As you know, EPL Talk focuses on the Premier League and not the lower leagues of England, but my day didn't start so well when Setanta-i had technical problems which prevented me and all other Setanta-i customers from viewing the Welsh derby featuring the club I've supported all my life, Swansea City, against Cardiff City.

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Seven stories from The Offside and World Cup Blog this week: Nominate your player/manager football ubermen Gigi's Buffon's incredible Champions League save Ballon d'Or or FIFA World Player of the Year: Which is shinier? Norwegian homage to Brazilian airport ad The return of Johan Cruyff. To Catalonia. Click to continue reading...

Reds star Jamie Carragher officially launched his new young people's charity in Liverpool.
The Liverpool defender set up The 23 Foundation earlier this year to provide grants to young people on Merseyside.
The 23 Foundation, which takes its name from Carragher's team shirt number, aims to give children a better chance in life. Click to continue reading...

Xabi Alonso has risked angering the Liverpool fans who used to idolise him by claiming that Fernando Torres 'deserves' to play in Spain.
Alonso left Merseyside for Real Madrid in a £30million move this summer after telling Rafa Benitez that he wanted to join the Bernabeu revolution. Click to continue reading...

Xabi Alonso will never regret joining Liverpool in 2004, despite having the option to join his current club Real Madrid.
The Spanish international was coveted by the La Liga giants prior to leaving Real Sociedad, but chose to join the Premier League side instead.
The midfielder has great memories of his time at Anfield, and admits the fans will always hold a special place in his heart. Click to continue reading...

Major League Soccer is growing and improving but outsiders often criticise the league for having a lack of quality. It is a relatively fast football played in the US, with plenty of big, athletic players of the kind which is becoming so important in so many footballing countries across the world.

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Rio rocks the mic... again Here is Rio Ferdinand and British rapper Kano giving their version of that latter's song Rock n Roller during a drinking session at the trendy footballer hangout that is La Tasca!

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Burton Albion manager and former Canadian international Paul Peschisolido is the latest guest on the EPL Talk Podcast, North America's only daily football show.

Peschisolido has a proud history as a journeyman footballer in the United Kingdom who has played at several clubs including Fulham, Birmingham City, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion and other clubs.

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Sido Jombati extended his hand, and with a warm smile on his face said, 'My name is Sido.'
I couldn't help but laugh. I had just contacted him a few days ago to tell him what a big fan I was, and to request an interview with him for this blog. I certainly knew who his name. I was to learn, though, that Sido is as unassuming as he is friendly. Click to continue reading...

Adriano has been doing really well since returning to Brazil and getting his head back together. So well, in fact, that people are even using his image on their products. Unfortunately, those products are drugs.

From the Corriere dello Sport:

Now that Adriano is back in Rio de Janeiro and is the top scorer in the Brazilian championship with Flamengo, he's so popular that his picture is even selling packets of drugs.

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Most would agree that the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year awards are the two biggest individual honours a footballer can win. Bigger even than my Netherton Colts East U-14 Manager's Player of the Year Runner-Up trophy (pictured?). But which award is really the one to win? The Ballon d'Or has the [. Click to continue reading...

With our Champions League match against AZ Alkmaar looming, I am just going to use today to briefly talk about a few issues facing the club this week, including the Fran Merida situation, the impending, or not, takeover bid, and a look back at the delusion that is Spurs', and Harry Redknapp's, view of their side.

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Up and coming talent linked with Anfield move.

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Liverpool are reportedly lining up a move for young Hungarian midfielder Vladimir Koman.

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Harry Redknapp interested in 'surplus to requirements' Manchester City man.

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Manchester City fans know what we're talking about.

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The football just keeps coming with Champions League action tomorrow night. There'll be a press conference and team news today so we can preview the game properly tomorrow.

A win would assure qualification for the knock-out stage of the competition so there'll be no rest for the main men. Robin van Persie will lead the line again and after two goals against Sp*rs the manager seems to think 25 goals for the season is an achievable target for him.

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For a long while there, Stephen Appiah was an international footballer only. The midfielder has not played a kick of club soccer since late 2007, but still managed to captain Ghana through a successful World Cup 2010 qualification campaign. Which is ridiculously impressive when you think about it.

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Houston and Seattle played a classic match last night on national television. The unsporting Freddy Montero was unable to hand the physical pounding Dom Kinnear and the Houston defenders had in store for the much hyped, but little regarded (at least in Colombia) forward. Montero's solution: whine and go to ground easily.

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Marlon King is twenty-eight years old. His contract with Wigan Athletic was worth £35,000 per week. He has scored twelve Premier League goals in his entire career. Never has in the field of human endeavour has such mediocrity been so handsomely rewarded. For this reason and this doesn't obviously doesn't even take into account what he has been sent to prison for and if nothing else comes from this grimly predictable story, at least Dave Whelan may be breathing a sigh of relief at getting such an expensive burden upon Wigan Athletic's wage bill.

