Colos Short and Curlies

Biggest half time of his career so far

Saylor is the best option, if it (a) its not his favoured position and (b) he'll never be world class there. Saylor is at least a decent defender, and out wide his positioning is not as much of a problem. Until we get a right winger who will/can track back effectively we need a proper defensive right back

Nailed on to get a soft red card this weekend

I haven't read the rule book, but I can't beleive that a foul is down to opinion, I would have thought that there would be definitions of what is a fair challenge or a foul one

Just heard that Liverpool have applied to the FA to be awarded three points for the victory today

Does anyone know if the Spirit of Shankley managed to get their protest group down to London today? When I heard the chap on the radio saying he wanted protests to happen I could only think of that Harry Enfield sketch where the three scallies go down to that there London (On a tenuously related point, on a course at the moment which is being delivered by someone who is exactly what you would get if George Dawes ever played Pepe Reina, its uncanny)

Not strictly true as there are laws covering all of the issues in the post. A corner is a corner if the defending team get the last touch, a foul is a foul if its meets the criteria in the rule book. What you'd have to do with TV replays etc is to apply the letter of the law to each decision, take out any judgement what so ever. I think it gets tricky when you question when to draw the line, is it limited to decisions inside the box? Inside the opponents half? Fouls only? I don't know the answer to that, but for me its goal line only or nothing. Use the TV for post match discipline, but not for in game decisions. (But having said that I wouldn't have been against De Jong walking after a 3rd official gave the ref a nod and a wink)

Well lets hope that we follow this one up in the courts as well - and maybe even the Atkinson one too. It's not good to see football in the courts, but if it takes one case like this to sort Fifa and the FA out then its for the greater good of the game in the long run

Good nice to see the other clubs will not allow for the rules to be bent over for teams. are they though ? there'll be lots of smallprint as regarding the club as the company,holding companies etc.........why do you think these holding companies are set up, including the holding company that technically owns us ? Taxing Purposes, Also Limited Liability on the Owners (i.e. if liverpool default on the debts then Gillet and Hicks other companies don't go tits up) etc. It's in the Premier League rules, as in the Football League rules that if the holding company goes into admin then the club is in admin. The clubs will enforce this (14 out of 20 votes needed to pass these rules, or create new rules). As with West Ham, I don't think the parent company or club going into admin automatically means a penalty. Providing the debts can be cleared in full by the process of administration (as would be the case with Liverpool), then you're okay. The problem with Leeds and Portsmouth was that the debt was greater than the value of the club. It'll be interesting to see how the Court case goes. I would have thought that the Board were under an obligation to find the maximum price for the club. The fact that the price they've got matches the debt looks a bit dodgy. It's like they've created the deal that is most in the interests of the club and the buyer, rather than the owners. If the wording of the agreement between the Board and the owners says something ambiguous like a 'reasonable' price, then it'll all come down to the views of an individual judge, and where his / her sympathies lie. Wasn't the West Ham case more to do with the holding company holding lots of companies? In Liverpool's case Kop Holdings only holds Liverpool Football Club, so the PL rules would dictate that if Kop Holdings go into Administration so do LFC (for points purposes)

Liverpool City Spurs Can't say I really hate Sunderland, a lot of the family support them and you need a good healthy local rivalry. Leave the hate for Rangers and Celtic. Used to be Man U, but thats softened in recent years, more to do with other teams becoming worse than them getting better though. Went right off anything Scouse after living there. City is a bit obvious, but I cant get my head around why a team with unlimited funds are trying to strangle and kick their way to the league with 6 defensive midfielders on the pitch. Imagine what a Keegan Mk1 team would look like with that sort of money. Spurs, I guess it's just their year (as always) and is their a more annoying tit on this planet than Redknapp?

So when's Harry's court appearance?

Closed league would go against everything football represents in England. Yes i know, I'm just saying thats all. Calm down Parky calm down. Liverpool and as we were would not be in this mess if a regulated salary cap was in place. Wage bill adjusted to a ratio of the turnover would be a better idea. ie 50% of turnover or somesuch. Hmmm, i dunno. Needs to be a level playing field for every team. Its then up to the club/ team if they want to max the cap out. Need to cap the number of players on a payroll as well You can only register 25 now. But can pay as many as you want - see Bellamy, Craig for a perfect example.

