After falling out with manager Louis van Gaal, Argentine defender Martin Demichelis has been told he can leave Bayern Munich before the current transfer window closes.

Van Gaal opened the door for prospective bids by declaring "He can go if he wants to, it would be no problem for me."

Van Gaal's decision to leave the centre back out of their last game against Wolfsburg seems to have signalled the end of Demichelis' Bayern career. Various clubs throughout Europe have been mentioned as possible destinations for the 30 cap Argentina international.

Chelsea, Barcelona, Sevilla and Juventus are all reportedly monitoring the situation closely and should one of the two Spanish sides sign him, their odds for the title could greatly improve in the La Liga odds.

In his seven years in Munich, Demichelis has made over 150 appearances, winning four Bundesliga titles in that time as well as four German Cups and two German Super Cups. However, the defender's absence didn't affect the German champions in their 2-1 success against Wolfsburg on Friday and they are still favourites to win the league in the Bundesliga odds.

The defender first made a name for himself in his home country with River Plate. After coming through their famed youth set-up, Demichelis made over 50 appearances in the River first team.

Javier Mascherano's drawn out transfer saga appears to be nearing an end as his club Liverpool have entered talks with Barcelona.

The Argentinean was left out of his side's recent 3-0 defeat to Manchester City as his manager, Roy Hodgson, decided the midfielder wasn't in the right frame of mind.

It is believed that Barca had a bid of £16million rejected by the Merseyside club, who are holding out for nearer £25million. Barcelona shouldn't be surprised by the price tag as Mascherano has proven himself as one of the world's best ball winning midfielders of recent years.

The Argentina captain has made it known that he is looking to leave England and move to the warmer climes of Spain or Italy. He has assured Liverpool fans it has nothing to do with the club and was based purely on his wish to move from England.

Barcelona are looking to fill the void in their midfield left by Yaya Toure's departure to Manchester City. They are hoping to claim the La Liga title ahead of rivals Real Madrid again this season and the Spanish La Liga betting odds suggest they could be successful. Mascherano would be a perfect replacement for Toure as both like to sit in front of their defence and break up the opposition's play.

Mascherano has played nearly 100 games in his three years at Liverpool since joining from West Ham after his brief spell in London. It was widely believed the 26 year old would follow his former manager Rafa Benitez to Inter Milan but it appears now that last season's La Liga champions Barca are leading the chase. Hodgson will be hoping to resolve the player's future as soon as possible and not let the situation drag on.

The amount of foreign players in the Barclays Premier League has been an issue over the last few years with many people suggesting that the amount of foreigners in England was hampering the national team.

I had been inclined to think that way myself until I stumbled on the Inter Milan squad list while researching another article. It was flooded with foreign players and it got me thinking, does England really have too many foreign players and is this actually hampering the national side?

For my research, I took the top four sides (judging by league tables as of the morning of the 7^th February 2009) from Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A and England's Premier League and worked out how many foreigners they had as individual clubs and national leagues. I chose the top four as these are the players likely to be representing each country in next years UEFA Champions League.

The Stats: Italy

Having first got the idea for this article while looking at Inter Milan, I'll start by looking at Serie A. The current top four in Italy are Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus and the surprise package of 2008/2009, Genoa.

Football is not blighted by all the money or by the 24 hour coverage it receives today. In truth, football is probably better now than it has ever been thanks to technology and better training methods, players are all fit and have to be able to kick the ball and not just the opposition in order to get a game.

That said, it is the lack of kicking the opposition that this article is all about.

Diving is the real "achilles heal" for modern football and it personally, makes me sick. Maybe it is because I was never able to dive, in truth, it never ever came into my mind but that is probably why I'm writing here and not being written about.

My old coach Clive Hands inspired me to write this after he gave me the headline, "look at me and I'll fall over" during a recent conversation. Diving is an embarrassment to the beautiful game and it is so annoying to hear our game called a "soft" sport because of the diving epidemic.

Sadly, the only reason that diving has become acceptable is the amount of top players in top leagues that would rather spend 90 minutes on their arse than put themselves about like the game was intended to be played.