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It looks as if Eduardo’s Arsenal career is coming to an end this summer after Arsene Wenger told the striker that he is not in the first-team plans. Although it may appear to be a sad decision, is it in fact a correct one by the Arsenal boss?

The Croatian international has really struggled to find his form since suffering his horrific leg break two season ago, which could have ended the strikers career, and it now appears that Wenger has no choice but to sell him during the summer window.

Last season, Eduardo managed to accumulate a total of 32 appearances for the Gunners in which he found the net 5 times, a disappointing return for a player of his goal scoring ability. The forward has failed to score a goal in his last 12 Arsenal appearances and with the arrival of Marouane Chamakh this season looking to form a partnership with Robin van Persie, Wenger believes Eduardo is better off revitalising his career elsewhere.

It’s a very sad situation for everybody involved at Arsenal especially for Eduardo himself. The Brazilian born hitman arrived at the North London club in 2007 and looked to be a very clinical striker in international and club football. Undoubtedly he was one of the best finishers in the world and looked to be a great acquisition from Wenger. His performances haven’t been the same and when he did play last season he didn’t look comfortable as usual, which is very understandable considering his circumstances he endured.

The Arsenal faithful (or at least a majority of them) will feel that Wenger’s decision is a justified one, but deep down many will feel for the Croat. Conversely, a number of Gooners maybe bewildered at the prospect of Eduardo heading for the exit doors this summer, as they may think that the club have limited options up-front.

The Gunners do look adequately equipped in the forward department for the upcoming season, but some of the fans may think otherwise. If Eduardo was to leave as speculated, then Arsenal would be left with Robin van Persie, Carlos Vela, Nicklas Bendtner, Theo Walcott (he can play as striker), Andrey Arshavin and the Moroccan international Marouane Chamakh in the attacking sector, surely that is enough firepower right?

Eduardo remains a fan favourite, but unfortunately has failed in his attempt to recapture his first season form at Arsenal. So, taking all this into consideration, it does seem to be the correct decision by Wenger to relieve Eduardo of his duties this summer, even though it is a poignant one for many to take.

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Click on image below to see the PORTUGUESE babes at the World Cup

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Pre-season is now in full swing as teams get ready for the 2010/11 Premier League season and hope to get up to speed so they can start with a bang. Chelsea are no different, as the Premier League champions prepare themselves for the defence of their title. Given the strength of Manchester United and Arsenal, the positivity coming out of Liverpool and the money that Manchester City are splashing around, that could be a difficult task. Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti seems pretty relaxed about the situation though, here he is with Director of Football Frank Arnesen keeping an eye on striker Daniel Sturridge amongst others. What are the Chelsea top two thinking?

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Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas has thanked Arsenal for helping make him into a World Cup winner, but his future at the Emirates Stadium continues to look uncertain.

Barcelona target Fabregas was forced to wear the shirt of the Spanish giants while in Madrid celebrating Sunday's World Cup final victory with his international team-mates.

Barca pair Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique ambushed the Arsenal skipper and pulled the shirt of his boyhood club over his head while he was on stage addressing Spanish fans.

Fabregas has already been the subject of one unsuccessful bid from the Catalan club this summer and is reported to have told manager Arsene Wenger of his desire to leave north London after seven seasons.

The 23-year-old looked embarrassed to be the victim of the prank, but his future in England continues to look uncertain despite admitting he owes a debt of gratitude to the Gunners and Wenger.

"This is for the Arsenal players, the Arsenal fans, for the manager and all his staff," said Fabregas.

"I have had lots of texts and Blackberry messages. My phone is full.

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"I had a text message of congratulations from Arsene Wenger. He said I deserve it. I just think this is for everyone at Arsenal who helped me get to where I am now.

"I am really proud to be an Arsenal player."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Over the past few years, the Premier League has become an attractive place to play football, not only joining Spain as one of the top two superpowers of football alongside the Primera Division, but also offering players a greater monetary incentive to move to England than anywhere else. In 2008-09, English top flight clubs spent more than £1.32 billion on salaries – more than Serie A (£930 million), La liga (£800 million) and the Bundesliga (£684 million). That relates to earning on average 65% more in England than Spain, which considering Spain is at the very least on a par with the level of quality of the Premiership, it doesn’t reflect greater value for money.

Players are amply rewarded for their services, hence a great influx of foreign talent at almost every club, and at all ages. However though the wages on offer remains an attractive proposition for foreign players to come here, the high wages being paid already has made trade amongst Premier League clubs more difficult.

On average Premier League side’s spent around 67% of their revenue on wages in 2008-09, an indication of many clubs spending beyond their means in recent years (highlighted by the fact Arsenal spent only 46%). And with players already in possession of lucrative contracts, it requires a substantial investment to buy from English clubs.

