested on that front – not even by Mexico. And that can sometimes prove very important experience in the crunch games.

In the final, Brazil were the tactically smarter team. They throttled Riquelme for space, cutting off service to Messi and Tevez. They had their moments that were few and far between. Alex and Juan were immense in defence. And Brazil’s physical approach proved too much for the Argentinians. The Argentinian defence, for once, was found stretched and their lack of pace was brutally exploited by Dani Alves, the marauding Sevilla full-back who finally came into his own in Brazil’s colours. Once again it reminds you of Arsenal getting thwarted on several occasions by the likes of Bolton and Blackburn.

Brazil’s win was one that was engineered in the dressing room. For once, they played a tactical game, that wasn’t too dour – and wasn’t pretty either – but it got the result Dunga wanted. However, it brought into light another important lesson – on how Argentina can be beaten on the big occasion. In fact, not just Argentina. It’s more of how such teams that don’t have Plan B can be thwarted.

Yes, it can sometimes mean that the team playing prettier football ends up on the losing side. But tactical naivety these days don’t really have too much of a place.

P.S: I’d love for Brazil to bring in a bit of flair though, but the final to me, was an interesting case for perspectives on tactics and pretty football. Of course, Manchester United won the title comfortably playing good football, didn’t they.

Red Ranter writes at the Man Utd blog.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Here’s the Manchester United related news over the past couple of days:

1. There was a rant about how Tevez can play alongside Rooney. It was mostly driven out of wishful thinking on our part. We’d really love for Tevez to come over to United because he’s simply a bloody good player.

2. In yesterday’s roundup we had briefly discussed about an article about Hargreaves filling Keano’s boots. We also wondered if Drogba was getting too complacent writing off Arsenal.

3. Then there was this rather excellent article that even non-Man Utd fans must read. The guy’s done some pretty good research on his strikers, and gives an objective analysis on which striker would best fit Manchester United, if we buy.

4. There’s this talk about players trying not to swear at the refs at the drop of the hat, and behaving like nice little schoolgirls. Well, not school girls exactly, but nice blokes at least. Some random thoughts like player dissent, diving, life, karma etc were thrown about to make an article. So go ahead and read it.

5. Why Heinze won’t go to Liverpool – It seems very simple, but there are hordes of Liverpool fans bitching about the sheer idea that United won the Prem last season. Or something.

That should round it up. Do keep visiting Red Rants for more Manchester United news.

Brought to you by RedRants.com

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Here are the Man Utd stories of the last couple of days, some of which include some more videos of Rossi and Nani, a comprehensive analysis of next season’s probable formations, Ferdinand, Torres, Quagliarella,Fergie Jr and more.

1. We feature clips from youtube that showed glimpses of talents like Rossi and Nani in the U21 championship game between Italy and Portugal. Trust me, these clips are worth a watch, especially Rossi. Gives you an idea of what to expect next season.

2. We indulge in some BS bashing as we stick our head and say why we think Quagliarella will not come over to OT next season.

3. In a quick round-up post we talked about other things involving United like Rio saying that he would never go to the MLS, a Torres move apparently ruled out (for the nth time. For exact value of ‘n’ go over and read the article.) There is also the mention of our Champions’ League seeding boosted (or rather, just making it to the top 8, whichever way you see it). And the prospect of the Sir facing a budding manager in his son, Darren Ferguson as United take on Peterborough in a pre-season friendly.

4. Finally there is a comprehensive analysis by Shaheen, where he says, what he thinks, to be the line-up for the next season. Worth a read, especially going by the comments that the post has got. A nice conversation going on there, I assure you.

Brought to you by Red Rants.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Guys, this should be a regular feature (hopefully) here on Soccerlens where we give you brief roundups on our sister site Red Rants. For those who aren’t aware, it’s our new Manchester United blog. So hardcore United fans, head over to that site. Non-United fans are also welcome, but be careful if you plan on flaming us!

On to the roundup after the jump.

1. Rossi and Nani’s Goal Videos“>U21 European Championship: Rossi and Nani’s Goal Videos In case you missed those goals that Manchester United youngsters Rossi and Nani scored in the ongoing U21 Championships, you can catch them here before the guys at Youtube decide to take them down.

2. Transfer Rumours: Bardsley to Everton/Ibrahimovic We talked about two transfer rumours – one leaving and one coming to Manchester United. But we advise you to take them with a pinch of salt. We also managed to offend one Everton fan for calling his club a mid-table club. ‘Cmon, give us a break, it’s not like we called Everton a ‘small’ club or anything.

3. Featured Lookalike: Nani and…? And finally, this was what we think to be the first of many more lookalikes posts, thanks to one of our readers. Hopefully if some of our readers get creative, then we can have such posts more frequently. We looked at a Nani lookalike in this post.

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