zimmie4444

If it is moved, it will be to a midday ko on the Saturday, which will be benefitial with regards to the Barca game

I'm sick of hearing about Gerrard. Sick of hearing his apologists and his detractors. He's a good player, the captain, but he's PART of a team that is underperforming, for all kinds of reasons. He's played in the middle this term in certain games and been poor, throwing him in there is not the automatic cure to all our, and his, ailments.

From what I understand, Houllier never did much coaching, left most of the hands on stuff to his head coaches, Bergues, and then Crevoisier(?), and Damiano. Herrera, who you are referring to as being Rafa's 'man behind the scenes', was not Rafa's assistant, he was his chief scout. To draw parallels between the two departures and the effect they have on the team following them is total nonsence. People are just looking for excuses and reasons to explain our form, and find anything they can, no matter how tenous to explain it. Anything and anyone can become a scapegoat- the players, manager, board, rotation, systems, the list of scapegoats is endless! The reality is, the problems that Growler pointed out are definitely perinant in explaining our current form, as well as, I believe, a lack of genuine quality in attacking areas. Benitez is a top quality boss and he is the best qualified person to get the best out of this team.

He reads the Guardian don't ya know..

What was the final score?

It exarcebates the problem though. It's true about communism strengthening clubs like Steaua and Dinamo Kiev, but there were others too. Sides like Celtic (60's), Liverpool (70's), Forest, St. Etienne, Moenchengladbach, and Ajax all produced great sides by having expert coaches and managers, and producing great players rather than buying and collecting them. Now, the richer clubs get richer still, and clubs who should be able to compete in terms of fan base and profile, are left in the trail because they happen to play in a smaller league. The group of elite clubs will become a closed shop, and ultimately, competition will dissapate, if it hasn't already eroded completely. I don't want football to be a game where there are only 4/5 clubs from 3/4 countries who can compete. At the moment, there is still a route to the top for any club, but the rich club's are trying to burn all the bridges, and UEFA and FIFA have to act soon before we reach that situation. It might be impossible to deal with ultimately, but they can at least make an attempt to make sure there is competition throughout the game.

Very harsh. He's a 20-year old whose been outstanding on loan at Charlton by all accounts. Surely the jury is still out on him, and I'd say he's a very promising prospect, and represents excellent value if he fulfils his promise.

He has very sad eyes. To me, it looks like he's carrying the burden of a hidden pain or anguish. Poor man. The Guardian's turned into a tabloid. The headline is trying to induce a bit of xenophobia. I'm all for having just the champions of each country, and I believe that's what Platini's always been in favour of too if you look at some of his previous interviews. I guess that's impossible now though. The results are embarrasing because all the leagues with the exception of the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A, and possibly Bundesliga have been diluted as a result of the Champions League expansions. Their sides have been raided and clubs which had formerly produced great teams like Dinamo Kiev, Steaua Bucharest etc., and even BIG clubs such as Celtic and Ajax will never be able to sustain a challenge year after year because of their geography alone. The Champions League has manipulated an elite of teams that belong in the leagues where the money is, and in my opinion, football is worst off because of it.

Best- Alonso, no question. He has made alot of productive signings, such as Sissoko and Garcia, but Alonso is pure class. Worst- In real terms, Josemi, Nunez, Kromkamp and Pellegrino put in the worst performances, but even htose aren't complete write-offs imo. Pellegrino's arrival put pressure on Hyypia towards the back end of 2004-5, and I don't think it's a coincidence that Hyypia's performances showed a marked improvement following his arrival, so in that sence, Pellegrino was actually a good signing (great guy too). Nunez was free, and whilst he wasn't great, we didn't lose out financially, and I think we even profited in the end following his departure, so again, nothing was really lost there. Josemi was bad, but again didn't cost a great deal, and although he didn't work out, it was worth taking a chance, and we got Kromkamp in return, and whilst he wasn't up to much either, between the two transfers, we again profited from his departure. Pound for pound, I'd say Morientes is Rafa's worst signing. Nobody would guess that at the time with a player of his calibre, but for whatever reason/s, it didn't work out, unfortunately.

If you made an all-time British XI, I think the English would be in the minority actually: Southall Charles Moore Hansen Best Charlton Souness Barnes Dalglish Law Rush Jennings, Johnstone, Finney, Matthews, Liddell

EVERTON: Richard Wright Gary Rowett Per Kroldrup John O'Kane Peter Degn Niclaus Alexandersson Claus Thomsen Danny Williamson Idan Tal Brett Angell Paul Wilkinson MAN UTD: Massimo Taibi Ashley Grimes William Prunier Ralph Milne Clayton Blackmore Kleberson Eric Djemba-Djemba Neil Webb Luke Chadwick (the next Ryan Giggs don't you know..) Dion Dublin Gary Birtles

Belgium-France Same difference.. Maybe we're on the verge of another great era in Scottish football though, what with some of the results, and more importantly perhaps, performances of recent times. I watched them a few months back thrash Bulgaria, they played some of the best passing football I've seen from an international team for some time, got some class youngsters too, especially that kid Naismith. Things on the up for them

Isn't Obelix Belgian?

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I can't imagine Houllier being involved in anything dodgy. I'm sure the likes of Ferri, Diomede and Luzi were brought to the club on their football abalities alone..

That was defo OT they were showing blurred pan-shots of earlier..

Seems to me they were on to something big, but then Newell went and fecked it all up

The only thing we seemed to have learned so far is that Bolton has the worst lawyers in the Prem...

Anybody who doesn't believe this goes on, or has gone on, at some level in every single club is naive imo.

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They're still called Red Star, I think Crvena is the Serbian spelling, so Red Star is just the English translation, but commentators like to be fanc nowadays and try to pronounce things in the indiginous style, like Looeeth Gartheeeah!

Everybody is assuming Diao couldn't agree terms because of the money, but while it seems a safe assumption, we don't know this for sure, right? It may be a little harsh on the guy to castrate him over money when it could just as easily be that he went out there and had a look at the club or the place where he would live, and just decided he didn't fancy it. Maybe he didn't think he could get in their side either and didn't fancy moving to a struggling Primera team to sit on the bench again when he could do that at Liverpool. Nobody knows the reasons for sure, so lets not castrate him before we do, eh?

13th ffs! Sack Rafa before we sink any deeper