Burnley’s a beautiful little market town in Lancashire, England with a population of around 70,000. The UK Government awarded the town the title “Most Enterprising Area in the UK” back in 2013, so Christian Benteke’s initiative in announcing his move to ‘Burnleyl FC’ via Twitter should come as no surprise.
Fernando Torres’ shock transfer to Chelsea in January of 2011 left Liverpool supporters so incensed that many took to the streets to burn their replica Torres jerseys on live television. Having scored 81 goals in 142 Liverpool appearances, Torres had provided Reds supporters a sense of false hope with regards to recapturing their former glories.
Having watched Moussa Sissoko appear, and even using that word is a stretch, for Newcastle United on 37 different occasions in the Premier League last season, you could say that his performances for France at the European Championship left me feeling a little salty.
Billed as a box-to-box midfield engine that can grab games by the scruff of the neck, which he’s done on a couple of occasions on Tyneside, his abject performances for the Toon throughout 2015-16 made his Euro something like a slap in the face to Newcastle fans.
Jose Mourinho has unleashed a clear dig at Arsene Wenger and Jurgen Klopp by reacting to their comments surrounding Manchester United’s signing of Paul Pogba for an excess of £100 million.
Pep Guardiola’s 2009 ‘revolution’ of Barcelona was not so much the invention of a new system, but rather the insistence on a playing style that’d been utilized by great European footballing sides since the mid-1900s. Key to his idea of attacking football was developing a Barcelona side that could attack from any position on the field — Sergio Busquets was promoted from the Barca B squad, Dani Alves was purchased from Sevilla for €29 million and, most importantly, Gerard Pique returned from Manchester United for the ridiculously low price of €5 million.
Barcelona have been linked with just about every half-decent striker in Europe this transfer window: Nolito, Mario Mandzukic, Carlos Bacca, Mario Gomez, Kevin Gameiro and Luciano Vietto have all been run through the rumor mill. They've also looked to the other side of the pond, being linked with Andre-Pierre Gignac, Gabriel Jesus and Luan Vieira.
The Pep Guardiola effect is in full swing at Manchester City with the Citizens beating Barcelona to the signing of 19-year-old Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus.
City and Jesus’ Brazilian club, Palmeiras, have agreed to a £27 million fee with the attacking talent set to stay in Brazil until December. Jesus has been widely touted as the greatest prospect to emerge from Brazil since Neymar — the two will be in action together for the Selecao at the 2016 Olympic Games.
Like a character from a Leo Tolstoy novel, Alex Song is off to the Republic of Tatarstan — a former Barcelona nobleman whose links with high society have been severed.
Alex Song’s career has taken in the sights of beautiful Barcelona, Spain and both West and East London with Arsenal and West Ham United, but the 28-year-old is about to embark on his greatest adventure yet.
The former Cameroon midfielder has accounted for €23 million worth of transfer fees throughout his career, but his latest move will cost Russian club Rubin Kazan nothing.
Having watched Juventus poach his AS Roma teammate Mirlaem Pjanic for €32 million, Francesco Totti finally lost his cool following the €90 million sale of Napoli forward Gonzalo Higuain to the reigning Serie A champions.