Update your bookmarks. The EPL Talk Blog has moved to its new home at http://www.epltalk.com

Bigger and better, the EPL Talk website/blog at epltalk.com features all of the posts from this EPL Talk Blog plus more great analysis and insight about the Premier League from myself (The Gaffer) and bloggers BillEShears, The Scout and Michael James.

There won't be any more blog posts added to this blog, so come join us over at epltalk.com instead.

Cheers,
The Gaffer

euFootballBiz is reporting that Liverpool will likely tour the United States and Canada next summer to play several friendlies.

Liverpool may play in the MLS All-Star Final against an MLS All-Star team. If so, the 2008 final is scheduled to be played in Toronto in July.

euFooballBiz also indicates it's likely that Liverpool will play a friendly in Montreal.

If Liverpool does visit North America in the Summer of 2008, this will be a huge coup because so many English clubs are traveling to Asia to play friendlies and to market themselves there.

Stay tuned to EPL Talk for the latest news about Premier League clubs arranging friendlies.

Watching the highlights of last night's impressive performance by what is essentially Arsenal's B side against Blackburn in the Carling Cup, I was yet again impressed by the legacy that Arsene Wenger has built at his club. He's spent little money, invested in the future and the rewards for that policy are paying dividends this season and will continue to do so over and over again in future years.

At the same time, 200 miles north of London in Manchester, Sir Alex Ferguson has used a difficult model in his 21+ years of management at Manchester United. There is a reliance on the youth system but definitely to a lesser extent where instead Ferguson is able to focus on purchasing promising players for significant amounts of money and then turning them into world-class superstars (van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo, Rooney, etc).

Regarding Wenger and Ferguson, the question is whether there have been two managers who have been so successful competing against each other in the top English league at the same time in the history of the game.

Just as one example, when Bob Paisley was taking Liverpool to historic highs from 1974 to 1983 winning 18 major trophies during that time, Man United had three managers in charge -- all of whom were relative failures: Dave Sexton, Tommy Docherty and Ron Atkinson. At Arsenal at that same time, they had Bertie Mee and Terry Neill as managers -- again, who were relative failures in comparison to the huge amount of trophies that Paisley had won.

Go back through history and you'll be hard pressed to find a time when there were two more successful managers competing against each other in the top English league. We should count our lucky stars to witness both of them dueling against each other and this season more than most should be very revealing and exciting to see who wins the battle.

The larger question for Arsenal and Manchester United is who will eventually replace Wenger and Ferguson after they both decide to retire. Is Pat Rice the intended successor to Wenger's legacy? He definitely has been a large part of Wenger's plan and can see his policies in action, but it would definitely be difficult shoes for anyone to fit into.

At Manchester United, Carlos Quieroz could be the next successor for Ferguson but, as in Pat Rice's case, does he have what it takes to succeed or are we likely to see someone like Mark Hughes or Roy Keane take that manager's seat?

If you were the Arsenal or Manchester United board, who would you want to earmark to replace Wenger and Ferguson? Click on the comment link and let us know.

Just a quick note to point out that Bobby McMahon, the best thing going at Fox Soccer Channel, mentioned that he's a reader of the EPL Talk Blog in his weekly column. Here's what he said:

Ringo - Which blogs do you read?

Bobby – I check in at soccer by Ives, du Nord, Steve Goff and EPL talk from time to time. Others I hit more by accident than design.

Be sure to bookmark Bobby's blog if you haven't done so already for his twice weekly posts which are always a joy to read.

Performancing, one of the leading websites for bloggers, interviewed me recently as the first part of a series of interviews with bloggers from different walks of life on the Internet.

The interview discusses how I got started in blogging, who's the one person I'd love to meet, how much time I spend blogging each week, and what's key to running a successful blog.

If you're interested, you can read the interview here.

Despite Liverpool's impressive turnaround in their Champions League group and an unbeaten record in the league until their recent losses against Reading and Man United, Liverpool has given their fans much more hope this season of lifting the Premier League title than in previous years.

However, the problem with Liverpool is that they've been much too inconsistent and have too many severe weaknesses in their side.

These are problems that Benitez was aware of last season but instead of correcting the issues during the summer by buying players to fit those slots, he (and Liverpool fans) now have to wait until the January transfer window for hopes of fixing the challenges.

Benitez's dependence on playing Dirk Kuyt has hurt the Spaniard this season. It should be the Dutch striker, not Peter Crouch, that needs to be offloaded in the January transfer window. Kuyt, despite his determination, is severely lacking in the skills to be a prolific striker. And when you see him up alongside Fernando Torres, you can see how much more skillful Torres is in comparison to Kuyt.

Riise is another player who has had a terrible season thus far.

Harry Kewell isn't ready for first team football. His pace and weight is still not what they need to be to succeed at a Premiership level again.

Ryan Babel shows flashes of brilliance but always seems to mess up the last few crucial steps of his move. With time, Babel will flourish at Anfield.

Momo Sissoko isn't half the player he used to be and is making so many mistakes for Liverpool that he's a liability on the pitch for the club.

Overall, Liverpool looks like a team that is missing a few jigsaw pieces. When Daniel Agger returns, the Reds will be sound at the back in front of the excellent keeper Reina. But it's up front and in midfield where Benitez needs the most amount of help. Maybe he's taking on more than he can chew after assistant manager Pako Ayestaran left Anfield recently?

For Liverpool fans, the holes in the side are too big to fix in a short amount of time to enable them to win the Premier League title this season. Yet again, it's time to rebuild for Liverpool which makes me wonder whether Benitez is actually the right man for the job or not.

