Wisdom Body

So Cabaye's their new bugbear, eh? First it was Saylor, then Cheikh, now Cabaye is the focus of all their deluded righteous fury. By now I find it hard to attach the word 'tremendous' to any of the pathetic rubbish they say. There are no depths left for them to sink to, right now they're just wallowing at the bottom of the pit of sadness

That's a mahoosive exception. Wasn't she like 15 at that? I was only 16 at the time so I'm in the clear on being a sicko. Would that have stopped me anyway? Who knows. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ She was 13 at the time. I was 16 at the time then saw in the programme that she was only 13. Dreams dashed for 3 years. Better to be a mackem, they aren't burdened by certain complexes. 40 years old or 11 years old, 2 legs or 4 legs, consenting or dead; where there's a hole and saliva there's a way. NETD. FTM. MBJFM

I don't think those managers' win % records have that much to do with how their tenures are perceived. It has more to do with their personalities and the fans' expectations. There's clearly more than "2%" between fans memories of Sir Bobby's and Souness's times in charge and less than "10%" between Gullit and Souness. Should Pardew somehow leave this summer his period will be perceived better than Souness's since we've exceeded expectations, comfortably avoiding relegation his first 6 months and fighting for a CL place going into the final week of his second season. I'm not sure win % record is a good way to evaluate a manager unless you're looking at a period when the manager has a settled 5+ season session in charge. It is interesting to note how many post-KK managers' careers have floundered after leaving us.

Hmmm, the return of the Tinkerman to the PL would be a sight to behold. Though tbf, he was treated unfairly by Abramovich (not that it mattered a season later when Mourinho won the PL). Ranieri "eh beh...pazienza."

Chelsea handled the goal poorly, basically falling back into Barcelona-bunker-mentality and were very lucky to get away with it. Ended up being a decent final, nice consolation for Chelsea with disappointment coming up ahead. You could sense the BBC radio commentators willing Liverpool to score, sounded gutted at the final whistle.

His 'manager' has no business managing a football team today. Just one of many Liverpool players that's short on belief and confidence. You can be sure he'd still be brilliant if he was here.

There's plenty between Marin and Götze, man. If he was offered a swap between the two, Abramovich would carry Marin hanging from his designer stubble all the way to the Signal Iduna Park. Bit of a weird signing, I assume he's supposed to be Mata's substitute, but I'm not sure he's even good enough for that. Podolski is a good signing for me, since he has the character, that lacks from molluscs like Arshavin, Walcott, Mertesacker et al., can play well in a variety of positions, passes the ball well and is experienced. Perhaps too much character though, because every time I saw him for Cologne this season he was acting like Jesus bearing the crapness of Peszko, Novakovic, Sereno and Co; flailing his arms whenever someone misplaces a pass and glaring at whoever shoots instead of passing to him. He's probably supposed to partner Van Persie in attack, but it will be an odd couple considering that Podolski himself is basically a Van Persie-lite.

Montpellier don't have the easiest 4 games to end the season: Evian at home, Rennes away, Lille at home and Auxerre away. They definitely won't collect maximum points, but neither will PSG from St. Etienne, Valenciennes, Rennes and Lorient. So with a 5 point advantage with 4 games to go the title is MHSC's to lose. PSG could even finish third behind Lille, which would just be great. I read somewhere that Joe Cole said that Pardew's been to watch Lille several times. Other than Debuchy he might have been monitoring the 18 year old left-back Digne who has fit in seamlessly into the well-oiled Lille defence this season and was good again today against PSG. Seems very mentally and physically mature for his age. Might be a bit too young, but nonetheless a very promising player.

I wouldn't be too worried about Barça, they have their incredible youth system and footballing principles as a basis. Provided they get someone who can ensure continuity in the style of play (like Bielsa who seems to be favourite to replace Guardiola) it'll be pretty much business as usual. People tend to forget this current Barcelona cycle began with Rijkaard as coach and Deco and Ronaldinho as star players. I'd have more doubts over Pep away from Barça, rather than Barça without Pep.

