Yesterday saw the beginning of the 43rd Copa America in Argentina where a host of the world’s finest footballers will be on display and no doubt the eyes of Europe’s top clubs will be on them.

The tournament will include some the world’s most high profile players such as, Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez and will also be a platform for some of the most wanted men in football to show just why some of the biggest clubs in Europe are chasing their signatures.

Alexis Sanchez of Chile, Neymar of Brazil, and Javier Pastore of Argentina have all been linked with high profile moves to the likes of Chelsea , Barcelona , and Real Madrid . They will see this tournament as an ideal chance to attract more suitors and demonstrate the vast amount of talent they possess.

Sanchez for example has been told by Chile that he can leave their training camp in the build up to the Championship in order to complete his much anticipated move to Barcelona for around £35m. Neymars club Santos recently declared that five major European clubs have met the £40m buy-out clause in his contract and he too could soon be on the move.

Javier Pastores club Palermo have announced in the past few days a number of top clubs have shown an interest in him before club President Maurizio Zamparini declared one club in particular have tabled a £45m bid.

Between them these three players alone could cost a combined £130m for what is relatively unproven talent in the eyes of many fans, though the Copa America is the ideal platform for them to justify such high transfer fees and prove there is foundation to the hype.

Argentinean striker Sergio Aguero is another player being linked with a big money move on the eve of the competition, with Juventus reportedly ready to spend £32m in order secure his services in Serie A.

Aguero is part of an Argentinean squad that has finished as runners-up in the past two tournaments and will be looking to stop Brazil claiming the crown for a third time in row. Both have squads blessed with a number of superstars but both also have a lot to prove.

Though the Copa America isn’t all about the high profile players, it’s also a chance for some a South America’s lesser know players to show the world what they can do in the hope of attracting a lucrative transfer to a top European club.

Take for example Columbian defender Cristian Zapata , currently with Udinese, who declared he was a transfer target for Liverpool just a couple a weeks ago and this will be his chance to demonstrate why he is seen as one of the finest defenders in Italy.

Manchester United’s Ecuadorian winger Antonio Valencia was discovered by Wigan in this tournament a number of years ago and he has gone to not only establish himself as a Premier league player but also as a vital part of United’s Championship winning team.

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So as the competition evolves from here on in, there will not only be millions of fans watching with intrigue a number a Europe’s top scouts will be there and searching for the next South American Gem.

Article courtesy of Patrick Giffney from This Is Futbol

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Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has stated that he is happy with the club’s business in the transfer market so far this summer, and has hailed the new players.

The Premier League champions have added Ashley Young, Phil Jones and David de Gea to their ranks in the last month, which the veteran feels are positive moves.

“It is just what the club needs. Three of our most experienced players have retired, so the manager has reinforced certain positions on the field. This club is always evolving. That is what has happened since I have been here,” the 32-year-old stated in a press conference in Boston.

“That is what you aim to do. It is not about your personal feelings. It is about the club becoming better and more stable and continuing the success we have had over the years.”

The fact that Sir Alex Ferguson has added youthful additions to the squad is also a decision backed by the England centre back.

“It is great to see young players. We have some very young players coming through the youth team already, so when the manager adds players of quality like Phil Jones, Ashley Young and David de Gea, it can only improve the squad, increase our longevity and continue our success,” he concluded.

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The Old Trafford side are currently in the United States to play five friendlies in the build up to the 2011/12 campaign.

Kenny Dalglish has admitted that players will have to moved on if he is to make any further additions to his Liverpool squad, reports Sky Sports.

The Anfield boss is keen to continue his summer recruitment drive but needs to move fringe players on if he is to bring in more new faces.

Dalglish has been busy in the transfer market with Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Stewart Downing brought in for big fees to bolster the midfield whilst goalkeeper Doni has signed to provide backup to Pepe Reina.

He told Sky Sports “We’re delighted with the work we’ve done. Whether there’s more remains to be seen and depends on players going out.”

Flops like Christian Poulsen and Alberto Aquilani are both high earners and surplus to requirements at Anfield.

The club are keen to move both them and other players on the periphery away from the club to allow Dalglish to strengthen the squad further.

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There is a gaping hole at left back that Dalglish is keen to fill with Paul Konchesky moving to Leicester and Emiliano Insua not in first team contention.

Newcastle United’s Jose Enrique and Lyon’s Aly Cissokho have been strongly linked with a switch to Anfield but a move for either will depend on who departs the club first.

