Say what you will about Jaime Carragher's fading skills; I certainly have. But at least when Steven Gerrard's unable to play, Carragher steps into the captaincy with confidence. He'll bark orders and boss his team like a captain should, which is why a lot of people ticket him for a future as a manager. Even if Carragher were out, Mascherano (while he's still at Liverpool) would gladly assume the armband. And if not Mascherano, then Reina. Or even Kuyt. Same thing at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge -- both squads are loaded with players who wouldn't hesitate to serve as the emotional backbone of their team. Cesc Fabregas is a great captain, but he was out today. And do you know who Arsene Wenger picked as captain in his place? Manuel Almunia. ALMUNIA. While he might not have been the keeper who flubbed the worst today, he could hardly be described on top of his game. And what does it say about Wenger that he stuck the armband on a player he threw under the bus a month ago? A generous interpretation would be that he was trying to show Almunia that he believed in him. If so, that's a pretty transparent ploy, and as noted, it didn't suddenly transform him into a reliable keeper. The more accurate assessment is that there's really no one on this team who has the look of a leader outside of Fabregas. Maybe Song's that guy, but he was missing too, and certainly hasn't proven his mettle as captain in a big game. Arshavin, Nasri, Vermaelen -- these are fine players, but for Wenger to trust Almunia over them says there isn't a lot of leadership spilling out onto the practice field for the Gunners. This is a young team, but young players can show leadership potential. Just ask Cesc. It's also a rudderless team without their captain, and the mental collapse suffered after N'gog's goal to start the second half provided the proof. After having their way against full-strength Liverpool for 45 minutes, Arsenal looked a shambles for much of the second half despite being up a man or two the entire time. Every player seemed to be looking at every other player in the hopes that one of them would make a difference. If leadership vacuums could stink, I would've smelled that one all the way in Brooklyn. This is a disturbing problem for Arsenal this season. Emotionally fragile teams don't typically compete for championships, nor do teams who rely on one player to provide all of their physical and emotional excellence. Somebody else needs to show they can lead; preferably a few somebodies. This is an even more disturbing problem for the future, though. Barring a change of heart, Fabregas is almost certain to leave after this year. Who will fill his shoes on and off the pitch? Who will wear the armband with pride and instill confidence in his teammates? Who on this team has the look of a future leader? These are troubling, unanswered questions for Arsenal.

Liverpool's run of back luck continued on Sunday. One of the world's best keepers clutched and stabbed at the ball but only succeeded in deflecting it back into his own goal. In the 90th minute. After his side had fought valiantly down to 10 -- and sometimes 9 -- men. Throughout the game, Reina had been a steady presence, deflecting the few shots Arsenal managed to put on target with authority. At the other end, Almunia was busy flopping and flapping at corners and generally looking like the kind of mess you'd expect from a player everyone wants to see replaced. Even his coach. If you asked all soccer fans to place the odds of an Almunia own-goal against one from Reina, I doubt even the most ardent Gooner would've plopped a single dollar/pound/euro against Pepe. But here we are. The unfortunate incident overshadowed a gallant effort in the second half from the Reds. Despite being down a man, they frequently bossed play and succeeded in disrupting Arsenal's rhythm. Kuyt and Mascherano were particularly industrious as they fought and ran from one end of the pitch to the other. And what can you say about the much-maligned David N'gog after his brilliant, forceful goal to start the half? He now has 4 scores in 3 games, a Torres-esque number. And speaking of Torres, he also made a promising appearance that provided hope for a full game from him against Manchester City next week. But the inspired second half also got in on the overshadowing game, masking the debacle of the first half. Joe Cole's tackle was stupid and reckless, but nobody (even the notoriously skeptical Wenger) seemed to think he meant to hurt Koscielny. If anything, his energy and anxiousness got the best of him and turned him into a momentary idiot. Prior to that, he'd played a nearly invisible game, but he was far from alone on that front. Liverpool looked flat and idea-less for most of the first 45 minutes -- there was no semblance of any build-up play, and the team seemed nervous, skeptical, and unfamiliar with each other. Gerrard was also frequently outplayed by little Jackie Wilshere in midfield, and all Liverpool could think to do in response was send players on runs from an offside position (which N'gog led valiantly, being called 3 times in the first 20 minutes). It was ugly, uncreative stuff -- the exact sort of play that earned Rafa so many detractors. So what now? Honestly, anyone (even someone inside Anfield) who tells you what to expect from Liverpool going forward is guessing. Will the plucky gang from the second half bring that enthusiasm for a full 90? Will the ho-hum hoofers from the first half once again send Liverpool's attack into the abyss? Tough to say. Right now, all we know is that Liverpool is capable of great and terrible things. Usually in the same game.

