By Chris Wright

Aston Villa's American goalkeeper Brad Friedel has been declared bankrupt in his homeland, after his non-profit football academy in Lorain, Ohio racked up debts of almost £5 million after failing to attract enough hopefuls willing to pay the annual £20,000 membership fee.

By Chris Wright

Aston Villa's American goalkeeper Brad Friedel has been declared bankrupt in his homeland, after his non-profit football academy in Lorain, Ohio racked up debts of almost £5 million after failing to attract enough hopefuls willing to pay the annual £20,000 membership fee.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

With January here, the winter transfer season is upon us and while the moves of big European stars will rule the headlines, there are a bunch of American players in dire need of loans or transfers this month.

You know it's not an ideal trend.

Liverpool is being linked with a January move for Aston Villa midfielder Stephen Ireland.
The former Irish international has found it difficult to settle at Villa Park under French manager Gerard Houllier, and the Metro reports that Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson has targeted the player as someone who can strengthen the Reds in the centre of the park.

The January 2011 transfer window is about to open. Will Premier League clubs be spending money this time around? In January 2009 Premier League teams spent a record £178 MILLION in that transfer window. Last January spending was much lower with the vast majority of moves on the final day of the January transfer window being loan deals as clubs did not have the capital to invest in new players.

Gameweek 24 is soon upon us and this is the gameweek to succeed. Fantasy Premier League has 6 teams playing double gameweek, so make sure you have as many players as you can from these 6 teams. Which are of course: Blackpool, Man Utd, Wigan, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Fulham.
This weeks all the hottest tips come from these teams.

Red with a honeycomb centre. Like TFC's 2010 defence!
The stories out of TFC training camp's first day started leaking before the ink was dry on the medical needles. At least that's my understanding of needles. Might explain my scurvy. Anyhoo... with roster spots galore and a plane warming up on the tarmac for a flight to Turkey, names have begun to pop up on the potential passenger list aboard AeroWinter - direct flight, non-stop to Antalya.

The kiss of death.

Nightmares of 2007.

Grossly disappointing. I'm actually kind of pissed off, not just with the way we conceded another late leveler against Aston Villa, either. That's the same Aston Villa who have done fuck all over the past month or so (kind of like us).

The kiss of death.

Nightmares of 2007.

Grossly disappointing. I'm actually kind of pissed off, not just with the way we conceded another late leveler against Aston Villa, either. That's the same Aston Villa who have done fuck all over the past month or so (kind of like us).

Back from an enforced vacation and a voluntary trip to a (very) soggy Seattle it's time to play a little catch-up and note that:

*On Wednesday the Galaxy announced the signing of their third designated player, former Aston Villa and New York Red Bull striker Juan Pablo Angel, with the presence of the man who brought the Colombian to MLS - Coach Bruce Arena - proving pivotal to LA getting their replacement for the now departed Edson Buddle.

January Transfer Window: 5 potential last minute deals is a post from: Just Football

With just over a week remaining of the January transfer window 2011, teams around Europe are busy scrambling around looking for the last big purchase or bargain buy of the season, desperately grabbing onto whatever they can and shoving their fellow shoppers out of the aisle like contestants on Supermarket Sweep.

Unsurprisingly, cash-gorged Manchester City have dominated the footballing transfer market in 2010, shunting a combined total of somewhere up around the €350 million mark in fees and transfers into the global market between January 1st and the present day as owner Sheikh Mansour continues to feed his foray into capitalism on a gargantuan scale.

News in the Daily Mail today that both Aston Villa and Newcastle are after Paris Saint Germain midfielder Stephane Sessegnon. Stephane Sessegnon fallen out with his manager again? This is not the first time Newcastle have been interested in the player, since we were also linked with Stephane back in the summer of [.

Ladies (and some gentlemen) of the Kickette Hottie Spotting Jury, we have a matter of the utmost importance to present to you today.

No, we're not asking you to help us find our house keys. We're talking about the man above: Mr. Ciaran Clark.

You may recognize Ciaran as the scorer of Aston Villa's last gasp injury time goal against Chelsea yesterday.

Liverpool have made Ashley Young their top target for the January transfer...

By Ollie Irish

One of the funnier football things wot I did see over the festive period:

Postmodern Villa fans!? Proof that the world has gone full retard.

File alongside "Let's pretend our manager isn't Gerard Houllier" and "Let's pretend Brad Friedel is still really good".

Let's gear up for tomorrows FA Cup matches with a video. Take a look at the highlights from last years final.

Here's the links:

• Aston Villa shaken up [Caught Offside]
• Buy Beckham's 2008 Porsche [Ebay]
• Manchester City played for the draw [A Different League]
• Obi Mikel out until February [Sky]
• Dzeko interview [M.

LONDON, England Giant-killers Stevenage have been rewarded with a home tie against Reading in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Graham Westley's Stevenage take on Championship Reading looking for a repeat of their famous victory over Newcastle on Saturday. Manchester United, fresh from their home win over Liverpool, face a tough trip to [.

News this morning in a number of the papers, that Aston Villa are interested in Newcastle's Joey Barton. Joey Barton - this player is going nowhere And it seems that Aston Villa are trying to make some kind of swap deal for the Newcastle United midfielder. The player Aston Villa don't want any more seems [.

Eric Lichaj...

