In April Chelsea announced that they had reached a deal to sign Werder Bremen striker Marko Marin. The deal was said to be around £10 million. It came at a time when the managerial job was still undecided, Andre Villas-Boas has been removed from the job and the fate of caretaker Roberto Di Matteo was still unclear.

For years, rival fans claimed that Manchester United "bought" their success. Unlike Liverpool, we took advantage of our big name globally, cashed in nicely on the Sky Sports money, exploited fans with regular new shirts and merchandise, so we had money to burn in the transfer market.

We broke the British transfer record in 1981 when we paid £1.

Los deseos del propietario de Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, se funden en uno solo: la Liga de Campeones de Europa. Una pretensión en la que ha invertido durante nueve temporadas 869 millones de euros en fichajes, por la que han peleado siete diferentes técnicos en el banquillo y que aún se le resiste.

By Chris Wright

With a doff of the cap to Mr Abbiati's exertions last night, here's ten more fine, flying, clawing, sprawling goalkeeping double saves to feast your peepers uponst...

1. Jim Montgomery, SUNDERLAND vs Leeds

Regarded by gentlemanly scholars as the greatest double save to have ever graced the game, so a fitting place to start.

Lionel Messi broke the scoring record for the elimination rounds of the Champions League when he scored during Barcelona's away win against Bayer Leverkusen. The Germans were not spared Messi's heroics as the Barca wizards scored near the end of the match to register his 19th goal in the knockout stages of Europe's elite club competition.

Barcelona put one foot into the quarter finals by beating Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 away in the first leg of their Champions League knockout fixture last night. A brace from Adriano and a goal from Messi was enough to hand Guardiola a much needed victory after a tumultous few weeks.

Once again, it's Barca star Lionel Messi who is making all the headlines.

Though Chelsea ended a sloppy first half against Manchester United with a 1-0 off an Jonny Evans own goal, they did suffer an embarrassment of their own and it had nothing to do with Fernando Torres for once (maybe)!

In a pitchside ad for their own official website's megastore, the web address was spelled "chelsefc.

In the summer of 2006 Manchester United were written off. Chelsea had just won the league with ease and added one of the best players in the world for each position to their squad. Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko joined them, whilst in contrast we sold our top scorer, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and didn't replace him, and brought in Michael Carrick, who was hardly the midfield general the fans had been hoping for.

Fernando Torres has certainly been putting in the hard work on the training pitch for Chelsea, with this hard graft appearing to pay dividends in recent games during which he has almost been able to capitalise upon the absence of Didier Drogba by displaying a few good performances up front, but Torres has still failed to win over the Chelsea fans by doing the one job that is expected of him: scoring goals.

by Adam Bate

The impending arrival of Carlos Tevez could well end any hopes Filippo Inzaghi had of winning back his place in the AC Milan Champions League squad let alone the first team. Unless Super Pippo can prove people wrong one more time, the 38-year-old poacher will have to seek a new home before the transfer window closes.

Mais um jogo das eliminatórias da Eurocopa de 2012, foi realizado no dia 07/10/2011, na cidade de Kiev-UKR, onde jogaram as seleções da Ucrânia (60º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção da Bulgária (55º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram:
2000Sofia 26/04/2000 BUL0:1 (0:0)UKR 1999Kyiv 18/08/1999 UKR1:1BUL 1994Sofia 03/06/1994 BUL1:1 (1:0)UKR
O árbitro desse jogo, foi: Pavel Kralovec-CZE
O primeiro gol do jogo, foi de Yevhen Selin, aos 7 minutos do primeiro tempo.

Hi everyone,
It has been clearly seen that Roman Abramovich is starving for titles and does everything possible to dominate England and Europe. However, things have not been going the way he wishes. Unlike some other clubs, finance is one of the least of worries that the owner has, thanks to his outside business which does not make him shy to spend almost unlimited amount of money with the club.

It was October 20, 2004, when Milan welcomed FC Barcelona to the San Siro on match-day three of the Champions League. Much like today, both teams were clearly the best two in their group. Much like today Barcelona sat in first position, Milan were in second. And much like will be today, the team that [.

