Jype

Trainspotting and the written Scottish dialect, I had almost forgotten. Thinking about reading Trainspotting's sequel Porno and the prequel Skagboys sometime soon, anyone read them? Are they any good?

For the next game you won't need God's help, we have Benitez after all...

You prefer Benayoun?

I agree, in other words poor Marko has been ruthlessly thrown under the bus. At times Moses has been just as bad or even worse than Marin but he still gets picked to play with Hazard and Mata, making it much easier for an average player to look good. In my opinion, neither Marin or Moses are anything special but they can both do the job as a squad player when occasionally used together with the big boys but starting with purely the second string will always end up in a disaster.

I'm starting to miss Malouda Yes, that's how bad our wingers are when Mata and Hazard are out.

Moses just torresed that chance.

Hardly a surprise with that lineup. Why do I get the feelng Benitez fancies the FA Cup and the UEL ahead of the Premir League? A real trophy to his name would look much better in his resume in a few years than the Arsenal trophy, also known as finishing in the top4. To the club top4 is much more important but it's been clear for a long time that Benitez doesn't give a fuck about the club...

Sure he did but it's suicidal to rest so many key players at once, no matter how important the game on Monday is.

I'm hearing Hazard on the bench and Mata not travelling at all. What the fuck is going on?

Duvel is great, haven't tried any of the other ones on Stingray's list. Or if I have, I don't remember.

First of all, congrats on your success. However, let me remind you that bragging about it can set a bad example to some of the younger lads, making them believe they too can achieve what you have with only little work if they drop out of school when in reality only a fraction of them really have what it takes. Most teenagers think they know everything and people like you only encourage them to do some stupid shit they may end up regretting sooner or later. It may suit some people if they really know what they're doing and are willing to work hard to achieve their goals (like you, I'd assume) but life can get real tough if things don't go according to plans. Hope you won't take offence for what I just said because I am honestly happy to see people succeeding but just a friendly reminder that it's not always that simple and that getting a proper education is the safer bet nowadays.

I'd probably have Napoleon on my list as well. Also Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Quentin Tarantino for the drinks, then Bob Marley for the more greener stuff.

He was never going to confirm nor deny anything as Real Madrid are still very much competing in the CL and the Copa del Rey and announcing he's already signed for another club could hurt their chances this season. Expecting to hear something as soon as the season is over for both clubs.

That was exactly my point, in modern football every big club are doing the same thing and because of that it's ridiculous to somehow glorify this Barcelona team and make them to to be any more than they are, a side built with a lot of money to compete for silverware. I consider it to be essentially the same thing if Barcelona play with half the team from their academy and the other half bought with record-breaking money and then some other team just use the same amount of money to pay for the whole squad if they don't have any academy products. End result is the same, an expensive team capable of challenging for trophies, and option A is no more respectable than option B in my opinion. But I guess that's enough off-topic, maybe there's a more suitable thread where this can be discussed further if you still feel the need.

Did you know that after Guardiola took over in 2008 Barcelona have a net spend of minus 220 million? Considering the homegrown talent they already have, outspending 99% of the clubs is a bit overkill, wouldn't you say? Some cynical person could even go as far as say they bought the titles. As a Chelsea fan we can't really take moral high ground here but it's naive to think Barcelona won the trophies just because of the La Masia graduates they have in their team because many of their core players have been bought for some of the biggest transfer fees ever and all of their players are paid ridiculously high wages. If they couldn't compete in the wage market, most of their supposedly loyal academy products would have fucked off years ago.Also, they bought Pique from Manchester United, essentially making United the club that made him. Same goes for Cesc Fabregas and Jordi Alba, they may have played for Barcelona when they were kids but they're just as much bought players as most of our players are now and we don't take credt for making them the players they are now. Or would you consider Real Madrid to be a respectable club that raises world class players in their academy and then gives them a fair chance in the first team if they now bought Juan Mata from us for 50m?

Barcelona also have one of the most expensive squads in the world and they pay the most wages to their players. No one gives a fuck whether or not you have a bunch of homegrown players in the team if you still feel the need to buy the most expensive players every transfer window. For example, during Guardiola's reign they paid nearly fifty million euros for Chygynskiy and Keirrison, the former turned out to be one of the biggest flops ever and the latter has never played a game for Barca depite the 20m price tag. I could go on, but that's hardly relevant.

Denied by Abramovich's PR people, Chelsea FC and according to the Telegraph now also by the FBI themselves. Apparently it was only a plot to make some money by spreading a false rumour which immediately affected the stock prices of some of the companies Roman is involved in. Quite clever actually if you think about it.

I thought he was supposed to be at the Bridge today to watch Russia play against Brazil.

That's bullshit, although I expected nothing more from Martin Lipton. He can't seriously be saying we were wrong to loan Courtois and let him get extremely valuable first-team experience at a top team who had just won a major trophy and have been challenging for even more silverware this season. Maybe it would've been better if he stayed and played only a handful of games in the Capital One Cup, eh? Cech has been injured quite a bit this season and everyone knows Turnbull and Hilario aren't really up to the challenge but then again Courtois is way too good to be just a backup. As for Lukaku and De Bruyne, they were deemed not ready during pre-season and these loans have been the reason why they're so good now because they've been given the chance to shine at a smaller club, a chance they wouldn't have had at Chelsea due to more experienced players being picked ahead of them. Now they have shown their quality and are now ready to take a significant role at the club and it's up to the board to give them the chance, they've earned it. Each and every one of those loans made sense at the time but what the board did after is where they fucked up. They sold Meireles after loaning out all these players, leaving the midfield very thin. Maybe De Bruyne could've shone at Chelsea too if he were still at the club after the summer transfer window but the loan was agreed when we still had a few more players in midfield and no one saw a place for young Kevin and though it was better if he gets more experience elsewhere first. I'm sure that at some point the board started to regret that decision but it wouldn't have been very polite to ruin Werder Bremen's season by taking one of their star players away from them midway through the season and it would only have reflected poorly on the club as far as future transfer dealings go. Also, Lukaku wasn't anywhere near the first team last summer with both Torres and Sturridge ahead of him. Maybe he could've been recalled instead of buying Demba Ba after Sturridge was sold and Torres had failed us once again but I believe Lukaku preferred to stay at West Brom for the good of his development and anyone can see it was the right decision, he has improved his game massively this season.

Fuck you guys, now I'm hungry after reading the last page and my fridge is empty.

Finland just equalized against Spain in the 82nd minute. Wasn't expecting this, hope we can hold out for the draw.

Looks awfully familiar.

I will. Won't be staying there too long though, a fucking chemistry exam tomorrow morning.

Off to a bar now, my friend's band is playing there tonight!

Yes, my whole post was about the marketing values of the players and not about how good they are on the pitch, can't really compare their abilities as Neymar still plays at Santos. Until Neymar has the balls to join one of the big European clubs or performs well at international level (WC 2014 at the earliest, I won't judge him based on the friendlies and the Confederations Cup) people can't honesty say Neymar is already at the level of Messi and Ronaldo, the world's two best players. The way I see it, Neymar is much like Hazard was at Lille. The Brazilian league is up there with the Ligue1 imo, but both are somewhat behind the EPL, La Liga and the Bundesliga. The potential of the players is definitely there and everyone knows it but they can't be compared with the best until they've taken the final step and started playing with the big boys. Hazard has now taken that step and hasn't disappointed, now is the time for Neymar to do the same, be it with Chelsea or someone else.