This is the thread for all things football from around the globe. Team news and talk, transfers, general talk and speculation and everything along those lines for any football team.



Just been watching Sky Sports news and supposedly Tottenham Hotspur is very close to signing Dos Santos from Barcelona. This is good news for them as he is an awesome player, but bad news for every other Premiership team as he can be a handful. Luka Modric and now Dos Santos, Tottenham are starting to get very good signings lately.

On other news John Terry was re-given the England captaincy, which is the right choice as besides Beckham he has the most love and willingness for his country team.

i dont know if anyone else did, but for the past few days i have been watching the U-21 teams play in a tournament in France. cant remember the name of the tournament but it was interesting. Saw Italy v USA, France v Holland, and Japan v Spain (i believe). Got to see some very good ball, but also some pretty bad play. The USA looked extremely outmatched for most of the match against Italy but showed some life in spurts towards the end. France v Holland was a very good match, both teams played with a very high level of skill and poise, Holland eneded up winning 1 - 0.

anyone else catch these games?

U21 and U18 tournaments in this country are usually shown on Sky TV but I don't have it anymore. Some of the U21's even show up the senior players.

Speaking of the USA. There is a friendly match tomorrow night at about 7:30 if I remember correctly consisting of both England and USA. I have never really took any notice of the USA team in the past much, but they do possess a few small good talents that play in the premiership. Should be a enjoyable match, and I predict a few goals in that match; possibly from England.

i actually ended up watching the games of Fox Soccer Channel which also does a lot of Sky Sports stuff.

Yea USA vs. England and while we arent the best team, we def. have some talent and some really up and coming young players. Should give England a good match i hope.

Brad Friedel is a very good goal keeper so I don't see easy goals against the USA. Brain McBride, Demarcus Beasly, Landon Donovan and Freddy Adu are all decent and should give us a good game. Other than that I don't know much about your team. So any updates from someone who does would be cool.

I see Capello either using a 4-5-1 with Rooney starting up front or maybe a 4-4-2 with Rooney teemed up with either Agbonlahor, Dean Ashton or most probably Defoe.

rosters below and injury reports above.

I did not know Tim Howard was American. You should not use those Derby county players. Derby just got the recored for the lowest amount of points in the Premiership ever and their players have underpreformed all season.

Here is what I think would be a good England starting team:

Goalkeeper: James(Hart may get a start though)

Defenders: Terry, Ferdinand, Woodgate and Cole

Midfielders: Bently, Hargreaves, Gerrard, Joe cole

Strikers: Defoe, Rooney(Rooney has not scored for a long time and seems to never hit the target)

Beckham and Lampard are doing good in training so Capellow may use them instead.

Netherlands under 21 has a very good team, I mean, they did won the cup twice in a row, showing their absolute talent.
Glad to see they defeated the French team.

Btw, Tottenham isn't sure to sign G Dos Santos yet, as Man City also seems to be after him and considering Shinawatra has a lot of money, they could throw some cash around.

I am rooting for Feyenoord, a Dutch football team (as I am Dutch), I don't know about any signings they have made, I haven't spend a lot of time in the Dutch transfer market yet.

Soon the European Championship, rooting for the Netherlands of course =).

yup and a damn good keeper if i say so myself..

yea pes the dutch team looked freakin deadly, i wanted to see them play Italy who looked dominating against the US.

True, but Tottenham are in the front running at this moment in time. Tottenham are a better team, they play better football(Which would suit him) and London is a better prospect than Manchester. Newcastle offered more money for both Woodgate and Modric but Tottenham still got them both, so I don't see him going to Manchester City.

Anyone pumped for Euro 2008? Ill be watching as much as I can. I am rooting for Portugal, as Canada has a sad sad football team. As for my teams, most of you know I root for Manchester United and in Canada, I root for Toronto FC for the MLS. (American League)

Torontofc.ca

If Scotland were in the Euro 08 I'd probably be in Austria or Switzerland right now. But those damn Italians. Anyway I'm supporting anyone who puts Italy out. I'll probably watch some of it if they are decent games and I always watch the last few rounds anyway.

