Globe and Mail columnist Stephen Brunt on Russian hero Andrei Arshavin,

"[Arshavin is] maybe, for all of the talk of Ronaldo and Deco and Villa and Torres and Ballack, the best player here."

I realize Brunt is aiming for a sensationalist line, a line to shock all us readers. Click to continue reading...

David Ornstein writing for the BBC on the failure of the French national team at Euro 2008:

The 56-year-old also turned to players such as Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Eric Abidal, who had all struggled for form with their clubs. There was considerable anger in France that the likes of in-form. Click to continue reading...

He's back; Martin Samuel writes that old managers are needed by the top premiership clubs.

"Managing any of the top four now contains the crazy pressure of international football, but without the periods of calm to plan and reflect. It takes 30 years of management experience to handle it, which is why Scolari, for all his rawness in the European club game, is better placed to survive a season at Chelsea than Mark Hughes. Click to continue reading...

Reports are saying ITV Co-Commentator David Pleat, during the Portugal vs. Czech Republic game, repeatedly referred to the Czech team as either "Czechoslovakia" or the "Republic of Czechoslovakia". Neither of these countries exist. The latter has never existed. Its a completely invented land.

It is expected that David Pleat will get confused during a commentary session. Click to continue reading...

We last wrote about Martin Samuel when he wrote that Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the most overrated player in Europe (yes, that Ibrahimovic, who was the first choice forward for the team that won Serie A this past season and has scored two goals in the European Championship so far).
I shall begin this post by quoting the biography of the writer who wrote this article. Click to continue reading...

The statements some players make when joining new clubs make me laugh.

"It is a dream for me to come to a big club like Spurs," Giovani told Tottenham's official website upon signing from Barcelona.

Of course, when Giovani was playing for Barcelona, a club with a history of winning a billionty medals, all he could dream about was signing for a big club like Tottenham. Click to continue reading...

Deloitte has just published its 2007 football finance review. One area of focus in this study was premier league wages and the correlation between wages and on-pitch performance. A conclusion many are drawing from this report: the correlation between wages and on-pitch performance is weaker outside those clubs in the top four, and the relegation zone (see the Daily Telegraph for elaboration). Click to continue reading...