James

What if it was a similar format but spiced up a bit, for example teams from England, Spain, Italy, France only playing players of those nationalities?

Never but it does add to the competitiveness.

Would people be interested in the introduction of some sort of British Club Cup? The idea would be that this would be enforced rigorously, any team refusing to participate or play strong teams would get point deductions in their domestic leagues. This could be played midweek in the second half of the season on non-CL weeks. Or if this is infeasible bi-annually in the summer. Tournament features 10 teams, and the winner/finalist plays 5 or 6 games: Preliminary Round Highest Welsh Team in English League vs 2nd Welsh League 2nd Welsh Team in English League vs 1st Welsh League 1st N.Ireland League vs 2nd Irish League 2nd N.Ireland League vs 1st Irish League Round 1 1 legged match, Irish/Welsh sides play at national team stadiums Away sides are 2 best Scottish teams and 2 best English sides (if you haven't been knocked out of Europe by this stage the next lower team can play) Round 2 Two legged match. Final 1 match played at neutral country national team stadium. What makes this tournament different is that only British and Irish players can play in it. Additionally, the organising body can direct that certain players have to play if fit. For example if we were the English qualifier, we'd be told that Nolan, Barton and Simpson had to play. Point of this is that it allows young British players to play in a more competitive environment and hone their skills or stake a place for the first team. Clubs don't receive TV money/gate receipts/prize money. Instead a share based on how well the club did gets put in a trust fund that can only be invested on British youth. Any money not taken for this purpose goes to national academies.

Portsmouth who are now financially secure and in a comfortable position in the Championship? Back on their feet in less than a season, despite having a third of our gate. They got relegated having won an FA Cup and come within a missed penalty of winning another. We got relegated having won fuck all. I'd swap. You realise Portsmouth only own about three of their players?

Hahaha. I like that kind of humor. Probably the only team taxfree would settle for tbh.

Next season: Casillas Alves Vidic Luiz Enrique Tiote Tiote Tiote Messi Olivier Bernard with robotic legs Carroll

Probably just a bollocks rumour but I'll put it out there. Barton wants three years, we were only willing to give two. Barton happy to compromise says two years but he gets an automatic one season extension if he plays a certain number of times in the 12/13 season but we are unwilling to do that because of what Nicky Butt did.

I think the problem was that we had people at the club who still expected Shearer to do it all when clearly he needed others to get their own share of the goals by that point. shearer's return was excellent for someone of his age who had intended to retire the season before.

I said we'd struggle to get him fit and in form this season and would have to sign someone else and got shot down for it. Look who turned out right unfortunately for us. At least Tiote turned out to be the someone else and Barton and Nolan have done enough to keep their places too. Would have been nice to have gosling as backup to those two, but there is always next season, which was when I hoped to see the real Dan Gosling.

I knew we wouldn't be getting much of Gosling this season and anyone expecting otherwise would be mistaken. I'm sure Hughton had the future in mind when he signed him, not just this season. We already had Colo, Williamson and Taylor, we'd just been promoted, Campbell has been a sufficient fourth choice for a promoted side. Perch is dogshite but Hughton and Calderwood had been tracking him for months. Ben Arfa is pure bad luck but shows why we should put our hopes into the team and not individuals. Ireland signed after other deals like Larsson didn't materialise. Was a difficult window for making signings and perhaps we panicked. This so called Championship squad has defied people this season and it is only an injury crisis now crippling us. This is to be expected for a promoted team and while we are in a bad run we will turn it around. The next job is to make some balanced signings in the summer and to develop better squad depth.