By Chris Wright

Just stumbled across this ethereal snapshot this very morn and felt it was worth passing on, in which we see Chelsea full-back Albert Ferrer meeting Milan's Andriy Shevchenko in a clearing as the San Siro is slowly engulfed by ghostly fog and flare smoke during a Champions League group tie in 1999.

I think we all can agree that it's a bit too late to do a recap. Lamb to the slaughter it was and all.

What we can do is drop five things we learned from watching the destruction. After the jump and the epic screencap of Toretto and O'Conner you can check my Fast Five, compiled after watching the match a second time.

Ryan Giggs has today been named the winner of the Golden Boot award, which is recognition given to players over the age of 29 who are selected by journalists from all over the world and voted for by fans.

The other nominations for the 2011 award were Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas, Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto'o, Carles Puyol, Raul, Xavi and Javier Zanetti.

Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll illustrate perils of a striker's lot | Paul Hayward

Spain and England left out £85m of misfiring striking talent this week but when a centre-forward is on song it lifts the entire team As any Middlesbrough fan will tell you – just mention Afonso Alves or Massimo Maccarone as prompts – buying the wrong striker is a peculiarly calamitous act that invites external derision and internal angst.

By Darshan Joshi

Like Martin Luther King Jr., Roman Abramovich has a dream. Or, rather, he had a dream, which really was less a dream than a looming reality. Problem is, it was ever looming, and it now seems to have passed him by. The Champions League trophy was on Abramovich's horizon for years, yet it turned out to be no more than a mirage, a now long-lost memory of hope forgone.

Este sábado 30 de julio, la FIFA pone sus pies en Río de Janeiro para sortear los grupos de la eliminatoria de la Copa del Mundo Brasil 2014. Serán 166 las selecciones que conocerán su suerte en una ronda preliminar que ya comenzó el 15 de junio y está programada para terminar el 19 de noviembre de 2013.

Every club makes mistakes, some large ones too such as Juan Sebastian Veron, Andriy Shevchenko, and Jose Antonio Reyes just to name a few. As Spurs fans we've also seen some large transfers go wrong over the years. Names that spring to mind are Sergei Rebrov (£10m), Dean Richards (£8m) and more recently David Bentley (£15m).

Click here to view the embedded video.

via waatp.

Imagine the scene. You're in the stands, watching Dynamo Kiev play Metalist in the first game of the Ukrainian Premier League season (not an auspicious start, but stay with us), when ex-Chelsea forward and all-round hot booty-boy Andriy Shevchenko scores a goal.

Sheva saves the invader from justice.

[101gg]

• Hope Solo has fans. (KCKRS)
• Rules of football can be yours. (BBC)
• The truth comes out. (The DA)
• The J Team sounds superheroish. (Left Back In The Changing Room)
• Ends of the spectrum in 2011.

By Chris Wright

In which, after scoring in Dynamo Kiev's 1-1 draw with Metalist last night, Andriy Shevchenko did his bit as a bona fide club legend by saving a pitch-invading Dynamo fan from being carted off by the stadium officials, giving the lad his sweaty shirt in the process.

Image: Zimbio.

Footballers' wives and/or girlfriends stole this Bank Holiday/Memorial Day extended weekend show not that you probably weren't already up-to-date on this trend seeing how late we're posting today's Weekend Gossip short list.

"A" for us making an effort in Armani at the office today?

When it was officially announced that Fernando Torres had joined Chelsea on deadline day in January, it was a move that was supposed to improve the stagnating West London club and boost their chances of winning the Champions League. A British record £50m move from Liverpool added to the already high expectations of Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea faithful where the goals were anticipated to flow freely from the Spaniard.

When it was officially announced that Fernando Torres had joined Chelsea on deadline day in January, it was a move that was supposed to improve the stagnating West London club and boost their chances of winning the Champions League. A British record £50m move from Liverpool added to the already high expectations of Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea faithful where the goals were anticipated to flow freely from the Spaniard.

For months we anxiously waited for an excuse to post this throwback Paolo Maldini picture from 2004 (taken at Macy's in NYC's Herald Square). Unfortunately, though, the circumstances surrounding today's archives publishing are far from selfish.

Yesterday, the former AC Milan star was indicted on charges of corruption and illegally accessing information systems (aka 'spying').

Another commercial for Leo.

