All The Latest Transfer Gossip

With the January transfer window less than two weeks away, rumours are rife both at home and abroad as Clubs look to reinforce their squads in an attempt to secure the services of new players for various reasons.
Some managers jobs may be on the line as a result of their teams failure to meet pre-season expectations, whether they were trophy or survival driven. There are unhappy players, owners and fans across Europe, and of course we are in the middle of an global economic recession.

Do clubs have the money to sign new players in an attempt to achieve their goals? Are clubs willing to risk putting themselves into debt in order to fund transfers and players salaries?

Whatever the situation, which varies hugely from club to club the transfer rumour mill is really hotting up!

It is interesting to note that there are some players that look certain to be on the move in January, but their destinations seem to vary according to the source of the rumour!

Manchester City, AC Milan, Barcelona, Wolfsburg, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Celtic, Zenit St Petersburg, Tottenham, Lazio, Birmingham, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Borussia Monchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund, Newcastle, Blackburn, Everton, West Ham, Blackpool, West Brom, Sunderland, Fulham, Norwich, Sheffield United, Millwall, Southampton and Swindon.............are all currently caught up in transfer gossip.

Is your Club involved?

Manchester City are reportedly planning a January move for AC Milan star Ronaldinho. The 30-year-old is thought to be surplus to requirements at the San Siro caughtoffside.com

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has renewed his interest for Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko (right) and could offer over 20 million Euros for the Bosnian international. However, the German club officials want more than 30 million Euros - footballpress.net

Manchester City are set to battle Chelsea for the signing of Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko - imscouting.com

Manchester United are also interested in Dzeko and are planning a club-record £35m offer for the 24-year old - caughtoffside.com

West Ham are lining up a January swoop for Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor - The Sun

Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier is ready to resume his pursuit of Joey Barton. He tried to sign Barton for Liverpool when the midfielder was at Manchester City and has joined West Ham in a bid to prise the 28-year-old away from Newcastle in January - Daily Mail

Fulham and Liverpool are interested in 24-year-old Irish midfielder Stephen Ireland, who wants to leave Aston Villa after a recent bust-up with coach Gerard Houllier - footballpress.net

Bayern Munich are lining up a £9m offer for Everton defender Leighton Baines - Daily Mail

Bayern Munich are planning to sign 26-year-old right-back Glen Johnson from Liverpool in January. The England international is valued at 15 million Euros - footballpress.net

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is reportedly interested in securing the signing of Zenit St Petersburg's attacking midfielder Danny (right) as well as young Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Marco Reus and Borussia Dortmund playmaker Mario Götz - sport360.com

According to Russian media reports, Zenit St Petersburg are tracking Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard, and hope to sign him in January - footballpress.net

Arsenal's Brazilian midfielder Denilson is attracting the interest of Spanish giants Barcelona - imscouting.com

The Gunners will use the money from Denilson's sale to Barcelona to fund a move for Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott - Metro

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson is planning a double swoop for Tottenham striker Peter Crouch and Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips - caughtoffside.com

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is set to offer Newcastle £20m for striker Andy Carroll and could use forward Peter Crouch as part of the deal - Daily Express

Birmingham will bid £6m to pinch Tottenham forward Robbie Keane from under the noses of neighbours Aston Villa - The Sun

Blackburn want to start their rebuilding process by signing Blackpool's Scottish midfielder Charlie Adam (right) - Daily Mirror

Lazio chairman Claudio Lotito wants to sign an additional striker in January and one option is Bayern Munich's Miroslav Klose 33, who is for sale in January before his contract expires at the end of the season - footballpress.net

West Brom are set to make a January offer for Celtic striker Georgios Samaras - Daily Mail

Celtic's bid to sign Anton Ferdinand next month is set to be scuppered by a defensive crisis at Sunderland - Daily Record

A host of clubs are chasing Norwich midfielder Owain Tudur Jones, including Sheffield United, Millwall, Southampton and Swindon - Skysports.com

The Worst Sporting Champions of All Time ! - Part Two!

This is the second installment in my series looking at and 'celebrating' those undeserved 'Sporting Champions' - those teams and/or individuals that were actually top of their field, yet were still pretty rubbish.

Last time it was Blackburn Rovers who felt the wrath of my written tongue, as I described their 1995 Premiership winning team as pretty crass. This time I am sticking with the sport of football as I look back to 2005 and 1982, and poor cold water on a couple of English teams 'glorious' European triumphs!

There are plenty of folk, especially in the Greater Manchester area, who insist that Liverpool's Champions League winning team of 2005 were indeed the worst European Champions of all time!
Despite their dramatic penalty shoot-out final victory over Milan, in the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul - they have a point!

You can't be picking players like Djimi 'gauche' Traoré or Harry 'supersize me' Kewell and expect to receive much in the way of props. But in their defence the Reds did at least have the decency to 'somehow' defeat several quality teams along the way such as Milan, Juventus and Chelsea and to a lesser extent Bayer Leverkusen.

However Liverpool only made it through to the knock-out phase of the competition, ahead of the 'mighty' Olympiacos of Greece on goal difference, after finishing runners-up to AS Monaco in their qualifying group.
The Anfield side did finish a semi-respectable fifth in the league during their cup-winning season.

Similar claims of beating reputable opposition on their way to European glory cannot be made for Aston Villa's 1982 campaign.

Villa that season 'officially' became the worst side ever to lift the most sought after European club trophy of the modern era!

The old adage of ' you can only beat what is put in front of you ' still sadly fails to make their triumph seem anymore than futile.

Villa won their solo European Cup (in the days when it was a straight knock-out competition) by beating the muscle of Valur Reykjavik, Dynamo Berlin, Dynamo Kiev, Anderlect and in one of the most tedious finals held in Rotterdam, the most toothless Bayern Munich side in living memory, care of a 67th minute Peter Withe goal.

Meanwhile back home, Villa defended their 1981 domestic league title with a complete lack of aplomb, by losing 15 games and ending the season in 12th place - no European champions have ever finished as low - quite a feat and in doing so simply re-emphasising their title as ' the worst side ever to lift the European Cup! '