The ongoing anti-Glazer protests by a vocal minority of Manchester United fans seems to be having an effect as Manchester United have announced that they have failed to reach their target of season ticket sales this summer,

On not reaching their goal, Man United‘s chief executive David Gill tried to spin it like this:

“I’ll be clear on that. Last year our target was 54,000 season tickets, we’ve sold 51,800, which is pretty good in the current climate. We’ve sold more season tickets than the capacity of most Premier League grounds. Our executive seat sales are on track as compared with last year in a different market. I think the bare facts are that the club is in good financial shape. The ticket sales have held up. We sold out for Newcastle and West Ham but we are not complacent and we’ve got to keep working to make sure that we fill the ground for every game and we’ll do that by playing great football, attractive football, exciting football that brings fans in.”

What Gill does not mention was that as recently as two years ago Manchester United had over 24,000 people on a waiting list for season tickets. That list has now vanished.

I am sure the economy has had an impact on some Man Utd fans not renewing, or buying, season tickets, but there is no doubt that the anti-Glazer sentiment is playing a major role in fans not buying tickets.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how players often hate on their former clubs soon after transferring. It is a trend i see with most players. They normally go on and on about how switching clubs is the best thing that ever happened to their careers and that they are ready for a fresh start when in reality, we know its all a load of rubbish!

The bulk of them are in fact bitter to have been shown the door. Former Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has become the latest player to criticise his former club claiming their manager runs away from his problems.

Prior to his move to Milan, Ibra claimed that he had not spoken with Guardiola for 6 months! I don’t know if that was an exaggeration, however, it definitely strained their relationship even more.

“I said nothing, but I can’t afford to stay in the stands and watch the weather. Nobody at Barcelona wanted to sell me, but the problems began in March. I sought an explanation, but he didn’t answer me.”

“A great coach solves the problems with his players. A little one runs away from his problems. At first we had a good dialogue, then suddenly, I don’t know what happened. I can’t afford to spend a year or three in the stands, I saw what happened last season with Thierry Henry.”

Ibrahimovic has point. What happened to Henry anyway? Didn’t he not have a stellar debut season with Barca? 35 goals in 80 appearances is a very good record. That’s averaging about a goal every two games. Guardiola’s treatment of the Frenchman was not the least bit warranted.

Henry has found a new home in the MLS with the New York Red Bulls where another of his team mates at Barcelona recently joined him-Rafael Marquez. Ibra also did not have to bad a season with the Blaugrana.The Swede managed to score 16 goals in 29 appearances.

Speaking about Milan’s new striking force, this is what he had to say.

“Robinho is a magician. We have the strongest attack in Europe, if I were the coach of Milan then I would be very happy.”

All Milan fans can only hope is that Ibra matches his talk with walk and deliver success that has eluded the club in the past seasons.

Photo credit: from dre1988

For the first time Premier League teams had to name a 25-man squad for the first half of the EPL season and there was a couple of surprises.

All 20 clubs had to submit a squad of up to 25 players containing no more than 17 players who do not qualify as homegrown. Homegrown players are classed as players who “irrespective of his nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday”.

U21 players (born on or after January 1 1989) do not have to count towards the 25-man squads. Changes to the squads can be made in January.

Left out of the Spurs squad was Jonathan Woodgate as Harry Redknapp decided to omit the injury-plagued defender who has a chronic groin problem. Woodgate made only three appearances last season and has not played at all since November. Specialist surgery in both America and Australia proved unsuccessful and Redknapp believes the player is in danger of having to retire.

Another former England player Owen Hargreaves got some good news today as Manchester United included him in their squad. Hargreaves has made only one substitute appearance in the last two years as he battles tendinitis in his knees.

Liverpool were only able to name 21 senior players in their 25-man squad as Rafa Benitez’s Spanish invasion left Liverpool short of home-grown players. Chelsea are in a similar situation as they could only name four homegrown players in their squad and as a result they only have 19 senior players in their squad. A rash of injuries to either Liverpool or Chelsea players could mean that their title ambitions will depend on the performance of a lot of young kids.

Official squads
Arsenal: Manuel Almunia, Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner, Marouane Chamakh, Gael Clichy, Denilson, Abou Diaby, Johan Djourou, Emmanuel Eboue, Lukasz Fabianski, Cesc Fabregas, Laurent Koscielny, Vito Mannone, Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, Bacary Sagna, Alexandre Song, Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, Sebastien Squillaci.