It is two days to the opening of the football season in England and Scotland... Just for some fun, let's have some predictions on this weekend's results. The fixtures: Tottenham v Manchester City
Aston Villa v West Ham
Blackburn Rovers v Everton
Bolton Wanderers v Fulham
Sunderland v Birmingham
Wigan Athletic v Blackpool
Wolverhampton v Stoke City
Chelsea v West Brom
Liverpool v Arsenal (Sunday)
Manchester United v Newcastle (Monday) and in Scotland: Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Celtic
Aberdeen v Hamilton Academical
Hearts v St.Johnstone
Rangers v Kilmarnock
St. Mirren v Dundee United
Motherwell v Hibernian (Sunday)

The Community Shield was a lot more fun this year than last -- higher-scoring, more wide open, and featuring the nifty moves of Javier Hernandez, Man U's newest weapon up front. In casual conversation, I've sometimes been one of the people poo-poing the Red Devils' chances of mounting another title challenge this year because of their age. At some point, the Scholes/Giggs/Van Der Sar/etc crowd is going to lose enough steps that even guile won't compensate. But really, arguing that Man U's getting old is silly. Rooney and Valencia are 24, Nani's 23, players like Rafael da Silva are coming up through the ranks, and United just added a genuine star in Hernandez. His goal today was nothing special, and he actually missed a much better chance earlier on, but the kid's full of tricks and looks like a born finisher. That rare formula of explosiveness + moves + lethality should cause fits for defenses that could focus primarily on Rooney last season. With Valencia and Nani blazing down the sidelines and Rooney and Hernandez up front, Manchester United could threaten 100 goals. At the very least, they could threaten 100 goals if, as rumored, they add Mesut Ozil from Germany for just a little more than Liverpool is contemplating for Peter Crouch. I don't have to explain to anyone who watched the World Cup what a rare and special player Ozil is. As an attacking midfielder who could create for the afore-mentioned young stars already in place for United (and finish a few rockets himself), Ozil would cap off the start of a new era of offensive dominance for a team that struggled to score as easily last year as in glory days past. Chelsea and Arsenal fancy their chances this year, but the more I look at United, the more I see a team whose young guns are ready to assume the mantle of Champions. Adding Ozil just might make them favorites.

Celtic managed to beat Braga 2-1, but go down on aggregate 2-4, leaving Europe before the beginning of the Scottish season. Scotland's coefficient for European qualification will likely take another hit as a result after this season.

As a Liverpool fan who came to the game under Rafa Benitez, I'm waaay too familiar with the 4-2-3-1 formation so commonly used at this year's World Cup. It still pays dividends at the international level, where defenses aren't quite as familiar with each other or their opponents, but it feels like its time has passed at the club level. Last season was a debacle for many reasons at Anfield, but one of the key problems was the isolation of the striker. When fit, Torres was often stranded upfield, knocked about by a double-team from opposing center backs, and harassed to the point of being taken out of his game. Torres still finished with a respectable goal total for the games he played, but he never looked comfortable or happy on the pitch. When a lesser player like David N'gog filled the role, he was even easier to negate. Benitez had success with the system in the EPL up until last year because of Xabi Alonso's destabilizing effect on a defense. His ability to spray the ball to any part of the final third from midfield meant the wingers had to be constantly accounted for -- not just where they were, but where they could run to. That forced defenses to play with more spacing. Without him, though, fullbacks could simply mark the wingers by themselves and the CBs could sit on/assault the striker the entire game; no one was likely to send a long ball to the perfect spot any longer. Xabi Alonso is an extremely rare talent, and while 4-2-3-1 has worked without him elsewhere, it now feels somewhat 'solved' by Premier League defenses without his particular abilities on the field. No system should require such a tough-to-find caliber of player to be effective, and I'm hoping to see less of it at Liverpool this year. Sadly, though, Roy Hodgson is known for a 4-5-1, which is basically a flatter, more defensive (gulp) version of the 4-2-3-1. And once again, it leaves the striker all by his lonesome. Today in the Guardian, Jonathan Wilson forecasts the emergence of the 4-2-1-3, essentially the Barcelona formation which the Spanish national team also deployed with many of the same players. The key differences between 4-2-1-3 and 4-2-3-1 are: 1) the forward presence of the wingers alongside the striker, and 2) the more withdrawn presence of the central playmaker (Xavi at Barca, Fabregas at Arsenal). Wilson highlights the value of the wingers/central playmaker's ability to interchange positions and flit in and out of the gaps of the defense. Because they're farther upfield and out of the way of the withdrawn playmaker, the wingers can cut inside without killing the spacing of their attack, and this has proven very effective against a traditional back four of late. It basically provides the same destabilization as a Xabi Alonso -- because players are working the gaps more effectively, defenders need to keep better spacing, and there's room to pass and move for everyone up front. What Wilson doesn't stress is how helpful this is for the lone striker. Instead of being isolated up front in the 4-2-3-1, he's aided by wingers who stretch the D out wide but also cut inside to draw attention from the center backs. When your striker is your best player, as in the case of Liverpool, the 4-2-1-3 feels like the key to freeing him up to wreak havoc (however much a banged-up Torres struggled in the World Cup). With a front 4 of Gerrard/Cole/Kuyt/Torres, Liverpool could employ this formation to great effect. Sadly, I suspect a conservative coach like Hodgson would never dream of such radical reform. Wilson suggests Arsenal are migrating to this formation; perhaps they'll be able to show the Prem's curmudgeons that 4-2-1-3 is the way of the future. Until the next major tactical development, of course.

