Monday Fuzz

Will Benitez be in Liverpool on Monday?

Well, my bet is that if he fails to beat Man.Utd a couple of hours from now, we will wave goodbye to 2005 CL winners. And this is the biggest problem, with a poor start on 09/10 season; the Spanish coach is letting everyone reminisce about what he failed to win in the last four years, no Premier League championship and a single CL in his debut year that is making the reds fans think more of a strike of luck than real talent.
So, why does a team with players like Gerrard, Torres, Mascherano or Reina as so many problems to produce a consistent football and consecutive wins? Well, that’s the one million dollar question.
But in my view, while the constant rotation of the squad is probably good to keep players fresh for a long season, it produce a very weak eleven every one out of three Liverpool’s matches. Well, while everyone at Anfield says Rafa Benitez his ‘crucial’, ‘central’ and so on, I truly believe he will say goodbye to England if he fails to win today’s game against Alex Ferguson’s Man.Utd.

Normality (almost) back to CL (Day3/Part2)

So after Tuesday madness things looked pretty predictable yesterday, with no real surprises except that one (Real), Milan won at the Bernabeu. In the field of normality, the hot favorites claimed the three points, and with half way thru the English sides are on their way to secure a qualifying spot.

In Group A French champions dominated easily the German giants from München. Nine man Bayern saw their GK Butt safe two penalties. On the other game, finally Italian side Juventus took their maiden win but things could be different if Haifa’s last minutes effort produced.

Group A
Bordeaux 2 – 1 Bayern
Juventus 1 – 0 Maccabi Haifa

Standings
1 Bordeaux 7pts
2 Juventus 5pts
3 Bayern 4pts
4 Maccabi Haifa 0

At B, the red devils keep their winning pace in a very cold and hard grass field at Moscow, the late goal from Valencia opens the gates of the knockout stage. Unfortunately for Wolfsburg they missed the chance to get the three points from weaker side Besiktas.

Group B
CSKA 0 – 1 Man.Utd
Wolfsburg 0 – 0 Besikstas

Standings
1 Man.United 9pts
2 Wolfsburg 4pts
3 CSKA 3pts
4 Besiktas 1pt

Well, well, depressed Milan went to Madrid a made a comeback to secure a win. On the other match French side Marseille won and seems to be shouting we want to go thru, will Madrid or Milan fail?

Group C
Real Madrid 2 – 3 AC Milan
Zürich 0 – 1 Marseille

Standings
1 Milan 6pts
2 Real Madrid 6pts
3 Marseille 3pts
4 Zürich 3pts

If normality as a place to stay is at group D. The top spot favorites Chelsea and Porto seem eager to quickly secure the qualifying. If things go their way they can both assure the knock-out stage at day 4.

Group D
Porto 2 – 1 APOEL
Chelsea 4 – 0 Atl.Madrid

Standings
1 Chelsea 9pts
2 Porto 6pts
3 Atl.Madrid 1pt
4 APOEL 1pt

Spooky times on the CL (Day 3/Part 1)

Maybe the craziest day ever in the CL happened last night. I don’t recall ever seeing the majority of the hot favorites losing their winning pace in such a strong fashion. Maybe it’s magic from badabim-Kazan or ‘vampirean’ things from dark side Urziceni, whatever happened what a great night for football.
Barcelona’s lost their first game of the season against a pretty much unknown Russian champions Rubin Kazan at the Nou Camp. None off the English side’s were able to beat their opponents, with Liverpool being shocked at Anfield with a comeback victory 2-1 of Lyon, while the gunners achieved a not so bad 1-1 draw at AZ Alkmaar.

At Group E, Liverpool lost at home and to make things even odder, Italian side Fiorentina played a cool fashion football and scored four goals against three of home side Debreceni.

Group E:
Debreceni 3 – 4 Fiorentina
Liverpool 1 – 2 Lyon

Standings:
1 Lyon 9pts
2 Fiorentina 6pts
3 Liverpool 3pts
4 Debreceni 0pts

At Group F, if you think Barcelona’s lost is all the surprises you can get, well you’re wrong. Jose’s Mourinho Inter Milan was reduced to a two goal draw against Ukrainian side Dyn.Kiev.

