It's a little over 10 hours to go before the rumour mongers and speculation, erm, spasmos take
themselves a much needed break. At least for a fortnight or so, then they'll be back with a
vengeance, leading all the way up to the perennially underwhelming January window.
Until then, I thought I'd summarise this summer's movements to date, borrowing from the transfers
page, and throw in anything that happens during the course of this afternoon and evening.
The new 2011/12 Premier League season is finally here! It's the battle of the new managers at
Craven Cottage today, although Martin Jol does have several competitive games under his belt in the
Europa League.
Here are the confirmed line-ups for both sides:
Fulham Aston Villa 1 Mark Schwarzer 1 Shay Given 18 Aaron Hughes 2 Luke Young 14 Philippe Senderos
6 James Collins 5 Brede Hangeland 5 Richard Dunne 7 John Arne Riise 3 Stephen Warnock 16 Damien
Duff 10 Charles N'Zogbia 20 Dickson Etuhu 16 Fabian Delph 13 Danny Murphy 19 Stiliyan Petrov 23
Clint Dempsey 18 Emile Heskey 8 Andrew Johnson 11 Gabriel Agbonlahor 25 Bobby Zamora 9 Darren Bent
Subs Subs 38 Neil Etheridge 22 Brad Guzan 2 Stephen Kelly 21 Ciaran Clark 6 Chris Baird 7 Stephen
Ireland 28 Matthew Briggs 17 Jean II Makoun 4 Steve Sidwell 12 Marc Albrighton 10 Pajtim Kasami 25
Barry Bannan 30 Moussa Dembele 14 Nathan Delfouneso Probable Formation: Castrol Football Prediction
Today's other Premier League fixtures:
Aston Villa are taking 24 players to Hong Kong to compete in the Barclays Asia Trophy and the
travelling party are en route right now. As the strength and depth of the squad is a hot topic at
the moment, I thought it might be interesting to compare this pre-season tournament squad with the
squads from the last couple of seasons.
This is a big, big game for Alex Mcleish today. The last of a run of home games and a derby
against an opponent that caused his predecessor so many problems. It's also something of a "top of
the table" encounter and the winner, should there be one, will get boasting rights over the rest of
the league for at least a while today.
Just over 21,000 saw Villa earn their place in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup the hard way
thanks to a late goal each from Eric Lichaj (80′) and Nathan Delfouneso (88′) from the
bench.
It's a game I've yet to see anything from first hand, but it sounds like we dominated the game
pretty much in the manner you'd expect over a struggling League Two side, but were frustrated by
some fine goalkeeping from 20 year old loanee, David Cornell.
Alex McLeish has rung the changes for this Carling Cup clash, but retained a strong side
blending youth and experience.
Aston Villa Hereford 22 Brad Guzan 28 David Cornell 31 Chris Herd 2 Ryan Green 5 Richard Dunne 5
Michael Townsend 21 Ciaran Clark 3 Joe Heath 30 Eric Lichaj 16 Daniel Williams 17 Jean II Makoun 17
Joe Colbeck 25 Barry Bannan 8 Nicky Featherstone 7 Stephen Ireland 14 James Mcquiokin 12 Marc
Albrighton 4 Harry Pell 10 Charles N'Zogbia 10 Delroy Facey 9 Darren Bent 7 Stuart Fleetwood Subs
Subs 33 Andy Marshall 38 Russell Hoult 32 Nathan Baker 30 Tommy Johnson 23 Habib Beye 19 Kyle
McCarthy 34 Shane Lowry 11 Kenny Lunt 28 Jonathan Hogg 31 Lewis Feeley 26 Andreas Weimann 9 Yoann
Arquin 14 Nathan Delfouneso 32 Nathan Perkins
Neither side were able to break the deadlock at Craven Cottage in a game that failed to ever
spark into life. As the visiting manager, Alex McLeish will rightly be happier with his point, but
will have Shay Given to thank for a number of important saves and might be concerned about the lack
of any real threat at the opposite end today.
Yes, it's just pre-season. Yes, it's still early days, there's much to be done. Nevertheless,
the positive signs continue. The green shoots of recovery are quite possibly poking their heads
through the soil.