Aston Villa: Brad Friedel; Brad Guzan; James Collins; Carlos Cuellar; Curtis Davies; Habib Beye; Richard Dunne; Eric Lichaj; Stephen Warnock; Luke Young; Stewart Downing; Jonathan Hogg; Stephen Ireland; Isaiah Osbourne; Stiliyan Petrov; Nigel Reo-Coker; Moustapha Salifou; Steve Sidwell; Ashley Young; Gabriel Agbonlahor; John Carew; Emile Heskey.

Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Stephen Carr, David Murphy, Lee Bowyer, Roger Johnson, Liam Ridgewell, Sebastian Larsson, Craig Gardner, Kevin Phillips, Cameron Jerome, Garry O’Connor, Barry Ferguson, Colin Doyle, Matt Derbyshire, Scott Dann, James McFadden, Michel, Keith Fahy, Nikola Zigic, Stuart Parnaby, Alexander Hleb, Jean Beausejour, Ben Foster, Martin Jiranek, James O’Shea.

Blackburn: Paul Robinson, Martin Olsson, Chris Samba, Gael Givet, Ryan Nelsen, Brett Emerton, David Dunn, Nikola Kalinic, El-Hadji Diouf, Vince Grella, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Mark Bunn, Steven Nzonzi, Keith Andrews, Michel Salgado, Jason Brown, Frank Fielding, Pascal Chimbonda, Mame Biram Diouf, Jason Roberts, Benjani.

Blackpool: Charlie Adam, Alex John-Baptiste, Chris Basham, Stephen Crainey, Malaury Martin, Daniel Coid, Ishmael Demontagnac, Neal Eardley, Robert Edwards, Jaso Euell, Ian Evatt, Matthew Gilks, Elliot Grandin, Marlon Harewood, Dekel Keinan, Brett Ormerod, Keith Southern, Ludovic Sylvestre, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Luke Varney, David Vaughan, DJ Campbell, David Carney.

Bolton: Robbie Blake, Adam Bogdan, Gary Cahill, Tamir Cohen, Kevin Davies, Mark Davies, Sean Davis, Johan Elmander, Ricardo Gardner, Stuart Holden, Jussi Jaaskalainen, Ivan Klasnic, Zat Knight, Chung Yong-lee, Fabrice Muamba, Andy O’Brien, Joey O’Brien, Martin Petrov, Sam Ricketts, Paul Robinson, Jlloyd Samuel, Gretar Steinsson, Matt Taylor, Al Al-Habsi.

Chelsea: Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Ramires, Frank Lampard, Yossi Benayoun, Didier Drogba, John Mikel Obi, Florent Malouda, Jose Bosingwa, Yury Zhirkov, Paulo Ferreira, Salomon Kalou, Ross Turnbull, John Terry, Alex, Nicolas Anelka, Henrique Hilario, Daniel Sturridge, Patrick van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Gael Kakuta, Fabio Borini, Josh McEachran.

Everton: Tim Howard, Mikel Arteta, Jan Mucha, Steven Pienaar, Iain Turner, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Tony Hibbert, Phil Neville, Seamus Coleman, Tim Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Louis Saha, Sylvain Distin, James Vaughan, John Heitinga, Victor Anichebe, Leigton Baines, Yakubu, Marouane Fellaini, Jermaine Beckford, Leon Osman.

Fulham: Mark Schwarzer, David Stockdale, John Pantsil, Fredrik Stoor, Aaron Hughes, Rafik Halliche, Chris Baird, Brede Hangeland, Carlos Salcido, Stephen Kelly, Zoltan Gera, Clinton Dempsey, Bjorn Helge Riise, Dickson Etuhu, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Danny Murphy, Jonathan Greening, Simon Davies, Damien Duff, Andrew Johnson, Diomansy Kamara, Moussa Dembele, Bobby Zamora, David Elm, Eddie Johnson.

