Lagerstedt

I can't see anyone coming to 'rescue' us from Mike Ashley. He may in fact turn out to be some sort of perverse blessing in disguise! This is quite an interesting thought. Between the top clubs there's a "space race"-thing going on and when the fortune turns on them they're in trouble. The way Man United and Liverpool are run is not sustainable in the long run and we can see this now both on the pitch and off it. The winners in all this will be the clubs who doesn't really go over the top in the transfer market, a bit more careful when it comes to salaries but mostly whose owners are economically sound when it comes to the club finances, in other words no Glazers och Gillette/Hicks thing with putting the debt on the club with huge interest. I might be way wrong here, but the way Spurs and Aston Villa are being run must be considered good examples? Sure, they've spent a lot in the transfer windows but not excessively on one player and are keeping the wages under the magic six-figure mark... So, with the papers reporting Ashley putting a £30k wage roof, he might be a blessing in disguise but he's most likely a cheap idiot who doesn't know how to run a club

And since when did Raylor turn his career around?

Except the 1-1 draw at San Siro and the fact they lost at home against Milan 2-3 after scoring first. Besides from the Milan games you're right! Damn, there goes my statistic! I'll leave it at "in league games" where I'm pretty sure I'm 100% right. They've only played Alcorcon in Copa del Rey havn't they? 0-4 and 1-0 there so you can throw that one in you stat bit aswell.

Except the 1-1 draw at San Siro and the fact they lost at home against Milan 2-3 after scoring first. Besides from the Milan games you're right!

Not watching the game but was the substitution purely tactical?

Crouch on fire as well, 2 in about 14 for him Not exactly true...and he didn't even start today but lets ignore the fact that you're wrong and you may well be right. At no point did i say starts/complete games or anything, therefore i am right Crouch has four total this season in PL, starting 12 games. In his last 14 Premier League games he has actually scored three! Anyway, go on with your little discussion

FYP FYP (according to BBC)

I'd never thought I'd say this, but to be fair to Sunderland they really miss Gordon, Ferdinand and Cattermole. Those three + Turner is essentially the most important players when it comes to defending, and their stand ins are just not good enough. Even though he's a right cunt on the field, Cattermole is important to them and when he gets back I reckon they'll start taking points of the other bottom half teams (Everton aside).

Odd move.. English man in charge and doing well in the league. How is that odd? You sure he hasn't applied for Dutch citizenship yet?

Wouldn't come as a surprise if he did, shame though on such a cracking player on his day.

Somehow you managed to overlook the glorious Intertoto Cup winning season of 2006. Oh those were the days. Good times. Let us ask FabregAsh when Arsenal won their last piece of silverware shall we?

Yep, according to The Times James has a clause in his contract that stats if he plays more than 20 games this season Pompey must offer him a new one-year contract and that would mean another £2.5m

Which time zone is she in? Its written for tomorrows papers Yes, I know. So either they don't publish it until tomorrow or they just change it after midnight and keep people like me satisfied

From Louise Taylor at The Guardian Which time zone is she in?

The ACN has done me well so far, only bet on teams who hasn't qualified for the WC. Don't think they want to give all their tactics away in a comp like this or risk their players too much, this could be a nice break for the star players. Say Drogba, with Chelsea he'll play a lot of matches from february til may for then be fit for the WC. If the Ivory Coast let him a little break (sort of) they'll have a better player in the WC and hence a bigger chance of getting a good result. This is only my theory but so far it worked out well... Or it could be opening round nerves, what do I know:)

Right, what are the prices generally like?

Cheers pal, interested of the Cagliari game 7th of feb..

djmattis, since the Inter website is worse than shite, where online could I buy tickets for their games?

From Darren Bents twitter: DBTheTruth This RTG sunderland message board does make me laugh, very interesting read about 8 hours ago from UberTwitter

Doesn't Duff play on the right wing for Fulham? I'm sure I've read Hodgson wants Duff to move into the centre and shoot with "his fantastic left foot"

I think I would. Burnley has done a good first half of the season, much better than people expected. Now though, I don't see them picking up too many points and I wouldn't be surprised if they went down. That said, I don't think they'll go down, just finish one or two places above relegation. Being a newly promoted "small" team there's basically no real pressure on the manager, all that comes in the second season so once again, if they manage to stay up that's great but it's the next year the shit hits the fan - so why don't get out as the man who took them to the Premier League? Bolton on the other hand are truly looking awful but it's a slightly bigger club who's now a Premier League regular. There's more money to spend, better facilities and better players to work with. That plus he'll most likely get a decent pay raise, it's a no brainer isn't it?

Won all eight home games so far and managed to get six points on the road. At home they have won against bottom half teams and Getafe and now Bilbao. It's all very good but if (when) their home form starts dipping things won't be as pretty any more. They are having financial troubles as well, aren't they Village Idiot? Interesting point, Real have played seven out of the eight teams Mallorca played (Depor instead of Bilbao) and they also won all eight home games

The commentator on bet365.com pronounces his name as Pankarate every other time

Shola is quite the goal scorer now...

Burnley have agreed a fee of £300,000 with Newcastle for the signing of defender David Edgar. The 22-year-old moved to Turf Moor in the summer on a four-year deal, but the clubs were unable to reach agreement on the transfer fee. The matter had been set to go to a tribunal because of the Canada Under-21 international's age. Edgar has made only one appearance for the Clarets so far, against Hartlepool in the Carling Cup. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/b/burnley/8429612.stm