What you missed while scientists were finding a new type of predator coral that can eat jellyfish…

• David Beckham’s LA Galaxy lost the MLS Cup on penalties to Real Salt Lake last night, but Beckham is still planning on coming back after his AC Milan move, possibly with an eye towards one day owning an MLS franchise. Beckham Beckham Beckham Beckham.
• Jermain Defoe scored five goals in Tottenham’s 9-1 demolition of Wigan.
• Barcelona drew 1-1 with Athletic Bilbao Saturday, dropping them behind Real Madrid on the table; even worse, Lionel Messi went down with a thigh tear that will likely leave him out of the Super Classico on Saturday.
• Gaël Kakuta, the controversial Chelsea youth prospect, made his debut against Wolves.
• Liverpool will have to beat Debrecini VSC without Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel; the way things are going lately, look for a 2-2 draw in Hungary tomorrow.
• Carlos Vela’s potential has convinced Arsene Wenger to stop trying to sign Marouane Chamakh.
• Thierry Henry considered quitting after his controversial double dribble against Ireland.
• Philipp Lahm says that Bayern Munich is “sick” and “lame”. No word on whether they’re also “bogus” and “heinous”.
• Switzerland’s FC Gossau and FC Thun have each banned players over their roles in a match fixing scandal.
• Palermo have sacked Walter Zenga for extending the club’s winless run to four games, knocking all the pieces over.
• Rubin Kazan’s scoreless draw with Zenit St. Petersburg saw them clinch their second consecutive Russian Premier League title.
• Gary Neville has hit out against “mollycoddled” players who collect paychecks but never seem to actually play rely on their agents to do everything for them.

Get used to those shirts, boys - you'll be wearing them a while yet.

Well it seems that a certain World Cup winner and a certain Chilean will not be shipping off to Russia anytime soon. Both of the Lupi veterans had been recently linked (along with ex-manager Luciano Spalletti) with a move to Russkie side Zenit St Petersburg, but AS Roma took action today to keep Simone Perrotta and David Pizarro around for a long time yet. Both of the midfielders’ contracts were set to expire at the end of the 2009/10 season, but the extensions agreed upon today will see the 32-year old Perrotta stick around until 2011 and the 30-year old Pizarro here ’til 2013. I’d call this a piece of pretty good business on the part of Rosella Sensi & co – the former internationals are both key components of the Roman side (Pizarro provides offensive creativity and Perrotta misses sitters). However, I gotta wonder – extending their contracts before renewing Er Pupone’s? Shame, Rosella, shame.

Spanish sports-news giant MARCA reports that Alvaro Negredo is headed for a one year loan to either Hull City or Zenit St. Petersburg.

The choice is ultimately up to Negredo, but there is a big decision to be made.  Negredo feels that playing week in and week out with Hull City in England’s Premiership will be better because he will gain experience playing in what is the best or second best European league every season.  Madrid, however, feels that Negredo would benefit more by going to Zenit, because they are much more competitive on a European level than the English side.

I say he should go to England.  He will play no less than 8 games against last year’s UEFA Champions League Quarter Final qualifying teams just throughout the course of the regular season.  Besides, the worst team he plays against in England will defend better and tackle harder than their Russian counterparts, which would be great experience for a young striker.

What you missed while Troy Tulowitzki got an “I hit for the cycle” to match his “I turned an unassisted triple play”…

• Steven Gerrard is out of England’s friendly against the Netherlands with a groin injury that will probably mysteriously evaporate between now and Sunday. Ben Foster is out with an undisclosed injury (possibly damaging his esophagus while sucking so hard against Chelsea), while Cristiano Ronaldo has the “flu” and will miss Portugal’s friendly against Liechtenstein.
• Oh, and Craig Bellamy’s captaincy of Wales may be revoked after he was caught training at Manchester City while supposedly recuperating from a knee injury. Not that the above three are faking, but they may want to skip practice today.
• In “Players Who Want to Play Internationally” news, Manuel Almunia is planning on becoming an English citizen so that he can play for the English National Team.
• Michael Ballack won’t face any disciplinary action after going all John Gillooly on Patrice Evra in the Community Shield.
• The sackings of Vitória’s Paulo Cesar Carpeggiani and Botafogo’s Ney Franco were the 25th and 26th sackings in Brazil’s Campeonato Brasileiro Série A this year (or the 13th and 14th this season, depending on your criteria).
• Dick Advocaat was sacked by Zenit St. Petersburg after waffling too much between his club job and coaching the Belgian National Team.

