Stuart Holden continues to lead the US assault on the English Premier League, joining other US stars Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard and Jozy Altidore in having appeared in the EPL this season.
Holden made his English Premier League debut for Bolton Wanderers in a 1-0 victory over visiting Wolves on Saturday.

Emirates boss keen to recreate Ajax centre back pairing.

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ARSENE Wenger wants to give Thomas Vermaelen the perfect boost before the new season – his former defensive partner Jan Vertonghen from Ajax.

According to reports in the Turkish press, Rafa Benitez rejected the recent bid from Birmingham for Ryan Babel as they are in negotiations with Turkish giants Galatasaray for a swap deal plus cash for their captain and star man Arda Turan.
The player was widely expected to leave Galatasaray last summer with the club finishing a highly disappointing 5th in the Turkish league, 10 points behind champions Besiktas.

Well we had better get cracking with the inquest then. The slew of instant reactions I have overheard in the couple of hours since meltdown have included "Sack Harry"; "Sell Crouch"; "Recall Keane"; and even "Get Jenas back in the team". Okay, I made up that last one, but some of the opinions ventured do seem possibly to have been delivered a tad hastily.

By AVI CREDITOR

Another installment of the Atlantic Cup takes place Saturday afternoon, as I-95 rivals D.C. United and the New York Red Bulls square off at RFK Stadium (4 p.m., Telefutura).

The Red Bulls (4-1-0) stand atop the Eastern Conference standings with 12 points through five matches, though Columbus is five points off the pace with two matches in hand.

If you will be in the New York City area today to watch the USA-England match, make your way to Dempsey's today for SBI's Official Watch Party.

We should have some good numbers for the watch party and as an added bonus, ESPN will be shooting a live shot from Dempsey's at the party. So if you're in the area, make your way over and join in on the fun.

Morning all,

so with Laurent Koscielny's signing to be announced very shortly after a fee has been agreed and talks ongoing, it is time to see whether the boss will further strengthen the defence. For me there is no question, he must strengthen or next season will be like the last. We need two center halves and a goalkeeper who can boss the defence being able to own the penalty area and save shots might be a good added bonus, too.

Our girl crush on Sylvie van der Vaart is well documented here at Kickette.

(And her current Real Madrid midfielder and hot husband Rafael is just an added bonus.)

Of course, with the recent purchase of Mesut Ozil, Real Madrid now have more midfielders than Fabio Cannavaro has restraining orders against us.

Next Friday (18h00 GMT) our under 21 team faces England at home (Barcelos). Third in the qualifying group anything but a victory has them watching the 2011 UEFA European Under 21 championship from the comfort of their couch. If we win, we take over for England as group runner-up and provided we win the last game (September 7th) against Macedonia we could end up as one of the 4 best runner-ups out of 10 groups.

If you would have asked me whether Carlton Cole was good enough for Arsenal 18 months ago I probably would have pissed my Superman pants with laughter.
A player who began his career at Chelsea, spent loan spells at Wolves, Charlton Athletic and Aston Villa before finally signing for West Ham (confused yet?

Our once illustrious captain is returning to the Premiership in the guise of ANOTHER City midfielder apparently to secure more first team football to "enhance his chances of getting into the France World Cup Team", the £100,000 a week must just be an added bonus then. On the home front our "Vieira-like" (as he has been dubbed by some), Abou has signed a new contract until 2012, when he will still only be 25.

So the big freeze pretty much froze out the Active Nation Scottish Cup at the weekend. And the arguments for summer football gather pace.On the plus side the much mocked sponsorship deal worked. The moment I read Active Nation in the paper I immediately got off the couch and did 100 sit ups. Or not.That aside the games that did go ahead were quite diverting and we've got the added bonus of being

Roberto Mancini set to make his second signing as Eastlands boss.

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Out-of-favour Real midfielder Fernando Gago is looking for a way out of the Santiago Bernabeu after growing frustrated at a lack of first team opportunities.