It’s pretty clear a number of Man City players are available for purchase (primarily Stephen Ireland, Craig Bellamy, Roque Santa Cruz etc.). Players, that generally over the past few years, if available, would have been snapped up by other Premier League clubs in an instant, but now find themselves stalling at a club where they’re unaware if they will be given any real game time next year. Who no doubt have attracted the interest of other managers, who would happily welcome them into their squad with open arms, if not for the cost.

It’s hard to imagine Ireland and Bellamy wanting to move anywhere they will earn less than the £80,000 plus they are already on. And though, in an ideal world, the lustre of first team football should be more of a priority to players than money, it’s understandable, as for anyone in employment, to grimace at the notion of earning less. So for clubs to buy them they must be willing to at least match what they are already earning.

However following the trouble other clubs such as Portsmouth (whose mistakes could haunt them for years) and West Ham have had to deal with recently, primarily because they had accumulated a wage bill that could not be realistically maintained, clubs have learned a bargain in the Premier League is hard to come across, because you are not just investing in a hefty transfer fee, but also extravagant wages.

Clubs have been more reserved this time round in the transfer window, rather than follow in the footsteps of those in charge of West Ham, who at the time foolishly left themselves in a position where they had the likes of Kieron Dyer, Freddie Ljungberg, Craig Bellamy, Lucas Neill etc. all earning £70,000, more or less. It should have never appeared viable for what is a generally mid-table team to believe they could pay players that much with no financial repercussions, and therefore were forced to take extreme measures to stay afloat.

Even Newcastle made a similar error of judgement, buying big names that were passed their best, like Kluivert and Viduka, but have now adopted a more cautious approach, so far, second time round. They realise what other teams have hopefully begun to realise, that if they continue to overspend like previous years (maybe with the exception of some foreign owned clubs whose financial future is no clearer than a crystal ball), the Premier League could suffer the same plight as Italian football did.

Their own transfer market experienced a huge boom almost a decade ago, following the successful exploits of Italian teams in European competition, particularly in the 1990s, and the knock-on effect of the financial recklessness that ensued is clear to see. Fiorentina, a giant of Italian football at the time, nearly went bankrupt, and Italian teams have suffered to replicate (with the exception of Inter Milan last year) the same success of Spain and England in European football in the last few years. Furthermore, the top clubs in Italy find difficulty in competing financially with English and Spanish clubs when the best players in the world become available, more likely that they would find themselves having to fend off the advances of a Barcelona or Chelsea.

So a relatively quiet transfer market is a good omen, with clubs appearing to realise that tightening their purse strings is more important than appeasing supporter’s desire for signings. That no matter how enthusiastic owners are to see their clubs succeed, a football club must be treated like any other business, and with plenty of examples already showing how it can go wrong, there is no excuse for clubs to fall into the same trap.

Written By Darren Doherty

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With the PL season nearly upon us, let’s see the WAGS that will be keeping the players on their toes. Click on image to VIEW gallery

5. Paul McGrath (Manchester United, Aston Villa)

A brilliant defender who spent seven years each with United and Villa and played in three international tournaments for Republic of Ireland. His only honour for United was an FA Cup in 1985, in which he was voted Man of the Match. As his alcoholism grew worse, his performances began to suffer and in 1989 was offered a retirement package and a testimonial from United. He refused and signed for Aston Villa. A number of knee injuries and an addiction to booze meant McGrath never really cemented his place as one of English footballs top defenders.

4. Paul Merson (Arsenal, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Portsmouth)

A talented midfielder who never really achieved as much as he could have. Merson’s drink and drug problem caused his first marriage to fall apart as he struggled to overcome his battle with booze. Despite claiming to now be clean he was spotted coming out of Boujis nightclub in South Kensington in 2006 completely smashed.

3. Tony Adams (Arsenal)

Another excellent defender who was part of George Grahams ‘famous four’ along with Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon. Adams’ alcohol addiction saw him play several games hung-over, regularly get into fights in nightclubs and let off a number of fire extinguishers in a Pizza Hut with team-mate Ray Parlour. On a positive note Adams overcame his drink problem and founded the Sporting Chance Clinic, a charitable foundation that provided treatment for sports stars suffering from drink, drug or gambling problems.

2. Paul Gascoigne (Newcastle, Tottenham, Lazio, Rangers)

Without doubt the most gifted English midfielder of his generation, Gazza is now a sorry shadow of himself. Gazza’s drink troubles really escalated after he retired from football in 2004. He loved football so much that when he couldn’t play professionally anymore it “ripped his heart out”. Drinking such vast amounts of booze, as well as doing his fare share of drugs, has fried Gascoigne’s brain. In February 2008 he was sectioned under the mental health act. In channel 4 documentary Surviving Gazza he claimed to have close contact with the Royal Family, the Prime Minister, the US President and the Pope. Only weeks ago he turned up at the police stand of with Britain’s most wanted man Raoul Moat. Gazza claimed to be close friends with Moat and had brought him a can of lager, a chicken and a fishing rod. If it wasn’t so sad he’d be hilarious.

