fredbob

Not sre who i side with, it clear that G14 are gotting too powerful and i am completely against any club or clubs becoming more powerful than the governing body, however i disagree with the Cup winners being rewarded with a champions leagues place, for me the Champions League is the best club cupo competition in the world, the qulaity of football in that league is superb, and by adding the smaller nations champions to the competition (which t be fair they deserve) they are goona do nothing but dilute the quality of football we see. I personally have no interest in seeing Barcelona slap CSKA Bollockchops all over the park. In the past years some of the FA cup finalists have been dire and have no right to be thinking about CL, imiagine Millwall in the CL group stages, thats a ridiculous risk to take for the CL. Its footballing suicide if you ask me, the CL is a perfect cup competition if you ask me. Leave it to the top 4 footballing clubs in there respective leagues, not the top 3 and a wild card.

I find it so strange that any manager can set out a teams game plan to be try and nick it 1-0. It just doesnt make sense to me, surely it's be easier to set out a game plan to win 2-0. Which means playing attacking football. Why would you want to put yourself under self induced pressure to not conceded when it'd be easier to play with less pressure with the knowledge of having a 2 goal league. I know it sounds screamingly obvious but i dont understand how any managers thought process could be to stifle creative football in order to strangle out a game.

I dont get it, surely the more they are paid the more they are taxed, meaning inadvertently the UK as a whole are making money off these Russian Billionaires. Why would you complain about that..seems to me like hes trying to earn a few extra votes off the hard done by working class.

I wouldnt mind him here as a stop gap but i'd much rather have a bit of youth in there, i honestly think that having a proper holding midfielder could be the key to this team. But there isnt a club in the world who isnt looking for a proper defensive midfielder.

you make a very good first point but there is no way he is as good as nesta. Ya see, Nesta is the only defender in the world who is comparable to Ferdinand in my opinion (or rather vice versa), they are very very similar, Nesta over the course of his career has been better than Ferdinand, that i agree with, but currently, i dont think that they are on the same playing field as individuals, i personally beleive that Nesta on his day in 2007 wouldnt be as good as Ferdinand would be on his day 2007. Personal opinion.

The things is, is while i agree with part of what Platini says i have to side with Wenger, Platini is obviuosly looking at the future of the game, but i think he misses one vital point and that is while the likes of millwall maybe able to have the natural talent, do they have the capabilities of nurturing that talent to there full potential, and to be honest i dont think so, i honestly dont believe for one minute that we'd be hearing about a young spanish midfielder playing in the centre of midfield for Barcelone at the age of 20(?) if it had not been for the likes of Wenger. Same can be said about alot of players, theres no ethical right answer to this because as the likes of Rooney and Torres and Cesc have shown, world class talent can be recognised at any age and so it would be unfair to cap the age at which they can leave a club because it would be hindering with there development. To be honest thinking aobut it i think its a pretty absurd statement to make, Wenger has created a handful of world class talent and if anything added to the game. Viera, Henry, Cesc, Toure, Petit(?), Anelka...the list goes on.

rozenhal did start off as a defensive midfielder. ask yourself why he got dropped back Am not questioning the reasons why he's not playing DM, am just sayin he seems to have the natural attributes to play as a defensive midfielder, couldnt possibly comment on why he doesnt play DM any more because up until mid summer av never heard of him, but all i can say is that if i had the option to play Kolo Toure as a DM, id be more than happy.

Ferdinand, no question, close to being the perfect defender, one of the true marks of being a great defender is rarely having to over commit yourself or having to make last ditch tackles, and ferdinand doesnt really do either. On his day easily the best defender in the world......maybe

Ramos for england

heeeeeee-larious

Its stupid isnt it, people just dont learn, SBR wasnt an instant success but he was afforded time because in his first 2 seasons there were good signs, in 5 months it fair to say that SA has implemented more improvement than SBR did in his first couple of seasons. Are the same people who want SA out of the job the same who wanted SBR out after his first season?? A bit a common sense and patients wouldnt go a miss.

When Butt plays weel, we play well, its what ive noticed for a couple of seasons now, i think it'd be interesting to see another player play his posisiton, somone who reads the game well but is more athletic, i think Roz would be an interesting option, he seems like a natural DM. Faye is another option id like to see but that would mean breaking up the Faye Cacapa patership, which i happen to ink is effective.

Precisely

To be honest, i have to agree about his attitude, i dont really like the, play for a draw attitude, it just doesnt sit right with me, on the flip side, i can handle these poor performances for the time being because of the dierection the club is going, people like Allardyce should never be compared to Roeder of Souness because never in 3 years did th club look anywhere near like going in the right way. I personnaly can wait till next year to see what SA can do for us because of the vast improvements he's already made. I think people are being hugely unrealistic about our expectations in his first season, its been 5 months and he's done more for the club than Roeder and Souness did in 3, he's turning SJP into a fortress, we're going in the right direction, be patient,see where we end up.

To be honest, and im basing this on absolutely nothing i dont think Barton and Emre are gonna work. They remind me of Parker and Emre. I cant see any other way arond it, maybe in a 3 man midfiled along with Geremi or Butt but not as a partnership. I also notice that when Butt doesnt play well, the team doesnt play well, it'd be interesting to see if we can get a young consistent DM in Jan.

