Two weeks from tomorrow, Euro 2012 will kick off. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.

Here are today’s top Euro 2012 stories to keep you on top of the news:

• Hodgson is worried about Danny Welbeck’s fitness as he puts together his Euro 2012 plans — The Guardian
• The Runners & Riders: The Netherlands — Two Hundred Percent
  
• England can draw from Chelsea Champions League success says Frank Lampard — The Independent
• Ireland has confirmed Paul McShane has been drafted into the squad to face Bosnia-Herzegovina — Sky Sports
• Oldest Euro 2012 players – The Best Eleven
• Republic of Ireland’s Shay Given to see specialist over knee injury — The Guardian
• England train ahead of Norway friendly: in pictures — The Telegraph
  
• Roman Shishkin drops out of Russia squad for Euro 2012 — UEFA.com
  
• Steven Gerrard to play on for England after Euro 2012 finals — The Guardian
  
• Jores Okore and forward Nicklas Pedersen join Denmark Euro 2012 squad — UEFA.com
  
• If you weren’t excited about Euro 2012 yet, you will be after you see this — Men In Blazers

A photo has been leaked on the Internet showing what appears to be Manchester City’s away shirt for the 2012-13 season.

The new Man City away shirt, designed by Umbro, will be maroon — a return to a color that City has worn in the past. The v-neck collar and maroon color makes the shirt look quite retro, as well as the thin dark maroon pinstripes that run down the front and back of the shirt. The new Manchester City jersey is finished off with a gold (or is it yellow?) sponsor name, manufacturer logo and club crest.

What do you think of Manchester City’s new away kit for the 2012-13 season?

And one more thing, before anyone says that Nike is going to be Manchester City’s kit manufacturer for the 2012-13 season, they’re not. The Nike deal begins from 2013-14!

H/T ManCity.fr

The last 17 days has been one of the more remarkable periods of European football. Whether it be an Argentinian striker winning the Premier League title in stoppage time, to the dismay of local rivals, or Montpellier fans having to endure opposition fans pelting anything that moved on the pitch with bizarre objects such as eggs, tennis balls and toilet paper as they looked to secure their first domestic trophy in over 20 years, it has been an entertaining time for football fans.

This article isn’t to exhibit what everybody already knows; well maybe apart from the recently discovered indigenous Korubo tribe in Brazil though I am sure you can get their home games on Sky Sports 3. Yes Sergio Aguero won the title for Manchester City in stoppage time as they came from 2-1 down to win 3-2 denying Manchester United another Premier League title, Yes Didier Drogba’s last kick enabled Chelsea to win that elusive Champions League trophy. And yes Juventus is once again embroiled in match fixing allegations after winning their first Serie A title since the last scandal. Football is indeed a funny old game.

Instead it has been written to showcase the more bizarre side of football… the one that keeps fans uttering, “what will happen next?” and “did that just happen?”   Or in the immortal words of Chris Kamara, “Unbelievable Jeff”. I have trawled through my memory bank and the Internet to bring some gems for your delectation, as we ask the question “Is football fact stranger than fiction?”

Here are five true stories that are stranger than fiction:

1. One of my more unique memories was watching Leeds United’s goalkeeper Paul Robinson score the equalising goal against Swindon Town in a League Cup game, but keepers scoring are no longer the stuff of comic books or fantasies. But try telling that to Jimmy Glass and Carlisle Utd fans. The setting was a simple unimposing stadium in northern England in 1999. Carlisle was on the brink of relegation out of the Football League when the game went into stoppage time. Carlisle, drawing 1-1 but needing those precious three points, won a last minute corner. As the ball sailed into the box, an almighty melee ensued, resulting in the ball finding it’s way to the feet of on-loan Carlisle Goalkeeper Jimmy Glass. His side-foot strike into the back of the net sent the capacity crowd into raptures and relegated Scarborough instead of Carlisle. And despite Jimmy drifting into football obscurity, and is now a taxi driver in Poole, that monumental goal has cemented his place in football folklore.

