Tuesday, September 30, 2008

08/09 Premiership Statistics: Week 6

Here are some Barclay's Premier League statistics from the first 6 weeks of the season.

Perfect Home Record
West Ham United

Perfect Road Record
Chelsea

Zero Home Points
Everton

Zero Road Points
Middlesbrough
Bolton Wanderers
Fulham

Winless
Tottenham Hotspur

Unbeaten
Liverpool
Chelsea

Longest Losing Streak
4 - Newcastle United (Current)

Longest Win Streak
3 - Aston Villa (Current)
3 - Arsenal

Top 5 Actim Index Players
1. Gabriel Agbonlahor
2. Frank Lampard
3. John Carew
4. Denilson
5. Jermain Defoe

Top Scorers
5 - Amr Zaki (Wigan Athletic)
4 - Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa)
4 - John Carew (Aston Villa)
4 - Jermain Defoe (Portsmouth)

Assist Leaders
4 - Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal)
4 - Mikel Arteta (Everton)
3 - Denilson (Arsenal)
3 - Stephen Ireland (Manchester City)
3 - Steed Malbranque (Sunderland)
3 - Ashley Young (Aston Villa)

Foul Leaders
19 - Kevin Davies (Bolton)
16 - Lassana Diarra (Portsmouth)
15 - Vincent Kompany (Manchester City)
14 - Carlton Cole (West Ham)
14 - Wilson Palacios (Wigan Athletic)
14 - Bobby Zamora (Fulham)

Monday, September 29, 2008

2008 MLS Stats of Shame

These are some "bad" stats from the first 26 games of the MLS season that as a team or a player you'd rather not be associated with. Own Goals, Losing Streaks, etc.. (All teams but SJ and HOU have played 26 games).

Own Goals
03/29 - Bakary Soumare (Chicago)
04/06 - Drew Moor (Dallas)
04/09 - Jack Jewsbury (Kansas City)
04/17 - Gonzalo Peralta (DC)
05/17 - James Riley (San Jose)
05/18 - Duilio Davino (Dallas)
06/21 - Jay Heaps (New England)
06/28 - Shalrie Joseph (New England)
06/28 - Tony Beltran (Real Salt Lake)
07/17 - Frankie Hejduk (Columbus)
07/27 - Eric Denton (San Jose)
09/14 - Jon Busch (Chicago)
09/20 - Hunter Freeman (Toronto)

Penalty Misses
03/29
Shooter: Collin Samuel (TOR)
Keeper: Will Hesmer (CLB)

04/05
Shooter: Juan Pablo Angel (NY)
Keeper: Will Hesmer (CLB)

05/24
Shooter: Shalrie Joseph (NE)
Keeper: Will Hesmer (CLB)

05/31
Shooter: Javier Morales (RSL)
Keeper: Joe Cannon (SJ)

06/12
Shooter: Stuart Holden (HOU)
Keeper: Matt Reis (NE)

07/19
Shooter: Amado Guevara (TOR)
Keeper: Joe Cannon (SJ)

08/30
Shooter: Jaime Moreno (DC)
Keeper: Jon Conway (NY)

09/13
Shooter: Alejandro Moreno (CLB)
Keeper: Greg Sutton (TOR)

Goalkeeping
Zach Wells (DC) - 1 Shutout in 17 games played
Steve Cronin (LA) - 2.05 GAA; 44 goals allowed

Fouls Committed
Atiba Harris (CHV) - 62
Andre Rocha (DAL) - 48
Fred (DC) - 45
Paulo Nagamura (CHV) - 45

Cautions (Yellow Cards)
Jamison Olave (RSL) - 9 Yellow Cards in 20 games played

Ejections
Eddie Robinson (HOU) - 16 games played; 2 red cards
Roger Espinoza (KC) - 19 games played; 2 red cards
James Riley (SJ) - 19 games played; 2 red cards

Consecutive Minutes With No Goals
Kansas City Wizards - 409 minutes (5/24/08 to 6/28/08)

First Half Goals Scored
10 - San Jose Earthquakes

Second Half Goals Scored
15 - Houston Dynamo
15 - Toronto FC

Goals Allowed in Minutes 76-90+
12 - DC United

Less than .100% Record When Allowing First Goal
0-12-1 - Colorado Rapids
0-9-1 - San Jose Earthquakes
0-9-1 - Kansas City Wizards
0-9-2 - Toronto FC