Darren Bent (who else?) got the only goal of the game in typically oppressive conditions in Hong
Kong, but there were encouraging performances all around the pitch.
McLeish's first game in charge ended in a comfortable 3-1 at the Bescot thanks to a brace from
Darren Bent and rare goal from Emile Heskey, but it could have been much more with several players
going close throughout the game, notably Nathan Delfouneso during a strong second half
performance.
There is apparently a quote from Alex McLeish doing the rounds this evening which has caused a
few knickers to get well and truly twisted. It doesn't take much admittedly, if it's not the colour
of socks, it's something else equally earth-shattering. The new gaffer has said something to the
effect that he only expects to make one more signing before the season starts.
I've covered the Premier League 25-man rules several times since it first cropped up so I won't
dwell on the details in this post. If you recall, last summer we named 22 players within our
maximum of 25 players 21 years old or over on January 1st 2010 without any problems with the quota
of "home grown" players.
Chelsea: Blues fans must be delighted. Okay, there's an element of risk in paying 50m for a striker
who's done little in the past year, but despite buying yachts, art and world cups, Roman still
seems interested in Chelsea.
Liverpool: Replacing an in form Torres would be almost impossible, but he hasn't been happy for
months and they got 50m for him.
The second half of the season is about to begin, we have our eyes set on that first game against
Lorient, but there are a couple of interesting things that have been said or done around the club
lately.
After an epic encounter in Marseille, having Auxerre coming to Gerland probably will almost go
unnoticed. But hey, the first half of the season isn't over yet, and we have an opportunity to get
3 points and take the unbeaten run to 12 matches without defeat. It would be good for the team to
start the winter break with this comforting fact.
Das ist fertig. OL came back from Germany with a real good slap, but –call it unethical if you
will- with their qualification for the knockout stages. That was the only satisfaction of the
evening for OL, and it actually came from Israel, where Hapoel Tel Aviv beat Benfica (3-0) and
ruled the Portuguese out in the fight for the first two places.
Saturday, Lyon head up to Lorraine in the north-east and will try to start the difficult task of
digging themselves out of the Ligue 1 basement where they currently sit in 18th place. With a solid
victory in the CL midweek and an attacking awakening in the derby last week, the questions going
into Saturday's match are: first, will Lyon finally get there bearings this week and start the
laborious task of making up ground on the leaders of the pack and try to close the eleven point gap
they face against league-leaders St.
Sunday, August 15, 2010 17:00
Stade Michel D'Ornano, Caen
1700CET, 1600GMT.
Sunday, Lyon will be in Normandy to take one of this year's newly-promoted squads, SM Caen. After
finishing first in L2 last season, Caen have climbed back into L1, and they are back with a
vengeance!
Wednesday 28 July, 2010
1945 CET, 1845 GMT
City Ground Stadium, Nottinghamshire, England
Wednesday, OL head into the fourth friendly of the preseason, as they tune-up for the last two
matches of the preseason in the Emirates Cup, which will commence on Saturday vs.
July 24, 2010
2045CET, 1945GMT
Cosenza, Calabria, Italy
After losing 2-0 in Portugal last weekend, OL head to southern Italy to play the third friendly
of the pre-season against Serie A giants Juventus. Claude Puel will continue a balancing act,
continuing to juggle the use of his first teamers with the CFAs due to a few injuries and the
continued abscence of the International players who still are not up to match fitness following
their returns from holiday.
This July has had to have been the slowest transfer month in OL history, but have no fear: JMA
says that things will definetly pick-up soon. Aulas says that he wants the squad to be trimmed down
to twenty-five players from the current twenty-eight, so that will mean at least four to five
players will have to leave: Boumsong, Kallstrom, Anderson, Mensah, and
Piquionne being the prime candidates for departure.
ANTHONY ANNAN: OL are supposedly looking at the young Ghanaian of Rosenborg to
strengthing the ranks in the DM department. Don't know that this makes any sense with
Makoun still not having found a home, but we'll see. Annan is rumored to be valued
at 3,5M€.
ADIL RAMI: Rami's the hotest rumor going around this week. After Bernard
Lacombe's first choice for CB Bruno Alves has fizzled out. OL are said to be in
direct contact with Lille for Claude Puel's prefered candidate to replace
Boumsong, Adil Rami.