Arsenal are planning a surprise bid for Wolves winger Matt Jarvis according to the Daily Mail.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger is on the lookout for a new wide man with the impending departures of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas leaving the midfield light on the ground.

Jarvis has caught the attention of the Frenchman with his superb displays since Wolves’ promotion two seasons ago.

His performances for the Midlands club have also led to England recognition making his debut against Ghana in March and now Wenger is ready to pounce.

He has had his scouts keeping close tabs Jarvis who is an old-fashioned type winger with pace to burn and a deadly delivery, something Arsenal have lacked in seasons gone by.

The 25-year-old’s direct style of play and willingness to get to the by-line would offer an extra dimension to a side who have been criticised in the past for trying pass the ball into the net.

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Arsenal scouts were at Portman Road on Saturday to watch Jarvis play against Ipswich but were left disappointed as he missed the game with a minor groin injury.

That hasn’t perturbed Wenger who is keen to bring the player to the Emirates Stadium although it’s thought Wolves boss Mick McCarthy won’t let him go cheaply and without a fight.

In light of the launch of the new football gaming phenomenon that is ‘Goaldash’ I decided to look at the six best football comebacks of all time.

1. Tottenham Hotspur 3-5 Manchester United, Premier League 2001

In a match that lived up to the term a game of two halves with Tottenham leading 3-0 at the half time. Manchester United demonstrated their champions quality by coming out in the second half with Andy Cole, Laurent Blanc, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Juan Sebastian Veron and David Beckham netting as United completed an brilliant five-goal comeback to leave Spurs completely shell-shocked.

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2.Angola 4-4 Mali, Africa Cup of Nations 2010.

With only 12 minutes remaining of host country Angola’s opening match of the 2010 African Nations Cup match they looked to be cruising to an opening 4-0 victory. Then Mali got one back and then another with 3 minutes to go, surely just consolidations? However on the 93rd minute it was 4-3 and then amazingly on the 94th minute Mali equalised to complete a simply extraordinary comeback. The student who bet his full loan on Angola at 4-0 must have been in complete disbelief at the final score which cost him a reported £4,400!

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3.Liverpool V AC Milan, Champions League Final 2005

Milan went into the half time break on course to the Champions League trophy, 3-0 up after a brace for Crespo and a goal from Maldini. However three goals in an incredible six minutes from Gerrard, Smicer and Alonso put the Reds level and we all know what happened in the penalty shootout as Benitez’s side claimed their first European victory in 21 years and 5th title in total.

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4.Tottenham 3-4 Manchester City, FA Cup 2004

In one of the best FA Cup comebacks of all time away Manchester City were 3-0 down to Tottenham at White Hart Lane at half time. When Joey Barton was sent off just before the break, the game looked dead and buried. However a deflected shot from Sylvain Distin gave them a glimmer of hope, but goals from Paul Bosvelt and Shaun Wright-Phillips put City back on track, whilst a last gasp header from Jon Macken gave an amazing 10-man comeback victory!

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5.Newcastle 4-4 Arsenal, Premier League 2010

Arsenal sprinted into a 4-0 lead were coasting to an important victory in their Premier League title challenge. However Diaby was sent off and Newcastle won two pens and produced a stunning comeback with Tiote striking late on to secure a memorable point.

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6. Manchester United 2-1 Bayern Munich, Champions League Final 1999

Bayern Munich too the lead after six minutes and managed to hold on all the way into stoppage time before an incredible two goal comeback from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunner Solskjaer on 90+1’ and 90+3’ saw Sir Alex’s men take the title home to England. The video below shows a different perspective of those unbelievable last few minutes.

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So what is Goaldash all about then?

‘Goaldash’ is a fabulous concept which fuses the Lottery format with pre-chosen football fixtures. Whereas you may use birthdays or your own favourite numbers to pick your six numbers, with ‘Goaldash’ you need to use your foresight of the Beautiful Game to select the six teams that are likely to score the quickest in the pre-selected 24 fixtures.

It only costs £1 a pop to enter and you have the chance to win a million pounds, every given week.

All you have to do is scour the 48 teams and pick out the 6 teams that are likely to score the quickest on the Saturday afternoon. The matches are chosen from the Premier League, the Football League, as well as the Scottish divisions therefore you will have plenty to work out and strategise before you make your selections.

Playing the Lottery has just got fun, especially as your odds are a damn sight greater.

Fancy your chances? Fancy winning £1million pounds? Why not give it a go!

