The latest transfer, gossip and damned lies

Fabricio Coloccini to Espanyol
After tragically losing their captain Dani Jarque, Spanish paper Sport report that Espanyol are lining up the shaggy-haired Newcastle defender as a replacement.
The Spoiler truth-o-meter: The Argentinean will surely favour a return to sunny Spain over second tier football in the north east. Winter is coming…

David Nugent to Hull
After Madrid’s Alvaro Negredo turned his nose up at the prospect of humiliating half time team talks on the pitch, Hull

Los Pericos mourn the sudden loss of their beloved captain

The world of Spanish football was saddened to learn that much-loved Espanyol captain Daniel Jarque died on Saturday night of a suspected heart attack. The 26-year-old was in an Italian hotel room on the eve of a friendly with Bologna on the phone to his girlfriend when he suddenly stopped talking, and it was his partner who alerted the emergency services. The club captain was 26.

Over 50,000 fans turned up at Espanyol’s brand new Estadi Cornellà-El Prat to mourn their loss yesterday, an impressive attendance considering the fact that the stadium has a matchday capacity of just over 40,000. In light of his squad number, a makeshift shrine was set up at Gate 21 of the arena and a silence was held at 21.00 last night.

[Marca]

Things flare up over in Spain

Barcelona fans were none too happy with being a goal down at Steve Finnan’s side Espanyol this weekend, so they had to pull something out of the bag to encourage their team. Instead of producing a rousing chant, they took the classic ‘throw flares at the home fans and get the game stopped for eight minutes approach’. It was a cunning move, as Barca won the match 2-1 courtesy of a 103rd minute (!) effort from Leo Messi.

[Unprofessional Foul]

The deadline day movers and shakers…

Following a lacklustre transfer of summers, we may actually witness an exciting transfer deadline day today. Here’s how it’s shaping up so far…

Xisco to Newcastle
Deportivo are claiming that they have agreed a £5.7 million deal to sell Spanish striker Xisco to Newcastle. Aston Villa were thought to be keen on the 22-year-old, but it looks like Dennis Wise and co may beat them to the punch.

Steve Finnan to Espanyol
The Spanish club are linked with a move for unwanted right-back Finnan and are of course the team that Liverpool target Albert Riera plays for, prompting the question: are cash-strapped Liverpool trying

Prem big boys flex their muscles in games that don’t really matter

This weekend, the Premier League’s finest took and some of the best clubs in Europe (and Glasgow Rangers) in some tasty pre-season action. Chelsea made AC Milan (and ex-Leicester) keeper Zeljko Kalac look like a damned chump in their 5-0 victory in Moscow, while Liverpool, Manchester Utd and Arsenal also notched up pre-season victories.

See more video highlights after the jump…

Well the rain is back, for a moment there we almost forgot where we were. Seconds away from flowery necklaced women and silky hula music playing in the streets, probably. Just thank hecky we’ve still got football gossip and transfers to keep us all sweaty and uncomfortable.

Ronaldinho and Deco in exchange for Kaka
A couple of years ago, had anyone even thought about exchanging Ronaldinho for another player, teams of armed police would have been lining buildings within seconds, shouting through loud hailers to put the drugs down and step away from the vehicle. Sir, we said step AWAY! How times have changed. Now Barcelona can offer Ronaldinho and Deco for Kaka and no one even sniffs their breath for whiskey.

The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: The rumour is that Barca are offering the two players and around £16 million. AC are unlikely to bite.

Andriy Shevchenko to Fenerbahce
After wowing English fans with his brilliance, Shevchenko may yet astonish the people of Turkey by taking his travelling football circus to Fenerbahce. Prepare to be dazzled, Turklings!

The Spoiler Truth-o-meter: Should AC Milan pass, Shevchenko needs to go somewhere. Not out of the question.

Top La Liga boss combines childlike artistic talent with vision of a lunatic

After Barcelona’s 1-1 draw at the weekend against local irritants Espanyol, the daily Sport newspaper came across some very interesting sketches, containing Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard’s scribblings as to how to win the derby.

One document (pictured) seemed to involve Barcelona defending a corner by herding the entire Espanyol side over to the touchline while Yaya Toure ran in from the corner flag to chase the ball out of his six yard area. “Gudjonshen”, presumably less than delighted to discover his boss only had the most passing familiarity with the correct spelling of his name, would meanwhile run unmarked in a little dotted line across the D.

Disappointingly, this tactical hallucination failed to materialise during the game, although whether it was due to Barcelona’s poor herding technique or Espanyol’s turning a deaf ear to the Catalan translations of “come by” and “good bitch” is not clear. Either way, the dark art of management has acquired a fresh cloak of mystery with the discovery of the “the Rijkaard configuration”. Perhaps those gigantic managerial salaries are no coincidence after all.