DISQUS

I would have put Luka Modric ahead of Behrami.

I also think its a bit of a stretch to dos Santos is "right up there with Berbatov"....he's had a couple cups of coffee in the Barca first team but if they rated him as a player in that class, I don't picture Barca letting him go. If they have then things are in bad shape at the Nou Camp ! :)

Boro had a speedy winger last season -- his name is Stewart Downing !! :) But it will be nice to see someone perhaps compliment him on the right side of midfield.

Good article. I'm gaining a lot of respect for Hughes as a manager.

I think City are fortunate in some ways to have missed out on signing Ronaldinho. It would have put expectations through the roof and may have proved to be more of a distraction than anything.

Darren made a good point about the sell-on clause that sees Arsenal pocket a good chunk of the transfer fee that Blackburn obtained. I've seen it reported as 7m of the 15m fee. That may indeed be the reason that Blackburn drove up the price.

Spurs were obviously willing to pay as they had just raked in a nice pile of cash in the Robbie Keane deal so it doesn't affect their budget from that perspective.

As far as Bentley comparing to Van der Vaart, I'd say he's a more consistent performer than Van der Vaart. Bentley's always had a decent level of skill but he's now blended the work rate and attitude to go with it. You have to give a nod to Mark Hughes and his staff for helping the player mature.

People have to keep in mind that these deals are negotiated. Just because some player is 'rated' as a 7m player, that doesn't hold a lot of relevance to what happens in the deal. You can't simply walk up to Blackburn and say "Right. Here's 6m...we want Bentley". Doesn't work that way.

Either way, I hope Blackburn reinvest the money wisely and bring in a couple of players to bolster their squad. Maybe a couple of million can go into boosting their academy......nahhhh....this is the Premier League...they don't do that do! :)

Lennon might be on the bench this season or even sold off now that Bentley is there. It'll be interesting to see what other moves Tottenham make before the end of the summer.

timmyg,

I agree with your view on Hangeland...he and Hughes started to form a decent partnership in central defence at the end of last season.

Nevland was effective in the "super sub" role...he was able to come on late and give the team a little boost but I think the verdict is still out on him. Let's see what he can do if he gets a more regular turn in the rotation.

Odd. The reigning champs are usually the most featured club, at least from what I can recall. I wonder what's caused the shift this year?

I think their away kit from last season was sharper.

Yikes. I might have to watch EPL in black and white this year. There are some really ugly kits coming out. The color isn't the problem in this case. That mustard yellow doesn't really have much to do with Bolton though does it? Looks more like a Wolves kit to me.

The other point that I'd raise is that with Keane, who will likely play just off Torres in sort of an attacking midfield role, what happens to Gerrard? Does he get shuffled out wide again?

Great job Chris !

I really think that Arsenal were hard done by last year -- mostly by the media. They were written off to start the year, praised through the roof when they exceeded the media's expectations and then slagged when they faltered down the stretch due to a combination of injuries and the lack of experienced quality on the bench. It was really a telling picture of how the mainstream media operate.

That's a loaded and a little bit vague of a question. You could argue that no player's contract rights are worth that much cash -- that's a fee just to gain the right to sign him to a contract -- it does not take into account what he'll be paid in salary. Fees like this are what teams need to look at and decide if they want to buy for crazy amounts or if they want to spend some time to work with the young talent they've got on hand at the club.

On the other hand, based on what Torres and others have been selling for it's not unreasonable. Hopefully they won't have to pay that much though as they already paid some ridiculous loan fee for last year. £5m or something in that neighborhood.

Kartik,

While I think Curbishley is an OK manager, I'm not sure how much "better" he has been than Pardew. Pardew guided the team to 9th and then had to go through the signing of players he was clearly not comfortable with as well as the takeover drama that disrupted the club.

Curbishley came in and while "saving" them from possible relegation (it's debatable how much of an effect he had) he guided them to 10th last season. Big improvement ! :)

I think this is a good move for Blackburn over the long haul. Friedel is quite a bit older than Robinson and while I might rank Friedel as slightly better at the moment, I think Robinson has been harshly criticized and is not as poor as he has been made out to be at times.

Friedel will be No 1 at Villa and will help mentor Guzan for the future. Really it's win-win for both teams I think.

I thought the CBC did a nice job of covering the game. They featured a one-on-one interview with Beckham during the pre-game build up. Nigel Reed handled the call of the game with Jason De Vos doing color.

