Mowen

Alan Smith? Damien Duff?

He'd better be good if I'm to be named after him.

Can't wait for this game.

Yet Scolari (world cup winner) struggled. Different time. i believe grants chelsea side were better than scolaris! Barely, one season later isnt a 'different time' it wasnt even a different team either. If anything the signings he's made are better. Bosingwa has solved the only real problem area theyve ever had. Who was in Grants team that wasnt in Scolaris? Essien, who is their best midfielder, in fairness to Scolari. Still didn't do as well as Grant, mind.

History would judge Grant more favourably if John Terry had concentrated a bit better when taking a penalty.

He's been on loads of money whilst he's been here. SBR said we'd offered him a very lucrative contract to compensate for him being 2nd choice. I can't understand why you'd hope he was on at least £30k.

That's much better than Jenrique! You're hired.

Aye, should warm that bench nicely whilst Nicky struts his stuff. If Kinnear was in charge i'd put my life on it. But fortunately he isn't Nicky was captain against West Brom though wasn't he?

Would Yobo not come in? Or is he injured?

Whelan has no stake in JJB. Didn't know that. When did he get out? Is he fucked financially or am I wrong about that as well?

Didn't Keegan say that the coaching badges are killing football? Reckons that had we won the league that season it would have changed football in this country forever. Now the courses teach people that if you don't concede you don't lose - he sees it as if you don't score you don't win. Would explain the mentalities of a lot of English managers that are about at the moment.

Was impressed by the football they played today.

Isnt there some bad blood between Whelan and Ashley? This would be the major stumbling block in this deal. Would take Bruce to walk to make it happen i think... Didn't stop the N'Zog / Raylor deals going through. I think JJB are completely fucked, so Whelan may have his hands tied.

Bit of an over exaggeration. Still done class to get as high as they have in such a short time, superb achievement imo. Haven't they done it with loads of money?Or am I thinking of someone else?

What a pair of tits. I clicked on that link after your recommendation, and didn't see any tits - impressive or otherwise.

I think Jonas has 3. I also don't think one goal from a centre back would be the reason behind him being the best signing of the season.

I agree. But it's one outstanding performance against Arsenal and a few memorable tackles like that which seem to have people viewing him as a much better player than he actually is. Apart from being an excellent tackler he wasn't much special. Doesn't read the game that well, very rarely dribbles, not a great finisher, not a great passer, lacks composure. Much better than Nicky Butt though, obviously.

Jags made 3 great last ditch blocks- 2 on Torres and 1 on Villa. Ok, he messed up for the goal but if any of the England midfield actually wanted the ball and gave him an option then it wouldn't have happened in the first place. He is limited with his passing/technique but it's not a problem playing for us because the likes of Arteta will drop back, take it off him and start a move. I lost count of the amount of times the whole backline was passing it between themselves before being forced to hoof it. England's midfield was totally outclassed. They were, but they were up against the best midfield in the world.

I thought he bottled it personally. I don't get why though. If I was playing for Sundelrand on 30k. And got booed by Newcastle fans all game, called shite, called useless, and then I got one on one in the derby with minutes to go I'd blast the ball home. To prove why I should never have been let go. He couldn't though, because he's shit. And from what I've read I'm not sure you'd blast it home either

This coincided with Souness leaving, nothing to do with Parker in that season. We were awful for two seasons with one small exception, and Parker wasn't playing in that period. The team was noticably worse when he was in it. By the way, everyone seems to think I'm saying he's shit, I'm not at all - I said he's no better than Guthrie. They're both pretty average.

Parker is lot better than Guthrie. He wasn't when he played here. Parker in his first season here was miles better, his 2nd only a lot better. Parker in his first season was very poor with the odd exception (Arsenal at home the obvious). His distribution was very poor, he didn't get forward and he couldn't form a partnership with any of the other central midfielders. He didn't look comfortable being the one to get forward more (alongside Butt) or the more defensively minded (alongside Emre). He looked clueless the majority of the time, and it was no surprise that we massively improved as a team when he was out with glandular fever in the second half of the season. He wasn't without his attributes, he could time his tackling pretty well and had a lot of energy, but his reading of the game was hopeless (2-2 with ManU at home he was twice dragged out of position trying to play the hero and ultimately leaving Scholes free to score). He also had very little creativity - the majority of his passes seemed to go to the left back after endless pirouettes - and posed little to no goal threat. From what I've seen of Guthrie he offers a similar amount on the pitch to what I saw from Parker, only he looks to have more potential. Parker may well have improved at West Ham, can't say I've watched them much this season, but I don't remember him looking up to much when we lost 3-1 at the Boleyn Ground. False. Everything you're referring to was in his second season under Roeder when he was captain surely? In his first season he was effective in linking the defence with attack and particularly good at breaking down the oppositions play. Second season he was ineffective and looked out of his depth as captain. Agree with that. It was in his second season when Roeder tried to use him as an attacking midfielder that it all went wrong. And Mowen's criticism of Parker not linking with Butt in Parker's first season is bollox as Butt was on loan at Birmingham then. Fair play, obviously got my seasons mixed up on that one.

Again, if James & Asprilla aren't playing, that would mean Tony Warner and Kitson would play...how's that better than seeing Cole, Shearer & Grobelaar? James and Asprilla played though. Isn't that his point? Wouldn't be able to get those two to take part, so it should logically be those who were on the bench behind them if it's to be a true re-creation? I might have got it horribly wrong though

Was at his worst alongside Emre imo.

If Parker was so outstanding in our first season, why were we an awful team that only got better once Roeder came in and Parker wasn't playing any more? Why did we look much more capable of playing the ball through the middle and liking play between defence and attack once he wasn't playing anymore? He looked the best of a bad bunch because he put big slide tackles in, but he really wasn't. I wish HTL was here, he'd back me up

What league are they in? I paid £8 for Ashford vs Folkestone, 3 tiers below the conference, whilst at my folks over Xmas.