Welcome to the July 31, 2006 edition of the Carnival of Football. This is the very 1st edition of this blog carnival! 

The Carnival of Football was started to spotlight the best blogs and bloggers in Football. The initial response has been good and cheers to all of the blogs that submitted posts this week. We are looking for Football Blogs to host future editions of the Carnival of Football. At present we will host the carnival for a few weeks or until we have a number of Blogs that would like to take this on.  The deadline to submit posts each week is 3pm on Sunday, so please submit before then.

Lets get on with the 1st Carnival of Football here are the 9 posts submitted by the football bloggers of today. Well it is pre-season for most leagues, so the majority of the posts are football transfer talk.

Our Pick of the Week

It was a tough call, but Blogfc scored the winner with their post on the difference between Damian Duff and Ashley Cole. There is so much BS in football, it’s great to see a player that wants to play and that money isn’t the sole purpose in life.

The following posts are presented in no particular order of merit.

World Cup 2006

After the world cup Mike Baptiste of On the Pitch wants to help design the Dave O’Brien training program. He is a baseball commentator in the states, who was chosen for the World Cup by ESPN, bad choice guys over 5000+ fans have signed a petition to get him kicked out.

English Premiership

Ahmed over at Soccerlens reported that Manchester United are 2 Steps Away From “Totally ……”. Where do Manchester United stand in the transfer market this summer. Selling their best striker of the past five years and buying a talented midfielder for twice his value. United are, quite literally, two steps away from the edge.”

“Warning – this post may contain offensive language. Read at your own risk.”

The Gaffer at epl notes the Premiership countdown 37 days to go and looks at the impact of the dreaded 4-5-1 formation that was so prevalent during the World Cup, and wonders how it’ll affect the English Premiership this upcoming season.

Anfieldred discuss the comments of new signing Craig Bellamy, who believes they can challenge Chelsea this year.

Matt Warnes from eatfootball writes a great article on Wenger’s A team (great picture) and the new Emirates Stadium walk round.

Championship

Aff at Joys and Sorrows starts the debate of the Birmingham City first eleven, 41 comments later I think many over there have an opinion on this!

La Liga

Footyblog reports on Ruud van Nistelrooy’s move to Real Madrid.
 

Scottish Premier League + Bits 

Soccershout squeezed a podcast in at the last minute of carnival time in which they deny putting in a bid for Villa, discuss the two big Scottish teams (and Rangers), and conclude that those teams who came up this year Reading, Sheff Utd and Watford shall be getting relegated by the end of this season.

To have a post considered for a future edition of the footy carnival, please remember that you have to pick your best post and submit it! The host is not responsible for “finding” the best posts on the Web, just reviewing the ones that are submitted.

We hope you join us in continuing to read and contribute to the carnival!  For information about how to participate in next week’s carnival, please see the Carnival of Football.

Damian Duff was unveiled today as a Newcastle player, ending weeks of speculation. The player suggested that he followed his heart when choosing which club to join, which led to him snubbing both Liverpool and Tottenham. However the strength of the midfield in both of those clubs could also have been a factor, for Duff it would have been a case of jumping from the frying pan in to the fire.

Duff still has the joy of European football to look forward to, however it won’t be Champions League or even the UEFA Cup both of which he could have played with Liverpool and Tottenham, instead the Republic of Ireland international will play in the Intertoto Cup.

Welcome all to the Carnival of Football/Soccer! This carnival was started by a a funny old game on July 18th, 2006 to bring all the football blogging community together to share commentary, information, ideas and news on the industry. This carnival is open to everyone in the football industry and we mean everyone! Friends of ours in other parts of the world may call the good old game of Football, “Soccer”. So that we all know which game this Blog is about, it is the round ball, not any other shaped ball. Sorry to any American football bloggers a carnival for that can be found here.

Carnival of Football/Soccer FAQ

Here are some general FAQs to explain the ins and outs of carnivals:

General:

Q. What is a blog carnival?
A. A weekly summary of the best blogging posts on a given subject that appeared in someone’s blog during the previous week.  A different Blog hosts the carnival each week. Read more about how carnivals work.

Q. Are there carnivals for other topics?
A. Yes. There are carnivals for general topics, niche topics and strange topics. See all sports topics here.

Q. When does a new Carnival of Football/Soccer post come out?
A. Every Monday by 3 P.M. (GMT) by that week’s host.

Q. Why would I be interested in the Carnival of Football/Soccer?
A. To stay up-to-date with the ever changing world of football; to see what’s being blogged about and discussed in the football community; to have your say on anything going on in the industry; to discover new bloggers; to network; to let everyone know about what your local team is up to!

