EskWeston

Not a lot of time between the internationals and the Boro' game so it is hard to know just who will be ready. But the selection certainly will be interesting. I am sure we will be able to put together a very strong 11 still.. Would be nice for Mancienne to get a start, although it is big game to come into, not a lower league cup game or anything.

It certainly is, but we won't care if we get the money back!

Even with all of our injuries i am confident that we can beat Middlesbrough. Although we are piling up the injuries at the moment, if we were to put together the best 11 from players who we know 100% are going to fit it would look like this: .............................Hilario/Taylor............................. Belletti........Ivanovic..............Mancienne.........Bridge .................................Mikel..................................... .....................Lampard.......Malouda......................... Sinclair....................Di Santo..........................Kalou Cech, Cudicini, Bosingwa, Terry, Carvalho, Alex, A.Cole, Essien, Ballack, Deco, J.Cole, Anelka and Drogba are all injury doubts as of now. All though i am sure a lot of them will be fine for Saturday.

It is hard to blame him for being frustrated. But i really don't want us to lose him. It was clear from many years ago that Mancienne had what it takes to make it with our first team. He excelled in the reserves, went out on loan and impressed big time there and has now made a big impact at the England U21 level. We have brought Mancienne through from a young age and he is one we should be trying to get in. Unfortunately we have 4 top top class centre backs in our first team squad! We should do what we can to keep him on, a loan to another prem club maybe.....

Hopefully our injury concerns are not as bad as is being portrayed. Players like Deco, Anelka, Carvalho, J.Cole, Alex, A.Cole and Terry could all be ready for the weekend. Not sure what the situation is with Bosingwa at the moment but hopefully he will be fine too. We are picking up a lot of injuries, but it happens and at the moment we are coping with it very well.

Exactly right, and because it is with Lyn where the contract was forged they are the ones we claim from....

The deal was done initially to just bring a conclusion. Since then it has been proved that Mikels contract with Lyn was forged, which meant that they could not sell him to Man you or to us, so because of that we are asking for our money back from Lyn.

To get any money back would be amazing, especially considering Mikel is well worth the £16m paid, there were some screw ups and dodgy dealings in this transfer tho.

This is good news. To have a set up where the board and manager work together for the good of the team means everything runs smoother! Things so far are going very very well under Scolari, i am sure it will continue as well..

Ashley Cole is having a sensational season. He is working well with Malouda, Kalou or Cole. But it is good to see that so many of our players have stepped their games up this season.

Would being on loan at FC Twente be any better than being on loan at Southampton or Norwich?

Yup, thats the fella.

I think the comment is more about for the academy that the first team. Buying English players for the first team is not easy at all, we need to trying to develop our crop of English talent, which i think we are doing very well at: Mancienne, Cork and Bertrand in the England U21's set up and plenty more down the ages. Taylor (although Welsh) is being involved with the first team a lot now. Then we have an excellant crop in the reserves: Magnay, Nana-Ofori, Hutchinson, Bridcutt, Woods, Mellis.... So i think it more in that sense than finding English players for the first team outside of our academy.

Should have thought about his "rights" when he was snorting all sorts of s**t up his nose shouldn't he.

The player would have to be pretty special for PSV to play on a regular basis, as Rajkovic found out last season, he has ended up at FC Twente this season. Plus the English game is what the players need to get used to and the Championship is the perfect step up for them, physical competition.

Malouda still very much up and down, but an improvement on last season for sure! Cole and Kalou would always be my prefered starting pair.

UEFA Don't like the foreign ownership of clubs. I don't know for sure but i don't think there are many clubs outside of England with foreign ownership. To be honest UEFA are not really sure what they like and don't like, they pretty much make it up as they go along.

I think it was for tax purposes. I don't think you will get too many people feeling sorry for football clubs, if people can't afford shirts or season tickets!

Well i am sure it will affect football sooner or later. But i think it is funny the way, when talking about football club debts that we are lumped in the same bracket as Man you, Liverpool ect... their owners took out BANK loans to finance their purchases, they own money to banks, which is why they are in such a dangerous position. While any "loan" we have (if that is what you can call it) is purely with Roman.

The players just wouldn't get the playing time in the PL, they won't be willing to take risks on these players when survival is at stake for them. Loans to the champsionship is perfect, they get games, competitive football and a step up from the reserves. To show just how important these loan spells are to the players, loan periods in the Championship have earned places in the England U21's squad for Mancienne, Bertrand and Cork!

Di Santo and Sinclair are getting their chances. It is unrealistic to think of them as regular starters, a dozen apperances would be a good return for them. Also we are unlikely to see players breaking through at Chelsea at 17, 18, 19 for us it will be once they hit 20/21 that they will have had loan spells, time with the first team and really ready to break through.

Well that was incredibly frustrating. Cluj were so tight to every player they were literally sharing a shirt! And then when we tried to get in their faces they were dropping like flies. Very frustrating. Having said that we still should have had the quality to open them up enough to score just 1 goal, another example of where we seriously miss Deco.

With Essien, and more than likely Drogba also now being the only long term injuries we are not in a crisis yet! But it is a tough time for us with all these injuries thats for sure.

Yup your right, Paim will get no-where near the first team this season. He shows promise though and if he can progress then i can see us keeping him on. Sinclair will be eligable for the "A" list as a homegrown come January. We need him as a squad memeber, especially with the small squad we have.

Hmm a team from transylvania!! Has the one been done about their keeper not liking crosses yet? Roma got stunned by Cluj, hopefully we have enough quality to be able to take the game to Cluj without getting complacent.