Lagerstedt

Fiver on us, Everton and Sevilla tomorrow at 3.10/1 Cheeky two on Sevilla, Getafe and draw between Chelsea and Birmingham at 18/1

23 year old 6 foot 3 striker, played a few games for Nigeria. Goal record isn't great, especially considering he's playing in Sweden (22 goals in 78 games). Shola Mk IV? Pretty much this. Rather strong, able to keep the ball up and an alright eye for the goal. Last year he scored 13 goals in 28 matches which i so-so, even though he started a few games on the bench. Previous seasons he's been on the bench quite a lot, hence he hasn't scored all that much. Should we go for him? No. Wouldn't really be an improvement on the strike force we've got today. Rather give Nile the chance. Malmö has over the last decade sold a few good strikers; Zlatan (who wasn't really dominate in Sweden but scored wonder goals whenever he wanted and you could tell he was a class act), Afonso Alves (Dominated the swedish league. Did very well in Holland and then went to Boro...), Toivonen (Like Zlatan, wasn't outstanding but showed glimpses of his potential every now and then. Now doing well in Holland at PSV). Ofere is by swedish standards good but nowhere as good as the three mentioned above.

How come Given scored higher points than Reina when Given conceded five and Reina only one?

Now who might this be? West Ham's new owner David Sullivan has offered a striker wages of £100,000-a-week to join the club. Sullivan, who now controls the Hammers together with David Gold, admitted this week that the club are £110m in debt. But with West Ham struggling in the league, Sullivan has made the offer to a "special" player to try to avoid the "horrendous" prospect of relegation. Sullivan would not name the player but Real Madrid's Ruud van Nistelrooy has been linked with the club. "We've offered £100,000-a-week to a player today and we are still not sure we are going to get him," Sullivan told BBC Radio 5 live. "That was a very special player. "We are doing our best for West Ham but at the moment we are drawing blanks." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/west_ham_utd/8473694.stm

Aston Villa - Martin O'Neill - Celtic Birmingham - Alex McLeish - Glasgow Rangers My money is on Birmingham to sign him

