Archives for January 2013

Should Mario Balotelli complete his move to AC Milan, he’ll have some serious competition in the ‘party tricks’ stakes. Milan’s Stephan El Shaarawy has been practising some interesting dancing techniques in anticipation of Balotelli’s arrival.

The Greek amateur leagues have come up with a way of rewarding players and coaches for good sportsmanship, particularly if they own up to handling the ball.

Goal line clearances can sometimes lead to unfortunate encounters with posts or team mates. Not for Tano, defender for Valencia ll in Spanish Segunda Division B, who produced an unbelievable clearance against L’Hospitalet.

Technology is great, but when it goes wrong, it can cause a lot of confusion and well, make you look rather silly. Manchester City’s Official Facebook page clearly had a few technical issues before the game at QPR.

In a Dutch cup game between Ado Den Haag and Roda JC, the referee sent Roda captain Sanharib Malki off for what looked like a kick out at his opponent. However, if you look a little closer, he’s only got one thing to blame for his sending off, his boots.

This afternoon on the 606 Facebook page we played ‘Who Am I?’, where you had to guess the Premier League player we were talking about.

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It’s now becoming that time of the year in football known as ‘the business end of the season’. As Yeovil Town push on for one of those lucrative play-off spots, they’ve ensured that everyone knows their role at the club.

This is one of the most instinctual finishes we’ve seen in a long time. Is it that or is it just a matter of throwing your leg over your head and hoping for the best?

There’s plenty of lessons that can be learnt from watching Paul Scholes on the football field, but he’s also taught us all a valuable lesson to do with our cars today.

England legend, David Beckham trained with Arsenal at London Colney today, a lot of the Arsenal players looked like little kids at Christmas as they trained with one of the biggest names in football.

You might think the Turkish club have signed the two Champions League winners for footballing reasons, well that seems to be just a bonus. They’ve justified their cash splashing…

It looks like Mario Balotelli will be leaving Manchester City for AC Milan. Will you miss the Italian in the Premier League? Tell us your favourite #Mariomemory...

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The Everton midfielder might be out injured, but he made sure the Everton fans didn’t forget about him at the Reebok stadium on Saturday. He watched Everton’s FA Cup tie at Bolton in the away end with The Toffee’s faithful…

And they’re certainly happy about it! During the post-match press conference the team couldn’t hold back. The manager broke into a sing-song…

The Belgium has been on the front and the back of every paper over the last week or so, but his latest front cover shot seems to be the most apt.

You might think that if you’re playing in the Premier League there’s nothing you can’t have. Well that’s not the case for Southampton’s Luke Shaw.

On this weekend’s show with Robbie and Chappers we had two callers with 80 years between them. Despite the age difference, they both called up about both their teams having a bad weekend.

It was a weekend of cup upsets and plenty of happy fans from the football and non-league. Listen back to both shows from FA Cup fourth round weekend…

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Huncoat United under-15’s won their first game in five years last weekend. A 94-game run saw them fail to even draw a game. But on Saturday afternoon they overcame Brierfield Celtic 2-0.

Many see the young Arsenal midfielder as the next in line for the armband at the gunners.

Our very own Jason Roberts aka ‘The Big Bad Wolf’ turned 35 today. The ‘young boys’ at Reading surprised him with a cake this morning…

After Arsenal’s fine sheet was revealed earlier in the week, we doubt Arsene Wenger would want anything else floating around online. He won’t be too happy with Craig Eastmond’s recent tweets.

After Swansea and Bradford caused two upsets to reach the first cup final of the year, we wanted to know your most memorable finals.

Robbie Savage and Mark Chapman will be your hosts on Saturday at a later time of 7.30pm reacting to all the day’s FA Cup fourth round action. Steven Reid and Darren Fletcher will host your Sunday show.

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We love seeing a well-worked set piece that’s taken from the training ground, but this looks like it's from the playground. Taken from a pre-season friendly in the Thai league.

The winger had the Reading faithful very worried this afternoon as he told his followers that he was on his way up to Newcastle for a medical with the magpies.

Brazilians have always paved the way in the latest bit of trickery to be seen on a football field. The latest superstar to come from the South American state has come up with another new skill…

Another one fails. The classic ‘panenka’ penalty can look brilliant, but only if you score. If you miss it’s highly embarrassing. The only thing that can make it any worse is if the keeper mocks you…

There’s been plenty of reaction to the incident involving Eden Hazard and a Swansea ball boy last night. AFC Wimbledon sent out a tweet out that seemed to have disappeared by this afternoon…

Theo Walcott’s goal last night was his second in as many games since signing his new contract at Arsenal. The picture of his celebration is up on our Facebook page.