I'm now convinced that the Reds need someone to replace Rafa Benitez. They need a manager who can take them to the next level. Sure, Rafa has won the Champions League trophy for Liverpool and almost won a second one earlier this spring, but the same mistakes that Benitez commits are being repeated over and over again.

Whether you love or hate Rafa Benitez, I have to think that someone like Jose Mourinho could have achieved much more at Liverpool than Benitez did. Sure, Rafa won Liverpool a Champions League trophy that Mourinho may have been unable to achieve at Anfield, but Liverpool would be a top three side now if Mourinho was in charge. He would have spent his money more wisely. He would have fixed the holes that have plagued Liverpool for too long.

Instead it sounds like Gillette and Hicks have gone too soft and given Benitez more rope. The question now is when will the American owners decide enough is enough and could it be as early as this next summer?

Behind the scenes at EPL Talk, there's been a flurry of activity getting the redesigned site ready for launch hopefully this week. Everything will be unveiled shortly. But one of the features I want to give you a sneak-preview of is something that you can begin using today.

It's EPL Talk's Shared Items which runs on Google Reader and provides you with some of the most interesting stories I uncover each day. I usually read several hundred articles on the web each day. Some of them are pretty repetitive, but there's always a few golden nuggets that I discover and the Shared Items are a perfect way of bringing those stories to you.

Feel free to bookmark the EPL Talk Shared Items page so you can read the best of the best on a daily basis. Or better yet, sign up for the free Google Reader, add the RSS feed for the EPL Talk Shared Items to your subscriptions and add your favorite blogs too.

It's that time of the year to get your feedback on what you thought the greatest achievements were for the Premier League during the 2007 year.

Click on the 'Comments' link below and answer the following four Premier League-related questions.

1. Most memorable goal of 2007?

2. Most memorable match of 2007?

3. Most improved club during 2007?

4. Your biggest prediction for 2008.

"Grand Slam Sunday" (what a horrible name) was one part a tense affair and another part a home run. A grand slam, it was not.

I started my day at 7am and drove about 45 minutes to a pub in Fort Lauderdale named the Fox & Hounds to watch the two matches. With a pint of Strongbow Cider in my hand before the 8:30am kick off, I sat alongside EPL Talk blogger Jeremy Lay for four and half hours of Premier League soccer.

Here are some of my thoughts from the experience:

• It was the same old story for Liverpool. Plenty of chances, all of them wasted while the opposition had one serious challenge on goal and Man United scored from that one (thanks to poor marking by Liverpool).
  
  
• All that separated both teams was a choreographed set play from the Man United corner.
  
  
• Man United had a poor game as well as Liverpool but they defended well (except for Edwin van der Sar). The Red Devils yet again wasted free kick after free kick.
  
  
• Immediately after the Liverpool v Man United game, Setanta played their Jose Mourinho/Spitting Image "interview" which drew several laughs from the large crowd of about 50 people in the pub. Setanta is definitely on to something with this bit, but the question is whether they can follow it up with another Jose interview that's just as special. Why not make it a weekly show to draw viewers to its channel?
  
  
• Before the Arsenal and Chelsea match began, the pub owners flipped the channel to the Serie A match between Roma and Torino. Italian football didn't do itself too many favors however by showing what happened after the match. Two of the Torino players stripped off their clothes. One removed all of his kit except for his speedo and then ran across the pitch. Another player removed his shorts and walked around without them. It all looked pretty feminine to me and it's something you'd never see in English football!
  
  
• The Arsenal against Chelsea match was simply sensational and one of the most entertaining second halves I've seen in quite some time (although Man City v Bolton, and Wigan v Blackburn this past weekend were amazing too).
  
  
• The match at the Emirates was a hundred times more entertaining than the Liverpool versus Man United game. The game was much more open. There was much more skill on display. It wasn't as defensive-minded as the match at Anfield. And unlike Reina at Anfield, the goalkeepers had a lot to do at the Emirates.
  
  
• In both matches, the quality of shooting was extremely poor. How many shots on goal went way past the goal and towards the corner?
  
  
• I felt that Chelsea put in a good performance and were very unlucky not to equalize. However they've now lost against Man United and Arsenal (both away). They're still in the title race, while Liverpool's hopes of winning the Premier League title are gone.
  
  
• Shevchenko impressed me considerably in this match with two shots in particular that drew world-class saves from Almunia.
  
  
• The cries from the press that the four horse race is now a two horse race are inane. It's a three horse race. Don't discount Chelsea quite yet especially with their almost four-year unbeaten home record in the league.
  

This past Wednesday, EPL Talk attended the annual Premios Fox Sports awards show in Miami Beach, which will be telecasted this Sunday December 16 to more than 33 million households throughout the United States and Latin America.

The premise of the event is to recognize the contributions and accomplishments of Latino athletes.

I'll let you in on a secret. Don't bother watching it.

EPL Talk attended the show hoping to interview soccer players and celebrities for the EPL Talk Podcast and blog. Last year's event featured Jorge Campos, Jon Secada, Enrique Iglesias, Carlos Bilardo, Jaime Moreno and Cobi Jones.

Obviously our hopes were high that we would interview similar celebrities this year.

Unfortunately, the show was a flop, rife with technical problems and lacked the star power of last year's event. The only two soccer players in presence were Mexican legend Zague and Chivas player Maykel Galindo.

