Deadline Day Again

It's that time again when all the clubs go panic buying, despite having 3 months to finalise this seasons teams a lot of managers leave it to the last minute?
So we've got about 5 hours left of hurried medicals and brinkmanship over wages and transfer fees, then interviews with endless foreigners saying "it's always been my dream to play in England".

Chances are that Chelsea won't be doing any last minute deals this year as they should have other things on their mind with their Super cup game against Athletico Madrid, although Colombian striker Falcao might be jumping on the bus home?
So far we've had quite a few deals including Andy Carroll's move to Upton Park on loan which I really didn't think would happen after he dismissed us before.
Berbatov for £4 million!! why didn't we make a bid? also I wonder if we can get Brad Friedel or Rob Green on loan :)

Here are the deadline day deals (I will update this if I remember) :)

Done Deals
Dimitar Berbatov - Man Utd to Fulham
Maicon - Inter Milan to Man City
Rafael Van der Vaart - Tottenham to Hamburg
Nigel De Jong - Man City to AC Milan
Scott Sinclair - Swansea to Man City
Charlie Adam - Liverpool to Stoke
Andy Carroll - Liverpool to West Ham
Kieran Richardson - Sunderland to Fulham
Danny Rose - Tottenham to Sunderland
Park Chu Young - Arsenal to Celta Vigo
Giovani Dos Santos - Tottenham to Mallorca
Gael Kakuta - Chelsea to Vitesse Arnhem
Maya Yoshida - Venio to Southampton
Jay Spearing - Liverpool to Bolton
Nicklas Bendtner - Arsenal to Juventus
Moussa Dembele - Fulham to Tottenham
Jordan Rhodes - Huddersfield to Blackburn
Bryan Oviedo - FC Copenhagen to Everton
Pablo Hernandez - Valencia to Swansea
Richard Wright - Dole Queue to Man City
Esteban Granero - Real Madrid to QPR
Nicky Maynard - West Ham to Cardiff
Julio Cesar - Inter Milan to QPR
Jordan Bowery - Chesterfield to Aston Villa
Maurice Edu - Rangers to Stoke
Thorgan Hazard - Chelsea to Zulte Waregem
Hugo Lloris - Lyon to Tottenham
Stephane Mbia - Marseille to QPR
Michael Essien - Chelsea to Real Madrid
Yossi Benayoun - Chelsea to West Ham
Stefan Savic - Man City to Fiorentina
Matija Nastasic - Fiorentina to Man City
Javi Garcia - Benfica to Man City
Roque Santa Cruz - Man City to Malaga
Gaston Ramirez - Bologna to Southampton
Joey Barton - QPR to Marseille
Clint Dempsey - Fulham to Tottenham
Christian Benteke - Genk to Aston Villa
Steven N'Zonzi - Blackburn to Stoke
Ashkan Dejagah - Wolfsburg to Fulham
Ashley Westwood - Crewe to Aston Villa
Goran Popov - Dynamo Kiev to West Brom
Matthew Kennedy - Kilmarnock to Everton
Cody Cropper - America? to Southampton

Possibles
Kenwyne Jones - Stoke to Marseille
Michael Owen - Man Utd to Anywhere??

Gutted about Dempsey, gone for only £6 million and to Tottenham just to make it worse :(
We end up with Benny back after 5 years away, not sure where he fits anymore but a useful back up :)

Europa League Draw

Group A - Liverpool, Udinese, Young Boys, Anzhi Makhachkala
Group B - Athletico Madrid, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Plzen, Académica
Group C - Marseille, Fenerbahce, Borussia Monchengladbach, AEL Limassol
Group D - Newcastle, Bordeaux, Club Bruges, Maritimo
Group E - VFB Stuttgart, FC Copenhagen, Steaua Bucharest, Molde
Group F - PSV Eindhoven, Napoli, Dnipro, AIK Solna
Group G - Sporting Lisbon, FC Basel, Genk, Videoton Fehervar
Group H - Inter Milan, Rubin Kazan, Partizan Belgrade, Neftchi
Group I - Lyon, Athletic Bilbao, Sparta Prague, Hapoel Kiryat Shmona
Group J - Tottenham, Panathinaikos, Lazio, NK Maribor
Group K - Bayer Leverkusen, Metalist Kharkiv, Rosenborg, Rapid Vienna
Group L - FC Twente, Hannover 96, Levante, Helsingborgs

