Igor Akinfeev, Manuel Neuer and Hugo Lloris are all world class goalkeepers who have been
rumoured to replace Manchester United's veteran Edwin Van der Sar. However, new reports suggest
that the Dutchman's replacement will be Danish keeper Anders Lindegaard from
Norwegian side Aalesund.
Nicklas Bendtner has been included in Denmark's international selection for the first time since
the World Cup in the summer. Morten Olsen's select will face The Czech's in an interesting friendly
next Wednesday.
Bendtner missed a couple of European Qualifiers due to the ongoing groin problem but it has now
cleared, and he has been in action for The Gunners for a fortnight now scoring twice so far,
against Manchester City & Newcastle Utd respectively.
Manchester United are understood to be on the verge of clinching two new signings ahead of the
January transfer window. United executives were locked in negotiations today with Danish club
Aalesund over the signing of Danish number one Anders Lindegaard, and club chairman Bjarne
Haagensen confirmed that a deal is close.
26-year-old Danish international goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard has formally joined Manchester
United but will be unable to play until the transfer window reopens in January.
He joins United via Aalesund and has signed a three-and-a-half year contract with the EPL club.
Is Lindegaard the long-term successor to 40-year-old Edwin van der Sar?
Complaining about the rain in Bergen is neither clever nor original, but having spent most of
the week literally inside a cloud we here at NFN's Norwegian HQ are really starting to get annoyed.
That's of course nothing compared to how annoyed the rest of this city will be this Sunday when
Brann are thumped by arch rivals Viking.
"Ac Milan have an old squad". "Arsenal play pretty football". "Steffen Iversen is a bit fat".
The footballing world is full of these tired, old, yet inescapably accurate clichés. "Rosenborg
won in spite of not playing all that well" is well on it's way towards becoming one of them.
Yes, Rosenborg have picked up exactly where they left off last season,
and on a pitch that as the game wore on became better suited to a snowball-fight than a game a of
football, Rosenborg picked up three crucial opening-day points against fellow title-hopefuls
Molde.
Rosenborg in shabby performance-shocker, but this time they didn't get away with it. In other
news Viking thoroughly battered brainless Brann and Aalesund are top of the table, though manager
Kjetil Rekdal remains distinctly unimpressed..
Start-sympathizing NFN-readers 1 0 NFN Yes, Start have
continued their peculiarly good run against the league's top dogs by holding
Rosenborg to an embarrassing 3-3 draw at Lerkendal.
The woeful inaccuracies of NFN's predictions is the stuff of internet legend, but so far we've
actually gotten 10 out of 16 games right in the first two rounds of what is often lovingly referred
to as "the bingo-league". This is as opposed to last season, where NFN's predictions were overall
significantly less accurate than flipping a coin.
The whole Tippeliga-thing isn't really working out so far for Hønefoss who were thumped 6-0 at
Åråsen. Elsewhere Kongsvinger are also pointless after the first three, pre-season favorites
Rosenborg, Molde, Viking and Stabæk all dropped points and there were more peculiar pleasantries
from Kjetil Rekdal.
Yes, the naysayers, doom-mongers and other ne'er-do-wells were all shown up in spectacular
fashion this Sunday as plucky underdogs Brann picked up a point..
"I have to give credit to the boys for playing a fantastic game," Brann-manager
Steinar Nilsen enthused to TV2 after the game after his team had snapped their losing-streak by
drawing 1-1 with Vålerenga.
By Ollie Irish
The headlines from today's Champions League & Europa League draws:
Champions League:
Celtic play Braga of Portugal in the Champions League third qualifying round
(away leg first for the Bhoys). Braga have never played in the CL before, but I'd say Portugal's
league is stronger than Scotland's, so it won't be easy.
With the Scandinavian leagues in action over the weekend, Clarence Goodson scored in the 4th minute
for IK Start's 1-0 win over Aalesund in Norway's Tippeligaen. Fellow US national Hunter Freeman had
the assist on the goal, with both players going the full 90 for Start. Freeman was also yellow
carded in the game.
With Wenger still on the lookout for at least one more defender (and maybe a goalkeeper?) there are
still lots of Arsenal transfer rumours about. The first, and biggest, is the one that says that
Wenger is trying to buy the French international defender Philipe Mexes. The 28 year-old has not
been a regular at [.
Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina is rumoured to be unsettled at Anfield and has reportedly alerted
the Reds hierarchy to his state of mind with manager Roy Hodgson subsequently joining the chase for
Aalesund goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard. It is understood that the highly rated Danish stopper will
seek a move to one of the Premier League's top clubs in January.
There are few things as great as when there are lots of teams vying for the best place, and
right now, things just can't get any better than this. Join us as we take a look at how close the
race is to get to the 4th place in this year's Tippeliga
I'll start off by simply putting up the tables, because the excitement it represents cannot be
spoken with mere words; only raw numbers will transcend it into an experience that surely will
shape the lives of football fans through the autumn:
4: Aalesund 36
5: Strømsgodset 36
6: Haugesund 34
7: Odd Grenland 35
8: Start 35
9: Viking 34
10: Lillestrøm 32
-
11: Stabæk 30
My oh my, but isn't this exciting?
As the battle for the may-be-important fourth place rages on, the mainstream media still prove
to be a bunch of clueless cowards, preferring to seek out pretend drama that may or may not become
real at some point in the future. NFN will thus be the only provider of the real drama RIGHT NOW,
and we'll start by once again puttin up the part of the league table that really matters:
4 Aalesund 39
5 Odd Grenland 38
6 Strømsgodset 37
7 Start 35
8 Haugesund 35
9 Viking 34
10 Lillestrøm 33
11 Stabæk 33
As you can see, seven teams are still within reach of that glorious fourth place.
By Chris Wright
Manchester United are locked in talks with Norwegian club Aalesund over bringing their
goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard to Old Trafford in January.
It was thought that representatives of both clubs met in Manchester and agreed on a fee of
£3.
