There Is Only One Sinnacle

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich will fly to Germany to try and tie up a £40m move for Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery.
Full story: The Sun

One area of weakness for Chelsea is out wide with Joe Cole hurt, Yuri Zhirkov still unproven in a top league and Florent Malouda never quite living up to his advance billing. Despite this just don’t see Chelsea pulling off a Ribery transfer.

Portsmouth are interested in signing Lyon’s Ghanaian central defender John Mensah on a loan deal. (L’Equipe)

Portsmouth are going to be interested in signing a lot of players on either loan deals or free transfers in the coming weeks.

Midfielder Patrick Vieira will stay at Inter Milan rather than take up the chance of a return to England with either Tottenham or Arsenal. Sky Sports

Shame for Arsenal fans as Vieira would at least remind them of their glory days. Vieira was never going to leave a top team like Inter or betray his Arsenal roots by playing for Tottenham.

Joleon Lescott is finally bound for Manchester City after the Eastlands club made a final offer of £20m to Everton for the defender’s services. Daily Mail

West Ham’s £15m-rated Matthew Upson has given Manchester City further hope in their hunt for a central defender by rejecting contract extension talks at Upton Park : The Telegraph

Have also read today that Everton has turned down that Manchester City bid for Lescott. Could understand Everton not wanting to sell a top player to another league rival but that is a lot of money they are snubbing their noses at.

But City manager Mark Hughes may prefer to turn his attentions to securing an Eastlands return for Portsmouth defender Sylvain Distin. The Independent

Distin makes a great cover option as a 3rd defender and with Portsmouth hanging on for sale sign on everyone it’s no wonder Distin has been linked with several clubs this off season.

Fulham manager Roy Hodgson has told Arsenal they will have to stump up £15m if they are to take centre-back Brede Hangeland across London. Daily Mail

In this summer transfer season £15 million is a fair price for Hangeland. Arsenal should write the cheque but I doubt they will.

Everton are still hopeful of landing Arsenal’s Switzerland international defender Philippe Senderos. The Independent

Arsenal could use the Senderos transfer fee to make a Hangeland move possible. Then again they could use the Adebayor and Toure money they are sitting on.

Hull are closing in on the signature of Reading’s Republic of Ireland midfielder Stephen Hunt. (Various)

Petr Čech won’t be thrilled to hear this news.

Blackburn are poised to pounce for out-of-contract defender Michel Salgado after the Spanish international departed Real Madrid. Daily Mirror

Talk about a culture shock if Salgado decided to end his career playing for Blackburn.

Manchester City have admitted that they forgot to tell the Football Association of Wales that striker Craig Bellamy would not be joining up with his international team-mates for Wednesday’s friendly against Montenegro. Officials were left bemused by his non-appearance. (Various)

Wales have been use to Bellamy missing games for them anyway. In the future Manchester City should tell Wales that Bellamy is actually fit to play.

Advocaat leaves Zenit following poor run of form

But results have suffered and relations between club and manager have broken down since Advocaat’s decision to take over as Belgium coach at the end of the current Russian season.

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The last sentence pretty much says it all. Advocaat was pretty much a lame duck coach heading into the end of this summer due to him taking on the Belgium job. It also didn’t help with management when Zenit signed Italian Alessandro Rosina and Advocaat said he didn’t like the player. With Europa League qualifiers coming up the time was right to go in a new direction for everyone’s sake.

50,000 Turn Out In Memory Of Espanyol Captain Daniel Jarque

Over 50,000 Pericos fans turned up at the stadium on Sunday, with many leaving scarves and banners at the makeshift shrine at Gate 21 of the stadium. Dani Jarque wore the No. 21 shirt for Los Pericos.

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Still sadden and shocked by this news. Football players who you’d think are in the best fitness should not passing away of heart attacks. Part of me wants to question the medical team wondering what kind of heart testing is done when a player returns from holidays but that is a different comment for a different day. Everytime I read the news of a player gone too soon like this my mind returns to that awful day when I saw Benfica’s Miklos Feher pass away right on the pitch in 2004. Hope I never have to witness that again.

Liverpool are keen on signing Japanese star Keisuke Honda, who is currently playing in Holland for VVV Venlo. (Sky Sports)

Liverpool are keen on selling more jerseys in Japan is the first thing that comes to mind when I read this.

Manchester City are set to turn their sights towards West Ham centre-half Matthew Upson after having two bids for Everton defender Joleon Lescott rejected. The Guardian

It would be a lot easier to sign Upson with West Ham willingly to cash in a player about to turn 30 later on this season.

