EPL Talk has some fun looking at Mourinho's mind games. They also manage to point out that both ManU and Chelsea have more or less had as equally challenging (or non-challenging) schedules. One thing The Gaffer didn't take into account is how they've performed in the Champions League. Chelsea's done well while ManU's lost to a couple teams that would struggle to win the Championship, let alone the prem.
The list of players for the MLS's 2007 combine looks to be as follows : 2007 ADIDAS MLS PLAYER COMBINE LIST BY POSITION GOALKEEPERS (5): Talmon Hall (San Diego State University); Justin Hughes (University of North Carolina); Chris Konopka (Providence College); Phil Marfuggi (Clemson University); Nick Noble (West Virginia University) DEFENDERS (11): Andrew Boyens (University of New Mexico); Ty Harden (University of Washington); Michael Harrington (University of North Carolina); Kyle Helton (Duke University); Aaron Hohlbein (University of Wisconsin); Zach Kirby (Boston University); Hugh MacDonald (Monmouth University); Nigel Marples (Towson University); Billy Meier (University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee); Jay Needham (Southern Methodist University); Steve Purdy (University of California) MIDFIELDERS (19): Rich Asante (Syracuse University); Karim Boukhemis (Marshall University); Bryan Byrne (University of California – Santa Barbara); Alex Cunliffe (Fairfield University); Steven Curfman (Wake Forest University); Greg Dalby (Univeristy of Notre Dame); John DiRaimondo (St. Louis University); Eric Ebert (University of California); John Michael Hayden (Indiana University); Scott Jones (University of North Carolina – Greensboro); Jared Kent (Old Dominion University); Nick LaBrocca (Rutgers University); Justin McGrane (Northern Illinois University); Nate Norman (University of Notre Dame); Ryan Solle (Wake Forest University); Wells Thompson (Wake Forest University); Josh Tudela (Indiana University); Sinisa Ubiparipovic (University of Akron); Chase Wileman (Southern Methodist University) FORWARDS (23): Charles Altchek (Harvard University); Gerardo Alvarez (Northwestern University); Corey Ashe (University of North Carolina); Aaron Chandler (University of San Francisco); Adam Christman (University of Virginia); Omar Cummings (The University of Cincinatti); Andrew Daniels (Brown University); Edson Elcock (Old Dominion University); Brad Evans (University of California – Irvine); Robbie Findley (Oregon State University); Jeff Gonsalves (University of Rhode Island); Willy Guadarrama (Campbell University); Ryan Guy (University of San Diego); Chris Loftus (Duke University); Jerson Monteiro (University of Alabama at Birmingham); Frederico Moojen (Clemson University); Simon Omekanda (Penn State University); Riley O’Neill (University of Kentucky); Randi Patterson (University of North Carolina – Greensboro); Dane Richards (Clemson University); Mike Sambursky (University of South Carolina); Jarrod Smith (West Virginia University); Erik Ustruck (Santa Clara University); For more information on college players getting into the MLS, keep an eye on College To Pros.
I enjoy finding news and blogging about soccer from sources that are usually non soccer oriented. Over at Reason's Hit and Run blogs David Weigel blogged about soccer, world views, China, and how Daniel Bell writes an "amusing" essay on all of them.
Props to Two Naked Liberals for pointing out the recent TV deal Real Madrid and MediaPro signed. It's thought to be worth €1.1 billion for 7 years of broadcasting rights. Not too long before this deal, MediaPro signed a similar deal with Barcelona thought to worth €1 billion. These are pretty big deals and it remains to be seen how much MediaPro will be able to make off of these broadcasts. This seems to be the biggest deal to date even when keeping in mind the higher fees don't start until 2008. Mediaset, an Italian TV network controlled by Berlusconi, signed a deal this spring with Juventus that was reportedly worth €248 million for just two years of broadcasting rights. Sky and Setanta paid £1.8 billion (€2.6billion) for broadcast rights for the English Premiership for 2007-2010. It's the largest price paid but it's for an entire league, not just one team. To give this some perspective, the National Football League's (NFL) TV broadcast rights are estimated to be worth $3.75billion. It's interesting to see these new deals emerging that are worth considerably more than previous deals. A year or three ago the pundits were predicting that the value of broadcasting deals for European clubs would level off. How much longer will they continue to increase?
One of the teams I enjoy following is Southampton FC (England, ). A recent article pointed out that they had loaned a couple of young, promising players out to other clubs. Young goalkeeper Michael Poke was going to Woking (England, Nationwide Conference). Leon Best was going to join Yeovil (England, League One). And Simon Gillet had just joined Bournemouth (England, League One). Teams loan players out for several reasons. Sometimes they do it to help a player better get in shape. This may be in the form of a short term loan. Other times teams feel the level of competition and experience the player gains would be better than playing for their own club's youth or reserve teams. Leon Best is likely joining Yeovil for this reason. Other times it's because the player no longer features in their plans but they either can't find a buyer at a price they want up front or they want to wait and see just in case. Tim Howard is an example of this type of situation as it's likely Sir Alex feels he's not in Manchester United's long term solution for GK. I've wonder why the MLS hasn't been able to land a few loan signings for English players. Maybe the cost of it doesn't make it worth it. But the league offers young players a chance to play at a decent level of competition, surely no worse than League One, during a period of time that largely covers their off season. Even though the players are several thousand miles away, the culture difference for the players is minimal. And a look both an MLS roster and starting lineup shows the league doesn't have any issue with playing young players every week. So why haven't a few young English players popped up in the MLS? Do teams thing the level of competition isn't good enough? Do English clubs want the players around for pre-season training to better asses their plans for them? Is the MLS just not interested in making these sort of moves?
