At the beginning of season 08-09, I think you could have had very good odds on Carlton Cole scoring 5 Premiership goals or more, becoming the fulcrum of the West Ham team and then breaking in to the England squad. 15 months is a long time ago and in that time Carlton Cole has morphed from a clumsy, well-built support striker who weighed in with the odd goal to a feared centre forward, capable of giving the very best defenders a real working over.

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Morning, it's a busy one so let's crack right into it.

Arsene's pre-match press conference took place yesterday instead of the Friday before a game but as usual he had plenty to say. Starting with injuries ahead of the weekend's game he said Andrei Arshavin would miss at least 3 games due to a recurrence of his groin injury.

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Transfer deadline day came and went with no movement in or out at Arsenal - which wasn't really a surprise at all. There were rumours but when the most realistic piece of gossip comes from some twat texting the BBC claiming to be a security guard at Highbury House you know you're dealing with complete nonsense.

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Earlier today, Maurice Edu, an American who plays his club football for Rangers, sent out the following message over his Twitter account:
Its sad n embarassing that people follow me so they can write racist comments...smh...its '09 people, let's grow up n mature a lil bit
It is sad and embarrassing, and it's also very ignorant and pathetic. Click to continue reading...

Surely this is not the answer?

Harry Redknapp says West Ham and Millwall should never be allowed to play each other in a cup tie again following the crowd trouble at their game and the riots around Upton Park on Tuesday.

The Tottenham and former Hammers boss believes the clubs should be re-drawn if they are paired in future.

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I figure I should recognize Sir Bobby Robson like everyone else even I though I've never had hugely strong feelings either way about the guy. I am too young to have seen him manage at his peak such as with Ipswich, England, or Barcelona. I am most familiar with him from his most recent tenure at Newcastle and also from the seminal book All Played Out by Pete Davies. Click to continue reading...

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The USA played Mexico in the final of the Gold Cup last weekend, a home game at Giants Stadium, with a capacity of about 79,000. 78,000 were supporting Mexico. In world soccer, the USA is the only country where home means away. It's an indictment on the shallow values of so-called American sporting patriotism.

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My Twitter evolution is gradual and slow. While most people manage to grab hundreds of followers by following random morons and being awesome people I've probably been way too cautions. I first followed the blogs I liked, and then when I felt like blogs were just a big dick contest I tried to just follow the people who didn't have blogs and just followed me because they probably liked my blog. Click to continue reading...

I haven't been able to post these past few days due to trying to finish up my project. That may turn out to be a good thing for my blood pressure because this blog would have been filled with insults about Wednesday's "Tea Parties." Instead, I'm just going to post this video clip below, because I couldn't have been the only person to watch the footage and think of this classic scene.

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