Record In One-Goal Games
1-5-0 (.167%) - Los Angeles Galaxy
2-8-0 (.200%) - FC Dallas

.000% Record When Trailing at the Half
0-9-0 - Colorado Rapids
0-5-0 - Real Salt Lake
0-4-0 - San Jose Earthquakes

Team Road Records
2-10-0 (.167%) - Toronto FC
2-10-1 (.192%) - DC United

Longest Team Losing Streak
4 - D.C. United - (5/04/08 to 5/21/08)

Longest Team Road Losing Streaks
5 - Colorado Rapids - (4/26/08 to 6/28/08)
5 - D.C. United - (3/29/08 to 5/21/08)
5 - Real Salt Lake - (4/05/08 to 5/24/08)
5 - Toronto FC - (5/24/08 to 7/28/08)

Last Place in Team Rankings
Goals: 26 - Toronto FC and San Jose Earthquakes
Assists: 14 - Toronto FC
Shots: 256 - Toronto FC
SOG: 105 - San Jose Earthquakes
Fouls Committed: 428 - Chivas USA (next closest 360 NYRB)

Friday, September 26, 2008

MLS African Player Bios

I've always wondered why MLS hasn't scouted for more African born players in the past. I know the best of the bunch pretty much automatically get scooped up in Europe but it is definitely a fertile ground for young talent. That said, It seems that in the past year or so more African talent has made it's way to the league from various career paths.

I decided to do this post because I was curious to know which players came from the NCAA ranks and which came directly from African clubs. These are a few short biographies of the African born players currently playing in Major League Soccer and how they were recognized and signed with the league.


Bakary Soumare (Mali - Chicago Fire)
Born in Mali but moved to Paris at a young age, before moving to New York as a teen. Played for the University of Virginia before being drafted 2nd by Chicago in the 2007 SuperDraft.

Patrick Nyarko (Ghana - Chicago Fire)
Born in Ghana, was met by Virginia Tech coach on a recruiting trip to Ghana. Nyarko helped Virginia Tech to the NCAA Final Four while there and was drafted 7th by the Fire in the 08 SuperDraft.

Emmanuel Ekpo (Nigeria - Columbus Crew)
Was playing in the Nigerian League with Enyimba FC last season before being picked up by the Crew in April of 2008.

Stanley Nyazamba (Zimbabwe - Columbus Crew)
Born in Zimbabwe, Nyazamba played college soccer with Lee University in Tennessee before eventually moving to USL2 with the Richmond Kickers. In 2008 he was the rookie of the year in USL2 and he recently signed with the Crew.

Ibrahim Koroma (Sierra Leone - DC United)
Koroma played on the Sierra Leone Premier League side Kallon FC before signing with DC United on September 12, 2008.

Thabiso Khumalo (South Africa - DC United)
Khumalo moved to the USA at the age of 16 and played college soccer at Coastal Carolina University. He then spent a few years bouncing around MLS, PDL, USL, and South Africa, before being signed on a loan deal to DC United from the USL2 Pittsburgh Riverhounds in September 2008.

Louis Crayton (Liberia - DC United)
Crayton has spent most of his professional career since 1997 playing in Switzerland with various clubs. In August 2008 he was signed by DC United from FC Basel.

Francis Doe (Liberia - DC United)
Doe has played in Greece, Ghana, Cameroon, and USL before being signed by Red Bull New York in 2007 and now DC United in 2008.

Kheli Dube (Zimbabwe - New England Revolution)
Dube was playing in Zimbabwe before moving to the USA to play with Coastal Carolina University. He then went on to help the Michigan Bucks reach the PDL championship games in 2006 and 2007. He was picked up by the New England Revolution in the 2008 MLS Supplemental Draft.

Kenny Mansally (The Gambia - New England Revolution)
Mansally was discovered by New England at the 2007 U-20 World Cup and was signed shortly after.

Sainey Nyassi (The Gambia - New England Revolution)
Like Mansally, was discovered at the U-20 World Cup before signing with the Revs.

Danleigh Borman (South Africa - New York Red Bulls)
The South African Native came to the US to play college soccer with the University of Rhode Island. He then played for PDL's Rhode Island Stingrays before being picked up in the Supplemental Draft by New York.

Sainey Touray (The Gambia - New York Red Bulls)
Touray was playing with Wallidan FC in the Gambian First Division before going on trial with New York and eventually signing in August.

