Delima

What Shak says. Throughout the history, constantly successful teams like Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina etc have always picked the strongest teams available, bar those players at odds with the managers. It is not only about constantly successful teams, but less successful teams have always picked the strongest available. It is common sense really you can't win anything without quality. England B against Albania. Despite the supposed overwhelming difference in reputations, and the "hunger" of the lesser English players, England did not really prevail one-sidedly in the game. THe problem lies on the manager. There is no 100% accurate yardstick to gauge a manager before appointing them (Klinsmann a roaring success; Staunton, Donadelli not so. Lippi + Scholari are good to their teams but not Sven) But it is definitely silly to appoint Steve McLaren, when at the time there were obviously better and more qualified managers interested in the job, Sam Allardyce, Martin O'neill, Luis Felipe Scolari etc. If the FA blame Sven for the previous failure, it is pure hypocrisy to promote the assistant manager of the said regime. After potraying himself as someone set up to correct Sven's mistake, first by exiling David Beckham, he now resorts to Sven's favourite formation and players. It is not about the players, or the league. It is down to the manager I reckon.

What is a progressive player?

Good luck Bramble and Sibierski. Wigan are definitely going down next summer if they keep signing players as such. Maybe because they are free transfer ..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Silveira_dos_Santos If Juan is out of contract, shall we move for him? Good enough for Brazil, certainly good enough for us? About this Vagner Love. He doesn't seem to be in the same class with the Brazillian superstars, and his goal record in Russia isn't great either. Why does Dunga persist with him? Why not Alfonso ALves?

Rumours are that They will be shipping out Gabriel Heinze - Real Madrid or any European giant Kieran Richardson - Sheffield United Phillip Bardsley - Aston Villa

Everyone is predicting a one sided Brazil win. Rule of thumb says that the majority is diot (that's why bookies always win) so my prediction is a tight win for England. 2-1 to England (Owen, Gerrard, Kaka)

The GUardian

I don't disagree that the squad has got stronger as a whole but I don't think that the first team is strengthened by the arrival of them. Hence Chelsea don't have much really to catch up to compete with their first team. Richardson is crap but he only featured in meaningless games. Anderson is an attacking midfielder and Solksjaer is a striker. Man Utd were not let down by fringe attacking players. They were let down by first teamers (Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo, Rooney etc) who couldn't beat Chelsea in the FA Cup, and defensive back ups who didn't defend properly against AC Milan (Brown, Heinze).

If we sell Parker I don't think we need any big money replacement. Butt should suffice in the same role, even though personally I would prefer Parker over Butt.

I think you are a bit arrogant here.

Yeah, just go on and shows that buying big star doesn't necessarily mean improving the squad. Chelsea's midfield might be boring and industrial but they are powerful and effective. With Essien going back to midfield and Mikel stepping up I think their midfield next year will be better than this year.

The Guardian What do you reckon?

Apart from Owen Hargreaves Man Utd have consolidated rather than improved the quality of the first team squad. If Chelsea could get a top striker who works well immediately with Drogba then Man Utd and Chelsea's first teams are evenly matched again.

I don't think that Chelsea have much to catch up next season to be honest. They were seriously impeded by the unlikely and prolonged absence of Cech and Terry. Even though Schevchenko and Ballack failed to lit up the league Chelsea were not far behind Manchester United. They won 2 cups, reached CL semi final, 2nd in the Premiership. A very commendable achievement under restricted playing resources (Chelsea's own fault I know). Anderson and Nani are not guaranteed success yet. And in any case they are not going to replace Scholes and Giggs outright. It will still be the same old Man U (Rooney-Scholes-Giggs-Ronaldo) vs Chelsea.

i watched luque and viana videos on youtube when we signed them not saying they'll turn out the same but it's not a good guide. Surely you are lying? YouTube only came to existence in 2005, whereas we signed Viana in 2002?

Ok if Saha is going then they will need a replacement. But Saha isn't going and no one (quality player) would want to come and become an understudy to Rooney whole season. I reckon Samaras could do a decent job there

vs Carr + Babayaro

I am not dsaying Anderson is a striker. Is Nani a right winger by the wy?

Why do they so desparately need a top quality striker? Rooney with Saha, Ole and Smith as backup is a more than decent setup.

Why is that a gamble? If the current crop are good enough to win the Premiership this year, maybe they will be good enough to win it again next year? With Scholes and Giggs' positions altered so as they could run less, I see no reason why they couldn't perform as good next season, when they are even more familiar with their new found roles. Their age will eventually catch up with them, it is a good time to sign both Nani and Anderson to provide sporadic cover now and replacing (if they are good enough) them eventually.

Premiership clubs conspire together to buy the whole Europe What will happen to Rossi now, mate? :'( Coming back to Manchester United?

FSP wasn't exactly crap was he? Wasn't given much chances, understandably but didn't do badly when he has the chance. Scored a few goals for Liverpool. Whereas Le Tallec socred a pair of goals only the whole season for Sunderland.

Now this is a very formidable team, presently and in the future. 4-2-3-1 Rooney (Saha, Smith) Giggs, Scholes, Ronaldo (Nani, Rossi, Anderson, Park) Carrick, Hargreaves (Fletcher, O'Shea) Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Neville (Silvestre, Pique, Evans, Brown) VDS (Foster, Kuszak)

Premiership clubs conspire together to buy the whole Europe

Or official Scott Parker bashing day?