The show featured several soccer awards but the majority of the winners sent in their 'thank you' messages taped via satellite including Barcelona's Lionel Messi. Soccer stars that were nominated for awards that would have been welcomed with open arms if they actually showed up included Juan Pablo Angel, Guillermo Schelotto, Jaime Moreno and Teofilo Cubillas.

Even without the soccer stars, the star power present during the event was poor and was a sign of how far the awards show has fallen since last year's event.

View the slideshow from the press area featuring photographs of Mexico's Zague and Chivas's Maykel Galindo.

I've been in Miami Beach the last few days on business attending another search engine marketing conference, so I haven't had a chance to write many blog posts this week. Just my luck, too, because it's been a hectic week in the football world.

For me, I'm in favor of Fabio Capello being appointed as the new England manager. I almost got my prediction correct of who would become the new England boss back on November 22nd except I picked the other Italian manager, Marcello Lippi.

However even with a world-class manager set to take the stage, I have concerns. First and foremost, the new manager will help England tactically but the game is rotten from the top down and I'm concerned that the current FA board don't have the vision necessary to change the entire system from the kids level all the way up to the national level.

Second, it looks like Stuart Pearce is going to be picked as Capello's number two for England. While Pearce has done well with the under-21's, I would have much preferred a more tactically astute number two. Gianfranco Zola, for example, would have been perfect.

This weekend, meanwhile, is going to be a massive one for the Premier League with Man United against Liverpool and Arsenal versus Chelsea. My wish, though, is that both of these games end up being entertaining and without controversy. It's been ages since a Man United against Liverpool match was exciting and a close encounter. Arsenal against Chelsea is usually more entertaining and it'll be interesting to see how Avram Grant handles the pressure of a big match especially since his first one in charge resulted in a loss to Man United at Old Trafford.

I'll return to regular blogging on Monday. In the meantime, behind the scenes, EPL Talk is gearing up for a complete redesign of the website and blog. More details to come next week but be prepared for big and exciting new changes.

The latest episode of the EPL Talk Podcast features an interview with possibly one of the most respected football pundits on the planet, Guillem Balague.

Balague is an author, TV presenter, journalist and podcaster for many media organizations including Sky Sports, The Times of London, The Game Podcast, Don Balon and many others.

During the interview, we discuss several topics with Balague including what the English can learn from the Spanish game and vice-versa, his thoughts on Fabio Capello for the next England manager position, whether he prefers Pele or Maradona as his favorite footballer, what future plans are for possible books and TV shows -- and much more.

Listen to the interview with Guillem Balague on the EPL Talk Podcast via iTunes or this webpage.

We're proud to announce that EPL Talk and our sister sites have joined Football Media, a network of leading football websites from around the world covering the beautiful game.

Fellow sites within Football Media include Soccerlens, Footy 24/7, Anfield Red, FCB News, The Republik of Mancunia and several other sites.

Some of the goals behind Football Media is to share best practices among soccer bloggers about how to create better sites, generate advertising revenue and to answer technical questions.

By: BillEShears (Tyler Duffy)

The Kop End at Anfield stadium in Liverpool is one of the most magnificent sights in international football. Thirteen thousand red-sporting Scousers with scarves held high sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as Liverpool take the field. The players, the fans and the stadium itself merge into one incendiary, intimidating mass awaiting the lunchtime kickoff of a tempestuous Merseyside Derby match against hated rivals Everton.

Thousands of miles away, a solitary soccer-loving American, up at the crack of dawn, stares at the spectacle on his television set through strained eyes, his enthusiasm dampened because his coffee has yet to finish brewing. “There were people around the entire U.S. who were watching these matches, but, for the most part, they were probably watching them at home on the couch on a Saturday morning with no one else there,” one American fan said.

No one knows exactly how many English Premier League fans are in America, though Fox Soccer Channel averages 300,000 viewers for a live match. It is a substantial figure, but one spread over a large country with a population of 300 million, leaving fans both few and far between. “There may be two or three of us inside the city limit,” another fan said.

For English fans, following a Premier League club is inherently communal. For Americans, the experience often proves one of isolation.

Though fans in the U.S. have had access to Premier League matches since Fox Sports World (now Fox Soccer Channel) began broadcasting them in 1998, fans have remained remote from one another and unable to forge a community. With the explosion of “web 2.0” technologies like blogs, podcasts, and social networking sites over the last few years, however, fans in America have been able to connect with one another over the Internet.

“The Other Football” blog at the Orlando Sentinel is the most popular item on the websites with an average of nearly 15,000 page views per day. An American based podcast which focuses on the Premier League, World Soccer Daily, is routinely one of the top 25 most downloaded sports podcasts in the United States, according to iTunes. Even a smaller Premier League club, such as Fulham F.C., has a U.S. based supporters’ club with over 1,500 members.

Most fans cannot stroll down to their local pub to watch matches and converse with fellow fans or have the proverbial “water cooler” conversations at work. They cannot flip to the back pages of their local newspapers to get the latest gossip. They cannot park themselves in front of a television network like ESPN to immerse themselves in the 24-hour discussion culture. For them, the connections formed on the Internet are essential.

One way that many American fans have connected with others is by starting their own blog. Given the vastness of the Internet, it is impossible to determine exactly how many Americans are blogging about the Premier League. EPL Talk, a social networking site for Premier League fans, links to 27 blogs based in America, though there are undoubtedly many more.

Some such as The 3rd Half, English Soccer Talk, or The Beautiful Game discuss news and events league-wide. Others, such as DerbyYankFan follow an individual club.

