As in Pato loves the nightlife....

TSG's Serie A expert and Silicon Valley hopeful Eric Giardini on one troubled duckling...

What is there to say about Alexandre Pato?

Pato's real passion: Berlusconi

The AC Milan striker, who currently spends more time on the training table and off gallivanting around Milan with Barbara Berlusconi than on the field at the San Siro, is the most experienced striker on this very young Brazil roster.

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.

TweetSome would say it is ironic that, in this most turbulent of seasons in Chelsea's recent history, Roman Abramovich's holy grail of winning the Champions League is finally realised. In Munich last Saturday, Roberto Di Matteo achieved what esteemed figures such as Jose Mourinho, Luis Felipe Scolari and Carlo Ancelotti could not.

Montpellier HSC are the French champions for the very first time in their history. They needed only to draw away at bottom club Auxerre but managed to secure a 2-1 win, thanks to a brace from John Utaka and help send their hosts down into Ligue 2 for the first time since they were promoted back in 1980.

338 Appearances. 157 Goals. 10 Major Trophies.

#Legend

For the better part of my adult life, I've been around football. It's an all-consuming vacuum of sense and reality which has rewarded me with magical displays of individual and collective brilliance. As a team sport, football generally bestows plaudits on those select few men who seem to strike a fine balance between other-worldly talent and self-actualized ignorance.

PSG beat Lorient on the final day of the Ligue 1 season, which meant Montpellier had to win or draw against last-place Auxerre to win their first top-flight title in the club's history.

In front of a bitter crowd in Auxerre, that task become much more difficult than it first seemed when the home side went up 1-0 in the 20th minute.

Chelsea has announced that they will play mega-rich French side Paris St Germain at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, July 22. This will the first soccer game to be held at the new Yankee Stadium.

Chelsea's USA tour will now include four games, as they had previously announced fixtures against Seattle Sounders at CenturyLink Field on July 18 and Philadelphia on July 25 where we will meet the MLS All-Stars at PPL Park.

La vittoria di uno scudetto è la vittoria di tutto un collettivo. E per tale si intende non solo il tecnico o il goleador, ma della societ con i dirigenti, i loro collaboratori, lo staff medico, e tutto l'entourage che circonda gli atleti. In tutti i modi c'è un calciatore di questa terza stella che penso che meriti una citazione particolare: Andrea Pirlo.

Chelsea has announced that they will play mega-rich French side Paris St Germain at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, July 22. This will the first soccer game to be held at the new Yankee Stadium.

Chelsea's USA tour will now include four games, as they had previously announced fixtures against Seattle Sounders at CenturyLink Field on July 18 and Philadelphia on July 25 where we will meet the MLS All-Stars at PPL Park.

The end is near. An FA Cup Final beckons, with the promise of a hotly-contested affair against those northerners. This one, friends, is for all the marbles. More, after the jump:

Lets do it again

As the season draws to a close, we're presented with our first genuine opportunity at claiming silverware this year.

Wasn't this the golden age of FC Barcelona?
Barely a week ago the blaugrana were going for a clean sweep of trophies as their legend as the greatest football team of all time continued to be told.
Now Barça are out of the Champions League and have handed their Spanish title to Real Madrid with a loss to their arch-rivals at the Camp Nou.

Chelsea's fixture against Newcastle tonight is a must for Di Matteo if he hopes to get the Blues back into 4th place and clinch the final Champions League qualifying slot.

However, with both star forwards Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres showing remarkable improvement in their form these past couple of days, the Italian tactician faces a hard decision in whom to start.

The Loan Debate: Is it good for the parent club? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

With Fifa Financial Fair Play coming into effect and extortionate transfer fees blighting some clubs' efforts to reinforce, the tried-and-tested loan system is an option can make or break a team's season.

One only has to look at the track record of young players evolving into top-class athletes whilst on loan deals, or a club being boosted by a temporary signing.

Olympique Lyonnais vs. US Quevilly,

Coupe de France Final 2012, Stade de France.

The day your under-performing opponents become over-powering, is the day you know you shouldn't have left home at all. Yes, Lyon never ‘turned up' in the Coupe de la Ligue Final, to quote Rémi Garde.

