Elliottman

Honestly can only see a win for us. Felt like that for every game since Cardiff.

"Just what i needed after 3 years at Newcastle" yet the fucker was saying he wanted to stay and "fight" when we went down. Out of everyone, i was most please when this guy left. couldnt bear the thought he was on £60k a week for us.

£3 on - Football Europa League Liverpool v Benfica Match Result 08/04/2010 20:05 Liverpool @ 8/13 Extra Time Does Not Count. Football Europa League Wolfsburg v Fulham Match Result 08/04/2010 20:05 Wolfsburg @ 4/6 Extra Time Does Not Count. Football Barclays Premier League Hull v Burnley Match Result 10/04/2010 15:00 Hull @ 8/11 Football Coca Cola Championship Newcastle v Blackpool Match Result 10/04/2010 15:00 Newcastle @ 4/6 Football Scottish Cup Celtic v Ross Co. Match Result 10/04/2010 12:15 Celtic @ 2/9 Football Barclays Premier League Man. City v Birmingham Match Result 11/04/2010 16:00 Man. City @ 2/5 £3 returns £26

cant see fulham going to wolfsburg and winning, i think wolfsburg will be too strong at home. as for liverpool... didnt see much of the game last week, but looks as though the sending off changed the game. i think its a decent double.

liverpool and wolfsburg should be a safe double i think. not sure who to go for on the treble though...

need man u and rangers for my treble.

i'm leaving well alone. munich were much the better team in the first leg and man utd dont look too good without rooney. robben could be back aswell. marseilles and rangers for me. not much value there? edit: stick man u in there however, and it gets a bit tasty!

can you do folds on the skybet website does anyone know?

Barca/Yankees double

think barca/inter double is a safe bet?

can see the likes of villa, everton etc coming in for Cole and Ireland if they become available. Its going to be an interesting summer.

fucking everton bastards

how about just keeping his head down and working hard instead of saying things like this? dont know why people feel the need to come out and talk to the press.

will miss expecting to win everygame, certainly at home. wont miss the division as a whole, the prem is the place to be, cant wait to get back in it.

according to stelling, 1 point will do it. party on monday!!!!

playing the worst team in the league, have another game on monday. plus Barton, Shola, Smith and Best to an extent should be way to strong for these.

probs last game of the season.

our lass has just seen carroll in town, so he wont be playing tomorrow

Valencia/Hamburg double.

but what about his inability to buy from abroad? surley you'd look abroad if you were being priced out ofthe market over here?

Zero chance of this happening for so many reasons. ...And the reasons are ..? None, apart from Scholes not wanting to move here, seem insurmountable to me... are you kidding? do you honestly think Ashley would finance wages for Scholes at 35? What 50, 60, 70k a week??? No chance. why would he want to come here? up and move his family where they have lived for the past 20 years for 1 season?

