Segun Oluwaniyi

Couldn't disagree more. A good keeper is immensely valuable. Especially if you haven't got a great defence (and virtually no one in the league does, at the minute). I just think the difference between good and great isn't as vast as with the other positions. Most of the keepers from the lower tier Premiership teams could play for Chelsea and the Manchester clubs without looking out of place, and I don't think it is the same at any other position. Most keepers make the saves they need to, make the occasional error, and pull off the odd wonder save and most of them are pretty similar. I don't think it differs that much from keeper to keeper.

You should thank us for making your country look competent. The Kinnear to your Pardew. Yeah, man. We're coming at some point. According to Colin Udoh and other jounalists, half the players missed their flights out of Namibia, but I'm sure the boys will be there before the Tahiti game. Well, probably. Boycott is over anyway.

It would be good if he started showing it on the pitch regularly if he is indeed massively underrated and a much better player as you suggest. He's played 30+ games in the last few seasons in one of the best teams going and he helped his nation win the ACoN. That's proof enough for me. He does the simple things well IMO, doesn't go round scoring screamers and getting the headlines but he's a solid 7/10 player most games. Well, if it is true that Chelsea are willing to sell him at a loss they must not be overly impressed by him. What you are saying to me sounds not much better than your bog average Premiership player, hence my statement he is not much better than Tiote imho. In such a good team, most Premiership midfielders would be able to do the simple things well and be a solid 7/10 most games. There's no indication they want to sell. Gala contacted Shittu (agent), not Chelsea, and offered huge wages. He's appeared for them hundred's of times for about twenty managers and literally almost always been in the first team. As a player, he does all of the things that Cheick is meant to do without making angry faces and getting copious amounts of yellow cards. Strong on the ball without during pirouettes on the 18 yard line, good passer who makes few errors, cuts off the angles, and wins headers. Play with more responsibility and further forward for Nigeria in a Yaya Toure type role and plays extremely well there as well in a slower tempo of football. Extremely consistent and useful player. A 6 foot 3 number 10 who can't (never could) shoot or run at pace? Nah, he's a good passer and skillful when he's allowed to be, but needs to play further back. He's been brilliant for his country since Keshi dropped that number 10 rubbish and just let him run the midfield.

Oceania is not part of Asia, and I'm sure there is plenty of money to be made running their own federation and participating in their own tournament/WCQ instead of repeatedly being destroyed and knocked out of the first round of everything in Asia.

Keepers are overrated in terms of importance, imo. There are only 10-15 in the world I'd pay 10 million pound for. Even the best ones, how many wonder saves do they make that another sound reasonable keeper wouldn't have a chance with. I'd wager less than once a match on average.

That's less than some people on here want for Tiote, who is inferior. They also have no incentive to sell him. Udoh said Gala interest is real, though. Lovren is just a big name who happens to be a thoroughly average player. He is young enough to still have potential and was alright maybe two years ago, but I'm not impressed. Southampton will need more than one to fix their defence anyway.

Because he's already served his sentence and is talented at his profession. The crime also happened when he was 15 or so and predates his professional career entirely.

I am actually terrified they will beat or draw us, but at the same time I'm prepared to accept it when is inevitably happens.

Nah he only wants to go to Bayern. Yep he's going to reject every other move, so he can go to Dortmund's rivals for nothing. C*nt. It's well within his rights to do so. Bayern will offer as much as anyone else and he wants to go there. Why shouldn't the club release him? That Bayern are rival title contenders and doing so will strengthen them at the expense of Dortmund? Dortmund has every right to reject Bayern's bid and hold out for other offers. Can't see an issue with them playing hardball with the player or getting more if Bayern wants to force it through rather than being held ransom just because their player wants to go. I agree with you, both sides are well within their rights to do what all of these things. I just don't think Lewandowski should be portrayed as a bad character because of it. He has his mind set on one club and this club are willing to pay.

Nah he only wants to go to Bayern. Yep he's going to reject every other move, so he can go to Dortmund's rivals for nothing. C*nt. It's well within his rights to do so. Bayern will offer as much as anyone else and he wants to go there. Why shouldn't the club release him?

