tmonkey

"Messi..Messi...Messi...Messi..." Messi must be thinking "wtf? Who do they think I am, Maradona?".

Yet again Lucio proving that he's > Rio Ferdinand.

Muntari is megashit.

Barcelona won't do anything until Keita, aka the Jenas of Catalonia, goes off the pitch.

Xavi's passing > all.

With Keita still on the pitch for Barca, it's 10 men vs 10 men now.

Haha. That's what you get Mourinho for putting your team out with shit defensive tactics. The Special One, more like The Special Allardyce.

Cheating little shit Messi.

Riquelme is 30+, has retired from international football, and went back to Argentina to see out his career at Boca. If there were a footballing equivalent of a lonely hearts add, his would read "30 something man seeks latino club for fun times, nothing serious. No Europeans or Diegos." And why would he want to play for nobodies like us anyway, aside from big money? Having said that, it looks like he's on a free, we do have a couple of Argentinians who might help him settle, and he is a quality set piece taker compared to what we currently have... http://www.southamericanfutbol.com/2010/04/transfers-flamengo-begin-negotiations-for-riquelme/

Still dislike him a little bit as a professional, even if it's somewhat unjustified. Butt had what is most likely the worst season the Premiership has ever seen from a regular player in our relegation year. Absolute dogshit doesn't begin to describe the majority of his performances, and he had a bigger hand than any other player in us going down, mainly because he was consistently the opposition team's best friend. My point here is that with his standards (both ability and fitness) slipping to such shocking lows, why not just call time and retire? A good player with real integrity would have retired last summer. Cantona did so at 31 after his standards had slipped, but then he was genuine class and had pride in his ability/reputation. Butt on the other hand seems to be from the Souness school of 'hanging-on-for-every-penny-you-can-get'. He was happy to sit on the bench nearly every week in the Championship on mammoth wages after extending a contract option put in by a previous manager, despite knowing that his time was up and his standard had gone to pot, with the icing on the cake being that he did so at a club that had to sell anyone and everyone it could to reduce the wage bill, a club that even had to axe a large number of normal non-playing employees. It's not as though he wasn't already a very wealthy man having had a long career at ManU, playing for England, picking up a hefty wage from us, etc. Maybe the expectation is a bit unfair given that other players were on large contracts (though all useful ones not on the verge of retirement), or that he has every right to look after himself and be paid whatever salary was offered to him by the club. But then thinking about Butt's awful standard of play and fitness + his hand in our relegation + his wages + the players/staff we had to let go in the summer (even if Butt leaving might not have changed any exits), forgive me for holding a slight grudge against him.

Rooney and Messi are on the same level imo - when it comes to passing the ball that is. I.e. they're both overhyped in this department. I appreciate that both players are relatively young still and have time to mature in this area, but imo neither can weight a through ball as well or as consistently as a Zidane, Bergkamp, Totti, Beardo, etc. They're both obviously gifted players who can distribute the ball well and provide the odd good through ball, but the number of times they'll overhit a through ball when it's on has been pretty disappointing at times, in fact it's often stuck out like a sore thumb as an area of the game that they're lacking in. Cristiano Ronaldo provides a bit of backing for this view imo, as he's also one of the best attacking players in the world and a great/legend in the making, but who has shown little ability or proficiency when it comes to threading fine balls to open up opposition defences. Clearly it's not something in his makeup, he's more about power and explosiveness than finesse. Hence, although Rooney and Messi may be better than him in this department, they're from the same school as him in that their real strengths lie in other areas of their respective games.

Is Rooney better than David Villa, if you were to take age out of the equation?

Mourinho ensured the exact same thing happened at Chelsea when Riijkaard was Barca manager. Had the Stamford Bridge pitch watered even though it was raining heavily and had been for a while. This was when Chelsea went 3-0 up in 30 minutes or something, one of those goals being down to Xavi slipping after receiving a pass, which then immediately lead to a Chelsea goal. Yet another reason why although he's a brilliant manager, he's the wrong type of brilliant manager imo. He'll cheat his way to victory and couldn't care less about footballing aesthetics. He's like the successful version of Sam Allardyce. Or a more fitting analogy would be Sir Bobby being Obi Wan Kenobi and Mourinho being Anakin Skywalker - the prodigy who went bad after learning the ropes from the good master.

Snodgrass' achilles heel from the little I've seen is that he has zero pace. Far too slow to make it in any of the wide positions at Premiership level. If he could be converted into a central midfielder, ala Gary Speed, he might turn out to be a good player. But not sure if he's a a strong enough or tactically astute enough a player to make that switch.

