brummie

He was good, but he never had anywhere near the class of a Gascoigne or a Hoddle. With the one difference that Platt consistently produced for England. Something which Hoddle didn't manage. Depends if you're going to factor England performances in to your list, really. Example - John Barnes, fantastic player in the league, how many England caps? 80 odd? How many decent games for England? 3? Depressingly familiar.

I know what you mean, great fancy football, but it must be very frustrating to watch. Give me half the over elaborate build up play and a few more goals / results.

Based on position only I think. at £500k per position that would be £2m less than last year. This is all assuming we stay above the might that is Blackburn and Man City. Citeh are starting to look decent of late. Apparently they were good against Arsenal this evening, and they've got their traditional 3 points to come from playing us in two weeks.

yes you do your new owners are laughing themselves all the way to the bank tbh And who do you think is salivating most at the thought of another minimum 30m? Our new owners, or your current owner? We've just spent £9m on a new training ground and 4m doing up a pub next to the ground, Vic, we're minted. Haven't you heard? Get with the plan, baby.

Next season, don't the bottom club get 30m and the top club 50m? And don't the fans all have to subscribe to Sky AND Setanta, in order to pay for it all?

too much galacticos tbh. ^^^^^ funniest post ever ^^^^^ And I'm not joking

West Ham - Spurs was easily the best game I've seen this season.

Funnily enough, I wasn't there, but our fans said exactly the same thing about Bilbao, that it was the best European away night ever, and that the friends were incredibly friendly, a night to remember by all accounts. Later on in the competition, we played Atletico Madrid, which i did go to, and it was absolutely fucking dreadful, van loads of coppers driving around, jumping out and batoning our supporters, women and children included, at random. As we entered the ground, they were lined up at the side swinging randomly at us. The exact opposite of Bilbao. I've been a major fan of the Basque country ever since.

Yes, it was Villa 3 - Charlton 4, 99 or 2000 I think. Their keeper was sent off, but I think it was Danny Mills who scored the winner, and it may have been in injury time. It was indeed them going ahead, us pegging them back and so on. I seem to remember we had someone sent off as well, actually.

Doesn't appointing a DoF invariably lead to tension between him and manager, and manager leaving?

I read yesterday that Spurs that last year was the only time in 16 years that Spurs finished in the top six, which frankly amazed me, and possibly puts last season in perspective. FWIW I've quite enjoyed watching their UEFA games this season, unfashionable thought it may be to admit it here.

I probably shouldn't say this but I've got almost as soft a spot for Sunderland as I have for Newcastle. My best mate at Uni was a mackem. I even got dragged to the 1990 Div 2 play off final against Swindon, which remains the worst match I've ever attended. I'm expecting Stevie to arrive now and shout at me a bit.

People walking around in 110 degree heat. That game was obviously a classic, but there used to be a song on Fantasy Football League that went "Old football was crap, Old football was crap, Old football was crap, Old football was crap, Old football was crap etc...." I've watched the 1966 World Cup Final in full, players made mistakes in that game that would be unacceptable in the Conference now. That memorable goal by Carlos Alberto wouldn't have even been conceded by a back four of Carr Bramble Ramage and Huntingdon now. That may or may not be so, but it's one of my favourite goals of all time. Love watching it. I think it is probably the most perfect piece of football ever, it really does make the hair on the back of my neck stand up every time I see it. Especially when you watch the whole build up. If anyone wants to know why football is the beautiful game, point them at that goal. Carlos Alberto talks through it here: (apols to mods and please delete if youtube link not allowed) I think Argentina's goal against Serbia by Cambiasso was far far better, the best example I've seen of a goal being scored by a patient build up and movement off the ball. I think that was a stunning goal, but the thing I like about the Carlos Alberto goal is that it just had so much nonchalant swagger about it. And the way Pele hardly even bothers to look before flicking it out to his right, he just knows *precisely* where his man is going to be.

I enjoyed France v Russia from 1986, but solely because it had the great line from John Motson "Rats beats Bats!" (Vassily Rats scoring past Joel Bats).