Here we go, putting words into my mouth that I haven't said. I don't want to limit the quality coming into the club. I want to ensure that while good players like Ben Arfa and others come in from abroad, we sign Premier League players too of the standard of Samba or Hangeland. People have forgotten the number of players who in the past have come from abroad with big reputations and yet failed to settle at this club. We need to get the balance right and should be paying that extra premium for good Premier League players where possible. We have a limited budget and buying Premier League based players just equates to being ripped off. The price reflects that the players are ready made for the division. All very well signing players like Coloccini but we aren't at a stage where we can afford to be wait the three seasons it took him to settle in. Sign proven Premier League players for our first team then litter the squad with young talent from wherever with the hope that some will push their way into the first team.

For me next season something like this would be class and (potentially) realistic: GK Simpson Samba Coloccini Enrique Barton Tiote Nolan Gervinho Ben Arfa Sturridge Subs: GK2 Williamson O'Shea Larrson Sygurdsson Best Ameobi

It is a shame what has happenned to Cole as before the later Chelsea years he was one of the better performers for England. If a player goes to Chelsea, they seem to leave a much worse player.

Here we go, putting words into my mouth that I haven't said. I don't want to limit the quality coming into the club. I want to ensure that while good players like Ben Arfa and others come in from abroad, we sign Premier League players too of the standard of Samba or Hangeland. People have forgotten the number of players who in the past have come from abroad with big reputations and yet failed to settle at this club. We need to get the balance right and should be paying that extra premium for good Premier League players where possible.

Balotelli does have talent but he lets his club down and doesn't give the performances you'd expect for the amount of money that has been spent on him.

The difference between Allardyce and Kinnear is that Allardyce does not hear voices.

He is right, we don't give him enough credit. All of our success is down to him. Had he not been manager Joey Barton would not have realised what he could become if he didn't stop drinking.

What a steaming pile of shite you talk. You were the person who said we were going to get relegated with this group of lads if we didn't sign a load of players. I told you not to underestimate what could be done on team spirit. Who turned out to be right eh? I reckon if someone bothered to read all your posts, they'd see loads recommending players that went on to sign for West Ham. Look what happenned there. Yet you don't seem to have learned from the last five years. Build a team. Don't expect tgo force a load of good foreign players from other leagues together as it just won't work You seem to forget that having really good players, foreign or not, and having team spirit are not mutually exclusive. As long as we're careful about which players we bring in and don't just buy any old player without proper scouting and getting a good price etc, we can easily have both. I'm not really just thinking team spirit, more just about gelling in and adapting to the Premier League. Sign too many first team players who haven't played in the Premier League before and I think we'd have problems. That is why for example we should be looking at signing Samba or Hangeland for central defence, or why we should have signed Sturridge permanently when we held all off the cards with Carroll.

What a steaming pile of shite you talk. You were the person who said we were going to get relegated with this group of lads if we didn't sign a load of players. I told you not to underestimate what could be done on team spirit. Who turned out to be right eh? I reckon if someone bothered to read all your posts, they'd see loads recommending players that went on to sign for West Ham. Look what happenned there. Yet you don't seem to have learned from the last five years. Build a team. Don't expect tgo force a load of good foreign players from other leagues together as it just won't work

Ben Arfa doesn't count and is still unproven, we have to consider him as a new signing for next season. Therefore Ben Arfa, Gervinho and Gameiro would be one too many in my opinion. Utter pigshit. He has played two full games for us. He proved enough for us to buy him at a low price, but he hasn't done enough to show that he has settled into this team. Change too many players too quickly and we suffer.

Ben Arfa doesn't count and is still unproven, we have to consider him as a new signing for next season. Therefore Ben Arfa, Gervinho and Gameiro would be one too many in my opinion.

It is very easy to pick out all of these foreign players and expect them to slot in and do perfectly but I think we should be careful as we have paid in the past for making that mistake. We should be looking to get Gervinho or Gameiro not both, and fill out the other gaps with either proven premier league talent, or some squad places with younger unproven foreign players.

Indisputable proof that Taylor is shite:

Taylor looks shit scared of Derek Wright.

HBA's gash on FM, like. Player of the season in his first year here on mine. You are clearly not using him properly!