Rob van Dijk, oldie but goldie Mario Been and Martin Jol are facing their first ever classic as coaches. The Amsterdam ArenA is the venue for the first clash of Ajax and Feyenoord this season. The number 3 against the number 4. Mario Been: "These games are always special, whether it's about Click to continue reading...

We're great when we're winning. Opponents are forced to push forward, and we duly pick them off on the break, with the clinical precision of a trained sniper (until Keane starts stumbling over his own feet). We have the players, including those on the fringes of the squad, to counter with pace and inventiveness, on top of which it makes for a cracking spectacle.

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Tottenham Hotspur legend Martin Chivers will be a guest on an upcoming episode of the EPL Talk Podcast, the daily Premier League interview and analysis show.

Chivers made 367 appearances for Tottenham Hotspur between 1968 to 1976, scoring 174 goals. He also won 24 caps for England between 1971-73.

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Mark van Bommel signed a one year extension on his Bayern Munich contract last season. He had asked for two years. Bayern answered by referring to a club policy of giving players over 30 only one year extensions. At that time Martin Jol came sniffing around and rumors emerged that Hamburg might be willing to give van Bommel that extra season.

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Ok, so he is not called McDonald but he is Ronald, and after tonight, he will wish he had a farm

So three years ago, the Mighty Arsenal travelled to the Netherlands to play AZ Alkmaar in a ‘show off game' to mark the opening of the DSB Stadium. Three years have now gone by and tonight we play them again in what will be their UEFA Champions League debut season.

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The Sun reported that Harry's interested in signing Club Brugge defender Vadis Odjidja. The red-top's article wasn't too enlightening either. Apparently, we're lining up a £5 million bid for him.
The Sun got it wrong in saying that he's a defender. Odjidja is a defensive midfielder. Whenever I've seen him play, he's deployed just in front of the back four and he's fairly adequate at getting stuck into the oppositions face and break up play. Click to continue reading...

Last week, I posted a tweet that if I was reborn, I would become a Tottenham Hotspur supporter simply because of The Spurs Show podcast. And I meant it. Most of the readers here know me as a Swansea City supporter, but there's something completely endearing, refreshing, honest and depressing about being a regular listener to The Spurs Show that makes me feel closer to the pain one must feel supporting THFC.

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Martin Jol didn't need extra time to ponder the question. What did the Ajax coach think of Oranje's trip Down Under. Jol: "I don't like it at all!". And the look on his face was as if he smelled something really bad. But his voice was relaxed. Jol knows that protesting Click to continue reading...

There are some things that are constant in this world. There's no science or logic to it, it's just meant to be and there's no point trying to avoid it. Whoever wins The X Factor will probably be a bit of a pretentious twat. The Murdoch family will constantly complain about the BBC. England will always exit major tournaments on heartbreaking penalty shootouts. Click to continue reading...

With the season starting slightly earlier this year due to the World Cup, most teams in the Premiership have played 8 league games already. Last season, the 8th round of matches was played two weeks later, on the weekend of October 18th/19th. By the end of it, Tottenham were staring up at every other team in the league with a lowly 2 points.

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This week ITS brings you our top ten one hit wonders, we will show you ten players who defined the odds by getting the honour of putting on the England shirt....erm once!

10. Joey Barton (VS. Spain, 2007)

Schteve Maclaren is a manager full of good ideas. One of his best was to give Barton an England Cap just after he had lamented his frustration at the whole England squad in his book.

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He cost how much?

If there has been a better use of £1m by Tottenham Football Club in recent years then I sure as hell can't think of it. Aaron Lennon arrived as a player clearly with a bright future and Martin Jol was more than happy to take advantage of Leeds United financial crisis to nab the England winger on the cheap, something other clubs were gleefully doing with just about every decent player at Elland Road at the time.

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Martin Jol believes Ryan loan option would be a good one.

AJAX coach Martin Jol has opened the door for a January loan move for Liverpool winger Ryan Babel.

Outspoken Babel has made no secret of his frustration at life on the fringes at Anfield this season.

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Ajax coach Martin Jol has taken the time to react to the rumours linking the Amsterdam side with a loan move for Dutch international Ryan Babel from Liverpool in the upcoming winter transfer window.
The 22-year-old recently expressed his desire to play regular first team football and told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he considers returning to Ajax on a temporary basis. Click to continue reading...

Boateng spills the beans.

Following his transfer from Tottenham Hotspur to Portsmouth, Kevin-Prince Boateng has detailed how former Spurs boss Martin Jol never wanted him at White Hart Lane and how he was frequently used in an unfamiliar role during an unhappy time at the club.

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On the closing of the transfer window Marko Pantelic found a place in Amsterdam, where he will wear Ajax jersey in the next year. After it seemed that Serbian international will be forced to spend the next term in his former club Crvena Zvezda, Ajax management knocked on his door and they obviously made the right move by signing this excellent striker.

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Sorry for letting this blog rot away in the late August sun for so many weeks. Other work took over and left some time but not much energy to spend on other things. But the team blogs have been bursting with energy all the more at the same time and a few more came back to life, so I guess there were still enough places on The Offside for Bundesliga related updates.

