1. Robbie Keane to Celtic from Tottenham: The January transfer window has closed and there weren't any "major" deals. The biggest deal was Tottenham (former Liverpool) misfit Robbie Keane's transfer to Celtic. Keane is Irish. Celtic is a club he has always admired. I think this transfer fits him well. Celtic have recently lost one of their best attackers to Birmingham of the English Premiership. Celtic sit well adrift of crosstown Glasgow rivals Rangers and perhaps his signing will spark life into what has been a lifeless season for Celtic (bounced out of Europe early, and I also believe they are out of the Scottish Cup). Although, it may take transition time, they dropped his opening game on the road at Kilmarnock.
2. The firing of Juventus' manager: no one should be shocked by this. Ciro Ferrara was not getting the results expected at Juve no matter what their current talent level may be. But, Serie A is fairly wide open this year aside from top spot Inter Milan which simply has had too much time and stability (even considering the transition from Mancini to Mourinho) and the ability to amass a solid roster. Inter remains a great destination for potential transfers to go to as they continue to rack up points and stay in competitions and have been the most consistent team in Italy for the past 4 years. The Inter/Chelsea round of 16 champions league tie remains the most intriguing match-up of the first champions league knock-out round. Even though England and Spain have stolen some of the spotlight from Serie A, Inter remains the most viable team for major transfers to go and as such, Inter continue to get the bigger names and success. It would take a collapse of historic proportions for this Mourinho led team to not win their fifth consecutive Scudetto.
3. The Pompey disaster: Portsmouth cannot get their act together. They pay their players late, they just had a transfer ban lifted (for no identifiable reason), Avram Grant has been completely handcuffed. The club is a disaster and at this rate, after relegation to the English Championship, they will be lucky to stay up and not get relegated to English league 1 the next year. Speaking of the lower divisions, former European Champions Nottingham Forrest are in a great position to crash the party and be in the Premiership next year.
4. Manchester City/Carlos Tevez: if you like anti-teams, Manchester City is your current team (until they get good and begin to win everything). Tevez' animosity towards Manchester United was palpable. I loved every second of it; from his taunting the United bench and higher ups, to seeing Neville flip him the bird in retaliation. Fantastic, but a shame they weren't able to win the tie and advance to the Carling Cup final. Manchester City are a fun team to watch because you just don't know what is going to happen.
5. Spain: my favorite league. Barca continue to stay on beast mode. Real Madrid can't quite get it together enough. But, holy god, did Jose Maria Guti have maybe the best assist of the year against Deportivo La Coruna. It was a no-look back heel flick to Karim Benzema. Injuries have made this Real team have to call on players to step it up. I love Higuian, but it is good to see Benzema stepping up (2 goals against Depor), and to see Guti continue to baffle analysts as his assist really turned back the clock. I haven't been intrigued as much by a player as I have been with Guti. He has so much potential, but has played a long time, and seems like he has the ability to decide when he wants to participate and be a genius, and when he could simply care less.
6. Happy to see my Norwich Canaries leading the charge in English League 1 (although some have two games in hand).
