Village Idiot

Ferdinand, Terry, Upson, Brown Ferdinand has been quite crap this season, but still think should be first choice if he can regain form. Upson's by all accounts has had a very good season. Terry is the captain and still a very good defender, and Brown is an utility player. I would have had Jagielka if fit,and of course Woodgate, but won't happen.

This, an often overlooked aspect of a team that get's "too many" penalties. Sides that manage to spend a lot of time in the opposition's boxes are more easily in the receiving end of dubious penalty calls.

Raúl linked to New York Red Bulls and LA Galaxy in the New York Post If he signs for NYRB I'm poofing off to Boston.

I'll ring Capello and tell him to call Cole up just to piss you off.

Interesting, I just read that Gudjohnsen isn't available for selection for the replay because he didn't play in the original tie. Do you need to use the same squad?

A bit of a short list, it feels like i'm rather voting who you should leave out instead of who you should take. But I admit there's not much else to realistically go for. Anyway, I'd go with Rooney as lone striker if you ask me. Then Crouch, Bent, Cole. I'm dubious about Defoe, he's a better natural footballer than the other 3 I listed, but seems to blow hot and cold too often.

One hour total. I think the matter is if the injury worsens (he already missed a month this season due to it) or prevent him from playing at his best.

Apparently Kaká's injury was detected after the last Barça - Madrid game. An op was discarded since apparently it's a pretty aggresive surgery. He will need 30min of therapy before and after training and games every day, the rest of his career. Again, as reported by Marca (who I don't think would do WUMing when Kaká is involved). Doesn't sound good to be honest. Maybe they are buying time for the end of the season and World Cup, and then he will undergo surgery. EDIT: Another update from the horse's mouth himself. Apparently he knew about it, and Real Madrid knew about it when signing him.

Maybe the reason Milan sold Kaká has been discovered? Marca reports today that Kaká suffers from a chronic groin injury, which shouldn't affect his performance but will require treatment during all his playing career.

Kasey Keller is so good he even has a theme song, like wrestlers! Okay, probably I stretched it a bit, but 5-6 years ago he was better than anybody you put in an England shirt, and I will fully stand by that. Spain has the best set of keepers in the tournament (not *the best* starting keeper, mind, Casillas is not who he was 5 years ago, thank fuck)

My heart bleeds for Mido. Not.

That's all I have found about the seeding process: Croatia is a somewhat surprising top seed.

Time to beging the title defense The draw is this Sunday, probably after a gruelling and cruelly drawn out ceremony. Pot One: Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia. Pot Two: Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania. Pot Three: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Pot Four: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus. Pot Five: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia,Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein. Pot Six: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino. Amusing to see Liechtestein *not* in pot six.

Our second dip was worse than the first, I just don't think we would have had the second if we hadn't of had the first. We'll never know. And if you had not signed Robson you'd not have signed Sounness afterwards. Causality is a slippery slope. Better take all the events separately. Can I be a bit controversial? I think it was the second coming of Keegan. Not because of him as a manager, but because it was the time when I realized that your board had truly no plan whatsoever and you were f***ed in the long term (still, I wasn't expecting relegation). As I feared they would just jump the gun again and again (Kinnear, Hughton, Shearer) until disaster abated.

I will cherish the day when Souness returns to managing in the UK.

for some bizzare reason I had a dream the other night that Barca signed Arda Turan. Would be a pretty good signing for you's imo. I once dreamt that barca signed me. Even in my dreams I was so s*** that I cost the manager his job :lol: I once dreamt I signed for Real. Best part was that all of a sudden it dawned on me. "f***, what are you doing playing for Madrid", and I turned round and scored an og. Then I woke up.

for some bizzare reason I had a dream the other night that Barca signed Arda Turan. Would be a pretty good signing for you's imo. I remember him from the Euro 2006. He was pretty good there, but haven't watched him ever since.

We thought the away game was going to be tough, but in the end we turned them over pretty easily. Fingers crossed for the same again. pretty easily ? I watched that game and I distinctly remember Cardiff having a boatload of chances and Newcastle scrapping a 0-1 win by sheer luck.

I rate Guzan pretty highly, plus Howard and Friedel (both currently better than Guzan). And if you're going to draft James, I'd put Keller before him. And I don't think people like Hart are better than Perkins or Hahnemman. The USA have a great goalkeeper tradition (I assume due to the prevalence of hand coordination sports - yank footie, basketball, baseball... that kids play there)

In the usual merry-go-round of "who's Barça going to sign next", today we have been linked to Benoit Cheyrou.

Moses wasn't in the Wigan squad for today. Guess he was in the stands to make up the attendance numbers.

Why aren't you flaunting your keepers Mike? One thing that the USA has over the English. Can think of half a dozen yank keepers I would have over the dross listed here.

Arsenal will have another chance to cling themselves to the title race. Will be interesting to see if they don't bottle it. Really looking forward that game now.

Wikipedia lists 17 league appearances, I assume most of them will be bit parts, but it's still poor.

He hasn't scored for them this season has he?