White Hart Lane boss plans to raid Old Trafford for England man.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is planning a summer raid for troubled Rio Ferdinand, who has endured a torrid two months for club and country.

The Manchester United defender could even be left out of the team against Blackburn
tomorrow after being given the run-around by Fernando Torres in last Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Liverpool.

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It is a sign of the decline of Italian football in recent years that a trip to Florence at the end of September wasn't at least, not before kick-off a cause of major concern for Liverpool. Ten or fifteen years ago things might have been different, but the Premier League is wallowing and basking in its opulence at the moment while Italian football is scratching its head and wondering where things went wrong.

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Seven goals, seven minutes of added time, seven players from the Big Four in the team of the week. Yes, the big boys claimed back their rightful place at the top of the Premier League table last week, the pretenders of Manchester City & Tottenham slotted firmly into their place. Wins for Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool & Arsenal meant it was a good week for the star names, as well as a few lesser ones too.

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Andy Reid, Jason Roberts, David Dunn. What do they all have in common?

No, it isn't that at regular intervals, their respective managers have prefixed the mentioning of their names with a string of expletives, bemoaning their inconsistency/fitness/existence. It isn't even that they have, at some stage of their careers, been signed for a sum that made most people remark "how much?

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Fortune favours the brave. Rather than sitting down and licking its paws in impotent rage as one by one the star names leave Singapore football, surely this is an opportunity for clubs there to re-evaluate themselves and think afresh.
And that means not just whinging because some players are leaving. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool youngster Dani Pacheco has declared that the club's pre-season in Bangkok and Singapore left him wanting to make an appearance at Anfield.
"The best thing has been signing for Liverpool and since then the two pre-seasons I have spent with the first team - especially the one just gone," he told the club's official website. Click to continue reading...

Hopes were unusually high at the start of this season out at Hougang Stadium as the SLeague's perennial under achievers did something unheard of. They started splashing the cash. In came new coach Jorg Steinbrunner from Woodlands Wellington and with him a few star names.
Players like Aide Iskander, Jerry Batholomeusz, Noh Rahman and Indra Sahdan Daud. Click to continue reading...

It's been a relatively quiet summer in terms of star names coming into the Premier League, but there's been a lot of interesting business conducted between Prem clubs. Here's my selection of the best buys this summer (loan deals not...

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Pulis looks to build on last seasons successes with intelligent bargains.

Middlesbrough's Robert Huth is set for a medical at Stoke ahead of a £6million move,while Stoke are also interested in Huth's team-mate Tuncay Sanli Sky Sources understand (Sky Sports)

Tony Pulis is very keen to strengthen his squad so that his Stoke City side can push on from last seasons heroics and build a side who can consistently finish mid table or higher.

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Liverpool are facing up to a title crisis just a few days into a season when they were being hailed as Premier League favourites.
Two disturbing defeats inside the first nine days of the campaign - by teams with genuine hopes of breaking into the top four - has seen boss Rafael Benitez turn on his senior stars and demand more responsibility. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool FC's title bid is in the balance just a few days into a campaign when they were being hailed as Premier League favourites.
Two disturbing defeats inside the first nine days of the campaign - by teams with genuine hopes of breaking into the top four - has seen boss Rafa Benitez turn on his senior stars and demand more responsibility. Click to continue reading...

Who will play more, Lee Cattermole or Anderson? Not usually a question that truly matters in the wide context of Premier League football, but then as we already know, Fantasy Premier League is a different territory entirely.

With just days to go until the start of the 2009/10 English Premier League season, armchairs and swivel chairs are getting very sweaty indeed as managers look to finalise the last details of their title-challenging squad.

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Abramovich attempts to reassert his dominance on Premier League spending!

Chelsea expect to complete the signing of Andrea Pirlo this week and will then intensify their efforts to lure Franck Ribery and Sergio Aguero to Stamford Bridge.
The trio would cost Roman Abramovich the best part of £100million in transfer fees alone but the Chelsea owner is determined to prove he has not lost the appetite to compete in the transfer market, despite a slow start to his summer trading.

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Some Singaporeans are going to be left crying into their Tiger beer tomorrow. There is clamour here for Rafa Benitez to throw all his star names into action from the start when they take on the national team (noon kick-off UK time).
Liverpool's visit has even managed to knock swine flu off the front pages with The New Paper dedicating seven pages of coverage to the Reds' stay in the former British colony. Click to continue reading...

