If you don't care for Italian football, scroll far, far down, because there's a lot of Serie A-based news forthcoming. AC Milan will be saying goodbye to eight players in June, according to Gazzetta dello Sport. A couple of names we already know will be on their way out, including Paolo Maldini, who'll [.

I guess the man is just naturally a coward.
Okay, okay, I keed. You gotta love Family Guy though.

Today's top transfer rumours: The biggest transfer gossip in the English press is the alleged interest of Arsenal in AC Milan youngster Yoann Gourcuff. The Daily Telegraph has reported that Arsene Wenger is keen on having a second bite at the French cherry after missing out on the French starlet in 2006 when he moved to [.

Today's top transfer rumours revolve around Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea, Milan, Inter, Real Madrid and the usual talent-spotting by Manchester United and Arsenal. One trick of the feet and the entire situation alters apparently. Even on Saturday, Ronaldinho's future at FC Barcelona was lurking in the shadows of doubt as his brother-cum-agent Roberto de Assis was constantly [.

A host of transfer rumours for Saturday... Tottenham's Pascal Chimbonda is being stalked by both Manchester City and Newcastle who are eager to snap him up in the January transfer frenzy. (Daily Mirror) If Big Sam gets booted into touch as Newcastle manager then ex-Spurs gaffer Martin Jol is ready to bring his avuncular ogre-like features [.

A look at the latest transfer rumours - today's teams in question are Man City, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Villa and Newcastle. Manchester City in for Amauri Manchester City have been linked with the likes of Michael Owen and Nicolas Anelka to play up front in the last few weeks; this time it's Amauri, currently playing for Palermo [...]

Soccerlens reader shahryarnoon has compiled a comprehensive list of transfer rumours for the month of October 2007. Have a look, and add your rumours to the comments section if you think he's missed something. Manchester United The most surprising name linked to Manchester United is that of Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho, whose situation at Barcelona is being [.

•Despite the fact that virtually all the media outside of Italy are reporting Freddy Adu's on-again, off-again move to Benfica is so on-again that it's pretty much done, reports in Italy insist he's actually going to Parma with the help of Inter, who will buy the player if he puts in a good showing this season. Mmmmhmm.

•Cristiano Lucarelli made his Ukrainian debut yesterday, playing 45 minutes in Shakhtar Donetsk third match of the season.

[Posts on the death of Gabriele Sandri and subsequent events are collected here; this post is being updated with today's news. It's reported that Luigi Spaccarotella the shooter will face murder charges.]

You know how Yoann Gourcuff sign a long-term extension with Milan over the summer, despite the fact that he never plays?

Following is a comprehensive list of transfer rumours which were published in British tabloids during the month of November 2007: Manchester United According to various British newspapers, Manchester United have stolen a march on Real Madrid in the £10m race to sign midfielder Miguel Veloso. Moreover according to The People, Manchester United are being sounded out about a [.

Things are quickly turning from bad to worse to full-on intolerable with Barcelona and Ronaldinho, the rumors of him leaving the club for AC Milan are picking up speed. Ronaldinho hasn't been in World Player of the Year form this season, and he's falling further and further out of Frank Rijkaard's good graces, with [.

With 2008 just around the corner, a new wave of young players look poised to mark their mark on the European stage over the next 12 months. Below is a selection of promising youngsters who are set to rise to prominence in the second half of the 07/08 season, and beyond.
Samir Nasri (Age: 20, Olympique Marseille, Attacking Midfield, France)
"The new Zinedine Zidane".

With just over a month to go until the January sales transfer speculation mounts every day. It seems like it's going to be a busy month in the New Year. In demand at the moment Nicolas Anelka has been linked with a move again to another Premiership club, this time Newcastle. With injury-prone England striker Michael [.

I'm pretty bored, so I thought I'd throw my irrelevant two cents into the mix. Here's who I think were the world's best XI in 2007. Feel free to flog me, I know nothing, of course.
GK - Petr Čech
Casillas, Reina, and Buffon are all incredible, but some of the saves Čech makes are just plain silly.

