transfers and no gameweek review

recent transfers

23 august
Andre Ooijer [PSV Eindhoven - Blackburn] Undisclosed
Lloyd Sam [Charlton - Sheff Wed] Loan
Kasper Schmeichel [Man City - Bury] Loan

22 august
Kevin Phillips [Aston Villa - West Brom] £700,000

Liverpool midfielder Momo Sissoko will be out of action for two weeks after injuring his left knee during the Champions League match against Maccabi Haifa, the English club said on Wednesday.

archaeopteryx transfers / gameweek 2 (transferred out player listed first)

académie de troit
[Garcia (8.5) - Gamst Pedersen (9.0)]

ye olde speckled hen
[Kishishev ( 4.5) - Bridge (4.5)]
[Neill (5.0) - Campbell (5.0)]
[Young (5.0) - Mellberg (5.0)]

steak
[Van Persie ( 9.0) - Crouch (9.0)]
[Bouazza (5.5) - Zamora (6.0)]
[Shevchenko (12.0) - Ameobi (7.5)]
[Henry (14.0) - Van Persie ( 9.0)]
[Walton (4.5) - Gerrard (10.5)]
[Stubbs (4.0) - Taylor (5.5)]
[Volz (4.5) - Campbell (5.0)]
[Hibbert (5.0) - Mellberg (5.0)]
[Baines (4.5) - Johnson (5.0)]

gameweek one: video highlights

follow the links to watch fox sports world report's coverage

bolton 2 / tottenham 0
man utd 5 / fulham 1
match of the day: chelsea 3 / man city 0

all for now...

gameweek one: in review

we are off to flying start with gameweek one providing what some might feel are surprises (reading/middles'bro, liverpool/sheff utd), but mostly ample room for mockery and garbage talk amongst each other. i'll leave that up to the rest of you for now, as i'm in no position to taunt any of you (except my one point over mike).

alberto (ye olde speckled hen) demonstrated to all of us he has a faculty for opening week luck, or perhaps a fantasy skill set waiting to be released. his 60 point gameweek total was supported by the performances of: john terry's season opening goal for the blues off a set piece, stevie gerrard's penalty box dive (watch it here) to save liverpool's face against premiership debutantes sheff utd., wayne rooney's two goals in man utd's 5-1 hammering of fulham, darren bent's unshaken form and reliability as fantasy player, and brad friedel's penalty save, despite giving up 3 goals in a frustrating loss to portsmouth. although the hen received 0 points due to ballack's injury, after a weekend of competition they rest at the top of the table. question of the gameweek, how do you get terry, ballack, gerrard, and rooney on your team and still have money left over for players who actually play? i'm sure its all in the math, but...wow.

yet, it will be alberto who returns to the drawing board for gameweek two with rooney suspended until sept. 10th.

other sides showing early on promise
no surprise holmes tallies up with bobby zamora's two goal performance in west ham's 3-1 win over charlton, and yakubu's goal/assist work in the middles'bro loss to maiden reading. germain, who sent me an e-mail telling me he couldn't figure out how this all works or how to select his team, puts up 42 points off the backs of the toon army's ameobi, wigan's lee mcculloch and drogba's goal against a shorthanded man city. pat zemanski's steak, despite appearing undercooked in gameweek one, could be the squad to have with terry in back, pretty boy c.ronaldo in midfield who made up with rooney, and henry threatening at the top.

other players of note:
bolton: ivan campo
west ham: lee bowyer
man utd: louis saha
aston villa: mellberg
portsmouth: david james

transfers:
today
khalid boulahrouz [hamburg sv-chelsea]

gameweek two begins tomorrow, the 22nd of august.

additions, tune ups, et cetera

brian germain has enlisted into archaeopteryx. best of luck to brian and his team "manbearpigs", and a here! here! to him and his squad. i'll have a "brian germain googled" by sunday, unfortunately there have been more than a few last minute changes and transfers that need to be made in my lineup before the season kick's off.

transfer update:

August 18
Dirk Kuyt [Feyenoord - Liverpool] Undisclosed
Arturo Lupoli [Arsenal - Derby] Loan
Vito Mannone [Arsenal - Barnsley] Loan

August 17
Kanu [West Brom - Portsmouth] Free
Scott Golbourne [Reading - Wycombe] Loan

i'm working on finding a comprehensive injury/not playing source. any leads?

best of luck to all teams and managers this weekend.