2. Ten years previous to this occurrence, the English top flight saw a certain Michael Thomas making himself a household name, but I am sure most readers know all about his feat, so I wont dwell on it too much. His stoppage time winner at Anfield on the final day of the season on a gloomy May evening resulted in his team, Arsenal, winning the title at the home of their title rivals Liverpool. Not quite Sergio Aguero. but worth the trip over to Youtube.com to hear iconic commentary from Brian Moore and the look of horror on Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish. To add further fuel to the bizarre fire, Michael Thomas went on to sign for Liverpool and score in their successful 1992 FA Cup final against Sunderland.

3. I introduce you to Stan Van Den Buys. For breaking goal scoring records, the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Lineker and Dixie Dean should be accompanied by Van Den Buys. Why? Belgian ‘professional’ footballer Van Den Buys managed to complete the incredible accomplishment of scoring three own goals in one game back in 1995-1996 during Germinal Ekerken’s 3-2 defeat against Anderlecht. Though Frank Sinclair and Michael Duberry have attempted to repeat this, Staf still holds the ‘hat-trick of own goals’ trophy in his cabinet. Hapless is one word that can be used to describe him…. the likes of which you normally only see on school playgrounds.

4. So from kamikaze defending to musical footballers getting into trouble with the law during a game a football. Enter the stranger than fiction story of former Irish international Liam Daish. During Birmingham’s regulation win over Chester City in 1994, captain Daish popped up with his team’s 4th goal and was thrown a toy trumpet by one of the elated Birmingham fans. Musical Liam decided to perform with the aforementioned trumpet as he showboated to the crowd. This lead to him being booked which resulted in a three-match ban from the FA as his disciplinary points tally hit 41. This surely amused fans up and down the country as his Louis Armstrong impersonation kept him out for crucial games over Birmingham’s Christmas period. Note to David Beckham, if LA Galaxy fans give you a banjo to play, stay well clear.

5. And the final word should go to legendary northern journeyman Ashley Ward for an impressive accolade that even Pele would be proud of. In the space of five minutes at Sunderland in November 1998, Barnsley striker Ashley Ward scored, missed a penalty and was sent off. The classic striker’s hat-trick.

These are just a few of the many examples that showcase ‘football fact being stranger than fiction’. Fox Mulder suggested “The truth is out there” and though it might not be at Area 51, it could be at Underhill Barnet or at the KC Stadium Hull.

So what are your stranger than football stories? Do you remember anything or have witnessed something which left you asking “Is football fact stranger than fiction?”

Last June, I wrote about my coming to grips with the fact that I was just never going to have a team in the Premier League. Not like many of you do. No team ever reached out and grabbed me. No team’s fate made me nervous, joyous or miserable. So neutrality, of a sort, became my motto. Root for the underdog. If there was no true underdog, then I always went for the home team. I figured they might as well be happy and chant and sing the afternoon away. This was a great year as a neutral fan.

The race for the title was fantastic. First, Manchester City had it wrapped up and then they didn’t. Then Manchester United had total control and lost it. City finally won it in the most dramatic of fashions. You couldn’t script that if you tried. It was glorious. And as a neutral, I was thrilled with the outcome. Not that you could actually think of City as underdogs, but they hadn’t won the League in its modern configuration. So, a new name goes on the trophy. Great.

Then we had the race for the Champions League qualification. Again, who could write up this stuff? Arsenal looked dead and buried. Newcastle and Tottenham both had great shots at the spots, but failed to cash in (literally). It went down to the last couple of matches and in the end, with the Champions League results, it will be the same old, same old next year. Blah. My underdog mentality was looking for fresh faces. Too bad, but a great season for Newcastle, nonetheless, and sadly, heartbreak for a 4th place Spurs side.

The relegation avoidance battle wasn’t nearly as nail biting as last year, but certainly had its tension on the last day. I kept flicking back and forth, wishing I had the picture-in-picture feature on my TV. In the end I was pleased that QPR stayed up. That made it all three newly promoted teams returning to the Prem for another season. Underdogs win! That brings me to the wee chink in my neutrality.

I have to confess that from day one I was intensely interested in Swansea City. They were almost unanimously chosen by bookies and pundits as the one new team that could not possibly survive. I had to root for them! Besides, I didn’t want The Gaffer to have a breakdown at the end of the season. And finally, we are a Welsh-proud household. My wife has direct connections to Swansea as her grandmother was the first of her family not born in that city, but in the U.S.

