Newcastle United manager, Chris Hughton, has been talking about bringing players into the club, either on loan or permanently. His main emphasis seems to be on promotion first, leaving the onerous task of building a squad that is fit for another long spell in the Premiership and beyond until that objective has been achieved. Click to continue reading...

Before the start to the futbol season I uploaded to the net a podcast entitled 'No Love For...
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Finishing up our "what did we miss out on?" series today:

FELIPE MELO Arsenal were probably linked with Felipe Melo this summer more than any other player. The biggest difference between Arsenal's 2007-2008 season and our 2008-2009 season, which saw the club take a large step backwards, was the absence of Mathieu Flamini.

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As you might expect, we have plenty of things going on today. Two or three plenties worth, actually...#1 - Let's begin with my double interview with Real Salt Lake strikers Robbie Findley and Yura Movsisyan.Other RSL tidbits:- Rogue Cavaliers Brigade blog Denz's Sopabox has interview videos- Have a ticket but no flight yet? Click to continue reading...

The off-season has only just begun for the Houston Dynamo, and already there are reports the team could look significantly different next year. Two of Houston's more prominent players and freshly...

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Part II of our "What did we miss out on?" series continues today:

EDIN DZEKO Arsenal were heavily linked with the 23 year-old Bosnian striker early in the transfer window. He was coming off of a wonderful season in the Bundesliga, in which he led Wolfsburg to a surprise championship and led the league in goals, with a phenomenal 26 strikes in 29 appearances.

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Newcastle United manager, Chris Hughton has been speaking in the aftermath of yesterday evening's friendly victory against Hartlepool Town. In the interview, Hughton reiterated that he wasn't "desperate" to bring players in just for the sake of it, but that he would assess any opportunities that come up. Click to continue reading...

There are some interesting comments from Garry Cook that have been picked up in or two areas of the press the past day concerning the future transfer strategy:

"That is absolutely (a model to aspire to) because, financially, it's a better model than one where you get into negotiating a market price that has no pre-determining factors other than supply and demand.

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Is to wait and see how this one plays out. To the Columbus fans, welcome to the silly season.
Lest we forget, everything in the transfer window is dramatic with Guille. Remember when he first came to Columbus? It took forever to get the deal signed, McCullers was back and forth, the deal was announced before it was finalized, and yours truly was beside himself:

So McCullers can introduce this guy to the press.

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If you were betting on Once Caldas of the Colombian Mustang division to be the first suckers to hire the preeminent Professor of the 4-5-1, grab yourself a boobie prize kid.

Juan Carlos Osorio is a head coach once more. He takes on a squad that is currently 8th in their table, with 7 wins, 7 draws and 4 ties, accumulating 23 goals for and 14 against in that time frame.

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The papers are very entertaining. Over the last few weeks, not a day has gone by without another back page headline about Chelsea being ready to splash the cash in January either on some La Liga mega-star or a Brazilian wonderkid currently plying his trade in South America.
Last week I wrote an post on how Chelsea had – since the suspension of the transfer ban – been linked with 17 players.

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The papers are very entertaining. Over the last few weeks, not a day has gone by without another back page headline about Chelsea being ready to splash the cash in January either on some La Liga mega-star or a Brazilian wonderkid currently plying his trade in South America.
Last week I wrote an post on how Chelsea had – since the suspension of the transfer ban – been linked with 17 players.

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Newcastle United manager Chris Hughton thinks we should be scoring more goals in our home games. Having not lost at home, perhaps Hughton thinks it's time to entertain a little more. He said: "I don't think that it is necessarily the case that someone is due a beating, but we know that we can play better in [. Click to continue reading...

A few NSC programming notes: there will be no Who likes goals? today, there will be a U.S. v Denmark LIVE post on Wednesday and I will name my own MLS Best XI at S365 later in the week. And now, your Monday morning croissants, juice and papers...#1 - The World Cup finals field for South Africa is now at 26, with Cameroon capping their glorious table comeback with a 2-0 closing day win (as Click to continue reading...

Newcastle United are interested in Portuguese under-21 forward Ukra. Well, maybe. It comes from the Daily Mail, which is to newspapers what 'Snakes on a Plane' is to film history, and it doesn't quote anybody saying they're after anyone, so take a large pinch of salt with your porridge this morning on this one. Click to continue reading...

The news that Chris Rolfe was leaving at the end of the season for Denmark came out a couple months ago, but Jack Bell over at the New York Times had a long article that touched on the topic yesterday:

Rolfe said that Aalborg, known as AaB, attempted to buy him from the league last summer, but M.

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Stories in the Brazilian press at the start of the week had Corinthians, one of the country's biggest clubs and the current employers of Ronaldo, planning to sign Juan Román Riquelme from Boca Juniors in a bid to boost their Copa Libertadores campaign in 2010, their centenary year. I've written about it for Soccernet, and [. Click to continue reading...