Jonathan Starling, 23, a customer service rep for an insurance company in Jacksonville, Florida, began his blog “Blues Views and General Musings” in the fall of 2006, which would later become “The 3rd Half.” He supports Chelsea F.C., though his blog deals with the Premier League in general.

His posts fall into two general categories. The first is “match reviews,” essentially minute-by-minute analyses of Premier League matches. “I was really interested to start writing about what I was seeing,” Starling said.

The second category is his “rantlines,” which are often posted late at night or as early as 4:30 in the morning on weekdays. The titles range from “Grant should just shut up” to the “Thank You Captain Obvious Statements of the Day.” The rantlines normally include passionate passages, such as this one about Chelsea manager Avram Grant defending his players for crowding around the referee and complaining after a foul call.

“WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT, YOU HAVE THE GALL TO ASK WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT? Where would you like me to begin Grant? the fact that it's blatant intimidation? brings the referee's decision into disrepute? makes your players look like screaming little brats that were told they couldn't get that chocolate bar at the check out counter?,” Starling wrote.

The 3rd Half has also been a way for Starling to share his emotions about his ailing father. “I would like to personally extend a hand of thanks to those who have kept him in their thoughts, said kind words, and kept my spirits high throughout the last year,” Starling wrote. “You’ve refused to let me get down and have been encouraging at times when I simply thought about giving up.”

The 3rd Half has become so popular that it has been picked up and promoted nationally by the Champions Soccer Radio Network, an American-based Internet radio station. Starling is currently in talks with the station to develop The 3rd Half into a show for the network.

Blogging about the Premier League has even spread to American newspapers. The most prominent is the Orlando Sentinel’s “The Other Football.” The Sentinel started the blog in May 2006 to cover the World Cup, and kept it going due to its popularity.

Brant Parsons, 34, is the author of the blog. He does not have a traditional journalism background. He worked in radio for nine years, before being hired by the Sentinel to produce the Sports Section of the paper’s website. He was asked to write for the blog, after editors discovered that he was a soccer fan.

He became interest in the sport through friends in Denmark. He chose to follow Arsenal F.C. because Nike sponsors their jersey, though their distinctive brand of attacking soccer has kept him hooked.

Parsons concentrates mostly on the English Premier League, though he will occasionally pen posts about American Major League Soccer and other European leagues. The Other Football is the most popular item on the Orlando Sentinel website, averaging close to 15,000 views per day and around 250,000 views during an average month. Americans and English fans form the bulk of the readership, though it draws in viewers from far-flung places, such as Malaysia, India, and South Africa.

The blog has astonished Parsons’ peers at the Sentinel, not just for the popularity in terms of page views, but for the communal atmosphere it has created. “The time spent on my blog is almost double everything else at the Orlando Sentinel,” Parsons said. “So not only are we getting a lot of unique visitors and a lot of page views, but the people that come, obviously that are soccer fans, they are reading the whole thing, they are ingesting it, they are making comments,”

Parsons’ blog has been so successful that he now writes a weekly soccer column for the Sunday print edition of the paper. He has also spoken at company events about the blog. He remains skeptical, however, that his success will lead other American newspapers to start similar blogs.

“People in Orlando at the Orlando Sentinel don’t quite understand why a soccer blog would be doing so well,” Parsons said. I get some playful ribbing, but I still think they don’t understand the magnitude of the sport and of the followers that are out there.”

Some Premier League fans have taken the next step, delving into audio through podcasts, taped radio shows that can be downloaded and played on an mp3 player.

The most popular Premier League podcasts are professionally produced by news organizations in Britain, such as “Football Weekly” by The Guardian and “The Game” by The Times. However, there are also many independent podcasts produced by fans themselves.

Podcasts, in general, make a great effort to interact with listeners. Nearly all of them maintain a website and a message board where fans can make comments, ask questions, and banter directly with the presenters. “For soccer fans its great because it’s almost like a sub-culture of people who listen to them and interact with them,” one podcaster said.

One prominent podcast produced in America was Soccershout, created by Phil McThomas and Tony Wildey. McThomas, 34, is an Englishman who works as a project manager for an IT company in Maryland. Wildey, 30, is a Scot who occupies a similar position for a company in New York.

”Soccershout was the podcast Tony and I wanted to listen to,” McThomas said. “Something that would cover the game from a very down to earth fan’s point of view. We weren’t journalists. We had no vested interest in the game. We were just trying to talk like two fans talk.”

Soccershout was an informal show approximately half an hour long and released five days a week, Sunday through Thursday. It featured game recaps and previews for upcoming matches in England and Scotland as well as analysis of the day’s top news items.

Podcasting was enjoyable for McThomas, who at times feels isolated from the soccer-crazed culture of his youth in Middlesbrough, England. “There aren’t a lot of Brits where I work now so the banter about football is definitely not there,” McThomas said. “I enjoyed having a little chat about football every night.”

But, there were negative aspects as well. Podcast require a substantial time commitment. For amateurs like McThomas and Wildey with small children and full-time jobs, spending a couple of hours every night producing an audio show was simply not feasible.

“We set ourselves a bar that was very difficult to maintain, especially when Tony had his baby and that was when the threads started to unravel,” McThomas said. “Once, I stopped doing it. It was enjoyable not to be doing it and I’ve been refocusing my energies.”

McThomas searched for a format that was easier to manage, but also could help people more directly connect with one another. His energies are now concentrated on his new social networking site, Clever Football. He hopes the site will avoid some of the problems with podcasting.

