La Liga

The Gunners thrilled everyone with their liquid football last season, and it’s clear that Arsene Wenger will insist on a similar style of play for the next campaign. Neat passing triangles and plenty of movement make them a joy to behold, but can they actually win anything playing this way? Their former captain thinks that they have a great chance! [click to continue…]

Well this surely won’t come as good news to Newcastle supporters. After losing out on bringing Pablo Aimar from Real Zaragoza to Tyneside last week, it now appears that King Kev has started his search once again to add a La Liga player to his club this summer. One can only hope they name he’s currently linked with is a joke. [click to continue…]

It looks like Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger had a tête-à-tête with wantaway striker Emmanuel Adebayor yesterday, but the meeting did little to quench the striker’s desire for a big raise in the weekly wonga that Arsenal dole out to him. [click to continue…]

Eidur Gudjohnsen has sniffily rejected West Ham’s amorous advances and instead would prefer to stay at the Camp Nou. [click to continue…]

Sir Alex Ferguson has probably never had to work the media so hard as this summer. Like the Manchester rain, the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid has been a constant threat. Just when the sun appears to be shining on that front, along comes the loveable rogue that is Roman Calderon to undermine the Scot and tell the world that the player wants to come and play at the lovely Bernabeu. [click to continue…]

Kevin Keegan definitely has a thing for players with more than a bit of attacking panache, so a player like José Antonio Reyes is surely right up his street. [click to continue…]

Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Inter Milan have all made moves for the remaining member of Barcelona’s “wantaway trio”. Ronaldinho has gone to Milan, Deco to Chelsea, leaving only one player…

Cameroon international Samuel Eto’o has expressed his desire to leave Camp Nou this summer and his wishes moved closer to coming true as new Barca manager Pep Guardiola said he could go, along with Ronaldinho and Deco.

Now the striker has revealed to Corriere dello Sport that three clubs have made a move for his services, naming two Premiership clubs and the Italian champions:

“I have a few important offers. Which ones? Chelsea, Tottenham and Inter.”

Whether the clubs will actually make a move or not is still in debate. Tottenham assistant manager Gus Poyet recently said they would not bring Eto’o to White Hart Lane, while new Inter manager Jose Mourinho has stated he is targetting a midfielder over a striker.

This only leaves Chelsea as a realistic destination. With questions over Drogba’s future, would Stamford Bridge be a reasonble destination for Eto’o?

OK, so we’ve all dreamt of one day getting the chance to fill out the line-up card for our beloved club. To some, talking about who should be starting has become the most common pub banter you’ll find today. But what if you were given the chance to figure out who should stay or go at your club? Well here’s your chance. [click to continue…]

Last Friday, we reported that Sir Alex Ferguson was confidently asserting that Cristiano Ronaldo would be ‘mine, all mine’ for at least another season at Old Trafford. However, good old Roman Calderon, a brilliant example of someone who never gives up, is now begging to differ.

The Daily Mirror report that the Real Madrid chairman is still hopeful of sealing the £70million deal before the start of the Spanish season, does somebody want to tell him or shall I? Or were Fergie’s comments an attempt to ward off the Spanish champions, or even make them up their offer for the player?

“This type (of transfer) is hard,” Calderon said when asked about Ferguson’s comments. “But we’re going to go for it all the same.

“I suppose this is their way of letting us know clearly that they’re not going to lower the price.”

When asked about Ronaldo by the Madrid players on the first day of pre-season training, Calderon reportedly said: “Don’t worry, we have it all sorted.”

Will the Scot be left with egg on his face when Ronnie leaves rainy Manchester for Spain? He’s certainly raised the stakes with last week’s comments, and you have to hand it to him for acting cool as a cucumber.

With most of the Spurs population currently in shock after the announcement that Robbie Keane is set to follow striker Dimitar Berbatov out of White Hart Lane, fans must be wondering if there is any life after their lethal partnership.

However, Tottenham’s manager Juande Ramos seems unphased at losing his two stars, having always managed to recover from similar situations in his successful two years at Sevilla.

Upon joining the Andalusians, his first task was to replace star-players Julio Baptista and Sergio Ramos who had been sold for a combined fee of £35million to Real Madrid that summer. With the help of his technical director ‘Monchi’, Juande Ramos used that money to great effect, winning 5 titles in 2 seasons:

Federic Kanoute - signed for just £5.1m from Spurs, revived his career with 44 goals in 64 games under JR, helping Sevilla fans get over the loss of Baptista.

Luis Fabiano - after a poor season with Porto, he repaid the faith shown in him by Ramos, scoring 56 in 119 appearances for Sevilla.

Javier Saviola - brought in on loan to further strengthen their attack in 2005, he was pivotal in their UEFA Cup triumph, scoring 6 goals.

Ivica Dragutinovic - part of the famous Serbian defence that only conceded 1 goal in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, ‘Drago’ was a surprise replacement for Sergio Ramos but has been a key figure in the Sevilla defence ever since his signature.

Andres Palop - being Canizares’ understudy for so long at Valencia, Palop was seen as a gamble to replace Esteban in the Sevilla goal. However, he soon became a fans favourite, most significantly in the UEFA Cup final against RCD Espanyol where he saved 3 of 4 penalties.

His knack of signing the right players in the right mould, in addition to bringing up youth players (Puerta, Navas, Capel) can assure Tottenham fans that Juande Ramos knows what it takes to create a successful team, regardless of whether his ’stars’ are there come August 16…