Beren

Manager of the year has been announced: It's Steve Bruce.

That's actually calculable. I can't be arsed, mind you.

The server is going to collapse under the strain of "and Giggs has scored" posts

Wise words indeed

Reckon (/hoping?) they're saving Giggs for Europe, tbh.

There's truth in this. Quite sadly I find the thought of us actually winning something vaguely ridiculous. This. I think TT's post above has a lot of sense in it. Waiting until we know what our squad looks like come the start of the season seems quite sensible. It'd be great if we could get a cup, but we haven't had the draw luck since the late 90s! People will point to examples of Birmingham and Stoke for two examples of fairly mediocre sides who have made it to a cup final/won (even with Man Utd/Chelsea/Arsenal/Liverpool/Spurs/Man City all competing for too few trophies), but for every Birmingham there's a West Ham whose cup run probably wasn't the best thing for them! It's all a bit of a punt really. We could put field our best side and get drawn at Anfield and Old Trafford in successive early rounds. Equally, we could play our B-side and progress past lower league sides and suddenly find ourselves in the QF without really breaking a sweat. Just know, that as soon as we considered taking it seriously we'd draw a big gun!

Bale hasn't even been better than Modric. Nuts.

This thread. Bit pissed off that I missed this match because of a friend's engagement party, but IMO the league was lost to Madrid before this match (given their respective remaining fixtures). Only going on what I've read so far, but psychologically I'd be a happier Real Madrid fan than a Barcelona fan tonight. After the tonking they received at Camp Nou, a draw (with ten men for a long period) seems like a strong progression for Mourinho and his boys. I also understand they looked quite threatening. If there's one vulnerability Barcelona have looked susceptible to in the last few weeks, it's been strong counter-attacking football. I think their recent match against Sevilla was the best example of this, that I've seen personally. Could be interesting to see if Mourinho can stay defensively strong but capitalise on Barcelona's weakness against clinical counter-attacks.

Hope the FA rush through any sham appeal Man United launch on behalf of Paul Scholes.

Suspended for our match

Brilliant!

I think Garth has problems you know. As in, worrying problems.

Was the Torres goal celebrated at all before being ruled offside?

Osman is shit hot right now.

This post from RTG cracked me up:

Adam is a bit of a liability at times tbh.

I actually wanted the mackems to win today, but I might as well enjoy it

Hope that West Ham, Chelsea and Blackpool can get wins today. Sunderland win wouldn't be bad either, such is my hope that Birmingham get relegated.

Interesting how few mentions of great international football teams there have been in this thread.

I guess, almost concomitantly, what is the level of club football competition around them right now? Worst bunch of Italian sides I can remember for a time, same with the English (IMO).

On the back of the Messi thread, where does the current Barcelona side rank? From what you've seen, obviously. (At the time, or subsequent footage etc).

Vidic will struggle against the Lone Ranger

Solidarity? Or embarrassment they share the same profession

Best bit was Gomes swinging a paw at it to try and keep it out