Davide Ballardini may have won his first match in charge of the Rosanero, but the rest of his tenure under Maurizio Zamparini is unlikely to be so straightforward.


Palermo impress but victory isn't always enough for their manager-eater




Zamparini shushes his critics. Click to continue reading...

.....but I will.

LA hasn't won in 11 matches. The last time we tasted victory was a couple of weeks before I left for Spain! We were in first place at that moment. Now we're tied for last. Our coach Ruud Gullit quit the team because the American system was too restrictive for the way he wanted to coach.

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Sad news people. It looks as if it's only a matter of time before the last link between the old Chelsea backroom and the new staff departs.

The club has confirmed assistant first team manager Steve Clarke has tendered his resignation. Chelsea, in an unsurprising move, has not accepted the request nor the approach made by West Ham to speak to Clarke it's understood Blues legend and new Hammers manager Gianfrancola Zola wants Clarke as his No.

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After France's shocking performance against Austria, losing 3-1 to kick off the World Cup Qualifying campaign, many supporters have turned their thoughts to le sélectionneur, Raymond Domenech, and posed the question: "Why hasn't he been sacked already?"

Coming on the heels of a woeful Euro 2008 campaign, and a shocking stay of execution, the loss to Austria provides a fitting occasion to reflect on Domenech's tenure.

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Fabio Capello turns muddled start around with half time substitutions

Still, after five friendlies and the first purportedly competitive encounter of Fabio Capello's tenure, no pattern of play has emerged as evidence that England are capable of achieving more in Zagreb than they did in losing 2-0 there last time. Click to continue reading...

Chelsea forward Salomon Kalou is not often considered one of the elite players plying his trade in the Premier League. He is not a full-time starter for his club team, has been called an inconsistent performer and has yet to bless any big games with sensational performances.

Kalou first arrived in England during the tenure of Jose Mourinho. Click to continue reading...

Kevin Keegan's departure from Newcastle United signals the lowest point for Mike Ashley during his 15 month tenure at the club. Keegan was the Toon's prodigal son, and by leaving the club he has incurred the wrath of the fans against Ashley. The majority of Newcastle fans think that it is Ashley's fault that Keegan has [. Click to continue reading...

  Eddie Johnson and Brian Ching celebrate a goal against Barbados, the only game which a current US striker has scored a goal in the last 14 months for the national team. Bob Bradley's tenure as United States National Team manager has gone about as well as can be expected: A CONCACAF Gold triumph, several [. Click to continue reading...

strike hard, no mercy Sir!

The Cobra Kai were right, sometimes you just need to beat the hell out of someone. This week, for Chelsea, the lucky schmuck will be Wigan hopefully.

Thanks to flabby & sick Emile Heskey last April, Wigan managed a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. It was a result that effectively ended Chelsea's Premier League title challenge.

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It's probably not the way anyone wanted his tenure to end but Fernando Clavijo's days with the Colorado Rapids are over.

Clavijo resigned due to personal reasons as he and the Rapids reached some sort of mutual agreement that allowed the two to part ways.

Still, Clavijo probably shouldn't have been around this long to being with. Click to continue reading...

Another MLS coach faced the firing squad on Wednesday afternoon as the announcement was made that the Colorado Rapids have decided to part ways with head coach Fernando Clavijo immediately. Assistant coach Gary Smith has been tapped to fill the position on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2008 season. Click to continue reading...

Did you know that Rafa Benitez has spent £160m ($299m) on transfers during his tenure at Liverpool. Yes, you heard that right. Rafa Benitez has spent over £160m during his stint as manager and director of transfer operations at Liverpool. This of course refers to transfer fees alone; it does not refer to player salaries. Click to continue reading...

What can I say, I'm not a fan of Bruce Arena. He did well with the US of course but he certainly is not the mastermind many made him out to be.

Here's my PE column that I wrote about Arena's supposed grandiose tenure with the US national team.

I guess I tried to counter some of what Tim Leiweke said about Arena, that the was the best coach in this country or something to the effect. Click to continue reading...

Mark van Bommel is back! Today, Bert van Marwijk's tenure with Oranje really starts. In the past couple of weeks he traveled around Europe to see his boys perform again after the EC2008. The friendly against Russia will be "the introduction game", according to Van Marwijk, who knows six players from Click to continue reading...

Soccer by Ives is reporting that Bruce Arena gets his official introduction today as Galaxy coach today at 11:00. And he's bringing Dave Sarachan with him as his assistant.

What does this mean for Cobi? I have no clue, aside from Ives' assertion that "Cobi Jones is expected to remain on the Galaxy coaching staff.

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Benzema celebrates after scoring Lyon's only goal in last year's 2-1 loss to Lorient.

This week, Lyon travel to Brittany to face FC Lorient at Le Stade Moustoir. Lorient is currently tied for 2nd place with seven other teams in L1, having defeated Le Mans 1-0 in the first week.

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Are Ruud Gullit's 'family reasons' for leaving the LA Galaxy for real, and was his brief tenure a success or a failure? Click to continue reading...

With the Olympics going on and National Team fever ready to sweep back in when Lippi makes his first call-ups of his second tenure on Saturday, I thought I'd dedicate this video of the week to the Nazionale. With World Cup 2010 qualifying just around the corner, here's a segment from a Gazzetta dvd called "La Grande Storia della Nazionale" showcasing Italy's top 100 goals in World Cup qualifying and in the final tournaments.

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Liverpool FC owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett have finally vetoed Rafael Benitez's, inglorious pursuit of Gareth Barry, and for the first time in their tenure I wholeheartedly agree with one of their major decisions.