Group F:
Barcelona 1 – 2 Rubin Kazan
Inter 2 – 2 Dyn.Kiev

Standings:
1 Barcelona 4pts
2 Dyn.Kiev 4pts
3 Rubin 4pts
4 Inter 3pts

In G, while Rangers were being brutalized at Ibrox, German side Stuttgart was receiving the same kind of treatment at the feet’s of unbeatable CL side Sevilla.

Group G:
Rangers 1 – 4 Unirea Urziceni
Stuttgart 1 – 3 Sevilla

Standings:
1 Sevilla 9pts
2 Unirea 4pts
3 Stuttgart 2pts
4 Rangers 1pt

At H, well Arsenal was stopped in their winning ways in the CL, but they are still in front of the group. On the other game a late goal from Stoltidis give the Greeks from Olympiacos the second spot at half way thru.

Group H:
AZ Alkmaar 1 – 1 Arsenal
Olympiacos 2 – 1 Standard Liege

Standings:
1 Arsenal 7pts
2 Olympiacos 6pts
3 AZ 2pts
4 Standard 1pt

Why do we have top seeds for South Africa?

Well before CL Day3 this is probably not the best talk, but I can’t control myself, why the hell FIFA did change the rules of the game half way thru? Talking to some friend’s major reasons emerged.

First: Platini’s influence as UEFA’s president to try and find an easier path for the ‘bleus’.
With a below average campaign France is facing a possible earlier football vacations on 2010, what will make the self proclaimed football cleaner lost his temper. The one’s that have seen football in the eighties will probably remember how things were done when Platini’s awesome Juventus couldn’t win the games.

Second: FIFA’s and Real Madrid income brake if former CR7 fails to appear.
According to newspaper Marca, that would mean a loss of 80 million pounds. With Portugal’s lack of ability to win games on the pitch, this is probably the only way to make the football star land in South Africa.

Well, this is one vision, and maybe this none of them will go thru, if somehow you don’t know the fixtures, here they are:

Rep.Ireland vs France
Portugal vs Bosnia-Herzegovina
Greece vs Ukraine
Russia vs Slovenia

Who do you think will go thru?

Monday Fuzz

The unbeatable European side

After Barcelona’s draw at Valencia there’s only one European team from the UEFA’s top ranking countries to win all matches in the awakening of the championship season. It comes from Portugal and, somehow, I truly doubt you can guess the name of the team.
No, it´s not Champions League most appeared club Porto, and it’s not the other two more or less known side’s Sporting Lisbon and Benfica. No, try to guess?? You can’t?? It’s Braga usual regular in the former UEFA Cup that failed the playoff for the new Europa League.
With a more effective than attractive style of play, Braga can proudly call themselves the only domestic league team with seven back-to-back wins in 2009, with 12 scored goals but only three conceded. There are few things to say, but it’s nice to see ‘little clubs’ with high hopes, Braga’s coach is former Porto’s star-striker Domingos that leads a bunch of Portuguese football veterans on the field, such as international’s Meyong, Eduardo or Alberto Rodriguez and top form Brazilians Alan, Mossoró and Moisés. They play on a hybrid 4x3x3/4x2x3x1 that gives good defensive protection and have as preferred score a 1-0 win.
Well, another good thing from Braga his the city itself, on the northwest of the country, the town as an awesome cultural aspect, especially related to the country’s obsessive religious past. By these days they’ll probably praise to the God of football…

Looking the wrong way, have you seen Brazil vs Ghana?

