It is now time to switch to a new Money AM football blog as the world cup is now over and we all look to the future.....World cup 2010 is over, Bravo Espana, and Forlan, once again and bring on the new season !.....I never expected the last thread to be such a success...thanks all.... so this new one might go on for years without the need to edit the title...we shall see...

Well, as it is going to the present.....

One of the best and most exciting matches I've ever seen.

HT: 1-1

Sounds fair to me.

Got to say Barca were the better side....the second Barcelona goal was a mistake by the ManU defense, with Vidic just standing there.....he should have had at least tried to block the shot, he stood there like it was a free kick.....anyway that ManU side were no good at getting the ball back....nobody harassed their defenders or midfield at the start of their buildups, and that's where you have to have somebody very fit to run like a greyhound snapping at their feet; when pressurised the spanish make mistakes and that did not happen very much last night....too many failures to mention on the manchester side except for Rooney and Van der Saar who were good,.....that Barcelona side are as good as the Real side of a few years ago and perhaps almost as good as the Milan sides of Van Basten, Gullit but without the height.....the best club side ever ?...no....not as good as that Ajax side of the early 1970's......but if they win it again next year : you would have to put them on a par...the incredible thing about this catalan side is that they are small but very technical and it was embarrassing to see the english midfield look like monkeys at times, : they were far too slow at everything....special mention about the third spanish goal...just beautiful.....so bravo Barca !...

Apart from the 1968 team of Man U. No doubt no question Barcelona are the best football team in the World END OFF!!!! ever. The quality of their football is immense, they made Man U look like a pub team (pissed before kick off). Messi is unquestionably the best footballer I have ever had the privalage to watch, his dribbling skills on a par if not better than the legendry George Best.

Pleeeasse......not the best ever....the best at the moment yes....that's like the ones who vote Chelsea the best ever after just winning something.....remember Keegan, Maradona...Pele....Platini...all incredible players....and that incredible Real side at the dawn of european football, the best ever football team to grace a football field is Ajax Amsterdam : generation 69-73....now this Barca team are good...very good...but let's not get carried away here...ManU made bad mistakes during the game and with all due respect some of their players are on the decline....they can't help it...that's the way it is for everybody....got to say that they were not helped by one of these ridiculous refs that whistle everytime you go shoulder to shoulder with a spanish player..(that needs to be changed)...

RF no offense mate, Man U made mistakes? When in the last ten years have you seen Man U play long balls, how desperate were they? Unfortunately they are (allegedly) but unfortunately the best team in England, they looked like a Sunday Pub team pissed before the kick off. I am an Evertonian since 1963, in 1968 I witnessed Man U win the European Cup, the team that played Barcelona were not fit to lace (apart from Rooney) their boots. Messi, arguably is the best dribbler of a football since George Best! The problem imho is that the English Premiership is totally inferior, does not reflect football in it's purest form and is totally motivated and flawed by money. Hail Barca football purists, my money is on Rooney learning Catalonian quick style he deserves (as a footballer, questionable as a human being) to be on that stage .

You know, I also think that sooner or later Rooney will join them....I can just see it....he looks like a Barca player...not a Real one...there are differences.....my main problem with english football is the lack of midfield creativity....there has to be a way of improving this. Fergie will need some new players next year.....there has to be some good ones somewhere in our lower leagues within the uk.

I guess there is a good reason why there are very few if any English players in the top Spanish or Italian leagues, maybe they are just not good enough.

Jones is sacked http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13594051.stm

Swansea City gain entry to the Prema Donna League http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/13497817.stm

Liverpool breathe a sigh of relief! Swansea promoted so they WILL play in a foreign country next season.

You pair got any feckin good news ????

lol.

:-)

Swansea already doubled the price of tickets for next season ... now gotta buy TWO tins of beans at Aldi's to get a free one !

jeff , not sure about Italian league but 80% of Spanish league squads have to be Spanish.

Dil, thxs for clarifying

I thought he meant Swansea squad should be 80% Welsh! :-)

re - FIFA

The rest of the WORLD think that the Brits are - Sour Grapes -

How much is true?
lets put 80% on the latest figure


On Wednesday, Football Association chairman David Bernstein called on the member associations to stop Blatter being re-elected unopposed but they voted by 172 votes to 17 not to postpone the election.

