Something beyond Fantasy Football at Lincoln City this season.

Paul Gardner on Freddy Adu’s career to date and his move to Benfica.

Jack Warner connection here.  It looks as if one his tight hand men will be reclaiming power.

Kevin McCarra looks at this summer spending spree by Premiership clubs.

Ian Bell with a scathing article to kick off the European season.

An interesting piece on Sven’s record as a club manager.

An article on Marcus Hahnemann – of the three US keepers playing in the Premiership the one that receives the least amount of press coverage. Writen before his Old Trafford shut out.

Rob Hughes – soccer and money, money, money.

Kevin McCarra’s top ten Premiership signings. Who are yours?

David Conn on the success enjoyed by FC United.  Stuart James looks at the Premiership play-offs. A debate between Graham Taylor and Joe Royle on the merits of the loan system. The Guardian’s list of strikers who may be in demand this summer. Tony Cascarino on the 2006/07 season’s best buy Dimitar Berbatov. Bill Edgar also sorts out the various permutations for the UEFA Cup spots. 

And now to the preview.

The Bundesliga takes top spot this weekend as we reach the penultimate round and three teams are still in contention for the title.   Schalke leads with 65 points, followed by Stuttgart on 64 and Werder Bremen are third on 63. By the looks of it Schalke and Stuttgart have the more difficult games although circumstances could conspire to give Schalke their first ever Bundesliga title this weekend.

Borussia Dortmund and 80,000 fans await Schalke who have not lost in Dortmund since 1998. However, three consecutive wins have seen Dortmund move out of relegation trouble and now sit in the top half of the table. Schalke’s final game next weekend is at home to Arminia Bielefeld.

Stuttgart can still complete the domestic double and plays Nuremberg in the German Cup Final on May 26. Stuttgart are on a six-match winning run and are away to Bochum another side that has been enjoying a fine run of form. Bochum were Bundesliga 2 champions last season and have won their last three in a row and six of their last 8. Greek striker Theofanis Gkekas is the man that Stuttgart must watch. He has scored thirteen goals in the last 11 games and it looks like he will be playing for Bayer Leverkusen next season. Energie Cottbus will be Stuttgart’s final opponent next weekend.  

Werder Bremen’s opponents Eintracht Frankfurt sit just above the relegation zone in 14th position and are not yet guaranteed Bundesliga football next season. Bremen’s last match is against another side haunted by the threat of relegation - Wolfsburg .

There are a raft of games in Spain that impact on both the top and bottom of La Liga. Fresh from a Copa del Rey thrashing from Getafe Barcelona are up against strugglers Real Betis. Betis have gone eight games without a win and travel to the Nou Camp where Barcelona have yet to lose a league game this season.

Good fortune is with Real Madrid at the moment and this weekend they face mid-table Espanyol in a game that looks tricky. However, Espanyol has a UEFA Cup Final next Wednesday in Glasgow and are likely to rest and number of their players.

Real Madrid have now won six of their last seven and are within two points of the leaders. Van Nistelrooy is now the leading scorer in La Liga with 20 goals. David Beckham and Robinho are both suspended for this game.  Espanyol are without a win at the Bernabeu since 1996 and in the last two visits they lost by four goals each time.

Espanyol stand between Sevilla and a repeat UEFA Cup win. Although by losing to Real Madrid last weekend Sevilla slipped back to third in the table, they still have a chance to do a treble.  They also have Sevilla just two points behind. This weekend Sevilla plays Recreativo de Huleva the oldest club in Spain. Recreativo are having a terrific season and are pushing for a spot in next season’s UEFA Cup.

 At the other end of the table it is 18th vs. 16th with Celta Vigo playing Levante.  Celta have lost their last 3 and have only one win in their last 10. The arrival of Hristo Stoitchkov as coach has done little to stem the bleeding. Levante have only two away wins and Celta have with only 2 home wins so a draw would not be a surprise. In fact Celta Vigo would probably prefer to play away from home given that they have taken 18 of their 30 points on the road.  

