midds

Dreadful shirt but I wouldn't have bought it anyway. Bit fucked off with Puma for being lazy but thousands will buy it regardless. Hey ho...

Finishing 4th is an absolute bare minimum for Liverpool this season. They're miles away from Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal - City will spend big and Spurs will be even better next year too. There is every chance they could finish behind all of that lot and scrape 6th and even then, Villa and Everton will be there or thereabouts too. He could well turn it around if he was to be given enough time but he hasn't got a season or two to get it right, they need top 4 right now. Just too much work to do in too short a period of time imo.

£7m for a shit, injury prone, 31 year old CH with only a year left on his contract has got to be poor bit of business.

Great question! Knives start at the elbow and wheels below the knee joint. Definitely. I'll have the knives then please.

Do the knives flex like your elbow or are they just two big fuck off swords attached from your shoulders?

Club before country, every day of the week.

Absolutely barmy that some folk are keen to bin Fabio Capello whilst touting David Beckham as his replacement. That, ladies and gentlemen, is complete insanity. 100% batshit crazy.

Get in, the parky kiss of death!

This is what really irks me. "Being given a chance" nowdays seems to be in the form of being given a 2nd half against someone in a friendly. Give the likes of Bent, Walcott, Johnson, and in time Rodwell, Wilshere etc a proper chance to grow into the team. Let's use the Euro 2012 qualifiers to build up a squad; nurture those young'uns and get rid of those who simply don't offer much anymore towards an energetic and cohesive England team. Couldn't agree more. Use this failure as a catslyst for getting shot of the dead wood hanging in and around the squad. Get shot of he ones who aren't good enough. Get shot of the ones who are too old. The likes of Heskey, Upson, Warnock, Carrick, Beckham, SWP, Carragher, Barry, Glen Johnson, James, Green should be binned asap. Bar Carragher and SWP I don't agree - you can't decide to get rid of a dozen players just like that. However, I agree that pretty much all of them, maybe with the exception of Carrick, need phasing out by the time the Euros come along. I'd bin the lot of them. They're not up to it. Choose an entirely new squad and stick with them and mould them together as a unit. No time like the present to start building for the next World Cup and none of that lot should be near the squad in 2014. Iron fist is needed Pilko, not the velvet glove.

This is what really irks me. "Being given a chance" nowdays seems to be in the form of being given a 2nd half against someone in a friendly. Give the likes of Bent, Walcott, Johnson, and in time Rodwell, Wilshere etc a proper chance to grow into the team. Let's use the Euro 2012 qualifiers to build up a squad; nurture those young'uns and get rid of those who simply don't offer much anymore towards an energetic and cohesive England team. Couldn't agree more. Use this failure as a catslyst for getting shot of the dead wood hanging in and around the squad. Get shot of he ones who aren't good enough. Get shot of the ones who are too old. The likes of Heskey, Upson, Warnock, Carrick, Beckham, SWP, Carragher, Barry, Glen Johnson, James, Green should be binned asap.

Gary Cahill, Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott, Joe Hart and Jagielka for a start. Not just for a couple of friendlies either - pick them and stick with them for 10 games or so.

A lot of the hype is market faceted, England is a brand now, the hype is manufactured to sell stuff and build interest...I honestly think the people behind it all the fa and the media and all the rest don't really give a fuck how we do at the actual tournament. The fact we're bidding to hold 2018 hasn't helped either. Everything is being done for a reason and that reason has fuck all to do with winning this tournament.

Now I think that's bollocks. Not one player should need to be motivated by the England boss to play in a World Cup. That's horseshit imo. I didn't say that they lacked motivation from the manager. Not one SHOULD be but they clearly do lack motivation. I don't necessarily think that's down to the manager, but they've played like they don't care, that they couldn't give two f***s what happened, and we've paid the price as a result - they're clearly good enough to go far in the World Cup, otherwise they wouldn't be Premier League and Champions League winners. Fair enough, so why should Capello lose his job because his players don't care about playing for their country? I didn't say he should be sacked I was just responding to those that were putting the blame entirely on the players not being good enough. Not giving a s*** isn't too far fom not being good enough/up to the job. The problem (which we agree on) is the players not performing as they can/should. I blame the players directly for that but you think they're good enough - which is fair enough. I hope Capello keeps his job and rips that squad apart and calls up 15 young hungry players into his next squad and sticks by them. Good enough footballing wise. In terms of attitude, they'll never get anywhere. If that's the case then they shouldn't be there then. A good footballer has got the ability AND the attitude imo.