Q. How are each week’s top posts picked?
A. Each week, the host will select the Blog posts they feel are most interesting and worthy to appear.  Please make sure your post is not 2 lines long with little content, as it is unlikely to be picked by the host.

Q. How is each week’s “Pick of the Week” entry determined?
A. To add some further fun to the carnival, a “Pick of the Week” will be named each week by the host Blog. It is entirely up to that week’s host to make that decision. Unique posts always stand out!

Submitting posts:

Q. How/where do I submit a post for review and possible addition to the carnival?
A. You can submit to any one of these addresses:

Blog Carnival Submission
Conservativecat Submission

Or, e-mail us your entry and please include the following: 

-> Article URL (permalink)
-> Article title
-> Author name
-> E-mail address
-> Blog URL
-> Brief summary of the post

Q. What are the requirements for submitting?
A. Ideally, anything that is relevant to football/soccer can be submitted. It should be original content and has to be a recent post. Don’t submit a post that is just be a compilation of someone else’s quotes or thoughts – the majority of it should be original content created by the author.  Posts on any team, cup, league, player in the world are welcome.

Q. How recent does the post need to be?
A. Less than two weeks old

Q. What topics are allowed?
A. Anything related to the football/soccer industry.

Q. What is the deadline for submitting?
A. Sunday afternoon, 3 P.M. (GMT).  If you are late, it is up to the host’s discretion to review your article for submission.

Q. Will any post that is submitted be included in the carnival?
A. No. Only the Top 10-20 posts should be listed.  But, the host can include additional posts if he/she feels they are really well done and deserve to be included.

Q. May I submit more than one entry per week?
A. No, please only submit one entry.

Q. What if my blog has multiple authors and contributors? Can we all pick our best entry and each of us submit one?
A. No, only one post from each blog address should be submitted per week.

Hosting:

Q. Who can host the carnival?
A. Anyone that regularly submits posts to the carnival can become a host. The key words here are “regularly submits posts,” since it wouldn’t be fair for blogs that don’t participate regularly to host the carnival if they are not sharing in doing the work by writing posts, submitting, and being active in the carnival.

Q. I want to host a future Carnival of Football/Soccer — how do I do that?
A. E-mail us to get on the list and then start submitting posts to the carnival on a frequent basis. Remember, only frequent contributors to the carnival can host a carnival.

Q. What is involved in hosting a carnival?
A. You will need to set aside about 2-3 hours to read and pick the best posts that were submitted to you. Then you create a post on your blog, summarizing and linking to the top 10-20 posts. Publish your carnival post by 3 P.M. (GMT) Monday and then sit back and watch the traffic come to your site. Please make sure you can commit to this!

Q. What is the schedule of who hosts the carnival?
A. You can check the schedule here on the Carnival of Football/Soccer site under “Carnival Hosts” in the right-hand navigation to see who hosted in the past as well as who is coming up.

Guidelines for Hosting the Carnival

In order to sign up to host the carnival, all that is asked of you is to regularly submit posts to the carnival.  For example, if you are not actively writing about football and producing original content to submit, you’re not considered a regular participant and don’t deserve all the goodness that comes with hosting the carnival. Sorry, but it’s like any team you play on — you have to show up for practices in order to play.  If you do actively participate and want to host, e-mail us to get on the list.  Please include dates for any weeks that you know you cannot host (e.g., going on vacation, out of town, too much work, left your blog at the pitch, etc…), because we’d prefer to give that week to someone else.

Tottenham continue to pose a threat to the big boys as they refuse to sell to one and are trying to prise a jewel from another. It is hard to believe that in just over a season in charge the new Tottenham backroom have managed to get the club back into European football by virtue of the league, and built a formidable squad that has many of the bigger clubs green with envy. A squad they seem to want to build on using the funds provided from new sponsors PUMA & MANSION There have been many stories this summer about most of the Spurs first team squad being linked with moves away top sides around the premiership and Europe. Carrick and Defoe have been touted for moves to Old Trafford, however as yet no transfers out have actually come to fruition. Transfers in though have not been a problem with Martin Jol adding four players to the squad so far, and many reports that this will soon be five as a move for Republic of Ireland and Chelsea winger comes closer to reality. There have been many rumours of additions to the squad some aging names and some young stars Ayala, Nedved, Cole, Sorin, Downing & Gravesen to name just a few. The most telling factor will be wether the stars of last years squad will make way for new faces, or will the new faces be additions to strengthen the squad.