Zenit St. Petersburg have sacked Dutch coach Dick Advocaat after a disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Russian league rivals Tom on Sunday.

The defeat left Zenit seventh in the 16-team Russian league with 24 points from 17 games, 10 points adrift of leaders Rubin Zazan.

Advocaat led Zenit to the Russian title in 2007 and their greatest success a year later as they won the UEFA Cup, beating Glasgow Rangers in the final.

But the success led to the departure of several high-profile players, including Andrei Arshavin to Arsenal in the English Premier League, and results have suffered.

Advocaat was due to end his contract at the end of the current Russian season to take over as coach of the Belgian national team, but club officials lost patience with him.

“Unfortunately, after the (Advocaat’s) decision to take over the Belgium national team, Zenit’s results have noticeably gone down,” the club said in a statement on their official Web site www.fc-zenit.ru.

“Both fans and the management are dissatisfied with the place Zenit holds in the Russian championships,” it added

Anatoly Davydov, the club’s youth team boss, was appointed interim coach and will be charged with lifting them up the league to challenge for a place in European club competition next season.

Advocaat has previously coached the national teams of the Netherlands, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates, as well as PSV Eindhoven and Scottish League champion Rangers.

He had been at Zenit since 2006.

CNN

Wird die 29 die neue 33?

Bevor nun in rund 40 Stunden die neue Bundesligasaison endlich losgeht mit dem Duell beim aktuellen Meister wird es mal langsam Zeit hier im Brustring auch noch den wohl meistdiskutiertesten Transfer endlich zu thematisieren: Den Kauf von Pavel Pogrebnyak (im folgenden PaPo genannt), dem Stürmer, der die 24-Tore-Lücke schließen soll, die der Abgang von Mario Gomez hinterlassen hat.

Wenn man mal dieses ewige Hin- und Her und das Riesenbrimborium ausklammert, das sich in den letzten Wochen um die Nachfolge von Gomez entwickelt hat, dann kann man wohl schon sagen, dass die Verpflichtung von PaPo ein durchaus sinnvoller Transfer war.

Ich kenne ihn zwar nicht wirklich mehr als von ein paar Youtube-Schnipsel und vagen Erinnerungen an ein paar UEFA-Cup-Begegnungen, aber dem Vernehmen nach soll er ein ziemlich athletischer Spieler mit einem anständigen Torriecher sein. Also in etwa das, was auch Gomez auszeichnete.

Man kann wohl sagen, dass er in seiner Zeit bei Zenit zu großen Teilen von seinem Mitspieler Arshavin profitiert hat, mit dem er vor allem während des 08er UEFA Cups die gegnerischen Abwehrreihen ziemlich beeindruckend auseinandergenommen hat. Und das ist dann der Punkt, an dem Aleks Hleb ins Spiel kommt wovon ich ja schon gestern kurz sprach.

Denn mit Hlebs offensiven Stärken und PaPos gutem Torriecher könnten wir da ein wirklich gefährliches Duo beisammen haben, das einigen anderen Bundesligadefensiven durchaus Kopfschmerzen bereiten könnte.

