Sack Vanderlei Luxemburgo or part ways with Ronaldinho? That was the choice Flamengo president Patricia Amorim had to make yesterday as she picked the star player over the 59 year old tactician.
It is not quite certain why Luxemburgo was sacked, however, many believe that his icy relationship with Ronaldinho was a major factor that led to his dismissal. The former Real Madrid and Brazil coach was rumoured to be on his way out of the Rio based club as early as Wednesday, however, Amorim gave him a sly vote of confidence before sacking him 24 hours later. Read more... (358 words, 1 image, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)
by David on February 2, 2012
The beginning of the 2012 Major League Soccer season is right around the corner and the folks over at MLS Soccer have released their first preseason power rankings. As expected the LA Galaxy are on top, while the New England Revolution get no love, as MLS Soccer ranks them below the expansion side Montreal Impact.
What do you think of the rankings?
1: LA Galaxy
Robbie Keane, Landon Donovan, Edson Buddle, Mike Magee, David Beckham … holy crap this team is going to score a lot of goals. Chances are, though, that they’ll concede a few more than in recent years thanks to the departure of Juninho and the injury to Omar Gonzalez. Still, Bruce Arena has to be salivating over the talent at his disposal this season. Read more... (1529 words, 1 image, estimated 6:07 mins reading time)
According to Gaizka Mendieta , there is a big possibility that Barca coach Pep Guardiola could soon be on his way out of the record breaking club. A lot of uncertainty has arisen over Guardiola’s future following his shocking denial on Tuesday that he was close to signing a new contract.
It doesn’t make any sense why Pep would want to leave Barcelona. I mean he is one of the best paid coaches in the world at an annual salary of £8.7 million, he has won 13 out of a possible 16 titles since taking over from Frank Rijkaard in 2008 and you can’t forget the title wining machine he has developed at Barca that would be hard to replicate in any other team. Read more... (405 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)
by David on February 1, 2012
Newcastle United are up to fifth in the Premier League after they beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0, while Arsenal‘s poor run of form continues as they were held 0-0 at Bolton.
Newcastle took a 12th-minute lead when Blackburn‘s Scott Dann deflected a 25-yard shot from Ryan Taylor past stranded Rovers goalkeeper Paul Robinson. Blackburn, who remain in the bottom three, had a gilt-edged chance to equalise before the break, but David Dunn’s penalty was saved by Tim Krul and the Newcastle keeper blocked Gael Givet’s follow-up. Rovers’ failure to convert several second-half chances was compounded when Gabriel Obertan made it 2-0 to Newcastle in the closing seconds. Read more... (318 words, 1 image, estimated 1:16 mins reading time)
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Can Newcastle United Qualify For The Champions League?
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by David on February 1, 2012
As if the defending MLS Champions needed any more offensive firepower, the LA Galaxy announced today that Edson Buddle would be rejoining the Galaxy after terminating his contract with FC Ingolstadt by mutual consent.
Buddle’s addition gives LA the league’s best forward tandem, as he and Robbie Keane will lead a line that should feast on the service provided by Landon Donovan and David Beckham. Read more... (262 words, 1 image, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)
by David on February 1, 2012
Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis was interviewed by Fox on Sunday and he said that Arsenal will never be able to compete with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City in the transfer market but believes Arsene Wenger’s focus on developing young players is the correct way to run a football club.
While City and Chelsea’s billionaire owners seem happy to invest in new players (and Arsenal’s isn’t), Gazidis said he is not a fan of how Chelsea and City conduct their financial affairs. Read more... (406 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)
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Gazidis Says Arsenal Make Stars They Don’t Buy Them
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by David on February 1, 2012
Chelsea continue to hemorrhage money after announcing a loss of £67.7million for the financial year ending June 30, 2011.
That is only a slight drop decrease from the loss of £70.9million in 2010, as Chelsea struggles to fall in line with UEFA’s new financial fair play rules.
Since Roman Abramovich bought the club, Chelsea have now lost a combined £620million.
Transfer fees were a main contributor to the loss, while Chelsea tried to spin the story to focus on the record club turnover of £222.3million. The £17.5m in increased revenue was due to higher receipts from the Champions League as well as an increase in TV rights relating to overseas broadcasting of Premier League matches. Read more... (422 words, 1 image, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)
I was surprised when i learnt that Milan had signed Ghanaian Sulley Muntari on loan from cross town rivals Inter considering his form the past couple of seasons. Muntari who is on international duty with Ghana in the African Cup of Nations, will be with the Rossoneri until the end of the season when his current contract with Inter is set to expire.
Inter acquired Muntari from Portsmouth in 2008 for €14 million but he has never really lived up to his billing leading Inter to loan him to Sunderland. A statement from Milan read: Read more... (285 words, 1 image, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)
The transfer window came to a close yesterday with some very interesting signings across Europe. Once again attention was centred on the EPL where a host of clubs were keen on bolstering their squads for the remainder of the season.
However, it was to be a bitter sweet day for league leaders Manchester City who despite capturing Roma midfielder David Pizarro on loan, suffered a 1-0 away defeat to Everton.
The Citizens went down to a Darron Gibson strike on the hour mark to surrender a 3 point lead over city rivals Manchester United who were 2-0 winners over Stoke City. Read more... (407 words, 1 image, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)
I stumbled across this story when catching up on all the latest football news and thought i would highlight here not because it is one of the biggest transfer stories on this last day of the transfer window, but rather because of its almost near obscurity.
Frankly, speaking , i thought Toni had retired from the game so imagine my shock when i read that he had actually been with Juventus all this time. Many remember Toni for the phenomenal time he had with Serie A club Fiorentina. Read more... (330 words, 1 image, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)
