Liverpool striker David Ngog claims team-mate Fernando Torres is the best striker in the world and has played down his role as a direct replacement.
The French youngster has netted four goals from nine games this season and now heads the list of replacements for crocked first-choice Torres. Click to continue reading...

Manchester United go into tomorrow's big Premier League clash against Chelsea with many pundits expecting a hammering for the champions, there's no surprise there given what happened at Old Trafford in the summer with the loss of two world-class strikers and the quality of the replacements that followed. Click to continue reading...

The fans half feared it, the pundits shook their heads and even the club had doubts, but when it comes to juggling the demands of the Barclays Premier League and European competition, while Fulham are coping magnificently, Rafael Benítez's team are not.
The fragility of Liverpool's season was never starker. Click to continue reading...

It was a bit of a hassle, but your roving reporter was able to slip some questions to the Oranje delegation in Sydney. Here's some answers :-). 1. Why don't you feel it's time to look seriously at preparing replacements for Gio and Ooijer? "I will look seriously at replacements if the players Click to continue reading...

Man United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has said that the England International team needs striker Wayne Rooney more than Manchester United do. Rooney is a definite starter for both teams. As an England and Man United supporter, I would also say that England needs Rooney more. Click to continue reading...

That's international week over with and fans of Scotland are scratching their heads as to what the point of our Japanese adventure was. All we really know is that George Burley is not scared to play replacement replacements if required. Probably didn't have to go all that way to find that out.In SPL world we are being buffeted by winds of change from across the border and over the north Atlantic. Click to continue reading...

"Bafana threw everything forward near the end but the defence of Iceland, a country that would fit into Soweto and with just 350 000 people, held firm."

Bafana Bafana Team Showed Some Improvement

On Tuesday night the 2010 World Cup hosts suffered a 1-0 defeat to Iceland at Laugardalsvollur.

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Let's press fast-forward and imagine ourselves in June of 2010. By this time Prince Faisal has taken over the Club, work has begun on a new stadium with 75,000 seat capacity, our debt has been paid, and the Prince has pledge Stg 100 million to Rafa to make the Reds unbeatable!

We are now asking you to step into Rafa's shoes and build your dream team!

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Let's press fast-forward and imagine ourselves in June of 2010. By this time Prince Faisal has taken over the Club, work has begun on a new stadium with 75,000 seat capacity, our debt has been paid, and the Prince has pledge Stg 100 million to Rafa to make the Reds unbeatable!

We are now asking you to step into Rafa's shoes and build your dream team!

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Tomorrow, Lyon will be taking on Hungarian side Debreceni VSC in their quest to qualify for the knockout rounds. They are already off to a good start, having taken three points from Fiorentina, but there are still five games to go, and anything can happen. It's important that Lyon get three points tomorrow because they have a double-header with Liverpool (who, incidentally, have suddenly regained an impressive amount of form in the last two weeks), as well as an away game at Fiorentina.

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What a difference three months makes.

Back in June, Costa Rica� thrashed the U.S. men's national team, 3-1, in World Cup qualifying, leading to national celebrations and rock star status for Costa Rica head coach Rodrigo Kenton, who had his team in first place in CONCACAF qualifying.

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Do we need him?

It's just as wop doors in order to get first pick of the January sales. First shoved into his reusable hand-stitchell then that Manchester United can provide some transfer grist. Sir Alex Ferguson is packing his sleeping bag and Thermos and is prepared to spend New Year's Eve bivouacking outside the shed hemp satchel will be Valencia's David Silva.

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With DC United in the process of finalizing a loan for Tiyi Shipalane from the Harrisburg City Islanders, I was pretty darn confused as to the status of our roster, since we'll now have 27 players listed on our first team roster when the league maximum is 24. Sounds like a good time for a late season roster reset!

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Euro 2009 for the ladies, a mouthwatering clash in the World Cup qualifiers to look forward to, and controversial decisions from footballs governing bodies all feature on this week's Good, bad and Ugly.

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I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with transfer deadline day. It compresses all the transfer activity into one fairly exciting day, after which we can stop speculating and just get on with the football, but on the other hand, it is a flurry of rumours and lies, more often than not ending in complete anticlimax.

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Newcastle's Jose Enrique has branded Newcastle United fans as "the best in the land" today, and says he wants to stay to help the club back to the Premier League. Jose Enrique I'm going nowhere The Spanish U21 defender is worried that if the Newcastle players continue to leave the club and suitable replacements aren't found [. Click to continue reading...

With only a week left in the summer transfer window, time is running out for those clubs looking to make some much-needed additions to their squads.

Between now and Tuesday, we should see plenty of transfer signings and speculation, so strap in and get ready for the ride. The top clubs might not be dominating the headlines right now, but don't count out a few big moves on or before deadline day.

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by CARL ELDRIDGE Arsene Wenger is anything but impetuous. So can someone explain why today's papers are suggesting that the Gunners chief is ready to renew his interest in Saint-Etienne midfielder Blaise Matuidi?

