Best ever?
When I watched Barcelona dismantle Real Madrid last week it crossed my mind that it may have been one of the finest displays of football I have ever seen. I am just about old enough to remember the fantastic Brazil World Cup winning team of 1970 and never felt that I was likely to see anything to match their brilliance. Now, I think I might have done.
Tactical
I know Barcelona didn’t win last season’s Champions League but that was largely down to the tactical genius of the ‘special one’ rather than Inter actually being on the same planet in terms of footballing expertise. I know that up until last week Real Madrid were ahead of them in La Liga, but that game at the Camp Nou surely clarified which one is the superior side.
Barcelona did w…
Rui Vitoria says his Benfica side will only know the effect of Zenit s lack of match action come kick-off in Tuesday s Champions League last-16 first-leg showdown.
While Benfica go into the clash at the Estadio da Luz off the back of a defeat to Primeira Liga rivals Porto, Andre Villas-Boas Zenit have not played a competitive match since their final Champions League group meeting with Gent in December.
Their Russian Premier League title defence does not begin until March and former Porto coach Villas-Boas acknowledged Zenit face a challenge to regain match sharpness.
Opposite number Vitoria is unsure what impact it will have, telling reporters: They are a strong team, with quality players and a quality coach.
They are a team with a great conne…
Leeds United have completed the signing of Billy Sharp from Southampton, .
The 28 year old had a year remaining on his contract with the Premier League club, but has agreed to drop a division and take a pay cut in a bid to play regular first team football.
Sharp moved to St Mary’s in January 2012, though he has spent the majority of the past one and a half seasons out on loan, firstly with Nottingham Forest then with Reading and former club Doncaster Rovers.
In total he made just eighteen appearances for the Saints in all competitions, scoring ten goals – nine of which came to help them over the line in their promotion winning 2011/12 campaign.
The former Scunthorpe United and Sheffield United man could make his debut for Dave Hockaday’s side…
AC Milan are believed to be holding talks about signing Spanish international Fernando Torres from Chelsea
According to, Italian giants AC Milan are in talks to sign Spanish striker Fernando Torres from Chelsea.
The Spaniard has endured a difficult career at Stamford Bridge since making a British-record breaking £50million move from Liverpool in January 2011.
Torres has scored just 20 Premier Leagues goals in 110 appearances for the Blues in the top-flight and now looks set to leave the club.
It begs the question should the Blues move to sign a new striker before the transfer deadline day on Monday?
Strikers
If Torres leaves that means that Chelsea would effectively have just two senior strikers in Diego Costa and returning hero Didier D…
Real Madrid received help from an unusual source to acquire the services of Marco Asensio in 2014, with tennis superstar Rafael Nadal acting as a go-between, Florentino Perez has revealed.
Asensio impressed in his first full season in Mallorca s senior side, attracting the interest of Madrid and Barcelona.
Los Blancos won the race for his signature in December 2014, before loaning him back to Mallorca and then Espanyol.
And Madrid president Florentino Perez has revealed Nadal a huge fan of the 2016-17 double winners played a crucial role in convincing the young midfielder to move to the Santiago Bernabeu.
I called Rafa Nadal and asked him to talk to his uncle [former Barca player] Miguel Angel, who was Mallorca s sports director, Perez told Onda Cero.<…
Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder Beram Kayal is facing at least two months out of action after suffering a broken leg.
The 29-year-old sustained a fractured fibula in Sunday s friendly loss to Atletico Madrid and was sent for an operation on Wednesday.
Manager Chris Hughton says the break was clean but he still expects the Israel international to be sidelined until the latter part of October.
We don t expect any complications, but it s bad news for us and for him, Hughton said.
The good news is it was a clean injury as such. The operation went very well; we expect him to be out for a period of something like eight to 10 weeks.
Kayal, who arrived from Celtic in January 2015, missed a large part of last season with an ankle problem and has suf…