guest writer Richard Hall Originally the Nerazzurri could not believe it, Zlatan Ibrahimovic had gone but in return they had 46 million Euros and even better they had Samuel Eto'o. Now, half a season since the Cameroonian left for Russia the question is being asked, ‘Did Moratti sell the wrong man?

As in summer, there will soon be a transfer deadline ticker over at MLSS, which I'll be stocking with as much scene-setting and deal-clinching as we can find.Since that won't begin for an hour or so, let's kick off the day with a couple bits. First off, it now seems Charlie Davies will be remaining at Sochaux.

The 2012 NHL Draft is still a ways away. It will take place at Consol Energy Center in the city of Pittsburgh starting on July 22nd. However, it's never too early to take a look at the best prospect available for the draft.

While there are a number of international players at the top of the list, there is also quite a bit of domestic talent.

Andre Arshavin may have been booed at the weekend, but the Poker Face is something the Russian has mastered in recent years. Here he is at a jewellery event with his wife last week, Yulia! / via Daylife

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Andre Arshavin may have been booed at the weekend, but the Poker Face is something the Russian has mastered in recent years. Here he is at a jewellery event with his wife last week, Yulia! / via Daylife

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Remember Yuri Zhirkov? The man with a big reputation as one of the upcoming stars of European football joined Chelsea for a fee of around £18m in 2009 and being honest, did little really to cement his place in the team or force his way in. I think we could realistically, count on one hand the amount of games he played well in for Chelsea.

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has publicly slammed Arsenal midfielder Andrei Arshavin following Sunday's match at the Emirates.

Neville, now in his role as a Sky Sports pundit, was critical of Arsene Wenger's decision to sub the effervescent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, especially as the struggling Arshavin replaced him.

It looks more and more likely with each passing day that Andrey Arshavin will pack up his boots and leave London during the summer, likely back to Russia with Zenit St Petersburg, where he's still considered a hero. In fact, it seems all of Russia regards Arshavin as some kind of football genius since he was named that nation's athlete of the year again for the fourth time running and is still the captain of his country's team.

What is UP, Arshavin! According to Spanish newspaper, Sport, occasionally loco striker Andrei was seen on Monday in Barcelona, ??where he went to shoot a sports commercial (just like Neymar did last week) in the city. And you can officially put the 'Arshavin to Barcelona?

Lille's determination to sign Joe Cole on a permanent deal could see coveted striker Moussa Sow head in the opposite direction.
Anfield boss Kenny Dalglish has made no secret of his desire to strengthen his attack following a meagre return of 24 goals in 20 Barclays Premier League games this season.

There have been numerous rumours saying that Andrei Arshavin is now considered surplus to requirements at Arsenal, and the Russian captain has also made it plain that he is worried about losing his place in the national team if he doesn't play regularly for the Gunners. The Zenit technical director Igor Korneev admitted last month [.

Liverpool and Arsenal face a major battle with Fiorentina and Borussia Dortmund to sign Spartak Moscow striker Welliton.
The Brazilian, 25, is rated one of the best forwards in Russia and has attracted interest from a number of European clubs.
Both Liverpool and Arsenal are keen to bolster their forward line and have been linked with a move for the 5ft 9in forward.

Russia missed the World Cup, but they did Write the Future

The 2010 World Cup seems like ancient history as we enter 2012, but hidden gems need to be uncovered. Remember that "Write the Future" advertising campaign? Well, Russian graphic artist Aske (aka Sicksystems) created two football-related pieces of art to capture the interest of the Russian market.

The most vocal of football agents Oleg Artemov has been touting his client Roman Pavlyuchenko around this week with Anzi the latest Russian club to be linked with the striker.

"At the beginning, Roman absolutely ignored Anzhi," Artemov told the Russian press.

"He wasn't against going back to Russia, but not to the Makhachkala-based team, but Pavlyuchenko is tired of the uncertainty and the lack of match action.

Merry Christmas to most of you out there, and a happy Chinese food meal to everyone else. For the next-to-last day of goodie-palooza, let's get everybody up to speed with the curious case of Omar Gonzalez.Of course, he's been reportedly linked to interest from teams on both sides of the Atlantic drink, with some of teams named accurately and others not.

If you've been stopping by Aston Villa Central for a while now you would have noticed something amiss this past weekend and may have assumed that I had joined Darren Bent on a quick shopping jaunt.
I had no such luck I'm afraid. I did indeed watch the 2-0 loss at the hands of Liverpool, but for the first time in a few years I hadn't done any preparation before the game.

While the economy in Italy lurches from one crisis to another, there is an export market which shows no signs of a slump. Across Europe, it seems, there is a prized product of the peninsula which never sees demand dry up. An unerring rule of the football market appears to have been established: if you seek success and tactical acumen go out and hire a Italian coach.

It is being reported this morning that Arsene Wenger has put both Marouane Chamakh and Andrei Arshavin on the Arsenal transfer list in the hope of off-loading at least one (if not both) of his out-of-form players in January. Arshavin is worried about losing his place in the Russia side at the Euros next summer [.

FC Barcelona has been drawn against Bayer Leverkusen for the first knock out round of this season Champions League season. Barca fans could be very pleased having avoided a trip to east or to the other tough opponents. The first leg matches will be played on th 14th, 15th, 21st and 22nd of February.

