TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Totti keen on World Cup spot Francesco Totti has confirmed he will come out of international retirement and play for Italy at the 2010 World Cup if he is healthy and called upon by Marcello Lipi. cbc.ca |
Whitecaps sell Canadian striker to West Brom Marcus Haber is on his way to England after the Vancouver Whitecaps confirmed Wednesday they have sold the Canadian striker to West Bromwich Albion. cbc.ca |
Football transfer rumours: Sunderland's Kenwyne Jones to Liverpool? | Barry Glendenning Today's tell-all says massive props to the Jester from LeicesterIf Kenwyne Jones was making even half the impression on the field that he is in the Rumour Mill this transfer window, there's a fair chance Sunderland might have been monstered only 7-3 by Chelsea on Saturday. Despite his minimal contribution to the Mackem cause in recent months, the giant Trinidad & Tobago striker is being touted as a solution to Liverpool's profligacy in front of goal, with Rafael BenÃtez obviously having spotted something in his return of one goal and one red card in the last 10 games that the rest of us have missed. That's why he gets paid the big bucks.With just a few coppers and a couple of those 20 drachma coins with the holes bored through the middle that find their way into everyone's piggy bank to his name, BenÃtez can't afford a transfer fee and wants to take Jones on loan or trade him in for one used Ryan Babel. The Dutchman's reluctance to move nearer his native Amsterdam by relocating to Wearside means a loan deal is the more likely option.Elsewhere on the Rumour Mill's internet machine, we're unreliably informed that a certain pair of Americans who shall remain nameless have sounded out Mark Hughes about replacing the beleaguered BenÃtez. Whether or not it is true is anyone's guess, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time Waldorf and Statler have gone behind their manager's back with a view to replacing him with somebody with a far less impressive curriculum vitae.Despite insisting over Christmas that he'd be neither buying nor selling, Harry Redknapp will renew his interest in bringing David James to Tottenham in a bid to keep the sweats, shakes and heebie-jeebies of withdrawal at bay. The Portsmouth goalkeeper is just nine appearance away from triggering a clause in his contract that would force Pompey to shell out lots of money they don't have to somebody-or-other, a state of affairs which should hasten the England No1's departure from Fratton Park. Harry is also believed to be interested in Joe Cole, who is out of contract at Chelsea come season's end, but futuristic-sounding Stamford Bridge suit Bruce Buck has declared his intention to keep the midfielder as one of the star attractions at John Terry's Training Ground Tours.With much-coveted striker Jermaine Beckford having agreed to remain at Leeds until the end of the season, Newcastle United have turned their attention to another up-and-coming young tyro in the hope of keeping the goals coming. Nolberto "Nobby" Solano, 58, a young Peruvian lad whom the Rumour Mill's spies have described as "a bit special" has been training with Newcastle and has, according to the Mirror, "hugely impressed the coaching staff with his ball skills". Available for free after winning the Peruvian league with Universitario de Deportes, the trumpet-playing midfielder and dead-ball specialist is already a crowd favourite at Newcastle, won't cost too much in wages and would help make up the numbers in ranks that will be further depleted when loanee Danny Simpson returns to Manchester United and Geremi is pushed out of a moving car and abandoned in the wake of tonight's win over West Brom.Having seen his number go up, in the literal sense, at Goodison Park a mere 51 minutes after being brought on as a substitute on Saturday, Robinho's number would appear to be up, in the metaphorical sense, at Manchester City, despite all the smoke that Roberto Mancini blew up his jacksy when he first took over at the club.West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola has slapped a £15m price-tag Scott Parker. The Mirror claims it's to scare off potential suitors who have been sniffing around the midfielder, but today's Rumours reckon it's because the Italian is enjoying the novelty of not being the shortest person at training every day.Out of contract with Standard Liège this summer and wanted by both Liverpool and Milan, Serbian striker Milan Jovanovic has a big, big decision to make: should he fully immerse himself in Italian culture by moving in to a luxury Milanese city centre apartment or opt for the quiet life and buy a villa on the outskirts of Cassano Magnago, near the Serie A side's Milanello training ground? Decisions, decisions.Despite rumours linking him with practically every club in the Premier League except the ones who have any chance of winning it, Real Madrid outcast Ruud van Nistelrooy is set to join Turkish outfit Galatasaray, where he would link up with his compatriot Frank Rijkaard. "Frank [Rijkaard] called me and asked 'do you want to come to Turkey?'" explained Van Nistelrooy. "I have to think about it Âbecause Galatasaray is a great club with a positive Âapproach." The positive approach in question is believed to be a two-and-a-half-year deal worth £8m, not that we're suggesting for a second that Ruud would be so vulgar as to make money his prime motivation as he mulls over his next move.And finally, no Rumour Mill would be complete without the obligatory mention of disaffected Tottenham Hotspur striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, who this morning is mostly being linked with a £10m move to Birmingham City.Transfer windowLiverpoolSunderlandBarry Glendenningguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
