It's Tuesday, it's January, it's 2013. That can only mean one thing: time for another Inside SM update.
As promised in the last update, we've now launched our new-look team homepages and I don't think I'd be over-the-top in branding them arousing. As an example, click here to visit our new Liverpool homepage. See? Arousing.
For each club you can now browse filtered news headlines, colour-coded fixtures & results, top scorer rankings, complete squad lists and relevant transfer gossip.
In order to help readers find the new team pages more easily, we've tweaked our navigation menu to include a team drop-down list on the right. Similarly, in the football section you'll also find a drop-down menu for quick access to league homepages.
As part of the overhaul we've also launched individual Twitter accounts for all of the Premier League and Championship clubs, allowing you to get a feed of headlines and scores for your club. You'll see these accounts advertised on the team homepages and on relevant news articles around the site.
Another feature I promised previously is auto-refresh technology, which we are now rolling out around the site. Among the first steps, our live scores box in the right-hand side will now automatically update with any goals as they come in, while the full-screen version will do likewise. Is that a scream of "oooh, fancy!" that I hear?
The final change to report on is a design tweak to our article pages, more specifically to the area underneath each article. We've reworked the panels on this part of the page so that they not only look nicer but also offer you clearer and more relevant choices of where to click to next.
Over on the editorial side, we're bracing ourselves for a very hectic few days. Not only does the transfer window finally close on Thursday night, but we have a bonus round of Premier League matches in midweek! Sports Mole will be offering exclusive live commentaries for all ten games, which on Wednesday night see Arsenal, Liverpool, United, Everton, Spurs and Chelsea all in simultaneous action! As if that wasn't enough, Wednesday night also features el Clasico as Barca and Real Madrid go head-to-head in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final.
As for transfer deadline day, we'll of course be bringing you updates around the clock right up until the klaxon sounds, and from 7pm on Thursday, we'll have a live blog charting every last-minute deal and no-deal. Frankly our coverage promises to be so informative that I'm expecting a frothing Jim White to literally implode with jealousy live on Sky Sports.
Finally, to a man that never fails to disappoint (well, almost) - the Royals' very own King Brian. In this picture I can spot at least seven emotions - see if you can find any more! Until next time...
© PA Photos
Neil Wilkes