In late May, UEFA's exec committee passed a few new rules. You've probably heard about them:

Uefa has approved plans to force clubs in European competition to spend only what they earn. The financial fair play rules will require clubs to break even over a rolling three-year period if they want to play in the Champions League or Europa League.

This will take effect in 2012, though clubs will be given leeway over a six-year grace period. UEFA boss Michael Platini justifies the new rules thusly:

"This approval is the start of an important journey for European football's club finances as we begin to put stability and economic common sense back into football. I thank all the stakeholders who have supported this along the way."

I'm all for fair play, and everyone reading this blog would probably like to see more of it in European football. The 'haves' at the top of the EPL and La Liga, along with giants like Juventus and Bayern Munich, have a stranglehold on the vast majority of the cash in the game. A look at the revenue numbers tracked by Deloitte reveals 10 teams pulling in at least 196m euros per season, with Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Manchester United dwarfing everyone else by pulling in over 300m each. Teams raking in that kind of dough should have to work hard to wind up in the red... which is apparently just what they're doing. There's the insane debt at Man U from the Glazers' leveraged buyout, the monster loan taken out by Real to go on their Galacticos spending spree last year, and Barca's recent loan taken out to pay staff and players -- and that's just off the top of my head. With teams like these unable to spend within their earnings, it's easy to see why Platini's new rules would appear helpful. But spending within your means is only half of an equation, and on its own can make matters of fairness worse. Teams also need to share revenue to avoid entrenching the elite clubs and blocking anyone else from joining their ranks. Let's take a look at why UEFA's financial fair play rules, as they stand, have a chance of making the problems in the game worse, not better (unless you're running one of the top 10 clubs, of course).

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Hey all! Site's a bit wonky, I know. Will be resolved ASAP, promise. Thanks for bearing* with us! *Sweet pun.

The last time someone outside the Old Firm won the Scottish championship, Ronald Reagan was still president of the US, Wrigley field had no lights, Prince William Sound had no oil, Maradona's hand was merely human, and Heysel was not yet an infamous name in English history. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose... According to the bookmakers, Rangers and Celtic are expected to have a good race to the title. Dundee United is third favorite, at over 60-1... Rangers probably hold more interest for American football fans, as they were, until recently, the home of DaMarcus Beasley, and remain the home of Maurice Edu. Despite injuries, Edu appeared in 15 of 38 games last year for Rangers, enough to earn a championship medal, and scored the winning goal in injury time against Celtic in an Old Firm derby. Edu recently started and played 90 minutes for Rangers in a friendly in Sydney, Australia, that ended 0-0. Rangers have had some financial issues recently, and were not active on the transfer market over the summer, this may allow Celtic a chance to close the gap this season. Celtic's season has already started with a 0-3 loss at Braga in the Champions League third qualifying round. Dominic Cervi is on the roster, but has yet to make an appearance in the SPL. Celtic have been active in the transfer market, picking up players from Israel (Beram Kayal), Mexico (Efrain Juarez) and South Korea (Du-Ri Cha) as well as local talent. Season starts on August 14, with the first Old Firm derby on October 24!