The bottom two teams Gimnastic and Real Sociedad face each other. A loss for Gimnastic would mean almost certain relegation as it would leave them at least nine points from safety with only 12 points still to play for.  Real Sociedad’s position is not much better and are only three points better off than Gimnastic. Sociedad gained their only win on the road in their last away game against Real Betis.

All eyes on the Premiership will be on the games at Old Trafford and Bramall Lane. These matches will decide the final relegation spot. A draw or better for West Ham away to nine time Premiership Champions Manchester United will secure Premiership football next season – as long as the civil legal system does not become involved. Wigan know that anything less than a win against fellow strugglers Sheffield United will drop them back to the Championship after two seasons of Premiership football. 

A draw is good enough for Sheffield although they could survive even if they and West Ham both lose. Three teams would then be tied on 38 points but Wigan would have a better goal difference than Sheffield. The last spot would then depend on how many goals Sheffield and West Ham lose by on Sunday.

While two teams will be happy come Sunday night the Premiership play offs get underway on Saturday.

If West Bromwich Albion manages to win the play-offs and join Birmingham and Sunderland in net season’s Premiership it will be the first time since 1914-15 that all the teams relegated from the top flight will bounced straight back.  Back then it was Preston North End and Derby County achieved the feat.  Southampton needed to win their last three games of the regular season to make it into the play offs for the first time. But for manager George Burley it is his seventh play off series and so far he has only experienced one success. Derby manager Billy Davies has had a team (Preston North End) in the play offs the last two years and has gone out at the semi and final stages. Derby won regular season series with a win and a draw. The strikers to watch out for are Steve Howard (Derby) with 16 goals and Grzegorz Rasiak of Southampton – a former Derby player before a move to Spurs – with 18 goals.  

The other semi final is the Black Country derby between Wolves and West Brom. At the midway point Wolves were down in 14th spot but worked there way up to a 5th place finish. Goals were a problem for Wolves – 59 was the lowest total of teams finishing in the top ten – but they did get into a good habit of winning tight games. Wolves had seven 1-0 wins away from home. On the other hand West Brom scored more goals at home (51) than any other side. The season series was split with a win each.

Play off predictions anyone?  

Jeremy St. Louis and I will be in Toronto this weekend to augment the FSC crew as they broadcast the Toronto FC vs. Chicago Fire match. We are both looking forward to seeing BMO Field for the first and enjoying the atmosphere generated by another full house of almost 20,000 fans.

In a number of provinces in Canada we can bet legally on sports courtesy of the government. The down side is the Russian Mob would probably give better odds than we can get on what is known as Pro Line. Included on Pro Line is the Premiership. Over the couple of years I have got into the habit of dropping by the local store on the way home from doing the Friday Fox Soccer Report.

My weekly wager is very small but it does add something extra to the weekend's soccer action. I try to avoid the early Saturday game because if you get that one wrong then your are screwed. Luckily this weekend was one of the few occasions when the govermment gets to return some of that money to me. I picked six games and all came good. The picks (all to win) were Bolton, Charlton, Manchester City, Chelsea, West Ham and Tottenham.  

Here are some articles that caught my eye over the weekend.

Stewart Fisher with a piece on Paul Dalglish of The Houston Dynamo.  Apparently Paul’s father was quite a good player. Unfortunately Mr. Fisher can’t get the name of the Dynamo’s coach correct!

Gabriele Marcotti takes a look at how Roma have changed under the very underrated Luciano Spalletti. Totti has never been rated by the English media. I wonder if that will still be the case in a few weeks time.

Patrick Barclay takes a look at a player born just miles from Old Trafford who is out to stop Manchester United.

Steve Tongue points out that seven of the eight remaining Champions league teams are skippered by home-town players.

A little piece on Northern Ireland hero David Healey.

Finally a piece from Hugh McIlvanney on the behaviour of some England fans in Barcelona last Wednesday. It includes this stiletto - “All their efforts to masquerade as passionate patriots driven to condemnatory fury by the inadequacies of McClaren and his men could not begin to conceal the revolting truth that most of the snarling, bellowing viciousness came from look-at-me exhibitionists so absorbed in masturbation of their emotions that their favourite insult had an autobiographical ring.”

