Starting Eleven Football Blog Roundup

With a day to go before the presidential election in the U.S., I will pay tribute to spin, truly America's pastime. And for the best spin of the day, you gotta turn to the Chelsea fanboi sites.

Headlines blare today about Chelsea's decision to cut into massive expenses and whack 15 from its scouting department: "Chelsea sack scouts; pressure mounts"; "Chelsea tighten belts as economic crisis worsens" "Abramovich sacks 15" . Whether this is penny-wise and pound-foolish remains to be seen, but the spin from the Chelsea end is really remarkable. From chelseafc.com: "Chelsea Refocuses Scouting."

Nuff said? I think so.

Now for this week's jaunt around the football blogosphere:

• This Arsenal blog looks at the Chelsea scouting situation in contrast to Arsenal's super scouting and development. It's an interesting look at contrasting philosophies.
• Goal.com points out that Luis Filipe Scolari's January spending budget has been whacked down to zero.
• 101 Great Goals has links to all the English papers' takes on Chelsea.
• More spin: Liverpoolbanter blames the Reds' injury-time loss to Tottenham Saturday on Lady Luck. What number was she wearing?
• All hail Harry Redknapp, says Sportscorner, which has a nice rundown of the weekend's action.
  
• RedFloyd uses the L-word again in regard to Tottenham's win, and we're not talking Jennifer Beals' L-Word.
  
• New Voice of Football says Harry will cash in with a $4 million bonus if Spurs stay in the Premier League. Cha-Ching.
• Spurs The Offside asks if Tottenham games can be shimmed down to injury time exclusively?
• As for LaLiga, Inside Soccer World laments Real Madrid's missed opportunity to join Barcelona up top. Barca? Unstoppable?
• Dave's Football Blog throws Jozy Altidore a bone. Altidore scored his first La Liga goal scoring within 15 seconds of coming on as a substitute for Villareal.
• Talk about an upside-down world. Look at Portugoal.com and no further than Portugal where Porto is dumped again (three straight losses) and Leixoes and Nacional are on top. Calling Benfica, Sporting, Porto.
• More misery at Porto the Offside.
  
• Soccerlens previews Celtic-United tomorrow in the Champions League. Man. U. are one of several teams in line to move on to the Round of 16 this week.
• The Original Winger has Maradona's appointments of former teammates to his coaching staff.
• Newcastle FC Blog also has a bit on Maradona and his praise of two Tooners.
• The New York Times' Goal blog asks "What does Maradona mean for Argentina?"
  

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