La Liga kicked off this weekend and while I was stoked to put an end to my yearning for football, the TV rights snafu meant that I had to rely on Soccernet’s annoying gamecast for updates. Sadly, Barcelona with its fantastic quartet were held to a 0-0 scoreline by Racing Santander who played 23 minutes with just 10 men. Racing could have embarrassed Barca if they had a little bit of luck. The biggest worry for Barca after the signing of Henry was whether the team would be able to defend with such attacking talent on the pitch; few would have thought they would struggle in attack. Granted, the fantastic four didn’t play together but even then, they didn’t create enough to threaten Racing.

Even in preseason the forwards were toothless, only saved by the precocious talent of Giovanni Dos Santos, who was missing today because of typical Spanish Bureaucracy. Henry could have scored today but for the goal post but he still hasn’t found the wavelength to combine with Samuel Eto’o and Ronaldinho. Rijkaard has a lot of work to do and a few more of these performances will force the faithful at the Nou Camp to take out their white hankies. Ridiculous the amount of pressure managers face these days.
Villareal and Almeria provided the surprise results of the day. Villareal led by Roberto Ayala, who was returning to his old stomping ground at the Mestalla beat Valencia 3-0. This after experts including Sid Lowe of the Guardian tipped Valencia to push Barca to the finish line. Early days I concede but Valencia under Quique Flores have had the habit of disappointing on the big occasion. They just announced the signing of Manuel Fernandes from under Everton’s noses. I wonder if he will be able to change things. Newly promoted Almeria on the other hand beat Deportivo 3-0 at the Riazor.
Real Madrid beat cross town rivals Atletico on Saturday. Real who have formed a habit of scoring late goals in 2007 had Wesley Sniejder to thank for their 2-1 victory.

Here’s hoping they sort out the paperwork in Spain and have some football on the tele soon!!

Fantastic Video Compilation of the Top 10 Goals from Copa America 2007 being held in Venezuela.

Top 10 Goals

The second most tedious transfer saga of the summer has finally come to an end. After Manchester United’s signing of Owen Hargreaves, the whole ‘Schuster to Madrid’ story was being dragged endlessly. And thankfully we were spared another month of gossip and needless speculation, when Schuster was announced as the new manager of Real Madrid. Schuster is the seventh manager to be in charge of the los merengues in seven years!

Schuster comes to Madrid on the back of two successful seasons with Getafe, who he led to back to back ninth place finishes in the league. He comes to the team, with the twin tasks of winning titles and at the same time entertaining the Bernabeu. It is certainly going to be very interesting times in Madrid next season.

And Schuster’s first target? Cesc Fabregas! Whether, the young midfielder will make the move to Spain remains to be seen. I get the feeling that Fabregas wont make the move considering the amount of respect he has for the ability of Arsene Wenger. Arsenal fans will be hoping for some words of reassurance from either Fabregas or Wenger.

Good luck mate, you need it, considering you are replacing a manager who just won the league!

Liverpool as expected annouced the signing of Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid for 26.5 Million Pounds. His arrival will hasten the departure of Craig Bellamy, who besides the goal against Barcelona hasn’t performed upto the expectations of Rafael Benetiz. Torres will partner Peter Crouch in attack.

It remains to be seen if Torres is the guaranteed 30 goals a season player that Liverpool have missed for seasons now. He has flown under the radar of critics at Atletico Madrid scoring just 82 goals in 214 games for the Castille team. His team was often blamed for his lack of goals. With the 26.5 mill pound capture, and the hopes of a club who are waiting for their first league championship since 1990, he will no longer have that luxury.
Rafa has not had the best luck with his Spanish signings. Only Xabi Alonso has been able to lock in a starting spot in his team. Ex Pool Morientes had a horrid time at the KOP and Rafa will be wishing that those mistakes don’t repeat with Gillette and co breathing down his neck.

In my opinion, Torres has taken far too long to translate potential into goals and doesn’t look like a player capable of solving Liverpool’s inadequacies. Liverpool have taken a huge gamble on this former prodigy, who showed all but flashes of brilliance during his time at the Vicente Calderon. From what I’ve seen, his off the ball movement is top class but his finishing isn’t. I expect him to score not more than 15 goals per season (in the league) at Liverpool, in keeping with his scoring record at Atletico Madrid.

Torres Videos:

Torres Compilation 

Torres Interview (subtitles in English)

It’s done. As an Arsenal fan it’s hard not to feel the numbing pain that envelopes the entire body. Even as late as last night, I was clinging on the hope that all this was tabloid generated fiction. Its like a failed marriage, you fail to see the signs and when a defining moment comes, it hits you and it hits you hard. For every Arsenal fan this must have been a dagger to the heart.

An open letter from the great man himself. And I say great man because he gave us umpteen moments of joy. The man who put a smile on all arsenal faces every time he played. For all his posturing and pouting, he genuinely loved the club and the fans adored him. Adulation that was second to none. He undoubtedly gave us some of the best memories of Arsenal, goals like the chip over Barthez, the Real Madrid one, the list goes on… There is no denything that he gave the best past of his career to Arsenal. He peaked at Arsenal.He will be missed. Sorely.

