Flight

With the shower of s**** Houllier brought in and more to the point the wages and contracts he gave them, it would be criminal if he didnt get a bung

Mourinho is not a great tactician. He only has a very few team tactics he is able to play, much like Wenger. Opponents are finding this out and he is realising he isn't the special one he thinks he is. I half expected him to leave this last summer and will be surprised if he doesn't go next year.

Wonder what Taggart would think of this : Latest News: Danny is to star alongside Ray Winstone in a 2 hour drama for Channel 4. Filming begins shortly after Christmas and centres around the seedy side of premership football, with Ray playing a premiership manager and Danny his football agent son.

Massive amounts of the shares in Sibneft were handed out to the Russian people. Abramovich used his position to persuade the people they were worthless. The he cut off their power and food supplies. Then he set up a system of swapping the peoples shares for food and electronic goods worth a fraction of the shares true value. Good link on this to the Guardian reporting on it on this forum if you search for it. So he sold his shares for a third of what he could have got for them ? But there was nothing dodgy in that ? Stop talking so much rubbish.

This is a good point and one I made just two posts before yours. Really good points Tim, as usual. Its a shame that a slice of this increased revenue will get eaten up as the costs of the Stadium has increased massively and continues to until it actually gets signed off. That and each season without the new stadium we are losing the increased revenue. Given all the facts above, particularly that the stadium will finance itself and provide profit, stability and ensure our medium and long term future, our seeming inability to get the finances in place and get the thing built look more and more incompetent.

I dont think thats what most people are getting at. I am very critical of the financial and strategic management at the club (as the folks you are talking about are) but happy with this summers transfer business. Best summer since the early 90's of Digger and Beardsley. Whats under discussion here isnt massive amounts of money to fork out silly sums on players, but necessary financial investment to ensure the mid and long term financial stability of the club ie get the new stadium built. Lets not forget the stadium will be just that - an investment. Not only will it pay for itself but will bring in mid to long term profit, financial stability and growth for the club.

The only thing approaching a weakness we have left in the squad is a defensive left back. A player who could do this job and supply cover across the back would be an important addition to the squad.

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I don't share the trust some folks seem to have in the strategic management of the club, but no-one can be disappointed at our summer transfers. Our best for well over a decade. edit : And just to add that for the first time in 15 years we aren't going to be looking for that 'last piece of the jigsaw'. next couple of windows will be like the old days - two out two in of class players, for example.

Eindhoven in our group.

Except we did enough to win by scoring, but only drew because of laughable defending for their goal.

The penalty incident was a sending off. The foul on Riise was a sending off and we didnt even get a free kick. The foul on Carragher could easily have been a sending off. We lost two important players to injury in the first twenty minutes. The grass was far too long and wet so our forward line was slipping all over the show and probably contributed to the injuries. Rafa had to waste two of our three subs on those early injuries. Dont get me started on that excuse of a referee. After all of that, we still would have taken all three points if it hadnt been for diabolical defending for their goal.

Come on. Seriously - Zenden in central MF over Stevie and Xabi ? Agger over Sami ? Rafa is truly a genius. Best manager in the world, no Carlsberg about it. When saw it I genuinely though, well I wouldn't have gone with it but I bet Rafa has got it right again.

Reina 8 (that fingertip save was terrific - htf can Andy Gray say it was lucky ?) Finnan 7 Agger 8 (owned Drogba) Carra 7 JAR 6 (continues to worry me defensively) Pennant 6 Zenden 7 Momo 10 MOM Speedy 7 Garcia 5 Crouch 6 ---------- Aurelio 7 Xabi, Stevie 6 Bellamy 7

Great game from Agger; owned Drogba throughout.

I bought the paper this morning to see what it says. One of the pages is about Stevies cousin, Jon-Paul Gilhooley. If anyone doesn't know Jon-Paul was the youngest victim of Hillsborough. Stevie talks about how he drives at a crawl past the memorial when he enters the ground and crosses himself. Stevie talks about all the families across Liverpool who have an empty seat at the table and a bedroom not being used. He says : I was nine when Jon-Paul was taken from us. he adored Liverpool with the same passion that I feel when I pull on that red shirt. 'Those families deserve justice.. We should know exactly what happened at Hillsborough and who is to blame. Action should be taken against those who let 96 innocent people die.. My cousin died and has not had justice. Every time I see Jon-Pauls name cut into the marble outside the Anfield gates, I fill with sadness and anger. One of the very best articles I've read in the scummy papers and its in the NotW. Get the f*** off his back and should some faith and belief in the lad. He's a big part of our past and our future.

Remember Ian Cotton telling me about they dont let any of the players do one on ones with the S**. Does that apply to the NotW as well ?

Consistently played out of position, never a single whinge or a bad word in seven years and always gave 100%. Good luck Djimi lad. He's a terrific buy at £2mill for a mid table club.

And of course the biggest reminder of us in the early 90's from the present day Mancs, self denial

Cheers Robbie lad. So much for my predictions. Looks like I'll be a few bob down in bets

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Anyone who writes them off is daft. However, they are on the slide. I've been saying for two or three years, they remind me very much of us in the early 90's. Their scouting department is failing. On top of that, what Ferguson doesn't have is the contacts throughout the world, as Rafa, Maureen and Wenger do, to rebuild it world wide. They have consistently failed to replace top players leaving or coming to the end of their careers with players of equal quality. Having bought so many duff players, they are now in a state of every one of their purchases has to be a good one, or it will really hurt them. They not only need to replace players coming to the end of their careers, they need ro replace squad members. On top of that, just like us in the early nineties, they play key players one or two seasons too long when they are coming to the end of their careers. On the slide doesnt mean they are s*** overnight. It means they are graducally, almost indiscernably, getting poorer across the squad and with their trophy haul. The way they celebrated the Carling Cup, given the way various of their players had spoken about it in the past, speaks volumes.

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