Feel it, it’s here! Not so much for the likes of Benni McCarthy and Rowen Fernandez who were suprize omissions as Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira announced his final squad.

The other casualties included  Orlando Pirates’ Innocent Mdledle, Franklin Cale and Bryce Moon. Surprise inclusions included the experienced Siyabonga Nomvete , Lance Davids and goalkeeper Shuaib Walters.

The Final 23 to represent South Africa:

Goalkeepers: Itumeleng Khune (Kaizer Chiefs), Moeneeb Josephs (Orlando Pirates), Shu-Aib Walters (Maritzburg United)

Defenders: Matthew Booth, Siboniso Gaxa (both Mamelodi Sundowns), Bongani Khumalo (SuperSport United), Tsepo Masilela (Maccabi Haifa, Israel), Aaron Mokoena (Portsmouth, England), Anele Ngcongca (Racing Genk, Belgium), Siyabonga Sangweni (Golden Arrows), Lucas Thwala (Orlando Pirates)

Midfielders: Surprise Moriri (Mamelodi Sundowns), Lance Davids (Ajax Cape Town), Kagisho Dikgacoi (Fulham, England), Teko Modise (Orlando Pirates), Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Siphiwe Tshabalala (both Kaizer Chiefs), Thanduyise Khuboni (Golden Arrows), Steven Pienaar (Everton, England), Macbeth Sibaya (Rubin Kazan, Russia)

Strikers: Katlego Mphela (Mamelodi Sundowns), Siyabonga Nomvete (Moroka Swallows), Bernard Parker (FC Twente, Netherlands)

Depending on how you read between the lines, Sir Alex Ferguson managed to persuade Cristiano Ronaldo to stay at Manchester United for “one more year”. Remember, of course, that the rumours of a move to his boyhood club Real Madrid first surfaced during 2008.

Six Alex and those higher ups at Man Utd rubbished the rumours at the time.

But there were a lot of rumours. And when a story keeps doing the rounds in football, there’s normally more than a little substance to it.

Witness the protracted saga surrounding the appointment of Carlo Ancelotti as Chelsea manager, but I digress.

SAF persuaded his Maderia-born star to stay for that final year.

You can almost hear the line uttered by the United manager (if you’re able to understand his accent): “give me one more year… we can win the Champions League, and then you’re free to go”.

And go he did. After failing at the final hurdle against Barcelona in Rome (in fact, hardly put up a fight), Ronaldo was off.

And now we have this story playing out all over again.

The rumours have been swirling for over a year that Cesc Fabregas will return to his former club, Barcelona. He spent many years there at its famed youth academy, playing alongside Lionel Messi, before his move to Arsenal.

Arsenal have surely been aware of the risk of their talismanic captain moving back to Spain. Fabregas signed a massive eight-year contract with the London-based club in 2006. He was only 19 at the time. A lot has changed over the past four years, and you can bet his best years are still ahead.

Who wouldn’t want to play for Barcelona at the moment? They’re one of the top three clubs in the world.

And Arsenal?

Their last trophy win was the FA Cup back in 2005. And Arsenal’s “invincibles” won the Premier League in 2004.

This seems an age ago. Fabregas only started making regular starting appearances in the 2005-2006 season, and has not been able to lead the club to a trophy as captain.

The media mania is in overdrive at the moment with a delicate dance playing itself out between Barcelona and Arsenal.

Barca seem willing to only offer £30 million for the Catalan midfielder. Arsenal believe (bizarrely) that number should be closer to £50 million. Somehow, Arsenal’s hierarchy point to Ronaldo’s £80 million transfer fee as “evidence” of Fabregas’s value.

His father is now involved, suggesting that Cesc wants to head to Barcelona.

But, reports surfaced on Wednesday that Arsene Wenger intervened. Fabregas calls it “probably the greatest conversation I have had with someone in my life”.

The club captain will focus on the World Cup and has left it up to Arsenal and Barcelona to sort out his future.

Ironically, the Catalan club hasn’t even made an official offer for the 23-year-old yet.

The big question is: did Wenger and Fabregas have the “one more year” talk last year, or have they just had that conversation?

Feel it, it’s here! Those are the words in everyone’s lips here in South Africa as the 2010 FIFA World Cup spectacular approaches. Well yesterday Spain opened the way for everyone by being the first team to announce the final 23 man squad for the tournament.

With only veteran Marco Senna as the notable omission, Spain coach, Vicente Del Bosque made sure he names the best of Spain.

Spain squad for the 2010 World Cup:

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Pepe Reina (Liverpool), Victor Valdes (Barcelona).

