Here is almajir’s latest blog. I think it is a fascinating one. He has given me permission to re-publish. One thing I’ve aimed to do whilst writing this blog is to try and research a little about Birmingham City’s owners. Not much is known about them in truth, and I’m intrigued as to what their[continue...

It’s Friday, so it’s time for another coup. Here’s Darius… International breaks are a permanent fixture in the footballing calendar. For Arsenal players such breaks are Russian roulette, a dangerous game which may see their season wrecked through injuries suffered on foreign fields. As sure as taxation and death, we might as well get used to such breaks so I thought I’d touch on an issue affecting the future of the game; the evolution and changing culture of football, fields where Arsenal is ahead of its rivals. England’s capitulation in the 2010 World cup illustrates what can happen when vanity, ignorance, intransigence and lack of vision impede a footballing establishment from moving into the 21st century. There is always a clamour for drastic action...

Colin Tattum has released an interview with Peter Pannu putting the record straight. You can read the article here. I blogged on the subject this morning, now I don’t want to tell you so – but… Kev Blog this on Blogger Share this on Facebook Add this to Google Bookmarks Post this to MySpace Share[continue...

Home not necessarily where the heart is The current Premier League season has incorporated a new rule change. No, Sepp Blatter has not agreed to confirm if goals are actually scored, and players are still able to dive, swear, spit and roast their way through the season unaffected. Instead, we have the introduction of the home-grown [...]...

The victims of the new rules 1. Jonathan Woodgate The notoriously injury prone Spurs defender played just three times last season. He continues to struggle with a groin injury, with Harry Redknapp claiming forthcoming surgery could be a last throw of the dice in an attempt to save his career. 2. Michael Kightly Despite playing non-league football with [...]...

An outbreak of sanity for the next few months, transfer targets remain more fanciful than they were in the summer as football turns its attention to the proper stuff. You know, the game itself. Amid tepid disinterest, the Premier League clubs announced their squads yesterday. Well, thanks for that I couldn’t work out the information from the clubs websites, conveniently structured into ‘First Team’, ‘Reserves’ and ‘Youth’ sections. The farcical nature of it all is highlighted by the 71 players registered by Arsenal. The arbitrary twenty-five man ruling by the Premier League serves little purpose. The wording is couched so loosely in their rules that there is no lower limit – theoretically, a club could submit a squad with no names and rely...

A story was picked up by one of the forum members yesterday that appeared on the Telegraph site, which indicates that there may be issues relating to Alex McLeish’s contract talks. Other news outlets have taken it further indicating that there has been a falling out. Also I have read, with some embarrassment to be[continue...

At 5 p.m. today, the Premier League management teams will have to name their 25-man squads. Eight have to be 'home grown', meaning they must have spent at least three years training with an English or Welsh professional club before they reached the age of 21. A number of senior pros will simply not make the cut under the new rule changes, implying that the Championship may gain further stars, perhaps with the most notable to date being Craig Bellamy who recently tied up a deal with Cardiff City. Thankfully Barnsley FC will not see any of our own established and promising talent leave permanently. With the loan window now the only major area to create change, MR has spoken about loans in and out a distinct possibility. Under this tweak to the squad system, what will result from the...

Well now the dust has settled after yesterday’s events, I’ve been thinking about some of the comments that have recently been leveled at the board on various forums, to be honest including ours. When Carson Yeung took over running the club from the previous lot, he promised money for transfers. Unfortunately he of course gave[continue...

…I didn’t even know it was open. One of the joys of not having Sky Sports News anymore is being able to let 6pm on August 31st pass without having to listen to Jim “hyperbole king” White frothing at the mouth over the loan move of Marcus Bent from Brum to Wolves. It was very easy to stay at a distance from this year’s deadline with the thought that what little business Spurs were going to do has already been done. Sandro had signed some time back and had finally turned up, Pletikosa finally arrived on loan after what seemed like years of will he, won’t he. And of course there is Gallas. But that was it, a bunch who were no where near the first team were either offloaded completely or let out on loan. Unfortunately the deal everyone wanted to see was...

Arsene Wenger had two tasks this summer if he was to build a title-winning team: strengthen the defence and sign a new goalkeeper. Oh, and keep Cesc Fabregas, which makes it three. The transfer window closed yesterday with two new centre backs, Fabregas staying and a new striker. Two outta three ain’t bad, as Meat Loaf crooned. It left Arsenal ‘as you were’ in May. Almunia is the Number One, Fabianski his reserve, Manonne and Szczesny the lower ranking goalkeepers. The received wisdom is that this is not how Wenger envisaged the transfer window or season panning out. Various bids were reportedly submitted for Mark Schwarzer, none of them satisfactory enough for Fulham whilst Eduardo and Pepe Reina also received the attentions of the Arsenal manager. How many of those...