Mehr ausser diesen Vermutungen und Konjunktiven fällt mir, ehrlich gesagt, an dieser Stelle aber auch nicht ein. Es bleibt einfach, wie bei jedem Transfer abzuwarten, ob es ihm gelingt bald den Anschluss ans Team zu finden und die an ihn gestellten Erwartungen zu erfüllen.
Gut, die finanzielle Dimension ist sicherlich noch eine Erwähnung wert. Schließlich wurden im Zuge der Beinahe-Verpflichtungen von Helmes, Ba, Huntelaar oder Love ja regelmäßig Summen von 12-20 Millionen Euro aufgerufen, wohingegen die angeblich 5 Mio € für PaPo schon beinahe verschwindend gering anmuten. Klar, bei knapp einem halben Jahr Restlaufzeit sollte man auch nicht mehr in den zweistelligen Bereich gehen.
Nichtsdestotrotz erscheint mir die kolportierte Summe ziemlich “vernünftig”, also im Sinne von Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis. Aber schauen wir mal.

Es wird auf jeden Fall Zeit, dass es wieder los geht mit richtigem Fußball.

This summer has seen an insane amount of transfer activity, especially considering the not-so-healthy state of many teams’ balance sheets.  To be fair, the spending has mainly been the handiwork of two despicable teams, Manchester City and Real Madrid, but the news today that Barcelona were willing to give Samuel Eto’o, 40 million euros and a season’s worth of Aliaksandr Hleb for Inter Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic is shocking for any number of reasons, but mainly because most previous reports had indicated that such a move would be Eto’o for Ibrahimovic almost straight-up; perhaps a makeweight player to Inter or a relatively small sum of money such as ten million euros.  That’s enough analysis up top, though; I’ll start by listing my top transfers (11-5), with the top five and five transfers that should happen to come later.  Why eleven?  I was originally planning on ten, but then Arsenal fan favorite (sarcasm, if you were wondering) Emmanuel Adebayor defected to Manchester City for a new “challenge” and a huge pay packet.  Funny how that happens.  Also, apologies in advance for mixing currencies.

11. Emmanuel Adebayor, Arsenal to Manchester City, 25 million pounds

If this had happened last summer, it would be much higher, but a sulky Adebayor didn’t exactly set the world alight this past season, and City’s already packed forward line really isn’t that improved following his signing.  In addition, Arsenal should be a better team with the money that they received, as they still have plenty of attacking talent, such as Robin van Persie, Eduardo, Theo Walcott, and Carlos Vela, not to mention thousands (only a slight exaggeration) of youth players and, possibly, a French striker or two coming in.  Seriously, though, what formation are City going to play?  A future column may be dedicated to that question; stay tuned.

10. Michael Owen, Newcastle to Manchester United, fo’ free

A bit of a homer pick, but let’s be real–he’s replacing Carlos Tevez, who was a key player for United, and has a better goalscoring record than the Argentinean.  He can’t match Tevez’s effort, but if he can score 20 or 25 goals mostly as a sub, and give his experience to up-and-coming youngsters such as Danny Welbeck and Kiko Macheda, this deal may be the best of the summer.  He’ll certainly provide a better goals-to-millions-invested ratio than anyone on this list, and if his early return (two goals in two games) is anything to go off, he will thrive in a system such as United’s.  Honestly, there may be no better fit–skilled players all over the pitch leads to lots of chances inside the 18-yard box.  Who can convert those better than Owen?

9. Yuriy Zhirkhov, Zenit St. Petersburg to Chelsea, 18 million pounds

To be honest, I’m not really sure what his role on the team will be–he’s a left-sided player, but I can’t see him eclipsing Ashley Cole at left back or Joe Cole (or Florent Malouda, or Salomon Kalou, etc) on the left flank.  That said, he is undoubtedly a quality player whose versatility will prove useful.  Injuries happen, and I’d much rather have Zhirkov covering Cole than Wayne Bridge.  Unless Chelsea manages to squeeze him into their starting lineup on a regular basis, though, the fee seems exorbitant.

8. Karim Benzema, Lyon to Real Madrid, 30 million euros

Perhaps he should be higher, but we’re talking about a player that I don’t think is talented enough to start on a regular basis for Real.  Benzema has the potential to be one of Europe’s top players, but can he reach that level this season?  I find it unlikely, and I would prefer both Raul and Gonzalo Higuain to Benzema this season.  This struck me as more of an “in your face, United” buy than one to cover up a need; Benzema is only six months younger than Higuain and has never played in La Liga.  Perhaps he’ll prove me wrong, but much like Zhirkov I think that this is a case of right player, wrong place.  If he continues to do as well as he did on his debut against Shamrock Rovers, though, he may warrant a much higher spot on the list.