I think Di Canio will do quite well at Sunderland (midtable) at least for a season or two until he burns himself out. The problem with Sunderland is that they currently have the most nonathletic, lazy, and unfit side in the entire league. They also have a manager who sets his team to play aggressive, fast, athletic football. Their recruitment and training under O'Neill was quite literally a joke, and the players it has left are not a match at all. So essentially, he has to identify who he wants to keep from the current rubbish and build the rest of the squad from scratch. Signing fast, strong players on free transfers and for low fees allows them to build a base and potentially buy a few bigger names to complete the team with the transfer funds or the funds from the inevitable sales. That being said, it is a very risky strategy, and it is Sunderland, so things will eventually end up with them being rubbish.

I wonder if he'll want to go there. I know money talks, but with so much supposed interest from big clubs in western Europe, it'll be a tough decision.

Why do you say that? Because we'll do better, or just they won't sack him whatever? Because he survived the worst season I've ever watched and we won't do as badly as that next year so there's no reason to sack him. You were born in 2010? I wasn't as bothered about the relegation season because there was so much going on (Keegan, Kinnear, Shearer etc) that it was likely to end badly. There's no excuses at all for how badly last year went and that to me is far worse. How does last season compare to other 'poor' seasons for you? 1997/98: Keegan gone, Kenny Dalglish here. Ferdinand gone, Rush signed. Shearer gone (for the season), Paul Dalglish signed. Title-challenging football gone, Champions League football here. Are a moment of history (Tino) and an appearance at Wembley enough to make up for the sheer contrast between the previous season and this one? 1998/99: Dalglish gone, Mr Sexy Football here. Champions League gone, Cup Winners Cup here. Rush gone, Guivarc'h here. Another Wembley no-show, early European exit and another nothing league campaign for the team that had been genuine title challengers not 2 years removed. Lowered expectations? 2004/05: fresh off our 4th, 3rd, 5th SBR is sacked and Souness is tasked with the job of dismantling his squad right before our eyes. A couple of cup runs are ended by 4-1 thrashings while our best player ends up with a medal but in a different league. 2005/06: a continuation of the Souness debacle is abruptly halted and we dither about looking for a replacement while Roeder is stood holding the fort as we surprisingly qualify for Europe. This was poor season for all that happened OFF the pitch, rather than on it. Shearer broke the record, so I guess it wasn't all bad. 2006/07: Roeder seemingly gets the managers position via osmosis, leads the club to it's first minor trophy since the Texaco Cup of 1992(?). Playing squad continues to be decimated by injury and transfers (both outgoing AND incoming). A decent UEFA cup run is ended when we manage to throw away a sizeable lead against AZ Alkmaar; the inevitability of that 2-0 defeat summed up Roeder's 'style'. 2007/08: New owner, new manager, new success on the pitch? Not so, as Fat Sam is hounded out by the fans thanks to his shocking signings and rubbish football. In hindsight, this may well have been the point when the new owner (FMA) realised that the club couldn't afford to keep pretending to eat at the top table of football clubs and decided to run us within our means. Cue a decade of 'lowered expectations'... 2008/09: won't talk about this - 4 managers, or something. None of those seasons resulted in us securing our PL place after game 37 with such a good squad so they aren't as bad. The 08/09 season was too much of a car crash to be compared to how settled and stable this season was. They're the worst on the list. 07/08 was class with KK The "KK revival" consisted of about 4 matches in total and only served to save us from another serious relegation threat My main memory is getting 1 point from Derby. Still, that 4-1 over Tottenham is one of my favourite matches in recent years. The Viduka dummy for Owen and Oba annihilating Teemu Taino's career. The 3-2 the year before as well, with the Oba wonder goal and strikes from Huntington and Butt. Remember when we were Spurs bogey team? Times change fast in football. I don't think any of our young players (the ones in the reserves+Sammy, Ferguson, Tavernier, etc.) will make it in the Premier League. I've not been impressed with any of them. Ferguson looks the best I suppose, but he's just so small and physically weak. Also lacks the guile to be a real attacking wide player at the highest level, imo.

