Big Red Fury

The 28-year-old has agreed a three-year contract and passed a medical, although the move is subject to a work permit.

Petrov was strongly linked with a move to Tottenham, but City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson has made the Bulgarian his fourth new signing.

"Having Sven as manager proved to be a major factor in the player's decision," said City chief Alistair Mackintosh.

"Unsurprisingly given the calibre of the player, there were a significant number of clubs competing for Martin's signature, and I am absolutely delighted that he has come to Manchester City."

Petrov, a left winger, began his career at CSKA Sofia and enjoyed spells at Swiss club Servette and Wolfsburg in Germany before signing for Atletico in 2005.

However, the Spanish club have opted to cash in on Petrov after agreeing a £13.4m deal with Benfica for winger Simao Sabrosa.

Petrov, who has made more than 60 appearances for Bulgaria, and fellow new signing Geovanni were presented to the media on Thursday.

Eriksson said: "I'm sure that a lot of clubs wanted both of them, and I'm very happy we were able to get them. They will do very well for us, I'm sure about that.

"They are experienced, and it's important that we don't just buy players around 19 or 20 years old.

"In the Premier League you need class and experience, and these two are top class players.

"Technically they are very good, Geovanni can play on the right or as a second striker, and Martin's left foot is very, very good."

Eriksson also said he is planning more signings before the transfer window closes on 31 August.

"I don't think we are finished signing, there will be more new faces coming in different positions," he said.

"The new owner has shown he means serious business when he says that he wants to build a strong team which is not fighting at the bottom of the table. This is one way in which he has shown that."

I have been following the Adu news since the U20 WC since he has been getting quite a bit of intrest and it looks like he may be close to a move overseas soon altough this is just rumor at this point. Here is what I found:

Sources confirmed media reports that Adu is most likely headed to Benfica in Portugal, in part because of how difficult it would be for him to obtain a work permit to play for either of the other two teams most interested in him, Celtic FC in Scotland or Tottenham Hotspur in England

Mencia is a terrible comedian, but a decent stage performer. He's a poor man's Dane Cook because while Cook steals stuff, he steals decent stuff and he's blows the pants off Mencia on stage and he's a decent to good actor.

I actually like that Arsenal one, but yea, the City third is sex, fairly certain I'm getting it.

Finished the book earlier today and I hate that I read the thing Cloudy posted last week. I loved the book though, it was fantastic.

I like Paulina James a lot.

FM 08 i dont think is happening. They are putting all their efforts into Football Manager Live instead I think, so there might just be an 07/08 official update from Si rather than a new game.

The Old Firm for Adu could finally be where he belongs. It's not top-tier stuff, but it's a great place to gain experience, titles and European recognition. And if he's consistently decent-to-good, he'll be there for a long time (unless a bigger club comes a-calling).

Mexico just trounced Congo and are moving on to Argentina which I have being the best game of the tournament. I think Mexico is going to come out on top though. They've just been really really impressive.

That goal absolutely takes the piss. His one against Getafe was better, but still.

Monique Alexander wins.

The comments were made at a High Court hearing in Leeds, where the club's plans to exit administration are being challenged by HM Revenue & Customs.

KPMG said that unless the club is able to leave administration, the Football League may not let it start the season.

BBC Radio Leeds understands the Football League is as yet undecided.

No-one at the Football League was immediately available for comment.

Renewed rival bids?

The court case has now been adjourned until 3 September, while Leeds are due to play their first game of next season away to Tranmere on Saturday, 11 August.

Former Leeds chairman Gerald Krasner told Sky Sports News he thought the ownership question would be sorted out before the start of the season.

He also raised the possibility that two interested parties could join forward to buy the club if KPMG rejects Mr Bates' plans.

Those who have previously declared an interest in buying the club include Duncan Revie, son of former Leeds manager Don, and property entrepreneur Simon Morris.

Unpaid taxes

Earlier this week, businessman Simon Franks said he was ready to buy Leeds United, through his Redbus investment vehicle.

HM Revenue & Customs is unhappy at the plans of Leeds chairman Ken Bates to pull the club out of administration by paying creditors just 8p in every £1.

Mr Bates has already warned that the cost of defending the court action could cost the club its future.

Leeds United has debts of £35m, with HM Revenue & Customs owed £7.7m in unpaid taxes.

Tevez in means Smith and Richardson are definitely out I think. Even still they've got too many players for the midfield and Tevez and Rooney are basically the same player for me. I'm hoping they suffer from Liverpool/Chelsea rotation syndrome because I fucking hate United, but I admit they look good for the title on paper.

It's pretty damn sad when the guy who sang Achy Breaky Heart's daughter beat you in album sales.

I'm happy because a team who actually play football have stayed in the Premiership. In a dream world, both Wigan and Sheffield United would have gone down.

The guys behind at Real Madrid are pathetic. They cry for La Liga for years, when they win it its not good enough.