With possibly the worst penalty I've ever seen courtesy of Sergio Ramos, you can't sky it any more than that. Neuer made the difference, the Madrid players got intimidated with the way he saved the first two.

When's Luiz Gustavo going to get booked?

Or Di Maria and Robben. They'd look like a synchronised diving pair.

Poor game, but anybody who uses tonight's game as proof that he's not one of the best of all time is mistaken. By the end of his career memories of games like tonight's will end up where the memories of Pelé, Cruyff, Maradona, Platini, Puskas and Zidane's poor games ended up: in oblivion. People will remember the trophies, awards and great performances, like they've done with all the other legends.

My thoughts exactly, he has to shoulder the blame for this elimination. Constant experimenting with a three-man defence/midfielders in defence and failure to address holes in the squad - only one (injured) out-and-out striker and only two centre-backs. Pedro should have been playing in a game like this instead of Tello/Cuenca, since his decision-making is much better. I think Pep just got bored.

Aye. I'm even surprised people here have so much respect for Bayern, Madrid practically has its name engraved on the trophy.

You just know the later games are going to be kack since this one has stolen all the excitement. Let's hope not, City have a lot to play for.

Yes, I've thought the same thing many times this season. I don't think he's talking about the 'entertainment' (you could watch the Andorran league and it would be entertaining if there were 5 teams vying for the title on the final day of the season) but the actual football being played by most teams, which is casual and random compared to recent seasons - even setting aside comparisons to other leagues. Not so much mediocre in terms of the players present, but mediocre in terms of the management of the teams. It's no wonder Swansea are getting furiously masturbated over, since their well-organised game makes them look like extraterrestrials when compared to most other teams. There are teams that have been generally good to watch such as Swansea, Spurs, West Brom, Fulham but watching any game involving Aston Villa, Sunderland, Liverpool, Stoke, Everton, Bolton, Blackburn, QPR (even us during our poor run) is like watching giraffe football. Man Utd and Arsenal have weaker squads compared to past seasons, Man City have been good at times, due more to individual flashes of brilliance than consistent play (no coincidence the team has dropped off with David Silva) and Chelsea have suffered player-managerial issues. It also depends on what you expect to see during a football match though. People were always going to get defensive due to the good season we're having, but it's to our credit that we have actually improved from last season.

It was a bit of playful nonsense from Terry there, he's lucky he didn't do it to Busquets otherwise Chelsea might be down to 10 men.

More like one long moment. The innumerable scenarios speculated for us to get into Europe.

It might be worth taking a look at Ewerton (23yrs) from Sporting Braga as an option to strengthen our central defence. He's one of the players that impressed me the most when I first saw him play several times in the Europa League earlier this season. Classic modern brazilian centre back who's quick and passes the ball well, à la Thiago Silva, without all of David Luiz's fuss. He's also on loan from Corinthians so he might come cheaper than a player owned by a European team. However he apparently has some of Portugal's bigger teams sniffing about him, and the likelihood that Braga will play in the Champions League next season.

No.

Didn't we wish that every other year we'd go to someone other than Adidas? Now we're wishing to go back? I can't help but get the feeling that whoever we get will give us a s*** kit tbh. Even fans whose kits are made by Nike or Adidas constantly complain about their shirts. Nike turns out nonsense now and then, you just have to look at the Barcelona and Juventus kits from this season. Adidas makes more traditional but occasionally boring and trite kits, and even then Real Madrid/Marseille/Bayern fans complain about the gold trimming. Umbro make consistently traditional but still innovative kits, but even then you'll still find Lille fans complaining about the blue and white sash across the front etc. Everybody always has to have something to moan about.

Always clueless. He'd be coaching Bologna or Cesena or something if it wasn't for the italian match-fixing scandal. Mediocre.

In terms of hunger and intensity this Barça team is a shadow of the one from the last few seasons. They rely a lot on Messi; he hasn't dropped off.

Hannover are very hard to beat and have some intelligent players in Schlaudraff, Pinto and Abdellaoue. One of the more underappreciated teams in Europe IMO, doing very well with scant means. I still fancy them to go through.