The EPL finds Crystal Palace back up and the same teams at the top. NBC with the TV rights. The US striker void left by Deuce going to Seattle has been filled by Jozy going to Sunderland. Kicks off the 17th.

The Championship is filled with historical greats like Nottingham Forest as well as shit squads like Yeovil who at the beginning of the century were playing non-league football in the Conference.

La Liga still has Barca and Real.

The Bundesliga had Bayern buy everybody else that was good in the league.

Serie A has your racists.

Ligue 1 has Monaco trying to outspend PSG.

Eredivisie will look to rebound from the loss of US great Jozy Altidore

Scotland still has Celtic with Rangers still a few divisions back. Rangers already knocked out of the League Cup.

The Jupiler Pro League has some Belgians and Africans.

Russia and the Ukraine strangely enough have teams owned by Russian and Ukranian Billionaires

I know this should probably go in the transfer thread but it looks like Rooney is training with the ManYoo reserves. Moyes says committ future to United or hand transfer request in. Still don't think they send him to Chelsea especially since the Blues come to Old Trafford on 8/26. Boy, I wish this was over.

I also wish there were new Special 1 TV episodes to air

let me be the first to say: NBC sports Live Extra SUCKS.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

There were some new S1TV webisodes sponsored by BetFair that came out in May and June. The BBC dumped the show after the 10-11 season. I was hoping the would bring it back now that Mourinho has returned to the PL. I get sporadic updates on Facebook from the show and they are still trying to find a new outlet.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

It's too bad that S1TV couldn't do something and put it on YouTube. I was watching some of the episodes and they are pretty funny

"Be Champions"

Premier League Champions: Chelsea

First Manager Sacked: Paolo Di Canio

Most Goals: RVP

Champions League Winner: Madrid

Weeks It Takes For Me To Be Sick Of Kyle Martino On NBC's Coverage: 2

First Embarrassing Liverpool Result: First Match 0-0 Draw At Home Against Stoke

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

I read Stewert Downing had a medical at West Ham and the Hammers paid £5-million for him and Suarez still won't apologize.

Loved the Kyle Martino prediction, Zizou. At least Rob Stone isn't involved with NBC.

get on into the fantasy premiership league thru yahoo before the season starts...

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

I'll join and then stop paying attention after two weeks like always.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

used NBC Sports Extra Live on computer to stream Golf Channel as a test for tomorrow's Premiership action.

Verdict: Still a suckfest. Good luck fellow soccer fans.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

I wasn't overly impressed by NBC. But they didn't do anything bad.

Two Robbies and a semi-hot woman in a giant studio providing your usual dull analysis lacking insight.

I miss Ian Darke. Arlo White's accent annoys me.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

I actually was impressed.
I would flip between NBC and whatever Champions League rerun Fox was playing and it just seemed
that both the camera work and the actual video quality were better on NBC.
So was the sound, IMO.
I haven't tried the Extra Live streaming yet, but I don't have high hopes.
Oh well, Man City v Newcastle today at 2!

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

I can admit when I'm wrong. For some reason between Friday night and Saturday morning the NBC Live Extra on my computer got much much better. I was able to stream all the games I wanted Saturday. I'm sorry, NBC.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

For a person subjected to watching Fox Soccer channel on standard defintion on Comcast, it was great to watch the Premier League on on HD.

Well, Moyes has his first big test on Monday when they host Chelsea at OT. Mourinho plans to make a final bid for Rooney after the match is over. I really hope United lose. They'd be six points behind already after one week. I need this. I'm sick, I know. It'd be fun to watch them disintegrate. I've been waiting for Arsenal to implode the last three years and they keep qualifying for the CL by some miracle every season. Wenger is teasing me again with that opening loss to Villa at the Emirates. I'm not buying that shit this time.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

And the transfer craziness continues. Bale to Real Madrid for $121,000,000 and Willian, who was set to join Spurs (he even passed a medical on Thursday). I going to sign with Chelsea. Seems Roman made a phone call to the owner of Willian's Russian team (Not gonna try and spell it) and lo and behold, Willian is a Chelsea player.
The funny thing about the Arsenal crash and burn is reading the angry tweets of Gooner fan Piers Morgan. Worth a follow.
I read a story that United will think about selling Rooney if Chelsea include Juan Mata in the deal.

arsenal wants benzema and di maria. i'd "settle" for di maria... that'd be swell.

mourinho laid down some kind of pimp hand with willian. i'm pretty sure he got the medical for spurs.... ha.

i wonder if they'll be made to throw 35-40mil @ lamela now? ha

they built a stage @ bernabeu btw.... that's after their website listed bale as a player 2 days ago. ha.

if wenger can somehow pull off getting benzema/di-maria/etc and in doing so fund real madrid for bale and possibly suarez, this could be a win win for the lanky frenchman. the whole reason chelsea's going for willian is to fuck spurs, who might hesitate on bale which would prevent any chance from ronaldo going back to united and putting an end to this chelsea thing...

hey, if mata's available again maybe arsene can make up for 2011? hrmmmmm.

