Last season on the opening day Manchester City's new striker Valeri Bojinov damaged his knee ligaments and missed the whole campaign.

Today, against Aston Villa, he's only gone and snapped his achilles tendon which is going to put him out for at least 6 months. And you need to talk to Tom Thom(p)son about this particular injury. He'll tell you all about the pain, the rehab and the pain. Did I mention the pain?

Poor Bojinov though. Next season though, the answer is simple. Don't play him on the opening day.

In what will become a regular feature I present to you now the €3 accumulator. This will involve me placing a €3 accumulator bet on the week's Premier League fixtures. That's all there is to it.

This week's picks below. 

Hello hello,

happy Thursday to you all and the new season is almost upon us. This week's podcast is a Premier League special. Tom and I discuss each team, the players that have come in and out, and their chances for the new campaign.

Are Arsenal strong enough to win the league? Is this Benitez's last chance at a title challenge on Anfield? Will Everton buy any players? Are the promoted teams strong enough to avoid relegation? Who's chasing Europe? Will it be United and Chelsea ahead of the rest?

All those questions and more are answered and it's the first predictions game of the season. Last time around Tom Thom(p)son tended to win these but as it's all fresh and new I have high hopes of smashing his domination the way he smashes mugs, the damnable Mugsmasher. Feel free to join in and make predictions of your own in the comments.

Also, there's still time to join our Week in Football fantasy league. Simply sign up, choose a team from the English Premier League then join our mini-league. Details are:

League name: weekinfootballprem

Password: podcast

And while you'll be eligible for the overall prizes there'll be a special Week in Football prize for the winner of our mini-league. More info on fantasy football here.

You can subscribe to The Week in Football using iTunes by clicking here, if you want to subscribe to the RSS feed itself the URL is here, you can download the podcast directly here or you can listen from this page:

Don't forget your comments and suggestions for the show are always welcome. Feel free to leave a comment here or email podcast@oleole.com.

Hello and welcome to another Week in Football podcast on OleOle.com

Up for discussion this week are:

• Cristiano Ronaldo and his decision to stay at United
• Freddie Ljungberg's massive payoff from West Ham
• Lionel Messi and the Olympics and the Olympics themselves
• Ranieri and Mourinho's war of words in Italy
• Scottish football with The Lord of the Wing

Plus we've got Luigi from Spain and details of the OleOle.com fantasy football game. We're running a Premier League mini-league which is open to anyone who wants to join. Just sign up for the game, pick your team then use the following details to join in:

League name: weekinfootballprem

Password: podcast

You can subscribe to The Week in Football using iTunes by clicking here, if you want to subscribe to the RSS feed itself the URL is here, you can download the podcast directly here or you can listen from this page:

Don't forget your comments and suggestions for the show are always welcome. Feel free to leave a comment here or email podcast@oleole.com.

Rangers exit from the Champions League was a big blow to the club. And to the fans.

Especially this fan. 

Well done to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) who have ruled that some European players are not obliged to attend and play at the Beijing Olympics.

The most high profile objection to this was, of course, Barcelona's to Lionel Messi being called up for Argentina. The CAS has ruled that Messi, along with Werder Bremen's Diego and Rafinha of Schalke, can be prevented by his club from playing.

And rightly so. Clubs are the ones that pay players wages and any games which are not part of the FIFA international calendar should not put those clubs at a disadvantage. As is stands any player that's injured playing for his country returns to his club who must continue to pay his wages, cover the cost of his treatment and rehabilitation and suffer his loss from the team for as long as it takes him to recover. I think there's an issue here that must be addressed but that's separate from this topic just at the moment. I'll come back to it.

The other thing is the Olympics is supposed to be for amateur sportsmen. How can anyone try and claim that Lionel Messi, one of the most high-profile and highly regarded professional footballers in the world, should play in a so-called amateur tournament?

If the Olympics want to have a football tournament then great but make it for amateurs only. Surely that would make it more sporting, more in line with the Olympic 'ideal'.

The idea of professionals playing the Olympics is farcical and I'm glad the CAS have ruled in favour of clubs. I wonder will other clubs now object. I seem to remember reading that Javier Mascherano was supposed to be playing - will Liverpool now take a stand on this? Arsenal have Alex Song going but with the greatest of respect to Song he's nowhere near as important to the Gunners as Messi is to Barcelona or Mascherano to Liverpool.

Hopefully the Olympic Committee will rethink the football tournament ahead of the next games. I know it's an issue that only comes up every four years but surely this ruling now makes it impossible for any club to release a player if they don't want him to go. With that in mind the Olympics should then make the decision that any amateur players may be selected. It'd surely make the tournament more interesting. 

In this week's podcast Tom and I discuss the pre-season, transfers, potential transfers, we have a new hero and villain of the week plus there's the return of an old friend.

We've also set up a Fantasy Football league here on OleOle so feel free to join in. You'll be eligible for all the OleOle prizes plus a special Week in Football prize - but we haven't decided what it is yet. It won't be an empty box though, promise.

To join make sure you're registered with OleOle, join the Fantasy Football game then join our mini-league.

League name: weekinfootballprem

Password: podcast

As you can see it's a Premier League fantasy game so get cracking. Now, the podcast.

You can subscribe to The Week in Football using iTunes by clicking here, if you want to subscribe to the feed itself the feed URL is here, you can download the podcast directly here or you can listen from this page:

Don't forget your comments and suggestions for the show are always welcome. Feel free to leave a comment here or email podcast@oleole.com.

Right then, that's it. Another podcast next week, more blogging to come. 

So Blackburn have spent £3.5m on Paul Robinson, England's fattest, slowest goalkeeper.

I wonder about his contract.

£25,000 a week basic

£2,000 win bonus

£1,500 clean sheet bonus

£5,000 not eating all the pies bonus

Should be fun.

So yesterday went a bit like this.

"Hello, Gabriele. Is there anything happening in Italian football this week?"

"No".

"Ok then!"

"Hello, Luigi. Is there anything happening in Spanish footabll this week?"

"No. Now I'm off to the beach to look at topless girls".

"You bastard".

So Tom and I are sitting in the studio last night.

"Not much going on", I said.

"True that", he said.

"So what do we talk about?"

"You could make up a really long joke with a terrible punchline".

"I could but even I would be hard pressed to make a half-hour joke, unless it was based around Emmanuel Eboue's abilities as a footballer".

"Then half an hour wouldn't be long enough".

"I think, perhaps, we'd be best off saying nothing and waiting until there is some actual football news before we do another podcast".

"You're probably right. When the biggest news story of the week is Lee Cattermole going to Wigan you're know you're pissing in the wind".

So there, dear listener, is the reason why there's no podcast today. I am hopeful that something will happen in the next 7 days so we can get up and running again.

However, it really has been the most boring summer in terms of transfers and stuff, hasn't it?

It's well known that Thierry Henry wasn't a big fan of Alexander Hleb. The Belarussian was often on the end of a withering stare from Henry after another pass went astray or a move broke down.

Of course the pair get to continue their great friendship at Barcelona now that Hleb has signed for the Catalan club. Henry was at the press conference last night to announce Hleb's arrival and this picture really does speak a thousand words.

heh, classic.