chicago_shearer

I want to meet the man that talked his fiancee into using the Champions League theme at the wedding.

The last time we won there was 01/02 when we won 3-1 with O'Brien, Shearer and Robert scoring. Yeah thats the one. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/1711251.stm I thought Bernard got on the scoresheet for some reason.

I recall when we beat them in London 3 or 4 seasons ago (Bernard scored with winner?) and Henry threw a complete tantrum at the end. He always comes across as a nice bloke in interviews, but ever since then I've lost respect for him. Still a great player though.

We could do with a tall striker (maybe Dean Ashton in the summer after West Ham go down?) but it isn't priority number one IMO. Some people are constantly wanting to sign strikers when its fairly clear that a left back, a right back, a defensive midfielder and possibly even another centre-half are a bigger priority.

I've been to a hockey game in Dallas, and when the home team scored a giant big screen television broadcast former WWF wrestler Rick Flair shouting 'THATS A DALLAS STARS GOAL, WHOOOOOO' followed by sirens and a bullhorn. The Premiership is crying out for a touch of Texan class.

The clubs are the ones inviting these billionaires from the US, Dubai, Thailand etc. The clubs are the ones that sold their souls to Murdoch and brought on the SKY era. They have been turned into cash cows, but you expect businessmen interested in a profit to not be interested. If you don't like the multi-million pound transfers, salaries and new grounds then support a non-league side. Because you can't encourage an international, top quality league and expect every investor to be a passionate supporter of the clubs they buy. It's a myth that only helps 'local' greedy sharks like our own chairman who is somehow considered a better alternative because he isn't from Texas and 'loves' the club.

I'm not an anti-American by any means, but I'm not joking or exagerrating when I say this: most Americans pick their favourite "soccer" team based on the colours of the shirt and success on the pitch. They make the average Man Utd bandwagoner look loyal. They think Landon Donovan is world class, that Beckham is a great footballer and that Chelsea are a historically a succesful club. No offence to the women on this board, but chatting with an American about football is like trying to explain it to your girlfriend. They just miss the point entirely.

Our defending is so poor, we don't deserve to be as high as 9th. I'll be very surprised and pleased if we maintain a place in the top half.

I have a friend who knows the son of the new US national team boss and apparently has the e-mail addresses of Onyewu and a few of the other yanks abroad. So I'm looking forward to becoming an ITK very shortly. 8)

And thats from the official site I wish our official site were that honest.

Boumsong. I thought he'd be the one to sort out the defence, but turns out he was one of the worst ever.

I could care less about Carew at the moment. I'm more angry about other clubs signing defenders we desperately need when Roeder keeps telling us there is no one available.

So fairly decent 26 year old left-back with Premiership experience goes to Blackburn for a mere 1.2 million. God buying players is harrrrrd isn't it Roeder?

Ayala who? Transfer windows weren't invented to sign defenders. Stop talking bollocks and lets get back to speculating about which 15-20 mil striker we are going to sign next.

Yes, and I would think he still is. The ever reliable Wikipedia says he is 5ft 11in. I've always heard he's shorter than you'd expect. Looks over 6ft on TV.

I hope this is rubbish, because bidding for Bent would be such a waste of time. They will want a) probably more than we have to spend and b) certainly more than we can afford given the priorities of the squad. Not every transfer window has to mean spending millions on a flashy new striker. Martins, Owen, Ameobi, Sibierski & Dyer might not be the best strikeforce in Europe, but it isn't bad. Are people just not noticing that we have no defenders and maybe two fit midfielders? And that the ones we do have rarely play well when the can be bothered to play at all?

In a word, typical. It would be nice if a couple of the multimillionaires with twisted ankles and poorly knees could show up for the replay instead of filling the squad with adolescents. If its not too much to ask.

In my opinion: 4 injuries to players who we really miss in the team. N'Zogbia, Duff, Butt, Owen. (Plus a suspension to Parker.) 4 injuries to players who would be useful in a full squad but aren't good enough to miss. Harper, Ramage, Moore, Ameobi. And 4 injuries to players we are better off without. Carr, Bernard (without evidence to the contrary), Babayaro, Bramble. This injury "crisis" is only slightly worse than most teams at this point in the season if you factor in the fact that only 4 are really noteable absentees. A better question than "why does this keep happening" would be "why didn't we improve the squad this summer?" We went into the season with a past-it right-back with no cover and a mistake prone injury prone left-back with a token fan appeasement signing (Bernard) as his cover. Zero money spent. This was entirely predictable.

Dyer on the bench. He's played a lot of games this month and seemed to tire in the second half of the Man U match. Put Sibierski in more of a midfield role and give Carroll a debut up front with Martins. -----------------Given----------------- Solano--Taylor--Huntington--Edgar Milner---Sibierski--Emre----O'Brien -----------Carroll---Martins----------- Bench: Harper, Gate, Dyer, Troisi, Pattison

Milner for me. He will play for England very soon I suspect.

If we knew what to do with a lead, we could have had 3 points there.

Edgar is God.

I'd rather not have Butt playing against Man Utd anyway.

If Nicky Shorey can nick a goal and make it 7-0 it would be great for my fantasy team. Come on Reading.

I bet Pardew is having a good laugh.