If any England fans are still wondering what went wrong in South Africa, allow Sir Alex Ferguson to illuminate you:

With inquests continuing into England's lacklustre showing at the World Cup, Ferguson lamented the continued absence of a mid-season break from the English football calendar (which would need the approval of the Premier League) as a major contributing factor to the struggles of Fabio Capello's side. "(The FA) has to give the country the best possible chance of doing well in the World Cup and because of the nature of our game and because of the demands from television to have a programme every week, the idea of a winter break, which I was first talking about 30 years ago in Scotland and have done since I came down to England, nothing has happened about it," Ferguson said. "They must realise that, going into the World Cup, they have handicapped their team."

It's certainly possible that taking a short break mid-season could be beneficial. A little rest and recuperation could help prevent some injuries and strains and keep players at peak performance levels - I won't argue with that. But it's also possible it wouldn't do jack shit if you've got players who are, for example, so accustomed to being the stars of their club teams that they forget how to play as a full squad and blunder around the pitch, communicating as badly as Palin's Twitter feed. Besides that, it's simply no guarantee that taking a couple of weeks off six months before the World Cup would have any impact whatsoever, so while it's fine to say that maybe this is an idea to think about, it seems a little egregious for Ferguson to essentially say the failures are the FA's fault because they have not granted him his birthday-candle wishes for 30 years. It is not definitive that the team is "handicapped" by not having a winter break. It is far more definitive that Ferguson misses having officials on the pitch to complain about and just wants it to be mid-August already, guys! Plus, even if the FA did kneel before Zod SAF and implement a break, we all know it would either be too long or too short for Fergie, depending on how United played in their games following resumption of play.

"HateBarcaHateBarcaHateBarcaHATETHEMSOSOSOMUCH."

The only time the ubiquitous transfer madness surrounding Arsene Wenger's young captain will end will be when Wenger finally sells him to Barcelona for something like 15-20 times the price originally paid for him. In that sense, Wenger will have made quite the profit from his investment in Cesc Fabregas. But in many other senses, ones with names like "winning," he will lose out big-time in the deal. So it's easy to understand why he's sick of the constant worldwide chatter (much of it originating from Barcelona players and management) about Fabregas leaving:

"I believe Cesc loves the club, has shown his attachment to the club many times and I am very confident the story will end there," he said. "We want Cesc to be part of our club next year, and that is it. "There was a lot of unneeded talk. It is not pleasant to read that every day. Now the story has to stop. Cesc is our captain. He is so important to us and we want to keep him. That is why we were not listening to any offers. It was not a problem of money - just the desire to keep him at the club."

Woof. Not really hiding his emotional exhaustion over this, is he? It's pretty easy to understand why Wenger clings to Fabregas as his Arsenal binky. He's a once-in-a-generation player (well, outside of Catalonia, anyway) with outstanding vision, passing, and finishing abilities who's risen to the challenge of captaining a young Arsenal squad. We've already discussed the internal conflict Cesc Fabregas faces regarding the lure of Barcelona, and today we examine the choices before Arsene Wenger and the rights and responsibilities of managers facing this sort of problem.

The biggest variables in the entire Cesc equation are how he actually feels about going to Barcelona and what he's communicated to Wenger. Only the two of them can replace those variables with constants, so we're left to do a little matrixing to evaluate Wenger's best options.

1) Cesc firmly wants to stay and has told this to Wenger.

Easy choice. Tell Barcelona where they can stick it and encourage Fabregas to communicate privately to his Catalonian pals to shut the eff up. This could fit with Wenger's quotes above as well as Cesc's awkward reaction to being stuffed in a Barca shirt during the World Cup celebrations. But if Fabregas were truly certain of his decision, you probably wouldn't have the president of Barcelona saying recently that "the whole world knows he wants to come." That's obviously an exaggeration, but you know the whole smoke/fire thing, right?

2) Cesc firmly wants to stay but hasn't told this to Wenger.

That would be dumb. Let's assume Cesc isn't dumb.

3) Cesc firmly wants to leave and has communicated this to Wenger.

