wacko

I've always been in favour of English football's finest talent gaining experience abroad. I think Fat Freddie had got into a bit of a rut, making the same mistakes over and over again, and just wasn't growing as a buffoon any more. I think he'll learn a lot from la Liga's unique brand of clownish club presidents, and will return a much more rounded twat for the experience.

Don't know an awful lot about either of them but I get the impression Hicks will just dig his heels in. It's a situation that's been managed terribly by them all. For a club which allegedly doesn't wash it's dirty linen in public, they're giving an awful lot of interviews. You'd have thought they'd all just shut the fuck up and phone each other rather than inviting Sky round to discuss things. One thing that's always struck me is just how childishly a lot of rich and successful businessmen can be when they feel that someone has got one over on them. You'd have thought they could rise above it, but they can be incredibly petty and vindictive. That's how they got where they are.

My irony-o-meter just blew up. I don't have any problem with rewarding people for trying to make something out of their shit lives. Nobody will dare say a word - apart from me - against disabled people seemingly having the God-given right to attend because of their hard-luck story. I will. I take equal rights as far as the laws of physics and biology allow in general terms but reserve the right to make exceptions in any individual case, according to the mood I'm in. I know what you mean about 'making something out of their shit lives', but are they asking who dug the hole in the first place? I know it's pretty mean-spirited, but I think there are many other groups who should be ahead of them in the queue. I agree entirely that it requires the stick and carrot approach, but I have a different idea of what the carrot is. I'll freely admit that I'm entirely jaded in this matter having spent the last decade working with unemployed people, and having met an enormous number of people gaming the system for all they can. By all take someone who's done well or desperately needs the pick-up to the game if they live and breathe NUFC, but don't make it just another daytrip instead of a movie and deny a real fan a seat. Why not do something else enjoyable and more beneficial like a day canoeing or rock-climbing? Why does it have to be the game?

Out of order. Shouldn't be handing out tickets to junkies and thieves. Bloody social workers, it is. My cousin's one any time anyone does something bang out of order, she says "they couldn't help it. It's all their parents fault."

How about the Gronkjaer goal that put Chelsea in the 2003/2004 Champions League ahead of us and brought them to Abramovich's attention? Being more selfish, Michael Thomas in '89. Shit goal.

Good enough to what? Win it? We don't have enough match-winners to grab us points we don't deserve. The Liverpool figures are way off, and include £16m or more of Houllier's spending. 8 or 9 of Fergie's squad pre-date Rafa's arrival at Anfield, 5 of ours do. Fergie's been able to pay a higher average price to get the players he wants. The prices are relative and mean nothing. Liverpool have some of the best or if not as good players in the top 4. Liv have struggled scoring in some away games cause the Benny system is too conservative (all the arm waving aside). I agree that Benitez is too conservative in the league. We do have some of the best players in the top 4, too, but our attacking players are well below the standard of Chelsea's, Arsenal's and Man Utd's. Obviously, Torres is the dog's bollocks (22 league goals), and Gerrard is very handy (11), but our other strikers and wingers have only scored 3 or 4 league goals each, which is shite. Kuyt in particular, has scored 3 in 30 games. Of course, you can pin that on Benitez, too, for buying second-rate wingers and strikers so he could feed his fetish for central midfielders.

Allardyce was always going to innovate you into a more expensive version of Bolton. Good call by Keegan.

They didn't do it from staying out wide, though.

Good enough to what? Win it? We don't have enough match-winners to grab us points we don't deserve. The Liverpool figures are way off, and include £16m or more of Houllier's spending. 8 or 9 of Fergie's squad pre-date Rafa's arrival at Anfield, 5 of ours do. Fergie's been able to pay a higher average price to get the players he wants.

TBH, I think he's always over-complicated matters in the league. He always sets out to tactically neutralise the opposition, regardless of how shite they are. This season he finally admitted that tactics don't work in the Prem against teams who just want to battle and hoof it, so hopefully he'll make a signing or two with that in mind in the summer and set out his stall accordingly next season. So you HONESTLY believe they lost the champions league game and the premiership because of injuries and nothing else? Ok lets take a look at it, Diaby = Wouldnt have been in the first 11 Denilson = Wouldnt have been in the first 11 Eduardo = Wouldnt have been in the first 11 Rosicky = First 11 Van Persie = First 11 So they lost an Attacking midfielder/lm and a 2nd choice striker from their usual starting 11. Near enough every other premiership team can complain about the exact same thing tbh Wenger's first eleven are all knackered. Thing is, Arsenal have 35 players in their squad. Thirty-five! How can none of them be good enough?

Not really, the competition has been quite intense these last couple of seasons and only one of the so called big 4 can win it. It´s not so much his inability to win the Premiership in my opinion, it´s the fact he hasn´t even got close. As a matter of fact, they are turning into a perrenial 4th place place team, slipping away from the big 3 and getting caught up by the likes of Everton. Have to admit he is an excellent cup manager however, going by results of course.. I was taking issue with the fact that his main target, the Premiership title, is consistently out of his reach, yet it's almost an afterthought the way it's mentioned as a failing. "One of the game's great coaches" should surely have won it by now with the resources available or at the very least he should be getting somewhere close to winning it whilst showing real signs of progression each year. As you say, he isn't anywhere close though. That's a pretty big failing. He's playing catchup against rivals with many years' head start or a squad worth twice as much. We've made massive progress under him. The squad is very solid, our reserves just won the Reserves North league, our youth side won the previous two FA Youth Cups (and they were all in a very bad shape when he arrived), so Rafa has built the foundations. We need a couple more baubles like Torres, a couple more match-winners, to mount a serious challenge. Of course, we've been needing them for quite a while, now. Frankly, anyone who's not happy with two CL final appearances in including one win, plus an FA Cup and a couple of other odds and sods in three seasons, given where Rafa started, needs their head looking at.

