... the Prem has become just a vacation home for MLS veterans after another paycheck.Just kidding. But seriously, my how times have changed for American soccer. If anybody back home still holds any sort of inferiority complex about our domestic league, just go ahead and leave it out. The kid is alright if a big English club in and aiming to return to the Champions League can feel like turning to

Ream Just Looked at the EPL TableIf reports in multiple British tabloids are to be believed, English Premier League relegation favorites Bolton Wanderers will be signing New York Red Bulls defender Tim Ream once the January transfer window opens, for a transfer fee of somewhere close to £2 million, or approximately $3.

Happy Friday to you. A few things on the mind this morning.
First up is a reaction to Brad Friedel's comments on Landon Donovan taking the easy road by staying in MLS. What a ridiculous thing to say. Friedel is an accomplished player, one who is certainly deserving of respect. But for him to criticize Donovan so publicly was extremely out of line.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Ramos recently sat down for a chit chat with the good people over at La Liga for a segment they coyly called, "Sergio Ramos' More Personal Side". The question of just how personal his interview would be had our minds racing for at least two hours.

Sigi Schmid may do as much to earn his paycheck in the next couple of weeks of relatively unimportant games as he did during the Seattle Sounders' hectic run of critical league games, cup finals, and CCL group stage matches. The task during that difficult (and almost perfect) autumn run was to keep up the winning while rotating through a deep roster to keep everyone as healthy and fit as possible.

Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny admits that an opportunity to join reigning European champions FC Barcelona at a later stage of his career will be too tempting to turn down.

The 21-year old Szczesny rose to prominence for the Gunners when Polish compatriot Lukasz Fabianski was sidelined by a shoulder injury in the middle of last season.

Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea has been caught in a shocking controversy after surveillance cameras at a Tesco store reportedly revealed that the Spaniard, along with two friends, stole Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

The 20-year old De Gea earns a massive £70,000 paycheck at Old Trafford and although many think that the allegations of a doughnut theft are nothing more than a huge miscommunication, the security staff at the store insist that the player clearly attempted to walk away from the scene without paying.

What is it about playing soccer in New York that makes good players want to go on vacation? What is it about the most visible MLS franchise that makes heralded, respected athletes put their reputations at risk by shifting into early retirement mode while still collecting a hefty paycheck? And being so damn obvious about it?

Uniqlo is probably my favorite store. It's as cheap as a Dema Kovalenko foul and as stylish as a man of my age can get away with without looking like the old guy at the club. In an obvious bid to lay claim to even more of my money and closet space the Japanese retail giant is opening a second NYC outpost only blocks from my office and have enlisted Carlos Mendes --the last of the MetroStars-- as a pitchman; they may as well just start garnishing my paycheck.

I don't know about you but there is nothing I enjoy more then cashing my paycheck and heading straight to a dive bar drinking beer and plunking twenties into the slot machine hoping that I will be uber-rich. Once the clock hits two-thirty, I head quickly to Plaid, beg the clerk to sell me a six pack of tall boys, grab a handful of slim-jims and buy all the Oregon Lottery scratch-its I can afford.

A few things are on my mind this Wednesday morning. It would seem that the rippling effects of last year's CCL is paying dividends for the league this year. As are several other league changes. Enjoy the rest of your week!
CONCACAF Champion's League: Major League Soccer is being represented extremely well in the region tournament.

In what we hope will be a reoccuring section of the site, Ned Hardwood has submitted the first guest column on the site. He writes an article breaking down his thoughts on MLS's use of Designated Players and the DP rule. While "MLS Reserves" does not always agree or disagree with the thoughts of our guest columnists, we do encourage healthy debate and conversations on this topic.

There are a lot of things I love about The Beautiful Game. One thing in particular I find great is how short the off-season is. Soccer goes on for ten months which is so gratifying considering, in contrast, the extended breaks of all American sports. However, two months is still plenty of time and nothing takes it up quite like the transfer market.

As the transfer window creeps ever nearer, many fans and blogs are beginning to speculate on who will transfer in and who will be let go, or traded elsewhere. Given the Portland Timbers recent run of bad luck, I'm inclined to join in. Something is not right with the team and, as such, we'll probably see at least a couple trades during the transfer window.

