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Tonight I have Jeff Krause, Chicago Fire writer for Soccer by Ives, helping me man the helm. Murph, from, the Union Dues, joins the show again to talk about NASL clubs selling out. Also Josie from, LAG Confidential, checks in to help show us a little direction in the Galaxies recent misfortunes.

After a brilliant season for Gary Neville working for Sky Sports, with even the most passionate fans who hated Neville throughout his United career acknowledging how good his punditry is, Roy Hodgson asked the former United captain to join the England coaching staff for the Euros.

"A lot of people thought he might be biased towards Manchester United but, watching the games and hearing his opinions, I don't think he has," said Lescott.

Look a new post! Fellow AOs, I know it has been a long time coming, but I wanted to extend an appreciation to all of you for sticking by this blog. I, like most of you, was yearning for new posts over the past month, and like most of you, I watched this blog daily for new threads to no avail. We kept the banter alive in the Wigan thread hoping and waiting for news to come, and then sadly the day came when JG stepped up to let us know that he and the rest of the blogging team needed to call it quits due to various real life activities.

The winning ways of the Fire will hopefully continue tonight against a Portland team that has struggled out of the gates early. Our Men In Red seem to be rounding into a fine form, and Chris Rolfe hasn't even made his debut yet. I expect a pretty physical match tonight, especially given the fact that Jeld-Wen Field features a pitch that is as small as you can have and still fall under MLS rules.

Diego Maradona's footballing ability was put to shame by Dennis Wise. That's according to Gianfranco Zola, who played with both of them. We suspect that Zola immediately clocked on to OTP's mischievous line of questioning when we asked him which of the pair was the better player. He told OTP: "I think Dennis Wise was [.

Venue: St James' Park. Date: Sun 06th May 2012. Kick-Off: 1:30pm. Referee: Howard Webb. TV: Sky Sports 1. Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our latest "match banter" feature, this time for the game against the only club to be named after a Gay anthem, Man City. Despite our recent good form, it will undoubtedly [.

Venue: Stamford Bridge, London. Date: Weds, 2nd May, 2012. Kick-Off: 7.45pm. Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire). UK TV: None. Good evening Geordies, and welcome to our "match banter" feature for this evening's Chelsea game at Stamford Bridge. With a possible Champions League place still up for grabs despite our recent defeat at Wigan, to say that [.

Who's Behind These Football Club Sponsorship Deals?
English Football Banter, as always, is pivotal in keeping you abreast of the latest football news, topics and debates. In this edition we take a step back and dive into the mud and grit to give recognition to some impressive UK sponsorship deals spanning a decade.

Who's Behind These Football Club Sponsorship Deals?
English Football Banter, as always, is pivotal in keeping you abreast of the latest football news, topics and debates. In this edition we take a step back and dive into the mud and grit to give recognition to some impressive UK sponsorship deals spanning a decade.

Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our regular "match banter" feature for this afternoon's game against Wigan Athletic at the glorious D.W. Stadium. Although Wigan are still just above the relegation places, they have proved to be tricky customers in recent times, chalking up victories against Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool in recent games.

There's literally nothing newsworthy or interesting floating around about Liverpool to talk about this week. So you might as well watch the second 1888bet skills challenge of the season while you wait for the second Champions League semi-final to roll around1, with Jordan Henderson defending the sixth most prestigious individual award2 in English football he won last by beating out Jonjo Shelvey and Stuart Downing.

Venue: St James' Park, NE1. Date: Sat, 21st April, 2012. Kick-Off: 3pm. Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands). UK TV: None. Good afternoon Geordies, and welcome to our regular match banter feature for this afternoon's game. Unfortunately, this time the Magpies have to face the biggest, ugliest, dirtiest and generally most dislikeable team in the Premiership.

Date: Monday, 9th April 2012 Kick-off: 3.00pm Referee: Mike Jones UK TV: None Good afternoon Geordies, and welcome to our match banter feature for todays game at St James' Park against Bolton Wanderers. As some of you will have noticed, no doubt, if we win this fixture it will be our fifth victory in a [.

Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea. Date: Fri 6th Apr 2012. Kick-Off: 16:30. Referee: Howard Webb. Good afternoon Geordies, and welcome to our regular match banter feature for todays Swans / Magpies clash at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea. This is the sixth game in a row taking place at a odd time for the sake of Rupert [.

Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez, whose father is a Spaniard from Granada (for many of you who still think he's Portuguese!) has declared that he does not want to be compared to a certain Spanish-speaking striker. You know, like Lionel Messi.

Venue: St James' Park. Date: Sunday, 1st April, 2012. Kick-Off: 1.30pm (Sky TV). Referee: Martin Atkinson (W.Yorks). Good afternoon Geordies, and welcome to our match banter post for the Liverpool game at St James' Park. For all the in depth stuff in the run up to the game, check out our extensive match preview of [.

In difficult circumstances today Chelsea have to be professional and get three points at Villa Park this afternoon. Yesterday news broke that Stillian Petrov has been diagnosed with acute Leukaemia (cancer of the blood) and has immediately come down to London to a specialist hospital to start treatment.

Venue: The Hawthorns, West Bromwich. Date: Sunday, 25th March, 2012. Kick-Off: 4pm (Sky TV). Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside). Hello Geordies, and welcome to our latest "match banter" for this afternoon's game with West Bromwich Albion. West Brom are eight places below us in the Premiership table in a fairly lowly fourteenth, and their home form [.

I don't need to write very much preamble for this gamethread. It's the Fire home opener. Enough said. After all winter, MLS soccer is back at Toyota Park. And it comes against a Union side that has talent, but is certainly in flux right now coming off defeats in their first 2 MLS matches of 2012, as well as some personnel issues.

Venue: St James' Park, NE1 Date: Sunday, 18th March 2012 Kick-Off: 4pm (Sky TV) Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffs). Hello, good afternoon and welcpme to our "match banter" feature for this afternoon's visit from the "Canaries" of Norwich City. Here's hoping for a better result than last time at their place, when we lost 4-2 with [.

Some bitch must have twisted Harry Redknapp's melon because he seems to be cracking right up.
Having pops at Chezza. Blaming his taxes on his poor dog Rosie, who has never done anything wrong as far as I am aware. And now losing three games in a row has got to him.
I understand it must be hard for him to look in the mirror, what with nearly getting his dog banged up and his ugly baggy face staring back, but he is losing it.

QPR last night completed the signing of exorcist Derek Acorah after defender Clint Hill revealed he had been haunted by his ‘ghost' goal. The veteran player was denied a first Premier League goal at the weekend after officials failed to see that his header had crossed the line in QPR's match-up with Bolton.

Venue: Ashburton Grove, London. Date: Mon 12th Mar 2012. Kick-Off: 8pm. Referee: Howard Webb (Man. U). Good evening Geordies and welcome to our regular "match banter" feature. This evening of course sees us facing the Queen's favourite side, the "Gooners" of Arsenal. Something which my esteemed colleague, Hugh, missed out of his otherwise excellent match [.

By Chris Wright

Speaking candidly to the Evening Standard, Andy Gray has admitted that he considered killing himself in the months after both he and Richard Keys were sacked by Sky Sports when a slew of the pair's sexist remarks were made public back in January of 2011.

Venue: St James' Park. Date: Sun 4th Mar 2012. Kick-Off: High Noon. Referee: Mike Dean. Hello Geordies and welcome to our regular match banter feature. Today of course sees the Magpies pitted against the Mackems in another one of those "must win" derbies against our much loved and respected neighbours from the so called "city" [.

Infographic by Football Banter

Venue: St James' Park. Date: Sat 25th Feb 2011. Kick-Off: 15:00. Referee: Peter Walton. Good afternoon Geordies and welcome to our regular "match banter" feature for this afternoon's game against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Well, on one side of argument, Wolves are currently in the relegation zone and under a caretaker manager with new manager, Terry Connor, [.