The game against Madrid when he came up against a true great midfielder in Redondo was a typical example of Keane's bark being worse than his bite. IIRC Redondo took the ball past Keane with ease as he did many times that game, was tagged by Keane, and as usual went down for the free kick which he got. Keane started mouthing off at Redondo from a distance, to which Redondo got up, chased Keane down, and squared up to him, putting his face right in Keane's in a "yeah? and what mofo" way. Keane's only reaction was to laugh nervously and walk away, because although he doesnt look a mean fucker, Redondo was bigger than him and well built. IMO Keane is a psycho who can lose his rag easily, and that will scare plenty of people who dont want to fight, but he's no hard man. If Duncan Ferguson had injured him all those years ago, you can be sure that revenge would never have been within a 100 miles of entering Keane's thoughts. Aye, Keane is more unhinged than hard.

I found the idea of a Newcastle fan not knowing Kelly Dalglish a bit funny. Who's that?

Good call. Essien's a cracking player. You don't really get to see what he can do at Chelsea. Spot-on attitude, too. You never hear him gobbing off in the press when he's being played at right-back like Gerrard, Gallas, Terry, Lampard or countless others would be.

Who's Fenwick and what did he do to deserve that? I am, and I had it coming tbh. Sometime you just have to grin and bear it.

Probably not, if Shevchenko's going back. But let's hope so. We already know Mourinho doesn't like Sheva, and I can't see him being overly impressed by Ronaldinho, either.

Who's Fenwick and what did he do to deserve that?

God only knows what's going on. Fans accuse Hicks of backing Rafa to get back onside with them, but he doesn't seem to care as he's making a laughing stock out of us and undermining the team. In the cold light of day, Hicks is right--Parry has done a crap job. We call him Coco. But why does he have to communicate with his estranged business partner through the press? Hopefully, the rumours that Hicks' first-option expires in a few weeks are true, and the gobby little runt will cave in and sell up to the Arab who looks like Cantona. Not exactly my idea of the dream owners, but I'm sure they are at least professional.

Kaka doesn't play wide, and he is very much the fulcrum of their attacking play. No, he doesn't control games, though. That's Pirlo's job. The second sentence was in reference to; i.e it's excessive to expect such things from a wide player, Ronaldo. Sorry, lad. Quite right. You can't run a game from out wide. Win it, yes, control it, no.

Championships aren't won by one player or a starting eleven. You need a good squad. Aside from central midfield, Man United could use better quality squad players. You don't sell your best player to buy packing for your squad, though. Besides, they already spend more than enough each summer to buy all the squad players they could possibly need.

Kaka doesn't play wide, and he is very much the fulcrum of their attacking play. No, he doesn't control games, though. That's Pirlo's job.

I said this after they beat Marseilles 4-0 (I think). Liverpool are the favourites for it imo. I don't understand why we weren't one of the top favourites from the very start given our record in the CL. That said, the only team I don't feel confident of beating in the CL is Man Utd. They've already got one foot in the final, as far as I'm concerned. Barca have been in awful form pretty much all season, and looked very average against a journeyman Schalke side. Man Utd. will tear them to pieces unless there's a sudden, massive injury crisis. I feel a lot more confident this year facing Chelsea with Grant in charge of them and Torres in our side, but this time the second leg is away, which is not so good.

I have to say i disagree, Liverpool have had just as many pannings and back page spreads as we have this season, with DIC, Hicks & Gillette, Benitez, Parry and everything else going on. I mean this isn't even a Liverpool site and there is a massive ongoing thread about them! Definitely. Every time there's been a peep out of any of the above the press have got all hysterical about it. Some weeks there's a bigger mountain to be made out of the molehill at St. James', other weeks at Anfield. We have Newcastle threads on our forums, too Why would you lot be so arsed about us, we aren't even a big club. Lol. Every footie forum I know has a Liverpool and a Newcastle thread because they've been the ongoing sagas of the season. Will the Yanks sell to the Arabs? Will Keegan take Newcastle straight down? And before that Rafa and Allardyce were on death watch. I guess it's mostly us now till the end of the season, seeing as Keegan's not taking you down anymore and the shit has just hit the fan in our boardroom again...

cristiano ronaldo is 10 times the player each one of those is you can laugh all you want 2J...it's my opinion, and his performances this season have proved it. Benzema is still developing, so I'd leave him out of that bracket. But give me Ronaldo over the other 2 any day of the week. Pisses all over them, and will continue to do so throughout his career. Kaka only looks good because of the midfield he plays in. I've said this time and time again. Pirlo, Seedorf and Gattusso are the reason Kaka is able to do what he does. Disgustingly overrated player imo. Ronaldinho's just lost the plot Of course they are. Every attacking midfielder needs players to do the dirty work to be at his most effective. Ronaldo wouldn't look so hot if he didn't have such great players around him, either. Kaka is a sublime player. He's not as fast, strong or flashy as C. Ronaldo, nor does he score as many goals (who the hell does? Ronaldo's scored nearly double the number of league goals of any other player bar Torres and Adebayor), but he's a more intelligent player, and I think he's more effective against better sides.