Football Transfer Talk- Could Wesley Sneijder be the final link in the Manchester United chain?

The transfer market is going crazy and certain prospective deals are arousing much interest. The Manchester United, Wesley Sneijder connection is a particularly appetising prospect. Despite the Red Devil's success last season I have always felt that they have lacked a touch of mesmerising flair at times. Cristiano Ronaldo's trickery has been missed but Sneijder is undoubtedly the man to fill his shoes and take the fight to Barcelona in Europe. A key man in the Holland and Inter Milan sides, Sneijder is intelligent, skilful and experienced. I could see the Dutch maestro linking up well with Rooney, Hernandez or Berbatov to devastating effect. With Paul Scholes gone, United need to replace the Old Trafford Hall of Famer's passing skills and experience. If Sneijder joins the Premier League Champions, Chelsea will have to capture Samir Nasri or another creative midfielder to keep pace with developments at Old Trafford.

The Stewart Downing connection to Liverpool is not surprising. Liverpool have a habit of acquiring good players that do not live up to the great heritage of the club. Liverpool are a huge club and I find it peculiar that they keep buying good players,rather than the great players they should be attracting. Suarez,Carroll and Henderson are class acts no doubt but why have they been joined by the likes of Jovanovic, Aquilani and Konchesky  in recent memory? Downing would just be another 7 out of 10 player ,adding to a huge wage bill and cluttering up squad numbers that could be given to genuine stars. At £20million Downing is all wrong for Dalglish and I just hope the money men at the club deem this too higher price to pay for a heavily one sided, better than average winger.

Manchester City have spent £7million on Clichy which is decent business. Kolarov is a better player but Clichy will create good competition at left back. The Tevez saga shows that players are exerting too much power over their clubs. Credit must go to City for holding out for £50million, a price that offers potential purchasers no value once sign-on fees,wages&management of the Argentinian's behaviour are considered. Don't be shocked if the Argentinian talisman has to get on with things or warm the bench until January.

The transfer stories keep coming and are far from finished. Expect to see Roman Abramovich funding Andre Villas-Boas' buying wishes, particularly of Porto stars such as Hulk and Falcao. QPR should dig deep too with wealthy backers such as steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and F1 entrepreneur Flavio Briatore at hand to fund their survival charge.

Are England Really the 4th Best Football Team in the World?

Recently Fifa released the latest international football rankings. England have been rated as the 4th best side in the world ahead of the likes of Brazil and Argentina! You may think that the use of an exclamation mark at the end of the previous sentence is unwarranted,but regular England watchers will understand. Fabio Capello has been in charge for years now and we are no better off. Every interview the Italian has illustrates more evidence as to why the players may be lacking in inspiration. The former Real Madrid Manager is still unable to speak English coherently and as a result, cannot get his points across effectively. £6million a year is paid to the England Manager, surely enough to pay a decent language coach to sharpen up his communication skills.

There are question marks about the players' commitment to the international game but I do not believe this is the real problem. The real problem boils down to a lack of leadership, tactical errors and a lack of forward thinking urgency,in the way England play. The captaincy situation has been a joke, again the fault of Capello. Rio Ferdinand has been an England stalwart for years and was the perfect man for the job, a winner in every sense. Having taken the captaincy from John Terry once, Capello took a respectable, hardline stance, by then going back on his decision he interrupted the stability of the side. Terry is a good captain no doubt but why mix and match with such a key position in the squad?

In terms of tactics, England have a tendency to lob the ball forward, down the side channels, with passes that resemble neither long ball tactics nor moves of purposeful industry. The England strategy is neither here nor there. When you think of Spain you think of quick,incisive passing with bustling movement up front. What do you think when you think of England? Exactly, nothing. We don't stand for any particular brand of football,we have no distinguishable style or pattern to our play,other than the aimless punts up-field outlined earlier.

I have deliberately excluded the players from critiscm on the grounds that their talent is unquestionable. What is needed is a 'Composer' to put these collective talents together and make us stand for something other than a big disappointment (1966 aside).

Would Capello have been allowed to stay if he were a club Manager,performing as he is? We all know the answer to that one.