Uefa just released the "Team of the Year 2009" based on Internet votes and here is the result: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid CF & Spain); Daniel Alves (FC Barcelona), Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona & Spain), John Terry (Chelsea FC & England), Patrice Evra (Manchester United FC & France); Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid CF & Portugal), Xavi Hernández (FC Barcelona & Spain), Kaká (Real Madrid CF), Andrés Iniesta (FC Barcelona & Spain); Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona), Zlatan Ibrahimović (FC Barcelona & Sweden). Josep Guardiola (FC Barcelona) Previous winners: uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2008: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid CF & Spain); Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid CF & Spain), John Terry (Chelsea FC & England), Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona & Spain), Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München & Germany); Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United FC & Portugal), Xavi Hernández (FC Barcelona & Spain), Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal FC & Spain), Franck Ribéry (FC Bayern München & France); Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona), Fernando Torres (Liverpool FC & Spain). Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United FC) uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2007: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid CF & Spain); Daniel Alves (Sevilla FC), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan & Italy), John Terry (Chelsea FC & England), Eric Abidal (Olympique Lyonnais/FC Barcelona & France); Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United FC & Portugal), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC & England), Kaká (AC Milan), Clarence Seedorf (AC Milan & Netherlands); Zlatan Ibrahimović (FC Internazionale Milano & Sweden), Didier Drogba (Chelsea FC). Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United FC) uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2006: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus & Italy); Gianluca Zambrotta (FC Barcelona & Italy), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid CF & Italy), Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona & Spain), Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München & Germany); Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC & England), Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal FC & Spain), Kaká (AC Milan), Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona); Thierry Henry (Arsenal FC & France), Samuel Eto'o (FC Barcelona). Frank Rijkaard (FC Barcelona) uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2005: Petr Čech (Chelsea FC & Czech Republic); Cafu (AC Milan), John Terry (Chelsea FC & England), Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona & Spain), Paolo Maldini (AC Milan); Luis García (Liverpool FC & Spain), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC & England), Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona), Pavel Nedvěd (Juventus & Czech Republic); Samuel Eto'o (FC Barcelona), Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan & Ukraine). José Mourinho (Chelsea FC) uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2004: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus & Italy); Cafu (AC Milan), Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea FC & Portugal), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan & Italy), Ashley Cole (Arsenal FC & England); Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United FC & Portugal), Maniche (FC Porto & Portugal), Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona), Pavel Nedvěd (Juventus & Czech Republic); Thierry Henry (Arsenal FC & France), Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan & Ukraine). José Mourinho (Chelsea FC) uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2003: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus & Italy); Paulo Ferreira (FC Porto & Portugal), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan & Italy), Paolo Maldini (AC Milan), Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid CF); Luís Figo (Real Madrid CF & Portugal), David Beckham (Real Madrid CF & England), Zinédine Zidane (Real Madrid CF & France), Pavel Nedvěd (Juventus & Czech Republic); Thierry Henry (Arsenal FC & France), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United FC & Netherlands). José Mourinho (FC Porto) uefa.com users' Team of the Year 2002: Rüstu Reçber (Fenerbahçe SK & Turkey); Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona & Spain), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan & Italy), Cristian Chivu (AFC Ajax & Romania), Roberto Carlos (Real Madrid CF); Clarence Seedorf (AC Milan & Netherlands), Michael Ballack (FC Bayern München & Germany), Zinédine Zidane (Real Madrid CF & France), Damien Duff (Blackburn Rovers FC & Republic of Ireland); Thierry Henry (Arsenal FC & France), Ronaldo (Real Madrid CF). Senol Günes (Turkey) uefa.com users' Team of 2001: Santiago Cañizares (Valencia CF & Spain), Cosmin Contra (Deportivo Alavés & Romania), Sami Hyypiä (Liverpool FC & Finland), Patrik Andersson (FC Barcelona & Sweden), Bixente Lizarazu (FC Bayern München & France); David Beckham (Manchester United FC & England), Patrick Vieira (Arsenal FC & France), Zinédine Zidane (Real Madrid CF & France), Kily González (Valencia CF); Thierry Henry (Arsenal FC & France), David Trezeguet (Juventus & France). Gérard Houllier (Liverpool FC)

Wouldn't be surprised if Arsenal were to drop points tonight. Every time they've got the chance to pass Chelsea in the table they manage to screw up, or at least that's what it feels like..

He's always come across like that. Reminded me of Craig http://bestuff.com/images/images_of_stuff/210x600/craig-62127.jpg

Well done Tevez

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/west_ham_utd/8468159.stm

I've heard Canales signed a new contract with Racing with a €10m buy-out clause, is this correct? And if so, could any team bid €10m and Racing can't turn it down? Yes, all professional athletes have these clauses by law in Spain. That's why it sucks to manage low-level spanish clubs in FM So why don't all clubs put €1bn buy out clause on every player so they can decide whether or not to sell him? Because I assume a bidding war between Real, Barca and British clubs would bring in more than €10m to Racing, wouldn't you think?

I've heard Canales signed a new contract with Racing with a €10m buy-out clause, is this correct? And if so, could any team bid €10m and Racing can't turn it down?

That's true, with current squad we've get slaughtered. Let us first concentrate on getting promoted and we'll continue this discussion in the summer!

