Wisdom Body

Glad to see one of these internet Rambos get their comeuppance. It's not so much for his apparent racism (for all we know he might not even hold racist views but was just WUMming), but for the fact that the assumed anonimity of internet contact gives these twits the courage to spread their filth from the cosiness of the dirty computer in their gran's basement. People should take responsibility for whatever they say in a public forum, even from behind a screen, just as they would anywhere else.

That's 7 defeats in a row against the likes of Evian, Dijon, Brest, Ajaccio and Quevilly. Easily the most out of form team in Europe. The club is run by utter incompetents who need to resign but it's more likely Deschamps will fall on his sword. Tbf i think part of the blame falls with Deschamps. Always been idiots run Marseille, Tapie, Diouf etc very rarely has it been harmonious. Oh aye, I would say more than a part of blame. When you look at the horrible style of (non) play, all the money squandered on expensive, past-it players he requested and the horrendous way he managed players like Ben Arfa, Gignac and Valbuena, he has to shoulder a lot of the blame. He'll probably leave at season's end or earlier if things get even worse. I was saying that as long as the club is run by people like Anigo, Dassier and Labrune there will always misery around the corner. Best thing would be for the Louis-Dreyfus family to sell up as soon as possible, like they did with Standard Liège.

That's 7 defeats in a row against the likes of Evian, Dijon, Brest, Ajaccio and Quevilly. Easily the most out of form team in Europe. The club is run by utter incompetents who need to resign but it's more likely Deschamps will fall on his sword.

Having seen his Mackem leanings I'd assume he's doing that himself.

Good balanced draw, apart from APOEL v Madrid. Madrid will beat either Bayern or OM, but at least with Bayern the score would be mitigated, against OM the aggregate score could reach double figures. Marseille's physical, set-piece-based play matches up well against German sides so I fancy them to give Bayern a strong challenge. Had it been Chelsea under AVB vs Benfica, Chelsea would be out for sure, (they wouldn't even be here) but this tie should be very interesting now.

Last season I actually saw some Madrid fans on the anti-Barcelona site (you've probably come across it) strongly implying that Abidal's cancer diagnosis was some kind of publicity stunt due to the speed of his apparent recovery or that the diagnosis and short convalescence was evidence of Barça's doping practices. Terrifically pathetic stuff.

Yeah, if he wasn't any good at kicking a football he wouldn't be very good at football. I mean his only redeeming quality is his delivery from set pieces and crosses, otherwise he's a defender but a complete non-entity defensively. Rarely makes any tackles and his positioning is woeful.

If he couldn't strike the ball so well with his left foot Kolarov would be a League One calibre footballer.

It's no use even trying to explain it. If the entire Sunderland team raped and impregnated a convent full of nuns and then proceeded to abort and eat the foetuses, Sunderland AFC would still inherently have more "class" than Newcastle United FC. Class is now an intrinsic quality of Mackemitude. And yes it is not mackemness nor mackemhood, but Mackemitude. Whether or not this has anything to do with reality is another matter altogether.

People tend to forget that South American football was stronger than European back then. Much more hostile environment for players. So true. It's the same thing I always try to explain whenever I hear some muppet saying that Maradona was "better" than Pelé solely because Maradona was successful at the highest level in Europe. What said muppet forgets/ doesn't know is that when Pelé was playing the highest level was in South America (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina), and top players only came to Europe having accomplished everything back home. You only have to think of Delio Onnis, Héctor Yazalde and Carlos Bianchi who were scoring for fun in Europe but couldn't get a look in for the Argentine national team. In general comparisons between players from different epochs are futile since top-level football today, on and off the pitch, ressembles a whole different sport compared to 40 years ago.

His short career has been very positive so far, I wouldn't call him a mixed bag. He became famous for promoting Bari to Serie A despite being a native of (bitter rival town) Lecce, and then again getting Siena back to Serie A last year. On both occasions playing entertaining football. You might be talking about when he was booted out by Atalanta, but he's improved since, becoming more adaptable, varying from his usual '4-2-4' system and playing with many other formations. I'm mainly basing my assessment on the quality of football though; attacking, heavily possession-based, high energy, determined and dynamic. Transforming a chronically injury-hit team, coming off the two worst seasons in its history into title-contenders. Montella at Catania also has the makings of a good manager, Roma might have done well sticking with him instead of trying to turn into Barcelona 2.

