Join The Blog Leagues!

The Blog Leagues Are FULL!!! I will now check all 12 to see if any teams joined more than one league, and remove any duplicates. This may release a few extra spaces, I'll let you know...

YFF Blog League 1
Group ID#: 4842
Password: prem

YFF Blog League 2
Group ID#: 4843
Password: blog

YFF Blog League 3
Group ID#: 4844
Password: ball

YFF Blog League 4
Group ID#: 4845
Password: footy

YFF Blog League 5
Group ID#: 5085
Password: blog

YFF Blog League 6
Group ID#: 5086
Password: footy

YFF Blog League 7
Group ID#: 5088
Password: prem

YFF Blog League 8
Group ID#: 5089
Password: ball

YFF Blog League 9
Group ID#: 5781
Password: shoot

YFF Blog League 10
Group ID#: 5887
Password: group 

YFF Blog League 11
Group ID#: 6517
Password: footy

YFF Blog League 12
Group ID#: 6518
Password: blog

As usual there will be Cup Competitions run between the teams in the leagues, so be quick and PLEASE don't join more than one league, even if you have multiple teams; it's unfair on others. I will be checking team names and usernames when all of the leagues are full and any teams found to be in more than one league will be removed completely.

You'll notice that these are no longer named "AM" Blog Leagues and the reason for this will be revealed in the coming days. I will say that there is some exciting news on it's way regarding a new partnership for the coming season... please keep checking back!

Cheers,
AM

Aguero To Finalise City Move

Telegraph - Aguero to finalise £35m City move

Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero is confident his £35 million move to Manchester City will be completed today after he arrived in England to meet club officials.

The 23 year-old Argentina international was at City's Carrington training ground this morning having cut short a holiday in his homeland to fly in to finalise contract negotiations and undergo a medical.

"Just arrived in Manchester to finalise the details of signing with City," Aguero wrote on Twitter. "Everything is going very well! I'll tell you more in a while."

Aguero at 6.04? Don't mind if I do!

N'Zogbia Set For Villa Move

Sky Sports - N'Zogbia set for Villa move

Wigan winger Charles N'Zogbia could become an Aston Villa player by the end of the week, the Midlands club have announced following the agreement of a £9.5million fee.

N'Zogbia is now due to discuss personal terms with Villa and then undergo a medical before the deal is complete.

This is essentially a done deal, and so Aston Villa repair some of the damage done by the loss of Ashley Young & Stewart Downing. Expect N'Zogbia to take up set pieces, with Albrighton lining up on the opposite wing for the new season, and to be honest I don't think that's too much of a downgrade.

Both players have great delivery, will be keen to impress their new boss and I'm expecting strong fantasy performances from both. Darren Bent should continue to thrive as the spearhead of the attack and will of course take over full-time penalty duty with Young out of the picture. I'll be looking at Villa players in the opening few weeks as they have quite a nice start to their schedule (away to Fulham in Week 1 but then home to Blackburn & Wolves in Week 2 & 3).

It's not such a happy story for Wigan Athletic, losing the man who was the difference between relegation and survival in the final months of last season. With N'Zogbia in the final year of his contract Dave Whelan obviously felt he had little choice but to take the cash on offer, but the key to this is how they invest it.

Roberto Martinez is a bright young manager and will try to bring in a replacement/s who will play football the right way, but with their best player gone, paltry crowds and another relegation battle on the cards, how attractive are Wigan to potential signings? It's set to be another tough season for the Latics but they have the chance to start it well - they face the three promoted sides Norwich, Swansea & QPR in Week 1, 2 & 3.

Cheers,
AM

Feel free to join the Blog Facebook Group - we've passed 1400 members & it's always great to add more! You can also follow me on Twitter (@nikarg)!

Yahoo 2011/12 Is Open For Business!

It's back! Yahoo has opened it's doors for the new season so you can now register your team, start picking players and joining leagues:

http://uk.premiership.fantasysports.yahoo.com/football

You'll see some changes including a new user interface (shown above) and a new "Top Players" section which details the top points scorers from past seasons, split by position. It's our first sign of a proper stats/reporting section and hopefully this can be expanded in future to allow us to filter/sort by assists, successful crosses etc.

Other than that you'll notice that De Gea is set to be a season keeper for most managers, priced under 6.00 to start with and you may also notice the first mistake by Yahoo... that Gareth Bale is currently missing from the game altogether; I'm sure it'll be rectified shortly (Update: and it has been; the delay was because he was being recreated on the game as a midfielder)

There will be Blog Leagues set up, but not for the time being, as the format for the coming season is still being decided. I'll ensure I give you all plenty of notice so that you can be ready to join once they're available.

