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Goodbye, Sweet Prince photo

Goodbye, Sweet Prince

The Short Fuse — Benjamin Franklin once said, "Work while it is today...something, something...One today is worth two tomorrows...something else." Now, that might not have been quoted correctly, but it does remind me of a poem that reads like this: Mr. Meant-To has a comrade,And his name is Didn't-Do; Have you ever chanced to meet them?Did they ever call on you? These two fellows live together In the house of Never-Win, And I'm told that it is haunted By the ghost of Might-Have-Been That last line always saddens me, because I know for myself and many Arsenal fans, this is how we will remember Andrey --...

Arsenal 8 hours ago
Arsenal Player Reviews: Vito Mannone photo

Arsenal Player Reviews: Vito Mannone

The Short Fuse — Our last goalkeeper review is of Vito Mannone, third in the depth chart but hopefully first in his parents' heart. To the reviewinator! TRAVIS:Mannone started his campaign with back-to-back clean sheets (Stoke City and Liverpool, both away), victories at Montpellier and home versus Olympiacos in the Champions League, a singular goal allowed in the draw at Manchester City and was between the posts in the hard-fought loss at home versus Chelsea. However the wheels slowly started to come off for Mannone as he struggled to support his wanting players, who were in the midst of suffering t...

Arsenal 8 hours ago
Cottage Talk: Fulham Season Review Tonight At 7PM BST / 2PM ET photo

Cottage Talk: Fulham Season Review Tonight At 7PM BST / 2PM ET

Cottagers Confidential — In this episode, we will look back at the 3-0 Fulham victory at Swansea to end the season. Second, we will discuss the latest in Fulham news and speculation. Third, we will review the Fulham season by breaking down each position and player. Finally, we will also have a discussion regarding the Fulham Academy. I hope you can listen to this two hour show by clicking here.

Fulham 10 hours ago

Man City: Player Usage Chart

Bitter and Blue — The premise of the player usage chart is fairly simple: take a players minutes played in the Premier League and use their games started and games as a sub and then visualize it. Easy. Minutes,Starts and Subs Starts Subs Minutes Y Toure 32 2828 Zabaleta 29 1 2650 Silva 29 3 2509 Barry 27 4 2395 Tevez 28 6 2394 Clichy 26 2 2309 Aguero 22 3 1942 Dzeko 16 16 1821 Nastasic 21 2 1820 Nasri 22 6 1797 Milner 20 7 1735 Lescott 17 9 1575 Javi Garcia 17 7 1494 kolarov 11 9 1075 K Toure 10 5 918 Richards 7 616 Balotelli 7 7 589 Maicon 4 5 521 Kompany ...

Manchester City 10 hours ago
Manchester United to part company with Mike Phelan and Eric Steele photo

Manchester United to part company with Mike Phelan and Eric Steele

The Busby Babe — Some sort of turnover was to be expected with David Moyes being appointed the successor for retired manager Sir Alex Ferguson. The most high-profile changes in the staff was always likely to be with the assistant coaches. On their official site, Manchester United have announced that Fergie's lead assistant Mike Phelan and goalkeeper coach Eric Steele will be departing the club. Here's what Moyes had to say on the matter: "I would like to put on record the club's thanks for everything Mike and Eric have done. I will be looking to appoint my own members of coaching staff at some point i...

Manchester United 11 hours ago
UEFA Champions League Final: Links & Open Thread photo

UEFA Champions League Final: Links & Open Thread

The Busby Babe — Even though Manchester United won't be involved, my guess is that most of you still have an interest in (and presumably will be watching) Saturday's UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. As anticipated, there is no shortage of coverage for club football's biggest annual match. I'm going to link some of the more interesting and informative pieces I've been reading throughout the week and I'll try to periodically update the list as more good material gets published as kick-off nears at Wembley. This will also function as an open thread for the final: it...

Manchester United 11 hours ago
Everton Player Reviews - Tim Howard photo

Everton Player Reviews - Tim Howard

Royal Blue Mersey — The American has shown his stripes at times, most of them with some wonderful examples of first class goalkeeping. Howard has usually been one of those players that comes to the end of a Premier League season without missing a minute of football, but this season has seen him miss out on some games through injury. What he did well The things that Howard has done well this season have been done to the highest of standards. I think as a result of our tactics, as a team, from January onwards, he has seen himself become more relied upon and has performed to his best. For example, his perfor...