Closed league would go against everything football represents in England. Yes i know, I'm just saying thats all. Calm down Parky calm down. Liverpool and as we were would not be in this mess if a regulated salary cap was in place. Wage bill adjusted to a ratio of the turnover would be a better idea. ie 50% of turnover or somesuch. Hmmm, i dunno. Needs to be a level playing field for every team. Its then up to the club/ team if they want to max the cap out. Need to cap the number of players on a payroll as well

Don't you love the idea that the owners should just spend whatever it takes regardless of fiscal responsibility. They are basically saying the owners have to do an Abramovich or they are not interested, and they have a basic right to being Top-4 and up with man U and Chelsea The deluded high pressure front seems to have moved away from Tyneside to Merseyside. No you're wrong there, the Liverpool fans are entitled to demand success and rich owners because they are Liverpool and used to be good. And its only right a proper that a club legend comes back to manage them, because they are Liverpool. Completely different to how we see our team

I hope that if the FA turn around and say nothing can be done we take this one to the law courts. Should sue Man City for not controlling De Jong, De Jong for the foul, Atkinson for his decision, the FA for their lack of a decision and Fifa for not allowing the FA to make a decision

Liverpool and Everton should merge. Its already the 'friendly derby', and families have divided blue and red loyalties anyway so it would bring families together.

It's not a load of nonsense, man. You all have gone mad. It's a bad tackle that has caused a bad injury. Fine. This is understood. People's legs are broken on the pitch all of the time. We can increase the penalties for bad tackles within football. This is acceptable It's the same as charging a racing car pilot with murder because he made a bad move that led to a deadly accident. This would be madness. Football is not the same as walking on the street, and there are inherent risks when you walk on the pitch. You don't call the police after every incident. That is literal insanity. The only way police could get involved is if there is an incident that is far separated from what is part of football. De Jong's tackle was not that. The game itself is "policed" by the referee, and the sport by the FA. They should deal severely with intended acts of violence which cause serious injury. When they fail in their duties to do so, there is no reason why the victims should not turn to common law to obtain justice and recompense for loss of earnings/investment etc. If this does go legal then it will be the fault of a very dodgy referee and an incompetent FA to deal with it properly in house. I'm also fairly sure that if a F1 driver made a deliberate move that put another driver in hospital or worse then he wouldn't be racing for a long time. The key is the intent behind the move, if De Jong and Ben Arfa were going for a 50:50 and their legs got caught together then its an accident. Mark Webbers impression of Superman in a car earlier this season was an accident. However, De Jong went in to put Ben Arfa out of this particular game either mentally or physically. We've all been in games where the manager has said to rough up the keeper, or 'keep the little quick un quiet'. He went too far in this, it was a deliberate act and he should be punished.

Erm, haven't Everton done little else since the 80's? Hardly been breaking the bank with their champagne bill have they? Had more relegation scrapes than us since the PL, they just didn't go down. Thanks to a very dodgy Wimbledon goal/ goal that wasn't if I remember in the late 90s

Sooooo.... Are we looking at 6 months until he is ready to return? I'd make that 4 months solo rehab and two getting back in with the lads - sound about right? As much as I'd love to see him back asap, hope nobody rushes the comeback until the leg is 100%, if that means he only plays 5 games at the season tail then so be it - his future is more important that fitting in anohter 4-5 games on a risky judgement call

Good on the club, for either looking after the player or not trying to go back on the deal (whichever it is). Look after him properly and a silver lining could be that he falls for the club even more and we get to see him around next year and for many more afterwards

We need a win to remove the home jitters. Wigan are a good team for this imo, they will play open football but have little that will keep the back 5 awake at night over the next fortnight. I'd bring Carroll back, assuming Nolan isn't going to be dropped then he needs to play as a genuine second striker, not somewhere inbetween attacking mid and in the hole. 4-0 anyway, Carroll, Nolan, 'One of the back 4 from a set piece', Shola off the bench.

When I look at the league I see Blackpool playing way above their ability on paper and will see these good results drop off once we get to November and they are playing the likes of Blackburn, Stoke, Sunderland in succession rather than the big 4 (where they raise their game). West Brom too are having a great early season charge, but again I think they are above their real level. Wigan and West Ham will have very few long runs of wins or defeats and as such will bounce aroud the bottom 4 or 5 places. Liverpool have to recover (don' they?), Everton will. The rest are much of a muchness. The question is where are we? Are we the 6-0 victors over the Villains, the 2-0 pussy whipped Blackpool boys or somewhere inbetween? I see us playing like we did against Man City and Everton in most of our away games and will end up picking up a lot more points on the road than anyone would have thought in the summer. We need a good home victory soon (i.e. the next game) to settle down the home crowd/nerves, and then I think we will be fine.

If there was no malice and he isn't that type of boy, then he is a shit defensive midfielder who can't tackle. Either way he's likely to do it again this season

No it isn't - or at least shouldn't be. Leg breaks, shoulder dislocates etc may happen, but in the majority of cases they are accidental and due to mistimed challenges. The intent from this foul was to put Ben Arfa out of the game. De Jong knew exactly what he was doing - going in hard to hit the man as well as the ball. Not saying he meant to break a leg, but defiinitely went in with intent to 'get the man'. The last time I checked that isn't part of the rules of football

The key challenge for both Blackpool and West Brom will be if they lose a couple on the bounce to the likes of West Ham or a couple of injuries. Blackpool will struggle in a big way should Adam get injured for more than the odd game