THE FINAL THIRD

Barcelona have lined up Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta as a fallback plan should they fail to land Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas , according to AS. Arteta has said he wants to stay at Everton and is currently negotiating with Toffees chiefs over a new contract.

Reports indicate Everton are willing to make the Spaniard the club’s best ever paid player on £75,000-a-week.

Source: IMS Scouting

Check out the new Everton 2011 home kit / jersey from Le Coq Sportif modeled by Miguel Arteta and Tim Howard.

spotted at The Soccer Closet

Up until now I thought only Italian clubs were into the pink. Everton have made bold moves in the kit department and gone with a serious pink look. We saw that other away kit with the pink stripes but with this one they went all the way!

The Everton 2010 Away kit is a serious black and Pink set up.

WAYNE Rooney is heading to the World Cup leaving a fearsome GURKHA guarding his £4½million mansion.

The ex-soldier – from a long line of Nepalese warriors famed for slaughtering the enemy with their kukri knives – is on red alert for gangs of robbers. He was hired by Manchester United team-mate Wes Brown, 30, who lives next door and is also tipped to join the England squad jetting to South Africa next month.

The gurkha, who has his own quarters at the defender’s £4million house, keeps an eagle-eye on BOTH pads in Prestbury, Cheshire – PLUS that of Manchester City’s Stephen Ireland. He clinched the security job after striker Rooney, 24, and his fellow soccer aces were spooked by a string of robberies at the homes of absent Premier League stars – in which their loved ones were terrorized. Victims include United’s Darren Fletcher, 26, whose fiancee had a knife held to her throat.

An Old Trafford source said: “The Gurkhas have a formidable reputation.

“We’ve been told this guy was military decorated. You wouldn’t want to cross him.”

Maybe, with that face, Wayne should look into getting a Burkha to compliment his Gurkha?