Macoumba Kandji (Senegal - New York Red Bulls)
The big forward, currently on loan to New York from USL's Atlanta Silverbacks, came to the US as an 18 year old where he attended high school for a year before moving on to play soccer at Georgia Military College.

Bouna Coundoul (Senegal - Colorado Rapids)
Bouna came to the USA and played with Martin L King Jr. High School in NYC and later with the Univeristy of Albany, SUNY. Bouna then signed with the Colorado Rapids in 2005.

Mehdi Ballouchy (Morocco - Colorado Rapids)
Ballouchy moved to the United States in 2000 at age 17. He played for a year with Creighton University in Nebraska and two years with Santa Clara in California before signing a Generation Adidas contract with MLS. Before coming to the US he was playing with the Raja Casablanca youth system.

Dominic Oduro (Ghana - FC Dallas)
Oduro started out at the University of Ghana before transferring to Virginia Commonwealth University in 2004. He was then seleceted 22nd overall in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft by Dallas.

Kei Kamara (Sierra Leone - Houston Dynamo)
Kei came over from Sierra Leone to play college soccer a Cal State Dominguez Hills. He then spent a couple of seasons with PDL powerhouse Orange County Blue Star before being selected by Columbus in the 2006 SuperDraft.

Guy Roland-Kpene (Ivory Coast - Houston Dynamo)
Guy came to the US in 2003 at the age of 20 and played some college soccer at both Westchester Community College and Dowling College on Long Island. He made 16 appearances with DC before being signed by Houston in May.

Davide Somma (South Africa - San Jose Earthquakes)
23 year old Somma recently signed a developmental contract with San Jose after spending a few years in the lower divisions of Italian soccer.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

08/09 Chelsea FC - Interactive Player Birthplace Map

This is a map showing where all of the 08/09 first team Chelsea FC players were born. Click the icons to see the player's names and birthplaces. Click view larger map for easier navigation options.


View Larger Map

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Brazil and Japan J-League Link

These are all the transfers between the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (Brazil) and the J-League (Japan) that have taken place between the leagues in the last year or so. Lately there have been many players returning to Brazil after a stint in Japan (with former Tokyo Verdy and Urawa Reds player Washington playing a major role in Fluminense's Copa Libertadores runner-up finish last season).

Every club in the J-League has at least 1 Brazilian and half the clubs in the league have at least 3 Brazilians on there roster.





From Japan to Brazil
Evaldo - FC Tokyo to Santos
Márcio Araújo - Kashiwa Reysol to Atlético-MG
Marques - Yokohama Marinos to Atlético-MG
Gilmar - Yokohama Marinos to Náutico
Ze Carlos - Cerezo Osaka to Botafogo
Fabrício - Jubilo Iwata to Cruzeiro
Washington - Urawa Reds to Fluminense
Jonlison - Vegalta Sendai to Vasco
Thiago Prado - Kyoto Sanga to Figueirense
Silvinho - Albirex Niigata to Vitória
Alceu - Consadole Sapporo to Náutico
Basilio - Tokyo Verdy to Ipatinga

From Brazil to Japan
Marcos Aurélio - Santos to Shimizu S-Pulse
Marcinho - Curzeiro to Kashima Antlers (Loan)
Kaio - Atlético-PR to Cerezo Osaka (Loan)

Current Number of Brazilians on J-League Clubs
4 - Consadole Sapporo
4 - Kyoto Sanga
3 - Albirex Niigata
3 - FC Tokyo
3 - Gamba Osaka
3 - Kashima Antlers
3 - Kashiwa Reysol
3 - Kawasaki Frontale
3 - Oita Trinita
2 - JEF United
2 - Jubilo Iwata
2 - Omiya Ardija
2 - Shimizu S-Pulse
2 - Tokyo Verdy
2 - Urawa Red Diamonds
2 - Vissel Kobe
1 - Nagoya Grampus
1 - Yokohama Marinos

Monday, September 15, 2008

Canadian Soccer Players in Europe - Interactive Map

Here is an up to date interactive map of all the Canadian Players on top division squads in Europe. (In England and Germany, I included the 2nd division players as well). Click the flags for club/player names and zoom in to see the stadiums. Click view larger map for easier navigation options.


