North America
+ Maleagi (Marley) Ngarizemo, a defender with the Namibian national soccer team, has come to Canada in search of a tryout.
+ Duane Rollins at The 24th Minute is counting down his top 50 players in MLS.
+ Sam at the Canadian Stretford end has listed his top 25 Canadian players.
+ Former Whitecaps forward Marcus Haber made his debut in West Brom colours yesterday, playing 78 minutes in a 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday’s reserves. Baggies boss Roberto Di Matteo has suggested he’s likely to loan out Haber once the 21-year-old gets his feet wet.
+ The Red Bulls are still playing coy about acquiring Joel Lindpere, but the 28-year-old midfielder told Estonian website Postimees that he was signed, sealed and delivered to the MLS club last week.
+ The Crew has made a contract offer to a foreign striker it has yet to identify and is awaiting a reply.
+ American forward Charlie Davies underwent elbow surgery as part of his recuperation from injuries sustained in a car crash last October.
+ DaMarcus Beasley’s car was set on fire outside his Glasgow home on Monday. Beasley was not harmed. Police are calling the incident a deliberate act.
+ Breaking more than a decade of silence, former U.S. soccer coach Steve Sampson said Tuesday he dropped John Harkes from the national team roster two months before the 1998 World Cup because the American captain was having an affair with the wife of teammate Eric Wynalda.
+ Philadelphia Union’s latest stadium rendering looks pretty sweet:
England
+ No less than 24 hours after the transfer window closed than Liverpool have signed their first summer signing in Standard Liege striker Milan Jovanovic.
+ Liverpool owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks are unlikely to be able to refinance their £237 million debt with RBS and Wachovia should the club’s search to attract £100 million of outside investment in the next six months fail.
+ Manchester United are still interested in Racing Santander’s Sergio Canales, 18, who has yet to sign for Real Madrid.
+ Gary Neville has been left in the cold at Old Trafford since making an obscene gesture at Carlos Tevez. The Manchester United club captain was axed from the whole squad and did not even travel to Arsenal for Sunday’s clash.
+ Owen Hargreaves has been handed the incentive of a place in Manchester United’s squad for the Champions League last-16 clash with AC Milan on Feb 16 if he returns to full training over the next two weeks.
+ Arsenal appear to have beaten off competition from north London rivals Tottenham to sign Montenegrin defender Stefan Savic, according to the player himself.
+ Fulham forward Andrew Johnson will undergo an exploratory knee operation to discover whether he requires further surgery which could rule him out for the rest of the season.
+ Manchester City have held talks about a summer tour of the United States as part of their next step towards establishing a global brand and gaining ground on Manchester United’s worldwide popularity.
+ Kristian Jack: Blue side of Manchester still have a lot to learn.
+ Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga had tried to secure his country’s star McDonald Mariga a £7million move to Manchester City by phoning his UK counterpart Gordon Brown.
+ Harry Redknapp has said that Robbie Keane will return to Tottenham when his loan spell at Celtic ends.
+ Stoke City midfielder Matthew Etherington says he is winning his battle with a gambling addiction after attending Gamblers Anonymous for the past few months.
+ Avram Grant has accused Portsmouth of breaking promises when he agreed to succeed Paul Hart as manager last November.
+ Alexandre Gaydamak will not force Portsmouth into administration even though the club missed last Sunday’s deadline to pay their former owner a £9.5m instalment on the £30m he claims he is owed.
+ David Conn: Portsmouth continue to play out their tragedy as farce.
+ Sunderland manager Steve Bruce expressed delight on Tuesday after the Premier League approved the signing of Manchester City striker Benjani Mwaruwari.
+ Peter Pannu, Birmingham City’s vice-chairman, has admitted that the owner Carson Yeung’s decision to reveal that Alex McLeish would have up to £40m to spend in January was "not particularly helpful" during a frustrating transfer window in which the club failed to land any of their big-name targets.
+ Danny Butterfield’s stunning six-minute hat-trick dumped Barclays Premier League side Wolves out of the FA Cup as Crystal Palace triumphed 3-1.
+ Crystal Palace have been loaned £1m by Agilo, the hedge fund that called in administrators to the club a week ago, allowing the Championship side to pay their players and staff their wages for January by close of business yesterday.
+ Nigel Clough has no intention of apologising for allegedly assaulting Billy Davies during Derby County’s victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday and is claiming that any contact made with his counterpart during a mass confrontation on the touchline was "purely accidental".
+ Rory Smith: Jean-Marc Bosman back to haunt Premier League clubs in hard times.
+ Gabriele Marcotti: What is ‘good football’ to you?
+ Rob Bagchi: The impossibly simple yet flagging art of taking a good corner.