On the face of it, that'd make the quotes above pretty disingenuous, but if you read them, poor Arsene doesn't actually say that Cesc has told him he wants to stay. He just says, "I believe he loves the club" and that Cesc has shown attachment to Arsenal in the past. So it's not like it's inconceivable he's told Wenger he wants to leave this summer as had been rumored before the World Cup and that Wenger is just applying public pressure to try and change his mind. Now we're getting to some of the questions at the heart of the clusterf*** that is the transfer market. Does a player have a right to ask to be transferred? Should he be able to ask for it quietly so as not to be the bad guy to his current fan base? Should a team accommodate these kinds of requests? If so, how much should they hold out for a fair valuation vs. grant the player his desire to move on? Answering these definitively/abstractly can be difficult; every circumstance is different. In the case of Fabregas, I believe:

• He's earned the right to ask to move on. He's given his all for 7 years, captained the team at an age most players are breaking into a squad, and been nothing but positive about Arsenal in public. I definitely think this would be the wrong personal choice for Cesc, but if 7 years of excellent service doesn't earn you the right to cash in your chips, what does?
• He's earned the right to ask for it quietly. This might be a strange definition of "quietly," what with the whole football world buzzing about it, but Cesc himself has played coy, and I think that's understandable. Fabregas has no ill will towards Arsenal, and it doesn't do anyone any good to make him the jerk. Arguably, the team benefits from this arrangement, as well. Players who submit transfer requests never return the same price as those who could conceivably stay with their current club. No reason to give all the leverage to the other team unless PR means everything to you.

This brings us to the decision point of this option -- supposing Cesc really wants to go and has told Wenger, should they agree to transfer him? I suppose my answer's fairly obvious from the arguments above about Fabregas' service. They should accommodate the request because he's earned it, and they should do everything in their power to play up the possibility of Cesc staying to make sure they get fair(ish) value for the guy. In return, Cesc should play along and not tip off Barca that he'll definitely transfer; otherwise, people start getting spiteful and the game of diplomacy devolves into war. I hate to say it to my Arsenal friends, but those "I believe he loves us" quotes from Wenger fit right into this scenario, as well.

4) Cesc firmly wants to leave but hasn't told Wenger.

Definitely one of the legitimate possibilities. Fabregas may have made up his mind to leave but hasn't said anything to Wenger thanks to a sour cocktail of respect, fear, and shame. This would leave Wenger guessing, saying to himself "well, if Cesc wanted to leave for sure, he'd have told me by now, right? Maybe he really wants to stay! At the very least, maybe he's on the fence!" Enter the "I believe" quotes above once again -- maybe Wenger doesn't know what Fabregas wants and is trying to sway him publicly. If so, that's pretty tacky. If Cesc isn't answering your calls, then you probably have your answer. If he is answering your calls, then you should be calling him to ask where he stands. That way, you can say "Cesc told me he loves it here" and sound less like a creepy boy/girlfriend trying to hang on to their current squeeze through denial and self-delusion. Or you can start dealing with the realities of moving on. Either way, Wenger has only one choice here: get a fricking answer directly from your captain.

5) Cesc is conflicted and has sent mixed signals to Wenger.

This is probably the truth, isn't it? Cesc wants to go back to Barca but also feels the tug of loyalty and unfinished business -- not to mention being king of the hill -- at Arsenal. Wenger's probably gotten a sense of this internal conflict, or has outright been told about it, and is trying to tone down the Barca noise machine in the hopes that they stop eroding Cesc's dedication to Arsenal.

Handling this situation is challenging. On one hand, using rationality to attempt to convince someone that they should stick around when they're emotionally halfway out the door is a slow death. They will eventually leave, and you'll have only the extra time you spent torturing yourself over how to keep them to show for it. This seems to be the sort of pain Wenger is suffering as he publicly begs for decency from Barcelona. Then you have the fear that Cesc will be playing with a wandering eye and could struggle to give his all to Arsenal as he chews over whether he should finally demand to move on in [insert next transfer window here].

On the other hand, if you decide to cut ties now without a fight, you might get fair compensation but will immediately be stuck with the impossible task of trying to replace him. Why give up on a rare talent when you might've been able to convince him to stay? Shouldn't you tug on that loyalty as hard as you can to try and hold onto your star? In this scenario, there's only one acceptable answer to the Cesc Fabregas Dilemma from Arsene Wenger's perspective: make a private, verbal deal for Fabregas to stay for 12 months (or 24 if you're lucky) with a guarantee he can leave at the end. Wenger needs to approach Cesc and speak about the situation the way we do: everyone knows it's only a matter of time until you go, so let's set a definite window in which you commit totally to Arsenal (including publicly), and that at the end of that time you will be transferred to Barcelona.