Defenders: Raul Albiol (Real Madrid), Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Carlos Marchena (Valencia), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Carles Puyol (Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid).

Midfielders: Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Javi Martinez (Athletic Bilbao), David Silva (Valencia), Xavi (Barcelona).

Forwards: Jesus Navas (Sevilla), Juan Mata (Valencia), Pedro (Barcelona), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), David Villa (Valencia).

Is this the squad to win them the World Cup?

Ironically, Chelsea didn’t finish top of the Premier League’s pay table. The league figures, which incorporate broadcasting revenues, TV appearance money and bonuses for positional finish in the league, show that despite winning the title, the Blues finished second to Manchester United.

United netted £52,99 million compared to Chelsea’s eventual pay-out of £52,83 million. Tottenham, who qualified for the UEFA Champions League cashed in with £49,46 million.

(more…)

Just how can the Premier League ensure that clubs field the strongest possible team?

There has been a lot said about the matter by (especially) Wolves boss Mick McCarthy and Fulham’s Roy Hodgson so far this season.

Wolves were given a £25000 suspended fine by the league after making 10 changes to a midweek team that faced Manchester United in December. The argument was that McCarthy needed to rest his players as Wolves’s fixture list had them playing three games in just over a week. He admitted that he’d rather have fresh players for a home fixture to Burnley than “waste” them against the big guns.

At the time, the fixture against Burnley was a six pointer. It paid off for McCarthy, didn’t it?

Hodgson has been criticised over the past two weeks for “resting” players for weekend games. Those doing the cirticising are embroiled in an almighty fight for fourth place, so they have a clear vested interest.

What do they expect Hodgson to do? He’s got a very small squad and premiership fixtures sandwiched between major Europa League matches … like that small matter of an away semi-final in Hamburg. The selection strategy paid off for the first leg.

The League’s rulebook is very vague about the issue. In Section E, under the heading “Full Strength Teams”, it says plainly that “In every League Match each participating Club shall field a full strength team”.

Seriously, how is this quantified?

Obviously McCarthy’s wholesale changes where 10 first team players were dropped for no-namers is an extreme.

Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey wants clarification, and he’s not being unreasonable.

According to the BBC, Moxey says “The Premier League has got an issue and we will be raising it at the summer meeting. Being introduced now is a squad system where you can only register 25 players and as many Under-21s as we like.

“The manager will have 25 players to pick. Surely he has got to be able select whatever 11 he wants to play week in and week out just as Roy Hodgson did at the weekend.

“We will be asking for clarification on the ruling. The one question is ‘how many changes are too many?’ but we won’t be asking for an apology for the action taken against us.”

And the crux of his argument: “I don’t recall the media having a go at Manchester United for changes on the final day of last season”.

Remember that? United’s woefully under-strength squad against Hull included arguably no first team players aside from Neville, Fletcher and Nani. This was the game that kept Hull up and sent Newcastle down.

So, one rule for United and another for everyone else?

Last year, at exactly this time of the season, we brought you a leaked image of the Manchester United 2009/10 Home Kit, many thought we were just bluffing, but guess what? It turned out to be the REAL thing.

Well, it’s that time again, and like we said last year, beleave it at your own peril.

Ladies and Gents, the new home kit of Manchester United for the 2010/11 season.

The image as indicated on the photograph was published by our friends at www.footballshirtculture.com

We’ve been treated to some interesting outbursts from Premier League team owners through the course of this season. It’s arguably been one of the most entertaining seasons in recent memory. At least since the Special One and his utterances left Chelsea.

Particularly interesting has been the effect of the pronouncements by owners on the performances of players on the pitch.

In February, West Ham’s (new) owners David Sullivan and David Gold said plainly that players and management staff would all be forced to take a pay cut – even if the club avoided relegation in May. He suggested then (and again recently) that it would be “Armageddon” if the Hammers go down.

On the same day, permanently under-fire manager Gianfranco Zola criticised the timing of Sullivan’s statement. Zola suggested rather politely that it would “have been better to maybe talk to us before talking to a newspaper”.

Sullivan’s comments were timed strangely. It was a day before West Ham were due to face the duo’s former club Birmingham City at Upton Park. In hindsight, Sullivan looked like a genius. West Ham beat high-flying Birmingham 2-0 with Alessandro Diamanti scoring in first-half injury time, and Carlton Cole netting in the second half.

Sullivan and Gold knew that times were seriously desperate. They needed a response from the players and coaching staff. And they got one. In fact, one could argue (in hindsight of course) they knew they would get one.

How important those three points may turn out to be.

This week, the Times of London reported that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had instructed the club to suspend all contract talks until the end of the season.

