Gert & TheBoy's Official VNA Soccer... err Football Thread

[Gert-Jan]

if Ajax were a Premier League team over say the past 10 years, where do you think they would be with the added finances available to them whilst being up against comparatively stronger teams?

Interesting question, lol. But in all fairness, I think that's kinda comparing apples and oranges. Obviously, if Ajax had the same finances as Man United, Man City, Chelsea, they'd be competing for the Premier League title year after year, with their talented youth and way of educating that youth even giving them a head start. Possibly resulting in a winning streak like Manchester United managed to do mid/late 90s. But Ajax would most likely have the same debts, too, and that's NOT something to be proud of. Both you and I are sceptic about the whole financial fair play rule, but it will become effective at the end of this fiscal year (2013/2014). Between 2011 and 2014 clubs are allowed to have a cumulative debt of €45m. Clubs which exceed that amount have a problem and could end up getting a fine or even be excluded from playing European Football. So, it's gonna be interesting to see how UEFA will handle the situations of the big clubs, cause we both know United and City as well as Barca and Real, just to name four, have debts little over €45m.

Bit more about Ajax, specifically Christian Eriksen. He had already rejected Bayer Leverkusen and has now made it perfectly clear he'll either go to a high profile European club or sign a new contract in Amsterdam. Both Eriksen and Alderweireld are still being linked to Liverpool.

Arsenal are ready to spend millions, but it'd be stupid to spend it all on one player. And even more stupid to spend it all on Luis Suarez, lol. Arsenal and Suarez are a bad combination from technical point of view. Wenger's philosophy is the total opposite of Suarez'. Whenever he gets the ball, he looks down and starts running towards the goal of the opponent, no matter how many defenders he has in front of him. Podolski or Giroud can ask for the ball all they want, but they won't get it, cause it's the Suarez show. Eventually, he'll end up biting someone and getting banned again for x-amount of matches. Arsenal, don't do it! Let's just hope Wenger is secretly a VNA member too....

Community Shield coming up. It'd have been so much better if City had won that FA Cup last year, but I guess Wigan taking it is the charm of Football?

[TheBoy]

That's interesting you think Ajax would be a genuine power in England had they been exposed to same level of finance as other Premier League teams. Maybe then the question would be, if Ajax had access to that kind of money, do you think they would spend it? I suppose I'm getting at a comparison with say Arsenal, who have had the choice of spending big but chose to be sensible whilst still remaining competitive, yet never really challenging for top honours.

Financial Fair Play is a subject I could probably talk as much about as a certain Welsh chap who I will try not to mention lol ;) But one thing that stands out for me, would be that I hope the clubs who do abide with the rules do not get punished by falling behind those teams who will either blatantly disregard the rules, or find loopholes to continue the use of a 'sugar daddy' to finance them. The scheme needs everyone to abide by it fairly or they might as well not bother with it at all. Having said that, I do understand the main focus is on protecting clubs such as Portsmouth or Leeds from repeating what they did, rather than stopping Real Madrid forking out £100m on one player.

Does it surprise you that so few teams have come in for Eriksen? What level of club would you say he should be aiming for? If say, Liverpool or Spurs wanted him, do you think he would class them as a step up from Ajax? Or would he be looking at say Arsenal, Manchester City, Dortmund? I assume that none of the genuinely elite clubs would be interested in him just yet.

Alderweireld has started to be mentioned to Tottenham over the weekend too, now that we literally have zero fit central defenders although the bulk of the talk seems to be down to his Ajax and Belgian partnership with Vertonghen. I'm not convinced by him from the things you have told me previously and others have said. And any signing we do make might possibly become first choice to partner SuperJan in the long run so I would be a little apprehensive were it to be him. It will certainly be interesting to see how he does get on in the Premier League though, should he make a move.

Now don't you go putting words into my mouth when it comes to Arsenal and Wenger! haha ;) I'm quite happy watching them sitting on their millions thankyouverymuch lol. They have even thinned the squad out with Gervinho moving to Roma and Chamakh going to Crystal Palace (you just know he's gonna score against us in the first game now!). I think they probably thought getting Higuain was a formality and after that didn't happen, they thought they could get Suarez as plan b. Maybe they thought Suarez was a sure thing for £40m, but didn't count on Liverpool standing firm? They are running out of 'star names' to go after now and I wouldn't put it past Arsene to think he can ride out another season with the players they have. Or they will make 2-3 signings around £10m that will all be 'ok' but still not massively improve them.

It's funny you mention about the fit of Suarez to Arsenal. Towards the end of last season, a number of Liverpool fans stated they played better as a team whilst Suarez was banned.

One thing I will say - and I was talking about this with my mum earlier today lol - is that in a strange way it could benefit Arsenal as they will be going into the season with no squad gelling to worry about and haven't lost anyone of significance. After Chelsea, they are probably the most 'settled' of all the teams looking at top 4. No one can be sure how Manchester United will go under David Moyes, same with Manchester City under Pellegrini (although they have looked pretty comfortable in pre season so far), Spurs goes without saying what troubles they have. Whereas Chelsea have Jose back like he has never been away.

Yeah the Community Shield probably isn't going to be the most thrilling of contests, although it does throw a potential banana skin in David Moyes' first high profile game. I can't see Wigan putting up much of a fight but it could be an indicator of just how well Moyes is influencing United.

I know you are always a little interested in QPR and Harry Redknapp, so a couple of transfer updates for you: Loic Remy has joined Newcastle on loan and Adel Taarabt is set to join up with Big Martin Jol at Fulham, also on loan. Both these and the expected departure of Julio Cesar are all season long loans with no option to buy. So it would seem that perhaps QPR are gambling on the idea they can attain promotion back into the Premier League this season and then welcome back the high earners. The phrase "brave of stupid" comes to mind with this one!

[Gert-Jan]

If Ajax had the same finances as the big clubs, I'm sure they'd be spending it too. Arsenal were able to hold off for a long time, but look at them now. When everybody around you starts throwing money down the drain, eventually there will come a time you will be doing the same thing. (Only in the crazy world called Football, obviously, lol.) Luckily though, Ajax are a Dutch team and nothing like the English ones. However, they did buy Sulejmani for €16m from Heerenveen, 5 years ago, which is still a domestic transfer record. But times have changed in Amsterdam; Frank de Boer, Dennis Bergkamp, Wim Jonk, Marc Overmans, Edwin van der Sar. Wow!

QPR player Ji-Sung Park, former Man United, was close to reaching an agreement with PSV. Park used to play here when Hiddink was still in charge and Cocu the captain. Nowadays, Philip Cocu is the manager and he thought the South-Korean player would be a good addition to his very young squad. There's a minor problem though.... Park has a gigantic salary in England and refuses to give that up. PSV can give him €1m, but that's about it. As things currently stand, Park is a no-go.

Let's talk real Football.... does England have to play a friendly match next week? Holland have one scheduled against Portugal, and looking at our track record against them I'm pretty sure we're gonna lose, lol. Speaking of Portugal, striker Helder Postiga is Valencia's new forward. He replaces Soldado and reports say they pay Real Zaragoza about €3m.

This week the German Bundesliga will kick off with Bayern Munich vs Borussia M'Gladbach. Dortmund play away to Augsburg, while Schalke vs Hamburger SV on Sunday looks like a very interesting match as well.