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1 . George Best (Manchester United, Fulham, Hibernian)

Only ever going to be one winner really, despite Gazza’s heroic efforts. Arguably the greatest footballer to ever live and the first sporting sex symbol. Best suffered with alcoholism most of his adult life. He had it all, playing football for Manchester United, money, fame and women throwing themselves at him. Too much too young most would say. His drink problem saw him spend Christmas of 1984 behind bars for drunk driving and assaulting a police officer. In 1990 he appeared on Terry Wogan’s chat show clearly pissed, slurring his words and swearing. In August 2002 Best had a successful liver transplant, controversially paid for by the NHS. A year later he was spotted drinking again. His continued drinking saw him admitted to intensive care in October 2005. Two weeks later, at Best’s request, the News of the World tabloid published a picture of the dying star in his hospital bed with the message: “Don’t die like me.” Despite his condition improving for a short while, George Best died on 25th November 2005, aged 59. Pele once said: “George Best was the greatest player in the world.” Best’s problem was that enjoyed drinking as much as he enjoyed football.

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Birmingham City midfielder Barry Ferguson has hinted that he has not ruled out the possibility of returning to international action in the future.

The 32-year-old former Scotland captain was banned by the Scottish Football Association for taking part in a late-night drinking session and making gestures to the media while sitting at Hampden as a substitute against Iceland.

However, since leaving Rangers for St Andrew's, Ferguson has revived his career and admits it is difficult not being part of the Scotland squad as they continue their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

"You can never say never in football. I don't have a fear of going out and being booed," he said."It was the way it ended. I thought it was childish, to be told you will not represent your country again by fax.

"I held my hands up. I was stupid. People can have a go and say I was having a go at the fans. That was nonsense. I made a stupid decision in the game, doing what I did in front of the media. I let my family and the nation down.

"I'd have accepted the decision if someone had picked up the phone and said, 'You're finished with Scotland because of your antics at the game'.

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"But to captain Scotland is the pinnacle of your career, is it not?

"My break from internationals gives me more time to spend time with the family. But to be asked back, it does play on your mind. It's not an easy decision to make."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

The debate about the implementation of technology in football reached a zenith during the World Cup and its qualifying environs, with notable exhibits for the prosecution of traditional officiating including; Thierry Henry’s handball and Frank Lampard’s ‘goal’. Yet FIFA had already taken several retrograde steps away from the use of technology a year prior to the World Cup, with its decision to use extra officials during the 2009/10 Europa League. The acknowledgment, after these now notorious World Cup moments, that something had to be done, was met with the action that there would be ‘discussions’ about technology at the next FIFA conference, and that the extra officials would now be used in the Champions League, for the 2010/11 campaign, surely an enormous acknowledgment of the successful debut of such officials.

But hold on a second, because this does not correlate. First, the saturating of the pitch with officials is unquestionably a move against technology, and second, define ‘successful’. I’ll start with the first point. It is true that both the use of technology and the implementation of extra officials are working toward the same goal; the desire to eliminate incorrect decisions. However, this is where the similarities cease. The whole reason for the call for technology is to eradicate, or at least minimise, human error, but through placing more officials on the pitch you are attempting to do this through more human error. Yes, the more ‘official’ eyes on the game, the higher the probability the correct decision will be made, but this can, as may well be deduced by the Spurs vs. Twente match, lead to a case of ‘too many cooks’. The extra officials merely seem to be giving lip-service to those who are campaigning for technology. When propositioned about the use of technology in football, those at FIFA earnestly point toward the extra officials, as if this is a step in the technological direction. It is not. It is a reinforcement of the notion that traditional officials are the best way to officiate the modern game.

Now I am not in the school of thought that modern referees are incompetent idiots and need more training. The reason there are more noticeable mistakes made by officials in the modern game is that they are precisely that, more noticeable. As an audience we are able to scrutinise every decision the referee makes through any number of angles and at speeds far slower than the referees are themselves, so, if we can scrutinise and criticise through technology, why can’t the referees use the same devices to maximise their performance? Humans make mistakes, and always have, and the most conspicuous change in the game of football is the way the viewer interacts with the game, therefore, referees haven’t changed, the audience has. This places the officials in the unfair and untenable position of having far less of a chance to get a decision right than a member of the audience thousands of miles away, and this cannot be the case.

