Avoiding the Drop

What you missed while jellyfish were posing an undue threat to tuna populations in the Bahamas…

• Michael Owen has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury. This presumably means we can stop talking about how he won’t make the World Cup squad.
• Owen Hargreaves is set to be injured in play in a Manchester United reserve match next Thursday.
• Chelsea wingback Jose Bosingwa will miss the rest of the season and the World Cup following news that he’ll need additional surgery on his injured knee.
• Leeds United’s anonymous ownership group somehow passed the fit and proper test imposed by the Football League.
• Bayern Munich are hoping that they can convince both Franck Ribéry and Toni Kroos to stay on next season.
• The Russian FA is attempting to make Fabio Capello an offer he can’t refuse to manage the Russian National Team.
• Gao Hongbo, the Chinese national team manager, says that China took it easy on Portugal in their 2-0 friendly win earlier this week.
• Giuseppe Rossi has returned to Villareal after a month-long hiatus to mourn the passing of his father.
• The Seattle Sounders have signed former Swiss international striker Blaise Nkufo to their roster from FC Twente; he’ll join the Sounders in mid-July.
• Galatasaray winger Arda Turan has said that he’s interested in playing for Liverpool; I’ve never seen him actually play, but my vast knowledge of the top players in “Football Manager” says that his guy is fantastic and I hope that works out.
• Former Inter Milan striker Adriano – currently at Flamengo – is considering a return to Europe. Because that went so well the first time.
• William Gallas may be ruled out of Arsenal’s upcoming Champions League return leg against FC Porto with a back injury that’s affecting his calf, and like a headache thing and a sort of sore shoulder, and he was going to take a personal day, but decided that it was better to just call in sick.
• Wigan manager Roberto Martinez agrees with Arsene Wenger’s contention that hard tackles are underpunished; this comes after Wigan midfielder James McCarthy was the victim of an overexuberant challenge by Birmingham’s Liam Ridgewell over the weekend.