Owen Wyatt is joined by a sober-shirted Jon Bramley to discuss the deadline day transfer deals.

Will Manchester United be unstoppable now they have added Dimitar Berbatov to their line-up? Can Robinho cope with the whole rough and tumble of life in the Premier League? And speaking of which, are Manchester City the new Chelsea?

Feel free to leave your comments below, or send us a video of your own looking at this or any other issue in football. Let us know the url and if we like it we’ll host it right here.

Judging by what happened in Stockholm on Tuesday night, Beijing could see one of the closest men’s 100 metres finals as well as one of the fastest.

Asafa Powell and his fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt gave us a thrilling little appetiser for the main course in August when they faced each other in an IAAF Grand Prix.

Powell won in 9.88 seconds but it was desperately close, with Bolt finishing just one hundredth of a second behind after recovering from a terrible start to give his fellow Jamaican a bit of a fright.

Bolt recently deprived Powell of his world record by clocking 9.72 in New York in May, but will the 21-year-old have the nerve to win in Beijing?

Powell has the greater experience, having finished fifth in the final in Athens with a time of 9.94.

There is also world champion Tyson Gay to consider, and we should get a better idea of his form when he races against Powell in another warm-up at Crystal Palace in London on Friday.

Who is your favourite for the men’s top prize this time? Let us know in the comments.

PHOTO: Jamaica’s Asafa Powell (L) pulls ahead of compatriot Usain Bolt to win the men’s 100 meters in Stockholm July 22, 2008. REUTERS/Bob Strong

By the way, there are a few candidates for closest ever 100m Olympic final. One of the tightest was in Helsinki in 1952 when Lindy Remigino (or at least his right shoulder) hit the tape just ahead of Herbert McKenley. Allan Wells beat Silvio Leonard by just a few inches in 1980 in Moscow, while the 2004 final mentioned above was also desperately close, with Powell one of five men to finish in under 10 seconds.

Jose Mourinho gets a rough send-off from some of Britain’s newspapers. Martin Samuel in the Times says his Chelsea team lacked the charisma of the man himself, while Kevin McCarra in the Guardian highlights the lack of adventure on the pitch during his time in charge.

Bloggers seem too surprised to have had much considered reaction yet.

“I’m still shocked that he’s gone,” write Who Ate All The Pies. “Who knows where he’ll end up now? I hope that he stays in the Premier League, but wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him go to Spain or Italy.”

Chelseablog were also thinking about the future in their overnight timeline: ”01:23 - First mention of Sven-Goran Erikssons name in the Sun newspaper. God help us.”!

In an interesting piece at  Soccerlens, Ahmed Bilal speculates about a possible Mourinho move to Tottenham. More on that later.

For Reuters, soccer correspondent Mike Collett writes admiringly about the Mourinho effect on Chelsea:

“From the day Mourinho arrived at Chelsea from Porto in June 2004 the charismatic Portuguese infused his club with a sense of self-belief it had never truly possessed in almost 100 years of a fairly mundane and under-achieving existence.”

We’d like your views on Mourinho’s time at Chelsea. Did the coach do enough with the almost unlimited resources he had at his disposal (at least early on)? Do you agree that he could have been more adventurous? And does his departure, and the news that Avram Grant is taking over, spell bad news for the club? Let us know via the comments.

Kevin Fylan

A few years ago at a news conference in Madrid I heard Alex Ferguson describe the Champions League as the world’s greatest football competition.

“If you look at the stats for the last World Cup it doesn’t come close to the Champions League in terms of entertainment, goals or excitement,” Ferguson said in comments that raised a few eyebrows at the time. ”I think the European Champions Cup is now bigger than the World Cup. All the best players are in Europe now.”

That was in April, 2003 and a couple of weeks later at Old Trafford, United and Real did their best to prove him right in a match that saw Ronaldo given a standing ovation as he walked from the pitch after scoring a hat-trick and sealing the Spanish club’s place in the semi-finals.

There have been plenty of magical moments since, as rivalries like Barcelona v Chelsea and Liverpool v AC Milan have grown and grown.

But is it now time for a change? Do you find it getting a little predictable seeing so many teams from the most powerful nations, England, Spain and Italy dominate the final stages so regularly?

Michel Platini certainly thinks so, and despite opposition to his Cup idea from the G-14 it seems inevitable that there will be more champions from what you might call middle-ranking nations from Scandinavia and eastern Europe getting involved at the latest from the 2009-10 season.

