Not going to waste too much time on expository dialogue when we can hop right into this one with guns blazing.One note. I like Montreal's offseason. A lot. But I'm excluding them from this discussion because our frame of reference is skewed without the perspective of an actual season played together.

Alternate title: "Welcome to the guns show" translated into Portuguese. Before they'd even hit the half hour, Sporting CP defender Oguchi Onyewu had notched one yellow card and two goals.Visual evidence to come...- Greg Seltzer

Tickets to the World Cup in Brazil are going to be fairly difficult to come by one would expect, if only in comparison to South Africa 2010. Gun violence is also something of a concern, so combining the two is obviously a natural course of action (work with me). Brazil's planning a "guns for tickets" drive ahead of the World Cup, netting at the very least a discount on tickets.

Suarez bans himself from saying "negro" on English pitches Liverpool have gone some way towards repairing the damage done by their mismanagement of the Luis Suarez racism controversy after their star striker issued an apology. Only yesterday, manager Kenny Dalglish was sticking to his guns as the club continued to claim they were being victimised [.

Reds still feeling victimised Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish stuck to his guns over the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra racism row following last night's defeat to Manchester City, despite the club confirming that they will not appeal their striker's eight-match ban. Suarez sat out the City match to start his suspension, prompting suggestions that Liverpool might change [.

News has broken this morning as the now the transfer window is open, that Alex will speak to QPR about a possible move to Loftus Road as early as today.
Some people have questioned with all our injury problems lately, as to why Alex has been frozen out and not called back into the squad but you have to give credit to AVB for sticking to his guns.

OK let's get this going early this morning. Chelsea are in a slump, badly need a win, getting criticised all over the place, reports that the players are turning against AVB, we are asking to play a deeper defensive line and for now, AVB seems to be sticking to his guns.
So with the news that it appears Didier Drogba is ahead of Fernando Torres to be selected for this game tomorrow lunchtime, I am asking who YOU THINK, as the Chelsea fan reading this, needs to start the game to give us the best chance of getting a massive three points.

Adam hails Reds' progress after holding City to a draw

"But we stuck to our guns and we played well. It was great entertainment," says the Liverpool midfielder

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-11-27 18:30:13 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Fair play and respect is due as far as AVB being charged for his comments after the QPR game. I posted a few days ago asking you guys if he should respond at all and it was great to hear that he has.
Not only did he respond, he denied the charges and isn't even going to turn up for the hearing.

1. 1-0 to the Eng-ger-land. Who said the defensive approach was just for the Spain game? Jack Rodwell, Gareth Barry and Phil Jones in midfield. Now if we could just replace Theo Walcott and Stewart Downing with Scott Parker and Lee Cattermole to add a bit more stability. 2. Hopefully the goal will be given [.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!

My, the hardworking folk at The Mirror have been a busy lot this morning; none more so than resident ink-slinger, Darren Lewis, who's been cooking up a spicy bit of gossip concerning that of Liverpool Football Club and one Thomas Andrew Huddlestone. Despite the Merseyside club having more central-midfielders than I've got angry red letters from the council- not to mention Liverpool's position as ‘direct rival' in the hunt for those precious Champions League spots- the story's author seems fairly determined to make it stick.

Liverpool are through to the League Cup Quarter-Finals after beating Stoke 2-1 at the Britannia Stadium.
Kenny Dalglish has Luiz Suarez to thank after his side went in one-nil down at half time due to a Kenwyne Jones headed goal on 44 mins.
This was despite Liverpool having shots saved by Sorensen from Andy Carroll, Martin Kelly and Suarez who was a problem for Stoke all evening.

Why City should throw caution to the wind at Old Trafford

One of the wisest things I've heard this season came from Phil Neville just the other day. "The league doesn't come to you," he said. "You've got to go and win it." That's why I want to see Manchester City go into Sunday's derby all guns blazing.

