Colos Short and Curlies

I'm younger than that but I definitely remember '94 being somewhat soulless without us. To be fair, the fact that most of the games were on TV very early morngin might also have something to do with the general feeling of that tournament Japorea was also a bit of a squib due to the timing of some kick offs (although a bacon butty and pint of beer at 7am was quite a novelty)

Couldn't care less. Geordie first, English a distant second (which is great when you live in Wales and everyone is trying to goad you after a result like last night....) Have enough pain following the Toon to be prepared to be put through the mill with Ingerland as well, plus you know that had we qualified the whole country would be like a N-O post after the Toon have won a game, only multiplied by 100.

Should really have added an 'first 5 minutes of Toon Game to feck up Rafa subs' option

Gone for 90+ for comedy value

Ok, so for the greater good when do you want Gerrard and Crouch to get injured and miss the Toon game?

Whats with Beye in the middle? Are all of Faye/Cacapa/Taylor injured or just assuming Cacapa won't be selected again? Assuming Beye does go in the middle I'd line up Given Geremi Beye Roz Enrique Butt Emre Barton Martins Dukes Zog Might even be tempted with Milner at right wing, Zog on the left and drop Barton to the bench for a 4-4-2

Back in training today (.cock)

What impresses you about David Moyes? For me very little. Wouldn't have him here as I don't think he would be suited to the pressure and big names we apparently crave. Hughes I would have, think he is shaping into a top boss and not only can see a player, but sees a player who he can fit into his team.

Only a fag would organise such a challenge and not enter himself into it!

No need to do that, just make it so that the club is not liable for wages during international periods - put the pressure on the player to decide if they want to play or not.

Was one on London Road - opposite the old Littlewoods Direct shop. No great loss to me, there was another bigger shop less than 5 minutes away.

To clarify, I had a legal ticket. As per my earlier analogy, 'if no seed is put in the ground the plant can't grow'. UEFA well and truly put the seed in the ground. Hence why there was no problem in Istanbul 2 years earlier against the same team. By having too few tickets allocated to the finalists UEFA created that situation. Also at our Cardiff finals there was always thousands ticketless, but never similar problems, why not? There were some trying to blag in, granted not as many, but they were filtered out quickly and efficiently. Also if security was decent ala Cardiff word would have gone back from the Olympic stadium not to bother. As it was 40 minutes from central Athens to the olympic village on the metro if the security was the promised 'ring of steel' then people would not have bothered chancing it. Instead everyone is told that it is a farce. Does not excuse certain behaviour but the conditions for such potential chaos were not laid down by us. This would not happen in England or Germany in this day and age. And to think the next 2 finals are in Moscow and Rome, UEFA are going to have blood on their hands very soon. Its still the same argument though 'theres not enough tickets so we are allowed to try and get in anyway we can'. Sorry, it doesn't wash with me. If they are x tickets then the x people who get tickets should be able to watch the game. If you haven't got a ticket then don't go to the ground. There is no devine right to get in to see a football game, I'm sure that most Champions League finals could easily attract 100,000s of supporters, no stadium is big enough and therefore people will always miss out. Tough shit really, watch it on the telly

