Ah well here we are, the football season almost upon us. The World Cup that was full of hope but turned out to be not one of the memorable. The noteable moments of the World Cup being France and Italy crashing out early and some other stuff.
Now though the proper footy is here. The domestic season, the one where every season we all have high hopes and some higher than others and the day in day out banter between friends family and work colleagues. It has been a busy summer...well for the journos at least and the gossip columnists. Towards the end of last season Gerrard and Torres were on their way together with Mascherano. Many fans may have had doubts about them staying. I have always had the line of wait until you hear it from the player or the manager. Liverpool of course having a bad season and in financial difficulty and journalistic maths means 2 plus one equals five. Gerrard has said yes, Torres looks certain, but Mascherano? it's always been a matter of time until he did go.
Liverpool of course saw other changes with the arrival of Roy Hodgson. It seemed to split opinion. Some said he would do greatly, others said he would be a waste of time. Personally he should be given the chance. Notably since his arrival we have acquired Joe Cole on a free transfer. Considering he had the opportunity to join Arsenal or Tottenham who were able to offer Champions League football, it's a kind of scoop to sign him. Sadly Roy has the difficulty of getting a left back before the start of the season. There's not long left till the first qualifying match in the Europa League and it would be handy to have one. Benitez selling Riise and Warnock and allowing Aurelio to go and now Insua possibly gone although to be honest he's not upto standard.
Liverpool haven't been the only club involved in the transfer news. The tale of Cesc Fabregas has been dominating. It seemed he was on his way then he wasn't. Arsene has been notably up front and saying he is going nowhere. After all the Frenchman is right to state this. Fabregas should be reminded that he had not long signed a long term deal to keep him at the Emirates. Surely not the attitude of a man who wanted to depart. If he was so wanting on leaving, he should have left the contract alone and put in a transfer request.
Keeping with the Barcelona theme. I guess we were quite surprised to see the amount of debt that the Catalan club has. I wonder what Platini thinks of that. The same time though, footballing authorities had been quick to criticise the spending of Premier League clubs, but I can't wait to see what they have to say about Barcelona. I guess though I maybe waiting a long time for them to criticise the Nou Camp side. Jealousy of English football cannot go on without the pitfuls of other European clubs being home to extremely big debts. Would Uefa dare to deny Barcelona a place in the Champions League, to hell they wouldn't. English clubs are an easy target. Of course if it was the number of foreigners, then why are Inter Milan not being penalised. They are a side that has foreigners a plenty. I guess though until we get level headed people running the game, we should expect more of this to come.
