Portugal's new manager Carlos Queiroz has said that expects Cristiano Ronaldo to lead Portugal's front line when he returns from his post-surgical rest. "I see only one position for Cristiano Ronaldo to play. And I hope he will be playing 90 percent of the game on the attacking line." Could Ronaldo play the same role for Manchester [. Click to continue reading...

England play the Czech Republic today in their last 'friendly' before the World Cup 2010 qualifiers begin. The time for experimentation is over and the team you'll see lining up for England tonight will in all likelihood be 80-90 percent the same as the one set to line up against Andorra and Croatia in September [. Click to continue reading...

1899 Hoffenheim scored 20 goals past lower league opposition SC Reilingen in a friendly on Tuesday. Now that's probably not better than what Australia did a few years ago but it does have a lesson in it somewhere? Is it: Pick your pre-season opponents really carefully to boost your team's confidence (Arsenal)? Click to continue reading...

Sepp Blatter was happy to call Ronaldo a 'modern-day slave' when asked about Manchester United's refusal to let the player follow his 'dream' to play for Real Madrid. Now that Real have done the same for Robinho and 'killed' his 'dream' to move to Chelsea (to Ronaldo's credit he took it like a man and best [. Click to continue reading...

Usually selling a player to your fiercest rivals would be considered a controversial decision at best, and an absolute travesty at worst. Think of the outrage at Tottenham when Sol Campbell went to Arsenal, Fergie's insistence on keeping Heinze away from Liverpool, the stick Lampard gets (ok, that's a different story but still), the stick [. Click to continue reading...

...link a 31-year old, injury-prone, error-prone defender to the club and make him look like Wenger's first choice partner for another 31-year old, injury-prone, error-prone defender. They're both pretty fast though (fast enough to escape from Man City / Sunderland and Chelsea, respectively), although it'll be interesting to see if Wenger says 'I didn't see [. Click to continue reading...

It's a pretty short day in transfer tidbits, since most of the focus today is on the international action going on everywhere, but there is still a decent amount of news to report on, so let's hop to it, shall we? England Thanks to Real Madrid's insistence on not wanting to even entertain the possibility of selling [. Click to continue reading...

Bruce Arena is a tired retread who ran out of ideas ages ago. Bruce Arena is just the tonic the LA Galaxy needs to salvage its disastrous two and a half year run, during which it has managed to miss the play-offs in each year. Or both, depending upon whom you ask. Tim Leiweke, the President and the [. Click to continue reading...

Just like a sheet of paper from a page-a-day-calendar, Argentina ripped Brazil out of the stack, crunched it up, made a little paper ball, did a few juggles and then backheeled it into the trash. Everyone was anticipating this game as the final-before-the final in these 2008 Beijing Football Olympics, and boy did we not [. Click to continue reading...

Fabio Capello has named John Terry as England captain - and this appointment is expected to last at least till the end of the World Cup qualifiers, and most like through to the end of John Terry's career / Capello's reign as manager). I'm not happy - of course not - but I can take [...] Click to continue reading...

This isn't a slight against Arsenal, any Arsenal player or the Arsenal manager - more a question about Wenger's management methods. At times in the last two seasons it's almost as if William Gallas never stopped talking to the press. He'd talk about the players, the team, himself, the manager - anything that was put to [. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City are being thrashed in the press because of Thaksin Shinawatra - and as long as the owner keeps silent about what's going on and the financial situation surrounding the club, he's going to keep getting thrashed. A billionaire taking out 30m loans against future TV earnings to manage operations is clearly suffering from severe [. Click to continue reading...

Rafael Benitez has preferred Alvaro Arbeloa in the right-back position in recent times over Steve Finnan, and to be honest, it's not a move that's made much sense. On ability they are roughly equal, and Finnan has the added advantage of experience that helps him read the game better and not only defend better but [. Click to continue reading...

As a child, the summer holidays brought about a family trip to a campsite in Europe. We'd get in the car to travel down to Dover and I would always be wearing my United shirt. After hours and hours of driving, we'd pull in at our designated tin can and the holiday had begun. It wouldn't [...] Click to continue reading...

As Rafa himself has said, the owners and the chairman are responsible for the delay in getting Barry over to Anfield, and in this case you have to admit that like them or not, they might have a point. Sure, you should back your manager in the transfer market but for Liverpool to pay 18m for [...] Click to continue reading...