The return of 'El Nino'

Fernando Torres, the man Chelsea paid 50 million pounds for, may finally be on his way back to the top.

What a day it has been for this man - 2 assists and a classic Torres goal to sum it all up.

You have to admit that he has deserved it following his great performances in the last few games.

His passing and vision, combined with his speed and ball skills make a threat to any team, and now with his finishing ability coming back, maybe we will get the see the old Torres again, the classic 'El Nino'.

Del Bosque must be delighted at the moment - Torres finding his form and Villa returning from injury, just in time for the EURO 2012.

Could Spain be the first team to win back-to-back EUROs? 

...

I reckon so.

Next Generation of Premier League attackers

Romelu Lukaku - Belgium and Chelsea 
At the age of 10, he was discovered by scouts of Lierse. In his 3 seasons at Lierse, he scored 121 goals in 68 games. In 2006 he signed for Anderlecht following Lierse's relegation from the Belgian Pro League. At first he played for their youth team, but moved up to the first team in 2009. Chelsea then signed him for a fee of around £18 million at the beginning of this season.

Federico Macheda - Italy and Manchester United
Lazio tried to sign him at the age of 15 but, due to Italian football regulations preventing u18s from signing professional contracts, they were unable to. Manchester United then signed him at the age of 16 and put him into their u18 side. In 2009, Macheda came on as a sub against Aston Villa and scored an amazing goal to give United the win (this goal is in the video). Last season he was loaned to Sampdoria, in the Serie A, and this season he is currently on loan at QPR.

Dani Pachecho - Spain and Liverpool
Dani spent most of his youth career in Spain where he played for Malaga and Barcelona. At Barcelona 'El Asesino' (The Assassin), because of his clinical finishing ability. He signed for Liverpool in 2007 and made his first team debut in 2009,  against Fiorentina in a champions league match. He has spent time on loan at Norwich City and at Rayo Vallecano. He has also represented Spain at youth level, playing for the   u16, u17, u18, u19, u20 and u21 teams.

Ryo Miyaichi - Japan and Arsenal
Ryo spent last season on loan at Feyenoord and is currently on loan at Bolton. He is one of the fastest footballers in the world and there's a reason people call him the 'Japanese Messi'. Watch this kid, he's special.

Raheem Sterling - England/Jamaica and Liverpool
Born in Jamaica, raised in England, you can understand where he this kid gets his speed and ability from. He signed for QPR at the age of 9 and spent 7 years in their youth academy. In 2010, Liverpool signed him for £600,000, though it could go up to £5 million depending on his first-team appearances. He has been a sensation in the Liverpool youth team and was one of the key players in Liverpool's NextGen Series campaign (where they reached the semi-finals). After much pressure from the Liverpool fans, Kenny Daglish finally gave Sterling a first-team appearance, bringing him on against Wigan last weekend.

Souleymane Coulibaly - Ivory Coast and Tottenham
This kid scored 9 goals in 4 games at the u17 World Cup, earning himself the Golden Boot. If you're a bit skeptical about this, I think you should know that 3 of those goals he scored against Brazil (not your average side). He tied with the previous record held by Sinama Pongolle, who scored 9 goals in 6 games. If that's not incredible, I don't know what is. If you want to see more of him, you should watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVStdbLoEYE

Premier League Fastest XI

(This team was picked based on a combination of speed and ability)

GK: Joe Hart*

LB: Gael Clichy
CB: David Luiz
CB: Micah Richards*
RB: Kyle Walker

LM: Gareth Bale
CM: Ramires
CM: Samir Nasri
RM: Aaron Lennon

ST: Darren Bent
ST: Sergio Aguero

Subs: Enrique, Sagna, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Miyaichi, Agbonlahor, Hernandez

*If you don't agree with my decision to pick Joe Hart, then watch this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdXDP8btZd4
*I know Richards is usually a RB, but he is able to play CB

Best Fantasy League players (value for money)

GK: Michael Vorm
Because of Swansea's great defense, Vorm has kept 12 clean sheets this season.
He also regularly makes more than 3 saves per game.
This means that will give you about 3 points if Swansea concede any goals, or about 7 points if they keep a clean sheet. He also has a fairly low price - 5.3 (At the start of the season his price was only 4.0).

DEF: Benoit Assou-Ekotto
BAE is the best defender to have in you fantasy team, because of two reasons.
One, Tottenham have a relatively good defence and two, Tottenham utilize their full-backs in their attacking plays (Kyle Walker is also on of the best fantasy league defenders).
He has kept 11 clean sheets, made 5 assists and scored 2 goals this season - not something most defenders could say they have done.
At the beginning of the season his price was only 5.0, though it has now gone up to 6.3.

MID: Stephane Sessegnon
Sessegnon didn't start the season to well, only picking up 21 points from his first 8 games, but since then he has got 112 points from 22 games (averaging more than 5 points per game).
Throughout the season he has scored 7 goals, made 9 assists and kept 8 clean sheets.
He has certainly been one of the biggest surprises this year, if you look at how averagely the other Sunderland players have done this.
His price after the first 8 games was down to 6.1 (from 6.5), but has gone up to 7.1 following his good run of performances this season.

