growler

the next referees union meeting should be a scream. Payback for the special one from the men in black. "You should have seen it boys, 30 seconds to go, the ball comes in, 4 chelski players are offside, the defender slides in, takes the ball clean as you like, no appeals from the opposition. A quick check of my watch just to make sure there won't be any time afterwards, and pheeeeee-eeeeeeeep, I give the f***ing penalty. I don't know who was more surprised, my linesman or John Terry. To make it even sweeter Fw*** takes a marvellous penalty, keeper had no chance, the same as Moron-ho 15 seconds later. This ones for you Frisky." (compliments of Cudds on redissue)

dream move: boringho gets sacked, replaced by Sven!

half a billion pounds, and they do a wimbledon style, with Huth up front. scorer of how many goals this season?

mori will have to hit th etarget to score. I think start easy on him. Lets set him a target of taking 3 shots in a game. Then we can work towards getting 2 of the 3 on target, and go from there.

what about owen's goal against the argies? I don't think you can truly compare players of different era's. Its like comparing souness to Gerrard. Its just irrevelant, because football is different today to 10/20/50 years ago and will be different in that time again. Just sit back, and enjoy the poetry on display, and be glad that football hasn't become completely sterile.

7th would open up if two team already in europe in the final. also, boro in UEFA still. Also, I wonder if the cluase says european football or CL football? Owen was unhappy with us being in UEFA, so why would he want the same at newcastle? this season, I don't think he minded because with the world cup at the end, he has had a bit of a rest, and an easy ride. After this summer though, there will be nothing to look forward to. If the clause kicks in, and he puts in a transfer request, then what? As someone already said, contracts signing on fees etc have boosted his income a bit, so can afford to sacrifice a pay off from newcy to get a move back home. Personally, I am unsure. Here is a player who didn't give our new manager a chance, engineered a move to Real Madrid for a paltry fee, then didn't want to move back to us enough to force Real's hand, and over the last 2 seasons has played how many games in a season? If we want a player to play half of the season, and be a regular scorer, we have Fowler for that. Personally, would prefer Torres, which if around the 15mil mark (plus performance based extras) is a better deal. Lets not forget Rafa is the guy that got alonso for 10mil.

how long did the arsenal stadium take in terms of planning and starting to work? It seems we get stressed out beecause we have inside information. I'm sure that looking from the outside in, it all seems normal. Even at 160mil, still half price compared to emirates stadium (god what an awful name)

Actually makes perfect sense. Now they are gone, getting a manager and saying you can plan for next season from now, get players lined up, players will be playing for their positions etc, and then next season can start straight away.

well, its nicer between liverpool and leeds, then it is between london and leeds, which is birmingham, and why would anyone want to live there? him, Gonzales, Kewell, alonso, Gerrard, Torres would not be a bad front 6.

looks like will have to managin portugal. No other club will want him. him signings have on the large been failures (robben, cech, gallas, duff, cole, crespo were all ranieri), and his style of football is, well, boring. When you have limitless funds, you get to see the true value of a team, and compare barcelona, real madrid, arsenal 49'ers, to chelski's half a billion pound investment. Would you want him managing us? Not a chance! You can bet most other clubs saying the same. He would have to go international management first, to rebuild his reputation.

At least we are not in it (yet!) but look at the run in. I would say spurs will be lucky to stay there. arsenal got the easiest run in, followed by Blackburn. Bolton have it toughest, and they would be least favourite for the CL. can you imagine their football in the CL. yuck! blackburn still not being tipped, but their run in is favourable. Portsmouth, brum, wigan, sunderland. They have 2 tough games, us and the russians, but both are at home.

Heard a story that he is 'home sick' and wants to move up north. would solve the RM problem and possibly the cisse problem... anyone got anything concrete?

I didn't think anyone listened to the commentary on the screen whilst watching the match. I've always listened to 5 live instead when I was in england, and now in Oz, I'd rather watch it muted, and make my own judgment, rather than listen to the coverage here. who needs to hear that ' liverpool had it easy last year because we never came up against a Real Madrid?' talk about your dream job. Be as bad as you like, watch a sport you live, and get paid ridiculous money for it.

players like roddy are why football is a beautiful games, despite how many try to corrupt it. at the end of the day, thats what it boils down to. what he does with the ball on the pitch, is picasso to painting etc etc. For entertainment value, I hope we see Messi, Eto'o, Roddy, Henry and Xavi in the same team. Forget the geriatrico's. THIS is true art.