Everyone in the world – except Rafa- can see that £18m is way too much for Barry, especially since the club's pressing need for quality wide players supersedes the need for yet another central midfielder. Click to continue reading...

The Atlanta Silverbacks continued their climb out of the middle of the table last night with a solid victory over league leading Vancouver Whitecaps. 1,941 brave fans faced the humid, 90+ degree temps to cheer on the Backs as the streaking home town boys did not disappoint.

The Silverbacks started the affair in the hole by giving up the first goal to Vancouver in the 31st minute on a Luca Bellisomo header, but perhaps that was the wake up call they needed as they equalized six minutes later with a Tony McManus strike. Click to continue reading...

I don't want to make too much of a glorified friendly like the game the Rapids had against Everton last Sunday evening. Glorified scrimmage? Yes, that is what the "international exhibition" is in terms of the game. Everton was working to get match fit and look at some players. For example, Everton manager David Moyes was using highly touted 17-year old Jack Rodwell as a midfielder. Click to continue reading...

A look at Arsene Wenger's less than successful youth signings during his Arsenal tenure Christopher Wreh never had as good a season as 1997-98. With a Premiership challenge in full flow, but with Wright and Bergkamp both unavailable, he scored a couple of crucial winners that sparked the long winning streak culminating in the Premiership title returning to [. Click to continue reading...

With Tottenham's $30 million acquisition of David Bentley from Blackburn, it would appear that the meaningful tenure of Aaron Lennon, who was a boy wonder and the next big thing in English soccer just a few years ago, at White Hart Lane is over. At 14, Lennon signed a cleat-sponsorship contract with Adidas, becoming the [. Click to continue reading...

This is not the first time that Sepp Blatter has found himself in the headlines for completely the wrong reason. Allegations of corruption have occurred several times during his ten-year tenure, while his comments about women footballers 'wearing tighter shorts' for added appeal incurred the wrath of many. Click to continue reading...

A look at Arsene Wenger's less than successful youth signings during his Arsenal tenure Mention the name Igor Stepanovs to an Arsenal fan and he will shudder as his mind drifts back over seven years, to a Sunday afternoon in wintry February. The date was February 25, 2001, the venue Old Trafford, and Stepanovs partnered Gilles Grimandi in [. Click to continue reading...

A look at Arsene Wenger's less than successful youth signings during his Arsenal tenure Quincy Owusu-Abeyie is a classic example of star potential going to waste on a player unable or unwilling to capitalise on their immense talent. In his time at Arsenal, he impressed with dazzling skills and wonderful footwork, but all too often lacked any sort [. Click to continue reading...

Premiership Talk was the first to announce that Claude Makelele was leaving Chelsea for Paris St. Germain on Friday, and today he was unveiled in Paris. Makelele is the first big name player to leave under new manager Felipe Scolari's tenure.

More Chelsea exits are expected to follow - especially with Didier Drogba's future unclear. Click to continue reading...

Goff alerted me to a unique story today.

According to the New England Revolution, 26-year-old defender Chase Hilgenbrinck has retired from soccer to pursue his goals of becoming a Catholic priest.

Here's a snippet from the release:

"After years of discernment, I feel strongly that the Lord has called me to become a priest in the Catholic Church," Hilgenbrinck said.

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Former Bolton boss Sammy Lee has declared he is delighted to be back in football since returning to Liverpool in the role of assistant manager.

Lee said: "I hated it. Since leaving school that was the longest time I had out of football.

"When you are in the game, any time you spend out of it is not a happy time. Click to continue reading...

Joe Cannon seemed rather blue after the match in which the Earthquakes lost late to Chivas USA. What was interesting is that back during his LA tenure, a couple of reporters were honestly a bit worried about how hard Joe would take losses. I just figured he was a passionate competitor, plus everyone says goalkeepers are crazy, no? Click to continue reading...

So shall we take a look what's new at the Foxes' lair then girls?

Well for one thing the kit.

LCFC have launched a new away kit. Not bad is my verdict (despite the dodgy sponsorship logo). I think Georgie Girl would look pretty cool in one of those tops. Anything to seek a bit of attention. Click to continue reading...

In a recent interview in L'Equipe, Alain Perrin spoke about his relationship with Jean Michel Aulas and certain members of the Lyon coaching staff during his tenure as manager. Perrin described the internal and external pressures- JMA and two members of the coaching staff- which created an atmosphere of hostility and the eventual scapegoating that marred his term as coach.

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Liverpool have reportedly lodged one last ‘take it or leave it' bid for Aston Villa midfielder Gareth Barry.

The Sun reports that the Reds have offered ₤17million for Barry, topping their previous best bid of around ₤14million.

The deal would comprise of ₤15million up front, while the remaining ₤2million would be triggered by Liverpool's league position during the England international's tenure.

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When it comes to the annals of English football history, it's unlikely Steve McClaren's tenure in the hotseat will get a particularly favourable write-up. Somewhat tactically naive, unable to motivate players, outclassed on occasions by lesser teams, and failing to qualify from a group that was probably one of the easiest routes to a major [. Click to continue reading...

Here's a good example of the fragmented marketplace these days. Plenty of people will tell you -- and they usually tell us on our comments -- that "that Beckham guy" showed up last year and disappeared. So why am I here in RFK Stadium watching the upper level fill up? And why do we have a handful of lost first-timers swelling the pressbox alongside the long-timers still arguing the merits of David Stokes' tenure in D.

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