Beckham bows, Bale wows

OK, so the nation’s red-top readers might not be unified in touching an x-ray of his broken Achilles tendon this summer, but David Beckham’s injury and subsequent absence from this year’s World Cup rightfully dominated Mondays papers. Sure, his prospective absence isn’t anywhere near as pressing...

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Transfer Speculation: Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich) to Chelsea/Manchester City

In Pete Jenson's highly speculative, three paragraph looks-like-it-was-written-whilst-watching-x-factor piece in The People Franck Ribery and Rino Gattuso are both wanted by both Chelsea and Manchester City. Heavens be praised though there is a snatch of a quote from Carlo Ancelotti: "People who d...

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Squarefootball's fantasy football challenge

Do you see yourself as the next Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger? Do you think you can pick a better team than Harry Redknapp or Rafa Benitez? Brilliant, then why don’t you join us in competing for the coveted Squarefootball fantasy league crown? For the past few years we at Squarefootball towers...

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Ancelotti Looking to Move Away from Loser Tag

Theres no hiding from it now: the Premiership they won were nice but what Chelsea really want now is the Champions League. In truth, that has been well known for quite a while yet if any confirmation was needed it came with the appointment of Carlo Ancelotti as manager. For, despite winning an Itali...

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David Beckham deserves his luck in Milan

There have been a fair few comments suggesting that David Beckham somehow doesn't 'deserve' a shot at playing for AC Milan, and that he is somewhat lucky to have negotiated a 'timeshare' opportunity between LA and Milan. Perhaps the luck is the same luck that gave him a pop star face, but, on balan...

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Manchester City should offer a sigh of relief that Kaka stayed in Milan

Two important pieces of transfer news for Manchester City today, firstly that Craig Bellamy arrived for around £15m and secondly that Kaka didnt arrive for around £100m. Bellamy is an important signing and notwithstanding his injury record he will offer bite and goals up front and may well pull defe...

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Meaningful Media Obfuscator: City's bid for Kaka

What is there really to say on the proposal City may or may not make for the 2007 World Player of the Year, Kaka? City want him, Milan would rather not sell him but there is a price for everyone? But that kind of analysis doesn't shift newspapers or website traffic. But then again there is rumour...

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Portsmouth aim to shock AC Milan

Portsmouth fans must pinch themselves sometimes. Almost 10 years ago to the day Stockport County beat Pompey 2-0 at Edgeley Park in front of just 7,504 spectators. On Thursday the FA Cup holders face Italian giant and seven-time Champions League winners AC Milan in front of a sell-out Fratton Park. ...

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Portsmouth stand a decent chance of topping Group E

With the UEFA Cup whenever one of the most successful teams is involved (in recent seasons Liverpool, Bayern Munich and this year AC Milan) the money will follow them. But the status of the club does not necessarily equate to a motivated team in the early stages. There is little doubt that Milan wil...

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David Beckham has everything to gain in Milan

To read some comments on David Beckham it would appear that he is already finished. The truth is that he is fresh and rested from his time in America - and has the quality to thrive in Serie A. The acid test of whether players are actually finished is surely when good managers stop picking them. An...

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Fervent Fratton Park atmosphere awaits Kaka, Ronaldinho and co

AC Milan are one of the biggest names in world football and have played in some of the most hostile environments across Europe. However, on November 27, they arrive at Fratton Park, the home of the FA Cup winners Portsmouth, and the passionate south coast fans are going to give the likes of Kaka, Ro...

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Lampard, Ronaldo, Arshavin and Adebayor Moves Could All Hit The Buffers

Maybe it was the intervention of Euro 2008- or possibly the unprecedented all-English Champions League Final- but summer 2008 began with a cascade of speculation about multi-million pound stellar moves. While we all enjoyed the Euro spectacle, the close of that competition has ended the 'phoney war...

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Donadoni Looking for A Repreive

by Paul Grech Win or bust. That is what is facing Italy tonight, putting aside that it could be win AND bust if results elsewhere don’t go their way. That too is the reality for Roberto Donadoni: contract or not, if Italy go out then so too would the national coach. For many, that would be the pre...

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Would Kaka = Ballack + Lampard?

When Michael Ballack was signed by Chelsea it was the beginning of the end for Jose Mourinho. Along with the German came Andriy Shevchenko and the pressure of trying to fit them into a team pattern that didn't suit them. The winter of 2006/7 saw Mourinho close to resignation as Chelsea's title chall...

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5570 Serie A: Is This Really the Future for AC Milan

by : Paul Grech Election time in Italy is a pretty tense period. Walls are plastered with candidates’ posters promising a better future, newspapers get filled with equally empty promises and television shows are brimming with politicians bickering over everything. Yet there’s always time for foot...