Now I think that's bollocks. Not one player should need to be motivated by the England boss to play in a World Cup. That's horseshit imo. I didn't say that they lacked motivation from the manager. Not one SHOULD be but they clearly do lack motivation. I don't necessarily think that's down to the manager, but they've played like they don't care, that they couldn't give two f***s what happened, and we've paid the price as a result - they're clearly good enough to go far in the World Cup, otherwise they wouldn't be Premier League and Champions League winners. Fair enough, so why should Capello lose his job because his players don't care about playing for their country? I didn't say he should be sacked I was just responding to those that were putting the blame entirely on the players not being good enough. Not giving a shit isn't too far fom not being good enough/up to the job. The problem (which we agree on) is the players not performing as they can/should. I blame the players directly for that but you think they're good enough - which is fair enough. I hope Capello keeps his job and rips that squad apart and calls up 15 young hungry players into his next squad and sticks by them.

Now I think that's bollocks. Not one player should need to be motivated by the England boss to play in a World Cup. That's horseshit imo. I didn't say that they lacked motivation from the manager. Not one SHOULD be but they clearly do lack motivation. I don't necessarily think that's down to the manager, but they've played like they don't care, that they couldn't give two fucks what happened, and we've paid the price as a result - they're clearly good enough to go far in the World Cup, otherwise they wouldn't be Premier League and Champions League winners. Fair enough, so why should Capello lose his job because his players don't care about playing for their country?

Now I think that's bollocks. Not one player should need to be motivated by the England boss to play in a World Cup. That's horseshit imo.

The first half hour was as poor a defensive display as I've ever seen from an England back 4. Couldn't have complained if we'd been 4 down after 30 mins. Fucking shambolic stuff.

If the FA bin Capello tomorrow (or he walks) who on Earth are they going to turn to next? He's one of the best in the business, they headhunted him and got him, gave him a long contract and are paying him about £5m a year.......How fucking stupid are they going to look if they sack him? More to the point, who would want the job who would command the respect of the fans, media and players?

No. He's made mistakes and sent some weird subs on but he's been badly let down by his players imo. Half the squad needs replacing and if that means either Lampard, Gerrard or both of them are binned then so be it. Choose a system, get some young legs in the squad and stick by them. Let's take a leaf out of the German book and build for the next World Cup.

Can't have any problems accepting that result, the better team won easily. Yeah the Lampard goal would have seen us go in level but let's not kid ourselves that we played well and lost. We played shite and lost. We weren't the heroic underdogs who've played above themselves and gone out unluckily. We went out because our back 4 were a fucking shambles. I'm struggling to think of a worse performance from an English defence. Nope, no complaints, we simply weren't good enough. No scapegoats, no death threats for the linesman, just flat out not good enough. Annoying and frustrating but true.

Given lost every single one of the brownie points he'd built up over the years when he engineered his way out of the club. Not got a problem with him leaving or the reasons behind it but it was the manner in which he left which left a bitter taste. You want to leave? Do it right and be honest and upfront. He didn't, he was a snidey little fucker and it could possibly have cost the club a few million quid. He's a wanker.

Remind me not to open this thread at work. Fuck me...

The problem with football in the US is tht it will never ever come close to baseball, basketball or the NFL. It may, one day, be as popular as Ice hockey but it's always going to be a minority sport. The best athletes that the US produces over the next 25 years will be still be competing in the MLB, NBA or the NFL. The US will always do ok but they'll never come close to being the best.

When you do get one be sure to mention it it the materialism thread. And the mood thread. And in this thread. Obviously.