jdckelly

personally if I had a free choice between them I'd take Sturridge despite his stupid dance

thats whats going to be interesting, Rodgers had (relatively speaking, its still liverpool after all) little expectation, this season he will not only be expected to mount a title challenge but also to do well in the champions league. Interesting to see how he copes and how the squad copes especially after basically throwing away the title last time and how that affects them And they're a lot like us under KK, great going forward but easy to get at because they commit so much in attack. You can see a poor run happening, then again you can see a great winning one too. thats whats strange to me, Swansea under Rodgers were in a barca lite way very good defensively through possession (and bloody tedious to watch at times but different matter altogether) with worse players than he has now yet now they look rather hopeless at the back and bloody lucky they don't concede 3 penalties a game through Skrtel

It makes no sense whatsoever, imo, given that they have Lukaku who is significantly better at this point and fifteen years younger. Jose seems determined to sell him for reasons I will never understand. I can't see Lukaku ever being anything more than an impact player at Chelsea to be honest. Good player but I'm not sure he has the consistency and all round game for a team that will be challenging for the title and Champions league. he's only 21 and improving. Plus fact of the matter is Chelsea continue to have Torres playing games for them and Lukaku is miles better than him.

thats whats going to be interesting, Rodgers had (relatively speaking, its still liverpool after all) little expectation, this season he will not only be expected to mount a title challenge but also to do well in the champions league. Interesting to see how he copes and how the squad copes especially after basically throwing away the title last time and how that affects them

with 12 assists too.

It's a strategy without a doubt. hence why he did the interview at the end of last season. Pardew is a weasel and wont have the balls to conduct himself properly and that imo was the final nail in his NUFC career, since then I've been of the opinion that regardless of if Pardew is sacked or not HBA is done here probably best for all parties that he moves on, he's not going to get a look in under pardew and the higher ups don't seem to disagree with that opinion.

always the case early in pre-season especially with a fair number either not back post world cup or only just back so nowhere near fit not to mention experimental line ups

Exactly. HTM fought back from a double leg break and showed he was focussed. Then he's treated like Cisse and others because it's the Pardew way or no way. Today we're told that a fee of £8 million for Remy has been agreed with Liverpool. So either we won't stretch to £8 million for a guy who has proven he can still score goals under this managers non-sensical tactics or Remy simply doesn't believe in how we are setup, organised, whatever you want to call it. Just another to add to the list - Remy, Colo, HTM, Marveaux...... Just on the fee, if you believe the info, Liverpool are allowed to get him for £8m as they finished in the top 4, 5th and 6th would have to pay £11m. And everyone else (us) would have to pay £15m. Probably why we're not in the chase. that and from day one he clearly didn't give a rats ass about playing for us, always a means to an end

haven't improved their defense either or really been linked with any player who would improve it that I can remember anyway, obviously they have the money to but do they have the intent?

I see that and I completely understand the logic but there's this part of me that would just love him to return and get back to his old form just because he's playing for Newcastle again. Doubt it however can't see Hippo Head giving up Carroll

£14m for your team not to improve on last seasons squad but stand still, not exactly great.

yep, how the guy can look himself in the mirror even if (and lord knows I'm being very optimistic here) he's "joking" and its "banter". Utter scumbag

RIP to both of them

a rather hit and miss player for me, when he was good he was great but my god when he was bad he looked like he had only vaguely heard of the concept of defending.

Graeme Bailey ‏@GraemeBailey 18s Demba Ba has finalised his move to Besiktas from Chelsea.

was on international duty with ireland until a few days before the world cup

is he broadcasting from a cave?

celtic on bbc one scotland, champions league game

just seen it on ssn, wall deflected free back to him and beautiful strike to put it away

tiote did a fine job when he was captain last season

odd timing

someone was going to take it.

good grief someone got paid for that

Keith Downie ‏@SkySports_Keith 1h Remy Cabella will not travel to New Zealand with Newcastle for their pre-season tour. He's been granted more time off on holiday.

Is this Pete Graves guy the new David Craig? nah he's one of the presenters on ssn