Uh I support my local team which is Kelty Hearts they are a Junior team which no one here will have heard of. And I support Glasgow Rangers with my heart and soul really. You could pretty much ask me anything about them and I'd know.

http://www.rangers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Home/0,,5,00.html

And of course I support my country.

Some other teams I like around the world are Ajax, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Porto, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal....just some of the good team I like to watch play really.

Also. Support Celtic and die!

You and I will never be friends, nor will you be friends with English people. Carefully pick your choice. I'd say, revise your decision and come up with something other than Portugal.

I am rooting for the Netherlands of course. Although, "technically" we have one of the strongest teams in the tournament, I don't see our chances high.
If we face Portugal, we're going to beaten, just like last two times, because of their ##### diving and unfair play.
Now even more with C. Ronaldo and his massive ego.

I'd rather see Italy win than Portugal, I really do. I have a burning hatred for Portugal.

Massive Ego is a bit of an understatement no?

Good luck for Euro 08 Pes, I wouldn't mind seeing Holland win.

I put my money on Spain actually. They have a host of amazing players and they play very good football, and with Villa and Torres up front, and even Fabregas in midfield I see them as favourites.

As long as Germany and Portugal don't win, I will be happy with the tournament.



Who actually is the top team in the MLS?

What do you guys think about this new six-plus-five rule that Sepp Blatter has just come up with?



Funny how this comes about as the English dominate the champions league once again.

Haha, yes it is and cheers =).



Yeah, that is correct. Spain always has a good team, but for some reason they never perform well at these kind of tournaments.



As a true Englishman =).



I agree with this. I think there should be less foreign players in the starting eleven.
I remember games with Arsenal, when there as only ONE English player on the field, or it was another team, it could be Chelsea instead.
I think that is seriously stretching it and I agree with these rules.
It does not only limits the bigger teams, it also brings a bit more fairplay in the game.

We shall see how many teams with many foreigners will complain. Manchester United always field English players so that is good for the English game.

If this happens it will help the English national teams ten-fold which we need badly and then once we have use of more Englishmen in our teams and one of our teams win the champions league, no one can moan that we use to many foreign players.



Always will. Both the Euro and World Cup matches against Portugal early resulted in a heart attack. Third time is always lucky so next time we meet they will bow down to us.

Which football team do you support, btw?

He supports the great team that is Feyenoord.

Just watched the Czech vs Scotland friendly. Finished 3-1 to the Czechs good luck to them in the Euro 08 they played a good game which saw 4 really good goals. David Clarkson scored for us on his debut and Libor Sionko got 2 for Cezch Republic though he couldn't score when he was at Rangers.....

I don't know what to say about Scotland anymore as soon as they appointed George Burley my heart was split in half. I mean he has no clue which is justified today by starting Gavin Rae and he has his 2 assistants who are the Useless Steven Pressely and an ex-England captain. It just doesn't seem right.

Well since Henrik Larsson is playing, I'll have a reason to look forward to Sweden's games.
Larsson, Ibrahimovic and Ljungberg. Good times. Probably the last time in many years to come that Sweden has a team I'll be rooting for, so I'll make sure to watch all the games.

There ya go ^^.

Feyenoord is a really special team. I am pretty sure that you guys feel the same about your own team and I definitely don't want to brag, but the relationship between the team and the supporters has always been special.

Even if I wouldn't support Feyenoord, I'd still think Feyenoord is one of the most amazing teams in Europe. Amazing stadium (De Kuip), pure dedication to their fans and always a special bond.
I'd recommend reading some information about Feyenoord on Wiki, mostly about the stadium, the opening day and the fans, as what is said there, is absolutely true.

Especially when we cross the bridge, mentioned on the wikipedia page, every Feyenoord fan does in fact look to the stadium, even if he has seen it hundreds of times.

We do have a bad side, unfortunatly. The Netherlands also has hooligans, which do cause bad names for the team and supporters and also got us kicked out the UEFA Cup not too long ago.