I did not notice any of the issues that the ESPN broadcast apparently had.

One thing that was not evident from the broadcast was the flag/anthem mixup (unless I missed a mention of it). From the Canadian Press:

"In a case of bad planning, organizers of the Major League Soccer all-star game led many fans to believe that the Canadian anthem was not going to be played on Tuesday at BMO Field.

Instead of bringing the Canadian flag onto the field along with the American flag and the English flag (for the visitors from West Ham United), organizers waited until several minutes after the other two anthems were played to showcase the Maple Leaf, leading to an ugly scene as fans belted out O Canada and booed while the Star Spangled Banner was being played.

When the Canadian anthem finally was performed, the crowd responded with loud cheers and joined in for a loud rendition of O Canada. "

I agree with most of the sentiment here that Johnson is a bit one-dimensional and if Everton can get £10.5 m for him, I'd say sell !! :)

Fulham would be better off spending that cash on some defensive depth.

I was torn between Everton and Pompey but I voted for Pompey as they have had the most stable off-season thus far and have added a little quality to their attack by signing Peter Crouch. The only thing I see working against them is the UEFA Cup adventure that they'll be on. More games, more pressure, etc.

I for one and am looking forward to the match tonight. I've not gotten to see as many MLS games as I had planned on but it'll be interesting to see how the All-Stars match up against West Ham. It's really a win-win in some senses for MLS as if they lose they can simply say that the players have no chemistry together but if they win they can point to a strong league with players capable of playing at any level, etc. etc.

Just for the few Canucks that might be reading this, the game is being shown on CBC Ontario (not nation wide) at 7pm EST and is also on CBC-HD (which is available in most major Canadian cities) at the same time.

There are a lot of ugly looking shirts this year. You would think that with the big TV money the clubs would want their products to look good :)

Wenger has admitted in recent interviews that the strategy of the club is to sell established players every year and to buy less expensive players. He also said the main reason for that is that the club has to to free up - for about 17 more years - an annual surplus of £24million to pay for their new stadium.

They also have to keep the overall wage bill at a reasonable level so any 'stars' looking for the big 100K/week deals are going to have to move on.

The only way this tide will turn for the club is if they receive some heavy investment from someone like Stan Kroenke or another foreign interest. However, I like the approach Arsenal are taking at the moment. They are avoiding the whole ridiculous notion of chasing after 'star' players and work hard to develop young talent. It would be interesting to see them add a veteran or two on a free transfer just to have someone to mentor and/or take some of the pressure off the younger kids coming through.

One that comes to mind would have been Ivan Klasnic, who was available on a free after he was released by Werder Bremen (The release was due to a dispute between the two over medical diagnosis of his kidney problems, the lawsuit Klasnic filed was settled but he still felt uncomfortable with the team doctor and wanted out.)

I think Portsmouth and Aston Villa have both done a good job so far. They both picked up a player with PL experience (Crouch and Sidwell respectively) at reasonable prices. Crouch was pricy but still came for less than Liverpool had apparently been asking for so that's a good deal for Pompey.

I agree with Phil's comments. 'New' kits are brought out every season and most don't change much.

Just a couple of quick points:

1) I did not jump on the United bandwagon as of 99. I started following United, as I've stated elsewhere on this site, because when EPL games started showing regularly on TV here in Canada in 97/98, Manchester United was most often featured. One of my favourite games is actually a loss. It was the 4-3 thriller against Newcastle from the 2001-02 season.

2) Those that are slagging me for not showing 'loyalty' -- I understand part of where you're coming from and the fact that you feel that I am not really a fan if my loyalties can just switch. To be honest, I don't know if I can stop cold turkey. I have followed the club for years and did not come to the decision to undertake this venture lightly. I felt it would be a good to hear some of the reasons why people developed loyalties to their chosen clubs. My following of United developed for reasons of convenience and I have to wonder if fans in North America are perhaps too far away from the action to be more than just tourists.

In thinking about what it means to be a fan, it seems to me that the big clubs in Europe have become increasingly consumer-driven, at the expense of being local and community driven, and the current way of how fan identities are derived is in flux. The Pitch Invasion site had an excellent post on this topic:

http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/02/09/mercha...

A nice unique looking shirt. Good to see some of the clubs being a bit bold in their choices.