While Manchester City are in one of the toughest Champions League groups in recent memory, their performances have shown that while money may be able to buy domestic success, European pedigree is a priceless commodity.

Just ask Roman Abramovich. He and Jose Mourinho brought Premier League titles and FA Cups to Stamford Bridge almost immediately after the Russian oligarch pumped many millions into the club, but the Champions League title remains elusive to this day.

A lot of the talk around the Spurs squad has centred around goalkeepers this week. Firstly, manager Harry Redknapp underlined the fact that he considers Brad Friedel to be the club's number one while at the same time, Carlo Cudicini has been trusted with the gloves in the Europa League.
That has led to transfer talk involving Heurelho Gomes and it's thought that the erratic Brazilian could be on his way as early as next January.

Less than week to go until the begininng of the Fantasy Premier League, so it's about time to start looking at the top picks and tips for your team. I'll try to give comments about the best player for your team in every price range. So, no more blabbering, let's get right to business.
GOALKEEPERS:
Over £6M
At the top of the price list for goalkeepers are ManCity's Joe Hart and Chelsea's Petr Cech.

Seldom, in recent years, has the gap between the Premier League and Champions League titles seemed so great. In the minds of some, Manchester United's trip to Wembley for the Champions League final against Barcelona should have been a coronation, a celebration of a uniquely long-lasting dynasty that has dominated English football for almost two decades.

BBC Sport Aston Villa sign Shay Given from Manchester City on five-year deal.

In probably the most cost effective transfer in the close season to date, Aston Villa today signed Republic of Ireland international goalkeeper Shay Given to a 5 year deal.

Given is widely regarded as one of the top goalies in the Premier League despite having spent most of last season on the bench as backup to Manchester City's England goalkeeper Joe Hart.

Eric Abidal lifts the Champions League trophy for Barcelona. Image: AP Photo/Daylife

This is it, people. The final results post before summer kicks in and a Kickette staffer's thoughts turn to tanned torsos, embarassing holiday snaps and drunken snoozling on the beach.

Revel in every glorious moment of it.

If you ask Pep Guardiola which team were his most difficult opponents en route to winning the Champions League, I can guarantee that his answer won't be Manchester United.

It will, of course, be Arsenal.

In yesterday's final at Wembley, United were clueless and gutless.

They scored with practically their only attempt on goal and for the rest of the game were chasing shadows.

Barcelona have won their fourth Champions League. It's their second in the past three years, and it was won with an amazing display of dominance. While Manchester United offered some resistance in the first half, by the end of the match we saw why Barcelona's ideal style of playing is loved by so many around the world.

Manchester United vs. Barcelona in a rematch of the 2009 final in Rome.

Park needs to be--and should be--loud tomorrow...

I'll take the probably very clichéd contrarian approach of suggesting that Manchester United will take this one. Barcelona certainly has the upper hand and there is not reason that their possession-oriented "attack" shouldn't work on the divots of Wembley.

Just something to decorate my blog before the big game tomorrow. The two very famous finals of the big clubs.
The first was the 1991 Cup Winners Cup final, when Mark Hughes played a great game and scored both goals of Manchester to beat the Catalonian team 2-1. The second goal was very special one,
and the second one was the famous 2009 CL final with a great second goal with 'elastic' jump from the 169cm boy Lionel Messi vs.

Just something to decorate my blog before the big game tomorrow. The two very famous finals of the big clubs.
The first was the 1991 Cup Winners Cup final, when Mark Hughes played a great game and scored both goals of Manchester to beat the Catalonian team 2-1. The second goal was very special one,
and the second one was the famous 2009 CL final with a great second goal with 'elastic' jump from the 169cm boy Lionel Messi vs.

La UEFA confirmó el equipo ideal de la Liga de Campeones, elegido a través del 'Player Rater' por los usuarios y expertos de la web del máximo organismo del fútbol europeo.
A lo largo de la competición, los aficionados han podido respaldar a sus favoritos cada jornada y entre los elegidos aparecen seis que disputarán la final de Wembley el próximo sábado, los azulgranas Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta y Gerard Piqué y los 'reds' Edwin van der Sar, Ryan Giggs y Nemanja Vidic.

Sin duda el mejor jugador mexicano en años , ademas de la mejor temporada debut en el extranjero para cualquier mexicano.

El delantero mexicano Javier "Chicharito" Hernández fue elegido como jugador del año del Manchester United al conseguir el 21% de la votación superando por muy poco al portugués Nani.