We have all seen the news that Pep Guardiola has decided not to renew his contract and will quit Barcelona at the end of the season. He has said that he wants to take time out, away from football and concentrate on other things while he recharges his batteries. It was a surprising announcement when the news broke but one you could understand.

Paris Saint-Germain boss Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed his interest in signing Liverpool striker Luis Suarez.
It was reported in February that the Ligue 1 giants were open to offering the Uruguay international a route out of England following his eight-game ban for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.

BBC: Arsenal blew the Premier League title race wide open as leaders Manchester United were deservedly beaten at the Emirates Stadium. Aaron Ramsey's winner early in the second half condemned United to defeat and leaves them only three points ahead of Chelsea with identical goal difference and a meeting between the two to come at Old Trafford next Sunday.

The rejuvenation of Chelsea and Torres under John Terry - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

When Roberto Di Matteo John Terry took over at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea were reportedly in disarray following the dismissal of Andre Villas-Boas. Castrol stats shows that the Italian Englishman has rejuvenated the Blues since his appointment.

Nella 30/a giornata della Ligue 1 il Psg di Ancelotti cade in casa del Nancy (prima sconfitta per il tecnico di Reggiolo), vittorioso allo scadere grazie ad una rete di Mollo (dopo il botta e risposta tra Traorè e Sissoko) e rischia ora il sorpasso in vetta del Montpellier, impegnato mercoledi 11 al Velodrome, controContinua a leggere .

Joe Cole has emerged as one of Paris Saint-Germain's top transfer targets as they plan their ambitious summer spending.
Cole, who is on loan from Liverpool with French club Lille, is on Carlo Ancelotti's shopping list.
The midfielder's loan spell with Lille ends in May and Liverpool are prepared to listen to offers for Cole at the end of the season.

I was reading this article in believe it or not The Daily Mail written by Martin Samuel and for once, I have to agree with him. The article is basically about the situation that has faced every single Chelsea manager for the most part and that's the way our transfers are handled.
What I am referring to is the situation with "club signings" and the effect it has had on the likes of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and possibly AVB.

Carlo Ancelotti has never been one to shy away from the chance to lead a club sing-along, so PSG sent him and his players to a recording studio so they could lay down their rendition of "Allez Paris Saint-Germain."

If the song sounds like something from the Village People, that's because it is -- the PSG-centric lyrics are set to the disco group's "Go West.

Messi is Barca's top goalscorer and football's richest player

According to Football France magazine, here are the top ten paid athletes in 2012:

1. Tiger Woods (€52m)
2. Phil Mickelson (€46m)
3. Kobe Bryant (€39m)
4. LeBron James (€37m)
5.

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho is the world's best paid manager this is according to France Football. The Portuguese tactician earns a staggering £12.3 million every year a whooping £4 million more than his La Liga counterpart Pep Guardiola.

Of course the usual names like Ferguson, Wenger and Capello are on the list, however, it is the likes of Jose Camacho and Dick Advocaat that many were not expecting.

When Manchester United lost to Barcelona 3-1 in the Champions League Final last year, Sir Alex Ferguson talked of their dominance as being cyclical. On the other hand, Manchester United are going through a rebuilding period in Europe and he is hoping that defeat to Athletic Bilboa last night, 2-1, can be put down to a transitional year.

Chelsea's caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo has revealed the secret to winning all three matches since Andre Villas-Boas was sacked after just seven months in charge. The former assistant under Villas-Boas has sparked new life in an aging side that was showing its age a few weeks ago, resulting in wins in the FA Cup, Premier League and, most recently, a 4-1 extra-time win over Napoli in the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie that allowed Chelsea to advance on a 5-4 aggregate score.

5 Reasons Mick McCarthy Will Be The Next Chelsea Manager - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Following the sacking of Andres Villas-Boas, managers of the calibre of Jose Mourinho, Luciano Spalletti and Guus Hiddink have been touted as the next Chelsea manager.

But, what Stamford Bridge needs is a real shake-up.

GENTILEZA DEL SITIO EL TRAGICO WEB
09.03.2012 - España, Inglaterra, Rusia, Brasil, Alemania, Francia, Italia y Emiratos Árabes (con nuestro Diego Maradona) son los países en donde mejor se paga a los entrenadores de fútbol. Aquí la lista de los 30 entrenadores mejor pagos del mundo (cifras en euros / anuales):
01.

