The Quiet Summer Continues

As you may have noticed (or perhaps you haven't), I haven't blogged much in July. That's partly due to a very busy schedule outside of the wonderful of European soccer (yes, I do have a life outside of The Soccer Haus, believe it or not), but mostly it's due to a surprisingly quiet summer in the transfer market. Outside of Ronaldinho's move from Barcelona to AC Milan, it's been primarily b-listers changing hands. Alexander Hleb, Claude Makelele, David Guiza and Deco are among the movers so far, but as the New York Times' Jeffrey Marcus pointed out, it's been a blockbuster-free July, highlighted by you-know-who staying put in Manchester. We'll continue to wait and see what else transpires between now and the end of August when the transfer window closes.

All Quiet on the European Front

My apologies for the lack of posts over the past week. A combination of vacation, a new Nintendo Wii and a lack of any major movement in Europe are all to blame. Let's focus on that third point for a moment.

There are no surprises among the names that continue to surface- Lampard, Adebayor, Arshavin, Ronaldo, Drogba- but no major deals have been consummated. It's a back and forth game as always. Team A makes a bid, Team B insists that the initial offer is too low and it continues from there. In some respects, the European transfer market is more like buying a car or house than resembling player movement in North American leagues. You're probably reading the same stories I am with regards to who might be headed where, so we'll wait and see how it all shakes out. But with preseason games starting Saturday (that's right- Saturday, as in four days from now) there will be a lot of roster changes before the real season starts in mid-August. That should make for quite a frenzy over the next five weeks.