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What I find funny about the whole Willian thing with Chelsea is the fact that Andre Villas-Boas was part of Mourinho's back room staff during Jose's first go around at Stamford Bridge. I know Roman made the phone call but I'm sure Mourinho had something to do with it.

I'm starting to develop a dislike for new Man United boss David Moyes. I always wondered what the Scotsman would do at a big club. I'm starting to find out.

I guess Moyes says that his old club, Everton, should let Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines should leave Goodison Park for the "good of their careers"

Of course, Moyes has the perfect destination for them, Old Trafford. So, I guess isn't good for Wayne Rooney's career that he be allowed to go to Chelsea.

I really hope Chelsea takes United to the wood shed on Monday and hangs three or four goals on them and put them nine points behind this early in the season. Smug bastard.

from what i've read, willian was avb's guy going all the way back to the days under special1's wing @ chelsea (the first go-around, anyways) and essentially, willian is the epitome of a merc as he doesnt care if he plays for shakthar whatever or goes to war-torn anzhi, just as long as he gets his wages. he essentially chose to play for those two clubs whilst making the highest wage possible, football results be damned. still tho, this move wreeks of mourinho wanting to show avb his place by having roman call up anzhi's owner directly while the dude was post-medical and reportedly in a spurs office waiting to sign a contract. it's a fucking lol.

it's funny to see the faux-righteous "moral outrage" when brendan rodgers or avb lashes out against their bethern. you woulda thought that arsenal pulled a general sherman on scouserville with all the shit i read during the luis suarez saga.... hopefully madrid decides that they want him, but benzema is now saying "fuck arsenal" so i'll have to shift my irrational hopes for di maria.... or ozil. or khendira? did i spell that right? ha.

if somebody's getting out of real to make way for bale/whoever, i hope arsenal has a chance to get them.

mignolet bailed out teh 'pool late in the game for the second straight week. benteke wasn't exactly having the most monster shot of his career, however that was still a good late save to hold down a thoroughly mediocre-at-best 1-0 victory.... and before you say "well we don't have bitey mcfuckyourrace" keep in mind that sky named sterling the MOTM. ha.

anyways tomorrow's games are meh (unless the swans can help out dear ole st. tottingham) although watching city in a squash match is always fun cuz they're bound to blow at least one of them per year, and then of course monday night football...... then we can get to this rooney shit.

i hope rooney has a chance to come to arsenal.... .even tho right now cazorla playing up front in center behind giroud has been brilliant (tho shifting positions with rosicky made him go from motm-contender against fenerbache to completely invisible today) and i reckon that's where rooney would go.... or well, he wants to be THE DUDE up front, right? even tho giroud is 3/3 i'd still much rather have rppmey up front and then maybe you could use giroud on the wing some? podolski was great today but that means he's bound to go invisible for a few weeks, akin to how football ben gordon, theo walcott, was today.

c'est la vie. aren't all you footie people on here scouser fans? this should be a fun year =D

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I have a feeling Rooney isnt going anywhere. Moyes hinted that he may start Rooney against Chelsea. Wouldn't that be fun.

Brendan Rogers is another limb on the Mourinho coaching tree. I believe he was the youth coach during Jose's first run at the Bridge.

Man Citeh

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Liverpool with 6 points from 2 games. I'm kinda stunned. It was Stoke and Villa, I know. This team, last season, would have found a way to get draws in matches like the first two. Still, two straight clean sheets. Damn. My loins are tingling in a certain way for the first time since the 08-09 season. Man United next Sunday at Anfield.

Loving Cardiff doing City over.

Bale is off this week. Hala Madrid.

This Willian saga is amusing. First it was Liverpool, then Spurs, now Chelsea. I barely knew who this William pud was until last week and now it's the transfer of the century. He can't even get a game in the Brazil squad.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

Almost an hour into Chelsea ManU, it sucks.

And it's over, it sucked to the end, 0-0.

Always nice to see Man U not win. John Terry was a beast on defence today.

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I heard that Rooney was the best player on the pitch today.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

He was...Both squads looked dead.

