I want to apologize to everyone for being down the last couple of days. Quite frankly the blog has been running poorly since last Thursday. I spent hour and hours trying to figure it out to no avail. A very big thanks to Superrookies friend Jeff Austin for spending his whole evening working to get IMS back up and running.

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I want to apologize to everyone for being down the last couple of days. Quite frankly the blog has been running poorly since last Thursday. I spent hours and hours trying to figure it out to no avail. A very big thanks to Superrookies friend Jeff Austin for spending his whole evening working to get IMS back up and running.

Click to continue reading...

Now updated after the Ukraine and Belarus games (and some 'interesting' feedback) below is the squad we think Don Fabio should take to South Africa, with reason for inclusion - and exclusion...

Who should go... Goalkeepers

David James - Has been first choice for a while now, and we are yet to find a better alternative

Rob Green - He is the closest we have to a better alternative.

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England had already qualified before their defeat to the Ukraine - several other teams joined them on Saturday, including Italy after their last gasp equaliser against Ireland. Read on for a full round up of what is left to be decided (when time is short and articles are factual we tend to reproduce the best of the rest - that's the case here, lawyers, we are reprinting an article from the ever-excellent Football365.

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Here is the first of our 2009/10 Seasonal Previews. it comes from our sister site, Wakuba.com...

The Championship

Over the past few seasons the Championship has become one of the most competitive leagues in the world, with 24 teams all of relatively similar standard fighting it out in attritional game after attritional game.

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Much has been written of Michael Owen's shock transfer to Manchester United. It seems bizarre that he was linked with the likes of Stoke and Hull before moving to the Premiership champions; but it actually makes perfect sense. For Phil Brown or Tony Pulis Owen would have been a massive risk, likely to blow their wage structure and be the focal point of their side, a signing they would live or die by.

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Controversy is brewing at the otherwise rather tepid affair that is the Confederations Cup.

With the Brazil-Egypt clash locked at 3-3 going into the 90th minute, an Egyptian defender cleared a goal-bound header off the line with his arm. As the defender in question writhed around holding his head - in an attempt to disguise his misdemeanour - English referee Howard Webb signalled for a corner.

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Newcastle are gone. Gareth Freeman examines whether the man who took them down is the man to take them back up...

Newcastle's defeat to Aston Villa on the final day of the season ended a sixteen-year stay in the Premier League and condemned them to Championship football next season.

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The rumour mill is beginning to get into the swing now we're nearing the summer transfer window and yet again Gareth Barry is being linked with a move to Liverpool, with Xabi Alonso emerging as a target for probable Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. It would seem as if Benitez will have to let Alonso go to fund a move for Barry.

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That's why we watch football. Sometimes you have to sit through the relative tedium of Wigan v Sunderland, and sometimes even the Champions League throws up duds; but then every so often you get a game like last night's, a pulsating, thrilling, heart-stopping tie full of action, drama and intrigue.

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PREMIER LEAGUE

The top four teams in the Premier League will qualify for the Champions League. The top three will go straight to the group stage, the fourth-placed team will face a play-off.

English clubs are offered three places in the Europa League (formerly the Uefa Cup) - for the FA Cup winners, the Carling Cup winners and the fifth-placed team in the Premier League.

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Chelsea produced a fantastic performance last night to overwhelm Liverpool and take a 3-1 lead back to Stamford Bridge. They will be huge favourites to progress - but still not as strong as Barcelona, who played magnificently on their way to a vintage 4-0 win over Bayern Munich (who themselves set a CL record in the last round).

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Manchester United drew 2-2 with Porto last night, bringing the total number of goals they've conceded to 10 in 4 matches. That's as many as they conceded in their previous 23 games. A staggering statistic, and one that may indicate serious problems at the heart of the United backline.

It could be that Gary Neville is solely responsible, as he followed up his abject performance against Villa with a rotten cameo last night.