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5429 Milan's Happy Families

by : Paul Grech If you go through AC Milan’s official squad, you’re bound to come across the unfamiliar name of Digao. Look a little deeper and you will discover that this is a Brazilian defender who joined during the summer after spending a couple of years on loan at Rimini. What the record book...

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5241 Alexandre Pato and the new AC

by : Dan Bailey There aren’t many 18 year-olds who could walk into one of the most prestigous teams in the world and have the team adapt their game around them, but Alexandre Pato is not just any 18 year-old. Due to their poor home form this season, the Brazilian teenager had already been proclaim...

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5136 Is the World Club Cup coming o

by : Matthew Knott The annual World Club Cup is complete for another year and as Hugh Larkin reported on this website it featured the expected South America/Europe showdown in the final. The tournament has been criticized as being little more than a series of high-profile friendlies and a hindrance...

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5137 Kaka- Superstar

by : Hugh Larkin As has often been the case, the voting for World Footballer of the Year ran along similar lines to the European award and Brazil’s Kaka is now the holder of both awards. Few would argue with this assessment- the AC Milan midfielder had double the number of votes in the World award...

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5043 World Club Championship- Milan

by : Hugh Larkin The line up of the 2007 World Club Championship in Japan is now finalised with the African and Asian champions now decided. This year the European and South American teams are two really big names- AC Milan of Italy and Boca Juniors from Argentina. Occasionally the South American ...

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4892: Shades of Scandal in Dida 'Inj

by : Paul Grech It is not often that Charlie Nicholas gets it right, but he summed it up brilliantly when he said that Milan's keeper Dida had been 'tickled' by the fan who ran on the pitch Of course that does not justify the fan's action which, at best, was moronic. Yet, Dida's reaction was farc...

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4534: Champions League Final Preview

by : Stephen Orford European Cup Final 2007 AC Milan: Recent Champions League History Liverpool: Recent Champions League History Champions League Final 2007: How will it all end? Champions League Final 2007: Will Milan win the first-half again? Champions League Final 2007: Can Gerrard enhance his S...

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4527: AC Milan: Recent Champions Lea

by : Hugh Larkin AC Milan have won the European Cup six times- second only to Real Madrid- and their record in the past five seasons shows why. They have reached no less than four semi-finals and their worst effort has been a last eight berth. Their phenomenal run in Europe’s premier competition r...

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4489: Milan: The European Emperors

by : Hugh Larkin The premier clubs of Europe are often referred to as the game’s aristocrats and if there’s a hierarchy, AC Milan are the Emperors. Not since Real Madrid were in their pomp in the 1950s has a squad amassed so much experience in the European Cup and the Final. Paulo Maldini If he ge...

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4480: CL 2007 - AC Milan vs Manchest

by : Antony Melvin Milan totally dominated a match that United simply did not turn up to. For the second night home advantage in the second leg was crucial but Milan were too powerful, too experienced and simply too good for a United team that looked tired and bereft of ideas. The better team won...

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4443: Manchester United vs AC Milan:

by : Antony Melvin Milan went into half-time at Old Trafford with one foot in the final. Not dominant in possession they had mostly kept United at arms length in the first half and scored through two sublime break-aways from Kaka. But after half-time Maldini and Gattuso were forced off injured an...

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4366: AC Milan vs Bayern Munich: AC

by : Antony Melvin AC Milan dominated large parts of the match and created six clear chances to Munich's two and so it seems a touch odd to describe 2-2 as a fair result. Milan tired late on and could easily have lost a game that they should have finished in the first half - but any team that fail...

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3870: Serie A Preview: Milan Need To

by : Paul Grech Not even the 4-2 midweek win over Serie B Brescia in the Coppa Italia – which came after they had gone two goals behind – is enough to disguise the fact that Milan are in the middle of a crisis. They’re struggling to score, their defence is giving away goals and their overall game ...

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3800: Serie A Diary: Milan Missing A

by : Paul Grech Four Serie A games and just one goal: who would have thought that Milan would miss Andrii Shevchenko so much? Well, most Milan fans actually. How could it be any other way? In seven seasons with the rossoneri, he scored a fantastic total of 173 goals helping them to a league titl...

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583: AC Milan show their class

by : Julio Smith AC Milan’s narrow home victory over lowly Siena last Wednesday may not have been enough to send shockwaves around the footballing world, but it moved the rossoneri top of the Serie A pile. Going into the winter break, AS Roma were the team grabbing most of the headlines in Italy. W...

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