Champions League Draw

Champions League Draw

Group A - Paris St Germain, FC Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Dinamo Zagreb
Group B - Arsenal, Schalke 04, Olympiakos, Montpellier
Group C - AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga
Group D - Real Madrid, Man City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund
Group E - Chelsea, Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk, FC Nordsjaelland
Group F - Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, Bate Borisov
Group G - Barcelona, Celtic, Benfica, Spartak Moscow
Group H - Man Utd, Sporting Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj

Tough draw for Man City with the champions of England, Spain, Germany and Holland all drawn together!!
Celtic get Barcelona and 2 other hard teams.
The others look to have easier groups Man Utd and Arsenal should be really happy.
Chelsea have got Juventus and Shakhtar but should be good enough to go through.

Fantasy Football

Due to being back in a works league for the first time in 5 years, I'm into Fantasy Football big time this year.
The fact that the price has dropped also helped :)
It used to be £6 a team but this season it was 12 teams for £14.99, the top prize has dropped from £50,000 down to £30,000 but I wasn't going to win that anyway.

Currently in the top 50 overall which considering there are 238,000 teams isn't too bad, and my superleague is in the top 20.

Sadly this will be as good as it gets as I went big time with Chelsea player due to the extra game, my top team has 7 Chelsea players who won't be adding any points this week :(
All I can hope for is that all the games get postponed this weekend for some reason?

Also tried my hand at Sun dream team for the first time ever, but not doing so well at that, it seems to be more luck than skill as you have to pick 11 at the start and can't change them till their imaginary transfer window.
So if you're stuck with Aguero, Rooney and Terry who are all injured like me you're screwed :(

Premier Predictions (Week 3)

Just nine games this weekend, due to Chelsea going to Monaco on Friday to play Athletico Madrid for the European "Super" cup.

West Ham will need to win against much improved Fulham to show they are capable of competing in this division.
Everton have looked good so far but face a test against another much improved team West Brom.
AVB will be under pressure again if the Spuds don't beat Norwich.
Swansea will have the chance to go top if they beat big spending Sunderland, and if they play as well as they already have this season they should manage it.
Man City are due a big result and owe QPR for last season's near nightmare.
On Sunday 0-0 specialists Arsenal go to Anfield looking for another 0-0
Man Utd go to Southampton hopefully with a kit they can see :)
.. and finally Newcastle take on this seasons worst team so far Villa.

West Ham v Fulham
West Brom v Everton
Tottenham v Norwich
Wigan v Stoke
Swansea v Sunderland
Man City v QPR
       
Liverpool v Arsenal
Southampton v Man Utd
Newcastle v Aston Villa

Rangers v Rangers

People have been saying for years that Rangers and Celtic should be playing in the English league, well today Rangers got the chance of playing a league game across the border.
Berwick are the only English club in the Scottish league and they certainly didn't roll over today, holding the Gers to a 1-1 draw.
Not sure what the future holds for Rangers, they have not made a good start to this league and the remaining players are starting to leave and despite the massive support it is going to be hard to attract anyone to play in the fourth tier of Scottish football.
I'm trying hard not to be happy about Rangers problems as I've never been a fan of theirs.
I have various Scottish relatives who are big Celtic and Aberdeen fans who both hate Rangers with a passion, but personally I always liked Dundee United?

Welcome

Great to see that Matt Jarvis has finally signed :)
 It is the first signing we have made in several years that I've been excited about, I've actually heard of him, he's not past it and from what I've seen he could be the first tricky left winger who can beat people we have seen at Upton Park since the days of Alan Devonshire.
£10.75 million is a lot of cash for West Ham but when you consider Chelsea have blown over £80 million this season already, and we were prepared to pay £17 million for the pony tail maybe it's really good business.

Unlikely

Bye Sam

Quite sad to see little Sam leave before he had a real chance to shine.
He started brightly for us last season with 5 goals in his first 6 starts and looked like a player in the Tony Cottee mould, but injury and being played out of position meant he made only another 5 starts plus a collection of late substitute appearances.
He scored in the opening 3 friendlies this season but didn't get any more chances.