Bump. Shut out by a strong team and completely nullified - similar to the first leg against Arsenal. And unlike the 2nd leg against Arsenal, he won't be up against a team without key players. I know he's great 'n all and the best in the world right now, but he does seem to lack the all-round game that Zidane, Maradona, etc, had. If he can't dribble at a defence at will and therefore tear them apart, if he's being marked tightly and closed down fast by good calibre defenders, he's not going to do much else. I'm going to jump the gun and say that we'll see a repeat of this in the second leg, and in the latter stages of the World Cup too when Argentina inveitably get knocked out by someone organised at the back. Although given how devestating he can be it won't be a total suprise if he does the opposite.

Man City away. Thump them 5-1 with Shay making a bunch of "world class" saves when it comes to the easy shots/saves, then flapping about like a chicken in front of goal when it comes to anything you'd expect a genuine world class keeper to save.

Or worse - Whelan buying Moses just to spite/trump Ashley as part of their JJB/Sports Direct feud.

The blackmailers would be drinking polonium tea in no time if Abramovich was involved.

Milner has done well overall. But really, the obsession surrounding Milner is getting borderline ridiculous. He's been dogshit against the top four in central midfield recently, has looked clueless in those games I've seen him in when up against midfielders who can pass and control a ball well on top of closing down fast. He genuinely looks like an out-of-position winger to me, unsure of where to position himself, but is alright when he does get the ball. It doesn't show against the average/mediocre teams, but it sticks out like a sore thumb against the Chelsea's, Arsenal's and ManU's. I'd still take £12m for him, as for a central midifelder he's really not that great. Give me a natural passer of the ball any day over a hard-working player who'll chip in with half a dozen goals. I'll be suprised if Fergie or any of the better teams go for him, but then again they're the sort of teams that can make use of relatively average, hardworking, versatile players, as they have long seasons where backup players will get plenty of games. But as the long-term replacement for Scholes? Either Milner has significant room to improve, or Fergie has lost the plot and we're about to see the start of ManU's slide. The gap in quality between Scholes and Milner is huge.

Wonder if Chelsea would allow Sturridge to leave on loan, or if he'd come here. He's clearly not going to figure in Chelsea's first team plans next year, and he's not going to develop by getting a dozen substitute appearances over an entire season. Might not be the proven goalscorer we need for next season, but he certainly has the talent to develop into one pretty quickly. Might compliment Carroll given that he's small, a slippery customer, and has an element of pace and trickery.

Wonder how long it will take for one of the papers to come up with a Rooney to Barca story. That rumour would actually be interesting, even if completely fabricated, as one can only imagine how devestating he might be in a team with Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, etc.

Monopolies are good. Competition seems to do nothing but flood the market with shit companies offering crappier services for slightly cheaper. Competition opens the floodgates for people like Mike Ashley to make big bucks from shit products and services. I hope Microsoft continue to crush all it's competitors.

You mean Metzelder from Madrid? Absolute class defender, or was a few years ago. Trouble is he's as injury prone as Woodgate (or was).

The Championship looks to be his level. I still hope we sell him, as bar a miracle of Biblical proportions, there's no way Ashley is going to sanction signing a first team central midfielder to go directly into the first team on first team wages whilst Nolan sits on the bench with even bigger first team wages. At this point in time, because he's pretty much a cast iron certainty to be a starter next season, I'm anticipating us playing with 10 men every week against the decent Premiership sides, with gaping holes in midfield being exposed by their players running freely at our defence. Whilst Nolan jogs back casually of course from striking positions, prior to giving up the chase of his gazelle-like midfield opposite number (ala our relegation season when him and Butt often just stood near the centre circle watching opposition midfielders pass the lube around before doubling up and molesting our centrebacks). And all we get in return are a few Nolan goals agaisnt the s*** teams that we're favourites to beat anyway, courtesy of him spending most of the match in the penalty box. Plus the odd assist, accompanied by the trademark vociferous Nolan-fist-pumping-on-his-own-and-aimed-at-crowd-to-make-sure-we-all-know-he-got-the-assist™ (Stuart Pearce ought to sue him). Plus the constant sound bites in the press about how the team must do better, a great tactic for masking an individual's own ineptness. I hope I'm really wrong on this and he does make the grade next year.

We need to sign Hulk to compliment Spiderman.