Any coach who can afford to leave Theo Walcott out of his team is a lucky one.

But when that team is the England U21s and Walcott has started the last two games for the National Team, the manager opens himself up to scrutiny. Is the team really that good? Or is there another reason?

Predictably, journalists have latched onto Pearce's sporadic use of his best player as a story to run with and them to interrogate him on at every opportunity.

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Tomorrow sees Persijap Jepara take on holders Sriwijaya in the 1st leg of their Copa Indonesia semi final and it's probably fair to say Persijap, from the north coast of Central Java just a short drive from Semarang, are one of the ISL's unfashionable clubs.
They are rarely shown on TV despite drawing good home crowds. Click to continue reading...

Place your bets... All bets are off on Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo, but there are still many star names whose futures remain unclear. Join Pies for a game of Transfer Roulette:...

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Fernando Torres bagged a hat-trick as European champions Spain crushed New Zealand 5-0 to open their Confederations Cup campaign in emphatic style on Sunday.
The Group A victory, their 13th consecutive win, extended their unbeaten run to 33 games as they look to overturn Brazil's world record 35 matches without defeat between 1993 and 1996. Click to continue reading...

After years in the Serie A wilderness, Italian football could be set to witness the return of Juventus as a legitimate force at the top end of the table.

Following another dismal campaign in which La Bianconeri failed to present a credible title challenge for the second year in succession after their return to Italian football's top flight, following a year spent in Serie B, Juventus dispensed with the service of coach Claudio Ranieri and have begun a massive rebuilding job as they bid to break Internazionale's stranglehold on the Scudetto.

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CITY have completed the signing of teenage Schalke full-back Nils Zander.
The German youth international is yet to make his senior debut for the Bundesliga outfit but has shown enough in their junior ranks for City manager Mark Hughes to be convinced of his quality.
And, for all the star names Hughes continues to be linked with, the former Wales chief has made 16-year-old Zander his first capture of the summer.

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Newcastle's defeat to Fulham on Saturday pushes them back into the bottom three and therefore requires the result of the Hull City v Manchester United game to go their way next weekend.
I can't help thinking that this leaves Sir Alex in a bit of a predicament. Having sewn up the title with a listless display against Arsenal on Saturday lunchtime, and with a Champions League final four days after the Hull game you could hardly blame Ferguson for leaving out his "star" names and sending a reserve team out against the Tigers. Click to continue reading...

It's hard to talk about other things without getting the obvious rumour out of the way. The Guardian broke the news of United making an offer of £63m for Franck Ribery. Now before we get ahead of ourselves, let it be known that we just made an offer assuming the story is true. (Raphael Honigstein did the exclusive, and although he's one of the better journalists around and among the nicer chaps based on my sources you never know with so much time between now and the transfer window.

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So much has changed at Molineux since Wolves won their last Premier League game, exactly five years ago today.
But one thing remains exactly the same from the team that beat Wayne Rooney's Everton 2-1 to the team that will line-up to receive the Championship trophy on Sunday.
The 2003/4 team had a fantastic right back, and the 2008/9 team has a fantastic right back. Click to continue reading...

Now before everyone goes absolutely mental at me pray let me explain.
I judge keepers as if they were in a league format. For example;
Premiership; Casillas, Cech, Buffon, Reina, Given, etc AND finally now, Almunia
Championship; Howard, Robinson, etc
Blue Square Premiership; Gomes
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With the 2010 World Cup now just over a year away, the pundits are already speculating as to who will take over from Italy as the World Champions. After some impressive recent performances and a much more solid look about them under Fabio Capello, excitement is (inevitably) starting to grow that 2010 South Africa could be England's year.

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If the media are to believed, AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti is the one of the most sought after managers in world football with Real Madrid and Chelsea among the sides linked with the Italian boss for the 2009-10 season.

However, this writer struggles to see why Ancelotti's stock is so high at a time when his own job at Milan must be considered seriously under threat.

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Arsenal are center of most of today's transfer rumors as The Guardian is reporting that Arsenal are in hot pursuit of West Ham's Matthew Upson. The move will follow Kolo Toure's departure to Manchester City. Wenger is a known admirer of Upson, having previously purchased him in May of 1997 from Luton Town. Click to continue reading...