Waiting for the dominoes to fall

Emmanuel Adebayor (right) leaving Arsenal would trigger a cascade of player movment that could involve Cristiano Ronaldo. Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images The Limey's Mailbag Keep the banter flowing to The Limey. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

It's been a slow summer in the Premier League, with no England in Euro 2008 and a transfer market that has been moving slower than 92-year-old Great Uncle Limey after several hours at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Probably something to do with the tightening finances in the football world and the soccernomics issues we wrote about last time around.

However, if reports and gossip are to be believed, there is a chain of transfers imminent involving a group of clubs and players, all of which are in some way dependent on each other. The first of these deals should see the first domino fall and resuscitate the transfer market from its current slumber. We'll take a look at this proverbial transfer merry-go-round a little later.

News and action has been so sparse over the last few weeks that Team Limey's EPL-focused eye wondered across the pond to West Ham's eventful tour of North America. First, the tour firm with whom the Hammers originally planned to travel went bust, meaning the squad had to fly over in economy class. Second, a mass brawl involving more than 100 fans marred their friendly against the Columbus Crew -- and to top it all off, they were defeated 3-2 at the hands of the MLS All-Stars on Thursday in Toronto. In summary, not ideal preparation for a hectic EPL season.

At least Sir Alex Ferguson has added some spice to the EPL banter melting pot with his comments earlier this week, firing the first salvo in the war of words between himself and his new Brazilian foe at Stamford Bridge.

In an interview, the beetroot-headed Scotsman repeatedly referred to the Chelsea squad's "experience," in a thinly veiled attack on the age of Luiz Felipe Scolari's team: "Scolari is fortunate as Chelsea has a lot of experience and that was the one thing I was a bit concerned about last season, but I don't know how far that team has got to go."

Ferguson went on to suggest that Chelsea cannot improve from what it achieved under José Mourinho, saying, "It's hard to see where there's going to be a big improvement with a team that's really very experienced. 'Plateau' is maybe not the word, but how can they accelerate beyond what they've done up to now?"

Sir Alex's attack provoked not only the inevitable response from Scolari, but also from the unlikely footballing mouthpiece of charity Help the Aged, which accused the "experienced" pensioner of ageism: "In 2008, age is no longer an acceptable yardstick to measure a person's worth or potential. Ageist attitudes and comments such as this should always be handed a red card."

Meanwhile, Scolari wasn't too bothered by Ferguson's comments. "I will not answer this question," he told reporters. "This is not a question for me; I think I have a lot of experienced players and also some young boys in my team, but I feel we have experience for the Premier League or whatever league."

Scolari and Ferguson are two of the characters standing eagerly on the edges of the footballing merry-go-round we spoke about earlier. On the red-and-white horse, Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor is eagerly making eyes at the Barcelona suits looking on. His arrival at the Camp Nou would likely seal the departure of the unwanted Samuel Eto'o, with Tottenham looking likely suitors.

Eto'o would make an ideal replacement for Dimitar Berbatov, who's attracting the admiring glances of Manchester United and AC Milan. Berbatov could fill a Cristiano Ronaldo-shaped hole in United's attack should the winger make his "dream" move to Real Madrid. Ronaldo's arrival at the Bernabéu would likely see the departure of incumbent creative wing wizard, Brazilian Robinho, either to Manchester United as a make-weight in the Ronaldo transfer or to be reunited with his former national-team boss Scolari at Chelsea.