That was brutal.
That was brutal.
Sporting or Benfica.....
WEST HAM SIGN TEVEZ AMD MASCHERANO
WOW just wow!!!! How the hell did west ham manage that!West Ham Sign Tevez And Mascherano To Permanent Deals! Completing what might be the biggest transfer coup of the season, West Ham United have pipped major clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, and Roma, and signed Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to permanent deals.
Both players, 22, have long been seen as rising stars in world football, both having made names for themselves at a young age -- Tevez at Boca Juniors and Mascherano at River Plate.
West Ham United manager Alan Pardew could not hide his delight by the double swoop.
"What a fantastic day for West Ham United Football Club," Pardew said on the team's website.
"I have no doubt that this deal will give us a real chance to compete with the very best teams in the Premiership and in Europe.
"Our Chairman Terry Brown came to me on Monday and gave me the opportunity to go for Carlos and Javier - and you don't turn down the chance to sign two world class players," added Pardew.
"I've already had three or four of the players on the phone, they are all very excited by the news, and I'm sure there will be a real buzz around the place when we report back for training on Tuesday morning."
Meantime, Hammers players can get a good look at their new teammates on Sunday, when both players suit up for Argentina for a friendly against Brazil at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.
Reyes has been swapped with Baptista.
Like mentioned above.
West Ham got Tevez and Mascherano, don't be surprised to see them go to Chelsea. MSI is looking at getting a stable of players that go from club to club and then eventually to Chelsea. Use others clubs as the farm/feeder team, no way that its a legit deal. When back in January they could barely scrape together 7.5 M pounds for a transfer.
Here is a good article to describe the big conspiracy theory
http://www.squarefootball.net/articl...e.asp?aid=1571
At least RM didn't buy Reyes and if he doesn't mind taking a role that will be on the bench, might work out too bad. Baptista was obviously not in Capello's plans this year and was not going to play much at all this year.
Another good move was Milan getting Oliveria from Betis, I have a feeling he will have a good year.
Arsenal & Chelsea decided to swap defenders. 5 M pounds + Gallas to Arsenal for Ashley Cole to Chelsea.
UEFA 2008 qualifying is this weekend, also being shown is the Argentina v Brasil friendly to be played at Emirates Stadium. Goltv is showing it live, so if you have Bell/Rogers/Cogeco/Sasktel then you can watch it here in Canada but if you are stuck on shitty Shaw then TFB.
PS: If you want to watch Spanish La Liga and German Budasliga live, then call Shaw and ask them to add Goltv Canada, as they have the rights to broadcast live in Canada for those 2 leagues.
Last edited by Oz-; 09-01-2006 at 11:27 AM.
Another good article on the mysterious deal
Here is an article to verify how exactly West Ham snatched up these two...
Eyebrows raised at deal shrouded in mystery
West Ham's sensational capture of Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano is undoubtedly the biggest coup of this or any other transfer window, but it is not just in English pubs and Premiership grounds that the significance of the Argentinian pair's arrival will be debated.
Thanks to the complex structure of the deal and the mysterious ownership structure of Media Sports Investments (MSI), the investment vehicle that yesterday sold the players' registrations to West Ham, administrators in Britain and Europe will have raised eyebrows at the passing of a deal that in almost every sense is unusual.
Article continues
Although the transfer lists in today's papers will baldly state that Tévez and Mascherano yesterday moved from Corinthians to West Ham, the reality of the deal is more complex and remains in part opaque. The players were contracted to and paid by the Sao Paulo club but they were at least half "owned" by MSI and its front man Kia Joorabchian, an Iranian-born, British-educated businessman.
MSI yesterday sold its share in the pair's registration to the Hammers because FA regulations prevent player registrations being owned by anyone other than a club. MSI has secured lucrative sell-on clauses, however, meaning West Ham will have to sell either player should they receive an offer in excess of €50m (£35m) per player or match the fee themselves, with the lion's share of the profit going to MSI. For celebrating West Ham fans the one cloud on the horizon may be that the pair will spend this season in the Premiership shop window before departing to more glamorous employers.
Joorabchian became familiar to an English football audience last year when he tabled a £90m offer to buy West Ham from the chairman Terence Brown. The offer was not accepted but relations between the two parties remained good enough for the deal of the season to be engineered almost out of the blue.
