There Is Only One Sinnacle

AS reports that Julien Faubert has passed a medical at Real Madrid this afternoon and will be presented at the club on Monday.

The Frenchman will join from West Ham on loan until the end of season, costing Madrid €1.5 million, and it is thought there will be an option to buy for €6.5 million in the summer.

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Must admit could never see this one coming. Mind you could never picture Juande Ramos as coach of Real Madrid either.

Amauri Picked For Brazil, Azzurri Dream Over

The Juventus striker has received a call up from Dunga to join the Brazilian national team, as the dream of many to see Amauri playing for the Azzurri comes to an end.

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At the end of the day it’s the best choice Amauri could of made. I doubt Amauri grew up on the streets of playing wishing he could play for the Azzurri.

Russia striker Andrei Arshavin is flying to London from Dubai to wrap up a move to Arsenal. (Sky Sports News 0700)

With Arsenal’s form of late too bad Arshavin couldn’t of played today since of hopefully having this deal wrapped up.

Tottenham will step up their quest for a new striker after losing Jermain Defoe for at least three weeks with a foot injury. (Sky Sports News 0600)

Pretty much sums up Tottenham’s season. One step forward two steps back.

Manchester City have held talks in London that could secure the services of Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz, Newcastle keeper Shay Given and Arsenal defender Kolo Toure. (Daily Mail)

The transfer deadline is Monday, you’d hope they would still be talking. Not much time left for Manchester City to make all this “big team” moves.

Striker El-Hadji Diouf was sold by Sunderland to Blackburn because of a dramatic dressing-room bust-up with team-mate Anton Ferdinand. (Various)

All the people you’d want to pick a fight with why choose Anton Ferdinand? Rio little brother only refers to age. That is a big guy.

Everton have made an attempt to seal the loan signing of Tottenham’s Darren Bent to ease their striker crisis. (Daily Mirror)

Bent is not in the doghouse that much for Tottenham to send him out on loan.

Tottenham have already sold Giovani Dos Santos to Portsmouth for £7m after the Mexican midfielder failed to impress at White Hart Lane. (Sun)

Would be a great move for Portsmouth and for once Dos Santos. He’ll get his career back on track at Portsmouth and much like Lassana Diarra it wouldn’t be too long before a big team comes calling.

Alternatively, Megson has increased his bid for Sporting Lisbon’s Portugal midfielder Miguel Veloso to £14m. (Guardian)

Money is right, team is not. A player linked with the likes of A.C Milan and Manchester United would have to be foolish signing for Bolton.

Fulham are confident of completing the loan signing of Derby midfielder Giles Barnes. (Guardian)

A younger and possibly better long term answer to the departed Jimmy Bullard.

Manchester City have failed with their most audicious bid of the transfer window – luring Chelsea captain John Terry. (Times)

Audicious? Really? Like that whole Kaka mess was a pretty standard transfer for Manchester City.

Nicolas Anelka has embarrassed his boss Phil Scolari by insisting Sir Alex Ferguson is the big difference between Chelsea and Manchester United. (Sun)

Chelsea shouldn’t let Anelka near a microphone.

U.S. Soccer will join the race to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, federation president Sunil Gulati said on Thursday.

FIFA said this week it already had six proposals on the table — Indonesia, England, Japan, Qatar, Russia and a joint application from Spain and Portugal — and several other association have said they will join the process.

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Don’t see the United States being awarded the 2018 World Cup on the heels of South America playing host to the 2014 World Cup which are being held in Brazil. By that time Europe or Asia is the most unlikely destination when hosting rights are awarded for 2018. Come 2022 however the USA could make a strong push for on the heels of the excellence job done during the 1994 World Cup.

Massimo Moratti Stays Quiet Over Inter Match-Fixing Claims

The Inter chief has refused to talk about claims that allege his side fixed matches last term…

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No idea how this will play out but one thing is for sure things are never drama free for long in the world of Italian football.

Wembley To Host 2011 Champions League Final

England’s premier football venue, Wembley Stadium, has been chosen to host the Champions League final in 2011.

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Considering the money went into building the stadium the least UEFA could of done is throw the English FA a bone and award them the Champions League final. I’m sure London would be a great job hosting the Champions League finals come 2011.