Sadly the world as decided to watch Maradona’s last ‘flying high’ rather than the breathtaking final of the U20 World Cup. The quality of the game made the 120m plus penalties a joy to watch. Brazil made quite an impression in the first quarter – with 72 per cent of possession thru that period, Ghana then responded and started to put their offensive moves on the right way.
Unfortunately for them (and for referee De Bleeckere because it was a mistake, he should have showed a yellow card) a 37 minute sent off to Daniel Addo would change the spirit of the game. For almost an hour, Ghana defended their heart out and has been rewarded with a penalties shootout (4:3) victory after a goalless draw.
To everyone that missed try to watch the full 14 penalties, what a cracker! If you can’t, not a problem, most of these young talents will soon or late arrive in Europe’s finest championships. For history the first World Championship won by an African side and an unbelievable battle between four times champions/seven time’s finalists Brazil and two times second and now champions Ghana. See also my Best eleven for this World Cup, which I wrote a couple of days before the final.

TIP: I have nothing against Diego Maradona, his one of my all time favorites, but do we really need to give him all this kind of attention! Come on Armando, grow up, you’ve putted Argentina in a World Cup, that’s almost as difficult as miss the lottery.

So the group stage as came to an end, joining the rest of the pack we’ve seen Switzerland and Slovakia raising for the occasion.

Switzerland
Co-hosts on the last European, the Swiss’s were hardly a tipped country to go thru the World Cup but they managed to win the group against 2004 continental champions Greece and lost only once.

Best: A lot of players spread around Europe’s top championships, good offensive ability with players on the sidelines like Barnetta and in the middle Vonlanthen or Yakin.
Worst: The defensive line – although some well known players like Senderos – seems too permissive, the lack of international experience will probably be decisive.

Slovakia
Win a group against their former and highly most potential country part Czech Republic, the new generation of players seems eager to please the Slovakians and will give the first taste on a World Cup grand stage.

Best: Won one of the most competitive groups – with Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Poland in theory being pretty even – and some confidence-booster rumors saying the second lost was to keep their neighbors out.
Worst: The most permissive defense of all group stage winners with ten conceded goals, lack of experience due to their premier on a final phase of a World Cup.

Slovakia and Switzerland join Denmark, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy and Netherlands.

On the playoff are the top seeds: Portugal, Greece, Russia and France.
And: Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Republic of Ireland.

Congratulations also to Honduras that join USA and Mexico on the bus to South Africa from the North, Central America and Caribbean while Costa Rica will play the playoff against South America fifth Uruguay. On that area Argentina finally joins Brazil, Paraguay and Chile.

The final playoffs will be played on 14 and 18 November, the European matches will be known next Monday.

Best Eleven on the Under20 World Cup in Egypt

Before the Great final between Brazil and Ghana (next Friday) I pick my favorite eleven from the Under20 World Cup in Egypt. Like always there are also some great youngsters that I leave out, but like a manager we need to make tough choices.

GK – Esteban Alvarado (Costa Rica, 20 years, club: Saprissa)
With 193cm tall and an awesome presence on the line, Alvarado is also a powerful goalkeeper when it comes to save crosses and dominate the air and is quick on commanding is defense line. When desperation comes he can also go to the opponent’s side and try to score a header.

RB – Cesar Azpilicueta (Spain, 20 years, club: Osasuna)
Already a regular in the ‘la liga’ club, Cesar is a commanding force thru the right. Great stamina what allows him to be also a good support on the offense. But, without a doubt, is the ability to close all doors on the right that makes him a great right-back.

CB – Matteo Gentili (Italy, 20 years, club: Varese)
Typical Italian defender, good pressing capability, tactically perfect, always on the right spot. His major down is the many cards he tend to see. Besides that this Varese on-loan player should soon enough be recalled to Atlanta.

CB – Andras Debreceni (Hungary, 20 years, club: Honved Budapest)
Maybe the player that impressed me the most thru the tournament – I didn’t know him before. It’s mandatory that a top European club gives this man a chance in the next market season. A commanding voice to his teammates, as an awesome ability to mark one-on-one.

LB – Diogo (Brazil, 19 years, club: São Paulo)
Already pointed as a regular on the brazilian giant São Paulo, Diogo is that kind of south American left-back that loves to push the team forward, to that he adds a good defensive ability that makes him show great maturity.

