The shockwaves of the 2008-2009 season are being felt in some European leagues as the season ended in most nations on the weekend. Some major and minor moves have already been made, and if you don’t keep up with them now, you may not know who’s who when next season starts.

First of all, Celtic manager Gordon Strachan quit his job after the last game on Sunday as Celtic could only muster a draw at home to Hearts. This meant their quest for a fourth straight Scottish Premier league title was over and arch enemy and cross town rivals Rangers won the league. This move may prove that Strachan has some ulterior motives as it’s been rumoured he will take over at English Premier League team Sunderland as their manager Ricky Sbragia also quit after the last game, a 3-2 loss at home to Chelsea. But despite Sragbia appearing to be clueless by leaving his top league scorer Djibril Cisse on the bench again, Sunderland managed to stay up. And speaking of  Cisse, it’s no surprise that his contract won’t be renewed and he’ll be on the move soon.

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood also quit after guiding the SPL club to a Europa League spot next season.





Up in Newcastle, it appears that interim manager Alan Shearer may be ready to sign a four year deal to take over the just-relegated Geordies. The contract appears to be way too long for a team with Newcastle’s recent problems, especially for an unproven manager. Start off with a two-year deal and see how it goes. What’s the rush?

Aston Villa will also try to resign Gareth Barry, who has a year to go on his contract with the Birmingham club.

In Holland, Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam grabbed manager Martin Jol from fifth-place German Bundesliga club SV Hamburg and signed him to a three-year contract.  Ajax manager Marco van Basten resigned after missing out on a Champions league spot.

In other Bundesliga news, Stuttgart striker Mario Gomez will sign with Bayern Munich in a deal that could make him the most expensive Bundesliga player ever. Both teams and Gomez said they have agreed to a deal that could be worth about €30m. If true, it would be the biggest in German league history. Werder Bremen just raked in some serious coin though as they sold Brazilian playmaker Diego to Juventus for €24.5m. Also, injured striker Vedad Ibisevic has extended his contract with Hoffenheim until 2013.

In France, where there’s still one game left in the season, former Brazilian midfielder Juninho will leave Olympique Lyon at the end of the season. He has won seven Ligue 1 titles with Lyon. The 34-year-old will be let go for free even though he had a year left on his contract. He is suspended for the last game so he’s already played his last match withn the team.

There’s also a game left in Italy, but AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti has said he will remain with the club if he’s asked to. It’s been widely rumoured that he’ll be heading over to Chelsea in England at the and of the season when interim manger Guus Hiddink leaves London and heads back to managing the Russian national team.

Inter Milan boss Jose Mourinho signed an extension to stay with the team until 2012 after guiding them to the title this year.

In Greece, Olympiakos has hired former Newcastle player Temuri Ketsbaia is their new manager.

And in Russia, former CSKA Moscow manager Valery Gazzayev has been appointed hired to lead Dynamo Kiev.

Italian Serie A team Juventus fired manager Claudio Ranieri with only two games to go in the season and replaced him with former player Ciro Ferrara. Juventus is only a point in front of fourth-place Fiorentina and could still miss out on the automatic Champions League berth for next year after going winless in their last seven league games.

Ranieri took over from Didier Deschamps in 2007 when the Turin team was promoted back to Serie A after being demoted to the second division for match-fixing. Club chief executive Jean Claude Blanc said Ferrara’s appointment is for the last two games of the year.

“The next two games are our future,” Blanc said at a news conference. “It is not our style, but we cannot miss out on Europe. We wanted to shock the players so they’d take the right path with the right man at the right moment.”

Ferrara was a famous centre-back for Juventus, and is also an assistant to Italian coach and ex-Juventus manager Marcello Lippi, but this will be his first time managing a club on his own.

Juventus finished in third place last season and beat Spanish side Real Madrid home and away in the Champions League, but their winless streak has shown no signs of ending. They are currently three points behind second-placed AC Milan.

Over in England, Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic said he was surprised to be named the club’s player of the year by his team mates and the club’s fans. The 27-year-old Serbian international won both awards for his fine play alongside Rio Ferdinand in the centre of United’s defence this season.

Vidic, who moved to United from Spartak Moscow three years ago, has been an important figure in Manchester’s Premier League triumph and their run to the Champions League final.

