Warning : This could be boring

The Past few weeks have seen the worst crisis period of your wonderful career. There are times I used to think what made you quit as a Valencia coach and join Liverpool. You had two La Liga titles and a Uefa cup glory with a meek Valencia side.

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I watched the Liverpool vs. Birmingham game on the box yesterday evening and saw the Red's truly batter Birmingham. I muted the TV as I couldn't stand for another Jon Champion assisted commentary and put on Five Live instead. Out of the fire and into the frying pan. Instead of Champion, I got Green, Alan Green. Click to continue reading...

Borrowed from goal.com, especially for Finnster... :-) Steve McClaren started his first job as head coach in 2001, when he was appointed as Middlesbrough manager. The former Manchester United assistant guided the club to League Cup success three years after his appointment and made it to the UEFA Cup final in Click to continue reading...

A gentle public service announcement, for those who might be interested – a team of Spurs veterans is in action on Sunday 15th November, 2pm at Wadham Lodge, Walthamstow.

The Spurs team in action will include legendary Uefa Cup-winning captain (and featured player in Spurs' Cult Heroes) Graham Roberts, as well as Tony Galvin, Gary Stevens, Mark Falco, Micky Hazard, Steve Sedgely, Clive Wilson, Garry Brooke and Mark Stimson.

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Video of goal highlights from the Manchester City vs Burnley FC Premier League game on November 7, 2009. Game kicks off at the City of Manchester Stadium at 15.00 UK time. City are currently fourth in the league, while Burnley are in a safe mid table position. Manchester City vs Burnley goal highlights and team lineups [. Click to continue reading...

Clinging to the rickety banisters I walked slowly up the seemingly endless winding staircase before climbing onto the roof of the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere. The guide directed us down a narrow passageway which led onto an overhanging balcony that can't have been designed for touring parties. Click to continue reading...

Video goal highlights from the Everton vs Benfica Europa League game on November 5, 2009, Thursday. Game KO time- 21.05 CET from Goodison Park. Final score :- Everton 0-2 Benfica ( Javier Saviola 63′, Oscar Cardozo 76′) Benfica inflict another defeat upon Everton after thrashing the Toffees 5-0 a fortnight ago in Portugal. Click to continue reading...

Video goal highlights from the AS Roma vs Fulham Europa League ( Group E) game on Thursday, November 5, 2009. Game kicks off at 18.00 UK time ( 19.00 Central European Time) from the Stadio Olimpico, Rome. Roma and Fulham drew 1-1 on Match Day 3 at Craven Cottage. Roma vs Fulham lineups and goal highlights [. Click to continue reading...

There is a great community of soccer bloggers out there delivering soccer news and original content and one blog that is really doing it right is No Short Corners.

Greg Seltzer and Sean O'Connor run the blog and their resume in soccer journalism is very impressive.� Combined, the two have reported on soccer across the globe for over a decade, covering MLS, U.

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Goal video highlights from the Hamburg ( Hamburger SV) vs Celtic Europa League Group C game on Thursday, November 5, 2009. Match kicks off at 21.05 CET from the HSH Nordbank Arena, Germany. Celtic desperately need a win to breathe new life into their campaign, while a win for Hamburg would effectively knock Celtic out. Click to continue reading...

Roma-Inter from May of 1999 is another highly entertaining game from one of the most entertaining Serie A seasons of all time. The 1998-99 season had 3 leaders of the table (for the first part of the season it was Fiorentina, who were winter champions but were then hurt by the injury of Batistuta, then Lazio, who looked on their way to the Scudetto but fell off form towards the end, and then Milan who surprised everyone and stole the Scudetto on the last day).

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Chivers with Bill Nicholson/From BBC Sport

Spurs and Southampton legend Martin Chivers joins us on the podcast. Among the topics discussed are:

• His new autobiography
• His current hospitality work with Spurs
• His thoughts on Spurs potential new stadium
• What it took get noticed by Southampton
• Did the move to White Hart Lane help his prospects for making Alf � Ramsey's England squad?

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Rangers face a crunch Champions League night this week and one of their stars has stressed the importance of the tie.

The Scots are currently bottom of Group G with only one point and enter a tie away in Romania against Unirea Urziceni knowing that another defeat will put an end to their distant hopes of qualifying for the next round, or even booking a place in the Europa League.

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Swedish legend Henrik Larsson had an emotional farewell from professional football on Wednesday night as he played his last ever professional game for Swedish side Helsingborg. Larsson had announced his intent to retire at the end of this season but decided to bow out one game early in order to play his last match in front of the Helsinborg supporters.

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Tottenham striker Robbie Keane has kicked off the rivalry that will be renewed this weekend as Arsenal host London rivals Tottenham Hotspurs. The Irish striker has revealed his belief that it is Tottenham, not Arsenal, that has the deeper squad. According to Keane, Tottenham are well equipped to beat the Gunners to a spot in the top four this season.

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If the Copa del Rey is played, but hardly anyone cares about it, did it really happen?� To say that some of the La Liga teams think of the cup as a nuisance would be quite an understatement.� With the overloaded fixture list consisting of European and domestic matches, the Copa del Rey is near the bottom of the top teams' priorities.

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On Tuesday night, Boro sacked Gareth Southgate: cue rejoicing on Teesside. Southgate was the clueless manager who got us relegated for the first time in 12 years. He was the man who took us from the Uefa Cup to the foot of the table. He was the man who sold our best players, and brought in our worst.

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Video goal highlights from the Manchester City vs Fulham Premier League game on October 25, 2009, Sunday. Kickoff at 15.00 UK time. Both City and Fulham drew their last games 1-1. City's was against Wigan last week, while Fulham were up against AS Roma in the Europa League on Thursday. Related posts:Manchester City claim last UEFA Cup [. Click to continue reading...

