Tottenham for the league!!!

League Cup you mean. :p

This WC gave me quite a new found enthusiasm for football again. Mostly watched Premiership only last season...

I dont know, I think I'm probably still just going to stick to the Premiership and La Liga as usual, and obviously Champs League etc. .

I wish Spurs well now they have Duff and Keane hopefully they'll finish 2nd behind Arsenal

That's just crazy talk. Arsenal 1st?! Pfft.

Sadly, I think again Chelsea will win it, but hopefully Manchester gives them some trouble.

In other news, Juventus ship is slowly getting deserted. Apparently already 4 players left or will soon.

Cannavaro, Emerson --> Real Madrid
Zambrotta, Thuram --> Barcelona

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... 33&cc=5739
http://www.goal.com/en/articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=96511

Tottenham, eh?

You might find this amusing then:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... ons/060719

Reposting from the other thread:

O'Leary and Villa have parted ways:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... 13&cc=5739

we havent got Duff yet, dont think we will considering he's on 75k, whereas our structure only goes upto 40k. If he's happy with what we are offering then, welcome aboard!!

Well, it was a fun read. Especially first part, about fans and 'atmosphere'. Later, a bit meeeh...

Slightly misinformed in parts aswell,

Such as :

Erm, really? I thought i was more like Man U and Everton. . . . . .

Most of e-mail he got was from the States. That could be reason.

Barca is being required to hold an immediate election for club president:

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

Have a good night!

Mattarazzi banned for 2 games
Zidane banned for 3 games, as he's retired, he will work with FIFA for 3 days instead

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... 75&cc=5739

Today's news mainly seems to be consolidation of the news from yesterday. Bayern apparently is back in the hunt for Ruud. I thought it interesting that this article mentions Hargreaves might be part of a deal for him to keep the cash figure down.

Interesting, Man U could certainly do with a player like Hargreaves, a great replacement for Roy Keane

Unless United lower the asking price that won't sell him. Hargreaves would be a good buy but lets be honest 3 or 4 years ago United would have gone bigger, guess thats what happens when big loans strangle your transfer clout.

Yeah, and from what I read it was Glazer's debt actually. One he raised to buy United. Many fans hate the man.

But not big name, but would certainly like Hargreaves there.

Love Ferguson's reasoning behind not selling Ruud to Real: "Hell, if Shevchenko can cost 30m pounds, we wont take change for Ruud.". Well, not exactly what he said, but in general, close. :-)

Yeah Glazer isn't very popular with the United fans, I have no idea were the logic of borrowing something like €400M to buy a football club came from.

Btw, Inter Milan is apparently and official champion now.

Because that is how people like Glazier make money. I'll give you three examples: what he did in Tampa, Jerry Jones in Dallas, Daniel Snyder in DC. They ALL purchased their franchises the same way - they were heavily leveraged initial purchases - and in all three cases the franchise controls the revenue from the stadium. They then took about a year to consildate and to a degree expand certain revenues, then refinanced by increasing total debt but drastically reducing debt service. Using the expanded cash flow freed by the manuever, they then proceed to act in ways that allowed them to further expand the cash flow. All three franchisees are about as rich as they come in America, with Dallas, DC and the Yankees pretty much trading off the most valuble franchise designation. Interestingly, there was a point where all three were about as hated in their cities as Glazier currently. Well, maybe not Jones in Dallas, but then he got lucky with his first hire. You may also notice how two of the three have also delivered championships on the field, and the third at last seems headed in that direction. The other commonality is that these three are rarely outbid for players.

You can question how much of this model will sucessfully translate to the EPL, but from a business standpoint, how he did it and what he has done since on that front are perfectly consistent and make absolute sense. The one thing I doubt will be a problem is United having the cash to spend for players.

Mmm very good explination, who knows maybe it will work. Althought doesn't American football have things like wage caps and the draft to level the playing field? Without those helpers it may be tougher for Glazer, althou the little Leprechaun will try anyway

And Inter are champs hea, who's gone into the CL with them.

Well, actually the two things you mention level the playing field in way that helps the minnows and hurts the sharks. The three I mentioned are most definately sharks. They'd make Chelsea look like amatuers in the spending money for players arena if those things weren't in place.

What might not translate are the things that enhance the streams in America - things like PSLs, club level seating, luxury boxes, that kind of thing. Guess we will see.

What I almost wonder is if the fan hatred has translated to the players in some way and that is why Ferguson seems to be having such trouble this year. Either that or maybe there is just nobody out there he really wants to spend the money on.

This round up has some interesting tidbits:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/s ... index.html

Possible Ronaldo-Adriano swap, some more info on Bayern ratcheting up their interest in Rudd, some other transfer rumors

And for Bodrul:

"Tottenham Hotspur manager Martin Jol could sell midfielder Michael Carrick for the right price. The midfielder has been a target for Manchester United and Jol insists £20 million maybe enough to sell him. -- talksoccer.net"

No way will they get 20m for Carrick, he ain't that good. althou if Rudd goes United may bid that high.