As I mentioned the breaking news yesterday, the whirlwind of a week at Portman Road culminated early today when Roy Keane was officially introduced as manager of Ipswich Town Football Club; becoming just the 12th man in our esteemed history to be honored with the post.
Take your pick of the news articles, and I wont repeat the details of the story, but there will plenty more commentary on the way and, no doubt, plenty of room for debate.

Breaking news hot off the press is that before Jim has even cleaned out his desk and turned in the keys to the Tractor, former Manchester United legend Roy Keane is about to accept an offer from Ipswich Town to return to the management ranks.
If you had asked me a couple of months ago I would have thought Portman Road would have been one of the most unlikely landing spots for Keano; if he ever decided to manage again.

In case anyone was wondering the Tractorboys have actually been doing a bit of transfer business under the radar in the past few weeks, and on Wednesday they introduced the latest addition to the team, Argentine midfielder Luciano Civelli. The fee is reported to be around 1 million pounds, though there appears to be some confusion as to whether the Town have bought him outright or attained 50% of his rights.

As a new series of articles to throw into the mix, I am introducing a series entitled "TractorHawk Legends of Sports." At least once a month, and maybe every couple of weeks time permitting, we'll take a look back at a legendary team, player, coach, or sporting icon associated with the interests of this site.

We still have a bit of catching up to do on Blue Hawks as we continue to review the recent football activities, but sometimes a story presents itself that demands coverage. Seems like the the boss of Premier League leading Liverpool has taken it upon himself to be the self-annoited spokesperson for the other 18 managers in the EPL by launching a full-fledged assault on Man United boss, Alex Ferguson.

I suggested in my last article that we need a few quick reviews to catch up on the holiday action so the site is up to date and on the right page as the tractor rolls on into 2009.
First up, part of the main focus and highlights (that might be stretching it a bit but still..) of the blog; the blue boys from Suffolk.

With the festive season now firmly in the rear view mirror and the foundations in progress for some other major web based projects and initiatives, it's time to welcome the New Year and get the ball rolling again in the land of the TractorHawk. I hope you and yours had a great holiday season and that you were afforded enough time to keep track of an incredibly busy festive football program.

There was not quite a full slate of English Premier League fixtures this past weekend as Fergie and the lads headed to the Land of the Rising Sun to participate in a wintertime festival known as the FIFA World Club Cup. Depending on your viewpoint this could be considered the football definition of a complete and utter waste of time.

It's been a busy week and a half, and much of it has been spent shoveling snow from the drive and trying to keep the supplies stocked as we have been hit by a constant barrage of snow storms in the Seattle area. So over the next few evenings, we'll get caught up on a few highlights and get the ball rolling again.

Winter kicked into full drive in the Pacific Northwest as snow and frigid temps hit our area. So, after an afternoon building snowmen and freezing the football(s), it's time to sit in front of the fire with the laptop and look back over the past few days.
Little optimism remained in Ipswich, after the disastrous performance at Carrow Road, for the Wednesday night visit of Bristol City.

On the NFL side of the football world, this bloke just can't keep his name and face out of the media. If a week or two goes by without reporters clamoring for his attention he just has to go do something stupid yet again to get onto the front page.
Owens undoubtedly is one of the most talented receivers ever to play in the NFL, so let's get that out up front so I don't get flamed for ignoring his footballing skills and athleticism.

Last week I made a couple predictions. One that the Fox Soccer Channel games would produce some goals after a 4 game hiatus of the ball hitting the back of the net; two that Sunderland manager Roy Keane was headed for the "by mutual consent" path.
Before the weekend even started Keano decided to call it a day at Sunderland.

To condense the weekly reviews a bit and make searching a bit easier, I'm going to experiment with breaking the summary into sections. First up will be a look at the plight of Ipswich Town and the Seattle Seahawks.
The weekend rewind is so far behind this week that we'll call it the weekly rewind and get cracking to quickly review the major, and mostly forgettable, events of the past week, on the footballing battlegrounds of the TractorHawks.

Our mates over at Fox have had a bit of bad luck recently on the programming front – to put it mildly. The Fox Soccer Channel, while vastly devoid of any decent analysts or experts, is the savior for us fans of the English game that live in the USA. Most weekends three games are screened live from the Premier league and there is also a review show thrown in on Sunday mornings.

The rewind is so far behind this week that we're almost into the preview stage of the upcoming weekend. Despite having big plans for a long Thanksgiving weekend, a bout of cold/flu put paid to my writing and most of my sports reviewing efforts. Still, at least I got almost better just in time to go back to work on Monday.