The England vs USA game was awful the other night and was made better by some of the dead ball situations and Gerrard's goal. The USA were (As quoted as Mark Lawrenceson) very pedestrian and offered no real challenge, so we must have played awful in comparison to the other top teams but most of the players used were tired from the champions league final and the very long season so I wont hold it to them. Tomorrow will be very interesting against Trinidad and Tobago as all our most used and best players will be rested so we will be able to see how well the other players can play without them.

On other news my team Newcastle have supposedly sold Emre to Fenebache for a fee of 8 million(Which is more for what we payed for him) and will help towards us building the Keegan squad we have been waiting for.

Tomorrow will be the Netherlands (it is not Holland ><) vs. Wales. I'll be watching that, of course =).

Wales have no chance as Holland have a much better and awesome team. With Van Persie, Van Nistlerooy, Huntelaar, Van Der Varrt and of course Van Der Sar in goal Wales will be destroyed. There are 10 players in your team I think are awesome.

I agree, the Netherlands has good players, but we usually come short in the end, or get unlucky voting.
Wales shouldn't provide a threat though, but in all honesty, I have seen us struggle with Andorra, so it could be the same with Wales.
On the sheet, we should be the winners, but we know the saying in football, "You never know where the ball goes."

Tell me about it we should be able to destroy Trinidad and Tobago in Spain tonight but I doubt that will happen. Then again some of the players not really used much before will be starting with the likes of Ashley Young, Agbonlahor and Theo Walcott should destroy then. Perhaps this batch of players will do better than our usual lot.

Post your synopsis of the Holland game when it has finished as I would like to know how they will fair.

The Netherlands 2 - 0 Wales

Well, first of all, they played in the best stadium they could have played. They played in De Kuip (Feyenoord Stadium).

Now, overall, Wales didn't do anything. They had been defending most of the match and I think they only got 4 shots on target, in comparison to the 20+ the Netherlands had.

The finishing on my side wasn't that good. Ruud van Nistelrooy fumbled the ball most of the times and didn't had a good match. Overall, the finishing should be better.

Robben made a fantastic run and scored the first goal, after a Welsh midfielder headed the ball in front of him. He ran past three defenders and scored the goal in a traditional fashion.

The second goal was made by Wesley Sneijder, a fabulous free kick and the goalkeeper was beaten. You could really see that Sneijder wanted to get a goal, as he was shooting from a distance most of the time and he got his goal eventually.

The midfield did a good job by the way. Engelaar, Sneijder and van der Vaart all had their shots and worked very well together. The Dutch defense didn't had much to do, so they assisted in attacking.
The strikers and wingers should improve their finishing though, as the two goals aren't good, if you consider the 20+ shots.

Robben did an amazing job. Great ball control, great actions and no divings... well maybe 1 or 2, but that is an improvement as he used to dive all the time.

Another thing I forgot to mention was the ball possession. It seemed that the Netherlands was on ball all the time and was only here for a shooting practice.
On that note, the Welsh keeper did an amazing job.

So, the Netherlands is definitely one of the favourites for this years EC, however, they do need to improve their finishing.

One downside for this years EC, we're in the group with Italy, France and Romania, the group of death.

Awww what a shame... Scotland had France, Italy, Ukraine, Georgia, Faeroe Islands. We were in the group of death and were only put out through a goal from a free kick which should have went our way. We beat France twice and had 24 points, in any other group we would have dominated. So surely a great team like Holland can go through?

A very tough group indeed, but I do not really see Romania posing that much threat to your team, Italy or France. France will out for blood after their Wold Cup Final loss, but Italy never back down. I predict Your team and Italy to get through. Italy are an amazing team as ever and play amazing football and France will be relying on the old guns and I just see your team out passing and outclassing them.

Football never goes the way you think it does(Just look at Liverpool against Havant and Waterloo and Barnsley:D) so anything can happen. I am still saddened that England will not be playing in the Euro, still this may help towards the next World cup. I will still watch though as I know some amazing football will be played as usual in these two great tournaments.

Well, I am not too sure if we're going to make it through. It will be tough.
One thing that must be done is beat Italy, because that is our first match. If we beat Italy, then we have a good start.
Romania don't sound strong, but they did beat us in the qualifying rounds and they did got the first spot in our qualifying group, so who knows.
France.. I never know what to think about them. Then they play good, then they suck, then they play good and then they suck again.