Manchester City have offered Blackburn a final bid of £18.5m for striker Roque Santa Cruz. (The Guardian)

The Roque Santa Cruz chase is like the B team version of Dimitar Berbatov transfer saga. That chase dragged on to the final hours before Tottenham finally decide to sell Bernatov.

Tottenham are also keen on Santa Cruz and have offered striker Darren Bent as part of the deal to bring the Blackburn forward to White Hart Lane. (The Times)

You know you’re in the coaches doghouse when Harry Redknapp publicly said that his wife could of scored on a chance Darren Bent missed against Portsmouth recently.

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce is lining up a £10m bid for Portsmouth striker Peter Crouch if Santa Cruz does leave. (Daily Mirror)

Portsmouth already sold Jermaine Defoe so it’s unlikely they are going to sell their only other main goal scoring threat.

Charles N’Zogbia says he will never play for Newcastle again after manager Joe Kinnear called him “insomnia” on TV. (Daily Star)

Even with Newcastle’s never ending string on injuries it was appearing unlikely Kinnear was going to play “insomnia” much going forward anyway.

Newcastle keeper Shay Given is set to complete his £8m move to Manchester City. (Daily Mirror)

This was suppose to be completed every day for the past week. Get it over with already.

Kevin Nolan is set to complete his £4.5m move from Bolton to Newcastle on Friday. (The Sun)

A former Sam Allardyce favorite who was never able to win over current Bolton boss Gary Megson.

Manchester City will make one last bid for Arsenal defender Kolo Toure and may offer Micah Richards as part of the deal. (Daily Mirror)

It would take Arsenal all of two seconds to say yes regarding any deal between Richards for Toure.

Chelsea and Manchester City have joined Real Madrid in the race to sign Manchester United striker Carlos Tevez. (The Times)

Tevez is not going to rock the boat regarding his future with Manchester United. Come the summer however he’ll shop himself around to the highest bidder.

Fulham are looking at Derby midfielder Giles Barnes as Jimmy Bullard’s replacement. (Daily Mirror)

Score two goals against Manchester United in the Carling cup and teams are bound to notice.

Bolton are resigned to missing out on Sporting Lisbon defender Miguel Veloso. (Daily Telegraph)

Shocking

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been warned the club face “financial armageddon” if they fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League. (Daily Mirror)

How much longer before Arsenal become a mid table team year in and year out? It was only less than five years ago the Invincibles went an entire season undefeated. That team seems so far removed when looking at Arsenal now.

Maicon Pleased With Inter’s Showing In Catania

The Brazilian dynamo was full of praise for his team-mates after the win over the Etnei, however, he rued the ‘harsh’ red card given to Sulley Muntari.

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Yesterday’s game versus Catania wasn’t one for the best of DVD but holding on to a clean sheet while down a man has to be considered a positive for Inter Milan. Also doesn’t hurt that A.C Milan and Juventus dropped points yesterday which increased Inter’s lead to 6 points on top of the Serie A standings.

Report: Manuel da Costa Set To Join Sampdoria

Press reports suggest that Fiorentina and Samp have reached an agreement over the Portuguese defender, who will move to Liguria on loan until the end of the season.

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Talk about not making an impact as de Costa only featured once for Fiorentina since joining from PSV last January. He is a player who could thrive in the right system but it was clear de Costa was not a fit in this Fiorentina setup.

Tottenham are preparing a £20m bid for Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz. (Daily Mirror)

This news would be music to Sam Allardyce since he could now play off Tottenham with Manchester City to drive up Santa Cruz’s price.

Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given will join Manchester City today in a deal thought to be worth £8.5m. (The Sun)

Never found anything wrong with current City number 1 Joe Hart but Shay Given is a top class goalie.

Wigan have slapped an £18m price tag on midfielder Antonio Valencia, who is wanted by Real Madrid and Manchester United. (The Sun)

Steve Bruce is going to hope February 2nd comes and goes without Real Madrid making a offer for Antonio Valencia.

West Ham are hoping to sign Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli. (Daily Express)

I’m hoping it will stop snowing. Nether of which are likely to happen anytime soon.

Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso has emerged as Real Madrid’s top summer target. (Daily Mirror)

Real Madrid doesn’t even know who it’s President, sporting director or coach will be next summer. Besides Real Madrid already bought a defensive midfielder in Lassana Diarra to go along with Fernando Gago and the currently injured Mahamadou Diarra.

Sol Campbell himself is unsure where is future lies, with Portsmouth yet to offer the defender a new contract. (Daily Mail)

Sol Campbell best days are long gone at this point. Even with Tony Adams as coach it’s likely Portsmouth will go in another direction this summer when it comes to Campbell.

American billionaire Robert Kraft has no intention of bidding for a stake in Liverpool, despite recent reports. (Daily Mail)

Despite Kraft’s friendship with George Gillett there is no way he is going to get himself caught up with the mess that is Liverpool’s ownership structure.

- No idea what to make of Liverpool at this point. A late season slip up wouldn’t of shocked me but this drop against largely mid table teams is perplexing. Torres hasn’t been recovered his form yet since coming back from injury. There wouldn’t be transfer rumours regarding Robbie Keane if he was pulling his weight. Steven Gerrard could only do so much but his arrest wasn’t needed when Manchester United were still chasing them in the standings. Also troubling from a long term point of view, big money transfers such as Andrea Dossena, Albert Riera and even Ryan Babel have had there moments but overall more is needed if Liverpool are going to give Manchester United and Chelsea a fight.

- Another tip of the cap to Steve Bruce and the job he has done at Wigan. Losing two of your best players mid season is never easy but Bruce has replaced Emile Heskey with Mido who repaid his new coach with his goal from the spot against Liverpool.

- Speaking on Emile Heskey it doesn’t hurt the genius tag Martin O’Neill currently has when your new signing scores the only goal of the goal to further solidify Aston Villa hold on 4th place.

- No shame in drawing against an in from Everton side for Arsenal. Robin van Persie injury time goal gives Arsenal some momentum going into the weekend but they can’t be comfortable looking up at the standings and seeing themselves 5 points behind Aston Villa.

- Who needs Robinho when you have Craig Bellamy as the Welsh international makes an instant impact scoring for what seems like his 10458th team in Manchester City 2-1 win over Newcastle

- Just about every coach are three games away from being fired. When you have gone 11 games without a win however the heat gets turned up even more as is the case with Gareth Southgate and his Middlesbrough side.

- I have no idea what to make out of the upcoming game between Chelsea and Liverpool. Liverpool are still in a funk and despite yesterday’s win Chelsea haven’t exactly been firing on all cylinder lately either.

- Even if they were the 4th and 5th goals of the game I’m sure Manchester United were happy to see Cristiano Ronaldo back on the score sheet.

- 11 clean sheets in a row. Nothing more needs to be said really. That is one impressive feat.

- Carlton Cole six goals in six games now and even whispers of an England call up are being mentioned. I’m also happy to see Gianfranco Zola having success with West Ham. Being a nice guy and a football coach usually don’t go hand in hand but I’ll root for Zola to buck that trend.

- Smartest move Zola made was bringing in former Chelsea assistant Steve Clarke as his number two. It also doesn’t hurt Clarke’s resume that his former club has suffered with loss of form since his departure.

- Sam Allardyce must not of been happy going down 2-0 against his former club Bolton but I’m sure he’ll see some positives with Blackburn’s fight back in the second hand to tie the game up at 2.

Just a touch of class from David Beckham during A.C Milan’s game against Genoa today. Can’t say I’m shocked however that Beckham had to leave the game cause of injury.

Roma Rebel Christian Panucci: I’m Leaving Italy

The defender has revealed that he is considering a move abroad out of respect for the Giallorossi’s colours.

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Wouldn’t be a picture perfect ending to Panucci career with Roma but no denying the man has given his heart and soul to the team in his 7 plus years with the club.

No Tottenham bid for Fred, claims Lyon chief

Tottenham Hotspur’s bid to sign Fred appears to have hit the skids after the Lyon striker failed to turn up for a meeting at White Hart Lane and the French club’s president Jean-Michel Aulas revealed he had yet to receive a bid from Spurs.

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I know Fred has been moth balled on the bench at Lyon for the last year but with pure goal scorers at a premium I’m still alittle surprised there hasn’t been more interest in the Brazilian international.