“Something that I realized is that audio is not natural still to a lot of people. It’s an effort to get people to download big audio shows and have a player to listen to them on,” McThomas said.

Clever Football employs an innovative social networking platform called Ning, a creation of Marc Andreessen, one of the creators of Netscape. Ning allows members to customize and create their own social networks for specific interest groups, rather than use a generic overarching system, such as Facebook or MySpace. McThomas used Ning to create a social network, specifically for fans of the Premier League.

There are around 100 members of Clever Football as of right now. The site includes standard social networking staples like a message board, friends, and groups, but also has novel features, such as “Chunter.”

Chunter, a British term for low, inarticulate banter, is essentially a message board, though with added versatility. Users can post their “chunters,” which may be messages, blog posts, links, pictures, or videos. They can also choose to “listen” to the chunters of other members on the site and receive live updates when that member creates a new post.

McThomas has worked to create his own tools for the site that are uniquely useful for Premier League fans, such as a match-rating system.

Because of the time difference, Premier League matches are often on at inconvenient times for American fans, prompting them to use a TiVo or a Digital Video Recorder to tape the matches for later viewing.

Many fans record multiple matches, but only have time to watch one. They often opt for what they think will be the best match, only to be horribly disappointed with a drab 0-0 draw.

McThomas’ newest edition to the site would alleviate that problem. With the match rating system, fans who watched the match live can rate the match 1 to 10 in terms of entertainment value, allowing other fans to go to Clever Football and view the average ratings before determining which match to watch.

Though Clever Football remains in its formative stage, Phil has optimistic plans for it.

“I really haven’t been doing a lot of publicizing of it. I’m at the point in development where I am now going to start reaching out and getting people hooked into it,” McThomas said. “Hopefully, once I get that critical mass. It will be like the snowball that just keeps on rolling.”

A social networking site that is on a roll is EPL Talk, started in August of 2005 by Christopher Harris, who posts on his site under the handle “The Gaffer.” Harris, 38, is a marketing executive from South Florida, who moved to the United States from Wales as a teenager.

The site’s initial goal was “to bring people together online at one time to celebrate the English Premier League and make it so it wasn’t so much of a lonely experience,” Harris said.

EPL Talk has done just that. Harris writes the EPL Talk blog, which receives approximately 15,000 hits per day, about 50% coming from Americans. He also publishes the EPL Talk podcast, once a week, which is downloaded by about 5,000 people, 90% of whom are Americans. The podcasts are mostly interviews, with various figures involved with the Premier League both in England and in the U.S. He also produces occasional live shows where a panel of guests field and debate questions called in by members of the audience.

The site also contains the EPL Talk Community, which has 470 members. It features eight regular bloggers who contribute posts about the Premier League as a well as a message board forum.

Another popular feature is the EPL Talk Chat, where fans can come together to discuss the weekend matches online as they are watching them. “They know they are going to have fun and they know they will be able to discuss what they are watching without anyone slagging them off for being a soccer supporter,” said Jonathan Starling, of The 3rd Half, who hosts the chats. EPL Talk also features complete television listings for American fans and a store.

The website has even been successful enough to get a sponsorship deal with Subside Sports, a company that sells Soccer jerseys worldwide.

Initially creating the site for Americans, Harris has been surprised by how many people throughout the world have been attracted to his Internet community. “It’s become global,” Harris said. “There’s people who get involved from all corners of the world whether it’s Japan, Australia, the Middle East and, surprisingly, a lot from England.”

Social networking sites such as Clever Football and EPL Talk serve the Premier League populace at large, but they fail to provide the intimate experience of following a club. That’s where supporters’ clubs come in.

Nearly every Premier League club has some type of supporters’ club based in the United States. Some, such as the Everton Football Supporters Club of North America, are quite small, with a mere fifteen members. Others can number members in the hundreds, if not the thousands.

One of the more popular supporters’ clubs is Fulham USA, started by Tom Wille and Mike Benedetto in December of 2004. Wille, 30, an account manager for a magazine company in Chicago, met Benedetto, who lives in England, while posting on a Fulham message board. “Mike has some background skills with websites and I do writing stuff and we just kind of thought it might be a good idea to put something together,” Wille said.

The site had 100 new members within a day of its founding, and now boasts a membership of 1,550. Most are Americans, concentrated in areas where soccer is popular, such as the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the upper Midwest. However, there are also members scattered throughout Europe and, from more obscure outposts like Honduras and Australia.

Fulham USA is one of the only free American supporters’ sites. Many, such as Arsenal America, charge a $20 membership fee, which gives members access to tickets, as well as other features.

The site contains a blog, a photo gallery, a pub guide, and even an arcade. The most popular features are the message board and chat rooms. “We have good discussions with people who have differing view points,” Wille said. “I believe that it builds a sense of community about the group of Fulham USA. It’s unique. And, it’s kind of cool.”

The message boards provide a forum for Fulham fans to discuss all things Fulham. But, they also extend to soccer in general and other facets of life. Discussions in their “Anything Goes” section range from the Democratic Primaries to David Copperfield.

One user named Andy, a second-year teacher from Halifax, Canada left a post entitled “I’m thinking of quitting teaching,” which started a heartfelt debate about the teaching profession and the state of special education in Canada.

The online community at Fulham USA has even expanded into a physical community.

“Through the message boards, people meet up with one another. I was up in Minneapolis about two months ago and I met up with a couple people who had posted on the message board,” Wille said. “I know there was a guy who went out to San Francisco who met up with four or five people there last week who posted on the board. There are also people who make the trip to Fulham and get together.”

