Hector Rueda Lookalike Wilman Conde is New York Bound - FinallyThe New York Red Bulls, having just wrapped up Tim Ream's long-awaited transfer to Bolton, didn't waste much time in finding his replacement, announcing today the signing of Colombian central defender Wilman Conde. Conde was most recently on the books of Mexican club Atlas, where injuries limited his playing time in 2011 to just 13 games.

Agudelo: One Foot Out the Door?When the New York Red Bulls' disappointing 2011 season drew to a close, both Hans Backe and Erik Solér assured fans that they had identified the team's main weaknesses and would be taking steps over the winter to address them. But with 2012 preseason training camp having opened this week, the RBNY roster is still a work in progress, with question marks hanging over the heads of several players and doubts remaining about key positions and bench depth.

The 2012 SuperDraft has been criticized as being a weak draft, but the positions that the Brotherly Game feels the Philadelphia Union should target have plenty of options from which to choose. Left back is one of the few positions that this SuperDraft has enough depth to wait until the second round to take a player, but it also has a few intriguing first round prospects.

by Adam Bate

Jordan Rhodes has certainly got the Premier League's attention. As many as eight top flight clubs were represented at Huddersfield Town's game against Wycombe Wanderers last week. And they are likely to have been impressed – the striker bagged five goals in a remarkable display.

Headlines with question marks are always funny, but in this case due to the nature of automated translation and the global nature of football there is little certainty. Indications are that forward Prince Tagoe is no longer with his club. We're talking about a Ghana national team player played in Germany and Serbia during the last season, was heavily connected to the Seattle Sounders at the summer window in 2011, eventually moved to Bursaspor in Turkey.

For the first time in many games, there are far more questions to deliberate ahead of predicting the starting XI for tonight's match.

As we all know, Aaron Lennon has been ruled out of this game while Gareth Bale remains a major doubt. There are question marks too over Ledley King, Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Photo by David Bernal/ISIphotos.com

By ADAM SERRANO

The Los Angeles Galaxy may have won MLS Cup, but there is no rest for the defending champions. Not with David Beckham being heavily sought after by Qatari-owned Paris St. Germain and numerous key players out of contract as yet another busy schedule looms in 2012.

Kenny Dalglish refused to be drawn on his January transfer plans after question marks were again raised about Liverpool's potency in front of goal.
Dalglish watched his side take a richly deserved three points on Saturday afternoon to leapfrog Newcastle United in sixth in the Premier League table but Liverpool's victory over Queens Park Rangers should have been by a more handsome margin.

After wearing the captain's armband during Manchester United's 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in last night's thrilling Carling Cup quarterfinal at Old Trafford, Jonny Evans realizes the amount of pressure the team is under.

A spectacular long-range goal from Darren Ambrose was cancelled out by a Federico Macheda penalty, which forced 30 minutes of extra time but the Red Devils still came up short courtesy of Glenn Murray's decisive header.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has expressed hope that the underachieving England squad performs well in next summer's Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, despite knowing that the level of competition will be extremely high.

Wenger understandably considers Germany and Netherlands as the greatest threats to defending champions Spain but after watching the Three Lions defeat the Spaniards 1-0 at Wembley on Saturday, the Frenchman refuses to rule out the prospect of an English triumph.

As Revolution president Brian Bilello's self-imposed 7 day deadline approaches, we here at The Bent Musket wanted to take a look at a few of the "serious" names on the short list of possible candidates. With Paul Mariner re-upping his contract with Toronto FC (amazingly, Mariner re-signed almost IMMEDIATELY after meeting with the Revs) New England was left with only a few truly solid choices that made sense, followed by quite a few question marks.

As Revolution president Brian Bilello's self-imposed 7 day deadline approaches, we here at The Bent Musket wanted to take a look at a few of the "serious" names on the short list of possible candidates. With Paul Mariner re-upping his contract with Toronto FC (amazingly, Mariner re-signed almost IMMEDIATELY after meeting with the Revs) New England was left with only a few truly solid choices that made sense, followed by quite a few question marks.