People walking around in 110 degree heat. That game was obviously a classic, but there used to be a song on Fantasy Football League that went "Old football was crap, Old football was crap, Old football was crap, Old football was crap, Old football was crap etc...." I've watched the 1966 World Cup Final in full, players made mistakes in that game that would be unacceptable in the Conference now. That memorable goal by Carlos Alberto wouldn't have even been conceded by a back four of Carr Bramble Ramage and Huntingdon now. That may or may not be so, but it's one of my favourite goals of all time. Love watching it. I think it is probably the most perfect piece of football ever, it really does make the hair on the back of my neck stand up every time I see it. Especially when you watch the whole build up. If anyone wants to know why football is the beautiful game, point them at that goal. Carlos Alberto talks through it here: (apols to mods and please delete if youtube link not allowed)

I remember NTL buying shares in our club, the papers reported that they were only allowed 10% maximum (ie they bought 9.99%) because of PL rules since they already had a similar amount in another PL club (cant remember who) as well as Celtic. Villa? Correct, they had 9.9% in Newcastle, Villa and someone else in the Prem I think. Possibly West Ham? And there are rules about ownership of more than one club in the Premiership. Plus, why would RA bother buying an English club at some stupid inflated price, he'd just buy some cheapo French team or something and farm the players out there.

Today must be a very difficult day for you, Dr.

sounds like you're talking from a pulpit. Nah, I'm swaying around, clutching a can, jabbing my finger at nobody in particular and scaring my friends.

One could argue that we should all stop deluding ourselves with this rubbish about Fulham's expectations, take a step back and realise that outside the top 4, we've all got the same limited expectations these days, the gulf between them and the rest is so huge. Maybe there'll be an interesting scrabble around for the couple of places in the (utterly fucking pointless and devalued) UEFA cup, or a decent cup run, but that's about it for the lot of us these days. Sneering at clubs because they don't have quite as many fans as you, or their ground is a bit knackered is pretty fucking unpleasant, tbh, and just makes me think of everything that is fucked up with the game these days (and I'm talking here about anyone, regardless of the club they support, spouting the 'they should think themselves lucky to even get to play us in the big league' nonsense). Before doing that, we should probably have a think about how clubs like Man United think about the clubs we support, and reflect on the similarities.

Fking hell.

Loathe the club and their fans though I do, I'm quite happy to see them beat Roma.

Don't get me wrong, the pressure on him is huge, but there is, as The Janitor said, a lot of other stuff going on at the moment, in terms of the club being changed absolutely to the core, it is hard to fully describe how deep the changes they are making are going. This has a doubled-edged effect for MON. It makes it harder in some ways, as everything is changing all the time. It makes it easier in other ways, because the fans are just so relieved to be rid of Ellis, and happy to see the other changes, that they'll give him a season to basically settle in to the job. I think he'll get it right, I really do. I can't think of anyone outside the top 4 I'd rather have at the club as manager, regardless of the criticisms that can be made of him, and I genuinely can't wait for the transfer window to open and for next season to start. It is all about ambition, under Ellis there was none. Under the new regime (managerial and board level) there is ambition galore, and the structure and cash to back it up, so that'll buy him plenty of patience.

This may sound a stupid question, but I don't know, I haven't seen much of one of them, and obviously even less of the other, but if you had to get rid of one as they couldn't play together, who would it be, a fit Owen, or Martins?

Janitor, I applaud you. And even we don't like Lee Hendrie. We're convinced he's a bluenose.

I fear this is very true. There might be one surprise package every few years, but by and large, the gap is too great. In reference to the impact thing, I'd say he actually did have a big impact at Villa, in that we were the last team to be beaten across all the divisions, but that in the latter part of the season, we faded, but as you said, we're not yet a MON team, not by any stretch. Worth remembering, he parachuted into the job two weeks before the start of the season, and with Ellis still in charge. That's no preparation. Let's have this conversation in 12 months time, that'll be a fair time to judge - a full summer transfer window, a full pre-season and a whole season of his own team, then we'll have a better idea of how things are going to pan out. Don't get me wrong, if things go badly, then I'll be happy to say I'm disappointed, but at the moment, i'm incredibly optimistic that things will go well, we've got a great manager, we've got rid of the worst chairman in the league and replaced him with a guy who is looking more and more like he could be the best in the league. MON has everything in place to be a success, if he isn't, then there'll be no getting away from it, it will be there for all to see. But judging him now is unfair.