So, I did follow the Swans closely… and they drove me crazy for a while. Five hundred passes and not a single decent shot on goal! Arrgh!! But Brendan Rodgers knew what he was doing and just had his boys keep at it. Vorm was absolutely amazing, Britton fantastic and Gylfi a gem of a pick-up. However, I sweated with them throughout the season until they had about 36 points, which I thought might be enough to stay up this year. Fortunately they went on to play some great matches and were safe long before the season was over. Eleventh place! Take that bookies and pundits! So much for my neutrality.

By now, you’ve probably noticed that above picture of me wearing a jersey.

What can I say? I guess I just got tired of the incessant drumbeat of “Stoke this and Stoke that.” It seems to me that the commentary about Stoke is often intellectually lazy and doesn’t match reality. Just rehashing the old lines. Yes, they are last in the Fair Play Table, but only eighth in the reds/yellows scoring. The other categories seem wildly subjective to me and no doubt Stoke suffers because they do play a deliberate brand of football and have rather exuberant fans. However, I don’t see the problem.

The object of the game is to play within the rules and gain as many points as you can. Not everyone is going to be Barca, Arsenal or Swansea. Tony Pulis has his system and it seems to work pretty well for a small club like Stoke. They came up and they’re staying up. They’ve been to the final of the FA Cup and they have played in Europe. So, why the constant beatdown? On the other hand, look what we heard about Chelsea’s less than beautiful win in the Champions League (which I enjoyed, by the way).

On The Guardian, articles appeared talking about “Chelsea’s crucial double barrier” and “Di Matteo’s tactical boldness.” Now, replace Chelsea with Stoke and Di Matteo with Pulis. Those stories would never be written, right? It would all be about parked buses and anti-football. Eric Wynalda might give them some credit, but many others do not.

At this point many of you may be certain I’ve lost my mind, to say nothing of my neutrality, but it’s just the way my “root for the underdog” mentality has taken me. I doubt I’ll ever lose any sleep over Stoke’s weekly ups and downs, or Swansea’s for that matter. You’ll never see any “Potter/Swan till I die” notations on my posts, but I will be pulling for them both to win every match next year. I’ve found neutrality has its limits.

A special shout out to EPL Talk reader IanCransonsKnees for letting me know about a close-out on this year’s Stoke jerseys, purchasing one for me and then shipping it across the pond. See how nice Stoke fans are? Forgive me Delilah…

Chelsea interim manager Roberto Di Matteo, fresh off a club-unprecedented FA Cup and Champions League double, will soon take a well-deserved vacation with his family in the Caribbean. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has yet to offer the man who has brought him what he most wanted a long-term contract. Di Matteo deserves to bask in the glow of his accomplishments, not sweat over his future.

When Di Matteo returns from holiday, he should make one last charge to his club account, rent a Maybach Landaulet, drive out to Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham, withdraw his name from consideration, then cruise off with the top down humming along to Steve Miller’s “Take the Money and Run.”

Why? Because Abramovich may afford Di Matteo a year on the job. Di Matteo, with the Champions League on his CV, can do better for himself elsewhere.

Consider:

-One arched eyebrow from Pep Guardiola and Abramovich would be all over him like sour cream on a blintz

-No European Cup/Champions League winner has repeated since Arrigo Sacchi’s powerhouse AC Milan clubs of 1989 and 1990 featuring Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta, Frank Rijkaard, Marco Van Basten, and Ruud Gullit. As impressive as Chelsea’s wins over Napoli, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich were, it is unfathomable to think they can pull off such a miracle run again next season, despite the incentive of the 2013 final being held at Wembley.

-A top four finish will be especially hard to achieve next season. Gone are the days of the Big Four; when the only drama before each season was finding out which top four league spot each club would slot into. Manchester City, with their willingness to absorb monumental financial losses, is here to stay. Manchester United has a young developing core to pair with the likes of Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney. Arsene Wenger always finds a way to keep Arsenal near the top, if not at it, and will likely still have the best striker in the league in RVP. Newcastle showed it has the talent, heart, and flair to compete for a top four spot. Liverpool’s Boston brahmin owners have the ambition and the money to make quick changes. Tottenham faces perhaps the toughest challenge of all should they lose Gareth Bale and Luka Modric, but never underestimate Harry Redknapp. So even if Chelsea improve on 2011-12, they may be on the outside looking in come next May.