A big week coming up with the Champions League and UEFA Cup taking centre stage.

Excerpts from the Ference Puskas biography published in 1999.

As an aside, many of the obituaries that ran after the great man’s death contained an error or two. A number referenced his part in winning five consecutive European Cups with Real Madrid when in fact he did not sign for Madrid until the 1958/59 season. He was suspended for almost two years by UEFA after failing to return to Hungary after the 1956 Uprising. The other often misreported item was the reference to Hungary as the first foreign team to beat England at home. Hungary was the first foreign team to beat England at Wembley but the Republic of Ireland beat England in 1949 in an international game held in Liverpool at Goodison Park.

It is true Scottish ball-boys are just too slow.

Alan Campbell on the debacle that is Heart of Midlothian and the de####able treatment of Captain Steven Pressley.

Gabriele Marcotti suggests a major revamp of domestic leagues outside of the present big 5.

David Bond says that a new owner for West Ham will be confirmed very soon.

Steven Morris writes about the smallest league in the world.

This is going to some week what with round 5 of the Champions League on Tuesday and Wednesday followed by a weekend that includes top-of-the-table action in Italy and England. Palermo plays Inter Milan and Chelsea will go to Old Trafford next Sunday for the biggest game of the Premiership season so far. More on Manchester United and Chelsea later this week.

henry14 - I personally feel that all the other 19 teams in the Prem lack creative midfielders in the mould of the Deco, Pirlo type that Arsenal have in abundance, l think everyone saw the how Arsenal were full of ideas and United lacked them at all, and by the way l feel Gerrard is not at all creative he is an impact midfielder. Bobby what do you make of my creativity theory. Is it true that everytime Arsenal won at Old Trafford during Wenger's time they went on to win the title?

Bobby – Do you not think that having too many creative midfield problems can be a problem? A team is about balance and having all the creative talent in the world doesn’t make a difference if you can’t win the ball and score goals.  I don’t think that just because Gerrard covers a lot of ground and tackles well that you can’t describe him as creative. He scores goals, he inspires and he sets up goals – that sounds like a pretty creative package to me. 

Yes – Arsenal’s three title wins under Wenger have happened in the same season as winning in the Premiership at Old Trafford. On second thoughts (!!! I have been corrected) the 03/04 season was a 0-0 draw.

bmax14 - A fantastic and necessary result for the Gunners. This was a great game to watch with a bit of everything. I was convinced that Man U was beatable as their perfect start didn't appear to be so "perfect" with the results coming against the likes of Fulham and Watford. Arsenal really threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the league with this victory. When you look at their schedule for the next 4-5 weeks there are some very winnable games and they could be in the top 2-3 by late October. Well done Gunners!

Bobby – Arsenal should take advantage of a fairly straight forward schedule in the next few weeks but how many fans expected then to take two points from a start that included Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and Manchester City? Arsenal has a young side and with a young team you will find inconsistency now and again.

neophyte – (1). Arsenal’s 4-5-1 is not a new formation but seems to have taken the place of the beloved 4-4-2. I like it since you see more attacks from various angles and not just balls crossed from the wings in a traditional 4-4-2. (2). Baptista for Reyes. Who is going to get the better deal Real or Arsenal? Is Baptista really that big o####uy or is the TV camera playing tricks? He looks HUGE! When Rosicky and Baptista start clicking...look out.

Bobby – Wenger has been a resolute 4-4-2 manager until last season’s run in the Champions League. I think you will find that he will mix the two formations using 4-5-1 when up against strong opposition. The extra man in the midfield gives Fabregas a bit of help with the extra load. When Vieira was in his prime that wasn’t an issue but Cesc is a  very different player. However, week in and week out as long as injuries do not interfere Wenger will go back to 4-4-2.
In terms of Reyes and Baptista it may turn out that it is a good move for both clubs and the players. I am still not sure where Wenger will play Baptista – he is known as “the Beast” for a reason.

only1cab - As an Arsenal fan I'm obviously very happy and agree with your opinion about Rosicky, in my opinion he’s like Hleb with a brain. I watched the Chelsea game and was amazed to see how much space they gave up on the flanks. Kuyt could have phoned his mum back in Holland and ask her where he should shoot on one of Liverpool’s attacks. When J Cole and Robben are fully fit do you think they will revert to their old system and if so who would you drop? I think Essien (even though he’s been their best player so far) as I could never see them dropping Lampard and they've recently signed Ballack.

