The 2012 African Cup Of Nations is set to begin on the 21st of January until the 12th of February, so we thought with not long to go it may be worthwhile figuring out which teams are going to be most affected by players departing for this competition.

Players Involved In The African Cup Of Nations

Starting with the teams at the top end of the Premier League, Biram Diouf of Senegal appears to be the only Manchester United player affected which isn't likely to affect the club much at all as he is probably their 6th choice striker.

Luis Suárez racism ban: PFA head Gordon Taylor supports FA's decision

• Taylor backs 'very strong message' over racist abuse • Lord Herman Ouseley urges consistent tough stance Luis Suárez's eight-match ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra has been supported by the head of the Professional Footballers' Association as "a very strong message to the rest of the world".

Don Garber's goal to become a top soccer league in the world will take many different efforts. One of those is likely to be MLS teams attracting strong young talent from other leagues in CONCACAF. The Seattle Sounders appear to be interested (Goal.com) in one of those, leftback Ever Alvarado (Football-Lineups).

It's Halloween weekend and FC Tokyo's mascot, Tokyo Dorompa (seen above) dressed to the theme at a J-League match two days ago. Vale vale vale, the outfit looks like it was put together in less than 10 minutes, but you know Dorompa wanted all the attention to be on him.

John Nyen ahead of the curve again on EPL and Anfield analysis

Was the real "Brit" missing here?

When Liverpool dipped their toe into the transfer market in the past window, there was a distinctly British feel to the occasion. Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam, Craig Bellamy and Stuart Downing all joined the club bringing to the forefront the idea that Kenny was going home-grown.

Warnock: Racism is NOT holding back black coaches in English football

"If you're good enough it doesn't matter what nationality you are or what colour your skin is," says QPR boss

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-09-08 21:30:30 from: The Mirror

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

Liverpool and Aston Villa are believed to be leading the chase for Manchester City's James Milner.
The midfielder has been put of favour since City's latest spending spree saw Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri brought for a combined total of £62m and chances of first team football appear slim. With Adam Johnson, Gareth Barry, and Nigel De Jong also ahead of him in the pecking order, a move before the transfer window closes is highly likely.

Guest writer David Bolt takes a look at how the new 25-man squad rule will affect Liverpool, and considers whether the club has actually prepared well-enough for its implementation.
After the transfer window closes, Liverpool will have to name their 25-man squad for the Premier League. As it stands, the club has got itself into a bit of a mess with the 25-man squad rule and is facing the prospect of having to pay some players (and not just Brazil's answer to Mr.

The proliferation of foreign players in the Premier League is an often covered subject on radio phone-ins and blogs like this one. I thought rather than offering the same glib observations on foreign players in the 'English game' I'd offer some facts on the number of non-English (and non-British) players who currently ply their trade in the Premier League today (or to be more specific last season).

The proliferation of foreign players in the Premier League is an often covered subject on radio phone-ins and blogs like this one. I thought rather than offering the same glib observations on foreign players in the 'English game' I'd offer some facts on the number of non-English (and non-British) players who currently ply their trade in the Premier League today (or to be more specific last season).

Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Xavi Hernández have been nominated for UEFA's award for the best player of the 2010/11 season. The award will be presented on August 25 in Monaco before the draw for the Champions League group stages.

According to UEFA:

"the award aims to recognise the best player, irrespective of his nationality, who has played for a football club within the territory of a UEFA member national association during the season to which the award relates.

Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Xavi Hernández have been nominated for UEFA's award for the best player of the 2010/11 season. The award will be presented on August 25 in Monaco before the draw for the Champions League group stages.

According to UEFA:

"the award aims to recognise the best player, irrespective of his nationality, who has played for a football club within the territory of a UEFA member national association during the season to which the award relates.

Although American soccer is growing in stature and status, many of its top players continue to ply their trade overseas in foreign leagues, most notably in Europe. There are many reasons why this happens, but the two main reasons tend to be money, and quality.

Financially, American professional soccer can not compete with the likes of the English Premiere League, La Liga in Spain, or Italy's Serie A.

With a transfer window feel 1. What was unusual about Newcastle United target Neil Taylor's last game for Swansea City? 2. What nationality is Arsenal target Gervinho? 3. From which club did Newcastle sign Sylvain Marveaux? 4. What is the name of the young defender signed by Arsenal from Charlton Athletic?

**This week's guest post comes courtesy of Tony, who's been commenting regularly as Tropics Red. He discusses the impact that the surge of young talent might have on Liverpool's transfer strategy and the squad in general, as well as a look towards next season.

Liverpool's director of football Damien Comolli says a transfer target's experience in the Barclays Premier League is of the upmost importance, as the club decide who will be wearing the red jersey next season.
When asked if Liverpool were targeting English players, Comolli said that the experience of English football was more the direction the club was heading in with new signings.

Ipswich Town teenager Connor Wickham is reportedly keen on a move to Liverpool, as Sunderland enter the race for his signature.
According to the Daily Express, the Black Cats are ready to table a £9 million bid for the 18-year-old striker, but Wickham still 'favours' a switch to Merseyside.
It has been claimed that Liverpool have already submitted a bid of £7 million for the England under 21 international, but they are likely to have to up the ante if they are serious about bringing Wickham to Anfield.