Websites, such as Fulham USA have provided exactly what American fans lacked, a community with which to share their passion. Whether it is “soccer” or “football” and whether it is played on a “field” or on a “pitch,” it is this common passion for the game that unites fans of the English Premier League. Though they may be typing away on laptops rather than sharing pints at the pub, American supporters will never walk alone.

The above article is a college paper written by Tyler Duffy (better known to people as BillEShears from The Guardian's Football Weekly Podcast fame). To read his regularly updated blog, visit the EPL Talk Community or his Odds and Sods website.

So there I was sitting at home finally watching the replay of the Swansea against Horsham FA Cup replay on TV today (a day late, yes I know) when Sky Sports did something I couldn't believe. They did an ESPN trick -- i.e. cutting to a live interview with a manager as the match was being played.

It's one thing for ESPN to do this during Major League Soccer matches, but for Sky to try this tactic is deplorable.

This is nothing brand new. I've seen Sky do this before recently, but it's got to stop. We want to see the football being played on the pitch. We don't want to see a distracting interview.

In the most recent EPL Talk Poll, we asked the question "Who's going to win the war between World Soccer Daily and CSRN?" Well, 102 readers replied to the poll and were convinced that CSRN would do the business. Here are the final results:

CSRN 58% (59 votes)
What war? 19% (19 votes)
Who cares 13% (13 votes)
World Soccer Daily 11% (11 votes)

ESPN is interested in bidding for the TV rights to the Premier League according to a senior executive interviewed by The Financial Times.

The rights in question are the much coveted UK TV rights only. The American broadcaster is considering bidding for the rights in 2009, which will likely mean that the TV rights fees will spiral yet again due to increased competition allowing the Premier League (and the 20 clubs) to pocket more massive sums of money. ESPN would be competing for the rights against the incumbent Sky Sports and Setanta Sports.

ESPN is in the process of launching their network in Europe after recently purchasing NASN (North American Sports Network) from Setanta. The American broadcaster will be rebranding NASN as ESPN in the near future. Adding the Premier League to the network after 2009 would be a massive coup.

The news about ESPN's interest in the Premier League TV rights makes absolute sense if the network wants to be as successful in Europe as it has been in the United States. Despite ESPN's interest in the UK TV rights for the Premier League, no mention has been made of their interest in bidding for the US TV rights for the league. But if ESPN is able to acquire the UK TV rights -- and they would be in for a massive battle against Sky Sports especially -- this may convince ESPN that the US TV rights would be beneficial too.

Today's news from ESPN will increase speculation that the broadcaster may be interested in acquiring Setanta Sports, which will give automatically the American broadcaster an entryway into having some Premier League TV rights in the UK and US.

Fox Soccer Channel, meanwhile, should watch the news closely as they may not be able to compete if ESPN decided to bid for the TV rights in the United States. Imagine how different FSC would be without the Premier League. It's almost unthinkable and would change the perception of the channel overnight.

What do you think? Do you think having ESPN acquire the UK rights will be a good thing for football fans in the UK? And do you see ESPN being interested in acquiring the rights in the US at all?

For once, people living in the UK this weekend will get a taste of our own medicine -- in the nicest way possible. That's because the Ricky Hatton against Floyd Mayweather fight begins at 9pm ET (or later) making it a 2am UK event time.

For years, football fans in America have had to suffer with World Cup matches being played in the middle of the night as well as Premier League matches kicking off as early as 4:45am PT. That's not just a once a year experience either. Tons of supporters on the west coast of the U.S. regularly get up that early each and every weekend.

The 2am UK event time has already made the news with Rafa Benitez banning Liverpool players from watching the Ricky Hatton fight so they can get their much-needed rest in time for Tuesday's night massive Champions League tie against Marseille.

While Rafa is taking this stand, you know that the Liverpool players (or players of any club) will try to sneak in and watch the fight on TV. It's the biggest fight of the year and knowing the footballers, they've got several huge bets riding on the event. There is no way that all of them are going to follow orders from Rafa.

I'm awaiting final confirmation, but it looks very likely that I'll be interviewing a different kind of guest this Sunday for the next episode of the EPL Talk Podcast.

The guest will be the first rock star to appear on the podcast. It's Billy Duffy, lead guitarist from The Cult, the band that is best known for singles such as "Fire Woman," "She Sells Sanctuary," "Love Removal Machine" and their new single "Dirty Little Rockstar."

What you may not know is that Billy is a massive Manchester City fan. On previous tours, he's worn Man City shirts onstage and is friends with many other City fans who are also celebrities such as Johnny Marr (from The Smiths), Oasis and even Man City players themselves.

The longtime L.A. resident has also played for Hollywood United.

If you have any questions you'd like me to ask Mr. Duffy, please post them here. The interview is tentatively scheduled for this Sunday, December 9th.

Man United's current website is one of massive proportions both in scale and interactivity. Undoubtedly there are a team of people updating it daily and making it a destination for United fans around the world.

But the website had more humble origins as can be seen in the following screenshots. The first is from 1999 (which has a similar design as the one launched in 1998, the year that the Man United site debuted at http://www.manutd.com):


The trend in the late 1990's was to build a splash page that was short on content but was a pretty "door" to the website. The center point of the design was Old Trafford with a beautiful photograph showing three sides of the ground. After entering the site from this page, the main page was equally simple and was filled mostly with advertising. There was typically one main headline story and that was about it except for links to the other pages.















