Stoke boss Mark Hughes is anticipating a fairly quiet January transfer window for the club as their efforts to tie Peter Crouch and Glenn Whelan to new contracts continue. Both 33-year-old striker Crouch – scorer of two goals in his last two games, taking his tally for the season to five – and midfielder Whelan, […]

Sean Dyche has identified previous Barclays Premier League experience as the key attribute he desires in any potential Burnley buys this January. The Clarets manager is ready to add to his squad in the new year as they bid to prove the naysayers wrong and avoid an immediate demotion back to the second tier. It […]

Garry Monk insists his Swansea side are not over-reliant on Wilfried Bony's goals. Bony has supplied over a third of Swansea's Barclays Premier League goals, as well eight of the last 13, and captain Ashley Williams said after last weekend's 2-1 home defeat to Tottenham that they must find a way to lift the scoring […]

During his pre-match press conference ahead of Manchester United's match against Aston Villa, manager Louis van Gaal revealed that midfielder Angel di Maria returned to training earlier this week and is in contention for the 18-man squad on Saturday. Although the United boss tempered his statement by reminding the gathering that one week of training is […]

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Ronald Koeman will be calling on the kids this weekend after injury and suspension decimated Southampton's squad. The club's best-ever top-flight start has been brought to an abrupt halt in recent weeks, with Tuesday's Capital One Cup loss at Sheffield United continuing an embarrassing run of form. That was Southampton's fifth straight defeat in all […]

Hatem Ben Arfa is set for a January move after finding himself unwanted at Newcastle and Hull – and in France a film is being produced about the mercurial winger. The 27-year-old former Marseille player appears set for a January transfer after Newcastle manager Alan Pardew declared he did not want to take Ben Arfa […]

The way to tell if someone was a knowledgeable DC United fan has always been to check their opinion on a new stadium. The most diehard, knowledgeable fans always answered with a variation of this phase: "I'll believe it when I see the shovel hit the ground". Since the Columbus Crew opened the first MLS […]

The Football League Cup (also known as the Capital One Cup or the Carling Cup or the Worthington Cup in recent years) has often been held in very low regard amongst managers and pundits alike. Notable examples include Sir Alex Ferguson referring to the competition as a “Mickey Mouse Cup” and Arsenal fans claiming that […]

Roberto Mancini, or Mancio as he’s affectionately known by those around him, is undoubtedly one of the more colorful characters in the beautiful game. Fresh from his first Serie A victory since returning to Internazionale, Mancini had surprised many when he accepted to return to an ailing Nerazzuri side. His start during his second spell […]

It’s not a good time to be a manager in football if your name is Nigel. Nigel Atkins has been sacked as Reading manager whilst Nigel Pearson, if reports are to be believed, is clinging to his job at Leicester City. There is one name that has been linked to the Reading, Leicester and other […]

Southampton manager Ronald Koeman expects Jay Rodriguez's rehabilitation from a long-term knee injury to keep him out for at least another six weeks. An awkward fall at Manchester City in April saw the 25-year-old rupture an anterior cruciate ligament, the injury ruling him out of the reckoning for England's World Cup squad. Rodriguez has yet […]

We're on the cusp of the Christmas period, and although that might mean different things for clubs scattered across the globe, the need for points is no less vital. It's conceivable that there's no worse feeling than going into a winter break on the back of a defeat after all, while a win going into […]

Sketches of Chelsea's proposed home, away and third shirts for the 2015/16 season have been leaked on the Internet. Chelsea's new shirts from adidas aren't overhauls of previous designs. Chelsea's home shirt will feature a familiar design but with small enhancements to separate it from jerseys worn in previous years. Adidas' design for Chelsea's home shirt […]

Bayern Munich have made signing 16-year-old Norwegian prodigy Martin Ødegaard a priority, and the German giants are willing to do anything it takes in order to acquire the young midfielder's signature, according to the Spanish newspaper Marca. Ødegaard has been tipped to join the Bundesliga champions by the German press, with most Spanish papers predicting European […]