Why City should through caution to the wind at Old Trafford

One of the wisest things I've heard this season came from Phil Neville just the other day. "The league doesn't come to you," he said. "You've got to go and win it." That's why I want to see Manchester City go into Sunday's derby all guns blazing.

We noticed that after Newcastle went 1-0 down just before half time with an unfortunate penalty conceded, they came out in that second half with all guns blazing. Tim Krul another solid game from the Newcastle goalkeeper And it wasn't long until Demba Ba equalized after 48 minutes, and got his 5th goal in just three games for Newcastle.

In the summer of 2006, Wayne Rooney was sent off during the pre-season Amsterdam Tournament for an innocuous challenge on Pepe, as both players jumped for the ball. It was only a couple of months earlier that Rooney had been sent off against Portugal in the World Cup and Pepe was prepared to use this to his advantage.

By Chris Wright

If you though HIK's previous overwrought/decidedly annoying goal celebrations (think Shakira, Guns N' Roses, etc) were low budget and chintzy just wait until you see their latest offering, 'The Goal of Love'.

Scored in the same game that spawned the Axl Rose-aping tomfoolery, the 'Goal of Love' sees a chap named Soares bag a completely unremarkable goal, charge into the crowd to kiss his girlfriend Alysson and then, for the benefit of mankind, produce a naff tribute video (complete with Avatar-esque 'special' effects) to mark the occasion that is so cringe-inducing that it made a little bit of sick come up.

This afternoon is an interesting game for me for many reasons. We all know AVB has said in previous weeks that he wants to see his sides performances get better from week to week and I think we all are looking for the same level of performance as we saw in the second half against United.
I am wondering if he will make 10 changes to the side that faced Fulham this week.

By Chris Wright

Was Neymar sounded-out and repeatedly victimised by the Cruzeiro defence the other night, or could it be that he is just a feather-light powder-puff of a precious wee six-stone weakling?

Make your own minds up...

The little pansy.

All the talk has finally finished and while the conjecture over who may or may not be joining Spurs will go on for another couple of weeks, our season finally gets under way at Tynecastle tonight.
While Spurs may be favourites to win over two legs, former Hearts boss and current Spurs coach Joe Jordan says the team will not underestimate their Scottish opponents.

Drake, Weezy and nationally-ranked Connor Chinn in the same advert? One of these things is in no way like the other. And by that I mean one of these guys would probably get in trouble for talking publicly about guns & drugs use and calling people by the "N" word. The other two? They just get rich for doing it.

Yacht in Porto Rotondo, Sardinia? Check. Neatly trimmed beard, greased down hair and sharply defined guns of an international playboy? Check. Bored stare into the middle distance as gorgeous blonde girlfriend smothers one with overly demonstrative expressions of love? Check. Alex Pato, you have everything an elite player needs to enjoy his pre-season break.

By Chris Wright

In which, with only the first few games pulled out of the hat, Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis storms out of the Serie A fixture draw all guns blazing swearing at his fellow club presidents, claiming that the FIGC had fiddled the draw to smother Napoli, vowing to 'return to cinema' (he made his millions in film production) and threatening to tear up his Italian citizenship before commandeering a stranger's Vespa and pootling off into the sunset.

I have to say I think AVB was right the other day when he claimed that the media have an "Obsession" with Fernando Torres. Day after day we are reading something about him and his performances. Granted, the transfer fee we paid for him hasn't done him any favours as the media will always put him under scrutiny but, I still cannot believe the coverage he is getting just in pre-season!

Stuart Downing's move from Aston Villa to Liverpool stood on the verge of collapse last night as The Anfield club dug their heels in over the size of the fee.
"Stuart is a full England international with years of top flight experience, we have put a value on him and we will not come down from that" said first team coach Steve Clarke.

So Ed is going for the jugular on this News of the World scandal, a brave move given that he's the first Labour or Tory leader to disregard the consequences of a hostile News International.

