wow

big names rumored to go to new clubs! Interested the names of players AC Milan is interested in. Notice they are all African players?
- Freddie Footballer

transfers?

Rafael vd Vaart (SV Hamburg) or Ibrahim Afellay (PSV Eindhoven) to Barcelona. Deco to Chelsea or Manchester United. Ronaldinho to AC Milan. Didier Drogba to AC Milan and Karim Benzema to Chelsea. Robinho to Man Utd - C.Ronaldo to Real Madrid.

it's testament to soccer in Africa

those teams can also be sneaky good while playing pro evo soccer. a lot of talent but much of it goes unheralded so the rest of the world never really finds out about them. the recent Africa Nations cup was great publicity (they setup a nice website to watch all the games for free) and perhaps could change this. -bB

big names

and don't forget about Michael Bradley (Heerenveen) to Everton. j/k
- Freddie Footballer

more more more!!!

Andrei Shevchenko (Ukraine Train) with his lovely model-wife from Cali to join Beckham in LA. Nicolas Anelka and Shaun Wright-Phillips from Chelsea to Tottenham for Aaron Lennon and Dimitar Berbatov. Didier Drogba and Ronaldinho to AC Milan. Fabrizio Coloccini to Barca so Lilian Thuram and Gabriel Milito can bounce. (now both Puyol and Coloccini look like side-show bob). Solomon Kalou from Chelsea to Barca in case Anelka stays at Stamford Bridge. High likelyhood that Samuel Eto'o and Didier Drogba will both be at AC Milan, along with Ronaldinho. (AC's got plenty of money to make that happen). C.Ronaldo from Man Utd to Real Madrid only for 100 million euros, but maybe Barca will sneak in the backdoor and offer 125 million, at which point they will be so financially drained they will have to take up advertising on their azulgrana jerseys.

Mike Bradley

Michael Bradley from Heerenveen to Middlesbrough, to join his best mate and goal-scoring machine Afonso Alves.

Arsenal

Arsenal will probably let go of hard-working Mr. Hungary, Aleksiander Hleb. His work-ethic fits in well with a team like Man City or Portsmouth, but he'll go fishing for bigger paychecks with Italian outfits like AC or Inter. It's no secret that Arsenal has to bolster their mid and front lines, especially after the departure of T.Henry and M.Flamini, and now maybe Hleb. V.Persie is always injured and E.Adebayor needs more help than just T.Walcott. With De Silva out for a long fucking time, expect Wenger to go shopping in the French league and maybe even the Ivory Coast. Karim Benzema wouldn't be a bad choice, and neither would be Samir Nasri. Word is Obafemi Martins is on the block to go to Arsenal, although I don't think he's a Gooners type of player. With Robinho looking for a new challenge, and currently talking to Chelsea, I think he would fit in well on the left at Arsenal. To replace a versatile midfielder like Flamini, Wenger is gonna have to get a hard-working midfielder able to support the defense, from flank-to-flank, since Fabregas is more of an attacking mid and Gilberto has seen better (and younger) days. Luring Essien would be the best choice but for this kind of position, Wenger is probably gonna look within to promote a player who knows his system well, like rising stars Fran Merida and Nacer Barazite. But maybe a surprise move by Barca's Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure's younger brother, will be in the works. Although Arsenal needs strenghtening, they are not the kind of team who aggressively buys in-form players at market spot prices. Arsenal has a tremendous youth (farm) system that is tried and tested, so players like Carlos Vela, Fran Merida, Nacer Barazite will likely get a chance to play regular first team football.

