Cunny

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fair enough Emile should have been a helluva player but mentality is as important as natural talent and he didn't have the mentality I have to say though, it would have been interesting to see what Rafa could have done with him.

I think Warnock will still be here next season.

which is as good as saying he couldn't play you can have all the talent in the world but if you don't have the mentality to produce consistently good performances, you are of little use to the team

he said Highbury and Anfield were his two favourite grounds in the country. Keys said "not Old Trafford" and he said there have been 60,000 there when he's played and it was like a library!!!

can see Owen giving them another season we may get him next summer

Morientes

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I usually like his articles. I just found the book tougher going. Fair play to him for the time and effort he puts in and it's damn sight better than I could manage.

nice one Paul! but seriously lose the photo!

I have his book and he does make some good points but after a while his writing style really grates. I couldn't finish it. I'm sure he's a nice bloke and top red but that photo he uses does himself few favours.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1766803,00.html Rummenigge calls for European salary cap to thwart Chelsea Matt Scott in Brussels Thursday May 4, 2006 The Guardian Bayern Munich's president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge yesterday condemned Chelsea for their "unacceptable" lack of budgetary controls. Addressing a European parliamentary debate where he was called as an expert witness on the structure of European football, Rummenigge attacked the spending of Roman Abramovich's club, claiming it distorts the sporting value of European competition. Chelsea's budget this summer will include what is believed to be the offer of a £121,000-per-week contract to secure the services of Bayern's influential midfielder Michael Ballack, a development that no doubt helped incite Rummenigge's comments. "We have a ?200m [£137.213m] turnover and Chelsea, who as everyone knows are owned by Roman Abramovich, have [a comparable] turnover [of £146.60m]," said Rummenigge. "We make a ?35m profit; this is required for our investment. Chelsea lost ?204m; Mr Abramovich obviously stumped up for it. This [makes for] unequal competition but we are playing against each other in the Champions League. This is not acceptable." Though Chelsea, who followed up their unprecedented £140m loss over the 12-month accounting period to June 2005 with a second successive title this season, are clearly associated with the enormous sums spent on salaries and transfer fees, the Premiership champions responded indignantly, justifying the Abramovich-era expenditure by intimating they are merely catching up with the investment of competitor clubs. "It is total nonsense to suggest that this is somehow uncompetitive or unequal," said Chelsea's director of communications Simon Greenberg. "There are clubs who have spent more than Chelsea in the last 10 years. "There are clubs who are not as transparent as Chelsea with regard to their finances. It is our publicly stated position that we will try and break even in 2010 and thereafter hopefully make profits. Football is a free market and to suggest our position is not acceptable is ludicrous. "These comments may have been made in order to play up to this particular audience or because of other issues surrounding our two clubs at the moment." The reference to Ballack as the "other issue" was clear, although the qualified comments about making profits from 2010-11 hint that this has now become an aspirational target to which the club would prefer not to be held hostage. Fiscal openness is something Europe's parliamentarians intend to roll out across Europe in an attempt to close down opportunities for corruption and tax evasion in the game. The parliament also appeared receptive to the Bayern president's proposal to introduce a Europe-wide salary cap that would ensure the restriction of clubs' permissible outlay. "We could have a salary cap: when a big proportion of turnover is spent on wages clubs are going to be in the red," said Rummenigge. "We should have an overall salary budget capped at, say, 50% of turnover. Across Europe there should be harmonisation. 80 to 85% of professional clubs in Europe are losing money. The pressure of competition leads to misinterpretation." Rummenigge was also speaking as a representative of the G14 group of clubs -of which Chelsea are not a member - and reiterated the stance of the organisation that the self-appointed elite clubs should benefit from perpetual participation in Europe's premier club competition. Though he stopped short of demanding a breakaway closed league, Rummenigge said that since Bayern Munich have "taken part in the Champions League on 12 occasions it is fair that there should be a body where participation is guaranteed [for certain clubs]".

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a fad!!!??? A large proportion of Liverpool fans have not been supporting England since the 80s at least. I'll be supporting all the Liverpool players in the World Cup, irrespective of who they play for. I actually think one of the things we have in common with some of the mancs is a healthy disrespect for the England team. re-reading the post, i'm not sure if it's a wind up or not but if not, some of the xenophobic, daily mail views in it are some of the reasons I will not be draping myself in the flag of st george this summer

