But the Englishman turned down a 90,000 pound a week contract and asked for one worth 150,000 pounds a week, the amount earned by John Terry and Frank Lampard, the highest-paid footballers at the club. But chelsea were not ready to give that to him and all talks between the two parties stalled and Cole was declared free to leave the club on July the 1st on a free transfer.

He has been linked to various clubs, including the likes of arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. Spurs manager Harry Redknapp coached Cole in his West Ham days and is very keen to land the 28 year-old at White Hart Lane.

Rednapp said, ‘When Joe returns from the World Cup, I would like to talk to him about coming to Spurs.’

Cole joined chelsea in 2003 from West Ham United for 6.6 million pounds, and in his seven seasons at the Bridge, he won three Premier League titles, three FA Cups, two League Cups and two Community Shields.

German captain Michael Ballack will also be leaving the English champions in the summer, after the club refused to hand him a one year extension on his deal.

Ballack will miss the World Cup after sustaining an injury in the FA Cup final against Portsmouth, the last match of his Chelsea career.

Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho, the man who brought Ballack to London from Bayern Munich is reportedly interested in re-uniting himself with the 33 year-old by offering him a contract at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Dubai clubs Al Wasl and Al Shabab are also said to be interested in signing the German.

Ballack enjoyed a successful spell at Chelsea, winning the FA Cup and League Cup in his first ever season with the Blues. The next year, Chelsea were unable to win a single competition, even though they reached two finals and took the title race down to the last day.

He won another FA Cup in the 2008-09 campaign, before being a part of the team to win an unprecedented double of the Premier League and FA Cup last season.

Cole and Ballack join big names including Fabio Aurelio, Thierry Henry, William Gallas, David James, Juliano Belletti, Mikael Silvestre, Sol Campbell and Kris Boyd in the long list of free agents up for grabs this summer, and after the World Cup, there is sure to be huge rush in the transfer market.

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Dalglish – The aftermath

Kenny Dalglish is a one-off in modern football. A man who made the transition from star player, to player/manager to manager with ease and led the side to title after title. Life immediately after Dalglish was difficult for Liverpool fans but Liverpool were still reigning champions at the time and locked in a title battle with arsenal. Despite an aging squad, this was a side still boasting the likes of John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Jan Molby, Ronnie Whelan and Ian Rush – more than capable of pushing for the title the following year. With Ronnie Moran at the helm until the end of the season Liverpool finished a distant second behind arsenal that year but looking to preserve ‘the Liverpool way’, Another passionate Scot was lined up to lead the side.

Souness

Graeme Souness was an icon at Liverpool. He returned to the club he captained to so much glory from a successful stint as boss of Rangers and seemed the natural choice to succeed Dalglish. What did seem unnatural though, was how he quickly dismantled what was in effect a Championship winning side. Molby, Whelan, Beardsley, Nicol, Staunton and Houghton were all shown the day at barley 30 years of age. In came Dean Saunders, Don Hutchinson, Mike Marsh et al, all good players in their own right but not of the title winning caliber of those they replaced. Liverpool finished 8th that year and many fans point to this ruthless cull of one of the leagues strongest squads as a turning point in the history of Liverpool FC. Within a year, Liverpool had gone from title challengers to a mid table side. The one bright spot being the emergence of Steve Macmanaman and Jamie Redknapp.

Back to basics

Despite winning the FA Cup in ‘92, the fans and the board quickly lost patience with Souness and after suffering a serious heart attack he was replaced by one of the famous boot room – Roy Evans. Under Evans, Liverpool became know for their attacking flair and expansive style. ‘Pass and move’ was the philosophy and playing a 3-5-2 formation saw men pile forward as a young Robbie Fowler terrorized defenses. The Reds however, also became know for their soft centre and a string of defensive signings that failed to make an impact. The likes of Phil Babb, John Scales, Rob Jones, Stig Inge Bjornebye and Bjorn Kvarme all made good starts but made little difference to Liverpool’s defensive frailties. Some top four finishes and appearances in the Uefa cup gave brief hope but Evan’s side never really pushed a resurgent manchester united. In 1998, the board moved to bring in former France manager Gerrard Houllier to work along side Evans as ‘co-manager’. The idea was doomed from he start and Evans was gone before the season’s end.