View Larger Map

Friday, September 12, 2008

German Soccer Mascots

Here are some mascots for German clubs. Really I just wanted a reason to post Kasey Keller throwing a giant felt horse on his shoulder. What exactly is Erwin the Schalke mascot?


Atilla the Eagle - Eintracht Frankfurt


Berni the Bear - Bayern Munich


Betzi the Devil - 1. FC Kaiserslautern


Erwin the ? - Schalke 04


Fritzle the Alligator - VfB Stuttgart


Füchsle the Fox - SC Freiburg


Hennes the Billy Goat - 1. FC Köln


Hermann the Dino - Hamburger SV


Hertinho the Bear - Hertha Berlin


Jünter the Horse - Borussia Mönchengladbach


Wölfi the Wolf - VfL Wolfsburg

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Calling all Chicagoans

I'll be driving down to Chicago tonight for tomorrow night's USA v Trinidad and Tobago WCQ game. I really have no idea if many Chicago residents read the blog, but if you're out there, I'd like to hear some suggestions of things to do tonight and tomorrow during the day. I'm from Michigan so I've been to Chicago and it's Museums and Zoo's dozens of times, I'd like to hear more about "local" spots, parks, ethnic neighborhoods, nearby suburbs, etc. than frequent tourist areas. We are staying in Oak Park.

Best Chicago Pizza Place?
Best Mexican Food?
Best Free Attractions?
Is the Globe Pub worth stopping by during the day?
Any other suggestions?

Feel free to email me or leave a comment if you have a spare moment.

WCQ 2010 Goal Statistcs

These stats should probably filed in the "hmm, interesting, but that doesn't mean a whole lot right now" category, due to the vast variance in the number of World Cup Qualifiers played by each Federation around the world. I'll try to remember to update the post as more qualifiers are played, feel free to remind me if the post goes stale.

Goals per Game Average: (games played)

6.0 - Germany (1)
4.0 - El Salvador (6)
4.0 - Portugal (1)
4.0 - Grenada (3)
3.8 - Solomon Islands (6)
3.5 - Mexico (4)
3.5 - Jamaica (4)
3.4 - Fiji (9)
3.3 - Costa Rica (4)
3.1 - Vanuatu (9)
3.0 - Croatia (1)
3.0 - Lithuania (1)
3.0 - Greece (1)
3.0 - Austria (1)
3.0 - Belgium (1)

Goals Allowed - Minimum 4 games played: (games played)
0 - Nigeria (5), USA (4)
1 - Mexico (4), Netherlands Antilles (4)
2 - Gambia (5), Kenya (5), Cote d"Ivoire (5), Cameroon (5), Costa Rica (4)


Top WCQ Goal Scorers:

12 - Osea Vakatalesau (Fiji)

9 - Seule Soromon (Vanuatu)

8 - Sarayoot Chaikamdee (Thailand)

7 - Maksim Shatskikh (Uzbekistan), Commins Menapi (Solomon Islands)

6 - Ahmad Al Azemi (Kuwait), Rudis Corrales (El Salvador), Shane Smeltz (New Zealand)

5 - Frederic Kanoute (Mali), Razak Omotoyossi (Benin), Moumouni Dagano (Burkina Faso), Mohamad Ghaddar (Lebanon), Ziad Chabo (Iraq), Ismaeil Matar (UAE), Luton Shelton (Jamaica), Etienne Mermer (Vanuatu), Iamel Kabeu (Tahiti), Michel Hmae (Tahiti), Francois Sakama (Vanuatu)

Friday, September 5, 2008

Quoting Kevin Keegan


It's unfortunate for Newcastle United fans that Kevin Keegan was seemingly driven out of their manager's seat, but if it means more time to listen to him talk, I'm all for it. He is definitely one of the kings of "foot-in-mouth/speak-before-you-think" comments in the world of soccer. Here's a variety of entertaining quotes he's uttered into a microphone in the past.


"England have the best fans in the world and Scotland's fans are second-to-none."

"We deserved to win this game after hammering them 0-0 in the first half."

"You can't do better than go away from home and get a draw."

"Mark Hughes at his very best: he loves to feel people right behind him..."

"Hungary is very similar to Bulgaria. I know they're different countries..."

"I’m not trying to make excuses for David Seaman but I think the lights may have been a problem.”

"I'm not disappointed - just disappointed."

"The substitute is about to come on - he's a player who was left out of the starting line-up today."

