After several days of rumors, it looks like FC Dallas defender George John is officially heading across the Atlantic-though a deal isn’t yet done. John headed to Athens to get some paperwork sorted out ahead of a potential move to Blackburn Rovers. John, who is eligible for both the U.S. and Greece national teams, will (or perhaps already has) obtain(ed) an ID card which will likely pave the road for a U.K. work permit. Then, everyone has to come to an agreement before the move is finalized.
After a 3-0 loss to Manchester United to open the season, Tottenham could use a little more strike power. Emmanuel Adebayor seems to be on his way to Spurs from Manchester City on a season-long loan deal. And I hadn’t heard about this, apparently Samir Nasri is perhaps going to City from Arsenal, with the midfielder not making the trip to Italy for the Gunners’ Champions League fixture with Udinese. That means Nasri won’t be cup-tied for any European action should the transfer go through. That’s all right, they still have Fabregas, right? I haven’t heard anything to suggest otherwise.
Quite the quandary for Sir Alex Ferguson. It seems after Danny Welbeck go on the board against Tottenham yesterday, and Javier Hernandez made a cameo, plus Berbatov sitting on the bench, that Wayne Rooney chap in midfield, and Owen, Diouf and Macheda still around, that Manchester United just simply have too many amazing forwards. Rough life, eh? At any rate, expect at least one or two of these guys to move during this transfer window.
Several UEFA Champions League matches taking place today. Zurich missed their opportunity to notch a road goal against Bayern Munich and are down 2-0 on aggregate, but they remain confident they can get through the tough tie. Other matches of interest include Villarreal hosting Odense down 1-0 on aggregate to the Danes and Cypriot side APOEL in the same situation against Wisla Krakow.
Not to steal any thunder from news updates later in the week, but pretty interesting article out of Georgia (the country) about two of their teams hoping to make it to the group stage of the Europa League.
After you catch Zestafoni and Dinami in action, you can enjoy Real Ma-, oh wait, no, there’s still no deal to end the strike, so La Liga might not get under way until September 10, after the international break. Italy too. If Serie A does get going, there still might be no Diego Forlan. After family members said Inter was going to sign him, he’s now said he has no concrete offer.