Neil

"Watch every game of the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup live on BBC Three, the BBC Red Button and the BBC Sport website." That's from the BBC website - so I can only assume, with BBC3 not on till 7, that the website will have a live stream. I'm waiting for it atm Edit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/default.stm Yep, about to come on. Edit MkII: Aye it's on.

Brazil kick off against Egypt in 20 minutes for anyone interested.

Nile deleted me. Ive readded him.

Has Negredo moved? According to Hunter on SSN, it's 50m euros plus Negredo for Villa and Albiol.

Albiol's quality.... I think. Unless he's had an awful past few months. Negredo is also an exciting striker.

Who are you looking to replace Barry with Brummie, any names? I know you said he certainly wasn't your best player last season but would you be comfortable with Petrov, Sidwell and Reo-Coker being your central midfield options (correct me accordingly)?

Mind, we got rid of the young lad Kissock - a bizarre one, I got the impression he was one of the better young players and could even have got a few first-team appearances next year. Think there's been something going on there. With All these players leaving though, signings are surely imminent, or at least planned? Shirley?

Yeah - feel sorry for Castillo. A canny enough player and not given much of a chance, would have been pleased to see him stay as a squad player, assuming there was a modest transfer fee. Nuno I don't think has played this season, and VDM. Well, an interesting character! Mind IIRC his child has quite severe mental health problems so whilst thats not an excuse, it's a mitigating factor.

About fucking time we ought to have some money like. Kenwright IMO is being too picky - I find it hard to believe a big club, relatively stable, with plenty of history and an already good squad/manager has not already attracted investment, whilst, in all honesty, currently lesser clubs like Sunderland and Pompey do. Only stumbling block is the whole stadium issue which is taking infinity to progress. Would be good to see what Moyes can do with a bit more money. And I'd be very excited if he could do it at Everton. Edit: That all said, I doubt the Middle-East rumours are true, but you never know.

Don't forget our monstrosity

I'm still transfixed by your avatar Skirge, so I can't give a relevant response to the topic.

He's a..... solid player.

From an outsider's perspective, ultimately I would. Despite all the bullshit, the recklessness, the fact was you enjoyed some relative success. If he actually mixed a bit of long-term stability into the concoction then things could well work. Whether that's in the Fat Controller's mentality is a different question.

Elaborate shortcuts ftw. Albeit a contradictory concept.

I'm sure there are other available replacements?

You've answered yourself there - fluidity and interchanging of positions wasn't needed against Plumbers XI's defence. But I take your point - we sometimes look static and short quick passes are still often beyond us. The 2nd paragraph is all very true but not a problem as such - we know Beckham's getting old and thus this 'quarterback' position seems a natural move for him. Of course against better sides, no it's unlikely he'll be able to impress like he did last night, but I prefer to see it as a positive, that Beckham still at least has that excellent passing of his, when the opportunity arises. I doubt he'll be played against the better teams. Or at least not starting. My main concern is the wings. Walcott, I know he's young, but he needs to be delivering more now. Next season will be massive for him I think. Gerrard, again, against Andorra etc, can play comfortably from the left, come inside, dictate the game. Against the top teams? I doubt it. He needs to be played centrally I think.

I keep being in 2 states of mind regarding Madrid. Can Kaka, Ronaldo as well as whoever else they play, play successfully in the same side? Those 2 players both need large degrees of freedom to perform effectively.

The main point of optimism has to be Capello like. Been a winner all his career, and seems to be installing that mentality into the squad but of course can't make a full assessment quite yet. Cautious optimism though.

I'd like to see a formation similar to the one Chelsea has used recently Green (or whoever, not really fussed) Johnson Rio Terry A.Cole Carrick Gerrard Lampard Walcott J.Cole/A.Young Rooney Something like that. Carrick playing the Essien/Mikel role, Gerrard being Ballack, Lampard being Lampard. Think it could suit our team, the only problem I see is whether Rooney would handle the lone striker role, especially as he's more and more being used as a midfielder in Man U. Walcott's the main problem with that idea mate. Simply hasn't delivered, e.g. tonight just aimlessly running into defenders. The Croatia game increasingly looks like a flash in the pan. I'm prepared to change my mind in due course but next season is the time IMO that he needs to start delivering on a fairly consistent basis.

Is it the top 3 who go through automatically and 4th goes into a playoff?

Key question for me is can Young play as effectively on the right hand side? If so, at the moment I'd go for James (well, whoever tbh, no-one stands out) Johnson Rio Terry Cole Young Lampard Beckham Gerrard Rooney ..........Crouch..... I'd seriously consider deploying Beckham in defensive mid. Up front... if we stick to the 4-4-2, it's hard to think of someone to play with Rooney. Experimenting with a sort of 4-2-3-1 formation might be an idea.

Based on it yeah but I don't like the look of it personally. May grow on me, maybe.

My main thoughts: 1) Is it viable for Beckham to play the defensive midfield position? Any pace he did have has gone but his passing, as seen tonight, is still absolutely excellent. Worth a go? The question of course is whether he still has the intelligence to buy himself the time to produce those passes, against better opposition. 2) If we don't play Beckham there, please play Carrick ahead of Barry. Much better player and you can see his development through playing with great players. 3) Walcott faces a make-or-break season next year with Arsenal. All I saw tonight was a pacy winger who had little intelligence, constantly running straight into defenders. Yes Andorra packed the defence, but he really didn't use his head. 4) Crouch was once again cumbersome and fairly hopeless. Depressing that we don't have any sort of competent target man. 5) Large chunks of this were the remnants of the McClaren England, relying on long balls and pointlessly trying to play a killer ball far too early. If we kept it simple we probably could have had more. Still, of course, the test comes when we play decent opposition.

Upson. Lescott is the better defender in the Premiership, but only in the Premiership imo. More of a bruiser/bully type who'll get caught out when ball watching by quick/intelligent movement. I reckon he's out of his depth at international level, which is what he's looked like in the few games hes played. Has Upson played against any decent opposition? I see what you're saying but your description can describe Upson ad infinitum. I guess I'm biased though.

It'd be nice to open them up early and not let up but yeah, 3-0 is probably a likely scoreline. Perhaps 4.