Arsene Wenger has hit out at his team and believes their lack of confidence, coordination and communication is costing the football club dear and could cost them of their chances this season unless the problem is addressed. The Frenchman has also vowed to keep faith with his coaching staff, despite the recent defensive frailties.

Elsewhere in the papers Javier Hernandez avoids lay-off; Villas-Boas fears for Torres, while Gareth Bale believes that Adebayor can fire Tottenham back into the Champions League.

Wenger to keep faith with coaching staff despite frailty – Guardian

Modric deserves a pay rise, says Redknapp – Guardian

Hernández avoids lay-off –Daily Telegraph

City launch multimillion battle to stop next Giggs signing for United – Independent

Villas-Boas fears for Torres after shocking miss – Independent

Spurs plotting to sign Swiss keeper Jakupovic as Gomes considers leaving – Daily Mail

Louis Saha refused to play in reserves – Sun

Bale backs Adebayor to fire Spurs into Champions League – Mirror

Villas-Boas lines up £20m January bid for Everton youngster Barkley – Daily Mail

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Sinclair: I quit Blues to get fair chance – Sun

Ben Arfa is worth the hassle, says Pardew ahead of crock’s comeback – Daily Mail

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Writing for a Liverpool fan site, there is a fine line between what fans would describe as constructive and destructive criticism. As a person who writes blogs on my favourite club, especially when the write two a day to ensure good site numbers, I could be accused of over analysing situations or being seen as writing blogs that are “knee-jerk reaction” to previous matches.

For this reason it is not always easy to look at matches, with performances and results with the right perspective. We are 5 games into the season with Liverpool on seven points with 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses and already people are getting restless about the direction the club is heading in under Dalglish.

After a summer of big spending with high profile arrivals and departures many fans expect instant results, and those not at all happy with our summer purchases have been quick to vent their anger at the manager. There maybe a lot of people out there who know more about football than me, but I can’t see how we are anywhere the crisis point some people are making out after 5 league games. Attacking the manager in such a way is unhelpful to the team, and is reactionary in the extreme. We must remember it is an entirely new team; one which Kenny Dalglish is still finding about, as his tactical mistakes on Sunday are testament to.

In the same instance though, I will never been someone who shows blind faith in a manager, either personally or in his methods. When things started to go wrong during Rafa Benitez ’s last campaign as manager, I highlighted the problems I felt Rafa hadn’t addressed and fans, who supported Rafa through thick and thin, defended him as they have the right to do. The same goes with Kenny Dalglish, a legend as both player and manager, he also can’t be immune from criticism, and I will call it as I see it if I believe he makes a mistake.

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For me this is constructive criticism of an individual I both admire as a manager and a person. To those who want to attack Dalglish so vehemently early on the season because they feel they know better, I have no time for you unless you have something constructive to say.

Equally though, those who say it is knee-jerk or ill-informed to criticise Kenny and we should go and support another team, this is an opinion site after all. We welcome opinions from all points of view, and as we are free to say what we like, I think any manager, no matter how legendary, can be assessed by what he does right and wrong.

Article courtesy of David Tully from Live4Liverpool

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If you’re anything like me, you’re talking about football 24/7. You wake up thinking about football and go to sleep thinking about football. It consumes your life and when it isn’t there you feel like there’s a massive hole in your day.

So, you love football and you love talking about football. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just talk about footy? You can do that here on Football FanCast and Facebook is a great place to talk to your mates, but if you find it annoying when eveything else on social networks gets in the way then Bantr is for you.

Bantr is a social network by football fans for football fans. A place for you and your team where you can check into games, show the manager where he is going wrong and banter live with rivals. In short, it’s a football fan’s dream, it’s for the real football fan.

Instead of logging onto Twitter and seeing what Joey Barton is preaching about this week or what Rio Ferdinand had for lunch, you can talk with fellow fans about the beautiful game. If you think someone had a stinker, you can have your say, or sing from the hilltops when your team is on fire.

Take a look at the video below and see what you think…

http://player.vimeo.com/video/27307714?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0

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Bantr from Matt Harvey on Vimeo.

Get involved in Bantr now.

It’s been something of a strained week for Sir Alex Ferguson. The Manchester United manager has had to deal with one of his worst days as the Red Devils gaffer, the 6-1 thrashing in the Manchester derby, and he won’t have enjoyed the last few days as a result.

There’s no doubt that the famous Fergie hairdryer would have been in action last Sunday at Old Trafford, but Sir Alex would have been encouraged by their performance against Aldershot, albeit a lower league team, in the Carling Cup as they won 3-0.

