Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho has offered his backing to former club Chelsea as they prepare to visit Bayern in a massive Champions League final at Munich's Allianz Arena next month.

Bayern rode their destiny all the way home in a 3-3 aggregate draw that ended up with the German side beating Mourinho's men 3-1 in the decisive penalty shoot-out last night.

Image: FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images.

Barcelona defender Eric Abidal is "recovering well" from his liver transplant, the club said this morning.

The operation took place on Tuesday. While the family have requested that no official statement be made at this time, we would like to take this opportunity to send Eric and his cousin Gerard (the donor) our best wishes for a swift recovery.

The mosaic read Muamba 6 at the Reebok. The large screen played a collage of clips of the player in his Bolton career. The visiting Blackburn fans also got into the act chanting his name. There was even more uplifting news, the midfielder still not quite out of the woods in the cardiac care unit of the London Chest Hospital, managed to convey his best wishes to Bolton from his hospital bed.

Yesterday was a day I won't forget in a hurry, in my office working I flicked up the BBC Website to check the score and see whether it was worth watching the second half, it was 1-1 Bale had scored an own goal, I smiled and decided to listen to it live on the radio.

Seconds after I heard David Pleat say that Muamba had gone down with no one around him and both Modric and Gallas called on the medical teams immediately and were showing concern.

Yesterday was a day I won't forget in a hurry, in my office working I flicked up the BBC Website to check the score and see whether it was worth watching the second half, it was 1-1 Bale had scored an own goal, I smiled and decided to listen to it live on the radio.

Seconds after I heard David Pleat say that Muamba had gone down with no one around him and both Modric and Gallas called on the medical teams immediately and were showing concern.

I wasn't watching Sp*rs v Bolton last night but followed events via Twitter. It was heartening to eventually hear that Fabrice Muamba was stable, despite being critically ill, because it's one of those situations where it's easy, and sadly usually accurate, to fear the worst.

All we can do this morning is hope that the fight he has shown as a young man, and a player, to get where he did in football continues and that he pulls through this fully.

The Portland Timbers reported today that central defender Futty Danso has suffered a fractured fifth metatarsal in his left foot. He is expected to be out four to six weeks.

The injury appears to have resulted from an incident in training yesterday. Timbers Insider writer Kelly McLain gave this report at the time:

Futty Danso played just a few minutes of keepaway before taking a knock that forced him to the sideline to ice his left foot for the remainder of training.

Wolverhampton Wanderers Sack Manager Mick McCarthy - The 90th Minute Soccer Blog

With Wolverhampton in a tough relegation fight this season, it was no surprise that the club decided to part ways with manager Mick McCarthy. The club issued the following statement on their website about the decision.

The 5-1 defeat to West Brom was the final straw for Wolves owner Steve Morgan and he has sacked Mick McCarthy after five-and-a-half years in charge at Molineux.

A statement on the Wolves web site read:

"Wolves have today announced that manager, Mick McCarthy, has left the club with immediate effect.

By Chris Wright

After they were well and truly trounced 5-1 at home by West Brom yesterday, a result that put them back in the bottom three, Wolves have sacked Mick McCarthy an announcement that I actually expected to come before close of play yesterday truth be told.

1. Paul Scholes: he does, indeed, score goals. 2. Poor old Arsenal come unstuck once again when they have to adapt their game against one of those physical south Wales teams. 3. Bolton keeper Adam Bogdan knows that if you can keep penalties away from Wayne Rooney's magic thatch then you're onto a winner.

Luis Suarez and Lucas Leiva couldn't take part in Liverpool's hard-fought victory Carling Cup over Manchester City at the Etihad stadium last night, but both players watched the game, and were full of praise for the efforts of their team-mates. Prior to the game, Suarez - who is currently serving an 8-match ban - sent his best wishes to the team via twitter:"All the luck in the world for my

I started this blog on April 23rd of 2007, about 10 years ago, and after over 55M hits, we are still going yes I know it's all very surprising. Ed and Madeline Harrison This shot was taken in High Heaton, Newcastle and yes the sun was shining! We'd like to extend our best wishes to Newcastle fans everywhere, and all the [.

I have difficulty with endings. I am not sure that I would like people who handle endings with detached aplomb. Now that I have used the phrase "detached aplomb', honestly it just popped into my head, I am wondering if this means I would not like James Bond and why do words such as "aplomb" stick in my head when I have trouble remembering the names of people I see every day.

In the last year we've been joined by Arsenal supporters from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America only Antarctica to go. Whatever your beliefs, it is a good time to remember and be thankful for what unites us.

We are united by our love of The Arsenal and have forged friendships with people most of whom we are unlikely ever to meet; all made possible by the magic of the internet.

Happy Christmas from LFC

The players and staff of Liverpool FC would like to wish all of our supporters a Happy Christmas and very best wishes for 2012.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-12-25 00:03:41 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Get well soon Ray Clemence

Liverpool FC would like to extend their best wishes to Ray Clemence following the news he has been admitted to hospital.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-11-14 15:17:22 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Image Credit: AP Photo/Anna Gowthorpe.

The story of Billy Sharp is all over the British press today, but we feel that this is the kind of story that all of our readers, regardless of geographical location, should get to hear about.

Billy scored a goal for Doncaster Rovers last night, after insisting he was ready to play in his side's 3-1 defeat to Middlesbrough despite the death of his two-day-old son Luey Jacob on Saturday.

Recuperating Ron thanks fans

The family of Ronnie Moran have thanked Liverpool supporters for their cards and best wishes after the Anfield legend left hospital.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-09-28 09:51:42 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Recuperating Ronnie thanks fans

The family of Ronnie Moran have thanked Liverpool supporters for their cards and best wishes after the Anfield legend left hospital.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-09-28 09:32:29 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Images via bild.de.

