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So, we’re underway at the 19^th FIFA World Cup in South Africa. I’m writing following the 1-1 draw in the opening game between South Africa and Mexico and cannot wait for the rest of the tournament. I’ve been thinking of late about the players I want to watch at this year’s World Cup, and the players I think will shine. Looking at the teams who I believe will progress to the knockout rounds, and those who have been on form all season, I’ve come up with the following list.

My Top 5 Players To Watch During World Cup 2010

So, it’s D-Day for many of the current England squad as Fabio Capello today announces his final squad for the World Cup in South Africa. The decision means that seven players from the provisional squad will receive the bad news as Capello names his final 23 man squad.

Personally, I think that the most likely names to not be included will be:

Stephen Warnock – Aston Villa
Adam Johnson – Man City
Michael Dawson – Tottenham
Scott Parker – West Ham
Tom Huddlestone – Tottenham
Shaun Wright-Phillips – Man City
Darren Bent – Sunderland

Personally I agree with Sir Geoff Hurst’s comment saying that Darren Bent deserves to go ahead of Emile Heskey due to his regular appearances for his club and the fact that he’s scored 25 goals this season, although I don’t actually think this will happen. I remember the day Glenn Hoddle told Paul Gascoigne he wasn’t going to World Cup ’98 and that was a massive shock. Maybe there will be a shock or two this time. Let me know what you think!!!

Today we ask a simple but pertinent question – Will Mancini last the season?

The furore surrounding the Italian’s arrival at Manchester City perhaps overshadowed the good work that his predecessor Mark Hughes had done over the last couple of years. ‘Sparky’ was not just a great player but also a great manager and his untimely demise left us wondering if the City board had made the right choice.

After their dumping from the Carling Cup by neighbours United and now their untimely exit from th FA cup by Stoke City, silverware seems a long way from the empty tropy cabinets at Eastlands. Will Mancini last to the end of the season – probably. But it remains to be seen if sucess will happen quickly.

There is a well known joke in Manchester that involves City’s trophy room being broken into and the police searching for a man last seen carrying a light blue carpet over his shoulder. If Mancini doesn’t improve soon the only carpet he will see is the one onto the plane home.

Time is slowly ticking away for Portsmouth FC. Unless they can find a buyer before Friday the club will go into administration.

Portsmouth owes debts of around 70 million pounds and their players have not been paid on many occasions this season. If they enter administration the club would be hit with a points reduction which would leave them floundering at the bottom of the premier league with no real possibility of staying up.

It is a sad state of affairs that a club with a history as illustrious as Portsmouth’s should end up in this position; we only hope a buyer is found soon.

While Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal all battle for the top three places in the premier league, perhaps the most difficult position to guess come the of the season is fourth.

This weekend saw a no bore draw between two of the clubs aiming to finish in fourth, Manchester City and Liverpool. Liverpool have been in poor form recently and with City not playing talisman striker Carlos Teves, the action was always going to be a little stiff. The BBC were reduced to showing the highlight of the game which was a misplaced free kick from Steven Gerrard that nearly hit the corner flag.

Everton and Tottenham are the other two clubs to back if you think you might have a flutter and with Tottenham in top form and Everton beating Manchester United at the weekend you wouldn’t back against them.

The FA cup quarter-final draw was made yesterday after some cracking action during FA cup weekend. Crystal Palace nearly did a giant killing act and missed out on going through because of a late equaliser from Aston Villa. Bolton and Tottenham will have to play again after Tottenham missed a penalty. Man City and Stoke will also have to replay after a dull draw at Eastland’s, whilst Chelsea calmly swept away Cardiff, in perhaps the game of the weekend.

Here is the quarter final draw in full:

Chelsea v Manchester City/Stoke City
Fulham v Bolton Wanderers/Tottenham Hotspur
Reading/West Brom v Crystal Palace/Aston Villa
Portsmouth v Birmingham City

The transfer window has now closed so we thought we would bring you all the action from the final day. Hmmm….There wasn’t really any big signings or surprises. perhaps the biggest speculation surrounded a move by Micheal Owen who is currently at Man Utd. The move didn’t happen.

At the time of writing this blog Robbie Keane was contemplating a loan move to Celtic park. And that was about it. We could mention David Nugent, but we thought we wouldn’t’ bother. Also we thought a brief note about Benni McCarthey might interest you, but he is a player of the past, not the future, so we didn’t mention him either.

It is becoming a worrying trend for football in this country, with the news that Championship side Crystal Palace have become the latest club to go into administration.

This announcement has been made by the administrators P and A Partnership after the club has been unable to pay players at various times this season. The club chairman Simon Jordan has been trying to attract investment while keeping the club running.

The administration is expected to be short-lived though as several buyers are said to be interested in the Eagles.

The club are yet to release a statement, but any club outside the Premiership that goes into administration are automatically docked 10 points. This would leave the club four points above the relegation zone.

The January transfer window officially opened on 2nd January 2010 but there hasn’t really been much going on to report until now. The window will close again on Monday 2nd February at 5pm and until then there is likely to be a flurry of activity – with many loan signings expected at least, especially involving those clubs decimated by growing injury lists.

Over the next few blogs we will be looking at anything interesting going on with regards to moves as well as rumours of player activity.

The main signing in the Premiership so far is Patrick Viera moving from Inter Milan to Manchester City. I’m sure this move will rekindle his ‘special’ relationship with United fans!

The Ivory Coast may start as favourites when the Cup of Nations starts this Sunday, but the event held two years ago showed there are always a few surprises along the way – as Egypt eventually proved. Angola will play Mali in the first Group A game.

This year there are many Premiership footballers on show in the tournament including Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Yakubu, Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Toure. It will be interesting to see which team will emerge victorious. The Cup Groups are shown below.

NATIONS CUP GROUPS

Group A: Angola, Algeria, Malawi, Mali
Group B: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo
Group C: Benin, Egypt, Mozambique, Nigeria
Group D: Cameroon, Gabon, Tunisia, Zambia