7. Diego, Werder Bremen to Juventus, 25 million euros

One of the best attacking midfielders in Europe, Diego is one half of Juventus’s bid to beef up their midfield and challenge for the Scudetto.  This bid actually was good business for both sides, providing–and there is a significant chance that this won’t happen–that WB hang on to 20-year-old Mesut Ozil, who tore England U-21s apart in the U-21 European Championship final.  Aston Villa are said to be interested, and with good reason.  Back to Diego, though–he should be a good purchase for Juve, providing creativity and vision.

6. Felipe Melo, Fiorentina to Juventus, 25 million euros

Bursting onto the scene in this summer’s Confederations Cup, Melo attracted the attention of Arsenal, who undoubtedly wanted to groom him into a world-class midfielder and then sell him three years later.  Juventus, however, beat Arsene Wenger to his signature.  This is a very good signing; Felipe Melo is a hardworking midfielder who can also score the occasional goal–he reminds me somewhat of Kleberson before he moved to Manchester United (Kleberson, by the way, still has one of the nicest shots I have ever seen, when he hit the crossbar against Germany in the 2002 World Cup Final).

Wirklich wunderschöne Szenen, wie Tymo auf seinem Weg zum Flughafen auf seinem Weg nach München von seinen Fans verabschiedet wird. Auf dem Spruchband steht “Danke für alles Kapitän”. Sehr cool auch, wie er aussteigt und sich etwas Zeit für die Fans nimmt. Hoffen wir, er wird auch bei uns annähernd diese Wichtigkeit für die Mannschaft und damit auch dem Verein und die Fans bekommen.

© 2009 Traumtorschuetze

Zenit St-Petersburg takımı, Fatih Tekke’yi resmen sildi. Tecrübeli golcüyü Avusturya kampı kadrosuna almayan Rus takımı, Fatih Tekke’den kendisine kulüp bulmasını istedi.

Goal.com’un haberine göre Fatih Tekke’nin Zenit St-Petersburg macerasında sona geliniyor. Zenit St-Petersburg, birkaç gün önce Güiza’yı transfer etmek için takas yoluyla Fenerbahçe’ye önerdiği Fatih’i kadro dışı bırakarak satış listesine koydu.

Zenit’in Avusturya kampına alınmayan yegâne futbolcusu olan Fatih Tekke’nin, kendisine yeni kulüp aramaya başladığı öğrenildi. Rus Kulübü’nün basın sözcülüğünü yapan Alexey Petrov, konuya ilişkin bir açıklamada bulunarak, “Avusturya’ya Fatih Tekke hariç tüm futbolcular geliyor. Fatih St-Petersburg’da kendisine gelecek teklifleri değerlendirecek” diye konuştu.

Sözleşmesi, Rusya’da liglerin başlama tarihlerinin farklı olması nedeniyle 8 Ocak 2010 tarihinde dolacak olan Fatih Tekke, eğer yaz aylarında kendisini bonservisini ödeyerek transfer edecek bir kulüp bulamazsa, büyük olasılıkla Ocak ayına kadar futboldan uzak kalacak. Fatih Tekke’yi bugünlerde özellikle isteyen kulüpler arasında, eski takımı Trabzonspor başı çekiyor.

The Gareth Barry transfer earlier this week was, to say the least, stunning. Not because he left, of course; that was expected. That he left to go to a club not in the Champions League flew in the face of every rumor I’ve seen on his future…which only goes to prove that, to a large extent, the rumor mill for these transfers is completely worthless.

