Champions start summer deals with 3 palyers on the verge of joining united

Manchester United are on the verge of signing two new players Anderson from FC Porto, and Nani for Sporting Lisbon. Manchester United, have also confirmed that England midfielder and Munich player Owen Hargreaves will join them from the first of July.

Anderson described his move to Old Trafford as a 'dream come true'.

I'm sure a lot of people have never heard of Anderson and Nani, before here is a profile of both player.

Anderson

Full name: Anderson Luis De Abreu Oliveira
Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 19 (Born: 13 April 1988)
Position Attacking midfielder
Fee: Reports vary between £15m and £20m

Still a teenager the Brazilian has made a huge impact he is already in the Brazilian national squad, and some people dream about him becoming the new Ronaldinio. Born in Barcelona, he started his carrer at Gremio, where they consider him a pretty good player, after scoring the goal that sent them back into the top flight in a brutal match against Nautico in 2005.

He moved to Europe later that year, and made his Porto debut a little over twelve months ago, where he helped his club to the double.

Anderson says: "I could not imagine I would ever get to work with a manager like Sir Alex Ferguson but it has happened. It is a dream the size of the world."

Nani

Full name: Luis Carlos Almeida da Cunha
Nationality: Portuguese
Age: 20 (Born: 17 April 1986)
Position Attacking midfielder
Fee: Anything between £11.5m and £17m say the reports

Nani has long been linked with a move to Manchester united, ever since he stated 'it would be dream to play with Critiano Ronaldo'

Born on the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa, he came through the Sporting Academy, a route previously taken by Ronaldo and Luis Figo, once his family had upped sticks for Lisbon.

Having made his debut as an 18-year-old, Nani became a part of the first-team squad at the start of the 2005/06 season and soon got his chance to impress.

Nani says: "The Premier League is one of the best leagues in the world and it will be a big challenge. I am prepared to go to England because I believe I will progress there."

Looks like United are doing well with there summer sighnings, people have been saying the pr esent United squad will be the Sir Alex Fugeson will build, but the sighnings of Nani and Anderson looks like a start of a new one. If Anderson does become the next Ronaldinio (maybe nowadays you would say the next Ronaldo) united will have two Ronaldino's.

Becks to play for England for the first time since the world cup

Steve McClaren's has picked David Beckham to play for England for the first time since the World Cup in Germany. Beckham thirty two, if plays will make his ninety fifth appearance for England. He will be in the England sqaud for both, the friendly against Brazil at Wembly, and the Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia.

Has McClaren lost his confidence by picking Beckham? I think it was a pretty intelegemt desigion not to pick Becks, since the England players will be used to having David Beckam as captain, , it will be difficult for McClaren's and Terry to get control of the team. McClaren is clearly loosing confidence.

McClaren also picked Michael Owen, who palyed for Englans B team in there three one win over Albania yesterday,Owen is set to play for Engalnd's main team for the first time since he was injured in the world cup match against Sweden.

The Full England squad:

Goalkeepers: Robinson (Tottenham), Carson (Liverpool), Green (West Ham).

Defenders: P Neville (Everton), R Ferdinand (Man Utd), Terry (Chelsea), Bridge (Chelsea), Brown (Man Utd), Carragher (Liverpool), Dawson (Tottenham), King (Tottenham), Shorey (Reading).

Midfielders: Beckham (Real Madrid), Gerrard (Liverpool), Jenas (Tottenham), J Cole (Chelsea), Lennon (Tottenham), Bentley (Blackburn), Carrick (Man Utd), Lampard (Chelsea), Downing (Middlesbrough), Dyer (Newcastle).

Forwards: Crouch (Liverpool), Owen (Newcastle), Smith (Man Utd), Defoe (Tottenham).

Is Becks Ready for a England call up??????

England manager Steve McClaren, hasn't ruled out giving Beckam and England call up for England's friendly at the new Wembly on, Friday, 01 June 2007. McClaren names the England squad at ,midday on Saturday.

Beckam hasn't played for England since the England V Portugal in Germany at the world cup, the Madrid midfielder has ninety four caps for England, and would love to get to the one hundredth mark.

McClaren said: Is the door open for Beckham? I never said it was closed.",

He added, Does Beckham enter my mind? There are quite a few who do that and you will see on Saturday what the intentions are.

"Is there a more in-form midfielder than Beckham? We are talking about issues which aren't here yet and we will deal with them on Saturday if they come up.

