What a great weekend. Got Sporting to win 3-2 when they were 2-0 down and my fav win was Roma-Cagliari scoring two in extra time to give me a half win. I love the Serie A.
Portugal
Academica-Nacional under 2 -107
Record
36-26-6
+8.11
I love NFL Sunday ticket. One of the side benefits to having NFL Sunday ticket is the fact I get to watch the American ads and this one for FedEX just killed me.
Manchester City will make an audacious £35m offer for Barcelona defensive midfielder Sergio Busquets in January. Full story: Caughtoffside.com
Well we did learn Sergio Busquets has a hand for goal this past weekend.
England boss Fabio Capello has been targeted for one huge final pay-day by big-spending Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala. Full story: Daily Mail
All I know is that England would be fools to dump Capello before Euro 2012. Like most people I heard the rumours of Anzhi 25 million euro offer to Jose Mourinho. If you are a coach like Capello and they offer “only” 10 million do you feel insulted?
Striker Emmanuel Adebayor – on loan at Tottenham from Premier League rivals Manchester City – has declared his career at Etihad Stadium “over”. “The love between myself and Manchester City is broken,” he said. Full story: Daily Mail
If anything Adebayor love with Manchester City was more like a one night stand. It didn’t last very long.
Italian giants AC Milan are keeping tabs on Chelsea striker Fernando Torres and could make a loan bid for the Spaniard, who has yet to find his best form at Stamford Bridge. Full story: Inside Futbol
A.C Milan already has enough moody strikers. With Álvaro Negredo tearing it up in Spain Torres shouldn’t even be in the national team set up anymore.
Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes wants to leave the club in January after losing his place to summer signing Brad Friedel. Full story: Daily Mirror
Tottenham rightly can’t trust Gomes. He can make some unreal saves but on the flip side pulls a David James and lets in a few that should never go in.
Danny Wilson is a loan target for Championship outfit Leeds United as the Scotland defender continues to find himself out of the Liverpool first team. (Daily Record)
It does bug me when top clubs buy young players then don’t throw them into the fire. Look at Daniel Sturridge, he has been ready for over a year now to produce at Chelsea and only now he is getting that chance.
Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke has broken his silence on the Gunners’ deadline-day transfer spending. Manager Arsene Wenger brought in Mikel Arteta and Per Mertesacker but Kroenke admitted: “There’s a risk of going backwards if you overreact and start throwing money around in an attempt to solve your problems.”
Full story: Caughtoffside.com
Like Stan Kroenke knows a damn thing about soccer aside that it makes him a boatload of money.
Harry Redknapp has revealed Spurs missed out on a £13m windfall for Giovani dos Santos in January. Italian side Udinese made the offer but the forward wanted to go to Sevilla, who tabled a much lower bid. Full story: Daily Mirror
Behind Porto no other club knows how to work the transfer market like Udinese. For example watch out for Gabriel Torje. In two years a top club will pay a lot of money for his services.
Sergio Aguero has vowed to do for Manchester City what Diego Maradona did for Napoli.
Full story: Daily Mirror
If you are a Manchester City fan you have to be beaming right now. Last year they were still playing with Tevez up front by himself. Now Manchester City looks to take the game to anyone they play.
Andre Villas-Boas wants to see changes made to the way teams drop out of the Champions League and into the Europa League. The side finishing third in each group currently moves into Europe’s second club competition, but Villas-Boas says that rewards failure. Full story: Sky Sports
Pretty smart thinking by Villas-Boas.
So happy football is back after the international break. Wasn’t happy with the United States mid week but we shall move on from that. Also happy Serie A is back in my life. I called up Rogers to order RAI just so I can watch Serie A. Yes I know I can watch Serie A on English channels but I like way RAI broadcasts the games. When there is a goal they cut away from the game to show a goal with a sound clip of William Tell overture by Rossini playing. If I have an over I love hearing that music, every once in a while you get teased as they also show a penalty save but more often then not when the music hits someone has scored.
England
Aston Villa +.5 -119 vs Everton
Tottenham pk and -0.5 +110 vs Wolves
France
Lyon -.5 -120 vs Dijon
Saint Etienne-Lille over 2 and 2.5 -104
Germany
Hamburg +1 -110 vs Werder Bremen
Borussia Dortmund – Hertha Berlin over 2.5 -124
Italy
A.C Milan-Lazio over 2.5 +102
Juventus -1 -133 vs Parma
Roma-Cagliari Over 2.5 and 3 +100
Palermo-Inter Milan over 2.5 -102
Portugal
Sporting -.5 -115 vs Pacos Ferreira
Record
Record 26-25-5 -.41
Tottenham are set to go head-to-head with QPR to snap up former England captain David Beckham, 36, when his contract at LA Galaxy expires in November. Full story: Daily Mirror
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp wants to help Beckham achieve his dream of playing for Team GB at the 2012 Olympics by signing him in January. Full story: the Sun
I can honestly say I have no idea what Beckham is going to do when his contract is up but it is smart for Harry Redknapp to throw out that Olympic team carrot out there.
Liverpool are locked in a battle with Italian side AC Milan to sign Ajax’s teenage midfielder Christian Eriksen. Full story: talkSPORT
Smart move by Eriksen who could of moved in the summer put decided playing week in and week out for Ajax was a better choice.
