Available on a Bosman ...

With so many teams feeling the effects of the current economic climate, getting value for money and saving on crazy transfer fees is a must regardless of size, prestige and the transfer pot available. If you look hard enough, there are some absolute bargain out there on the market with some real quality players available on Bosmans.

GoalKeeper: Craig Gordon
At 28 years of age, Gordon is not anywhere near his prime for a keeper and when younger was regarded as one of the best prospects in Europe between the sticks. Injuries have taken their toll on him meaning that last year he was only able to play 15 games for Sunderland and has struggled to get back the No.1  shirt but would make a great pick up for a side willing to take a risk on his injuries.

RightBack: Gianluca Zambrotta
Zambrotta might seem over the hill at 34 but its easy to forget that the likes of Thuram and Cafu played well into their thirties and Zanetti continues to go strong. He might not be able to get up and down the flank as he used, but Gianluca remains a quality full back who could bring some much needed guidance and leadership to any top side in Europe.

CentreBack: Alesandro Nesta
Alesandro Nesta remains one of the best centre backs in the world. In conjunction with Thiago Silva, he has formed a water tight partnership that has led Milan to two consecutive league titles. The likelihood is that Milan will pick up his contract before any suitors come along but if they should not his pin point precise tackle on Messi at the Nou Camp with his wrong foot in the box should be evidence enough that he has still got more than enough to play at the highest level.

CentreBack: Gary Cahill
The likelihood is that Bolton will be forced to sell Cahill during the Winter Transfer Window to avoid him leaving on a free in the Summer but if they dont, there will definitely be a queue as long as your arm froma range of clubs across Europe. Cahill provides stability and certainty as well as the ability to play the ball out from defence; a rarity amongst defenders these days.

LeftBack: Eric Abidal
Considering that Abidal missed four months of last season having a tumour removed from his body, the fact that he was able to lift the Champions League trophy last season was nothing short of amazing.Contract talks at the Nou Camp have stalled but look to be moving on the right path but if available Abidal will be quickly snapped up by one of the big clubs despite his age, given the calm head that he provides at the back.

CentreMidfield: Owen Hargreaves
The season long contract with Man City has given Owen Hargreaves the opportunity to prove his fitness after years of difficulty at Utd. If he can prove his fitness, he'll prove a worthwhile addition for any squad given his ability play the defensive midfield role with precision and quality passing added to boot.

CentreMidfield: Ricardo Montolivio
The likelihood is that the Fiorentina skipper will be snapped up by Milan, the club he has supported as a child, but given that they are also after Ganso and others, if the deal fails to materialise expect all the big clubs in Italy and abroad to come calling. He provides leadership combined a genuine ability to get box to box and chip in with goals after having just made challenges on his own 18 yard line.

CentreMidfield: Daniele De Rossi
DeRossi is without a doubt the best player available for a free and will literally have every club in Europe trying to sign him up. Roma will do everything to try and tie him down to a contract with their developing project under Luis Enrique but if he leaves, he takes with him the soul of the side; a tough tackling central midfielder who drives the side forward and always arises on the big stage.

AttackingMidfield: Enzo Maresca
Maresca seems destined to be one of those players who talent was never quite fulfilled but is still only 31 meaning that there is enough time or him to make an impact, if not at one of the true top sides on the Continent. He has an innate ability to to play just in behind the front line and play through balls of just pure quality and class that just the finest would see.

Striker: Didier Drogba
It would seem unlikely in light of the heavy investment made in Fernando Torres that Chelsea are likely to offer Drogba a new deal. A powerhouse of a forward with the ability to score goals with his head or either foot, Drogba will be snapped quick and by a top side across the Continent.

Striker: Dimitar Berbatov
Last season's top goalscorer in the premiership sees his contract running out at OT. It would appear that he has fallen behind Rooney, Hernande and now Welbeck in the pecking order under Fergie and so might decide to leave to get first team football. He provides skill and guile, a first touch that cannot be better by many and at 31 is still young enough to be attractive to many of the top sides in Europe.