Great article - Gabriele Marcotti Tuesday offered a textbook case of how quickly rumours can spread. Peter Lansley's piece sums up neatly how unconfirmed reports of Martin O'Neill's resignation as Aston Villa manager romped around the web and the airwaves. Heck, I was part of it too ... retweeting Oli Kay's tweet (which, responsibly, reminded us that it was UNCONFIRMED) and then watching the mayhem unfold. I have to confess I don't understand the O'Neill phenomenon. Maybe it's my fault. I don't think he plays outstanding, innovative football. I do think he sets out his teams in a well-organised counter-attacking system and generally gets them to execute his game plan very well. But so do others. I don't think he's particularly shrewd or creative in the transfer market. By my reckoning, since arriving at Villa Park, his club have spent more money than any other team in the Premier League (£88 million in net terms) with the exception of Manchester City. And, after all that expense, Villa will probably finish somewhere between fifth and seventh which basically equates to the club punching its weight. Take a quick look at history. O'Neill finished 11th in his first season and sixth the last two years. The much maligned David O'Leary took Villa to sixth place in 2003-04. That was his first season at the club and he took over a side which had finished just three points above relegation the previous year. In the seven seasons between 1995 and 2002, Villa finished fourth, fifth, seventh, sixth, sixth, eighth and eighth, while winning the League Cup in 1996. The guys managing Villa in those years were Brian Little and John Gregory (with a bit of Graham Taylor thrown in). Neither Little nor Gregory (let alone O'Leary) are spoken of in the same glowing terms as O'Neill. And yet they achieved what they achieved without the massive investment from Randy Lerner, but with the rather more cautious Doug Ellis at the helm. I fail to see what in his results at Aston Villa suggests he's any different from his peers who achieved comparable results, like Harry Redknapp (with a comparable budget) or David Moyes (with a smaller budget and smaller wage bill). Further muddying the waters - and, again, it's probably just me - is the fact that I don't understand what his transfer strategy is. Since arriving at Villa he has only bought players from British clubs, with three exceptions: John Carew, reserve goalkeeper Brad Guzan and Moustapha Salifou (who is 26 and has yet to start a league game). It has been a pattern throughout his career. At Celtic, in five seasons he brought in three players from abroad: Bobo Balde and Joos Valgaeren who were pretty good and Michael Herbert, who never played a single league game for the club. Now, you obviously don't need to buy players from abroad to be a good manager. But the fact that he has bought just six in nearly nine seasons is a bit of a head-scratcher. Unless he's somehow prejudiced against them (and I don't think he is), it suggests his scouting network and decision-making maybe isn't what it should be. Instead, he's bought British players, mostly young ones, for which he's been widely praised. But again, it's not as if he's unearthed gems, signing some teenage left back from Colchester who then goes on to become the next Stuart Pearce or an underrated striker from Reading whose career he helps get back on track. Most of his British signings are fairly obvious ones - well-known players at market prices, whether it's Stewart Downing or Ashley Young or James Milner. There's no great nous or imagination there, it's basically a case of bringing in brand names. And paying accordingly for the privilege. He's supposed to be some kind of guru to young players, but, in fact, he's given league debuts to just four home-grown players in four seasons. One of them, Isaiah Osbourne, is now on loan at Middlesbrough. The other three - Ciaran Clark, Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso - have between them started a single league game this season and played less than 300 minutes between them. He's meant to be methodical and clear-thinking, but then he signed three quarters of his starting back four (Stephen Warnock, Richard Dunne and James Collins) in the last hours of the transfer window. Which actually doesn't suggest much of a plan at all. What you're left with is his results. Which, as stated above, are good but not exceptional. Three SPL titltes, three Scottish FA Cups and a League Cup in five years. But, of course, that was at Celtic. Gordon Strachan, his successor, also won three league titles, as well as a Scottish FA Cup and two League Cups, and he did it in four years. You don't see Strachan mentioned in the same breath as Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough do you? And, yes, he did take Celtic to the Uefa Cup final. (But then Steve McClaren also took Middlesbrough to a Uefa Cup final). O'Neill strikes me, ultimately, as someone who does the job to the level you would expect, given the resources at his disposal. Nothing less, nothing more. When you have a net spend of £88 million over four years, a top six finish is the least you can expect. We'll never know, of course, but one would imagine that, say, David Moyes might have attained comparable heights if he'd had £88 million to spend, instead of the roughly £20 million net spend he's had to work with since O'Neill's arrival. Who knows? Maybe some of the folks further down the food chain would have as well. Heck, maybe even Brian Little and John Gregory. Would he have been more successful than, say Rafa Benitez at Liverpool or Wenger at Arsenal? Maybe, maybe not. But, while I can imagine an argument for why he would do worse, I have yet to hear a cogent argument for why he would definitely have done better. (I'm all ears, BTW. Though, of course, I accept that it's mere conjecture, we'll probably never know). One more thing. Lansley's article mentions suggestions that O'Neill is under pressure because Lerner, Villa's owner, is unwilling to make further large investments in the club. If that's the case, it's more than understandable. You spend big, you get the players you want and then you work on making them play well together as a team. O'Neill has succeeded in doing so with Young and Milner, now it's up to him to make it work with the others. But now comes the real test of whether he really is a special manager or just another "good" manager who succeeds when he's awash with money. Now we'll find out what he can do. Provided, of course, the unconfirmed rumours are wholly false and he does decide to stick around, even with a switched off tap.

Zero chance of this happening for so many reasons. What? He's been texting Carrolls lass? ermm, im not sure. i wouldnt have thought so.

Zero chance of this happening for so many reasons.

my gaffer email the Gaudian about this going mental at her. What a disgrace she is.