Gary Neville and his balloon hit Liverpool's title ambitions At last, the Liverpool balloon thrower is unmasked, and it doesn't look like he has quite the Scouse connection we first thought!

Liverpool's crushing defeats to Sunderland and Lyon are undoubtedly devastating blows to the club's trophy ambitions. Clearly, the recurring problems that have plagued Liverpool under Rafa Benitez are wreaking havoc once again. As such, if the club is to recover and salvage something from this campaign, it is imperative that important changes are made NOW.

This weeks stunner is Nati who hails from Preston. She is a massive Manchester United fan who also plays and referee's ladies football. Nati is a full time model who can be found on the pages of Nuts & Zoo both in print and on-line and is currently in the top 10 on the FHM High Street Honies web site and whose ambitions are to be on the front page of FHM in the UK and the USA and of course to walk out onto the turf at the Theatre of Dreams.

I've always said that one of the realistic options for the disaffected USL owners was to leave and then just setup their own league away from the USL umbrella. Today, that appears to be what has happened, with everyone bailing on Francisco Marcos and the USL. I have not been following this all that closely, but where does this leave Portland, who has one more year to go before they join MLS.

RvP wants some trophies.

Tom Veit, president of the newly minted Philadelphia Union, likes to dream big. No piddly ambitions for Tom, he's obviously a "If you're gonna do it, do it big" kind of guy. Goal.com's John Mantia...

The latest transfer news gives Aston Villa supporters something to finally be excited about after a summer that has seen the club part with one of their stars in Gareth Barry.

Manchester City's summer spending started with their signing of Barry, and they're looking to continue flashing and splashing their cash by moving for a couple more Englishmen, according to recent reports.

So much for Fortress Anfield! Even at this early stage, Liverpool's crushing home defeat to Aston Villa is a devastating blow to the club's title ambitions. The problem? Rafa Benitez's one-dimensional tactics and lack of an effective plan B. It's clear that if Liverpool are to recover and mount a serious title, important changes need to be made NOW.

In 2004, he left Liverpool for Real Madrid in search of Champions League glory. Early on, Madrid mostly shackled him to their bench and later ducked out to Juventus in the first knock-out round. The Liverpool players bounced on the big stage in Istanbul: lifting the trophy without him.

The next season, after Liverpool didn't take him back, he moved to Newcastle, citing the chance to play alongside the great Alan Shearer as a big part of what drew him to Tyneside.

1. "In a perfect world, it would be the greatest team in the world, and I would stay my entire career. I am dreaming about that." (2 months later)
2. He's injury-prone (something he has been denying since he was at Liverpool and something Giggsy warned him about years ago)
3. He'll play for anyone for the money (Newcastle?

Watch World Cup qualifiers live here.

International press conferences at the best of times tend to be mundane, by the numbers affairs filled with platitudes by the key figures within the national side. Not much changes when it comes to conferences prior to World Cup qualifiers, or even the finals itself, but within the words always lies a common train of thought: There are few, if any greater honours in football than representing your country at the World Cup.

United have fixture adavantage, says Arsenal boss Wenger
Full Article

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger insists fixture compilers have given Manchester United the edge ahead of the Champions League semi-final.

Arsenal face Liverpool at Anfield tonight before entertaining Middlesbrough on Sunday – just two days before the semi-final first leg against United at Old Trafford.

As clubs across the board sack players and cut wages, we here at NFN plow on heroically..

Saturday

Sandefjord (9th) Vålerenga (5th)

After Mad Martin Andresen realized he was about to lose his job a couple of weeks back, he shelved ambitions of playing expansive football and went into "let's just not get fired"-mode.

Imagine on Monday morning you get a phone call. Your company's biggest competitor is on the line, offering you exactly the same job but on twice the salary. What's more, they'll give you a couple of million quid as a sweetener just for signing on. Now don't get me wrong, I love my job. But you'd have to be a pretty brave or, to be frank, a pretty stupid man to hang up the phone.