[TheBoy]

The names you mention in relation to Ajax is something that really makes me admire them even more. It frustrates the life out of me that over here the best ex players who go into coaching, very rarely actually have any relevant knowledge to impart on the modern game. The only one who springs to mind as having the modern game at his heart would be Glenn Hoddle, who I think should certainly be given another chance to manage England in the near future. You think of other British names who were considered 'great players' of the past 10-20 years and they either took the easy route into TV, or they have done horribly at being managers. Roy Keane, Kevin Keegan, Tony Adams, Bryan Robson, John Barnes, Stuart Pearce, Paul Ince have all been terrible as managers, whilst the likes of Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville (although he is helping out with England), Gary Lineker, Steve McManaman, Michael Owen, Owen Hargreaves, Matt Le Tissier, and of course David Beckham have all chosen to take up TV or media work. It's nice to see that Manchester United have given coaching roles to Giggs, Scholes, Butt and Philip Neville, so maybe they will start a new trend.

Yeah, good luck to PSV trying to match QPR's wage structure! Although I see in todays news it's reported that he will join on loan in a similar deal to the ones I mentioned previously, although comically, it sounds like QPR may still have to make up the shortfall in his wages for 12 months!

England do indeed have a very important and not at all stupidly scheduled friendly to play just three days before the start of the new season ;) England play Scotland at Wembley Stadium, so at least they have been slightly sensible in not making the players travel abroad. An interesting side note here is that Roy Hodgson has been placed in temporary charge of the Under 21 side following the departure of Stuart Pearce. This means he will take charge of them on Tuesday night, leaving Gary Neville in charge of the seniors to prepare for the game on Wednesday. I know what you are thinking - both of those games will be must-see! lol ;) I'd certainly rather watch Holland v Portugal, that's for sure. Is the Dutch team expected to feature a number of players from the recent Under 21 European Championship? Are players such as van der Vaart and Wesley Sneijder still likely to play a part?

I do find a delicious piece of irony in the fact that Helder Postiga, a player that flopped so spectacularly for Spurs, is the one replacing Soldado at Valencia following his move to Tottenham! As someone who watched Postiga pitifully crawl to one league and one cup goal in his single season with us, I am constantly amazed at how he's managed to carve out a pretty decent career since. Fair play to him.

How are the Germans taking to Pep Guardiola so far? Is he being put under pressure to out perform last season? And how about Dortmund - is that a relatively stable ship and are they expected to put up a stern challenge to Bayern?

Rooney and Suarez are starting to dominate the stories over here now. Both players are currently being classed as injured but in both cases it's a fairly obvious cover up. Today the press have run stories with quotes attributed to Suarez saying things like Brendan Rogers assured him he could leave this summer if Liverpool didn't get into the Champions League. Rooney hasn't been quite so outspoken, but the indications are that he will soon be publicly handing in a transfer request in an effort to force a move. For some reason that no one can really fathom, Chelsea still seem to be the club most strongly interested in him though.

And one final transfer story: Barcelona have made a bid for Chelsea defender (and I use that term loosely lol) David Luiz that Chelsea have rejected. It's been well speculated that Mourinho isn't a fan of Luiz so I wouldn't be surprised if this one will continue to run. I suppose his style of play would be more suited to Barcelona where they can expect their central defenders to have less defensive duties and can afford to be more involved in the build up play.

[Gert-Jan]

Forget about Holland vs Portugal, I'm gonna watch England vs Scotland! Whoa!

Van Der Vaart is still one of the guys, but he's usually keeping the bench warm. Wesley Sneijder, our former captain, has been excluded from the selection. Van Gaal and Sneijder don't get along very well. From Van Gaal's point of view, Sneijder needs to get in shape first. Let's start off with his arguable move from Inter to Galatasaray. The expected pay-cut, initiated by Moratti, made him leave Inter. Man United and Man City were interested in signing him, but not willing to give the extremely high salary Inter had been giving him. (Sounds like QPR/Park/PSV.) Wesley, get it through your head, you won't starve to death with a few million less.

Turkey is considered a tax haven for Football players. Not sure if you know, but the Turkish government has special tax rates for those who run after a ball. Football players are allowed to pay a lower tax rate as opposed to the "normal" citizens working in Turkey. No joke! So, Sneijder is still getting the big bucks, but not playing for the big trophies anymore. Also, he's quite often injuried and partying a lot with his stunning wife Yolanthe, though I haven't figured out yet if he gets the injuries from spending so much quality time with her, lol... anyway, it's plausible 2010's best midfielder will be absent in Brazil next year.

More remarkable facts: Ajax' second goalkeeper has been picked over Stekelenburg! And Paul Verhaegh got an invite too. "Who?" Exactly! That's what the majority here said after reading the announcement. I mean, c'mon, this 30-year old right back defender from Augsburg is even better than PSG player Van Der Wiel?

Goal: Vorm, Vermeer, Cillessen.
Defense: Blind, Janmaat, DeVrij, Martins Indi, Mathijsen, Verhaegh, Vlaar
Midfield: Van Ginkel, DeGuzman, Strootman, Van Der Vaart, Wijnaldum, Schaars
Forward: Huntelaar, Kuijt, Lens, Robben, Van Persie, Schaken

My schedule usually doesn't allow me to watch Football on Friday evening, so I didn't get to see Bayern's start of the season. Just read it was a good and open game (3-1), Dante in defense instead of Martinez, and Thiago not feeling well. Both Bayern and Dortmund are equally strong. Bayern are like a machine, but there haven't been many changes in Dortmund's squad either and that fact has got me convinced the Gelb Schwarzen are able to compete for the title again. Their head-to-head matches are likely to become just as intense as United/City & Barca/Real. Weidenfeller, Piszcek (currently injuried), Hummels, Subotic, Schmelzer, Gundogan, Bender, Blaszcykowski, Reus, Grosskreutz, Lewandowski. It's gonna be interesting to see where Klopp places Mkhitaryan. Grosskreutz out, Reus left winger and the Armenian on no 10?

Champions League play-offs on August 20th as well as 21st. PSV against Milan and Arsenal face Fenerbache. Tottenham are close to reaching the group stage of the Europa League, Dinamo Tbilisi shouldn't be a problem, lol. Let's see, what else do I have.... PSG draw 1-1 at Montpellier tonight. Chelsea player Lucas Piazon joins Vitesse on loan. Oh, and I don't think I'll be around much this Sunday....

12.30pm: Feyenoord - Twente
2.30pm: AZ Alkmaar - Ajax
5.30pm: Schalke - Hamburger SV
7.30pm: Galatasaray - Fenerbache

....Bordeaux vs Monaco at 4pm and Fluminense vs Flamengo starting at 9pm. Vicky at 12am Dutch time to get my daily porn fix!

[TheBoy]

Sounds like my kind of Sunday you have planned there buddy! Without wanting to be too nosey, are all those games available on Dutch tv via the same channel/package, or do you have to subscribe to a few different ones? Over here, we're screwed over by having three different paid subscription sports channels (Sky Sports, ESPN and the newly launched BT Sport). Supposedly to make things fairer to the consumer, they stopped Sky Sports from holding all of the Premier League games rights, and so we have ended up in a situation where Sky show 85% of the available games and the other channel. So far we've had Setanta Sports and ESPN holding a single 'package' of games that have of course failed spectacularly due to the consumer not wanting to spend an extra £12 per month for 20 odd games a season... Unfortunately, this also means that leagues from around Europe also end up being shared around the different channels as they scramble to fill up their schedules with games. Sky have Spanish football, ESPN have French and Italian and BT have German. It's way too pricey to subscribe to them all though so we miss out.