Here is Sir Alex Ferguson before the match at the Recreation Ground having his photo taken. Can you come up with a funny caption for this picture?

Leave your suggestions below…

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Win a copy of This is the One!

Written over the course of two eventful, diverse and controversial seasons, This Is the One offers a unique portrait of Sir Alex Ferguson from a privileged position behind the scenes.

Told from the perspective of The Guardian’s dedicated Manchester football correspondent, Daniel Taylor, who has been there from day one, the book examines every side of Ferguson, mixing the flint-faced authoritarian caricature, the infamous hairdryer treatment and the softer, humane side of an immensely likeable man.

Entertaining, revelatory, sometimes shocking but always affectionate, this is an honest biography of a manager who infuriates as much as he inspires, but whose heart is as big as the Man Utd trophy room.

For the FootballFanCast.com Caption Competition Terms and Conditions click here

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Check out our Caption Competition Gallery for some inspiration and to see the winners so far.

Last week’s winner: Bill – click here to see all entries

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You can also enter the Caption Competition via Qustodian SportsThe FREE football app that pays YOU to watch ads!

What do we want from players? And what traits do they need to be held in the highest esteem? Flair, pace, strength? Intelligence? We always note which players are more intelligent than others. Lampard has good GCSEs and an IQ good enough for Mensa. Arsene Wenger has a degree in electrical engineering and economics and recently Johan Djourou’s interview with The Independent highlighted him as one of the sharper knives in football’s draw. But why do we care? Intelligence seems to have little relevance to a footballer’s worth. As long as they’ve got a ‘football brain’ that’s all we really care about, isn’t it?

Obviously as long as a player is on form and aiding your team’s success you’re not going to care if he knows what the capital of England is but in a world where fans are increasingly disenfranchised with overpaid footballers the idea that our hard earned money is at least going to men who could form some sort of opinion on political affairs in this country would be reassuring. With so many footballers displaying levels of narcissism not seen since Joseph Smith Jnr claimed he’d spoken to god you’d be forgiven for wanting to see some humility and intelligence grace our sport. For too long have men who’s intellect barely qualified them as sentient beings been paid five times the average yearly wage in this country every week. As talented as they may be it makes them harder to respect.

Perhaps we don’t necessarily think less of good footballers for being less intelligent but our yearnings for the intellectualisation of the game definitely sees us put those we consider to be intelligent on a pedestal. Just look at Thierry Henry or Clarence Seedorf. Or even Clark Carlisle: how much more do you respect the Burnley defender after seeing on Question Time hold his own against the likes of Alastair Campbell last year. The rise of organisations like Zonal Marking demonstrate the desire of football fans to see deeper in to the sport they love, to gain a better understanding, an understanding that footballers with base intellect just can’t provide us with in interviews. Perhaps the problem is that we only notice the poor quality of the interviews that we have to absorb when a genuinely bright footballer comes along.

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Djourou’s comments about the fragility of players’ mentality and the humanisation of seemingly untouchable stars not only rang true in the aftermath of Gary Speed’s death but also provided a welcome change to the normal “we’ll give it 110%” chat that we are forced to swallow down week after week as though we couldn’t conduct both sides of the interviews ourselves. Footballers might not need to be intelligent to play footballer, but fans do need to read about and listen to intelligent footballers if we are not to be dumbed down like so we are by so many other forms of common culture.

Nobody’s calling for intellectual snobbery, some footballers can’t help being less intelligent, but the desire for footballers who can be respected on every level is definitely something worth seeing. Obviously footballers are never going to be bought and sold based on their IQ but the football as a sport has a problem with its reputation. Those who know and love football appreciate that it is a complex cultural phenomenon uniting communities, spreading wealth to the disadvantaged and providing pleasure for millions of people around the world. For those who don’t understand football it is the sport of idiots: full of overpaid cretins writhing around on the floor as a consequence of non existent fouls, squandering their money, setting a bad example to the youth and consistently embroiling themselves in scandals of all shapes and sizes. So, does intelligence in football matter? Yes it matters. It matters to football’s reputation, it matters to those who love it and want to understand it better and it matters if we want to get the best out of all the positive aspects of football. It’s not just footballers that are the problem either. Owners and managers need to be more responsible, the press perhaps needs to be less invasive and in light of Gary Speed’s sad death the requisite level of manners from chanting fans should perhaps be set higher than it already is. Football has the power to enrich our lives, and more people would realise it if we as a community all recognise that standards set for every other area of life apply in football too.

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Agree on disagree? Join the debate on Twitter @H_Mackay

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