"You get bunches of players like you do bananas, though that is a bad comparison."

"Our current financial situation means that if we want to buy, we have to spend."

"Chile have three options - they could win or they could lose."

"Luis Figo is totally different to David Beckham, and vice versa."

"Goalkeepers aren't born today until they're in their late twenties or thirties."

"He can't speak Turkey, but you can tell he's delighted."

"The game has gone rather scrappy as both sides realise they could win this match or lose it."

"Argentina are the second best team in the world and there is no higher praise that that."

"The Germans only have one player under 22, and he's 23."

"It's like a toaster, the ref's shirt pocket. Every time there's a tackle, up pops a yellow card."

"Nicolas Anelka left Arsenal for £23million and they built a training ground on him."

"I've had an interest in racing all my life, or longer really."

"He’s got a heart as big as his size, which isn’t big, but his heart’s bigger than that"

"Argentina won't be at Euro 2000 because they are from South America."

"If I had a blank piece of paper there'd be five names on it.”

"I came to Nantes two years ago and it's much the same today, except that it's completely different"

"In some ways, cramp is worse than having a broken leg."

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Premiership: Loans and Transfers Out

Clubs in any league obviously have a little housekeeping to do by selling, releasing, and loaning out players on their squad to make room for new additions. These are all of the major "outs" from each Premiership club led by Fulham who "showed the door" to 16 players during the 08 summer transfer window.


Arsenal (7)
Mathieu Flamini, Alexander Hleb, Justin Hoyte, Jens Lehmann, Philippe Senderos (loan), Gilberto Silva, Armand Traore

Aston Villa (5)
Patrik Berger, Shaun Maloney, Olof Mellberg, Luke Moore, Thomas Sorensen

Blackburn Rovers (7)
David Bentley, Bruno Berner, Peter Enkelman, Brad Friedel, Stephane Henchoz, Gunnar Nielsen (loan), Maceo Rigters (loan)

Bolton Wanderers (8)
Andranik, Daniel Braatan, Ivan Campo, El-Hadji Diouf, Blerim Dzemaili (loan), Abdoulaye Meite, Stelios

Chelsea (10)
Tal Ben Haim, Hkalid Boulahrouz, Hernan Crespo, Claude Makelele, Claudio Pizarro (loan), Slobodan Rajkovic (loan), Ben Sahar (loan), Andriy Schevchenko, Steve Sidwell, Shaun Wright-Phillips

Everton (3)
Lee Carsley, Andy Johnson, Stefan Wessels

Fulham (16)
Nathan Ashton, Carlos Bocanegra, Hameur Bouazza, Philippe Christanval, Lee Cook (loan), Steven Davis, David Healy, Collins John (loan), Jari Litmanen, Brian McBride, Elliot Omozusi (loan), Ian Pearce, Alexei Smertin, Dejan Stefanovic, Moritz Volz (loan), Tony Warner

Hull City (4)
Michael Bridges (loan), David Livermore, Jay-Jay Okocha, Henrik Pedersen

Liverpool (10)
Scott Carson, Peter Crouch, Steve Finnan, Danny Guthrie, Jack Hobbs (loan), Harry Kewell, Anthony Le Tallec, Sebastian Leto (loan), John Arne Riise, Andriy Voronin (loan)

Manchester City (10)
Rolando Bianchi, Vedran Corluka, Bernardo Corradi, Paul Dickov, Geovanni, Andreas Isaksson, Sun Jihai, Matthew Mills, Emile Mpenza, Georgios Samaras

Manchester United (6)
Fraizer Campbell (loan), Chris Eagles, Gerard Pique, Louis Saha, Danny Simpson (loan), Mikael Silvestre

Middlesbrough (7)
George Boateng, Lee Cattermole, Dong-Gook Lee, Gaizka Mendieta, Fabio Rochemback, Mark Schwarzer, Luke Young

Newcastle United (6)
Stephen Carr, Emre, Abdoulaye Faye, James Milner, Peter Ramage, David Rozehnal

Portsmouth (5)
Martin Cranie (loan), Omar Koroma (loan), Pedro Mendes, Sulley Muntari, Linvoy Primus (loan)

Stoke City (6)
Marlon Broomes, Russell Hoult, Dominic Matteo, Jon Parkin, Anthony Pulis, Adam Rooney