Spain
+ Barcelona have stepped up their campaign to take Cesc Fabregas back to the Nou Camp. The midfielder is being targeted by candidates in Barca’s presidential elections.
+ Fernando Gago’s agent has hit out at Manchester City over their handling of their bid for the player, with Real Madrid’s sporting director Jorge Valdano echoing his displeasure.
Italy
+ AC Milan owner and Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi took time out from a trip to Israel to lambast his own club and chief executive Adriano Galliani on Tuesday for signing Inter Milan winger Mancini on loan.
+ Cafu has tipped Mancini to be his heir, transforming him into Milan’s new full-back.
+ Alexandre Pato’s recurring muscular problems could be down to his teeth, so the Milan star will undergo surgery tomorrow.
+ Ronaldinho has reportedly been fined by AC Milan after the club discovered he attended a party during the week leading up to the derby defeat to Inter Milan.
+ Juventus would like to sign a centre-back in the summer and Roma’s Philippe Mexes is their No 1 transfer target.
France
+ Girondins Bordeaux stayed on course for an unprecedented treble by beating Ligue 2 side Sedan 1-0 on Tuesday to advance to the French League Cup last four.
+ Monaco defender Dario Simic has been frozen out of les Monegasques’ squad over the past season and has confessed in an interview with Le Parisien that he is considering retirement due to a situation he believes is bemusing.
Portugal
+ Holders Porto thrashed Sporting 5-2 to reach the semi-finals of the Portuguese Cup on Tuesday.
+Sporting Braga were hit with a massive blow as Vandinho has been suspended for three months for an incident during the half-time fracas in the match Benfica.
+ Vitoria Guimaraes forward Targino will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
Germany
+ Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder has accepted that he is not going to be part of the Germany squad at this summer’s World Cup.
Scotland
+ New signing Chris Maguire scored the game’s only goal as Kilmarnock topped Celtic 1-0 in Robbie Keane’s Hoops debut.
+ Celtic and Rangers have agreed a multi-million pound sponsorship deal with Tennent’s Lager.
Russia
+ Dynamo Moscow are ready to make an improved £8million bid for Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun. The transfer window in Russia remains open till March.
Argentina
+ Former Argentina captain Roberto Ayala arrived home in Buenos Aires on Tuesday after 15 seasons in Europe to join Racing Club. (Would have been a great MLS signing.)
Mexico
+ A teammate of Paraguay star Salvador Cabanas, shot in the head in a trendy Mexico City bar, has been slightly wounded in another shooting incident. Mexican footballer Juan Carlos Silva was grazed by a bullet after being shot in a buttocks muscle, Club America spokesman Edwin Victoria said.
Not to nitpick, but its Robbie Keane who`s with Tottenham, though I bet Redknapp would have loved to have Roy on his team. Would have liked to see Redknapp talk about Roy`s mother scoring goals.
Hey nitpick away!
It’s actually copied and pasted right off of the Telegraph website.
(That’s what you get for cutting corners)
Jesus i am so sick and tired of the fabregas talk from Barcelona and occasionally Real Madrid….
ohh yeah Im sorry for making light of this… even though that Juan Carlos Silva guy got shot…I still find it kind of funny that the columnist wrote he got shot in the buttocks muscle…LMAO ….no sir …the dude got shot in the ass
liverpool reject a 7million offer for benayoun and they step up their bid by 1million thinking it will be good enough?
i am also really sick and tired of all the barca and real madrid transfer rumors. i still don’t understand how barca can fit fabregas in their lineup unless iniesta takes over the wing instead of henry.
^^^Yeah that’s the only way I can see him fitting in.
Spain would never have Xavi, Iniesta and Cesc in the same xi during Euro 2008 campaign, so Iniesta would have to take Henry’s spot.
Meh, there is no shortage of stupid transfer rumours floating around. Certain reporters just have the need to make things up.
It’s not like the Carlos Puyol to Man City rumours arent’ rediculuous also.
James Sharman – are you taking note?
The numbers being bandied about for Fabregas are 40 million pounds. Rumours, yes, but when those same voices talk about a certain striker who wears red (and who’s award winning teammate cost 80 million pounds) – the number we hear is 70 million.
Pounds – not Euros.
Still think that Fabregas is the “best 2nd tier player” after Ronaldo, Messi et al.?
Schmuggee – yes I do. He isn’t up there with Ronaldo etc yet, that is why he isn’t worth what Ronaldo was worth, that was my point. However, the Ronaldo fee was so inflated because Perez was making a statement buy, no doubt he was one of the best, but was he really worth $40m more than Kaka?
James – therein lies the rub.
