tmonkey

I'll be seriously shocked if Barcelona aren't eyeing him up in private as we speak. Would tick all their boxes - great going forward, exceptional defensively, mid 20's, Spanish, contract up at the end of next season. Links up really well with Jonas, the only (fit) player we have who can play with the ball on the deck, so who knows what he'd be like in a team with Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Villa, etc etc. Still think he's nailed on to be sold in the summer when we can still get a good fee, rather than the club running the risk of losing him on a Bosman. Don't think he has any intention of signing a new contract, and I wouldn't blame him one bit if that was the case, as he'd basically be one year away from every top CL club clamouring for his signature (who wouldn't want Jose Enrique on a free transfer?). Probably get someone like Van Aanholt in as a replacement, which in all honesty wouldn't be the end of the world.

2-1 away win. Barton/Tiote/Jonas to dominate.

Marcelino looked a decent defender when he played imo. Similar type of centreback to Coloccini.

Sibierski was mega shit in the Premiership. Useful in Europe though.

Barton Tiote Ireland Ben Arfa Jonas Best Would be good to see.

And he's a whinger.

Typical Milner that.

http://www.paywizard.org/main/VIPPaycheck/VIPPAYcheckmusicians

Good keeper, but always felt he was a bit overrated and wasn't really worth getting upset over. His peak form for us was a good few years before he left, so in a way it was good to have some change. The downside with him leaving was that Harper is average in comparison and was pretty rusty when Given did leave, so it left us in the shitter for a bit, but in the long run it might work out well for all parties (I'm sure Shay won't regret being paid huge wages to warm a seat every week) as it gives us the opportunity to look at other options. Hopefully Krul or Forster can step up and better him in the coming years.

And Alex at Chelsea. Top centreback.

Past few pages on this thread read exactly like the post-match comments on Man City's forum after our game with them which resulted in a star player's leg snapped in two by a thug without even so much as a free kick being awarded, and two bad penalty decisions going against us. Similar rose-tinted analysis of decisions, similar "rofl at the whiners" comments, similar "it was a fair challenge, the lad is soooo misunderstood by the evilz mediyah" etc etc. There's nothing wrong with saying that we were on the welcoming end of most of the bad decisions in this game, which we clearly were imo. On top of two poor penalty calls, we won a number of free kicks where our players just went to ground very easily. It was that sort of game where one side knows that the ref will blow if they fall over, so will take advantage of it. It did look like a few of our players had received half-time training from Van der Vaart on how to go down at the slightest contact. The referee, as with most referees in the Premiership these days, just bottled things in front of the home supporters - maybe he felt sorry for us at 4-0, who knows. Nolan's headlock + throw should have been a red card in light of Diaby's red (which was a very fair straight red car imo). I just don't see how it isn't as it's pretty thuggish behaivour to grab someone round the neck and throw them to the ground. On that note, what an utterly daft thing to do from our captain, given that many refs are all too happy to "even things out". The only saving grace is that for some reason, referees seem to be a bit leniant when a player who is trying to get the ball quickly gets angry at the keeper for holding onto it, allowing them to get away with a moment's rage. But yeah, ultimately we benefited greatly from some poor/weak refereeing. IMO of course.

Even when other big clubs are abiding by the rules and seeing their peers exploit them? Yep. There will be a way around it. Good interview on this issue: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/9384304.stm Even if it is from someone who made despicable comments about Sir Bobby. Views on UEFA rules starts at 3 mins in.

He's kinda shit in his general play, but looks a suprisingly decent finisher, and does get himself into decent positions. So basically the striking equivalent of Nolan.

:tiote: :tiote:

Essien, eat your heart out. £40m midfielder.

:frantic: :frantic:

Disgraceful call from the linesman.

Bit thuggish from Nolan

big risk getting sent off in the first minute, even if he won the ball. When is there never a risk with the type of tackles we're referring to?

PS - yet another example of him being unable to pull off a recovery tackle/slide/whatever.

What was that from Nolan? Was like he's playing on ice.

Looks alright tbh. Rip off price though.

Kevin Nolan with a LFC scarf singing YNWA? Nah, not a problem. He's the Liverpool captain after all, right? Oh hang on a sec... It's the camp version of YMCA.

That is disgraceful. A club captain should never be "delighted" to see his star teammate go to a "rival" club (Liverpool are a mid table side - that's what we're looking to be, so they're our rivals in that respect), much less make statements which imply that he actually helped the player make the decision to leave. Even if he never intended it to come across that way, that's how it looks because he's chosen his words so poorly. Definitely seems to be brown-nosing here. He knows he linked up well with Carroll here, he knows Liverpool are looking to revamp the squad (hence the "great new start for Liverpool" comment), so he's probably dreaming that Carroll will knock on Dalglish's door at some point and say "Gaffer, what about Nolan?" as backup for the declining Gerrard. And even if this is as far from the truth as it gets, it just goes to show how poorly he's chosen his words (or opted to do this unnecessary interivew in the first place) because some of us are undoubtedly going to jump to conclusions and theories like this. They're only two points ahead of us ffs, and he's talking about them like they're FC Barcelona. But yeah, a few games and a goal or two later and this'll be forgotten. Still would like to see him go in the summer though, and that has nothing to do with his comments (more his apalling fitness, anonymous performances if he doesn't score, approaching 30 and will get slower whilst he's at peak value right now, etc etc).