Anderson Luis de Abreu Olibeira and Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha (Anderson and Nani to you and me) are two of the brightest young prospects at Manchester United today. They have their admirers and equally, their detractors as well.

Manchester United fans will point to the Tottenham and Arsenal games last season as proof of what Nani can accomplish, as well as Anderson’s duels with Steven Gerrard and Cesc Fabregas. Opposition fans will undoubtedly point to Nani’s inability to link up with his team mates and Anderson’s lack of goals.

But beyond the base ‘for United, anti United’ arguments, the question remains: What are Anderson and Nani capable of and will they be able to fulfill their potential?

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Certain news really puts football in perspective. Fans are fond of quoting Bill Shankly’s famous phrase about the sport being more important than life and death, but that gets put to one side when you hear some genuinely upsetting news that actually does deal with life and death situations.

In this case it’s the news that Torquay United defender and former Exeter City club captain Chris Todd who has just been diagnosed with Leukaemia.

Chris arrived at Exeter City after being released by Swansea City, via a brief spell in Ireland. He was brought to the club by Neil McNab in 2003, one of the few decent things to come out of the much-maligned coach’s short-lived reign at St. James’ Park.

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The Soccerlens Awards recognize excellence in football blogging. After the great success of the 2007 edition, SL readers and editors will gather again to choose among 20 different awards categories and crown the winner among 6 nominees.

Yes people, YOU get to vote for your favorite blogs. The Soccerlens Awards give you, the public, the opportunity to give some props to the people who have kept you informed, amused, and entertained for the past year. The writers who have made you laugh, those who have made you cry, and all those kickass blogs of footy goodness that no matter how hard your boss screams, you just can’t keep away from at work.

Here’s how it all works.

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Tonight, Diego Maradona makes his bow as Argentina manager as his new charges take on Scotland at Hampden Park. This momentous occasion gives us a wonderful chance to tackle one of football’s greatest debates, to wit: Who is the greatest footballer of all time - Maradona or Pelé? Since I’ve already definitively dealt with the club versus country question, I’ve decided to have a go at this one too.

So here goes: the answer is “Pelé”. Duh.

However, I realise that, even though the answer is obvious to all but those so slack-jawed that were the rivulets of saliva which trickle from their mouths to converge, the resulting torrent would wipe out a small-to-medium port town on the Chinese coast, it is the custom to back up such an assertion with some evidence. Frankly, one could write volumes on this matter, but I shall pare down my argument (if you could call such an evidently open-and-shut case as this an “argument”) to a few paragraphs.

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So it is that time again, Germany v England in Berlin on Wednesday night. And what better way to get a different perspective on a rivalry that has had as much written about it as perhaps any other in the world, than by getting a German- Stefanie Mueller- and an Englishman- me- to have a chinwag over the subject? Just don’t mention the war.

Is England / Germany really the biggest football rivalry for the English? Where does it rank in comparison with the England / Argentina rivalry? If Germany played Argentina in a World Cup final, who would you want to win? Who would you rather lose a similar game to?

NJ: Obviously it is hard to speak for the nation as a whole, but from my own personal experiences I would have to say that England tend to have a rivalry with any team who beats them! At the moment a lot of England fans would certainly like to see a victory over Portugal after the last two meetings between the sides at Euro 2004 & World Cup 2006, I think there was a lot of bitterness towards Portugal due to the perceived conduct of Cristiano Ronaldo, just as there was with Argentina & Diego Simeone in 1998.

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Plus ca change…

Martin Jol was fired because despite playing well against the top sides, Tottenham players could not lift their games for low-profile games. The problem was identified as a lack of professionalism and training, and thus Ramos was brought in.

Jaunde Ramos was hailed as the Messiah - by fans and players alike. They loved his strict training regime, loved his tactical nous and when Tottenham won the Carling Cup (beating Arsenal and Chelsea along the way), Ramos was supposedly the man to do what Jol couldn’t - get the Tottenham players to play like they did against Arsenal and Chelsea all through out the season. Do that and they would be shoe-ins for a top-6 spot and strong contenders for a top 4 spot.

But things didn’t go according to plan.

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