TENNIS - FRENCH OPEN 2011

Nadal outlasts Murray in three-set thriller 6-4 5-7 6-4

7 June 2011: The pick of today's football transfer rumours

A round up of the pick of the European football transfer rumours for 7 June 2011. Any transfer gossip surrounding Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Roma, Barcelona and Real Madrid will be covered here.

Real Madrid or Barcelona is the likeliest destination for Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez. However, he will cost 100m and 250,000-a-week in wages.

Funny how it works, isn't it? None of the papers told us that Mark Hughes was going to slink off at the end of last season but now they all want to convince us that they know exactly where he's going next. Today, he is heading to Aston Villa. Just remember, tomorrow is another day entirely.

Over in North London and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has cancelled his summer holiday to "mastermind" an overhaul of his squad.

Nasri (10m) and Arshavin (15m) are both headed for the door marked 'exit' at the Emirates. In addition, Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola is still interested in Cesc Fabregas. He is "anxious" to strengthen his outfit by adding another soft-shoe peddling midfielder to a squad that has an obvious dearth of creativity, he's prepared a bid of 40m for young Cesc.

Expect Wenger to splurge the 70m raised in the fire sale on four waif-like French midfielders, a dodgy centre half and David Seaman.

Not content with signing one youngster from the north-east who "looked good for half a season but then didn't really play that well for the rest of it, eh?" Scottish minstrel Kenny Dalglish will splurge 20m on Sunderland's Jordan Henderson and secure his signature before he heads off to the European Under-21 Championship.

Dalglish will also snap up Blackburns' England Under-21 Phil Jones for a miserly 16m. He'll have competition from Chelsea, Arsenal and the Manchester clubs who also have more money than sense. In addition, Kenny will sign Roma's Brazilian keeper Doni for 1m.

Once the Henderson deal is sorted, Sunderland will have 20m kicking around. They'll add that to the 18m they received for Darren Bent and spend the money on Darron Gibson, Wes Brown and Danny Welbeck, The Guardian reports. They have all played for Manchester United so they must be good, right?

Over at Old Trafford, Jose Mourinho has called lots of times and left a very polite voicemail message enquiring after pint-sized striker Javier Hernandez. United will refuse all overtures by upping Hernandez's wages to 75,000 a week and promising to stop calling him the 'new Michael Owen'.

In addition, Ferguson is in need of another hirsutely challenged No.10 for when Wayne Rooney's new mop-top grows in. But he is likely to see overtures towards Wesley Sneijder scuppered when Guus Hiddink returns to Chelsea for a second spell as manager, bringing the Inter Milan schemer in for 30m.

Instead, United will move for Ashley Young after the England International 'revealed' that he'd like to play in the Champions League, completely ruling out the possibility of moving to any one of the other 584 clubs that UEFA will allow to enter next season's bloated competition.

In today's most unlikely story, American superstar soccer player Clint Dempsey will sign for AC Milan. He wants to play Champions League football, see. "Right now I'm thinking about Europe and playing in the Champions League. That's a goal," he told the Sun. "Everyone wants to play at the highest level." Not going to happen, Clint.

Miroslav Klose can't agree a new contract with Bayern Munich and is ready to set off wherever the wind takes him. Munich will replace him by signing Nicklas Bendtner from Arsenal in a deal that doesn't really suit anyone -- apart from Arsenal, obviously.

Back in Spain and Real Madrid or Barcelona is the likeliest destination for Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez. However, he will cost 100m and 250,000-a-week in wages. According to the Mirror, Tevez is "tied to Manchester City with a 100m pair of golden handcuffs", which goes to show that both clubs haven't heard of the internet.

Real Madrid's Xabi Alonso has hinted that he would consider a move back to Liverpool. "At the moment I don't know what is going to happen, but it could be a possibility. Never say never," the Spanish midfield said.

One player not joining Madrid however, is Benfica defender Fabio Coentrao. The Spanish giants have been told the defender will cost them 25m.

Anybody see the swiss game...caught the last ten, twenty minutes with Bent missing a sitter...got to say that this is the poorest generation of england players that I have ever watched....hopeless in midfield...poor up front...and the less you say about the defending the better....