Liverpool: Jamie Carragher, Joe Cole, Stephen Darby, Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Brad Jones, Paul Konchesky, Jay Spearing, Daniel Agger, Fabio Aurelio, Ryan Babel, Milan Jovanovic, Dirk Kuyt, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Lucas Leiva, Raul Meireles, Christian Poulsen, Pepe Reina, Maxi Rodriguez, Martin Skrtel, Fernando Torres

Manchester City: Shay Given, Joe Hart, Stuart Taylor, Jerome Boateng, Wayne Bridge, Aleksander Kolarov, Vincent Kompany, Joleon Lescott, Shaleum Logan, Micah Richards, Kolo Toure, Pablo Zabaleta, Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong, Adam Johnson, Michael Johnson, James Milner, David Silva, Yaya Toure, Patrick Vieira, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jo, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez.

Manchester United: Ben Amos, Darren Fletcher, Tomasz Kuszczak, Darron Gibson, Edwin van der Sar, Ryan Giggs, Wes Brown, Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Park Ji-Sung, Jonathan Evans, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Antonio Valencia, Gary Neville, Dimitar Berbatov, John O’Shea, Javier Hernandez, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney.

Newcastle: Sol Campbell, Steven Taylor, Shola Ameobi, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Peter Lovenkrands, Jose Enrique, Alan Smith, Leon Best, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, Steve Harper, Kevin Nolan, Wayne Routledge, Danny Simpson, Ryan Taylor, Mike Williamson, Xisco, Fraser Forster, Tim Krul, James Perch, Cheik Tiote, Hatem ben Arfa.

Stoke: Asmir Begovic, Danny Collins, Rory Delap, Salif Diao, Matthew Etherington, Abdoulaye Faye, Ricardo Fuller, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Danny Higginbotham, Robert Huth, Kenwyne Jones, Carlo Nash, Jermaine Pennant, Danny Pugh, Ryan Shawcross, Thomas Sorensen, Tuncay Sanli, Ryan Shotton, Tom Soares, Michael Tonge, Jonathan Walters, Glenn Whelan, Dean Whitehead, Andy Wilkinson, Marc Wilson.

Sunderland: Marcos Angeleri, Phil Bardsley, Darren Bent, Titus Bramble, Fraizer Campbell, Trevor Carson, Lee Cattermole, Paulo Da Silva, Ahmed El Mohamady, Anton Ferdinand, Craig Gordon, Asamoah Gyan, David Healy, Steed Malbranque, George McCartney, John Mensah, Simon Mignolet, Nedum Onuoha, Andy Reid, Kieran Richardson, Crisitjan Riveros, Michael Turner, Robbie Weir, Boudewijn Zenden.

Tottenham: Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Sebastian Bassong, David Bentley, Vedran Corluka, Peter Crouch, Carlo Cudicini, Heurelho Gomes, Michael Dawson, Jermain Defoe, William Gallas, Tom Huddlestone, Alan Hutton, Jermaine Jenas, Younes Kaboul, Robbie Keane, Ledley King, Niko Kranjcar, Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric, Kyle Naughton, Jamie O’Hara, Wilson Palacios, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Stipe Pletikosa, Rafael van der Vaart.

West Brom: Giles Barnes; Roman Bednar; Chris Brunt; Scott Carson; Marek Cech; Simon Cox; Graham Dorrans; Marc-Antoine Fortune; Pablo Ibanez; Gonzalo Jara; Dean Kiely; Abdoulaye Meite; Ishmael Miller; James Morrison; Youssouf Mulumbu; Boaz Myhill; Peter Odemwingie; Jonas Olsson; Steven Reid; Paul Scharner; Nicky Shorey; Gabriel Tamas; Somen Tchoyi; Jerome Thomas; Gianni Zuiverloon.

West Ham: Ruud Boffin, Robert Green, Tal Ben Haim, Manuel da Costa, Danny Gabbidon, Herita Ilunga, Lars Jacobsen, Winston Reid, Jonathan Spector, Matthew Upson, Luis Boa Morte, Valon Behrami, Jack Collison, Kieron Dyer, Julien Faubert, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Radoslav Kovac, Mark Noble, Scott Parker, Pablo Barrera, Carlton Cole, Zavon Hines, Benni McCarthy, Victor Obinna, Frederic Piquionne.

Wigan: Chris Kirkland, Mike Pollitt, Charles N’Zogbia, Emmerson Boyce, Gary Caldwell, Ben Watson, Hendry Thomas, Ronnie Stam, Jordi Gomez, Hugo Rodallega, Mohamed Diame, Maynor Figueroa, Steve Gohouri, Daniel De Ridder, Ali Al-Habsi, Antolin Alcaraz, James McArthur, Mauro Boselli.