Who knew the Internet would be so polarized because Liverpool's actually able to spend money? Oh, right, it's the Internet.
The discord seems to be because the Henderson deal aligns with the post-Carroll 'Liverpool are spending like a drunken xenophobic sailor' narrative. Which is as unfair to Henderson as it was to Carroll.

The Daily Mail almost gleefully links some of our best players with moves away from the club but today they have reversed that trend and suggested that Real Madrid frontman Gonzalo Higuain could be coming to Spurs in a deal worth around £16m.

Higuan has been at Real since 2007 after joining from River Plate and throughout his club career he has averaged over a goal every other game.

John Leicester of the AP writes of the lack of dignity that he felt Mourinho displayed in the 2-0 defeat of his Real Madrid side by Barcelona.
Sounding like a stuck record by a lovesick crooner, but repellently sour not sweet, Jose Mourinho wailed why, oh, why? In the warped view of Real Madrid's coach, the dice are stacked in Barcelona's favor.

This week's column:
Climbing the Ladder: How bad a red card hurts
How many goals per 90 will it cost your team to go down a man?
And I already realized that I missed the RSL-Columbus series for the article's second point, about drawing the away leg of the CCL first. Doh.

Liverpool is once again considering a transfer move for Bolton Wanderers winger Chung-Yong Lee, according to reports.
The South Korean international originally emerged on the Reds' radar back in the summer, with former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez considering an £8 million move according to the Daily Mail, as well as various other sources.

Recently, I looked at every team from the past five years in my April 1 column on the subject. I've since gone back and done it for every year and every team, though I'm still not 100% sure that I got every single nationality change. At least those from American to foreign, and vice versa.
There's Arturo Alvarez, Jeff Cunningham, Taylor Graham, Pablo Mastroeni, and Preki.

This week's column:
Climbing the Ladder: How MLS teams rank by age
Features a list of the team ages so far this season. Interesting to see that the most foreign and most domestic teams, NY & SJ, are the two oldest so far this season.
Previous Columns

• March 9 - Champs usually start hot
• March 16 - Home-field advantage
• March 23 - Hidden milestones of Week 1
• April 1 - Playing percentages by nationality
• April 6 - Dixon and the Name Game
• April 13 - Winning PK shootouts

This week's column:
Climbing the Ladder: Winning PK shootouts
If the CCL final goes to one, everything is pointing to RSL having a great chance (knock on wood).
Previous Columns

• March 9 - Champs usually start hot
• March 16 - Home-field advantage
• March 23 - Hidden milestones of Week 1
• April 1 - Playing percentages by nationality
• April 6 - Dixon and the Name Game
  

Continuing the theme of looking at the breakdown of Castrol Performance Index Contributions based on nationalities, I wanted to see how Spain and England compare to each other, particularly when it comes to domestic players.

Percentage of Castrol Performance Index Contributions by Nationality for English Premier League

Percentage of Castrol Performance Index Contributions by Nationality for La Liga

In England, Birmingham has the highest percentage of CPI contributions by domestic players with 58.

Previously I posted the number of games played based on nationality for the top 4 clubs in the EPL. Since the Castrol Performance Index was updated today, I thought it would be interesting to see how the players from each country contribute to a team's performance.

What's interesting is that while Manchester City led the way in games played by Englishmen, Manchester United leads the way in terms of Castrol Performance impact.

Michael Moritz wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) earlier this week drawing a parallel between open immigration in the English Premier League and how it could be beneficial to the American tech start-up scene. What Moritz failed to point out (but other readers noticed) is that the EPL isn't completely open.

Link:
Climbing the Ladder: Dixon and The Name Game
This week, I looked at the significance of Houston Dynamo academy signing Alex Dixon's debut, as well as a few more notes on the Champions League and the Rapids' excellent start. Check it out!
Previous Columns

• March 9 - Champs usually start hot
• March 16 - Home-field advantage
• March 23 - Hidden milestones of Week 1
• April 1 - Playing percentages by nationality
  

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal Untold Arsenal on Facebook here How the 25-man rule can be improved (And it is just my opinion) By Nitesh Padhi First of all, let's just clear out the quite confusing 25-man rule. According to the rule, A home grown player is defined as one who, irrespective of his nationality or [.

As suggested last night on RoM, Danny Welbeck has been called up to the England squad.

Welbeck could represent Ghana if he wanted because of his parent's nationality, but so far, as represented England at U-16, U-17, U-18 (2 goals in 2 games), U-19 (2 goals in 8 games) and U-21 level (3 goals in 10 games).

By Gordon Fleetwood, writing from New York City

A much heated topic is at the forefront once again in light of Barcelona's current era of dominance. Are Barcelona the best club side in history? Those words trigger an endless debate. Fans choose sides and support their claims vehemently.

Aston Villa have completed the signing of Jean Makoun from Lyon for a fee thought to be in the region of €6m* possibly rising by a further €3m depending on performances. The 27 year old brings a wealth of experience with almost 250 Ligue 1 appearance, more than 50 European appearances and 56 caps for Cameroon including four African Nations Championships and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.