Kenny Dalglish has acknowledged that his Liverpool side must go one better than their last trip to Britannia by scoring against Stoke City in tonight's Carling Cup clash.

Earlier this season, Dalglish's men created a plethora of chances away to the Potters but lost 1-0 due to a lack of clinical finishing in front of goal.

One thing is clear, many New England Revolution fans want to see some change this offseason. Big change.

But let's be honest. Bob Kraft isn't going anywhere. Sunil Gulati is probably not going anywhere. (Though I'm not sure anyone would notice a change.) And guessing what happens to Mike Burns or the front office is really only good for setting the #Revs hashtag in Twitter on fire.

Tomorrow night the Rapids play their final group stage game of the Champions League in Torreon, Mexico against Santos Laguna. With a win Colorado will clinch 2nd place in the group and a spot in the quarterfinals. With an extremely unlikely 4 goal win they will win the group. A draw or loss does not eliminate them, but it leaves their fate in the hands of Real Espana and Isidro Metapan who play on Thursday.

After signing a new deal at the Emirates Stadium, Thomas Vermaelen just cannot wait to return to the pitch, where Arsenal began their recovery from a poor start with a 2-1 home win over Sunderland.

Vermaelen may not enjoy being a spectator after spending so much time on the sidelines in the last year but on Sunday afternoon, he was delighted to see two of his teammates respond brilliantly to their doubters.

Team selection for Sunday's match at Newcastle could go right to the eleventh hour with several key players remaining a doubt for the game.

The biggest question is over Emmanuel Adebayor who is rated 50/50 at best following the hamstring strain that he picked up in the win over Arsenal.

Now that a result isn't necessary tonight, the lineup is a lot more in question. What we know is that Kasey Keller will start on a day celebrating he and the fans. We also know that Jeff Parke is out and Mauro Rosales will be in the 18. Considering that the Seattle Sounders really like winning in front of home crowds the thought here is that Sigi Schmid will be starting a close to Ideal XI, but that Rosales only gets a second half run.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

The U.S. men's national team's 1-0 victory against Honduras had its share of bright spots, but also some question marks, making Tuesday's friendly against Ecuador a good chance for some players to redeem themselves, and for some to show their stuff after seeing only limited time on Saturday.

Top group:Favourite - Adelaide - amazing recruitment
Victory (Kewell factor?)Roar
Bottom group:Perth, Wellington, Heart, Newcastle (great start guys:) )
Question marks:Sydney (will Emmo make the difference), CCM (will their Roar style no marquee approach pay dividends?), Gold Coast (will their Dutchmen payoff?

Cruise-control mode. Danny and Frank made sure of that. More after the jump.

Vindicated

Well that was sweet now wasn't it? This was a display a long time in the making, and at last the Blues put together their most complete performance under Andre Villas-Boas.

Frank Lampard responded brilliantly to his bitter critics by scoring a wonderfully placed shot past Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves to hand Chelsea 1-0 lead in their Group E match at La Mestalla.

Ever since being substituted at half-time during the Blues' 3-1 defeat at Manchester United last Sunday, Lampard has lost his guaranteed starting place to the likes of Ramires and Raul Meireles.

Could Lampard, Gerrard and Hargreaves be the three lions that roar at Euro 2012

Fabio Capello has got a tale of three midfielders ahead of next summer's Euro 2012 finals. Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves are all under the microscope for different reasons at the moment.

Most people who lived Maradona era believe that nobody in history comes close to Maradona. Older generations usually attached to Pele icon, some people from the younger generations think that Maradona played in easy days and he is bit over-estimated.
I have created a video on YouTube to depict some of the reasoning why Maradona is best ever in history.

Arsenal looks to get back on track. (Getty Images)

By Geoff Reid

Saturday 10th

Arsenal vs Swansea from the Emirates Stadium, London
So many question marks heading into this one for Arsenal. Will their new signings work out? Of course the answer to that will take some time, and we'll see over the course of the season, not just one game.