Everton 15 hours ago
2012/13 Arsenal Player Reviews: Lukasz Fabianski photo

2012/13 Arsenal Player Reviews: Lukasz Fabianski

The Short Fuse — With a name like Fabianski, it takes some serious stuff to want to be a keeper, because the minute you make a mistake everybody's all ZOMG THAT GUY IS TOTALLY FLAPPYHANDSKI and before you know it a dumb nickname is born. But Lukasz Fabianski didn't care, when he started his soccer life, what 10 years later some idiots would call him on the internet; he cares not for your epithets. Not you personally, I'm sure you've never called him that! So today, in our next round of reviews, we all give our reviews of Fab the Backup; just so you know, for the less-often-played Arsenal players, we'...

Arsenal 18 hours ago
Manchester United 2012-13 player review: Patrice Evra photo

Manchester United 2012-13 player review: Patrice Evra

The Busby Babe — The Busby Babe continues with the third installment of our 2012-13 Manchester United player reviews. Next up is left-back Patrice Evra. * Manchester United 2012-13 season review I'm going to be dividing each of the player reviews into three categories: 'what was expected' will be a brief and general explanation of what the expectations were for the player prior to the season's start, 'what we got' will typically be the section with the most depth as this will be the heart of the review, and 'what's next?' will be an examination of the player's future at United. What was expected At one...

Manchester United 22 hours ago
Manchester United to cut interest costs by £10m a year by refinancing their debt photo

Manchester United to cut interest costs by £10m a year by refinancing their debt

The Busby Babe — Manchester United have announced that they expect to cut £10 million a year in interest costs because they have refinanced £192 million of their debt. Here are some of the details: 'United have refinanced £177.78m of outstanding 8.75% interest sterling bonds and $22.09m (£14.6m) of 8.375% dollar bonds. United say the new loan would have an estimated starting interest rate of around 2.78% and that interest payments should come down from around £31m to £21m per year. The club have a total debt of £370m.' Source: Associated Press I'm definitely not an authority on the financial matters ...

Manchester United 22 hours ago
2012/13 End of season roundtable photo

2012/13 End of season roundtable

Bitter and Blue — The 2012/13 season is now in the can and although City are over in American on an end of season trip thoughts will soon be turning towards the off-season with a new manager and potential transfers to focus on, before we start getting into the preperations for the 2013/14 campaign. Stay tuned over the weekend where we will have a series of posts looking at potential transfer targets for the club but before all of that the writers here at Bitter and Blue engaged in a roundtable session to answer some of the key questions coming out of the recent season. A second place finish and FA Cup f...

Manchester City May 23, 2013
REVISITED: Preseason Predictions from the RBM Team photo

REVISITED: Preseason Predictions from the RBM Team

Royal Blue Mersey — With the 2012-13 season ending last weekend, this is a good time to look back at some of the preseason predictions the Royal Blue Mersey editorial team had made. We were spot on with quite a few things and way off with many others, laughably so on some of those! Here are the questions asked, and what really transpired.. and then our best guesses follow after that. Everton's final position: 6thTop 4: Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, ArsenalRelegated: Queens Park Rangers, Reading, WiganLeague Cup winner: Swansea CityEverton's League Cup finish: 3rd RdFA Cup winner: WiganEvert...

Everton May 23, 2013
Rio Ferdinand signs a new one-year contract at Manchester United photo

Rio Ferdinand signs a new one-year contract at Manchester United

The Busby Babe — As anticipated, Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has been awarded a new one-year contract extension at the club. His previous contract was set to expire this summer. The upcoming season will be the 34-year-old's 12th season at the club. Here's what he had to stay about his new deal: "I am delighted to have signed a new contract. Who wouldn’t want to play in this fantastic team in front of 76,000 fans each week? It has been an incredible journey and I am glad it will continue. I can now fully concentrate on my club career which has worked well for me over the past few years.Thi...

Manchester United May 23, 2013
Wayne Rooney Transfer Saga photo

Wayne Rooney Transfer Saga

The Busby Babe — This storystream will keep you updated over the summer for all the happenings of the Wayne Rooney transfer saga. According to a report by the Guardian, Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney put in a transfer request two weeks ago. Apparently, though, Sir Alex Ferguson -- you know, that guy who used to be manager for awhile -- told the former talisman that no summer move would occur. The validity of this speculation, of course, is open for debate. However, if the transfer request is true, it makes sense to an extent. United are no longer a team built around Rooney and his performances ...

Manchester United May 23, 2013
Everton Manager Candidates: Appointing From Within photo

Everton Manager Candidates: Appointing From Within

Royal Blue Mersey — Other potential choices include coach (and former Everton player) David Weir and and the recently retired Phil Neville, who are all listed in the next manager betting as potential Toffees managers. The pros There is a lot to be said for employing someone who is familiar with the inner workings of the club. As David Moyes has recently alluded to, the shaky financial situation Everton still finds itself in places unique restrictions on the manager ; restrictions a new man may not be comfortable dealing with. A promoted manager will also be familiar with the players, their assets a...

Everton May 23, 2013
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