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The Celtic manager was in a playful mood in a recent press conference. He decided to answer one journalist’s phone.

Real Madrid’s dazzling first half performance at Valencia saw them go in at half-time 0-5 up. The second half was disappointing in comparison with no goals scored. Cristiano Ronaldo made sure Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves…

There’s a new football related craze going on in Spain and it’s called Thibauting. Named after Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who’s currently on-loan at Atletico Madrid.

When you get sent and stretchered off. We don’t know why Ethiopian keeper Jemal Tassew comes out to try and win the ball against Zambia’s Chisamba Lungu, but he certainly doesn’t get any of it.

There won’t be any complaints from the Southampton players under the new gaffer as he’s already whipped them away for some warm weather training. Richard Chaplow tweeted on the plane with a new nickname…

The young English winger looks set for a move to Old Trafford, but would this be a good move for him and Manchester United?

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The Manchester United players chose an interesting design of pyjamas for their journey to Qatar at the weekend. The United players jetted to the Middle East following Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Tottenham for warm weather training and team bonding.

It frustrates the life out of fans and managers when players can’t get a corner kick past the first man. Step forward Marquinhos of Duque de Caxias in Brazil, who takes woeful corner kick taking to the next level.

Swindon manager Paolo Di Canio was so thankful to the volunteers who helped clear the pitch at the County Ground for Saturday’s game against Shrewsbury, he bought them all a thank you present.

Arsene Wenger has been getting tough with his Arsenal players, imposing strict fines if they do not follow his rules. Wenger has also given Per Mertesacker the responsibility of being the club’s ‘debt collector’.

DR Congo produced a surprise result in the African Cup of Nations, drawing 2-2 with Ghana. DR Congo goalkeeper Robert Kidiaba got a little bit too excited when his team scored an equaliser from the penalty spot, as his trademark celebration shows.

Both the Premier League and Championship had a full programme of fixtures this weekend, despite the weather. We heard from Southampton, Blackburn, Liverpool and Reading fans.

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We love a good celebration at 606. Especially one we’ve never seen before and especially someone attempting to make a call through their boot.

Many questioned his decision to go to the West London club over the North-East of Newcastle. But QPR have revealed the real reason for him choosing them…

Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois, who’s currently on-loan at Atletico Madrid yet again showed Petr Cech why he needs to be looking over his shoulder with this brilliant treble save.

Former Aston Villa manager, John Gregory showed off his talents with a guitar round his neck in a recent Villa supporters club meeting. He sung Bruce Springsteen’s “No Surrender” in tribute to Villa club captain Stiliyan Petrov…

News from Southampton had 606 HQ in a state of shock on Friday. The South Coast side have sacked Nigel Adkins and have appointed former Espanyol manager Maurico Pochettino.

Mark Chapman comes back into the side on Saturday alongside Robbie Savage kicking off at 18.06 and Ian Dennis will be making his 606 debut with Jason Roberts on Sunday…

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Yann M’Vila’s current French club, Renne qualified for the Coupe De La Ligue final (Capital One Cup equivalent) for the first time in their history this week.

Pablo Zabaleta celebrated his 28th birthday this week and tweeted a picture of his impressive birthday cake made by his girlfriend.

Lionel Messi, the four-time Ballon d’Or winner posed with all four of his trophies before Barcelona’s game against Malaga last night.

Tonight sees the NBA comes to London and one of the teams that feature – the New York Knicks were at Stamford Bridge to cheer on Chelsea against Southampton last night.

Manchester United and Arsenal transfer target Wilfried Zaha has obviously had enough with the way people say his name. He made it quite clear how his name should be pronounced on Twitter last night.

Arsene Wenger has said a new deal between Theo Walcott is 99% complete. How important is he for Arsenal? You can join the debate on…

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The former Manchester City midfielder has been trending on Twitter after a picture, reported to be him appeared on the social networking. The player was tipped for big things before injuries set him back.

With The FA turning 150, Real Madrid and former FA Cup winning manager Jose Mourinho was roped in to talk about the association. But he also felt he had to mention someone else too.

We’ve all been there on a Sunday morning, trying to get a game played with one man and his dog on the sideline. Then the man loses control and the dog decides it wants to play itself.