How the FA made me learn Russian Even typing this I can sense the Premier League lawyers advancing up my garden waiting to plunder my hard driveThe FA is turning us all into paedophiles. Yes, paedophiles. I stand over that last phrase. In fact, I hope they also used that as a headline. It's clearly ludicrous and overwrought, but who doesn't like a sensational banner across their work now and again?In all honesty, the FA is making us behave like paedophiles in a manner that completely excludes the actual paedophilia bit, but bear with me, it is still a worthy comparison.Last Wednesday, my club played in a game that was broadly declared as having overturned an 11-point deficit to go top of the table. Even though the game was dramatic, the achievement was a little less so, given that we went from one game in hand to one extra game played, so you could say we actually overturned a five‑point gap. Either way, people got to sing the "We are top of the league" song, Chelsea's game in hand or not, so there were a lot of happy punters in the stadium.I was not one of them. As a blessed relief to those who feel this column has taken on a strong red and white hue recently, I wasn't even at the game and can offer little comment on the events that occurred. No cheerleading for Wenger's boys this week. For the best of reasons, I spent the evening at home, and there I got to enjoy the game as it was meant to be enjoyed; on an illegal stream from Scandinavian telly. And when that signal went down, Singaporese telly. Truly it is the greatest league in the world. If they didn't keep blocking our access to it.On Wednesday, I was in front of a computer with a bank of windows open, most of them on different, dubiously sourced streams of the game. They offered brief chances to watch the action before crashing, and having to be reloaded. During these reload periods I was reduced to taking all my information from the other window I had open, which was a live text update from other fans watching other illegal feeds.I can't decide if this is a phenomenally cool thing to be doing, like Dennis Hopper in Speed, watching the bomb on the bus and the news coverage of the bomb on the bus at the same time; or a really tragic thing to do, like a man in his pants sitting in the kitchen watching football in Russian in two–minute bursts.Things I have learned from watching football like this: Cyrillic looks complex at first but when you're looking for Arsenal v Bolton, you can pretty much guess what " " means. This means I am much less impressed by Jason Bourne, for example. All those sequences where he effortlessly moved to Russian while negotiating a high-speed chase through the Moscow underground system? All he was doing was squinting his eyes.I could have resorted to more official means. The club's website, for example, was carrying radio commentary along with intermittent still images of the game, which was like having a court illustrator pass scribbled impressions of the action underneath the door to you. You know the way getting a postcard from your mates never quite makes their holiday come alive for you? Try watching a still of Matt Taylor lining up a penalty, followed 60 seconds later by a shot of the teams kicking off again.And this is how we honest football fans get to ape the behaviour of the lowest of the low. All we want to do is watch the match. It's already sold out. Given the chance we'd happily use a subscription sports channel. With none of these routes open to us, we turn to the more furtive corners of the net, knowing full well that the Premier League's voracious hunter‑killer RightsBots are tracking down and closing the sites even as we watch. With our most useful sites only one step ahead of the authorities at all times, we find ourselves privately swapping addresses. This one is great, we whisper, I don't think the authorities are on to it yet. Where is it based? Who knows?I may even be breaking some code of silence by writing about this here. Even typing this I can sense the Premier League lawyers advancing up my garden waiting to plunder my hard drive. I was just researching a book, I'll cry, as they take my laptop away.All I know is that on Wednesday, we play Villa. It's not on the telly. Not here. Yet again, I'll be siting in kitchen, flying through cyberspace, in my pants. And looking for answers to the eternal question: what does my team's name look like in Arabic, or Greek, or binary?Premier LeagueArsenalDara O Briainguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Man United agrees to sign Fulham's Smalling Manchester United agreed to sign Fulham's Chris Smalling on Tuesday and the defender will join the Premier League champion at the start of next season. cbc.ca |