Chelsea On YouTube

Looks like Chelsea fans will like this move to help them get more news on their team. That is, if they've heard of YouTube.

Zidane to Fire? Really?

The rumor that the Zidane may be butting heads in a Fire jersey this summer is alive again. How serious are discussions between the two parties? Just a couple weeks ago the Fire's GM John Guppy said this about the deal : "We reached out to Zidane. "But so has every other MLS club. The feedback we've all gotten is that he's retired." What has changed since then? Well, Guppy has again come out and said the club is not in talks with Zidane.

A Good Move For Howard?

Everton recently signed American goalkeeper Tim Howard to a 5 year deal. Howard started the season at Everton on loan from Manchester United. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Howard was purchased by ManUtd for £2.3 million in 2003. Will this turn out to be a good move by Howard? During his time at Manchester United he only made 45 appearances. And just when it looked as though Howard had won the job, Sir Alex brought Edwin Van der Sar into the team. A loan move to Everton this year seemed like a good move with Van der Sar holding down the #1 spot. Edwin will be 37 this October. How much longer can he continue to play at the level Manchester United needs and expects? SAF had to scramble to bring Kuszczak in on loan from West Brom to be his #2. It's not clear at this point if he's shown enough in training (after all, he's only made 3 appearances for Manchester United) to earn a permanent move, let alone be good enough to the team's #1in the future. Ben Foster, on loan at Watford this year, has shown a lot of promise. But it's hard to judge a goalkeeper playing for a team doing so poorly. Just a couple years ago Russel Hoult was being mentioned as an England national team player while playing for West Brom. But that talk looks like just that, talk. He wasn't good enough recently to be starting for WBA in the Championship (England's 2nd division) and went to Stoke on a free transfer during the winter transfer window. Ben Foster very well could go the way of Hoult or ex-ManUtd GK Roy Carroll (West Ham). SAF had left the door open for Howard. Is Tim passing up a chance to win back the #1 spot at Manchester United?

Wee Gordon Strachan

Props to Who Ate All The Pies for sharing this footage of Gordon Strachan in in the late 70s. Gotta love the hair!

Huntsman The Knight, Coroon The Warty Troll

Interesting take on Real Salt Lake's stadium saga by Rebecca Walsh at the Salt Lake Tribune. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5216392

Huntsman slipped easily into his role, reviving the fairy tale with a last-minute call to Real owner Dave Checketts more than a week ago. He made an unusual public appearance during the legislative session to persuade reluctant lawmakers. And through it all, he bucked public sentiment. The governor thinks the people, who don't want public tax money to pay for a private soccer stadium, are simply misled and, apparently, simple.

The Rapids Who Cried Wolf

As I mentioned yesterday, KSE decided against changing the Colorado Rapids name to something involving Arsenal. As Soccer by Ives nicely words it, just call them the Colorado Boys Who Cried Wolf. It's an interesting soap opera that involves over the top PR and so-called leaks of a new web site branded as "Colorado Arsenal" at their new domain names such as http://www.coloradoarsenal.com. One thing that I haven't confirmed in the media is the relationship between Arsenal and Nike. If it's like the one Deloitte mentions that Barcelona and Nike have (it would stand to reason it is; but it's not for sure), it would mean that the image rights for Arsenal are owned by a joint venture between Arsenal and Nike. And if, as it appears, the Rapids were well down the road in changing their name it then begs the question as to how they didn't realize they would have to negotiate with this join venture and anticipate the problems they would face in getting Nike on board with the name change.

Why Rimando With Adu?

Seeing that Real Salt Lake has now traded Nick Rimando to NYRB for future considerations, I found myself wondering why they took him in the trade in the first place. It would seem that Ellinger wasn't interested in keeping him around to compete with the less than convincing Scott Garlick. Why take Rimando in the trade in the first place? One would think that DC would be looking for more than just a major allocation for Adu. After all, he is the single most promising American prospect in the game today. Why didn't RSL work to at least get a decent developmental player out of it? RSL does still have some needs to be addressed for 2007 such as strengthening their backline, finding a good backup for Garlick, and some bite for their midfield. Instead they end up losing a major allocation and bring in Adu for a position they were already strong at with both Andy Williams and Medhi Ballouchy more than capable of playing an attacking role in the middle of the park. Did this happen simply because DC United didn't want to be the ones trading Rimando away to a rival team?

Colorado Rapids - No Big Announcment

They had me and quite a few new sources fooled. It was looking like the Rapids were going to change their name. But despite the Rapids' FO putting out big press releases claiming it would happen, nothing earth shaking was announced. The marketing / technical agreement with Arsenal is nice. But we have yet to see the details on it. For example, when will this new center of excellence be up and running? And who gets first dibs on players coming out of it? It's a nice move forward by both clubs. But it's far from anything that should be called historical at this point. Yet PR coming out of the Rapids FO made it sound like that and then some. The Rapids Front Office cried wolf. The question is, did they do so unintentionally? Did they really think they could land the copyright to Arsenal's name and change their own to match?

Finger On Utah's Pulse?

Does this blog sum up how most taxpayers in Utah are viewing Greg Curtis after the state passed funding for Real Salt Lake's stadium?

Real Madrid's Big Spending

Awhile ago I wondered out loud how Real Madrid can spend the kind of money they do. They recently have spent over €70 million on transfers alone to bring in the likes of Diarra, Emerson, Higuaín, Gago and others. Not that long ago they were on the verge of bankruptcy. They only got out of that situation after the city of Madrid spent hundreds of millions to buy Real Madrid's training grounds property. How are they able to turn around and spend the kind of money they have? A study by Deloitte cited in a Soccernet article gives us on clue. Real Madrid brought in $371 million in revenue for 2005-2006. This is a considerable amount more than other leading clubs such as Barcelona and Manchester United. Nevertheless, this only shows us revenues. The question now is figuring out what their expenses are for the club. After all, we're at time in the game where player wages are as big of if not larger issue than transfer fees.