Today the Chicago Fire announced that Gaston Puerari has been sold to Atlas for an undisclosed fee.
This move signals a few things. First off the team has confidence in Orr Barouch to take over a bigger role in the offensive scheme. He immediately takes Puerari's place as one of the players who will start at striker depending on form, Chaves and Nazarit being the other two.

My name is Robert Hay, and I am a fan of Freddy Adu.

That statement has for years been quite controversial, as the young American has been the center of much discussion of the failures of American soccer. We hype them too young! We don't develop our own talent! Don't let players like Agudelo and Bunbury get Adu'ed!

High Ladder To Climb is a feature for the Brotherly Game. Current Atlanta Silverbacks (NASL) defender Tyler Ruthven gives readers insight into the life of a player in America's lower tier leagues. His updates will be about his continued quest to make it to MLS. Follow him as he details his day-to-day trials and tribulations based on the life he is able to live through the constraints of his job - and paycheck.

There are two things at least which we learned from El Clasico-plosion 2011.

i. Less is more.
ii. No one gets kicked like Lionel Messi. (Learned long ago, but work with me.)

Except perhaps this guy in the video above, a (presumably) Colombian pitch invader during last night's Copa Libertadores matchup between Mexico's Jaguares Chiapas and the local Atletico Junior.

High Ladder To Climb is a new feature for the Brotherly Game. Current Atlanta Silverbacks (NASL) defender Tyler Ruthven gives readers insight into the life of a player in America's lower tier leagues. His updates will be about his continued quest to make it to MLS. Follow him as he details his day-to-day trials and tribulations based on the life he is able to live through the constraints of his job - and paycheck.

High Ladder To Climb is a new feature for the Brotherly Game. Current Atlanta Silverbacks (NASL) defender Tyler Ruthven gives readers insight into the life of a player in America's lower tier leagues. His updates will be about his continued quest to make it to MLS. Follow him as he details his day-to-day trials and tribulations based on the life he is able to live through the constraints of his job - and paycheck.

Few managers are able to get away with defeats in crucial games as well as making the same high-profile mistakes time and time again, but Arsenal fans seem to forgive Arsene Wenger no matter what he does or how he does it, a fact that often leads to rival fans scratching their heads at the manner in which the club's loyal fans appear to tolerate such failure despite the stature of the club and its place in English football.

This is certainly not the way one of the greatest players of our generation wanted to go out. The injuries, the form, the controversy both in the short and relative long term. With Corinthians bowing out of the Copa Libertadores and the ensuing maelstrom which arose, Roberto Carlos has left the club for a Russian paycheck.

Photo: Nicolea Stoian

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that Haverford School and FC Delco product Jeremiah White has not been invited to travel with the Union for preseason training in Orlando.

"They basically called me 2 days before we were supposed to leave and said they don't have any more roster spots," White told the Inquirer.

*Neither the Galaxy nor MLS have responded to a report Sunday that had leading scorer Edson Buddle rather embarrassingly snubbing a new contract with MLS for a struggling second-tier German outfit.

It's hard to blame Buddle, who turns 30 in May, for wanting to make some serious coin if reports of his likely paycheck are accurate.

With all the conjecture this week in the newspapers and on the blogs about the Gaffer finally cleaning house and bringing up a new generation of homegrown players, I thought I'd discuss it with somebody who definitely knows more than me and is much better connected to what's actually going on behind the scenes at Old Trafford than most of the so-called ‘experts'.

IMS sat down with Djorn Buchholz yesterday immediately following the Minnesota Stars press conference where it was formerly announced that the former Thunder GM and Aztex CEO will now take the reigns of the Minnesota Stars.

A confident Djorn Buchholz listens to questions from the media during Wednesdays Minnesota Stars press conference.

The Asian Cup doesn't get a tremendous amount of pub outside the continent itself. It isn't even afforded the luxury of being whined about as club teams lose their stars for a few weeks in the middle of the winter (ahem, Africa).

But it does have appeal, if you're willing to look in the right places.