Barcelona are preparing a variety of tactics in an attempt to capture Arsenal’s Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas, with a fund of at least £25m and a number of fringe players set to be offered. The Times

A transfer for a player like Fabregas is very hard to pull off with only three weeks left in the transfer window. It’s one thing getting Arsenal sell him but then Arsenal in theory would still have to go out and find a suitable replacement. Transfers of this size usually need to happen at the start of the transfer window.

Mark Viduka’s move to Portsmouth is in doubt, with the threat of administration still hovering over the Premier League club. The striker currently has no club after being released by Newcastle. Various

It’s says something about Portsmouth current state when even an out of work football player isn’t interested in joining them.

Aston Villa’s PFA Young Player of the Year Ashley Young is unlikely to be released, says Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp, who has been linked to the England winger. (Press Association)

Don’t see what Young would have to gain by going to Tottenham. At best it’s a sideways step in his career but there is equal chance it may even be a step down for Young.

Liverpool are considering a move for Stoke’s 21-year-old centre-half Ryan Shawcross. Daily Mail

Manchester United signs Michael Owen now Liverpool wants to hit back by signing former United youth product Ryan Shawcross. No, I was not serious with the above comment.

Manchester United fans may want to put this one in the memory bank when people claim referees are always favoring United in game deciding calls. Wouldn’t take an issue with Chris Foy letting Chelsea continue play if only a couple of minutes earlier he stopped played when United where in an attacking position. It was interesting to see Patrice Evra rush up and go after Foy when only minutes earlier he was rolling around on the floor. If Evra dusted himself off to begin with maybe Chelsea wouldn’t score their second goal. What turned out to be minor sub plots it was also nice to see Portuguese internationals Nani and Ricardo Carvalho both players with something to prove score.

Carlo Ancelotti came close to grabbing the headlines. A true sign of a top coach is how he gets his team to reacti once they go down 1-0 heading into halftime. Full credit to Ancelotti and his Chelsea players who had the run of play and were justly rewarded with the equalizer then took the lead on Frank Lampard’s disputed goal. Wayne Rooney fighting to the death then scored on the death sending Manchester United into penalties. No slip ups this time around due to a couple of poor penalties by Ryan Giggs and Patrice Evra just about handed Chelsea the Community Shield. To be fair to Chelsea each player made no mistake during their penalties kicks.

U.S. men’s national team coach Bob Bradley has named a roster of 20 players that will train in advance of the FIFA World Cup qualifier against Mexico that will take place Aug. 12 in Mexico City. The U.S. seeks its first-ever victory on Mexican soil, with kickoff set for 4 p.m. ET at Estadio Azteca.

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After the U.S B team got spanked 5-0 by Mexico in the finals of the Gold Cup the usually hostile U.S-Mexico rivalry just got turned up a notch heading into Azteca stadium one of the most intimating stadiums in all of football. It wouldn’t shock me at all if this game draws more viewers than the Gold Cup and Confederations Cup combined.

U.S. roster

GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Tim Howard (Everton, England)

DEFENDERS: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes, France), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jay DeMerit (Watford, England), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan, Italy), Jonathan Spector (West Ham, England)

MIDFIELDERS: Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach, Germany), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus, Denmark), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca, Mexico)

FORWARDS: Jozy Altidore (Hull City, England), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Charlie Davies (Sochaux, France), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

You would think Beatlemaina has swept over the city but alas these things trend to happen when the Toronto sporting landscape hasn’t produced a real winner since the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. Also could not think of one athlete who has played in this city that has the iconic status of so many of the Real Madrid players. Some have come close like Robbie Alomar, Mats Sundin, and Vince Carter but none of those players hold a candle to the Kaka’s and Ronaldo’s of the world.

Yesterday 18000 people paid 15 bucks a piece to see Real Madrid practice. As Allen Iverson once said “We are talking about practice, not the game practice.” On the flip side however it’s not every day around these parts where one of football’s storied clubs touch down in our city. Part of me wonders if the Real Madrid players had any idea the reaction they were going to get or if they are jaded to it since they must be quite use to it by now.