its true, we don't utilise Crouch's height enough. Any having a striker stay in the box seems a standard thing. Not sure why we don't do it. Also, when we are defending a corner, keep a striker on the halfway line, to exploit a counterattack. we don't need cisse, Garcia, moro and Kewell in our box when they have a corner.

whilst this should probably belong in the footy forum (move if you have to), its interesting how many players are just not interested in Chelsea, regardless of money. Boringho seems to sign players for money, whereas Rafa looks at players that WANT to sign for us. I can think of loads of players who have turned down chelski, but can anyone even remember a player saying they would never play for liverpool? (Other than the usual suspects from old toilet) http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...sea/4775782.stm Brazil and Barcelona playmaker Ronaldinho has ruled out a big-money summer move to Chelsea. "I know Chelsea want to sign me but they are a team I don't want to play for," he told the News of the World. Ronaldinho, 25, was angered by the Blues' physical approach in the recent Champions League meeting - a tie Barca lead 2-1 going into the second leg. "They went to kick my feet before trying to get the ball. Their style does not interest me," he added. "I've been feeling the pain from those kicks from Chelsea and had to pull out of Brazil's friendly because of it. "That kind of game isn't for me and rather than ever play like that I'd say 'no thank you'." After coming back from a goal down to beat 10-man Chelsea in the first leg, Barca are firm favourites to progress to the last eight in Tuesday's return fixture at the Nou Camp. And having sat out Brazil's midweek friendly against Russia in Moscow, Ronaldinho warmed up for Champions League action with a goal in Barca's 3-2 win over Deportivo La Coruna.

- Gerrard to stop taking corners - The short Corner - What is that about? - Crossing, and attacking a cross - Someone get in there! - Finisher - enough said - Turn possession into creativity. For all our possession, we really only had 3 chances to score against charlton. seeing as anything that comes from our player, and is 'on target' counting as a shot on goal, the stats are a little skewed, seeing as most of them for us have been passes to the opposition keeper, or shots straight at him. - Gerrard to stop taking free kicks - Ban shooting first from 25+ yards. when was the last time one was even on target, let alone a goal? sometimes it feels like McAteer is back. - Tell Traore to not bother going up for a corner. If you can't direct a header out of our defence correctly, its unlikely you'll be able to direct one of our corners into the goal, providing it finds its way to one of our players in the box. - Players to be told when the game enters the 65/70th minute. I don't think the players realised that we were entering the last quarter of the match against charlton as there was no change in tempo, or push up the pitch. - Fowler or cisse to take penalties. Period. no arguments. General observations, some from last game, some from recent games, some just glaring.

So we will spend that money on a new 60000 stadium, ready in 5 years time (at the earliest), by which time Old toilet will be 80,000. The stadium is fine for the time being. Invest in the team, and get us winning again, consistantly. Once we have this, it will be easier to raise finance to finance the whole stadium, and have a healthier cash flow. Pointless having a lovely stadium to play UEFa cup footy; see arsenal next season potentially.

Newcastle buying owen was nothing other than trophy. Owen will want to come back. being injured this season means he has rested a little too. he'll have a good world cup, and with it out of his system, he will come back a better player. Getting shot of Mori, Cisse and Garcia bringing in Owen and Kuyt, and a RM, would satisfy Rafa for the first team I think. Especially if we are not talking top dollar. If we say Owen for 12, Kuyt for 10, and a RM for 5 for example. That is 27. If we are to sell Garcia for 8, Moro for 6 (still highly regarded in spain), and Cisse for 5 (worst case) that is 19. Throw in a few others like Dudek, Cheyrou, Diao, possibly Le Tallec, Traore, Warnock, Potter etc and alleged 10 for the transfer fund, thats not to shabby. Of course, that is all ideal, and named targets. Rafa will probably pull the provervial rabbit, and end up with Torres/Villa plus a few others.

johnson went the season they went down, with Lampturd and rio going the season before. the problem was not that they went, but who replaced them. connolly, repka etc.

I hate manure more, but to be honest, would feel a bit weird if the scum were to go to wall, whereas if the russians suddenly went bankrupt, I would be well happy. Weird? Who cares? Chelsea are nonetity. People woh think history will be kind on them, liverpool fans will tell anyone that history is not forgotten. ever.

realistically, you are talking 40000 in the ground, of which how many will drink? Be serious here, most people will drink outside the game. I ain't paying 17 Euros for a warm bud in a plastic cup

ironically, the compensation from Real for Rafa and his backroom team would provide the transfer funds we crave...

Fowler to score against Benfica

nothing to do with representing his country in front of his home crowd eh?