AyeDubbleYoo

how much would the british legion draw in if people didn't get a poppy to say "look at me everyone, i'm a caring person", like i say it's all about appearance. Don't understand what you mean.

Wearing a poppy is "doing something" though. The whole point of the appeal is to raise awareness as well as raising money. I don't see that they are "needed" on the England shirt, but I don't see why they shouldn't wear them if they want to.

Really pleased he isn't our problem anymore.

Wouldn't go that far. If a reserve comes in and performs well it's great and obviously helps his cause, but I don't think it means he automatically should start. Especially since he only played in the first place due to injury.

He's a great squad player for us, not sure whether he'll ever be more than that but he seems to have come on a bit recently anyway.

Always thought Liverpool's spending was a bit slapdash and obviously quite wasteful with regards to fees. They spent a fortune without really creating a balanced team. They might still do well, but I'd love to see them struggle.

Our problem in that past has been dropping points against the likes of Wigan and Hull. I'm not worried how we do against the top few teams, as long as we correct that.

Alan "The Dreamboat" Pardew.

Always forget he's still only 25, as a centre back he could still have his best years ahead of him. Would love him to get an England cap at some point, but it won't be under Capello.

Aston Villa!

They can sniff off.

He'll never play in a better team than ours, however many grand extra he could get from Stoke or Wigan won't make up for that. I like him a lot though, wouldn't be sad to see him sign another deal, and I think he will.

You agree we're worse than we were last year?

Genuine question, why don't you think we'll score? Surely Taylor will power in a Cabaye corner, or the other Taylor will hit a vicious free kick, or HBA will conjure some magic. Positive mental attitude man!

Well yeah, but they created the circumstances in which Liverpool thought it was OK to pay £35m for Carroll. They would never have paid that if they hadn't brought in £50m for Torres.

I just think it's a massive discussion about absolutely nothing, based on no evidence. If there were any talking points about him I could understand, but there doesn't seem to be any. Anyway, I don't like meta-debates really, so I'll shut up.

Either way, we extracted a very good price for Carroll. Based on his form now it looks mental, but based on his form then it would have been cheap to sell him for £20m.

Oh yeah, forgot about Best's kid.

Exactly, the great thing about the City game is that we have high confidence plus zero expectations - that's always a recipe for a surprisingly good performance.

If Best is missing, and Cabaye back, I would go for the 4-2-3-1 with Tiote/Cabaye in midfield and HBA behind Ba up front. May as well give it a shot. Is Tiote definitely fit?

It's no good, it'll never work! Save yourself!

Can I just second and third this? Any chance we can stop this thread being so shite?

This thread has to be the biggest rollercoaster on here. Remember how amazing it used to be?

Wanted to post that really but I couldn't be bothered. Somehow we've managed to generate about 20 pages of argument about nothing.

Well HBA is a different style of player, no doubt a more exciting one. It's hardly surprising that people are ready to forgive more mistakes by HBA, his very style of play demands it. And when he gets it right the results will be spectacular. Gosling deserves patience as much as anyone returning from injury, obviously. And game time.