-What makes next season so difficult is the rebuilding job that is clearly needed. Andre Villas-Boas, disastrous run aside, was right to sound the alarm. Didier Drogba, Chelsea’s fourth all-time leading scorer, all-time leading scorer in Europe and a money player in the clutch, is already gone. Key players such as John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Juan Mata, Raul Meireles, Gary Cahill, and Flourent Malouda will not have a proper rest because of Euro 2012. And Chelsea has already seen the best days of Terry, Lampard, Malouda, and Michael Essien. Fernando Torres, no longer a “niño”, hasn’t inspired confidence that he is ready to fill the void left by Drogba.

-Even if Abramovich sells one of his yachts to restock the squad with new glittering jewels from the continent, it will take time for a new-look club to click, as Manchester City has shown with their failure in the Champions League and leaving the Premier League title until the 94th minute of the season. And time is not a commodity that Abramovich is generous with.

Add it all up, and Di Matteo faces an unappetizing platter of high expectations, a roster in transition, and little patience from the boss. Rather than one year and done in 2012-13, Di Matteo would do better by taking his services elsewhere. He won’t want for offers.

If you support Portugal, Denmark or Netherlands, be very afraid of Germany — especially after watching the above video.

The Mercedes TV commercial featuring the German national team for Euro 2012 is intense, incredible and — dare I say it — intimidating, especially if your nation is going to be playing Deutschland. The TV commercial makes the German national team look like giants. Indestructible, backed by great role models, powered by industry and featuring an anthem that sends shivers down my spine.

What do you think? Love it or hate it? Share your feedback in the comments section below.

There’s just over two weeks to go before Euro 2012 kicks off, and the number and quality of news items is quickly increasing from a handful to more than 10.

As the days go by, I imagine this list will get longer and longer!

Here’s all of the Euro 2012 news you need to know, delivered in one nifty blog post:

• Spain’s David Villa loses race to be fit for Euro 2012 — The Guardian
• England stars arrive for first meeting with Roy Hodgson — The Daily Mail
  
• Bayern Munich down Holland 3-2 in friendly — 101 Great Goals
• Arjen Robben Booed By Peeved Bayern Munich Fans During Holland Friendly — Who Ate All The Pies
  
• Euro 2012: The Super-Duper Interactive Retro Spreadsheet — Two Hundred Percent
  
• Poland warm up for Euro 2012 with 1-0 win over Latvia — 101 Great Goals
• Darren Bent part of England plans for 2014 World Cup, says Roy Hodgson — The Guardian
  
• Topless FEMEN activist attacks Euro trophy in another protest against Ukrainian sex tourism — 101 Great Goals
• Cristiano Ronaldo: Roy Hodgson made a big mistake in leaving Rio Ferdinand out of Euro 2012 squad — The Telegraph
  
• France forward Karim Benzema insists England will still be a threat at the European Championship — Sky Sports
  

In an exclusive interview with Chelsea TV, Didier Drogba has recorded a 90 second message to say goodbye and thank you to Chelsea supporters around the world.

“Thank you for giving me the chance to show what I was able to do,” said Drogba, in a sincere and heartfelt message. “Thank you for supporting me when I was struggling here.”

Didier Drogba will always be remembered as one of the best strikers ever in the Premier League. The Ivory Coast striker joined Chelsea in 2004 from Marseille in a deal reported to be worth £24 million. Since then, Drogba has repaid Chelsea in so many ways, winning three Premier League titles, one Champions League trophy, four FA Cup trophies, two League Cup trophies and two Community Shield honors.

Farewell Didier Drogba. We will miss you.

Over the course of the 2011-12 Fantasy Premier League season, more than 2,100 soccer fans from around the world played the EPL Talk private league version of the game.

