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Spurs plan £10m raid for wonder winger!

Tottenham’s season is beginning to stutter to a conclusion, one win in eight, and Juande Ramos already planning a big shake up in the summer apparently, and here is the latest target on his shopping list!

£10m valued Celtic winger Aiden McGeady is on the shopping list of Tottenham boss Juande Ramos.

McGeady is one of Ramos’ many summer transfer targets. (The Mirror)

The 22 year old Glaswegian is a top class player who appears to be angling for a move to the Premier League but the Bhoys will not be keen to sell their hottest prospect but will they be able to prevent the Scottish international from leaving? Do Celtic fans think they will keep the PFA player of the year and do Spurs fans like the idea of such a signing?

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Kaka wins Ballon d’Or, what of Arsenal and Manchester United stars?

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite ,or more formally known as Kaka, has won the World Football Player of the Year. With past winners including the likes of Cannavaro, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, Kaka was able to beat Manchester United’s Christiano Ronaldo (2nd) and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (3rd). The 25-year-old received 444 points in a France Football poll of 96 journalists, with Ronaldo collecting 277 points in second place.

In response, Kaka said:
“It has been a sensational year in which I also won the Champions League.

“I thank God for being here and lifting up this award. I must say that this award is the conclusion of a really sensational year.

“I thank my wife, my parents. I also thank Milan, the coach, my team-mates. It’s beautiful being part of such a brilliant side and you can’t win it without them.

“It’s the top prize around and the only way to win something like this is to play for a team like AC Milan. It’s great to be part of a team that wins.”

The full rankings are to be released soon - with the likes of Arsenal’s Francesc Fabregas and Barcelona’s Ronaldinho surely to be in the mix.

Chelsea One Step Behind For Alexandre Pato

Sky Sports is reporting that Chelsea will be sending some scouts to check on Internacional’s Alexandre Pato at the U-20 World Cup,

Brazilian newspaper Zero Hora reports that a scout from Stamford Bridge will be in attendance when the South American nation play Poland, South Korea and United States in the tournament which begins on 30th June.

Pato - Brazil’s top scorer in the 2007 South American Youth Championship - has also been linked with a number of other top European sides including Internazionale and Milan.

Smart move, but the Premiership’s recently de-throned champs are one step behind another major force in football - us!

We already scouted the young Brazilian in only his second and third senior appearances when we attended the 2006 FIFA Club World Cup in Tokyo back in December. Of course, we will quite happily send Frank Arnesen our scouting reports for roughly the same week’s wages they pay anyone else at Chelsea. Just pop it in a sack with a dollar sign on it and pass it along.

FIFA World Club Cup: Surprisingly Good

CaughtOffside is back and nicely jetlagged after covering the FIFA World Club Cup and, surprisingly, it was actually really good.

The tournament’s concept is ultimately compelling for the same reasons that the Champions League or World Cup is - it pits the best that geographical regions have to offer against each other for Global Supremacy (in trophy form) and the title of Best Club In The World. Of course, this title means nothing just as when Liverpool or Porto won the Champions League, or Italy won the World Cup, many accepted that they were holders of the tournament trophy rather than actually being the best football club in all of Europe, or the best football nation in the world. Such a bold title should be saved for pub arguments rather than the victor of a handful of matches.

Despite many regarding this tournament as a bit of a joke, it actually turned out to be pretty entertaining and a great showcase for clubs from outside the major footballing nations. We turned up not knowing much at all about the likes of Egypt’s Al Ahly, but came away fans of their Arsenal-eqsue passing football and technical ability. We don’t really get to see much of Internacional of Brazil, but saw a well trained, hard-working club with plenty of Brazilian flair. Players like Fernandao stood out and were any Premiership scouts present, his size and ability to link up play in attack will have been noticed. A young star rose to prominence in Alexandre Pato, and the atmosphere from traveling supporters from clubs who have never played each other was fantastic, while the hosting Japanese were excitable as always. A Ronaldinho backheel is more exciting when accompanied by 72,000 high-pitched screams.

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Pato Alexandre - Club World Cup Scouting

CaughtOffside is packing up and ready to leave Japan after covering the FIFA World Club Cup all week. Final thoughts will follow, but our obsession with The Duck takes priority.

