Saturday, April 05, 2025

The Latest Football News and Opinions From 90 Minutes Online

The Eredivisie starts off the European season!

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The summer may still technically be here but already the new season has kicked-off in the Netherlands. The Eredivisie is the first major domestic league to have started in Europe, the next to follow will be Ligue 1 in France this coming Saturday. The Dutch league campaign began last weekend and so finally there is some real competitive football to report on.

There has been some upheaval in the Eredivisie since the end of last season, most of which occurred not long after AZ Alkmaar were crowned champions for only the second time in their history. The major news centred around AZ's manager Louis van Gaal deciding to leave the club. After securing the Eredivisie title it was confirmed that he was leaving to take up the manager's mantle at Bayern Munich, disappointing as this may have been to the AZ fans it is difficult to begrudge van Gaal moving on after securing a major footnote in the club's history.

Wenger must strike while the money's hot

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Arsenal have been reasonably active in this summer's transfer window, but rather than appeasing the fans who increasingly cry out for reinforcements, Arsène Wenger has been selling off assets. With the departure confirmed yesterday of Kolo Touré to Manchester City for £15million, Arsenal have brought in roughly £40million worth of revenue. At least in terms of finance- Arsenal are on the rise again!

The moving on of Touré is quite an ambiguous transfer, he is still respected and valued by the majority of Arsenal fans, and I feel that he was still good enough to remain at the Emirates. Despite any personal differences between Touré and Gallas, they had forged an impressive central defensive partnership recently. The Ivory Coast international was also the last regular player left at the club from the 2003-04 'Invincibles' title-winning team. As a result his passing on to Manchester City comes as a sentimental water-shed for Arsenal and it's fans. In one respect it may be a good thing, because Arsenal now need to focus on future conquests rather than past glories.

Are Manchester City the new Real Madrid?

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The start of the football season is fast creeping up on us once again, although in all honesty you've probably been looking forward to the kick-off in August ever since the end of last season. There have of course been some major transfer coups over the summer, punctuated by some unexpected moves- most of which have involved Manchester City in some way.

I'm sure there will be one or two surprise signings or big transfers to come between now and the start of the new Premier League season on August 15th. It's not just all about the Premier League though, of course the other major player in the summer transfer window has been the egotistical establishment of Real Madrid. That's not to quell their ambition, which is clearly to consume every possible competition in their path- whatever the cost to their board and President Florentino Pérez.

 

No dignity for old men

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We are living in straightened times. Gone are excesses of the early part of the decade and now everyone - young and old, rich and poor - is feeling the pinch. In particular the fortunes of those who led the charge have dissipated. Bankers and brokers, formerly on multi-million pound bonuses, now also find themselves in the dole queue.

 

Likewise, the fortunes of two top managers have followed a similar trajectory. In 2002, during the height of the Naughties’ hyper-active bubble, Sven Goran-Erikson was the highest paid  manager in the world, raking in a massive £5m per year as England boss. In the same year Luiz Filipe Scolari guided Brazil to their fifth World Cup triumph.

 

Penguin bars, piggy banks, Porto and other words beginning with P

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Penguin chocolate bars each come with a pun-tastic joke about, well, penguins.

 

What does a mother penguin say to her children when they go out at night? Beak careful.

 

Where does a penguin go to the toilet? The igloo.

 

And in homage to the snack that has helped make England the floating fat farm that it is today, everything below will be tenuously linked to the letter P.

 

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  2. No love lost for Adebayor, but do Manchester City know the score?
  3. Goodbye from Setanta and hello from ESPN.
  4. What a Mestalla to make!

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