(mental maps) gameweek one, approaching

as it all begins this saturday, august 19, with sheffield united and liverpool squaring off at 12.45pm british summer time (BST) on network sky sports, the first of the 380 league games to played until may 13 2007. deadline for gameweek 1 lineups is august 19, 11.30am BST / 4.30am Eastern / 1.30am Pacific, so plan accordingly due to time differentials. and as each team plays a total of 38 games in 38 gameweeks, things/events will start moving quickly. for example, the deadline for gameweek 2 is august 22, 7.30pm BST / 12.30pm ET / 9.30am PT. i imagine it will take some getting used to, with the EPL being comparatively > NFL fantasy football's 16 games over 17 weeks.

a list of games televised saturday and sunday on fox soccer channel:

sat. august 19
epl preview // 9.30am ET / 6.30am PT
wigan atheletic @ newcastle // 10am ET / 7am PT [live]
tottenham @ bolton // 12pm ET / 9am PT [live]
middlesborough @ reading // 2.15pm ET / 11.15am PT [delay]
all games replayed at later slots saturday on fox soccer channel.

sun. august 20
manchester city @ chelsea // 11am ET / 8 am PT [live]
game replayed at later slots sunday on fsc.

sorry to mike, for consciously neglecting your time zone.

transfer updates:

august 17
Scott Golbourne [Reading - Wycombe] Loan
Jemal Johnson [Blackburn - Wolves] Undisclosed
Darren Potter [Liverpool - Wolves] Loan

august 16
Phil Bardsley [Man Utd - Rangers] Loan
Robert Green [Norwich - West Ham] £2m
Albert Jarrett [Brighton - Watford] Free
Chris Makin [Reading - Southampton] Free
Andy Reid [Tottenham - Charlton] £3m

august 15
Andreas Isaksson [Rennes - Man City] £2m

cs, villa, and cosmopolitans

(fox sports world report) michelle lissel (alongside mitch peacock) deals out highlights of yesterday's community shield match between liverpool and chelsea.
...
as if glazer's purchase of manchester united last year wasn't enough for the british, this year they'll have plenty more american enterprise to gripe about. cleveland browns owner randy lerner has settled on a £62.6 million takeover agreement of the club aston villa fc. this coming after villa's chairman doug ellis, 82, spent the last 24 years allowing himself and others to spend more money on players than the club was actually bringing in, leaving villa in a bit of a pinch in the end.
...
the cosmopolitan premiership will provide enough passion to repair the damage done by england's dull campaign in germany, writes kevin mccarra for the guardian.
...
manchester united are looking to secure their midfield before the premiership kicks off this coming weekend.

on blogging

i caught an interview on npr's morning edition with technorati's ceo dave sifry. technorati recently reported there are just over 50 million blogs in existence; 175,000 created daily with 1.6 million postings per day (18 posts/sec). of this insane number, 55% of new blogs continue blogging for at least a year. by tracking the blogosphere since 2002, technorati has found that it doubles every 5-7 months, with the latest trend in blog expansion coming primarily from non-english blogs. read the guardian's article and find other sources here or read sifry's recent state of the blogosphere.

i'm attempting to collect a few links to credible epl blog news sources and other related content. bored? you can search too.

transfer update:
august 12
stephen bywater [west ham - derby] loan

august 11
david james [man city - portsmouth] undisclosed

liverpool / maccabi haifa / aug. 9 2006

(fox sports world report) jeremy st. louis re-caps the uefa champions league qualifier between liverpool and maccabi haifa on august 9 2006. with liverpool hosting the first leg due to israeli/hezbollah/lebanese conflicts (and subsequent fears of tel-aviv), the second game is scheduled to be played at a neutral site.

community shield 2005

perhaps i'll get carried away with posting youtube football videos on here...(chelsea 2, arsenal 1)

like cattle

ah the transfer window. players come and players go. carrie dunn from the guardian made me laugh with her tongue in cheek wit: "it's a harsh and difficult life for a premiership footballer. they're treated like cattle, their careers are time-limited, and all they get in return is a whacking great pay-packet." all this with jose antonio reyes and his need to be with family in mind, as he is still up for a transfer to real madrid, which he hopes comes by the end of this week. inter milan's brazilian striker adriano is rumoured to be making a move to man utd. for £25m, while english national team goalkeeper david james wants to leave manchester city. and taking us back to this summer's world cup: remember ecuador's spectacular run, helped on by youngster midfielder luis antonio valencia? since signing with la liga's villareal, he's been sent to wigan athletic on a season-long loan. over the next 72 hours he'll be working to get all the visa paperwork finished so he can make his debut against dutch side vitesse arnhem. and ashley cole's move to chelsea has stalled, as arsenal want too much money for his departure, according to jose mourinho whose asking the gunners to lower their asking price or its a 'no deal.' where to then ashley? real madrid?

the fa's community shield match is this sunday, with live pre game coverage beginning at 9:30am on fox soccer channel. the fa cup winner's liverpool will be taking on premiership champions chelsea, the game's kick-off scheduled for 10am. if you don't get fox soccer channel, well, then you have a good excuse to begin sunday drinking early at your local fsc subscribing pub ( midwest list / california list ).

that's all i have for now...below you'll find completed and official transfers since the beginning of august.

