leffe186

Surprised Gash would take that little, must be sick of the whole saga. I hope Barca agree to pay for his flight too.

Everyone to Liverpool!

Bassong was essential in getting us into the CL, formed a great partnership with Dawson when everyone else got injured. Trouble is, if Gallas, Dawson, Kaboul or King were fit, 'arry would pick two from them before Bassong. He's not prepared to accept that, and fair enough. I like him. Limited on the ball, and needs to be talked to throughout, but fast, strong and good in the air. Bringing in Gallas screwed him. Would like him to hang on until Gallas retires but we have one or two others coming through, and we may need to cash in.

14M? Really? Where did you hear that? Great if true. I'd happily keep him, but that would be a great deal.

Marianne Spacey - just came to me.

Not even close - too much of a physical gulf. There have been some extremely skilful players though - who was that England player a while back who played a bit like Chris Waddle? She was excellent.

I thought it was all right. Aluko was a trainwreck and should have come off, plus the goals were very women's football, but there was some decent stuff played.

Aluko (sp?) is the name of the forward. Fast, but rubbish on the ball. Mexico are a little cynical - niggly fouls - but getting more of the game. England need to hit a couple of shots like that Mexican one - their keeper is pretty small.

Watching it now. England look far better than Mexico - aren't they supposed to be the second best team in the group? England 1-0 up after lesson one in how to score against really short people. High corner and loopy header. You're right about that forward. England have played some really nice football, but Mexico getting players behind the ball and the forward whose name escapes me has wasted good opportunities to play a killer pass. Just as I write, Mexico score a screamer from miles out. Keeper should have got it.

Feel like I've posted this a few times! It's not all about transfer net spend. We've maintained a strong commercial income over the last few years, despite not being in the CL. Add high ticket prices (matchday income greater than Liverpool). Then you factor in our tight wage control, which saves us tens of millions each year compared to Arsenal and the rest of them. I suspect Wigan's net transfer spend is great, but they lose money because there's fuck all else coming in. Our problem right now is cutting out players who have done a job but are now surplus to requirements. It's pretty clear who they are. Then we've got to try to get the right forward. Levy made the call to use the CL money on Gallas and VDV's wages, but even without that money we should be OK if we lose Jeane, Bentley etc.

Aye,signing a midfielder who scored more than our entire midfield put together last season has got me really worried. Maybe if we replaced our 12 goal top scorer with a 2 goal a season player in Cabaye I would be really worried. Erm, Cabaye has scored 19 goals in his last two seasons at Lille. All the "12 goal midfielder Nolan" is such bullshit, at least half his goals came when playing as a second striker leeching on Carroll. He gets absolutely murdered when playing as a MC in a 4-4-2 and even if we'll play 4-5-1 I´d much rather see Ben Arfa in the hole than Nolan. A club aiming for financial stability would be crazy to sign Nolan on a 50k/week deal until his midthirties, sad to see him leave and would have liked to keep him aboard for another season but in the long-term this was the right time to sell. Wearside, man, you replaced a 20-goal striker with....nobody. You're in the glassiest of glass houses.

Burn the heretic!

Don't forget Birmingham City! Another nail in our coffin...

Me too, and I've liked him for over 30 years - not like you Johnny-come-latelys! Btw, did you guys know he used to be a lift engineer?

Oldtype is usually bang on the money. Felipao is the reigning champion.

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3008/newkitgroup637b.jpghttp://img405.imageshack.us/img405/9527/newkit1112homefulllengt.jpghttp://img26.imageshack.us/img26/4331/newkit1112awayfulllengt.jpghttp://img844.imageshack.us/img844/8025/newkit11123rdfulllength.jpg Our new kits. I like the home, the away is dividing people (I rather like it) and most are going for the third. The black is a bit predictable though.

You know what, I think I'd swallow my pride and take that. Go on Roman, you know you want to.

Misses the point. Root and branch reform of kids and youth football more like.

This is the really interesting bit. Makes new contracts for Shola and Saylor more sensible. I suspect we will end up keeping Crouch (and King) for partly this reason. That's an element of why clubs like Liverpool and us play kids in the Europa.

You what? Carrick was a better spurs player than Modric? is this even serious? Carrick was good but luka is a different class. I see where HTT is coming from here. Our team revolved around Carrick in his last season before us, he was terrific. Modric is a better player, and integral to our team, but in a slightly different way. I'm just a bit pissed off that a newspaper has made a concerted effort to unsettle a player simply because he doesn't play for the new "Big Four". Initially the Mail were angling for Man City or Chelsea, then tried to get Man U in, then Chelsea make a bid. I'm kinda with kd here. If we can offload a couple of clowns, then somehow convince a shit-hot forward to take wages that are half the amount they'd receive at Man U, City, Arsenal or Chelsea (or Liverpool), then Modric will stay this year. If we're not in the CL next year, Modric is off.

Daily Mail have been working on this for a long time.

Looks like Ashley's gone down there to soak up the atmos (blue shirt, at the bottom). See what it's like from the other side.

According to the Sun, 5 year contract, 50K per week, transfer was 3.5M with an extra 0.5M if they come straight back up next season. The Sun Still, if it really is that length of contract it's a ballsy move. I'm hoping you guys don't get that extra 500K.

Genuine question - what is Wondolowski good at? I haven't seen much of him at all, but everything I've seen has been a bit pants.

Miss of the year.