Only 36! That's 18 in MLS years. 37 next month actually He didn't even cut it in Liga Adelante anymore, bar the occasional FK. His legs fell to pieces years ago. My main memory of Marcos Senna is always going to be him playing with his shorts completely drenched in blood, during Villareal's run to the CL semifinals. I was stunned they even let him continue. He was a fantastic player in his day, I'd assume he's on the verge of falling apart now, as I assumed he had retired. It always irked me that he played for Spain even though he had absolutely no connection to the country whatsoever.

‏@tancredipalmeri 3m Chelsea have placed a 50m € bid for Cavani And away they go. Isn't that only ten million or so pounds short of his supposed release clause? They should just go and fulfill the thing, what is the extra ten million pounds really going to mean to them?

Many people would consider Wonga to be usurious. All Western banks violate Islam by charging interest, but the excessive interest charged by Wonga may simply be more egregious.

I have a feeling that Cisse is going to come out of this looking very bad.

We have so many Muslims at this club: Ben Arfa, Sissoko, Yanga-Mbiwa, Abeid, Haidara, Cisse, Marveaux, Tiote. It is very strange that only Cisse seems to have been upset by this. You have to consider that Wonga have sponsored other clubs as well for several seasons. Have none of these teams ever fielded a Muslim player? Maybe Papiss is just more devout and vocal than others, but it is odd, imo.

Slightly dangerous precedent to let players put whatever the hell they want on the front of their shirts.

I vaguely (was only 6 years) remember the 96 Olympics simply because we won the football and there were massive celebrations, but 1998 is my first coherent memory of the sport. Such a wonderful tournament. http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47956000/jpg/_47956191_1998_oliseh_getty512.jpg Oliseh against Spain is probably still my favourite football moment. I naively thought we were actually going to win it after our group stage performance. There wasn't any television in my home, so I didn't actually get to see many of the games aside from the Nigeria games and the big knockout matches, but I still followed it very closely. I supported Brazil and Ronaldo after Denmark beat us and was in a bad mood for a month when France beat them.

I don't understand can be so violently averse to Bent. I rather not sign him personally, but he's always been a decent player.

I'd argue we wouldn't need any other defenders if Colo stays (massive question of course), given the versatility of Santon and Yanga-Mbiwa, and the ability to recall the likes of Ferguson and Tavernier from the loans they ought to be on if the club has any sense.

Of course, they deserve praise for bringing us success in the 90's and early part of last decade. I just wonder what you think would have changed after 2006-2007 if Shepard was in charge. Go back to that time, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United look unassailable, these are the days of the "big four". One season passes before Manchester City are the richest club in the world. Allardyce was Shepard's appointment, and he was backed and given control over our transfers in that first window. We saw how things progressed that season. What would change? We might have spent more and a competent/experienced owner and board probably would have avoided relegation, but we were still stretching ourselves financially to pay for inferior players at a time when the competition in the league was fiercening to unforeseen levels.

That said, it's nothing new isn't it. Ashley's tenure has been nothing but a gradual lowering of expectations and a series of blunders and penny pinching. It's not Ashely's tenure, either. It was around the same time that Abramovich/Mourinho entered Chelsea, Rafa enter Liverpool and Robson was replaced with Souness. We made our mistakes at a crucial time. Since that point the competitive clubs have been Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United, and Liverpool, with Man City joining them when they became the world's richest clubs. Everton have stayed in and around the top half without actually achieving anything of note. Clubs like ourselves and Villa have mounted decent challenges through either unsustainable spending or shrewd transfer moves, but it hasn't lasted. Those seven clubs have been the most successful for almost a decade now and are set up to dominate for the near future. We have to do something drastic to alter the hierarchy. One thing I will say is that this "Liverpool better without Suarez" talk is nonsense. They beat a team that had already been relegated in last place, a team that had capitulated and maybe deserved relegation, and a Fulham team that weren't mathematically safe until Wigan lost to Arsenal. Is this meant to impress me? The idea seems to mostly stem from the 0-6 against us, but we all watched the match and it didn't finish that way because Daniel Sturridge saw more of the ball.

I have always wanted us to release 18 magpies all across the stadium at the beginning of every home match. It would have a great effect.