Monday News **I will try to still create a daily thread with news from around the leagues, but if the news are big enough they may warrant their own thread for discussion. Also, once I create the individual threads for the leagues some of this stuff may start to go there and we will stop doing the daily threads and just update the league threads. England Team of the Week GK: Shay Given (Manchester City) - 8 RB: Jose Bosingwa (Chelsea) - 7.5 CB: Thomas Vermaelen (Arsenal) - 8.5 CB: Sylvain Distin (Everton) - 8.0 LB: Ashley Cole (Chelsea) - 8.0 RM: Wade Elliot (Burnley) - 7.5 CM: Darren Fletcher (Manchester United ) - 7.5 LM: Ryan Giggs (Manchester United) - 8.5 FW: Fernando Torres (Liverpool) - 9.0 FW: Louis Saha (Everton) - 8.5 FW: Christian Benitez (Birmingham) - 8.5 Manager's Reactions Fergie: "Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy. You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder. Today the players showed their form. That is the best answer of all. The fact we made those mistakes probably made it the best derby game of all time. What would you rather have, a 6-0 win or the greatest derby of all time? I would prefer to win 6-0" Mark Hughes : "I have not had a word with the referee yet but the fourth official tried to give me an explanation of sorts as I was questioning the amount of time added on even before the game finished. His explanation did not sit comfortably with me. He said a minute plus had been added because of our celebration. We scored on 90 minutes, the board was already up for four minutes, so Mr Wiley said he was going to add that minute on. The amount of time from when we scored to when we kicked-off was something like 45 seconds. He has got that wrong as well. It was 95 minutes 26 seconds. Obviously he has played too much time and we ended up playing 97 minutes. I just needed an explanation as to why so much time was needed." Carlo Ancelotti: "We hope tomorrow we will have a precise diagnosis of the situation (with Didier Drogba). It is a calf injury but he felt that he had cramp. If it is cramp, it is good for us (but) I think we can play well without Didier... I don't know if Tottenham should have had a penalty, I am not a referee. I do not like to speak about the job of the referee. I prefer to speak about the match. It was very important to win this game. It was a derby and we played well against a very good team." Harry Redknapp: "It was a nailed-on penalty but he (Keane) tried to stay up. They don't want people diving, but if he felt he dived, why didn't he give him a yellow or a red card? It's either a penalty or a red card. We had a diabolical penalty decision at Old Trafford last season when we were 2-0 up and he gave it. He apologised for that... Once we lost Ledley (King) there was no way we could deal with Didier Drogba. Ledley has done his hamstring. Bassong doesn't look too good, either. He got a bang on the head and his eye's all swollen up. I think the doctor has taken him to hospital with concussion." - Merseyside Police are set to continue their investigations into allegations that Blackburn forward El-Hadji Diouf made a racist remark to a ball-boy at Sunday's Premier League match at Everton. - Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti faces a nervous wait to discover how long Didier Drogba will be sidelined after the Ivory Coast striker was stretchered off with a calf injury in his side's 3-0 win over Tottenham. Ancelotti said: "We don't know precisely what the problem is yet. It's too early. We'll have to wait some days to see. We hope it's only cramp. We'll have a better idea on Monday. We'll have a precise diagnosis then. But it's a calf, not his knee." Italy - Inter midfielder Thiago Motta suffered a thigh muscle tear in Sunday's 2-1 win at Cagliari, the Italian champions said in a statement on Monday. The Milan club did not speculate how long he would be sidelined but media reports said the player was set to miss at least a month. - Struggling Milan playmaker Ronaldinho needs more time to rediscover his best form, Rossoneri great Franco Baresi has said. The Brazilian looks poised to be available for Wednesday's Serie A trip to Udinese having missing Sunday's patchy 1-0 win over Bologna because of flu. He was also dropped for last week's 2-1 Champions League win at Olympique Marseille. "I think Ronaldinho can still be important for this Milan. We are at the start of the season, each match is a different story," said Baresi, 49. - Sampdoria set a club record four straight victories at the start of a Serie A season with a 4-1 success over lowly Siena on Sunday that took them top of the table. Meanwhile, Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho, who on Saturday launched a broadside at his Italian critics, was sent off for arguing with the referee as the champions came back from a first-half deficit to beat Cagliari 2-1 in Sardinia. - Juventus underlined their Serie A title credentials with a 2-0 victory against lowly Livorno at Turin's Olympic stadium on Saturday despite missing several first team regulars. The manner of Juve's victory was impressive as they overcame the absence of the likes of Diego, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Del Piero, Felipe Melo and Momo Sissoko to still win at a canter. Juventus have demonstrated their title credentials and there is an increasing feeling that they can push champions Inter all the way this season. Spain - Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy will be out of action for up to six weeks after damaging his left thigh muscle. The Dutchman got injured scoring the final goal in Real's 5-0 home win over Xerez on Sunday after coming on as a late substitute. - Coach Manuel Pellegrini turns Real Madrid's awesome firepower on his former club on Wednesday when the free-scoring La Liga leaders travel to face Villarreal. The Chilean rose to prominence at the modest east-coast club, playing an attractive brand of football and turning Villarreal into a fixture in European competitions. He left to head up Real's new project in June. Pellegrini's team have made a strong start to the campaign netting 11 goals in their three wins from three, to top the standings on goal difference from champions Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored in every game so far but Pellegrini said that while the goals have been flying in, the team are not yet playing to the standard he expects. "I don't think it is a problem of adapting to a new system," he said after Sunday's 5-0 rout of Xerez. "We have to improve but we aren't doing badly." - Barcelona have scored only one less than Real with new signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic also managing to find the net in every game so far. The Swedish striker appears to have quickly settled with his new team and Barca's 5-2 demolition of Atletico Madrid on Saturday was testament to their continuing good form. - Not content with spending 250 million euros ($368 million) on players over the summer, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is now planning to build a Disney-style theme park about the La Liga club. The park, which would be at Real's training ground out near the Spanish capital's Barajas airport, will "reflect our history, legend and values," Perez said at the club's general assembly Sunday.
Re: Monday News Also, check out the sticky threads. I updated the pickem and created threads for the EPL and Champions fantasy.
Re: Monday News Looks like Villa is goin to loan us Marlon Harewood since were short on strikers at the moment
Re: Monday News FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU we get Cambiasso back but Motta goes down now. hopefully we go to the 4-3-3 so i don't have to deal with muntari/vieira/zanetti in the midfield
Re: Monday News BTW, I didnt mention it but the only match worth mentioning today is: Kasimpasa v Galatasaray at 2:00 PM (Turkey)
Re: Monday News it will be easier for navigation, if you include the date, and not just the day of the week in the title of the thread.
-LA Galaxy are interested in bringing Barcalona defender Rafael Marquez back to LA for a 2nd stint with the club. -Charges for the West Ham-Millwall brawls will be handed out after West Ham's Carling Cup match Wednesday. Many believe West Ham will be forced to play a game behind closed doors, as well as hefty fines for both clubs. Both clubs also could potentially be banned from the Carling Cup