DM – Souza (Brazil, 20 years, club: Vasco da Gama)
He already plays like a European defensive midfielder, highly effective, is always on the ball trajectory. Besides that he adds that typical box-to-box talent of Brazilian players. On the attacking end he’s also a good - in force – free-kick taker.

M – David Guzman (Costa Rica, 19 years, club: Saprissa)
This is the prototype of a great midfielder, ready to defend and to start charging on the same moment. Always on the right spot, Guzman covers a lot of miles per game and adds a good passing capability and an outstanding shoot ability.

OM – Andre Ayew (Ghana, 19 years, club: O.Marseille)
Well, his got the perfect DNA to became a major star. Son of African legend Abedi Pele, this France born talent adds a lot of quality to any midfield. An old-school offensive midfielder, can pushes the right chords to make his team achieve the opponents net.

RW – Abeiku Quansah (Ghana, 18 years, club: Nice)
He’s a modern Speedy Gonzalez; such a frantic pace is always going to damage the opponent’s defense. Adds to that a superb technique and a good scoring capability, like lot a couple of his teammates is probably on his way to play for Ghana in the big boys World Cup.

LW – Giuliano (Brazil, 19 years, club: Internacional)
Hard pick for left winger. The Brazilian captain his more of an offensive midfielder but it would be to unfair to leave him out. The real soul of the South America team can play on any midfield position and as already a couple of clubs from Europe after him.

ST – Dominic Adiyiah (Ghana, 19 years, club: Fredrikstad)
He and Brazil’s Alan Kardec are ex aequo on top striker, with the number of scored goals breaking the tie – 8 vs 4. A great finishing ability, although being a short player – only 170cm – Adiyiah seems to have a great future ahead.

Bus half full to South Africa

Cool weekend, when almost all the European qualifying groups crowned a winner on the pursuit of a World Cup spot. Denmark, Germany, Serbia and Italy have secured a place in the 2010 World Cup and join previous stage winners England, Spain and Netherlands.

Denmark
Underdogs against Portugal and Sweden, the Danish have adopted a nice style of play, with the midfield always working hard and the offense on the feet of their biggest talents.

Best: The offense line, with Bendtner, and veterans Tomasson and Rommedhal on constant pursuit of the ball and with eyes on the opponents net.
Worst: On the other side of the pitch, the defense seems too permissive – remember the game against Portugal? It ended as a draw, but the Portuguese side had more than 15 scoring opportunities. The unbelievable amount of injuries on the last months as to end.

Germany
The European vice-champions have cruised in a tough group. They’re doing an awesome job with youngsters and winning a lot of trophies, now is probably the time of the big boys.

Best: Pragmatic like always, Germany as found a way to use their traditional good strikers, after England they have the best attack of the qualifying round.
Worst: While their full-backs give the right consistency, the centre-backs are too ‘German’, Metzelder, Mertesacker or Westermann have a lot of difficulties on their opponents play the ball thru the grass.

Serbia
The young country as inherited the former-Yugoslavia style of play. Short pass, all ready to aim at the opponents defense. They’ve contributed to France actual crisis.

Best: Very compact and always cohere on the defensive side. A lot of stars like Vidic, Ivanovic, Zigic or Stankovic in the main European championships.
Worst: They tend to have moments when concentration disappear, giving them a lot to work if they want to perform well against the best national sides in the world.

Italy
There’s no passion when the azzurri are playing, it’s all about the score, but they are world champions.

Best: The pragmatism of a score-oriented team that usually delivers. Marcello Lippi back at the helm is a crucial asset.
Worst: Like the Serie A top teams, the oldness of most of his players will probably show when it’s time to make four/five games in two weeks.

Congratulations also: on South America to Chile, that joins Brazil and Paraguay. On Africa to the Ivory Coast, that joins Ghana. On North, Central America and Caribbean to Mexico and USA.

On the playoffs Bahrain drawn 0-0 at home with New Zealand, the All Blacks have home advantage on South Africa road.