Some curious choices in the Dutch squad there for sure. It's one thing to call up a few youngsters to see how they go, but to call up a 30 year old for his debut certainly raises eyebrows. The only surprise in the England squad is that are there are no surprises, lol. Hodgson is still deluded enough to pick his same old players. Wilfred Zaha has of course been picked, due to the fact Manchester United had a moment of madness and spent £15m on him last season, so of course Roy has to include him in the squad.

By far the biggest talking point is the inclusion of Wayne Rooney who is currently declaring himself unfit to play for Manchester United... The same story goes for Bale and Suarez. Convenient they are all injured whilst going through various stages of wanting to leave their clubs, isn't it? I fully expect to see Rooney play for England on Wednesday as I believe his relationship with United and Moyes is not the most loving right now and he could see it as a rather public declaration of his intentions to leave.

I did not know that about Turkey! I'm surprised we don't see many more players moving there, especially those coming towards the end of their careers (or those like Sneijder who fancy early retirement).

It's the Charity - sorry, Community shield today. People my age still call it the Charity Shield 'cos that's what they grew up with. It was only about 10 years ago that they realised the irony of calling something 'Charity' when it was being contested by multi-millionaire footballers playing at clubs spending money like drunken yuppies and changed the name lol. I'll probably catch some of the game just to see how David Moyes sets up his team, but I'm not sure it will provide enough entertainment to keep me watching for the full 90 minutes ;)

Transfer rumour for today is that Spurs are planning a £15m double raid on Ajax for Eriksen and Alderweireld - a good deal do you think, or would it be a bit risky in expecting them both to perform in England? One other player that I have heard people talking about in relation to a double swoop on Ajax is Daley Blind. It's no secret that Tottenham are looking at left backs - would he make the grade in England?

Right Gert-Jan, enjoy the rest of your Sunday. By my reckoning, you should be enjoying the Alkmaar v Ajax game right now? Hope you've got plenty of beers in the fridge

[Gert-Jan]

.... needless to say my Sunday was GOOD....

Feyenoord 1-4 Twente
AZ Alkmaar 3-2 Ajax
Schalke 3-3 Hamburger SV
Galatasaray 1-0 ET Fenerbache
Bordeaux 0-2 Monaco
Fluminense 2-3 Flamengo

I used to be able to see everything via one paid subscription sports channel, but as of this season FOX have bought the Italian & English Football games rights. SportOne still have Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Brazil and the US as well as the Formula 1. I'm now paying €27,50 in total per month. If we'd be having a third partner/channel owning some of the rights, I'd probably decide to scratch something too.

Daley Blind can be characterized as the left back version of David Luiz, lol. In short, a defender who can not defend. I see Blind play week in week out and he usually makes 2 or 3 crucial mistakes per match. I can tell with 100% certainty though that Spurs will NOT sign him, so no worries. Ajax captain Siem de Jong is suffering from a collapsed lung and will be out for a couple of weeks.

Transfer stuff: Stewart Downing seems to be going to West Ham? And you were right about Ji Sung Park; latest news is that he will indeed go to PSV on loan. Portugal miss Meireles, Nani, Vieirinha and Moutinho in their friendly match against us this Wednesday.

Time for the Premier League to kick off!

[TheBoy]

Oh so only 24 goals to witness on Sunday? It was hardly worth you bothering lol ;) Haha seriously though, that's what you want to see when you're a neutral :) Any game or goals stand out in particular for you? I suppose the AZ v Ajax game was a pretty surprising result. Did Siem de Jong suffer the collapsed lung during the game or was it afterwards? If it was during the game, I can imagine it must have shaken up the Ajax players :(

Whilst you were enjoying those goal-fests, I managed just 10 minutes of the Manchester United vs Wigan Community Shied match. It was quite frankly tedious. United won 2-0 with two van Persie goals, but oh dear, United will seriously have to up their game once the season starts. With Fergie in charge, that would be a certainty. Let's see if David Moyes can do the same!

Ah, best we won't be signing Blind then after that scout report lol.

On the subject of TV football rights, to put things into context, we currently pay £21.50(€25) for just the 4 (well 6 if you include F1 and the news channel) Sky Sports channels. ESPN used to be an extra £10 but now it's included with BT Sport for £15. £36.50(€42.50) purely to watch sport and you can see why the 'second' broadcaster is now onto it's third different iteration! Having the alternative channel as you get with one focussed purely on European leagues would be a much more appealing (and no doubt cheaper) prospect to me that's for sure. It will never happen though, not whilst the English Premier League is viewed as such a massive gravy train.

The rather unfortunate joke regarding the Downing transfer goes along the lines of "Liverpool continue to improve their squad after agreeing to sell Stuart Downing to West Ham". A bit cruel, but mischievously accurate lol. It would seem that QPR are planning on replacing Ji Sung Park on the wage bill with Scott Parker. I would expect to hear something more definite on this over the next couple of days.

Gareth Bale has been ruled out of the Wales game by the Welsh medical staff and is training on his own. Contrast that with Wayne Rooney, who Roy Hodgson has confirmed he expects him to play on Wednesday. It's amazing to see how the three big transfer stories have been handled by the players their respective clubs - they really couldn't be more different. You've got Luis Suarez threatening legal action and freely giving interviews to English newspapers; and Brendan 'David Brent' Rogers introducing foot to mouth once again by declaring Suarez must apologise to his team-mates before he will be allowed to train with them, whilst at the same time insisting he won't be sold! Rooney has been fairly outspoken and David Moyes hasn't exactly stamped his authority onto the matter either way, which has only led to uncertainty. Meanwhile, Bale has stayed completely quiet and Spurs have maintained a fairly firm stance without going over board. Whether one, none or all three will get moves over the next 3 weeks still waits to be seen, however.

Yep, roll on the new season! I just realised we both started conversing in this thread on the last day of last season! It just goes to show how football is always giving us something to talk about for one reason or another. Maybe I should make some predictions for the top positions and relegation teams? I will have a think and put my neck on the line next time ;) Although I will say right now that Chelsea are my - very grudging - favourites for the title.

[Gert-Jan]

Holland 1-1 Portugal
England 3-2 Scotland
Sweden 4-2 Norway

The weird part about Siem de Jong's injury is that nobody seems to know what caused it. He didn't feel 100% during the warming up for Sunday's match, so the medical staff checked him out, but couldn't find anything and said it was okay for him to play against AZ Alkmaar. He played the full 90 minutes, nothing seemed odd, but last Monday Ajax made him go see other doctors at the hospital, they ran several tests and you know about the outcome; a collapsed lung, which he had played with the whole match!! So everybody kinda freaked out, cause let's face it, that's NOT healthy, lol. He needs to rest now, but everybody is just thankful nothing serious happend. Phew.