The draw ( match ups ) of the last 16 Clubs in the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE has been celebrated with the following results. The away games will be celebrated the 14- 15th & 21/22nd of February, with the return matches the 6/7th & 13/14th of March 2012. FC BARECLONA will first play away in Germany against Bayern Leverkusen, while REAL MADRID will play its first game in Russia against CSKA Moscow.

Few stories floating round in the Twitter-verse that I thought I'd comment on in more depth.
Firstly, the guy over at Republik of Mancunia produced one of his periodic stats analyses, with the goal, I presume, of showing that United have the worst injuries record in the prem. However, in his analysis, he was forced to admit that we, in fact, have the worst injury record out of the top English clubs.

I was waiting for the Euro draw like a kid waiting for a Christmas present, finally the day came and I was waiting with bated breath to see what it was going to look like. So once the groups were in place the engineer in me wanted to break it down and analyse it. Surely, deep inside I knew I could beat a Shebby Singh or a Carlton Palmer hands down with my analytical skills.

Euro 2012 Gear - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

The 14th European Championship for teams sanctioned by the UEFA is scheduled to be played between 8th June and 1st July 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

Spain are the current holders of the cup they defeated Germany in the final in Austria / Switzerland version of the tournament in 2008.

The draw has been set for next summer's UEFA Euro 2012 and Greece are in Group A with Russia, Poland, and the Czech Republic. At first glance, it is a blessing that Greece avoided Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands but a twist of fate can happen anywhere, anytime, and to [read more]

The 2012 EURO's are slowly approaching, and just yesterday the groups for the initial stages of the tournament were drawn. Below are the resulting groups of the draw:


Group A
Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic
Group B
Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal


Group C
Spain, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Croatia


Group D
Ukraine, Sweden, France, England
As for just about every international tournament, a group of death naturally formed.

The draw for the 2012 UEFA European Championship, to be held in Poland and Ukraine from 8th June – 1st July next year, has been made in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv this evening. Sixteen nations will contest this competition for the last time before the next tournament, to be held in France in 2016, will see an increase in the number of finals entrants to 24.

Capello happy with England's Euro 2012 group but would rather have Russia's

Three Lions will play France, Sweden and Ukraine see the full draw here

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-12-02 17:57:40 from: The Mirror

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

The draw for this upcoming summer's Euro 2012 tournament is set to go in Kiev, Ukraine, with 16 teams eager to find out who they'll be competing against for the continent's championship. With co-hosts Poland and Ukraine placed in the first pot, there's bound to be some treacherous group pairings for some of the world's top teams.

Since my last post, Greece played two friendly matches in November against Russia and Romania. These were two games that Fernando Santos used to wrap up the season and check out potential improvements ahead of next years big tournament. Also, this Friday the draw for the final tournament will take [read more]

Are Russia really ready to host the World Cup? On Friday November 4th, FC Krasnodar captain Spartak Gogniev was sent off with two yellow cards for arguing with the referee during an away match against the reserve team of Terek Grozny.
At the edge of the pitch Gogniev was stopped by people who first started an argument with him and then attacked him.

The Samsung Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup 2011 took place from November 22nd to the 26th in sunny Dubai with several of the world's best beach soccer teams on show. Reigning world champions Russia beat Brazil in the final while Switzerland took third. While the tournament featured some fantastic action, as with most beach soccer events, [.

If by any chance, Spurs fans held any hope of seeing Didier Drogba in a Lilywhite shirt anytime soon, that optimism has been dashed by his agent's claims that he is seeking as big a pay cheque as possible to end his career.

In truth, this one never seemed likely but at least now the rumour can be put to bed once and for all,

"Once you are well into your thirties, you have to go to a club where you can be certain you'll be able to pay your bills," said Thierno Seydi.

Russia's getting better. They've got the World Cup, a moderately recent UEFA Cup title, the money and glorious landscape of Dagestan (Samuel Eto'o says hello) and, in general, promise.

The video released of Spartak Gogniev the player assaulted after being sent off in a reserves game is not what one might call "promising".

Chelsea's veteran striker, Didier Drogba, looked set to end his journey with Manchester City sometime soon as the striker rejected the one year extension that was being offered to the 33-years-old attacker.

Drogba's refusal in signing the extension with Chelsea was revealed by the player's agent, Thierno Seydi, who believes that minimum contract length isn't something that his client seek in the twilight of the striker's career.

After speculation about his future it seems that Didier Drogba will be leaving Chelsea after his contract expires at the club. There have been plenty of rumours of different clubs interested in his services as it appeared blatantly obvious that at 33, the club were never going to offer him the two year contract he wants.

It's time black players took a stand against racism in football Carla Palmer Footballspeak.com.

With all the furore kicked up by FIFA President Sepp Blatter a couple of weeks ago regarding his stupid and senseless comments regarding racism in football, needless to say that subject has grabbed the headlines back again in the blogosphere.

Arsenal midfielder Andrey Arshavin believes fatigue played a role in Saturday's English Premier League game, against Fulham. Speaking to his official website, the Russia International explained that the tough mid-week Champions League game against Borussia Dortmund ...

With such a settled side and the emergence of players such as Kyle Walker and Younes Kaboul, it seems increasingly unlikely that there will be too much transfer activity at White Hart Lane this January.

Predictably however, that hasn't stopped the rumour mills and there are a couple of interesting names being touted around today.

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.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish is preparing to make a move Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita once the January transfer window opens for business.
According to reports in The Sun, it is believed Liverpool will have to battle mega-rich Russian club Anzhi Makhackala if they are to acquire the services of the Mali international.