Thomas Hallett @thomas-hallett ?

With Premier League clubs making a loss of over £360 million in the season 2010/11 and Manchester City taking up a big percentage of that, Arsenal’s turnover of £256 million suggest the club are on the right path. Sort of. What has been a running theme at Arsenal for a number of years has been their high [...]

The Belgian Jupiler league might not be much to look at in terms of glamour or prestige, but Belgian football is experiencing a golden age of talent. It’s the upcoming stars of the Belgian national side that are fast becoming the go-to players for clubs in Europe looking to fill a gap. Except they’re so much [...]

I may be jumping the gun here by looking so far into the future as next season; but really, are there any Arsenal fans who fancy reminiscing about this past season? No? Good. Laurent Koscielny’s winner at the Hawthorns on the weekend may be of even greater significance than it seemed at first. Sure the club [...]

Manchester City took this one right down to the final few seconds but managed to lift the league title on the weekend following their win against QPR. It’s not so much that this was an unpredictable season, but rather one that offered up something new almost every week. Manchester United ran City close, but lets not [...]

There has been a lot to be excited about from this year’s La Liga campaign. Even removing the drama, theatrics, and otherworldly football from Barcelona and Real Madrid, there’s been much to admire from Spanish clubs this season. From Athletic Bilbao’s performances against Manchester United, to Levante grabbing hold of many more hearts as they topped [...]

Emmanuel Adebayor may not be making as many friends as he’d like on his journey as a nomadic striker. But does the early form he showed for Spurs suggest that here is a striker to help launch the club onto the next level beyond this season? Adebayor’s season started brightly for Spurs, in much the same [...]

Earlier in the season, Arsene Wenger mentioned that it’s his responsibility to ensure the club make a profit of between £15-£20 million each season. Something that’s hard for many fans to get their head ‘round because, at the end of the day, this is a football club, money goes into improving the squad and the club. But [...]

From Barcelona to Rome, Bojan Krkic has done alright for himself. But would a move to the Premier League be the next best move for the striker? One of Barcelona’s best talents to graduate from their famed La Masia youth academy in recent years has struggled to make his mark on European football. The pressures and [...]

You can picture it now: Michel Platini taking a few practise swings with his new Thor-like hammer; the letters “FFP” emblazoned across the side of it. Does this summer represent the last chance for clubs to indulge in the heavy spending that has become part of football over the past decade? Or will Platini be forced [...]

I’m not particularly fussed about which superstar walks in the Emirates Stadium door. Ok, that’s not entirely true. But there should be a good level of interest with how Arsenal conduct their business this summer for “squad players” as much as the big names. Two contrasting necessities: one being to reinforce the idea that Arsenal are [...]

There’s not a whole lot wrong with Manchester United’s ability to spend. They demonstrated last year that even with the added competition of Manchester City, Alex Ferguson can still flex United’s financial muscle in the market. Their problem, however, is that they may not have spent as wisely as they could have. Paul Scholes coming out [...]

It’s a little off centre, but Premier League clubs have begun a trend of trying to out-do each other with transfers well before the window opens. Coupled with Arsenal’s out-of-character move for Lukas Podolski, news arrived that the club were looking to bolster their squad with Yann M’Vila. Emphatic stuff. If that wasn’t enough, Chelsea’s signing [...]

I made, and persisted with, semi-serious comments that Arsenal would fail to beat Norwich in what would be a crucial Premier League game on the weekend. Despite “reassurances” from older heads and fans confident in the team’s abilities, I always knew I was right. It’s unsettling that a team can fail to motivate themselves for a [...]

There wasn’t too much wrong with what Tottenham did this season. It has only been in the past few months where they’ve begun to look unsure of Champions League qualification, and, coincidently, it came off the back of uninspired January transfer activity. Harry Redknapp says the club need to be bold in the transfer market to ensure [...]

In much the same way Athletic Bilbao have suddenly become everyone’s second favourite team following their heroics against Manchester United—or indeed, the flavour of the month—Villarreal used to offer up similar alternatives to the big two in Spain in Real Madrid and Barcelona. If you were looking for a attractive football complemented with players capable of [...]

If I was asked to rattle off the last ten winners of the Champions League and the key moments in each final I could probably do it with relative ease. Ask me next to talk about the last two FA Cup finals and I would struggle to remember all the teams involved and the final scores. [...]

The Champions League final should never have been about English clubs this year. The two best and most in-form English teams this year couldn’t even navigate out of the group stages, and yet here we are: a Champions League final from way out in left field and another opportunity for the Premier League to converge on [...]

Ahead of their second leg Champions League semi final against Barcelona in the Nou Camp, Chelsea might feel a little confident that this weekend’s Clasico will hit Barcelona for six, one way or another. They might also find inspiration from teams such as Sevilla going to the Nou Camp back in October and getting a 0-0 [...]

While the NFL is coming off the extremely heavy punishment handed out to the New Orleans Saints, their head coach Sean Payton and other members of staff for their participation in the bounty program, the FA are steamrolling in the other direction and avoiding justice in any ridiculous way they can. Sean Payton and the New [...]