Teams News Archives

Anton Ferdinand jumped ship from West Ham to Sunderland this week. James Milner turned in a transfer request at Newcastle United, presumably so Aston Villa can snap him up before the transfer window ends. Dimitar Berbatov is reported to be holding ‘crisis talks’ with Tottenham officials who themselves are waiting for Pavlyuchenko to sign (or maybe someone else as well) before letting the Bulgarian head to Manchester United.

Why are they leaving? Is it for the money or is it for the chance of success?

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Who would win the Premier League? The Champions League? The FA Cup?

Oliver Fowler finds out…

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I’m back to give you another rundown of the latest transfer news and rumors from the world of football, and while I don’t know what Dimitar Berbatov ate for breakfast, I do have plenty else for you, including a bit about who his current club are set to sign.

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Raphael Honigstein, Guillem Balague and Gabriele Marcotti discuss the upcoming Spanish football season and give their predictions on who will be winning the 2008 / 2009 season.

Raphael Honigstein: Gentlemen, let’s talk about Spain now. Guillem, your prediction?

Guillem Balague: Real Madrid to finish runners-up, fighting with Villarreal and Sevilla… Barcelona to win it.

RH: Why Barca?

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Football has a pretty big role in terms of UK culture, and never more so since the birth of Sky Sports and the Premier League, enhanced even further by Euro ’96. We’re now at a point where around 29 million people attend live games and that’s not even taking into account the millions more who watch from the comfort of their favourite armchair, and 1 in 4 of those who take on the title of a ‘fan’ suggest the game is one of the most important things in their lives.

Is that a bad thing?

Well, if you look at it from a Psychologist’s point of view, it’s pretty good. Dr. Sandy Wolfson, Head of Psychology at Northumbria University, says:

“Football does have positive effects on people’s psychological well-being. It gives people a ready-made topic of conversation where opinions on team selection, strategy, and players’ skills are enjoyable topics for debate. Many people have made good friends and even met their spouses through football.”

But considering some of us dedicate so much of our lives to it, it must give us more than just something to talk about surely? I mean, even the weather does that, right?

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Many a preseason favourite for the title have struggled to start their campaign in the manner that the media hype would suggest, but few have done so quite as spectacularly as Stevenage Borough.

Returning manager Graham Westley had made a number of eye-catching and proven signings over the summer, including Lee Boylan and Mark Albrighton from Cambridge, Eddie Anaclet from Oxford, and Iyseden Christie from Kidderminster.

The squad looked impressive and had many pundits tipping them for the top, but three heavy defeats and two draws see Stevenage in the bottom four, and if Westley was sacked tomorrow few Boro fans would shed tears at his departure.

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We’re one day closer to the end of the transfer window, and as expected, there’s a mad dash by many to make moves happen before time runs out. So, let’s get a move on and get started with today’s transfer roundup.

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Portsmouth vs Manchester United Highlights (0-1)

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Manchester United will look to wrap up their second trophy in less than a month as the reigning UEFA Champions League holders take on UEFA Cup holders Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Super Cup on Friday at Stade Louis II in Monaco.

Last year, European champ AC Milan took home their fifth Super Cup crown - and a permanent trophy - by defeating UEFA Cup champ Sevilla 3-1.

Manchester United are making their third appearance in the UEFA Super Cup, with their previous two appearances coming in 1991 and 1999. In the 1991 edition, they defeated European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade 1-0, with only the first leg of what was then a two-legged competition being played due to the political issues going on in Yugoslavia at the time. Eight years later, fresh off of their treble success, they were on the opposite end of the same scoreline against UEFA Cup winners Lazio, thanks to a 35th minute strike by Marcelo Salas.

Meanwhile, this is the first appearance for Zenit, who are still relative newcomers to the European stage, as the beginning of their first Champions League campaign awaits in the coming weeks.

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‘Onest ‘Arry Redknapp appears to be feeling the pinch of the credit crunch. Obviously Lord Stevens’ enquiry into bung-taking in football found no evidence he was anything other than an upstanding member of the football community, but in a summer in which Portsmouth’s transfers have been limited, possibly he has struggled with an income below what he is used to.

For whatever reason though, it seems his wife Sandra has been forced to find employment to keep the couple’s caviar stock replenished.

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After the second weekend of the new season, there’s only one Premier League team left with a 100% record, according to the Right Result.

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Well, we’re into the last week of the summer transfer window, so there’s going to be a mad dash to the finish for several sides looking to make some big signings before the window closes.

Some people are going to get their wishes fulfilled, while some are going to end up out in the cold. Who’s getting set to pack their bags today, and who’s still waiting for the magic words? Read on to find out.

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There’s still one more fixture left to be played in the second round of Premier League fixtures, but it’s time to take an early look at the winners and losers from the weekend’s action.

Chelsea and Liverpool have gotten their title challenges off by taking maximum points from their first two league ties and are assured of sitting atop the table at the end of Monday night, but they aren’t the only ones with a reason to feel good as a new week commences.

However, things are not nearly as rosy for some other sides, who have a little something to say for themselves after the weekend.

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Just in case you’ve missed anything on SL over the last several days, here’s a quick recap of some of the top topics from the last week.

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Manchester City (Sturridge 65′, Elano 70′ 76′) 3-0 West Ham United
Stadium: City of Manchester Stadium
Date: Sunday 24 August 2008
Competition: English Premier League
Kickoff: 16:00 BST, 11:00 EST

Manchester City thrashed West Ham, 3-0, to pick up a big win at home. Soccerlens had the action live! Click below to read the live-blog.