The French revolution

Houllier began what he described as a five-year program to rebuild the team, starting in 1999. That summer, Paul Ince, David James, Jason McAteer, Rob Jones, Tony Warner and Steve Harkness were all sold, while Steve McManaman left for Real Madrid on a free. At the same time seven new players, Sami Hyypiä, Dietmar Hamann, Stephane Henchoz, Vladimir Smicer, Sander Westerveld, Eric Meijer and Djimi Traore were all signed. Also, Liverpool’s training facilities at Melwood were thoroughly overhauled.

The rebuilding continued the following year, with the signings of Markus Babbel, Nicky Barmby, Pegguy Arphexad, Gregory Vignal, Emile Heskey, Gary McAllister, Igor Biscan and Christian Ziege, but the departures of David Thompson, Phil Babb, Dominic Matteo, Steve Staunton (for the second time), Brad Friedel and Stig Inge Bjornebye.

The efforts yielded a result in the successful 2000-01 season, when Liverpool won a cup treble of the League Cup, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup and finished third in the English Premier League. Liverpool went on to win the FA Community Shield against manchester united and UEFA Super Cup against Bayern Munich. However, Liverpool still failed to trouble the top of the Premiership and the 00/01 season was as good as it got for Houllier.

In 2002-2003 season Liverpool finished in the fifth place in the Premiership, failing to qualify for the Champions League next season. Critics blamed Houllier’s unsuccessful summer signings in 2002, namely El Hadji Diouf (Lens, £10 million), Salif Diao (Sedan, £5 million) and Bruno Cheyrou (Lille, £4 million), and his failure to make Nicolas Anelka’s loan move permanent in favour of signing the ineffective Diouf. Liverpool had gone backwards and in May 2004 Houllier left by mutual consent.

Viva le Rafa-lution

Rafa Benitez arrived on Merseyside with a big reputation. He’d led his valencia side to the La Liga title, breaking the monopoly of Real Madrid and Barcelona and when the Reds had met Valencia in Europe they were out played and soundly beaten.

The 5 year plan under Gerrard Houllier was been torn up and re-written with yet another rebuilding of the squad. However, Liverpool fans expecting the starts of that Valencia side to follow Benitez to Anfield were sadly disappointed. benitez signed a string of average players from La Liga with only Luis Garcia, Xabi Alonso and Fernando Torres having any real impact.

Despite a shock Champions League win in 2005, an FA Cup and finishing 2nd in the Premier League, much of Benitez’s time at Anfield has been marked by poor transfer policy and negative team selection. Out of the 37 senior first team players Benitez has signed since arriving at Anfield, 21 are no longer at the club. Players such at Craig Bellamy and Peter Crouch were ditched while Robbie Keane’s £20m dream move from Spurs was doomed from the start.

So what has actually gone wrong?

Change. Too much, too soon. From the moment Graeme Souness overhauled a title winning squad each Liverpool manager has had a major rebuilding job on their hands but each time one rebuilds the finished article is never what it should be, leaving the next manager to rebuild a squad rebuilt by their predecessor.

Since Graeme Souness took over, Liverpool have spent £355m on transfer and recouped £179m and yet after all that money and 4 managers it looks like another rebuilding job is necessary as Liverpool currently sit in 7th place in the Premier League at time of writing having lost 7 games so far. With the American owners still promising a new stadium but offering no money to fund new players, a change of manager is not even an option this time as Benitez only signed a new 5 year contract in the summer the club simply cannot afford to part company with the Spaniard.

You can’t help but wonder whether things are going to get worse before they get better.

Rich Kinsella is webmaster of http://fantasyfootballinfo.co.uk and an avid Fantasy Football player for more than 15 years.

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The yearly transfer saga hit a low point this summer with accusation after accusation being laid on each other. manchester united complained officially to FIFA about the way Real Madrid approached Ronaldo. manchester united may be right to approach FIFA; but then if we look into the broader perspective what moral right does Manchester United have to complain about Real Madrid when taking into consideration the Rooney and Berbatov saga. For this matter no club including Barcelona is different. Every club cries foul when they are the victims but never hesitates to use the same approach to get players out of other clubs. Real Madrid has been the one who made the entire situation worse. I am not referring to the way they bought out the Galacticos or the way they went after Christiano Ronaldo.