France were awesome against us at Hampden. Henry played brilliant but we kept in it until the 67th minute when Gary Caldwell scored for us and we shook France, and the same when we beat them in Paris with James McFadden's wonderful strike from like a mile out lol. We shouldn't have been beaten of Italy. It should be us facing you

But all that said, if Holland put Italy out I want you to win lol.

As long as Germany and Portugal do not win it I will be happy. Portugal always fold at the Quarter and Semi finals so I doubt they will win. Germany on the other hand always pose a very big threat(against my wishes) and they well could be favourites.

I would like to see an under dog team win it like Greece did last time.

aha dont hate the playa hate the game I just root for Portugal cause 2 good friends of mine family is from Portugal. They are into the game big time and I picked it all up from them . I watch it for the love of the game and enjoy it alot. After reading on the Neatherlands game I could see them doing some damage and possibly winning it.

Dont hate Noonie cause I root for evil teams:P

As for MLS New England Rev's are currently in first place. Toronto FC is in fourth place in their division and in the league as well.

How are L.A Galaxy doing with the over rated David Beckham these days?

Toronto FC beat them, and LA is at the top of the western conference yet they only have 14 pts compared to the 17 Toronto have.

David Beckham over rated! Never!

Don't get me wrong, he is still a great player who gives it his all and is still the best crosser and dead ball taker in the world, but he is not as good as he used to be.

England beat Trinidad and Tobago 3-0 last night but although much better than the USA, they too were no real challenge for us in a very mediocre game, and the pitch has horrible. We need to play much better teams to test our players.

He is the most over rated player in the world and i think the statement you made is false. He was a good player but has always been over rated to #####. Someone i was talking to on MSN last night was watching the England game and fell asleep.

No, my statement is spot on. He is a great player in what he does. Yes, he may be slow, shite at tackling and have no skill on the ball but he makes up for that with the skills he possesses which is his ability to see great passes, crosses and the such as he can tear apart teams from dead ball situations etc, and has more passion and determination for the England team that half of the players do not possess. He is also one of the best fair play sportsman you will get and shows that in every match he is in.(Excluding that Argentina match) He is over rated in the praise and football people give him and such, but he is a great player from what I stated above.

England's game was boring because we were playing a rubbish team. If it was a much better team things would have been better.

Jose Mourinho was made new manager of Inter Milan today and supposedly has 100 Million euros to spend on players. He wants to bring Essien, Lampard and Drogba to Inter.

You said he is the best crosser of a ball and I am pretty damn sure he isn't, maybe a one time but definitely not now. He has lost most of what he had skill wise, but don't get me wrong i like the guy, he was a great player and i agree he is one of the players who does play with a passion and I praise him for it.

I'm not sure how you can blame England playing bad on the opposing team lol

I just heard about Inter and I think Lampard will stay at Chelsea, Drogba will go to Inter and Essien is the best of the three and will be tough to call but Chelsea should do all they can to keep a hold of him.

He is and has been for a while now. He spots good chances for crosses early, always makes them with precision and he is also the best free-kick/dead ball taker in the world.



Yes, I stated about his skills above. He knows what he has lost after all these years and works extra to perfect what he has left e.g: Crossing, passing and dead balls.

The thing now is we should:

1: No longer rely on him anymore
2: Find someone who can do and play the same way as him but with all the extras such as speed, being able to pass and things such as that.

David Bentley is the closest thing we have to Beckham and may well be better than him one day especially if he joins Liverpool to progress his skills. Beckham also has few football academies and helps to strengthen football mores way than just playing. For all this, he is a great player and not many people have put in to football like David Beckham has and for that I salute him.



We did not play bad, we destroyed them but because of them being so weak we not use much effort like we would against a big team.

Any news on Rangers strengthening their squad this summer?

I won't argue that Beckham isn't a bad crosser I just think there are better people in the world of football that can cross a ball better than him, he may be the best English player at crossing though, but not the worlds best.



Yes. Walter Smith going into the second season with us is looking to strengthen the team a lot. We are close to signing Kenny Miller back from Derby, he will be the first person in 102 years to play for Rangers then Celtic then back to Rangers, his pace with be good up front.