Placing more officials on the pitch merely means there is a larger surface area of officialdom to apportion blame to. Take Spurs vs. Twente; the third penalty was awarded by the extra official behind the goal who had just about the worst view of the incident in the entire ground, yet awarded the penalty. The referee, unwilling to disagree with his colleague, agrees with him, turning what would have been a minor debate about the nuances of ‘ball-to-hand’ into a huge debate about ‘changing the match’. But a bigger question must be, ‘why was the official there in the first place?!’ These extra officials received a muted response, to be kind, during their inaugural 2009/10 Europa League campaign and were inconspicuous in their absence for much of the tournament, which, given the old adage of referees being better when you don’t realise they’re there, is a good thing, except, these officials are in a position where they are meant to be seen, dealing with the most contentious elements of a football game; goals, penalties and, on occasion, red cards.

So, if you’re looking for technology to improve the game you love so much… don’t hold your breath!

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Written By James Atkinson

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez hailed his maturing side after they overcame ten-man Sunderland 2-0 at the DW Stadium.

Goals from Jordi Gomez and Hugo Rodallega earned the improving Latics a second league victory of the season.

Wolves lost captain Karl Henry to a red card after a rash 11th-minute challenge on Gomez and Martinez was happy with the patience his players showed.

Earlier in the season they failed to overcome ten-man Sunderland in a 1-1 home draw.

"I was extremely proud of the players, how they found the solutions, how they learned from the last experience against Sunderland and we created many chances," said Martinez.

"The pleasing aspect was we limited Wolves to nothing. The maturity and responsibility of the players in a no-win situation was very, very good.

"It needed a bit of magic to open the scoring but you could see after the first goal it was going to be a lot easier."

Meanwhile, Martinez pulled no punches when he described Henry's X-rated tackle on Gomez as the worst he had seen during his time in management.

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"It wasn't just the first contact. Karl catches Jordi with his knee, he comes with real force and you fear the worst," he explained.

"I felt it was a broken leg. He was a very fortunate man."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

The only downside to an otherwise wonderful 4-0 Arsenal victory over Newcastle in Wednesday’s Carling Cup clash was that about 30 minutes into the game Arsenal fans had to watch their Left Back Kieran Gibbs hobble off the pitch sporting an injury. It’s been a tough year or so for the young Englishman. On the 24th November 2009, Gibbs broke a metatarsal in his right foot which saw him sidelined for the remainder of the season.

He featured frequently in pre-season this year, putting in a number of performances that led Wenger to announce that he expected Gibbs to make a number of starts over the course of the season. Whilst Clichy’s form withered and waned, Gibbs went from strength to strength and was slowly but surely becoming Wenger’s first choice Left Back.

Unfortunately, disaster struck Gibbs once more as he suffered a suspected break to a metatarsal in his left foot in extra time against Spurs in the Carling Cup. In a small change of fortune it was later discovered that no metatarsal was broken on this occasion and that Gibbs had only suffered severe bruising to his left foot. He made his return only a week later against FK Partisan.

All of which leads us to the ligament damage that Gibbs received against Newcastle. Thankfully the Arsenal website reports that the scan on Gibb’s foot was positive and that his “absence will be relatively short term”. In realistic terms I think we could see Gibbs back in 2-3 weeks time.

But Gibb’s case is a sad one. If not for injuries, it’s possible that he would right now be holding down the Left Back position at one of the biggest clubs in Europe. Thanks to his bad luck, each time he returns from injury he has to prove himself once more and stake another claim for the position.

The consistency of his injuries is a real worry. To develop as a young player you need as much game time as possible, yet in the last year or so, Gibbs has spent far more time on the treatment table than he has the football pitch. You only hope that he’s not another case like Robin van Persie, who has never really had an extended opportunity to show just how great a player he is thanks to a career blighted by injury.

Gibbs doesn’t come across as a frail or brittle player. Perhaps he’s just incredibly unlucky. As an important prospect for both Arsenal and England, there’ll be plenty of people out there hoping that his luck will change soon.

If you’re interested and want to hear more feel free to follow me on Twitter.

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John Terry should return to action at the weekend when Chelsea face Everton, according to boss Carlo Ancelotti.

The England international has been sidelined since suffering from a nerve problem in his leg after the victory against Fulham earlier this month.

It had been feared that Terry could be set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines, but Ancelotti has now said:"I hope John Terry will be back for next week.

"He will start to train on Tuesday and I hope everything is okay.

"Obviously we hope to recover John Terry. He is important to us he is a fantastic player, has personality and it is important we have him back for the next game.

"Alex will have the operation this week. He will go to Brazil for the surgery, maybe on Monday.

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"Frank Lampard we have to wait. He will start to train with us and next week will be an important week for him."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email