Heads or tails? England or Spain?

On the road to South Africa two European squads join Netherlands and put their hands on the qualification.
100 per cent victorious, they both produce an exquisite football, but with same important differences, England influenced by the coach Fabio Capello and Spain by the crushing style of Barcelona.

England
More pragmatic, always with high concentration on defense, uses a direct style of play to win matches.

Best: The midfield duo-Gerrard/Lampard, once called unmatchable by fans all over the world they are now essential to the only midfield that rivals with… Spain.
Worst: The fullbacks, neither Ashley Cole – that seems to have long lost is sparkle – neither Glen Johnson are truly what the doctor orders.

Spain
With a more passing style, they have on ball possession the first weapon to win games. The European champions are once again with high hopes.

Best: Like England, the dynamic duo on the center, Xavi the brain, Iniesta the pace. They bring all the show they give at Barcelona to the national squad.
Worst: The defense, I can’t name one Spanish defender without frowning my eyes. Obviously when you have the ball that’s not much of a trouble...

Also congrets to Ghana and Paraguay. They’re booth with assured presence in South Africa 2010.

On the other side what to say about self-proclaimed giants from Portugal… and France… and Argentina.

Tic-Tac… one week till Champions League

So the time is here, CL is kicking off in a week! If from this point on you’ll be spending 24/7 of your time thinking whose better… who will win… who will fall and who shall rise to the occasion, then you’re a true fan of football.

If not… get the hell out of here!!!

Now that we have the room full of real fans, who do you think will be better?? And worst??
Entering as champions, Barcelona still seems pretty comfortable on their offensive football, but with Inter performing better they shall face a real test in the group stage. For the big four things appear to be pretty easy on the first phase, even Man.Utd and Liverpool lack of form shouldn’t be a problem. Juventus, Porto and Lyon are also hot favorites to go thru.

But on the other side, giants like AC Milan, Real Madrid and B.Munich need to raise their respective games. From the Italian squad the real question is to know how much time will Leonardo get before being sacked, on R.Madrid we still need to understand if Kaka, CR9, Raul, Benzema and the rest of the guys can play like a team, German side Munich is trying to find a new identity under van Gaal guidance, Ribery and Toni are not happy, but Robben and Gomez are making good starts, so let’s wait and see.

Tip: Whatever you bet, one thing is sure, fun is back from one week forward, clock’s ticking starting on 19:45 today.

Why Kaka is different from Messi and Ronaldo

Funny thing about the so called best three in the world, while Kaka put’s consistent and awesome performances both in the club and on the national squad, the two wingers are in very commonly criticized by their displays when playing for caps and extremely attacked by their countryman’s.
Obviously, we can’t point their lack of will or suddenly loss of talent – because nobody wants more a win then the players that step up to field. So, what make the difference?

1 - Kaka plays with a bunch of players that are also world top stars – Júlio César, Maicon, Lúcio, Robinho or Luís Fabiano are in the elite of their respective positions – and while Messi and Ronaldo have some teammates that are also on top – Kun Agüero, Javier Mascherano, Ricardo Carvalho or Deco – all eyes are on this two stars. For media and opponent defenses when playing against Portugal or Argentina will basically try to stop CR9 and Messi – if you’re well succeed, you’ll secure at least one point.

2 – The position on field, Kaka is an old fashion playmaker, always on center field and all the players are eager to give him the ball, they now he’ll push the right cord to put the team in play. On the other end as wingers that usually go to the box, passing the ball to the Portuguese or Argentinean means the end of the road, they rarely pass the ball – or they score or they’ll put it thru the end line – adding more drama to Diego Maradona and Carlos Queiroz, because they’re both on a no-goal streak.

3 – A different mentality an approach to the game that makes Kaka a leader on the pitch and that tends to make Messi and Ronaldo a split factor. When things go poorly the Brazilian his the first to star on defending and trying to serve the other players with scoring opportunities, the two prima donnas never defend and all they’ll do when the team is in trouble is to try and solve everything on a sole way, marking direct free kicks from the center field, aiming for direct corners and other lame moves like that.

