Christmas Presents

It's that time of the year where we give out presents to managers and players. Last year, Wenger got a pair of binoculars, Essien got a new pair of spiked football shoes. This time, these would be the appropriate presents for these people...

Shevchenko - a return ticket to Italy

Alan Pardew - a flag of Argentina

Fegie - already got an early Christmas present by drawing Lille in the next round of CL

Mourinho - a video archive of great, entertaining football

Wenger - a couple of promising 10 year old kids from Angola - Onwaquachi and Muawawahaha

What people should give away as presents...

Mourinho - the young guys who spend more time warming the bench than ruffling the referee on the pitch

Beckham - his retirement announcement

Fergie - releasing Silvestre who can help out Cannavaro at Real

Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!

Champions League Draw!

The pick of the draw is the clash of recent winners - Liverpool and Barcelona. And, there's Bayern against Real Madrid. The draw has been kind to Chelsea, Arsenal and ManU.

Courtesy: UEFA.com

Can we expect some shock results in this round?

The Race is on...

After a nerve-wracking final round of CL matches, I was relieved to see ManU and Barca make it to the knockout stages of the Champions League. With Eto'o and Messi expected in the next month, I hope Barca does much better. As for ManU, Fergie has to realize he cannot expect to win the Premier League and the Champions League titles with this squad lacking quality in depth. I guess Fergie will settle for one of these two this season and no more signings expected this winter transfer window, I am sure it's the EPL title he has set his sights on.

We will know the 2nd round match-ups this Friday and I only hope ManU do not draw Barca this early. It's going to be tough for even the first placed teams with some strong clubs finishing second in their groups. I am sure the English clubs will be anxious about drawing either Barca, Real, or Inter.

ManU are setting the pace in EPL, along with some great football. Fergie certainly knows his first XI but with the festive period and lots of games coming up, he has to shuffle his players so that they are not exhausted in the latter stages.

Btw, what's with all the clubs being or in talks about being taken over. Liverpool, Man City, Newcastle are among the clubs who are certain to join ManU, Chesea, WHam, Villa in being taken over. No club can expect another Abromovich but I wonder if this does any good to the club and the game as such in the long term.

Also, Chelsea's chairman Peter Kenyon talks about Chelsea overtaking ManU as the best supported club in the world by 2014. Peter...That's just wishful thinking if you believe buying all titles with Roman's mafia money is gonna get people become more attached to the club. Your club can buy top players and titles but you can never buy history and tradition that are associated with Europe's elite clubs such as ManU, Real, Barca, Liverpool, and so on. Moreover, there's something called beautiful football. Try and play that and try to fill out your Stamford Bridge stadium first before you can even dream about world domination!

PS: Essien's stunning equaliser earned a point for Chelsea against Arsenal. Chelsea 'started playing' only in the last quarter of an hour after the poor Shevchenko (must be counting his days at London now!) was substituted and the wingers came on. Luck was however on Arsenal's side as Chelsea hit the post a number of times and Lehmann's blunder right at the end of the game almost giving Chelsea the win. For once, I was cheering for Arsenal and was really impressed by Gilberto. He was the best player on the pitch and it is time Wenger realize Henry is no captain material and give the captain's armband to Gilberto.

Larsson to ManU - A Coup?

Just when rumours were strife that Fergie was planning to sign either Torres, Bent or Defoe in the winter transfer window, Fergie has surprised everyone by signing ex-Celtic legend and former Barca striker Henrik Larsson on loan for a couple of months. This may turn out to be a masterstroke but then the duration of the loan period is not too long. Will Larsson make a big difference at the start of the second half of the season? Will he reproduce the same form that helped Barca win the La Liga and CL titles, even though he will be at OT just for a short period of just of 2 months? Every ManU fan would hope so.

Henrik Larsson factfile (courtesy: Telegraph.co.uk)

1971: Born Sept 20, in Helsingborg.
1993: Leaves Helsingborg to join Feyenoord.
1994: Member of Sweden's World Cup squad which finishes third at USA 94.
1997: Joins Celtic and scores 16 goals to help the Hoops to their first Scottish Premier League title for a decade.
2001: Wins Uefa Golden Boot and breaks Charlie Nicholas' post-war Scottish record with 50 goals as Celtic win treble.
2002: Becomes Scotland's all-time top scorer in Europe with 22 goals.
2003: Scores 200th and 201st goals for Celtic in Uefa Cup final against Porto but Celtic lose 3-2.
2004 April: Helps Celtic to third title in four years and then leaves after scoring 242 goals in 315 appearances.
June: Joins Barcelona, but misses much of the season through injury as they win La Liga.
2006: Scores 10 goals as Barca win La Liga again and plays a part in both goals as they beat Arsenal 2-1 in May's Champions League final.
June: Rejoins Helsingborg.
Dec 1: Agrees to join Manchester United on loan.