I've seen this list posted on a few sites and still can't believe how unbelievably retarded it is. First of all, what is FourFourTwo's criteria? The opinion of Nike, Adidas, and FIFA? They certainly didn't take all-round play into account, because Kaka is a second rate defender at best. That's why they have Gattuso on Milan. There's no doubting the Brazilian's attacking skills, but he's utterly useless and a borderline burden on the other end.

At 7:30 in the morning on Sunday (Argentine time), Boca Juniors will take on A.C. Milan of Italy in Tokyo for the final of the Club World Cup 2007. The right to be crowned champions of the world will once again be played out between the champions of Europe and South America, in the third [...]

South America's grip on the Club World Cup tournament was broken in the revamped competition's third edition on Sunday, with European champions A.C. Milan running out 4-2 winners over Boca in easily the most entertaining final since the tournament was re-launched in 2005.

Today's transfer rumours involve: Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Juventus, AC Milan and Bolton. Manchester United After Bilbao Pair Manchester United seem to be the club most linked with players in the transfer rumours every day; today they've been linked with half the Bilbao first team. Diario Sport had Fergie sending scouts to watch [.

A very Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody out there. But it certainly isn't a bright and sparkling Christmas for a select few in the footballing world. Let's go through those unfortunate players, bosses and teams:- 1) Valencia Club De Futbol Valencia's problems actually originated in a period when they weren't really struggling in La Liga.

This weekend, La Gazzetta dello Sport published the results of a poll (print-only, as far as I can tell) in which they ask Italians which football team they support.* The runaway winners, not surprisingly, were Juve, who were loved by over 17% of participants despite that humiliating stint in Serie B. Juve have long been the most popular team in Italy; frankly, I'm surprise the number isn't higher than that.

One club is sponsored by a brothel while a whole soccer federation sells its soul to a betting firm, which gets more news? Welcome to sensational, stupid society.
Trento Calcio 1921, a Serie D club, has signed an advert agreement with an Austrian-based brothel, Casa Bianca or White House, to display the establishment's name on the club's website.

SFS congratulates Brazilian 25 year old football player KAKA for being named "France Football Golden Ball" 2007 winner, according to all the press rumours flying in at this... Read all the news, results, details & comments in English on Spanish Football & Sports

The first is the legendary Paolo Maldini, who will retire 23-and-a-half years after making his club debut way back in January of 1985.

Ronaldo will also move on as his contract runs out in the summer, and the Milan hierarchy are refusing to offer him a renewal due to the constant injury problems that have seen him play just once this season.

If you missed the video highlights from Ligue 1 this weekend. You missed some incredible goals. For a recap go here.
Brian McBride went down in pain after scoring his first and probably only goal of the season. For a video of it, go here.
Andreas Ottl makes a great argument for goal of the weekend, to watch it, go here.
For a recap of an exciting, yet no-so-great pitch war between David Beckham and the New York Red Bulls, click here.

While Nike brought out a "Best Team You've Never heard of" in the lead up to the Women's World Cup, in trying to espouse on the brilliance of the US National Womens' Soccer Team, some pub regulars in Birmingham had the opposite ideas. Being footballers who are generally crap, and turning out for their lowly Lynam [...]

[Posts on the death of Gabriele Sandri and subsequent events are collected here; this post is being updated with the latest news. It's been announced that Luigi Spaccarotella the shooter will face murder charges.]

First and probably most importantly, as long as you're not tender-shinned Scotland-killer Luca Toni, is the news that the FIGC have banned the supporters of 15 clubs across all divisions from traveling when play resumes, presumably after the international break.

That is the request of Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini after AC Milan star Ronaldo came out and said that Adriano "only needs help, protection, and to play". This was prompted by Adriano 's recent attendance at a training camp in his native Brazil in a bid to regain full mental and physical fitness.

•Kaka is FIFA's World Player of the Year. Try to control your shock.

