Wullie

Examples? I've not been paying much attention to the England squad but from the discussion on the Totally Football Show podcast, it sounds like it's going to be a proper ropey England side against a strong Germany.

Croatia 2 up.

Argentina definitely had the better chances in the final before ET. Higuain went clean through early on and completely shanked it, and Messi himself put a chance he'd normally bury just wide. The fact that it even comes down to discussing the particulars of one football match over a career that's seen him score at not much less than a game per game over 500+ games shows how preposterous the debate is. If his team wins a particular game against, as henke says, the best team in the world, then he's the best individual player ever. If they don't win against that team, he's not. It's laughable. This argument says that by definition, if you come from a country that's generally not very good at football, or even, say, doesn't have a good defence during a particular time period, then you can never be the best player ever. So someone comes along in five years time that is clearly better than Messi, makes Messi look bog average, wins the Champions League every year with Northampton Town and scores at a rate of 5 goals a game for 1000 games, but he's Slovakian, or Chinese, or gets injured in the WC semi final. Sorry chum. Maradona's got the trophy in the cabinet.

What a strange post. EDIT: henke's.

PoppyWatch is so good at the minute.

Didn't someone say he writes for a national paper? Surely not? Aye someone definitely said this like, wasn't it Stifler? Reliable source.

That is some damn fine straw clutching. Even better when you consider the context of the "famous win over Barcelona", Sociedad away has been Barca's bogey fixture for ages. They won there last season but before that, hadn't won at Anoeta in ten years, since Rijkaard was in charge.

The concern for young British managers shouldn't be foreigners taking jobs but these proven British failures going round and round, boring everyone to death everywhere they go.

There's an interview in the Guardian with George Graham today, in which he talks about, amongst other things, the Michael Thomas goal in 1989. Just watched it on YouTube as I've not seen it for a few years and it's worth a watch for a couple of reasons, a) the commentary is so understated compared to what it would be like now, not a lot more exaggerated than if the goal had just won a bog-standard league game, David Pleat is co-commentator and he literally passes no comment on what's just happened whatsoever, think he must have gone for a cup of tea And b) Liverpool's attempt to hang onto what they had (with one minute left to win the title) is proper laughable. John Barnes, instead of heading for the corner, attempts to dribble into the box and gets easily dispossessed, then they're undone by a really basic long ball flicked on to Thomas who just jogs into the box with nobody anywhere near him.

Had 0-0 in the Chelsea game. I wanted to put it on there being exactly 1 goal but it's not a frigging option in-play.

Missed it.

He's not though is he?

Lovely move and finish.

Bizarre decision from Mahrez not to square that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41857095 http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/624/cpsprodpb/34BB/production/_98599431_marca1.jpg

Do you typically stake a lot? I'm always £25 but I'm interested in how they're deciding what everyone gets.

17 apparently. Shame. They'll probably scrape past that. Rotherham with 23 is lowest I could see. When was 17? Stoke in 84/85. http://www.fl125.co.uk/records/league-points Wouldn't that have been the top flight then? Aye you're right. Seems a completely pointless and arbitrary table in that case.

17 apparently. Shame. They'll probably scrape past that. Rotherham with 23 is lowest I could see. When was 17? Stoke in 84/85. http://www.fl125.co.uk/records/league-points

That is fucking hilarious, get in Sammy lad.

1-0 Saints

Imagine it's because it's some clubs last home game before the 11th which is an international weekend I think

Are Remembrance minute silences usually this early in the year?

not in my recollection and I'm on Tesside nearly every working day and have for 30yrs. Better example would be the Gallowgate end. An established name that gets changed, what does everyone call it.......it's already established name. If Man City had stayed at Maine Road would people call it the Etihad or Maine Road ? Lie I say, depends how it's done and I'd rather they didn't but it's not a line in the sand for me, not like club colours or club name. If Maine Road had been the Etihad for 20 years, it would be known universally as the Etihad and the amount of people who called it Maine Road would be shrinking on a daily basis.

My recollection, and I lived on Teesside at the time, is that Boro's ground was usually referred to as the Cellnet.