genghis

Laughing too much to type properly. Best thread in ages.

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These people are 12 years old, and have only ever seen Atletico matches on a Playstation. Fact! Presumably they would also throw their toys out of the pram if said favourites also had the temerity to grow old, get rubbish and eventually retire? Anyone who's been around the block a few times knows that good players move on, other players come in, teams evolve. Sh*t happens.

Looks to me like we're about to find out what would've happened to Robbie if he'd stayed on the straight and narrow after 95/96. So much of Torres' play reminds me of him, even down to the way he 'bustles' past defenders - a mixture of determination and superior ability to change direction and feet...What with Voronin being the new Beardo, we appear to be assembling a retread of the best-of-LFC forward line. Now if we can just convince Kuyt to add to his Rush-like work-rate with some Rush-like finishing, we'll be more than sorted. IT'S ON!

I will be very, very surprised if he isn't pretty good in the Prem for us. He's got a decent work ethic (seems to be a feature of Ukrainian players) and excellent technique, along with a pretty good attitude on the pitch - doesn't get bullied by defenders. In case anyone is forgetting he played alongside a certain Mr Berbatov for a season at Leverkeusen, with a very similar record, and he doesn't seem to be working out too badly over here. And I reckon Andriy is more in-your-face than Berbatov. I'm another who thought he looked good at the World Cup and was pleasantly surprised that we nabbed him for now't. No idea what people have against him - go back and watch some Ukraine matches, and maybe dig out some Leverkeusen too. Seriously, I think his finishing reminds me of Beardley - very accurate, often passed into the net, and with a great ball-striking technique.

I reckon he'll get a (quarter) pounding if the youth team don't retain the cup.

we can look forward to this appointment with relish

at londonkopite vs Elisha Sorry LK, there's only one winner there, whatever you think. If you'd been on this forum longer than 2 weeks you'd know not to call ES on this. You're holding a pair of 3s, and he's got a royal flush. And no, I'm not his mate. Off hand, when exactly did *you* hear we were signing Peter Crouch?

Gary Mackay Steven. Already done. IT'S ON!!!

with who though?

Hang on, so what we've got here is: "Man falls asleep on plane flight, accompanied by friends. May have consumed alcohol at some point on holiday." I might be going soft in my old age, but I don't think that's grounds for a public flogging. Having said that, he's still a bit rubbish, so if this leads to his being booted out of the club, it's the fair means to an end, eh? * *for those lacking the requisite detection equipment, this is sarcasm, by the way

I bet that Niall Quinn is involved somehow. He's probably going to lob them a few million to help with the urban regeneration, the attention-seeking c*nt. Oh and btw re: the 'why would they increase funding of the regeneration' question - simple: if coughing up some tens of millions to the city gets this stadium approved in minutes, leading to £20m+ increase in revenues sooner than later, then it's a decent business decision, rather than sitting on their hands and having the council delay approval for another 18 months. Oh and you never know - the civic work may be classifiable as charitable donation, and therefore usable as a cunning bit of tax wonkery.

Billy The Fish, the limbless legend. Great idea, but sadly the ball would burst and so it would either not reach the net or be ruled out. Damn those fiery super-powers! brilliant!

Pimp-stylin' fly threads wit Rafa, muthaf*cker, I think you meant. Rafa said knock you out, by the way.

You forgot about Dre.

Or the next 12 days... Wait a minute... we didn't realise that Rafa's hid this unhappiness about tranfsers.... UNLEASH HELL!

If we get in some really decent wingers and some of the top-class upgrade Rafa is talking about, I think there may be more than few feeling pretty f*cking foolish about DK next year. Just about every pro you hear talk about our team mentions him. As I've said before he reminds me of Shearer, he just needs a season to settle, and to be doing less work for the current under-talented wide midfielders. But then, like Gonzo, Rafa might just say 'sod it' and sell him to be replaced by Henry/Milto/Eto'o/Villa and Torres. All of them.

Weird, god knows what that PMing thing is. No worries re: the Walkie - I would head there but for a having to get home to let my dog out. I'll have to see if I've enough time after that to get back to Temple, but I doubt it, so it's the variable charms of N London for me. Have a good 'un and remember the spirit of '05 (second half )

Hmm, looks like I may end up watching in a fr*gging giant O'Neills pub (that is a converted church) in Muswell Hill, due to work and pet-related insanity. Anyone else going to be near that bit of North London and fancy being in a place that makes the Walkabout at Temple look like the Oakie? Or have a better suggestion? If not, I'll have to watch it will 500 chavved-up 18 year-olds, most of who are Arsenal and Man U fans, and I think I might struggle to enjoy that...

Well there is that. I'm hoping that for the sake of not appearing hopelessly bent/bought he has an astonishingly honest performance tonight. Though if we're screwed over it wouldn't be the first time UEFA had f*cked over an English team for the greater good of an Italian one. Arrgh - RP, you had to put these thoughts in my head! Argh! On a separate note, why is UEFA so lenient on Italian football all the time? If English footie had the same ref-fixing scandal, we'd be banned from even pumping up footballs, much less kicking them, for about 100 years.

It just hit me again what an incredible record we have at the business end of European comps: European Cup/Champions League finals: P6 W5 UEFA cup finals: P3 W3 Cup Winners Cup: P1 L1 (boo!) Super Cup nonsense: P5 W3 So unless I'm forgetting something, in the main comps our record is P10 W8, and one of those losses was Heysel, which hardly counts as a genuine sporting event. Milan have lost the EC final 4 times, and the CWC once. Nice stats to mull over anyhow, trying to alleviate PMT.

From what Rafa's said, and his previous form I reckon Kewell will start (he started in Istanbul after much less training) and the monster Sissoko may well form a they-shall-not-pass midfield of Alonso, Masch and Momo, with the wide men Gerrard and Kewell pushing up to join whoever's up front, and the full backs given license to push up/overlap, given how solid we'll be in the middle. We become a 4-5-1 turning into 4-3-3 and attack primarily up the middle. Just a theory, given that Momo and Masch can f*ck off Kaka and Gattuso. If we can blunt them and tire them out, then Rafa might open things up a bit second half with an other striker (or Pennant) swap for one of the central mids. In fact I'd almost put money on us starting with an ultra-solid midfield like that, given what happened last time. I reckon if M&M are in Kaka's face for 60 minutes he'll not enjoy it much, and Gattuso will have to spend his time helping him and Pirlo out, which puts them on the back foot. Rafa will want it to be tight as possible, with no chance at all of them scoring early. Kewell and Gerrard shouldn't have to track back too much because of the solidity, and that leaves them closer to the front, giving the aged Milan backline three different headaches. F*ckin' 'ell. PMT now.

B*gger - was in that horrible Walkabout with Phil M for 2005, where I declared at half time (somewhat juiced) that we were about to see the most incredible 2nd half in history. I was *that* sure we were going to come back. No idea why as I'm a f*cking pessimist at the best of times. Weird. Not sure whether going back is a good idea or not, might have used all my luck up for that venue. And that makes it even tougher, in that the Green Man is about 1 minute from work, but will be full of idiots *from* my work.