This is not the only club that does it you know. Man U fans do it domestically. The other season against Arsenal when the exit gates were opened at 3/4 time 500 or so piled in! 500 piling into an area that held 2600 or so is very dangerous. Its not the only time they have done it yet nothing seems to be said there. I have never seen this happen at a domestic game with Liverpool, and only seen 2 incidents on Euro aways, Athens and Eindhoven. Not like it happens ALL the time. I haven't even seen any major bother with opposition fans or locals apart from in Italy and south of France Nice/Marseille area. I still firmly believe the ticket situation was the root cause of it, therefore making Athens largely UEFA'S fault. Despite Parry's warnings about security, despitre warnings of 5000 forged tickets in circulation, and f*** me you could tell them a mile off before you used the UV scanner, there was no effort to bolster security or weed them out. It does not excuse the behaviour of a MINORITY. BUT if the seed isn't put in the ground the plant won't grow will it? UEFA planted the seed by giving us and Milan 17 000 each in a 64 000 seater ground! As I highlighted earlier, Istanbul NOT A SINGLE ARREST for the first time in a champions league final. This despite the fact there were 40 000+ there and previous England/Turkey problems. Athens, a total mess. Difference? Inadequate number of tickets. Who is responsible for robbing too many tickets from the teams actually playing the game? UEFA. I went down to the ground on the morning of the game on a reconnaissance mission, and it was obivous that a load of people would be trying their luck as it was obvious that it was going to be a pinging piece of piss to get in. Nowif the security looked decent, word would have gone back that it's not worth it, go to a bar or a square showing the game. But because of this text messages pinged round all over the show that it was going to be easy. As I say, any teams fans in this situation would try their luck would they not? If Man U had got through the problem would be doubled as their fans would have done exactly the same and would have had the same ticketing issues! If this was held at Wembley or in Germany it would not have happened due to adequate security in terms of policing, stewarding and turnstiles. The stadium in Athens did not even have turnstiles FFS! Fair enough re the Heysel point. But I'm afraid there is alot of misconception over the events of Heysel and proportioning 100% of the blame towards us is unbelievable. Why were English clubs banned? UEFA wanted to end their clubs dominance. Of course 39 innocent people lost their lives, which is very sad. But they failed to consider the amount of our fans that got stabbed and beat up to within an inch of their lives in Rome the year before. Then a year later we warn UEFA the stadium is literally falling apart, having a neutral section between the 2 sets of fans will result in tickets being touted and a dangerous mixed zone which will result in trouble, they did not listen. Whats new? These tickets are indeed touted to mostly Italians. Then they attack our fans with rocks and flares etc. We were separated by a chicken wire fence. They also drag a 12 year old lad through from our side and start beating the s*** out of him. Were we meant to stand there and accept that, especially after Rome the year before? We retaliated. Sadly 39 people who werent involved in the confrontations were killed which is tragic. And us charging the Juve fans led to that. BUT why did we charge at the Juve fans? Arent their hooligans at least partly to blame for attacking us first? Arent UEFA partly to blame for creating a situation where opposing fans could be so close together? Arent UEFA partly to blame for choosing a crumbling stadium that was falling apart, and literally fell apart in tragic circumstances? Now I am not absolving Liverpool fans of blame, but I am absolving them of parts of the blame. Can you also honestly say if it was the other way round Italian clubs would be banned? Doubt it. UEFAs agenda against English clubs and the national team continues to this day. People also need to look up the definition of murder, and realise that what happened at Heysel was manslaughter, and not murder. But answer me this, if we were banned for that, why werent Italian teams banned when Roma fans stabbed us all over the place and beat our fans up, bricked our coaches etc in 1984. Why havent Italian teams been banned for incidents involving Juve and Roma in Europe all the time. Fans getting beaten up with baseball bats and iron bars, stabbings, missile attacks inside the stadium? Not to mention scooters getting lobbed off the top tier, police getting killed, police killing a fan? Also referees getting hit by coins. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Double standards I believe. Why werent Turkish clubs banned seeing as their fans did MURDER opposing fans in April 2000? So yes what happened at Heysel was tragic, 39 innocent people lost their lives. We have to accept our proportion of the blame. But if people, when looking at the whole picture, cant spot an agenda or the blatant fact that part of the blame should be proportioned elsewhere then they are blinkered. Also if anyone can provide an answer as to why MURDER is allowed by other countries fans and incessant stabbings, GBH and near murder, possibly even attempted murder is allowed, amongst other things, while the moment an English club or our national team is involved in something nowhere near as bad we get threatened with expulsion from tournaments and record fines, then I would be very interested to hear it. There was at least one arrest associated with the game in Istanbul (if not in Istanbul itself). I got banned from a Newsagent for not signing a petition to free the perpitrator!

the players had fun under Keegan, and that was transformed onto the pitch. Players trusted eachother and knew eachothers stregths and weaknesses, this in turn led to 1 through 11 being comfortable with how they were being asked to play, even the defence who were often neglected by the midfiled for cover etc etc You can have all the tactical awareness in the world, but if the players aren't comfortable with it they won't perform

Title should be changed to Should Mike Ashley get his wallet out for Sam? Easy for Mike to go out and splash his cash on the likes of Deco, Riquelme or whoever we get linked with, but should he be doing this or buying who Sam identifies? depends on how much he trusts Sam's judgement - who's one 'big' signing so far has been Smith for whom the jury is still well and truly split

Should tell em its Woody and a done deal

Would love to see someone do an old-skool Hulk Hogan celebation - full on ear cupping and arm circles followed by the 'Hulk up'

We really should go all out on the goalkeeping coach and get someone like Seaman to come in a teach the likes of Krul. Goalkeeping is such a specilaised position that having a coach built up on theory rather than big game and big performance experience will not bring the best out of someone with the right tools. As for the original question: Krul, Enrique, Martins

I'd have a lot more sympathy for them if things like Athens didn't keep happening.

Playing for Ireland this weekend isn't he?

Complete with 'Sven at Teadance' extra

Yeah - he was interviewed in the 'Metro' paper in London and said something along those lines. He intimated that he wouldn't be looking for anything until his BBC deal expires which is in a couple of years I think. TBH I'd rather he didn't come back right now. Whilst it's clear Allardyce and Mort have got loads of work to do it's nice that they can do it without the likes of Shearer over their shoulders i.e: Without any pressure or influence from previous regimes. The pressure would increase should Shearer arrive as people's expectations would rise. I'm not knocking him here but we don't even know that Shearers any good as a Coach/Assistant Manager or at whatever role he might get in the future. Now's not the time to be taking chances with appointments based on heart rather than head. Shearer still trains with the first team two days a week and is coaching the strikers apparently. Where did you read that? I haven't heard that before and i haven't seen him in any training pictures either. I haven't read it anywhere, just what I got told. Get him in an orange bib!

Reckon we would have an agreement to 'buy' in Jan but he would be over here training before that

It's not 16k though. That's what it would work out at, IF they played the world cup all year. (Which they obviously don't) It was £40 a day for the world cup, which in a lot of cases would not cover loss of earnings. If I wanted to take 2 weeks off to play football I wouldn't get compensated at all! (as a point my company has a 'world cup' and we have to pay for all travel and take holiday/unpaid leave to participate in it) And before anyone starts, I agree that what they get is pitiful, but it is still an amateur game and therefore they should be rewarded appropriately (i.e not with very much). The only way the salary should increase is for the game to go professional and generate sufficient income to cover a central contracted wage - btw I reckon that a professional Womens game would have a sufficient audience to do so. So yes its a poor wage for representing your country, but is appropriate for the current standing of the game

Too thick? :giggle: Tell you what, I bet a few foregin mangers look at the mental ability of some of our players and it puts them off. Colemand oing great things as an ambassador in Spain at the moment