Pity the lonely referee at the side

With Arsenal only playing on Sunday night, I will not start to preview the game just yet. Today's topic may not impact Arsenal at least for the current season but depending on how it turns out, may have a large bearing for Arsenal. The Europa League was introduced this season to replace the old UEFA Cup.

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Tonight three Spanish Teams have participated in their respectiveEUROPA LEAGUE-CUP (ex UEFA Cup) Group matches with mixedresults.ATHLETIC DE BILBAO came back from a horror 1ºst half performanceto win 2-1 at home NACIONAL DE MADIERA. The latter started scoringvia MICAEL in the 43rd min. Then the Spaniards changed their playto take over & score via ETXEBERRIA in the 67th min & FRANLLORENTE in the Click to continue reading...

I know we are still in the first part of the football season but it seems to me that some changes might occur at the top of the football chain. Some teams that always have made a good impression are getting worse.
Some examples are Bayern Munchen and AC Milan. Both teams played in the UEFA Cup in recent years and this year they are having weak runs in the domestic leagues with Bayern in 6th position and Milan in 8th. Click to continue reading...

Unione Sportiva Citt� di Palermo is an Italian football club from Palermo, Sicily currently playing in the Italian Serie A and coached by former Italy national goalkeeper Walter Zenga. Following its return to Serie A in 2004, the club became one of the most prominent in Italy. It has obtained a UEFA Cup / Europa League [. Click to continue reading...

Remember that fabulous Parma team that lifted the UEFA Cup in 1999?

Led then by manager Alberto Malesani the team was made up of superb talent from the back to the front. A young Gainluigi Buffon kept goal, protected by a back three of Lillian Thuram, Fabio Cannavaro and Nestor Sensini.

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As an indication of what was to come Henrik Larsson's first contribution in a Celtic shirt was misleading. It was his misplaced that Chic Charnley latched on to score the winning goal for Hibs in an early season game at Easter Road.That Hibs team would end up relegated while Celtic and Larsson would collect four league titles, four domestic cups and a UEFA Cup final appearance. Click to continue reading...

David Moyes had his work cut out for him last season as number of key players were out with injuries but he, nevertheless, led Everton to the fifth place in the Premier League thanks to the great finish of the season. However, this season hasn't had the best of starts for the Toffees even though the boss now has much bigger squad to choose from and it seems that top half finish is the best they can do this term.

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With the Ballon d'Or nominations finally releasing this weekend, the headlines have mostly been devoted to the fact that world champions Italy have no representation whatsoever. But why blame the press for paying excessive attention to an irrelevant detail? After all, the award itself is destined to be heading Lionel Messi's way, which means very little is there to be talked about in terms of debating the winner, right?

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First off, I noticed that I forgot to put links to the international cup tournaments and to prior annual rankings in my post for 1989. If you read that post and noticed those missing, I have gone back to that post and remedied that. Sorry.

1990 seemed fairly similar to 1989 in the big scheme of things.

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Ferguson very keen on Russian custodian

Portsmouth Vs Manchester United Tickets Still Available!

Manchester United encouraged to step up interest in goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev
Manchester United have been encouraged to step up their interest in Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev following CSKA Moscow's decision to listen to offers for the 23-year-old in January.

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This week's featured video is a full length episode of TVS's "The Saturday Match" from April 1983. The main match is a critical match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur from The Goldstone Ground. Brighton were bottom of the First Division and without a home a league win since the previous December, but they were still in the FA Cup, and could have been forgiven for having one eye on their upcoming semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday.

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It didn't take long for the bottom club Hertha to appoint a new coach after parting company with Lucien Favre only days after Week 7. Friedhelm Funkel had had a distinguished spell at Frankfurt up until last season. However, he was let go in the summer in the hope that a new manager will be able to inject some new zest in the side. Click to continue reading...

Wenger target considers Serie A departure.

Watch Ukraine Vs England Live Online!

Udinese midfielder Gokhan Inler has hinted that he may leave the club next summer.
The 25-year-old defensive midfielder has made more than 50 appearances for the Serie A side since arriving from FC Zurich in summer 2007, helping the Zebrette reach the UEFA Cup quarter-finals last season.

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By now you've heard the news: 2006 World Player of the Year and Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro failed a doping test in late August, testing positive for cortisone.� The Italian football establishment players, coaches, officials, media came out in his defense.� "The cortisone was lifesaving treatment for a bee sting!

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1998
Zdenek Zemen accuses Juventus of supplying players with illegal performance enhancing drugs.
1998
Inquiry into doping at Juventus begins.
2001
Edgar Davids failed a drugs test in 2001 while playing for Juventus. He was banned for 16 months.
2001
Juventus club records reveal particularly high haematocrit levels in the blood of several players. Click to continue reading...

Last season Sporting Club de Braga's manager Jorge Jesus stated that the only way they would ever win the league would be on a Playstation. They had just been beaten by Benfica in Estadio da Luz 1-0 to an offside goal and had been denied two clear penalties.

It was a bodyblow that Braga would not recover� from and they ended up finishing 5th but � gaining their sixth consecutive appearance in Europe, a feat few clubs in Portugal have equalled.

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The AP is reporting that Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro has failed a doping test, which Juventus claim is a result of using cortisone to treat a bee sting. But, given the propensity for athletes to use cortisone shots regularly and legally, it's hard to believe that that's really the case. From the report:

CONI would not say when Cannavaro tested positive, but said Torri would hold a hearing with the defender and the physician involved in the case.

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