Barcelona

Barca needs a change. Yes, vote Obama... With Edmilson being the first head chopped, Deco is probably the next on the chopping board and he won't be limited in his options. He's still valuable and has top-tier skills. A playmaker and visionary, he should fit in nicely with teams creative midfield teams like Man Utd, Arsenal, AC and Inter. Where Edmilson goes, who gives a rat's ass. I thought he was always as useless as Thiago Motta, a name that I had a hard time remembering because he sucks more than a 5-dollar Thai ladyboy. But lets get serious with the big names. Ronaldinho. Going or staying? Even Maradonna has urged Barca's decision makers to keep the bucktoothed Brazilian. Something like "Don't do him like they did me, or he will hate you forever." Ok Diego, whatever you say man. You must have forgot, maybe during the times you were away in rehab, that football has become big business and business decisions need to be made. And lets face it, noone wants to make the mistake like Chelsea, buying Shevchenko at the peak of his form for a shitload of money. Teams are cautious about paying too much for a player who has already won FIFA World Player of the year, World Cup trophies, Champion League titles etc etc. Actually, I think, since 'Dinho has really nothing else to compete for, that a move to the US would be a great move for him, at least commercially. Maybe something for the new San Jose Earthquakes at our brand new Buckshaw stadium in Santa Clara? Hey man, they upped seating capacity to around 10,000 seats, ok? Ok, maybe not the 'Quakes, but definitely something sexy like LA Galaxy. I mean, 'Dinho is already a big marquee name for Nike so his marketing presence would serve the US market well. Now only if Nike can come up with boatloads of money to lure him over, maybe even dropping Lebron James to scrounge the cash to pay for 'Dinho's endorsement deals, cuz one things for sure - 'Dinho will only see his MLS paychecks as toiletpaper. It's nice to dream for the MLS, but heh, he's most likely gonna go to another big namer. The AC Milan's, Inter Milan's, Chelsea's, Man United's of the world. Whereever he goes, is not really my concern here. The question is, is Barca making the wrong move by letting him go? And how about the fiery Samuel Eto'o? Is he not happy at Barcelona? Will he abandon one of the world's premier medical facilities in the world, since he spends so much time there anyways? Well, in my eyes, Sammy Eto'o is one of the world's best strikers. He plays with nothing but burning passion. He works hard and above all, he doesn't try to cheat (ie. diving like Drogba). But sometimes his emotions take the best of him. I think he should stay and try to work on a working partnership with Thierry Henry. If he leaves, then Barca is gonna go through another disappointing season trying to find a proper replacement for him, and there aren't very many who can fill up that role. Great Barca strikers of the past, Hristo Stoichkov, Romario, Ronaldo, Cruijff (to mention a few) are one-of-a-kind players. A Dimitar Berbatov, for instance, will not satisfy this demand. Sammy Eto'o is a one-of-a-kind player, and so is Thierry Henry. Barca's style of play calls for the main striker to be a playmaker first, to allow support from the flanks and midfield to flood. I think Barcelona has a case to pick up Robin v.Persie from Arsenal. Although injured and vulnerable, he is a top player. An injured v.Persie is still better than the average striker. v.Persie is a playmaker first, deadly finisher second. Although my preference would be to bring Ruud v. Nistelrooy over, Madrid would never let a man that lethal in front of the goal go to their primary rivals. Other options for the front lines would be Obafemi Martins, lightning fast and hard working, but maybe too little to handle the load. But then again Romario was a little guy, and he went on to score a self-professed 1000 goals. Xavi, Iniesta, Gio dos Santos, Bojan are small guys too and they tear it up too. Since Barca has a knack for attracting Dutch players as well as Brazilians, attackers like Robinho, Vagner Love, Jo, Afonso Alves, or a revitalized Adriano, would be interesting to watch in a Barca jersey. I would lean more towards Afonso Alves and Adriano to come to Nou Camp as they are proven goal-scorers of the highest calibre while having that samba-style that Barca fans love so much. Another name on the guillotine is Eidur Gudjhonsen. Lets face it, he'll never be the same guy who scored 60+ goals in 200+ games like he did for Chelsea in 6 years. Maybe the Spanish game doesn't suit him. Maybe a venture to the Bundesliga would be good for him. A move to Werder or better yet Stuttgart would be impressive. On the defensive front, Abidal, Zambrotta, and Thuram are in danger of being axed. Zambrotta and Thuram only left Juve after they had to be relegated in that match-fixing scandal. But they were over the hill anyways. Thuram won a couple of World Cups and Zambrotta only enjoyed his World Cup victory right before coming over to Barca. Eric Abidal isn't the type of attacking wingback that Barca likes to play with. The type a la Gio v.Bronckhorst or Sergi Barjuan. Here I'd like to see a Daniel Alves replace Zambrotta and/or Abidal on the right. I'd love to write more but my 8 hours at work is almost over. So I will be writing more later...

Heard about Hleb

Arsenal just made a move for a guy to take Hleb's spot, did they not? Hey R.O. any predictions on the USA's upcoming friendlies against England, Spain and Argentina? I think they'll be either 1-1-1 or 1-2 after the three. Some have them losing all three though.
- Freddie Footballer