Premier Predictions (Week 6)

Tottenham v Chelsea
Hull v West Ham
Aston Villa v Man City
Man Utd v West Brom
Fulham v Cardiff
Southampton v C Palace
Swansea v Arsenal
Stoke v Norwich
Sunderland v Liverpool
Everton v Newcastle

Saturday
AVB v No Way Jose, big test for the Y words to see if their new collective XI can be better than the old one- man team.
West Ham have a strictly must win game against Brucie's Tiggers.
Villa will be dreading facing Man City now they've hit form and also having lost their star striker.
Man U need to start winning to stay in touch with the leaders and will hope RVP is fit.
Arsenal's injury prone stars face the best footballing side in the division, could be good.
Saints v Palace, probably the best bit will be Pochetino's interpreter trying to translate Holloway's rants and words of wisdom.
Fulham v Cardiff, the other game.

On Sunday
How will those pampered little darlings of Blunderland cope without that nasty man shouting at them? not good that they have to share a field with the cannibal who according to his manager is "chomping at the bit" and "hungry" :)
Norwich at Stoke, Gary Hooper's fit so it will be good to see if he can cut it at this level.

Monday
Unbeaten Everton against Le Toon, should be the Toffee's game but Newcastle are always unpredictable.

Good luck all :)

Bye Paolo

Bye bye Paolo DiCanio the least surprising Premier manager sacking of recent seasons.
It was fun for the rest of us but I think we all knew it was just a matter of time before the loveable loon was shown the door.
The main surprise was that they had offered him the job full time, and after allowing him to bring in 14 players during the summer break you would have expected them to give him a bit more time.


They have been a bit unlucky in the last 2 games with some dubious reffing in the Arsenal game and the late injury to Fletcher after using 3 subs in Saturday's game.
The team Paolo inherited were piss poor and he did well to inspire them enough to stay up, and as they decided he was to be the future of Sunderland and not just a quick fix, they should have given him more time.

For the record - Played 13, W 3, D 3, L 7, F 15, A 24 including a 3-0 away win over the Geordies.

Premier Predictions (Week 5)

Saturday and Sunday games this week, West London derby on Saturday, Manc derby on Sunday.
Will the Chelsea boys get off the mark? will Lukaku send a message to Jose (hope not).
Good luck all :)

Norwich v Aston Villa
Liverpool v Southampton
Newcastle v Hull
West Brom v Sunderland
West Ham v Everton
Chelsea v Fulham

Arsenal v Stoke
C Palace v Swansea
Cardiff v Tottenham
Man City v Man Utd

Premier Predictions (Week 4)

Still can't get used to England playing in German shirts, but the results were not too bad.
Anyway International break over, back to the real stuff :)
 10 games this week spread over 3 days, 8 on Saturday.
First chance to see all these new "superstars"our clubs have spent millions on, maybe we've even heard of some of them?

Man Utd v Crystal Palace
Aston Villa v Newcastle
Fulham v West Brom
Hull v Cardiff
Stoke v Man City
Sunderland v Arsenal
Tottenham v Norwich
Everton v Chelsea
Southampton v West Ham
Swansea v Liverpool

Bale Saga

The summer long Bale transfer looks like it's finally going through today.
Tottenham must be sweating as they've spent all the money already, and I really don't know how this "financial fair play" thing works?
Once again I hear West Ham can't bring anyone in because of the wage restrictions and yet Tottenham can sign a bundle of high wage players despite only averaging a thousand more fans per game than us??

I personally think AVB must be sweating as if Bale goes the team doesn't look anywhere near as good as what he had last year, Bale and Dempsey were 2 players always likely to get you a goal and Parker, Huddlestone, Caulker and Livermore are all good premiership players.
Paulinho looks a good solid midfielder and Soldado has a good goal scoring record in Spain but the others are virually unknown to me, and a lot of foreign players do struggle to settle in.

So Close

What a great game, shame about the finish.