No really, no. I was just curious what people would choose and since Beye won't command any extreme fee I wouldn't mind if we were to try and sign him on the cheap in the summer

Isn't that what people said about Shola as well some years back? Some players, like Milner and N'Zogbia when they were here, you could use that argument since they both had great games and bad games just inconsistent and needed improving on their end product, but I haven't really seen anything that suggests Simpson will shine. He's not great at reading the game, not a great tackler or a great passer of the ball. He's decent at all of those things but doesn't really have room to improve himself. I might be harsh on him due to yesterdays performance and over-reacting.. Well it is what they said about Shola, but I don't see what that means. They also said it about lots of players where it turned out to be true. I don't think he's a world beater, but as a cheap option we know what we're getting and I would rather keep him on than bring back Beye at this point. Yes, they've said that about lots of players over the years but in those players you could see some talent which wasn't fulfilled, and that's something I can't see in Simpson, hence I would rather have Beye back for a year. Habib would be on a bit more money but I think we've got a bigger chance of staying up in the Premiership (assuming we go up) with him at RB than Simpson. But as you mentioned in your first post, to get a decent right midfielder in is crucial and without that it doesn't really matter who we put as right back

Isn't that what people said about Shola as well some years back? Some players, like Milner and N'Zogbia when they were here, you could use that argument since they both had great games and bad games just inconsistent and needed improving on their end product, but I haven't really seen anything that suggests Simpson will shine. He's not great at reading the game, not a great tackler or a great passer of the ball. He's decent at all of those things but doesn't really have room to improve himself. I might be harsh on him due to yesterdays performance and over-reacting..

Wouldn't mind if we did in the summer, assuming we go up.. Anyone seen van den Borre play? Remember him on FM a few years back, cracking young prospect back then Looked ok against Cov in the cup. Had plenty of energy if nothing else, was still makin 50yrd runs deep into extra time Sounds promising. On FM he was quite versatile and according to Wikipedia this is true. Apparently he's preferred position is CM/DM but is being deployed as RB for Brussels and club sides. Even though he's only on loan from Genoa, could he be worth a bid since the italians doesn't seem to rate him? Considering our options on the CM/DM/RB positions...

Wouldn't mind if we did in the summer, assuming we go up.. Anyone seen van den Borre play? Remember him on FM a few years back, cracking young prospect back then

Without a shadow of a doubt, Beye. Million times better defensively than Simpson, even if he is slowing down a bit. simpson. we had beyes last good season and it wasn't his last one here. Beyes season when we got relegated wasn't all that bad and based on that and the fact that Simpson failed yesterdays "big" test against WBA, I'd choose Beye over Simpson. I reckon Habib could make it one more year in PL, even though O'Neill doesn't fancy him. I also think that Beye could teach someone younger, or perhaps Saylor (not Raylor, lost cause) how to become a better RB. Simpson learnt his trade at Man Utd so his teaching must have been rather good, but he hasn't stepped up and I don't think he ever will really.

So what would people prefer? Simpson who's young and not going to be massive wages or Beye who has proved himself in Premier League (at least with us but we all know how our defense was last two years in PL) but is most likely going to be on more money?

I don't know about that, Ashley and Puma could of came to a different arrangement, like some teams have a new one every season. But 2 years is a good idea, gives them a fair chance to make something fairly good, establish ourselves as a Premier League team (hopefully), which could mean that in 2 years time we can say "no you don't make good enough shirts", or "we are a Premiership club now, and want a better deal". Like Spurs who has Puma as current kit maker. They've changed home shirts all four years since Puma took over from Kappa (Kappa changed every year as well in the end). I've checked Villarreal and Stuttgart and both teams have changed home shirts for every season the last three years, so it looks like it's a Puma thing..

Would be a good buy if they can get him on the cheap but if they're after why buy Vieira? And how many dm's do they need? Barry Vieira De Jong Flamini? Maybe they fancy loaning us one next season? Isn't Kompany a DM as well originally?

Was it just me who noticed Ryan Taylor's shirt didn't have any CCC-patches?

This theoretically they could have 50-odd (league and cups) different shirts for just one season? That's a bit greedy, although I suspect they're only selling plain shirts.. Either way, should we put something on our shirts as well like we did for SBR foundation vs Ispwich? And did any thing like this occur after the tsunami in 2004?

Ciro Ferrara has lost the plot, question is who is going to replace him. Rumours says Hiddink and that could be well interesting