Wolves: Marcus Hahnemann; Wayne Hennessey; Carl Ikeme; Kevin Foley; Ronald Zubar; Richard Stearman; Jody Craddock; Christophe Berra; Steven Mouyokolo; George Elokobi; Stephen Ward; Jelle van Damme; Karl Henry; David Jones; Michael Mancienne; Dave Edwards; Greg Halford; Nenad Milijas; Adlene Guedioura; Matt Jarvis; Stephen Hunt; Kevin Doyle; Steven Fletcher; Sylvan Ebanks-Blake; Marcus Bent.

photo credit:http://www.gfdb.com/Player.6627.Owen-Hargreaves.aspx

MLS Daily (http://www.mls-daily.com/) keeps a running tab of MLS attendance figures, and through this past weekend’s games MLS attendance is up 7.03% over this time last season. Considering the economy and the attendance issues that MLB (http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2010/8/24/1647739/mlb-attendance-drops-cubs-vs) is having, Don Garber must be ecstatic with the numbers.

Leading the way as expected is the Seattle Sounders with an average home attendance this season of over 36,000 fans. The New York Red Bulls have benefited by moving into their soccer only stadium, as they have seen their home attendance jump almost 40%.

The MLS’s latest franchise the Philadelphia Union is off to a good start with over 20,000 average attendance. That number will actually drop before the end for the season as the Union’s new soccer stadium has a capacity of under 19,000.

AC Milan has completed the signing of Brazilian international Robinho from Manchester City. Robinho joins Ibrahimovic and fellow compatriots Pato and Ronaldinho in what is expected to be a killer attack for the Italian giants.

Milan signed Robinho outright for a figure in the region of 15 million Euros. The 26 year old signed a 4 year contract after successfully completing his medical at Milan’s Milanelo training ground.

“AC Milan communciates it has acquired the player Robinho, outright from Manchester City. The Brazilian has signed a contract with the Rossoneri club for four years.”

The Brazilian international has also pledged to give his best and in the process make the fans happy. That is code for joga bonito football. Ronaldinho and Robinho together playing for the same team is any defender’s nightmare and this partnership together with Pato and Ibra is already creating a lot of expectations from the many anxious fans.

Speaking to the press, Robinho had this to say:

“Milan have a great players, a great team with a victorious history. I hope that together with my new team-mates we will be able to help the club to several titles.

“I always heard great things about Milan from Kaka, and I’m sure that the other Brazilian players will help me integrate into the team.

“I hope to satisfy all Milan fans, I’ll train hard to make it happen. I want to make them all happy.”

Milan executives Adriano Galliani and Silvio Berlusconi have definitely given the fans something to smile about and with the Rossoneri winning their opening league fixture convincingly, many believe that Milan can match Inter‘s feat by winning the treble this season.

Photo credit: from ellen199

Record breaking week for FC Dallas as they set a Major League Soccer record this past week with its 0-0 draw at Columbus. With the draw, Dallas extend its road unbeaten streak to 10 games (3-0-7). The other big news was that Thierry Henry finally scored his first MLS goal as the Red Bulls beat San Jose 2-0.

Here’s a rundown of all of this weekends MLS games:

Columbus Crew 0, FC Dallas 0
In addition to extending its road unbeaten streak, FC Dallas extended its overall unbeaten streak to 12 matches.

Toronto FC 0, Real Salt Lake 0
Coming off tough CONCACAF Champions League losses, Real Salt Lake left BMO Field with a point, but it could have been three if it was not for the great goalkeeping of Stefan Frei.

New York Red Bulls 2, San Jose Earthquakes 0
Thierry Henry got his first MLS goal and New York closed the gap to Columbus to four points.

Philadelphia Union 2, New England Revolution 1
Rare road win the for the Union as they all but ended New England’s slim playoff chances.

Colorado Rapids 3, Houston Dynamo 0
An early Lovel Palmer red card set the tone for the blowout, as Jamie Smith, Omar Cummings and Conor Casey each tallied for the Rapids, who find themselves four points clear of ninth-place Toronto in the playoff race.