Let’s step back from soccer for a moment to explain the situation. I’m a Browns fan. A couple years back, the Browns were drafting third overall. As fans, we knew the targets: Adrian Peterson, Jamarcus Russell, Brady Quinn, etc., etc. Phil Savage talked up every single one of those candidates. He went on local radio shows talking about how he loved Russell’s arm, loved Ginn’s speed, could really see us drafting Amobi Okoye, so on, so forth. The only person he DIDN’T talk about was our target and eventual pick: left tackle Joe Thomas. In fact, Thomas was Savage’s target all along. It didn’t do any good to let on that we were picking him, though, so the Browns made a decision: we’ll completely ignore him until we draft him.

In a similar way, these transfer rumors aren’t developed in a vaccuum. All of them came from somewhere; the issue is determining whether or not the source stands to gain from the story’s placement. Complicating the issue is that most of these rumors are blind items; they don’t list their confidential sources. That creates the real fun of this season: we can “know” that Barry to Liverpool is a done deal because we’ve read all about it; in reality, though, City offered a lot less than I thought Villa would command for Barry, and he left for a team that was willing to pay him a lot of money instead of one with European pedigree.

So, bearing that in mind, the Thursday Transfer Market Watch is unveiling a new feature: the Reality Rating Scale. After each item, I’ll give a rating from 1-10 indicating how likely it is a rumor is based on some sort of real desire by a club or a player (with one being “someone on a fan forum made this up and News of the World ran with it” and ten being “I would bet my mortgage that these two parties are trying to work something out”). This will allow you to see if there’s credibility behind a rumor, and will also allow me to use italicized fonts that I secretly love.

Either way: On with the market watch!

Andrei Arshavin
Let’s start with a fun one. After realizing that England taxes the hell out of your paycheck, Arshavin (winner of the Droppy for Transfer of the Year) is rumored to be unhappy with the compensation he’s receiving from Arsenal. His former club, Zenit St. Petersburg, feel that now’s the perfect time for him to come back to Mother Russia, and are rumored to be in the process of preparing a bid to buy back the impish midfielder.
Reality Rating: 3. I don’t see this happening so soon after the intial transfer, but I do think the story’s kind of funny.

Cesc Fàbregas
Because they don’t already have enough awesome midfielders, Barcelona are apparently looking at bringing former youth academy project Cesc Fàbregas home to Spain for next year’s campaign. Fàbregas would join former Arsenal players Sylvinho, Thierry Henry, and Aleksander Hleb at the Catalan side should the Gunners accept the £40 million offer that Barcelona’s prepared to make.
Reality Rating: 6. I’m not sure that Barcelona would want to start looking at replacing Xavi or Iniesta, and even if they did I’m not thinking that Cesc is quite ready for the role.

Samuel Eto’o
No formal offer has been made as of yet, but the Cameroonian national has been heavily linked with Manchester City recently. With only a year left on his deal, Eto’o and Barcelona have yet to agree on a contract extension, and everyone involved seems to think that it may be best for Eto’o to move on. How he’d fit in at Manchester City isn’t really known; Eto’o and Brazilian Ronaldinho were known to have had issues cooperating during Ronaldinho’s tenure, and Ronaldinho and Robinho are friends.
Reality Rating: 8. Regardless of whether or not he goes to City, I think Eto’o won’t be at Barcelona next year.

Kaká
After famously rejecting £100 million from Manchester City, AC Milan seemed prepared to let Kaká to join Real Madrid for £60 million yesterday. And as recently as 8:59 this morning, the Brazilian seemed set for either sunny Spain or a Milan stay; The Daily Mail claims that, because of the midfielder’s insane contract demands, Chelsea could re-enter the picture. the Blues previously were reported to offer £73.5 million for Kaká to rejoin Carlo Ancelotti in London.
Reality Rating: 10. Kaká himself is saying things, so it seems pretty clear that there have at least been talks and offers.

David Silva
From the “Please God Make This Happen” file: Liverpool are rumored to have made a £15 million offer to Valencia for David Silva. Silva’s the kind of player that Liverpool need; he has the ability to play wide as a winger, but could also come inside and play the withdrawn striker/attacking midfielder role. He’s a creative player with good vision, and his natural left-footedness could really allow for Benitez to provide a change of pace from Riera out left. The only downside: should Silva come to Liverpool, that would probably signal the exit of Ryan Babel.
Reality Rating: 8. Silva’s long been rumored to be a target, so this meshes with that. Also, should Silva want to come to England, the large Spanish contingent at Liverpool would feel like a second home to him; five members of the Spanish national team also play at Anfield.