Gordon 

Zambrotta - Nesta - Cahill - Abidal 

Montolivio - Hargreaves - DeRossi 

Maresca

Drogba - Berbatove

UFC on Fox: Why Saturday 12th November 2011 might just be one of the most important nights in all of sports

At 9 pm Eastern Time Zone in the U.S. (about 2 am in the U.K.), Cain Velasquez (9-0), the UFC's Heavyweight Champion will defend his title against Number 1 Contender Junior Dos Santos (13-1). It will be Velasquez's first title defence since winning the title almost 12 months ago from Brock Lesnar (a major shoulder injury has forced him on the side lines for the past year) and Dos Santos's first title opportunity, with an impressive seven straight wins since joining the UFC.

Velasquez v Dos Santos

More than just another fantastic match up from the UFC, that never fails to deliver, it marks a true landmark moment for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts as the title fight will be free on U.S. television on Fox (the equivalent of the BBC in the States) and it marks a true coming out party for the UFC. The UFC recently signed a landmark 7 year deal with Fox which reaches pretty much everyone in the U.S. with the intention of it helping the UFC with their PPV sales which are already fantastic. Fox truly is the home of sports in the U.S. with it having the SuperBowl and World Series, both of which are 1 and 1A as the biggest sporting events in the U.S. It speaks volumes for the potential that Fox believes the UFC has that it staved off competitors to ensure that it acquired the rights to the fight company.

55,000+ at the Rogers Centre

The deal really is huge for the UFC and should put all other sports, I'm looking your way in particular boxing on notice that the UFC is here and ready to take on all comers. The UFC started in 1993 some almost two decades ago in Denver but it was not until Zuffa took over in 2001 that things started to get moving. Since then the sports which was once frowned upon and took place in some of the U.S.'s backwater areas, Dothan, Alabama anyone! in front of some 3,500 is now in regulated in every U.S. State (but New York and that is a matter of time) in front of crowds of tens of thousands UFC 129 in Toronto, Canada sold out the Rogers Centre with 55,000. And there not just stuck in the U.S. either as well as Canada, the company has had sold out shows in the U.K., Abu Dhabi, Australia and Brazil among others and it heading back to Brazil for a 100,000 seater Samba stadium.

In its primitive form, the sport was very much seen as a circus of freaks up against one another. There were no weight classes or rounds or any rules; anything with the exception of the ridiculous, obviously could not grab your opponents balls, was permitted. It was such a freak show, that in UFC1, one competitor turned up with a single boxing glove on; quite what he thought he was gonna do with Im not sure but over time, the sport truly has developed into an all conquering one. Now you have to be an athlete with skills in all departments from boxing to wrestling to muay thai to jiu-jitsu just to be competitive let alone successful. Sportsmen are deciding that the UFC is a viable option rather than playing American Football or Soccer; something that would never have been even considered years ago.

The UFC is all about PPV numbers and they are on the rise. In the past 2 years, the company has had 6 PPVs selling in excess of a million buys in comparison with 5 from boxing. Just as important however is that the UFC what boxing appears to be failing to do; creating new stars. Boxing has failed to create new stars with the likes of Bernard Hopkins still being one of the biggest draws around at his age but the UFC is constantly creating new and fresh stars; even with the likes of Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture retiring, nothing has been lost as Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez have stepped forward.

What the UFC and its President Dana White have been able to achieve given their limited in exposure on SpikeTV in comparison to Fox about half, has been nothing short of phenomenal but on Saturday 12th November 2011 the UFC 's two premier heavyweights are going to step into the Octagon to find out who the badest man on the planet truly is. But the significance of the fight beyond just these two men truly cannot be overstated.

A sport that has developed from humble mocked roots, is on the verge of exploding before out very eyes and is putting the others on notice. Millions across the World will be able to see the stars of the UFC for what they really are real athletes as good as any other in other field. All other sports should be put on notice, the UFC is coming for you.