As Portsmouth slid into administration, the grim reality of their predicament could be seen from a cursory glance at the bottom of the Premier League table. The club is, of course, bottom of the table, but they have been there much of the season. The unpleasant added bonus is that they are now cast adrift at the foot of the table on ten points, after the nine point deduction pro-rata'd down from the usual ten points to take into account that Premier League clubs only play thirty-eight league matches over the course of a season for entering into administration kicked in.

John McMahon saluted Spanish defender Daniel Ayala after he gave a commanding performance during the reserves' 2-0 win over Wigan Athletic on Wednesday.
Goals from Lauri Dalla Valle and Daniel Pacheco sealed the Reds' place in the final of the Lancashire Senior Cup, and stretched the unbeaten run to 13 games.

It's the holiday of choice for chubby kids and confectionery companies all over the world. Eggs are rolling and cute bunny rabbits are running for cover. Yes that's right, Easter is upon us!

So fix up, look sharp and waddle this way for your latest instalment of fantasy football goodness.

First off, apologies for the lack of an article last week. As Arsene Wenger would no doubt put it – this was due to unforeseen circumstances.

There's no need to panic though, as fantasy football tips are back with a bang this weekend to help all you managers in that final push for glory.

One of the most visually stunning parts of the Southend borough is set to benefit from a £70,000 improvement grant.
A series of works will take place, intended to improve the western side of Two Tree Island in Leigh on Sea, for wildlife and people. Workers will be on site to improve the Nature Reserve, including a package of wildlife surveys, new information boards, footpath improvements, scrub management works, enhancing the lagoon for wading birds and new field trail guides.

I'm proud to announce that EPL Talk has partnered with a local sports bar and restaurant to bring World Cup viewing parties to South Florida.

Wowies Sports Grill, located in Boca Raton, will host official EPL Talk viewing parties for the World Cup games. If you live in South Florida or will be in the area anytime during this summer's World Cup, come visit Wowies and enjoy World Cup games the way they were meant to be enjoyed — with friends, strangers and soccer fans who are as nuts about the sport as you are.

Old Trafford boss looks to solve defensive midfield problem by pondering move for Nou Camp powerhouse.

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Manchester United are reportedly considering making an offer for Barcelona defensive midfielder Yaya Toure. The Ivorian has struggled to retain a place in the Nou Camp starting line up due to Pepe Guardiola's decision to turn to youngster Sergio Busquets on a more regular basis and this has left the former Monaco man to consider his future at the Catalan giants.

Whilst Spain have been installed as favourites to win the 2010 World Cup with most bookmakers its hard to look past the 'Samba Stars' wining their sixth tournament.

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If you will be in the New York City area today to watch the USA-England match, make your way to Dempsey's today for SBI's Official Watch Party.

We should have some good numbers for the watch party and as an added bonus, ESPN will be shooting a live shot from Dempsey's at the party. So if you're in the area, make your way over and join in on the fun.

Imagine you're ITV, one of the biggest TV networks in the United Kingdom, and you have the rights to the live match between England and the United States. It's the biggest match of the World Cup thus far. And it's the added bonus of being in HD.

As ITV, you begin showing the match but then the worst case scenario happens.

Maradona's men got going yesterday and they fully deserve the win which more or less seal their qualification to the next round. That 4 goal advantage that they currently hold is the added bonus. It was typical of the style that is so loved by their coach, the Argentinian ripped into the South Koreans with [.

Dallas was not a friendly place for the Wizards last year, the trip last year saw the team got destroyed 6-0 and it was the end of the line for Curt Onalfo as the Wizards coach as he was fired the next week. KC now returns to Dallas, again not playing well, with the added bonus of a former player in goal for Dallas.

So Toronto FC have signed a dude called "Mista." It says here that he is a Spanish striker who was most recently with Deportivo La Coruna but I'm not buying it. With a name like that I'm sure I've got a UGK remix somewhere around here with 16 bars from him on it; I know a nom de rap when I see one.

Real Madrid legend Raul is set to leave his beloved club. The 33-year-old forward has found himself slipping down the pecking order in recent years, and is looking at one more chance to prove him at a very good level.