Wenger may be incapable of this choice. He's built his entire team around Fabregas and seems to have assumed that Cesc would stick around for his entire career. Otherwise, I doubt he'd be so publicly exasperated over the speculation. But another 1-2 years of a fully focused Cesc may be the best he can hope for; it's certainly the most any Arsenal supporter I know is expecting. This sort of deal allows Fabregas to focus while knowing his long-term future will be settled, gives you a small window to win with him now, and ups the odds that you'll get a good price for him as long as the deal remains between the two of you. There are no easy choices in this final -- and most probable -- scenario. But Cesc is a grass-is-greener type of player (see his years-long saga to leave Barca in the first place), and the odds of him ever leaving Barcelona completely in the past are slim. If he'll give you one more good year in return for a verbal guarantee to move him in 2011, Wenger should take it. And start scouring the earth for the next Fabregas.

Oy.

Michael Becker, who represents [German national team] captain Michael Ballack, scoffed at the "bunch of gays" on the World Cup team in an interview with Der Spiegel. Becker attributed the team's more elegant and agile play to their homosexuality, and said that style over German teams' more traditional aggressive approach cost the athletes a place in the World Cup finals.

It's the intelligent analysis on display here that I'm so taken in by. You see, men who like to have sex with men are obviously totally incapable of playing soccer in certain ways. So true! It doesn't even need further explanation because it's such common knowledge! Common...among jackasses and homophobes. For one thing, unless any of the players on the German MNT have publicly stated their sexual orientations, no one can claim to know who is gay (or bi, or asexual, etc. Or straight for that matter, though of course heterosexuality is always the assumed default). This sounds like one of those "He likes musicals and soft cheeses so TOTES GAY AMIRITE" kind of things, and I know I don't have to say how completely idiotic that is. Becker is clearly adhering to a stereotypical gender/sexuality binary - "aggressive" soccer is played by straight men, because straight men are tough and strong and powerful, and if a man isn't those things, he must be gay. He also seems to think that no one can win soccer tournaments by playing with finesse and style, which must really be news to Brazil and Barcelona, among others. All apologies for being crude, but I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and crap a better argument than that. Sadly, in the footballing world just as in the rest of the world, being gay is still often seen as something bad, something shameful. Tom Dunmore at Pitch Invasion has written about this topic several times, notably about the failures on the part of football authorities to make efficient or satisfactory attempts to combat homophobia. (Seriously, go read those, as well as the others.) While there have been strong efforts to fight racism in the sport, fighting anti-gay abuse and chants seems generally unimportant to many authorities. Perhaps they think that because someone can conceivably hide their sexuality but not their race it is more pressing to fight racism because there's no escaping it. It's a pretty privileged and cold-hearted way to see it though, and I imagine the effect that homophobia has on gay players is something a lot of people just don't think about, or maybe they don't grasp the depths of it. Your sexuality is as much a part of who you are as your skin color, your ethnicity, your national origin are. Just because it's not necessarily immediately apparent doesn't make it less important. Moreover, just as stereotypes based on race are largely bullshit, you cannot make determinations about a person's character or ability or talent in a sport based on their sexuality. Being treated like dirt because of who you are feels completely horrendous, no matter the context. Of course, some people don't believe that. The "being gay is a choice" crowd would see homophobia as far less of a problem than racism because they think you're choosing to be gay so you could easily choose not to be and rid yourself of that unfortunate situation. There is a lot to be said about that kind of argument. In a nutshell: fuck that kind of argument, basically. It holds less water than a flattened colander and I hate even addressing it briefly. A player's sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with their skills and abilities. It has nothing to do with how many goals they'll score, how many passes they'll connect, how many saves they'll make...except in the possible situations of being shunned by their teammates or their coach or being consistently insulted and dumped on by media or fans. And in those situations, the blame lies not with the player, the explanation not in their sexual preferences. If someone has a problem with gay people, that problem comes from within, not without. Prejudices are not the fault of the victims. Jerks like Becker will sadly always be around - I don't think we'll ever have a world that is completely without prejudice and ill-treatment. That's not the goal to have in mind; when complete elimination is nigh impossible, you aim for silencing hateful voices by encouraging compassionate ones to be louder. Football authorities, players, coaches, and fans should work to make acceptance and equality the norm, to remove the power of intolerant people to hold sway over the conversations.