For those of you eager for something new, the first round of matches this week will see Sevilla, UEFA Cup winners for the last two years, take on Arsenal in a meeting of two of the most attractive sides in Europe. We can also look forward to ties like Porto v Liverpool, Barcelona v Olympique Lyon and Milan against Benfica, while an expensively assembled Shakhtar Donetsk take on Celtic.*

Does all that whet your appetite? Or are you struggling to get excited by a competition that has been one by a team form outside the top four nations just once in the last 12 editions?

Give us your thoughts in our comments section, and don’t forget to add a tip for this year’s winner. My heart says an outsider with a rich history like Steaua Bucharest or Benfica, but my head says a team from Spain, and probably Real Madrid. What do you reckon?

Kevin Fylan, Gelsenkirchen

* As always, Reuters will be providing full coverage of the Champions League throughout the long season, with reporters at all the big games. Check out our dedicated football site here.

The Steven Gerrard toe jab saga boils down to one simple question: Is it worth risking the long-term fitness of England’s most important player for one qualifying match at Wembley?

England coach Steve McClaren must decide whether to ask Gerrard to play with painkilling injections in his broken toe against Israel on Saturday, or add another senior player to an injured list that already includes Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard David Beckham and Gary Neville.

Im very, very confident that Stevie G will be with us on Saturday,” McClaren said on Tuesday. He wants to play, I want him to play, the team does, the fans do. The whole country does.”

One man who doesn’t is Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez. “We don’t want Steven to play for England with any painkilling injections,” Benitez said on Friday. “We did that in the game against Chelsea and it took four days for him to recover enough to be able to return to training.”

Liverpool bloggers are also understandably cautious. Anfield Banter suggests McClaren should be the one to make the sacrifice, while at Liverpool Pies Dan Burt says he sees no reason for him to play.

The stakes are so high, though, that it would be no real surprise if England feel they can’t do without Gerrard, who has started the season in excellent form. England are down in fourth place in Group E and victories at home to Israel on Saturday and Russia four days later are essential.

“You’ve got to play for your country, haven’t you?” Manchester City and England defender Micah Richards said on Wednesday. “Previous players have before. You would do anything to play for your country.”

Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.

Kevin Fylan

POLL: We’re running a poll on this over at the Reuters Football site so please pop over and vote.

It took just three league appearances and one goal from Fernando Torres before Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez was forced to play down the comparisons with Kenny Dalglish.

Now, after another eye-catching performance and two more goals in the 6-0 win over Derby at the weekend, it’ll be hard for Reds fans to resist the idea that Torres can bring the league title back to Anfield.

It was at the end of the 1989-90 season that Dalglish finally retired as a player, having just overseen Liverpool’s march to an 18th league title. Can it be just coincidence that the club are still waiting for championship number 19?

Until now, perhaps, Liverpool have not had a forward like him. Peter Beardsley was forced out just a year later, John Barnes was soon in decline and Jari Litmanen was sadly underused by Gerard Houllier.

Torres might not have the sheer talent of Dalglish, he might stumble over a pass more often than you’d like from a 36 million euros signing, but he has great vision (see the pass that helped set up the Voronin goal against Derby) and a gift for inspiration (the touch that took him past Ben Haim for the goal against Chelsea).

“Whether or not he was overpriced at £27 million, hes given Liverpool whatever it was they were lacking up front,” Daryl writes at The Offside.

Liverpool’s 6-0 win over Deby took them top of the Premier League for the first time since November 2002. Will they still be there at the season’s end?

Kevin Fylan

The tragic news of the death of the 22-year-old Antonio Puerta, three days after he collapsed on the pitch in Sevilla’s opening league game against Getafe, has left Spanish football in shock.

Today is one of the saddest days in the history of Sevilla Football Club,” president José María del Nido said. “That diamond left foot of Antonio Puerta has left us, that left foot that changed our lives has left us.”

There are well over 5,000 comments from people expressing their condolences on Marca’s web site alone, while clubs from all over the country, and further afield, have expressed their sorrow, as Mark Elkington reports from Madrid.

The death has shocked people profoundly. Partly that’s because millions of people could see just how distressed he was as he collapsed during a match broadcast live on free-to-air TV in Spain. It’s also because Puerta, at the age of 22, genuinely seemed to have a brilliant future before him.

