What will PocketMouse do if he does sign for Chelsea. Yesterday's reports of an 'astronomical' bid in the region of £75m for Kaka have been played down by the West London club this morning. It would certainly be a coup were they to get him and would certainly signal a shift in playing style for next season. Meanwhile at Stamford Bridge, Deco has pleaded with Lampard to stay, Drogba can't wait to go and Chelsea somehow make a profit on Branislav Ivanovic by selling him to Juventus.
Ronaldo is looking more likely to stay with Man United. It'll be interesting to see how the fans react to him if he does remembering how they booed Rio when he was in contractual dispute. Queiroz looks likely to take the Portugal job.
Lazio seal a loan deal for Maura Zarate.
Joseph Yobo's brother has been kidnapped in Nigeria.
George Boateng has been given the green light to leave Middlesbrough.
Ronaldinho has turned Man City down. Milan is his likely destination now.
Arsenal, Spurs and Villa are in the race to sign Real Madrid midfielder Ruben de la Red.
Blackburn want Steven Davis of Fulham.
Pascal Chimbonda has been linked with moves to Hamburg and Valencia.
Liverpool will use Steve Finnan as bait for Gareth Barry, along with £15million.
Newcastle are preparing a £4million for Gokhan Inler.
Peter Crouch has returned to Portsmouth for £10million paving the way for David Nugent to move to Hull for £2million. 'Arry also wants Nicky Shorey and Younes Kaboul.
The Arsenal / Arshavin / Hleb / Adebayor saga rumbles on.
QPR midfielder Martin Rowlands is a target for Hull.
James Harper is a target for Bolton and Middlesbrough.
Ivan Klasnic won't be joining Wigan as England is 'too cold for him'.
Watford will not be selling Dan Shittu to Celtic, Rangers or anyone else.
Joe Garner will sign for Nottingham Forest from Carlisle for £500k.
Robbie Fowler is set to join Al-Ahli in Dubai.
The consortium in talks with Mike Ashley to buy Newcastle are relatives of Osama bin Laden. I'm sure when Osama is in his next video wearing a Newcastle shirt with "OWEN 10" on the back they'll build a statue of him outside St James' Park.
The Joe Garner saga
has been rolling on for a couple of weeks now. I hope we do get him though. Looked a quality player in League 1 last season.
Apparently Chelsea are in for Pirlo too
We'll have an eight man midfield next season at this rate
Did Ivanovic even play a game?
nope
which makes it all the more baffling how they've made a profit...
I read something yesterday (can't remember where)
about Galliani's statement actually indicating the offers were made some time ago and he was saying it now to point out that Milan weren't prepared to let their best players go whatever the price. Which makes sense.
I can't see how Ronaldo can possibly go back to Man Utd now. He clearly thinks he's bigger than the club and Ferguson has never had a problem with getting rid of players who think that, however good. I still think he'll be off before the start of the season.
West Ham news - we might be close to signing Valon Behrami, but we might also not be.
Behrami
has always flattered to deceive when I've seen him play.
I rate him
Certainly at the very top end of players we could possibly expect to sign.
.
"For Kaka, a really big offer has arrived from Chelsea. For Pirlo, there have been many requests. As for him, neither Pirlo nor his agent have come in to my office asking for an improvement in his salary.
"We do not have a transfer kitty stashed away here. Despite failing to qualify for the Champions League, the club is strengthening the squad and increasing the wages. This means we'll be £35million in the red without Berlusconi's help.
"The fans should be happy, as all we'd need to do in order to wipe out our debts is sell Kaka and Andrea Pirlo. Instead they won't move, so if that's not a show of love for this club, I don't know what is."
Steve Finnan...
bait? Do explain.
Give him to Villa as part of the Barry deal
They're going to throw him in a river
I prefer this explaination
Plus it makes more sense. I can't see why O'Neil would want him.
