Something is happening behind the scenes that Pompey that is worth a great deal more headscratching than what it's generating at the moment. The club's present footballing situation is a nightmare, and after rumours that players and staff have not been paid, the financial situation cannot be much better.

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Pompey striker Aruna Dindane's hat-trick helped bottom club Portsmouth beat Wigan Athletic 4-0 at Fratton Park.Dindane's strike partner Frederic Piquionne was also on the score sheet for Portsmouth. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United's second string overcame the dismissal of Gary Neville to march into the last eight of the Carling Cup thanks to goals in each half from Danny Welbeck and Michael Owen to beat Barnsley 2-0.

Welbeck headed home Anderson's corner while unmarked in the fifth minute and Owen's neat finish just before the hour-mark put the holders in the clear in front of a sell-out crowd at Oakwell.

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I've held off on using my wild card this week despite carrying a lot of dead weight. My dead weight is all in the sub 6M range, so will be relatively easy to replace over the next 2-3 weeks, but for now - I'm still stuck with two Wolves' players - Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (5.2M) and the woeful Nenad Milijas (5. Click to continue reading...

.Arsenal Transfered In: Thomas Vermaelen (Ajax, £11m), Damian Martinez (Club Athletico Independiente, £1.3m), Jamie Edge (Cheltenham, undisc) Transfered Out: Abu Ogogo (Dag & Red, free), Amaury Bischoff (Academica de Coimbra, free), Emmanuel Adebayor (Man C, £25m), Kolo Toure (Man C, £14m), Jay Simpson (QPR, loan), James Dunne (Exeter, free), Rui Fonte (Lisbon, free), Rene Steer (Oldham, free), [. Click to continue reading...

With the Premier League about to spark into life this weekend, reporter Adam Hennessey casts his eye over the players he feels will have an impact this coming season, but players who readers may not know much about.

A contentious inclusion in the usual 'Who Are Ya?' feature, is new Portsmouth loanee, Frederic Piquionne, 30.

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Pompey are a team on the up. They've the perfect manager in 'arry who will get the most out of a club with limited means. They've got lots of young talent to build around including Crouch, Defoe, Muntari, Diarra, and Glen Johnson.
Wait... what? All those players are gone? 'arry is at Spurs? Click to continue reading...

Yes, he's actually featured for France
Blogger 1-1-8 got me thinking - the Premier League season is just a few days away, and we really should start pumping out some "preview" articles with a bit more regularity. Sites like Unprofessional Foul as well as The Guardian and Times Online (UK) are doing an excellent job going club by club with season previews - so we don't want to be redundant. Click to continue reading...

Tomorrow marks the start of Lyon's 2009-2010 season. For the first time in a really long time, Lyon will be fighting to earn back the title, as opposed to defending it (maybe this will help the team wake up from their apathy). Tomorrow they'll be facing Le Mans, who are definitely capable of surprises on their good days.

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According to Portsmouth's official website, Portsmouth have signed Lyon striker Frederic Piquionne on a season-long loan. Portsmouth have the option of making the deal permanent after the season.

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Lyon are continuing their spending spree by shelling out €13m for St. Etienne's Bafetimbi Gomis (plus another €2m in incentives). His cool name and awesome hair will be further augmenting Lyon's ever expanding strikeforce. I'll have a post featuring relevant information and stats about him once he has his press conference, but for now, let's talk about how Lyon's mercato is going.

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These 3-0 losses are starting to turn into a yearly ritual. A humiliating one.

The game was so bad that Lyon's official website posted a highlight video that was only three minutes long - usually they are around twenty minutes. Watching it, I realized why. Apart from Mickael Pagis's three goals, not much else happened.

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In lieu of a proper match review, I present you with this. Match highlights and photos at the end of the post.

1. When picking Brazilians, it's Ederson you want. Leave Fred behind with the rest of the garbage.

I don't mean to come off as a Fred hater, but did he accomplish ANYTHING in today's match - besides the countless times he squandered easy shots on goal?

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Auxerre
In: Jeremy Berthod (undisclosed, Monaco), Cedric Hengbart (undisclosed, Caen), Moussa Narry (undisclosed, Etoile du Sahel), Dariusz Dudka (undisclosed, Wisla Krakow), Amadou Sidibe (undisclosed, Djoliba Bamako)
Out:
Bordeaux
In: Yoann Gourcuff (loan, AC Milan), Yoan Gouffran (undisclosed, Bordeaux), Diego Placente (undisclosed, San Lorenzo)
Out:
Caen
In: Pablo Barzola (undisclosed, Caen)
Out: Yoan Gouffran (undisclosed, Bordeaux), Benoit Castil (loan, Vannes), Stephane Sanson (undisclosed, Reims), Cedric Hengbart (undisclosed, Auxerre)
Grenoble
In: Daniel Moreira (loan, Rennes)
Out:
Le Havre
In: Nicolas Dieuze (undisclosed, Toulouse)
Out:
Le Mans
In: Anthony Le Tallec (undisclosed, Liverpool)
Out: Daisuke Matsui (undisclosed, St. Click to continue reading...

One derby down, one to go. Sunday Lyon will be traveling to Le Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to take on A.S. St. Etienne in the second derby of the season. This is the 96th derby the two teams have participated in. After having handled Grenoble Foot 38 in the first derby, Lyon will have to contend with a St.

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Well, after 30 appearences and 7 goals for Lyon, It looks like we finally found a buyer for the "Blank Czech," Milan Baros. Phyeeeeew!!!! It looks like it's official now. Lyon and Galatasaray are said to have reached a verbal agreement on Monday, and apparently Baros was in Istanbul today Tuesday, to finalize the deal.

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Right. So Frederic Piquionne is a Lyon player. He was nabbed for €4.5m on a four year contract from Monaco. Everyone is excited. Really.

*tumbleweeds*

Or maybe not. Umm...

A new player? What?

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I wasn't planning a post on Lyon's supposed interest in Samuel Eto'o because I thought that these rumors would have blown away by now, but with my inbox flooded with over thirty google alerts in four different languages - in just one day - I guess I need to be more proactive about it.

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Although we've all been waiting for the eventual signing of The Rock, John Mensah -which should happen today, Monday- there are other smaller happenings in the Mercato. I apologize for the shortness of the piece, but transfer news is scant lately. I thought I'd throw in some tiny morcels of info to keep the stomach growling to a minimum for those of us who are genuine transfer news junkies, and for those of us who don't read French.

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