One of the few things I love about Puel: Always training with his troops instead of watching
them train.
The 2010-11 season officially got underway today. Claude Puel blew the whistle and opened up
pre-season training camp at Tola-Volage @ 1700 CET.
The OL skipper will have to wait some time to get all his players back into camp though, as those
participating in the WC have three weeks of vacation after their teams are eliminated.
Ex-Bordeaux Playmaker Yoann Gorcuff Could Be The Man To Put Schalke Out Of Their Misery Tomorrow
Night.
Magath's struggling Schalke side will be looking to turn their recent form around against Ligue
1 big boys Olympique Lyon, but it is likely that Schalke will really be up against it in France
tomorrow night.
The Stade Gerland in Lyon will be the stage for tomorrow's titanic clash between Olympique Lyon
and Schalke 04. Both teams finished second in their respective leagues last season earning them
direct passage to the Group Stages of the Champions League.
Lyon will be looking to go one better by reaching the final in Wembley.
24.06.2010 – Calígula – GRUPO E / PARTIDO Nº44 - Con goles de Robin Van Persie
(´36) y Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (´82), Holanda venció a Camerún (2-1) (Eto´o ´65
penal), en el Cape Town (Green Point) de Ciudad del Cabo para clasificar a octavos como
ganador de grupo con puntaje ideal.
19.06.2010 - Calígula - GRUPO E / PARTIDO Nº26 - Con goles de Nicklas Bendtner
(´33) y Dennis Rommedahl (´61), Dinamarca se impuso a Camerún (2-1) (Eto´o ´10)
en el Lotus Versfeld (Pretoria). Este resultado da a Holanda como primer clasificado a
octavos de final y a los Leones Indomables como los primeros eliminados.
19.06.2010 - Calígula - GRUPO E / PARTIDO Nº26 - Con goles de Nicklas Bendtner
(´33) y Dennis Rommedahl (´61), Dinamarca se impuso a Camerún (2-1) (Eto´o ´10)
en el Lotus Versfeld (Pretoria). Este resultado da a Holanda como primer clasificado a
octavos de final y a los Leones Indomables como los primeros eliminados.
14.06.2010 - Calígula - GRUPO E / PARTIDO Nº 10 - Con gol de Keisuke Honda (´39),
Japón venció a Camerún (1-0) en el Free State (Mangaung / Bloemfontein) en lo que es su primera
victoria mundialista fuera de su país, para igualar en puntos (3) a Holanda en el Grupo E.
Si bien el partido empezó en análisis mutuo, ciertos aires exóticos podían amenazar con
situaciones emotivas, pero sólo fueron deseos encubiertos: las imprecisiones e inconexiones
volvieron a ser la estrella.
La selección de Camerun en el mundial 2010 Sudafrica uniforme,
alineaciones,estadísticas, historia y análisis (Leones indomables)
¿Como clasifico a la copa del mundo Sudáfrica 2010?
Pasaron en primer lugar de su grupo, 9 goles a favor y solo dos en contra solo perdieron uno y
empataron otro en seis partidos.
Jean II Makoun has been a hit on and off the pitch from the moment he arrived and he may be
about to become something of a cult hero. I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but Makoun is
the star of this music video which appears to be entirely dedicated to him. Better still, he and
his friends are rocking out in his Villa shirt, amongst others.
I'm going to keep this preview short because in the two weeks since these sides last met, Lyon
haven't improved (they might have un-improved a little bit, actually). So there's really no point
in goring through all the stats and shit. To do a quick recap, Lyon tied to Arles (which until last
weekend, I didn't think was even possible), lost to PSG in the League Cup (which I'm going to
pretend doesn't count for anything), and beat Sochaux.
Fue un encuentro de bajo nivel. Dos equipos muy imprecisos. Se define el partido en un error de
marcación de los centrales y el lateral derecho Mbia, que permitieron el gol de Keisuke Honda.
Paul Le Guen, salió con un 4-3-3 con Eto'o corriendo desde la derecha. Por el centro Webo y por
izquierda el juvenil Choupo-Moting.
