Sold (ado) – Spurs’ Spanish signing is confirmed

SPANISH international striker Roberto Soldado is heading to White Hart Lane, a director at his current club Valencia has confirmed.
In a tweet, Antonio Sese has today confirmed that the striker, who has scored 59 goals in 101 games for Spanish side Valencia, has been secured by Tottenham.
The Premier League side have seen off rivals for his signature including Liverpool by matching his 30 million Euro buyout clause – an offer cash-strapped Valencia couldn’t refuse.
The news will surely be welcomed by Spurs fans, who have been waiting about five years for a truly world class striker to join the club which Soldado could well be – and next season should be an exciting one for the Lilywhites, if they can only hang on to star man Gareth Bale this summer as well…

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Footballers “deserve huge salaries”

PREMIER League footballers deserve their £100,000-a-week salaries in the same way investment bankers are entitled to their large pay packets, a member of the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Committee said today.
Tory peer Lord Bates, who sits on the committee in charge of ensuring there is a lasting sporting legacy to last year’s Olympic Games, said it was a British trait to “sneer slightly” at the commercial success of a cultural phenomenon like the Premier League.
He said footballers deserved their large weekly pay-packets as the “deployed their sublime skill” in the same way that investment bankers or hedge fund managers earned their high salaries.
Speaking during a debate in the House of Lords on the “international economic and cultural contribution” of the Premier League, the former Paymaster General said footballers’ salaries “simply reflected” the success of the game’s commercial success.
He said: “Part of what makes us British is that we sneer slightly at commercial success – culture can’t really be culture if it’s popular too, and we slightly look down our noses at some players who have got no qualifications, earning £100,000-a-week.
“The salaries simply reflect the business in which they deploy their sublime skills. In that they are no different to any other enterprise, investment banker, or hedge fund supremo, except of course in the level of joy that they give to the public as they ply their trade.”

Goaltastic Fantasy Football league now open

WHAT’S the most exciting day of the football season?
First day of fixtures? FA Cup final day? The Christmas and New Years log jam? The last day of the season? Transfer deadline day? January Transfer deadline day?
None of the above – it’s the day that the Premier League Fantasy Football game opens!
And that momentous day has now arrived, affording wannabe Wengers and armchair Alan Pardews lists and lists of players to analyse, choose and then try and mostly fail to shoehorn into a half-decent squad.
As always, Goaltastic has launched a league with a code for 2013/14 of 148075-41877
There’s a lot of teams already lined up to take part, but plenty of room for a few more.
To take part, sign up at fantasy.premierleague.com for free then use the league code above to join, and regular updates will be posted here throughout the season – with one team’s manager joining the hall of fame on the right of this site next May.

Juventus sign Miss Italia 2004

ITALIAN giants Juventus have pulled off quite a signing – they’ve managed to arrange for Miss Italia 2004, Christina Chiabotto, to put pen to paper.
Sadly the Italian beauty queen, a long-standing Juve fan, won’t be lining up alongside the likes of Carlos Tevez and Andrea Pirlo for the Turin Serie A side next season however – she’s been brought in to front the club’s newly-launched JTV channel.

Rooney challenged to outgun Law and Charlton

DENIS Law and Sir Bobby Charlton could help keep Wayne Rooney at Manchester United.
Since May, rumours have been rife that the Red Devils’ England international is looking to leave the club – with Arsenal, Barcelona and Paris St Germain among names linked with the striker.
But new Manchester United boss has enlisted the help of the club’s greats to give Wayne Rooney the motivation to remain at Old Trafford.
David Moyes said: “It is interesting to see Wayne is only 50 goals behind Sir Bobby Charlton and 40 behind Denis Law.
“We are looking to see how we get Wayne Rooney to get those goals which are going to challenge the likes of Bobby Charlton and Denis Law. I am more than happy to work with him to get success.”
Charlton remains United’s most prolific goalscorer, with 249. Law is second on the list with 237. Rooney ended last season with 197, behind only Jack Rowley in addition to the pair Moyes wants the Croxteth-born player to catch.
He added: “When I went down to the training ground, I looked at the pictures of the legends that have played for this club – I could see George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton, Roy Keane and I thought Wayne isn’t too far away from that.”