New Recruites? 'None'!

There are few football managers who never fail to surprise you. Take Benitez & his eccentric team-selection. Take Sven Goran & his audaciously picking Theo for WC '06, or for that matter take Mourinho & his pre-match banter. And then there are some whom you can bet your lives on, that come what may, they won't ever change.

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Before we begin, a quick feliz cumpleaños to Gabriel Batistuta, the all-time highest goalscorer in the history of the Argentine national team, who turned forty on Monday. There was no Argentine action from his old team Fiorentina on Sunday (they drew 2-2 away to Cagliari), but a move for his heir in the selección; after [. Click to continue reading...

On Tuesday night a home-based Argentina squad took on Costa Rica's national team in a friendly which saw Diego Maradona's return to footballing involvement following his two month touchline ban (who noticed?). The match was won 3-2 by Argentina, with goals from José Sosa, Guillermo Burdisso and Franco Jara for the hosts. Click to continue reading...

Oh yes, competitive football is finally back! The first meaningful match of the new decade on Argentine soil took place in El Cementerio de Los Elefantes on Tuesday night, as Colón hosted Universidad Católica of Chile in the first leg of the Copa Libertadores qualifying stage, and it was a humdinger. Click to continue reading...

River Plate and Boca Juniors drew 1-1 in the last clásico of the Torneos de Verano on Sunday night, after which a penalty shootout decided that the Copa Revancha went to River, who won the penalties 3-2. You can watch both goals and the shootout right here. Lucas Viatri headed Boca into the lead after [. Click to continue reading...

"We know in football there's two things which happen to football managers: you
do well and you move on or you don't and you're moved on."
Owen Coyle after joining Bolton from Burnley.

"These stories have as much relation to the truth as an egg to a chestnut."
Racing Santander president Francisco Pernia finds an interesting way to scotch rumours that teenage star Sergio Canales is leaving. Click to continue reading...

Anfield needs a new manager....and quickly!

Vote for COS Now!

Well the simple answer is no, but let me expand on this so as to at least make it worthwhile for fellow Liverpool fans to appreciate. I used to be an "In Rafa We Trust" kind of guy but after a large amount of time trying to maintain that stance I am finding it next to impossible to continue to do so and therefore I got to thinking about how things could theoretically pan out should the Spaniard be pushed or if he chose to jump (very unlikely considering the large sums of money he would be due if he was sacked just a short way into a long term deal).

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Claude Anelka, AC St Louis by The Herald Scotland

More details continue to surface on Claude Anelka, recently announced as Head Coach of the AC St Louis squad that begins play in USSF Division II this year. An earlier article in the Guardian, from 2008, included Anelka on The 10 worst football managers list:

Bad managers are two a penny every club in the land could muster a lengthy list all their own.

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Claude Anelka, AC St Louis by The Herald Scotland

More details continue to surface on Claude Anelka, recently announced as Head Coach of the AC St Louis squad that begins play in USSF Division II this year. An earlier article in the Guardian, from 2008, included Anelka on The 10 worst football managers list:

Bad managers are two a penny every club in the land could muster a lengthy list all their own.

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Big Story

The Flavio Briatore revolution continues at Loftus Road, and that door sure is revolving fast. News emerged yesterday that Phil Hart has resigned as manager of Queen's Park Rangers (reports here, here, here and here). That would make him the sixth manager to depart in the two and a half years since Briatore has been club chairman (and that doesn't include caretaker managers).

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A quick news update this one: It was confirmed on Thursday that the Argentine national team will play two friendlies in Buenos Aires prior to leaving for the World Cup. The original plan was to play the matches in Europe (fans there have more money, you see), but the players apparently requested that they play [. Click to continue reading...

By Ollie Irish

Some of the most clickworthy footie links I saw on this snowy London Wednesday...

Inevitable Cristiano Ronaldo news: C-Ron does a Beckham, models in his pants for cash homoerotic rating off the charts [Kickette]

Emmanuel Adebayor spotted wearing Arsenal shirt?

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First, for all those who are as big on detail as myself, I apologise for that headline, because there's nothing I hate more than English speakers referring to the world's most modest, understated football club as 'Real'. But why let that get in the way of a not especially good headline? Real Madrid might be [. Click to continue reading...

Well it certainly sounds like Owen Coyle will be moving the 25 or so miles to Bolton Wanderers to replace the sacked Gary Megson. After being given permission to talk to the Trotters, Coyle looks set to become the manager of a club he served so well for two years between 1993 and 1995.

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First of all, happy new year, HEGS readers! On Sunday the first of Argentina's clubs returned to their training facilities to prepare for the pre-season of the Torneos de Verano and (for some) Copa Libertadores qualification. The new year brings familiar issues though: Banfield are starting to accept that they're likely to lose Santiago Silva, whilst [. Click to continue reading...

I've been writing this blog for just over two years now, and I still don't know what it is. If I were forced at gunpoint to discuss who exactly reads the blog, what sort of angle it takes, or how it's fundamentally different from all the other blogs out there, I don't know what I'd tell him. Or her. Click to continue reading...

Over 50 bosses have lost their jobs in 2009. From Jimmy Mullen of Walsall on January 10th to Gary Megson's two days ago it's been another manic year on the managerial merry-go-round. It would hardly surprise me if someone got itchy fingers over Christmas and sacked someone before the New Year such is the current madness of boards around the country.