They introduced the new method which is widely used in the transfer market at present. Let’s call it the” Proxy Transfer Market War”. This includes public statement of appreciation and admiration about a particular player (who is well settled in some other club) by members close to the club. This unsettles the poor player as he is also human and gets tempted away by the greatest riches in offer. The Adebayor saga is the prime example where our club Barcelona was also involved. Adebayor cannot be faulted for being tempted; but what it did to him is disastrous. Now he stands in a position where he has to desperately win back the fan’s confidence. Gone are those days when the entire transfer dealing were kept secret and was broken out only when the deal is almost fixed. But now most of the clubs effectively use the media to unsettle rival clubs and players. Just half of these media driven transfer takes place leaving a very disgruntled player and club working together.

There is no point in questioning the morality of these actions as we all justify the actions of our favourite clubs. Who cares whether it’s bad or good for football? But isn’t it time for everyone to take notice of these facts? The difference in terms of wealth and hence quality between the bigger clubs and smaller clubs have been at its peak now. Now the leagues resembles something like the F1 race where the teams like Jaguar etc are there to make the numbers. One way we can very well welcome the acquisition of Manchester City as from next season onwards as it will break the club of big four in England and restructure it to be the club of big five. Manchester City has already showed their intentions by buying Robinho and already started their process of unsettling Ronaldo, Kaka, Buffon, Henry etc. In that sense Manchester City may become a savior for Barcelona if they continue their pursuit of Henry.

But is it good for football, I don’t know for sure. But I do believe that these entire obsessions with stars are taking a toll in the youth systems of these clubs. Most of these clubs are discarding the youth academies, many smaller clubs who is having excellent youth academies may also follow the suit as they see more of their talents getting stolen away. The only solution may be the youth academies getting a part of these talented youngsters enumeration for some year’s at least early on. But in all these mess Sepp Blatter and his proposed idea of limiting the number of foreign players may come as a savior. I have earlier written about my views on Sepp Blatter Proposals. I still believe if we can force the clubs to have a limited number of home grown talents in each playing eleven this could do wonders. This may resurrect the sleeping youth systems and will cut down the maddening rush after stars and we may see players staying in the club for more time and more over this should cut down expense which means lesser priced tickets for fans. Now how’s that for a dream?

For more F C Barcelona related stuffs visit All About F C Barcelona. Read the original article at Million Dollar Clubs.

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Along with two titles came a Premier League top scorer and World Player of the Year within manchester united’s player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo.

Once again it was chelsea applying the pressure on manchester united, coming close second in the league and the opponents in the final of the Champions League.

manchester united overcame there big rivals to finish two points ahead of the London team. In the final of the Champions League, chelsea looked like winners as the game went to a penalty shootout where only a fatal mistake by John Terry opened the Door for Manchester United to take the cup! All in all a great season for Manchester United.

Pre-season saw Manchester United play Aberdeen in their first friendly. United made a winning start to the new pre-season campaign, as goals from Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney sealed a hard-fought victory over Aberdeen at Pittodrie. Playing many first team players such as Carrick, Rooney and Giggs.

A promising start by Aberdeen the talent and strength of Manchester United paid dividends to the English team as they comfortably won 2-0. Manchester United have three more Pre-season games scheduled, against the Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and the finally games is to be confirmed.

In the gap between seasons, Manchester United had the biggest transfer talk of the league concerning their star man, Cristiano Ronaldo! Media headlines involving millions of pounds for the Portuguese midfielder. The fate of the player is still undecided, whatever happens one thing’s for sure it will not happen quietly the media and press will be all over it so you can’t miss a thing.

Manchester United have not been the busiest in the market this year with only three players moving, two out from expired loans and one in on a short-term loan. This could possibly be down to the reason that Manchester United had so much success last season that they feel there is no need for improvement just yet!

Rumors say that Manchester United are looking into the possible signing of Robinho form Real Madrid.