In previous seasons, EPL Talk finished in the top 20 of private leagues out of the 200,000 private leagues worldwide. This year, with the redesign of Fantasy Premier League, it looks like they’ve removed that feature (if you find it, please let us know in the comments).

Nevertheless, here are the top 20 players over the course of the Fantasy Premier League season that represent the best-of-the-best Fantasy Premier League players:

1. Anthony Ngo, 2386 points
2. Darren Dunne, 2352
3. Bunda J J, 2334
4. FPL Hints Blog Team, 2322
5. Rollo Tomassi, 2320
6. Julie Brown, 2309
7. Martin R, 2281
8. Kevin Bagley, 2280
9. Matthew Shinebourne, 2265
10. Shaun McGrath, 2263
11. Wenyu Tang, 2254
12. Pat Pence, 2244
13. Sean Holleran, 2244
14. Kaloyan Yordanov, 2234
15. Martin Horak, 2230
16. Chris Musser, 2230
17. L CY, 2229
18. Aaron Brown, 2227
19. Jeff Kay, 2227
20. K Chris “OR” Mitchellinho, 2223

Congratulations to each one of you, and thank you to everyone who played this season.

Keep an eye out for EPL Talk’s Fantasy Premier League, which will open up for registration in mid-July.

Every year, for the past few seasons, we’ve done a Premier League prediction table where I and you, the readers, make our picks on how the final Premier League table will look at the end of the season. The picks are made in August, so it’s often a tough call to make especially since new transfer signings haven’t had much time to bed in at all. Plus, managerial changes don’t often happen until late in the year.

Nevertheless, here’s how we did. My predicted end of the season table was as follows:

1. Manchester United (C)
2. Manchester City
3. Chelsea
4. Liverpool
5. Arsenal
6. Sunderland
7. Tottenham Hotspur
8. Fulham
9. Everton
10. Newcastle United
11. Aston Villa
12. Stoke City
13. West Bromwich Albion
14. Swansea
15. Norwich City
16. Wolverhampton Wanderers
17. Bolton Wanderers
18. Wigan Athletic (R)
19. Queens Park Rangers (R)
20. Blackburn Rovers (R)

And here were your picks.

I came close to predicting the champions correctly — if Aguero hadn’t scored, I would have had my first and second pick correctly. Chelsea finishing in sixth instead of third place was a shock, but who could have predicted that Andre Villas-Boas would have done so badly at Stamford Bridge? Liverpool’s eighth place finish was a shock. I really thought that Dalglish could have steered them to fourth based on the talent at their disposal. Arsenal took advantage of Chelsea and Liverpool’s poor league form by finishing in third, despite me picking them to finish in fifth position.

I thought Sunderland was going to be the surprise team this season based on the amount of money that Ellis Short spent in the transfer window, but who could have predicted that Steve Bruce could have done so badly at the Stadium of Light? I should have swapped Sunderland and Newcastle around for a better prediction.

At the bottom of the table, most of us could see the writing on the wall that Blackburn Rovers was doomed under Steve Kean, so I predicted they would finish in last place. Under Neil Warnock, I didn’t rate QPR, and based on the way they were playing, they would have gone down if it wasn’t for Mark Hughes. I also predicted Wigan would get relegated, but I was wrong on that one.

I believed in Swansea and Norwich, so I put them at 14th and 15th position — yet they did even better than my predictions by finishing 11th and 12th. I’m particularly proud of my Swansea prediction because almost everyone — pundits and fans — predicted that Swansea would get relegated.

Here’s the final Premier League table to compare.

As for the picks from you, the readers, many of you predicted that Newcastle would get relegated, Liverpool would finish in first, second or third place, and Swansea would finish bottom. Manchester United, like me, was the most predicted champion.

Of the readers who made their prediction between August and September, the person who came the closest was a reader named Bob.

Interestingly, very few people picked Manchester City to win the title before the end of August, and we all (myself included) were all over the place regarding the bottom three. No one who posted a comment in August or September predicted the correct three relegated sides.

If you have some time to go back through the 156+ comments, they make for some very interesting reading.

I hope you enjoyed the Premier League table prediction game. We’ll open a new one up for the 2012-13 season in early August.