Saying all that, its time to move on, Arsenal existed before Henry and will exist after him. He was dangerously close to becoming bigger than the club. And no one should ever be bigger than the club. Even last season the warning signs were there. Even from the sidelines when he was injured, he was always in the limelight, whether it was making statements or doing that silly dance with Adebayor.

 At the risk of sounding bitter, what has the departure of David Dein got anything to do with his career. And in his letter he cites Arsene Wenger not signing a new contract also a possible reason. Wenger has always left re-signing of contracts late and that has not prevented Henry from re-signing prior contracts. Though, he has said all the right things those two statements are damning indications that he had made up his mind regardless of AW or DD.

There is a school of thought that he inhibited the young gunners from playing, whilst not totally subscribing to that view, its not entirely incorrect. He was the go to guy, perhaps rightly so, but last season showed signs that the team will not entirely be lost without Henry. The young guns have to step up and take the mantle.

More intriguing is the question on who Wenger will sign as a suitable replacement. Those are some very big boots to fill. Does Arsene have enough money to sign another quality player? Does Arsene know some injury to Henry that we dont know? After all he held all the aces, 3 years to run on the contract and only 16 million pounds? Its all irrelevant now i guess. He certainly has my “Best wishes”, thats the very least he deserves from Arsenal fans. But for feck’s sake I sincerely hope that he doesn’t and make stupid statements(ala Vieira) whilst at Barcelona and reduce his legend points.

The courtship with Barcelona is now over, now begins the romance. Is it going to be a long term love affair or is it going to be case of lust turned sour? Does Henry ,30 this august, have the hunger, the fire, and more importantly the fitness to do the same things that he did for Arsenal? I have my doubts. Sour grapes maybe, but hey i have them in truckloads.

Thank you Henry, you have moved on. So will we and so will the club. Au Revoir!

The World’s richest Indian and the man who is the living embodiment of the adage ‘charity begins at home’ wants a piece of the multi billion dollar premiership pie. He is said to be in talks with Birmingham FC with a view to a possible takeover.At present, his wealth outstrips that of Roman and possibly all other Premiership CEOs put together. He hasn’t given any information on whether this will mean the likes of Kaka and Ronaldinho being linked to the little English club but it would certainly give the Blues something to cheer about.

Mittal made the papers last year over his hostile takeover of Steel company Arcelor. The steel magnate’s younger brother is already the proud owner of a Bulgarian Club, CSKA Sofia.

After all this, we won’t be surprised to see Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffett join this mayhem….

Want to keep tabs on who is going and coming to your favourite club??

Search no more… Your search ends here!

Visit the Rumour mill here!

Well, United’s summer has certainly started in an explosive fashion. According to a statement on the official website, it looks like the club has signed two young starlets from FC Porto- Nani and Anderson. Definitely looks like two potential replacements for Scholes and Giggs. And Sir Alex has always been exceptional in the way he has handled potential superstars. It is going to be interesting to see how he handles the two next season.

You can read the rest here- Guardian Football

Videos:

Nani Compilation- Click Here
Anderson Compilation- Click Here

The prestigious league had a familiar name etched on its cup and Italy had its second footballing achievement in as many years. AC Milan were by far the best team in the Champions League and were deserved winners of the UEFA Champions League. They outplayed favorites Manchester United in the semis after doing away with Bayern Munich in the Quarterfinals. In the lead up to their final against Liverpool, there was a lot of talk of *that* night in Istanbul and when Kuyt scored in the 90 th minute, it almost seemed like fate was against Senor Berlusconi’s team. But it was nothing more than a consolation goal as the match ended 2-1. This was after the most vilified man in the Milan dressing room put them two ahead after some fortitous and opportunistic finishing. Inzaghi was his usual self. Diving, time wasting, being called offside a million times but fortunately for Milan, also deadly in his finishing. He may have won over a few fans with that display. On the whole, Liverpool were the better(with a very small b) team. Milan lacked the fluency like they did against Man Utd but this was as Ancelotti envisioned. Few teams play with flair against Benitez. He is a master tactician and despite Valdano’s ramblings, he is still one of the best managers in the world.

I got the feeling that Gerrard got carried away with his prematch comments. He should have learnt from Totti’s example that it is very easy to talk a good game. No disrespect to him, He is still the best english talent in the world, a list that includes a certain Man Utd striker.

However, no one would complain that Milan didn’t deserve the CL. They were brilliant in their style and execution, not a trait normally associated with the Italians . It is a good sign that for the second season running we have had attacking teams (more measured in the case of Milan) win the Champions League and although this may be a pipe dream, I hope this continues for the coming seasons. Tactical football may be effective but for a spectator, it is mind numbingly dull.
The European season is nearly over. Spain will go on for a few more weeks before they go into hibernation (or is that aestivation?). After that we may have to live off the crumbs that fall of the transfer table.