épieur

I think Adebayour was 30m. And IIRC Balotelli onl4 24m. I believe Jo was 20m though. Insane. And that was before the current owners.

Amazing striker, perhaps the best of the 90s. Imo, Eto'o can suck it in comparison. But he only did it for two seasons with them. Same reason the fat Ronaldo won't be topping any legends list at barca either. Yeah. That wasn't really my point.

Would be utterly out of his depth for us.

Like Xabi was for us, yet Gerrard was/is still a better player.

I like Hansen. Something as rare as a scout who won't mind giving a few tidbits to the media about his job without giving anything important away.

I dreamt last night that we hired a female CEO. And she was boss. Also, she gave me a job as a scout. Top lass.

There are some outrageous sums mentioned in the rumours we're linked with these days. It does make it all the more likely that it is bulls***, but if it actually is not we'll be sound and back on track in no time. Just throw money at our problems and we'll be back in 18 months.

I don't think you watched Laudrup play. mate. Iniesta is very similar, but he'll hope to become as good if he keeps developing. Ronaldinho was better than both. Serious hyping going on for the current team. They're fantastically good, but Cruyff's barcelona won three titles on the trot and a European Cup themselves and they more or less invented this brand of football. Then Laudrup went to Real and won a fourth on the trot.

If there is something our managers, Gerard, Rafa and Roy alike have taken flak for it is playing players out of position. Rafa seemed to do it the least especially in his latter years, but he did it now and then anyway.

It's a tall order to expect us to find one, as there are few going around and they are in demand, but if we could sign just one fantastic player for central midfield it would make a whole world of difference. Lucas, and to a lesser extent Meireless, are both good players whom I think would not look out of place in a top side. But they can't lead and lift such a side. We need someone in there who will make the rest of the midfield look better. Maybe that Belgian lad everyone's been talking about. Have we even been linked with him since Commoli came in?

oh come on now. I swear, the 'all mistakes were made by Parry/G&H/Parry and all good things came from Rafa' line takes on ridiculously religious overtones sometimes.

last I heard, Hagi wants shot of all loan players and was sending them home in January. Doesn't think it's the way to go for a club like Gala. Strange that Insua hasn't returned yet if true though.

no way. Xavi and Iniesta are magnificient players, but they are not in Cruyff's class. I think Laudrup and Ronaldinho are the only ones, besides Messi now, who have had any claims to being up there for barca.

That settles it. The fans must rouse themselves like we did against G&H. Time to break Ryan out of TwitterJail.

Well, a certain Cruyff managed the same feat. Although at this rate, he'll be eclipsed soon enough as barca's best player.

If there was ever an odd partnership, it was Crouch and Morientes.

In fairness, no one in their right mind has a care now for what our beloved turkey of an ex-manager thought about our players.

I was mostly thinking of Crouch when I wrote that, tbh. But I am sure there have been games where he did. He did actually get a fair run of starts at one point (I think in his second season?) and did ok-ish IIRC, albeit not pulling up any trees.

Not blaming him. Just saying that the number of times he was subbed really was no reflection on how well he did. It was patenly obvious with both players that Rafa had done the measurements on their fitness and decided their optimal efficency ended around this time in the game. Maybe also with a view to them playing in the next game, I don't know. But if there is a criticism to be made it is that while I can appreciate this kind of attention to detail, I do think Rafa was a bit too dogmatic in his adherence to this, at the expense of the psychological aspects it can have for a player to just play the full game more often than not. I don't imagine it's a confidence builder to always be subbed off no matter how well you play.

still bummed we never signed Lizerazu. BB promised it was a done deal.

in fairness, Rafa persistenly did with babel the same he did with crouch. subbed them off after some 60-70 minutes regardless of how well they played.

I actually laughed a little on the inside just now when reading 'kons***sky'. what's wrong with me?

I'm gonna get way ahead of myself here and say if he does really well, earns an extention and gets us back into the top next season he is without a doubt the messiah. You just couldn't write a more messianic tale of salvation than Kenny and Liverpool FC.

It may have something to do with the club touting Agger to all and sundry the past month. The managers of both Leverkusen and Wolfsburg have commented to the press that they have been approached by the club with a look to selling Agger to them and both have declined the 'offer'. I think what we're seeing is a continuation of what Hodgson set in motion. If Dalglish wants him to stay, I imagine he will.

Babel is s***. But it's hard to look at all that pace, strength, that killer shot and compelling, albeit incredibly erratic technique, and not think that if he just had some sort of profound footballing awakening and he started playing with a brain, he'd quickly become an amazing footballer. Look at Nani. He was s*** for ages too and now he's tearing up the league. Not that I think it's ever going to happen for Babel really. But I can see why it's tempting to think maybe it will if he's given another chance just this one time.