First off, a confession: I don't like biographies. In particular, I don't like player biographies. Too often they're pretentious, ego-massaging,bank account boosting exercises in self-promotion that offer little in the way of genuine insight. Unless, of course, you consider tales of lads' nights out or those of puerile banter as falling under the category of insightful.

We've sifted through all the recent viral goodness found throughout the football blogosphere for you, dear readers.

And for the uni Procrastination Planning 101 course that we're currently enrolled in.

1. Harper Beckham's Fashion Blog

Of all the sites on the internet and there are a lot the one that's surprised us most is dedicated to Harper Beckham's style.

By Alan Duffy

Let go by Manchester United for his questionable attitude, youngster Ravel Morrison has taken little time in showcasing those iffy attitudes at new club West Ham.

The 19-year-old has been charged by the FA over a homophobic Tweet he sent early this month.

Like everyone else at the club, Ryan Giggs is eager for us to move on from the fuss Liverpool has created following Luis Suarez's racial abuse of Patrice Evra.

Giggs has no problem with friendly banter and cited the chant our fans were singing during Saturday's victory over Liverpool.

"The rivalry will always be there, but let's have it as healthy rivalry and nothing else," Giggs told The Telegraph.

Venue: White Hart Lane. Date: Saturday 11th Feb, 2012. Kick-off: 5.30pm. Referee: Andre Marriner. Good afternoon Geordies (or should that be good evening?) and welcome to our regular "match banter" feature. Today of course we face Tottenham Hotspur away at White Hart Lane. If you read my match preview you will see from the stats [.

Dominic Kinnear was predicitably asked after the match about former Dynamo capatain Brian Ching and he made a slightly surprising comment:

"I think in the beginning, we were a little bit liberal with what we were saying," Kinnear said. "I think it was a little bit rude, and I apologize for that, back when Brian first got selected by Montreal in the Expansion Draft.

Ahead of United's game against Liverpool at the weekend, Kenny Dalglish has created even more ill-feeling by claiming that Luis Suarez, who was found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Evra, shouldn't have been banned.

"We don't think he should ever have been away but we are delighted to get him back," he said.

Venue: St James'Park, NE1. Date: 5th February 2012 Kick Off: 1.30pm Referee: Mark Halsey. Good afternoon Geordies and welcome to our regular "match banter" feature for this afternoon's early kick-off against Aston Villa at St James' Park. Despite being a fair sized Premiership team, unlike Newcastle United they tend to pass under the radar of [.

Venue: Ewood Park, Blackburn Date: 1st February 2012 Kick Off: 8.00pm Referee: Phil Dowd. Good evening Geordies and welcome to our regular "match banter" feature. This evening sees us facing Blackburn Rovers for the fourth time this season, with the record so far being two wins to one in our favour, their one victory being [.

Liverpool have apologised after they used footage of a fan making a racist gesture towards Manchester United defender Patrice Evra in a highlights package on their official website. A spokesman for Liverpool FC told the BBC: "We can confirm that footage was mistakenly included in the highlights package that appeared on the website.

Having left a pretty bad mark in their latest meeting with Manchester United, Liverpool apparently wants their upcoming meeting against Sir Alex Ferguson's side in the FA Cup returns as a memorable fixture in a footballing way.

This wish is being revealed by the Reds' captain, Steven Gerrard, who felt that what happened in both clubs' previous meeting have pretty much gave more negative aspect towards his team which is obviously not related with football.

Ahead of the it being confirmed that Luis Suarez had racially abused Patrice Evra, Kenny Dalglish claimed that the guilty party should be punished. That would mean if Evra couldn't prove he was innocent, he should be punished for making the accusation.

Liverpool players then warmed up in t-shirts in support of Suarez and once Suarez was found guilty, showed no remorse.

It's high time again for another hat trick and QOTD. Today's piece will focus a bit more on the USMNT as a couple of big games loom tonight and this weekend. One of the matchups includes two American soccer icons in a clash this weekend, which should make for must watch TV. Also follow after the break to have your say in the QOTD.