leffe186

Oh Sturridge. That was such a waste.

Played against a few guys who made a handful of appearances for lower league sides and decent non-league, but probably the best was Greg Heald. He captained England schoolboys and went to Norwich, but injury kept him back and he went to Barnet - captained them in the Third/Fourth IIRC. When I was in the fifth form at school he was Upper Sixth, and we were CB partners for the school team. Two weird ones I remember were Ian Fusedale (a mate's Dad, played briefly for Spurs in the 60s) and some guy whose name escapes me who went to PSG. He had the quickest feet I have ever seen, fucking lethal, hated playing against him.

An awesome 19 points. Top scorers - eight separate players with two points, including my captain, Rooney. Three others with one. It takes a special talent to have every single one of your players score points, yet still only manage 19 in total.

This will make me think of my father every time I hear it, until the end of my days. (He's still alive, btw, just a long way away).

Have European refs just given up on booking players for simulation? Blatant ones in both the Rubin Kazan Kuban K-whatever match and ours, yet both refs just signalled for the player to get up.

Fantastic goalie cockup in the Rubin Kazan match . Edit: Sorry, meant Kuban Krasnodar or whatever their name is. Another team I've never heard of, tbh.

Someone mentioned it on a Spurs site. Isn't it Alex McLeish? Not listening to it here.

At the Lane *cough* in November. Don't worry, it's a Sunday game after Europa, so we'll be knackered, obviously.

Costa never played professionally in Brazil actually. Doing this kind of thing is not something I like, but ultimately if the player wishes to play for Spain and is a Spanish national I don't see it being that big of an issue. He was brought to Portugal and started his career there as an adult from what I can gather. This case isn't particularly egregious admittedly, but under the current rules there is nothing stopping some desperate country from creating lax nationalisation laws for athletes and and simple creating a national team that is really just an all-star foreign side from their local league. Qatar.

I know full well to steer clear on those days, whatever happens.

That seems to be the way AVB wants it =- width from the full-backs. Terrible pitch, this. Classic away Eastern European conditions.

I've only seen bits, but my impression wasn't that he was technically deficient, more that he didn't seem aware of the tactical plan (if any). AVB had expressly designed our play after the first few weeks of the season to maximize his freedom, at the expense of others. That's clearly not going to happen at Real Madrid.

Jesus, lads. I don't know what to say about that.

First time I've properly sat down and watched you this year I think. Anita, Tiote (I know he's not a regular) and Sissoko just look so positionally suspect, getting caught square all the time when you lose the ball. Ben Arfa is the outlet, but the oppo know it, and he's looking unnervingly like Andy Reid. The front three could be interesting, but you need more composure up there, and too many times the team seems to work as three separate units (defence, midfield, attack) rather than a whole. You just seem a bit ponderous. I can still see you exploiting their wing-backs though, as I think Debuchy looks decent going forward, and you might get some joy with him and Gouffran behind Baines.

Tiote would worry me so much if I were you.

He's one of those I have to play. The rest are all red inj. Taken an 8pt hit now

Aguero's injured? When the fuck dd that happen? Fuck this. Half my players are injured...again.

Similar to how we used to hire manager, just go for the opposite of the last bloke. Zola it is, then. Ossie Ardiles, surely?

I know we're s*** and that but f***ing hell. Have we been past the QFs since 1976? Nope. Last time we got past Round 5 was indeed 1976. Small consolation, but look at Sunderland's record over the last 10 years: 13/14 - 12/13 – R4 - Middlesbrough (H) 11/12 – R2 - Brighton (A) 10/11 – R3 – West Ham (H) 09/10 – R4 – Aston Villa (H) 08/09 – R4 - Blackburn (H) 07/08 – R2 - Luton (A) 06/07 – R1 - Bury (A) 05/06 – R3 - Arsenal (H) 04/05 – R2 - Crewe (A) 03/04 – R2 - Huddersfield (H) I mean, that is truly terrible. Ours: 13/14 - 12/13 – R4 - Norwich (A) 11/12 – R3 - Stoke (A) 10/11 – R3 - Arsenal (H) 09/10 – R5 – Man U (A) 08/09 - F – Man U 07/08 - WON - Chelsea 06/07 - SF - Arsenal 05/06 – R2 - Grimsby (A) 04/05 – R5 - Liverpool (H) 03/04 – R5 - Middlesbrough (H) At least you haven't lost in round 2, I suppose.

I know we're s*** and that but f***ing hell. Eh? Am I being whooshed here? You're going to have lost all your final games anyway. I assumed we're on about the teams, and how little we progressed. Yeah, sorry, was distracted by the shitty commentary on the Real Madrid game here.

I took a wild guess.

I know we're s*** and that but f***ing hell. Eh? Am I being whooshed here? You're going to have lost all your final games anyway.

Sssh. Hate knowing that.

You took it to the match?

They haven't just allowed it to happen, they've specifically made sure that it has.