Mbotee's Blog

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From the outside, the football world looks upon Major League Soccer with a degree of suspicion and mistrust. Traditional American sporting models, we claim, don’t apply to football. Central ownership and the draft system are entirely foreign concepts. Pundits criticise salary capping in MLS one minute and bemoan the overpaid prima-donnas of Europe the next.

The idea of a post-season is one with which European footballites are naturally uncomfortable, but it also poses a question for MLS and American football itself.

At the recent Masters event at Braehead I had the good fortune to catch up with Tom Boyd who was in good form after scoring against Rangers.

In the video interview he enjoys a joke or two about his scoring record, what life is like as a former Celtic player and his hopes of a championship winning new season with the side managed by two of his former team-mates Tony Mowbray and Peter Grant.

Whatever the occasion as a player Tom always made himself available to speak and is a natural in front of the cameras, or in this case mobile phone.

So Jermaine Pennant, the forgotten man of Merseyside, has jumped ship for sunnier and warmer shores, namely, Real Zaragoza. Perhaps this move will come as a bit of a shock to some of you?

Well he was linked with Real Madrid pre-Galacticos II era, so his move to the Mediterranean is not as much of a surprise as first thought. But with Pennant leaving one Spaniard in Rafael Benítez for another in Marcelino García Toral, the inevitable question arises; Can he be a success?

After years of post-Soviet Union floundering, Russia is reemerging on the world stage as a political, social, and economic powerhouse. According to Time Magazine, which named Russian President Vladimir Putin its 2007 Person of the Year, “Russia’s economy has grown an average of 7% a year for the past five years. The country has paid off a foreign debt that once neared $200 billion…worker’s salaries have more than doubled since 2003.”

The Bear is Back

The Bear is back…big time. And this means that Western businessmen and businesswomen are flocking to Russia to make investments, make deals, and make money. Moscow is, of course, at the heart of the action. But although business has never been better, it’s sometimes hard for business travelers to navigate the city’s landscape, culture, and language. That’s why many are eschewing hotels and are instead opting for a fully serviced apartment rental in Moscow.