But this is just a rumor who knows anything could happen! As well as interest in Robinho rumors have it that Manchester United are looking into a deal will Tottenham Hotspur, Dimitar Berbatov. Berbatov’s future at White Hart Lane has been the subject of conjecture for some time, with the 27-year-old linked with a move away from North London for much of last season. So I can understand why there is interest in the top quality striker.

One downside to the pre-season start is that Manchester United lost their main coach Scolari. So first things first a new coach needed before the start of the season.

To find out more about Man United and more Live Premiership previews visit the Live Football website.

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In the Premiership, although liverpool have spent big, they are not quite there yet and consequently are likely to fall short of Man Utd and chelsea again. The Blues will be keen to regain their crown, but United still appear to have the edge. arsenal are perhaps, one season away from being genuine challengers again; however, in Van Persie they do have a player capable giving the likes of Rooney, Ronaldo, Gerrard and Drogba a run for their money, with regards to player of the season. Spurs are getting closer to the big 4, but they are still not close enough and are more likely to be battling for the UEFA spots with Portsmouth, Villa, West Ham and Newcastle.

The likes of Reading, Everton, Sunderland and maybe surprisingly Derby can all make mid-table finishes. Most people will have the Rams as certainties to make an instant return to the Championship, but in Billy Davies they have a talented manager capable of keeping their heads above water. At the bottom Blackburn and Man City can stay out of trouble – just; with the rest in a real battle. Wigan have signed a lot of players, but too many of them have a lot to prove and Middlesbrough – with some un-inspiring signings – could join them in the bottom two. Of the remaining 3 teams, Bolton might struggle to cope post Allardyce and slip out at the death, leaving Birmingham and Fulham breathing huge sighs of relief.

Charlton, with a good manager and plenty of cash, are more than capable of jumping straight back up from the Championship and taking Wolves along with them. Last season will have been a good experience for the black country outfit. Sheff U have an impressive forward line, but defence is a worry and the play-off’s look a more likely option together with Watford, Cardiff and one from Norwich, Coventry and Southampton. West Brom may well suffer a Wembley hang over and just miss out. Mid-table is probably the best Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich and Palace; with Leicester, Hull and QPR improving on last term, but not significantly. Colchester did remarkably well in their first year up, but are likely to find it a great deal tougher second time around and Preston are likely to suffer from the loss of David Nugent. Bristol City and Blackpool are more than capable of consolidating, but the others look vulnerable. Barnsley can just about survive, likewise Plymouth; leaving Stoke Burnley and Scunthorpe fighting the drop.

In League One, Forest are everybody’s tip for promotion, but they look destined to miss out again. They have brought in Neil Lennon, but it’s a very tough division and you have to wonder about his legs. Tipped at the Post’s two for automatic promotion are Doncaster and Millwall. The Yorkshire club are very ambitious and James Hayter is a cracking signing at that level. The Lions young side finished well and Willie Donachie will have them spot on. Huddersfield, Oldham and Luton are taken to fill the play-off places with Forest; just ahead of Carlisle, Swansea, Yeovil and Southend. Bristol Rovers can have a brighter season than many are suggesting, as can Hartlepool and Walsall, all 3 coming up together. Brighton, Tranmere, Crewe and Port Vale seem set for pretty uninspiring seasons; and Gillingham and Leyton Orient look certain to be bottom half material. Leeds need some luck with their appeal against the 15 point penalty, otherwise they could slip straight through. Swindon can stay up at their expense, but Bournemouth, Northampton and Cheltenham look to have it all on to avoid the drop.

In League Two Paul Ince can get one over Fergie – Darren that is! MKD can just pip Peterborough at the top, with Shrewsbury joining them. Notts County, Darlington and Rotherham are taken to make the play-off’s along with surprise packages Bury. Chesterfield, Bradford and Rochdale should all go close; with Hereford, Wycombe and Mansfield not too far behind. Lincoln have probably missed their chances over the past 5 years and Terry Butcher will not find life easy at Brentford. The two newcomers can hold their own, but the rest might struggle with Chester and Accrington Stanley making way for the return of Torquay and Oxford, who are taken to make their League comebacks.

Mick Burrows writes for [http://www.fixed-odds-in-focus.com]

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