Here in the U.K, Sky Sports News have been trailing Transfer Deadline day for two weeks. For many viewers, the strained excitement of the presenters trying to display uncontrollable excitement over minor transfer dealings is something of a running joke. The memory of a half frozen reporter standing outside the Brittania Stadium trying to summon some energy as the club announced they had signed Micheal Tonge lives on. If anything, along with the number of made up texts that litter a variety of websites, transfer deadline day has become something of a swollen, bloated joke of a day. Now of course, the Internet is littered with tales that nearly 40 transfers are awaiting confirmation due to the amount of faxes sent in to the Premier League’s offices before the 6pm GMT deadline. So much...

As I’ve covered some football linked news as well as price increases I thought you might be interested in this bit of news that’s just come in. Sky Sports customers are looking at a subscription increase from Sept 1st (tomorrow) of £3 per month – Sky Sports and Sky Movies customers being hit with a £2.50 increase. The increased charges mean Sky customers will pay around £240m more for all TV services over the next year – that’s based on 9.78m Sky Subscribers in the UK and RoI What could you buy with a £240m windfall? Well, you could slam down the cash for Tottenham Hotspur (£241m) or Manchester City (£166m), according to valuations by Forbes. How about three Christiano Ronaldo’s (£80m), four Kaka’s (£56m) or seven...

Because there are times when commentators can’t jsut focus on Rooney, Torres, Drogba and Fabregas! It is one of those questions that tends to take place in a pub, watching a game in which one of the ‘less-fashionable’ players has just scored a worldy. “I’ve always rated him. No honestly I have. Come on then, who [...]...

OTP’s take on the last-minute moves 1. It’s just not a transfer deadline day without Robinho going somewhere, is it? 2. At least one Premier League outfit took our advice. Well done, Sunderland. 3. Roy Hodgson seems to be putting the final pieces of the jigsaw in place to consolidate a mid-table finish for Liverpool. 4. Just over [...]...

God it’s good to know that sometimes, just sometimes, we all could play in the Premier League Barnstone Colts against Long Eaton United, that’s when it happened to me. Jonesey had got down the right, squared the ball across, and suddenly I had cocked it up. Good and proper. And then on Sunday afternoon, Carlos Tevez became the [...]...

I’m sat here absolutely breathless with the events of this afternoon – it’s been fantastic. Over the weekend the Charles N’Zogbia deal fell through apparently because of the player’s “demands.” As the weekend went on, stories started to appear of us being linked with 4 players. Those were former Arsenal Midfielder Alexander Hleb, Defenders Martin[continue...

It has been confirmed that with just 10 minutes to go in the window, Chilean winger Jean Beausejour has signed for the Blues. What a fantastic afternoon. Keep looking out, Joys and Sorrows will be summing up the events of the day later on! Blog this on Blogger Share this on Facebook Add this to[continue...

It is being reported that Hleb turned down offers from Liverpool, Spurs and Benfica because Blues “wanted to do the deal more”. If this is true, this is fantastic. Here is a player who clearly WANTS to play for us, unlike one other player recently linked with us I could name! Blog this on Blogger[continue...

Chilean winger Jean Beausejour has arrived at St Andrews and it looks like we have international clearance too. Watch this space, hopefully we will be announcing that he has signed very soon. Apparently the rumour that we are also signing a striker isn’t true unfortunately. Blog this on Blogger Share this on Facebook Add this[continue...

With less than 2 hours to go – apparently we really are trying to sign a striker, and it is a big name. I have to say though, that this information is taken from forum and twitter rumours! Keep watching! Blog this on Blogger Share this on Facebook Add this to Google Bookmarks Post this[continue...

The official site has confirmed that Hleb has signed for us on loan for a year. I can’t remember a more exciting transfer window date – this is brilliant!! According to SSN we are also after a striker too! Blog this on Blogger Share this on Facebook Add this to Google Bookmarks Post this to[continue...

There still isn’t any official confirmation on the Alexander Hleb signing, however it has been confirmed on the official site that Spartak Moscow captain Martin Jiranek has been signed for an undisclosed fee. Blog this on Blogger Share this on Facebook Add this to Google Bookmarks Post this to MySpace Share this on Reddit Stumble upon[continue...

The latest news is that Armand Traore won’t be joining us, because for some reason he thinks Juventus is a better option. I have no idea why he thinks that, but there you go – footballers have always been a strange breed! Kev Blog this on Blogger Share this on Facebook Add this to Google[continue...

According to SSN we have signed former Arsenal Midfielder Alexander Hleb on a year long loan. There isn’t confirmation on the official site yet though. We have also been linked with Defenders Martin Jiranek and Armand Traore and Chilean winger Jean Beausejour. Keep watching Newsnow or twitter for more blog updates. Marcus Bent has left[continue...

