---- -----------------"Can I get back to you in five years?"
One thing has become crystal clear over the last few days of post-season naval gazing at BMO Field. It doesn't matter, who the head coach is, it doesn't matter how the star player feels, it doesn't matter what the supporters want - Mo Johnston (Yes, the Scottish Hall of Famer! Click to continue reading...

Finally, Toronto FC have found a way to eliminate a Puerto Rico Islander -terminate his contract. TFC announced the release of defender Marco Velez after 38 appearances for the club. The enigmatic 29 year old was capable of the odd solid game but all too often was caught on the wrong end of a defensive blunder. Click to continue reading...

From RevolutionSoccer.net:

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution announced today that the club has signed Costa Rican defender Gabriel Badilla (bah-DEE-uh) to a Major League Soccer contract to play for the Revs pending U.S. P-1 Visa approval. He will occupy one of the team's seven available international roster spots.

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Revolution Press Release:

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Revolution today announced that the team has received allocation money and the number 13 position in the 2008 allocation table from Toronto FC in exchange for the Revs' number two position in the 2008 allocation table.
The Revolution had originally acquired its current position in the MLS allocation table on Aug.

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According to Kyle McCarthy over at Goal.com, Pat Noonan may be headed back to the Revolution:

Pat Noonan is close to re-signing with the New England Revolution after leaving the team during the off-season, sources close to the deal tell Goal.com.

Read the full story at Goal. Click to continue reading...

From the clues in Shawn Mitchell's post, Is it Ibezito Ogbonna? He's Nigerian, 25, and played for Hapoel Tel-Aviv He was 10 goals 31 games in 03/04, 7 goals in 29 games in 04/05,10 goals in 30 games in 05/06, and 1 goal in 7 games in 06/07. He was injured in 2007 and also transfered to [...] Click to continue reading...

From RevolutionSoccer.net:

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution has announced that defender Chase Hilgenbrinck has decided to leave the club and retire from soccer to enter a Catholic seminary in Maryland to prepare for a new career in the ministry. Additionally, the Revs announced that MLS rookie of the year candidate forward Kheli Dube has been promoted to the team's 18-man senior roster.

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TDG is excited about this one. Frankly, I'd like to see Lampard join Mourinho at Inter, but that's not looking like it's going to happen. Chelsea sign Barca playmaker Deco Chelsea have signed Portugal midfielder Deco from Spanish giants Barcelona on a two-year deal for a fee of about £8m. The 30-year-old was recently told by Barca's [. Click to continue reading...

The Revolution today announced that Wellesley, Massachusetts native Chris Tierney has been signed to a developmental contract. The 22-year-old University of Virginia product was drafted by the Revolution in the first round of this year's Supplemental Draft and has played for the Revolution reserves three times this year as a guest player. Click to continue reading...

The New England Revolution announced today the signings of Joe Germanese and Brandon Manzonelli to developmental contracts, while Matthew Britner was released to make room on the developmental roster. The 22-year-old Germanese was taken by the Revs in the 2nd round of the Superdraft (27th pick) and spent the last two years playing in the midfield for Duke University after transferring there from Vanderbilt. Click to continue reading...

(Just a quick FYI: I think I've got a good set-up in mind for the Rapids/Crew updates. Those will come early in the morning, the rest will follow. At least that's the plan today. And, oh yes, I will miss breaking stories...that is all.) It takes covering the Colorado Rapids to truly appreciate [.. Click to continue reading...

Most EPL followers are sitting here bummed that there were no real high-profile moves in the January transfer window. No Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. No David Villa to Liverpool. Hell, Manchester United didn't even make one single move. But why should they? Somehow, $300 million were spent on new players by EPL clubs, breaking the [. Click to continue reading...

Benjani to Manchester City (very close at least)! Portsmouth's best forward move has made Harry Redknapp's life a living hell now, unless he's got transfers lined up today. Benjani's exit, Utaka and Kanu at the ANC, and Dave Nugent out with an injury leaves Portsmouth rather thin at the forward line. Click to continue reading...

Steve Goff at the Washington Post has thrown this little teaser in his early evening round-up. It apparently is with an option to buy. Haven't seen it anywhere else yet. Not even in the Italian press. Szetela originally turned down an August offer from Brescia to sign for Racing Santander. With his Santander first-team hopes pretty [. Click to continue reading...

JONATHAN WOODGATE: The former Real Madrid central defender has been stuck in the mediocrity of Middlesbrough. After a transfer bidding war between Newcastle and Tottenham, the Spurs have come out on top - addressing a big issue within their line-up. Michael Dawson can't be trusted and who knows when Ledley King is ever going to [. Click to continue reading...

ALAN SHEARER: The former Newcastle and Blackburn striker was widely seen as Kevin Keegan's best candidate for top assistant coach at Tyneside. A meeting between the two end up with Shearer stating he would not like to be considered for the assistant coach positon. Apparently, a future meeting will determine if Alan Shearer could have [. Click to continue reading...

EJ TO ENGLAND: Eddie Johnson has signed for Fulham to join an ailing strike force of Shefki Kuqi, David Healy, and Diomansy Kamara. Johnson joins as part of new coach Roy Hodgson's turnover of the Cottagers as they sit in a dead heat for a relegation battle. Defensive reinforcements have already been brought in in [. Click to continue reading...

FABIO CAPELLO: The new coach of the Three Lions has had to assure people that he will not be joining Joey Barton behinds bars due to tax issues. The claims of a full-scale investigation into Capello's tax history are coming out of Italy and regarding his time as manager of AS Roma and Juventus. Capello [. Click to continue reading...

