Gareth Bale to Madrid?

Reports have been swirling around today that Gareth Bale is on his way to Real Madrid. According to Spanish media, it is already a done deal with Bale signing a 6 year contract with the club. However, this is once again the media making nonsense speculation. As of right now Bale is still a Spurs player, and with the contract extension he signed in May, it seems he wants to keep it that way. Bale has expressed his loyalty to Tottenham after his breakout season just last season. He will most likely stay with Tottenham, in my opinion. August is coming up and Madrid isn't the type of team to make a big move like this this late. The Spurs are also really looking to not move him as he is by far their best player and maybe their only true goal scoring option. Bale could become a legend with the club and help them build a very strong team around him. Just missing out on 4th in the Premier League to get into the Champions League with the squad they had last season is impressive and if they can keep building and add a few pieces, Tottenham can be looking to compete for a top 3 or 4 finish this coming season. It's also important for them to keep Clint Dempsey. He may not be a key player for them, but he's definitely a great option for the starting XI or even to come off the bench. He's a good goalscorer and can link up with Bale nicely in the midfield. Gareth Bale is starting to look like a world class player and can make Tottenham a serious threat.

Edinson Cavani to PSG

Edinson Cavani has officially signed on with P$G. After much speculation throughout the season if he was going to leave or not, then to which team, it has all finally come to a close. A Ligue 1 record of 64M euros ended Cavani's legacy at Napoli. If Ibrahimovic stays, the two of them could be the best striker pairing the world has seen in a long time. Realistically speaking, I believe if Ibra and El Matador are on top of their game they can each score 30+ plus goals in Ligue 1. I don't want to get into it too much, but I'll never understand why Cavani would leave Napoli. It's a fanatastic team, in a great city and the fans adore him. P$G has no better chance of winning the Champions League than Napoli does, as Bayern, Barca and Madrid are all much more dominate teams and are the most likely candidates to claim Europe this coming year. In the end, it's a great move for Paris Saint-Germain and especially if Ibra stays. It could be an extremey fun team to watch.

US Soccer Development

In order for the US to eventually become as elite as Europe or South America, both on the club and international level, they are going to need to figure out a way to develop players much, much better. The current system in which the USFA operates in developing players, in my opinion, might be the worst in the world. In the richest country in the world with 330 million people and to lose to Jamaica and Guatamala in World Cup qualifiers is quite pathetic. The best way for the US to go about developing players must start in the MLS. The current MLS formats barely allows a player develop at all. If a player does not make the team his first time, he has no opportunities to improve his game. He just goes off into what ever career he studied in college, or worse, he couldn't afford college and depended on soccer to make a living and now he's helpless. The MLS must form into a European league like the EPL or Serie A or La Liga. It must start lower divisions to allow players to work their way up the ranks and get better and better to finally play on a top division MLS team. With the amount of money the United States has, the potential in this country is boundless. Not only would lower divisions help improve players, it would then lead to a high quality of play in the MLS, which would then lead to a better national team. What does all of that lead to? More people paying attention to the greatest sport in the world in the US. What does that lead to? More money. With more money, it would only get better and the US would become a true superpower in world football, along the likes of Spain, Italy, Germany, England, Brazil and others. The sad part is, there has been absolutely no talk of any of this ever going to happen. The US football association is just going to continue to force players to either make the team or not and then just leave it up to a coach to fix everything on the national team. The NFL has the college system, the NBA has the D-league, the NHL has the AHL and junior leagues, the MLB and Triple, double, single A AND college. Italy has Serie B, C1, C2, D and hundreds, litterly hundreds of other divisions. Spain, England, Germany all have countless lower divisions of football. All, and I mean all, of those leagues have massive fan bases, except the MLS. The potential is massive for the US, but the wrong people are running the show.

How Madrid are to Succeed with Ancelotti

If Madrid are going to bounce back from last season, Carlo Ancelotti is going to need to gather all the players together and get them on his side. Mourinho left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and really brought down player morale. When you have a falling out with two of the best players to ever play this sport in Cristiano Ronaldo and Iker Casillas, you know there's a major problem with the coach. Ancelotti MUST convince Ronaldo to stay at Madrid and not be tempted to go back to Old Trafford. Ronaldo said early in the season that he was unhappy and was contemplating his future. He has supposedly been to Manchester and has had talks about a possible transfer. I'm not sure how true these reports are or if these are even serious talks, but the fact it's out there is a problem for Madrid. As for Iker, he proved he's the second best in the world(Gigi bias here) at the Confederations Cup when he saved Spain against Italy with wonderful save upon save. There should be no doubt that he's the starting goalkeeper for his club, although Diego Lopez does deserve a few starts if Casillas falls in some short slumps. Ancelotti also has some tactiful issues to work out. With Higuain gone and Isco coming in, he'll need to figure out where Isco can fit into the squad. Ronaldo is a winger through and through and should not be played as a target man by any means. Ronaldo even spoke out publicly how he hates playing in the middle when Mourinho played him there. Ancelotti should also test out Varane in the defense as Ramos can't do it all by himself which he usually ends up doing.  Varane is a 19 year old Frenchman with an extremely bright future ahead of him, he needs consistent playing time in order to develop. If these things can be done, expect Real Madrid to give Barcelona a real run for their money and a deep, deep run into the Champions League. The most important thing for Ancelotti is to bring up player morale and start off on the good side of things with everybody.