Morning all, some interesting quotes from Arsene Wenger appeared in a Belgian newspaper yesterday. For those that wish to cream yourselves on the bits about Eden Hazard, he had this to say:

I like him a lot, and for several reasons. His creativity, his ability to unbalance the opposition, his vision and his consummate art of giving the final ball make him a player coveted by many.

This post originally appeared on our Arsenal blog, but I thought it was worth covering here. There are some mind blowing quotes from Arsene Wenger in Tuesday's Daily Mirror.

Arsene Wenger is quoted as talking about how much he likes Lille's £30m-rated Eden Hazard, but he basically says that Hazard is too expensive for Arsenal.

This certainly isn't going to go down that well with the FA.

England manager Fabio Capello laid out his thoughts on John Terry and the FA's decision to strip him of the England captaincy to Italian broadcaster Rai 1 today. To say he's not pleased with what has transpired would be a gross understatement.

Ok, Probably that isn't quite true, however, it does feel like City are holding Tevez back from leaving sort of like a punishment for the embarrassment he has caused the club.

Speaking to Kicker magazine, Tevez (remarks which he later denied) Tevez was quoted as saying that he was keen on leaving this winter having received offers from Italy and Spain, but things did not work out due to City's hard stance.

Photo: Earl Gardner

There are a lot of quotes from Sebastien Le Toux in this article. Many of them come from Chris Vito's (of the Delco Daily Times and The Times Herald) fantastic interview with Seba. Check it out. Many quotes from Peter Nowak are from his January 31 press conference.

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has criticised the performance levels of Spanish referees this season.

Rosell's club felt aggrieved by the decision of the Spanish federation's competitions committee not to punish Real Madrid utility man Pepe for appearing to stamp on Barca forward Lionel Messi's hand earlier this month.

Peyton Manning wants to keep playing football. Even though he has a neck injury that has required three surgeries, there's no quit in the quarterbacking legend. While the talk regarding whether or not he'll play for the Indianapolis Colts will continue, one thing is for certain: he'll play somewhere.

Eden Hazard, one of the most desirable transfer targets in world football at the moment, says he is not moving this January. Definitively. Moving this coming summer, however? That's on fo sho. To England? Why yes, actually.

Excuse me while I shit my pants with potential excitement.

Seeking a new challenge in the summer

Hazard spoke to Canal+ today and shed some light on his current situation.

The U.S. WNT will play a HUGE match early in year on Friday night, Jan. 27, when it faces Costa Rica in the semifinal of the 2012 CONCACAF Olympic Women's Qualifying Tournament for a berth to the London Olympics.
A HIGHLY motivated U.S. team will kick-off the clash with the Central Americans at 5 p.

The Timbers practice today was an uneventful one on the field but saw several developments on the sidelines. Once again Jose Adolfo Valencia was missing from practice which was yet again explained as being further fitness testing. John Spencer went on to say that as soon as he was done testing we would see him back on the field.

Buy Belgian. Ho.

We talked yesterday about the club allegedly reentering talks with Racing Genk over the transfer of the young Belgium international Kevin De Bruyne. Those talks (gasp) are actually true.

This according to a spokesman for Genk:

Dirk Degraen is in London and the expectation is that it (the transfer of De Bruyne) will be finished this week.

Not entirely sure about the source material, but Chelsea have allegedly re-engaged in talks with Racing Genk over the transfer of the 20-year-old that looks not a day over 12 Kevin De Bruyne.

Young Money

As you may recall, the club inquired about De Bruyne in the summer.

I initially filed this one under bullshit in my immensely well-organized mental filing cabinet. It was first reported in the Daily Mail after all. That bummy rag may have been on to something, though. In fact, they were probably dead-on.

Sincerest apologies, Mail.

Nicolas Anelka is swimming in dough on the shores of Shanghai. Will Didier Drogba be joining him before the end of the January transfer window?

Quite possibly, if you ask the Shenhua PR department.

Chinese connection?

As you know, Drogba has rejected a one-year contract extension from Chelsea in search of at least a two-year deal.

Our old friends the Daily Mail run a headline this morning stating that Harry Redknapp has ‘pleaded' with Chairman Daniel Levy to do all he can in striking a deal that is tempting enough to keep Emmanuel Adebayor at the club.

In contrast with The Guardian who slated the player at the start of the week, the Mail's article underlines the striker's qualities but Harry's quotes do rather stop short of sounding like a plea.

No better source than the kid's own mouth.

Glad to see that the club has finally wrapped this deal up. It's been a highly disappointing season for McEachran thus far, with the player finding it damn near impossible to break into the first team at Chelsea under Andre Villas-Boas.

It's safe to say Alex has not enjoyed the new year thus far. After Andre Villas-Boas kicked the bold, bald Brazilian to the Cobham curb earlier in the winter, he was left to fend for himself on just £50k per week. Just really, really terrible.

Thankfully for Alex, the nightmare looks to be coming to an end.

Monday MLS Breakdown: Application Of Home Grown Player Rule - Goal.com

The most complete look at the current state of the HGP rule and the exceptions to the rule that have been granting. Yes, Brent Richards was an exception, but there have been a few others.

There's also a nugget that now seems to incentivize a club operating an amateur PDL team in order to main their connections to former U18 players who are then at colleges.

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of days. Quite a bit going on in my world at that moment. Now, with the pleasantries out of the way, let's take a look at what's been going on since our much-needed win at Wolves. Turns out, this has been a relatively newsworthy day for the Chels.

CO approved transfer target

Source(s): Chelsea set to make second bid for Lucas Moura
• Lucas Rodrigues Moura da Silva is one of world football's elite young talents.