Fernando Torres opened the scoring with a cracking goal after a great run by Hazard, the world's scariest footballer equalised for Munich just after half time and at 90 minutes it was 1-1 and Chelsea had lost Ramires to a red card.
Early in extra time Hazard scored a brilliant solo goal and it looked like Chelsea would hold on with Cech and his back four having inspired games.For some reason Jomo brought on Terry for Hazard which invited Munich to set up camp in the Chelsea half but they came within 5 seconds of holding on.
The penalties were all good until Lukaku did his Anelka impression (David Luiz should be put in charge of penalty training).
Munich were the better team overall but the Chelsea defence were superb especially Gary Cahill.

Fantasy Leagues Update

This hasn't really taken off, but someone's playing so it was sort of worth it :)
TFF - 6 teams so far, I will add a couple more of my teams before the cut off date 27th Sept, so current players feel free to add as many as you like, and anybody else can join :)
FPL - 2 teams only? 2.8 million players!! anyone else want to join :)

So here's the week 2 tables.
TFF
1 TURPS SPIRITS - 114
2 Part Vole - 97
3 Mad Eyed Screamers - 96
4 RUNCORN REDS 1892 - 86
5 HAMMER TIME - 85
6 Hit N Hope - 83

FPL
1 Cockney Rejects 138
2 Longy's Longshots 132

Champions League

The Champions league group draw

Group A - Man Utd, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Sociedad
Group B - Real Madrid, Juventus, Galatasaray, Copenhagen
Group C - Benfica, Paris SG, Olympiakos, Anderlecht
Group D - Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, Man City, Viktoria Plzen
Group E - Chelsea, Schalke, Basel, Steaua Bucharest
Group F - Arsenal, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli
Group G - Porto, Ath Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg, Austria Vienna
Group H - Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax, Celtic

First thoughts, Man Utd and Chelsea should stroll through, Man City should finish 2nd.
Arsenal have a really tough group and could struggle.
Celtic have little chance but will hope they can give Barcelona a tough time again.

Premier Predictions (Week 3)

Just the 9 games this week, 6 Saturday and 3 Sunday
So hopefully we can all up our game :)

Man City v Hull
Cardiff v Everton
Newcastle v Fulham
Norwich v Southampton
West Ham v Stoke
Crystal Palace v Sunderland
Liverpool v Man Utd
West Brom v Swansea
Arsenal v Tottenham

Lighten Up

FIFA 14 is so realistic that if you play as Tottenham in career mode and make a bid for a player they automatically join Chelsea

Premier League officials have stated they'll block any proposed sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, as league rules clearly state the Premier League must be a 20 Team competition.

This Rooney hating thing has gone too far, Outside Old Trafford there's a guy burning small effigies of Rooney and selling them to fans ...
Oh hang on, it's a baked potato stand.

Went shopping with the wife today, told her she could buy whatever she wanted, but after hours of browsing the shops, she never bought a thing?
Now I know what it feels like to be an Arsenal fan.

Joe Kinnear has been on the radio this afternoon and was asked what he thought about wonga?
He said "he's probably the best manager arsenal have ever had"

If Luis Suarez signed for Arsenal he could be paid £7m a year which after adding on bonuses for winning trophies would come to a total of £7m a year.

Did you hear about the Conservative MP who was found dead in a Chelsea strip? The police had to dress him up in women's underwear in order to save his family from the embarrassment.

£90 million for a football transfer?
When I was a kid they used to be free with chewing gum.

Roberto Martinez has promised to bring Champions League football to Goodison Park.
He aims to have Sky Sports installed by September.

It's taken Arsenal five years to replace Flamini, but there is a rumour they've finally managed it by signing ... Flamini

It's great to see "the special one" back in the Premier league ....Ian Holloway's a star.

As Good As It Gets?

I'll post this quick as I guess it will be the highlight of my TFF season?
2nd place out of about 250,000 teams thanks to my Chelsea back five and a few inspired picks :)
Also the personal superleague is sitting in 4th place, among a host of major footy forums.

