Behold this ridiculous quote from Real Madrid chief Ramon Calderon that accompanied the news of Iker Casillas and Raul signing contract extensions to stay for life.

"Iker Casillas and Raul have both agreed to stay with the club for the rest of their sporting lives.

On this day, which is Valentine's day, Iker, Raul and Real can say they love each other, they need each other, and complement each other and will commit for life." 

Well, fantastic stuff really. You don't hear things that candid anymore from official sources, nevermind unofficial ones.

And I lied a bit in the title, Guti hasn't yet signed, but is scheduled to do so soon. Calderon said - "Next week, it will be the same with Guti, another symbolic player for the club. We haven't signed yet because he is a little lazier, but it will be with the same conditions."

Well how nice.

26 year old Casillas has signed a massive extension until the summer of 2017.

30 year old Raul has signed a 1 year extension to his deal, until the summer of 2011.

31 year old Guti has done the same, and his deal now goes until 2011 too. I am also shocked that Guti is 31... seems like he got very old very fast. 

Some fantastic matchups await fans in Austria and Vienna next summer, after the group stages for Euro 2008 were drawn in Switzerland today. The groups are as follows:

Group A: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey

Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland

Group C: Netherlands, Italy, Romania, France

Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain, Russia

That's some fantastic competition, and although all the groups are tough, Group C will easily be the Group of Death for the tournament.

Group A is interesting with hosts Switzerland joined by the more attack minded Czechs, Portugal and Turkey. The Swiss didn't concede at single goal at last year's World Cup, and their young side will have matured even more now. The Czechs unfortunately suffer from a reliance on the ageing Jan Koller that has been ingrained into their playing style over the years, and the creative burden falls almost entirely on the injury prone Tomas Rosicky. Portugal will be as strong as ever, with clubmates Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani providing attacking wizardry, Deco pulling the strings, and Carvalho, Ferreira, Meira and Miguel provide class and experience at the back. Unfortunately their strikeforce is still suspect - Nuno Gomes is over the hill, and Hugo Almeida is still unproven. As for Turkey, well they will be as unpredictable as ever. They did well at Euro 2000, then finished 3rd at the Korea-Japan 2002, and then failed to qualify for either Portugal 2004 or Germany 2006. Temperamental but gifted, they boast an array of German-based (and German-born!) talent in the Altintop brothers, Nuri Sahin, and Yildiray Basturk. Then there's Nihat (Villareal), Emre (Newcastle) and Tuncay Sanli (Middlesborough). The living legend Hakan Sukur is still soldiering on (37 years old, 112 caps, 51 goal), and Besiktas defender Gokhan Zan is one of Europe's brightest young stoppers. Russia-based striker Hasan Kabze might just have a surprise impact. The Swiss-Turkey match is likely to be bad-tempered and exciting - they fought during the Germany 2006 Qualifiers, after the Swiss knocked out the Turks.

My picks: Portugal and Turkey. Portugal have too much talent and experience. The Czechs no longer have enough quality. The Swiss lack goalscoring ability. The Turks have a huge collection of imaginative, dangerous attackers, and if they click they will cause problems.

Group B will have Germany joined by neighbours Austria and Poland, and nearby Croatia (well, Europe isn't all that big anyways). Austria are severely short of any real talent, and despite the home backing, they're likely to fall short. Croatia have become an excellent unit, with depth in every position. Luka Modric and Niko Kranjcar are fantastic midfielders, and Arsenal striker Eduardo should be settled, fit and in-form by the time the tournament starts. Germany are stalwarts as ever, with Joachim Loew continuing the good work he started en route to Germany 2006. They have a batch of new talents, many of them with question marks over their heads, and a lot will depend on the fitness of Michael Ballack and how quickly the goalkeeping situation is resolved - if Lehmann continues to be on the bench for Arsenal, and Hildebrand continues to start for Valencia, then the latter will be Number 1. Poland qualified very easily, but are an ageing side that lack any genuinely top-class players. However they work well as a unit, and Rasiak and Zurawski work well together up front. 'Keeper Boruc is underrated, and could be one of the best at Euro 2008. This group should see a lot of intense matchups because of the presence of the hosts, and the regional/political rivalries of some of the countries, and the Germany-Croatia encounter will be a fascinating tactical matchup.