Tip: Without a doubt three of the best in the world but what can really explain Kaka’s high performance in Brazil, and Messi’s and Ronaldo’s poor ones on theirs national squads? We’ve heard Deco becoming offended on the Portuguese football chairman said they’ve increased the prize money, but we can’t stop from wondering…

Kaka seals the deal

The importance of the Argentina 1 – Brazil 3 victory:

1 – This is the first Brazilian victory against the pampas side on Argentinean soil of the XXI century. The last one was in 1976.

2 – This allows Brazil to bookmark their flight to South Africa. Now they can use the rest of the games to show the world some new talents.

3 – They put Argentina in a fragile spot to qualify for the World Cup, the alvi-celeste are in fourth the last spot for direct access to the World Cup. They’ll face away Paraguay and Uruguay, receive Peru, hard times for Maradona.

4 – For the second time on their history Argentina loses a home game on a World Cup qualifying match. The first was in 1993 against Colombia (trashed by 5-0).

5 – As players Dunga and Maradona faced each other nine times, with the Brazilian losing sixth and only winning one. New story beginning here…

What an unbelievable performance from the best playmaker in the world, against a packed stadium in Rosario (Santa Fé), Kaka leaded is side to an unforgettable victory against long time rivals Argentina.
Although the center-back Luisão (the so called basketball player by Maradona), one-of-the-most-wanted striker’s Luís Fabiano 2x made the goals, it´s the number 8 from Real Madrid that played all the cords, every time he touched the ball he’d carry the game to the opposite half, produce a score opportunity or win a foul.
With Messi and Ronaldo struggling to go to South Africa maybe the Brazilian as gained points in the fight for best of the world.

The gentle art of making enemies by R.Madrid

Maybe inspired by Faith No More, the ‘merengues’ seem eager to make enemies a little bit all over Europe.
Every times Florentino Perez takes over the transfers of the Spanish side tend to dominate newspapers all over the world, but the real story is not the money he spent on players like Figo or Zidane or in second galactic generation Ronaldo and Kaka but the man’s that are being put away.
This weekend we saw funny things from some of those players.
Arjen Robben scored two goals in his debut for B.Munich and against German Champions Wolfsburgo. The winger then said: “I hope we find R.Madrid in the Champions League and I can score a double again”.
Wesley Sneijder – sharing team with Samuel Eto’o, Walter Samuel or Esteban Cambiasso – made is premier on Inters starting eleven and according to José Mourinho will be a cornerstone on the ‘nerazurri’ side for Serie A and CL’s campaign. After a cracking performance on AC Milan’s trashing said: “Real as treated me like a little boy, they don’t know how to treat the players and even the coach doesn’t seem to have any influence”.
On the other side of the San Siro battle was Klaas-Jan Huntelaar a young striker that also seems eager to face Madrid and score, on France we have Gabriel Heinze, on Portugal Javier Saviola and Javier Garcia, in England Michel Salgado – the one that seems to have parted way in mutual accordance. That’s the truth wherever they look, the ‘merengues’ will find a swear enemy. Well, they can always look to Barcelona… nowadays there’s no former R.Madrid in the ‘blaugrana’. Well but they don’t need that to hate Real Madrid.

Try to stop me from laughing Chelsea out of market

I’me not a blues fan, so it’s easier for me to get some fun out of the fact that no new man will be arriving to Stamford Bridge before January 2011. Rules are for everyone, not just for suckers Mr. Abramovich.
Obviously I sympathize with Chelsea’s fans – I would be extremely annoyed if that happened to my club – still this is a lesson they won’t soon forget. And everything because of a unknown 18 years old Gael Kukuta. The young man as parted away from French side Lens due to Chelsea’s pressure.
Besides the punishment to club and player (682.000 pounds fine) there are some aspects we need to consider and that might get Chelsea out of trouble. French laws doesn’t allow under 18 years old to celebrate pro contracts with French teams, what opens space to think that Chelsea simple took an amateur player with no monetary obligations to Lens and shipped him to England.
Tip: Well let’s see what lawyers can do and on the other side stay calm blues fans: if Zhirkov is your only real buy do you really want new players?

