They have someone that can tackle. I've seen Iker Casillas in many one on one situations. He snaps into the tackle with all the viciousness of a week long starved chihuahua. Of more interest to me is the way Real's spending spree is fecking up almost all of the other big teams in chasing their targets. Would Man Utd really have plumped for Owen if they could have got Benzema? Are Milan really serious about the signing of Onyewu? And even after winning the treble last season, Barcelona's president, Juan Laporta, looks quite pissed off these days.
I think United are upset about Benzema, but from what I understand, the Owen contract is all incentives--they really had nothing to lose. I don't know what to think about Onyewu and his transfer...we'll see if he gets on field. I'm not sure he'll ever be what some people want him to be, but it looks like he has improved significantly on the ball and he'll always be good for a few goals on corners per season.
Surely you're not suggesting Onyewu is being looked upon mainly as a marketing opportunity by Milan...
No, not at all. I think Milan had little to lose by signing a player with reasonable upside. I haven't seen many details, but nothing that suggests he was given a contract that would make him a sure starter, or even close. He was a Bosman with an EU passport that showed pretty well in an international competition, that's about it.
Do any players get a contract that makes them a sure starter? It will be interesting to see how Barca respond to Madrid's spending spree.
It's not only that, it's that Real and Man City are causing the already-inflated market to inflate even further. Clubs are seeing the cash being splashed, and are therefore (quite rightly) putting ridiculous fees on players' heads. You only need to look at the Premiership, I mean, Bellamy for £14m FFS? Players that would have cost £5m three or four years ago cost £15m now, which means that Scottish clubs have even less chance than they did a while back of signing decent players.
I'm not so sure that it will prevent decent players being signed. There are only a few teams blowing serious money, I think overall the market is still probably pretty depressed.
I was glad to see Timothee Atouba sign for Ajax on a free from Hamburg. We've been constantly linked with this guy over the last two or three transfer windows. Mainly because he's a left back. I'd hoped not to see him in the hoops and thankfully, that would seem to be the case for the forseeable future. But back on to all things Madrid. Are they really going to try and grab Ribery as well? How many balls will need to be on the pitch at one time to keep them all happy... If they do get him then it surely will be a case of we're going to score more goals than you do. How Kaka, Ronaldo, Benzema and possibly Ribery will gel together remains to be seen but if they do click then how can any team devise a plan to stop them when in possession?
Inter have bought Lucio from Bayern Munich for an undisclosed fee. I suppose that means Carvalho isn't going anywhere soon then. Does that mean the Carvalho/Terry partnership will be lining up again the EPL next season...? Are Barca mad?? Eto'o + 45mill euros + Hleb on a season long loan in return for Ibrahimovic. And some people say Jose Mourinho isn't good at his job...
Ronaldo seems to be doing well. No, not that one. El fenómeno, the Brazilian one. He's been having a bit of a renaissance in his native land with Corinthians. Regardless of his private life. However... he seems to have a case of foot in mouth disease as he's said to the press that he doesn't believe all the hype regarding Flamengo as being the best supported team in Brazil. The Flamengo fans haven't taken to kindly too that. They play each other at the start of August in the Maracana, Flamengo's home stadium. The story goes that the home fans are paying to have 200 transvestites behind each goal to cheer Ronaldo on when they play.
The company I work for is based in Newcastle. I've been to St James's a few times. Probably the best located, big stadium in the UK. Literally less than a 5min walk from the city centre(Bigg Market). I feel sorry for them. One of my good friends is a season ticket holder. Normally he's football mad but this season he can't get any excitement going. The one thing they were looking forward to was an away trip to Blackpool and making a weekend of it. Now it turns out they've been scheduled to play them on a Tuesday evening...
I heard that their grounds was one of the best located in the UK. A year or two ago I was looking for a team to pull for in the EPL (just to make it more fun to watch). Newcastle was one of my finalist (along with Spurs), after I watched Martins tear it up with a couple of goals in one game. I sided with Spurs as a team I prefer in the EPL, but as of last year, my favorite EPL team is Burnley (due to their partnership with my local football team, the Carolina Railhawks). I would still love to see a game at St. James Park.
Twente have taken an early lead against Sporting in their 2nd leg CL qualifier. They scored after only 2mins. I think I'll give it a watch and see how it goes.
That Arsenal mob are mince aren't they... ------------------------ I see Wolfsburg won again today with Martins scoring his first goal for the club. I thought they were a generous 10-1 to retain their Bundesliga crown. Their odds might start dropping soon so I think I'll stick a flutter on them this week along with a few others. They've improved their squad and hung onto all their top players. Only person they lost was their manager and they've replaced him with Armen Veh who won the title with Stuttgart.
Helluva game by Arsenal, 6-1 (the Everton goal was a last minute goal)......Yikes Going to be a very tough match up.
Did anyone see Robbie Blake's volley? What a peach! Michael Owen looks like he's going to struggle at Utd. He looks a shadow of the player he used to be.