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1766801,00.html Benítez insists González is going nowhere as Sociedad success alerts suitors in Spain Dominic Fifield Thursday May 4, 2006 The Guardian Rafael Benítez has rebuffed inquiries from Spanish clubs hoping to sign the Liverpool winger Mark González, even though the Chile international has yet to play for the European champions and is still waiting for a work permit. González was suffering from a knee ligament injury when he completed a £3.9m move from Albacete this season but it is the home office which, much to Benítez's frustration, has as yet thwarted Liverpool's attempts to play him. With only one appeal against the rejection of the work permit allowed per calendar year, they loaned the Chilean to Real Sociedad for the remainder of the season in the hope that the government would sanction his move to England in the summer. But González's form at the San Sebastián club since recovering from the knee injury in January has prompted attempts by Sociedad, Real Zaragoza, Real Betis and Deportivo la Coruña to sign him. "Three or four Spanish clubs are asking about him because he has been playing really well against good teams," said Benítez. "The manager at Sociedad [José Mari Bakero] has spoken very highly of the player. I was in Madrid last week and received two or three phone calls then alone - one of which was from a club's chairman - and all were asking about Mark. "They want to buy him or loan him, depending upon how much money they have, and we could make a profit on him, but we are not thinking about selling him. We want him here next season. There really shouldn't be any question marks over his quality now because he is playing well in La Liga and scoring goals. When we decided to sign him he was injured, but we knew about the player. We thought he would be a good player for us, a left-winger with pace and quality, and now he is proving that. "Real Sociedad were at the bottom of the table when he went there but he has scored five goals for them in 13 matches. That is not easy. It shows he has a strong character because there is a lot of pressure playing at the bottom of the table. He is only a young player but he has shown how much talent he has to offer." González, 21, has made it clear that his priority is to move to Anfield at the end of the season, with his prospects enhanced by Chile's rise to 67th in the Fifa world rankings and the fact that he will qualify for Spanish citizenship. "Liverpool offered me a long-term contract when I had the knee injury, which was a bit of a gamble as there are lots of cases when players with knee injuries have not recovered or been the same as before," he said. "I am thankful because as time goes on, I am more and more convinced I'm the same player as before, and still improving."

I have to say my bluenose mates are fecking embarrassed the t*** is still on their playing staff. These lads do have brains and have long realised he's just a glorified thug in a football kit and possesses less goalscoring threat than Akinbiyi.

Patrice Evra?

my mate got through today to get our tickets and was told there was only £25 or £90 tickets left. Which I find hard to believe. We got 7 £25 tickets, took 2 phone calls as you could only buy 6 at a time and now our group are split up. Fecking arbitrary 6 limit despite it being 7 season ticket holders.

it's the last ever game at Highbury this weekend i'd imagine this will mean it will be televised, especially if fourth place is still up for grabs