Germany seems to be his destination, although there are apparent offers from England too.

It is no secret that for the big games, Sir Alex likes to deploy a modern and pragmatic 4-5-1 formation in favor of the traditional 4-4-2 he uses for most games in the league. Berbatov's repeated absence from the starting line-up in the one striker system is not much of a surprise, but Valencia too hampers the working of the formation due to his style of play as the role of the wide players in a 4-5-1 system is different from that in a 4-4-2 formation.

[Dirty Tackle]

Sheva was past tense out of respect always a sly man with a net in the equation, and it appears his predatory skills also translate to giant wallets hanging out the back pocket of Ukrainian television presenters with a popped collar (possibly a large demographic).

Gordon Strachan will have reflected on a bad day at the office in Boro's opening day defeat to Ipswich Town last Saturday. WGS will be hoping his team can cut-out the sloppy defending which allowed Roy Keane's men to score three past Danny Coyne to inflict the first loss of the season.

Leicester v Boro

This fixture last season saw Strachan's men lose 2-0 at the Walkers Stadium with goals coming from Yann Kermorgant and Richie Wellens.

Gordon Strachan will have cash to splash once the sale of Brad Jones goes through this week. The Australian goalkeeper had a medical at the Premier League club yesterday indicating that personal terms have been agreed. According to reports in the weekend press the £2million-plus transfer fee from his sale is already in place to be used to try and land Cardiff City midfielder Peter Whittingham.

Former IMG Academy goalkeeper Cody Cropper has finally landed a contract offer after almost two years of trials and disappointments. The 17-year old wound up with Roy Keane's English Championship side Ipswich Town as reported at Inside Minnesota Soccer. Cropper, Minnesota born and with the added bonus of an English passport, signed a two-year deal with the first year a scholar deal and the second, when he turns 18, a professional contract.

That's it then. The fun stuff is over. This time next week, we'll have a much better idea of just how far we've come.
It's the end of a pre-season in which we've looked a much better unit, although still not quite the finished article. We've been solid at the back and willing to knock the ball around more.

Sir Alex Ferguson opted for Spain over Scunthorpe last night, as he left the squad in the hands of assistant manager Mike Phelan for the Carling Cup tie at Scunthorpe United while he did some in-person scouting of next week's Champions League opponents, Valencia.

However, the gossip mongers at the Daily Mirror are speculating that Fergie had an ulterior motive for the trip to the Mestalla.

Confession time: I must admit I did not have high hopes for the highlights of a "World Cup" for those still in the midst of a high school education. I was very, very wrong and rather blown away by the astonishing expertise with which these "women" (they're girls, really) can hit a Jabulani. The men from the summer's edition should be blushing in shame.

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With two games left in the season and a playoff spot locked up, it would be understandable if the Sounders mixed in several reserves with their starters.

Judging by Sig's comments this week, I don't think that's going to happen.

So Eduardo scores against us again!

Not as nice a feeling as last time around. Then we were cruising, had the three points in the bag and it was just a weird added bonus that Eduardo scored. Last night his goal meant we lost and failed to secure the win we needed to progress to the knock-out stages with two games in hand.

Sorry, Philipp Degen. But while we appreciate the effort, that's just silly, isn't it? You could catch a cold.

While we are treating the snow with the respect it deserves (making fashion forward, Chanel clad snowmen and necking mulled wine by the gallon) it seems that baller boys remain impervious to the perils of the wintry weather.

The snow flurries are flying, and it's going to be another eight months or so before the whole clan starts trotting out to the township park for youth soccer again, but my friends over at SoccerPro.com have already helped to give me a head start on my coaching preparations for 2011.
All In One Place
The centerpiece of my new coaching kitbag is the bag itself.

I may have spotted a Baggies fan or two playfully suggesting that their team could be responsible for the sacking of two Premier League managers in a week. I don't think a loss would automatically lead there, but it would increase the pressure on Houllier exponentially. Beyond breaking point?