Ballast?
distinct lack of full backs
everyone bar the keeper played at right back at some stage last season
He needs full backs
and he's a pretty solid one
Fair enough
Didn't realise Villa were so short. I still think they'll hold out for one more increment on the bid though.
I wish that Man Utd did let Ronaldo go
and use all the money to buy Messi
*David Nugent
Chelsea are going to have some midfield
having to play 10 in the middle and a golakeeper. Really, Scolari should click the Pos button at the top and see that he has loads of DMs, AMCs, AML and AMRs, no need to buy any more.
Also, that little UNH next to Lampard and Drogba means they want to go. Fergie should read that part of the manual too.
It'll be interesting if Drogba goes
to see who they replace him with.
David Nugent
Perhaps he's got CM5
rather than FM. He could have all kinds of meaningless info on his screen that bears no resemblence to reality.
Ruben De La Red is a great name.
That's all I have to say.
he wouldn't be allowed into White Hart Lane
with the word Red in his name. He'd be hounded out as if he were a Thompson holidays logo.
oh
has Senator Joseph McCarthy taken over at White Hart Lane?
It is an awesome name
Red
means network in Spanish doesn't it? So his name translated is Ruben of the Network.
even better!
who is
Gokhan Inler?
Half decent
Swiss midfielder
thats just what we need
another average midfielder. god forbid anything interesting should happen between the boxes.
Was the Swiss
left winger at Euro 2008.
I love Inler
Plays for Udinese. Really good player.
I would hope Ronaldo isn't booed, if he stays
as reprehensible as his behaviour has been that would be a bit small-time. But, I must admit I think he'll get stick off quite a few Utd fans. There should certainly be none of that Viva Ronaldo stuff until he earns it again. Anyway, we shall see.
People said the same thing after WC 2006
Basically, once he's scored a goal, Man utd fans will forget anything ever happened (99% of them anyway). It all comes down to whether Ferguson wants to continue working with him, for me.
Fans will forgive anything if the player seems committed while playing
Everyone's forgotten how far out the Anfield door Gerrard was a couple of years ago.
For me, there's a difference
Ronaldo behaved pretty badly at the 2006 world cup, but then he acted up just as badly in club football at the time. People only saw it as bad because he "got" Rooney sent off (while he shouldn't have got involved, he didn't, Rooney did that himself).
Now, he's doing his best alongside Madrid to engineer a position whereby United are pretty much forced into selling him which shows a complete lack of respect for his current club and everyone associated with it. For me, even if you're acting like a cnut on the pitch, you should still deal with things honourably off it.
(See also Ashley Cole, Robbie Savage etc.)
I don't think he will be forgiven, being honest
not after a couple of goals, at any rate, mostly because of the quote attributed to him where he pretty much said words to that effect himself.
The thing is, so much of this is tabloid bollocks it's hard to know what Ronnie actually wants. Sure, it's obvious that he wants to play for Real, but is it now, just at some point in the future - has he been engineering the move or simply doing nothing to stop it? Is one as bad as the other.
I think most United fans are waiting until Fergie actually speaks, as quite frankly his actions will tell us exactly what he's been up to. If he's really overstepped the mark he'll be out the door, however good.
I could actually see
Ronaldo spending a season with the stiffs if he's really got to the United hierarchy. Sir Alex has the balls to do it and as much as the cash would help the Glazier's interest payments, they similarly don't seem like the kind of people that take kindly to being messed around with. If someone other than Real Madrid put in a bid, maybe they'd sell him, but even with today's completely transparent "concilitary" words coming out of their camp, it's been pretty cynical. (Although that said, they shouldn't complain too much after their behaviour in the Hargreaves/Munich saga).
Ronaldo could've played this far better for my money. He's angled for this transfer throughout the European Championships and most importantly did so without speaking to United first - it's a pretty much cardinal sin. Far better to say something on the lines of "I'm flattered and it's no secret that I'd like to play for Madrid at some point in my career, but at the moment I'm contracted to United and so at the moment I'm concentrating on my football there. If the two clubs agree terms, then naturally I'll then consider my options, but unless that happens then it's not worth me thinking about it."