With Internacional’s stunning win Barcelona, you would think that perhaps Alexandre Pato (or Pato Alexandre) would have been the decider as the “Next Big Thing” out of Brazil. But in reality, he had a quiet match and quiet tournmant in general.

But we’re judging a 17 year old kid playing his third professional match ever, and it just happens to be in arguably his club’s biggest ever match (ask any Brazilian or Internacional fan what the World Club Cup means to them) against Europe’s best team (who took this tournament a lot more seriously than you’d think given their team selection). All eyes were on him, despite the fact that he was so new to the squad that the photograph used for his lineup picture had him in a shirt and tie as opposed to team kit.

If you’re trying to evaluate the potential within a 17 year old kid only just beginning his career, you have to focus on the positives and assume that the rest will be ironed out with experience and good coaching. We watched him in his isolated moments of possesion, rather than his ability to boss the game.

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Alexandre Pato: The Next Ronaldo (Either Of Them)

CaughtOffside is still in Japan covering the FIFA World Club Cup and Boggs thinks he’s beaten Frank Arnesen to the ‘Next Ronaldo’ in Pato Alexandre. Although that means absolutely nothing since Frank probably knew about him years ago and Boggs can’t exactly buy him either. Basically he’s an idiot.

Brazilian club Internacional vs Egyptian side Al Ahly was set to be the first decent match of the tournament, as my attempts to scout new talent for the Premiership has instead unearthed amateur New Zealand footballers. The atmosphere at the Tokyo Olympic stadium was easily the best thus far, and by ‘atmosphere’ I mean the large percentage of Brazilian women in the crowd.

But for me, all I wanted was a taste of Alexandre “The Duck” Pato. This is a young man whose ability was almost a legend prior to the tournmant (he had played only one half of first team football and was not allowed to speak to the press).

He was bigger than I expected, with a physique similar to that of Cristiano Ronaldo, but the babyface and yellow boots gave him away. He started the match and immediately impressed, showing fantastic chest control and deft touches that other players struggled to achieve in the wet conditions. He had pace, power, great workrate and inevitably opened the scoring with a fine finish. The best was yet to come as, early in the second half, Pato flipped the ball up in the air with his heel before running down the sideline juggling the ball on his shoulder. Bit fancy, but it brought the crowd to it’s feet:

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FIFA Club World Cup Scouting (Part 1)

CaughtOffside is in Tokyo covering the FIFA World Club Cup, the meeting of the top club teams from the 6 continental confederations and general bane of fixture schedulers everywhere.

After fending off numerous ninjas and sumo-wrestling pickpocket robots, we sat down at the stadium with the rest of the media actually willing to attend the opening match between Oceania champs Auckland FC and African champs Al Alhy.

But if you think for a minute that pitting an African club side against amateur-status New Zealand footballers would result in a terrible, poorly played match - you’d be absolutely right. Auckland FC were high on effort and direct play but low on technical skill. The Egyptians were the opposite, with quick one touch passes shifting play from flank to flank. It was like watching Bolton play Arsenal - except everyone was crap and Arsenal actually won.

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CaughtOffside At The World Club Cup

So we’re currently in Japan to cover the FIFA World Club Championship.

While may European football supporters dismiss the competition, the rather compelling structure of the tournament (European champions vs Asian champions vs Oceania champions etc etc.) means it should probably be valued more highly than it currently is.

But thanks to Arsenal letting everyone down in the Champions League final this tournament has little direct relevance to the Premiership. However, it will certainly be a gripping football tournament and predicting a winner is no simple feat. Will it be Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC? Will it be Ahly Sporting Club? Will it be Auckland City FC? Will it be Barcelona?

Well…Barcelona. It’ll probably be Barcelona. But we’re more excited to see if there might be a gem of a player or two to uncover, such as Pato “The Duck” Alexandre and that’s where our focus will be, bringing you the star performers from each team, each match as they relate to Premiership clubs. That, and trying to figure out which vending machine product is the least likely to kill us.

With the Premiership transfer window less than a month away there’s not a better time to start overhyping players that no one has ever heard of.