Sunderland (10)
Andy Cole, Dickson Etuhu, Greg Halfore (loan), Ian Harte, Danny Higginbotham, Paul McShane (loan), Roy O'Donovan (loan), Stanislav Varga, Ross Wallace (loan), Stephen Wright

Tottenham Hotspur (9)
Dimitar Berbatov, Pascal Chimbonda, Anthony Gardner, Younes Kaboul, Robbie Keane, Lee Young-Pyo, Steed Malbranque, Paul Robinson, Teemu Tainio

West Brom (5)
Martin Albrechtsen, Curtis Davies, Zoltan Gera, Kevin Phillips, Luke Steele

West Ham (6)
Anton Ferdinand, George McCarthney, John Pantsil, Nolberto Solano, Richard Wright, Bobby Zamora

Wigan Athletic (10)
Julius Aghahowa, Rachid Bouaouzan (loan), David Cotterill, Andreas Granqvist, Carlo Nash, Salomon Olembe, Josip Skoko, Andy Webster, Marlon King (loan), Antoine Sibierski (loan)

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Summer 2008 Transfers: Premiership Foreign Imports

[Updated to Include August and September transfers]

This is a listing of all of the players who've transferred to the English Premier League from clubs outside of England during this summer's transfer window including Loan Deals.


Sep 1 - Xisco - Deportivo La Coruña ot Newcastle United
Sep 1 - Robinho - Real Madrid to Manchester City
Sep 1 - Albert Riera - Espanyol to Liverpool
Sep 1 - Roman Pavlyuchenko - Spartak Moscow to Tottenham Hotspur
Sep 1 - Péter Gulácsi - MTK Hungária to Liverpool
Sep 1 - Ignacio González - Valencia to Newcastle United
Sep 1 - Vitor Flora - Botafogo to Liverpool
Sep 1 - Marouane Fellaini - Standard Liège to Everton
Sep 1 - Ryan Donk - AZ to West Bromwich Albion
Sep 1 - Daniel Cousin - Rangers to Hull City
Sep 1 - Nadir Belhadj - Lens to Portsmouth (Loan)

Aug 31 - Kamil Zayatte - Young Boys to Hull City (Loan)
Aug 31 - Pablo Zabaleta - Espanyol to Manchester City
Aug 31 - Jonas Olsson - NEC to West Bromwich Albion
Aug 31 - Gláuber - Nuremberg to Manchester City
Aug 29 - Ebi Smolarek - Racing Santander to Bolton (Loan)
Aug 28 - Segundo Castillo - Red Star Belgrade to Everton (Loan)
Aug 26 - Vince Grella - Torino to Blackburn Rovers
Aug 22 - Borja Valero - Mallorca to West Bromwich Albion
Aug 22 - Vincent Kompany - Hamburg to Manchester City
Aug 21 - Djibril Cisse - Marseille to Sunderland (Loan)
Aug 15 - Fabricio Coloccini - Deportivo La Coruna to Newcastle United
Aug 12 - César Sánchez - Real Zaragoza to Tottenham Hotspur
Aug 12 - Carlos Cuéllar - Rangers to Aston Villa
Aug 6 - Pascal Zuberbühler - Neuchâtel Xamax to Fulham
Aug 6 - Julio Santa Cruz - Cerro Porteño to Blackburn Rovers
Aug 4 - Jan Laštůvka - Shakhtar Donetsk to West Ham United
Aug 2 - Carlos Villanueva - Audax Italiano to Blackburn Rovers
Aug 1 - Brad Guzan - Chivas USA to Aston Villa

July 30 - Fredrik Stoor - Rosenborg to Fulham
July 30 - Amaury Bischoff - Werder Bremen to Arsenal
July 28 - Mustapha Riga - Levante to Bolton
July 25 - David Meyler - Cork City to Sunderland
July 24 - David N'Gog - PSG to Liverpool
July 23 - Emmanuel Mendy - Murcia Deportivo to Liverpool
July 23 - Valon Behrami - Lazio to West Ham United
July 22 - Amr Zaky - Zamalek to Wigan Athletic Loan
July 15 - Marek Čech - Porto to West Bromwich Albion
July 11 - Samir Nasri - Marseille to Arsenal
July 11 - Diego Cavalieri - Palmeiras to Liverpool
July 10 - Vincent Weijl - AZ to Liverpool
July 04 - Toni Kallio - Young Boys to Fulham
July 04 - Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson - HK to West Ham United
July 04 - Marvin Emnes - Sparta Rotterdam to Middlesbrough
July 04 - Andrea Dossena - Udinese to Liverpool
July 04 - Didier Digard - PSG to Middlesbrough
July 03 - Gianni Zuiverloon - SC Heerenveen to West Bromwich Albion
July 03 - Philipp Degen - Borussia Dortmund to Liverpool
July 02 - Jô - CSKA Moscow to Manchester City
July 02 - Jonás Gutiérrez - Real Mallorca to Newcastle United