The net is going to be swimming in cynical fake transfer rumours this month, and Real Madrid's Esteban Granero is the latest name to be 'linked' to the club.Is there any proof whatsoever that the 'rumour' is true? NO.Sources: NONEAgent quotes: NONEOwner Quotes: NONEPlayer Quotes: NONEAny credible evidence at all?

A run of three home fixtures is a welcome site as Spurs look to push on in the second half of this season and secure a top four place at the very least. Following West Brom this evening, Tottenham entertain Wolves and Everton in the league and while nine points is perfectly possible, Harry Redknapp is warning against any complacency.

There are loads of snippets of Arsenal transfer news about this morning, but most of them seem to be total speculation without any quotes whatsoever, but it is my duty to pass them on to interested Arsenal fans. The first one has Arsenal and just about every other top Premier League club interested in signing [.

I think we all had a feeling, for better or worse, that Gary Cahill was going to be a Chelsea player come January after seeing Owen Coyle's comments last week. Now, we have some concrete information from Andre Villas-Boas that the club is indeed pursuing the English defender.

Only a matter time until this is closed then?

Florent Malouda isn't happy with his current bit-part role at Chelsea. He's ready to reevaluate life in London, and apparently is weighing potential moves should his ambition not be met.

Is any of this shocking? Not really.

Not of the avant-garde

Malouda spoke of recent frustration with his lack of match time after Monday's 1-1 draw with Fulham.

The hat tip here belongs to iron81 who found this article and made a fanshot. Normally I would just bump the fanshot to the front page and call it a day but the article actually takes from an original story that includes a hilarious video of Marco Pappa doing an awkward photo shoot as Santa Claus.

There's nothing signed and sealed at the moment but it's fair to say there has been dialogue (with Chelsea). I've got to be up front and tell you, as I always do, and that's the situation.

Those are the key words, straight from the mouth of Bolton manager Owen Coyle.

File Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

Peter Nowak answered questions from reporters via tele-conference on Thursday on the club's recent signings. See our report, published on Thursday night, for an overview of what was discussed. Also, look for a second report from the press conference later this morning for more quotes and analysis, particularly in regards to how the team plan to handle the number of internationals now on the roster and the status of Keon Daniel.

A couple weeks ago Duane Rollins thought it was a good idea to advocate for the death of WPS. A few days later he backed up his stance by pointing out that the Vancouver Whitecaps didn't want to associate with the struggling league:

If one of the most committed organizations to the women's game is rejecting the WPS model as it currently stands, well, that should tell you something.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Dec 19, 2011) US Soccer Players -- We've all seen quotes where some English soccer executive flatters the North American game by saying Major League Soccer has clubs that could compete in the Championship or even the lower level of the Premier League. Stripped of any context like a sponsorship agreement or other Transatlantic linkup, these sorts of statements might work to convince some that what's on display in.

According to The Daily Mail, Liverpool are allegedly interested in signing Dundee United and Scottish under-21 midfielder Scot Allen The Mail's article, which doesn't have any quotes or credible sources, states:"Sportsmail can reveal that Kenny Dalglish hopes to fend off competition from the Ibrox side, Celtic and West Brom for the Scotland Under-21 cap.

Transfer story-fabrication site GiveMeFootball has posted yet another fake transfer rumour today..The latest barrell-scraping attempt to manufacture false Liverpool transfer speculation comes with the following headline:Liverpool wing wizard target admits Sevilla exit chanceSome quotes from the 'story':"Liverpool wing wizard target Diego Perotti has admitted he would leave Sevilla if the club

It would appear from various reports in the media that Newcastle United had hoped to resurrect the deal to sign Erik Pieters from PSV Eindhoven during the January transfer window. However the Dutch club are not willing to part with the Holland international according to quotes attributed to their Sporting Director, Marcel Brand.

At this stage of the season and given how well the club has done since that awful start to the season, the last news you would want to read is that we're going to be patient with the contract of Robin Van Persie. This is our captain, our inspiration and quite literally has dragged us all the way up the table.

Most of us have been quietly, and painfully, waiting for the day when Barcelona shows up at Cobham with a few million euro and trudges back to Catalonia with a monster of a holding midfielder named Oriol Romeu in its pocket. As it happens, that's probably not going to happen. Not unless Chelsea loses its mind in the near future that is.

Stoke v Spurs was exciting.. but there's no call for that, lino!

United launch Phil Jones action figure... or is it Mr Potato Head? The week's daftest football quotes, plus Howard Webb stars in textbook Yes, Stoke's win against Tottenham was very exciting. But perhaps not quite as exciting as the linesman seemed to find it!

Yesterday in the Friday Free Kicks, I essentially lambasted Brad Friedel for his comments regarding Landon Donovan. Along with other journalists, I was under the impression that Brad Friedel was stating that Donovan took the easy road and my quarrel with this was large. Apparently though, he was misquoted and I misunderstood.

As promised, the annexed quotes from my chat with the Generation adidas squad member...On battling hard to stand out during talent-filled US Olympic camps: "That's all you can do. Go out there and just give whatever you've got in any situation they give you. Hopefully, they like you and call you back.

Last Weekend, 'The People' ran a story claiming that Liverpool had put Andy Carroll on a 12 month fitness schedule in a bid to improve his performances for the club. It was obvious from first-read that the story was ludicrous, and The People has now publicly apologised to Carroll for running the story.

Last Weekend, 'The People' ran a story claiming that Liverpool had put Andy Carroll on a 12 month fitness schedule in a bid to improve his performances for the club. It was obvious from first-read that the story was ludicrous, and The People has now publicly apologised to Carroll for running the story.

Nicolas Anelka has denied all reports of him talking about leaving Chelsea, hitting back at English newspaper The Times for its reports yesterday that quoted him as saying just the opposite.

Anelka was linked to a multitude of teams that wanted his services in January, when Chelsea was reportedly open to allowing the striker to leave the team.