transfer window closes

it is somewhat refreshing to see someone redefine the language of this blog, so thanks to chris (and i'm taking notes)..now, to the mad rush that took place before the sept. 1 closing of the premiership transfer window. it yields some notably interesting and perhaps less talked about international additions to the premier league. here's a handfull of additions i found to be worth the attention, a caesura of sorts:

Newcastle: after joining newcastle on august 24, martins (nigeria: born 1984) has embraced the toon army with alacrity or perhaps a bit of premier league over-zealousness, who debuted with a 2-0 loss aston villa and subsequent removal from the game due to a knee injury. stay keen to how he develops with the team, especially how he combines (or fails to) up front with ameobi.
ADD
Obafemi Martins [Inter Milan - Newcastle] £10.1m

Bolton: the iranian born (1983) teimourian as a rising national icon: ...[as a] member [of the] Iranian national team during 2006 World Cup, [p]ictures of an emotionally and physically drained Teymourian at the end of Iran's last game of the 2006 World Cup have begun to take the shape of Iranian football's most notable photograph from the event. Teymourian dropped to the grass and began sobbing while trainers attended to him. He has started to be recognised as a national hero in Iran because of the passion he showed for his country in the 2006 World Cup...(source: wikipedia).
ADD
Andranik Teimourian [Abu Moslem - Bolton] Undisclosed

Middlesbrough: woodgate (born 1980 in middlesbrough, uk, defender), huth (born 1983 in germany, defender) and euell (jamaican/english, 1977, forward) are the coda to middlesbrough's summer transfers, a scattered attempt to recover from early season inconsistencies: the historic win over chelsea, a 4-0 loss to portsmouth, and poor debut against reading. the woodgate homecoming and additional experience to the back line should help to assuage the malcontent australian keeper mark schwarzer.
ADD
Jonathan Woodgate [Real Madrid - Middlesbrough] Loan
Robert Huth [Chelsea - Middlesbrough] £6m
Jason Euell [Charlton - Middlesbrough] Undisclosed

Aston Villa: a brilliant start (7 pts in 3 games) in times of trouble for villa, plus the apposite addition of petrov (born 1979 in bulgaria): a note to the rather interesting eastern europe to premiership trend. it seems paradoxical that the premiership only becomes more international as certain east europe/african coutries show signs of economic recovery/stability (only now?) . perhpas petrov is a thinking man or bulgarian charlatan(no--he's a spartan)? a thought to consider with the publication of his autobiography, you can call me stan: the stiliyan petrov story.
ADD
Stiliyan Petrov [Celtic - Aston Villa] £6.5m

West Ham: with a brazilian connection to corinthians, west ham first and foremost aim to groom argentian carlos tevez, likely aiming to help craft him his own free-flowing playing style. with the move, i vote west ham remains the academy for the premiership (tevez born in 1984). tevez ran a spell with boca juniors and is currently regarded as one of the most promising prospects in the world (source: wikipedia). his combination with league leader (4 goals) bobby zamora should yield interesting results for west ham's offense. i see tevez as replacement/option/alternative to marlon harewood's time on the field, with harewood's lack-luster and unproductive beginnings.
ADD
Carlos Tevez [Corinthians - West Ham] Undisclosed
Marek Stech [Sparta Prague - West Ham] Undisclosed
Javier Mascherano [Corinthians - West Ham] Undisclosed

Portsmouth
ADD
Manuel Fernandes [Benfica - Portsmouth] Loan
Niko Kranjcar [Hajduk Split - Portsmouth] Undisclosed
Roudolphe M'Bela Douala [Sporting Lison - Portsmouth] Loan
Andrew Cole [Man City - Portsmouth] £500,000
SUBTRACT
Svetoslav Todorov [Portsmouth - Wigan] Loan

Wigan
ADD
Svetoslav Todorov [Portsmouth - Wigan] Loan
SUBTRACT
Pascal Chimbonda [Wigan - Tottenham] Undisclosed

Fulham
ADD
Wayne Routledge [Tottenham - Fulham] Loan
Jan Lastuvka [Shakhtar Donetsk - Fulham] Loan
SUBTRACT
Steed Malbranque [Fulham - Tottenham] Undisclosed

Liverpool
SUBTRACT
Florent Sinama Pongolle [Liverpool - Recreativo de Huelva] Loan
Jan Kromkamp [Liverpool - PSV Eindhoven] Undisclosed

Charlton
ADD
Omar Pouso [Penarol - Charlton] Loan
SUBTRACT
Jason Euell [Charlton - Middlesbrough] Undisclosed

Arsenal
ADD
Denilson [Sao Paulo - Arsenal] £3.4m
Julio Baptista [Real Madrid - Arsenal] Loan
William Gallas [Chelsea - Arsenal]
SUBTRACT
Ashley Cole [Arsenal - Chelsea] £5m + William Gallas
Pascal Cygan [Arsenal - Villarreal] £2m
Jose Antonio Reyes [Arsenal - Real Madrid] Loan

Tottenham
ADD
Steed Malbranque [Fulham - Tottenham] Undisclosed
Pascal Chimbonda [Wigan - Tottenham] Undisclosed
SUBTRACT
Rodrigo Defendi [Tottenham - Roma] Loan
Wayne Routledge [Tottenham - Fulham] Loan

Chelsea
ADD
Ashley Cole [Arsenal - Chelsea] £5m + William Gallas
SUBTRACT
William Gallas [Chelsea - Arsenal]
Robert Huth [Chelsea - Middlesbrough] £6m

Manchester City
ADD
DaMarcus Beasley [PSV Eindhoven - Manchester City] Loan
SUBTRACT
Andrew Cole [Man City - Portsmouth] £500,000

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: 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

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