In related news, ESPN.com announced this afternoon that the New York Yankees have signed the following players to two-year deals:

Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Alex Rodriguez, John Smoltz, Torii Hunter, Barry Zito, and Jason Giambi.

Oh yeah, they already got that last guy.

Florentino Perez and George Steinbrenner should get together and go bowling.

Aupa Athlétic!

Football-wise, he's not fit to lace the boots of Raul, Ronaldo, Figo(in his prime) or Zidane, but, he has the biggest heart I've seen in a footballer for a long time. (I say this from the perspective of someone who HATES M*n U*d with an absolute passion!) Add this to his delivery of the ball from the right and ability at free kicks and I think you've got an absolute steal (the commercial ramifications of signing him mean you'll get the transfer fee back in the first year aswell I'd expect).

This is the first footballer who's celebrity exceeds his ability. Kids here (and esp. in the Far East) are Beckham fans without necessarily being U*d fans. In light of this, I can't wait to buy my 9 year old nephew a Real top with Beckham's name on the back in order to get that filthy rag he wears at present off his back!

There're strong rumours here that Raul might well give up the No. 7 aswell. Any truth in this???

Well, well. It says here that el Real are not going to renew the contract of their manager Vicente del Bosque, and are going after the Man. U coach Carlos Queiroz! Tough job, del Bosque won 2 European cups, and 2 spanish league titles in 4 years. Apparently not good enough

Less surprisingly, Fernando Hierro will not be back at the centre of the Real defence next year. He was the greatest in his time, but he's just too slow now. Any half-decent striker can beat him by just kicking the ball past him and running. Poor old Hierro ("rusty" these days!)can do nothing but lumber hopelessly after them.

Hi all!

I realize that getting Beckham is a neat marketing move which may attract a lot of fans from the East. However, I think so many stars on one team is a little ridiculous. After one or two, heck even three, it just becomes blatant business and really overshadows the sport. Maybe we can outfit Pele with artificial muscles and sign him too !! I am used to this star effect here in NY with the Yankees. Too many stars doesn't do much for the sport. Now we're going to see a lot of frontrunning RM fans and even more sweaty posters of David Beckham.

Mikey