AyeDubbleYoo

What a load of bollocks that list is. Barton and Tiote both have good ability, Bramble has decent ability as well (his problem is his head), Diaby is class, Anderson and Palacios also have decent skill and passing. Many of the strikers are better than that too - Agbonlahor certainly is. The amount of black players he's named is also a bit worrying.

I think it was also down to a policy from Man City of not letting their good players go to Premier League rivals. The same reason Shay Given didn't manage a move. I would think that, if City had been open to it, Bellamy would have played another 1-3 seasons for a Prem team then moved to Cardiff for the last couple of years of his career later.

Bingo, job done. Any idea how it has affected game attendances, if at all?

Would it really matter that much though? Unless the percentage was huge, you would still need Sky Sports to make sure you got a decent amount of games you actually wanted to watch. It's a tough one to answer, I'd like to see some sort of pay as you go system, comparable to going to the match, where you pay £8 a match or something, but you have every single game to choose from. Obviously a radically different model. Problem is that football is the only thing at actually makes Sky TV worth having for a large section of their customers, the rest of their content is either bollocks or available more cheaply elsewhere.

She's got a point about Sky having a monopoly - I'm slightly surprised it has been allowed to happen TBH. Problem is that spreading football rights around different broadcasters might be even worse for consumers, as they will have to buy more than one subscription TV package to watch all the games. This is already a problem with Setanta/ESPN. Obviously if the Premier League could provide a good range of games to fans at a reasonable price it wouldn't have so many problems with illegal TV or internet viewing. This is what it really should be looking to sort out.

Man, Carroll's a mere youngster... if he thinks he deserves England caps already then he needs his head checking anyway. Not suggesting he does mind, but I think it's a bit mad to think he'll be looking for a move to get recognition already.

It's his acceleration that's astonishing. The highlights from Everton are ridiculous.

Wouldn't that be the Elite squad? just what i was thinking Development XI?

I hope we do, problem is we might not have much time to assess how the injury has affected him. Maybe we'll do another deal for next season the same as the one for this.

Nailed. He has a positional awareness about him so he makes sure his first touch takes him away from danger more often than not, probably makes his first touch look better than it actually is (in the sense he doesn't seem to kill the ball stone dead, rather moves it in another direction) This was Zidane's great ability, and to a certain extent Lampard has it as well. Great awareness and the ability to touch the ball into exactly the right place.

I was expecting players to target him, but didn't expect it to go this far. TBF it happens in all levels of football, even in 5 a-side the cloggers make up for their lack of ability by hammering the good players.

Kevin Davies deserves to play for England, but he should have been called up 3 or 4 years ago. Capello is making no sense at the moment.

I'd be delighted to help show support to the lad. Absolutly gutted for him and the club. Me too, if we know where he'll be staying I would definitely be up for sending a card!

I would be pretty angry if I was Torres TBH, the pressure on him is out of proportion because all his team mates are shit.

Looks a proper player still, as he did against Chelsea in the cup. Difficult decision, made easier if Colo needs to sit out a game with his injury. In any case, we will need all 3 at some point in the season.

Not so sure, I would say he's a confidence player who will benefit from the manager putting faith in him. Anyway, his period of droppage was probably enough to scare him a little bit.

In any case, good players with potential, who are overlooked a bit at their current club, are probably the best signings we can be making at the moment. Great to have spotted and signed him.

what a guy. cant believe he even had the effort to put his hand up to the fans after suffering that. Great to see he will be doing all his rehab here as well. Was slightly worried he would disappear off to France and never be seen again. The man, the legend.

They usualy classes as "shots blocked". They are on the SS website anyway. Well done - does that mean 'NEARLY a goal, VERY nearly a goal, or just that the person making the shot was too slow to get past the defender...!? Lies, Damned lies - then Statisitics ; Stoke - we LOST, Blackpool, LOST, Man C LOST - those are the facts,nothing will change them. True, but surely results don't tell the whole story any more than statistics, do they?

It's called the "I wasn't 100% sure it was a pen so I can't send the guy of as well" decision.

I like it. Me too, it's class.

I thought it worked alright actually. Squeezed the game in the middle of the park and showed their midfield up as lacking creativity and the ability to play quick one touch football. Yeah, that's kind of what I meant... it seemed a bit risky but in the end it worked pretty well. Not good for the heart mind.

Wow look at me, I'm different and macho. I can compartmentalize my emotions and be sooo rationale about the whole thing!

If we'd got Bellamy we would have another 5 or 6 points. But obviously City weren't letting him go to a Premiership rival, seems to be their policy now.

The high defensive line seemed a bit mental, but I suppose in the end it didn't actually lead to that many chances. Pleased with the performance, but obviously the whole thing is marred by the injury and the penalty decisions.