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i'm amazed that mourinho is special1ing it up to the point that juan mata is unwanted. the dude's a fucking wizard



so it'll be interesting to see what happens with him especially during a world cup year. $30mil+ for willian? lol.... you know there's scousers out there who already ordered their will.i.an liverpool kits? [insert lol here]

this football transfer window is proper mental..... it's ruthless, cut throat, and utterly ~80-90% media-fueled bullshit. you can plainly see agendas all over the place, altho i've not been a supporter long enough to bitch about arsenal getting shit on.... tho everyone loves to jump all over arsene and be like "holy shit, he's not a trampoline"

they better close out fenerbache with style tomorrow and still have the werewithol to find those "top top players" even tho "getting diaby back is like a new signing" and etc etc. it's also suitably hilarious that spurs nation, aka the most bandwagoned team in america (what team is sudeikis coaching anyways?) has basically bought a whole new team and they're on the muscle talking about contending for the title and whatnot..... that's why mourinho/abramovich's pimphand in strongarming willian from spurs to them was such a badass move..... it's mourinho letting avb/everyone know that they're only getting players if chelsea don't want them. mourinho is great for the press in that regard..... he's very very OK with being the story of the match, ask real madid fans.

nonetheless, here's hoping that arsene oversees some incoming talent because arsenal has an awesome young core with potential to shine, but it'd really help if they had a few bonafide stars in there.... i'm pretty sure they don't have henry (theo walcott = football ben gordon) and hell at this point i'm not even sure if they have a pires. c'est la vie..... but hey i think they're getting another no-name french striker from someone, and newcastle is making bids for players who play cabaye's position so bring it on.

arsenal is in an odd spot..... see like, they've got a solid team through and through.... and just about everyone is on the right side of 30, let alone 25 in regards to your wilshere/ramsey/ox/etc tier, and you'd think someone world class would realize "hey, this team might not be a world-favorite juggernaught to bring home silverware, but if they max out what they've got and continue to develop whilst i do my world class thing, they could have something here"

but yeah, in this odd spot... if they bring in a luis gustavo, or even if a gonzalo higuain starts having issues, who's to say that they don't have players to fill the position with upside for the future..... i think arsenal hasn't been telling these potential transfers that tehy'll be the man now, dog, and they'll start off as squad players, and in gustavo's case he'd rather ride the volkswagen sponsorship beetle over to wolfsburg where for all i know they might work the whole damn midfield through him, as opposed to coming to arsenal and having to fight for time with the likes of ramsey, wilshere, rosicky, cazorla, and eventually (and also primarily) arteta when he comes back, especially when luis gustavo has some of that defensive presence that arteta usually brings.

for my money, i think they need a real motherfucker of a striker.... someone who isn't trying to get too cutesy in the box and make extra tight passes when, ideally, they should square up for a proper strike. they need someone whose specialty is kicking, or striking if you will, the ball into the net. not tap in specialists or anything of the sort (HIIIII LAMELA) but like, some sort of a badass player who can bust out some funky moves under pressure and kick the ball in the net.

i think that's why many an arsenal fan got caught up in the infinitesimal chance for luis suarez.... what could have been, what could have been. but hey since they didn't get him gooner massive can be all "good, he doesn't have enough class to be an arsenal player" cuz it seems that perhaps the most open-endedly defined term in english football is "class" because it can be used to describe anything from being a shit player with a good temprament to being der bomber reincarnate smashing in goals like "ich bin ein motherfucking problem" --- when in doubt, just invoke class and pop on your rosy colored glasses (re: your team's history)

i didn't see any worldbeating football today. man city took it on the chin @ cardiff city.... 2013: what the fuck is going on?

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Take it with not just a grain but a mountain of salt. Supposedly, Spurs has gotten a second offer for Gareth Bale. Rumour has it that it's from Manchester United and it is for £125,000,000 ($193,963,094).

Real Madrid paid £80,000,000 for Christiano Ronaldo in 2009.

I honestly really don't understand what Mourhino has against Juan Mata. Hard to believe he has fallen this far down the pecking order.

Granted its early days in the Premiership. But, I'm wondering if It won't come back and bite Chelsea in the arse that they didn't put United down six points when they had the chance.

Again, I know there is a long way to go.

Arsenal is run in a weird way. The owners insist on running the club like a sound business. That's fine but is that what a fan wants? A fan wants a guy like Roman owning a team who will piss away millions on the latest flavors of the month. The last couple of seasons they sold off their best players: Fabregas, Nasri, RVP. And now, out of the blue, they want to spend big money. Should have spent that money on re-signing those guys. No, let's bring in Giroud and Gervinho and hope Wilshere doesn't get injured for 6 months. Dipshittery to the max. They offered about 40 million pounds for Suarez. Liverpool would never sell for anything less than 50. They sold Torres for 50 to Chelsea and Suarez is younger and better. And why buy an expensive striker? Fix that back 4. Mertsesacker is slower than a retarded slug and Koscielny fucks up something every match. They could also use a swinging dick in midfield. A Viera type. I think Wenger is past it. I do credit him with doing a good managing job last season when I for sure felt they'd finally fall out of the top 4. But he's been there about 15 seasons and hasn't won fuck all in about a decade. Barring Spurs' colossal collapse last year, Arsenal would be in the Europa League.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

screw the special 1. I had Mata starting both weeks and that chump doesn't play him.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.