Bayern Munich defender Breno made a narrow escape from his home last night after he awoke to find flames raging around him.

Reports state that the player was uninjured, but kept in hospital for observation after suffering the effects of smoke inhalation. His wife and children were not in the house at the time.

Get well soon Ronnie Moran

Liverpool Football Club was today sending its best wishes to Ronnie Moran after the Liverpool legend was admitted to hospital.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-09-14 16:59:15 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Kenny Dalglish spoke to Liverpoolfc.tv and told us why Aquilani has left Liverpool to go on a season long loan to AC Milan.
"It's a great move for Alberto. He's got his wife and kid over there. It was difficult for him here." Dalglish said.
"When he came back his pre-season training was excellent.

Images: Getty; AP.

We are thrilled to be able to share the news that John Obi Mikel's father Michael has been freed after Nigerian police located the kidnappers who had been holding him since 12th August. The Chelsea midfielder's agents tweeted the news that Michael had contacted his family yesterday afternoon and confirmed that they would be releasing further information in a statement today.

Image: Getty Images/Daylife.

Anyone who saw John Obi Mikel's shot skim the crossbar midway through the second half of Chelsea's 0-0 draw with Stoke on Sunday would be forgiven for thinking that the player was totally in the zone. Sadly, he was not.

It has been reported that Obi made the decision to play in the fixture, despite learning shortly before kick-off that his father had been abducted in Nigeria.

Neil Warnock is a lucky man plus Leicester striker Paul Gallagher takes Twitter by storm

NEIL WARNOCK IS THE LUCKY MAN OF THE SUMMER Congratulations to the winner of Notts County's weekly raffle in mid-June. Though not sure a grand will be life-changing money to the former Magpies boss and current QPR manager.

Latest rumours surrounding Serbian International, Milan Jovanovic appear to suggest that the player has almost agreed personal terms with Belgian club Anderlecht.
His agent has claimed that a deal has almost been done between the two clubs and that all that remains now is for the forward to agree his weekly wages with the club.

Sir Alex Ferguson has passed on his best wishes to Wes Brown, who has today agreed a four year deal with Sunderland.

"Wes has been a great asset to the club during the most successful period in its history," Ferguson told the club's official website. "He was a product of the youth system and marked himself out from an early age as one of his generation's most natural defenders.

Sigh. It's not exactly a shocking development, but I am still disappointed. I've made no secret of the fact that I always wanted to keep him, although I appear to be in the minority of Bolton fans. After much heckling and haggling between the two clubs, including some rude accusations from Whelan, a deal has finally been agreed, and Al Habsi has become a Pie-Eater for the price of £4m.

Yesterday we learned of the sad passing of Peter Thomson, who posted here and elsewhere under the name of Pensioner (By my reckoning he made about 150 comments on this site).

I never did meet Peter, although last year we corresponded a fair amount. At one point he suggested meeting for a glass of fine wine to discuss matters Fulham, and specifically writing about Fulham, but like so many of these good ideas it never happened.

Didn't seem like too long ago that Holden was injured yet again. Here's a little something to get you caught up with the USMNT midfielder during his recovery:I had a torn ACL and meniscus myself, and didn't get the use of the stretcher that he has for his leg, but I'll tell you regardless, the road to recovery on a knee injury is painful and long.

Dear Scott,

Thank you for contacting the Football Association.

The FA takes a dim view of any foul and abusive language used at football matches. The clear distinction to be made in the Wayne Rooney case is that the language used was directed specifically at a television camera lens, whilst clearly audible to the viewing public.

Image via EQ

Barcelona defender and former Kickette Midweek Mmm, Eric Abidal, will undergo surgery on Friday for a tumour on his liver. The news was announced via Barca's Twitter feed and has since been confirmed on their official website.

Abidal, who has made over one hundred and forty appearances for his club, has requested privacy and Barcelona have yet to confirm when the player might be expected to return.

The first item of the day is sending our best wishes to regular reader and occasional contributor Mohamed who lives in Egypt. With all of the insanity going on in his part of the world, we wish him and anyone else who reads our blog in Egypt the best as they try to keep themselves and their loved ones.

Is it time already for us to issue a fail files on ourselves? Can't be - we were just boasting about our ability to keep pace for more than the odd day or so!

Their youth may be fading faster than our Valentine's Day candy dish, but Dimitar Berbatov, Peter Crouch and Jamie Carragher are still entitled to feel special on their big days the days proceeding their actual birthdays.

U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage was the assistant coach for the China team at the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, which they hosted. Every time Pia has returned to China since then, she has proved to be a very popular person with many media members wanting to speak with her, mostly about China, the Chinese team, what the Chinese team can do to get better, why China isn't better, why she left China, will she be back to China.

According to news coming in & being picked up by the mayor Spanish Sports online media, REAL MADRID has offered GERMAN Club HAMBURG a speculated 2M€ for forward RUUD VAN NISTELROOY. The player went free to Hamburg with the best wishes of the Spanish Club & now the latter finds itself being "forced" to fork out money to get him back; a bit like a "Marx Brothers movie".

News has reached me that Adebayo Gbadebo (pictured below) has left Thai Port at the end of his contract to take on the role of General Manager at Raj Pracha. The popular Nigerian admitted that it was a very difficult decision to leave Port, but the challenge of trying to transform Raj into a fully professional set-up was too good to turn down.

STARTERS
A huge blast of recognition must go out to Kristine Lilly today. She has retired from the game after only 352 caps for the USA. Yes, 352! That is staggering. Best wishes to her!

TEAM USA
The annual January training camp for young and out-of season players with national team potential begins tomorrow Tue Jan 4 in Carson CA and ends with a friendly game on Sat Jan 22 at the Home Depot Center.