Has it been 3 months already? Wow. But yeah, bring on your predictions for the Premier League! I'll post mine too.... it's gonna be lots of fun again, hopefully with Van Persie being the Premier League topscorer in May 2014. It's mid August and Suarez, Bale and Rooney are still "active" for Liverpool, Spurs and Man United. While I initially assumed all three of them would move to another club, my gut is telling me only one player is gonna hit the jackpot and getting what he's currently aiming for. I don't see Rooney leaving Old Trafford despite his poor relationship with Moyes. But then again, I don't see Arsenal laying €50m - €60m on the table for Suarez, and as for the historical €100m, or more, Madrid bid for Bale.... Aaaahhh, I'm lost! I don't know WHAT to think or believe anymore, lol. Let's just hope the summer transfer window is closed soon.

[TheBoy]

Oh wow, that's pretty scary (and amazing) to think he played a game with a collapsed lung! Thank goodness he made it through ok and he has now been treated. Hope he will come back fitter than ever!

How was the Holland v Portugal game? A typical pre-season friendly or was it more entertaining? The England Scotland game was not as exciting as perhaps the scoreline suggests ;) To be frank, both teams were pretty poor. Scotland were very amateurish in defence and allowed England to equalise both times within a short space of time. After that it was almost inevitable that England would score a winner, purely because the Scots were not good enough and always liable to give away another chance or two. As it happened, 31 year old débutante Rickie Lambert scored with literally his first touch of the ball in International football, powering a bullet header into the net from a corner.

As expected, Rooney played the first 65 minutes and did little to suggest he is happy with life. Joe Hart is quickly becoming a shadow of his former self, letting in yet another soft goal. In fairness to him, the England defence was only a minor step up from that of their Scottish counterparts, but still, a goalkeeper of his quality should not be making so many errors and mistakes like he has over the past 12-18 months.

Other than those points of interest, very little else is worth reporting. England look like a very average team capable of beating other similarly average teams, but will struggle against teams who are technically much better than them. Which is pretty much most of Europe now, lol.

I assume you have now heard of the Luis Gustavo transfer from Bayern to Wolfsburg? This has been news over here because it was widely accepted that Arsenal had made him a priority signing... So quite how they have lost his signature to lowly Wolfsburg is a mystery that a lot of Arsenal fans are trying to work out! It's most perplexing why Wenger still refuses to break out the Arsenal millions and it's possible only he knows the answer. Former Arsenal player Paul Merson said a couple of days ago "I've just spent more on a sandwich than Arsenal have spent on players this summer".

You say let's hope the transfer window is closed soon and I agree 100% on that. In fact I wish, like a lot of people, that the transfer window would close before the season has started. Having it go 3 games into the season means that at least three teams (Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester United) are all facing the the first 3 games with lots of uncertainty hanging over them. It's not fair on the fans either who will buy season tickets expecting to see players like Bale, Suarez, etc but could face seeing them sold a few weeks later.

So, the Premier League season kicks off tomorrow and I promised some predictions. I'll keep it to top 6 and bottom 3 as the middle positions could almost be picked out of a hat lol.

1. Chelsea
2. Manchester City
3. Spurs
4. Manchester United
5. Arsenal
6. Liverpool

18. Fulham
19. Hull City
20. Crystal Palace

As I have stated previously, I think Chelsea are the best placed team to win the title this season. Having Mourinho back is a big plus for them as he instantly removes a lot of the problems faced by previous managers - having the older, established players on his side along with having the authority to deny too much interfering from the owner. It is perhaps a little surprising that they haven't been busier in the transfer market, but the few signings they made earlier in the summer should add a little extra quality in depth to an already very strong squad. I think a deadline day move for Wayne Rooney will still be on the cards too.

Manchester City have brought well so with players like Fernandinho, Negredo and Jovetic all adding quality. The vibes around City with how the players are reacting to Pellegrini seem to be positive and that can only bode well for them.

The positions 3-5 are where it gets tough for me to call, as I think there is so many variables to consider. I will be brave enough to say right now, that I think David Moyes will struggle at United. He hasn't brought in anyone new to an ageing team and he simply doesn't have the aura of Ferguson to drag the team through a season through sheer determination. If he doesn't get off to the best of starts, you can bet the fans will soon start to turn too. The Rooney saga has not helped either and of they lose him too, I can see a disappointing season ahead for United. Arsenal, as has been gleefully mentioned, have not signed anyone and already the fans are in a state of panic and bewilderment. Obviously things can change before now and the transfer deadline, but right now I see them as having another season below the standards they should be at and with the competition for the top four so aggressive, it will be them who finally miss out. You can be forgiven for thinking I pick Spurs to finish third for obvious reasons, but I genuinely believe that we are more than capable of achieving that - at the very least. We've brought in quality with Paulinho, Chadli, Soldado and yesterday, Etiene Capoue which gives us tremendous strength and power in the middle with a gigantic upgrade upfront. Of course the variable here is Bale - with him, I genuinely believe we could challenge for the title (don't laugh!) but without him, it will depend entirely on how we replace him. But right now, I have to believe he will still be here for this season and so I pick us to finish 3rd.

Liverpool round off the top six but I would not be at all surprised to see a less expected team - Swansea perhaps - pip them to the post.

Relegation candidates were actually pretty hard for me to pick - well the final place, anyway ;) Hull and Crystal Palace have to be expected to finish bottom of the pile. But choosing that third spot is almost a lottery. Normally you would pick the third promoted team, but I think Cardiff will have enough about them to stay safe. So then you look at the teams who struggled last year - Aston Villa, Stoke, Newcastle, West Ham, Fulham, Norwich and Southampton. Southampton looked to improve a lot under Pochettino and they have been making large bids for one or two players. Stoke have replaced their rugby coach with Mark Hughes and so one would hope they might pick up a bit. Although they could just as easily implode completely and finish bottom :-p Newcastle surely won't be as poor this year and Norwich and West Ham have all strengthened sensibly. That leaves Fulham and Villa and I see Benteke as being the difference once again. He has continued to score plenty in pre-season to suggest he isn't going to be a one season wonder. So I fear for Big Martin Jol and Fulham. His star player, Berbatov is hardly the first choice to help pull a struggling team out of a relegation battle and so I fear if they get off to a bad start there could be no way back for them. But I sincerely hope I am wrong on this one!

Right, over to you Gert-Jan! :)

Oh actually one last thing - I saw highlights this morning of Chile vs Iraq in a game played in Brondby stadium, Denmark. Any ideas how on earth that came about!? I can understand the reasoning behind teams like Brazil playing friendlies in neutral countries, but with the greatest respect, neither Chile or Iraq are the greatest of draws. Unless there are loads of ex-pats living in Denmark, I don't quite understand why they were chosen to host the game?

[Gert-Jan]

Yep, Holland vs Portugal was THE typical pre-season friendly. Honestly, I didn't even watch the full 90 minutes, lol. Pretty sure I've mentioned before that I would love to see the friendly matches in August as well as the ones in June scratched from the calendar. With the national competition, national cup Football, European Football and the qualification matches throughout the season, players can easily get up to 60 matches, and that is more than enough already! I knew we weren't gonna win that game anyway. We simply don't have the technical skills to keep up with Portugal. Also, they are our main angstgegner; no matter how many times we try, we never seem to be able to beat them. Was good seeing Ronaldo again. His arrogant attitude has certainly not made him equally loved by everyone in the world, but he's a fantastic player and damn good at what he does.

My Premier League Top 6
1. Manchester City
2. Chelsea
3. Manchester United
4. Arsenal
5. Tottenham Hotspur
6. Everton/Swansea City (Yes, I'm cheating a bit by listing two, lol.)