My picks: Germany and Croatia. The Germans will cruise through, and Croatia will be too classy and clever for the rest. The Poles might ruffle a few feathers, but will not cause any real surprises. Austria will be happy to get a draw or two.

Group C is going to be the highlight of the early part of the tournament, and sees two pairs of qualifying opponents rematched. The Netherlands have a lot to prove after repeated failures at major tournaments since Euro 2000 was played on their home soil. They have superbly talented players, but too many egos, and poor temperament. Van Persie, Robben and Van Nistelrooy make up a deadly attacking trio, with Van der Vaart, Seedorf and the amazing Sneijder providing the ammunition. The Dutch have one of the most talented squads in the world, but doubts remain over their defensive ability. Italy are Italy, and will always be tough. There are no new names or faces, although Totti has retired from Internationals. Gilardino is in much better form for his club now, and should provide more of a presence. Toni is banging in the goals in Germany. Apart from Pirlo, Italia don't have much creativity, but that's never been their strong suit, and they will always grind out results and get important goals. Romania are a talented but fragile team. They beat the Netherlands in qualifying, and they have a magician in Steaua playmaker Dica. They can also call on Fiorentina attacker Adrian Mutu, and Inter's Cristian Chivu, one of the world's finest defenders. They have a squad full of good technicians, many of whom ply their trade across Europe's top leagues. Finally, France will want to continue their post-Zidane resurgence. They have their old collection of big names like Henry, Trezeguet, Vieira, Thuram and Makelele, but they will be looking to the younger Franck Ribery for creative inspiration now. Ribery's former colleague at Marseille, Samir Nasri, and the two other French-Arab youngsters Hatem Ben Arfa and Karm Benzema (both from Lyon) are capable of sublime attacking magic. Much will depend on Domenech's willingness to give the new faces a chance. In Gregory Coupet, Mickael Laundreau, Sebastien Frey and Ulrich Rame, they have a varied but error-prone set of 'keepers. Apart from the obvious France-Italy and Holland-Romania grudge matches, every game in this group will be fantastic. The Italy-Holland games will be a fantastic battle of wits, tactics and skill.

My picks: Netherlands and France. The Dutch kids will finally come good. France are formidable, and already beat Italy in qualifying. Romania are too inexperienced and fragile. Italy have gotten away with having easy groups in past tournaments (not to mention "friendly" referees), but they will struggle in this mix.

Group D is unlikely to throw up too many surprises. Reigning champions Greece are still coached by German tactical magician "King" Otto Rehhagel, but are unlikely to be able to repeat the surprises of the last tournament. They have an ageing squad, with a sparse amount of attacking talent, and an unproven collection of strikers. But you can never say never. Sweden have always had a tradition of achieving results with average, workmanlike squads with a few gifted players. Previously with Dahlin, Brolin, and Larsson, and now with Ljungberg and Ibrahimovic, they benefit from a solid coaching setup, and a great understanding in the squad of how to play and compete. John Elmander is a very talented young striker who could have an impact. Not much can be said about Spain that hasn't already been said. Traditional flops at the major tournaments, but always blessed with world class players, they will arrive at Euro 2008 with Fabregas, Torres, Alonso, Casillas, Ramos, Puyol and so many other brilliant players in every position. Russia just managed to sneak through after finishing poorly. Hiddink is a great tactician, but with a harmful ego. Kerzhakov is their main attacking threat, and young 'keeper Igor Akinfeev is one of the best in the world, but he might not be fit for the tournament. The Spain-Sweden game is another rematch from the qualifiers and will be the highlight.

My picks: Spain and Sweden. The Spanish will get through the group stage easily enough, whether they can have the impact they should on the rest of the tournament remains to be seen. Sweden might have a few problems, but they will be able to get results. Greece are clever and can take points off the bigger teams, but are one-dimensional. Russia will be lost in the mix. 

Stay tuned during the tournament of course, for all kinds of updates from OleOle - videos, podcasts, blogs, news and more. We might even have a few contests running beforehand for you, and don't forget about our Tickets & Travel section, which will have some great deals to let you watch some great games.