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We’ve moving towards the last week of the transfer window, and there are still some transfer sagas yet to be resolved. While there’s little new news on any of them in today’s roundup, there is a fair amount to report on, with the Premier League and Serie A stealing all of the headlines today.

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Tottenham (Jenas 73′) 1-2 Sunderland (Richardson 55′, Cisse 83′)
Stadium: White Hart Lane, London
Date: Saturday 23 August 2008
Competiton: English Premier League
Time: 15:00 BST, 10:00 EST

Sunderland picked up a huge win at White Hart Lane against Tottenham Hotspur. Soccerlens had the action live! Click below for the live-blog.

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Four years after the gold in Athens, another 1-0 scoreline confirmed Argentina as Olympic football champions. In 2004, the match-winning goal had been scored by a certain Carlos Tevez; this year in Beijing, salvation came from above. “Little Angel” Di María flapped his celestial wings and delivered a fatal blow to finalists Nigeria, exploiting an inch-perfect pass by Lionel Messi. The real star of the football Olympics obviously, was the the little “atomic flea” from Barcelona: Messi was not even supposed to be here (after the Catalan club had won their late July CAS appeal), but in the end he was the first player to raise his gold medal high in the sky, his first big success with the Selección Argentina.
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It’s the weekend again, and while we sit back and take in the second round of Premier League action (or follow whatever league it is that’s your favorite), there’s still plenty to talk about on the transfer front as we move closer to the end of the transfer window.

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I hate Liverpool and I hate Liverpool fans. This isn’t to say that I don’t have a mate or two who is afflicted with Liverpool support and this isn’t to say that as a rule I believe all individual Liverpool fans are scum of the earth, but I can guarantee the image of thousands of scousers bellowing out ‘You’ll never walk alone’ is always enough to turn my stomach.

Whatever the press say about ‘the top 4′, I don’t regard Liverpool as our title rivals and haven’t done for some time. It has been eighteen years since their last league-winning season and in that time they have finished above us twice (1991, 2002). Arsenal and Chelsea have been our title rivals over the past 10 years or so, yet my feelings of dislike for them are incomparable to what I feel for Liverpool. That is proper rivalry.

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First Ronaldinho, now Henry - it seems that Manchester City, like it or not, are hell bent on making a star signing who can help raise the club’s profile across the world. Jo and Kompany are starts, but to really get things going Cook and co. want a BIG name.

With that in mind, here are 5 players who Manchester City should go for - even if they get just one, they should be top of the world, right?

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The Olympic Games have been a real disappointment. The only event that I was desperate to watch was the diving, but it turned out to be a few lunatics jumping into a pool.

My tissues did come in handy when Paula Radcliffe limped over the line in the marathon - that was pure comedy gold.

Britain has tasted success in the fringe ‘sports’, but we never even competed in the sprinting. We should have told Rio Ferdinand that a drug test was imminent.

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Question for Arsenal fans:

Now that Wenger has commented twice on Gareth Barry (here and here), will you:

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Every year UEFA nominates the best players in club football in Europe with the final awards presented on the eve of the end-of-August UEFA Super Cup. Last year we saw AC Milan’s Kaka, Maldini and Seedorf take the plaudits with Petr Cech rounding off the four and in the process denying Milan a clean sweep.

This year we see a strong England-based presence with 3 of 4 semi-finalists being from England in the Champions League last season and both Chelsea and Manchester United with a good chance of taking all the awards on offer. Here are the nominees:

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The amount of time left in the transfer window gets shorter, and so do the amount of transfer tidbits to talk about. Even though there isn’t a great deal to report on, you know I’ll be here to deliver it, true, false, or absolutely outlandish.

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While Arsenal bagged a 31-year old defender who couldn’t make the grade at their fiercest title rivals, Manchester City went ahead and snapped up one of the hottest young defenders in Europe.

Something tells me that someone messed things up here. You’d expect Kompany to be going to Arsenal, Silvestre heading to City.

Has Wenger made a mistake or did he get it right and we’ll see Silvestre in the form of his life this season?

Have City pulled off another transfer coup (2 out of 3, what with Jo coming and Ronaldinho not) or is this going to be a dud signing?

I’m back to give you all the latest in transfer news and rumors from around Europe and elsewhere, and after we all take a moment to digest/laugh at/make some sort of remark on the coincidence of Dimitar Berbatov signing a Manchester United shirt, you can get start getting caught up on today’s headlines.

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The rumours linking Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to Manchester United are doing rounds all year long and have been doing so ever since Ruud van Nistelrooy was rumoured to be leaving the club.

This season they’ve linked Huntelaar to Real Madrid as well, presumably because people think Madrid are thinking of replacing RvN or at least getting in a replacement ahead of time.

Is there any other serious link apart from the Dutch connection?

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Portugal’s new manager Carlos Queiroz has said that expects Cristiano Ronaldo to lead Portugal’s front line when he returns from his post-surgical rest.

“I see only one position for Cristiano Ronaldo to play. And I hope he will be playing 90 percent of the game on the attacking line.”

Could Ronaldo play the same role for Manchester United?

England play the Czech Republic today in their last ‘friendly’ before the World Cup 2010 qualifiers begin.

The time for experimentation is over and the team you’ll see lining up for England tonight will in all likelihood be 80-90 percent the same as the one set to line up against Andorra and Croatia in September (see all England qualifying fixtures here).

You know the players - if you were Fabio Capello, who would you pick as the right-sided midfielder for England tonight: David Beckham or David Bentley?

Tell us who and why in the comments.