Other than that I just know he is eying up a few people but we won't really know who for a few weeks.

I think you need a few good signings to make your team much better. You were outclassed in the UEFA Cup final so you need some players that would have helped you to win it. I say some play makers with speed in midfield and maybe a better striker. I like your defence so I don't know about that. Supposedly my team, Newcastle wanted to sign your Cuellar(sp) but I don't know about that either. What is he like?

Cuellar is amazing! Seriously I'm not just saying this because he plays for Rangers but he is one of the most consistent Center Backs I have ever seen. He played 64 games this season and was fantastic. He even scored 4 goals for us. Him and the 38 year old David Weir (Who may be leaving) made a great partnership all season and I really hope we keep Cuellar, so yeah hands off! He was named player of the year and was even in the elite European 11 of 07/08 along side names like C Ronaldo and Kaka!

I think Walter is looking for a few strikers because thats where we lacked in this season. Daniel Cousin is rubbish and I'd be glad to see him go to Fulham in exchange for Steve Davis. JC Darcheville is still good but struggles to play the full match and has had some bad injury problems. And of course Kris Boyd who did start to play better football at the end of the season is still pish even though he scores goals. We almost have our first striker Miller and hopefully another will come soon.
Walter is eying up a few defenders to hopefully a new RightBack because Kirk Broadfoot who took over from Alan Hutton is a donkey! A few attacking minded mid fielders would help to secure the league title next year.
Rangers and Celtic are both set to have a war to see who signs Kyle Lafferty the youngster who plays at Burnley I heard he was quite good.

Any news on Newcastle?

Just to comment, the best fair play player I have seen is Lionel Messi. I have never seen him being disrespectful to other players, nor do I see him dive, unlike other Argentinian players.

Sounds like we should steal him off you!

Newcastle? Not much really except selling Emre and making a profit from him.(Got him for 3.5 and selling him for 8 supposedly) So far we have been linked with these players:

Befitimbi Gomis
Shaun Wright Phillips
Arda Turan
Richard Dunne

There are a lot of others which I forgot too. Gomis is supposed to be the next Drogba and from what I have seen he looks amazing. Arda Turan is a midfield play maker which would work for us, he is also an immense player. SRW would be a great signing as we need pace and flair and with him on the right, Milner could go on the left and we would own. Richard Dunne is a defender anyone would want and so it would be awesome to get him. I'll keep you updated on everything when it comes.

To Pesmerga:

Funny thing about Messi. When the Arsenal scouts found Fabregas, they could have had Messi too but they thought he was not that good. Unlucky eh!

Haha, shows their knowledge of the game. Lionel Messi is one of the most gifted players and at his current pace, he'll keep on rising and become one of the best players in history.

About Feyenoord transfers, apparantly we're linked to Tal Ben Haim from Chelsea and Daniel de Ridder from Birmingham, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink from Celtic.
If these rumours are true... I don't know.

This was many years ago and back then Messi might have not impressed as much and and then must have got much better afterwards. Messi is one of my favourite players and I always have him in my PES dream teams.

Tal Ben Haim is a great defender and that would be a great capture for your team. Chelsea are having a mass exodus of their players so Ben Haim will most probably be sold.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Celtic are desperate to get rid of him he is actually murder. He isn't allowed to take any penalties for Holland in the Euro 08 because he missed so many. I hope Celtic keep him, he's rubbish and a really dirty player.

Also is Gio and Michael Mols still at Feyenoord?

Yeah, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Michael Mols are still at Feyenoord, at least I think they are. It could be that Mols might retire soon though, I mean he is pretty old.

Mark Hughes is very close to being the new Manchester City manager, but Blackburn is a far better team than Manchester City, though I guess he will be able to have more money for transfers at Manchester City.

AC Milan want to buy Drogba and Shevchenko from Chelsea and that would be a huge amount of money for both.(Especially as Shevchenko cost Chelsea 30 Million) Newcastle have once again been linked with Arda Turan and we are supposedly lining up a 9 million bid, and we are also interested in Micheal Dawson from Tottenham.