capriccioso

Ah, yes, but they have istoreee you see. They were the bigger club before Russian gangster Lord of the Plastics took over us. So we're still spiritually and philosophically bigger than 'Chavski'. they all think like that

The day they chuck pigs heads at Romeu, Deco and Belletti is the day I will agree.

We're not rival clubs. Nor will we ever be unless a European Super League is created. Just because both sets of teams and supporters loathe each other does not make it a rivalry. Fulham and QPR are bigger rivals to us than Barcelona, IMO.

I'd sooner believe that Hulk is worth 38 million than believe the entire nation of Poland are militant racists. Yes, according to me, Hulk isn't worth a penny over 20 million.

Not interest. bAD AREX. ceevs. Edit: Sorry, my little cousin decided he wanted to wrestle for the keyboard The away kit would look amazing without that sash. It still looks quite nice.

Quite comfortably, they'd make the transition with ease. Better diet, half time team talks actually involving replenishing energy and making tactical changes instead of a cigarette and a shot of whisky, being able to have a injured/tired team mate substituted so their poor performance doesn't cost the team and yourself; and defenders that got punished for fouls via yellow cards, which they didn't have in the 50s and 60s- you only got sent off if you made an absolute shocker of a leg breaking tackle, you could hard foul as much as you liked and still not be sent off . Also playing with far better footwear, clothing that cools you down and a ball that's easier to manoeuver; and hours upon hours of video footage so you can isolate down to a pinpoint the weaknesses of the opposition. Pele had none of that. If Pele played in today's age he'd have 3000 goals, purely because his technical skills shit on everyone today and he'd get access to all those advantages. Messi grew up in a purpose built youth academy designed to bring the best out of him with the very best in nutrition, medication and coaching available to him, Pele grew up kicking a ball made out of socks tied up with a rubber band, smoking cigarettes. Watch footage of Maradona at the World Cup 2010, he was dicking about in training taking free kicks from 30 metres out. Every single one went straight into the net, while most of today's professional peloton, including Messi, got mindfucked by the Jabulani. You say that Messi is the greatest dribbler/whatever of all time, yet you ignore that there have been far superior dribblers from his own country, like Maradona. In any case Garrincha would have outdribbled them with a blindfold on, Maradona isn't even the best dribbler of all time and yet Messi is compared to him. Messi may have scored 70 once, Pele scored 100 and above twice. He broke the 70 mark 4 times and the 50 mark 14 times. Take out those 'friendlies' (which were actually very serious games, not like how Chelsea jet off to Asia and play timewasters like Kitchee) and he still has 760 goals in 822 appearances. There is a massive difference between best of their generation (Messi) and the best of all time (Pele). Messi needs to get to about 1700-2000 goals to even equal Pele as he has all these advantages. Your tennis argument is irrelevant, first of all, it's a different sport, second of all he made a comeback when age had already sapped him of his physical attributes. If he had been born in the 70s and played in the 90s he'd have done as well as he did in his prime.

New Caledonia or Tahiti in the Confederations Cup, it's the stuff of dreams! Unless we get that 31-0 record taken off us.

Take out Chelsea, and the moment of the season was stoppage time at Eastlands on the final day. Best game: Barcelona second leg Best moment: Hard to choose. Stuffing the Yids 5-1 at Wembley, Drogba winning yet another FA Cup final off his own boot, Kalou being chased by Mikel during the FA Cup celebrations. But I think the entire CL campaign gets over that. From that must win game at Valencia to that amazing comeback against Napoli, the triumphs against all odds against Barcelona, Ramires' goal at the Camp Nou, Drogba's equaliser at Munich, beating those arrogant Germans on penalties,incredible stuff and something we're unlikely to see again for a very long time. Worst game: Loss to Arsenal Worst moment: Anfield loss

Sad, RIP Manuel

Another short lived break from my holiday from postinng: It's on now. Make it happen.

I'm going to bring myself out of exile for a bit. Mikel is our best midfielder, and unlike Modric he's played at his maximum potential this season. If anyone should go to make room for Modric its Lampard and he won't be leaving for a while. Lampard and Mikel play well together, and we have Romeu, Essien, Meireles and McEachran already as squad players, if we sign Modric, we'll have too many midfielders sitting on the bench wasting away and taking out money for doing nothing. Also your dismissal of Australia is hilarious. Football is a minority sport here and we've still managed to get to more world cups than Bulgaria will in your lifetime. My Sri Lanka has never played Australia in football as far as I know, and we have beaten many quality teams of late. While it was fun beating Tonga 22-0 every week we're too good for that these days and now play far better Asian teams. I don't want to take this off topic but Asian teams like Korea and Japan- who we regularly play and do well against- would disassemble half the teams that have qualified for EURO 12.

I have just done Kalou. I think I overdid it a bit with the length of the article

I am going down the WHS route and I will be taking a sabbatical for a few days. In the event that I don't return, thanks everyone, it has been fun.

He had better not get 21.... 25, perhaps?

I think India made it in either 1950 or 1954, and were then promptly disqualified as the players refused to wear boots.

This has won the thread and more. You're all looking at the man, one of the worst ball controllers in the world, almost a liability as a right back, who Messi couldn't best despite having half an hour, 95,000 fans screaming his name and shouting abuse at the Ivorian, and all the incentive in the world to bring his A-game to do so. He didn't do it though, the massive bottler. The man who is almost universally hated as one of the worst players of the modern era keeping out the purported best of all time, is, then, the true greatest of all time

That header He's starting to get back that arrogant swagger strikers have if he's trying things like that. Which is good.

Any chance you can come up with similar figures for Kalou?

Lose the stripe and it's pretty decent.

He'll be delighted if Eva checks them for him!

He's been spotted at White Hart Lane.

Hahaha

So many great results in our past: Australia 31-0 American Samoa Tonga 0-22 Australia Australia 18-0 Cook Islands Australia 17-0 Cook Islands Australia 16-0 Cook Islands Australia 13-0 Solomon Islands Australia 11-0 Samoa Looking at this just makes me cry from the nostalgia: http://en.wikipedia....n_(OFC)#Group_1 Wow, it really has been fun whenever we've played the Cookies (is that their real denonym? )

Fucking hell, I miss the OFC