Robinho
Transfer rumors tend to take one of two forms. The first variety is the “X-Player has a relationship with Y-Coach who has Z-Need that X-Player could fill very well.” It’s speculation, sure, but it’s relatively thought out. The second – the school of thought that this Robinho rumor fits into – are the passive aggressive denials of rumors that never seemed to exist in the first place. So when I read a story that says “Robinho refutes rumors that he’ll be moving from Manchester City to Brazilian side Santos”, I tend to think that maybe a player’s looking for a little leverage and is creating their own gossip.
Reality Rating: 2 . It’s just as likely Robinho’s talking out of his ass or has been misquoted, both of which seem to happen to him a lot.

Elano
Continuing along in the “disgruntled Brazilian Manchester City players” vein, Elano himself has said that he’s been in talks with Inter Milan about a possible summer move. Elano’s struggled to find a place under Mark Hughes, so a move away from the club always seemed like a possibility. That possibility only increased with Gareth Barry’s arrival adding competition in the midfield.
Reality Rating: 7. I think Elano’s not particularly happy at City, and a move to Inter might be just the thing to fix that.

Matt Derbyshire
If you read the earlier piece on the fanastic Greek Cup Final, than you know that Blackburn loanee and England U-21 player Matt Derbyshire spent most of the season at Olympiakos, playing the kind of football most Blackburn players wish they could play. It should come as no surprise, then, that Olympiakos are keen on bringing Derbyshire in on a permanent basis, and have already submitted an offer to Blackburn to start the process along. Blackburn have yet to respond to the offer.
Reality Rating: 8. I think it’s definitely a move that Olympiakos would want to make, and I think Derbyshire would be keen on staying. The only snag would be Blackburn wanting Derbyshire back, but even then I think Olympiakos would try to push the issue.

Sol Campbell
Rumor has it that Roger Federer’s favorite club, Swiss side FC Basel, is interested in bringing Sol Campbell in for the 2009-10 season. The 34 year old’s Portsmouth contract is up, so he’d be a free transfer. In an ironic twist, the Swiss superpower just sacked former Tottenham manager Christian Gross.
Reality Rating: 5. I mean, really, who knows what Sol Campbell’s going to do.

Andrea Dossena
Dossena’s been a bust at Liverpool, but in Italy he’s well regarded and a member of the Italian national team (which possibly explains some of Italy’s probablems internationally of late). Because of that, rumors of his transfer back to Serie A only a year after he was purchased for £6 million from Udinese make sense. Juventus have apparently expressed interest in Dossena, and while their £4 million price means that Liverpool would take a loss, that may be a loss the Reds are willing to take.
Reality Rating: 4. Juventus seems to be a little too big for Dossena after failing so dramatically at Liverpool.

What you missed while a judge was keeping you safe from the menace of Crunchberries…

• Zenit St. Petersburg manager Dick Advocaat (which is, let’s be honest, a really funny name) has taken over the Belgian National Team.
• Premier League chairman Richard Scudamore is hoping that overseas television rights will help ease the debt burden on the clubs under his control; part of that plan may include going free to air in developing countries.
• If the Netherlands beats Iceland Saturday, they’ll be the first European team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.
• Gareth Barry wrote a letter apologizing to Villa fans for his move to Manchester City.

Manchester United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak has hinted that a loan deal could be the answer to his problem of lack of first team football at the club.

The Poland international has not yet established himself in the first team, playing second fiddle to the club’s number one Edwin van der Sar, as well as facing competition from Ben Foster.

The 27-year-old feels, therefore, that a temporary move away from Old Trafford could be the best way forward for his career.