Seattle Sounders FC 2, Chicago Fire 1
Fredy Montero’s stoppage-time winner gave the Sounders the edge in Freddie Ljungberg’s return to Qwest Field. John Thorrington’s first-half penalty kick gave the Fire the early lead, but Montero bagged a brace to boost his MVP hopes and deal Chicago’s playoff hopes a major blow.

Kansas City Wizards 2, Los Angeles Galaxy 0
The Galaxy slide continues as they allowed the Wizards to win away from home for only the second time this season. The Wizards trail eighth-place San Jose by just three points in the league table.

Chivas USA 1, D.C. United 0
Justin Braun’s first-half goal was all Chivas needed to beat a reserve-laden D.C. side that is focused more on Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup semifinal against Columbus.

When you think of NBA basketball shoes the first image that comes to mind is a swoosh. When you think of MLS soccer shoes the first image that should come to mind are those three little hash marks.

Major League Soccer and Adidas have partnered up for eight more seasons and the shoe company will remain the league’s official sponsor until 2018. The new deals financial terms has yet to be released, but an inside source reportedly claimed that the total value of the deal is worth well over $200 million dollars. Adidas has yet to confirm this estimation as accurate though.

The new sponsorship deal will replace the company’s current 10 year $100 million dollar deal with the soccer league and several league officials have stressed the sponsorships focus on continuing to strengthen the growing league and the invested interest in youth development leagues here in the States.

Adidas America president Patrik Nilsson made the following statement about the new deal:

Both of us are feeling really good about the partnership we have had since the start of the MLS and the first deal that we did. … We both felt this was the time to talk this deal out for a longer time frame and for spending the money on the youth development of the game in the U.S.

And with the American league becoming more and more popular over the last few years and the added interest in the league from European football fans as well as iconic World Cup footballers, the MLS and Adidas hope to continue their partnership not only for the next eight years, but possibly forever.

MLS commissioner Don Garber made the following statement about the longtime partnership and suggested that the MLS is the cornerstone to the popular shoe company’s North American market:

That’s a great statement about the league that this company, very well respected football soccer company that has a very distinct and clear vision for the sport in North America and sees MLS as the cornerstone for that vision. That’s an important thing for us.

photo credit: CLF

All deals that will eventually be confirmed will have been completed by now but that doesn’t mean that they will have been announced as of yet. Clubs are often waiting to receive confirmation of funds or for the relevant associations to ratify that the relevant paperwork has been sent and all the right papers have been signed. As of the moment, there are a few more deals to announce separate from the ones mentioned in the previous update.

Aleksander Hleb has left Barcelona on a season long loan. He was originally expected to sign for Liverpool or Aston Villa but ended up at Birmingham instead. Alex McCleish, the Birmingham City manager, will be happy to have signed the Belarus international who is capable of playing on either flank, offering trickery and creativity. Birmingham City seemingly have a deal in place that allows them to change the loan transfer into a permanent signing at the end of the season. Birmingham City have also signed Jean Beausejour from Club America of Mexico. The Chilean international who had a good individual performance at the World Cup was signed for close to £4 million. He also is a winger.

Marco Borriello has signed for Roma. The ex AC Milan striker, most renowned for his spell at Genoa, was expected to move to Juventus for a fee of £12 million but he has ended up choosing to go to Roma instead. Claudio Ranieri, the Roma manager, will be happy to have signed the player as the current attacking players Francesco Totti and Mirko Vucinic are out of form and the other alternative Adriano is injured. Borriello has signed for the club from the capital on a one year loan deal which cost the giallorossi around £2 million but Roma have the right to pay another £10 million at the seasons end if they wish to make the deal permanent.

Joseph Yobo of Everton, once linked with Chelsea in a multi million pound transfer, has left Everton on a season long loan deal to Turkey. The Nigerian defender has signed for Fenerbahce on a temporary basis but the Turkish club have the ability to make the deal permanent at the end of the Turkish season for a fee close to £5 million. Everton are still left with a capable defensive line, boasting the likes of Phil Jagielka, Johnny Heitinga and Sylvain Distin.