ATT: Demba Ba
This was a tough decision and I'm sure many of you will be wondering why RVP didn't make it.
The reason I picked Ba as the best player of the season, was because he has better value for money.
He costs just 7.7, compared to Van Persie who cost 13.5.
Ba has scored 16 goals this season and gets an average of 5 points per game.
RVP has scored 26 goals this season and gets and average of 7 points per game.
As you can see, RVP gets about 2 points more per game, but costs almost twice as much.

Honourable mentions: 
Tim Krul, Ali Al-Habsi
Kyle Walker, Ryan Taylor
Scott Sinclair, Jonathan Walters
Robin Van Persie, Edin Dzeko, Ayegbeni Yakubu, Danny Graham

Who do you want to win the title?

To put it quite simply, these are your options.

Do you want a team who plays great football, has little history and has just bought their talent to win the title.

Or do you want a team who plays boring football, has lots of history and often gets a little help from referees to win the league.

In the beginning of the season, I wanted the City to win the title, just so that United would get 'knocked off their f***ing perch' (the words of Sir Alex when asked about Liverpool in 2002).

I just couldn't stand the thought of United, once again, winning the title, because of all those last minute goals they are so famously known for. Imagine if, for once, a team that actually played exciting football could win the league.

As the season went on however, my views began to change. After all problems in the City camp, such as Tevez's fallout with Mancini, all of Balotelli's problem and just the fact that most the players have very little, if any, pride for the club, I thought that City didn't actually deserve to win the title.

At least United have built themselves up throughout more than a decade, compared to City's quick 4 season 'project' (as most the players refer to it as).

I'm not saying that I want United to win it - obviously it would be great if Tottenham could - but I'd rather have United win it than City, cause at least United deserve it.

As you know now, I'm a Spurs fan and I want United to win - but I would like to know who everyone else wants to win.

So if you want to, please leave a comment saying which team you support and which Manchester team you want to win the title.

e.g. (my comment would look like this) 

Tottenham, United

I will analyze all your comments and in about a week's time I will post my findings.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the last few games of the season.

Is wearing 'No.1' a fading tradition for goalkeepers?

Throughout the history of football, goalkeepers have worn the number 1 jersey.

Originally this was because players were given their numbers based on their position.

e.g. The goalkeeper wore 1, the defenders wore 2,3,4 and 5 (assuming there were 4 defenders).

Even after this rule was taken away, goalkeepers still tended to wear the no. 1, just because they saw no reason to change.

But recently, this has changed.

If we look at the top 10 teams in the premier league, Chelsea, Swansea, United and Sunderland are the only teams in which the first choice goalkeepers wear the number 1.

And even for United and Sunderland, you could argue that De Gea and Gordon are not 1st choice (especially Gordon, who has injury problems).

In the other 6 teams, the goalies wear:

13 (Szczesny), 24 (Friedel), 24 (Howard), 25 (Reina), 25 (Hart) and 26 (Krul).

In Szczesny, Friedel and Krul's cases, the no.1 jersey was already taken, but still, if they had wanted to, they could have requested that they take over that number.

But why did Howard, Reina and Hart choose the numbers they did?

...

If you think you know why, please tell me so that I (and everyone else reading this) can know.

Are footballers overpaid?

This is one of the most common debates in the sporting world and, naturally, everybody has different opinions about it. My view is that footballers are not overpaid, and I will tell you why.
In the Premier League, the top earners are Rooney, Torres, Lampard, Gerrard and pretty much all the Man City players. These players earn between £150,000 to £250,000 per week (which is about 10 million pounds per year). In the premier league the average salary is £22,000 per week.
In the Championship (2nd division), the average salary is £4,000/week, which is about £200,000/year (less than Rooney earns in a week).
Then in League 2 (4th division), the average salary is £750/week, which is fairly close the average salary in England.

What I'm trying to get across to you, is that only the best of the best (about the top 1000 players in the world) are payed huge amounts of money. The rest are payed normal salaries and are treated like normal people.
Sure you may say that £250,000 per week is an obscene amount of money and nobody could ever need that much, but that's not the point. The point is that in any profession, the best in the world do earn a huge amount of money. And that is a fact.
If you look at doctors, most of them earn about £300,000 per year, which is more than the Championship players earn - and there are many more doctors than there are footballers in the championship. Then you have the elite doctors, who can earn anywhere between 1 and 5 million pounds per year, which is more than most Premier League players earn. You also get entrepreneurs who, if they become successful can earn hundreds of millions of pounds every year.

But if you want to compare football to a more relative profession, you should compare it acting - since both are entertainment industries.
Leanadro DiCaprio earned $77 million last year, which is about £50 million. This is 5 times more than what Rooney earned last year, so how come nobody complains about him earning so much?
He provided you with about 6 hours of entertainment last year, whereas Rooney provided United fans with about 80 hours of entertainment last year.

Hopefully I've got my point across to you, that in almost any profession, the best of the best are always going to earn obscene amounts of money.
So rather than complaining about how much football players earn, rather just sit back, enjoy watching you team play and appreciate their talent which they are displaying for you.