Or not. http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_1465454,00.html Really it wouldn't have made sense anyway, if Chelski wanted them they'd simply just buy them outright.
So lets use the stats UEFA use themselves: # country 01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 rank06 nt06 1 Spain 14.857 15.500 14.312 12.437 15.642 72.748 7 2 Italy 12.571 15.928 8.875 14.000 15.357 66.731 7 3 England 11.571 10.666 11.250 15.571 14.428 63.486 7 4 France 7.125 7.916 13.500 11.428 10.812 50.781 8 5 Germany 13.500 9.142 4.714 10.571 10.437 48.364 8 So Germany clearly behind England there. Season by season German teams did better in 01/02, England ever since.
Also so far the ongoing season English team is 'earning' their league a higher score than German teams does for their league: 4 England 7 teams 7 0 3 27 19 14 21 101.0 14.428 6 Germany 8 teams 4 1 1 27 12 21 13 83.5 10.437 http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/ccoef2006.html here is the link that shows the numbers in my previous post btw: http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/crank2006.html
Would you like to place a bet? They don't need them this season, but Makalele will likely retire after this season and there's been alot of talk about selling Drogba. Tevez and Mascherano will be perfect replacements for both of them.
One season does not equate them being the best league. The rankings use the 5 previous seasons, and there Romania is ranked 10th.
Did you read the article? West Ham is up for sale, allegedly a billionaire Iranian-Brit (or Georgian, dependng on who you believe) is the buyer. Second - it still doesn't make any sense. If CHelsea wants them - the transfer window is closed. Why would they use West Ham as a middleman and send a huge transfer fee to a domestic competitor when they could simply pay off Corinthians....? That would be like the rockets trying to acquire Wade for McGrady and 1st Round pick, but hten altering the trade to make sure that McGrady and the 1st round pick end up going to the Mavericks. Makes no sense to me at least, unless ther is something I'm missing. So yeah I'll bet.
Take this for what its worth as it is a rumor: LINK It doesn't make much sense but a small club like Wigan might just do that to get make a name for themselves, sell more tix, merchandise, etc. and then bank on their transfer fee.
Euro 2008 Qualifiers: V. Persie, Sneider and Holland overall looking impressive, although against lowly Belarus. Holland looking good vs Belarus France gets revenge on Italy 3-1: Sweet Revenge Germany beats down San Marino 13-0, including 7 in the second half- how bout showing some sportsmanship and playing one-touch, working on technique rather than pumeling a team that wouldn't beat a Bundesliga team (stats from this game should not count, as they shouldn't in the dutch game against Belarus). Whoopin
Kuyt also played great against belarus. (we all try to forget the game against luxembourg). There is a lot of criticism on Van Basten.
But they do count - and props to germany to keep pummeling on - goal difference could be a deciding factor (3rd?) if two teams are tied in points for say the qualifying spot. So now it is up to other contending teams to pummel San Marino as bad.
Props to ESPN for showing 4 games this week, 2 on ESPN and 2 on ESPN 2. Barca looked great, Ronaldinho and Eto had mouth waterring goals. We are lucky to get to watch these two play, their skill and vision is pure magic. I didn't get to watch the Man-U cause my VCR malfunctioned but great win over Celtic. Real Madrid looked pathetic, thank God I never became a fan of theres, even while Zizou was there. They play with no passion or enthusiasm, the least they can do is give a damm. Lyon looked great. Malouda and Juninho were phenomenal. Juninho's shooting is amazing. Shocker: Riquelme is retiring from Argentina's National team (only 28) b/c of his mom's health condition LINK
Sorry for the late update Results of the first games. AC Milan 3-0 AEK Athens Anderlecht 1-1 Lille Dynamo Kiev 1-4 Steaua Bucuresti FC Copenhagen 0-0 Benfica FC Porto 0-0 CSKA Moscow Hamburg 1-2 Arsenal Lyon 2-0 Real Madrid Man Utd 3-2 Celtic Barcelona 5-0 Levski Sofia Bayern Munich 4-0 Spartak Moscow Chelsea 2-0 Werder Bremen Galatasaray 0-0 Bordeaux Olympiacos 2-4 Valencia PSV 0-0 Liverpool Roma 4-0 Shakhtar Donetsk Sporting 1-0 Inter Milan Lyon humiliating Madrid was priceless. To bad Celtic couldn't beat Man U. Sporting beating Inter was also nice
I'm assuming you're talking about the Argentinian strip, not the Yellow Submarine's? That's horrible timing, man Moral of the story: Don't put a name + number on your replica jersey unless you're dead sure the guy's going to be a club legend / national team mainstay Should have gotten a Maradona #10 or something instead
Group Stage Matchday 2 Tue., Sep. 26 Real Madrid vs. Dyn. Kiev Steaua vs. Lyon Benfica vs. Man United ESPN @ 1:30 PM Celtic vs. Copenhagen Arsenal vs. Porto CSKA vs. Hamburg AEK Athens vs. Anderlecht Lille vs. Milan
Results Real Madrid 5-1 Dyn. Kiev Steaua 0-3 Lyon Benfica 0-1 Man United Celtic 1-0 Copenhagen Arsenal 2-0 Porto CSKA 1-0 Hamburg AEK Athens 1-1 Anderlecht Lille 0-0 Milan I was able to catch the Benfica-United match, and although Benfica probably deserved a draw, a beautiful goal by Louis Saha secured the three points for Man United. Great to see Smudger back on the pitch as well.
Raul bags a brace (as does van Nistelrooy).. hopefully this kick-starts his season and shuts the critics up. Truly class player, but he's been somewhat out of sorts the past couple of years. Should really get out of Madrid (and move to Liverpool ), but with his iconic stature there they'll probably let him leave only after he's seriously over the hill