Relegation
18. Cardiff City
19. Crystal Palace
20. Hull City

Chelsea and Mourinho fit well together, but I think regarding to the media appearances that Jose's character is gonna work against him and the whole team. Pellegrini on the other hand is someone I've always admired and has proven to be a manager who can reach unexpected heights with teams that doesn't necessarily have the most quality. So just imagine what happens if he has star players available combined with unlimited financial sources. I hope I'm wrong on United's 3rd place prediction, for Van Persie's sake, but it's funny both you and I have doubts about Moyes & Man United.

I've decided to continue the tradition of Arsenal ending in front of Spurs. It's nothing personal, Drew. Arsenal spending a few millions the upcoming two weeks and Tottenham losing Bale are two things in the back of my mind, cause I really don't have any other (rational) explanation as to why else I'd put Arsenal so high, lol. Let's just hope Wenger doesn't buy players from the same category like he did after losing 8-2 to Man United....

Luiz Gustavo going to Wolfsburg ain't such a big surprise. Wolfsburg have the Volkswagen concern as their head sponsor, which guarantees a spot in the top 3 of German clubs that offer the highest salaries. I wouldn't even be surprised if Gustavo is getting paid more in Wolfsburg than he would be in London, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Interesting to see how Wolfsburg are gonna do though, think they'll prolly end up with a mid-table finish.

I'm just as clueless as you when it comes to why Chile vs Iraq was being hosted in Denmark. Majority of the Chile squad is playing for European clubs. Maybe their national Football association didn't want them to travel all the way to South America? Or maybe there is a financial gain? Completely agree on the transfer window thing, because a spate of transfers at any team can greatly distort the fixture list. It's sometimes scary to read your opinion about stuff, 9 out of 10 times taking the words right outta my mouth, lol.

.... Primera Division .... Barca & Real Madrid tomorrow evening!

[TheBoy]

Yep wholeheartedly agree that the friendlies played after the end and before the start of a season are ridiculous and serve no purpose other than to line the pockets of the nation's FA. The players are never committed and it disrupts the clubs precious pre-season preparations at the worst possible time, just days before the season begins (at least in England it does).

Haha, don't worry I won't take it personally that you pick Arsenal to finish above Spurs ;) Although maybe after the opening weekend fixtures you may want to make a hasty re-think? Of course, one game of the season doesn't mean that much in the long run, but for Arsenal to lose their opening game for the first time in 20 years and have near riots from the fans afterwards suggests that Wenger has much to ponder over the next 12 days. The problem that a lot of Arsenal fans are suddenly realising, is that even if Arsene suddenly accepts that they need to - in the words of the few thousand fans still left in the ground during the last 10 minutes - "spend some f'n money", virtually all of the 'top' players have been transferred already, or would no longer be interested in joining. Players heavily linked with Arsenal include Higuain (and remember how certain we both were he was joining!), Cavani, Rooney, Suarez, Luis Gustavo, David Villa, Fabregas, Bernard, Julio Cesar, Fellaini and right now there isn't a hope in hell of any of them joining. Today's transfer news comes with them bidding £10m for Newcastle's Yohan Cabaye which has unsurprisingly been rejected.

Sticking with some transfer news and Everton have today rejected a joint £28m bid from Manchester United for Baines and Fellaini and have even gone so far as to issue a public statement saying that the bid is "derisory and insulting". I have to say I am losing respect for David Moyes rapidly since his appointment at United. They way he has handled Rooney has left a lot to be desired as was the bumbling way in which they approached the Fabregas transfer. But it would appear the only transfer targets Moyes feels brave enough to go for are his old Everton players. What I most find disappointing though are the hypocritical comments Moyes has made on the subject. My favourite is the one about how he wouldn't activate Fallaini's £22m buy-out clause out of respect for Everton... and then promptly bid £18m for him after the clause had expired! The previous bid for Baines of £12m was also unfortunate due to his comments last year stating that the same amount was nowhere near enough for him.

Whether Moyes is fully in control of these bids is perhaps the only saving grace for him and one hopes that it is the Manchester United board who are making these lowball offers and publicly releasing the information (the same happened whilst trying to sign Fabregas).

I shall climb down off my high horse now lol.

So yes, actual football was played this weekend! I'm sure you were happy to see van Persie get off to a flying start with two goals against Swansea. Adding to his Community Shield double, he looks to be in ominous form and must surely be clear favourite to be top goalscorer once again. I would say though that the defending of Swansea was near under-5 schoolboy levels and they will seriously need to sort themselves out quickly or they could be on the end of some heavy defeats.

I briefly touched on the Arsenal game, but Aston Villa were very good. It looks as though the young squad has taken much experience from last season and will continue to improve further. As for Arsenal, well we both know that they will need to drastically improve both performance and playing staff.

Chelsea started in typically efficient form against Hull. Hull were very overwhelmed during the first 20 minutes or so, by which time Chelsea had already sewn up the game. Jose couldn't have asked for an easier start to his second reign. Hull improved once new signings Huddlestone and Livermore came on, but by then the game was lost. However, they did show enough promise to suggest they could spring a few surprises.

Spurs came up against a very determined Crystal Palace to come away with a 1-0 away win thanks to a Soldado debut penalty. After getting over the shock of seeing us awarded a penalty (we had 0 for the entirety of last season!), it was nice to see our new front man confidently slot the penalty away. It was two other new boys that had the White Hart Lane crowd salivating most though: Paulinho and Etiene Capoue (who came on as a second half sub) slotted into the team like they had been there for years. Paulinho came out of his first Premier League game with the weekend's highest successful pass rate in the league (52 passes, 90% complete) along with a fully deserved man of the match award, whilst Capoue secured the most interceptions (6) despite only being on the pitch for 33 minutes. Palace, like Hull, showed plenty of promise and if they can re-produce their commitment throughout the season, have every chance of staying up. However, as history has shown, it's very hard for a newly promoted side to keep up the commitment and energy over a full season.

Liverpool played a dogged Stoke side, with a very publicly supportive Luis Suarez cheering from the stands, and claimed a 1-0 victory. I did not see any of this game, but I understand that Liverpool were good, but unspectacular.

Manchester City play their first game against Newcastle later tonight, so I will be watching that with interest.

Away from England and to Spain. We can probably hand the title to Barcelona right now on this weekends performances lol. Barcelona run riot and win 7-0, whilst Real Madrid scrape a 2-1 after conceding first. I'm sure Daniel Levy was quietly adding a few extra million to Bale's price tag during that game ;) On that subject, there was reports from Spain on Saturday suggesting that Madrid are disappointed in Bale for so far not kicking up a fuss in public to help lower is fee and force a move! It was understood they tried to encourage him to play for Wales and to issue a public statement about his desire to join, neither of which he did. Maybe this is just the quiet before the storm, but the vibes coming from the Madrid based news seems to be that of moving on... I will now commence to holding my breath ;)

One final thing and our old favourite subject Monaco. Have you heard the rumours about Falcao possibly being up for sale? It seems to be relating to the potential massive fine they expect to receive for not adhering to the tax status laws, but I would find it incredible if they were to sell Falcao!

