Nate

Thankfully, he's forced McClaren into making the correct decision regarding Beckham. Surely even he can't pick Beckham over Bentley after tonight? Can he? Surely he can't pick Beckham (who has been churning out good performances in La Liga) over Bentley, because he's had a good game against Albania? I am a fan of Bentley, though. He needs to be in the squad before Jenas, Lennon, Dyer, etc.

Massive coup for Tottenham. If they keep Berbatov and make a few more signings of this nature, they could well challenge the top four next season.

a word of advice from zogster - 'Dont talk unless i say you can talk.' Jesus wept

Why? I'd have probably said the same this time last year, but Baptista has proven to absolutely dreadful in the Premiership. martins is hopeless and so overated by newcastle supporters. baptista has more to his game than martins IMO TBH ok... martins= 43 starts 17 goals baptista= 17 starts 10 goals thats not too bad for someone thats absolutely dreadful TBH I said absolutely dreadful in the Premiership: 24 appearances, 3 goals. there is no way you only meant premiership and not the fa cup or carling cup and if your only taking into account the premiership his goal scoring record isnt much worse than martins; martins= 32 starts 11 goals baptista= 11 starts 3 goals give him the same amount of starts as martins and his goal scoring record would be 32 starts 9 goals Actually, I purposely specified 'in the Premier League' because i don't think 6 goals against Liverpool's reserves should be taken into account. You seem to be very reliant on statistics, have you actually seen much of Baptista play this season? He's become somewhat of a joke amongst Arsenal and Tottenham fans. By the way, i don't rate Martins, so there's no need to keep comparing them.

Why? I'd have probably said the same this time last year, but Baptista has proven to absolutely dreadful in the Premiership. martins is hopeless and so overated by newcastle supporters. baptista has more to his game than martins IMO TBH ok... martins= 43 starts 17 goals baptista= 17 starts 10 goals thats not too bad for someone thats absolutely dreadful TBH I said absolutely dreadful in the Premiership: 24 appearances, 3 goals.

WHAT?!

Why? I'd have probably said the same this time last year, but Baptista has proven to absolutely dreadful in the Premiership.

Houllier doesn't tick any of the boxes of what I'm looking for. I'm of the mind that even with a whole load of money we're still a long, long way from competing for honours. I'm looking for other qualities than just going for whoever has got the most pots in his cupboard. Houllier played ugly, counter attacking football. I don't want that. He spunked a load of money on a load of shite - Biscan, Traore, Cheyroux, etc. I don't want that. And he didn't do much of job with the young players. Gerrard, Carragher, came thru (And I thought the latter was very ordinary under his management), nowt else. We've got some good kids, I want someone with a track record of looking after them. Ranieri is definetly my #1 choice, failing him, probably someone from the continent. I don't follow enough european footie to know everyone with a similar record to Ranieri. See a lot of names trotted out - Le Guen, Adrianse, etc, but I don't really know enough about them. So, short answer, if not CR - Dunno Weren't you keen on Paul Simpson a while back?

Ashley to sack Allardyce and appoint Houllier.

He may not have the option of staying with Liverpool at all. I'm not sure he's still capable of a 40 game season.

Hyypia is slow, but he's never really been fast. He could probably manage another 20 game season, which would be fine as long as two more centre-halves are incoming. Bearing in mind we now only have 1 central defender anywhere near Premiership standard on our books, we can't afford to turn away someone of his quality and experience on a free.

Shorey has had a great season, the least he deserves is a starting place in the B team. I'd like to see Lescott in for Dawson, and Jagielka starting ahead of Neville - mainly because i can't see any value in Neville playing. It's a good a line-up overall, though. Karjala, i haven't seen Smith play anywhere else but upfront this season.

I agree, by the end of the match he had completely lost it. Still, best of a mediocre bunch in the first half, for me.

blueyes.gif

Apparently we're ignoring that. Can you explain how Milan got to the final, then? Or was every manager Ancelotti came up against 'clueless'?

Ahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa. Pennant was the most useless cunt ever tonight and if anything Benitez cost them the match with his starting line up and then his ridiculous subs. That is the most hilarious post I have ever read. Cheers for that. Calm down. I must have been watching a different game to everybody else in the first half, i thought Pennant was good. He put in some decent balls and caused problems for Jankulovski, nearly everyone else was anonymous. As for Benitez, all a manager can do is send his team out to control the game and create chances, and that's exactly what he did in the first half. Liverpool couldn't take those chances, but did Milan even have a shot on goal from open play? I concede he made several errors in the second period, but you still can't knock his achievements over the last few years with such a limited group of players.

Individually, Milan are stronger than Liverpool in virtually every position, yet Benitez's side dominated the majority of the game. He's now taken a very average team (a team who you think are on a par with us barring Gerrard, Parky) to two Champions League Finals in three years, beating clubs filled with world class players along the way. Fair enough, he may have been too slow to change things this evening, but to call him clueless...

Pennant absolute toss? He's easily been one of the best players on the pitch, tbf. Liverpool were utterly dominant for 45 minutes; Benitez again proving he's one of the best there is.

Apart from he's a left back. He won't be for long.

Impressive signing, assuming it goes through. If he flourishes as a winger in the Premiership, Tottenham's midfield will begin to look very strong.

I did laugh when i saw he got banned for that. Wasn't the idea of the new rule to prevent that exact scenario?

Benitez will outwit Ancelotti, Masherano outshine Kaka, and Gerrard outplay Gattuso. Liverpool will win it for a 6th time this evening.

I dont know if its just me on this one, but I really think that there is one player that is going to be a really good buy in the future, Gabriel Agbonlahor. It all depends if Villa would let him go. You could put Milner/ N'Zogbia on the left and play Agbonlahor as a right winger/ attacking mid. He is alot faster than Dyer so he would be a good replacement I think (if the rumours are true about Dyer leaving). But thats just my opinion. What do you think? Not only is he an integral part of the team O'Neill is building, but Aston Villa are now in a position where they can reject silly money for any of their players. Why would he want to leave 'his' club, who are very much on the up, anyway?

Neill would have got a lot more games at Liverpool than Sidwell will at Chelsea. Based on nothing more than your opinion. Based on Sidwell having 6 people ahead of him for 2 positions, Neill being able to play in 2 positions and fighting with one other for the right back role and Chelsea's history of signing young players, hardly ever playing them and setting back their careers. 3 positions, isn't it? Makelele & Ballack may yet leave too. Who knows wether Mourinho rates him above Mikel and Diarra, we'll see. 2 or 3 depending on who they play up front. Still a lot of players ahead of him unless you keep speculating about who MIGHT leave. As long soon as you stop speculating about who Mourinho MIGHT play ahead of him.

The trouble with Martins is, the major flaws in his game are things that usually come naturally to players and aren't coached or taught. Bullshit, they can be coached and learned. Unless all footballers are born that way I'm talking about something that comes naturally to players over their development from a young age. Martins doesn't have the same intelligence as the likes of Owen or Berbatov, and he never will. He could spend every day of the next 5 years working with the best coaches on the planet - he won't suddenly grow a good footballing brain.