“It’s a great night for me,” he said on Manchester United TV. “It has been a really good year. I am surprised I got it but I have really enjoyed it.”

Vidic also chipped in with a few goals this year and scored the opening goal in United’s 2-0 second-round second-leg win over Inter Milan in the Champions League.

“To be honest I don’t have so many individual awards,” Vidic added. “That’s why I am a bit confused and my speech is not the best. Next time my speech will be a bit better.”

Meanwhile, United keeper Ben Foster will be out of action for the next nine weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured ligament in his thumb. This means he will certainly miss the Champion League Final against Barcelona in Rome on May 27.

The 26-year-old will also miss the last match of the season against Hull City, along with England’s World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan, and Andorra on June 6th and 10th.

Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar was scheduled to start against Barcelona on May 27 anyway, but Foster hoped to be on the bench for the cup final.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson stated: “It is big blow for Ben as not only will he miss the Champions League final but also England’s summer internationals. Ben has tried to continue the season with this injury but it got so critical that an operation was the only way forward.”

Foster has been injury prone at United since being loaned out twice to Watford. He has also had major knee surgery and has only appeared in nine games for United this season. His biggest match was in the penalty shoot-out win against Tottenham Hotspur in the Carling Cup final.

In his first season in charge, manager Jose Mourinho guided Inter Milan to their fourth straight Italian Serie A title with three games to spare after second-place AC Milan lost 2-1 at Udinese on Saturday May 16th. AC Milan went into the game at Udinese seven points behind their cross town rivals with three matches left in the season and had to win it to have any kind of chance at all.

It is Inter’s fourth straight championship and their 17th overall. Juventus holds the record with 27 titles. They also become the first club in over 50 years to win four Serie A titles in a row.  In additon, they go down as only the third in the league’s 111-year history to win four on the trot after Juventus won five in a row from 1931-35 and Torino did it in 1943 and 1946-49.

Inter supporters didn’t take long to get together in Piazza Duomo, Milan’s central square, to celebrate after AC’s loss while television screens showed the Inter players dancing at their team retreat. It was also a special day for club management as well as Mourinho, the only foreign coach in Serie A, has now won championships in three different countries. He also won with Porto of Portugal and twice with Chelsea in England.

While his team was heading out to celebrate, the Portuguese wizard joked on the club’s website: “I’m a bit angry because the team should already be in bed, but they have decided to take the bus and go to Milan. But I understand their desire to celebrate. For my part I still don’t feel a symbol of Inter. There’s still some work to do on this. We’ll try and do it next year.”

Inter’s president Massimo Moratti also had an extra reason to celebrate the title as it fell on his 64th birthday.

“It’s the first time I’ve celebrated a birthday by winning a scudetto,” he stated. “They did very well to give me this present.” Moratti also said he hoped star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic would stay with the club.

As for AC Milan, they still need three points to guarantee themselves an automatic Champions League spot for next year and there is still confusion over the status of manager Carlo Ancelotti, who is being rumoured everyday to be taking over from Dutchman Guus Hiddink at English Premier League side Chelsea when the season is over. Ancelotti keeps denying it, but the London club hasn’t named a replacement for Hiddink as of yet as he heads back to his full time job as the manager of Russia’s national team.

While Inter did a fine job this season and deserved the title, let’s put the four in a row in proper perspective. They were basically given the first title in 2006, as the Italian courts stripped juventus of the crown because of a serious match-fixing scandal.

Their second title came while Juventus were playing in Serie B because of punishment from the scandal and last year Juventus were basically rebuilding in their first season back in the Serie A.

Last year’s manager Roberto Mancini was given the boot at the end of the season after a disagreement with Moratti, and Mourinho has kept the ship on its course.

While Inter may not always play the prettiest football in Italy, their sheer physical power and the timely goals of Ibrahimovic have made them pretty much unbeatable this season and have only lost three league games.

In fact, let’s give them credit where it’s deserved. They even beat Siena 3-0 today after a night of celebrating their championship.

Yoann Gourcuff banged in his 10th league goal of the season on May 3rd as Bordeaux smoked Sochaux 3-0 at home to draw even on points with Marseille at the top of the French championship. It should make for an exciting finish with only four games to go. Bordeaux and Marseille have 68 points each, but Marseille is ahead on goal difference by just one. Marseille found themselves in this position by blowing two points in a 2-2 at home to Toulouse on the weekend.