Arsenal look set to lose out on signing Fiorentina midfielder Riccardo Montolivo, after his agent, Giovanni Branchini, confirmed that he would like to pledge his long-term future to the Italian club.
Full story: talkSPORT
Fiorentina most likely wanted a transfer fee that was actually market value which killed Arsenal chances of signing Montolivo.
Villas-Boas has also warned striker Fernando Torres that he faces being dropped if his goal drought starts to damage Chelsea’s title aspirations. Full story: Daily Mirror
It’s about time someone dropped the hammer. Torres has had a full pre season with Chelsea, it’s time to start scoring.
Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has claimed he has turned down jobs all over the world as he awaits his return to football management. Full story: Daily Mirror
Rafa is in a bad spot right now. These things can change in a heartbeat with the way coaches are fired but Benitez isn’t coaching Real Madrid or Barcelona anytime soon and I’m sure he sees himself as too good of a coach for any other Spanish team. He isn’t going back to Liverpool and he burned his bridge in Italy with his foolish power play. What team out there is a fit for Rafa without him taking a step down?
Count me as one of the millions of blackberry users out there. I got a Blackberry Bold 9700 18 months ago. Fast forward to today I have a little problem with my phone. The stupid thing only works when using speakerphone or a headset. You push the phone to your ear and nothing, no sound nothing. That is an issue with you are dealing with a phone. Having my phone on speaker isn’t practial at times and I forbid to turn myself into one of those people with a ear clip to talk on the phone.
What bugs me is the bigger issue that most things made today are utter crap. I realize I’m going to go on a back in the day rant but I remember my dad had a fridge so old that I’m sure this fridge alone caused a hole in the ozone layer but you know what it worked. The damn thing worked before I was born and it worked til it’s final day in 2008 when my dad threw it away cause he didn’t need it anymore. Furthermore if you are ever in a landfill site and you see a fridge with a Mike Mcphee NHL all-star sticker on it I’m sure if you plugged that sucker in today it would still work.
My Blackberry however only 18 months old doesn’t serve the main function for it’s purpose. Now most people who know me quickly come to realize that I hate talking on the phone so it’s not like I miss the actual talking to people. Everything else works fine, bbm, txt, the net, twitter etc etc but the fact that I have a $500 (at the time) phone which no longer allows me to listen to a person on the other end of the line annoys the hell out of me. I’ll bring it in at some point to get it fixed but I can assure you when I get a new phone it won’t be a blackberry.
Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, who left Old Trafford for the Bernabeu in an £80m world-record deal in 2009, has refused to close the door on a potential return to Manchester United. Full story: Metro
You know it’s a slow news day when. He also said he’d sign a 10 year contract with Real Madrid if they wanted to offer him one. You never know what the future holds but it’s safe to say the Ronaldo-Manchester United chapter has been written.
QPR have denied rumours that former England captain David Beckham is set to join the London club in November when his LA Galaxy contract expires. Full story: Metro
But the Daily Mail insists QPR have opened talks with the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder. Full story: Daily Mail
You could make the case that the LA Galaxy may be a better team now than Q.P.R. Can’t blame them for at least picking up the phone to see if Beckham has any interest in a move.
Bolton boss Owen Coyle wants England defender Gary Cahill to sign a new deal at the club. The former Aston Villa centre-back, who is rated at £17m, is a target for both Tottenham and Arsenal.
Full story: the Sun
Unless there is a low release clause there is no way if I’m Gary Cahill I’m signing a new deal with Bolton.
Young players Josh McEachran and Romelu Lukaku will be allowed to leave Chelsea on loan if they do not play enough games this year. Full story: the Sun
In any other country even the top teams would make room to bring players like McEachran and Lukaku to the first team. In England where a coach can be fired after three bad results usually means a coach isn’t going to throw many young players into the fire.
Arsenal attacker Andrey Arshavin has revealed his frustration at the club missing out on Rennes midfielder Yann M’Vila during the final moments of transfer deadline day. Full story: Metro
Arsenal should reveal there frustration with Andrey Arshavin.
Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane’s possible appointment as the national coach of Iceland is in doubt after he failed to show up for a meeting with the Icelandic Football Association. Full story: Daily Mail
Maybe he didn’t like the quality of the training grounds in Iceland?
I realize people may question my good taste but this dante guy kills me. Forget about Bucky Larson this guy needs his own movie.
One game today.
USA-Belgium over 2 and 2.5 -115
Record 26-23-5 +.74
With the international break this week there isn’t any real gossip to speak of. Thanfully Mario Balotelli has given me something to work with. While Balotelli has denied the story I love the rumours that Balotelli bought his ipad onto the touchline while Italy vs playing the Faroe Islands. It’s one of those stories where you just shake your head and laugh. In baseball they use to say that’s Manny being Manny after Manny Ramirez. Consider this story Mario being Mario.
I get Mario Balotelli, I also get why he could drive a coach crazy but I get him. Here you have a kid who came up from nothing and is now enjoying the good life. In his mind he has it made so he is going out and enjoying life on his own terms. Of course those terms rarely go along with the standard excepted from a professional football player but he can’t say he is dull.