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Samsung, sponsors of Chelsea, are offering fans the chance to play in a 'Legends' game at Stamford Bridge (Don't worry - Jonathan Wilkes is not invited). This could be your chance to live out some football fantasies - that thirty yard drive or swinging crossfield pass. You can even bawl at the ref, as Dermot Gallagher is taking charge.

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'Kiko' Macheda, Manchester United's 17 year old Italian wonderkid, scored a sensational 93rd minute winner against Aston Villa to reignite United's title challenge. All the headlines are about him this morning (which must annoy Yossi Benayoun a little) - but if you're anything like us you won't know anything about him.

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Luke Moore - Aston Villa reject, but more damningly a failure at West Brom - has written this piece - http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,13320_5129821,00.html - entitled 'Is Owen a Relic of a Bygone Age?'. His point being, football has moved on and there is no place for an out and out goalscorer anymore. Click to continue reading...

Even if you take out the young and the tenuous, leaving only out-and-out indisputable forwards (albeit a couple who play in midfield sometimes) you still haveWalcott, Arshavin, Vela, Van Persie, Adebayor, Eduardo and Bendtner - an embarrassment of riches. You wouldn't bet against Adebayor leaving in the summer. Click to continue reading...

At the time of writing, Manchester United are three-fifths of the way towards the unprecedented ‘quintuple'. So it is no surprise to see that United players now make up the bookies' top four favourites for Footballer of the Year. Click to continue reading...

Spurs seemed to be spurred on by the re-arrival of their new captain Robbie Keane and were chasing every 50-50 ball with a sense of purpose from early on in the game. In the first 20 minutes neither team seemed able to stamp their authority on the game and the heat maps showed a game spread wide and deep across the pitch. Click to continue reading...

Everton won a turgid third Merseyside derby in 16 days last night, with a late, late Dan Gosling goal putting them through just as it looked to go to penalties. Apparently. I say apparently because I, along with millions of other disgruntled - nay apoplectic - viewers missed the goal due to ITV's amateur, avaricious football [. Click to continue reading...

It's deadline day! Who will move before 17.00? The snow makes everything a bit more difficult - and the Premierleague are looking into extending it. It looks like Robbie Keane will return to Spurs, though - probably in exchange for Aaron Lennon plus cash. That would allow Darren Bent to go to Everton or Sunderland. Click to continue reading...

Frank Lampard received a controversial red card in yesterday's big game - and it was the catalyst for Chelsea's eventual defeat. Lampard was dismissed for stretching and going for a ball at knee height a few feet in front of him, studs up. But how else was he supposed to get it? It was physically impossible [. Click to continue reading...

Here is Scoregrid's 'Game of the Week', a statistical analysis of the pattern of play in a major fixture. This week they chose Everton v Arsenal. Read on - and let us know what you think... Game Roundup: Arsenal won in the October encounter between these two stalwarts of the English game. On that occasion it was [. Click to continue reading...

Chelsea fan Andrew Walker recalls two great Champions League moments... Chelsea and Barcelona have carved out one of the most fascinating rivalries of the modern Champions League era. Their meetings in recent years have produced huge drama, and some goals of supreme quality. Two stand out as true moments of genius. Click to continue reading...

Footballsup Moments of Genius - those rare but beautiful occasions when someone produces something breathtaking, something out of this world, unattainable by mere mortals. Fernando Torres produced one yesterday in the Merseyside derby, controlling and then backheel-volleying a perfect through ball for Steven Gerrard to drill past Tim Howard. Click to continue reading...

After the breakdown of Kaka's proposed £100m transfer (or £175m if you read the Sun) (If you do read the Sun you're not welcome here) and Robinho's reported walk-out, we felt compelled to comment on the Man City merry-go-round. Click to continue reading...

Football is amazing - but it does have its flaws. Two of them were highlighted in last night's Merseyside derby, where Everton snatched a 1-1 draw and denied Liverpool the chance to go top. Click to continue reading...