I know it won't last as the large Chelsea contingent go to Old Trafford next week then don't play again until mid September, meaning I either have to blow a big pile of transfers or sit tight while I drop about a 100,000 places.

The NBTF league still needs at least 7 more entries, so if no-one else is joining I will add in a few more of my own teams, anyone already in can add more if you have them.
Going to try and get some of the work mates to join first.

Premier Predictions (Week 2)

Nearly forgot to post these, it's early in the season :)
Here we go for week 2

Fulham v Arsenal
Everton v West Brom
Hull v Norwich
Newcastle v West Ham
Southampton v Sunderland
Stoke v Crystal Palace
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Cardiff v Man City
Tottenham v Swansea
Man Utd v Chelsea

7 games Saturday, 2 on Sunday, 1 on Monday
Good luck all.

Fantasy Leagues Week 1

Not much of a response to the fantasy footie leagues so far, thanks to "runcorn reds 1892" and " part vole" for joining the Telegraph one (please introduce yourselves if your not a regular) :)
Just me in the Premier league version so far, so at least I'm winning that one :)
Telegraph Week 1 - 1st part vole 55, 2nd runcorn reds 1892 47, 3rd  mad eyed screamers 36

Overall I fared a bit better with my 20 TFF teams, leading the works league and getting one in the top 100.
I've highlighted the team I put in the NBTF league, not a good choice :)

Ex Hammers

Steve Lomas doing a good job so far :)
Goalie Steve Bywater has also joined to do his bit.

Club Sponsors

A few decades ago when sponsors names first used to appear on the front of our players shirts, you would usually have heard of the company or brand, like Crown paints or Dagenham motors.
But today's names on shirts tend to asian companies, betting organisations or financial institutions that most of us have never heard of?
So here's my take on today's premier league sponsors.

Arsenal - Fly Emirates - EMI challenging Virgin in the record company to airline market.
Aston Villa - Dafabet - Betting company specialising in stupid bets (like Villa to win the league).
Cardiff - Visit Malaysia - Self explanatory, go to the far east it's warmer than Wales.
Chelsea - Samsung - Record company specialising in old recordings of Mr Allardyce when he's drunk.
Crystal Palace - GAC.com - Gravy and chips.com, promoting Northern dishes to uneducated southerners.
Everton - Chang - Chinese bell company.
Fulham - Marathon - Company selling old style confectionary like Opal Fruits and Spangles.
Hull - Cash Converters - Home for old crap that nobody wants.
Liverpool - Standard Chartered - Company employing people who are experienced at being average.
Man City - Etihad - Support group for people that have lost aliens.
Man Utd - AON - All or Nothing, company that advises people to take out huge debts in the hope they will make a fortune, or possibly go bankrupt.
Newcastle - Wonga - Company run by dodgy French loan shark Arson Wonga.
Norwich - Aviva - Car company that sells old Vauxhall's.
Southampton - AAP - Motoring organisation helping people find rest rooms.
Stoke - Bet365 - Betting company for people that like to bet all year round except in leap years.
Sunderland - Biovest - Clothing company that makes undergarments resistant to chemical attack.
Swansea - GWFX - Movie special effects company that creates Global Warming disaster films.
Tottenham - HP - Old fashioned loans company helping you buy stuff for weekly payments.
West Brom - Zoopla - Dangerous sports company, A game where you have to throw rings over wild animals before they eat you.
West Ham - Alpari - New alcoholic breakfast cereal combining mueseli and Campari.

Premier Predictions (Week 1)

... Imagine the sound of trumpets ...

Here we go again, Premier prediction time. Week 1 of about 38?
Usual rules (see post below).
All readers welcome (anyone new, just let me know your name or alias so I can keep track of your score in the super duper league table on the right).

As last season we start with an extended week with a bonus Chelsea game due to them having a weekend break in Prague later in the month, so a delayed final result in week 1.