Asamoah Gyan has left Rennes for Sunderland for total transfer fee of £14 million with attachments included that might potentially see the deal break the previous Sunderland transfer record. The previous Sunderland transfer record was for Darren Bent. The Ghanian international who had a splendid World Cup has previously played for Udinese in Serie A. In the 2010 World Cup Asamoah Gyan missed a penalty for Ghana in the last moments of extra time of the World Cup quarter final. He will be replacing Kenwyn Jones who recently joined Stoke City.

credit: maesejose

photo

So today is the summer transfer deadline day in Europe, with all transfer paperwork required to be submitted by 18:00 GMT. Transfer ratification might not happen for several hours afterwards so we don’t know all confirmed moves as of yet. However these particular moves have been confirmed so far

Klass Jan Huntelaar has joined Schalke from AC Milan for €13 million. The Dutch international striker has not had the best of times at AC Milan, as was the case previously in Real Madrid too, but now he has a chance to rejuvenate his career with Schalke in the German Bundesliga. He will play alongside Raul in attack, formerly a colleague at Real Madrid.

AC Milan have used that same €13 million plus another €2 to sign Robinho from Manchester City. The Brazilian attacker has been unsettled at Manchester City for over a year, signing last season for Santos on loan. The player previously had developed a bad reputation at Real Madrid and this has stuck with him ever since. His talent is not particularly deniable but his effort and commitment certainly is. As it stands €15 million for a player of Robinho’s talent appears a gamble but one definitely worth taking and one which AC Milan should be applauded for. The Milanese club will now boast an attacking quartet of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexandre Pato, Robinho and Ronaldinho.

Wigan have signed Franco Di Santo from Chelsea on a 3 year deal. The transfer fee is unknown but it is expected to be minimal. The tall Argentinian striker arrived at Chelsea with a good reputation and a promising future but after a poor start and then a disappointing loan spell at Blackburn to follow, where he developed the nickname Franco Disappointing, this move to Wigan is seen as an opportunity to salvage a career in England.

Juventus have signed Armand Traore from Arsenal. The young left back is currently the third choice at Arsenal, being Gael Clichy and Kieran Gibbs, so the move is seen as an opportunity for him to establish himself at a prominent club. The move is initially a loan deal for a single season but the expectation is that Juventus will complete the signing with a permanent transfer next summer if the player proves himself.

Paul Konchesky has joined Liverpool for a fee rumoured to be €5 million. The left back, previously of Fulham is well regarded by the Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson, who was previously his boss at Fulham. The left back is capable of scoring wonderful goals and has a reputation as hard working and consistent, something Liverpool definitely need on the left side of defence. Emilio Insua, another left back on the Liverpool books, has signed for Galatasary on a season long loan. The young Argentinian left back almost signed for Fiorentina a couple of months earlier but will now join the giant Turkish club for a year.

photo credit: pfala

Sorry Aston Villa and other European suitors, but Bob Bradley isn’t going anywhere. The American coach that was often rumored to be leaving is coming back for another four year stint with the USA national team after agreeing to an extension yesterday.

Bradley had been linked in recent months with coaching vacancies in the EPL (Fulham & Aston Villa) and the manager even admitted that he was seriously interested in the move across the pond, but after meeting with the USA soccer federation late last week the two sides have come to a new agreement.

Bradley is contracted to remain with the national squad until the 2014 Brazilian hosted World Cup and the extension proves that the soccer federation must have been fairly pleased with the coach’s results contrary to the rumors that claimed that the federation was willing to part ways with the coach.

Bradley was 38-20-8 in his first four year stint and the coach is the second most successful USA national team manager in total wins behind Bruce Arena. Bradley’s highest high of his four year stint had to be the second place finish at the 2009 Confederations Cup with a victory over Spain in the semifinals and a close loss to Brazil in the final match.

But this summer Bradley’s reign came under much scrutiny as the coach failed to advance past Ghana in the knockout round of the tournament and missed the opportunity to advance through a fairly weak side of the World Cup playoff bracket. And just last week it was reported that former German superstar and 2006 World Cup national team coach Jurgen Klinnsman was keen on taking the job, but those talks reportedly broke down over the week and Bradley became the obvious first choice of the federation.

Bradley’s agent Ron Waxman made the following statement regarding the new deal:

Bob is honored to be the U.S. coach. It’s a job he enjoys very much, and he’s very happy.

Bradley is expected to discuss the extension at a press conference sometime today.

photo credit: babasteve