Juventus: The Turin Giant's Resurgence

A quarter of the way through the Serie A season, Juventus sit on top of the league ahead of both Milanese clubs,  Napoli and big spending Roma. For the first time since returning to the top flight and having to sell all of their top talent in a fire sale (including Ibrahimovic, Emerson, Thuram and Cannavaro among others), the Turin giants are legitimate title contenders. Unbeaten thus far in their 9 games the side have taken on Milan and Inter already alongside Parma and Palermo with Napoli awaiting them this Sunday night.

Conte: The man at the helm

The side's resurgence has been down to a number of factors for one Antonio Conte; the manager. A surprise and much questioned choice (given that the same policy had failed to massively when Ciro Ferrara was appointed), Conte has brought a renewed sense of steal that the club has failed to possess since its return to the big time. There has been a sense of continuous apologising at the club with a fear that any on field aggression would not be taken kindly.

The recently opened Juventus Stadium has also been a hugely important factor in the side's success. The club decided some years ago that it needed to downsize, the Delle Alpi was simply too big at 70,000 and the playing surface too far from the fans given the massive running track built around it. The new Stadium while only 40,000 in capacity has already created a more imposing atmosphere than the Delle Alpi ever did, with the fans genuinly now able to play the so-called 12th man.

Matri: Juve's star man up front

Finally, quality signings have made a huge difference. Stephen Leicteiner has provided the side with a genuinly top draw right back for the first time in 6 years when Zambrotta was sold to Barcelona as part of the Calcopoli Scandal. Arturo Vidal and Allesandro Pirlo provide a quality central midfield partnership with skill, guile, creativity and power that the likes of Tiago, Sissoko et al. never truly could. Finally up front Alesandro Matri up front is a killer. A forward of genuine quality already top goalscorer in Serie A as well as chalking up the assists.

Whether Juventus can stay the course and stay top of the table in May is going to have to be seen but there is little doubt that the Turin giants are back in the top echelon of Italian football where they deserve to be.

The Champions League 2011/12 - Group Stage Preview

With this season's Champions League about to kick off, I thought I would have a look at the competition, how I think the groups will end up and who will be the surprise packages. 

Sergio Kun Aguero

Group A

This season's 'Group of Death' sees Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City and Napoli competing for 2 spots into the knock outs. All four sides are good teams possessing strong attack lines in a little shaky at the back. Villarreal lost Cazorla in the summer but the Rossi and Nilmar form a strong front pairing. Napoli's front three of Hamsik, Cavani and Levezzi are as good a three as any other in the competition and at times unplayable. Manchester in Silva, Aguero, Nasri and Dzeko possess strong talent going forward with a Kompany to lead the back line. Bayern look the strongest in the Group buying 4 new additions to their back 5; Naeuer, Rafinha, Boateng and Badstuber. 

This is certainly the toughest of the Groups but Bayern should finish top. A strong defensive unit combined with Muller, Schweinsteiger and Robben up front should be enough to edge out Manchester City in 2nd. Napoli should have just enough to see themselves finish 3rd ahead of the Spaniards. 

Group B 

When the Groups were drawn, Inter would have been very happy to be drawn with CSKA Moscow, Lille and Trabonspor but their own deficiencies and the CSKA and Lille being underestimated could see Inter in trouble. The Milanese are struggling to adopt the new 3-4-3 formation, with Zanetti and Sneijder not quite able to fit into Gasperini's plans. In Akinfeev, CSKA have one of the best goalkeepers in Europe as well as artificial pitch that will be a pain to get accustomed to. Lille's two biggest summer deals were hanging onto star players Sow (striker) and Hazard (midfield) who led them to the domestic title last season and will likely cause the others in the Group many problems. Trabzonspor, who took Fenerbache's place in the competition will in all honesty struggle to not finish bottom of the Group. 

Inter Milan's pedigree and knowledge of how to manage the group stages should see them qualify just ahead of the others with it really being a toss up between the Russians and French to see who gets the other spot. The fact that CSKA have experienced European football for the past few years as well as their artificial pitch might just be enough to see them get the sport ahead of Lille but dont be shocked if its the other way round. 