Every time he goes away with Portugal for the summer
you get this crap, that's the thing.
Next season expect to see all the support Ronaldo has had since 2006 given to Rooney. Someone that honestly, I can't ever see leaving United.
not sure he'll be let off so easily
second time around. I'd imagine Ferguson will relish bringing Ronaldo back into line but I can't help but think Queiroz's departure will have considerable bearing on his future.
Even if he does stay, I'd be surprised and disappointed if he ever received the same level of adulation from the fans (even the daytrippers must have cottoned on by now) as he did before. He's spent the summer behaving like a total quim and, no matter how good a player he is, simply isn't worthy of it on a personal level.
That Bin Laden story is absolutely ridiculous.
Mind you, it's Newcastle, so it's probably true :|
these days
everyone's a nobody if their not related to Bin Laden.
also: BIN laden. hilarious
i'm not getting my hopes up about Kaka
i don't want to start crying when it doesn't happen.
Scolari obviously didn't fancy that ivanovic bloke as his type of player, strange how he made us a profit though, maybe he just thought the offer was too much to turn down.
i hope Di Santo plays a bit next season, just out of curiosity more than anything.
I hope that Scott Sinclair stays
as a squad player - we can't keep selling the youth team players elsewhere.
^ yes
We keep doing that. I dont see the point in signing Kaka. He'll be 30 soon and i feel could go in the same way as Shevchenko. If we're going to make a substantial bid for a world class player then id rather we got someone like Messi. He's still only very young and its hard to bear thinking how good he'll be at his peak.
Man Utd and Arsenal have made a tradition of signing young foreign players with homegrown talent and nurturing them into world class players where as Chelsea just go for the best players who are near the end of their peak.
Kewell letter
"My love and respect for Leeds United FC and what the club has done for me will never change, not matter what anyone says about me and whatever their motives are.
"My sense of sorrow and sympathy for the families and friends of Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight will always be with me.
"I chose the No 19 shirt when I signed for Galatasaray AS as a sign of respect for Leeds because that was the number I got when I first became a regular member of the Leeds United FC starting XI.
"I felt that it might be a way to demonstrate that I had not forgotten where it all started and I was hoping that in a small way it would help the healing process of the tragedy that occurred on the 5th of April 2000.
"For me, sport should first and foremost be about the love of your game. But equally important is the respect for not only your team-mates but all those who you compete against.
"For this reason I have always objected to any form of discrimination in any sport and football in particular, as that is the sport that is the most near and dear to me.
"To blame the Galatasaray AS club for the tragedy in Istanbul is simply wrong and discriminatory. This is a could founded in 1905 that has a proud history of striving for sporting excellence and it should be given the same respect as any other football club.
"I respect everyone's right to have their own opinion on whatever they like, but that does not make their opinion right.
"No-one has to agree with my views or my choices, but I think it's only fair and reasonable to allow me and my family to enjoy the same democratic rights as expected by those that have been attacking me over the last few days."
Some Leeds fans have been total wank-logs this weekend.
all that aside
it's hilarious how so many Australians think Kewell is world class
What's happened here?
Kewell has signed for Galatasary?! I'm assuming some Leeds fans have gone on some sort of rampage?
They're preparing to boycott
Christmas dinner this year in protest.
Just sent letters into Sky/Setanta Sports News
calling him a traitor, a disgrace, and saying it's totally insensitive to the family of the stabbed fans.
33 days!
Let's get some more Bradford news in!
Bantams to give trial to 19 year old ex Everton full back Shaun Densmore.
BBC are reporting Inter have actually bidded for Lumpard now
so fingers crossed we'll finally be seeing the back of him insert joke here
more shite from Calderon:
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=international_feed/08/07/07/SOCCER_Spa-Real_Madrid.html
cunt, hope he catches the plague.