Tomo

Fair point but even if all that does happen it will still be horrifically hard to turn over Brazil in their own back yard.

although he has already played there and it didnt go to plan oh well 2nd time lucky

Time for Luiz to cause havoc at the Emirates, 1st of many times he kicks ass at that ground

While the ludicrous Di Santo the new Maradona claim (whichever journalist came to that conclusion should be sacked) has made people wary of these dubbed the new (fill blank here) predictions, but ive seen him a couple of times and he looks preety special. The Kaka comparisons are a bit extreme at the moment but mix the fact that he is from Sao Paulo, looks a bit like him, plays with freedom and is signed by Carlo Ancelotti there is naturally going to be a few murmurings. Given the low price tag £5m could rise to £10m based on appearances and progress, if he turns as good as his potential we have a world class player for next to nothing (in this current market) so i see it as a win win as £5m these days aint that much of a risk because if he "does a Sinclair" we could probally sell him on at a profit (although im sure it wont come to that) but if he pays off we could be sitting here with a world class player for peanuts while our rivals are fighting out over a £40m rated player. In short we could be sitting here laughing.

haha true In all honesty in sick of the England football team, the so called fans that boo our players especially, i havent really felt passinate towards England matches since euro 2004, the only reason im refering to England as we is because im English.

I know its a while away but i was just thinking the other day that i would not be surprised if Brazil end up being the shortest odds favorites in world cup history. The fact that they are host's and beating South American teams in their own back yard is one of the hardest things to do in football if not the hardest don't even begin to tell the story, our very own David Luiz and Ramires will be roughly hitting their peaks that year and not only that they will have Neymar who will be a matured 23 year old and possibly Lucas Piazon who will be 21, by the time the world cup comes Anderson should be miles better and Spurs Sandro (who i have to say has looked impresive for them so far) will be 26. Marcelo will be 25 and not to mention the promosing Da Silva twins at Man.Ure. Add that to other experienced players who will fall into the 29-32 bracket when this world cup comes, Danny Alves, Thiago Silva, Kaka, Macion, our Alex, Adriano for Barca aswell. Julio Cesar will be 35 which for a goallie is no age and Ronaldinho and Lucio will be 34 and 35 respectively, they wont be able to play every game but their expierence will be priceless, am i the only one that thinks Ronaldinho will use this home tournament to bow out? Also add to the not so healthy position other teams will probably be in. - England will be re-building, i don't think were be ready for this tournament IMHO 2018 will be our next BIG chance. - Spain's great team of the last few years will be getting on by then, the spine of Puyol, Iniesta, Xavi, Torres and Villa will all be in their 30's, i think they will be well and truly in the re-building process when this tournament comes along. - France and Italy are slowly recovering from the horror of WC 2010 that made England's tournament look like world beating but i dont think there have enough to trouble Brazil. same with Portugal. - Holland well have to wait and see, if they produce from good players and get a team ethic going they might get far, although i doubt there win it. - Argentina will probally love the thought of winning it in Brazil, they will be facing hostile atmosphere's near enough every game (Brazillians will sneek into the crowd to make it hostile for them i reckon). - Germany will probably be the only team i can see troubling them, as their team of the last WC (IE Ozil, Muller, Schweinsteiger, Neuer and Kadiera) will have an average age of about 27 and as a unit will be approaching their peak, although even they will find it really tough in South America. In all honesty i think these lot will be very hard to stop and for some-one to do it they will have to get their tactics near perfect. Its not impossible but i reckon Brazil will take some serious beating in this World Cup and if i was a bookie i would probably suspend betting on them winning it or make the odds seriously low and if some-one pulls it off and stops Brazil it will be a real achievement. What do you think?

Heart says stay at Stamford Bridge for ever, head says we might end up having to look elsewhere eventually. My main concern about moving stadiums is that 4 or 5 years down the line we end up with a flash stadium named after a brand or an airline, beautiful stadium with plenty of internationals played there but when the shit hit's the fan every single Chelsea fan will still be pining for the Bridge (similar to Arsenal fans with the Emirates-Highbury).

All in all i have to agree, Zola was wonderfull and on top form was just magic but in terms of consistency Lamps wins not just over Zola near enough any-one ive seen play in my lifetime. There is no one better at goals, assists and consistency from midfield than Frankie Lampard.

Chezney dont come across as a nob, he is a fucking nob, looking at his twitter and his arrogance you would think he has the qualities of Cassilas, Canizares, Buffon, Cech and Schmeichel combined and times by 10. He has the POTENTIAL to be a great keeper and has got a good future ahead of him but he needs to shut the fuck up and let his performances do the talking.

I think it goes back to the world cup when he was dropped for Pedro in the semi's and final cant have done much for his confidence.