This weeks games - 7 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday, 1 on Wednesday

Liverpool v Stoke
Arsenal v Aston Villa
Norwich v Everton
Sunderland v Fulham
West Brom v Southampton
West Ham v Cardiff
Swansea v Man Utd
Crystal Palace v Tottenham
Chelsea v Hull
Man City v Newcastle
Chelsea v Aston Villa

Predictions in comments please - just copy/paste the fixtures and add your score :)

.... and good luck to all who take part :)

Predictions and Fantasy Football

The New Season is almost here so time to think about all things Premier.

Season 4 of the Nothing Better Than Football Premier predictions competition is about to get under way :)
Usual format, I post the weeks fixtures, you predict the scores in the comments.
3 Points for a correct score, 1 point for a correct result (Home, away, draw), 0 points if game is postponed.
The league table will be decided on -
1st Outright weekly wins,
2nd Shared wins,
3rd Total points scored.

Hopefully the 5 regulars that played last year will play again, and anyone else that visits here is welcome to join (just let me know your name and which team you support).
Seasons 1-3 have been a Chelsea Bluewash so the rest of us need to up our game, congrats to Biopunk for winning last season after deposing 2 time champion Longy.


A bit of added interest this season - Fantasy Football

I've been playing various Fantasy football games for the last 15 years.
So far I've only won about £200 but have a bundle of league winners medals and cups.

Most of the popular ones are run by newspapers, Sun, Mirror, Telegraph etc.
You don't have to buy the newspapers as the games are all online :)

I think the Sun dream team one is the most widely played but I find it boring as you get stuck with injured players for weeks waiting for transfer windows.

The Telegraph game tends to be the most popular amongst Fantasy football managers as you can tinker away all season with 30 transfers allowed and make changes to your team right up till the first kick-off of the day.
You can have as many teams as you like, the first team is free but if you want more you can upgrade to either 5 teams for £5 or 20 teams for £20.
Many different cash prizes if your good enough.

The Premier league runs it's own game "Fantasy Premier League" and it is free to play.
You choose a squad of 15 players in your budget, then pick a starting XI for each game, transfers are available during the season - 1 is free, anymore cost you points, wildcards are available twice a season to let you ship out several players at once if half your squad get sold to Real Madrid in January.
You can only have one team each, but you can put it in multiple leagues.

So if anyone who reads this blog wants to join in this season?
I have set up "Nothing better than football" leagues in the Premier league game and the Telegraph one.

-----------
Fantasy Premier League 2013/14
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb.html
League name: Nothing Better Than Football
Code to join this league: 225975-270358
-----------

Telegraph Fantasy Football 2013/14
http://fantasyfootball.telegraph.co.uk/
League name: Nothing Better Than Football
PIN: 8043485

(You can have as many teams as you like in this one, I've put in one for now but need at least 5 teams to make it an official league, so if I don't get 5 by the end of August I'll add a few more of my own .. but hopefully I won't need to)

The Premier league game is open to everyone worldwide (as there are no cash prizes), sadly the Telegraph game is UK residents only :(

Transfers Facts And Figures

Premier League in and outs - Updated 02/09/13

Up till today £629 Million has been spent on 149 players by the 20 Premier league teams.
Biggest spenders are Tottenham having spent over £108 million on just 7 players, and Man City spending £99 million on just 5 players.Crystal Palace managed to bring in 15 players for just under £7 million.

Biggest spenders - Tottenham £108.9m, Man City £99.1m, Chelsea £63.5m, Liverpool £51.8m
Biggest sellers - Tottenham £104.3m, Everton £33.5m, Liverpool £26m, Sunderland £19.5m
Biggest Profits - Everton £10.5m, Sunderland £3.12m, Newcastle £150,000
Biggest Losses - Man City £87.1m, Chelsea £61m, Southampton £36m
Most players in - Crystal Palace 15, Sunderland 14, Hull 11, Swansea 10
Most players out - Chelsea 33, Arsenal 29, Tottenham 22