In 2002, the Man United website (pictured above) had a more modern look-and-feel although still nowhere near as good as the current one. Again the 2002 design was a splash page that users first saw before going to a main page. In fact, the current Man United web site has a splash page too but it's used for directing users to different sections of the website than for decoration.

Interestingly, the 2002 version advertises a pay-per-view game that website visitors could watch on the website for 2.50 GBP (equivalent to $5). The game was Man United against Liverpool. So even in 2002, Man United's website was ahead of the pack.

What are your memories from the old Man United website? Good or bad?

By the end of this week, Las Vegas will resemble a Manchester derby. Ricky Hatton, one of the most die-hard Man City supporters, will be dressed in the colors of his favorite football team, while thousands of Brits who have flown over from the UK will be in attendance for the fight at the MGM Grand.

Hatton's opponent Mayweather got into the act recently by wearing a Manchester United shirt. Everyone in Vegas I've spoken to, mostly the cab drivers, think Mayweather will win the fight pretty easily. But the Brits, myself included, are very confident that an upset is on the cards.

I won't be in Vegas for the fight unfortunately as I'm flying back to Florida on Friday from my business trip here. But I did manage to sneak in some football today during my lunch break to watch the final 30 minutes of Newcastle v Arsenal and Everton v Zenit St. Petersburg.

Sitting in the Sports Bet section of the Luxor hotel next to 20 Brits, we watched the two games side-by-side. After scoring the equalizer, Newcastle played like they were content with the draw rarely threatening the Arsenal goal except for a succession of corners near the end of the game. Arsenal looked a bit lightweight and short of ideas for the final 30 minutes. And a point dropped by the Gunners was summed up by the dour faces of the Arsenal fans exiting the Luxor.

Newcastle's Sam Allardyce now has a lifeline courtesy of Steven Taylor's goal. Big Sam still has the passion too as witnessed by his tirades along the touchline near the end of the match.

When Tim Cahill knocked in the winner near the end of the match against Zenit, a roar from 5-6 Everton fans erupted in the casino as they celebrated the Toffees reaching the next round of the UEFA Cup.

Newcastle United face Arsenal this afternoon in a vital match for both clubs. Expect the cameras to be zooming in on Sam Allardyce as they look for a hint of self doubt or anger on his face.

While Big Sam's future at St. James' Park is in doubt, I feel he deserves a few more weeks in charge to see if he can turn Newcastle United's fortunes around. While other clubs were wise to sack their managers (Wigan, Spurs, Bolton and Chelsea), Big Sam has proven himself as a manager while at Bolton.

At the beginning of the season, Newcastle was in a terrible mess and they still are, but giving Allardyce the heave-ho at this point will serve no purpose except to add to another long list of managers at Newcastle who have failed to achieve.

What is vital, however, is that Newcastle needs to put in a performance today at St. James' Park to restore the faith among the fans. They need to see a gritty performance where the players are trying to win every 50/50 ball. The United players need to show how much pride they have in wearing the Newcastle shirt and fight for their lives.

Against Arsenal it's never going to be easy, but if Newcastle wants the boost they desperately need, today's match against the Gunners will go a long way to helping Big Sam.

While the Newcastle United players have a lot to prove, so too does Sam Allardyce. If he wants to have ambitions of managing England in the future, he needs to turn around the ship at Newcastle and make this team into a winning side. All he needs to get started is a few victories between now and New Years. Let's see what he's made of.

Keep an eye on EPL Talk in the next few weeks as we're going to be launching a redesign and making some huge changes.

As the leading website in the United States for coverage of the world's most popular sports league, the Premier League, we're excited about we have in store for you. We'll continue to focus on delivering some of the most insightful content as well as keeping you up to speed on the latest developments at Fox Soccer Channel, Setanta Sports and GolTV.

Plus we have several big surprises in store.

In the meantime, we'd like to wish the following people the best of luck in their new ventures: Mando, Hannah and Elisa from La Liga Talk and Serie A Talk, BC John from the EPL Talk Chat and Community, and Kartik Krishnaiyer from the EPL Talk Community.

It's always tough to have your friends go, but at the same time, it's rewarding to have seen the bloggers and podcasters grow from where they started to where they are now.

We want to thank them for all of their contributions and we hope they do well at CSRN.

Setanta Sports News, the new 24/7 sport news network launched in the UK, will be shown in the United States beginning in early 2008 according to a source at Setanta Sports.

Setanta Sports will be allowed to show up to three hours of news a day and will launch probably in January in the States. The news footage will be included on the Setanta Sports TV feed available via ITVN, Dish and DirecTV.

If you don't have Setanta yet, sign up today at http://www.soccerondish.com

In yesterday's edition of the blog, we asked you to enter a contest and tell us which EPL Talk Podcast episodes have been your favorite thus far. And one lucky respondent would win a copy of the new book, The Premiership In Focus.

