Saturday, June 09, 2007

Happy Birthday FC Rocky!!!

With all my running around this week I missed it on Thursday. Happy first birthday to FC Rocky. Let's hope for many, many more.

Guevara's in New York Again

Ives writes about it in an aptly titled blog entry "An Unhappy Reunion". If you had any questions over why Guevara just up and left Chivas USA. If you thought that maybe there was something going on between Preki and Guevara or Guevara and others in Chivas USA's front office. Here was Guevara's chance to try to set things straight. But he hasn't said anything of the sort. And more so if he was going to, being petulant over a writer who was truthful in the past about your performances isn't the way to go around making your case.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

More Transfers and Rumors

The rumour mill is in full swing even though summer hasn't yet begun. A few of the rumors floating around have even panned out to be true.

  • Roberto Carlos has left Real Madrid on a free transfer for Turkish club Fenerbahce.
  • Deco to Inter Milan as a replacement for Figo. This despite Deco insisting that he's not leaving Barcelona.
  • Frank Lampard leaving Chelsea for Barcelona. One report said the move could occur for as little as £12 million.
  • Ex-Charlton, Ex-Chelsea player Scott Parker leaving Newcastle for West Ham is no longer a rumor. He's made the move for £7 million.
  • Real Madrid have signed German centerback Christian Mezthelder. But they're also after Chelsea's Arjen Robben and Manchester United's Gabriel Heinze and Barcelona's Javier Saviola.
  • Sevilla coach Juande Ramos has been linked with a number of clubs.
  • Miroslav Klose is rumored to be close to completing a move to Bayern Munich. He's said in the past he wouldn't move there but more and more it looks like this rumor is true. As to why he's had this change of heart is another matter. One claim is tha this wife has been having an affair with one of his Bremen teammates prompting Miroslav to want to move to the other end of Germany.
  • Bayern Munich also look set to sign Frank Ribbery for £17 million today. He would join Luca Toni.
  • Bayern Munich and Chelsea are also rumored to be in talks about a deal that would involve Bouhlarouz heading to Bavaria and Claudio Pizarro going the other way to London.
Bayern Munich isn't in the CL next year. So why would players like Toni, and others join them? I've always suspected that while the CL play is important, it was code for money. If a club is in the Champions League they're likely able to shell out more for bonuses and wages. This time And there are sorts of other rumors and signings going on. All the activity at Bayern Munich has me wondering about what it means when players talk about the importance of ChamptionsRibbery, KloseBM's not there but they still have the revenues for a summer of big spending. It'll be interesting to see what happens if they don't gel as a squad and they miss out on the CL again next year.

Monday, June 04, 2007

From The Pitch : Tuesday June 5th

No word yet on who the guest will be for the show tomorrow night. From the Pitch will be broadcast tomorrow night from 6pm-8pm Mountain time including a feed off of the MLS's website, www.mlsnet.com. It'll be Colorado-centric but I encourage everyone to call in with their questions including Toronto fans.

The Best Young Players Outside the Premiership

Props to Who Are All The Pies for the clip they shared on the best young players in England outside of the Premiership. It's nice to see a couple young Southampton players in there with Nathan Dyer and Gareth Bale (now at Spurs). But they must have only wanted to show best young British players. Despite the name is really more about the best attackers. I wonder if Cameron Jerome, one of the players featured, will see much time in the premiership next year. He plays for Birmingham City. Their Chairman Gold has already come out and said that he's braced for a relegation battle next year. Does that mean they'll be turning to and buying up Premiership vets in hopes to survive? And do that at the exclusion of some younger players?