# Entrenador Club Salario Anual 1 José Mourinho Real Madrid 10.000.000 € 2 Pep Guardiola Barcelona 7.500.000 € 3 Guus Hiddink Anzhi Makhachkala 7.500.000 € 4 Roberto Mancini Manchester City 6.000.000 € 5 Carlo Ancelotti Paris Saint-German 5.

Another Champions League matchday is upon us: 2 matches today and 2 more tomorrow, 2nd legs of Round of 16 matchups, which means that by the end of Wednesday 4 of the 8 quarterfinalists will have been set. Here's the fixture list for today both matches kick off, as usual, at 20:45CET (= 2:45pmET/11:45amPT for those of us in the US):

Lineups » TV info Arsenal 20:45 Milan Referee: Damir Skomina (SVN) – Stadium: Arsenal Stadium, London (ENG)
Lineups » TV info Benfica 20:45 Zenit Referee: Howard Webb (ENG) – Stadium: Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Lisbon (POR)

Even though Arsenal-Milan is the marquee matchup in terms of some of us here at CultFootball HQ are leaning towards watching Benfica-Zenit instead.

The Spanish club now in the second division knocked the Champions League winners out of the competition pouring in 4 unanswered goals in the second leg to overcome a 4-1 first leg deficit. Coruna found four separate goalscorers as Walter Pandiani, Juan Carlos Valeron, Albert Luque, and Fran Gonzalez dismantled an excellent Milan side.

Have Arsenal ever gone into a second leg of any tie trailing by such a big margine? As far as I can remember tonight feels as about as pointless an event I can remember. It almost feels like both sides might as well not bother turning up.

But as we all know, the game still has to be played, and as long as that is the case football will continue to be the wonderfully unpredictable game that sets it apart from all other sports.

What have Chelsea lost? Their minds? Yes. The respect of the footballing world? Absolutely. Their place among Europe's elite for next season? Quite possibly, but that's not what I mean.

How good is their now former manager Andre Villas-Boas? It feels like his time at the highly dysfunctional Chelsea will not serve as a good representation of his skills.

Andres Villas-Boas is out as Chelsea manager.

The under-fire manager was dumped after Chelsea's loss to West Brom on Saturday, a defeat that dropped Chelsea to fifth place in the Premier League, in real danger of missing out on qualifying for the UEFA Champions League next season.

TweetSo Andre Villas-Boas has been sacked as Chelsea boss following Saturday's 1-0 away defeat to West Brom as In The Stands' Rolly Pelovangu asks is anybody surprised? Chelsea announced that they have parted company with 34-year old Andre Villas-Boas on Sunday morning with the news garnering little in terms of headlines or shocked surprise.

Following yesterday's dismal defeat at West Brom, Chelsea have finally pulled the trigger on Andre Villas-Boas. For the heinous crime of leaving the London club three points adrift of the top four, AVB has been dismissed with immediate effect, with assistant Roberto Di Matteo taking over until the end of the season.

Chelsea fire Andre Villas Boas as Abramovich backs player power - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Roman Abramovich has sacked André Villas-Boas after a string of poor results that has left Chelsea fifth in the league table. Saturday's 1-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion left Chelsea three points behind Arsenal with 11 games to go.

I hope like me everyone had a goodnight relaxed, in the knowledge that we do not have to play again until next Tuesday night.

In a game where I thought during the first half especially Liverpool, could have put at least a couple of goals past us.

The hero of the match for me was our goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Frank hates Andre. Andre hates Frank. Bob hates Frank. London Bridge is falling down. Or that's what those lovely mugs in the media would have us believe.

The talking heads continue to spout the drivel, their latest move being to smear David Luiz by manipulating some of his words this week into some sort of call-out directed at Frank Lampard.

One feels the time has come for Milan to decide; to persevere with Pato or allow him to leave. There have been numerous reports this season that the club are willing to sell him should the right offer arrive. Indeed, in January he was almost sold to Paris Saint-German, and despite being offered €35 million, [.