[TheBoy]

Just a quick addition to the above post now that I have seen Manchester City vs Newcastle. City looked VERY impressive and if this is just the beginning, then they are going to take some stopping... Fernandinho, as with Paulinho, looked like he had been playing English Premier League football for years and his partnership with Yaya Toure is looking very solid already. Pellegrini opted to start with Dzeko and Aguero as his front two, leaving new signings Negredo and Jovetic on the bench. Aguero was a constant pest to the Newcastle defence and Dzeko put in the kind of performance that one would expect from a £27m player.

On the flip side, Newcastle were in a word, atrocious. If I may be allowed to make a substitution in my relegation predictions, I'd very much like to swap Fulham (especially as they signed Scott Parker yesterday, who should be a perfect signing for them) for Newcastle. Aside from 'doing an Arsenal' and starting with zero new players, they looked completely at sea defensively. Tiote, once a potential £20m target for Chelsea, looked more like a £20 and a packet of crisps player in his important defensive midfield role. And if you needed any more indication of troubled times at Newcastle, born and bred Geordie Steven Taylor got himself sent off for an idiotic 'clothesline' to the back of Aguero's head right in front of the referee. I always think that when a side loses it's discipline in such an obvious manor, then it's a big sign that the team about to self destruct.

It didn't help that Arsenal made public earlier in the day about the transfer offer for Cabaye, but it looks increasingly likely that Alan Pardew may already be under pressure and the laughable figure of Joe Kinnear looming over him, no doubt ready to step into his shoes.

And one extra bit of transfer news that you probably already know about: Southampton have signed Pablo Osvaldo from Roma for a reported £15m. It's quite something that a club such as Southampton who just a 4-5 years ago were in such financial peril that they had to sell the Gareth Bale 25% sell on clause to Tottenham for £1.5m , are now in a position to splash out such a high amount of money on a player who has something of a questionable reputation...

And speaking of splashing the cash: Watch this space for news of a transfer for Willian. Spurs are believed to be in the box seat due to his friendship with Villas-Boas, but it would appear he has to choose between Spurs or Liverpool who have reportedly agreed a fee in the region of €30m...

[Gert-Jan]

(Hey, where's my reply? .... Hmmm, guess I forgot to click "submit", lol.)

Had a few prior commitments, so I wasn't able to see everything last weekend, but I did try to catch the highlights. Good to see all the big clubs, with exception of Arsenal, having a good start. We gotta talk about Arsenal again, cause for how long do you think Wenger will remain manager at the Emirates Stadium? He was appointed in 1996, but every story ends at some point. Should he stay or should he go? And if he stays, what are the odds he'll get sacked this year? They can't go on like this, something has to happen! Or has the 3-0 victory in Turkey completely changed the public opinion?

Shakhtar Karagandy. Shakhtar Karagandy. Shakhtar Karagandy. Don't you ever forget that name! lol.... cause after an easy 2-0 win against Celtic, they seem to have launched themselves into the group stage of the Champions League. Also, secure away win for Sociedad against Lyon. We can say welcome back to Viktoria Plzen as their first match ended in a 3-1 victory against Maribor.

Special mention for Dutch pride PSV, 1-1 draw against Milan. PSV have a complete new team consisting of youngsters. After appointing Cocu as replacement for Advocaat, the average age went down as fast as a rocket goes up, lol. Youngsters make mistakes, but the first word that comes to mind whenever I see PSV play nowadays is the word JOY. Attractive Football, agressive, high defensive line. Park, Schaars, Wijnaldum, Rekik, Bruma, Depay, Bakkali, Locadia, Brenet. I've seen 3 matches in the national competition, 2 in the previous CL Qualification Round against Zulte Waregem and last Tuesday against topclub Milan. I know it's still early, maybe I shouldn't get too excited yet, but I have a feeling they could be a serious opponent for Ajax in the Dutch title race. They could have easily won the game, but PSV lack effectivity, which is perfectly normal given the fact they're all so young and unexperienced. Still, they should have been up 3-0 at half time. Next week; San Siro.

Dinamo Tbilisi 0-5 Tottenham Hotspur
Kuban Krasnodar 1-0 Feyenoord

#Happy or #Sad?

Question, how serious do Spurs take the Europa League?

The exodus continues....
Medel from Sevilla to QPR.
Cissokho from Valencia to Liverpool.

Crisis in Spain. Barcelona and Real Madrid are suffocating the Primera Division.... hope to have more in depth news by the end of the week....

[TheBoy]

Prior commitments forcing you to miss football? Shame on you, Gert-Jan, shame on you! lol. In seriousness though, there is so much football on tv these days it's almost too much.

Ooh, I'm glad you mention about Arsenal and the fan's opinion of Wenger... You've set me up like a perfectly executed Iniesta through-ball for me to tell you about the Wenger hokey-cokey In case the hokey-cokey is something that hasn't travelled to Holland, it's a repeating song and dance that goes along the lines of:

You put your [right leg] in,
Your [right leg] out:
In, out, in, out.
You shake it all about.
You do the hokey cokey,
And you turn around.
That's what it's all about!

Substitute [right leg] for Wenger and you've got the affectionately known Wenger hokey-cokey ;) This came about over the past 18-24 months where Arsenal fans would besiege Twitter, message boards, radio phone ins, etc with cries of Wenger OUT! if Arsenal had lost and often followed up the next weekend with equally fervent cries of Wenger IN! when Arsenal had won :-p It's already back in full swing, although it has to be said that despite the current stance of 'Wenger IN!' the fans would still quite like to see some new signings before the deadline. Although they understandably are not exactly enamoured by the prospect of signing Mathieu Flamini on a free transfer!

I don't think we'll ever see the headline "Wenger Sacked", but I think that unless Arsenal win a trophy and challenge for the top 3 this season, it could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for the fan's patience and see Wenger resign.

As strange as this may sound coming from a die-hard Tottenham fan, I think it's absolute madness that Arsenal fans even suggest getting rid of Wenger. Sure, he's being incredibly stubborn and somewhat short sighted in refusing to spend big, but the cold facts remain that he's been successful in every season for the past 16 years. If you offered Spurs (or indeed any other club besides Manchester United, Chelsea, Man City and possibly Liverpool) they would greedily snatch your hand off. Of course I can't deny that they should have won at least a cup or two in the past 8 years, but they have been in finals and it's not like they have been failing in the league too.

Yep, a disappointing result for Celtic against... oh who was it again? ;) As for Lyon - how the mighty have fallen. Their Champions League financed domination of the French league is now but a distant memory. I was very impressed with PSV in their match against AC Milan. One hopes they can keep together and grow as a team and not have the more promising players picked off.

Spurs took the Europa League serious last season - probably to our detriment really. The second leg against Inter Milan where we took an easy 3-0 advantage to the San Siro and promptly went into extra time took it's toll in the following league games and ultimately cost us 4th (or 3rd as we only finished a point behind Arsenal). But it appears that AVB is taking it seriously again with the team we put out against Dinamo Tbilisi yesterday.

Big transfer news today focussing around Willian... he's gone to Chelsea for £30m! By all accounts, Willian was sat happily inside the Tottenham training facilities until around 20:00 yesterday evening waiting for the relevant paper work to be put in front of him to sign a 5 year contract. However, his snake oil salesman advisor, the saintly Kia Joorabchian had been keeping Chelsea informed of our progress and at 18:00 they decided to make a bid of around £5m more than our already accepted offer. Willian has then today been whisked away to Chelsea where he's agreed a deal no doubt worth a lot more than we were paying. Quite why Chelsea felt the need to add Willian to a squad already boasting Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Lampard along with summer signings Schurrle, de Bruyne, van Ginkel, not to mention the underrated Moses and loaned out Marin!

