It’s only days away from the opening of the transfer window — a time when much cash will be splashed and many sides will be re-shaped and benches re-inforced. Because there can be some major impact signings, I am waiting to analyze the match-ups in the Champions League Round of 16 and the Europa League Round of 32 until after the transfer window closes. Those competitions do not kick off again until February 16th. Here are a few articles I’ve been checking out the past few days in anticipation of the spending spree.

Real Madrid’s Surplus Goods List
Fulham are also doing some house cleaning

Depending who you want to believe, Valencia sniper David Villa is going to Manchester United, Chelsea, or Real Madrid. It looks like Villa will move either in January or the summer transfer window as Valencia will likely have to sell two from Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata in a bid to cut down their £450m in debt.

Chelsea may be more interested in a striker from another debt-laden Spanish club, Atletico Madrid’s Kun Aguero.

Luca Toni will be another name featuring in many headlines with a return to Italy looming. Will he land at Internazionale?

Zenit St Petersburg are said to be considering a move for Fiorentina’s striker Adrian Mutu
after declining on a purchase option on PSG forward Mateja Kežman.

Special Note: Be sure to check out Major League Soccer Talk as they will have the most in-depth coverage of the Landon Donovan loan spell with Everton.

FC Bayern München have recruited Major League Soccer’s top star on an initial short-term deal. 26 year-old Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan leaves the shadow of Hollywood to join the club nicknamed FC Hollywood on loan until March 15th, 2009.  A longer deal has been agreed to but is dependent on the United States international’s performances.

This will be Donovan’s second spell in the Bundesliga after making seven appearances for Bayer 04 Leverkusen while under contract between 2001 and 2005. After playing only a handful of games with Leverkusen, Landon became unsettled and stated his intentions to return to MLS. He was loaned to the San Jose Earthquakes for several stints. Donovan joined the LA Galaxy in 2005 after his contract at Leverkusen expired.

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told uefa.com:  “We have a great team and it’s no coincidence that we haven’t lost for 16 games in a row, thus we do not need any new signings. We have only loaned Landon Donovan until March 15th. If and how it will go with him after that will depend on how he develops.”

Donovan will be eligible and available for Bayern’s UEFA Champions League first knockout round ties against Sporting Clube de Portugal on February 25th and March 10th.

I thought I would share with you some of the articles that have caught my eye over the past couple of days:

• Kartik of Major League Soccer Talk argues that Landon Donovan’s trial with Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich is a good move for the player.
• Kudos to Werder Bremen for taking a tough stance on extremist fans
• Congrats to Rubin Kazan – Russian Premier League champs
• How FourFourTwo selected their Top 100 players on the planet.
• Some bad news for one of my favourite players, Owen Hargreaves, the England international and Manchester United midfielder whose season is done and speculation is that his career may be in jeopardy as well.
• Juan Arango of La Liga Talk covers the historic Copa del Rey defeat suffered by Real Madrid at the hands of Real Unión, a Segunda B (third division) side. What is it with Spanish Primera teams losing to Segunada B teams this year? There are more second legs to come today but unless they have a massive turnaround Villarreal will go out at the hands of Club Polideportivo Ejido, who won the first leg 5-0.
• Not helping his case at all, Real Madrid boss Bernd Schuster said he had “no idea” why his team leaked 6 goals over two legs to a third division side.
• This article is a bit older but Sid Lowe of the Guardian wrote a nice piece on how Pep Guardiola has Barcelona looking like champions again.