Arsenal          
In    4    Yaya Sanogo, Mathieu Flamini, Emiliano Viviano (Loan), Mesut Ozil
Out    29    Francis Coquelin (Loan), Johan Djourou (Loan), Chuks Aneke (Loan), Joel Campbell (Loan), Ignasi Miquel (Loan), Andre Santos, Vito Mannone, Sanchez Watt, Andrey Arshavin, Denilson, Jordan Wynter, Craig Eastmond, Samir Bihmoutine, Reice Charles-Cook, Sead Hajrovic, Conor Henderson, Jernade Meade, Nigel Oldfield Spence-Neita, Joshua Rees, Philip Roberts, James Shea, Sebastien Squillaci, Martin Angha, Kyle Ebecilio, Elton Monteiro, Daniel Boateng, Zach Fagan, Gervinho, Marouane Chamakh
          
Aston Villa          
In    8    Antonio Luna, Nicklas Helenius, Leandro Bacuna, Jores Okore, Aleksandar Tonev, Jed Steer, Liam Prynn, Libor Kozak
Out    18    Graham Burke (Loan), Samir Carruthers (Loan), Darren Bent (Loan), Nathan Delfouneso (Loan), Enda Stevens (Loan), Stephen Ireland (Loan), Courtney Cameron, Brett Holman, Derrick Williams, Eric Lichaj, Calum Barrett, Joshua Barton, Daniel Devine, Richard Dunne, Andrew Marshall, Jean Makoun, Stiliyan Petrov, Barry Bannan,
          
Cardiff City          
In    7    Andreas Cornelius, John Brayford, Steven Caulker, Simon Moore, Gary Medel, Kevin Theophile-Catherine, Peter Odemwingie
Out    7    Ben Nugent (Loan), Joe Ralls (Loan), Jese Darko, Nat Jarvis, Stephen McPhail, Elliott Parish, Heidar Helguson
          
Chelsea          
In    8    Marco van Ginkel, Andre Schurrle, Mark Schwarzer, Cristian Cuevas, Stipe Perica, Willian, Samuel Eto'o, Christian Atsu
Out    33    Cristian Cuevas (Loan), Oriel Romeu (Loan), Billy Clifford (Loan), Patrick Bamford (Loan), Marko Marin (Loan), Patrick van Aanholt (Loan), Todd Kane (Loan), George Saville (Loan), Sam Walker (Loan), Thibaut Courtois (Loan), Daniel Pappoe (Loan), Milan Lalkovic (Loan), Wallace (Loan), Christian Atsu (Loan), Romelu Lukaku (Loan), Victor Moses (Loan), Amin Affane, Yossi Benayoun, Abdul Deen-Conteh, Paulo Ferreira, Hilarious, Florent Malouda, Archange Nkumu, Ross Turnbull, Jeffrey Bruma, Ben Gordon, Rohan Ince, James Ashton, Samuel Bangura, Conor Clifford, Tom Howard, Nortei Nortey, Adam Phillip
          
Crystal Palace          
In    15    Elliot Grandin, Kevin Phillips, Dwight Gayle, Stephen Dobbie, Jerome Thomas, Marouane Chamakh, Jose Campan, Florian Marange, Neil Alexande, Jason Puncheon (Loan, Jimmy Keb, Adrian Mariappa, Barry Bannan, Cameron Jerome (Loan), Jack Hunt
Out    10    Ryan Inniss (Loan), Dale Banton (Loan), Peter Ramage (Loan), Alex Marrow, Jermaine Easter, Aaron Akuruka, Kadell Daniel, Bryan Fenwick, Jack Holland, Andre Moritz
          
Everton          
In    7    Gerard Deulofeu (Loan), Antolin Alcaraz, Joel Robles, Arouna Kone, Gareth Barry (Loan), James McCarthy, Romelu Lukaku (Loan)
Out    10    Conor McAleny (Loan), Johan Hammar, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Sam Kelly, Jan Mucha, Phil Neville, Jasper Johns, Jake Bidwell, Marouane Fellaini, Victor Anichebe
          
