Transfer Window Update

We're over half-way through the current transfer window, but there hasn't been too many transfers as of yet. The most news-worthy are the signings of Sol Campbell to Arsenal and Patrick Vieira to Man City. Sol Campbell obviously did enough in training and the 45 minutes of a reserve game to merit a short-term deal. Vieira has joined Man City at a time when they seem to be doing well (if you ignore the game against Everton) - so I struggle to see Vieira getting many games, especially as Gareth Barry and Nigel De Jong have been pretty solid in midfield.


The biggest transfer so far, in terms of money, is Michel from Sporting Gijon to Birmingham in a £3m deal. There have been plenty of loan deals, obviously because of the credit crunch! Maxi Rodriguez has joined Liverpool on loan from Atletico Madrid and I'm sure he enjoyed watching the game against Reading on the F.A.Cup! Jake Livermore has joined Peterborough on loan from Spurs and goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic has joined Wigan on loan from Sporting Lisbon and I'm sure he didn't enjoy his debut against Nott Co. in the F.A.Cup 4th round! Didier Digard has gone out on loan from Middlebrough and Andy Griffin has joined Reading, on loan from Stoke City. Stoke had apparently signed Amr Zaki according to newspaper reports last week, however, he has joined Hull City instead, on loan from FC Zemalek.

Colchester have signed both Kayode Odejayi and John-Joe O'Toole from championship clubs to add strength to their push for promotion and Vincent Pericard has signed for Swindon after fellow league 1 side Carlisle decided not to retain him, suprisingly.

Hopefully, the rest of the transfer window will be more eventful. This year, it closes on Monday 1st February.

Rumours

Ryan Babel could be on his way out of Liverpool as the Dutch striker is out of favour. Ryan was also fined a week's wages after he revealed on Twitter that he had been dropped for the game against Stoke, before the game. Birmingham could come in for the striker at a cut-price deal. Personally, I think Babel should be playing wide right and Dirk Kuyt as a forward.

The race is on to sign Joe Cole at the end of the season. He wanted a 50% pay-rise from 80k to 120k a week to stay at Chelsea. How can he, or should I say his agents, justify wanting such an increase? Especially, as he's spent more time injured than playing over the last few years. Man City could snap him up for free in the summer and would not say no to his wage demands.

Stadium Pics - Liverpool v Wigan

Liverpool 2 v 1 Wigan (16th December)
Liverpool celebrated 'Shanks' night with a decent victory against Wigan. The game started bright enough with the 'pool having shots cleared from the line, before N'Gog gave them the lead with a fine header from a Yossi Benayoun floated cross. However, Liverpool didn't make the most of their early dominance and the rest of the first half was fairly dull!

Rafa brought on Lucas! Clearly wishing to hold on to a 1-0 victory against Wigan! Fernando Torres, finally, came on in the second half, which gave everyone a lift. He went on to score the second goal and secure three points. Charles N'Zogbia turned inside onto his left foot from the right side and shot past Reina to score a consolation goal.

Liverpool legends help to celebrate shanks night, including Kevin Keegan and Phil Thompson. The legends went over to the kop end, applauded and went back down the tunnel! Cheers lads!

Stadium Pics - Arsenal v West Brom - League Cup

These pics were sent in from a reader - they are from the Emirates Stadium in London, home of Arsenal FC. Not a great deal of info was supplied with the pics, just that it was against West Brom in the league cup.

Football News - Jan 1st

Today is the opening of the transfer window, so there's lot of speculation about players moving clubs. Here's a selection of transfer rumour circulating currently.

Jermaine Beckford is likely to move to Newcastle in a £2million deal, but not until Leeds have played Man Utd in the 3rd round of the F.A.Cup this weekend. That would be some parting gift if he were to knockout united. Leeds may also lose another of their prize assets, as Middlesborough are ready to bid £3m for Robert Snodgrass.

Roman Pavlyuchenko could be on his way out of Spurs, as a number of Russian clubs are targeting the out of favour striker. However, Tottenham want £13m for him and have said they wont consider a loan move. The Russian has hardly featured this season, with Defoe being in explosive form.

The search is on for Bolton's next manager with a host of well-known names already ruling themselves out. Owen Coyle, Mark Hughes and Paul Jewell have all declared themselves not interested in the vacancy. Stoke City's number 2, Peter Reid, looks like the front runner at the moment with Darren Ferguson also a possible replacement for Gary Megson.

fm2010 - Follow my progress through the game

Welcome to the fm2010 section of the site. Here, you can follow my progress through the game - to see who my latest signings are, view my tactics and just enjoy coming back to the site to see if I won that big cup game or relegation decider etc...

Season 1 - I'm currently managing Tottenham. The best way to navigate around the fm2010 section is to click on 'season 1' to start at chapter 1 and then to click on 'newer posts' at the bottom of the page.

Stadium Pics - Index

Hi,

Welcome to the stadium pics section of view from the north stand. The aim is to build up a huge collection of football pictures from all over the world!

Send us your pics from inside your favourite team's stadium. Email them to local-listings@live.co.uk and we'll add them to the site.

View Pics By Stadium
Anfield - Emirates

View Pics By Team
Arsenal
Crewe
Liverpool
West Brom
Wigan

fm2010 - Fulham (home), Arsenal (home)

Stats - Top Scorers

15 Peter Crouch
9 Robbie Keane
8 Rafael Van Der Vaart
7 Defoe
5 Pavlyuchenko
4 Carroll

Tottenham v Fulham
I'm hoping to continue my winning streak with victory here against FUlham. Van Nistelrooy plays up front with Crouch as I revert back to the 3-4-1-2 formation. Van der Vaart plays as playmaker, whilst Krancjar is given a game, ahead of Bale and Modric.

0 Tottenham
2 Fulham - Zamora, Dempsey
position 6th

Top of table
Chelsea P32 78
Man Utd P32 77
Liverpool P32 63
Man City P31 61
Arsenal P32 53
Tottenham P32 52
Everton P31 48

We're now only four points clear of 7th place and Everton have a game in hand. We need to hold on to 6th so that we can qualify for European competition. It's Tottenham v Arsenal next.

1 Tottenham - Lennon
0 Arsenal

We've now done the double over Arsenal. Aaron Lennon scoring the only goal in the derby game. The win moves us back up to 5th place.