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