Kostas

For feck's sake. Out of all people.

Can't stand all the drama regarding Oriol so

Afaik we can't really force a team to play a loaned player but they will have to pay a penalty if he does do not get a certain amount of appearances. Wouldn't be surprised if that was the case with all our loans including Kakuta's and PvA's.

Do we save anything from his payoff?

January will mark the 15th transfer window in which we're being linked with Kaka.

Moment of 2011 Parting ways with Ancelotti. Man of 2011 Has to be Danny Sturridge. Not only for his contribution this season but being better than all our striker combined at Bolton. Villain of 2011 Malouda/Bosingwa. Both hit new lows I didn't expect them to. Hope for 2012. Developing a world-class midfield.

Happy Saturnalia and Yule!

Corrected then. Guess Alex's goal was so good the win counts as a high-scoring one for my memory :xmascool:

Wanted to say I'm not really fond of having reputation given with "Likes" as it reminds me too much of Facebook but since it's a change for the mobile skin I'm content.

Most derailed thread I've seen on TC, drunk threads included. Buttsex? Trying to diss one's country (Henrique's in this case) without even hiding behind pseudo-patriotism? Fuck right off.

Definitely, think it was one of our high-scoring games under Carletto.

I'd rather have Drogba at central defense than Cole or Bosingwa.

Haven't watched enough football?

I'm in awe of their ability of creating articles out of thin air.

Alex, who's that on your ava? Is it Clifford?

A bit late to the party as usual but I've been meaning to make a post regarding the Sheva-Torres analogy as it seems to be one of TX's central points/examples. While there may appear to be many similarities between the players due to both coming for record sums, both flopping and both having suffered serious injuries in their careers, I think drawing conclusions from a comparison of their transfers is quite simplistic and lazy. For starters, Torres was bought at a time the club was in serious danger of losing it's Top 4 spot, buying one of the league's best strikers to avoid such a disaster does make sense and it certainly didn't seem irrational back then. He did have a bad spell when Hoghson took over but that was Liverfool's worst start in decades and his goals/starts ratio was tremendous less than a season before we signed him. One of the main reasons Shevchenko failed was believed to be his inability to adjust to the pace of the PL being 30 years old. In Torres we not only signed a -familiar with the PL- 26 year-old who competed with the likes of Rooney and Drogba while at Loserpool but also a replacement for our aging striker who had recently contacted malaria and did not IMHO have a good game until 14 months had passed. Price-wise I don't think we'll see anyone praise the club for spending 50m but we should not ignore the role Mike Ashley playing in the forming of that figure. Had he not known that he was effectively getting the Carroll fee from Roman Abramovich himself he would have never negotiated the laughable price that he got. In simple terms, had Liverpool paid 25-30m for Carroll, Torres would have come here for the much more acceptable amount of 40-45m pounds. Moreover, unless you're trying to exploit the Bosman ruling, transfer fees in the January transfer window are always inflated. To sum up, I believe that hindsight plays a great deal in us potentially slaughtering the club for the transfer of Torres, and from where I'm standing Torres deserves much more blame than the club for the way his transfer has worked-out.

Surely Carletto couldn't possibly want Kalou? I'm not getting excited.

40 pages late but I can't believe I missed this gem: Anyway, given the way we played, the defense we used for most of the game and how IMO refereeing decisions helped I guess I should be more than happy with a point. What we need to improve on is the ability of our midfielders to retain possession. Despite their workload, the way Tottenham outplayed us in the first 20 minutes was, frankly, embarrassing.

FFS. Come on Henrique, I really do expect better of you. I'll bite. Pray tell me, in what perverse way was the high line the reason of our defeat to Manchester United?

First of all I very much doubt we still have a scouting network Even if we assume we have one, if you view his transfer purely as a making-up-the-numbers move you will realise that we're paying for his PL experience rather than his potential. With 3 CBs at the club what we need is someone the manager can trust with doing the job at league level and not one who could only potentially offer such services. If anything I would argue that the central defence has to be the most "crowded" area in the club: Terry Luiz Brana (Alex) Bruma Chalobah Nathan Aké Kalas Hutchinson(?) Rajkovic(?) And that's just off the top of my head.

With Alex as good as gone we need a CB to make up the numbers. Getting an English player with over 100 PL appearances for that sum sounds like a good deal.

One of them mentions : Utterly deluded vile cunts.

Content is probably the best word I could use. Sure result-wise we should and could have had 10 points more but our football is no-where near as hopeless as it was last season and I see a change undergoing that should have happened 2 years ago. My main concern regarding AVB is whether or not will, in the long run, continue being firm (or naive as some would say) regarding the change in the style of play he wants to introduce. All great managers are tactical chameleons and there are times where results are of pivotal importance (Valencia) but having second-thoughts or changes of heart mid-season is not what is expected of a manager at this level.

I too was not impressed with us signing him but he simply does so much that it's hard to overlook. Still, not the midfielder needed for a possession game but until we get a couple of those he will continue to be our most important midfielder. Criminal miss yesterday though, his second in a derby after the one at Old Trafford. We can't afford having great chances falling to him in big games.

What is that even supposed to mean? I remember plenty of analyses when we got him and not a single one was based on "momentum". For one thing, this is the first not dissapointing December in years. Finally we'll enjoy our Christmas.