Fulham          
In    9    Abel Taarabt (Loan), Maarten Stekelenburg, Fernando Amorebieta, Derek Boateng, Sasha Riether, Ange-Freddy Plumain, Darren Bent (Loan), Scott Parker, Elsad Zverotic
Out    16    Ryan Williams (Loan), Dan Burn (Loan), Marcus Bettinelli (Loan), Cauley Woodrow (Loan), Marcello Trotta (Loan), Chris Baird, Simon Davies, Mahamadou Diarra, Thomas Donegan, Corey Gameiro, James Musa, Richard Peniket, Mladen Petric, Mark Schwarzer, Alex Smith, Csaba Somogyi
          
Hull City          
In    11    Curtis Davies, Maynor Figueroa, George Boyd, Ahmed Elmohamady, Allan McGregor, Steve Harper, Danny Graham (Loan), Yannick Sagbo, Jake Livermore (Loan), Tom Huddlestone, Gedo (Loan)
Out    18    Mark Oxley (Loan), Tom Cairney (Loan), Jack Hobbs (Loan), Cameron Stewart (Loan), Conor Townsend (Loan), Corry Evans, Andy Dawson, Sonny Bradley, Danny East, Mark Cullen, Jamie Devitt, Paul McKenna, Seyi Olofinjana, Jay Simpson, Lewis Clarkson, Kealan Dillon, Daniel Emerton, Francis McCaffrey
          
Liverpool          
In    8    Iago Aspas, Luis Alberto , Kolo Toure, Simon Mignolet, Aly Cissokho (Loan), Mamadou Sakho, Tiago Ilori, Victor Moses (Loan)
Out    18    Suso (Loan), Henoc Mukendi (Loan), Conor Coady (Loan), Jack Robinson (Loan), Pepe Reina (Loan), Oussame Assaidi (Loan), Fabio Borini (Loan), Andy Carroll, Michael Ngoo, Jamie Stephens, Jonjo Shelvey, Danny Wilson, Tyrell Belford, Jamie Carragher, Peter Gulasci, Jay Spearing, Stewart Downing, Daniel Pacheco
          
Manchester City          
In    5    Jesus Navas, Fernandinho, Stevan Jovetic, Alvaro Negredo, Martin Demichelis
Out    16    Reece Wabara (Loan), Karim Rekik (Loan), Scott Sinclair (Loan), Albert Rusnak (Loan), Abdul Razak (Loan), Gareth Barry (Loan), Harry Bunn (Loan), Denis Suarez, Carlos Tevez, Wayne Bridge, Filippo Mancini, Ryan McGivern, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Toure, Jeremy Helan, Maicon
          
Manchester United          
In    2    Guillermo Varela, Marouane Fellaini
Out    15    Reece James (Loan), Ryan Tunnicliffe (Loan), Sam Johnstone (Loan), Nick Powell (Loan), Reece Brown, John Cofie, Michele Fornasier, Luke Giverin, Luke Hendrie, Luke McCullough, Paul Scholes, Gyliano Van Velzen, Freddie Veseli, Sean McGinty, Scott Wootton
          
Newcastle United          
In    2    Loic Remy (Loan), Olivier Kemen
Out    11    James Tavernier (Loan), Mehdi Abeid (Loan), Michael Richardson (Loan), Shane Ferguson (Loan), Adam Campbell (Loan), JJ Hooper, Steve Harper, Yven Moyo, Danny Simpson, James Perch, Brad Inman
          
