Latest transfer rumours (Thursday Dec 4)

Orange's daily transfer rumours blog is back! With the January window less than a month away, the tabloid tittle tattle has begin in earnest.

- West Ham will be forced to sell Dean Ashton in January to fund a potential fine following the Carlos Tevez saga. (Daily Mirror)

- Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill has joined the race to sign £3m Wigan striker Emile Heskey (Daily Star)

- David Moyes has turned his attentions to Portsmouth's outcast striker David Nugent to replace injured Yakubu (The Sun)

- Chelsea want Wigan's on-loan striker Amr Zaki and Lyon forward Karim Benzema but may first have to offload Wayne Bridge, Florent Malouda and Alex. (The Independent)

- Manchester United defender Danny Simpson, currently on loan at Blackburn, has threated to quit Old Trafford if he's not a first-team regular next season (Daily Mirror)

- Tottenham and Newcastle have targeted Sporting Lisbon's £20m Brazilian striker Liedson. (Daily Mirror)

- Hull are planning a £2.5m swoop for Monaco defender Nicolas Nikolou. (The Sun)

Have you heard any rumours on the grapevine? Spotted Ronaldo (the fat one) munching on a pasty in your local bakery? Who would you like your club to buy in January? Have your say in the boxes below.

Football's biggest divers...Your views

Wayne Rooney was the latest big name footballer to admit to taking a dive after his tumbling effort during last night's Champions league clash against Villarreal.

Off the back of this, we’ve decided to pick out ten of the most infamous divers in the game which you can view for by clicking here.

Do you agree with our list? Would you like to name and shame anybody we’ve missed out? Send us your comments using the boxes below.

Premier League's greatest goals - your views

In the latest instalment of our Premier League 'best and worst' series, we've picked our ten best top-flight goals.

Cheeky chips, thirty-yard net-busters and that lob from the halfway line all feature in our selection, which you can view by clicking here.

Have we missed any out? Which goals should have made it and which ones don't you rate? Send us your comments using the boxes below.

How to lose friends and alienate people

Everyone loves a bit of drama and life at Arsenal seems to be turning into its very own soap opera, judging by captain William Gallas' latest rant.

The Gunners skipper accused his players of not being warriors and singled out one player - rumoured in the tabloids to be Robin van Persie - as being universally disliked by and abusive to his team-mates. On top of that, he revealed a half-time fall-out between van Persie and Theo Walcott in the 4-4 epic against Tottenham earlier this season.

His outburst is hardly likely to instill confidence among his players in their captain while Arsene Wenger is said to be fuming, particularly as he tries to correct the inconsistent performances of his team-mates in the Premier League.

But what was the point of Gallas' outburst, apart from to try to offload some of the blame he's been burdened with when things have gone wrong this season? In fact, there's quite a lot. His sensational outburst coincidentally happened the day before the publication of his autobiography in his native France. So, while he might be docked two weeks wages for what he said - about £180,000 - the ensuing furore will ensure he cashes in on resulting book sales.

Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd will all be loving this little bit of north London in-fighting, as Gallas-gate looks set to drag on and on. All we can say is what was he thinking, the fool?!

What did you make of Gallas' outburst and should Arsene Wenger sack him as captain? We want to hear your views.

England's future XI... your views

Inspired by the recent unearthing of a crop of promising young English talent, Orange has selected an England team of the future.

The dazzling exploits of Arsenal's kids in the Carling Cup, plus Michael Mancienne's England call-up and the wonder goal by Manchester United's 17-year-old Danny Welbeck against Stoke have brought England's stars of the future into sharp focus.

Check out our new-breed England XI right here, vote on the promise of each player and then give us your views below. Which up-and-coming talent have we left out?

England's latest squad...Your views

Michael who? That was the question asked by most England fans after Fabio Capello named his 23-man squad for Wednesday's friendly with Germany in Berlin.

Chelsea defender Michael Mancienne, currently on loan at Wolves, has been surprisingly drafted in despite never playing for his parent club or in the Premier League.

England are missing several players through injury but how can you call up a player who has never played at a level higher than the Championship? Mancienne may impress against the likes of Ade Akinbiyi and Lee Trundle but something tells me that Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski will cause a few more problems.

Winning an England cap should be the ultimate honour for a footballer. Mancienne may not actually get any game time but just what is Capello thinking? If Chelsea thought he was good enough to play at the top at the present time, then he wouldn’t be out on loan. He would be at Stamford Bridge, filling in for the injured Ricardo Carvalho.

As for the ‘friendly’ against Germany, does anybody actually care? With an injury-hit squad, below is a possible team that will take to the field:

James; Johnson, Lescott, Richards, Bridge; Walcott, Lampard, Barry, Downing; Crouch, Defoe.

Can't wait...

What do you make of Capello’s squad? How do you think England will do in Berlin? Send in your comments in the boxes below.

Premier League's hard men...Your views

In the latest instalment of our Premier League 'best and worst' series, we're picking our ten most notorious top-flight hard men.

Career-threatening tackles, flying elbows, a few punches and ex-cons all feature in our selection, which you can view by clicking here.

Have we missed anyone from our list? Who do you rate as the ultimate football hard man? Send us your comments in the boxes below.

Young Gunners running wild...Your views

Not for the first time, Arsenal’s wonderkids shined in the Carling Cup after destroying Premier League opposition.

On paper, it was boys against men but with the Gunners fielding a starting line-up with an average age of just 19 – goalkeeper Lukas Fabianski the oldest at 23.

However, Arsenal showed more maturity and class than their opponents and would have won by an even bigger margin had Wigan stopper Chris Kirkland not been in excellent form.

In contrast, Manchester United scraped a 1-0 win over a managerless Championship club and that was with a string of first team players including, Gary Neville, John O'Shea, Anderson, Nani, Carlos Tevez and Ji-Sung Park.

The future also looks bright for English football with five of last night’s XI being home grown players - 16-year-old midfielder Jack Wilshere in particular looks destined for the very top.

Arsene Wenger, criticised in the past for fielding too many foreign players, says that they are the most complete set of youngsters the club has ever had while Steve Bruce’s post-match comments summed it up perfectly: “They have kicked our backsides."

Just how good can these kids become? Could they possibly go all the way and win the Carling Cup? Send in your comments below.

Football blog: Time up for Hughes?

When you have a bottomless pit of money and the likes of Robinho in your starting XI, lying a point off the relegation zone is simply unacceptable.

Mark Hughes has received the backing of his boss, but we all know what that means. The away trip to Hull next Sunday is crucial as City subsequently entertain Arsenal and Manchester United, before more winnable clashes with Fulham, Everton, West Brom, Hull again and Blackburn.

If Manchester City are no better off by the New Year, the Welshman will surely be sent packing.

What do you think? Will Hughes get the boot? Does he deserve it? Send in your views using the boxes below

Football blog: Most hated players

As Joey Barton yet again finds himself in trouble, we've picked out 10 of the most controversial and disliked players from the Premier League years.

You can read our list by clicking here and then send in your thoughts using the boxes below. We'll take any alternative names and suggestions on board and add this to our previous Premier League Top Tens (best overseas player, worst manager) and combine them (plus many more to come) into a grand vote sometime in the future!