No no no and no. Sam allardyce will have at least till the end of next season before his future comes into question, (providing england dont come calling). I think Mort and Ashley have been almost reliant on SA in bringing in a modern structure to the club, i think this year is relatively irrelavent in the context of where we finish, providing it isnt disatarous. The important thing is that we're showing signs of improvement, and i dont think there is asingle fan who cant see the vast improvement he's already made. We're definetely going in the right direction, just like we were doing with SBR when he first took over, so thats how it'll stay. To be honest, this year i will be able to handle alot of crap perfomances away from home because for the first time in 3/4 years SJP is finally turning back into the fortress it once was. It's taken SA 5 months to achieve that, its something Roeder or Souness never managed. Next year, there should be a complete air of stability and that is when he could be judged, maybe if he doesnt qualify then, then we will consider his future.

First half was ok, we jus didnt create which is fundamental to winning a game, could tell in the first half we had 4 CM we kept possession really well but the obvious lack of penetration started to show in the second half, which got really stale. Lost all direction in the second half, to be honest ya cant really fault SA for making his changes when he did, surprised that he took off Martins to be honest, SA must beleive that if anyone could of nicked one it was gonna be Owen, to be honest i thought Martins was looking far more dangerous, I personally would of taken off Owen but i guess ya cant do that to Owen, can understand putting on Smith because there was absolutely no link betweeen the midfield and forwards, Zog needed to come on as well as there was no width, really dissappointing that we couldnt retain possession in order to provide to the wing. The whole, point of our team selection was to retain possession and in the second half we didnt.

Again, another problem that am grateful we have, to be honest i see both pairings beings as effective as each other, The only games that i wold defineitley want to see Viduka and Owen toegther is gonna be against the top4 who probably are gonna have more possession than us, its gonna be important in those games to be able to hold up possession in the oppostition third, theres not many better players to do this than Viduka, on the flip side i think Martins and Owen will be a more prolific partnership.

Yes. I was one to slate Anderson early on, especially after the Covenrty game, but his passing is nothing short of excellent. Looks promising. Nani, on the other hand, is the definition of useless. Never any end product. He is s****. Nani is hard to judge at the mo, seems like a very lightweight version of Ronaldo at the mo, 19 years old, good control, very little end product, i think he's definitely one for the future though, has no penetrstion about him whatsoever, dont like him at the mo but think he could be good in the future, seems to have loads of confidence which i think will carry his talent through!!

Watched Man U the otehr night and Anderson looked a tidy little player, he reminds me a lot of Scholes in the way he distrubuted the ball, looks like a fiesty little player! Scary times for Man U, there have some scary talent!

4 in 5 starts ain't bad. (4 in 8 appearances for Dave's sake) Lol. yeh, lets hope he keeps it up and gets the recognition he's destined to get!

How anyone with half a footballing brain can call scholes and rooney over rated is beyond me, there arent too many players in the league, nay world who can make things happen on a regular basis, Scholes has been a superb midfielder over the years and the only obvious difference between Scholes of past and present is his goal scoring prowess. Rooney on the other hand is able to do it all, link up play is fanstatic, his finishing is good, creativity is good, work rate is good, tracks back, strong like a bull, superb control, and as a striker is able to take the game by the scruff of the neck and single handedly win the game for you. There arent many strkiers in the world that can do that and by that count alone i belive he's a world class talent, plus he's 22 and hasnt had a decent strking partner or played in his preferred position all the time.

Wait till Martins becomes prolific in the permiership, then people will be bumming him more. Hasnt really proved anything premiership wise!!

Goodbye and good riddance. *Waits for NE5 to show up like a hungry T-Rex*

No man, i disagree, i genuinely think nufc is a toy with him, i know businessmen lie all the time like politicians but i cant help but think that his interview the other day had some genuine felings in there, showed to me that he just wants to watch football and enjoy life whilst making a success of the club as well as himself. Cool, you disagree and i believe he is genuine down to earth bloke too. However, his PR company have done a fantastic job and all of the meeting the fans, buying the drinks, getting to know fanzines has openly been expressed as 'PR' by Mort. Just because something is 'good PR' doesnt mean it has to be cynical or lying, its just that, good PR and in a customer-centric high volume retail business, PR is as important as branding. When it comes to taking over a football club its even more important. When it is seen in the context of the Glazers it becomes the most important thing in the whole piece. Will not hear otherwise either. His excellent PR strategy is a credit to him/them imo. Yeh i agree with most of that, except in my opinion PR is a cynical business tool. It's completely agenda ridden and is only used in order to entice customers with the belief that there is a relation occuring between the business and the custom, which in the end isnt true, PR is the stuff like player bag packing, or Mort going round schools and stuff. Ashley on the other hand just wants to watch football, i dont honestly think for one second he has beenadvised to go drinking with the fans for the sake of PR. Or sitting in a nufc shirt, it all genuine which completely rules of PR....well thats my opinion anyway, hope it makes sense.