The ‘keeper has been attracting the interests of Russian Premier League side Zenit St. Petersburg and Turkish side Besiktas, who it seems would both be interested in taking the former West Bromwich Albion ‘keeper on loan.

The Polish keeper admitted his desire to secure first team football.

Speaking to The People, Kuszczak said:

“This has got out of hand. It is high time for me to look into the option of being loaned out.

“I am a player at the best club in the whole world, and that alone makes me very happy.

“However, that is not the case when I look to next season and the prospect of playing only a few matches.”

Kuszczak joined the Red Devils from West Brom, after making his loan deal with the club permanent in 2007.

The Zenit playmaker reveals how close he was to a move to Stamford Bridge.Zenit St. Petersburg midfielder Danny has stated that he was close to a move to Chelsea, but an injury forced the deal to be called off.

The Portuguese playmaker has claimed that if he had remained fit, there were offers for him to move to several big European clubs, including the Blues.

The Portugal international signed for Zenit last summer for a Russian record £25 million and his displays in the Russian Premier League, and in the club’s European campaign, led to his first international cap.

The midfielder said he did not make the move to Stamford Bridge as he suffered a knee ligament injury and was out of action for six months.

The 25-year-old spoke to Portuguese newspaper Record, saying, “This has all happened at a time when other European leagues were coming to an end in a few weeks.

“And I, incidentally, had an offer from Chelsea and the probability of a transfer to England was very high.”

The player is now back in Portugal to have surgery on his knee and he has stated that he will wait until after he has recovered before considering his options.

“We have to wait and see what happens next. At Chelsea they know me as a player very well, but all will depend on how my operation goes,” he said.

“At the moment I have a different [goal], to recover 100 per cent.”

Danny has played 18 league games for Zenit, scoring 5 goals.

Goal

Zenit St Petersburg – Amkar Perm 1 @1.50 (0-0)

Miza:62

Castig eventual: 93

A 4′a etapa din Russia Premier League, gazdele Zenit primesc vizita unei echipe care la sfarsitul anului trecut erau deasupra lor in clasament. Amkar Perm va juca in sezonul 2009-2010 in play-off`ul pt Uefa Europa League, in timp ce Zenit va juca in turul 3 preliminar. Cred intr-o revansa, intr-o razbunare a celor de la Zenit pt amaratul loc 5 obtinut anul trecut in campionat dupa ce in anul anterior cucerisera titlul. Gazdele au adunat 7 puncte anul asta din 2 victorii si un egal in timp ce oaspetii s`au ales doar cu 2 puncte dupa 2 egaluri si o infrangere. Cu o victorie astazi Zenitul s-ar instala pt moment direct pe prima pozitie a clasamentului…

Pierdut. Amkar nu a prea contat, doar de cateva ori pe contra-atac, iar Zenit a ratat foarte mult atunci cand si`a facut ocazii… O aparare a oaspetilor foarte bine organizata. Asta e, o luam de la capat.

Am gresit mizand suma asta pe meci, chiar daca iesea, voi juca cu mai multa prudenta.

Bye Bye Brandy

My first task for the summer, having already secured Ever Banega and Havard Nordveit on free transfers, was to offload some of the dead wood. The first to leave were Ben Chorley and Mark Little, who both headed north of the border on free transfers. Leigh Bromby moved to Notts County for £200K, while Febian Brandy called an end to his torrid time at the Den by completing a £4million move to Russian giants Zenit St. Petersburg. Several players also left on loan deals. Having secured Nottingham Forest as my new feeder club, Jeff Stevens, Miguel Angel Aldana, Nicolas Vial and Justin Daley were all dispatched to the City Ground to experience League One football. Also, Theo Adelaar moved to Roda JC for the season, and Karl Lampkin was loaned out to Notts County. Simon O’Halloran, trouble starter extraordinaire, was shipped out to Wolves for £1.2million after only 4 games for the club. Hopefully youngsters in future will learn from his mistakes, namely not to publicly fall out with 2 of your team mates, especially not club captain and England star, Ashley Gould. The final departure of the summer was that of Tamas Priskin, who was finally flogged to Swansea for £2.7million, giving me a profit of £2.7million on a player who only managed to score one league goal for the club!

