Scally Bob

But they tried to get BiG NaMeS. The classy players don't want to know so they spend £24m each on Drogba and Essien. You can't polish a turd and these are average players who wouldn't have gone for half that amount. They really are nouveau riche despicables.

SaCk PaRrY. Do I win £5? Con he shut?

As this gossip was in that rag should we be even discussing it?

No. I'm and old man (well 48) and I'm grumpy because we didn't win it. At least before the stolen money we could ignore them. If that Club was a couple in your street they'd have mock Roman statues in their garden and a cheap 4x4 on the drive.

Haven't read all of this thread but that turn of pace in front of the Moan Stand was amazing. Crouchy should have buried it. I know he's keen but I just don't think he is reliably consistent. In a big game when he gets the one chance would you back him?

Garcia was a waste of space as well. At least he didn't give the ball away though.

I'm sorry but I don't go along with this. I don't want any team other than Liverpool to win anything. If a team plays great football and acts with the class and dignity that you would expect from Champions then I'll congratulate them but this shower are bully-boys with a rich backer who play Middlesbrough-style football (without the European final) and don't get my respect. The only positive is that the Munsters didn't win it. What next? Do I have to get Ingerlund flags to stick on my car windows as I drive round?

Dreamt last night that we won 3-0 and Gerrard scored the third. Had £4 on that at 25/1 and £2 on 3-0 just to cover it. I got £6 back for Gerrard last goal at 5/1 but Mr. Foooking Walkabout cost me the price of my Cup Final ticket. Beaut. Shut the door on your way out.

As a veteran of several skirmishes at Ayresome Park I wish they'd been dicked. And that hole of a ground and their part-time gobshoite fans and Manc retirement policy doesn't endear me to them either.

When you say "Why does Traore look better at CB?" does CB mean Car Boot?

Right you, outside now! There's always the odd occasion where people can't make it and have to shift a ticket-my mate got his Pompey ticket then found out he had to be in Ipswich at 9am on the Monday so I let Will have it-but he bought it with every intention of travelling. There are plenty though who build up credits then moan when they can't get tickets even when they've not been to games. The Seville conversation with RP proves the point-people were giving tickets away there because so many had been bought to get the "loyalty" for Anderlecht and for Chelsea. Somebody else posted somewhere that the FA have probably made commitments to sponsors and various other hangers-on assuming 90,000 seats at Wembley. As the capacity is lower at Cardiff they have obviously decided that the fans who go to watch both teams every week are dispensable so they cut their allocations rather than the touts. Sorry, sponsors.

Only STH's with the loyalty. Whta's the problem with that? Someone pays upfront at the start of the season and goes to two Cup matches and gets a ticket. Fair enough. A Fan Card holder with two Cup creditsa could conceivably only have been to those two games-as with the Chelsea CL semi. I'm just annoyed that my five credits on my ST don't get me ahead of the riff raff on three credits.

How did you manage to change my post? I don't live in The Hague. And I disagree totally with your view that you have "a duty to yourself and LFC" to abuse the system buying tickets you have no intention of using-just ask RP. I never buy tickets unless I'm going to the match (hence no Carling Cup credit for me this season) and if someone asked me to do it, I'd say no. People buying credits is wrong unless they go to the match. The loyalty is meant to be to the team (i.e. going and supporting) rather than yourself (e.g. sitting in the warm with nice biscuits watching the game on TV while some sap sits in the cold at Fratton Park getting tinnitus and "earning" your credit).

We need a proper left back.

So are you saying that in a fight a duplicate would beat an original?

Not so. I watch French football on Channel 5. My mate's opinion supports the opinion I've held for years. When Cisse was joining people were saying waht he'd done in France and my response was consistent: so what, what's he done regularly in a decent league? We know now that he's not cutting it here. The title of the thread, incidentally, is "French players at Anfield what a waste of money" and they have been. France has produced excellent footballers but the French League is such a low standard that the step up to English football is rarely acheived. Most of the best French players leave France early for stronger leagues and all I'm saying is that our experience of buying from the French League has been a disaster financially. It wasn't me who said anything about non-French players; the money in France compared to some of the money avaialable in French-governed (or formerly governed) countries or South America would entice players in. But many are distinctly average, the same as many imports here are. Occasionally a nugget will be found. My point is that the French League is so weak we shopuldn't even be contemplating paying the sort of money we have in the past for "potential".

That's what I meant to say. Yes we played with two centre halves but they were traditional stopper type centre halves, although it was Teats and Smith to start with then Yeats and Hughes with Smith at right half. The Red Star games were the catalyst for us abandoning the idea that centre halves were just stoppers. After that we wanted ball-playing footballers (e.g. Hansen, Lawrenson) rather than fifties throwback hoofers (e.g. Butcher, Bruce). Ferguson still hasn't worked that one out, hence the Munsters are pants in Yerp.

The point I'm making is that unless they are something really special-like Ronaldinho-doing well in France is like doing well in Scotland or Belgium. John Hartson's regarded as some kind of God (Buddha probably) and Anderlecht are an annual embarrassment. We should have looked much closer at the French players we bought. And we'll have to agree to differ on Cantona.

Cantona was a flat track bully who couldn't get in the national side and did nothing in Europe. Ronaldinho played for PSG but he's not French. What I'm saying is that the quality of the French League is so low that their domestic players don't have to be that good to shine in it. Cisse is the perfect example: he was outstanding for Auxerre but in England he's decidedly average. We have paid big money for French players and not one has been worth it. And to say that the League produced international-winning sides is innacurate. They were French but the majority had left France and plied their trade in better leagues. We've been mugged.

So Brazil is part of France now is it? And Barcelona's in England? You'll do well here.

Weak attempt. When people were calling Cisse "Carnage" before he signed I was spouting then about the mediocrity of French football. It's on Channel 5 every weekend, try watching it. I'll give you that. Any more?

I know you're joking when you put Traore and Zidane in the same sentence. All of the others you mention left France early and developed away from there. The league is pants-paying top dollar for the likes of Cisse/Cheyrou/Diao et al was madness. And the young ones we picked up (Le Tallec, Pongolle and others) haven't done it either

Name one who came direct from the French League and has been an unqualified success. It's such a weak league, it's like buying Scottish players.

A lad at work is a City fan but every year a few of them pick a match and have a weekend away. Last weekend they went to Lille v Auxerre, third plays fourth in the French League. About 7,000 turned up and according to my mate-who is a good lad-the football was absolute gash. He said there was no physical contact, the defending was Newcastle quality and the pace of the game was mind-numbing. The game finished 1-1 but what he did say was that both goals were fantastic. He said the overall quality was lower reaches of the Championship. Confirms my view on the French players we've had. Can't step up. Scoring blinders in the Sunday League doesn't make you good enough for LFC.

That's wrong. Smithy played as an inside forward early in his career. He really moved to right half-number 4-after Gordon Milne lost his place. The twin centre halves came about after we were outplayed over two legs by Red Star Belgrade in 74/75 and was one of the main reasons we were the best team in Europe for years.