Wenger signs Thomas Vermaelen

Wenger has made his first transfer swoop of the pre-season, signing cente-half Thomas Vermaelen for a reported £10m transfer fee from Dutch club Ajax.

After a season where Arsenal were clearly weak defensively, this is a wise signing. Thomas Vermaelen is a big strong left footed centre back with Champions League and international experience playing for Belgium.

Thomas is primarily a left-footed centre-back, but he is multi-functional and can also play at left-back.

"He is strong technically with a positive winner's attitude and I have no doubt his arrival will strengthen our team.

"Thomas Vermaelen will be a huge asset to Arsenal."

Carlos Tevez turns down Manchester United

Carlos Tevez has turned down a 5 year contract offer from Man Utd chief exec David Gill and will leave the Barclays Premier League champions going into the new football season.

It will be a fascinating start to the new season if the Argentinian pulls on a Manchester City jersey. He could potentially be the catalyst for the new era at Eastlands, Tevez would make Mark Hughes' job easier through his admirable work rate.

City are currently closing in on Rovers striker Roque Santa Cruz, reportedly Hughes will sign the forward for £16.5m on Monday morning.

Football Transfer rumours June 2009

Transfer gossip June 2009

Ruud Van Nistelrooy (or Van Gol as his colleagues nicknamed him at Old Trafford) has been linked to a move to Harry Redknapp's Tottenham Hotspur.

Everton manager David Moyes is keen to move in on Spurs midfielder Jermaine Jenas. The special one Joes Mourinho had been linked with Jena in the last transfer window and Inter are keen to sign him still, along with Aston Villa showing some interest.

Tottenham midfielder David Bentley is rumoured to be eyeing up a move to Villa Park for a reported £7m. The ex Blackburn Rovers man said "I’m in talks with Villa at the moment.I really don’t want to say much more. But we’ll see what happens. I’m hopeful of sorting it out as soon as possible."

Both Liverpool and Spurs are following Stewart Downing's movements, with a fee rumoured to up to £12m....sounds like a lot of money for a player in a relegated Prem team?

Ronaldo - £80m - who's got the best deal?

Ronaldo was the world football of the year, and has been instrumental in generating silverware for the Red Devils. This was perhaps the most predictable signing of the summer (other than Tevez going to Man City)

However £80m is a massive sum of cash...who has got the best of this one?

Shearer Weighs Up Options But Ashley Wants Out

Shearer Weighs Up Options But Ashley Wants Out

By Josh Allen - a big thanks to Josh!

Newcastle legend Alan Shearer has confirmed his future could be resolved by the end of the week, amid claims that he is pricing himself out of a full-time deal.

Shearer has been in discussions with wantaway owner Mike Ashley since the end of the season but with Newcastle facing the prospect of Championship football, any financial demands may have to be re-evaluated.

Shearer is said to want a £3million annual salary and a transfer budget as high as £20million – figures that are perhaps unrealistic given the high price of relegation. Shearer has denied making any demands but in a statement released on Monday did say that there were: “obvious conditions”.

While money is undoubtedly important, job security could prove to be a more significant factor. With Mike Ashley set to leave as soon as he finds a buyer, Shearer could find his position under threat even before the season gets underway. His record of one win in eight games hardly makes for impressive reading and so if a new owner was to bring his own man in, Shearer could find himself on the managerial scrapheap at the tender age of 39.

Regardless of the Shearer deal, Ashley's time at Newcastle looks to be up. His reign has been catastrophic, even by his own account and not just on the pitch. Ashley bought the club in 2007 for £134.4million and has since invested another £200million. Despite putting the club up for sale during the season at £400million he received no concrete interest and is now set to accept bids as low as £80million – a huge loss by anyone's standards.

So for Ashley the game is up, his dream has become a nightmare in two short years. For the fans there remains some hope, hope that Shearer can drag the club back from the abyss. Whether he shares their belief will soon become apparent.

Champions League 2009 Barcelona's team news

This is Guardiola's first XI for tonight's massive Champions League final:

Valdes
Sylvinho
Pique
Toure
Puyol
Iniesta
Busquets
Xavi
Messi
Eto'o
Henry

Manchester United starting line up Champions League Final 2009

Man Utd's starting eleven:

Van Der Sar
Evra
Vidic
Ferdinand
O'Shea
Anderson
Carrick
Giggs
Park
Ronaldo
Rooney

Wolverhampton Wanderers back in the big time

The 2008/9 season resulted in a mixed bag of fortunes for the teams promoted from the Championship. West Brom, the previous year's winners, were sent straight back down, play off qualifiers Hull just scraped a stay of execution on the last day of the season and the 2007/08 championship runners up Stoke finishing in a respectable 12th position. This season Wolves, Birmingham and Burnley are the 3 clubs with the Premiership mountain to climb; all no doubt are full of ambition and optimism but will require a great deal of spend and probably luck if they have a hope of staying in this league next year. Starting with Wolves, what chance do they realistically have?

Wolves have a fine pedigree in the game and were particularly successful in the 1950s, winning 3 league titles. Their chief executive Jez Moxey has stated that the club's aim is to emulate the achievements of this era rather than "just" staying up in next season's Premiership. Although this ambition is admirable, Wolves fans will remember that their last experience of the Premiership was short lived (relegated in 2004 after a single season and without winning a single away game) and will doubt be hoping that the Wolves hierarchy do focus first and foremost on surviving. The 2003-04 season was however not without it's highlights as the Molineux failthful saw their team defeat Manchester United 1-0 and it is these sort of performances that the fans will hope can be repeated next season.