Group C

Wayne Rooney 

When the draw was made, Manchester Utd could not have been happier. Benfica while good are not the force they used to be even last season; losing Coentrao was a huge blow. Basel still carried by the veteran Frei do have some good talent coming through like Shaquiri, well known to England fans and Romanian side Otelul Gelati are in the competition for the first time. 

This is one of the those Groups where you would expect the teams to finish as they are ranked; Utd will expect to win the Group with maximum points with Benfica getting the other last 16 spot and Basel falling into the Europa League. 

Group D

Real Madrid will go up against Lyon, Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb. The additions of Sahin and Coentrao amongst others have made Madrid more pragmatic if less enjoyable to watch (Pedro Leon and Canales leaving the club) as they try and go a step further than last season. Lyon are very much the same as last year and will look to Lope, Gourcuff and Bastos to guide them into the knock-outs for yet another season. Last season's Dutch champions Ajax have a mix of youth, van der Wiel (defender) and Eriksen (midfielder) and experience, Ooijer (defender) but the loss of world class goalkeeper Stekelenberg to Roma over the summer was a massive blow. Dinamo have a mix of home grown Croats and South Americans and will be led by former Liverpool defender Igor Biscan. 

Madrid will expect to qualify from the Group first and do so comfortably with Lyon following them into the next round. The French side should have enough to stave off Ajax who with the exception of Eriksen lack any dynamic talent going forward. 

Group E

Group E pits Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen and Genk up against one another. Chelsea have added Villas-Boas to try and lead them to their first European title alongside new signings Mata and Mereiles. Valencia have lost that same player, Mata to Chelsea, but the additions of Canales and Parejo to free scoring striker Soldado should see them do well nonetheless. Leverkusen lost star man and midfield engine Vidal to Juventus over the summer but will look to the combination of Renato Augusto and Kiebling to try and fire them into the knock-outs. Belgian champions Genk will look to 23 year old captain and midfield enforcer Hubert to progress but in truth will struggle to not finish bottom of the Group.

Chelsea should have enough to finish top of the Group, with Valencia taking the second spot available. Soldado will be difficult to stop and the loss of Vidal over the summer will prove to be a massive loss to the Germans. 

Mario Gotze

Group F

One of the most interesting and even Groups sees Arsenal take on Marseille, Olympiacos and Borussia Dortmund. Olympiacos will be tough particularly at home but the lack of real quality will see them struggle and finish bottom of the Group. The losses of Cesc and Nasri will have set Arsenal back greatly but Mertesacker is a massive addition to a sometimes fraut backline. Marseille have not bought much over the summer but keeping the likes of Valbuena, Ayew and Diawara has been huge for last seasons French champions. Dortmund, last year's surprise German league winners have a young and hugely talented side. Gotze and Kagawa will terrorise defences in an effort to supply star forward Barrios to put the goals away. 

Three sides will be competing for the two places and in truth its very much pick two out of three. I expect Dortmund to top the Group with the others unable to cope with the pace of their game. Expect Arsenal just to take the 2nd spot ahead of Marseille but if the positions are reversed, it will be anything but a shock. 

Group G

Porto, Shakhtar, Zenit St. Petersburg and APOEL compete in Group G. Porto are severely hampered by the losses of manager Villas-Boas to Chelsea and goal scoring beast Falcoa to Athletico Madrid but managed to hang on to Hulk up front. Shakhtar possess a contingent of Brazilians, Fernandinho, Jadson and Willian who will pose all of the sides in the Group no end of problems with their quick and slick style. Zenit under Advocat with rely heavily on defensive stalwart Bruno Alves and fellow Portuguese national team member Danny for the goals. APOEL will struggle. 

Shakhar should finish top of the Group. Their quick and accurate game play should be too much for the others to handle. Porto will finish just ahead of Zenit who will have to fall away to the Europa League but would be worth a punt of winning the competition come May. 

Group H

Lionel Messi

The reigning European Champions, Barcelona, are up against AC Milan, Bulgaria's BATE Borisov and Czech Champions Vitoria. Barcelona have added Cesc and Sanchez to add depth to their squad and allow more flexibility and rotation to occur. Milan have made some astute signings getting Mexes (defender Roma) and Taiwo (defender Marseille) for free and Aquilani (Liverpool) on loan. Bate will rely on Brazilian striker Alex Portfirio for goals while Vitoria possessing a side made entirely of home grown players will be tough. 

