David Ackerman

After assessing each Premier League team's weaknesses last season, talent gaps within the squad and new signings, I've compiled a short-list of suitable players teams could and perhaps should sign between now and the end of the transfer window, taking into account realistic transfer budgets and each manager's preferences. Drum roll, please. Here are the […]

The short-list for 2010's PFA Player Of The Year (Drogba, Rooney, Fabregas and Tevez) contained four of the Premier League's most talented and proven names. This year's short-list for the same award, however, highlighted the poor showing from many of the Premier League's top stars as they were all absent. In their place were unfashionable […]

In his WSJ column, Gabriele Marcotti brings up the dearth of British managers at the top of English football. Seven of the 20 Premier League managers are foreign. Sir Alex Ferguson is the only British manager among the so-called “Big Four.” Manchester City dumping Mark Hughes for Roberto Mancini seems only to exacerbate this trend. […]

Liverpool announced that Glen Johnson will miss at least a month after tearing a knee ligament. It may be paradoxical to claim this for a recent £18m signing, but Johnson’s absence may aid the Reds in their battle for fourth. Johnson is an attacking right back. He’s adept. He gets forward with power and pace. […]

EA Sports’ FIFA franchise strives for realism, to approximate the experience of being a footballer or managing a club. When you see the gaudy, arcade style interface of FIFA 10 for the Wii, you realize this will be a very different game. Creating for the Wii constrains developers. The game needs to be simplified. The […]

Hi Guys, I'm here with my first post. I'm going to be doing a weekly post on the reasons why I love the beautiful game so much. This week I will be starting, ironically, with last gasp goals. It doesn't matter how they are scored, whether it's a tap in like Aaron Lennon in last […]

Sven-Goran Eriksson sparked an apparent revolution at Notts County in July. With Tord Grip and mysterious financial backing, he set off to dazzle the Football League like one of his secretaries. He signed legacy kid Kasper Schmeichel. He lured former England stalwart Sol Campbell with £60,000 per week till age 40 and a path into […]

In an exclusive interview for the Guardian, Manchester City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak criticized Michel Platini’s planned control of football club expenditure. He has a point. Platini wants new financial rules by 2012. Under those guidelines, Clubs would spend within their soccer-generated income. Failure to do so would end in a European ban. Khaldoon argues that […]

Before playing Arsenal, former Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor said Arsenal supporters are “not real fans.” "What is good at City is the fans. They love you. Arsenal have a lot of fans who are not fans," Adebayor said. "Arsenal have fans from America and Jamaica. Today they are Arsenal fans, tomorrow they will be Liverpool […]

Paul Doyle of The Guardian once described Carlos Tevez as “the rich man’s Dirk Kuyt.” That man may be far more rich than we thought. Carlos Tevez left Manchester United for Manchester City, in a deal that reportedly paid Tevez’ handlers £25.5m. According to a new report in The Times, Tevez’ fee may really be […]

It’s funny how karma works. Chelsea took an inhumanely stern line with Adrian Mutu, and now FIFA has taken a stern line with them. The Blues have been found guilty of “inducing” French midfielder Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007. FIFA has forbid them to participate in the next two transfer […]

Toward the end of his book Inverting the Pyramid, Jonathan Wilson writes about the changing nature of modern football. A player he brings up to emphasize this is Michael Owen. To Wilson, Owen is a relic of a previous era. “He appears a player left behind by the tactical evolution of the game,” Wilson writes. […]

Arsenal beat Celtic 2-0 at Celtic Park, all but assuring their qualification for the Champions League group stages, with two away goals. It was not the presiding effort of their 6-1 away win at Everton, but the two deflected goals – from Gallas and Gary Caldwell's foot – fulfilled the requirement in what was arguably […]

Manchester City are spending their way into the Premier League top four. Paradoxically, the club most amenable to their ambition is Arsenal, whom they wish to supplant. The Gunners sold City striker Emmanuel Adebayor for £25m. Less than two weeks later, they are prepared to sell them defender Kolo Toure for another £14m, as the […]

UEFA will fine both Arsenal and Manchester United £5,000 respectively for fan incidents during last years Champions League semifinals. An Arsenal fan hit Nemanja Vidic with a plastic bottle. A Manchester United supporter hurled a smoke bomb onto the pitch. The actions were potentially serious. The fines are not. UEFA functions like all bureaucracies. It […]