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Sorry for letting this blog rot away in the late August sun for so many weeks. Other work took over and left some time but not much energy to spend on other things. But the team blogs have been bursting with energy all the more at the same time and a few more came back to life, so I guess there were still enough places on The Offside for Bundesliga related updates.

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Tottenham over the last few years has been a story of three little Piggies. Martin Jol built what seemed to be a solid platform at White Hart Lane, only for the big bad Wolf, Daniel Levy, to blow it down, much to the fan's discontent. Along came Juande Ramos, but his structure didn't last [...] Click to continue reading...

It's been a pleasant few days, as we've all had ample opportunity to bask in the warm afterglow of the well-deserved win over Liverpool. It has also been pleasing to note that, despite this, a healthy sense of perspective has been retained. Most reasonable souls have avoided the temptation to conclude from the win against a top-four team that we're just about nailed on for the title.

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I'm in a parallel drawing mood so bear with me.
The last time Spurs won their opening fixture it was 2005. There was an Ashes series on, which was heading to The Oval for its deciding fixture. Spurs had been to Asia in pre-season and had picked up some trivial silverware in the form of the Peace Cup. Click to continue reading...

Jermain Defoe came to England's rescue by scoring both goals after Rio Ferdinand and Gareth Barry gifted goals to Netherlands. His effort was much appreciated by the manager.

"He is one of the best English forwards," said Capello.

"He is very fast, he is always in front of the goal and technically he is very good.

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So, it's once more unto the breach, for the new season is upon us. The friendlies are done, fantasy league teams picked – all that's left is for AANP Towers to rustle up a list of top ten aims for season 2009-10, and then we can get cracking...

1. European Qualification

Top six, or a trophy.

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Ajax is one of the most famous football clubs in the world but things haven't been going well for the Dutch giants lately. Five years without the league title is simply too much and now even Marco van Basten could help the team win anything last season. The club officials, however, managed to persuade Martin Jol to leave Hamburg and try to help Ajax return to glory days.

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It's time to preview the eight most important teams of the upcoming Bundesliga season.

Bayern
Pre-Season: Bayern's pre-season started like all pre-seasons during odd numbered years by putting between 50 to 100 million Euros into circulation, to make up for not signing anyone during the even numbered years.

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OTWT home office is a buzz as ESPN 360 is up and running that means more preseason games for the second installment of the preseason notebook.
• After a terrible Champions League Final United's Anderson looks like he is going to grow up a little.
• He might not be Ronnie, but few are, Valencia might be better then people think. Click to continue reading...

One of last season's semi-finalists, Hamburger SV, enter this year's competition in the third qualifying round against Randers FC of Denmark. Hamburg have added one of the most exciting young talents in Europe to their squad and will look to make it all the way to the Europa League finals which will be held at at Arena Hamburg on Wednesday 12 May 2010.

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The transfer period started with two early big money moves. In fact, very big money moves anywhere outside of Madrid. Diego sealed a transfer to Juventus for €24.5m, while Bayern were willing to spend €30m for Mario Gomez; further bonus payments not included.

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According to reports in the Spanish, Dutch and German press Rafael van der Vaart will be allowed to leave the Bernabeu for a knockdown fee of just £8m.
The player's stock has definitely fallen since his move to La Liga but the Dutchman would surely be the ideal man to replace the likes of Xabi Alonso at Liverpool. Click to continue reading...

The Tottenham faithful often wonder why their team cannot break into the top four in the Premier League. Before the Martin Jol era, they were told that they needed a great coach. After the arrival of Jol, it was believed that the squad needed bolstering. Once that was done, things got going - until blunders became the norm again at White Hart Lane.

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For the first time in decades, Ajax started the new season with training yesterday without a new signing to present. The only new face was that of Martin Jol, the new Ajax coach. "But I do hope we will change that still," Jol said after having led his first training in Click to continue reading...

Jose Mourinho fell out with Roman Abrahamovic over him, Martin Jol tried twice to sign him for Tottenham and Barcelona were even watching him but those admiring glances and failed bids seem a long way off now. When he first burst in to the Premier League back in 2006, I was blown away by the lad's power and pace, especially for an 18 year old full back and I thought to myself, that's England's number 2 for the next 10 years then.

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Setanta, Arsenal's digital partner appears to be on the brink of going into Administration. The troubled broadcaster has run up debts approaching 100 million pounds and may not be able to persuade it's corporate shareholders to come up with the cash through a further rights issue.

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Didn't loyalty used to go a long way? I know, not with players who immediately leave clubs when they smell two Euros more at another one. Okay, there a few exceptions of course, Lukas Podolski for instance who returns to his love FC Cologne or Robert Enke who does not want to transferred away from Hannover but should and therefore has to.

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Didn't loyalty used to go a long way? I know, not with players who immediately leave clubs when they smell two Euros more at another one. Okay, there a few exceptions of course, Lukas Podolski for instance who returns to his love FC Cologne or Robert Enke who does not want to transferred away from Hannover but should and therefore has to.

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