Good luck for the future Sam Baldock

Premier Predictions (Week 2)

I know week one hasn't quite finished, but here's the week 2 games.
At least this set are played over just 2 days :)
Good luck all.

Saturday
Swansea v West Ham
Sunderland v Reading
Aston Villa v Everton
Tottenham v West Brom
Southampton v Wigan
Norwich v QPR
Man Utd v Fulham
Chelsea v Newcastle

Sunday
Stoke v Arsenal
Liverpool v Man City

RIP Sid Waddell

Should have posted this last week :(
Sadly Sid Waddell died last week from bowel cancer aged 72.
We all remember Sid for his brilliant darts commentaries which breathed life into the old pub game and made it must watch TV at the time, I should say that my collection of sporting trophies are mainly for darts so I love the game.
Sid himself had a pretty impressive CV away from darts, although he was a miners son from the North East he went to Cambridge University and had TV presenting, writing and production credits before his switch to Darts.

Footie fans should also remember he wrote the great 80's kids show Jossy's Giants :)

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Champions League

Woo hoo we're in the Champions league spot :)
Stop the season now as I don't think it can get any better :D

Season 2012/13

Less than 2 hours to go till another Premier league season kicks off :)
The title race should be between the big 3 of Man City, Man United and Chelsea with Van Persie's transfer probably meaning Arsenal drop into the second group chasing the 4th place with Tottenham, Everton and maybe Newcastle.
AVB has the chance to show what all the fuss was about when he went to Chelsea last season, although he will probably have to do it without Modric, but the money will come in useful.
If Liverpool have the quality and can embrace the Rogers way they could have a decent season, but if they lose a couple he could be under pressure from the unrealistic ambitions of their fans and owners.

At the bottom it's a complete lottery, the poll currently has Wigan and Reading for the drop but I'm not so sure? Brian McDermott is a very likeable manager who will get the best out of a good Reading team and Martinez's Wigan looked very good at the end of last season.
Chris Hughton is a really good manager and might keep Norwich from suffering "2nd season syndrome", Brian Laudrup is highly rated and could lessen the blow of Brenda Rogers departure.
Martin Jol of Fulham has signed a few good players which might lessen the blow of probably losing their star player Dempsey.
Stoke should have a better season without having the European games which cost them last year.
I think West Brom could struggle without Roy Hodgson and I really don't rate Steve Clarke, QPR despite a number of good signings still don't have a settled team and I reckon they will have another season of fighting for their lives.
I really hate to say that the Hammers will be fighting relegation but unless we take advantage of the reasonably easy start to the season and manage to pick up at least 2-3 quality players before the end of the transfer window it could be a tough season.
Looking at this years teams any 3 of around 12 could be in the relegation places at the end of the season?

My predictions for the season -
1st Man Utd,  2nd Man City, 3rd  Chelsea, 4th Arsenal
Relegated - West Brom, QPR, Southampton

Removal Van

So Sad

Aaah it's so sad when a love affair ends.
All my Arsenal friends were declaring their undying love of Robin Van Persie last season and wanting his babies, and telling me he will always be Arsenal and would never go to another English club.
But today all I'm getting is "he was always shit" and "money grabbing bastard, hope he breaks both legs" ??

It looks like he is on his way to Old Trafford which probably guarantees Man Utd of Champions league football because Arsenal can't be considered a threat anymore.
Not sure if the often injured Dutchman can strike up a good partnership with Rooney, if he does then it should be enough to overtake City?

Arsenal now have a couple of weeks to find a world class striker prepared to play for them as all the current strikers are unlikely to score as many goals as RVP managed on his own.

Premier Predictions (Week 1)

Here we go, the all new Premier League prediction competition 2012/2013.
Same rules as before - 3 points for a correct score, 1 point for a correct result with the wrong score.
Please copy and paste the games with your predicted scores into the comments below.
All welcome just remember to leave your name.