To pile on the misery, the sports news tv channel has this evening shown footage of the big stage structure inside the Bernabeu that Madrid erected to parade previous big signings :(

Any thoughts on Erik Lamela at Roma Gert-Jan? He is our other big money target to replace Bale. From the footage I have seen on him, he looks to be a very similar player to Bale - quick, physically strong and with a mean eye for goal.

Even though Spurs have never been in the mix for league title glory, I would hate it if the league could only be won by one of two teams each year. It wouldn't be so bad if there was at least a cycle every 10-15 years of it being two different teams, but historically it's always been Madrid or Barcelona, bar the odd occurrence of Valencia or Deportivo that soon drops away.

[Gert-Jan]

.... dancing to the Wenger hokey-cokey right now ....

Tonight I've seen the worst and most boring Football match ever; Hertha vs Hamburger SV. Hertha got promoted to the Bundesliga, managed to get a 6-1 win in their first match, and a draw in their second. HSV have been continuously active in the highest league ever since the introduction of it, but now the inevitable relegation ghost seems to be haunting them. In addition, Dutch Jos Luhukay is Hertha's headcoach and Van Der Vaart is HSV's captain. Thought it'd be interesting to watch live, but literally fell asleep after 30 minutes or so. Sssslllooowww ball circulation, players not able to pass the ball to someone wearing the same shirt, two teams that rather want a clean sheet than to score a goal. Ugh! Hopefully tomorrow is gonna be better, I'll be watching the Belgium Formula 1 race in the afternoon, Spurs vs Swansea at 4pm GMT (looking forward to seeing Paulinho in action), and Malaga vs Barcelona in the evening.

Willian's transfer to Chelsea sounds suspicious, but I guess it's all about the money again, lol. And you're totally right, it makes no sense at all to sign him. The amount of available midfielders is rapidly growing and even showing signs of Spain's jaw-droppingly long list. I've always said Marco van Ginkel should not have gone to London. I don't blame him though, the first person turning down an offer that's gonna make him a millionaire has yet to be born. Cause let's be honest, would YOU say no to that? As explained before, Van Ginkel really wanted his carreer to develop step by step. Ajax were willing to transfer a few million more than Chelsea ended up paying, but the owners of Vitesse and Chelsea negotiated and decided he should go to Stamford Bridge. Really looking forward to Chelsea's match against Man United on Monday evening. Matches like that always used to be played on Sunday afternoon 1.30pm or 4pm.... television money?

You guys want Lamela? Hope you like investment groups then, cause don't forget he's part of Doyen Sports Group. As for his Football skills, he'd be a great signing. He runs fast, nothing like Usain Bolt, but still (lol).... always looking for the easiest way to score a goal. Nowadays more a winger than a midfielder though. He moved from Argentina to Italy, but Football in England is more physical and much faster than the Serie A, so I do expect he will need some time to adjust. Fingers crossed. Did they get the estimated €100m for Bale?

[TheBoy]

Haha, that dancing banana is perfect for the Wenger hokey-cokey!

Interesting you mention HSV. I heard sometime last week that the Hamburg fans had booed off van der Vaart? Is his heart just not in the game any more, or is there more going on perhaps with his personal life? I freely admit I was gutted when we sold him last summer (in fact probably more so that I will be when Bale finally leaves - more on that coming up!) and find it quite ironic that the reason he left was due to Sylvie wanting to be back in Germany. Since then as we both know it's all fallen apart due to a number of incidents.

The Willian deal has highlighted a couple of things: Willian (or his advisers) obviously doesn't care about his career over money - certainly not his international one during a World Cup year - and that it has taken Jose Mourinho roughly a month to diminish any ideas that he has changed in any way during his time away and wipe out any sympathy people may have had from his time at Madrid. You've probably heard the quotes from his press conference when he said Spurs should in future conduct their medicals in private? Yes, because every other club in the world does that, don't they? Oh and just because I find this childishly funny: In the few days before the Willian transfer merry-go-round began, he started following the Premier League Brazilians on Twitter - first the Liverpool duo of Lucas and Coutinho, then the Spurs players Paulinho and Sandro, before finally adding the Chelsea players (can you see a pattern here?). Anyway, after it became clear what Willian was up to, Sandro and Paulinho have both unfollowed him, and Paulinho has apparently told people he is disgusted with him. Lol, it will be fun to see them come up against each other when Spurs play Chelsea! That is unless Willian is warming the bench ;)

AVB has turned into quite the comic recently too. In his after match press conference he was asked about the potential signing of Romanian defender Vlad Chiriches from Steaua Buchrest, to which he replied "Maybe someone will steal him as well". He then followed up the question about Aaron Lennon's absence yesterday with "He has a foot injury. Don't think he is going to Madrid as well".

Anyway, some breaking news this morning and Sky Sports are reporting that another club has come in for Bale and we are considering an offer. Which can mean a number of things, but it would most delight Daniel Levy if he could announce that we had accepted an up front offer of £100m from PSG... It would sure put the wind up Madrid! Of course, it could also be just a convenient smoke screen put out by Spurs to push Real into action ;)

I'm glad you enjoyed watching Paulinho and Capoue play for Spurs yesterday :) It's a shame neither of them could put away their chances to make for a much more comfortable result, but the signs are looking very promising indeed. Capoue must be in the running for best buy of the season on his early showing. He's already becoming the central focus of our midfield and he starts almost as many attacks as he breaks up the oppositions. Andros Townsend is so far taking his chance too and missing out on Willian could turn out to be a blessing in disguise if he continues to show this kind of form. It would be churlish to suggest we are not missing Bale though and so I hope with quite a lot of desperation we get Lamela early this week...

The big result yesterday by far was newly promoted Cardiff City beating Manchester City 3-2! I didn't watch the game due to it being played at the same time as the Spurs game. But by all accounts Cardiff were really impressive and thoroughly deserved of their win. It was surprising to see City concede two goals from corners in the way they did and that will be a worry for Pellegrini to fix.

Tonight is the big game of the weekend with Manchester United facing Chelsea. I've already shown my current opinion on Mourinho so now it's Moyes' turn. I mentioned in one of my recent posts about his very hypocritical comments. Well he has nearly topped them with his most recent comment stating that he thinks Everton are blocking the careers of Baines and Fellaini by keeping them and they should let them go to Manchester United!

As for the game, I make no bones about saying I hope United wipe the floor with Chelsea ;)

Barcelona must be slipping - only one goal against Malaga!? That's it, they must be the mystery club panic bidding for Bale!

[Gert-Jan]

First coach in the Bundesliga has been kicked out. Sacked after 3 matches, lol. Stuttgart manager Labbadia has been replaced by Thomas Schneider.