Welcome though the signings will be to Hammers fans who will now dream of Champions League football, Joorabchian is a controversial figure in Brazil, where he was investigated after buying Corinthians in 2004, in Russia where he developed links with the exiled media oligarch Boris Berezovsky, and in the corridors of the European governing body Uefa where allegations of claimed links to European clubs, including at least one from the Premiership, have come to the attention of the chief executive Lars Christer Olsson.
Joorabchian, 35, made his entrance into football in 2004 when he appeared in Sao Paulo as the frontman for MSI's takeover of Corinthians, which saw the company promise to pump $35m into the club over 10 years. Joorabchian presented Tévez as a $22m (£11.5m) "present" to the fans and the most high-profile player ever to swap Argentina for a Brazilian club. Within months, however, Joorabchian and MSI found themselves the subject of an investigation by the Brazilian Central Bank and the organised crime unit. The investigations threw up extravagant claims but no proof of any wrongdoing.
MSI is registered in London, with Joorabchian and a Nojan Bedroud of Maidenhead, Berkshire, listed as the sole directors. Joorabchian has been on compassionate leave from Corinthians for several months after the death of his father. The transfer of Tévez has also thrown up suggestions of indirect links between the businessman and Berezovsky.
Joorabchian acknowledges that the two men are friends but denies that the Russian is a source of MSI's cash. Joorabchian also denies ties between MSI and Roman Abramovich, who was linked with the company by the Spanish newspaper AS, its story fuelled by reported sightings of Abramovich's yacht in Buenos Aires shortly before the Tévez deal was announced.
It was these suggestions of links between club owners stretching around the world and across Europe that alerted European administrators to the activities of Joorabchian. Allegations made in the Dutch media were forwarded to Olsson, who forwarded his concerns to leading football administrators across the continent and members of the European Parliament. Olsson's warning shot was in part the catalyst for a review of European football governance sponsored by the sports minister Richard Caborn and carried out by a Portugese politician, Jose Luis Arnaud. The review called for EU law to be changed to allow football to be governed by different rules to the rest of business, specifically allowing the authorities to investigate collaboration between clubs. Currently Uefa can only intervene if an individual or club own more than 51% of two clubs.
Rooney punches Blackburn's Michael Gray.
haha and people wonder why I love this guy. Rooney is the manRooney punches Gray in restaurant
Wayne Rooney was involved in an altercation with fellow Premiership star Michael Gray in a plush Manchester restaurant on Saturday night. The 20-year-old Manchester United striker was with fiancee Coleen McLoughlin and three other couples, all long-standing close friends of the pair, at the Panacea restaurant, when Gray, himself capped three times by England in 1999, wandered over, apparently under the influence of alcohol.
The footballers exchanged words before it is alleged Rooney, while still seated, punched Gray, giving the player, who is now at Blackburn, a black eye. "Wayne and Coleen were enjoying a night out with three other couples and were having a quiet dinner when Michael came up to their table uninvited," said a spokesman for the striker.
"Michael then began making a number of remarks which were offensive to Coleen and Waynes other female guests. Several times, Wayne asked Michael to leave. It was a brief incident and as far as Wayne is concerned, he bears no ill-feeling towards Michael."
Just give the guy a good shot like he deserves for being a wanker then say it's all good and no hard feelings after.
Its damn good to see that West Ham are finally able to bring in rising young stars rather than being forced to sell them off (they'd be unbelievble if they got to keep everybody).
And its also good to see that Rooney is settling into Roy Keane and Eric Cantona's old roles.
I watched the West Ham v Aston Villa game and Tevez is either going to have to learn to play the crappy english style or his teammates will need to adjust to his style. Granted its only 1 half, but you could tell that the players around him are shitty and prefer to kick the air out of the ball.
***SPOILER for those watching Champions League games tonight on TSN***
First match day of the group stage. Super high scoring games.
Home Away
Chelsea 2-0 Bremen
Barcelona 5-0 Levski
Sporting 1-0 Internazionale
Bayern 4-0 Spartak Moskva
Galatasaray 0-0 Bordeaux
PSV 0-0 Liverpool
Olympiacos 2-4 Valencia
Roma 4-0 Shakhtar