Well I'm back as the designated D&G (doom and gloom) blogger of the group, to keep anyone from getting too excited about how the transfer window ended. But there are quite a few positives to take from the last few days, and I want to be fair and balanced. And to be even more magnanimous than usual, I'll present 10 pieces of good news, coupled with only 5 pieces of bad news.

Alex Ferguson has done it again. He has reinvented a new Manchester United team every bit as dangerous and driven as the ones in previous years. United must be the Barcelona of the Premier League in the way they keep churning out fantastic youngsters season after season.
Danny Wellbeck, Tom Cleverley, Fabio and Rafael Da Silva are the latest products of the youth system conveyor belt, and augmented by smart money signings of David De Gea, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, Ferguson have sure-handedly laid the foundation for another decade of dominance.

Easy Liverpool win over Bolton shows Kenny Dalglish is on right track

• Manager's spending spree pays quick dividends • Luis Suárez shows his worth once again When asked the difference between this Liverpool side and the one that stumbled to victory over Bolton on New Year's Day, Owen Coyle replied it was £110m.

Wenger's an easy target but the players must also take responsibility for Arsenal slump

It is open season on all things Arsenal at the moment.. From the pay structure imposed by the board to the transfer policy of manager Arsene Wenger and at the weekend question marks against the medical set-up at The Emirates.

Dani Pacheco Future to be Resolved This Week

The future of Liverpool's Dani Pacheco will be resolved this week, according the player himself. The young Spaniard is currently away on international duty but took the time to address the fans to keep them in the loop about his current situation.

It has not been a good start to the season for Steven Gerrard.
Already frustrated by a groin injury which has delayed his start to the campaign, the Liverpool captain's attempts to rally his team-mates ahead of the Sunderland match fell on deaf ears.
"Today the real action begins," wrote Gerrard in his column in the match program for the opening game.

As we wait patiently or otherwise for any concrete news regarding new arrivals at the Lane ahead of the 2011-12 season, the focus for the club's website is on our existing squad.

Many supporters are expecting this to be a breakthrough season for Kyle Walker and the player is looking to become a regular both for Spurs and for England.

Liverpool Make Scott Dann Enquiry

Liverpool have enquired about the availability of Birmingham defender Scott Dann, Kopsource understands. The Scouse-born centre-back will cost Liverpool between 10-£12m should they wish to follow up their interest. In a pre-season campaign which saw the Reds leak 15 goals in 5 games the club's defensive deficiencies have been adundantly obvious.

Question marks for Reds

Liverpool's defending was again under scrutiny after a 3-3 draw with Valerenga in Oslo.

View the full story here: Sky Sports

A news article on 2011-08-01 20:51:22 from: Sky Sports

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

Manchester City seem to be on track to signing Sergio Aguero and this could lead many fans to ask the inevitable question – are City building a squad capable of winning the Champions League this season?
The Citizens are preparing for their debut season in the Champions League and have come on leaps-and-bounds since Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, due to the money he has splashed since arriving.

In under a month, Arsenal embark on one of the most vital August's under Wenger's reign. Some may argue it is the most important August under Wenger.

The arrivals of Carl Jenkinson and Gervinho mean that we have added a couple of new faces to the squad, this isn't where the question marks are hanging though they are hanging over the heads of Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Nicklas Bendtner and Manuel Almunia.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger revealed that there are still question marks pending over the future of midfielder Samir Nasri. After saying that the Frenchman and captain Cesc Fabregas are happy at the Club last week in ...

Liverpool assistant manager Steve Clarke has assured Joe Cole he still has a future at Anfield.
Cole endured a disappointing debut season at Anfield after moving north on a free transfer from Chelsea.
The England international started just nine league matches in total and there had been question marks over whether the 29-year-old would be kept on for the new season.

Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles insists he will be playing for the club this season despite question marks over his future at Anfield.
Manager Kenny Dalglish has brought in two midfielders in the shape of Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam, leading some to believe that Meireles could be offloaded.

Meireles pledges to stay

Liverpool's Raul Meireles insists he will be playing for the club this season despite question marks over his future.

View the full story here: Sky Sports

A news article on 2011-07-12 14:29:09 from: Sky Sports

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