Well to be fair, this firing was almost solely due to the president feeling the need to cover his ass for calling out Beckham by shit canning the other most vocal advocate of Beckham leaving.

The guys behind at Real Madrid are pathetic. They cry for La Liga for years, when they win it its not good enough.

I love this trade for the Celtics. Jeff Green is a pretty good player, but honestly, he wasn't really neccesary. The Celtics still have Paul Pierce and now Ray Allen, and Ray Allen as of right now is better than Jeff Green (and I'm pretty sure that he won't be as good when he reaches his full potential either). Plus, we already have our future SG in Gerald Green. This trade also makes a playoff contender. Pierce/Allen/Jefferson is a deadly three man combo.

I also really like the picks of Big Baby Davis and Pruitt. Pruitt provides some much needed PG depth (West was traded, and Rondo will start). Rondo/Pruitt is a pretty good young duo at PG. Rondo will be the better of the 2 though. Davis is an interesting pick. He has quite a bit of potential, but some say his weight is a concern. I think it's worth the pick though, and hopefully he can fill in well at center (Perkins is as one dimensional as they come).

As for other winners/losers:

Winners:

1. Portland- Far and away the winners of the draft. Oden, Fernandez, Frye, McRoberts, Green, Nichols, and Koppenen. Add that to an already good young team including Roy, Jack, and Aldridge. I mean...are you kidding me? This team is just going to be flat out ridiculous in 2-3 years. Hell, they might be a playoff team next year.

2. Charlotte- I really liked their decision to trade Wright for Richardson. Richardson is the veteran 2 guard that this team needs. Wright is a good player, but I think they're set with Okafor, May, and Brezec. Dudley should be a quality role player in his career, and Davidson provides some depth at forward.

3. Seattle- Losing Ray Allen hurts, but they more than made up for it. Durant and Green are going to be a dangerous duo in years to come. I like the addition of Delonte because he will most likely be the PG (I see Ridnour being traded). Sczerbiak should be either a good guy off the bench, or a decent starting SG (unfortunately, his contract sucks).

Losers:

1. Milwaukee- It sucks when your number one draft pick has no interest in playing for you at all. Yi is most likely never going to play for the Bucks, and this is a wasted pick, depending on what they can get for him. If they can get someone like Biedrins or Ellis from Golden State, then it wasn't a wasted pick and they shouldn't be considered losers.

2. Philadelphia- I didn't think it was possible to be a loser when you have 3 1st round picks, but the Sixers proved me wrong. The first problem I have is that they took Thad Young over guys that could help them more, such as Stuckley, Wright, or Young. Then, they actually fulfilled a need at SG with Cook...but traded him to Miami. They did end up trading for Derrick Byars, but like I said, they could have had Stuckley or Young, who are better players.

3. Phoenix- I don't think that Alando Tucker fits, or was he a need. Also, them selling their pick to Portland was pretty hilarious. However, they might get Frye instead of just 3 million, which will be really good.

The only players I can remember signing twice were Kerzhakov(anytime I played as Shakhtar I always bought him, that was obviously pre-Sevilla), Guarin(He filled a gap in central midfield and was a guy my scouts suggested twice), and Andres Rios(Both times I've played as Man City I signed him, luckily I've never stuck with either game long enough to see if he pans out)

Kanye makes some decent music, shame he's so fantastically crazy.

Honestly, I dig the massive amounts of crazy. I mean, in Kanye's case it is a bit ridiculous, but at the same time hip-hop is quite possibly the single most inherently egotistical style of music ever. I honestly can't think of a single great rapper/rap group that hasn't made at least one song about how great they are (even acts like De La Soul spend much of their time talking about how much better they are than mainstream, generic rap, and Digable Planets released an entire song solely dedicated to how incredibly cool they are, and that was their big hit).

Kanye makes some decent music, shame he's so fantastically crazy.

Is anybody interested in it? Starts tomorrow night here in England. Any of the Americans here know why the US squad is weaker than their Gold Cup squad despite the Copa America being more prestigious and with harder competition? Can't quite work it out, unless they're all feeling a bit jaded. They're in the hardest group too, so they're gonna be really up against it.

As you've all come to expect, here's a plug for the fantasy league going on BS about it. It's quite an interesting idea, and so I hope a few of you will check it out and sign up. Won't require any maintenance either, so once you've picked your squad you canjust sit back and relax.

Wikipedia now has a of the leagues on FIFA 08 including the Football leagues 1, 2 and Championship. Plenty on the new game that was'nt on the last version. I think only the Irish League has'nt appeared on a game before.

Will the squads the USA and Mexico have for the Gold Cup be the same as their squads for the Copa America?

Serbia obviously can't be kicked out of the competition, but I agree that they should face very stiff punishment once it's over. Everyone deserves due diligence and in my opinon, justice cannot be served in that short of a time period. As for the Dutch, yea the keeper may have been off his line but I mean if the ref doesn't enforce it you can hardly be angry at the Dutch for it. If you've got blame to place, place it on him for botching a seemingly easy call.