Soccer's Lost Souls

Three years ago, Jose Antonio Reyes and Ricardo Quaresma were the talk of the football world. Both were talented offensive player that played with flair. Fast forward a couple of years and both have almost lost their ways.

Reyes dazzled as a young player at Sevilla and then Professor Wenger made a move to bring him to his football factory in London.

Things started well for the young Spaniard, but it soon turned sour after reports surfaced that Reyes was not happy in London and wanted to return the Spain. Arsenal loaned Reyes to Real Madrid for the 2006-2007 season, but he did not impress enough to earn a permit deal. Arsenal then decided to sell Reyes to Atletico Madrid where he spent a season before he was sent out on load to Benfica for the 2008-2009. While playing well at the Portuguese giants, a full time move was not agreed upon. So to start this season Reyes will again be with Atletico Madrid looking to settle with a club for more then one season. Despite being only 25, Reyes has played for five different clubs and is in the process of being an lost player on the world stage.

Quaresma is the Portuguese version of the Reyes, a ton of talent but has yet to settle at some of the worlds better clubs.

Quaresma started his career at Sporting and then moved to Barcelona, but things did not go well there and he high tailed it back to the place of his birth, this time with Porto. After a couple of impressive season at both club and national team levels, Quaresma found himself at Inter Milan, where people thought that he would flourish under Jose Mourinho, just like Ajen Robben did at Chelksi. But that has not happen, after failing to impress during the first half of last season, Mourinho sent Quaresma out on loan to Chelski. While at Chelski things did not go that well and at the end of the season he was returned to Inter. Things have gotten so bad that Turkish side Besiktas have asked about taking him on loan for this season. Just like Reyes, Quaresma has already been through give 5 teams and his only 25 years old.

Despite having great skills Reyes and Quaresma both have to establish themselves this year or their dreams of being a world class player will be dead for good.

Paging Slaven Bilic

With Tottenham Hotspur continuing to look like a pub side, going down to Stoke 2-1 on Sunday, one thing is becoming more and more clear, the Magic Juande has lost his touch. Almost a year after sacking Martin Jol, Daniel Levy and the rest of the board should treat the Juande they same way they treated the Tony Soprano look alike.

If the board does the right thing and gets ride of the former Sevilla man, they should look at someone that will bring an attitude to the club, Slaven Bilic. The Croatian rock star could be the perfect fit for struggling Spurs.

First of all he knows English, which is something that the magic one has failed to do. Bilic would bring a free flowing style to the White Hart Lane and most importantly he might be able to get the most of Luka Modric. At the national team level, Modric runs the Croats midfield and serves as creator, something that he has not been able to do at Spurs as of yet. Bilic would give him the confidence to play as creator.

The faithful at White Hart Lane would love Bilic. London would be the perfect city for him and just think he could even play a concert in the bar.

The First Only Time Will Tell World 11

With the new year ready to start, its time to name the first annual Only Time Will Tell World 11.

Goal: Iker Casillas, Real Madrid: The back bone of the team that rallied to win the Spanish title and are the current leaders.
Right Back: Daniel Alves, Sevilla: Made Sevilla one of the best teams to watch in all of the world.
Centerback: Nemanja Vidic, Manchester United: teamed with every ones favorite Rio to lead the Red Devils to the EPL Title and the FA Cup Final.
Centerback: Michael Essien, Chelski: He does anything that is asked played center back when Terry missed time. The Bison was quick to come to the rescue.
Left Back: Sergio Ramos, Real Madrid: I know that he plays in the center for Real Madrid, but he might be one of the five best players in the world.
Midfield: Christano Ronaldo, Manchester United: Simply the best player in the world.
Midfield: Kaka, AC Milan: World Player of the year for his 14 game run in the Champions League, do not get me started on that.
Midfield: Juan Roman Riquelme, Boca Juniors: In the Copa America, he was super for Argentina and then led Boca to the Copa Liberadores.
Midfield: Messi, Barca: No words needed.
Forward: Didier Drogba, Chelski: At one point he was the one that could score for the blues and almost single handedly kept the blues in the title race last year.
Forward: Francesco Totti, Roma: While Inter was running away with the title, Totti was leading Europe in scoring. The life long Roma player is always a trooper.

Bench:
Blummer Elanno, Manchester City
Clint Dempsey, Fulham: Sorry as an American he has to be on there.
Karim Benzema, Lyon
Cesc, Arsenal
Gianluigi Buffon, Juventus