James

I thought Man Utd were in a slightly precarious position. But now Parky has called it, it is safe to say that they are perfectly alright.

It was said that George Orwell's Animal Farm was about Soviet Russia. They were wrong. It was about NUST.

Sorry, I read the ACN thread and the betting thread and was nowt in there

With Angola 4-0 up, someone put £4,400 on an Angola win in an attempt to get himself £44.

Carr couldn't even be bothered to take a decent throw-in for us. Just trundled along, waited for all our players to get marked up, and then drop the ball at the feet of the opposition left winger.

Like I said, Togo players should be treated as being unavailable until they get knocked out in the first round. Perhaps people need to look at this argument from a differnet perspective, i.e. not why Togo players should be allowed to play for their clubs, but why the players from other nationalities are not able to return to their clubs. In my opinion, the whole tournament should be called off and get the players back to their clubs ASAP So in your opinion the Togo players are the only ones who are doing what you want, but you don't want them to be allowed to. Great logic James. I just generally want to see fair play on and off the pitch. I want to see results decided by the best players being available to play for their teams, and not by off-field international politics.

Like I said, Togo players should be treated as being unavailable until they get knocked out in the first round. Perhaps people need to look at this argument from a differnet perspective, i.e. not why Togo players should be allowed to play for their clubs, but why the players from other nationalities are not able to return to their clubs. In my opinion, the whole tournament should be called off and get the players back to their clubs ASAP

Why not just have the club up for sale now and just stick in a clause for Ashley to get more money if we get promoted in May. So the sale contract is £100m + £50m if we get promoted.

I presume we'd attract a similar amount of investment as Portsmouth in the team's current state.

well you'd have to assume that the end date for Togo in the ANC is the end date for teams getting knocked out of the first round. GeJon, the clubs pay the wages for all the players going to the ANC. They know what they are letting themselves in for when signing them and should have made the right preparations. However clubs have the assurance that their rivals are missing players too, but this incident derails the whole balance of the European leagues. Putting the players on leave would give them a chance to regain some mental composure, and protect the players from any possible controversy that some people could definitely go looking for.

Hard to say this without sounding insensitive, but the Togo players should be given forced leave until the end of the ANC, not just for compassionate reasons, but to stop cases where Man City play Everton with Adebayor, while Everton don't have Yobo. Otherwise if it isn't done, I can see the likes of Phil Brown bringing the issue up in the coming months, so its probably best someone sorts this issue out now. Or better bring everyone out of Angola full stop.

Yep, as I say to anyone who gives that argument: Better fitness = More time on the ball + better concentration + better control of body = better technique. So doping can improve all aspects of any sportsman's game, not just endurance sports.

http://www.ergogenics.org/484.html The above is a summary of a report by French paper Le Monde, dated 2006. It includes an interview with the Doctor (Fuentes) involved in Operacion Puerto, otherwise the biggest doping bust of all time. What it says: Fuentes insists he has worked with top sportspeople from the fields of football, tennis, athletics, handball and boxing. With football, he says he worked with Spanish First and Second Division sides, sometimes directly with players, other times passing on scientific info to other team doctors. He was team doctor at Las Palmas when Barcelona and another Italian club tried to sign him. He says he will not provide evidence against these sports as he's had death threats, and certain sports are to powerful to take on. However he reckons there is so much secrecy going on that if it came out, heads of sporting organisations would lose their jobs. Le Monde obtained two A4 sheets that came from Fuentes Las Palmas apartment. They claim it is a training programme for Barcelona. It resembles training programmes used as evidence against cycling teams.with symbols known to represent reccommended dates for usage of steroids, insulin, and epo. The document also states that the primary target is the 2005/06 Champions League. The whistleblower on the drugs clinic claims a Real Madrid player was there the same time he was. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Obviously it is all newspaper talk, but its a good example of the type of story that makes it out in the French media (i.e. the only consistent anti-drugs press really out there), but doesn't reach our ears.

I think the whole situation has been lost in translation. The fans were celebrating because they were told that Geremi is not signing for them

Ashley Cole (and Cheryl!!!!!) are apparently found very often in the town I work. Must keep my eyes open from now on!

I'm devastated.

Why he is a presenter and not a pundit.

Aw it was worth its own lets laugh at Man Utd thread

Having seen what is going on with Portsmouth, amongst other clubs, does anyone think the FA/PL need to take further measures to stop chancers getting hold of football clubs they can't afford. The measure I would propose is that for a takeover to be completed, an owner must pay a deposit to the League (millions of pounds for a PL club) and this deposit is used by the FA to pay back wage debts, transfer fee debts and so on. The benefits here are that it is a good way to screen owner finances, allows the club's issues to get resolved in a way that isn't going to impact the fans, and also gives an incentive for the owner to behave 'fit and proper' if they want their money back. Thoughts?

The question is not who they are, but are they good enough? Of the players you name, can you see a situation where having some of these in the squad are going to hold the club back elsewhere when Ashley realises he can't sensibly get them off the wage bill. Or in otherwords, we could be getting stuck with players we'd othetwise by wanting rid. Alternatively, is some club going to want to pay silly money for Kevin Nolan, giving us the funds we need to get a better all round team?

If we go up, we have to register a 25 man squad of players aged 22 or over, eight of whom have come from the English academy system. You can register U21 players, but that means having a smaller squad. How are we doing for being ready for this at the moment? How should the rule change affect our transfer policy?

Wouldn't support kick-ins, but would support perhaps a maximum distance run up or something like that.

Only 7 have been there all the time. Who is next?

He is the same below average keeper he always has been, only yesterday he was actually posed problems by the opposition. He's better than most in this division, but this club needs to come up with a strategy to have either Krul (if given a chance to show he is good enough) or a new signing (Joe Hart?) between the sticks come our first PL game next season.