Who made the best last day buy in the Premier?

Few things pop into my mind after today [lack of] action. Defenses truly on top while only a couple of good strikers made their way into the Premier. Besides the ones I talked earlier, I single out Ivan Klasnic, loaned to Bolton and quick response from Tottenham on snatching Kranjcar from Portsmouth and replacing long-term injury Modric. Nice welcomes to the British fields are posted to Lovenkrands, signed with championship side Newcastle and new Scottish League add Jérome Rothen, from PSG to Rangers, both experienced but very capable players. Look out for young Sno on loan from Ajax.
Unfortunately, rumors of Gignac and Ribéry to Man.Utd are over, Liverpool still seems needy, while the madness stops at Man.City. Everton made a good trade from a relatively good centre back to a firm eleven man from Dutch national. So, trades are over, let’s talk again at the beginning of the year.

Complete list of last day transfers in Great Britain according to BBC Sports:
Radanfah Abu Bakr [unattached - Swansea]
Obi Anoruo [Wrexham - Newtown] Loan
Mickael Antoine-Curier [Dundee - Hamilton Academicals]
Adam Barton [Preston - Crawley] Loan
Tal Ben Haim [Manchester City - Portsmouth] Undisclosed
Hameur Bouazza [unattached - Blackpool} Free
Leigh Bromby [Sheffield United - Leeds] Undisclosed
David Button [Tottenham - Crewe]
Mark Brown [Celtic - Kilmarnock] Loan
Sean Canham [Notts County - Hayes & Yeading]
David Carney [Sheffield United - FC Twente] Undisclosed
Danny Collins [Sunderland - Stoke] £2.75m
Dominic Collins [Preston - Crawley] Loan
James Collins [West Ham - Aston Villa] Undisclosed
Jamie Cook [Crawley - Oxford] Undisclosed
Sam Cox [Tottenham - Cheltenham] Loan
Aaron Davies [Nottingham Forest - Brighton] Loan
Claude Davis [unattached - Crystal Palace]
Carlos Edwards [Sunderland - Ipswich] Undisclosed
Abdou El-Kholti [unattached - Hayes & Yeading] Free
Alain Emerson [Crusaders - Dungannon Swifts] Free
Stuart Fleetwood [Charlton - Exeter] Loan
Lewis Haldane [Bristol Rovers - Port Vale] Loan
Johnny Heitinga [Atletico Madrid - Everton] £6m
Luke Holden [Rhyl - Charlton] Loan
Oscar Jansson [Tottenham - Exeter] Loan
Joe Lamplough [unattached - Mansfield] Non-contract
Grant Leadbitter [Sunderland - Ipswich] Undisclosed
Ivan Klasnic [Nantes - Bolton] Loan
Nico Kranjcar [Portsmouth - Tottenham] Undisclosed
Tom Lees [Leeds - Accrington] Loan
Peter Lovenkrands [unattached - Newcastle] Free
Sean Mackle [unattached - Portadown]
John Martin [Linfield - Crusaders] Free
Clayton McDonald [Manchester City - Walsall] Loan
Leon McKenzie [unattached - Charlton] Free
Yassin Moutaouakil [Charlton - Motherwell] Loan
David Nugent [Portsmouth - Burnley] Loan
Darren O'Dea [Celtic - Reading] Loan
Michael Poke [Southampton - Torquay] Free
Kris Renton [Norwich - Brechin] Loan
Jerome Rothen [Paris St Germain - Rangers] Loan
Alvaro Saborio [FC Sion - Bristol City] Loan
Danny Schofield [Yeovil - Millwall] Loan
Ibrahima Sonko [Stoke - Hull City] Loan
Davide Somma [unattached - Leeds] Free
Evander Sno [Ajax - Bristol City] Loan
Blair Sturrock [unattached - Mansfield]
Teemu Tanio [Sunderland - Birmingham] Loan
Borja Valero [West Brom - Real Mallorca] Loan
Ben Watson [Wigan - QPR] Loan
Mike Williamson [Watford - Portsmouth] Undisc
Hassan Yebda [Benfica - Portsmouth] Loan

Defense on top on market closure… or just wait and see?