[101gg]

• Revolution Rooney. (Football Further)
• EFW goes Asian. (EFW)
• Inflatable bananas make everything better. (IBWM)
• A rivalry too far. (Philosofooty)
• Sweden gets a sash. (Football Fashion)
• The future of Celtic.

It was not a good night for English sides in the Europa League as both Liverpool and Manchester lost their last-16 first legs. Braga will take a slender one-goal lead into the second leg of their Europa League last-16 tie at Anfield next week after an early penalty from Alan proved enough to see off Liverpool.

Andriy Shevchenko and Oleh Gusev struck as Dynamo Kiev established a two-goal advantage against Manchester City in the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie.

Shevchenko showed he has lost none of his predatory sharpness by turning in Andriy Yarmolenko's inviting cross on 25 minutes.

Andriy Shevchenko and Oleh Gusev struck as Dynamo Kiev established a two-goal advantage against Manchester City in the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie.

Shevchenko showed he has lost none of his predatory sharpness by turning in Andriy Yarmolenko's inviting cross on 25 minutes.

As the footballing sphere bids farewell to one of it's greatest ever patrons, legendary Brazilian forward Ronaldo, we good folk at Soccerlens thought it high time to compile a concise list of our top five 'strikers in world football' with the only stipulation being that any nominee must have played 'up top' and have had been in their prime at some point during the last two decades.

As the footballing sphere bids farewell to one of it's greatest ever patrons, legendary Brazilian forward Ronaldo, we good folk at Soccerlens thought it high time to compile a concise list of our top five 'strikers in world football' with the only stipulation being that any nominee must have played 'up top' and have had been in their prime at some point during the last two decades.

Instead of Besiktas, Dynamo Kiev put a foot in the last 16 of the Europa League as they claimed a comfortable 4-1 win in the first leg match.
Andriy Shevchenko setup and goal and then scored one in his 84-minutes appearance as Dynamo Kiev used a powerful second half to beat Besiktas 4-1 in Europa League action on Thursday.

Instead of Besiktas, Dynamo Kiev put a foot in the last 16 of the Europa League as they claimed a comfortable 4-1 win in the first leg match.
Andriy Shevchenko setup and goal and then scored one in his 84-minutes appearance as Dynamo Kiev used a powerful second half to beat Besiktas 4-1 in Europa League action on Thursday.

Instead of Besiktas, Dynamo Kiev put a foot in the last 16 of the Europa League as they claimed a comfortable 4-1 win in the first leg match.
Andriy Shevchenko setup and goal and then scored one in his 84-minutes appearance as Dynamo Kiev used a powerful second half to beat Besiktas 4-1 in Europa League action on Thursday.

As things stand today, Barcelona is the cream of football's crop and Andriy Shevchenko is winding down his career with a whimper in Kiev, remembered more of recent as a cautionary tale than truly great footballer.

But 1997 was a very, very long time ago. Over the course of two weeks in the fall of '97, Dynamo did a double over Barca, first beating them 3-0 in Ukraine, then waltzing into the Nou Camp, where Sheva would mark his arrival with a first half hat trick as they walked out 4-0 winners.

As things stand today, Barcelona is the cream of football's crop and Andriy Shevchenko is winding down his career with a whimper in Kiev, remembered more of recent as a cautionary tale than truly great footballer.

But 1997 was a very, very long time ago. Over the course of two weeks in the fall of '97, Dynamo did a double over Barca, first beating them 3-0 in Ukraine, then waltzing into the Nou Camp, where Sheva would mark his arrival with a first half hat trick as they walked out 4-0 winners.

In the aftermath of a very busy transfer dash yesterday and the British Record signing of Fernando Torres from Liverpool to Chelsea, we look at the Top 5 most expensive flops of the EPL, proving to us all that sometimes money can't buy you quality in the transfer market.

Liverpool have officially announced an agreement with Andy Carrol for £35m (€41m) plus bonuses. Deep breath.

To put this in perspective, he's now the 18th most expensive outlay in the history of football, just between Ballon d'Or winner Pavel Nedved and World Cup winner David Villa. That's a good place for Carroll's 14 top-flight goals, solitary international cap and the big bread winner, his English birth certificate.