There are some that point to the fact that Amramovich remains angry at the manner in which Chelsea exited the Champions League at the hands of his former manager Jose Mourinho. Others suggest, far more realistically, that the club’s owner want players to only focus on the three League games ahead of them, and the FA Cup final which follows.

The delay in contract negotiations affects four of the club’s senior players. Joe Cole, Michael Ballack and Deco have been told to prove that they deserve new deals as the club chases the double for the first time in its history. All three players’ contracts expire in June, raising the prospect they could leave for free. Cole and Ballack have publicly pledged to stay with a club they love. There have been rumours that Deco wants to return to Brazil.

The fourth player affected is Nicolas Anelka, who has been negotiating an extension of his contract, which still has 12 months to run.

Owners aren’t stupid. They know how to let their feelings known indirectly. You could only imagine how you’d react if your boss publicly suggested you’d need to prove yourself over the next month.

Let’s hope Abramovich gets the response he wants from the players over the next four weeks. At least we’ll know whether or not they truly want to stay at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea might score some silverware too.

Supporters of the Premiership’s top clubs – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool – will blindly tell anyone who will listen that the English Premier League is the strongest in Europe.

This despite the failure of any of England’s bigger clubs to progress to the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League this season. Liverpool failed to make it past the group stages, but they have had their own demons this season.

Fulham’s Europa League fairytale may or may not come to an end before a trophy but, come on – does anyone take the competition seriously?

Commentators and unemployed former players (“pundits” they’re called), have pointed to the crucial injury problems among the Premiership elite, the quality of some of their players on the fringes of the first teams, and the self-inflicted wounds which have left some with a lone first-team striker.

But, it’s all about the money.

If you analyse spending and accept that Spain’s La Liga clubs dished out two-and-a-half times more in fees than their English counterparts, then you’ll realise Premier League sides performed as well as could be expected. Even German clubs spent 14% more than the English.

Ok, the Spanish figures are skewed by Ramon Calderon’s second coming at Real Madrid. But, equally importantly, the English numbers include Manchester City’s spending spree, bankrolled by its rich Gulf owners.

The Daily Mail quotes sportingintelligence.com figures which show that net transfer spending by League clubs is at the lowest in a decade. You need only look at the spectacular decimation of London’s financial sector to see that the glory days are over for now.

The top five clubs in Europe, by net transfer spending this season (players bought minus those sold): Real Madrid (£226million), Manchester City (£128.4million), Barcelona (£98.45million), Inter Milan (£83.24million) and Lyon (£70.17million).

No surprises. Any club, even Real, would underperform with Manuel Pellegrini at the helm (this column predicted it at the start of the season). Manchester City have all but forced their way into Europe. If they miss out on a Champions League place, it will be by a point or two (and partly due to managers this season who simply aren’t good enough).

So, excluding the underperformers, you have Barcelona, Inter and Lyon left: three of the four Champions League semi-finalists. I’m willing to bet Bayern Munich are probably in sixth or seventh position in terms of spending.

English clubs need to spend more to succeed. With the exception of Cit-eh, that doesn’t seem the way the story will unfold over the next six months.

Manchester United are the subject of a vicious takeover bid, and their current owners simply can’t stump up £100million for transfers. Even Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich is no longer spending as freely as he was five years ago. Liverpool have even less money than United (if that’s even possible), and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger will no doubt continue in his miserly fashion.

The English elite are losing the competitive edge among Europe’s giants, and it’s not obvious how they’re going to force themselves into contention again.

The FA Cup semi-final two.

Tottenham Hotspur 0 – 2 Portsmouth (AET)
Wembley, London
Sunday 11 April 2010
Kickoff: 16:00
Goal Scorers:
Frederic Piquionne ‘98 0-1
Kevin-Prince Boateng ‘116 (pen.) 0-2

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 – 0 Stoke City
Molineux, Wolverhampton
Sunday 11 April 2010
Kickoff: 13:00

Blackburn Rovers 0 – 0 Manchester United
Ewood Park, Blackburn
Sunday 11 April 2010
Kickoff: 14:30

Liverpool 0 – 0 Fulham
Anfield, Liverpool
Sunday 11 April 2010
Kickoff: 16:00

Manchester City 5 – 1 Birmingham City
City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester
Sunday 11 April 2010
Kickoff: 17:00
Goal Scorers:
Carlos Tevez ‘37 (pen.) 1-0
Carlos Tevez ‘39 2-0
Cameron Jerome ‘41 2-1
Emmanuel Adebayor ‘42 3-1
Nedum Onuoha ‘73 4-1
Emmanuel Adebayor ‘87 5-1