Blackburn vs Fulham Match Preview

El Hadj Diouf is suspended for Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn Rovers, while Fulham welcome defender Brede Hangeland back into the squad.
Hangeland had been missing with a knee injury, but is fit again and will start in central defence in place of Chris Smalling.
Fulham boss Roy Hodgson will freshen up his forward line in the absence of [...] http://bit.ly/6S5G8S

Aston Villa vs West Ham Preview

Goalkeeper Brad Friedel will return to the Aston Villa starting lineup to face a West Ham United side who have no fit senior strikers.
Mexican striker Guillermo Franco picked up an injury in training for Gianfranco Zola’s West Ham and joins Carlton Cole, Kieron Dyer and Luis Boa Morte on the sidelines.
Youngsters Frank Nouble or Freddie [...] http://bit.ly/6PqPwz

Bolton Wanderers vs Arsenal Preview

New Bolton boss Owen Coyle has a number of players returning after illness, while Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas is back from a hamstring strain.
Also returning to give Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger a boost is defender Gael Clichy, although it looks likely that the full back will be on the bench for Arsenal’s visit to the [...] http://bit.ly/5G6JGy

Reserving Judgement on the African Teams At The World Cup

So, the African Cup of Nations is well underway and, in between pretending to do some work, I've been watching a fair bit on Eurosport TV.And the conclusion I've come to so far: I don't think any of these teams is consistent or, frankly, good enough to even reach the quarter finals of the World Cup.Every time a World Cup Finals comes around, there is always media speculation about the potential http://bit.ly/5jYIDp

England 2018 World Cup Bid Already In Doubt Shocker!

Forgive the headline, please. It's just that, on occasion, it's nice to pretend to be writing for the Daily Star. In fact, that's probably preferable to actually writing for it, which, I would imagine, would be soul destroying.I digress.So, what could derail England's fledgling World Cup bid, I hear you ask? Well, how about the fact that the Museum of Football in Preston will be closing down at http://bit.ly/7pfMnn

Laws Becomes New Burnley Boss

Brian Laws has become the new manager of Burnley FC, after the departure of Owen Coyle to Bolton earlier this month.
Laws, 48, numbers Burnley among his former clubs while a player and was recently sacked by Sheffield Wednesday.
A statement put out by Burnley FC read:
“We believe Brian will deliver a continuity of the culture [...] http://bit.ly/4rj1Xf

Caldwell Signs Wigan Deal

Gary Caldwell has signed for Wigan Athletic from Celtic on a four and a half year deal.
The 27 year old defender is quoted on the official Wigan website saying :
“The manager made it quite clear what his ambitions are for this club and how much he wanted to bring me here,” Caldwell told Wigan’s official [...] http://bit.ly/62kbTK

Campbell Returns To Arsenal

Veteran centre back Sol Campbell has made a surprise return to Arsenal.
While the details of his contract have yet to be sorted out, the 35 year old former Spurs and Portsmouth player commented:
“There are still a few technicalities to iron out, but I have signed for Arsenal until the end of the season, and it’s [...] http://bit.ly/8y5RLk

Liverpool And Other Transfer Rumours

The Daily Mirror seem convinced that Liverpool have managed to hijack the much-mooted Marouane Chamakh to Arsenal move.
Apparently a deal between Chamakh and Liverpool has been agreed, but the player hasn’t yet signed on the bottom line.
Staying with Liverpool for the moment, there has been a lot of speculation regarding their financial position and [...] http://bit.ly/8AdJHp

Weird People Who Are Backing World Cup Bids

It is, it seems, a competitive business trying to persuade FIFA to bestow their munificence upon a nation and condescend to allow them to host a World Cup.That, presumably, is why each country rolls out a host of big celebrity names to 'back' their bids. What this means is that the FIFA delegates get to meet the aforementioned celebrities on one of their many all-expenses paid jollies.But, http://tinyurl.com/ycrvu4t

Not Looking Good For Algeria

England have a friendly match lined up against Egypt as part of their World Cup preparation. They've chosen Egypt because they are supposed to be on the same level and have a similar style to Algeria, who England will face in their World Cup Group matches.However, having watched African minnows Malawi demolish Algeria 3-0 on Eurosport yesterday, I have to confess I have no idea how Algeria http://bit.ly/5pOBEZ

It's Snow Joke...Weather Could Affect England's World Cup Preparation

Over the last couple of weeks, bunches (that's the technical football term, OK?) of matches in the top tier of English football have been postponed.Luckily, I'm not the guy that has to reschedule them in a season that already ends earlier than usual due to the World Cup Finals. The plan was to finish the English season a couple of weeks early in order to give players more time to prepare for the http://bit.ly/8MXUiQ

Feng Shui And Other World Cup Nonsense

Let's be honest, no matter how much certain journalists keep writing about him, Michael Owen is not going to make the England World Cup squad. This is because he's lost his pace, his eye for goal and is, frankly, rubbish these days. It's not, as professional Yorkshireman and ex-cricketer Geoff Boycott would like you to believe, because Owen hasn't spent enough time feng shui-ing his living http://bit.ly/7MMJru