Of all the Groups this appears to be the easiest to predict with Barcelona and Milan simply being too strong leaving BATE and Vitoria to fight it out for the Europa League place. 

Bizarre Sporting Injuries

This time last year Michael Jordan threw his back out playing a friendly round of golf picking up his tie after a shanked drive so I thought have a look at some of the more bizarre ways in which sports stars have injured themselves.

Paulo Diogo - Football
Little known Paulo Diogo was so excited about scoring for Swiss side Servetter that he jumped the fence near the crowd to celebrate with the fans. Unfortunately for him, his wedding finger got caught on the fence, cutting his  ring finger entirely off. The surgeons could not reattach his finger.

Chris Hanson - American Football
In 2003, the Jacksonville Jaguars coach had a bizarre ways of motivating his players as he kept telling them to 'chop wood' and accordingly installed a large piece of wood with an axe in the locker room. Hanson one day managed to lose balance and swipe deep into his right leg causing him to miss the rest of the season.

Safe hands Canizares

Santiago Canizares - Football
Heading into the 2002 World Cup, Canizares was regarded as one of the finest goalkeepers in the World, competing for the Spanish #1 jersey. Shaving at the side's training camp changed all this as he proceeded to drop a bottle of after shave on his foot, with shards of glass penetrating into his right foot.

Lionel Simmons - Basketball
In the 90s, Simmons was a talented centre for the Sacremento Kings and earning countless awards for a string of good performances. He also loved playing tetris, some much infact that he injured himself while trying to complete the game; getting wrist tendonitis.

Torrance wide awake 

Sam Torrance - Golf
One of the U.K.'s finest golfers, Torrance will go down in sporting history. In 1993 however he withdrew from the Open after he had bruised his chest sleepwalking into a flower pot. He later remarked 'I remember waking up and seeing this thing and I thought someone was in my room. I ran at it and it cracked my sternum'.

Steve Sparkes - Baseball
At a 1994 spring training camp, the pitcher was led astray by motivational speakers. 'They were bending iron bars and ripping phone books in half' he remarked 'Me and a couple of guys were trying to see how the speaker had torn the phone book in two. i got mine started but my shoulder just slipped out'.

Chris Lewis - Cricket
During a tour of the Windies, the former England bowler, had his head shaved by fellow fast bowler Devon Malcolm, whilst asleep. Believing that his dark pigment would protect him from the sun, he spent he day in the field without a hat. He suffered sunstroke and missed two test matches.

Anderson Silva - The greatest athlete you've probably never heard of

'The Spider'

Last Saturday night Anderson Silva defeated Yushin Okami to retain the UFC Middleweight Championship in the 2nd round of 5 with a vicious flurry of strikes. The victory extended Silva's record of successful title defences to 9; a UFC record by some distance.At the same time, the victory increased a general winning streak which dates back some 5 and a half years to 2006. Silva now finds his overall MMA record standing at 31-4 (with 2 of his losses coming as a result of technicalities and submitting the other two times both of which came in his first 10 fights).

Anderson is widely regarded as the Pound - For - Pound best fighter in MMA given this record competing with the likes of Georges St Pierre, Jose Aldo and Jon Jones but this victory now propels Silva into the realm of the greatest mixed martial artist of all time and alongside the likes of Pele, Muhammad Ali and Roger Federer as a one of the greatest sportsman ever.

A record which includes 4 defeats might on the face of it not seem particularly impressive but in the MMA world defeats are not just acceptable but expected. The beauty of MMA is that we get to see many different style competing in the same ring; wrestlers, boxers, jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, muay thai practitioners amongst many others. As a result, styles make fights; a boxer might be able to beat all other boxers but once he comes up against a wrestler, the inability to cope with take downs will be his achilles heel. As a result, mixed martial artists are expected to encounter defeats and to go 14/15-0 is unheard of. Silva's record after his first 10 first is 23-2; simply amazing.