Saturday
Arsenal v Sunderland
Fulham v Norwich
QPR v Swansea
Reading v Stoke
West Brom v Liverpool
West Ham v Aston Villa
Newcastle v Tottenham

Sunday
Wigan v Chelsea
Man City v Southampton

Monday
Everton v Man Utd

Wednesday
Chelsea v Reading

Longy has won the last two so we need some serious competition this season :) For some reason we start with 11 games this week as Chelsea and Reading have an extra game this week? So it's a chance for big spending Chelsea to lead the pack for a few weeks until the others catch up the games.

Olympics

Well it's all over and like many others could not believe how well it all went. I was going to do a long post about it but I just thought I would list the best bits for me :)
Highs - The Opening Ceremony, James Bond, The Arctic Monkeys, The Rowing, Bradley Wiggins, Laura Trott, The indoor cycling GB teams, Nicola Adams, Mo Farah x 2, Jessica Ennis, David Rudisha, Usain Bolt x 3, Ben Ainslie's Rant
Lows - Paul McCartney

Nearly There

The Olympics is finishing tomorrow and the footie season kicks off with the Charity Shield which has been moved to Villa Park.
The latest version of the League cup (capital one) started today and Sheffield United were kicked out by Burton!!
Rangers started life in Scotland's lowest league with a draw away to Peterhead.
Typically England have arranged a friendly 3 days before the Premier league kicks off meaning some of my Fantasy league players will get injured before kick off.

The Olympic footie was won by Mexico who beat Brazil 2-1, the womens version was won by the Americans who beat Japan 2-1 thanks to a blind ref.

.... and here's another Terry scene stealer from Twitter :)

Nearly Time For Footie Again

Sorry for the lack of posts, not too much going on football wise apart from the Olympics and I've been occupied getting myself a new job.
But the new Premier league season is closing in, the Scottish league started today and the Europa league is underway so it's time to get posting again.

The men's Olympic team play South Korea tonight for a place in the semi's, the women crashed out in the quarter finals after looking impressive in their group.
So good luck to Stuart Pearce's team tonight, if they win they will probably play Brazil who are the form team so far.
The fancied Spaniards were knocked out without even scoring a goal in their group?

West ham have so far signed 7 players - 3 Goalies, 2 Ex-Hammers, and 2 Africans one with a dodgy knee and one with a dodgy heart .. so no worries there.
Southend's Bilel Mohsni (who I've posted about before) has been on trial with the Hammers and a 150k bid has been turned down by Southend, I think I would prefer him to stay at Southend but when he has the right head on he can be a match winner possibly at the highest level but if Big Sam was thinking of signing him as a back up defender I wouldn't bother.

Transfers In (Premier league)
Chelsea have been the big spenders so far spending 4 times as much as Arsenal, Tottenham and Man Utd who also parted with some serious cash.
Mega rich Man City haven't signed anyone yet but I'm sure some big name will be there before the opening day.
West Ham, Reading and QPR have all signed 7 players so far on the cheap.

Arsenal - Giroud, Podolski
Aston Villa - Vlaar, Lowton, El Ahmadi, Holman
Chelsea - Oscar, E Hazard, T Hazard, Marin
Everton - Pienaar, Naismith
Fulham - Rodallega, Riether, Petric
Liverpool - Borini
Man City - Nobody?
Man United - Powell, Kagawa
Newcastle - Good, Bigirimana, Amalfitano
Norwich - Turner, Snodgrass, Butterfield, Whittaker
QPR - Hoilett, Park, Fabio, Green, Johnson, Nelsen, Diakite
Reading - Gunter, Mariappa, Shorey, Sweeney, McCleary, Guthrie, Pogrebnyak
Southampton - Gazzaniga, Clyne, Davis, Rodriguez
Stoke - Ness
Sunderland - Cuellar
Swansea - Michu, Chico, de Guzman
Tottenham - Vertonghen, Sigurdsson
West Brom - Yacob, El Ghanassy, Foster
West Ham - Collins, Spiegel, Maiga, McCartney, Jaaskelainen, Diame, Henderson
Wigan - Ramis, Fyvie

The rest -
Robin Van Persie should he stay or should he go?
Rangers relegated to the Scottish division 3!!
Choc-ices and 99's? well it is summer :)

Oh and thanks for all the kind words from those companies who spam the hell out Bloggers :)

Oh and another poll open for a month, who's going down this season .. please don't all choose West Ham :)