The argument is that because Cesc Fabregas has a hamstring injury, AW has realised just how short he is of players who could be considered suitable replacements and so has put Matuidi back on his radar.

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The twentieth round of Allsvenskan gives us two very interesting matches at the top of the table. Kalmar is up against the wall as they take on league leaders AIK. The reigning champions of Kalmar will need to come up with a good result in order to remain in a strong title contender. In the other notable match-up for the top, disease-ridden and injury-laden Elfsborg takes on Örebro only three days after their match against Lazio in the Europa League. Click to continue reading...

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The New York Red Bulls' nightmare season is apparently going to lead to some people losing their jobs, but not as quickly as some might have imagined.

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The New York Red Bulls' nightmare season is apparently going to lead to some people losing their jobs, but not as quickly as some might have imagined.

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The first blowout of the season came on the opening day as Arsenal demolished Everton 6-1 at Goodison Park. While most pundits - including myself - saw this match as the most enticing tie of the first round of fixtures, it ended up being the most lopsided and perhaps the most convincing display of the season (early, yes, but it was 6-1!

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United kick off their Premier League defence at home to Birmingham tomorrow with a squad not much different from that of last season. Obviously there were a couple of big name departures but the high profile replacements many expected never materialised and with the possible exception of Antonio Valencia, United will field a team of seasoned Reds when they kick off tomorrow.

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If ever there was a summer when a little fine-tuning was all that was needed at Anfield, this was it. Having seen his Liverpool team finish second, only four points behind Manchester United last season, the closest they have come to winning the league title since their last success in 1990, Rafael Benítez expected a quiet summer, unaware of the knock-on effects of the imminent spending sprees at Real Madrid and, indirectly, Manchester City. Click to continue reading...

Another bad performance in Mexico, thankfully it only happens every four years. Offense is what wins games, we have the talent, so why not use it. When will US soccer ever learn? Interesting discussion on Cirrus about youth soccer last night. Seems everyone knows what we need to do, but no one does it. Click to continue reading...

Contrary to a number of rumours about the future of Marouane Chamakh, Arsenal have not made a new offer for the Bordeaux striker.

In fact, club chairman Jean-Louis Triaud, told L'Equipe:

I have not had any sign of life from Arsenal. I am waiting. If Arsene Wenger really wants Marouane, I suppose he will finally get in touch.

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Alonso joins Real.

The exodus of players out of England continued today with Xabi Alonso completing the move to Real Madrid. Many people will not realize the hole that is left with his absence at Anfield.

So much focus is on Torres and Gerrard which left Alonso lots of space to utilize his considerable skills.

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Well, subject to a medical of course (of course!), Alonso's finally been sold to Real Madrid. In other earth-shattering news, the sky's still blue.
The sum of the text on the official website, in sum, is thus:

Liverpool Football Club this evening confirmed they had reached agreement for the sale of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid, subject only to a medical.

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Curt Onalfo� has been fired� as head coach of the Kansas City Wizards, teams sources informed SBI on Monday evening. The club is expected to name an interim head coach on Tuesday (with general manager Peter Vermes mentioned as a likely choice to take the position for the remainder of the year).

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The first thing to bear in mind is that we haven't lost anyone critical to the team's coherency or ability during this post-season. As I said in my last post, I think we've, at most, lost players who were our fourth-best striker and fourth-best defender. The fact both started games last season doesn't mean anything; even if they were first choice, Arsene, like myself, was suitably unimpressed with both of them to sell them off. Click to continue reading...

Okay, so I don't want to single out Marlon (second time that I've posted because of one of your comments!), but I think this sentiment deserves to be here rather than subsumed beneath 15 previous comments.

At this point I'd rather see Lucas come good then seeing a new signing flourish in our midfield.

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Rounding up all the yesterday's biggest transfer news and gossip.

Rafa Searches For Replacements As Alonso Hands In Transfer Request
Alonso has today handed in a written transfer request, paving the way for Aquilani to join Liverpool. It is believed that Real Madrid and Liverpool will agree on a price believed to be between £28M and £30M.

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Of course it comes as no surprise to anyone, but Alonso has officially handed in his transfer request today.
Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, it's going to be very exciting to see how Rafa responds to this. There's no way a manager of his stature doesn't have a contingency plan for something like this. Click to continue reading...

This transfer window is over for Lyon after the club signed Saint Etienne's Bafetimbi Gomis for a fee which could rise to €15 million. The powerful striker will sign a five-year contract with Gerland outfit and he is set to partner Lisandro Lopez in newly shaped attack.

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Remember a more innocent time, when one would have missed a match on telly for whatever reason. Maybe out shopping, out for a drive, out for a walk, you know the usual reasons. Then you get a spare second, and send off a text

Ashton: Out of Favour

message 'Any score?', or some variation of it.

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