Paris Saint-Germain couldn’t jump above Lyon and into third place as they lost 1-0 at home to Rennes as Mamadou Sakho scored an own goal. PSG remain in fourth place with 60 points, just one behind third-place Lyon, who were shutout 2-0 at Valenciennes. Near the bottom of the table, Nantes lost 2-1 at home to last-place Le Havre. This means Nantes stays in 18th place and are still in the relegation zone with 33 points. Le Havre has 24 points and looks certain to be playing second division football next season.

In Italy, Torino lost 1-0 to Fiorentina and stayed close to the relegation zone, one point above it. Fiorentina stays in the fourth Champions League place for the time being. Juventus was held to a 2-2 draw by 19th-place Lecce. AC Milan stays in second place, seven points behind Inter Milan, after winning 2-0 at Catania.

Inter beat Lazio 2-0 and leads the league with 77 points, followed by Milan with 70, Juventus with 66 and Fiorentina at 61 with four games left. Diego Milito scored a hat trick in Genoa’s 3-1 win over Sampdoria in the Genoa derby. And other scores were Palermo 5, Cagliari 1; AS Roma 0, Chievo Verona 0; Siena 2, Napoli 1; and Udinese 3, Atalanta 0.

Over in Germany, Hamburger SV drew with Hertha Berlin 1-1, leaving defending champion Bayern Munich in sole pursuit of Bundesliga leader Wolfsburg. Berlin dropped from second to third place with the draw and Hamburg stayed in fifth.

Wolfsburg beat Hoffenheim 4-0 with help from a hat trick by Edin Dzeko, and Bayern beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-1 in the first game for interim coach Jupp Heynckes to move into second spot and FC Cologne won 1-0 at home over Werder Bremen. Bremen and Hamburg play each other in the second leg of the UEFA Cup semifinals next week, with Hamburg at home and ahead 1-0 after the first leg.

Wolfsburg leads with 60 points, Bayern has 57, Berlin has 56 and Stuttgart is ahead of Hamburg in fourth place, with both teams at 55. It should make for some kind of race with four games to go.

In England on Monday, John Carew scored as Aston Villa beat Hull 1-0. The win ends Villa’s run of 12 winless games and guarantees them a spot in next season’s Europa League. But I really don’t understand the team wanting to be in Europe so bad after they made a mockery of the competition with Martin O’Neill basically sending a third-string team to Russia to get beat this season. It’s amazing how teams aim for Europe and once they get there they can’t wait to get out as they’re always complaining about the cramped fixture list. Villa now sits in fifth place in the Premier League and they can’t catch Arsenal for the fourth and final Champions League spot.

Hull has only won once in the last 19 games and sits in 17th place, just three points above the relegation zone with three games to go.

After a busy weekend in football here’s a look at the major continental European leagues.

In Germany, Wolfsburg blew a chance to gain three points on their rivals after losing 2-0 away to Energie Cottbus. With five games left to play, Wolfsburg leads the Bundesliga with 57 points, Hertha Berlin has 55, and Bayern Munich, Stuttgart and Hamburg all have 54. Cottbus moved to 15th spot and out of the relegation zone with 26 points.

Meanwhile, Arminia Bielefeld drew 1-1 draw at Borussia Moenchengladbach in a huge relegation battle on April 27th.  The relegation zone currently sees Bielefeld with 25 points, Gladbach at 24 and last-place Karlsruhe with 22.

Over in the Spanish la Liga, Raul Gonzalez scored a hat-trick to lead Real Madrid over Sevilla 4-2. Real are now within four points of leaders Barcelona after their eighth straight away win. The top two teams kick off against each other in next Saturday’s “clasico” match. Madrid’s last loss was to Barcelona back in December.

Barcelona has 82 points and Real Madrid has 78 with five games left. Sevilla has 57 points and Valencia has 56.

In other games, it was: Getafe 1, Villarreal 2; Atletico Madrid 3, Sporting Gijon 1; Athletic Bilbao 2, Racing Santander 1; Espanyol 2, Real Betis 0; Recreativo Huelva 2, Mallorca 4; and Valladolid 0, Osasuna 0. Malaga and Deportivo drew 1-1 and Almeria beat last-place Numancia 2-1.