The KNVB has offered the opinion that Robin van Persie will be out for ‘at least a few weeks‘ having suffered a twisted ankle at Blackburn on Saturday. The timing is unsurprising; Euro2012 qualifiers take place this week and losing a player or two has become de rigeur for Arsenal in recent seasons. With the transfer window closing today, there have been suggestions in some quarters that the Dutchman cannot be relied upon, that Wenger should turn his attention to a new striker to reinforce the squad. It does van Persie a disservice; only in two seasons has he failed to play less than thirty games for the club. Key to this might be his scoring record, recent seasons have seen this lower from just over 1 in 3 games to close to 1 in 2. It apparently leaves Arsenal short in attack...

1. Penalties for Bent sportsmen were always likely to be high on the news agenda on Sunday after the cricket revelations, but Manchester City probably didn’t envisage it affecting them quite so badly. 2. Talking of betting scandals, you would have put your house on Carlos Tevez scoring that ridiculously straightforward sitter. Hang your head, Carlitos. 3. [...]...

For some players, it can often take a season to settle in to a new club, especially when you arrive with a £30 million price tag around your neck. Sometimes, other aspects can slow the adaption to new surroundings. For Dimitar Berbatov, in his 3rd season at Manchester United, it seems he has finally begun to show Manchester United fans exactly what type of player he is. Berbatov has had more than his fair share of critics for the first two seasons in Manchester, with accusations on his fitness, work-rate, finishing and waistline all being thrown at him. Despite Berbatov’s fine period at White Hart Lane, he seemed a little within himself whilst starting his Manchester United’s career. 46 goals in 102 games for Tottenham was a phenomenal return for a player experiencing English...

After three consecutive league defeats the last thing West Ham players, fans and staff will want is a clash with in form London rivals Chelsea, but that is the task that they face after the international break. If they lose this game they will be firmly rooted to the bottom of the table with the prospect of a relegation battle starring them in the face. When Avram Grant took over in the summer a fresh sense of optimism surrounded Upton Park, David Gold and David Sullivan had promised fans that no top players would leave and the prospect of new arrivals excited fans Just three games into the new season and this optimism has quickly vanished. While no top players have left yet they may be hoping a move comes their way before tomorrow’s transfer deadline. Confidence is low within the...

It’s often a question that football fans can never really answer, but why do certain players seem quite happy to sit on the bench? More often than not players are always wanting to play, so transfers to clubs where the opportunities are limited always confuses the fans. For example, one particular player is currently trying his very best to escape from Stoke City for no obvious reason. Asmir Begovic, the Bosnian international goalkeeper, has begun a war of words with the chairman and his manager at Stoke City. Seemingly the whole reason for this is that he wishes to join Chelsea as a reserve goalkeeper for the foreseeable future. Stoke City feel that Begovic has been tapped up but for the second time 8 months, he’s involved in a transfer merry go round as deadline day comes around....

…games like that. A team trots into town who last time they were in the neighbourhood shipped nine goals, to one in reply, and so far this season in their two previous games had conceded a total of ten, four of which were scored by a team new to the division. A couple of hours later they’re heading back up North with a clean sheet and their first three points of the new season and Spurs have lost their first home game in a while. First since the last bunch of no-hopers rolled into town. ‘Arry seemed to portion the blame between the team and the fans… These are not games you enjoy. People turn up here today and they expect you to walk all over them. After two minutes we give the ball away and it’s ‘Oooh!’ and they’re on your case -...

If someone had offered a 2-2 draw at Bolton before the game started I’d have said yes please and looked to the next game. If someone had said how about 5 points from the first three games I would have just as readily accepted. It seems strange therefore to be sitting writing this report disappointed[continue...

A great win at Blackburn, the players nullifying the physical threat offered by the hosts before imposing their passing game to take the three points. The Rovers goal was a poor one to concede, Koscielny found out the hard way that bluff does not always work, feinting to make a tackle is no substitute for a well-timed version of the real thing. That is a hard lesson to learn but in no way signals that he is not good enough. To cast aside an Arsenal career on the basis of one minute of action is a bizarre mentality. Almunia provided an answer to his critics, confident under pressure and turning his ‘Mr Nice Guy‘ on its head in his confrontation with Diouf. It does not provide a permanent answer to the belief that Almunia is the solution to the goalkeeping conundrum; that will...