On your show you specifically mentioned those in the 2nd tier, NOT those as highly regarded as Ronaldo…your point was WHO WAS #4, not “was 80 million too much” or “is Ronaldo as good as Kaka”.
Actually, you have proven my point for me (in a backhanded way);
Barca is hunting Fabregas, not Madrid.
Madrid sign Galaticos (ooooohhhhhh) and make the big splashes. lol
You are correct – Perez was making a point by signing both Kaka and Ronaldo.
He is now trying to make another statement by taking a run at Rooney (through Marca, as it always happens)…NOT Fabregas.
Isn’t that kind of a statement in of itself? Leaving Fabregas for Barca? Kinda like leaving Tevez for Man City, no? hahahahaha
BTW – I hope that this never happens, although I am sure the Glazers look at it as another way to wipe 70 millions pounds off the liabilities side of the balance sheet…(sigh)
BUT
I have this to say about the Glazers. The Man U faithful seem to get up in arms at them, but I see it from a different point of view; they are simply opportunists taking advantage of the situation, why hate on them? – fans might want to look at Magnier and McManus, the guys who took the money and ran. If you follow hockey, it’s very similar to the scenario in Quebec City, when Marcel Aubut sold the Nordiques…
Point taken, however I’m sure you agree that we need to take all rumours with a massive heap of salt. Certain publications linking certain players to certain teams for certain amounts of money have zero bearing on how good that player is, or might be. It’s a purely subjective argument, let’s be honest, both Fab and Rooney are world class, and will only get better, noone knows how good they can get, but at the moment I would put Fab slightly ahead of the Roon. That being said, they are very different players, so a comparison is redundant.
Ah, James – the quintessential sports discussion over a pint, I love it.
Yes, while all this must be taken with a grain of salt, we must also sometimes read between the lines. How much of the dis-information was put out from MANCHESTER to guage the backlash at selling Ronaldo for 80 mil? I think everyone plays both sides against the middle…
I agree – comparison is not only tough because of the difference in players, but the systems in which they play in. You must admit – once a player learns the Wenger ‘one touch and go’ way to play, they can make someone look really good…no? My opinion, but I think The Boy Wayne has a much tougher time of it, plaing for long stretches up front, on his own…
…BUT (one last try)
Who loses more, right now:
Man U without Rooney ot the Gunnars with Cesc?
C’mon…
so excellent to read so many links to kilmarnock stories in the links dump recently and this one tops them all.
what a teriffic result, havent beaten celtic at home in 9yrs and even then it was a last day of the saeson gimme. watching it online there was a new imputice in our play against them that hasnt been there under the previous manager.
robbie keane will be a superstar in Scotland i have to say, however it will only happen when he checks his ego at the door. on the performance i saw he reminded me of his namesake when he came up to play for his boyhood heroes (boak) he was a guy who thought he was going north to get 65k a week playing in some backyard league with donkey goalkeepers and part time farmer centre backs (something akin to irish footbal maybe).
what he found is that the scottish league is harder than folks think and not every great player comes and succeeds. i hope he does though. robbie keane always struck me as a guy who loves playing and scoring goals and only a combination of maybe poor advice from his agent and the one man stance of rafa benitez has took the smile off his face.
when he gets out Killie centre back Manu Pascalis back pocket and maybe does an interview maybe he will admit he underestimated what he has undertook.
Killie for the cup
so excellent to read so many links to kilmarnock stories in the links dump recently and this one tops them all.
what a teriffic result, havent beaten celtic at home in 9yrs and even then it was a last day of the saeson gimme. watching it online there was a new imputice in our play against them that hasnt been there under the previous manager.
robbie keane will be a superstar in Scotland i have to say, however it will only happen when he checks his ego at the door. on the performance i saw he reminded me of his namesake when he came up to play for his boyhood heroes (boak) he was a guy who thought he was going north to get 65k a week playing in some backyard league with donkey goalkeepers and part time farmer centre backs (something akin to irish footbal maybe).
what he found is that the scottish league is harder than folks think and not every great player comes and succeeds. i hope he does though. robbie keane always struck me as a guy who loves playing and scoring goals and only a combination of maybe poor advice from his agent and the one man stance of rafa benitez has took the smile off his face.
when he gets out Killie centre back Manu Pascalis back pocket and maybe does an interview maybe he will admit he underestimated what he has undertook.
Killie for the cup!
oh and the tennents lovelies picture reminds me of visits to my gran and grampas back in the late 80s. they had drinks coasters with the ladies on. vivid memories of that.
also my grampa and dad would often have a can in their hand.
the cans with the lovelies on then were phased out in the early nineties but my cousion who is a carpet fitter found one in a customers fridge only a year ago. a twenty year old can of lager in the fridge. nice.
anyway, thanks for the photo joe!