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"Henrik Larsson always scores." The clip shows Celtic fighting back through Larsson against Porto in a pulsating 2003 UEFA Cup final.

My memories of Larsson will always be defined by the Swedish striker entering the game in the 2006 CL final against Arsenal late in the second half.

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Featuring two courtesy of the man himself 1. "I'm just out of your league. I'm a millionaire." Yes, the biggest joke of all is disgraced King's attempted chat-up line. 2. So Marlon King was jailed for failing to score at a club. Which one? Wigan, Hull, Middlesbrough? 3. Sky Sports News is reporting that a top footballer has [. Click to continue reading...

Real talk 1: if this is the intense face Nemanja has when walking onto the pitch holding an innocent child's little hand, can you even imagine his other faces? Ahem.

Real talk 2: the hottest robot to play in the Premier League is now the most booked defender in the Premier League.

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Real talk 1: if this is the intense face Nemanja has when walking onto the pitch holding an innocent child's little hand, can you even imagine his other faces? Ahem.

Real talk 2: the hottest robot to play in the Premier League is now the most booked defender in the Premier League.

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During last night's Brazilian Serie A league match between São Paulo FC and Internacional an aspiring young footballer invaded the pitch in the 33rd minute of the first half. "So what's the big deal?" you may ask. Well this was a case of a young player attempting to break into the big time. Instead of trying the [. Click to continue reading...

Jozy Altidore made headlines last week for the wrong reasons with his Twitter outburst after inexplicably showing up late to a match. This saw the striker, who is on his fourth club in fifteen months, suspended.

Altidore's skill set may be impressive but his body of work both at the club level and as an international is hardly Premiership caliber, at this point.

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For the love of football!

This looks like too much fun. Â What footballer wouldn't want to have a go at a game like this?

Play Guitar Hero by kicking soccer balls against a warehouse wall? Â The scale of this takes video gaming to another level, and looks silly fun. Â It would take a handful of good footballers and some practice to manage a decent score, but wouldn't it be a blast to try?

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Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster has been under a lot of criticism recently after making several crucial mistakes in front of goal. And now his reputation sunk to a new low Tuesday night after a couple of Barnsley yobs invaded the pitch at Oakwell and scored a goal past him.

Foster didn't look too amused, did he?

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After a very impressive start to the season, the recent three game winless run (although undefeated) has brought one or two frustrations from fans to the fore.
None moreso than the continued form of Micah Richards.
As rapid as his ascent was, coming into the side as a teenager and marking a first team spot as his own before catapulting himself into the international fold, his subsequent decline has been anything but. Click to continue reading...

Did you know Freddie Ljungberg has a blog? I didn't. I just noticed it in the byline of his recent column for Soccernet. Yeah that's right, he also has a column at ESPN. So to recap he's a footballer, a model, a blogger, a columnist and a handball enthusiast. Hell if he started med school and got his pilots license dude would be the new Barbie. Click to continue reading...

Marlon King was once infamously described as being a £60m footballer by Watford, what with him being their key to Premiership involvement. Turns out he was neither the key nor was he worth that amount of money. Rather he was worth £3m two years ago before delving into journeyman loan status, which puts him as [. Click to continue reading...

19 year old USMNT and Hull City Striker Jozy Altidore is the latest footballer to be involved in controversy over twitter. Click to continue reading...

Evening, campers.

Perhaps noteworthy, tomorrow will see the loudest two sets of fans come head to head for the first time this season. According to those poindexters with the clipboards and ear horns, Stoke and Tottenham emit the highest level of decibels from their respective strongholds; with Stoke ahead by a whisper.

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Sunderland boss Steve Bruce faces a battle to keep hold of star skipper Lorik Cana.
The Daily Mail says Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has not given up hope of signing Cana, despite the Albanian midfielder moving to Sunderland this summer.
Cana was tracked by Wenger last season and the Arsenal boss could make a fresh move next year. Click to continue reading...

Tune in for Episode 25 of the world famous Soccerlens Podcast with ex-footballer Adrian Clarke and football journalist Iain Spragg.

This week's humdinger of a show features a fascinating interview on all things Manchester United and Barcelona with respected football writer and author of new book "Glory, Glory!

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My post yesterday on the alleged racist abuse that Rangers' star Maurice Edu received from his own fans got me thinking Can these incidents ever be stopped? Your average African/Asian/Caribbean Footballer won't be adverse to remarks made about their race or ethnic background, and that's a horrible truth to admit. Click to continue reading...

Sir Alex Ferguson is happy with our 1-0 away win against CSKA Moscow last night with Antonio Valencia bagging the winning goal.

"I think we should be proud of it," said Ferguson. "It's not easy away from Europe because we've been to some fantastic places over the years. Maturity there is a way you play in Europe away from home and I think you saw tonight we showed good patience in the game and kept good possession, I think that's a key factor.

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