Manchester United vs Chelsea; every word about that game is one word too much. Boring as hell! Good to see Rooney back, running all over the pitch, Old Trafford crowd being very supportive, and clearly forgotten (or forgiven) Wayne's flirtation with Chelsea. Van Persie was quite invisible, maybe I'm spoiled after having seen Robin score twice in two matches last week. I was surprised by Chelsea's game plan. Midfielder Andre Schurrle in the Messi/Fabregas role instead of a recognized striker. Hazard, Mata, Oscar have all convinced me last season, serious doubts have arisen though whether DeBruyne and Schurrle have what it takes to be part of Chelsea's finest. Don't really know why, it's tough putting it into words, they seem perfect for Werder Bremen/Bayer Leverkusen, but Chelsea is a whole new level. Still early in the season though. And, what's going on with Fernando Torres? Is he staying at Stambord Bridge? If Mourinho decides to continue this five attacking midfielders stategy, Torres will end up sitting on the bench most of the season. Let alone the possibility of Chelsea signing another forward this week....

You gotta give me more information about Cardiff City. That win against Man City was "breaking news", now they are aiming to sign Alfred Finbogasson. Typical no 9, born and raised in Iceland, very successful at Dutch club Heerenveen, coached by the legendary Marco van Basten. Heerenveen ask a mininum transfer fee of €10m and from what I've heard Cardiff have enough money to buy whoever they want?

Italian competition is gonna be lots of fun this season. Juventus are still top quality, Inter signed Mazzari, Napoli invested €80m and I have high expectations of both Roma and Fiorentina. Not really sure about Milan. Talented young squad, which lost their first match away at Hellas Verona. As for tomorrow's Champions League return against PSV, I fear we do NOT have a chance at all. I know, I know, I was hopeful last week, but I've been thinking about this. PSV get around €10m television money if they succeed to reach the group stage, while Milan will receive an indicative €40m for just qualifying; quadruple! I'm positive Berlusconi is currently telling "his" players to do whatever is necessary to beat PSV and collect those millions. Whatever it takes! Maybe he will even let them have a sexual adventure with some of his girls at another secretly organized bunga bunga party....

[TheBoy]

Sacked after just 3 matches... That's harsh! Although I wouldn't be surprised if the Premier League didn't match that this coming weekend, with the very likeable Ian Holloway already under pressure at newly promoted Crystal Palace. Which is madness, quite frankly. But he's lost his first two league games and got knocked out of the League Cup last night and with rumours of him being close to the firing squad before all that had happened, it wouldn't surprise me if we didn't see an early casualty. Btw, if you're not overly familiar with Ian Holloway and his brilliant sense of humour, I'd highly recommend checking out some of his quotes. My particular favourite is his comments on Cristiano Ronaldo: "He’s six foot something, fit as a flea, good looking – he’s got to have something wrong with him. Hopefully he’s hung like a hamster – That would make us all feel better. Having said that, me missus has got a pet hamster at home, and his cock’s massive.”

Yeah, Manchester United v Chelsea was one big snooze-fest. Did you see the typically arrogant quotes from Mourinho after the game saying that Rooney needs to make it public in the next 24-48 hours if he wants to join them? Although it would seem that his smokescreen story of trying to sign Samuel Eto'o instead has seemingly come true, so maybe Rooney will indeed be staying at Old Trafford. As for Torres, my guess would be that the only club who would touch him these days might be Atletico Madrid? He just looks completely out of touch and disinterested these days. Him not starting against United wasn't so much a mark against him, but perhaps more to suggest to Rooney that the main striking position is all his if he wanted it...

Roma have announced they have sold Erik Lamela to Spurs this afternoon for a fee of around €30m + €5m in add-ons. Whoop! I'm super excited about seeing him in a Spurs shirt and taking on the the role of filling a certain Welshman's boots. The news outlets are now reporting that we've been given permission to talk with Christian Eriksen. Have you heard anything about that today? I know that he has a mixed reputation and indeed I have not been the most enthusiastic about him in the past. But from what I gather his past season and the start of this has seen him bring loads of assists and a handy number of goals? In which case, I think he could really fit in well at Tottenham and become a key player. The reported price and age of him make this a very Daniel Levy type of deal, so I'm not in the slightest bit surprised if we are going for him ;)

Cardiff: They were brought back in 2010 by Malaysian owners, with Vincent Tan being the majority shareholder and main face of the club. He is the one you probably saw sporting the Cardiff shirt trendily tucked into his waist-high suit trousers after the City game :-p By all accounts, he's a billionaire but I wouldn't say that Cardiff are in a position to go out and buy whoever they want. They have spent a fair amount of money this season though, most noticeably on Steven Caulker (£8.5m), Andreas Cornelius (£7.5m) and Gary Medel (£11.5) so if the fee for Alfred Finbogasson is around €10m then they are certainly capable of paying it. Although Vincent Tan is currently in favour with the fans, it hasn't all been plain sailing though. The aforementioned Cardiff shirt which is now red was changed from the traditional blue strip by the Malaysians in 2012 so as to appeal more to the Asian markets. Which as you can probably imagine, didn't go down well ;)

Another club to keep a semi-close eye on at the moment at Hull City. Owned by Egyptian Assem Allam, they have recently re-branded themselves as 'Hull City Tigers', although they are still called Hull City on all official Premier League info. However, it would seem that it could be an uneasy ride in the future for the fans as they face uncertainty over how their club is being run (or for what motives).

As I type this, Celtic are currently 2-2 on aggregate with Shaktar Karagandy and looks to be heading into extra time. Oh no, scratch that - Celtic just scored what will surely be a 92nd minute winner! It would seem your prediction for PSV is coming true sadly, as AC Milan are leading 3-0 on the night. Looks like the €40m bonus you spoke of has proved to be quite the inspiration ;)

Finally, to wrap things up it looks like we could finally be seeing a conclusion to the Bale to Madrid transfer. AVB has today for the first time publicly confirmed that we are in advanced negotiations with them and that the transfer could happen quickly... or it could take a while. Lol. Bale has become increasingly unprofessional of late and has failed to turn up for training this week, despite being given the weekend off (which he conveniently spent in Marbella). In the grand scheme of things, it probably won't matter too much, but for someone who is wanting to build 'Brand Bale' in a similar way to Ronaldo or David Beckham, he's not exactly winning many fans - Spurs or neutral with his increasingly brattish reputation.

I say this with not a hint of bitterness - honestly! - but I would love to be a fly on the wall when Bale first walks into the Real Madrid dressing room. It's been fairly obvious that there will be a lot of resentment from the established players for him earning more than them and not to mention costing so much. The Madrid dressing room is notoriously cliquey and I honestly fear that Bale could find himself to be very much an outsider. Not to mention that two of his best traits - free kicks and playing in a free role - are currently those shared by a certain chap with his own 'CR7' brand. Gonna be real interesting!

[Gert-Jan]

.... thought I'd already bring up the full draw!

Champions League Group Stage
Group A: Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Sociedad
Group B: Real Madrid, Juventus, Galatasaray, Kobenhavn
Group C: Benfica, PSG, Olympiacos Piraeus, Anderlecht
Group D: Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, Manchester City, Viktoria Plzen
Group E: Chelsea, Schalke, Basel, Steaua Bucharest
Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli
Group G: Porto, Atletico Madrid, Zenith, Austria Vienna
Group H: Barcelona, Milan, Ajax, Celtic

City and Dortmund were both in pot 3?!

Oh, and Eriksen is indeed moving to Spurs. They pay Ajax €12m, but the contract has a clause, which says Ajax receive a bonus fee of €1.5m. The exact info hasn't been leaked yet, but it probably depends on the amount of matches, or if Spurs are able to qualify for next season's Champions League.

More comments to follow, time to get my ass to bed....