Until then, enjoy tinkering with your teams ... 24 days to go!

Cheers,
AM

Feel free to join the Blog Facebook Group - we've passed 1350 members & it's always great to add more! You can also follow me on Twitter (@nikarg)!

Villa Sign Given

BBC Sport - Aston Villa sign Shay Given from Manchester City

Aston Villa have completed the signing of Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given from Manchester City.

The 35-year-old has signed a five-year contract at Villa Park after the clubs agreed an undisclosed fee.

New Villa boss Alex McLeish targeted the former Newcastle man after Brad Friedel moved to Tottenham.

A great move for Aston Villa, Shay Given & YFF fans as we're set to have another solid cheap goalkeeping option for the coming season after De Gea's move to Man Utd.

Essien Suffers Knee Injury

Knee injury for Blues ace Essien - Football365.com

Chelsea have confirmed midfielder Michael Essien has suffered a knee injury during pre-season training with the Blues this week.

The 28-year-old Ghana midfielder, who missed much of the 2008/2009 campaign after sustaining anterior cruciate ligament damage while on international duty, will be assessed by the club's medical staff before any further prognosis.

A statement on the club's website read: "Michael Essien suffered an injury to his right knee during training this week.

"He will undergo tests over the next few days to determine the extent of that injury. Until we have the full results of those tests we will not be commenting further."

Awful news for Michael Essien if this turns out to be as serious as it sounds. Four seasons ago he was the most effective (and ignoring Spurs players, my favourite) midfielder in the Premier League, but his career has been repeatedly hampered by knee injuries since.

Clearly he was nowhere near his best last year but there were signs he was slowly coming back to form towards the end of Chelsea's campaign and I sensed a full pre-season could see him ready to make big impact in 2011/12. Sadly there are already rumours that this could be further damage to his cruciate ligament - and that's a season ender before the season even begins.

Fingers crossed it's not as bad as first feared.

Cheers,
AM

Modric Staying...For Now

BBC Sport - Luka Modric 'will not submit Spurs transfer request'

Luka Modric has no plans to hand in a transfer request at Tottenham, according to his agent Nikky Vuksan.

The Croatia international, 25, hinted he would like to join Chelsea but Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is adamant the midfielder cannot leave the club.

Vuksan told BBC Sport: "I don't think he'll hand in a transfer request. He will honour his contract.

"He wants to play Champions League and win trophies. The only way we can resolve this is to sit down and talk."

He added: "Luka will report today for training and will do his best, as always."

Earlier in the summer, Modric was the subject of a £22m bid from Chelsea, which was rejected by Spurs.

Modric met Levy on Wednesday and Spurs' chairman revealed he had made it clear that the player would not be allowed to leave the club.

"That's the end of it," Levy said. "As I said a few weeks ago there's no further discussion. He was on holiday so we've now had the conversation and he understands our position."

Vuksan insisted he wanted to avoid any acrimony with Tottenham though.

"I have never been in a situation before where a player has had to fight a club and it's not something we want to do," he said. "The only official offer so far is from Chelsea and we haven't talked to any clubs.

"It's no surprise that there is interest in Luka though, because he is a top, top player."

I suppose this should be good news, but reading between the lines, I very much doubt we've heard the last of the saga.

"I don't think he'll hand in a transfer request" is hardly a statement of Modric's intent to stay from Vuksan. He follows it up with "He wants to play Champions League and win trophies. The only way we can resolve this is to sit down and talk.".

Unfortunately sitting down and talking to Levy/Redknapp will not put Tottenham back in to the Champions League for the coming season, so this would suggest both player and agent still intend to push for a move to Chelsea/City/United.

I'm expecting another bid of £30m+ from one of those clubs before the end of the transfer window which could be the tipping point, and sadly I don't believe Modric will be a Spurs player when the clock reaches 00:00 on 1st September 2011. Feel free to prove me wrong Luka.

Cheers,
AM

Liverpool In For Adam Again...

...and this time it appears they've got him.

BBC Sport - Liverpool agree deal to buy Blackpool's Charlie Adam

Liverpool have reached agreement with Blackpool for the transfer of Scottish midfielder Charlie Adam.

Adam, 25, travelled to Merseyside on Wednesday for a medical and to discuss personal terms.

Another central midfielder to add to the Anfield pile, but will he be able to start in the same team as Gerrard? I have my doubts about that as they both thrive in a similar position and like to be at the fulcrum of everything their team does.

It'll certainly be interesting to see how it plays out, but one things for sure; expect it to be detrimental to both players from a fantasy perspective, with them sharing corners, free kicks & possibly even penalty duty.

Cheers,
AM