Barcelona are preparing to test Arsenal and Cesc Fabregas with a bid for the Catalan playmaker if Liverpool continue to thwart their bid to prise Javier Mascherano away from Anfield, according to a report.
Blaugrana coach Pep Guardiola confirmed this week that he wants to add a midfielder to his ranks, but while he stated the player would not be expensive, the Board has other ideas.

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This is one of the tastier clashes on offer in the first round of the Premier League, and it promises to be one that is filled with all the excitement that usually goes a crunch league fixture.

Liverpool faltered in their title ambitions last season due to their inability to win games against teams that were not as strong in comparison.

Rafa interested in exciting winger.

Are Liverpool preparing to splash the readies on Aston Villa's Ashley Young?

It couldn't be sure, irritable readers, but the Mill then thought it might have seen a bloke with what looked like an Aston Villa crest on a bruise-coloured jacket passing a letter containing Enochian script that could have given the impression Martin O'Neill and Rafael Benítez are on the verge of doing business pertaining to Ashley Young.

The news that Gael Clichy is out for up to two months is unfortunate and may harm Arsenal's trophy ambitions. When he first started his career at Arsenal, he was very injury prone, with continuous operations on his broken metatarsals. He always seems to get injured at an awkward time for The Gunners, and will return in the New Year.

One of the more curious aspects of the game of football is the narrow range of scores that turn up in professional matches. Teams will often score five goal in a match a couple of times over the course of a season, and they will usually concede the same number in one match. How come, then, that we only get to see a 5-5 draw once in a blue moon?

We were recently asked by soccerpro.com, a leading sporting goods supplier, to see if we would be interested in reviewing some of the soccer uniforms from their online range of goods. Since both of us at languagecaster still harbour ambitions of playing football, we took up their offer and asked for two soccer jerseys: the famous yellow Brazilian jersey and the new England jersey.

And he was wearing rock and roll shoes! The Kasabian guitarist apparently once harboured ambitions of playing up front for Leicester City and on this evidence there is no reason why he couldn't leave his rock 'n' roll lifestyle behind...

The Telegraph has an article on the Arsenal youngsters who might be ready for the big stage.

Jack Wilshere is already making waves. He is now officially the most exciting talent in English football since Gazza. His performance in the Emirates Cup was singled out by Wenger.

"I've been especially pleased with the performances of Wilshere over the past couple of days because he has shown how much he has progressed over the past 12 months and he clearly has a promising future ahead of him.

Manchester City have begun talks about expanding their stadium to a 60,000 capacity as part of their multimillion-pound attempt to be recognised as one of the most powerful clubs in Europe.

Although the plans are only at a very early stage, there have been discussions at boardroom level about whether the City of Manchester Stadium, with its 48,000 capacity, is big enough for what the owners are planning.

I know that that is a very bold statement but here's why I think Kaka is still the best. First of, all as a Milan fan, I felt bad that we had to sell our star player just because the club was experiencing serious debts. In my opinion, that should have never been a reason.

I think Mr.

Irrespective of what some would have you believe, it is foolhardy to try and predict at an early age which players can make it at any professional club, let alone one with Liverpool's ambitions.
This should be the principle underlying any talk about the prospects of those players at the academy or in the reserves.

When Robinho signed for Manchester City it was one of the most bizarre days in the history of the transfer window. City suddenly had a new owner with bags of money and they threw over £30million Real Madrid's way to prise the Brazilian away from the Bernabeu. They also made a bid to hijack Manchester United's move for Dimitar Berbatov but that failed and big things were expected in the sky-blue half of Manchester.

Mark Schwarzer helping to get kids into reading. They say that people don't read anymore, which would be a shame if it's true. Getting people like Schwarzer to spread the word surely must make a difference.

Meanwhile, Roy is keeping his feet on ground:

"People can get their heads turned by expectations," he said.