He looked ready to take a regular place in the Spanish national team, on the left side of defence or midfield. He had scored a cracking goal to send Sevilla through to the final of the UEFA Cup in 2006, making him the scorer of “the goal that changed our lives,” according to the Diario de Sevilla. He played a part as a sub in that year’s final victory over Middlesbrough and then played the whole of their 2007 UEFA Cup win against Espanyol, as well the King’s Cup final success against Getafe.

Sadly, it is by no means a unique case. As our Factbox shows, Hugo Cunha, Marcio Dos Santos, Miklos Feher, Maximiliano Patrick Ferreira, Marc-Vivien Foe, Dave Longhurst, Samuel Okwaraji and Serginho have all died in apparently similar circumstances in recent times. Marca mentions the cases of other players starting with Pedro Berruezo, also of Sevilla, back in 1973.

In Andalucia, where too many people take football far too seriously, the major shareholder of Sevilla rivals Real Betis, Manuel Ruiz de Lopera summed things up.

“We’re all Sevilla supporters today,” he said.

Wayne Rooney is looking at two months out after breaking his foot in Manchester United’s goalless draw with Reading on Sunday.

The good news for Alex Ferguson is that the Carlos Tevez deal has finally been tied up, with the Argentine standing by to make his debut against Portsmouth on Wednesday. You could even argue that it might be positive for United in the long run, as it should give Tevez a good long run in the team.

Unfortunately, England coach Steve McClaren has no such ready made substitute and the loss of Rooney is only going to complicate an already tricky qualifying picture for Euro 2008.

England are in fourth place in Group E and they will now have to go into crucial home games against Israel and Russia next month without their chief striker. With Michael Owen struggling with injury, and Peter Crouch suspended for the Israel game, it could be a big problem for the coach.

So can England recover from the loss of Rooney and clinch the six points they need from those two games. And who should McClaren pick to lead the line in next month’s qualifiers? Michael Chopra made a bit of a name for himself at the weekend. Does he deserve a chance?

Kevin Fylan

Real Madrid seem to have lost it, Barcelona have never had it, while Arsenal are probably its best exponents outside Italy. The art of selling a leading player to one of your rivals, of getting a “galactico” fee for a star who might be on the wane, is a tricky one to master.

Real Madrid used to be good at it. After a ruinous transfer from Arsenal, they got Paris St German to pay 32 million euros to take Nicolas Anelka off their hands. They also made vast sums by selling Makelele to Chelsea, their half of Eto’o to Barcelona and Michael Owen to Newcastle. Some of those deals were questionable from a sporting perspective but financially the club did very nicely.

Recently their record hasn’t been as good. Roberto Carlos, Zidane, Figo and Beckham have all left without a penny in sales and Antonio Cassano will be next. Ronaldo went to AC Milan for just 7.5 million euros. 

They are still a lot better than Barcelona, though. Barca are no salesmen and the departure of Javier Saviola on a free transfer makes him the latest in a line of world class players who have gone for nothing. (I’m not counting Ronaldo to Inter or Figo to Real here — on both those occasions Barca were forced to sell.)

Arsenal have been far less shy about selling their most coveted players. There was Anelka to Madrid, then Overmars and Petit to Barca (who had the money from Figo’s departure jingling in their pockets) and now Henry going in the same direction for 24 million euros.

In Serie A, players are there to be traded. Think of Milan selling Shevchenko to Chelsea, of Juve letting Zidane go to Real, or Lazio selling Vieri to Inter and Veron to Manchester United. Then there was Inter selling Hernan Crespo to Chelsea and getting him back on loan.

Arsenal seem to share that unsentimental view of the transfer market. And with Spanish media talking about a 40 million euros bid from Real for Cesc Fabregas, don’t be surprised if they are tempted.

Kevin Fylan, Berlin

* This text was edited at 1120 GMT to correct a reference to Ronaldo

Real Madrid have sacked coach Fabio Capello, less than a fortnight after he led the team to their first Spanish league title in four years.

It’s a familiar story to anyone who has followed Real and our Spanish sports correspondent Simon Baskett writes here about his latest bout of deja vu.

Real did well to overhaul Barcelona over the closing weeks of the season but the Bernabeu crowd remained unimpressed with the team’s laboured playing style and sporting director Predrag Mijatovic confirmed that the lack of good football was behind the decision.

Curiously, this is the second time Capello has left Real after winning the league title in his first season in charge. Last time that happened, Real went on to win the European Cup under a German coach in the following season. By all accounts another German, Bernd Schuster is set to take over this time as they look for history to repeat itself. Is the relatively inexperienced Schuster the right man for the job?  

Kevin Fylan