Extraordinary Swindle

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Have they been worse or have more teams sussed Plan A? We have yet to see a Plan B from them that works.

How Football Explains the World - Franklin Foer The book has a chapter about Milan's manipulation of the media. Juve's referee selections and match fixings are also referenced so it can hardly be new news in Italy now. Check out antijuve.com

Agreed - See my first post : "if the players maintain a professional attitude and there isn't a serious drop in form we should beat them and beat them well". I see two ways we are more likely to be beaten: 1 - Decisions going against us. 2 - One of those days where we batter a team's goal and the ball just won't go in the net and when it does the goal is disallowed. We had one of those games in the World Club Final this season.

It doesn't matter who the country supports and this is West Ham we're facing not the huff n'hope, kick the man man not the ball merchants that were Wimbledon. West Ham play football, Liverpool play football. Liverpool are managed by Rafael Benitez - there is no contest when it comes to tactics/preparation we have the best man in the world at the helm. If we get turned over in the final, it won't be the tactics/preparation that let us down. Overconfidence on who's part? Rafa will keep the team focussed during the preparation for the game.

Our ambition is to steamroll Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal on the way to dominating the league again. With Benitez in charge, the underdog tag is a thing of the past for our club. Semi Finals Middlesbrough 0-1 West Ham Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool Quarter Finals Man City 1-2 West Ham Birmingham 0-7 Liverpool 5th Round Bolton 0-0 West Ham West Ham 2-1 Bolton (aet) Liverpool 1-0 Man Utd They have struggled against the dregs of the league. We have beaten Man Utd and Chelsea on the way to the final and trounced Birmingham 7-0. Nothing to be concerned about, if the players maintain a professional attitude and there isn't a serious drop in form we should beat them and beat them well.

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Smash Chelsea in the Charity/Community Shield and go on a 38 league game winning streak. Simple really. Gonzalez will improve us tremendously. It's a question of how long it will take him to settle in and get to grips with the physical nature of the English league. If he hits form and unleashes shots like his recent free kick the opposition are gonna be foooked - foul him within 30 yards of your goal and you may as well assume the worst and carry the ball back to centre circle, save the keeper the bother of retrieving it from the net! An alternative to Crouch is also required, preferably one that can find the net when the opportunity presents itself.

He went public with the story - LFC got jittery. It then became apparent that he intended to use public funds for the deal and was a violation of Thai law. Deal died.

Simple explanation - it's just in case he needs to go before the commitee that refused the application last time and they say they never heard of the player - Benitez then produces a dossier that his lacky Jose Mourinho kindly compiled of all the press clippings where Mark Gonzalez has been mentioned this season. Benitez is just giving Mourinho more homework to do.

Metro - Freebie tabloid newspaper handed out on the street every morning.

"the ease with which they moved up a gear.." It's all in Pako Lloret's book - There are exciting times ahead.

PNE - purely because of the Shankly connection, and Away fans are in the Bill Shankly Stand.

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It was a 'weakened' team because of the need to rest players. Alonso, Gerrard, Crouch and Kewell were all suffering in the second half against Chelsea. There was no need to risk injuries or strains when the replacements were more than capable of getting the result. Rafa didn't field the youth team : Dudek, Kromkamp, Hamann, Cisse, Fowler and Morientes are experienced players and would all get their game regularly at almost every other Premiership club.

Dropping 11 points in the two week period at the end of January / start of February is what cost us this season, despite the slow start to the season we were in with a chance if we hadn't given both Chelsea and Man Utd 3 points in that period. The result against Charlton was linked to the Chelsea game, I don't think Reina would have conseeded the two goals against Charlton. And then there was the Alonso og against Birmingham. 22 Jan 2006 Manchester United 0-1 (-3) 01 Feb 2006 Birmingham City 1-1 (-2) 05 Feb 2006 Chelsea 0-2 (-3) 08 Feb 2006 Charlton Athletic 0-2 (-3) Had we drawn against Man Utd and Chelsea and won the other games we've be 7 points better off and the top two would be 2 points worse off. Things would have looked so much different going in to the last week of the season. P W D L Pts 1 Chelsea 35 27 5 3 86 2 Liverpool 36 25 8 3 83 3 Man Utd 35 23 8 4 77 Given that scenario who would you be shouting for in Saturday's early kick off? And do you reckon Demento would throw the game? As things stand we're not that far away from challenging for the league.

I got the impression that the comment was an effort to deflect attention away from the Barcelona question.

According to Rick Parry we signed him in October so he's our player. Parry also said he's a right midfielder. offal link

A mate of mine is a big Hammers fan - from what he has been saying the semi-final was their FA Cup Final in the minds of many of their fans because it means that no matter what the result West Ham will be in the UEFA Cup next season. To win the cup would be a major bonus for them.

You forgot something very important ... John Terry is the new Robert Huth.

What happened?

Interesting to look at the two Arsenal squads of 1999/2000 and 2000/2001. Only one player has really made it and that is Pennent.

If the £6M clause is in Bellamy's contract then there's nothing they can do about it. I wonder if Pedersen has a similar clause.