Bobby – That has been the question since Ballack was signed. Given the injury situation it has still to be answered. I suspect that Essien would be the player that is most likely to find himself on the bench if everyone was available and fit.

travel_coach - I was only able to watch the first half of the United loss -- my daughter's U12 team had a game -- but it was a very good first half, very enjoyable. Ronaldo had several chances and the way things looked, I expected Lehman to get a second yellow for being an angry person. I'm not an Arsenal fan at all, but before the game it was clear that United was overdue for a loss and Arsenal was due for a win. Why was Thierry Henry absent?

Bobby – Henry was hurt.

simba9 - Do you think that Didier Drogba has finally come into his own, despite all the criticism he endured in his first two seasons at Chelsea? There's an interesting story on the Chelsea website about his numbers. By and large not too shabby!

Bobby – His goal against Liverpool was spectacular. However, he does tend to be a bit hit or miss so I think he needs to keep up his form for a full season before he convinces everyone. He might also be benefiting from Shevchenko attracting the attention of defenders.

henry14 - l feel Mourinho should play bridge in place of Cole bcoz l thought he was the best left back in the Prem over the 5 rounds

Bobby – Ashley Cole is a much better left back than Wayne Bridge.

buffytvs - As a United fan, I have to be disappointed in the second half effort. And also in the rather odd substitutions -- I thought Fletcher and O'Shea would go. That said, I thought a draw would have been a fair result, but perhaps I'm biased. Best player on the pitch? Rosicky. And Batista was very impressive in the short time he had.

This is the second match on the trot SAF has played Rooney up front with Saha in support, and the second time Rooney has been mostly ineffective. That's how Eriksson wasted him too, and I'm surprised to see it at Old Trafford.

Bobby –  I would have to disagree. Ericksson played Rooney as a lone striker against Portugal. Rooney’s best performances have always come when playing just behind a main striker – the role that Fergie asked him to play on Sunday.

ancanada - Man U midfield appeared to be overrun by the Gunners midfield in the second half Sunday, and I cannot remember a shot that Lehmann had to save in the second half until Solksjaer which produced a great save. I cannot understand why Carrick was on the bench; Bobby is it possible he is still carrying an injury as this appears to be the only valid reason. Do you think the number of games the international players’ couple with the travels of some to various parts of Europe and the recent world cup is affecting performance.

Bobby – I think SAF was thinking that if he could hold the Arsenal midfield 5 with his 4 that Rooney or Saha to get a goal. However, I still don’t understand why you would spend that kind of money on a player and then not stat them against one of your toughest rivals. Wenger seems to think that some players are suffering from World Cup hangovers and I am sure that other managers would concur. But there again that is one of the reasons that clubs carry large squads.

Reggae_Boy_23 - I don't know if there's anymore for me to add to the whole Arsenal situation. Everyone seems to have pretty muched summed up the game pretty well. But my question is in regards to the 4-5-1 formation. Don't you think Arsenal have too many attacking options up front to just use 1 forward. Yeah there is better possession in the midfield, but Arsenal does not really have a problem with possession so far this season its scoring goals and I think they lack attacking options with just one striker especially with the midfielders not showing any good form in front of goal so far. Also Henry never seems quite comfortable when he's left up front alone. I can remember a number of occasions both with France and Arsenal when he has been pleading with his coaches to give him some support what do you think? One other thing Bobby. Your thoughts on Real Madrid so far this season. I know you like Capello, but I'm not too impressed with the squad he's put together so far. Is it too early to tell or do you see any potential problems with his lineup?