In the French Ligue 1 Marseille came from 1-0 down and beat Lille 2-1 on April 26th to stay in top spot with their sixth straight win. Marseille sits at 67 points with a five point lead over Bordeaux. Toulouse’s hopes of Champions League football next year were damaged after drawing 1-1 draw with Lorient. Toulouse has 57 points, four behind third-place Lyon, which has the final guaranteed Champions League spot.

Lyon, who is going after an eighth straight league title, drew 0-0 at home to Paris Saint-Germain. Other scores were it was: Nice 3, Saint-Etienne 1; Le Mans 0, Monaco 1; Auxerre 2, Caen 1; Le Havre 0, Grenoble 1; Sochaux 1, Valenciennes 1; and Nancy 2, Nantes 0.  Saint-Etienne remained in the relegation zone with 32 points.

In the Italian Serie A Inter Milan still sit atop of the league by seven points after losing 1-0 at Napoli on April 26th.  Second-place AC Milan, with two penalty goals by Kaka, gained ground on them after beating beat Palermo 3-0. Juventus had a rough time of it this week, being knocked out of the Italian Cup and being held to a 2-2 draw by last-place Reggina.

Inter is trying to repeat as champions and have 74 points, AC Milan is second with 67, Juventus has 65 and Fiorentina come in at fourth with 58. Genoa’s hopes of returning to the Champions League places were hurt by losing 2-0 away at Bologna. In other games, it was: Lecce 2, Catania 1; Sampdoria 3, Cagliari 3; Lazio 0, Atalanta 1; and Torino 1, Siena 0.

Most of the top English Premier teams were off this weekend because of the FA Cup semifinals. The league gets back into action on Tuesday (Apr. 21st) with a huge game between Liverpool and fourth-place Arsenal at Anfield. Well, it’s a huge game for second-place Liverpool as they’re still trying to catch Man United, who they trail by one point. United has a game in hand still, though You can bet Chelsea fans will also be watching this one closely

And speaking of Man United and Chelsea, they’re both in action on Wednesday, as United are at home against 14th- place Portsmouth, while third-place Chelsea host sixth-place Everton at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea trail Liverpool by three points and United by four.

The snail’s race at the bottom of the table is still going on too, with Middlesbrough (31 pts), Newcastle (30 pts), and West Brom (25 pts) taking up the last three spots in the league in the relegation zone. It appears that West Brom’s fate is probably sealed, but there still 15 points up for grabs, so we won’t write them off officially yet. Blackburn (44 pts), Hull City (34 pts), and Sunderland (35 pts) are all dangerously in reach of the bottom three.

Middlesbrough drew 0-0 with Fulham on the weekend, while Blackburn lost 1-0 to Stoke, and Newcastle were beaten 1-0 away at Tottenham. Sunderland helped their cause a little by beating Hull 1-0 at home.

It seems Newcastle’s year of rotating managers hasn’t helped the cause. It’s Alan Shearer’s turn now and they still look pretty hopeless, which is a little bit of a surprise as the club has some talent. Perhaps Newcastle’s owner should sack Shearer as well and make them play without a manager. This way the players have nobody to blame but themselves.

Over the English Channel in France, the Ligue 1 is still up for grabs with Marseille leading the back with 64 points, followed by Bordeaux at 62, Lyon with 60, and Paris Saint Germain at 59.

In the German Bundesliga, Vfl Wolfsburg leads the pack with 57 points, followed by Bayern Munich, and Hamburg SV at 54, Hertha Berlin with 52, and VfB Stuttgart in fifth place with 51 points.

In the Italian Serie A, Inter Milan seems to have a stranglehold on the league with 74 points. AC Milan, and Juventus are a distant second, 10 points back at 64. Genoa has 57 and Fiorentina rounds out the top five at 55 points.

Meanwhile, over in sunny Spain, Barcelona still leads La Liga with 78 points, followed by Real Madrid at 72. With seven games to go, these are the only two teams who realistically have a shot at the title as there’s a huge drop off to third place, where Sevilla sits, with only 57 points. They would have to win all of their games while Barcelona needs to lose theirs for Sevilla to have any kind of chance. Oh yes, they also have to make up a goal difference of 50 as well.

So the seasons are winding down, but the race is still open in most of them, both at the top and the bottom.