growler

glad leeds stayed down. They have a couple of good young players who Rafa will hopefully pick out.

the reality is, nothing will happen. Even if Juventus get relegated, they are big and bad enough to be back next year. I would think most players would just stay and get Juve promoted again. Imagine if Milan, Juve and Roma get relegated however. The CL qualifiers this season would be interesting, and the CL seedings for the next few years would be changed too. Teams like Real Madrid, Scum, Chelsea would find themselves amonst the top seeds longer than expected. Personally, it will be a nothing situation anyway. I reckon by the time the season starts it will all be forgotten.

How about recognising the fact that eboue dived for the free kick that got them their goal, so something along the lines of what goes around comes around

Lets not forget that with aurelio, Riise, warnock, Gonzales and Zenden we ave enough on the left side without Kewell

any sponsorship should include increasing annual payments I think. That way we don't have this issue of they get 8 mil, we only get 5 when it comes up for renewal. also, with the success we are having now, changing our kit suppliers etc, it makes sense to bide our time for a little bit. Now we can start negotiating for next summer, adidas would have settled into the relationship with Liverpool, with the intention of next year, winning the title, rubber stamping the sponsorship, and having plenty of shirts in supply.

both Liverpool lads, captain and vice captain. Playing for their dream team. Scoring and protecting. LEading by example. And probably the most decorated players of their respective ages. Has any other player got such an impressive list of accolades in the last 5 years? LEague Cups, FA Cups, European Cup, UEFA cup, and all the others like Super cup, Charity Shield etc. When we win the title (and I mean WHEN) Carra and Gerrard will have won every club trophy open to them. and when we win number six, this time they WILL win the WCC Men, I salute you. I am extremely jealous of you. when you retire you will be able to look back, and say you spent your life doing a job you love, for a team you love, won tonnes of trophies, have become legends and along the way got paid s*** loads of money for it. already Legends, both players will stand the test of time for Liverpool.

Calm down Gerrard son.

hope chelsea screw him over a bit. The bad PR will surely stop them signing any more players of potential. Why would you go there? As a competing club, you would just have to mention the examples of PArker, Johnson, Bridge, SWP, Gallas etc.

I thought he had already retired..... has he played this season? Definitely one of my favourites...

also, we have barragan and few others who can step up too.

I think the same could be said of us. you can say they are doing badly, but for all of it, they are still in second. They are a couple of central midfielders away.

I think the chavs would rather the mancs finish 2nd. we are seen as bigger competitors to them for next season. Of course, if arsenal win the CL then finishing 2nd will mean nothing, as we will still have to qualify.

If he builds the stadium, and in return gets 30% of the club, with Moores holding the rest, pending Mittal's plans, I would accept that.

worst case scenario, the buy out alone will fund some serious purchases for the replacement.

How about selling points? sounds silly, how about somthing like this. Each team is allowed to spend 10million on transfers. then, you can sacrifice 1point for each further 2 million. therefore, if chelsea were to sign SWP, then they would use their 10mil, plus lose 5 points in the league. That would basically leverage their buying and selling to an improvement in the league. Obviously rudimentary, but something along those lines would surely mean teams are more balanced in their approach, and more performance related transfers would take place. This could also be designed to exclude transfers below 1mil, so that teams struggling in the lower leagues can continue to sell players, or only be valid for players over 24/27?

what a shame, I liked Sheva. Never saw him as a money grabber. Still, you can understand Milan. Strikers they have. Its the defence they need to rebuild, and if they are getting Gallas + Crespo + cash up front, its not a bad deal. With regards the players, I hope they do buy them. MEans we can continue to buy players that we want; ie those that are young, and want to play for a club rather than money. Essien, Makalelelele, Robben, Duff, SWP, Maniche, Ballack, Lampard, Geremi,Cole,Smertin (?), Gudjohnson and I am sure I am forgetting some. Keeping all of them happy next season will be interesting. Ballack in, may mean lampard out too.

lets not forget, that its Houllier's first season, so hasn't had a chance to rip out the creativity and flair from their team. Give it a chance. Only a moron could have taken a team that had won the previous 4 titles, and mess it up

I always thought it was UP TO 14mil, with 8mil up front.

with the transfer window shut, destroying already weak players achieves nothing. Traore, Garcia, Moro, Crouch and Cisse will all continue to play a part this season, by choice or not.

