Segun Oluwaniyi

Every player to play in the first World Cup is now officially dead. The last one, Varallo Francisco of Argentina, died today aged 100. I'm pretty sure he was retired last season as well.

This is one of the biggest problems with selling English players and it is almost exclusive to the Premiership. These players won't go overseas, so 99 times out of 100 you are selling them to your rivals. Defoe, Crouch, Woodgate, and King are probaly less than what they need, but do they really be want to be selling them to Everton or Villa.

There is really only a small group of English footballers that I truly like and admire. Owen Hargreaves and Dean Ashton were two of these players. It is an absolute shame what has happened to their careers. Reminds of one of my favourite recent Nigerian players, Christoan Obodo. He's finally made his comeback (though it is in Serie B, and he'll likely never reach his old levels), but it seems there will be no such luck for these two. May they be successful in their future endeavours.

When is "of late"? He was poor most of last year. Disasterous at the World Cup and once again diasterous against Young Boys and Wigan. He may have played alright in Spurs' three other matches this season, but that's a pretty good rate of being awful.

The defence is nowhere good enough. Assou-Ekotto, for example, is very bad. I do not see why no one realises this. Btw, VI, I think Osasuna sent OM an imposter when they paid 6 million for the Azpilicueta character. He's been atrocious so far. Amazing that he was involved in the lead up to World Cup. I like the boy and obviously he'll need to settle into a more physical league, but right now it is a waste.

I'd seen them linked to Forlan as well. Fabiano wasn't THAT unattainable. Marseille agreed with him, but Sevilla wanted some ridiculous sum. Just too expensive for anyone's blood.

No, relegation was bad. The positive events that have followed do not change this. It is like saying a heart attack was good for you because you improved your fitness levels to improve your health after it occured. Imo, the club has moved laterally and maybe even negatively from September 2008. Many of the underlying issues still exist.

Why have you failed to really do much? Is Levy not prepared to let Redknapp gamble with the potential Champions League income? Imo, it;s big man syndrome. Because of their achievemtents last seasons, they think they are a big club and have been off trying to acquire playrs that are barely attainable and big names. Window would have gone better if they did things as usual and built on their foundation.

I get the distinct impression that Man City don't really give a damn.

That would be a good signing for them. They've already made some shrewd acquisitions. They seems more serious about staying up this time around.

Gyan is a very good player. He's not a great goalscorer, but he is a consitently threatening player who can create opportunities for others. Imo, this move hurts Rennes and ensures Sunderland's survival.

Misimovic I guess would be a replacement for Jurado as he is a #10, but Fanni is a right back and their pursuit of him seems thoroughly unrelated.

What? You mean yesterday? Look, if your team is in the Champions League and you lose to the relegation favourites who have a GD of -10 from two matches you have every right to boo. It's equivalent to if the Derby loss had come at SJP/sportsdirect. So where does fickleness begin? Where do you draw the line at support? The same team qualified for the CL, ffs. The same manager has put the club in a place it hasn't been for years. Fans lose perspective very quickly: we did the same with SBR. All of a sudden, finishing 5th is a disaster. What does fickleness have to do with this? Every match is individual in itself. Every single stadium in the league should shame it's players if they lose to Wigan at home. The fans paid money and the team played well below expectations. The current Barca team has lifted the team to new heights, but if they lose to Celta at home, the fans will jeer them, as they should.

Spurs play better football than Villa and are a far superior side at the present. No one should bring up league position after three matches. Especially when one of Villa's is a 6-0 thrashing by a promoted side and one of Tottenham's is a creditable draw away to Man City. Villa's football has been ugly, yet effective in the past few seasons. I fear they might be losing the effective part of the equation, though.

http://pmnewsnigeria.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Yakubu.jpg It's not close.

Red card was absolute nonsense. Ref failed to give us a stonewall penalty as well.

I was only able to watch half the match on a stopstart stream with the Spurs-Wigan commentary, so I can't offer too many enlightening opinions on the match. Still, I'm fairly pleased with the result. A draw at the Molinuex is a decent point for the bottom 12 teams in this league. What I like about us right now is that we seem very competitive. Thelack of options in attack is worrisome though. Carroll's gotten off to a good start, but cannot be relied on to carry the team at this stage in his career.

What? You mean yesterday? Look, if your team is in the Champions League and you lose to the relegation favourites who have a GD of -10 from two matches you have every right to boo. It's equivalent to if the Derby loss had come at SJP/sportsdirect.

Are you kidding? He makes Roger Milla look young. Kanu can ball forever. He's an aging player by any measure and he had a heart transplant, ffs. Papillo will do well for himself in the Championship, and as always will be loved.

Is Huntelaar going to Barca as was proposed? I figure he could be quite useful as a bench player for them. Ibra and Pato is a devastating frontline, btw.

How are we on the up? We have been on a steady decline over the past two seasons, and imo are currently at a lower point than we were at the beginning of 08-09 Premiership season. Unless we can maintain this upward momentum, this recent period of good feelings will be similar to a minor recovery in decade long depression.

As an aside, I think Ajax will do what Marseille should have doen last year and finish second above Milan.

Would make this an absolutely brilliant week if we can pull this off. Very pleased that Hughton has left his comfort zone to pursue Tiote and HBA (hopefully). Also, I like zinaldo and this means he would probably stay.

Rather pleased with Marseille's group. I think we're the second best team there and should stand a good chance of going through. The matches against Spartak will be massive. Will also be brilliant when Drogba comes back to the Velodrome.

The one decision that has happened under Ashely that shocked and confused me the most was giving Shola that new contract after he played a few decent matches under Kinnear. I really would like for someone involved to have explained the logic behind that to me because I think I understand evrything else.