Norwich City          
In    8    Ricky van Wolfswinkel, Leroy Fer, Carlo Nash, Martin Olsson, Nathan Redmond, Javier Garrido, Gary Hooper, Johan Elmander (Loan)
Out    17    Declan Rudd (Loan), Andrew Surman (Loan), Grant Holt, Tom Adeyemi, Lee Camp, Olumide Durojaiye, George Francomb, Simeon Jackson, Chris Martin, Ramil Sheriff, Korey Smith, Marc Tierney, Elliott Ward, Jed Steer, Korey Smith, James Vaughan, Jacob Butterfield
Southampton          
In    3    Victor Wanyama, Dejan Lovren, Pablo Osvaldo
Out    14    Jason Puncheon (Loan), Emmanuel Mayuka (Loan), Frazer Richardson, Danny Butterfield, Dan Seabourne, Ryan Dickson, Ben Reeves, Sam Hoskins, Tommy Forecast, Alberto Seidi, Richard Chaplow, Steve de Ridde, Vegard Forren, Danny Butterfield
          
Stoke City          
In    7    Marc Muniesa, Erik Pieters, Alex Grant, Juan Agudelo, Oussame Assaidi (Loan), Marko Arnautovic, Stephen Ireland (Loan)
Out    16    Cameron Jerome (Loan), Michael Kightly (Loan), Ryan Shotton (Loan), Michael Clarkson, Rory Delap, Matthew Gledhill, Jadan Hall, Matthew Lund, Andrew Musungu, Carlo Nash, Michael Owen, George Rigg, Mamady Sidibe, Matthew Upson, Dean Whitehead, Florent Cuvelier
          
Sunderland          
In    14    Vito Mannone, Emanuele Giaccherini, El Hadji Ba, Jozy Altidore, Cabral, Modibo Diakite, David Moberg Karlsson, Duncan Watmore, Valentin Roberge, Ondrej Celustka (Loan), Charis Mavrias, Ki Sung-Yeung (Loan), Andrea Dossena, Fabio Borini (Loan)
Out    14    Danny Graham (Loan), Alfred N'Diaye (Loan), Billy Knott (Loan), Stephane Sessegnon, Ahmed Elmohamady, Simon Mignolet, Titus Bramble, Anthony Callaghan, Wade Joyce, Matt Kilgallon, Ryan Noble, Adam Reed, Ben Wilson, James McClean
          
Swansea          
In    10    Jonjo Shelvey, Wilfried Bony, Alejandro Pozuelo, Jonathan de Guzman (Loan), Jordi Amat, Jose Canas, Gregor Zabret, Alex Gogic, Jernade Meade, Alvaro Vazquez (Loan)
Out    7    Alan Tate (Loan), Gwion Edwards (Loan), Kyle Bartley (Loan), Ki Sung-Yeung (Loan), David Cornel, Mark Gower, Kemy Agustien
          
Tottenham Hotspur          
In    7    Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen
Out    22    Adam Smith (Loan), Tomislav Gomelt (Loan), Bongoni Khumalo (Loan), Ryan Mason (Loan), Grant Hall (Loan), Massimo Luongo (Loan), Alex Pritchard (Loan), Jake Livermore (Loan), Benoit Assou-Ekotto (Loan), Tom Carroll (Loan), Tom Huddlestone, Clint Dempsey, Steven Caulker, Jack Barthram, David Bentley, John Bostock, William Gallas, Jack Munns, Jake Nicholson, Nathan Byrn, Scott Parker, Gareth Bale
          
West Bromwich Albion          
In    9    Nicolas Anelka, Goran Popov (Loan), Diego Lugano, Matej Vydra (Loan), Scott Sinclair (Loan), Lee Camp, Morgan Amalfitano (Loan), Stephane Sessegnon, Victor Anichebe
Out    7    Scott Allan (Loan), Marc-Antoine Fortune, Gonzalo Jara, Romaine Sawyers, Jerome Thomas, James Hurst, Peter Odemwingie
          
West Ham United          
In    5    Andy Carroll, Danny Whitehead, Adrian, Razvan Rat, Stewart Downing
Out    7    Gary O’Neil, Carlton Cole, Robert Hall, Jake Larkins, Jack Powell, Jami Rafati, Eoin Wearen

New Season

I don't think we have a close season anymore?
I thought we'd have a break after the Confederations cup but the Europa league started the week after and now we've got the friendlies in full swing and the Women's Euros.
Under a month till the Community shield and less than 5 weeks till the new season starts.