Michael Owen is set to captain England B against Albania in tonights friendly at Turf Moor kick of: 8:00

Drogba Secures Chelsea Cup-Double

Chelsea have one the first F.A Cup final at the new Webmly stadium with a Didiar Drogba strike, in the one hundred and sixteenth minute to secure Chelsea F.A Cup glory.
Saturday afternoon three o clock ' the longley awaited, F.A Cup final sponsored by E.ON, turned out to be one of the most anti climax F.A cup finals ever stage. That is unlikely to bother Chelsea.

A cagey opening 20 minutes set the pace for a match that at times seemed more like the Community Shield than the first FA Cup final at an immaculate new stadium. The first shot on target only arrived after twenty minutes, with Paulo Ferreira creeping forward and slipping a pass in for Frank Lampard, who forced Van Der Sar to make a smart low save.

A relief for most spectators at half time, the two best teams in the country which have both played over sixty games this season couldn't produce any styly premiership football.

Things lightened up a bit in the second half. Paul Scholes picked out Giggs to volley just over the top as the champions showed the odd glimpse of the stylish side that dominated the Premiership. At the other end a curling free-kick, from Drogba that clipped the outside of the post. For the rest of the second half it was basically united, but nothing to lighten up the game. The cup final was heading for extra time.

Both sides had glorious chances to break the deadlock at the end of the first period of extra time. Giggs somehow managed to pick out Cech with the goal at his mercy as he slid on to a Rooney cross and then Drogba headed into the side-netting from an equally promising position.

The game looked like it was heading for a penalty shoot out, but in the one hundredth and sixteenth minute Drogba and Lampard exchanged passes, and the golden winner boot winner chipped the ball over Van Der Sar to score the first F.A Cup goal at the new Wembly and to secure Chelsea victory. Jose has done it.

A chance for 'the special one' to relax and to look forward to next season. For Fergies men it's a sad ending to a season that united dominated .

In the end, it's a proud day for english football the F.A Cup is back to the place it belongs in a stadium that is sure to bring England some amazing football in the near future.

(Click here for highlights)

Can Chelsea Ruin united's Party????????????

Can Chelsea ruin united's party, in tonight's 'play for glory', game at Stamford Bridge? There will be a repeat of this game in the F.A cup final sponsored by E.O.N on the 19th May 07.

Chelsea will be giving united tribute for wining the premiership, as a sense of friendship. But 'the special one' will still try and ruin united's party by not resting, players that will be crucial for the F.A cup final, besides Drogba and Roben,who are injured but probably could play. Jose has added young strikers Scott Sinclair and Ben Sahar to the squad to face the champions. .

Although Fergie has other plans he is putting a complete squad on, including Ronaldo and Rooney and other key players.

The full squads:

Chelsea : Cech, Cudicini, Hilario, Ferreira, Geremi, Terry, Boulahrouz, A Cole, Bridge, Essien, Lampard, Makelele, Diarra, Obi, Sinclair, Sahar, Kalou, Wright-Phillips, J Cole.

Man Utd : Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Heaton, Brown, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Heinze, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Carrick, Scholes, Eagles, Giggs, Richardson, Rooney, Smith, Solskjaer, Dong, Saha, Lee, Shawcross.

Last year corresponding game:
Chelsea 3-0 Manchester United
29 April 2006
Ref: Mike Dean
Chelsea scorers: Gallas 5, Joe Cole 61, Ricardo Carvalho 73

Congratulations!

Manchester United have been crowned premiership champion for the first time in four seasons!!

Manchester united are premiership champions, due to Chelsea's one one draw with Arsenal earlier this afternoon. The result leaves Manchester United seven points clear of Chelsea, and only two games left for both clubs.

Boss Sir Alex Ferguson said: "It's a fantastic day for the club and fans. There was an emphasis on the league and the key was our good start. Once we made that, we never lost it."

Fergie added : "The Premier League is such a competitive league and the focus and the pressure on the big clubs makes it a focus for us.
"I used to have an obsession of winning in Europe but the Premiership has become a priority."

"Once we got the lead it was always hard to dislodge us," he said.
"The crucial part was the resilience of the players when we got injuries. We don't have as big a squad as Chelsea but we dug in and I have to take my hat off to those players."

Well done Manchester United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The pemiership is back!!

After a break, the premiership is back this weekend, with loads more action, as Chelsea who are still battling for the title take on Watford at Vicarage Road. Manchester United try to increase their title hopes as they take on Blackburn, at Ewood park.

The third take on the fourth, as Liverpool take on Arsenel at Anfileld.

England win, but nowhere near enougth

England won Andorra by three goals to nil in lasts night's Euro 2008 qualifier, at the Olympic stadium in Barcelona.

England, despite wining by three goals to nil, was nowhere near good enough for Mclaren's men. Andorra are ranked one hundred and sixty third in the world, the country only has a population of sixty four thousand people; effectively they only had about twenty percent of possession and one shot at goal the whole game.

