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Mid-day Ticker: Wilshere signs new Arsenal deal, Timbers let eight players go and more

Wilshere

By TRAVIS CLARK

English starlet Jack Wilshere has been rewarded for a promising start to the 2010-11 Premier League season, signing a new long term deal with Arsenal on Monday.

The 18-year-old, who has started eight times in the Premier League this season, has been at the club since he was nine years old, and has matured into a fixture with the second-place team in the English Premier League. His development has also earned the attention of Fabio Capello, and Wilshere earned his first England cap on August 11 against Hungary earlier this year.

After spending part of last season on loan at Bolton last season, Wilshere has spent time in and out of the Arsenal starting lineup this season, though he's missed the last three games after getting sent off against Birmingham City on October 16.

Here are a few other stories to get you through the day:

TIMBERS LET EIGHT GO

Preparations for MLS 2011 continued for the Portland Timbers, as the team announced eight players who won't return next season. The list included former RSL defender Ian Joy, who was the club's captain in 2010. Johan Claesson, Brian Farber, Derek Gaudet, George Josten, Ibad Muhamadu, Keith Savage and Ross Smith won't be picked up for next season either.

CASSANO FUTURE UNCLEAR

Tempermental striker Antonio Cassano's future with Sampdoria is unclear after a tumultuous weekend. The 28-year-old refused to join the club's president Riccardo Garrone at an Italian awards ceremony, and claimed that he had been frozen out of the squad after refusing to apologize for the incident.

However, new reports suggest that Cassano has apologized to Garrone and wants to stay, citing family issues that prevented him from attending the awards ceremony.

FREE KICKS

Scottish First Division club Dundee was given a 25 point penalty for entering administration for the second time in seven years. The club now has -11 points on the season, and will fight to save their season and perhaps their future.

Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans won't make the trip to Turkey for Manchester United's Champions League match against Bursaspor.

Tottenham's Rafael van der Vaart, who was withdrawn from Saturday's loss against Manchester United with an injury concern, is in training ahead of Tuesday's match with Inter Milan.

Injury plagued Bayern Munich will now be without striker Ivica Olic, set to miss six months after heading to the USA for knee surgery.

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What do you think of the news of Wilshere's re-signing? Surprised that Ian Joy won't return to MLS? Think Cassano will leave Sampdoria?

Share your thoughts below.

 

Comments

  1. Yeah, I know what they mean, but I’m always a little confused. It’s part of British soccer-speak–maybe England would produce more quality youngsters if they stopped forcing them to play scenes in dresses in the locker rooms.

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  2. SHUT UP ABOUT SINGLE TABLE. IT’S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!!!!! WHY CAN’T PEOPLE JUST ACCEPT THE ONE “AMERICANIZED” THING ABOUT THE SPORT. AFTER ALL, MLS IS AMERICA’S TOP FLIGHT.

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  3. I don’t speak Spanish, but I still chose Telefutura over MSG for RBNY-San Jose on Saturday. The energy level more than makes up for any minimal insight provided by the MSG team. And except for critical foul calls or information on reasons for substitutions, soccer doesn’t require much in the way of in-game analysis anyway. A good announcer adds a bit of polish and a good phrase here or there. But MSG’s folks (and ESPN’s) add neither.

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  4. Wilshere is the real deal. Great player, always intense. With the likes of Wilshere and Walcott ready for prime time, are the English about to have a competitive side ready to replace the so-called golden generation of Rooney, Beckham, Gerard, Ferdinand, and Lampard?

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  5. The Blackpool vs West Brom game is a cracker. I wasn’t planning on watching, but tuned in at the beginning to see a somewhat farcical sending off and penalty…which was followed by a well deserved red for West Brom that resulted in them going down to 9 men. You’d think that would mean a cakewalk for Blackpool, but instead this game is wide open and West Brom is somehow producing some good chances.

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  6. I think Wilshere will be a star but I have a feeling that it would be inevitable for Wilshere to be sent off in a knockout game in the World Cup in 2014 and come home to be blamed for their elmination like Beckham in 98 and Rooney in 06.

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  7. Talk about misplaced anger. The dude went back to Europe because his daughter was there and because that is where the money is. From a Yanks Abroad article in Sept 2009, “The driving force behind the San Diego, California native’s decision was to be closer to his [3 year old] daughter Madison who was still living in Germany.”

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  8. I always find the use of the word “starlet” interesting in referrence to footballers since most dictionaries have “young actress with potential for stardom” as their primary definition.

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  9. Single table isn’t going to happen, but I think that they will definitely revamp the playoff structure. I would like to see the top 8 teams (give 2 spots automatically to each conference, like it is now), but then get reseeded based on points. Do away from the WC and EC “trophy.”

    Oh, and I’ve heard that MLS might be in talks with Versus. Not sure if there’s much weight to that rumor, but it’s a rumor nonetheless.

    To be fair, I was able to watch all 4 playoff matchups this weekend without any special channels (unless you count FSC as special). Two were on ESPN, one on FSC, and one on Gala/Uni/Tele (can’t remember which one).

    If you look back at even RECENT playoff coverage, that’s a HUGE step up. Kudos to the MLS for at least getting that far.

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  10. Per Joy’s twitter account, he’s leaving for Scotland. Has some to do with family issues. Guesses are he was offered a contract but didn’t sign.

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  11. Right. Which leaves 1 out of 4 NOT on TV. Thus not *all* of the matches were on national tv, including Red Bulls’ match…AKA the one a casual fan would be most interesting in seeing. Just my two cents.

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  12. Single table is a good idea. Another good idea? How about getting at least all your PLAYOFF matches on national TV. Jeez.

    TV coverage of MLS is just awful, despite the amazing efforts of FSC. MLS needs to reach out to some tv station to get exclusive rights or something, similar to the NBA being on TNT. I realize not every NBA game is on TNT, but it’s much better than what we have now for MLS, plus NBA has way more teams that they have to deal with.

    Oh, and Wilshere’s the man 😉

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  13. Kind of a sad story there. Ownership talked big game and then through it back on the fans to come up with money to meet it’s debts.

    Should be an example to fans in the U.K. of what could come farther south.

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  14. portland and vancouver will make great

    additions to MLS. my prediction is that

    Vancouver will struggle, and Portland

    will finish mid table. i hope MLS will

    announce plans to move to a single table.

    next season we will have too many

    western conference teams. they need to

    move single table, and top 8 teams make

    mls cup playoffs

    Reply
  15. I will be very curious to see if Portland Timbers and vancouver Whitecaps will be able to imitate some of the on field success of Seattle when they decided to make the jump…

    All three Cascadia clubs have been elite second divsion sides. Seattle laid the blueprint abut not everybody can get Sigi to guide their club.

    Vancouver has Tom Soehn running things. His DC United chapter ended horribly. Then again, whose doesn’t in recent years???

    Reply

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