The Prophet

Respectfully disagree. I'd say Gerrard is currently the only genuine class act in the England side.

So why has the Premier League been inferior excluding the top4 in recent years then? Huh, it was just a passing comment. What do you mean by inferior? I made a post on your opening post above.

I read an article not too long ago called "My Rooney is better than your Rooney" or something along those lines. It's a good read I'll try find it. Edit: It was basically about how it appears by turning him into a team player Man United have taken something from his game that was present during the Everton days.

In terms of the lower league's the strength and depth of English football is amazing considering we have four fantastically competative tiers of football.

It truly is impossible to define the "best" league in the world. They're all so unique and while I do appreciate the football in La Liga to the Premier League it's all subjective. Personally I love La Liga because of the technical game. It's pass and move, individual skill and a good footballing brain the breaks down opponents, defence is often weak leading to high scoring games which are pleasant on the eye. Barcelona are easily the best team in the world and while Real aren't fantastic they're still a mile ahead of anyone else in La Liga. You could say that makes it a weak league but sides like Villareal, Sevilla, Athletico and even Valencia are still a touch of class. The Premier League is about the grass roots, blood, sweat and tears (well more tears than anything else these days). I find the Premier League boring due to the domination of the top four. No one plays particularly pretty football and the long ball is prevalent. However it's the commitment, the work rate and a greater emphasise on set-pieces that makes it such a physically unique league. While the top have continued to pull away things have tightened up between the rests of the league leading to a particularly tight, competitive league this year. The German league is improving after its slump not too long ago. It gave head to a particularly exciting title race this year which gave up to seven teams the chance to nick it. Lyon's domination in France came to an end as Marseille and Bordeaux raised the bar, while the Italian league is still trying to find it's feet after a pretty disastrous couple of years. It wasn't helped this year by it's one sided title race, defensively based game and lack of atmosphere in the stands. I'd class those five as the five major leagues in the world. Each is exciting and eventful for its own reasons and while I truly appreciate the game played in La Liga others may not. It's all subjective and can often depend on your own ideals in football.

What impressed me about Barca again is how hard they work to get the ball back. Rare to see from a continental team these days.

Barca are thr only team in Spain able to compete with our top four. However I'd say outside our top four the Spanish have a stronger league.

I'm not sure if it would be more satisfying to see Barca stick about five past them or for the Mancs to go two up and Barca to come back and win it late on.

Jesus wept, better be a 4-3-3...

It's worth mentioning for every person tripping over themselves to defend Ashley there's another lining up to take a shot at him. Opions generally seem to favour either extreme rather than sit in the middle of the two.

They said the earliest we'll hear anything is Thursday anyway didn't they? Or was that paper talk?

Would have mixed feelings about signing him, as I said in another thread he's a goal threat but his discipline is dreadful, got his fair share of red cards last season. Also his first touch is poor which could be important in a greater quality of league. Nothing that can't be improved like, if he's going on the cheap go for it.

Pawel Brozek been heavily linked with Stuttgart in the Polish press recently. I could see him replacing Gomez, obviously not as good as him but having scored 50 goals in 70 games in the past two season he's finally beginning to live up to the expectations (was touted as the next big thing few years ago having scored 12 goals in 11 U-21 games and all). Is that the lad who plays for Wisla Krakow? Haven't seen him personally but heard good things about him.

I think last years was stronger for a start. Southampton, Charlton and Norwich all went down but are capable of causing serious upsets on their day, plus the New Den and the Valley weren't exactly our favourite grounds in the world. There's something wrong if we can't turn over sides like Peterborough and Scunthorpe. No matter how high they are flying we should be capable of knocking them over, all though the players shouldn't be taking that attitude. Blackpool, Plymouth, Coventry, Doncaster and Crystal Palace are all pretty poor. Palace will improve this season but will finish mid-table at best in my opinion. Leicester and Ipswich are two that could go either way. Keane will have no where near the amount of money he was given at Sunderland so it will be interesting to see how he gets on. Forest and Derby will improve this season but they've got a lot of work to do while the rest will compete for play-off/automatic spots. I have a feeling Swansea might struggle this season especially if they get raided in the summer, they'll struggle to hold on to the likes of Gomez and Scotland. QPR will probably push for the play-offs but even with their money I can't see anything better on the hoizon. So no unpredictable yes but not the strongest by a long way.