http://football.guardian.co.uk/comment/sto...1766173,00.html Shadow of Arsenal's grand design hangs over the little people Several social projects that were conditions of planning for the Emirates Stadium have failed to materialise David Conn Wednesday May 3, 2006 The Guardian While Arsenal prepare to take a final bow at their legendary Highbury home after Saturday's match against Wigan Athletic, the club's startling new empire half a mile away, the Emirates Stadium, is an issue in tomorrow's local election. The latest worry in a catalogue of concerns to exercise residents and prompt a leaflet from Islington's opposition Labour Party is the decision - on security grounds - to allow 40 coaches to park in surrounding streets on match days rather than underneath the stadium, as was agreed in Arsenal's 2002 planning permission. Arsène Wenger's team may be a Champions League final away from making the stadium move one of English football's greatest stories, but some residents have opposed Arsenal's plans since the club proposed buying and knocking down 29 homes adjoining Highbury's West Stand in 1997. The anger over the coach parking follows the reversal of another key element of the travel plans: Holloway Road underground station, the closest to the new arena, will not now be improved, but will be "exit only" and closed to fans going home after matches. Drayton Park, the overland train station next to the stadium, will not be used as agreed either; 60,000 fans will instead snake through residential streets to the stations further away, Highbury & Islington and Finsbury Park, which Transport for London will overhaul. This uncomfortable news, extracted by Jennette Arnold, the Labour Greater London Assembly member, in a written answer from Transport for London, has added to other residents' complaints. Arsenal will not now be building a sports centre as agreed in the planning permission; Islington Council says the club will instead contribute £1m to - as yet undecided - local sports facilities. There are also concerns over the number and type of affordable housing in the surrounding development, although both council and club say 40% of the 3,000 new homes will be affordable. While Arsenal and the club's supporters fix their eyes on the final against Barcelona on May 17 in Paris, and the spectacular future promised at the Emirates Stadium, some locals remain angry enough to bite the club's ankles. "As a football stadium, it is wonderful," said Arnold, "but many residents do feel very alienated by it and the Arsenal board have to understand that." Although residents worry about the impact of a 60,000 crowd and fear chaotic travel arrangements, for some campaigners such details aggravate a deeper objection, that Arsenal, a commercial company, has been allowed to dominate a whole area. The club itself has been honest enough to admit that it only wanted a bigger stadium to make more money by absorbing a portion of the supporters straining on season-ticket waiting lists. So controversial was the idea of building a massive new stadium on the grim Ashburton Grove rubbish recycling plant that the council extracted what it claims is a marvellous series of extras. The planning "gain", contained in what is known as a s106 planning agreement, included a state-of-the-art £60m new waste-recycling centre across Holloway Road and the 3,000 new homes. The club also agreed to pay £7.6m towards upgrading Holloway Road and Drayton Park stations among other transport improvements - money now saved following Transport for London's decision that it represents better value to rebuild the other two interchange stations. "This is the highest proportion of s106 improvements compared to the size of development, in any scheme in the country," said Steve Hitchins, Islington Council's Liberal Democrat leader. "We could easily have lost Arsenal from the area, but instead the club is staying and we have secured amazing community benefits, revitalising the whole area." The opponents - 16 residents groups, trade unions and other organisations in the Islington Stadium Community Alliance - pointed, however, to the only independent assessment of the scheme, by Rupert Grantham, the government's planning inspector. Following a six-week public inquiry, he reported in 2003 that although the stadium design is "world class", and would have a "positive impact" on the area, the development would deliver "disappointingly low" community benefits. Grantham decided this was not regeneration, but "simply a redevelopment scheme" which favours Arsenal's "private interests". Specifically, he said the expanded stadium would cause inconvenience to residents, lose vital green space, and the development would be socially divisive, because most of the affordable housing is being concentrated in one area, behind Holloway Road, with the new waste station in the middle of it. Even the flats designated for shared ownership will be affordable only to people earning £30-40,000 a year. The affordable housing planned for a redeveloped Highbury has also been moved and Arsenal's former home will be reserved for prestigious apartments. Grantham recommended that compulsory purchase orders to buy out businesses in the Ashburton Grove industrial estate should not be granted because there was no "compelling public interest" to justify forcible relocation. The businesses and campaigners are still smarting at the decision by the deputy prime minister John Prescott to ignore his planning inspector and grant the CPOs anyway. The businesses have mostly accepted settlements and are leaving. That battle for the heart of a neighbourhood is no longer theoretical. Go down there: the Emirates Stadium is almost finished, stunningly real. Vast, proud, dominant, its construction by Sir Robert McAlpine rapid and seemingly flawless compared to Multiplex's moneypit at Wembley. For Arsenal, with £260m borrowed out of the club's £357m stadium development costs, the dance to the Champions League final is a fable it dared not dream. The club insists, too, that it is complying with all its wider responsibilities. "The club is actively working with Islington Council and other bodies, including Transport for London to fulfil our compliance with s106 obligations," a spokesman said. "This has been a very successful process. In some cases the club has exceeded requirements, for example, providing affordable housing at 40%." However, Alison Carmichael, who with her late partner, Robert Scott, spearheaded ISCA's campaign, strongly feels they were justified. "People are worried about massive disruption. We always understood that Arsenal are a business and they want the money, but the council has allowed this residential area to be completely dominated by the huge bulk of this stadium. A lot of people think it's rather gross to have Emirates, an advertising slogan, looming in massive letters all over us." In the 1930s, while northern football clubs were scuffling about in a depression, Arsenal fashioned the grand aura of Highbury, the marble halls, the art deco stands, glowing with belief in the club's own stature. "Lucky Arsenal", managed by Herbert Chapman before his premature death in 1934, won five League championships and dominated the game. The Emirates Stadium, a bowl of expensive 60,000 seats, built on its own podium in the same patch of inner London, is a swaggering statement of Arsenal's modern confidence and, in a new era, a monument to football itself, its popularity, and commercial power. Go Figures The cost of leaving Highbury £800m Estimated total cost of the Emirates Stadium and associated development £260m The amount Arsenal have borrowed from a consortium of banks led by the Royal Bank of Scotland £60m Cost to the club of building a new Lough Road waste recycling centre to replace the old one £1m Amount Arsenal are providing to local sports facilities following the decision not to build a club sports centre £18.2m Annual interest Arsenal will pay on their loans £28.5m Extra matchday income Arsenal expect to make next season

providing it is a main stand, paddock or centenary season ticket kop season tickets with 2 FA Cup matches is Thursday

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N...060502-0820.htm CUP FINAL WORRIES FOR HAMMERS West Ham are sweating on the fitness of several key players ahead of next weekend's Cup final clash with Liverpool. The Hammers secured a top half finish to the Premiership season with a 1-0 victory at West Brom last night, but the victory came at a cost as the injuries continue to mount for manager Alan Pardew. Dean Ashton is the biggest concern after limping off with a hamstring injury while midfielder Matthew Etherington pulled out of the game before kick-off after feeling a twinge in his abductor muscle. Israeli Yossi Benayoun was also missing with a groin problem. "We're having a bad run at the wrong time," said Pardew. "My guys are picking up too many knocks. Anton Ferdinand (back) and James Collins (groin) didn't even travel to West Bromwich and, while they should be okay for the final, they're both doubtful for the Spurs game. "Yossi Benayoun picked up a groin strain in training and we'll have to see how he is and now, of course, we've got to add Matthew Etherington and Dean Ashton to the list."

can we include Kev as part of the deal then?

swap for guily?