The jury's still out on him considering he was pretty poor at Catania, he needs to prove himself long-term in Europe at Atlético. They might just be experiencing a Sunderland-esque new manager 'pop'. If Chelsea decide to get rid of Villas Boas they might take a stab at Mazzarri. His teams don't play pretty football (soak up pressure, lightining quick counter attacks), he always plays 3 at the back and can be very irritating (always moaning about referres and having excuses for his players when they lose) but in terms of team motivation, team discipline and physical conditioning he's top rate. Would also be a classic Chelsea flavour-of-the-month appointment considering he's about to knock them out of Europe. I personally hope for their sake they give AVB another season. Among the 'up-and-coming' managers, Conte is definitely the most promising.

He's had enough of an impact really, they're plenty of people raving about him. Not a surprise that he's actually owned by Udinese as well. They had to ship him to Lecce to meet the FIGC non-eu players quota. Juan Cuadrado, another Udinese owned player is decent, as well.

Just like the Inter fans yesterday. It must feel particularly nice being him at the moment.

I've been impressed with how clinical Leverkusen have been in attack despite the few opportunities. They've caused Barça serious discomfort every time they've had the ball near Barça's goal. Though it has to be said Barcelona's defence is the most feverish I've seen it in a long time... Leno's a good keeper.

Gutted for Cheick obviously but Zambia deserved it. At the end of the day the team that came into the competition most prepared won the trophy, they were also very unlucky to go out on pens against Nigeria the last time out. The Ivorians didn't even know who was supposed to take the next penalty after the fifth attempt...they just improvised from there on. Big difference in the quality of spot kicks and confidence during the shootout between the two teams as well.

They could also be monitoring Aubameyang (attacker) and Abdennour (centre back), both of whom had a good AFCON recently and would fit the apparent profile of players that the club might want to recruit. Tabanou, another rumoured target, was also playing.

The OM-OL 5-5 a few years ago was better. Om were up 4-2 in the 80th minute. Lyon scored three in the last ten minutes (one in stoppage time), before Toulalan equalised for Marseille with the game's last touch. Remember being in shock for about an hour. I remember that 5-5 with Lyon from a couple of seasons ago, Marseille were heading for a very impressive win but threw it away in the last 10 mins after leading 3-1 for a long time. Seemed more like a game from the Gerets era, rather than the Deschamps one. There was also the dramatic 5-4 win for Marseille inspired by the Ayews in the Trophée des Champions early this season, after Lille had been leading 3-0 in the second half. Looks like it'll come down to Paris and Montpellier (who are playing the best football) for the title, with OM, OL and Lille fighting for 3rd spot, with OM favourites on current form. Lille had the best defence in the league but it's gone to pot in the last month or so, they can't keep up with the top 2.

Most of the deaths were caused by the crush in the stampede to get out of the stadium in order to avoid any violence. Basically most of the dead were trampled and suffocated, it wasn't that hundreds of people were beating and stabbing each other to death. The stadium that was partly set on fire was an incident at another match (Zamalek vs Ismaily) after it had been cancelled as a mark of respect.

Taarabt always trying to be too clever... Finished 2-1 to Tunisia after a Kharja goal and a frantic last 5 minutes. Morocco had many more quality players but Tunisia executed their game plan well. Good game.

It's part of the transition from January to summertime. It will then remain every 2 years (IIRC). As far as I know there are no plans to move the AFCON to (European) summertime. They're moving it to odd years so that during World Cup years African players don't have to play 2 major international competitions within 6 months, together with all the club commitments in between. However instead of doing the sensible thing and having a three year interval between this competition and the next, they are holding the competition two years in a row, 2012 & 2013... In addition to switching to odd years they should also switch it to every four years, the current two-year system devalues the competition.

Showed the usual good touches and technique, but clearly not tactically nor 'morphologically' a central midfielder, despite his physique. Ideally he should be rivalling Ben Arfa for a spot on the starting line-up but at the moment neither of the two can get on the team sheet. Or at the very limit he could play on the right side, just to give the Obertan project a break.

In general it definitely is, but in reality Real Madrid and Barça are streets ahead of the rest, Madrid particularly are running like machines at the moment.

Chile's coach Borghi and the FA sent home Valdivia, Vidal, Jara, Beausejour and Carmona from the training camp for arriving 45 minutes late from Valdivia's kid's christening party. Just for that overreaction they deserve that stuffing, and it's very possible that Chile will lose another crucial qualifier against Paraguay without those 5 key players.

The fact that Emre is still starting for Turkey gives an indication as to why they are losing so badly at home to Croatia.