dl2009

This from 2005 about Roy. Sounds a bit like a chairman version of Mourinho:

To be fair, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other, at the end of the day.

Since when has that stopped anyone from becoming a professional footballer?

Something like that. Another thing he'd bring to the side is goals; he's got a very decent scoring record. Something we've struggled to replace since Sami left* *

He's the Anti-Kuyt

Kjaer is the much better prospect, imo. Not as good on the ball as Agger, but decent enough. He's a monster in the air and has good technique, pace and excellent positional play.

Because every ref and official in this league is f*cking sh*t. The standard of officiating in this country is beyond appalling with glaring mistakes in almost every single game, week after week. Yet another reason why football is dying for me.

He's approximately 164 nautical miles more gifted that Dirk. The lad is top quality on and off the ball. He made some lovely passes yesterday and made excellent runs into the box. I thought he played well.

I thought he was quite poor for a large portion of the match, but undoubtedly saved us the 3 points with that outstanding tracking run and tackle on Anichebe.

I'd love to see Rafa field that team. Though I would swap Gerrard with Aquilani; their CM is not particularly strong, so Alberto shouldn't have to battle too hard, whereas we could use Gerrard's physicality against their tough tackling defenders.

That was the genius bit; the wonderful exception that proved the beautiful rule.

Excellent post by Leo No.8

ChaoticPrimate, were you grumpymonkey on another site?

I think Rafa should just focus on coaching and training the team.

Fcking Net Spend lost the ball every time we knocked it up front and he missed at least 3 sitters.

I bet Kuyt was still slow.

1) Maxi's movement is terrific 2) We saved two substitutions tonight and they'll be rolled over to the next match, much like my unused T-Mobile minutes. No?

Mascherano and Alonso was a dream combination; perfectly balanced between defensive grit and creativity. The complimented each other to the point of rendering the partnership amongst the top 2 CM hubs in football, imo. Mascherano without Alonso is almost half the player as his passing game is not much to write home about. Paired with Lucas, our central midfield becomes a toxic, negative combination devoid of creativity. I think Rafa's biggest mistake this season was thinking that Lucas could fill in for Aquilani until he got fit and acclimatised. He clearly underestimated Xabi's importance to the team imo, not that I want to steer this towards another Alonso debate (too late?!). It's vital that Gerrard is dropped back into central midfield alongside the tenacious Javier and either Aquilani plays behind the striker, Pacheco is given an opportunity (if Alberto is not up to it) or we play two up top.

Dudek, Finnan, Riise, Carra, Hyppia, Hamann, Kewell and Gerrard.

Aurelio wasn't technically free. We actually had to buy out a contract he agreed with a Brazilian side for £2m - £3m. Just sayin' Sorry, I haven't read the subsequent posts, so this may already have been covered, but what you're suggesting is that full transfer fees were deposited up front - which hardly ever happens (unless you're Chelsea, Madrid or City). Just because we currently may only have £8m as working capital (allocated as transfer fees), doesn't mean that we cannot afford to being in two £8m rated players or one £20m rated player, as we would normally make a down payment and then make payments over a period of 2-3 years until the full transfer fee is covered. See Pompey. I know, I know I should really learn to use the multiquote feature (and read all the posts before replying!). From what I have been told, the reason why the club/Moores wanted to use a personal loan to pay for Kuyt instead of use the club's money was due to making the club's balance sheet look healthy when potential investors were looking at the club and going through the due diligence process. They wanted to keep as many of the funds in the club as possible to boost it's value.

Good point, well made.

Excellent news. I could never understand why we didn't do something like this earlier.

It lucas just like him.