The names that he has beaten amount to a list of who is who of future hall of famers. Guys like Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin. Anderson has even stepped up in weight to light heavyweight and beaten two former UFC champions with ease. The manner in which he has beaten them is equally if not more impressive. Chael Sonnen, a U.S. Olympic wrestler, was forced to submit to a triangle armbar after 4 and a half rounds of dominance. Rich Franklin was destroyed with vicious knees in the clinch and Vitor Belfort was knocked out with a front kick to the chin. Anderon has displayed a full bag of tricks; on the ground, standing up, in the clinch, with his hands, with his feet...pretty much anything.

Roger Federer is widely regarded as the great tennis player ever. What makes so great is the fact that he has been able to make fantastic players (Nadal, Roddick and Agassi) look average. The manner in which he has accumulated all of his grand slam titles puts hi a cut above the rest. The manner of Anderson's victories does the same. In the same way that at times Federer looked like he was playing a different game applies verbatim to Anderson Silva.

He has a larger than life character that seems befitting of Muhammad Ali. The way in which Ali would verbally destroy his opponents both in an out of the ring and then knock them out gave him an aura. Anderson fights with hands down almost begging his opponent to try and do something and then just calmly steps forward and floors them. Such a care free approach renders it easy to draw parallels.

He is a man who has dominated is sport in a  way befitting of Roger Federer, Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan in their primes. He is a man who has made elite world class athletes look like amateurs. He is a man who has done things in the octagon that others simply could not dream of.  Unfortunately he is a man who at the age of 36 may only have another 2 years in him which might not be enough time to see him get the recognition he deserves.

Simply put Anderon Silva is one of the greatest athletes ever.

The Cesc Saga comes to an end ... finally

Cesc Fabregas will tomorrow undergo his medical at the Nou Camp as he puts pen to paper on a five year contract that will see one of the longest running 'will he wont he' sagas come to end. Fabregas, 24, left La Masia at the beginning of the 2003 season seeing opportunities at the Nou Camp limited with the likes of Xavi and Iniesta ahead of him in the queue. At the age of 16, he became the youngest ever first team player for Arsenal, the youngest goalscorer a few months later.

8 years have passed and Fabregas has firmly established himself as one of the best central midfielders in the World. Last season he finished 2nd behind Florent Malouda (Chelsea, 117 from 2810 mins) in the number of chances created in Premier League games with 72 from 1887 mins, ahead of the likes of Ryan Giggs, Nani and Raphael Van Der Vaart. In the last 5 season he comes 1st with 486 chances ahead of Xavi (455), Lampard (452) and Gerrard (396). It is easy to see why his ability to assist the strikers, alongside  his goals and leaderships skills have made him so sought after.

For the past 4 seasons the Catalans have tried to bring Fabregas back to the Nou Camp but proceedings really picked up last season with Barce encouraging the player to force the move through. Arsenal stood firm on their want to hold onto him despite being offered £40 million. Fabregas decided against forcing the move seeking assurances from Arsene Wenger that the squad would be strengthened to challenge for the domestic crown. It seems that this Summer however Fabregas had had enough and wanted out wanting to return home and play alongside some of his best friends; Gerard Pique and Victor Valdes in particular.

The real shift this season has been the increased role of Pep Guardiola in proceedings. As a player Guardiola was very much the prototype of the modern midfielder; technically gifted, balanced and an immaculate passer of the ball. He was at the heart of Johan Cruyff's side and as a youngster Fabregas idolised him. Some have suggested that Fabregas will become nothing more than the World's most expensive sub waiting behind Xavi and Iniesta for his chance, but this is simply wrong. The Barce squad last season, inspite doing the double was stretched with no more than 15 players playing the entire season. He'll play in rotation with the other two, allowing everyone time to recover and giving Guardiola options.

In 2001, when Fabregas was going through the pain of his parents' divorce, Guardiola signed his number four shirt and handed it to Cesc and on it it said 'one day you will be the number four of Barcelona' and it appears that that day has finally arrived.