With Heitinga coming to the toffees, Da Costa on his way to the hammers, it seems only Stoke is getting some real offensive solutions on the late transfers. I pick up those three names, because they are assured wins for the Premier.
The Dutch defender still needs to fix some problems on the contract, but Everton’s board shouldn’t fail on getting a good centre-back, that adds quality on offensive air balls and that’s got a powerful outside the box kick. Heitinga is looking for a new place to settle and this seems to be between the toffees and Wolfsburg. He can also play as defensive midfielder or right back.
From the Portuguese the best thing to say is that when he appeared he was tipped as ‘the next Ricardo Carvalho’. But, still young, Da Costa as lost a lot on his move from PSV to Fiorentina, he rarely played and stop being called up to national team. Although that, with the right amount of work he can became a solid centre-back to a mid-table side like Zola’s team.
Of these three highlights, I’ve let my favorite to the end, Uruguayan Diego Arismendi come from unknown side Club Nacional. This 2.6million pounds loan deal will see one of the most talented offensive midfielder of the year to come from South America to the Premier. The one’s that have watched this year’s Libertadores have probably noticed the awesome talent of this 21 old player. Already an international, already with the title of player of the year on Uruguay, already on the Premier League.
Well, but there’s still time to buy some more. Who do you think will appear before 17:00??

My tips for the group stage (from E to H)

Nice way to relax and start a new work-week. Here is the second half of the group stage prediction.

Group E:
1º Liverpool
2º Lyon
3º Fiorentina
4º Debreceni

Reason: Although an inconsistent start, Benitez’s side is always a powerful force on the CL, besides that Gerrard and Torres we’ll have another month of work; Lyon seems pretty better than last season, new signings Bastos, Lisandro and Gomis really add quality; the Italian side seems quite weaker than last year, they struggled a lot to overcame poorly form Sporting Lisbon on the qualifying and Mutu rumors about ending career cant ‘help, still against a pretty unknown Hungarian side Debreceni, they shouldn’t have problems to third place.

Group F:
1º Barcelona
2º Inter
3º Rubin Kazan
4º D.Kiev

Reason: What to say about Barcelona continuously awesome form? They defend like few and attack like none, shouldn’t have no problem winning the group; Inter last Sunday dominance against Milan makes us believe that leaving Ibrahimovic fly to the azulgrana was a good idea; doing a cool start in the Russian league Rubin Kazan is tipped to do a good campaign, but they’re not good enough to cope with Europe’s finest; athis remodeled D.Kiev should wave goodbye soon enough.

Group G:
1º Stuttgart
2º Rangers
3º Sevilla
4º Unirea Urziceni

Reason: This is probably the best balanced of the entire group stage, with the first three very close. Looking to the games played so far, Stuttgart is the most consistent to pass, good defense and new-add Pogrebniak eager to shine on front; Rangers will probably struggle a lot away, but can recover from that at home games; Sevilla doesn’t look so compact as last season, which will probably mean third spot; to Romanian side Unirea Urziceni the first participation on the group stage is more of an social experience than a competitive one.

Group H:
1º Arsenal
2º Olympiacos
3º AZ Alkmaar
4º S.Liège

Reason: The gunners have the easiest of the groups, they will probably win five games if they keep their current form; Greek fanatic fans from Olympiacos will carry their good balanced team towards the knock-out rounds; AZ Alkmaar plays a beautiful game, but the lack of experience on UEFA’s main stage will prove costly to the Dutch champions; S.Liège is a nice team, but just that – to nice to put out any real threat.