Survival will of course depend on how much the club is prepared to invest in new players. Thankfully the financial difficulties of the 1980s, which saw Wolves almost bankrupted and bailed out by the local council, are behing the club. Millionaire owner Steve Morgan is keen to "transform the city centre ground into a venue fit for Premiership football", with the first stage being to re-introduce 900 temporary seats, previously introduced during Wolves' last Premiership experience, into the ground.

The revenue from the 900 seats will however not be enough to raise the extra investment that Wolves legend Steve Bull believes will be necessary to keep the club in the Premier League. Bull believes that £50 million will be required and that this sum will only be enough to pay for five players in terms of fees and wages. Bull believes that Wolves need two centre-halves, two midfielders and a front man. To date Wolves have been coy about how much they plan to invest, but have gone on record to say they are willing to spend the rght amount on the right players.

Many Wolves fans however have doubts about Mick McCarthy's ability to invest in the right players, pointing to his time at Sunderland, during which they claim he bought lots of lower league players rather than a smaller number of high quality players, which they believe the club needs. These fans will however be comforted by the fact that the popular Karl Henry has agreed improved terms on a new four-year deal with the Championship winners. Chris Iwelumo, another fans favourite, has also confirmed that he and the whole squad are hungry to succeeed in the Premier league and will put the work in to maximise their chances.The Scottish international netted 16 goals last term as Wolves clinched the Championship title but he missed the end of season through injury.

So will Wolves spend the right money on the right players and succeed where their Midlands neighbours West Brom failed? Current odds for staying up are about the 4/5 mark. In my opinion Birmingham have the better chance, but more on that another time ....

Barcelona vs Manchester United Champions League Final Preview

Barcelona vs Manchester United Champions League Final Wednesday 27th May. Live on ITV1 at 7.45pm.

Set up to be the classic Champions League Final, Manchester United will be aiming to make history as no other team has managed to defend their UEFA Champions League title. The match up with ‘galacticos’ Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi is perfect for this stage. Sir Alex Ferguson doesn’t seem to let up on his ambition to annihilate all clubs in all competitions; he flexed his squad muscles on the last game of the Premier League season with a 0-1 victory against Hull City with a team that some football fans could scarcely recognise. This depth has meant that they’ve achieved the retaining of the Barclays Premier League and by doing that in their penultimate match against Arsenal the first team managed to bag a rest in preparation for the big final tomorrow evening at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Rio Ferdinand is fighting for full fitness and certainly will have benefited from this rest. His had 3 weeks out with a calf injury...you’d imagine that he will start in this huge European match.

For Barcelona, Guardiola will be taking Thierry Henry and Andres Iniesta who have recently picked up knocks in La Liga games. Dani Alves, Rafa Marquez, Eric Abidal and Gaby Milito are unavailable. All eyes will be on Messi when Barca have possession, the 22 year old has been sensational this season and his left boot can unlock the best defences in the world on his day. Emerging young talent Bojan will be hoping Barca do it, he has come through the Barcelona youth team system and would become the youngest player to have ever won the Champions League.

Historically, it is the Red Devils that have the edge – Manchester United have knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League on three occasions and then there was the 1991 Cup Winners final where Mark Hughes scored twice in their 2-1 history. This was Sir Alex’s first piece of European silverware in the 1st season that English clubs were reinstated into European silverware after the 6 year UEFA ban.

As so much rides on a game like this, it will inevitably be a tense and close affair. This makes it perfect for some small stake spread betting. Although I am definitely not a professional gambler, if you are a neutral spectator in a football match like this then online sports spread betting is a way of making this nail bitingly exciting. The thing with spread betting is that most people are apprehensive of it because they are scared of the losses getting out of control. However with online football betting in general it pays to do a bit of odds comparison and reading the exact details of each bet that is offered to you. For example, with Sporting Index you can set a ‘stop loss’ which potentially caps your loss or profit. I like doing something silly like the number of corners in a match, for example Corners 10-Ups where 10 points are awarded for corners once there have been ten in the game (90 mins only). Of course be careful on your unit stake and think about the stop loss if you’re going to get aggressive. Be lucky...but be careful football gamblers!!

After being crowned World footballer of the year and winning the Prem/Champs League duble last season, some people predicted that Ronaldo would move to Madrid...either that or produce some more casual form for Man Utd. To match Fergie's desire he was proved that he is a big time player with goals when the Red Devils most needed them. He displays that winning streak that makes him perfect for his club.

"I know I've won a lot but I'm the one who set the bar that high," Ronaldo said, when interviewed recently by uefa.com. "I'm a player with a lot of ambition and a strong character. I think that at a personal level, what's most important is me. No matter what others might think, I'll keep thinking like that. I'll continue doing the things I did in 2003, 2004, 2005, right up until now. So nothing will change in me – probably the opposite. My ambition will grow, to win at club level as well as at a personal level. Because the feeling from winning is good, I'm really a winner and therefore I'm going to want more."

My prediction for the match is 1-0 to Manchester United, I think that Barca won’t quite have the fire power to beat Edwin Van der Sar and that quality Man U defence which will lead to the Red Devils 3rd Champions League title.

Newcastle and Boro join West Brom in relegation

Newcastle United down and out

No real surprise that Boro went down, after losing 2-1 at Upton Park to West Ham. No after match interview for Gareth Southgate, relegation just hurts so much that different professionals handle it in different ways.

However, after an emotional 8 matches, local hero Alan Shearer watched his beloved Newcastle United get relegated after being in the top division for 16 years. It was a terribly unfortunate exit in one way, as their 1-0 loss to Aston Villa was down to a freakish own goal by Damien Duff. Were they bad enough to go down? Yes, but then so were Sunderland and Hull City in my opinion as both teams lost today and knew they needed to get some points today to salvage Premier League safety.

But its all done now. The question is : Should Alan Shearer now stay at Newcastle United in the Championship with Mike Ashley as his boss?