! Article Start >Farid Belkacemi, agent of Newcastle United's ex PSG out of contract signing prospect, Fabrice Pancrate, has been giving the full blather about his potential move to Tyneside. Pancrate's had a three day trial with the Magpies last week, and is reported to be returning on Monday. As is usual with agents who [. Click to continue reading...

! Article Start >Quiet man turned motormouth, Chris Hughton, has calmed speculation on a Newcastle United move for Jermaine Beckford in January, and expressed confidence that the recently troubled Peter Løvenkrands will return to form. Speaking of the 25 year old Leeds goal machine, Hughton said: "It's obvious that we will be mentioned with players [. Click to continue reading...

Did you ever do that thing where you meet a girl (or guy, if you're one of my female or nontraditional male readers), strike up a conversation, realize she's kind of into you, but then for whatever reason, you decide not to make your move? And then, a couple months or years later, you meet a guy who either is dating her or dated her for a while?

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"January is always busy, busier for some more than others," said Cook.
"Mark has some thoughts and some plans but they are by no means as aggressive as they have been in the past.
"We have a great squad of players that are just getting bedded in and we might find there is more speculation about what we might do than what we actually do.

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! Article Start >Newcastle United's manager, Chris Hughton, has seemingly had "more rabbit than Sainsbury's" (to quote the famous Chas n' Dave song) in the last few days. Today, he was looking at future transfers, suggesting that while he is always on the lookout for new players that could genuiniely improve the squad, he would not [. Click to continue reading...

The latest names to the physio table include the likes of Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera, both of which are dealing with knocks that could see them miss matches after the international break. With the injuries mounting and the quality names on bench and in the starting XI dwindling, it would appear that it's [. Click to continue reading...

Chris Hughton doesn't rule out bringing Sol Campbell to Newcastle United. I think Hughton is yanking my chain because back on 31st October I wrote an article suggesting that Campbell was one of his transfer targets but then on the 3rd November I had to write an article saying he wasn't after Hughton said: "There is no [. Click to continue reading...

Chris Hughton might attempt to sign Danny Simpson permanently at Newcastle United when his loan contract comes to an end in January. Sources in Manchester have allegedly claimed that Sir Alex Ferguson has written off Simpson's chances of making it big at Manchester United, so he may indeed be available. Click to continue reading...

Chelsea fans will already know that, last Friday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) granted Chelsea a stay in relation to the transfer ban FIFA imposed back in September. Since then, the papers have been full of wild and wonderful reports on who Gourlay, Arnesen and Abramovich are plotting to bring to Stamford Bridge when the transfer window reopens in January.

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Chelsea fans will already know that, last Friday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) granted Chelsea a stay in relation to the transfer ban FIFA imposed back in September. Since then, the papers have been full of wild and wonderful reports on who Gourlay, Arnesen and Abramovich are plotting to bring to Stamford Bridge when the transfer window reopens in January.

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Later today, I will have that 'fun Premier League post' that I promised was coming a few weeks back. Sean and I put it together with a couple of NSC pals. Took a little longer than expected, but it's ready now...#1 - I've posted my Q&A with USMNT/IK Start defender Clarence Goodson, who I had somehow had never interviewed before last week. Click to continue reading...

Most of the sweet weekend games haven't started yet, so why not kill time with some tube?We begin with another promo clip from Wayne Rooney's Street Striker challenge show. In this clip, you get to see a bit of how the show works and meet a few of the kids. I despise and avoid most "reality challenge" programs, but I love this show! Click to continue reading...

Chris Hughton claims he will fight to improve Newcastle United's squad in the January transfer window. Since being made permanent manager it seems many people think he'll just be a 'yes man' a puppet and apologist for Ashley's regime but Hughton was keen to dispel such rumours, indicating that he's strong enough to get [. Click to continue reading...

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) kindly announced today that they would grant Chelsea's request for a stay in the club's transfer ban, meaning Chelsea will now be free to flash the cash in January. Of course their final judgement over the club's alleged wrong-doing over the signing of Gael Kakuta is still to come, but in the short-term Chelsea will be able to strengthen the squad if Ancelotti feels reinforcements are needed.

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A temporary reprieve for Chelsea and they will be allowed to sign new players. CAS has yet to render its final verdict. Gael Kakuta four month suspension has also been lifted.

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Hopefully Rafa saw the negatives in Andriy Voronin's performance last night; rather than claiming he is a good player who can have an impact on this season. He proved last night he is nowhere near good enough to play for Liverpool; it's time for the number 10 to move on. I honestly beleive he would struggle [. Click to continue reading...

! Article Start >It's a bit early for Christmas shopping, although I've seen some decorations up in Spennymoor when passing through recently(I mean howay........). And of course we've started the panto early up at The Stadium Formerly Known as St James' Park, but according to the rumours, it hasn't stopped Bolton gaffer Gary Megson adding Andy Carroll [. Click to continue reading...

! Article Start >In his statement when he took Newcastle United off the market, Mike Ashley said "... he is totally committed to the future success of Newcastle United and will be focussing on gaining promotion back to the Premier League." Fair enough, but what's with all this nonsense about giving Hughton a million or two [. Click to continue reading...