Pompey's Spectacular Horsea Island Plans

I was having a good look at Tottenham's proposal for a new stadium overlapping their current plot at White Hart Lane last night and my brain started to tick. However difficult these proposals appear to be (and indeed i hope they go through) it seems Spurs are not alone in their ambitions and indeed there are a glut of club's trying to relocate from their traditional homes from all rungs of the English football ladder.

There was a recent comment left over at tldorc which threw up the suggestion that failing to secure seventh position this season (therefore not qualifying for next seasons Europa League) may actually be in our favour.
So much of recent focus - ie, since the defeat to Hamburg - has been about trying to make a late run to get back into Europe that there hasn't been much analysis on exactly what effect participation in this seasons UEFA Cup has had on our league fortunes.

Do you remember when we spoke about the team's spending spree prior to the UEFA Champions League this fall? -- Read On -- CFR Cluj Bringing in Top Talent for 2008-2009 UEFA Champions League
Wonder how the team is doing in Romania's Liga I this season (2008-09)?
On the outside looking in on Europe with 52 points on the season.

As Persija slumped to the pitch last night, looking on as Persipura celebrated their second championship in five years they must be wondering when their chance will come again.
An eightgame unbeaten run in the middle of the season had made them serious challengers and with the addition of Fabio Lopes up front coach Danurwindo had boosted an already impressive looking arsenal.

And now for a little light entertainment. Don't worry, though, because there will be more non-league doom and gloom on here later this evening - this time, from South Wales. In this week's "Shit Shot Mungo", ahead of Heart of Clackmannanshire's last league match of the season, caretaker-manager-cum-terrible-striker Mungo McCrackas finally fulfils one of his lifelong ambitions by getting to appear on "A Question Of Sport" but manages to ruin it by getting in an unnecessary fight.

UPDATE: According to Chris Burton at Sky Sports, Sven Goran Eriksson will not be manager at Portsmouth. Portsmouth executive chairman Peter Storrie told The News,

"It's a complete nonsense ... No discussions have gone on about a new manager coming in whatsoever.

According to Robin Hackett at Setanta Sports, Portsmouth midfielder Niko Kranjcar has no intentions of leaving the club. He told Sportske Novosti,

"I'm not going anywhere ... They are always talking about me going, but why would I want to leave Portsmouth?

Liverpool, whose American owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are desperately trying to arrange a US$500 million refinancing, have signed a potentially lucrative deal in India.
The club will partner with the Abhijeet Kadam Memorial Foundation to establish the Abhijit Kadam Football Development Centre.

I'm not talking about Venus and Serena although, come to think of it, that would be fun as they prepare to meet in the Wimbledon Women's Final.

But no I'm talking about Michelle and Sarah ... two women who couldn't possibly be more different.

Unless you've been off hiking the Appalachian Trail, you're well aware of Sarah's big announcement.

Your Club Needs You!

With plenty of tickets left for the Premier League clashes its up to us the most loyalist of fans to convince others to get along and perhaps get their first taste of Pert Glory action. You can do your bit by downloading THIS PDF from the clubs website and help put it up and distribute it at work, school and to friends & family.

The latest transfer news gives Aston Villa supporters something to finally be excited about after a summer that has seen the club part with one of their stars in Gareth Barry.

Manchester City's summer spending started with their signing of Barry, and they're looking to continue flashing and splashing their cash by moving for a couple more Englishmen, according to recent reports.

I am not his #1 fan that's for sure!

Corinthians have confirmed their interest in Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva.

In an interview with Arena SporTV, Corinthians president Andres Sanches announced they were keen to bring Lucas back to Brazil.

Sanches has big ambitions for Corinthians after helping revive Ronaldo's career in stunning fashion this year.

So, Kolo is off to Citeh to ensure his financial legacy help them meet their ambitions. Where does that leave both clubs?
Citeh Analysis
If Citeh were just trying to improve over last season, then they'd definitely have accomplished their goal. Toure is certainly an upgrade for them.