•Is Luciano Moggi's phone ever not being tapped these days? Another investigation has opened into his behavior because he continued to "influence" football after his banning. Well.

It seems that Milan have finally got their Duck. The duck I mean is Alexandre Pato from Inter (Inter of Brazil). Pato means Duck in Portuguese and Alexandre was given this nickname as he is from a place near Pato Branco (white duck) in Brazil. It's funny that he played for a team named after Inter Milan but ended up with AC Milan, oh well, all the best to him!

•Manuela Prandelli, the wife of Fiorentina manager Cesare Prandelli, died this morning after a long illness. I'm trying to resist the old chestnut about it putting everything in perspective but it's sort of undeniable it's awfully hard to care about the table now, isn't it?

The night before Christmas Eve I gave you all my predictions for four of the eight Round of 16 ties in the Champions League and as promised, I have the last four today.
5. AC Roma vs. Real Madrid: This could make for a pretty entertaining two games as we'll see the current leaders of La Liga take on the current second-place side in Serie A.

And it finally happened, to nobody's surprise. The most recent young talent from Brazil is yet again sold to Europe. Alexandre 'The Duck' Pato, from Internacional, was sold to Italy's AC Milan for US$ 20 million, after the club paid his buyout clause. With the transfer, Pato will no longer play for Inter. Meanwhile, the rossoneri hope Pato can live up to the expectations created around him since the end of last year.

So, the U20 World Cup got you excited and you decided to follow soccer this year, but don't know where to begin? What is this crazy world of umpteen cups, competitions and leagues? Where do you possibly begin? Well, read on and I'll try to shed some light on the basics of European footie [...]

Didn't post as much as usual this week as I was busy with other things. Anyhow, just in case you missed something, here's some of the highlights. Cheers and have a safe weekend.
Monday
Crooks, crooks everywhere
Tuesday
Just the sex facts, Leroy
Wednesday
Eddie Johnson is an idiot
Shady days at Old Trafford
Thursday
Old Trafford = McDonalds
Wayne Rooney is untouchable
A slap on the wrist for Ken Bates
Will the Seattle Sounders be the Jailblazers of the MLS?

Celtic Milan Dida VS sale gosse
Uploaded by Shooting-star

When Nelson Dida went down as if he'd been shot by the supporter who ran onto the Parkhead pitch last night, there were a lot of theories put forth about the reason for the four day delay between the contact and the falling down in agony. Me, I was thinking late-acting acid, while others suggested things like an eye-poke so dire it took several seconds to register, and the well-known Five-Point-Palm Exploding Heart Technique (thanks, for that Paolo).

While many of the Champions League participants have another week to wait until they hit the pitch for Matchday 6, Group D will conclude tonight with AC Milan hosting Celtic and Shakhtar hosting Benfica. With that in mind, it's time for an early - or on time - preview of all of the Matchday [...]

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger doesn't fear Milan, that much was obvious from the weakened teams he fielded in the Champions League - risking finishing second in their group - did he not care who Arsenal faced in the next round? The answer seems to be a resounding "Yes!" The Sun reports than when asked [.

So my brother and I are sitting at the bar at a local establishment, he in his 2005 Champions' League yellow Liverpool kit and me not dressed like a caution light, when in walks this guy donning an AC Milan jersey. I could definitely feel my brother tensing up and being a pub we frequent often, I didn't want us to get banned. Unfortunately, the Milan fan was a complete prick.

An organization called Observatory on the Referee Mistakes in Football (That's the Milan website's translation of its name; I'm sure it sounds a lot better in Italian.), run by a couple of independent organizations, has published its first study of how human error has so far affected Serie A results this season, and there are a lot of surprises in their findings.

And the award for the least surprising award of the year goes to... Kaká - winner of the 2007 Ballon d'Or.
I guess even the most ardent fan of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi's talents wouldn't have felt cheated seeing the AC Milan midfielder pick up the Football of the Year award, and would have just accepted it as the 'correct result'.