All change at the top with both Manchester clubs, Chelsea and Everton with new managers meaning next season looks really unpredictable.

Man Utd - David Moyes for Alex Ferguson, Moyes is a good manager but at the moment doesn't have that winning mentality of his predecessor. He inherits a great team but they are going to need strengthening to compete on the bigger stage of Europe. Moyes biggest test will be trying to instill the fear of failure that Fergie did and the expectation of success is something he won't be used to.

Man City - Manuel Pellegrini for Roberto Mancini, I don't know much about Pellegrini other than he's done pretty well in Spain with Villarreal and Malaga and had one good season with Real Madrid before getting sacked. The almost unlimited budget at City should help him settle in (they've already spent 45m) but as Mancini found out eleven top players don't always make a good team and I think they will miss Tevez.

Chelsea - Jose Mourinho for Rafa Benitez, we all know about Jose and like Holloway will always give a good after match interview but has he still got it? Although Chelsea have already spent 26m on 3 players I can't see Abramovich giving Jose the open cheque book anymore so he might have to work with what he's got. Lukaku looked good last season and could be the answer to their striking problems if he gets a chance, Torres if he ever finds his form and confidence could still do it, it looks like Ba is on his way again.
Picking up Mark Schwarzer on a free as goalkeeping back up looks a great move.

Everton - Roberto Martinez for David Moyes, I like Martinez but the bar has been raised and survival is not enough at a club that aims for European qualification on a smaller budget. Worryingly for Everton fans Martinez has already signed 3 Wigan players and Man Utd are sniffing around Leighton Baines.

Stoke - Mark Hughes for Tony Pulis, Don't understand this one? Mark Hughes has really lost his way as a manager since leaving Blackburn and Tony Pulis really over achieved with Stoke, I would be really surprised if Stoke improved unless some multi billionaire came in and took them over.

As for the rest Arsenal are reported to have a big pile of money to spend but nobody seems to want to go there. Liverpool have again spent heavy but recouped most of that with sales and they might make a rare profit if Suarez goes (as looks likely). Tottenham's season depends heavily on them keeping Bale and finding a prolific striker to replace Defoe and Adebeyor who were major disappointments last season.
West Brom probably over achieved last season and I don't think Anelka will be able to replace the hole left by Lukaku, Swansea have bought well and could improve next season as long as no-one poaches Laudrup. Newcastle under achieved last season and should improve as long as Pardew isn't totally undermined by Ashley. Aston Villa should be a better team next season with the young players a year older but Lambert's biggest battle will be to keep Benteke. Norwich have been busy in the transfer market but I was surprised they let Grant Holt go and could struggle this season. Sunderland have also been busy in the market and thanks to Mignolet's transfer have money to spend, but who knows what will happen in DiCanio's mind and I think it could all end in tears. Fulham have a new owner but their stay in the Premier league must be coming to an end soon. Southampton are spending big but mid table is as good as they can expect.
Cardiff, Crystal Palace and Hull will just be looking for survival and I think they will all struggle.
That just leaves West Ham :) Andy Carroll did look good at the end of last season and if he stays fit will give us enough to secure a mid table position, but we need more than that to start competing at the higher levels and missing out on Bony was disappointing, also worrying is that we seemed to be linked with some of the worst players in the Premier league every day. I'm hoping we can find a striker to partner Carroll and fill in for him when he gets injured and if we do sign someone pray Fat Sam will actually give him a game.

Nigerian Football Results

Nigerian lower league game to decide championship

Plateau United Feeders 79 - Akurba FC 0 (HT 7-0)
Police Machine FC 67 - Bubayaro FC 0 (HT 6-0)

Needless to say the teams have been suspended pending investigation. Surely even if the other team stood and watched or kicked the ball in their own net it would still be a struggle to score 72 goals in 45 minutes?