German internatiomnal Robert Huth is in no mans land following rejection by Middlesbrough after he failed his medical at the Riverside last week. 

Valued at £5 million by the leader of the Abramovich army José Mourinho it looks like it will be difficult for him to find a new home before the start of the season.  Especially with prospective clubs like Bolton looking abroad for deals that provide better value for money, having signed Abdoulaye Meite from Marseille for only £1m, comparing the two Big Sam was quoted in a SkySports interview saying “Robert Huth, for instance, hasn’t really played that much for Chelsea - £5 million” while “What we’ve got here is a player who has been in European football every season with Marseille and at the top of the French league every season”.

Following the breakdown of his transfer from Middlesbrough to Glasgow Celtic, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink didn’t hesitate when offered the opportunity to move back to London.

Hasselbaink is leaving one new era to join another; he must believe that the new dawn at the Valley following the appointment of Iain Dowie is a stronger proposition; than staying at last seasons UEFA cup finalists Middlesbrough who since the defection of Steve McClaren,  to replace Eriksson as England manager, had appointed their captain Gareth Southgate to become manager without any experience. Even with a strong backroom staff he will find himself one of the bookies favourites for the sack, given that McClaren faced a revolt from the fans less than six months ago following a poor run of results.

The long speculated loan deal to take Djibril Cisse to Marseille has been completed. When he recovers from the injury he sustained in a world cup warm up, he will be playing on home soil. He follows Fernando Morientes and Didi Hamann out the door at Anfield.

In a refreshing change the move has not been orchestrated by the player or his agent, indeed Cisse believes he is being forced out by Reds Supremo Rafa Benitez following the arrival of Craig Bellamy from Blackburn Rovers.

Bellamy is not the only new face at Anfield Benitez has signed Gabrielle Paletta from Argentine side Banfield who was unveiled at the same time as Fabio Aurelio who made the switch from Valencia having won a league title with them and Sao Paulo, he will be looking to add a premiership title to his collection.

Zinedine Zidane has spoken out about the circumstances surrounding the dispute he had with Marco Materazzi during the world cup final, from which the red card led to the abrupt end to his glittering career.

In a live interview on French television station Canal+ Zidane said “He then pronounced very tough words, words that hurt me deeply, words about my mother and my sister. At first, I tried not to listen to him but he kept repeating them” he continued “I would rather have taken a punch in the jaw than have heard that.” Zidane had spent a considerable period of his career with Italian giants Juventus who are now embroiled in the match fixing scandal that is casting a shadow over the Italian National team winning the world cup.

Zidane demonstrated the magnitude of his actions and his awareness of the influence the modern game has on the youth of today when he said “I apologise to all the children who watched the match on Sunday. This was not something to do. I want to make it clear because it was watched by two billion people and by millions of kids”.

Eleven years since Eric Cantona launched himself into the Crystal Palace faithful, this spontaneous rash act reminds everyday football fans that despite the huge wages footballers are only human, even the most talented are fallible. Although it appears to be a gallic syndrome to ensure that it is done this spectacularly.

It has been a turbulent few days for German midfielder Didi Hamann. After spending seven years on Merseyside, collecting eight medals. He has moved club twice in less than a month.

He had originally agreed a move to join Sam Allardyce at the Reebok Stadium to play for the trotters next season.  However before the removal vans could make the short journey he had a change of heart.  A change of heart that has earned Bolton £400,000, Hamann has now decided his future is to be at another Lancashire club, he will play his football next season at the Eastfield Stadium in the Blue of Manchester City.
 

It took extra time and penalties but Cannavaro was able to lift the World Cup in Berlin, which will have made their kit providers German sportswear giant PUMA very happy.  The Italians equalised after 19 minutes through former Evertonian Materazzi, after Zinedine Zidane put Les Blues in front with a penalty worthy of a world cup final.

There was nothing between the sides until the second half of extra time when Zidane ended his professional career when his disagreement with the Italian goalscorer resulted in the Frenchman landing an angry head butt in the chest of Materazzi. After a lot of discussion with his officials the Argentine referee gave him a straight red card.

The destiny of the golden globe trophy would be decided by penalties. David Trezeguet would be the villain missing the second French penalty trying to replicate Zidane’s earlier effort. Fabio Grosso scored the Azzurri’s fifth penalty crowning them World Champions.