I agree with the possession stat, but the shots on goal stat would include Crouch and Moro passing the ball to their keeper, and any long ball that is directed towards the goal. It doesn't measure the genuine chances created, of which we have had virtually none.

well, our strikers have played a total of 44 games, and scored 1 goal. I don't think we need any more evidence really.

firstly, not everyone thought Moro would be great. I certainly didn't, and was against the signing from the start. Secondly, he has never given cisse a chance. thirdly, this season was a great opportunity. Real Madrid, , BAyern, Chelsea and Man U out already, leaves it fairly open. Also, this hurts our co-efficient and maintaining top seed. Fourthly, this may be a good thing if it shakes up Rafa and the board. How many goals is that in recent times? this isn't a new problem, we suffered the same problem in the first few weeks of the season too, and we didn't address it in Jan.

the g14 comment, could relate to transfers. after all, none of the top clubs have dealt with them really. These comments will hopefully shut the door on them joining g14. period. The other thing about the clubs in g14 is longevity. They have a history, and rich history. chelsea still need to build that, and prove that they act in good faith, respectfully, and are looking to the future.

These paint a slightly different picture. http://www.chelseafc.com/article.asp?hlid=...sub=latest+news still delighted they went out, but these look a bit more thought out, then the ones he made initially. José Mourinho was quietly reflective in the wake of Chelsea?s Champions League exit in Barcelona, believing the real damage was done at Stamford Bridge. After a second-leg in Spain in which Chelsea?s goal came far, far too late to knock the home side out of their confident stride, the Chelsea manager quoted a statistic to highlight the uphill struggle his players had faced. ?When a team lose 2-1 at home, in the history of the Champions League, only a couple of teams have changed the game away from home. For me the crucial point was the result at Stamford Bridge. ?We haven?t seen two games when both teams had 11 players. We haven?t seen Barcelona win against 11 players. ?At this level of football, small details can make a big difference. When I was coach with Porto, we scored a goal in the last minute and that got us through,? he recalled, referring to a dramatic win at Old Trafford. ?Last season against Liverpool, we couldn?t score with one minute to go when we had a chance and we went out. This season we play almost an hour with ten men.? Despite the disappointment, he did have some words of complement for the victors. ?Barcelona are certainly a great team. We are completely different teams. They have great qualities in one aspect, we have great qualities in another. But if they are in the next round, they deserve to be there. They can think about the quarter-final, we can think about the Premiership and the FA Cup.? The fact that Chelsea fired just four shots on target and won no corners in Camp Nou, despite the need to score at least twice on the night led to suggestions that the approach had been too subdued. It was an accusation Mourinho refuted as he explained the thinking behind the game plan. ?It was a performance where we knew we have to score one goal. I was saying to the players, even if we score in the 85th minute, we have big chances. But when you score in the 91st minute, it is very difficult. ?If we couldn?t play the game Barça wanted. They were different to normal. They were pressing much more, they were more defensive, the lines were much more compact. They were waiting for counter-attack for the chance and to score and kill us. ?I am not staying we had 20 chances to score. In the first-half, we had a good situation for Joe Cole to score and another one for Arjen Robben. In the second-half we had a great chance for Hernán Crespo. If you score one of those chances, the pressure is on them. But we couldn?t do it.? Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard could fully understand the Chelsea approach. ?I wasn?t surprised they played more or less their usual way,? he revealed. ?What they do is very good and sometimes the better you play against them, the more dangerous they are on counter-attack. It was a tactical game and if you are good at something, you have to show it in the big games as well.? Before heading back to London, Mourinho was asked if he would now like to see Barcelona go on to win the Champions League. He answered in the negative. ?I?d like Benfica to win it but I don?t know whether they can win tomorrow. I was at Barcelona for four years which I enjoyed but I am a true Portuguese.?

what was the reaction from puyol?