The 28th of May seems a long way away, but the road to Wembley has already started. The first qualifying round of the Champions League was played while the World Cup was played, with the winners of the leagues in San Marino, Andorra, Montenegro, and Malta facing off. (This wasn't without some excitement, as the Andorran champion, Santa Coloma, forfeit their home tie against Birkirkara after the match was postponed due to poor pitch conditions -- since the second leg was a 4-3 win for Birkirkara, one wonders how Santa Coloma might have fared could their home leg have been played?) This week was the first leg of the second qualifying round, and at least one player from the World Cup (Radoslav Petrovic of Serbia) is seeing action for his club, Partizan. Friday will be the draw for the third qualifying round, which will include teams like Ajax, Celtic, and Fenerbahçe. Group stage begins mid-September!

Will he or won't he? The question's plagued Arsenal fans for the last two years. Sometimes, he seems a lock to stay in London. Others, a lock to return to Barcelona. If you find this all a bit taxing, imagine how Cesc Fabregas feels. After winning the World Cup alongside Barcelona stars Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol, Pique, Valdez, and Pedro, the Cesc Fabregas Dilemma has to be reaching a fever pitch. Clearly, Barcelona players want him to come home, and new Barca president Sandro Rosell said last week, "The whole world knows he wants to come and that we want to sign him." "Will he or won't he?" is fun to discuss, but the more challenging (and less exasperating) question is "should he or shouldn't he?" Based on the information we have, what is the right personal choice for Cesc Fabregras? Fabregas was born a Catalonian. He "attended" his first Barca game at 9 months old. He worshiped Pep Guardiola and moved into a dormitory with the Barca youth squad at age 14, where he played alongside Leo Messi and developed a powerful connection with him on the pitch. Sounds like a lifelong dream of his to be part of Barcelona, right? Not so fast. Fabregas said of this time:

It was great to play for Barcelona, but when we played it was 30-0. What’s the point? I need to have competition. From when I was in the under-13s we started winning by 15 goals and I was thinking about leaving. If the coaches can see you’re better than the opposition, why don’t they let you play against a higher age group?

Some people tell the story of Fabregas as though he was reluctantly plucked from Barcelona, or somehow abandoned by them and salvaged by Arsenal. But the truth is that, despite captaining their U-16s, he was looking to leave. According to Cesc, he almost went to rival Espanyol, a curious choice for someone who supposedly bleeds their stripey colors, but he was talked into staying... until Arsenal called:

I stayed [after considering Espanyol] but then Arsenal came and I knew it was the chance of a lifetime. The first time I came to London I saw the facilities. I talked to the boss, they treated me as if I was an adult, a big player. I had the feeling something special could happen for me here.

