Village Idiot

Well, to be honest - Lampard aside - Ronaldinho was on the market after being s*** for two years, and Henry was heavily rumoured to want out until Guardiola sat with him during pre-season. Also Becks was in a s*** league and he weaseled a loan move shortly afterwards. So they weren't *that* far-fetched targets. You could have got one of them with the right circumstances (i.e. Milan not biding, Henry deciding he wanted to go back to England), maybe two investing heavily.

I admit to knowing f*** all about the whole fracas, or Mr. Ashley himself, but I found the following part hilariously sycophantic: Ashley was taking a leap into the unknown but throughout his life, he has always been prepared to take risks.

Didn't Bolton have some 6'9 Chinese guy on trial?

Newcastle's Iniesta tbf.

And also Vieira Willian for the left wing, as it seems City won't sell Robinho unless it's in a swap for Messi. That the guy who played for Shaktar in the Super Cup? Little black bloke? Looked really good if it is him. He's a big lad mate, about 6'4 i think looks massive! He's not, he's under six feet.

Love it how in the USA, contrarily, football is derided as women's sport

Balotelli has this bad reputation, but what has he done exactly? (honest question)

And also Vieira Willian for the left wing, as it seems City won't sell Robinho unless it's in a swap for Messi. That the guy who played for Shaktar in the Super Cup? Little black bloke? Looked really good if it is him. Yes, that one. And fortunately that's the only link that has a little bit of credence, as it has been reported a few times.

And also Vieira Willian for the left wing, as it seems City won't sell Robinho unless it's in a swap for Messi.

In another "no footie this weekend, what do we come up with to fill the paper" exercise, our press is linking us with De Rossi.

A squad in transition. If at least it was that. Thing is that the old time legends are still retaining their posts (half the squad lined up yesterday will be over 30 by the WC), and there doesn't seem to be a new crop of players to take over, or at least they aren't given confidence. Also, there are very, very few players around the Italian squad that are playing abroad. Given that the Italian clubs aren't as strong as they were in the past to retain potential stars, I suspect Italy is going through a talent slump.

Italy's really poor nowadays. They still scrape their typical dodgy wins, mind.

"Issues a hands off warning". A lot of the transfer talk is pretty ridiculous.

I remember the Gary Breen link. It's quite customary that we get linked to half the squad of every slightly successful WC side, particularly if Spain plays them at some point and is ridiculed by them. We were linked with Robbie Keane, too.

surely if they are good enough they'll come through whatever position. Keeper is a pretty hard position to break into. You don't get subbed in for the last minutes if you are winning, and you don't rotate your keeper in the league unless he has some truely shocking form. Always found strange that the EPL employs so so many foreign keepers.

Sad state of affairs if Almunia is the best England could select.

Xavi and now Cesc on the wing, seems we are taking a page from England in order to fit our 1000000 talented central midfielders. And Iniesta's not even fit.

Zlatan needs proper cautioning after this match. Barça players don't score against Hungary or the Netherlands

Would love for Hungary to make the WC. Kubala is one of Barça's biggest legends. He and Daucik led what - until last year - was considered the best Barça side ever.

Ashley Cole is massively overrated, but there aren't that many great left backs around (strangely, we have several great right backs). Abidal's offensive play is too limited to consider him world-class, works for us given Alves' runs to the front, though.

How many English goalkeepers are first choice for their teams in the Premier League? Half a dozen?

Really, is England still playing Heskey?

Hey, I'm just a messenger... It makes no sense for either Barça or Real to buy either. He's 31 and is starting to pick up too many injuries.

Since I'm bored and couldn't care less about international footie this weekend I'll report that The Sun has linked Rio Ferdinand with a move to Spain, and Real and Barça are reportedly fighting it out.

I think I need some Geordie - English translation here... what does "wor" mean?