June 30 - Deco - Barcelona to Chelsea
June 27 - Johan Elmander - Toulouse to Bolton Wanderers
June 10 - Giovani dos Santos - Barcelona to Tottenham Hotspur

May 28 - Kim Do-Heon - Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma to West Bromwich Albion
May 12 - José Bosingwa - Porto to Chelsea

Apr 29 - Luka Modrić - Dinamo Zagreb to Tottenham Hotspur
Apr 22 - Steven Pienaar - Borussia Dortmund to Everton


Where'd They Come From?

14 - Spain
6 - France
5 - Germany
5 - Netherlands
4 - Italy
3 - Switzerland
2 - Portugal
2 - Brazil
2 - Russia
2 - Scotland
1 - Belgium
1 - Croatia
1 - Egypt
1 - Hungary
1 - Iceland
1 - Ireland
1 - Norway
1 - Paraguay
1 - South Korea
1 - Ukraine
1 - USA

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Premiership: Last Minute Transfer Moves

These are the Premiership moves that were left to the very last minute before the transfer deadline, "Midnight Moves" so to speak.

Everton
GK - Carlo Nash from Wigan Athletic

Fulham
MF - Julian Gray from Coventry City
MF - Alexei Smertin released

Hull City
FW - Daniel Cousin from Rangers

Liverpool
GK - Peter Gulasci; permanent signing after loan to Melwood

Newcastle United
FW - Xisco from Deportivo La Coruna

Portsmouth
DF - Martin Cranie loaned to Charlton Athletic

Stoke City
MF - Tom Soares from Crystal Palace
MF - Michael Tonge from Sheffield United

Sunderland
DF - George McCartney from West Ham United

West Bromwich Albion
DF - Ryan Donk from AZ Alkmaar

Monday, September 1, 2008

Premiership: Wealthy Owners of 2008

With the news of Thaksin Shinawatra's sale of Manchester City to a United Arab Emirates business group, I wondered how many solitary uber-wealthy owners are currently left in the Premiership. Here is a list I came up with:




Aston Villa
Randy Lerner (Net Worth: $1.5 billion) - Inherited his fortune from his father, who had made billions of dollars in credit cards via MBNA. Also the owner of the Cleveland Browns (NFL)

Bolton Wanderers
Eddie Davies - (Net Worth: $162 million) - Made his fortune from the manufacture of controls and cordless interfaces for kettles, jugs, and water boiling appliances.

Chelsea
Roman Abramovich (Net Worth: $23.5 billion) - Obtained a large share of Russia's oil and aluminium assets

Fulham
Mohamed Al-Fayed (Net Worth: $1 billion) - Owns Harrods and House of Fraser Department stores in England

Manchester United
Malcolm Glazer - (Net Worth: $2.5 billion) - Owns the Tampa Bay Bucaneers (NFL) and is president of First Allied Corporation, which makes most of it's money in the food processing industry

Middlesbrough
Steve Gibson - (Net Worth: $215 million) - Founder of Bulkhaul Limited, a company that globally transports bulk liquids, gasses, and powders.

Newcastle United
Mike Ashley - (Net Worth: $2.52 billion) - An English entrepeneur made his fortune in the retail sporting goods market.

Portsmouth
Alexandre Gaydamak - (Net Worth: $180 million) - A member of a wealthy family, made fortune in properties and banking

Stoke City
Peter Coates - (Net Worth: $540 million) - Made his fortune with bet365, a British based gambling/gaming company and also in the catering industry.

West Ham United
Björgólfur Guðmundsson - (Net Worth: $1.98 billion) The owner and chairman of the second Largest company in Iceland, the bank Landsbanki. Also made fortunes in the Brewing industry, as well as the seafood and freight industries.

Wigan Athletic
Dave Whelan - (Net Worth: $360 million) - Made his fortune with JJB Sports, a large sports retailer in the UK.