August 10
Christian Bolanos [Deportivo Saprissa - Charlton] Loan

August 9
Tamas Priskin [Gyori ETO - Watford] Undisclosed

August 8
Sol Campbell [unattached - Portsmouth]
Clive Clarke [West Ham - Sunderland] Player exchange
Amady Faye [Newcastle - Charlton] £2m
George McCartney [Sunderland - West Ham] £600,000 & player exchange
Danny O'Donnell [Liverpool - Crewe] Free
Zesh Rehman [Fulham - QPR] Free
Djimi Traore [Liverpool - Charlton] £2m

August 6
Danny Shittu [QPR - Watford] £1.6m

August 4
Antonio Barragan [Liverpool - Deportiva La Coruna] £680,000
Nicklas Bendtner [Arsenal - Birmingham] Loan
Chris Howarth [Bolton - Oldham] Loan
Radhi Jaidi [Bolton - Birmingham] £2m
Brad Jones [Middlesbrough - Sheffield Wednesday] Loan
Sebastian Larsson [Arsenal - Birmingham] Loan
Matt Reed [West Ham - Bristol City] Free
Ryan Smith [Arsenal - Derby] Undisclosed
John Viafara [Portsmouth - Southampton] Undisclosed
Tony Warner [Fulham - Leeds] Loan

August 3
Ricardo Batista [Fulham - Wycombe] Loan
Geoff Horsfield [Sheff Utd - Leeds] Loan

August 2
Willo Flood [Man City - Cardiff] Undisclosed
Danny Graham [Middlesbrough - Blackpool] Loan
Jamie Young [Reading - Wycombe] Free

August 1
Emmerson Boyce [Crystal Palace - Wigan] £1m
Trent McClenahan [West Ham - Hereford] Free
John Pantsil [Hapoel Tel Aviv - West Ham] £1m

plus one

the competition jumps a few levels as andrew holmes has officially signed himself up for a season in archaeopteryx. to holmes, here! here!

who is andrew holmes? according to google image search:
piano bar entertainer, actor
german lighting technician / img
don't ask don't tell
professor of chemistry and director of melville laboratory, clare college
1930s mojave miner / img
author of study skills self-help book
inventor of the wetronome
university of new brunswick student

in the past weeks, i've seen a few replays from last seasons premiership on fox soccer channel. more to come this week (chelsea/charlton from 9/16/05 plays at the moment--the chelsea classics series), including continued coverage of barcelona's u.s. tour.

12 days to recruit a few more...

gunned down

from foxsoccer.com:
arsenal are set to be without injured gael clichy, philippe senderos and abou diaby until at least october, arsene wenger has revealed. clichy (foot), senderos (shoulder) and diaby (ankle) [pictured right] are making good progress in their respective comebacks but are set to miss the first six weeks of the season. you can also read about the injuries and a little talk on freddie ljungberg from the club itself here.

in other arsenal news, they have announced ashley cole into their lineup for champions league action, calling chelsea's bluff. perhaps he'll be staying round for another season to christen the spanking new emirates stadium? read more about it, and a larger scoop on arsenal here (guardian).

meanwhile, chelsea's french defender william gallas failed to show up for his squad's pre-season united states tour. after having a few troubles with the club, his agent has announced that he wishes to leave chelsea, but don't be so sure this will happen. gallas has one year left on his contract, and chelsea may just let it run its course while gallas rides the bench. in what might have been a response from chelsea, the same day gallas failed to show up they revealed michael ballack to the public, giving him gallas old no. 13 kit. gallas could be forced to see out the remainder of his tenure in the reserves before moving on a free transfer next summer.

mls on your tv (presented by...)

in unrelated and unsurprising news, fox soccer channel has struck a deal with the mls and u.s. soccer federation and entered into a five year marketing deal with soccer united marketing (SUM). after the world cup's ratings proved to be a worthwhile investment to skeptical advertisers, this i believe, will be the first of many waves in regards to the expansion of televised soccer. maybe there will be a new channel to actually compete with fox? perhaps a much needed updated set for fox sports world report? (pictured below)


SUM, ironically titled, has also cut a deal with fox soccer channel to televise fc barcelona's u.s. tour (presented by cingular). SUM is the creator behind barcelona's tour of the states, which will begin aug. 6th as they take on chivas. what does this all mean, really? i'm just going to keep my eyes peeled for the extended commercialization of soccer in the u.s., as the advertising jocks flock to the sport while it still remains underdeveloped, underfunded (possibly solved by the adverts?) and underappreciated by most, myself included.