The half time score was nil nil with England having about eighty percent of the possession, but England still couldn't score in the first forty five minutes. England walked off the pitch with the Olympic stadium reverberating with booes from the crowd.

England started the second half well (compared to the first half) with Gerrard putting England in front with a low twenty yard shot beating the keeper, in the fifty third minute. Steven Gerrard fired home one more time, to make it two nil, with fifteen minutes to go. In the end there was something to excite the England fans, David Nugent, the Preston North End striker came on and scored in the last minute. It was a rather cheeky goal, claiming England's third; as Defoe's shot rolled towards the goal-line, Nugent tapped it in.

The line ups:
Andorra: Alvarez, Sonejee, Lima, Ayala, Bernaus, Escura, Vieira, Genis Garcia, Justo (Fernandez 88), Pujol (Martinez 69), Toscano (Moreno 90).Subs Not Used: Alfonso Sanchez, Somoza, Rubio, Jimenez.

England: Robinson, Richards (Dyer 61), Terry, Ferdinand, Cole, Lennon, Hargreaves, Gerrard, Downing, Johnson (Nugent 79), Rooney (Defoe 61).Subs Not Used: Foster, Carragher, Barry, Carrick.

Earlier this morning McLaren walked out of a press conference, basically telling the press
I don't care what you do, write whatever you like(click here to see the full news conference). This afternoon there were reports saying that some of the England squad had to go home early to prevent abuse from fans.

England's next opponent is Estonia next month, McLaren will have to produce something impressive then.

Elsewhere Israel beat Estonia (England's next opponents) by 4 goals to nil, Scotland couldn't keep up their winning form in Italy, losing two nil to the world champions . Celebrations for Northern Ireland, beating Sweden by two goals to one, the two goals came from the young Leeds striker David Healy (for highlights click here).

England 3-0 Andora

Match report to follow tommorow.

Where is Andora?

England travel to Barcelona to face Andorra in the Olympic Stadium, I thought I might as well give you some info about Andorra.

Andorra has a population of, sixty four thousand people, which means the every man woman and child of Andorra can fit into Old Trafford if they wanted to.

Fact File:

Full name: The Principality of Andorra
Population: 64,000 (UN, 2003)
Capital: Andorra la Vella
Major languages: Catalan, Spanish, French
Major religion: Christianity
Life expectancy: 81 years (men), 87 years (women)
Monetary unit: 1 euro = 100 cents
Main exports: Leather goods
Internet domain: .ad
International dialling code: +376

It looks like steve's maclarens men will have to beat Andora by at least ten goals to convince the fans. The biggest challenge is when England play Croatia and Ruissia in the next couple of months.

Andorra v England

Date: Wednesday 28 March

Kick-off: 2000 BST

Venue: Olympic Stadium, Barcelona

Coverage: Live on BBC Five Live Sport, live on sky sports 1,updates on the BBC Sport website, highlights on BBC 1 at 2240 BST

England fail to win over Israel

Steve McLaren's men could not put it beyond Israel, in last nights euro two thousand and eight qualifier in Tel Aviv, more like Hell Aviv for England, seteling for a nil nil draw.

I couldn't watch the first half since it was on Shabbat, but it sounded like a total bore, England for sure dominated the second half, compared to the first half, with England bagging, seventy two percent of the possession, Andrew Johnson did put the ball in the back of the net but the linesman flagged for offside and Frank Lampard headed the ball across the face of goal.

The England players were booed off the pitch and the crowd were chanting "what a load of rubbish" and "you don't know what your doing".

Isreal had three Premiership stars two were on the starting line up, they are colour coded below:

Israel: Aouate, Ben Haim, Gershon, Ziv, Benado, Spungin, Badir, Benayoun, Ben Shushan (Alberman 87), Tamuz (Barda 75), Balili (Sahar 69).Subs Not Used: Davidovitch, Golan, Toama, Antebi.Israel: Aouate, Ben Haim, Gershon, Ziv, Benado, Spungin, Badir, Benayoun, Ben Shushan (Alberman 87), Tamuz (Barda 75), Balili (Sahar 69).Subs Not Used: Davidovitch, Golan, Toama, Antebi.

England: Robinson, Neville (Richards 72), Ferdinand, Terry, Carragher, Gerrard, Lampard, Hargreaves, Lennon (Downing 83), Rooney, Johnson (Defoe 80).Subs Not Used: Foster, Barry, Carrick, Dyer.

For the full match reaction click here:

Meanwhile England travel to Barcelona to face Andorra on Wednesday, and there is still one big Q' do we say "your fired" to Steve McLaren or do we give him one more chance.