Month: May 2009
Transfer Rumors (31 May 09): Chelsea to go after Atletico Madrid star Aguero, Arsenal in £12m bid for Everton’s Lescott, Tottenham after Sunderland’s Richardson, and more
Updated:Tomorrow, all hell breaks loose. Well, not quite, but it’s pretty close. The summer transfer window kicks off tomorrow, and though there’s already been a little activity, the start of…
Read more »Ancelotti leaves Milan for Chelsea job
Updated:Update: Chelsea have announced that Carlo Ancelotti will take over as manager in a 3-year deal. Carlo Ancelotti’s contract at AC Milan has been terminated by mutual consent and technical…
Read more »City Slickers: 5 Players Mark Hughes Should Be Targeting
Updated:The summer transfer window is looming and once again Manchester City are expected to be the Premier League’s big spenders. It seems no target has been too audacious since new…
Read more »Why Gerrard and Iniesta are better than Messi and Ronaldo
Updated:All we’ve been reading about these past few weeks is Messi this, Ronaldo that. The seemingly never ending debate on which player is the best has granted, been a whole…
Read more »‘Elegant’ Hiddink wins FA Cup in his last game for Chelsea
Updated:Everton and Louis Saha broke the long-standing ‘Fastest Cup Final Goal’ record at Wembley today, but ultimately left the famous stadium with broken hearts and no silverware. Alas it was…
Read more »Chelsea 2-1 Everton – Goals
Updated:Chelsea beat Everton 2-1 in the 2009 FA Cup Final to record their only trophy of the season in Guus Hiddink’s last game in charge. Louis Saha had given Everton…
Read more »Chelsea 2-1 Everton – Live Blog – F.A. Cup Finals – 30 May 2009
Updated:Watch Chelsea v Everton live here. Chelsea (Drogba 21′, Lampard 72′) 2-1 Everton (Saha 1′) Stadium: Wembley Stadium, England Competition: F.A. Cup Finals Date: 30 May 2009 Kickoff: 14:00 GMT,…
Read more »Madrid Merry-go-round: Ronaldo’s future at Manchester United remains a mystery
Updated:Last summer I was bored of all the Ronaldo moving to Real Madrid stuff pretty quickly, it carried on through right up until the transfer deadline and I’m fairly sure…
Read more »The new Adidas F50i Football Boot
Updated:Update: Order your pair from Kitbag; deliveries start from 9th June, 2009. Also, get a chance to win Messi signed football shoes. Adidas has recently revealed their new F50i football…
Read more »Transfer Rumors (29 May 09): Benzema in, Tevez (and more) out at United, Chelsea to land CSKA Moscow star Zhirkov, Fulham after Kaka’s brother, and more
Updated:The party is still going on in Barcelona, and there might still yet be a few angry hangovers in Manchester right now, but the aftermath of the Champions League final…
Read more »A tale of two trebles: Manchester United v Barcelona
Updated:By winning the Champions League on Wednesday evening Pep Guardiola could stand be chucked in the air safe in the knowledge that he had become the first manager in Spain to…
Read more »Soccerlens Podcast: The Embarrassed United, The Brilliant Barcelona and their summer transfers
Updated:On the fourteenth episode of the Soccerlens Podcast, Stephen Darwin is joined by the editor of TEAMtalk.com, Simon Wilkes to look back at Barcelona’s triumph over Manchester United in the Champions League final…
Read more »Is the FA Cup Relevant to the Modern Game?
Updated:However in the build up to the final the question that lingers across the country from Stamford Bridge corridors and internet message boards remains:
‘How important is it for Chelsea to win the FA Cup and do we really care?’
This question reflects issues both inside the club and the general decline of the competition in the last ten years the competition has lost a lot of its prestige and in today’s global game it no longer seems to generate the interest and hype that it once did.
This decline can be attributed to a number of interlinked factors revolving around the themes of Money, Globalisation or both a few of which I have explored in this article.
Read more »The Juventus Revolution: Why the Bianconeri will take Europe by storm in 09/10
Updated:The transfer window hasn’t even started yet, and some of the most anticipated signings have already been finalised. Kaka will be unveiled for Real Madrid next Thursday in a sensational…
Read more »Transfer Rumors (28 May 09): AC Milan’s Pirlo to follow Ancelotti to Chelsea?, Stoke City offer Man United’s Scholes player/coach chance, Aston Villa interested in Tottenham flop Bentley, and more
Updated:This weekend will mark the official end of the season in Europe’s top leagues, and after that, we can look forward to the start of the summer transfer window. As…
Read more »Barca rule Europe, and have done it their way
Updated:For nine minutes, I was smug and self-satisfied, as well as disappointed. My pre-match predictions were being played out in front of my eyes; the men in all-white were on…
Read more »McBride on Fire as Chicago top MLS East
Updated:The 14th Major League Soccer season has had something of a messy start. Of 74 matches played at the time of writing, 27 have resulted in draws. Matches are frequently…
Read more »Transfer Rumors (27 May 09): Manchester United ready to pay up for Tevez, Liverpool target Middlesbrough’s Wheater, Arsenal after Crystal Palace star Clyne, and more
Updated:Much of the focus in the football world today is on the massive UEFA Champions League final showdown between Manchester United and Barcelona (which you can follow live on SL),…
Read more »CL Special: Manchester United v Barcelona Live Blogs
The season isn’t actually over yet, but several managers have quit (or in Sunderland’s case jumped before they were pushed out) and clubs from Celtic to Chelsea are looking for…
Read more »The True Value of The “Champions” League
Updated:“Ceux sont les meilleurs equips” “Die Meister, die Besten, les meilleurs equipes, the champions.” What UEFA has tried to do in the infamous CL anthem played before European nights, during…
Read more »Barcelona 2-0 Manchester United – Live Blog – UEFA Champions League Finals – 27 May 2009
Updated:Watch Manchester United v Barcelona live online here. Barcelona (Eto’o 10′, Messi 70′) 2-0 Manchester United Stadium: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy Competition: UEFA Champions League Final Date: 27 May 2009…
Read more »Sunderland want Wigan to get relegated next season
Updated:By some accounts, Sunderland should have been relegated this season. They didn’t, and with Ellis Short due to complete a full buy-out of the north-east club, the Black Cats are…
Read more »Transfer Rumors (26 May 09): Chelsea in hunt for Inter target Arnautovic, Aston Villa target Liverpool winger Babel, Bayern Munich sign Stuttgart striker Gomez, and more
The summer transfer window hasn’t even opened yet, but a couple of big names from Europe’s top leagues are already on the move to new destinations, and a few others…
Read more »This is not a season review, because this season happened already!
The phenomenon of déjà vu is quite common to us nowadays, endlessly chronicled in movies and novels. As my comrade Alex Bogatiryov stated in his blog piece, one of the…
Read more »The Big Interview: Lionel Messi on imposing Barca’s style on Manchester United and stopping Cristiano Ronaldo
Updated:Like a butterfly floating around the pitch, Lionel Messi has an uncanny ability for making things look easy. With the ball at his feet and a pair of defenders flanking…
Read more »Sir Alex Ferguson’s Greatest Manchester United XI
Updated:Obviously, we know that Sir Alex Ferguson has won many trophies, coached a lot of great players, and accomplished a lot of extraordinary things during his time at Manchester United….
Read more »Shearer is the man to bring Newcastle back. Honest.
Updated:Forty eight hours have passed, yet still the inquests rumble on. Still the post-mortem is being carried out, still each and every name and role is under scrutiny, with every…
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