Headlines

What’s that sound? It’s Arsenal’s bosses laughing all the bank – if reports today that Barcelona have bid £30 million for Emmanuel Adebayor are anything to go by.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is the master of the buy ‘em cheap, sell ‘em high policy, and he’s got the canny knack of flogging his star players before they burn out and turn useless. After all, not many agreed with his decision to sell Patrick Vieira to Juventus – or Thierry Henry to Barcelona – but both those hunches turned out to be proved bang-on. Neither player has been anywhere near as good since the day they left the Gunners.

But this deal for Adebayor could be Wenger’s best deal yet. The Togo striker …

continue reading

Who’d have thought the biggest, nastiest and most drawn out transfer saga of the summer would involve Gareth Barry, supposedly one of football’s nice guys?

But it does, because Liverpool’s attempts to sign Aston Villa’s captain have been going on since the end of the Premier League season, and they’re still going on. No-one’s talking about Ronaldo to Real anymore – if you want bitterness and bullying and moaning and stubborn stand-offs, the Barry to Liverpool story is where it’s at.

Here where we are so far. Liverpool offer £10million for Barry, Villa say no, we want £18m. Liverpool up it £1m. Villa say no. Liverpool up it another £1m. Villa say no, again. Barry returns from England duty to tell his …

continue reading

 … Lampard out? Well, that’s what most Chelsea fans will be thinking today after the news that Luiz Scolari has recruited one of his old Portuguese favourites on his first day in charge at Stamford Bridge. If that pic of a smarmy-looking Peter Kenyon grinning and shaking hands with Deco doesn’t spell the end for Lampard, we’ll crawl all the way from Beat Towers to Stamford Bridge on our knees in the rain.

Deco’s alright. Well, he’s a bit more than alright – after all, this is a guy who’s been playing his footy for Barcelona for the last few years, and doing pretty well for Portugal at international level too. He may be 30 and knocking on a bit, but …

continue reading

Arsenal gaffer Arsene Wenger must have been chuffed to bits to see Cesc Fabregas’ performance for Spain against Russia the other night. Then again, perhaps he wasn’t. For you can bet Fabregas will now be on the wanted list of some of Europe’s biggest clubs – if he wasn’t there already, that is.

Fabregas’s clever passing destroyed Russia in the semi-final, and that won’t have gone unseen by the rest of Europe. For most of this summer, Arsenal have been battling to hold on to their best players. The Gunners have already lost Mathieu Flamini to AC Milan, Alexander Hleb has been tipped to join Barcelona, and both those clubs have also been linked with Emmanuel Adebayor.

“Many clubs do not work …

continue reading

A bloke´s car overheated on the motorway last week and he´s just received a quote from the garage to get it fixed. They want three grand. Like many car owners he needs it because the local bus service is pony. In fact, if the bus was a pony it wouldn´t be so bad.

But most of all he uses it to visit his two year old son and to take him to fun places and he can´t put a price on that. He needs that car sorted. The garage know that he won´t be able to buy another car like it for 3k. He will find the cash from somewhere and the mechanics will be swimming in lager.

This week Manchester United …

continue reading

Welcome to the Premier League, Paul Ince! Yes, Ince may know the Premier League inside out from his playing career but he’ll experience a whole new ball game next season when he takes charge of Blackburn Rovers, his first top-flight managerial post.

And it’s great to see Ince land the job at Ewood Park. While Sam Allardyce, Steve McClaren and Michael Laudrup were all linked with the position, Rovers have taken a bit of a gamble in going for Ince. It could prove to be an inspired decision, though. Ince has served his apprenticeship in the lower leagues, first with a coaching spell at Swindon, then at Macclesfield – who he rescued from relegation – and last season, in guiding MK …

continue reading

Is being a top four Premier League manager that difficult? We´re talking about Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool here.

Could it be the most overpaid job of all time? Do the top managers get too much respect for their achievements?

Roman Abramovich is paying new Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari an incredible GBP 5.5 million a year in the pursuit of a Champions League title and will back him with a war chest not witnessed since William IV sent the Duke of Wellington off to Waterloo.

Sure, the dead ringer for French Connection NYPD detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle´s got a decent CV, having landed the World Cup in 2002 with Brazil. But with Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo in your side surely …

continue reading

We finally admit it; Euro 2008 is sticking in our throats like the fish bone that nearly sent our beloved Queen Mum on a one way ticket to the Big G. Aye we love football but there’s only so much we can take, maybe some of the names that we know and love in the Premier League have donned their national colours and we have that to console us, but it’s not the same.

So we sit here sulking and waiting, for that holy Saturday in August when it all begins again. Yes the start of the Premier League is what we hearken to, and as if by magic we have the fixtures here too.

All eyes will be on Big Phil …

continue reading

Move over, Avram – Chelsea have got their hands on a man who may just finally help Blues fans pining for Jose Mourinho to get over their broken hearts. Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has been confirmed as Chelsea’s new coach, taking over at Stamford Bridge after Euro 2008.

He comes with a huge reputation, a glowing CV (albeit more at international level, he hasn’t coached a football club for seven years), and, even better (for the red top tabloids at least), he already has an ace nickname: Big Phil. No need for headline writers to even attempt to squeeze Luiz Felipe Scolari onto the back pages.

But will he actually be any good? Well, time will tell. On the plus …

continue reading

Omigod. It really looks like it’s going to happen. Ronaldinho really might be moving from Barcelona to Man City this summer. Crazier things may well have happened in the transfer market – but if they have, we can’t remember any. This is mental!

But don’t take our word for it – listen to Man City midfielder Elano, who clearly can’t quite believe his Brazilian buddy is on the verge of moving to the rainy north west.

“This is not a common transfer,” said Elano, a master of the understatement. “To move from Barcelona to Manchester City is not something that is considered usual, but I know it would be good for him.”

City, good for Ronaldinho? Why that might be the case isn’t …

continue reading