ponsaelius

Gomez played 50 games a season in previous seasons and lost his place to Mandzukic through injury. He definitely is less of an 'all rounder' than Cisse. He'll touch the ball to put it in the net and that is it. But he's extremely good at it.

I didn't think people who enjoy Green Street would frequent and have accounts on IMDb

Chelsea's success in this is making a mockery of the competition.

We could still seriously do with both. We lack players with technical ability, craft and skill (especially when the ones we do have are injury-prone) but we also lack genuine pace and athleticism to stretch games and also give us weapons on the counter-attack. This is why I'm so vehemently against the potential Carroll signing which solves neither of those weaknesses. For all the talk about our shocking set pieces in reality set piece weakness is only accounting for a missing 5 or 6 goals a season and I find the issues with our general play (personel and manager both at fault) far more infuriating and detrimental to our progress.

I think Alves has been one of the few Barca players performing at an acceptable level in recent months.

How?

That's because he is. His physique isn't there anymore; he can still produce some magic games, but can't last the pace of a season anymore. Hope Thiago plays a bigger role next season. He's not though, he's only 33. I'm surprised his physical decline is affecting his game as much as you're saying it is.

Gomez is certainly not a player you hit with long balls and 'play off'. Not in the slightest.

Get old Haidara to tap him up, worked wonders with Cabaye and his army of goons. Gignac is his cousin. Sign Gignac then get him to tap Mollo. Disgusting.

That hattrick goal is just majestic.

David28 must be gutted with Bayern winning yesterday and his boys getting smashed tonight.

If I was a German who supports teams other than Dortmund and Bayern, I'd be a bit miffed at why all these German players couldn't replicate it when it mattered twice against Spain and against Italy in recent years.

Gundogan has been so good.

2 more goals and an assist tonight. Probably edging his way out of our price range.

Actually, Dortmund have rebuilt the club mantra because of needing to cut the budget and rebuild financially. They nearly went bust. Over many years, certainly. Villa/Lambert have done it this season because there's no more investment. It's not as if they've had this planned out and groomed stars for several years at Villa (even though their u18s won Next-Gen this year). It's not the same.

Actually, Dortmund have rebuilt the club mantra because of needing to cut the budget and rebuild financially. They nearly went bust.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0llFo922O4

It was always going to have to be more than 7. They couldn't punish him less than the Dutch federation did, that would have caused a shitstorm, and considering it's a re-offence of a truly weird act, adding one more match onto it would have been seen to be pointless. Taking all the factors into consideration, 10 is about right. If this was just an isolated incident, I doubt he'd have got more than 3. That's why you can't compare a leg breaker and this scenario, in my opinion. I didn't even consider the repeat offending angle, but you're right. Same was applicable for Barton's ban.

Last season's is terrible, it's worth having just to have all the highlights archived for me. The actual production value and watchability is rubbish though, compared to the older season reviews. The one benefit of the new ones is: no Roger Tames.

Interesting quote Stottie, I must say the Barton thing is the only time I've seen it happen. Plenty of players have bans still to fulfill if they ever return to countries because they were never carried over. Regardless of that, I don't think 6 games will deter any CL club from buying a world class player.

Won't the ban only apply to FA-sanctioned games? Like, in England? French FA upheld Barton's ban, but countries are under no obligation to do so and I hink that example is an exception to the rule. The FA didn't with Suarez' Ajax ban when Liverpool signed him for example.

Not really. If he goes to Juventus for example, there is not a chance in hell the FIGC will enforce the ban on them.

Well that's the problem with the rule about the referee having dealt with the incident at the time. It should be changed, but it doesn't make this ban wrong. Do you think biting somebody is 7 games worse than breaking their leg? It depends. Biting for me is a particular kind of disgusting. Deliberately breaking someone's leg is extremely bad, accidentally doing it with a late tackle is part of football. Why do you ask? Fair argument. Still think there is little to no consistency, just random numbers plucked from thin air.

Small club, innit.