Liverpool kept their dreams alive with a somewhat fortuitous 4-1 over Porto yesterday. The scoreline was very flattering to Rafa Benitez's men, but they won't complain as they are still in with a chance to go through.  They must now go and win in Marseilles, in what is a very tight group. All 4 teams are still in with a chance of going through, with Porto on 8 points, Marseille and Liverpool on 7, and Beskitas on 6. It won't be an easy task though, as Marseille have already gone to Anfield and taken 3 points, and all they need is a draw to progress.

The other two British teams with clouds hanging over their qualification hopes are Glasgow rivals Rangers and Celtic. Celtic are away to AC Milan, although the Italians are already qualified, and Celtic need just a draw to progress, so we might well see a stalemate. Even if they lost, Shakhtar would still need to overcome Benfica to have a chance, and that won't be easy since Benfica will want a place in the UEFA cup.

Rangers have a slightly more high pressure situation. They play Lyon in what is basically a direct contest for the second spot. Rangers need a draw to advance, and Lyon need to win. It is probably going to be an epic encounter, and the press will not doubt be bringing up the France vs Scotland allusions from the recently concluded Euro 2008 qualifiers. Rangers will be disappointed though by their performance versus Stuttgart, losing 3-2 late on after being 2-1 up.

Well, if everything goes correctly for the three Brit sides, the knockout stage of the Champions League might just see an astonishing 6 out of the 16 teams come from Britain.

The 8 teams qualified thus far are: Chelsea, AC Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United, Roma, Inter Milan, Sevilla and Arsenal.

My picks for the remaining eight are: Porto, Marseille, Schalke, Real Madrid, Olympiakos, Celtic, Rangers and Fenerbhace.

Spare a thought for the once great Dynamo Kyiv, who have 0 points, and for Valencia... they're not even in contention for a UEFA Cup spot at the moment.

Antonio Puerta, the tall, elegant left-sided midfielder for Sevilla and Spain passed away today. He had been in hospital in critical condition for the past 3 days after collapsing during Sevilla's game over the weekend against Getafe. He had had multiple cardiac arrests, and there was brain damage that had arisen from those that made the situation very, very complicated. He was just 22 years old, and had a baby on the way as well. Clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United and Real Madrid had been watching him for a while now, and he was one that was surely destined for the top.

It's a sad day when such a promising, young footballer passes on, and we would like to wish his family all the best.

After Liverpool have painstakingly gone ahead with meeting Atletico Madrid's massive transfer demands, they now have to face up to the prospect of meeting exorbitant wages for the increasingly diva-like Fernando Torres.

El Niño has apparently asked for a massive £31.2 million contract! He has allegedly demanded a 6-year deal, worth £100,000 per week, because those are the same terms that Inter Milan offered.

I have no doubt that Inter offered ridiculous wages, but were they even serious about signing Torres? They've already got Ibrahimovic, Crespo, Adriano, Julio Cruz, Alvaro Recoba and now David Suazo. Perhaps they offered Torres this ridiculous contract as a means of trying to coax him into making his situation with Atletico very sour, and thereby lowering the transfer fee? Who knows.

In any case, Liverpool will have to negotiate trickily with this one, because there are very few players in the history of the Premiership who have been on £100,000 per week or higher. Thierry Henry, Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Steven Gerrard and Cristiano Ronaldo are all proven talents and performers, and even Frank Lampard and John Terry haven't been able to bump their contracts up to that level. Not only will Torres earning that much ruffle a few feathers, but given Torres' inconsistency and the fact that he is not yet at the top of his game, it will be quite a financial burden on the 'Pool.

Of course it could all just be paper talk. After all, only a week ago it was rumoured that Torres' had the words "You'll Never Walk Alone" on the underside of his captain's armband, and that he was desperate to join Liverpool.

Well, Giovanni van Bronckhorst was released on a free today, and will rejoin Feyenoord.

Question is... who will Barca's new left-back be? It's not as if Gio was the reserve full-back, so someone would need to come in an replace him.

Silvinho is a very good player, but Barca regard him as a backup, and at his age he is not going to suddenly take the Nou Camp by storm.

Barca are chasing Christian Chivu and Eric Abidal (allegedly), with the latter threatening to go on strike in order to get his desired move.

Chivu is left-footed, and has played left-back before (he started there), but is really a centre-back and has done his best work for Ajax and Roma in that position. He's a technically gifted player, great at set pieces and with terrific touch and passing.