First, here's what you wrote:

"Episode 78. I enjoyed the interviews with the FSC and Setanta execs. I like to hear the nuts and bolts of how that stuff gets decided." -- Kent

"By far, the best episode was the interview with Tony Evans. He was able to present a full array of interesting topics on soccer -especially his personal experiences on the Liverpool tragedy. This was a very insightful interview." -- Blair Waddell

"I would have to say that the interview with Chuck Culpepper is my current favorite. I thought his story was great and how he came to love the game following Portsmouth. He reminded me of myself years ago when I was just getting into the game, and I could easily relate with him. He was very informative and had a very humorus attitude which made it even better." -- Mike Kenna

"My favorite episode of the EPLTalk podcast so far has been the interview with Gabriele Marcotti because I think he is the most accurate football pundit I have ever heard and it is refreshing hearing someone speak who is not anti-American (or anti-Canadian)." -- Mike Richard

"Wow, to pick just one? The Toby Charles one from a few weeks ago was great -- I had always heard about him, but didn't watch Soccer Made in Germany and didn't know anything about him, so that was excellent. I also enjoyed the other ones with TV/radio announcers, most notably Ray Hudson, Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth. Talking to Chuck Culpepper about his Pompey book was great. Oliver Tse was interesting. But I think my favorites were from your EPL tour last winter. The one that really stands out was an interview with two longtime Fulham supporters talking about the changes over the years. I liked that whole set of interviews because it came the closest to taking me to a Premier League match -- I've never been to England, so I like anything that helps me get a feel for what it's like. All in all, it's been a great almost 100 episodes of EPL Talk." -- Eric Anderson

"If I had to pick one, I would say that my favorite episode of the EPL Talk podcast up to now as the interview with Andrew Jennings. I've always been interested in the corrupt side of sports (not that I particularly want to be involved in that bit - I just think it's fascinating from a sociological perspective), and to hear Jennings lambasting Sepp Blatter, Jack Warner, et al was very interesting indeed. It was only made better when you had Peter Hargitay on a week or two later, which I thought gave the listeners the opportunity to hear both sides of the story and decide for themselves who they believed." -- Matthew Semisch

"My favorite episode is actually an older one, #38, where you discuss Arsenal and in particular Arsenal America." -- Mark Barbeau

The winner, picked out at random, is Mark Barbeau. Congratulations! And thanks to everyone who entered.

Listen to the above episodes and more of the EPL Talk Podcast today.

This Friday, EPL Talk will record an exclusive interview with Guillem Balague, the co-host of The Game Podcast and expert football pundit who works for Sky Sports among other media companies.

If you have a question that you'd like me to ask him, please click on the 'comments' link below and include your name. If I use the question during the interview, I'll mention your question and name on-air to Guillem.

The interview will be published on the EPL Talk Podcast this Monday, December 10th.

We're giving away one copy of the brand-new book The Premiership In Focus, which is a hardcover book packed with stories and photos recounting the highs and lows of the first 15 years of the Premier League.

Written by Martyn Smith, who was interviewed in a recent episode of the EPL Talk Podcast, the book is only available via import.

If you're interested in winning a copy of it, you need to respond fast. The deadline is today (Monday, December 3rd at midnight ET). Just email thegaffer[at]epltalk[dot]com and tell us what your favorite episode of the EPL Talk Podcast has been and why. We'll then pick out one person at random and will announce the winner on this blog tomorrow.

It's hard to believe sometimes how invisible the Premier League is in the United States. Right now, I'm at a Starbucks in the Luxor casino in Las Vegas, Nevada where I've been since Friday.

Despite Las Vegas having very modern and chic hotels, finding a TV set with Fox Soccer Channel and/or Setanta Sports is like trying to find the holy grail. Without those two channels, the EPL is invisible. The only other way to experience it is via the Internet and trying to find a wifi connection is also a challenge.

I didn't get a chance to track down places to watch Saturday's matches between Chelsea and West Ham, Wigan and Man City and Portsmouth versus Everton, but I wanted to find a place to see Aston Villa against Arsenal.

I searched through seven casinos looking for TV sets that were playing FSC or Setanta. Most of the major hotels have horse racing and sports bet areas where there's a wall of 10-50 giant screen TVs allowing people to watch and bet on games. Here's what I found in my search for Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta:

Out of the eight casinos I visited, only two of them show Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports. That's MGM Grand and Luxor. There were no FSC or Setanta at Tropicana, Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, Stratosphere, Sahara or Wynn.

At Luxor, I was able to watch Arsenal impressively beat Villa 2-1 with goals from Flamini and Adebayor. Each seat in the sports area had a personal TV so I was able to watch the Fox broadcast live while I also had the choice of watching the Coca Cola Championship match on Setanta if I wanted.

During half time, I walked up and asked a Luxor employee if I could bet on the soccer matches. She replied no but said I could watch as much of the games as I would like. Nice.

Looking around, most of the people watching the match were Brits on holiday sitting by themselves and seeming not that interested in the match.

On the Sunday, I visited the MGM Grand and sat down to watch Spurs against Birmingham City. The game kicked off at 8am local time and Fox was being displayed on about six of the flat-screen TVs on the wall.

The first half was extremely entertaining and I thought Spurs was unlucky to concede the penalty, but one-nil to Birmingham at the half was an impressive scoreline. A few minutes before the second half was set to return to Fox, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. All of the TV channels set to Fox changed channels to display horse racing. Horse racing?? I guess MGM has to make money after all.

After telling a English bloke next to me that MGM was a bunch of wankers for turning the match off, I stormed away in protest and met up with my wife at the slot machines.

After reading the match report later in the day, it sounds like I missed a fantastic and controversial second half. Just my luck.

One thing that is clearly evident is how massive the NFL is in this country. I knew it before, of course, but by walking past the sports bet areas in the different hotels on the Sunday afternoon, there were tons of people watching the matches (both for betting and sporting reasons).

That's one thing I dislike. In my home, I can control the TV sets to play FSC and Setanta nearly 24/7. Away from home, I sometimes feel like it's the 1980's all over again where finding English football is an adventure. I'll be in Vegas until Friday on business. It should be an interesting adventure trying to keep on top of the soccer news and coverage!