leffe186

That's easy for you to say.

Injuries looking a little worrying. We knew no Lennon, but now it looks like no Kaboul, and poss no VDV or Adebayor.

Bugger.

I've always been of the school of thought that the risk of investing heavily in order to push on for European places (well, top four really) would never happen under Ashley and I still think that however, even he must have been tempted to do the maths on the potential returns on investing £xm to get us up there with a shout this season. Will we ever be closer? Would investing another say £15m this window have given us enough of a push to get us over the line into fourth? What would that be worth to us? It's obviously a risk Vs reward scenario but I wonder if it crossed their minds? That said, using the same logic, would the club even want Europa League qualification? Just look at Stoke and Fulham and the additional matches have effectively killed their league placings for limited financial return and probable loss of money due to the extra players needed - in Stoke's case at least. Well this is the crux. Any talk of "investing" 15M (or whatever) to challenge for the CL/Europe is a little spurious. As we (Spurs) showed last year, unless you have magic money and can pay players 100K a week, much of the CL money gets swallowed up in the bonuses needed to keep players like Modric, VDV and Bale. The Europa League doesn't generate all that much money for a club anyway. So when you pay 15M for, say, two new players, all the CL will do is pay for that and the increased wage bill. There might be some left over, but unless your squad is extremely strong you're unlikely to qualify again the following year (unless you go out really quickly). You will then probably need to replace at least one or two of the really good players that got you there in the first place, because a bigger fish will have snapped them up. Christ, I'm negative. Put it down to nervousness about tonight. It really does come down to money . If your income is in the top seven, then you should be in the top seven. I don't think you've overperformed given your squad. Arsenal and Man U (even though they're up there) have underperformed because of injuries and some peculiar transfer business. Chelsea have underperformed because they're in transition. Liverpool have underperformed because they are (a) in transition and (b) some peculiar transfer business. Us and yourselves have performed pretty much as we should I reckon. The top seven as it is now should stay roughly where it is for a while unless Fair Play actually means anything. If either of us have a good season we'll challenge Top Four (presuming you have a decent Summer transfer window). If we have a bad season then Everton or Sunderland will be sniffing around.

Surprised at the level of doom and gloom on here (not from everyone, I know). I actually think you guys have done OK. You were harassing them well, not letting them settle, looking more controlled when in their third. Robbie Keane has obviously been the key - Perch probably needs to start sitting in front of your back four. The problem with that is what your CBs do to deal with Bent - do they try to push on to catch him offside? Has been a bit touch and go.

No, like I say, it's only anecdotal. The only thing is that the guy saying it is usually reliable. Really? The rules are that players need to be born after Jan 1st 1993. I don't think that changes for the later stages. You can actually play two over-age players anyway. Maybe those over-age players were now too over-age?

So, to head off on a slightly different subject...the Next Gen comp. We withdrew after beating Liverpool in the quarter-final. It's a tourny for those born after Jan 1st 1993, so most teams have been playing 17/18-year olds. It turns out that we played a couple of foreign 15-year-olds in early rounds, but didn't realize that they were automatically considered minors and thus were technically ineligible. Apparently if they were English it would have been OK. Anyhoo, the story is that Liverpool had worked this out ages ago and sat on the information. They only raised it to us after we beat them, whereupon we informed the NextGen guys immediately and withdrew. A silly mistake on our part, but fair enough, and I'm glad we did the right thing. It just seems a bit sneaky that Liverpool only said this after playing us, when it seems that they knew about it weeks ago. It was a card that they kept up their sleeve, knowing that they could let us beat whoever, but if we played them they were guaranteed to go through. Hearsay of course, but there you go.

Honestly man, everyone says this. They can't all be right. I think yours and ours have been pretty even in the league. Bigger clubs often get shafted in the cups (e.g. you v Brighton) because refs seem to be a little generous to the smaller clubs. One or two clubs do seem to get more "luck" than others (Man U), but it's really only one or two. And they certainly didn't get that luck when they played you at Old Trafford. Over the whole season I suspect decisions have been pretty even for/against us - even taking into account the single most biased and appalling refereeing performance this year (unarguably us v Stoke).

...a week ago. Oh God yeah. That bloody gold logo. And then the football bit would be someone from FIFA talking nonsense. Remember that each sport had its own logo at the beginning of each piece, so at the end of each piece you'd be desperate for the next one to be footy. Yes! That was the one for me. Sitting down in the living room at 5 with my dad to listen to the classifieds and reports "Newcastle United 2..." "Yes! Must be a win!" "Somebody Whatsit 2." " " Would always come on when you stuck the radio on in the car after leaving the match. Takes me straight back there. Cannot believe nobody has mentioned standing at the games. Also, just being able to freely move around (at the bigger grounds anyway). We used to walk in at the corner of the West Stand and Paxton Rd, then walk all the way round the terraces to the Shelf, or the bottom of the East Stand. God I miss those days.

Same, actually really annoyed they've not mentioned it now, f***ing hell. Makes it even worse that Martin Jol has said it shouldn't have happened, implying he knows. Unreasonably p*ssed off here. I don't know what happened. There's talk that one of the lads who came on as a sub wasn't registered but if that is the case, it'd down to Darren Eales who should have got the eligible ones registered. But a couple of the players have been asked and they've replied saying they are not allowed to say, which is strange to say the least. I sent a text off asking and got a simple 'dunno mate'. It's the players I feel sorry for, but they've been badly let down by the club. This is going to be the end of me. Give it all up, man. Become a monk.

Well, come on Bolton then.

Classic good-Moyes Everton performance. Harry and hassle, really hard to beat.

Naah. RTGesque would have been a different thread (or three) for each title.

Donovan is such a clever footballer.

Naah, not quite enough self-belief against the big boys. Come back to me if we beat Liverpool and yourselves - Man U's next two games are away to Chelsea and home to Liverpool. I think City will be fine once Toure gets back. Can see absolutely no reason why you'd not beat us. Miles ahead in quality. No reason why you can't nick something at Anfield although wouldn't shock me if Suarez came back and knocked one in via a Sieg Hiel. Big game. Repeat of last year would be mint, they were all excited and on a run, and we just outplayed them.

Naah, not quite enough self-belief against the big boys. Come back to me if we beat Liverpool and yourselves - Man U's next two games are away to Chelsea and home to Liverpool. I think City will be fine once Toure gets back. Can see absolutely no reason why you'd not beat us. Miles ahead in quality. I think it could be an absolute cracker. Much will depend upon your full-backs, as I can't see us keeping a clean sheet.

Fuck, wasn't concentrating, didn't realize that Liverpool could be fifth after tomorrow. Come on lads, sort Blackburn out.

Naah, not quite enough self-belief against the big boys. Come back to me if we beat Liverpool and yourselves - Man U's next two games are away to Chelsea and home to Liverpool. I think City will be fine once Toure gets back.

I was just thinking that.

Isn't that normal? Sometimes you seem to have all midfielders. He's trying to give everyone a game. Shit, I completely forgot that it's "Deadline Day". Silly me, getting distracted by football.

We've got a rum old team on the pitch now. Six midfielders and a child up front.

Man U are absolutely pissing this.

If you'd won all your games you'd be top by a mile. Should've just done that instead. Damn it, Janet, you're right. We're doing it all wrong.

I hate the "what if?" stuff, but if Defoe had nailed that late chance against City I reckon we'd now be in second.

Oh bugger, here's Essien.