Love him or hate him, Ashley Cole is the best at his position in England, and arguably the world. While this has been the case for many years (although I’m sure the Evra family might object), under Carlo Ancelotti Cole has transformed from an indefatigable left-back to an integral cog in Chelsea’s attacking strategy. Fullbacks are an important aspect of any back four, of course, and the manner in which a manager utilizes this versatile position reveals their attacking intent. Overlapping fullbacks are a staple of most attacking outfits, combining with the wide men to enter dangerous space, or simply to drag defenders out of position to allow attackers more freedom to cut open a defense. Ashley Cole has been the standard for the fullback position for years now. His tireless work...

Hugo Rodallega needs to score even more goals to keep Wigan up. While Chelsea managed continue their 100% start to the season, and Sunderland shocked Manchester City, the performance of the weekend has to go Wigan Athletic who bounced back from a disastrous opening two games to record a surprise win at Tottenham. But will victory mark the start of the Latics season or will it be a rare high in a season of disappointment for Roberto Martinez’s men. After their opening day capitulation against Blackpool followed by a 6-0 humbling at the hands of Chelsea many could have forgiven Martinez for ‘parking the bus’ at White Hart Lane, especially when you consider that they lost 9-1 in North London last year. But typical of Martinez’s style he stuck to his principles and looked to take...

Roberto Mancini had reason to regret not bringing his famous blue and white woolly scarf to a cold and windy Wearside on an afternoon which offered a foretaste of what could be a harsh winter ahead for Manchester City.After failing to convert their early ascendancy into goals, Mancini's side were forced to withstand a second‑half onslaught from a seemingly reborn Sunderland who looked as if they had belatedly decided this was their cup final.It ended with the previously "under pressure" Steve Bruce performing a wonderfully uncoordinated dance of joy in front of City's dug-out after Darren Bent's 90th‑minute penalty gave his Sunderland team an inaugural win of the season as City conceded their first goal of the campaign.Undone by a teasing cross from Ahmed El Mohamady, a right‑winger...

• Hit F5 for the latest or select the auto-refresh button below• Follow all of today's action on our live scoreboard• Email all your thoughts to simon.burnton@guardian.co.uk18 mins: Pienaar hits the corner of post and bar with a lovely curling shot from the corner of the penalty area, Brad Friedel absolutely rooted. This time the full-back was the creator: Leighton Baines spotting the pass.14 mins: Dunne clips Beckford's ankles, and is treading a disciplinary tightrope already, not especially delicately.12 mins: Beckford totally does Dunne for pace, and although there was cover the big Irishman sticks out a stocky leg and Beckford goes over a massive thigh. Yellow card for Dunne.GOAL! Aston Villa 1 Everton 0 (Luke Young, 9 mins) Excellent run by Young, which nobody predicted or...

• Hit F5 for the latest or select the auto-refresh button below• Follow all of today's action on our live scoreboard• Email all your thoughts to simon.burnton@guardian.co.uk45 mins: Three minutes' stoppage time to be played here.43 mins: Holden, probably Bolton's best midfielder, creates a shooting opportunity for himself, the ball deflecting wide for another corner.41 mins: Bogdan, who curiously wears No1, has previously played one league game, on loan at Crewe against Bury last September. Crewe lost 3-2.38 mins: Johnson gets booked, though I can't be sure why. There appeared to be quite a bit of post-red-card jiggerpokery out there. Bolton will bring on their substitute goalkeeper, Adam Bogdan, for his Premier League debut for Martin Petrov, who is furious about coming off, and...

Blackburn 1 – 2 Arsenal 0 – 1 Walcott ’20 1 – 1 Mama Diouf ’27 1 – 2 Arshavin ’51 Arsenal’s sophisticated finishing gave them a cutting edge at a rain swept Ewood Park on Saturday afternoon. Perhaps more significant though was that the team out-fought, as well as out-classed a side supposed by many to intimidate Arsenal with their physical approach. Particularly heartening was the resilience displayed in withstanding as thorough an aerial examination as Arsenal are likely to receive all season. Talk of Allardyce holding a hex over Arsenal is hokum (an enchantment? A magic charm? Charm and enchantment are words not easily attributed to the vast man from Dudley); but the capitulation of last season’s walking wounded is fresh enough a memory to make Ewood Park a...

Only in the universe that surrounds Wayne Rooney could this summer be called a drought. Until he converted a first-half penalty here, the most naturally gifted footballer Old Trafford has seen since Bobby Charlton had not scored in more than 18 and a half hours of competitive football. The counting will cease and since Rooney's goals have always come in waves, there should be a frisson of anxiety among the Bulgarian back-four when he appears in an England shirt on Friday night.Statistics apart, Rooney was far from the central figure on what was not so much a comfortable victory as a cashmere-covered one over a West Ham side that have lost their first three League matches and struggled to overcome Oxford in the Carling Cup. Only Kieron Dyer, who struck the side‑netting in the first half...