Soothing hearts the immediate task

Yesterday I kicked off the Euro 2012 theme on the blog and started with the favourites, Spain. Moving on, today we'll have the joint favourites, Germany (in the eyes of the bookmakers, at least).

Germany

In terms of the top 6 teams earmarked with the best chance to win the tournament, Germany has the lowest average age in their squad.

- 33 Years Ago: Clive Allen Scores a Debut Hatrick (Photo from the Bushman Archives)
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Frank Lampard might be feeling that he has some issues going on with his current manager, Andre Villas-Boas, but the tactician apparently isn't feeling the same way as the ex-Porto's coach revealed that he still wants Lampard to stay with the club next season.

Despite recent confession from Lampard about his imperfect relationship with the manager, Villas-Boas doesn't seem to be troubled as he revealed that the 33-years-old remains an important part of his squad.

The buzz is Didier Drogba will be joining his Chelsea compatriot Nicholas Anelka in the Chinese Super League this summer for a whopping £270,000 a week. That kind of money for three years will amount to a nice retirement nest egg. Drogba has become an after thought with Roman Abramovich rooting for Fernando Torres to succeed so he can justify spending an £50m giveaway, the largest in sporting history.

Chelsea's veteran striker, Didier Drogba, looked set to end his journey with Manchester City sometime soon as the striker rejected the one year extension that was being offered to the 33-years-old attacker.

Drogba's refusal in signing the extension with Chelsea was revealed by the player's agent, Thierno Seydi, who believes that minimum contract length isn't something that his client seek in the twilight of the striker's career.

Former New England Revolution midfielder and University of Rhode Island product Winston Griffiths passed away Sunday night at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Jamaica after reportedly being found in poor condition by friends on the side of the road on Saturday. He was 33 years old.

Griffiths' short stint on the Revolution is most memorable for his near miss in the 2002 MLS Cup Final against the Lost Angeles Galaxy.

By Alan Duffy

Sir Alex Ferguson reacts to the news that Vidic has retired from international football

In one of the shocks of the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, plucky little Estonia made it out of Group C, a group which contained Italy, Serbia and Slovenia, all sides well above them in the FIFA rankings, along with Northern Ireland and the mighty Faroe Islands.

As focus shifted to major international matches taking place this weekend, it was a different scenario in South America as the continent began the tedious qualification process for the Brazil 2014 World Cup finals.

Both Argentina and Uruguay won convincingly with La Albiceleste beating Chile 4-1 at home while Uruguay settled for a 4-2 win over Bolivia in Montevideo.

Hope has come to Rio Ferdinand in the form of MLS club Chicago Fire. Ferdinand who will be out of contract with Manchester United at the end of the season, has struggled to feature in Sir Alex's starting 11 this season due to the many niggling injuries that have kept him sidelined for most of this season.

All summer, we've heard rumors of Kobe Bryant signing in Europe to play basketball during the NBA lockout. On Friday, those rumors became reality when Kobe Bryant agreed to join Virtus Bologna. The Italian league team will pay the Los Angeles Lakers superstar $3 million to play a total of ten games over 40 days.

By THOMAS FLOYD

WASHINGTON - In 65 minutes Saturday, D.C. United forward Dwayne De Rosario once again showed why he is one of the most prolific attacking talents MLS has ever seen. At 33 years old and playing for his third club this season, he could very well be better than ever.

Premier League footballers and their mis-use of Twitter is rapidly becoming the primary source of news and entertainment for journalists and fans alike.
Free from the oppressive, bland media-trained arena of post-match press rooms, the modern day player on the internet is worryingly loose cannon for managers, with supporters and journos waiting on every tweet.

Hey, it's Michael Ballack. Long time no see.

Welcome back

Michael Ballack was highly admired around these parts during his time at Chelsea. We, like Carlo Ancelotti, felt he deserved a short-term extension with the club. I, for instance, offered the following after learning of the announcement of his departure in early June 2010.

Transfer deadline day deals: The view from the Championship is a post from: Just Football

WHILE the lavish spending of the Premier League's big boys captured most of the limelight on transfer deadline day, there was also plenty of business done in the second tier. James McMath looks at some eye-catching signings made by Championship clubs.

According to a report from Goal.com, Premier League newcomers Swansea City could succeed in an audacious attempt to sign former World Cup winner David Trezeguet. The French striker is available on a free transfer after leaving Spanish side Hercules, and the Premier League could be an attractive destination.

The always exciting Swedish international has announced to the world that he plans to leave professional football for good in the fall of 2014 when his contract with Milan runs out.

Although Ibra has set the date for his retirement, he has also set the bar high for his achievements with AC Milan over next few years as to not let down his supporters too much.

The CO blog has had some discussions already about who should be shipped out of the club. One of my big questions, though, concerns Didier Drogba should we keep him or let him go? His future seems to be one of the big debating-points amongst the fans. Let's examine some pros and cons.

The biggest cons against Drogba seem to be his age and his tendency to sulk if he's not feeling appreciated, he might not play well and go missing completely (as some would say he did because he was unhappy with the arrival of Torres).

Bust out the cava and light up the sparklers we're letting the celebrations roll on with birthday bashes. While Raúl González and Ruud van Nistelrooy may not be spring chickens on football's career span spectrum, these two still have sexiness oozing from their impeccably-kept bodies.

First, happy birthday butterfly kisses for one of our original Hot H.

Chelsea's new manager, Andre Villas-Boas, seems very eager to prove that he is different from his mentor, Jose Mourinho, despite of the similar career path that Vilas-Boas has followed so far.