If only we had asked the right question at the beginning of the interview. That question: "Eric, are you a fan of interviews?"

Because, the conclusion of our conversation with Aston Villa defender Eric Lichaj went something like this, "Anything we missed Eric? Any questions we should have asked?

Eric Lichaj...

If only we had asked the right question at the beginning of the interview. That question: "Eric, are you a fan of interviews?"

Because, the conclusion of our conversation with Aston Villa defender Eric Lichaj went something like this, "Anything we missed Eric? Any questions we should have asked?

Aston Villa's attempts to lure Newcastle's Joey Barton to the midlands club looked doomed to failure. Villa are in Premier League freefall at the moment and Gerard Houllier has had his eye on Joey Barton as one who might pull the emeregency 'chute and help them avoid a relegation battle. Rumour has it that Houllier [.

Now that the transfer window is open, lots of managers are looking to strengthen their squads. Managers like Everton's David Moyes seem typical; he's looking to sign a striker, having repeatedly bemoaned his team's lack of ability to finish in front of goal, most recently after the away draw at West Ham.

It looks like Arsene Wenger has left it a little late again in the transfer market, as it is being reported today that the Aston Villa boss Gerrard Houllier is close to signing Emir Spahic from Montpellier for £5million. The big Bosnian international made it clear last week that he would love to join Arsenal after [.

It looks like Arsene Wenger has left it a little late again in the transfer market, as it is being reported today that the Aston Villa boss Gerrard Houllier is close to signing Emir Spahic from Montpellier for £5million. The big Bosnian international made it clear last week that he would love to join Arsenal after [.

Aston Villa have completed the signing of Jean Makoun from Lyon for a fee thought to be in the region of €6m* possibly rising by a further €3m depending on performances. The 27 year old brings a wealth of experience with almost 250 Ligue 1 appearance, more than 50 European appearances and 56 caps for Cameroon including four African Nations Championships and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

We're still in the first month of the new year but today will be offering us the best day of soccer action to date.

There are can't-miss derbies, table-topping clashes and even some intriguing international tilts on today's schedule. The Merseyside Derby kicks things off with Liverpool and Everton squaring off.

Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comolli will be discussing at length when they feel Liverpool need in order to improve the Anfield squad as the Merseyside club tries to force their way back up the Premier League table. It appears that high up on the list of priority is the signing of a quality winger or two to add more natural width to a side that looks predictable and stifled on the attack.

By Chris Wright

Word is reaching Pies that Liverpool have lodged a bid believed to be somewhere in the region on £8 million for Aston Villa winger (and, rather unfortunately for Villa, their current top-scorer) Stewart Downing.

By Chris Wright

Word is reaching Pies that Liverpool have lodged a bid believed to be somewhere in the region on £8 million for Aston Villa winger (and, rather unfortunately for Villa, their current top-scorer) Stewart Downing.

Joleon Lescott, who was linked to villa before he made the switch to Manchester City, is set to join Darren Bent at the midland club.

The move will not come as a suprise. Lescott has already stated his desire to play first team football. A point he made clear in early December when he stated that; "I'm not happy with the situation.

According to Sky Sports News, Aston Villa do not plan on selling midfielders Stewart Downing and Ashley Young. Manager Gerard Houllier said,

"They [Downing and Young] are not for sale - as simple as that. Whether it's Stewart or Ashley, they won't be leaving.

There are just two weeks left for Liverpool to make their move on target...

It was only 24 hours ago when I logged onto my Twitter to be greeted with the message ‘How do you feel about Bent going to Villa Claire?'

WTF? Darren Bent going to Villa? OUR Darren Bent? It may as well have read ‘how do you feel about molesting small children Claire?!'

I didn't see it coming and it sure as hell looked like I was the only one who didn't.

In the wake of Darren Bent's shock transfer to Aston Villa Sunderland manager Steve Bruce attempted to side with the fans by declaring his dismay at the strikers transfer.
Bruce said he felt ‘massively let-down' by the forward, who completed his £18million move to Villa Park on Tuesday.

As you've probably been made aware by now, a footballer who essentially only excels at one very basic aspect of the game, i.e. kicking the ball the way he is facing, moved clubs for an obscene amount of money yesterday a rather straight-forward transaction that has since incurred several more intense levels of searing wrath, muddled conjecture and ramped-up sh*t-slinging than it had any real right to.

As you've probably been made aware by now, a footballer who essentially only excels at one very basic aspect of the game, i.e. kicking the ball the way he is facing, moved clubs for an obscene amount of money yesterday a rather straight-forward transaction that has since incurred several more intense levels of searing wrath, muddled conjecture and ramped-up sh*t-slinging than it had any real right to.

Morning all. Throughout January Soccerlens is going to be bringing you a daily round-up of the morning's various goings-on. Be it juicy morsels of spurious transfer gossip or real, actual bona fide news, rest assured, we'll have it covered.

Here's this morning's batch.

Mourinho exit on the cards?

Charlie Adam could be set to leave Blackpool this month and join Liverpool after the Reds chairman Tom Werner declared a mountain of transfer funds will be made available to manager Kenny Dalglish.
The 25-year-old Scotland international has expressed his desire to play at a top level club after impressing in the Premier League this season.

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In this week's predictions battle we feature two matches from the Asia Cup, games from Italy and some more big games from the Premier League. Can you guess the scores to these games from around the world?