Abidal is a left-footed left-back, who started out at centre-back. He is a tough, reliable defender, who is very quick and powerful, but someone who offers very little going forward (in my opinion). There's no doubt he would be a good signing for any team, but Barca's system has so often relied on a zippy, technical lfullback overlapping down the left and providing width and creating space for Ronaldinho. Van Bronckhorst had undoubtedly one of the best left-foots (feet?) in Europe, and produced many great crosses and passes. Abidal would not provide any of this.

The other option of course is for Gianluca Zambrotta to play at left-back. He has played there so well for so many years, for both club and country, despite having started out as a right-winger, and he has always done well. For a right-footed player, his left-foot is probably better than that of many left-footed players, and there's no doubt he would do an excellent job there. But then Barca would need to be searching for a right-back... and with Belletti gone and Thuram looking slower and slower, that's a problem they don't need at the moment.

Apparently, there is some sort of clause in the Beckham-Galaxy contract that might allow Real to hangon to him .

HAHAHAHA if that happens... anticlimax of the century.

After already emulating Diego Maradona with his brilliant goal against Getafe, the littler little man has gone a step further by emulating the the infamous Hand of God against Zaragoza in the most recent round of play in La Liga. Some might even say that without it, Real Madrid might have won the title today, and if they lose it next week, then Messi's "goal" will be even more crucial and controversial. Video below:

Have to say that Messi, despite his brilliance must go down as a quite brazen, dirty little cheat after this, and questions must also be definitely asked of the referee, who had a good enough view of the incident (in my opinion).

Barcelona and Manchester United. They are both struggling. Oh yes they are.

On a weekend of upsets, Barcelona lost 1-0 away at Zaragoza, and United went down 2-1 at Portsmouth. Both sides are choking badly, and while United have a once-again consistent Chelsea grinding out wins and catching up with them, Barcelona are fortunate to have equally bad chokers Sevilla as their title challengers. Time and time again Sevilla have failed to capitalise on Barca's slip-ups, and on Saturday they could only manage a goalless draw against Racing Santander in response to Barca's defeat, which came courtesy of a typically opportunistic Diego Milito strike .

It all certainly has provided a very interesting twist to the finishes of Europe's two major leagues. A while ago, United looked confident and in-control, especially when Chelsea were struggling, but the tables look like they might be turned now. Henrik Larsson is being sorely missed. He might not have set the world on fire in his short spell at Old Trafford, but he was an experienced, top-class player that they had in an attack short of depth; his departure has left the attack short of ideas and confidence, and just 3 points ahead of Chelsea.

Rooney hasn't scored many this year, neither has Saha, and Solskjaer has been patchy when fit. Cristiano Ronaldo has been their main threat, and it looks like a situation where they will now have to prioritise between the Champions League and the Premiership, although that problem might not last much longer if they fail to overturn their 2-1 first leg away defeat against AS Roma. Ferdinand will have to regain his confidence after scoring a wildly entertaining own goal at the weekend, and Van der Sar has looked a bit shaky – he failed to cleanly either hold or punch away shots against Roma and Pompey , both of which resulted in similar rebound goals.

Barca however have no real excuses. Eto'o and Messi are both fit and the latter has been wonderful since his return from injury, they have a team that is far stronger than last season's and really should be doing better. But they have been generally shaky this term, and slipping up a lot. They are out of the Champions' League, and should be focussing 100% on domestic duties, but somehow seem to have confused their objectives even more by handing the initiative to everyone else. Barca are on 56 points, Sevilla are on 55, Real Madrid are on 54, and Zaragoza and Valencia are both on 50 .

Not many people have mentioned much about Zaragoza this season, but they have been steadily climbing up the the league, and whilst their 1-0 win over Barca might be considered an upset by most, there are some who will look at the league table and say that every team in the top 7 is very, very tricky. Barca have already lost to Real, Valencia, Sevilla and Zaragoza this year, and if you can't beat your opponents at the top, then you don't deserve to win. Something just seems to be awry at the Nou Camp, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Rijkaard gone in the summer.

Anyway, off to sleep for me. Tomorrow's Champions League action could make me a very, very happy man if both Man United and Chelsea go out of the competition :)