Jonjo Shelvey could be in trouble with Liverpoolmanagement. The Mirror reports Shelvey was forced to apologise to shocked fans last night after a picture of a penis was posted on his official Twitter page. The 19-year-old Liverpool star wrote: "Apologies for the picture one of my mates messing around with my phone! Sorry!" There is no suggestion that Shelvey posted the indecent image. But by 9pm last night his Twitter account, which had 55,000 followers, had been removed. Twitter user ENKAY posted: "Kenny Dalglish will not be amused with that tackle." http://aggbot.com/li...34013&r=tw&c=40 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- kind of amusing but i do feel sorry for him in a way, although im glad i didnt follow him

Scousers are the biggest hypocrites going, they do realise Andy Carroll left Newcastle under an even bigger cloud. What i find really funny is that they claim there over Torres but still cant resist having a pop every 2 seconds, its like a bloke getting dumped by his missus, telling every one it was his decision and hanging outside her house every night. That bloke on soccer am was the same bloke that played Combo in this is England right? must have been 2nd nature to him that programme, set in the 80's and he is living in the 80's, perfect

1 red card all season is pretty impresive, espeically when weve got the team that "play the right way" up the road lumbered with 10 reds.

For some reason i cant give negative votes I wonder who this guy actully supports, my moneys on Tottenham.

Malouda has been off form for some time and its really worrying. He needs to sort it out fast.

As soon as one goes in they will all go in, i bet he will get chances tonight with teammates actully giving him service, i never thought id say this but Benayoun's return cant come soon enough. Maybe he can scout all the Barca players just incase we have to play them in the CL

What happened?

You think Wenger's error's were bad then read this. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Agent reveals that Newcastle rejected Zinedine Zidane Football agent Barry Silkman has revealed in an exclusive interview with sport.co.uk that Newcastle United could have signed former World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane when he was looking to leave Ligue 1 side Bordeaux in 1996...but rejected the opportunity. The legendary French midfielder instead secured a move to Serie A giants Juventus for a fee believed to be £3.2 million; a move that secured his reputation as one of Europe’s greats and led to him making a record-breaking €75 million transfer to Real Madrid in 2001. The news of Zidane’s rejection by Newcastle United adds to the growing list of clubs that turned down the player with former Blackburn Rovers owner Jack Walker supposedly remarking in 1995, "Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?" Newcastle United under Kevin Keegan’s stewardship in the mid nineties saw the club promoted from the old second division to the Premier League and become serious title challengers to Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. Geordies will no doubt be asking themselves what could have been had the Magpies secured Zidane’s signature in 1996 and had him play alongside the likes of David Ginola, Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand and Philippe Albert. Speaking to sport.co.uk, agent Silkman reminisced on the deal that never was: “I have missed out on players. I suppose the biggest player I missed out on was Zinedine Zidane. “I offered him to Newcastle at the beginning of the 1996 season for £1.2million. And they watched him and said that he wasn’t good enough to play in the First Division which is the Championship now. “Three months later he went to Juventus for £1.2million and two years later he went for £48million. So I think the people at Newcastle got it slightly wrong.” By the end of his first season with Juventus, Zidane had led the team to victory in the UEFA Cup, the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup. He went on to win two consecutive Serie A titles before leading France to World Cup glory on home turf in 1998. Following his move to Real Madrid the talismanic all-rounder added the Primera Division medal to his collection before scoring that volley in the 2002 Champions League final (see picture above) before helping the Bernabeu outfit to World Club Cup glory. Newcastle United have not won major silverware since their 1955 FA Cup win. http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Football/35533/Agent_reveals_that_Newcastle_rejected_Zinedine_Zidane.aspx _________________________________________________________________________________________________ My Favorite quotes from this article were “I offered him to Newcastle at the beginning of the 1996 season for £1.2million. And they watched him and said that he wasn’t good enough to play in the First Division which is the Championship now." OOPPPSSSS "The news of Zidane’s rejection by Newcastle United adds to the growing list of clubs that turned down the player with former Blackburn Rovers owner Jack Walker supposedly remarking in 1995, "Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?" DOUBLE OOPPPSSS

Maybe 40 is a bit of an over-exaggeration but i can easily see him carrying on until 36-38 especially if he calls it quits with England, lets be honest (despite this season' lay off) he has got a fantastic injury free record. Scholes had a serious injury in 2005 and came back stronger, Frank hopefully (touch wood) wont have many if any problems.

Doubt he will feature to much that season, his 1st full season he will slowly be getting use to the league, i think it will be his 3rd season (2nd full season) he will start to truly shine (similar to Ivanovic)

If Lampard retires from England it will benefit us and him immensely. I said in a previous thread i still think Lamps will still be around for atleast another 6 years (all be it in a lesser role) and then when he does play he will be fresh and ready to fire, the phrase less is more comes to mind here. If Giggs and Scholes can still play when there 37/38 i cant see why Lampard cant do the same with us infact it would not suprise me in the slightest if he ends up being Carlo's Maldini (in terms of playing till 40).

its going to be hard seeing him retire, it was bad enough when he was out for 4 months but knowing we will never see him play again will be very hard to take, i think he will stay around till he is 38 myself all be it with a lesser role than for recent years, but that could work out to our advantage when he does play, he will be more fresh, the phrase less is more comes to mind

Hopefully Alex and Yossi will be back in time if so in going for this (on the assumption that "touch wood" we get no injury's). GK Cech RB Ivanovic CB Luiz CB JT LB Cole RM Ramires CM Essien CM Lampard LM Zhirkov ST Torres ST Anelka (he aint on internatinal duty so will be more fresh) SUBS Turnbull (well i want Hilario but im being realistic) Alex Bosingwa Benayoun Mikel Drogba Kalou