Having flogged 6 players, and loaned out another 6, reinforcements were required. These came in the form of Steve Boyce, a right midfielder from Newcastle, Christian Hollman, an impressive German youngster, Renzo Niccolai, and Danielle Cerci (all regens.) However, the biggest deals of the summer saw Stuart Poole, a rock solid centre back from Swansea, arrive for £5.5million, and Sergey Makarov, a Belarussian international with 17 goals in 29 appearances, arrive for £10.75million from Feyenoord. Having spent £16.75million, and recouped £5.5million, I still have a pretty hefty transfer budget, so if I need to buy any reinforcements in January, money shouldn’t be an issue.

Stuart Poole (Click to enlarge)

Sergey Makarov (Click to enlarge)

There were yet more arrivals at the club as a minor staff reshuffle took place. Tony Burns, Millwall’s long standing goalkeeping coach, retired, and Ronnie Boyce was released. In their places came Kevin Pressman, Gwyn Williams, Berry van Aerle and Dave Fallows along with a host of ex professionals, including Nicky Butt, Simone Perrotta, Sidney Govou and Mikael Silvestre. This expansion of our scouting and coaching staff has paid off already, with yet more hidden gems uncovered, and players stats ever increasing.

Butt, Govou, Perrotta and Silvestre join the backroom staff.

Pre season was a mixed bag. Wins against Lille and Fiorentina were tempered somewhat by a 4-1 defeat to Valencia. A goalless draw against Ajax was also played out. We took one win from our first three league games, a 4-0 home win against Middlesbrough in which both Ever Banega and Sergey Makarov got off the mark for the club, followed by a home draw against Everton and an away draw at Fulham. In addition to this, we were handed a potential banana skin in the League Cup, away to Scunthorpe, however we managed to put the thought of a potential upset out of our minds and won convincingly.

Hopefully we’ll keep the unbeaten run up, however, I don’t want us to slip into the same form as last year, where we drew far too many games. I can only hope that the money invested in Sergey Makarov will see an increase in the amount of goals scored, while Stuart Poole will shore up the defence yet more.

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Zenit St Petersburg vs Udinese Preview

Beset by injuries, suspensions and 2-0 down in their last-16 tie against Udinese Calcio they may be, but FC Zenit St. Petersburg are not giving up, with Dick Advocaat sure the holders can “make it to the quarter-finals” again.

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By Cara Sulieman

POLICE hunting alleged Rangers fans who rioted during last year’s UEFA cup final say they have now identified all 49 suspects after a UK-wide appeal.

Greater Manchester Police carried out more dawn raids yesterday across the country as a part of Operation Gale and arrested seven men, bringing the total detained so far to 17.

Further arrests are expected.

The latest arrests come 49 days after the initial appeal was first launched meaning investigators have identified an average of one suspect per day.

Although most of those arrested have been from the west coast of Scotland, others were arrested in Lanarkshire, East Lothian and as far a field as Essex.

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed that they have identified all 49 suspects.

She said: “The photographs of suspects have been taken down from the appeal website for legal reasons.

“They won’t be going up again because the police have been given names for everyone in the photos.”

Four of the men arrested on Monday have been bailed until June 2, and another until June 7 whilst further enquiries are ongoing. Police were expected to release further details of yesterday’s arrests later.

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said: “It is likely those arrested today will also be released on bail.

“The arrests will carry on until they have everyone they’re looking for.”

Before this week’s raids, the police had already arrested five men in connection with the riots in late February and early March.

They have also been bailed pending further enquiries.

The riots took place in the streets of Manchester city centre during and after the final between Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg.

Trouble first broke out when one of the giant outside screens designed to show the match to fans didn’t work before the kick-off.

In the resulting violence, police were attacked, and property was trashed.

Detective Superintendent Geoff Wessell, leading the investigation, said: “May 14 2008 is a night when shameful violence marred what should have been a wonderful football showcase.”