The story that generated the most headlines outside of the Kaka to Manchester City, was the saga of
Robbie Keane's departure from Liverpool back to Tottenham. Keane made his "dream move" to
Liverpool this past summer when the club splashed out an initial £19m to buy his services from
Tottenham Hotspur.
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The Real Madrid website is now carrying the full text of Calderon's resignation press conference.
In his statement Calderon said "Against the recommendations of my board I've decided to step
down." It will be interesting to hear the position of the board should they choose to speak
with the media about this matter.
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Shocking, or not so shocking depending on your perspective, news regarding Ramon Calderon has
emerged this morning. Ramon Calderon has reportedly bowed to pressure and will announced his
resignation as the club's president after reports that he had rigged the recent general assembly
came out. A translated version of the story in the Spanish newspaper [.
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Matchday 4 should be a pivotal one as many groups may well be decided once the games are completed.
Who needs a win and who can afford to slip? Let's take a look at Tuesday's games. Group A Roma need
to win at home against Chelsea but that is looking to be a tall order considering the [...]
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To use a golf analogy, the teams in the group stage of the Champions League make the turn today and
tomorrow with the completion of the first three games of the group stage. And while it's early, for
some teams, it's make-or-break time. Group by group, here's an analysis of who needs to win: Group
A: ROMA Needs [.
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This may be a bit long-winded and rambling but I hope you stick with me as there are a number of
important points to discuss. UEFA recently released a publication entitled "Safeguarding
The Heritage And Future Of Team Sport In Europe", which outlines UEFA's stance on principles
of good governance, player agents and home-grown players.
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Champions League debutants CFR 1907 Cluj came from behind to beat Roma and record a stunning 2-1
victory at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Beyond the absence of Totti, Roma had a strong squad out on
the field and will be disappointed with their performance. There has been a bit of turmoil off the
field [.
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One of the most fascinating moves this summer was Internazionale's hiring of Jose Mourinho as
manager after Roberto Mancini was sacked despite winning the title. Mourinho has built a strong
reputation in a short time and I am interested to see if he can push Inter further in the Champions
League. They've struggled in recent [.
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In what I hope will become a regular feature, I am going to spotlight a club that had previously
made an impact in the Champions League, UEFA Cup or one of the older competitions like the Cup
Winners Cup. I will give you some background on the club and take a look at their recent [...]
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Manchester City are in danger of an early exit from Europe after a shock 1-0 home defeat by Danish
side Midtjylland in their UEFA Cup second qualifying round first-leg match on Thursday. The loss
adds to the ongoing turmoil at the club. Mark Hughes had been obliged to state publicly he would be
staying at [.
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Just a quick update on matches that took place over Tuesday and Wednesday as the final stage of
Champions League qualifying got under way. Though there is still the second leg to play, there were
many shock results put up. A pot that starts at £10million and could rise to £20million
awaits the victors so [.
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Benfica have completed their fourth signing of the summer by agreeing a one-year loan deal for
Spanish winger Jose Antonio Reyes. The 24-year-old makes the move from Atletico Madrid, with the
Lisbon club also having the option to buy the player at the end of his loan spell. Benfica coach
Quique Sanchez Flores continues to [.
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The second qualifying round brought two big upsets as Rangers and Anderlecht became two of the
biggest clubs to be knocked out at this stage. A 2-1 win (video highlights here) in Lithuania saw
FBK Kaunas (pictured celebrating at the right) take full advantage of the 0-0 draw they earned at
Ibrox to send the beaten [.
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The UEFA Cup (perhaps soon to be known as the Europa League as we covered a while back) is in some
ways more interesting to me as the diversity of nations represented is much higher. If Michel
Platini is successful with his reforms, we may see more diversity soon in the Champions League but
for [...]
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Rafael van der Vaart was officially unveiled as Real Madrid's newest player yesterday in a
presentation the Santiago Bernabéu. As pictured above (photo courtesy of Real Madrid's
official website), he was introduced by Real's President Ramón Calderón and President of
Honor Alfredo Di Stéfano.Rafael van der Vaart is only 25-years old but has been playing [.
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