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Morning Ticker: Bradley sees red, Henry staying in Spain and new boss for Barca

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Good morning everybody. Here are some news and notes from the soccer world to kick your day off:

Bradley sees red, Heerenveen loses

U.S. national team midfielder Michael Bradley was sent off after drawing two yellow cards in the first 38 minutes of Heerenveen’s 3-1 loss to Ajax in their Champions League playoff semifinal second-leg on Monday. The red card likely means that Michael Bradley will make just one more appearance for Heerenveen (A UEFA Cup qualifying playoff second-leg against NEC Breda on May 12) as teams from England, Spain, Italy and Germany prepare to start bidding on the 20-year-old central midfielder’s services (yes folks, he’s still only 20).

Henry staying at Barcelona

French striker Thierry Henry has been linked to several potential moves out of Barcelona, but he insists that he is staying with Barca for at least one more season. Considering the expected exodus from Barcelona this summer, Henry’s proclamation does come as a bit of a surprise. And yes, for those keeping track at home, one more season in Spain would put Henry right on track to join the Red Bulls in the summer of 2009, just in time for the opening of Red Bull Park. Just a thought.

Guardiola to replace Rijkaard

The inevitable housecleaning at Barcelona appears ready to begin as reports out of Spain have revealed that long-time Spanish national team star and former Barcelona captain Jose ‘Pep’ Guardiola is set to replace Frank Rijkaard as Barcelona head coach.

No Boswinga deal for Man U

Just when you thought Manchester United’s move for Portuguese right back Jose Boswinga was done, Boswinga’s agent has stepped in and declared that no deal has been agreed to. Boswinga has also been strongly linked to Liverpool, while Aston Villa has also been mentioned (though Boswinga’s agent put the whammy on any Villa talk, saying his player was interested in Champions League caliber teams. Ouch).

That’s all for now. Check back in for more news and notes throughout the day and feel free to share your thoughts on these stories below.

Comments

  1. So Michael Bradley is going to a top Premier League Team? When is that supposed to happen? The best American players, not including keepers, are on low-level teams in the Premiership, and none of the players have established themselves. So Bradley is going to jump ahead of Convey, Dempsey, Johnson et al? I doubt it.

    The Dutch League is nowhere close to what is used to be. Let’s all keep an eye on him, wish him well, and hope he matures a bit in the next few years. But he’s not going anywhere.

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  2. If Bradley puts together a nice run in the Spain-England-Argies Trifecta of Pain I think we’ll see him in a G14 club next year. Just a hunch.

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  3. The Keller rumors are that he’s going to Bayern Munich … as a backup.

    As for lil’ Bradley, anytime a 20-year-old midfielder scores 16 goals in a Champions League-qualifying league, you’re going to get offers.

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  4. RK…yes the dempsey news is old but I hadn’t seen anything about Keller leaving. Why is he leaving? Where is he going?

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  5. Isn’t that the same Henry that insisted he wouldn’t leave Arsenal?

    QPR is the richest club in the world they will be odds on favorites to get promoted next year. Pickens looked good, he picked up an unfortunate injury at the wrong time.

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  6. Mig et al–

    I think the excitement over Bradley is that the goals were NOT the point with him in the first place. There were two knocks on him coming into this year: one was that he gets booked too often (apparently, still has work to do there), the other was that he had lousy touch around the goal. The goals this year show he’s matured tremendously on that front, and increase the excitement over his future. He’s only 20, and at the U-21’s last year he was the definite US standout, so forgive people for the hype. I think it’s legit.

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  7. The hype over Bradley is a bit premature. 16 goals is cool but look at Heerenven’s Goals For. This team just piles up goals, 89 GF in the 35 or so games (contrast ManU with 78 GF in 37 games). So MB is on a squad that goes forward and the league is a far cry from the EPL.

    That being said, if he starts next season with that kind of production and he ends up at an EPL club in the top 1/2 of the table. Additionally, the US-England game should be a nice showcase for him…if we don’t get killed.

    Regards,

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  8. The news that a MLS team has a new sponsor (and got the league one as well) doesn’t even make the ticker?

    And no, I don’t think there is too much overhype of young Bradley, he scored 16 goals from midfield in holland at 20? I could easily see an epl team taking him, but probably not a cl-level squad, yet.

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  9. In addition to what Ethan said, goalkeepers have it slightly easier on the work permit front. It’s way harder for a goalkeeper to get caps than a field player (i.e. one goalkeeper per match usually, 10 field players per match and plenty of subs in friendlies).

    That didn’t help Guzan obviously. But I honestly just feel that the people involved in work permits in England are a bunch of d*cks. It’s more of a power trip for them than anything else.

    I mean, they were about to revoke a work permit and send some guy back to his war-torn homeland in Africa a few months back. Had the public and media pointed out how extremely stupid and embarassing that would be for the entire country.

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  10. MAR…congratulations on not reading any non-American articles about Michael Bradley. Last I checked, clubs don’t give a rat’s behind about a player’s contribution for his country–in fact they don’t even WANT players to play national team football.

    Add to that the fact that he has never played true center mid for USA, only holding midfielder. Man, you are a complete idiot.

    Having said that, Bradley needs to end these stupid, childish, unnecessary bookings IMMEDIATELY.

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  11. Are we getting ahead of ourselves over Michael Bradley? He didn’t have any impact in the MLS and hasn’t made much of one internationally. The only people starting rumors of him going to the EPL are Americans.

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  12. Bradley still has a weakness for going to ground and picking up cards – I bet at least one of his cards yesterday was a late slide tackle. Let’s hope whereever he goes next they help him improve that part of his game.

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  13. I never understood how Pickens got approval to play in England in the first place…but it was only QPR. My how they have fallen…

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  14. Let’s start a baseless rumor.

    I heard that Michael Bradley will be signed by Arsenal as a replacement to Flamini and an upgrade on Gilberto.

    Chew on that for a while.

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  15. Ives, BBC gossip column this morning said that while Dempsey staying, looking like Keller would leave. What are you hearing?

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