in all fairness to houghton, who does normally spout a load of poo, he did say gerrard would get into the first XI of any team in the world. that bit about messi was more of analysis to what kids aspire to in the playground, saying stuff like kids try flicks, stepovers etc rather than 30/40 yrd balls to teamates like gerrards style of play. houghton is normally a c**t but he was only a mild c**t this time!