Bobby – I remember the days when 4-2-4 was being systematically dumped in favour of 4-3-3 and the same argument was being made. Now we are at 4-5-1 and on the face of it would seem extremely negative. But it comes down to how it is executed. If the 5 midfield players are just lined up across the park then it is going to make for some dull football. If, on the other hand, two or even three of the 5 midfielders are given license to get forward and support the lone strike when the chance occurs then there is the possibility of plenty of goals.
I think Capello is implementing a band-aid solution for this year in the hope that he can find some younger players next year. It has not been impressive stuff but Juventus was not very entertaining either – but successful. There again that is another story!!

usenglandfan - I'm surprised no one has talked about Riquelme yet. I know it's all about the EPL right now, but one of the most pivotal midfielders in the game just retired internationally, at 28 years old, from a perennial top 5 team and the best team at the World Cup! Oh yeah, and he was captain. Do think he retired for the reasons he cited (I’m pretty sure he said it was due to the criticism he received post WC and post Brazil @ Emirates) or could it have been something else? He's such a "rugged individual" type of person, so I wouldn't be all that surprised if this decision was indeed driven by spite, but who knows? I thought this deserved some attention.

Bobby – It is a shame to lose a player of his quality to international football when you would think that he should have another World Cup in him. It is good news for Villarreal though and they desperately need a tonic given their awful start to the season.

kirbym - Surprising bit of fence mending that Mourinho did with Benitez. That feud had livened things for awhile and I wonder what will replace it. Also, Mourinho actually admitted the Ballack foul was a red card offense. A sign of JM stepping a bit more lightly?

In the Newcastle-West Ham match I couldn't see what Roeder did to inflame the WH fans (granted, not everything is on camera). He was an unpopular appointment there and they never seemed to respect him--including the players, despite a rather backhanded vote of confidence from Di Canio. It seemed to poison his tenure right from the beginning. Do they still hate him that much?

Bobby – JM will be controversial when it suits his need. As for Roeder it appears from some comments from West Ham fans that they do hate him that much. I don’t think they held that view when he helped them to seventh in the Premiership however.

CIAO - Given Totti's track record with the Italian national team... do you think the team is better off with out him? Also have you heard any rumors about Mancini getting sacked and/or Buffon being signed in January at Inter? I that at the end of the season they bring Mourinho to Inter. If things don't turn around in the next 3-4 games Mancini will be looking for a new job. Hopefully a new manager can set up a functioning youth program.

Bobby – I never thought that Italy would come even close to the World Cup without Totti turning in some spectacular performances. As it was he made very little impact – Pirlo was far more influential. I still think though that Italy can benefit from an in-form Totti.
I guess that whoever is in charge at Inter they are only ever a couple of results away from being fired. Sven-Goran Eriksson has been linked to Inter and the Mourinho story has been around for awhile. The problem is that no manger is going to build a youth system at Inter because there is no befit to it if a manager is going to be evaluated on results today rather than building for three or four years down the road. As far as Buffon is concerned – haven’t heard anything since the transfer window closed.

MeanSucka - Speaking of Italian football, how is it that a relegated Juventus with a points deficit is able to hang on to so many of their stars. Was United really overrated this season or was it the Ewing Theory at work with Henry out? The Ewing Theory is based on Patrick Ewing with the New York Knicks - when he got hurt in 1999 they went to a different style of play and made it all the way to the NBA Finals. Same phenomenon with Drew Bledsoe and the New England Patriots in 2001 when they won the Super Bowl - reinforcing team over the individual.

I suppose we'll see when Henry returns, but as you said - they need to get results against average sides too. Can't wait to see Rosicky blossom.

Bobby – We don’t really know what deals the team may have cut with some of the players nor to way know how much of this season is being underwritten by shareholders.
In terms of the Ewing theory – interesting. However Arsenal has gone 4-5-1 before with or without Henry in the side. The secret is having someone with a bit of pace and mobility up front. Arsenal tried Dennis Bergkamp as the lone striker in the 2005 FA Cup Final and it did not work.