Can West Ham United’s new Italian talent have the same impact on the Hammers as club legend Paolo Di Canio did between 1999 and 2003? Gianfranco Zola signed Alessandro Diamanti for a fee of around £6 million in the summer. Big money for an untested player especially in light of West Ham’s supposed financial handicap. […]

Much has been made of the demise of Leeds United AFC. We are all familiar with the tale of gross overspending, Ridsdale's goldfish, and a descent into the third tier of English football. Football supporters have little sympathy for a club that reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League in 2001 and are now playing […]

At age 22, Zinedine Zidane was playing in the Intertoto Cup with Bordeaux. At that same age, Éric Cantona had just got a move from Auxerre to Marseille. Rivaldo had just moved from Corinthians to cross-town rivals Palmeiras in São Paulo. With the money involved in today’s game and globalized scouting networks, such players would […]

One of the major complains that many have against the MLS is that it is a developmental league. No American dreams of playing for the San Jose Earthquakes or the Kansas City Wizards – they imagine themselves playing in Italy, Spain or England. The best MLS players are always eyeing their European opportunities. Their agents […]

Group A Bayern Munchen Juventus Bordeaux Maccabi Haifa Group B Manchester United CSKA Moskow Besiktas Wolfsburg Group C AC Milan Real Madrid Marseille FC Zurich Group D Chelsea Porto Atletico Madrid APOEL Group E Liverpool Lyon Fiorentina Debrecen Group F Barcelona Internazionale Dynamo Kiev Rubin Kazan Group G Sevilla Rangers Stuttgart Unirea Urziceni Group H […]

Admit it, after the lacklustre opening day game against Stoke City, you simply couldn't see Burnley picking up anything from their next 2 games with Everton and Manchester United visiting Turf Moor. They were tough games, that most established Premiership sides wouldn't be relishing to have back to back so how the Clarets fans must […]

If I was an Arsenal fan, I'd be fed up already listening to people saying that Manchester City were obviously going to usurp them as one of the "Big Four" sides. It's amazing what spending money does to peoples judgement when it comes to football and Manchester City have certainly caught more than their fair […]

How is it that an international striker with 16 goals in 34 games for his country and a Premiership strike rate of one goal in under every 3 games simply keeps being moved on? Now I could understand it if the player in question was a boorish, thuggish hooligan who whines about not being treated […]

4.) Manchester United 1-4 Liverpool – 14 March 2009 Even after the mind-shattering come-from-behind win on 13 September (see Part 3), I couldn't let myself feel too optimistic about the trip to Old Trafford. (Going into the biggest matches, I try to remain spiritually pragmatic.) 1-1 at O.T. would be a wonderful result. Another 2-1 […]

In Parts 1 & 2 I nominated Manchester City 2-3 Liverpool and Portsmouth 2-3 Liverpool for Classic Match consideration. These nominees come from a supporter's perspective. I invite others to say what they deem a potential classic from their own perspectives in the comment section. I'll cover one more match tomorrow... 3.) Liverpool 2-1 Manchester […]

Yesterday I covered the Perfect Drama Classic. Today, I'll look at the You Were Right I Was Wrong Classic... 2.) Portsmouth v. Liverpool – 7 Feb 2009 I try to be the biggest proponent of Rafa Knows Best whenever I can. Though I am at times puzzled by some of his decisions and have my own staunch opinion […]

In Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby tells us what a match requires to be "really, truly memorable." He wants as many of the following as possible (and I paraphrase): goals, bad refereeing decisions, a noisy Crowd, rain etc, opposition misses a penalty, opposition receives a red card, a disgraceful incident. I'm with him on everything except maybe the […]

As a Liverpool supporter I have a soft spot for Michael Owen. Now, for the sake of full journalistic disclosure, I must admit I came to the party late. I'm an American who, seduced by the 2006 World Cup, went looking for an English club to support. Through the right mixture of Steven Gerrard, Peter […]

Click here for Part 1 Last season, Gerrard and Torres missed substantial chunks of play. And Liverpool suffered for it. When they were both fit, Liverpool hit some astounding results: v. Real Madrid: 4-0; v. Chelsea 2-0; v. Villa 5-0; and @ United 4-1!!! They even managed strong results against big sides with one or […]

King Kenny is back! After a 18 year hiatus, the man many hail as Liverpool's greatest ever player, Kenny Dalglish, will rejoin Liverpool Football Club. From the club's official site: "Dalglish will assume a senior role at the Liverpool Academy and will also act as a Club ambassador working with the commercial side of the […]