After claiming he has a different tactical approached compared to Mourinho, the 33-years-old tactician recently added that he also doesn't like to use mind games that the current Real Madrid's coach usually does to Chelsea's rivals managers, especially Sir Alex Ferguson.

It may not be every day, but it looks like twice a week that the Seattle Sounders will be connected with a significant transfer rumor. Today, it is Lucas Neill. The Australian National Team Captain and Galatasaray centerback is connected specifically to the Seattle Sounders by Turkish site Fanatik (h/t KevinAirs442 - Australia).

Shortly after releasing himself from FC Porto, Andre Villas-Boas, has officially been confirmed as the new Chelsea manager in a pretty surprising week after the media were linking the Blues more with Guus Hiddink instead of the Portuguese young manager.

The London club's moving in swiftly right after reports suggesting that Inter Milan were in talks with Villas-Boas few days ago, while the Italian giant failed to capture the former Jose Mourinho's assistant, Roman Abramovic's side made the breakthrough and have unveiled the new coach on their official website.

This has been in the pipeline for a while now but today it has been confirmed that Andre Villas-Boas has been given the job as Chelsea manager on a 3 year contract.

Villas-Boas is just 33 years of age and comes to Chelsea (for the second time) with just 3 years full managerial experience. He has previously been assistant manager at Chelsea, and Porto, and Inter where he has previously been Jose Mourinho's understudy.

Andre Villas-Boas to bring youthful exuberance and flair to Chelsea - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Andre Villas-Boas will become the seventh Chelsea manager in the same number of years as owner Roman Abramovich activated his staggeringly high release clause totalling £13.3 million from FC Porto.

Tottenham defender William Gallas has publicly called Arsene Wenger's judgment into question, insisting the Arsenal manager made a mistake when he let the defender leave the Emirates. Gallas was a pivotal player for Spurs boss Harry Redknapp in his 36 appearances this past season, and he believes he proved former boss Wenger wrong.

FC Porto wrote another chapter in their majestic season by becoming Europa League champions. Porto beat Sporting Braga 1-0 in the Europa League final at the AVIVA Stadium (referred to as the "Dublin Arena" for this final). Porto had previously claimed domestic league honours, their 25th league title, as well as winning the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (also known as the Portuguese SuperCup).

The constant stream of comparisons between current FC Porto coach André Villas-Boas and his mentor José Mourinho are set to continue following the Portuguese club's UEFA Europa League triumph over compatriots Sporting Braga. Radamel Falcao claimed the only goal of the game on the stroke of half-time to secure FC Porto their second success in this competition, adding to the UEFA Cup won with Mourinho in 2003.

The unstoppable rise of Novara Calcio is a post from: Just Football

by Marco Maioli

Last year, when the Coppa Italia round of 16 pitted Novara against AC Milan, 12,000 Novara fans went to San Siro, wondering when their team (then sitting at the top of Prima Divisione) would have had another opportunity of playing a Serie A side.

Porto has been dominating Portugal this season, and a large reason for that is manager Andres Villas Boas.

Gabriele Marcotti of Sports Illustrated writes about Porto and their dynamic coach.

There's a team in Europe that is still in the hunt to win every competition this season. A club which is dominating its league, ahead of its perennial archrival, which itself is having, statistically at least, a great season.

It's no April Fools joke; Dwayne De Rosario has been traded to New York. As per the deal, which was announced yesterday, the Red Bulls will be giving up Tony Tchani and Danleigh Borman for the Canadian star. At 33 years old DeRo remains in peak condition, having scored 15 goals last year and receiving an All-Star team nod.

Vein of Form will not be negative about our 2011 MLS season forecast. While we fully expect there to be slow build ups from the back, shoddy passing, periods of the match where it looks like no one wants to be out there and a ridiculous playoff format there is plenty to be excited about!
Friday Night Football.

The defeat against Barcelona didn't only left Arsenal with bitter taste of defeat but also more injury problems especially in the keeper department as on that game they were forced to finish the game without Wojciech Szczesny, who has been picked as the club's number one after Lukas Fabianski injury.

Tottenham travel to Blackpool tomorrow night to play the Tangerines in a league game for the first time since the 1977/78 second division season. Cue a Sky Sports reporter telling us that Spurs haven't beaten Blackpool in the league for 33 years.

I was at the home game that season and remember nothing about it other than we were down 1-2 for much of the game before a late strike by Don McAllister.

Jamie Carragher has shrugged off his 'veteran' tag by insisting that he has no plans to retire any time soon.
The Liverpool defender is a Premier League stalwart with over 650 appearances to his name.
Such a record, coupled with his 33 years of age, have led some to suggest that he could be approaching the twilight of his career.

By Chris Wright

AC Milan have announced the signing of Mark van Bommel, a deal that will see the Dutch dreadnought move to the San Siro 'with immediate effect' after Bayern Munich agreed to terminate his dwindling contract.

At a mere 33-years-old, it is thought that Van Bommel will initially be inducted into Milan's youth setup to mature for a couple of years, before finally being allowed to join up with senior side on his 35th birthday.

By Ollie Irish

New Burnley gaffer Eddie Howe – who is, despite his sixth-form schoolboy looks, all of 33 years old – poses for the obligatory "wearing my new club's scarf proudly" shot. Howe is a fine young manager who will one day manage in the Premier League (I'd wager), and Burnley's gain is Bournemouth's loss.

After the sad news that Fabio Quagliarella will be out for the rest of the season, Juventus got a replacement in record time. It's Luca Toni who will be replacing Quagliarella (out for 4-6 months with a torn cruciate knee ligament), the World Cup winner leaving Genoa to sign a one and a half year contract with the bianconeri.