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Claudio Bieler a Copa Libertadores winner with Liga de Quito in 2008 might be coming home. José Sand, currently leading the scoring charts in the high-paying league of the United Arab Emirates, might also return, and Lanús are adamant that if it's to them, Eduardo Salvio will be around too, in spite of [. Click to continue reading...

A cobbled-together Argentina side visited the Camp Nou for the Catalán national side's annual pre-Christmas friendly on Tuesday evening, and were soundly beaten as the home crowd enjoyed jeering Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuaín. Lionel Messi didn't play, according to Carlos Bilardo because his club, Barcelona, had requested that he shouldn't. Click to continue reading...

The Torneo Apertura started in chaos, with no-one sure which TV channels games would be screened on and many finding it so difficult to find just one title contender that Boca Juniors, of all teams, were held up by some commentators as the most likely candidates (I'd never make a silly mistake like that of [. Click to continue reading...

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- QPR REPORT Available on TWITTER! ...Visit (and feel free to post on!) the cutting-edge-for-news QPR Report Messageboard - updated throughout the day!
- Scroll Down For Earlier Posts re QPR. Or click on QPR Report
- Two Year Flashback: Lakshmi Mittal Invests in QPR
- Paul Hart at Portsmouth: Perspective
- QPR's Vice Chairman Amit Bhatia and Managing Director Ishan Saksena Play in an Exhibition Game. Click to continue reading...

Estudiantes de La Plata played the final of the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, and despite leading for most of the match through a Mauro Boselli header, they found themselves taken to extra time by another header this one from Pedro, who's made a bit of history himself. In the extra [...] Click to continue reading...

Much has been said and done to celebrate the achievements of Bill Shankly on the fiftieth anniversary of his arrival in Liverpool, which is how it should be given that he was the one to make the club great again.
Indeed Shankly is rightly remembered among the greatest of football managers. What is often forgotten, however, is that between building his two great sides there were six seasons during which Liverpool won nothing. Click to continue reading...

Ricardo Caruso Lombardi confirmed on Wednesday night that he'll be Diego Cagna's successor at Tigre, returning to the club whom he took from Primera B into the B Nacional (third to second flight) in 2005. Not such good news from the judiciary system, though: Rafael Di Zeo, the former capo of Boca Juniors' barra brava, [. Click to continue reading...

Anfield last night payed tribute to one of the most iconic football managers of all time, as the club marked the 50th Anniversary since the great Bill Shankly took charge of the club and made history during an incredible and awe-inspiring 15 years at the helm of the Merseyside giants.

The achievements of the club during the 1960's are still fondly remembered on Merseyside – and probably always will be as the great man took them from the old second division – now the championship, and won three league titles, two FA cups as well as a Uefa cup, a period which kick-started Liverpool's proud and inspiring history.

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Estudiantes de La Plata advanced to the final of the Club World Cup on Tuesday by beating South Korea's Pohang Steelers 2-1 in Abu Dhabi. They'll meet either FC Barcelona of Spain, or Atlante of Mexico, in the final on Saturday. Leandro Chino Benítez got both of Estudiantes' goals, and you can watch them here. Click to continue reading...

The belief seems to have gone from Liverpool at the moment – and it needs to come back quickly.
In short, the players need to realise how good they are again.
Rafael Benitez won't find the answers to the current problems by looking for money in the January transfer window or by taking any notice of anything the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann or Graeme Souness say. Click to continue reading...

In the Estadio Florencia Sola they're celebrating along with those in the upper tier of La Bombonera. Banfield may have lost to Boca Juniors, but for the first time in their 113 year history, they're champions of Argentina thanks to San Lorenzo's 2 0 win away to Newell's Old Boys which ended the lingering [. Click to continue reading...

While having a drink at a local coffee shop Wednesday evening with Kartik Krishnaiyer, the topic of Graeme Souness came up and what an abysmal football manager he was especially at Newcastle. It got me thinking, though, that just as footballers retire from playing, football managers should be put out to pasture too when they're obviously inept or past their prime.

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As you may be aware, Estudiantes de La Plata are playing in the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi very soon (it started on Wednesday). As you may also be aware, they've got a bit of history in the competition back when it was the Intercontinental Cup, and Seba Verón's dad played no small part [...] Click to continue reading...

As the observant among you may already have noticed, there's now a HEGS Twitter feed displaying in the left-hand sidebar of this site. Twitter ought to enable me to do a couple of things: first, of course, it'll promote HEGS, but I also plan to put up updates over the course of the weekend regarding [. Click to continue reading...

Going into the seventeenth round of fixtures in the Torneo Apertura, here's a brief rundown of what's been going on off the pitch in the last few days. Estudiantes, of course, leave for the UAE to take part in the Club World Cup this weekend, and they played their final domestic match of the year [.. Click to continue reading...

It's now December and the transfer window fast approaches. In January the world's football managers will indulge in a flurry of spending that would put Britain's bankers to shame. We can expect Chelsea, who have had their ban on making deals postponed, to break new records in an attempt to plan ahead, but with so many clubs in financial crisis who is going to get the best bargain? Click to continue reading...

On the 22nd December, Argentina will play a friendly against the Catalán national side. Diego Maradona's not allowed to watch (the appeal against his ban was thrown out by FIFA on Wednesday), but he's named the squad all the same. Catalonia were banned from playing a match with the USA back in 2007 but, when [. Click to continue reading...

Football Managers, particularly those in the Premier League, have always had a lot on their plate to deal with when running the affairs of a football team. They are the pivotal figure of the club and have the task of keeping all interested parties happy at all times and of course must deliver results on [. Click to continue reading...