SAM� ALLARDYCE: Sacked - well actually, Big Sam left by mutual consent - but yea, sacked. Who's next? There are reports out there that� Newcastle immortal Alan Shearer will take the post� but he has already distanced himself. Everton's David Moyes - Lucius Vorenus look-alike -� was also put out there,� but that's already been shot down. Click to continue reading...

BRAD GUZAN: Brad Guzan's transfer speculaton hit SkySports for the first time adding credibility from both sides of the pond to his potential suitors. Celtic is the most recently named party interested in the shotstopper, while we have all heard the rumors involving Arsenal. Some other suitors include Liverpool, Auxerre, and Greek champions Olympiakos. Click to continue reading...

DERBY TRIO: The Derby Rams are going for a complete makeover. After having already captured UAG Tecos striker Emmanuel Villa for $4 million and Manchester City wantaway Danny Mills, Paul Jewell will not be stopping there. Laurent Robert - the wing midfielder who cost Newcastle around $20 million back in 2001 with decent returns - [. Click to continue reading...

SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON: Calls for David Beckham's 100th cap. And apparently Sven� is now after another Brazilian. This time it is Heereveen's goalscorer Afonso Alves who reported could cost around $30 million. Alves would be a good candidate to replace and improve upon the wantaway Italian Rolando Bianchi as Alves hit for 35 goals in 321 appearances [. Click to continue reading...

The past year and only 42 appearances in a� Boca uniform� has seen this� young 19-year old Argentinian� midfielder� - very much in the vein of Javier Mascherano at Liverpool� and Fernando Gago at Real Madrid - help Boca Juniors win the Copa Libertadores, while� ALSO� hoisting the World Cup with the� Argentinian U-20s. Click to continue reading...

LILLE: Signed Pierre-Alain Frau from Paris St-Germain to a 3 and 1/2 year deal. Frau - formerly of Lyon, Sochaux, and Lens - cited a starting role as his reason for moving. Lille is a good place to be Frau as they are a good team, under-performing at the moment (17th) but with a young [...] Click to continue reading...

Alhassan "Al"� Bangura - the Watford midfielder and Sierra Leone native - was granted the opportunity to qualify for a work permit, which effectively has kept him from being sent back to Sierra Leone for the time being. If it was a 'regular' work permit hearing, Bangura would still be packing his bags, but apparently the [. Click to continue reading...

Is Nery Castillo the missing piece for Sven Goran-Eriksson and Manchester City? The pacy and� tenacious winger has joined the Blues on a one year loan from Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine. With Castillo and Elano - both Copa America 2007 standouts - I can't imagine that Eriksson's Citeh will be falling much lower than 4th place [. Click to continue reading...

Coventry and Derby are the latest English clubs to be pegged for an imminent takeover - Derby's has an American feel however� (an� "American sports company")� and is still in critical stages. Whereas, Coventry has gone the Ray Ranson-led SISU Capital route (Ranson was responsible for a bid to takeover Man City early last year). Click to continue reading...

Fabio Capello - England's next skipper. Eurosport says it's as close as you can get to� done.� BBC Sport� is saying the talks are just beginning. Even Ruud Gullit has thrown in his two cents, saying that the Italian could really make a big impact on English football as long as you don't expect "sexy football". Click to continue reading...

Jesus balls! What a day! So many major and minor things to discuss....best start with the little stuff to warm up. Just like before playing, right? - One little thing to keep an eye on: I seriously don't know how teeny-tiny Major League Soccer (MLS) rosters will cope with the scheduling insanity if [. Click to continue reading...

Ruud Gullit has set his sights on a pretty big one. Big in the sense that, just like Juan Pablo Angel, my first instinct was - this guy could really wreak havoc in the MLS.
Take Jerzy Podbrozny, Lubos Kubik, and Piotr Nowak and times it by two and you have Zurawski. Maybe that's a little excessive - but when this guy is on form, he can play. Click to continue reading...

The UK's Mirror have re-opened the wound that is the Abrahomivich, Mourinho, Shevchenko rift. Many blame the expensive Sheva blow-up as the straw that broke the camel's back� between Mourinho and Abrahamovich.� Shevchenko� just wants to play and right now - even with Mourinho gone - he still doesn't. Click to continue reading...

A flurry of trades as the Expansion Draft overhaul gets picked apart. It was pretty much a given that defensive midfielder Brian Carroll was going to move on after being picked by San Jose and having a somewhat sketchy year in D.C.
Columbus gets Carroll for - in my opinion - a rather low price, forward Kei Kamara. Click to continue reading...

Back from Chicago and got to witness one of the worst storms I have ever seen without being categorized as a hurricane. 80 mph gusts. A car apparently being picked up by the wind. Rain that hurt like hail. Other than that, Chicago was awesome. Other then Keller being picked up by Fulham, I was surprised [...] Click to continue reading...

In my (stupidly) exhaustive travels around the Web today, I came across posts and articles about Cuban defectors Lester Mor and Osvaldo Alonso getting closer to signing with Chivas (sadly, after searching high and low, I can't find it), confirmation that Real Salt Lake has signed two of the three Argentines who have trained with [...] Click to continue reading...

The 'as some would see it'� under-achieving, English international midfielder had moved on mainly to be geographically closer to his family (a little Landon Donovan-ish, even in the same country). Still fetched a firm $16 million and his exit was imminent especially when Dyer was left out of Newcastle's recent 3-1 win over Bolton. Good move for [... Click to continue reading...