IgPig

so yellows do carry....

doesn't make sense or all players booked in the 1st game would be getting booked in the 2nd should there team have qualified. Also, the commentators being such geeks would have alsmost certainly made a point of it "Gerrard needs to be subbed if he wants to play int he 2nd round" etc

Chris Waddle?

Like your post?

Mein Kampf

Mourinho has already said he'll be playing Drogba and Shevchenko up front together, which I imagine is part of the reason they changed their shape towards the end of last season. Pennant by the looks of things, but maybe Rafa should reveal plans a-z just for your reassurance.

Mourinho rarely picked him, didn't buy him, and his signings haven't been the best generally. Obviously the two they've bought this summer are pretty damn good, but are more likely to be the work of the shady Russian

Mendes pretty much kept them up, I am sure they'd regard the £7.5M that they spent for 3 Spurs reserves as money well spent. Also, if reports were to be believed we were getting £8M for Cisse, which more than he's worth in my opinion.

Rafa knows we aren't far away from having a serious pop at the league next year, and I am sure if buying one player meant he couldn't afford the others necessary to do it, he wouldn't. After all, as someone else has said, Gerrard is as capable as anyone as on the right and could play their next season without detriment to the team if money was really tight.

I like it. Thatched stadiums are the way forward.

I've always thought Essien was ordinary when I've seen him for Chelsea, but he looked very good last night.

Give it a rest.

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Not sure he was exceptional. A couple of good moves against a limited team.

That Yaya looked the business. You can't judge on a world cup though, and he'd not get in ahead of Xabi or Momo.

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Good shout that, they could do with a player like Didi. Him and Barton in central midfield would be a very effective pair.

nowt to see here, oops

You monitor them closely do you

Just seen this on football 365 too. The man is a fool. A Lawro, Lawro Nonsense Mark Lawrenson's World Cup predictions, in today's Irish Times: '3. Surprise Player: Joe Cole. '4. Surprise Team: USA. '5. Tactical Novelty: None, there are no surprises in football.' In the same article, Lawro proclaims that "mention of the Ivory Coast prompts me to suggest I do not see them doing as well as many pundits are predicting. My feeling about sides like Ivory Coast and Ghana is that, in the end, you are only as good as your worst player and I suspect both teams have some poor players in their starting line-ups." Those 'many pundits' would presumably include Mark Lawrenson, who predicted on the BBC website that the Ivory Coast could be the surprise package of the tournament. Even though there are no surprises in football.

"If any team are going to cause a surprise, I think it could be Ivory Coast. Obviously I've already picked Argentina and Holland to progress from Group C, but Ivory Coast could easily surprise us all and make it into the last 16. " The sub editor is responsible for that bit - Lawro prolly didn't even realise.

He has played most of his career, certainly his best period at Leeds, on the right. To think we nearly paid £9M for him. What a lucky escape that was.

Been the next big thing for a few years hasn't he. One of the ones that comes up in summer transfer threads and the like. "we must sign Kompany as he is the best player ever, better than Carra or Hyypia, much faster etc etc etc"