Re-igniting the silly season

As you can tell from the lack of activity here at Match Pricks to start the week, it's not so much the international break itself that drives us so batty – it's the damn interminable length of it. For instance, we had real fun as the break started with "Mel Brooks Movie Stills Week," but now as we opened up another Monday, the dull dread of what lies before us became apparent.

There's a bunch of nonsense right now, as even the people who actually get paid to follow footballers around the world can come up with nothing more than a few more plaudits for Gerrard-Rooney-Lampard and a couple of short appreciations for Spain and Argentina. Shit, The Independent even featured a look at the likely favorites to hoist the World Cup next year and handicapped their chances – with half the qualifiers yet to be played.

However, the last refuge of any football scribbler during the international break is the unfounded transfer rumor involving a mega-star player. Thankfully, the Telegraph has supplied us with the funniest one of this current break from club play – Samuel Eto'o to Liverpool.

Sadly, the article is a half-hearted effort, lacking any of the usual details meant to entice readers and supporters into thinking the move actually could go down. It attributes the rumors solely to the "Spanish press" and can't even make a decent case for how Eto'o would fit into Rafa's squad. The Telegraph writer, Rory Smith, does include, however, Eto'o's well-known bad attitude and reputation as a locker room cancer who ruins team spirit. In other words, he makes a great case for why Liverpool wouldn't want to sign him.

Anyway, in the absence of John Terry-for-Manchester City talk or anything at all related to Ronaldo heading to Real Madrid, the Telegraph's limp report sending Eto'o to Merseyside will have to do. It's going to be a long week.