Arsenal delivered Cesc 1st team football as a 16 year old (albeit in Cup matches) in 03-04, a chance to play in the Champs final the following season, and the #4 shirt and a starting place in every league game in 05-06. Now, he's the squad captain and talisman for the team. He's Arsenal's version of Barcelona's Xavi Hernandez (the only player on earth who could/does displace Cesc as a starting playmaker). This mini bio tells us a few things: 1) The loyalty factor is overrated. It was Cesc who chose to leave Barcelona, and he was so bored of dominating with their youth squad that he almost left for a hated rival. If he chooses to return there, it'll probably have much less to do with childhood loyalty than the media will make it seem. That's a good thing, by the way -- making major life decisions based on over-romanticizing your childhood can often lead to disappointment. 2) Fabregas values a challenge and a starring role as much as winning trophies. What offensive-minded player complains about winning 15-0? This one, apparently. He was bored with the lack of competition against Barca youth and also wanted first-team football badly. Today, some of the details have changed, but the choice between Arsenal and Barcelona still features many of the same dimensions. In 08-09, Barca pulled off the treble, and last year they won La Liga with a record-high points total. Winning will come (relatively) easily with one of the best club sides in a generation. But to go there means sitting behind Xavi and Iniesta in the biggest matches, unless he somehow displaces Pedro (a rising star in his own right) elsewhere on the pitch. At the very least, he will be placed in a more regular rotation with other starters and won't run with the starting XI for every game right away. Arsenal offers him *his* team, a squad built around his talents which he captains. Obviously, Arsenal's no Espanyol, either -- they're a top 10 team in terms of income and world fan base, and they're probably the most financially stable elite club on the planet. Sure, they won't be favorites in the Champions League like Barcelona, but they'll be in the title mix in the EPL every year, especially with Manchester United and Chelsea aging. They've suffered 5 trophy-less seasons, including a Champs loss to Barca last year (and the Champs final loss to them in '05), so if Arsenal brings home silverware this year or next, it'll be a huge accomplishment. And the odds are extremely high that it'd have everything to do with Cesc Fabregas. Based on what motivated him as a teenager, the choice is clear -- he should stay at Arsenal. He captains a top-10 club that presents a greater trophy challenge than Barcelona, where he'd be more likely to win but less likely to be the main reason. However, it's possible his priorities have changed. Maybe winning is now the most important thing to Cesc Fabregas. He's tasted international glory with Spain in 2008 and 2010 as a part-time player and still managed to make his mark. He found Iniesta for the World Cup winning goal -- surely he could have the same sort of impact at Barcelona immediately with the promise of a greater role in coming seasons. But f*** that. I say this as a Liverpool fan: choosing Barca over Arsenal is a LeBron-James-level copout. Cesc can pal around with his friends in Spain when he retires, which will arrive more quickly than he thinks. Very few people are handed the responsibility of shaping a good team into a championship team, and even fewer are capable of it. Fabregas has shown he might be one of those people, and the next 5 years of his life will define his entire legacy. He shouldn't spend them abdicating leadership so he can be just one of many names people remember as part of this great Barcelona team. And given that he's already missed out on 2 historic seasons, who's to say he'll ever rise into the top handful of players we associate with Barca's era of dominance? Whatever Arsenal accomplishes will be due much more to Fabregas than anything Barcelona achieves. And when you have no idea how high your ceiling is, you ought to push yourself as hard as you can to see if you can find it. Maybe Cesc will learn that he's not one of the best players in the world or one of the best leaders in the world. Or maybe he'll win the Premier League as a 24 or 25 year old captain and feel a sense of personal accomplishment unlike anything Barca can offer. Fabregas won't win nearly as much if he stays at Arsenal. In fact, he might not win anything. But my life experience tells me that people feel better when give everything they've got in the highest-pressure situations they can handle. Even if they come up short, they feel a satisfaction of pushing themselves to the limit that merely being good in a great situation never delivers. I think Fabregas understands this at some level, and that's why he chose to leave Barcelona's youth team in the first place. He wanted to see what he was really made of, and there's no reason to change course now. Forget fans -- players owe them full effort on the pitch (and arguably not being a total embarrassment off it), but after 7 years of service from a player like Fabregas, he shouldn't have to subjugate his personal goals to fans who will stab you in the back the minute you struggle (see: Torres, Fernando). Forget loyalty, childhood or otherwise -- neither Cesc nor Barcelona owe each other anything. Ditto Arsenal, by the way; he's done his job very well for a long time and has earned the right to make his own decisions. Forget friends -- he'll have the rest of his life to run around with them (not to mention the national team matches). This all comes down to legacy, the chance at true greatness. Fabregas can only learn who he truly is and how much he can actually accomplish in an Arsenal shirt, and that's worth more than a shelf of trophies that you know your team could've won without you. There are two reasons I'd legitimately accept for Fabregas leaving: 1) the loyalty factor, which we've already shown is not his thing, and 2) the physicality of the Premier League. Fabregas has struggled to stay healthy lately, and if he feels like the EPL delivers unreasonable physical abuse, I can understand why he'd leave. The typical English/American fan might see that as a masculine failure, but going somewhere you won't be stomped on for 90 minutes every week and see that called a defensive "strategy" would be appealing to any of us in his place. So if he plays that card after a move, I can accept it. Other than that, though, Cesc Fabregas ought to remain with his club. Unless he wants to be the new LeBron.

You do it with the dance, not the kick! Ugly. Vulgar. These are the words Dutch icon Johan Cruyff used to describe his homeland's gameplan in the World Cup finals. He also sided with those who felt de Jong and van Bommel should've been tossed in regulation by Howard Webb. I suppose it's uncool to throw your countryfolk under the bus after they already lost (and the rest of the world is doing the bashing for you). But as the man credited as the most important cog in the creation of the adored Dutch national identity of Total Football, I can see why you'd fret over the destruction of that reputation -- especially when all the ugliness delivered was another loss in a final. Not that we should imagine Cruyff being kinder had they won. Then his accomplishments would've been eclipsed by a new Dutch team promoting everything he hates about the game. If anything, it's more fun to imagine how much harsher he might've been had Robben slotted home in the 62nd.