Already dark forces are stirring and warning that they will make it personal for him if he makes calls for Rebekah Brooks to resign.

It took less than 12 minutes for Seattle to launch themselves out 2-0 in the early going. Roger Levesque played hero.
New York was without some of their bigger guns, Thierry Henry and Luke Rodgers were both out of the starting lineup as were Tim Ream and Rafa Marquez. Ream and Marquez were away on national team duty, with both their respective teams in the final.

Last summer Arsene Wenger made an early bid for the Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, but his manager Mark Hughes stood by his guns and made the Australian international stick to his contract and stay at Craven Cottage, despite the player's protestations that he was desperate to join Arsenal. Well this year it is the turn [.

So, the Brazilians, the devine canaries, were supposed to take revenge.

Supposed to come at us like a tempest. To wipe out the humiliation of last year's World Cup defeat. At home, this time. New coach. All guns present. New Pele Neymar was there. Former new Pele Robinho too. And some [read more]

Chuck and Jack in happier times (from Chuck's blog) - Jason Davis This site has yet to address the USMNT roster for the Gold Cup, and Bob Bradley certainly gave us plenty to talk about. Freddy returns. Fascinating. But Bradley for his picks and framing this as this all-guns-blazing-tournament (he'll either lay waste and win the title or go down giving us all the middle finger) will have to wait.

By Chris Wright

Fantastic imagery...

More topical Taiwanese CGI madness from Next Media Animation on Pies...

Hicks and Gillett's reign at Liverpool comes to an end

Wayne Rooney's hooker scandal

Ashley Cole guns down the work-experience boy

Before we descend persiously into the abyss of mindless gossip, half-truths and hearsay that can only be the silly season, there's the small matter of finishing the actual season this coming Sunday. Birmingham at home, folks, and a Europa League spot to peg down like an old weather-beaten tent.

Now in general I am a huge subscriber to the notion that "you are what your record says you are" (apologies to Bill Parcels). Ifs, ands, buts, and the like are generally for losers. That said, I came across this on The Twitter this morning and thought it would be interesting to share in light of the criticism that Arsene Wenger has received this season for sticking to his (ahem) guns when it

Well the Champions League Semi final round kicks off today. Today's game features Manchester United traveling to Gelsenkirchen, Germany to face Schalke. In the other semi, we have one of the biggest and most heated rivalries in the world. Barcelona will travel to the Bernabeu to face Real Madrid.

In the annual Tottenham/Arsenal sex face competition, Huddlestone was a clear winnerWhat a week that was. In the space of just a few days, Harry's boys played out two relatively high-scoring draws - one, a frenetic, all-guns-blazing, high stakes shootout with the Arsenal that we did well to get a point out of, and the other, a game that personnel, location and logic all dictated that we should have won and we didn't.

More numbers for you.

I've just quickly read this and don't really understand everything, but Chris Coleman's time at Fulham places him top of the table of managers active in the last few seasons, based on (to over-simplify) amount spent and league position. Can't disagree. It wasn't working very well in the end but in retrospect Coleman had a fine eye for a player, and had he received the same backing as other Fulham managers, might have done even better.

Netherlands U-21s 1-3 Germany U-21s
Zeefuik (45')
Lasogga (27'), Rudy (46'), Holtby (65')

The youth teams are setting the stage nicely for their older (or, in some cases, just better...) brothers with some lovely victories. I managed to catch some of the U-21 match against the Netherlands yesterday, and I'm glad I did.

For many of us, the Monday morning trip to work sees us surrounded by fans of other clubs, eager to stick the knife in after what, from their point of view, was a hilarious afternoon of football. Judging by the response to last night's blog, there are plenty reading this now desperate to make another joke at our expense.

Blackpool have lost their last five games, Ian Holloway will be desperate to avoid a sixth straight defeat. He'll have half an eye over the horizon to his next game against Tottenham, perhaps hoping that Wolves might offer an opportunity for points after that. And then Chelsea will come to town.