With footballers having plenty of free time on their hands we know a lot of them like to keep themselves busy with various activities. But this is the first time we’ve heard of one starting his own comic…

After one of the biggest Twitter spats we’ve seen in a while, Joey Barton has apologised for his part in an argument with former team-mate Dietmar Hamann.

Are you surprised? Do you think it was a red card? Sam on Twitter says “Definitley a red! He went in 2 footed!” But Richard on Facebook says “right decision, it was a fair tackle.”

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The Manchester City fans that decided to make the trip to The Emirates on Sunday were rewarded with a solid display from the Champions, beating Arsenal 2-0. However, some City fans were put off by the price of the tickets, which led to one of the Linesmen to having his say.

Premier League referee Mike Dean dished out two red cards in Sunday’s match between Arsenal and Manchester City. Due to him being in the thick of the action for most of the match, we couldn’t help but notice his choice of boots.

Ever tried to think of a good way to mock a referee? Of course you have. Zlatan Ibrahimovic got so wound up at the referee during PSG’s 0-0 draw with Ajaccio at the weekend that eventually his frustration boiled over.

Ajax midfielder Siem De Jong is a contender for miss of the season after Sunday’s howler in a friendly against Vasco Da Gama. The Dutch are known for their technical ability, and he’s certainly shown a unique technique in order to miss this.

It appears we have a rival to Luis Suarez’s handball against Mansfield in the FA Cup. Look no further than Lazio’s Sergio Floccari against Atlanta at the weekend.

606 was at the heart of all the big talking points from a controversial weekend of football. We heard form Aston Villa, Arsenal, Southampton, and Leeds fans.

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We’ve already seen transfer negotiations taking place on Twitter this month, but this is the first time we’ve seen a player tweet his club questioning the time and day of a game!

You would think that Mario Balotelli might just want a quiet month to put his head down and play some football. Well he did score two for Man City’s under-21’s team…

It must be hard being a footballer for Man United or Man City and getting in a taxi in Manchester. It’s like a lucky dip, will the taxi driver be a City or United? We think Rio’s yesterday might have be loyal to the blue half of Manchester…

Looking at Jose Mourinho last night you would never guess his club won 4-0. The Portuguese manager is under some pressure from the Madrid faithful, being greeting by regular echoes of boos at their home games.

We’re only ten days in to 2013, but out of the 12 players featured on the Portsmouth calendar, 9 are no longer there. The League One club have had more ins and outs than hockey-cokey recently.

Which footballer’s aftershave would you have and why? Perhaps you’d be interested in “Laidback” by Dimitar Berbatov? Or “Misunderstood” by Mario Balotelli.

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It’s been a good first half of the season for Swindon in League One, and as they look to clinch promotion to the Championship, everyone at the club appears to be pulling in the same direction.

Former World Player of the Year Ronaldo has clearly been thinking long and hard about life after football. The retired World Cup winner is coming to London to master a very different trade to the one which he’s made his name in.

Benfica midfielder Nicolas Gaitan scored arguably the goal of the weekend against Estoril. A sublime bit of skill which, if you tried to attempt on a Sunday morning, would only end in a pulled muscle of some sort.

While Premier League clubs are getting healthy attendances each week, some non league clubs are suffering from the complete opposite. This has led to clubs creating new ways to entice fans to home games.

AO Giannina’s youth team from Greece are on course to be the new Barcelona. The youngsters pass their opposition off the park in what can only be described as the perfect team goal.

606 was back this weekend, getting to the crux of all the big talking points of the FA Cup third round action. Macclesfield, Hastings United, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool fans all got in touch with us.

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On Friday morning John Terry shared a picture of him and Frank Lampard lifting the FA Cup saying he was devastated he was leaving, despite no confirmation.

The French international signed for Newcastle on Friday & got stuck straight in by training with the team. Newcastle fans were encouraged…

He already has three great strikers in front of him at Manchester City, but could Mario Balotelli now have four?

We’re always hearing about this ‘tiki-taka’ football that Messi & co are so famous for at Barcelona. You would think they have some new-age training drills for it…

Friday was a busy day in the transfer window - Cole back to West Ham, Ba to Chelsea, Debuchy to Newcastle. But will they be successes at their new club’s?

We’ll be on Saturday evening with all the reaction to FA Cup Third Round day at the later time of 7.10 – 8.30pm. No matter where you’re watching football tomorrow we want to hear from you.

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