Neil

That was like my attempt at defending. Just run and stuff and hope it works.

That was decent. 1-0 Robben.

Most English teams for this league, yeah. In a way, he's symbolic of England's limitiations. He's now seen as a key player in this side it seems, but his technical ability is limited to say the least. He has his strengths which I think shouldn't be ignored but I compare us to the benchmark of world football - Spain - and I see Alonso or Busquets lining up for them. Players who are strong defensively but offer a lot more. As has been said, while I maintain criticism of him has been very harsh, the fact we're relying on him in such an integral position of the team is symptomatic of why England are streets behind Spain.

Even worse, a few of them could start throwing the trophy at each other for no apparent reason, causing numerous injuries and compromising squad depth for the start of the next season. Not worth it.

That looks grim to the nth degree.

Haven't understood the criticism of Parker personally, think it's been over the top. He has sure as hell got his limitations (watching him trying to do something in the final third is more often than not painful to watch, but I think he's a very good defensive midfielder in the sole purpose of breaking up attacks and keeping it simple. A player I would have in most teams. Yes, before you say, his award last year was undeserved.

they are going to try and spell out ftm in the crowd with them. should be interesting. watch it morph into BNP. they will fuck off early- by 90 mins there will only be enough left to write FT. Boom boom.

they are going to try and spell out ftm in the crowd with them. should be interesting. Can't tell if you're being serious. Judging by some of the stuff on RTG, you may well be?

What's this 1500 Sports Direct bags thing about?

Juninho, Emerson, Mendieta... ... Ugo Ehiogu, Abel Xavier, Alan Boksic, Afonso Alves. Too many to name.

I thought Randy Savage was quite reasonable when he was on here?

Speak for yourself.

The usual argument given by supporters of various clubs is this whole bollocks about "stretching the squad" and "what about injuries?" It's all garbage. What the hell is the point in competing if you don't want to progress, i.e. play in Europe? Playing in Europe increases the stature of the club. This will attract a better standard of players. This will help the team to progress and become better. This simple yet instrumental route of progress is bizarrely overlooked in favour of the mentality of a cold Thursday night in Bucharest being the end to all the players' fitness.

I agree. Wonderfully constructed graph.

Isn't it Sa Pinto trying his hand at management with Sporting currently? Really like Basel this year. Hope they knock Bayern out.

Villa aren't going to get relegated in the same way you weren't going to get relegated in 2009. They've dropped further and further down the league as the season's progressed and they've just lost their main goalscorer for the rest of the season. An unimpressive manager, unhappy supporters. It's not likely but the ingredients are there.

Giving up on this increasingly. Take Adebayor out 2 games ago after he does nothing for ages. Last 2 games: 2 goals and 5 assists and bonus points. Why the hell is Micah Richards not playing? That's twice in recent weeks when he's not been injured Man City have kept a clean sheet and he's just not played. The one transfer in the past couple of months who has actually done well for me, Valencia, then gets injured for a month. Ever since I played my wildcard, things have gone very wrong.

Might have misread the table. Well then, even better in terms of showing that for all their supposedly great recent form, they've barely caught you up.

Easier for me to say, but... I'm not sure why you're feeling quite so nervous about it. Yes, it's the derby, but I see no reason why you can't turn them over yet again. In terms of derby form, you've consistently had the better of them for years. In terms of recent league form, you could point to Spurs away and Wolves home; equally, you can point to Sunderland losing in the last minute vs Arsenal, and getting thumped by West Brom - a team who are hardly top 10 certainties. I'd also note that for all this talk of O'Neill working miracles at Sunderland; they've only reduced the initial 15 point gap (when O'Neill took over) between them and you to 10 points. I'd suggest that will have them pretty peeved - despite going on a great run of form by their standards, they're still a long way back.

Hi there CR7, I see you scored a class goal earlier. Oh well, never mind.

Pretty sure the officials have got every single on/offside decision wrong this half.

1-1.

Slime Games was class.

1-0 Barca after a very frustrating first 35 minutes for them. Alves.

Palermo apparently went down to 10 men in the 1st minute today. Impressive.