Return of the Mack? Rio models the latest in 'hobo beach chic'. Image via Twitter

Apparently we are not the only ones who like to mock Manchester United players for their for poor clothing choices. Rio Ferdinand put his sartorial nous on the line in the United dressing room this week, donning a rather alarming coat type affair belonging to 'one of the goalkeepers' and tempting fellow Twitter users with a prize if they could guess who it belonged to.

By CALEB SONNELAND

Police were called to the Grosvenor Hotel in London Monday night after a brawl broke out at West Ham's end-of-season dinner.

West Ham striker Demba Ba was at the center of the altercation, after he reportedly got into an argument with a fan, which resulted in the fan racially abusing the Senegalese player and an ensuing fracas.

Transfer rumours today link Spurs with players that would provide either a last line of defence or a first line of attack and while the name of Klass-Jan Huntelaar has emerged again, one of his Schalke 04 team mates could be unexpectedly available.

It was firmly believed that goalkeeper Manuel Neuer would be leaving his present club to join Bayern Munich at the end of the season, but the Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had this to say:

"I don't really think we are going to find a quick agreement.

Let me start by congratulating Man United for the third time this season on their performance once again. We have to hold our hands up and admit that Manchester United players were far more effective than ours were and it pains me to say it but we all have to be honest here.
No one could have imagined what happened at the start of the game and questions need to be asked as to why United had the time and space to play two passes forward under no real pressure.

Lineups are in:

Arsenal: Starters: Wojo, Clichy, Djourou, Koscielny, Sagna, Song, Wilshere, Ramsey, Nasri, Theo, van Persie Bench: Lehmann, Squillaci, Arshavin, Eboue, Gibbs, Chamakh, Bendtner

Manchester United: Starters: van der Saar, Fabio, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Anderson, Park, Rooney, Hernandez Bench: Kuszczak, O'Shea, Owen, Rafael, Berbatov, Valencia, Smalling

The big news for us, obviously, is no Cesc in the squad.

One could say this is the best time for such a game because Arsenal have nothing to lose and can play without any pressure. On the other hand, it's just as easy to say this is the worst time to play United because confidence of the players must be really low and the visitors, who don't need anything more than a draw, thrive in a defend and counter-attack environment.

I want to start with a mention of the PFA awards and the Team of the Year. Congratulations to Wilshere for picking up the Young Player of the Year award, and deservedly so. Gareth Bale was chosen as the Player of the Year and Nasri came in second. And in case you haven't seen it, the team of the year is,

Van der Saar – Sagna, Vidic, Kompany, Cole – Nani, Nasri, Wilshere, Bale – Tevez, Berbatov.

Tim Krul will play his 20th game of the season tonight against Manchester United. Tim Krul 20th game for Newcastle tonight And Tim will get another big chance to impress his manager Alan Pardew, and at the same play for the last time against his Dutch idol, Edwin van der Saar, who played 130 [...]

It seems that Tim Krul will get to play against his idol, Edwin van der Saar, tonight in the game against Manchester United at St. James' Park, in Edwin's last season in football. Edwin van der Saar in final season for Manchester United Edwin was recently named in the PFA Premier League side for [.

The fact that Spurs had little chance of progressing to the Champions League semi finals meant that the spotlight was taken off Heurleho Gomes to some extent. The latest in a line of elementary errors gifted Cristiano Ronaldo the winning goal and briefly took the momentum away from a Spurs team who were threatening to win the tie at least.

Aww, baby. Image: AP Photo/Daylife

It's part two of our marvelous Champions League Results round up, people. Strap yourself in, grab your hip flask and join us for the ride.

(Psst: there's semi-nekkid Pique and everything!)

Chelsea 0-1 Manchester United

Really, Nando?

Warming up, just in case. Van Der Saar denies injury worry - Yahoo! Eurosport Edwin van der Sar has played down fears he suffered a recurrence of his groin injury during Manchester United's Champions League win at Chelsea... However, the former Ajax man, United's shoot-out hero in the final against Chelsea three years ago, insists it is not a serious problem.

I was hoping a draw will be a good result but it was not to be. Both teams had a number of key players missing. Wenger sent a mixture of first team players and second stringers to play in their usual style while Ferguson sent a similar group out with a clear plan. In the end the man with the plan won, once again.

I can't argue with that result, although we had a lot of chances and Van der Saar had to make two absolutely top notch saves, United took their chances and we didn't, they won and that was that. Overall it was very disappointing to see us fail to take advantage of a very weak United midfield that we dominated for long long parts of the game.

All the hard work for Kuyt's first goal was done by Suarez who danced between 3 or 4 defenders before getting the ball through for Kuyt to merely tap home.
Kuyt's second goal was a gift from Nani who headed the ball back to him.
The third one came off a free kick that Van der Saar failed to hold on to.