Juve overpaid by about £7mill if that's the correct fee. Aye right o. Yeah, obviously worth the same value as Palacios. The Palacios transfer was £12mill so either you're bad at maths, or it's back to the drawing board for you. I had it down as £14 million don't see what difference it makes Diego is still a touch of class and is probably worth the money they paid for him in this day and age.

Juve overpaid by about £7mill if that's the correct fee. Aye right o. Yeah, obviously worth the same value as Palacios.

Would be excellent in the Championship, shame Lovenkrands is pissing off.

It's probably already been said but Jordi Gomez would be an excellent signing.

I'm not sure why everyone is going on about Beckford. It is undoubted the lad has talent and an eye for goal but we could do so much better even at that level. His conduct is poor, he'd of pissed the golden boot this year is he hadn't of been sent off so many times. Also he has the first touch reminiscent to that of Freddie Kruger. I'd be looking at the likes of Noel Hunt, Keving Doyle, Ross McCormack, Jason Scotland, Luciano Beccio or even Simon Cox before I looked at Beckford.

Probably, Pele does have erectile disfunction though.

Well said.

To be fair, if we were going to lose i would rather lose 4-3 than 1-0, it's better fir the goal difference (goals scored and all that). Best edit that.

I can't believe anyone is shocked at the reaction. There's a cue consisting of opposition fans, media and arm chair pundits lining up to point and laugh at us, it happens whenever a club of any significance goes down, remember West Ham? A lot of it is down to the media who perceive us a bunch of us delusional, fickle, "we'd rather than lose 4-3, than 1-0" wankers when if you spent two minutes in this city you'd know it isn't true. We're not a well liked club lets face it, the annoying part of it is most of it is down to a false perception. We've gone down, we're going to get stick, I was the first to point and laugh when the mackems went down and I knew what was coming as soon as that final whistle was blown but we've got to take it with dignity it's all part of the game, you enjoy the highs and try to ride out the lows. And while it's rather bizarre for a club like Villa to give too shits about us given the proximity and position in the league it doesn't bother me. They've had their lows, they've taken their fair amount of stick under Ellis and now they're enjoying the highs just as we were not too long ago. It's easy to laugh when you land on both feet after a rough spell, let them laugh we deserve everything we got this season. After all how many of us laughed when West Ham went down? It hurts but it's all part of the game.

I have such mixed feelings on Martins leaving. I used to love the guy, he seemed as though he genuinely loved the club, we accepted his short falls and he accepted ours. He gave a shit, he was always the one who'd run his arse off and provide that moment of inspiration when it was needed. I don't know if it's because I've become apathetic about the club or I'm just appreciating the guy less but recently he's just become another player I can't wait to see the back of. I appreciate a mixture of low confidence carrying an injury and most importantly playing with the sack of shit he has have been detrimental factors but in my mind he's just become one of those unreliable over-payed wankers we are so overly stocked on. Those little misses have become more frequent and important, his low confidence meant he missed important chances at Arsenal and Portsmouth to name a couple. I thought he was going to be a hero again when he scored against Boro but despite his effort in the last couple of games his shocking finishing has cost us. The most upsetting thing is he'll go on to do well at another club. I wish the lad good luck and thank him for his effort and the good memories but his loss doesn't really bother me as much as it would of a couple of years back.

Other factors? They should hire you to spin the banking crisis. Twerp. For fucks sake man grow up. Read my post I've accepted Ashley and the board should take most of the blame which is why you're in this thread point scoring right? But to say the influence of Shepherd, Keegan, the fans and the players had nothing to do with it at all just proves the fact your on a relentlessly boring crusade. We're down accept it, all the finger pointing in the world isn't going to change it. We just need to move on and hope those at fault grow and learn from them.