Wenger is losing faith in his defence and is apparently planning an £8m bid for Swansea's Ashley Williams in the summer.

not sure if this has been shared here yet, but it ought to have been

I love seeing bad people fair poorly, and RP definitely qualifies as a bad person. only problem is that he isn't really faring poorly enough in this particular situation. this definitely isn't his lance armstrong moment. sad face

The Rangers have hired former catcher Ivan Rodriguez to be a special assistant to general manager Jon Daniels, the club announced Thursday. According to a press release, Rodriguez "will assist the Rangers baseball operations group in a number of areas, including amateur, professional, and international scouting, player instruction on the major and minor league level, and talent evaluation. He will also be involved in community and marketing endeavors on behalf of the club."

They need fact checkers.

With that in mind, we decided to count down the 16 players most likely to impact those races — the Machados, if you will. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Includes Marteen (#15), MIKE OLT! (#12) and Profar clocks in at #5. 5. Jurickson Profar (Rangers) The no. 1 prospect in baseball according to several sources, Profar has an excellent glove, hits for average and extra bases, runs well, and happens to play shortstop; that's the recipe for a future seven-win player. He also doesn't turn 20 until Wednesday, the Rangers have the very able of combination of Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler up the middle, and GM Jon Daniels has a firm grasp on development curves and optimal usage of young talent. "We're not interested in having a young prospect sit on the bench and play 30 games over the course of the season," he said recently. On another team, Profar could add a no. 1 (or at least no. 2) 2013 impact projection to his top-dog status on prospect lists. As is, he'll wait for an injury, a slump, a role change — anything to get his deep, deep toolkit into a starting major league job.

DFW not a true baseball town. This is news, I guess.

Grading the Rangers' core: A- Sure, the Angels have once again stolen the headlines, and they might be the on-paper favorites in the AL West. But that's no indictment of the Texas core. The only thing keeping them from the highest possible grade is Kinsler's seeming decline. Everything else, though, looks uncommonly strong.

On September 8th, 2012 Chris Archer earned a no-decision in a start against the Rangers. He allowed two runs on four hits in seven innings. He struck out 11 batters and walked only two. It was the best performance of his brief major-league career, and personification of the scouting reports that herald him as a potential top-of-the-rotation starter. As we power toward opening day 2013, let us take one last look at that early September performance using the new tools and information afforded to us by ESPN Stats & Info.