Champions League Playoff Draw: Arsenal Meet Celtic, Fiorentina Tackle Sporting

The two British clubs will face one another to decide who qualifies for the Champions League group stage…

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Congrats to Celtic for traveling to Russia and taking out Dynamo Moscow this week. Now they have to slay the giant that is Arsenal in order to advance into the Champions League group stage. You can say it’s a tough break for Tony Mowbray and Celtic but in a lot of ways it isn’t. Celtic takes on just about any other team and fails to advance Celtic fans are disappointed and Mowbray is already behind the 8-ball. Celtic fails to beat Arsenal, Celtic fans won’t be happy but it was a tough task taking out Arsenal to begin with.

Sporting take on Fiorentina in one of the other match ups. Don’t know how I feel about this one. Sporting were very lucky to even advance this far thanks to their last second away goal against FC Twente. Part of me also likes it when a Portuguese club takes on an Italian club. No idea why however since the results rarely favour the Portuguese club but I’ll still keep my fingers crossed.

Below are all the match ups to advance into the Champions League Group Stage.

Olympique Lyonnais vs. Anderlecht
Celtic vs. Arsenal
FC Timisoara vs. VfB Stuttgart
Sporting CP vs. Fiorentina
Panathinaikos vs. Atletico Madrid
Olympiacos CFP vs. FC Sheriff
FC Salzburg vs. Maccabi Haifa FC
FK Ventspils vs. FC Zürich
FC København vs. APOEL FC
FC Levski Sofia vs. Debreceni VSC

Also included the Europa League Draw which get’s under way on August 20th. No idea who about the club Benfica is facing but let’s hope they don’t under estimate them.

Ajax v Slovan Bratislava
Athletic Bilbao v Tromso
BATE v Litex Lovech
Benfica v Vorskla Poltava
Brondby v Hertha Berlin
Dinamo Moscow v CSKA Sofia
Dinamo Zagreb v Hearts
Everton v Sigma Olomouc
FC Dinamo Bucuresti v Liberec
FC Sion v Fenerbahce
FC Twente v FK Qarabag
FC Vaslui v AEK Athens
FK Baku v Basle
FK Sarajevo v CFR 1907 Cluj-Napoca
FK Teplice v Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Fulham v Amkar Perm
Galatasaray v FC Levadia Tallinn
Genk v Lille
Genoa v Odense BK
Guingamp v Hamburg
Lazio v Elfsborg
Lech Poznan v Club Brugge
Metallurg Donetsk v FK Austria Vienna
NAC v Villarreal
PAOK Salonika v Heerenveen
PSV v Bnei Yehuda
Partizan Belgrade v MSK Zilina
Rapid Vienna v Aston Villa
Roma v MFK Kosice
SK Sturm Graz v FC Metalist Kharkiv
Shakhtar Donetsk v Sivasspor
Slavia Prague v Crvena Zvezda
Sparta Prague v NK Maribor
Stabaek v Valencia
Steaua Bucuresti v St Patricks
Trabzonspor v Toulouse
Werder Bremen v FC Aktobe
Zenit St Petersburg v Nacional

Inter’s Jose Mourinho Has Three Concerns Ahead Of Supercoppa Italiana Match

‘The Special One’ has spotted some problems ahead of the match against Lazio, but insists they will not be used as excuses…

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What a great weekend for football as the European season is starting to take bloom. Today have an interesting Bundesliga match up between 2007 Champions Stuttgart and 2009 Champions Wolfsburg to kick off the season then the Community Shield and Supercoppa on the weekend.

Tottenham are looking to hijack West Ham’s bid to sign Bayern Munich striker Luca Toni. Spurs manager Harry Redknapp has targeted the 32-year-old after missing out on Klaas-Jan Huntelaar who has joined AC Milan from Real Madrid, while West Ham are unlikely to be able to meet Toni’s £90,000-a-week wage demands. Clubcall

Don’t understand what the fuss is about regarding Luca Toni and why Tottenham are often linked with players who have little chance of joining them? The key word here is 32 years old. This isn’t the 2006-2008 vintage Luca Toni we are talking about. Unless the EPL suddenly turns into one set piece after another the sheer pace of the English game would make it hard for Toni to succeed in.

Chelsea have turned down an £18m bid from Real Madrid for Brazilian defender Alex. The Times

A year ago at this time Real Madrid or any club for that matter could of had Alex for a lot less.

Manchester United are still monitoring Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery and Valencia’s David Silva, despite insisting that their summer spending is over. The Times

I’d be inclined to believe United’s spending is over as well but with injuries slowly mounting up maybe they will be forced to make another move.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted he is interested in signing Fulham defender Brede Hangeland but said the club are yet to make an offer for the 28-year-old Norwegian. The Independent

Shrugs my shoulders over the logic to admitting this unless it’s an attempt to unsettle Hangeland in the hopes of the player forcing a transfer.

Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill has expressed an interest in bringing Real Madrid’s 25-year-old Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder to Villa Park. The Guardian

Martin O’Neill has wisely targeted young and up in coming English players to Aston Villa. Signing a player like Sneijder would be quite a coup if O’Neill could pull it off but it’s unlikely to happen.

Portsmouth have made a £2m bid for Vitoria Guimaraes midfielder Nuno Assis and the 31-year-old said he is keen on a move to Fratton Park if “the money and sport aspects can be united”. (The Sun)

Vitoria Guimaraes would dance a jig if they got £2 million for former Benfica man Nuno Assis. I know Portsmouth played Vitoria Guimaraes last week but I could think of better ways to spend £2 million.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said he is more worried about Aston Villa this season than he is about Manchester City and said that Mark Hughes’ side will not break into the Premier League’s top four. Daily Mirror

If Manchester City do crack the top four Arsene Wenger could take credit for it.

Liverpool are expected to end their 17-year association with shirt sponsor Carlsberg when their current £8m-a-year deal finishes at the end of the season. Banking giants Standard Chartered are expected to replace Carlsberg for about £15m-a-year. Daily Mail

Not a bad increase for a valuable piece of shirt real estate.

Sir Alex Ferguson has backed Michael Owen to score goals for Manchester United this season after the striker missed four good chances in a friendly against Valencia on Wednesday. The Sun

Provided Owen stays somewhat fit he should score 10-15 goals this season for United. 20 would be a reach considering he won’t be playing week in and week out.

Burnley striker Steve Thompson has been fined for drinking a fan’s pint of beer on the club’s pre-season tour of the United States. The 30-year-old fell over the advertising hoardings and took a swig from the fan’s drink as a joke. (The Sun)

No harm no foul comes to mind when reading this.

Chelsea’s players are reported to have spent about £120,000 on champagne during a night out to celebrate Saloman Kalou’s 25th birthday. (Various)

Did the Chelsea players think Kolou was leaving instead of it being his birthday? Unless there was massive amounts of coke and strippers involved it’s pretty impressive or stupid to be able to spend that amount in one night.

Watching yet another packed American stadium watch Barcelona take on Seattle last night it occurred to me can something more be made of this? Can European teams come over here and take part in more then just pre season friendlies. While the MLS All Star only drew a 0.2 rating or four hundred thousand viewers there is no denying the American public comes out in full force to watch the best of Europe play to go along with the success of the men’s national soccer team.

Once or twice a year the G14 or basically the world’s biggest clubs always raise a stink about breaking away from their domestic league to show some sort of super league. Every knows this will never happen. There is too much history in the domestic league to leave behind and too much money in the Champions League to give up. The G14 is merely a lobbyist tool to make sure Michel Platini or whoever is in charge of UEFA doesn’t get in the clubs way of printing money.

These club should see money in American at this point and instead of these meaningless pre season friendlies. Why not create a 16 team tournament where there are four groups of four with each club playing the other once. You can have twelve European clubs. Many of them already play in North American from pre season. Take clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, A.C Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Celtic or Rangers then leave the rest as wild card spots just in case another club has a good run in the Champions League. Add to this two MLS clubs and the two finalist from the Copa Libertadores in South America and you have a Club World Cup people may actually care about.

A few things would need to be tweaked however a 16 team tournament can be completed in three weeks, with the group stage taking a week and half to complete, then the quarter finals and semi finals taking the next week and finally the final at the end of the third week. What would need to be fine tuned in the timing of this tournament in World Cup or European Championship years but with enough money on the table from live attendance, TV and corporate sponsorship I’m sure these clubs would find a way to make it work.

July to early August is the perfect time to hold such an event in American. It’s the dog days of summer where only baseball season is ongoing. A lack of other sporting options would drive media to play attention to this event of the best clubs in the world and you know fans would come out in full force. This event would be the perfect summer sporting option before NFL and College sports take over the American sporting landscape come the fall.

Milan Sign Klaas Jan Huntelaar From Real Madrid

Earlier this morning Rossoneri general manager Adriano Galliani confirmed that an agreement had been reached with Real Madrid for the frontman, and the official confirmation has now arrived.

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Given the way A.C Milan has conducted transfer business this summer I’m going to wait until I actually see Huntelaar wear a Milan jersey. Good for Huntelaar getting out of a no win situation at Real Madrid to hopefully joining a club with a long list of Dutch players who have previously excelled.