capriccioso

Can you really imagine the likes of Roman letting rules get in the way of what he wants? He has no qualms about breaking international and domestic laws that could see him get long prison terms, breaking a few football laws would at worst give him a few million owed in fines, which is a slap on the wrist for him. Or the Sheikhs at City, Malaga and PSG, who, by virtue of their royal blood, have been able to get whatever they want whenever they want. UEFA have absolutely no chance of stopping a man like that.

It'll come down to how much balls UEFA have got. They're a little afraid of clubs such as us, because we (together with the other 4 sugar daddy clubs) have the financial clout to start up an entirely new league, and its possible the huge 10 will follow us in there. Especially if we can promise restriction free football. There's a 3 year monitoring period, anyway; as long as we are decreasing our debts, we'll be fine. The real test for this will be when a club that is the darling of the establishment, like Barcelona, fail to comply with the rules. I imagine they'd do a Liverpool 2005 and let them in anyway, citing that the super glory hunting championship will be cheapened as a spectacle without Barcelona. They'll have no qualms enforcing it on the likes of us, but they will worry at our potential to fuck them over by starting a new, better, breakaway league. UEFA are in big trouble, really. Their financial model is based on keeping the huge 10 onside, Europe will lose its place as the best club confederation if anything at all should happen to those 10 clubs. Thats why I'm still confident that we can do what we like and Platini et al can get to fuck.

No, never heard of him. Link? Messi is no gentleman, though. Remember that handball goal a few years back?

How good was he at Feyenoord? Is it possible we've ruined his potential?

Give him a run in the first team, he surely can't be any worse than what he'll be replacing, an ineffectual winger in Sturridge. Play Sturridge in his preferred central role or bench him for Lukaku/Drogba.

I'm no doping expert, but I'm kinda interested in it as you have talked more about it. Sorry if I'm asking too much, can you please write up a small word document or something and PM me?

I don't buy your argument entirely, blue out west. Growth drugs can't help him technically, his dribbling, passing, eye for goal etc. are all his. Can they improve pace, though? Messi would be half the player he is now if he couldn't control the ball and move at high speeds.

Nakamura's free kicks are far better than Juninho's, imo. Could Juninho beat that? Incredible stuff, he had a split second to aim using a mirror.

Sorry, I'll rephrase that, it won't be commercially viable for maybe 15 years, and it'll be 20 before they become a fixture in most peoples houses.

Only 3? Try 6 or 7, he won't budge for less than 160 million I reckon.

Thats great, but on current form to give either of them a > 80 rating is criminal. To give any of our players barring Cech and Mata > 80 on current form is in itself, criminal.

Yes, he is doped up. But then so is Alberto Contador. That doesn't stop him from being a legend of his sport, drugs or not, Contador is a joy to watch on the bicycle. The same principle can be applied to Messi. The authorities will turn a blind eye because he's so fucking good. If Salomon Kalou tried that shit they'd have him down in front of WADA before you can say 'cheat'.

They will punish City, but not Madrid. All UEFA want is to preserve the status quo, they'll never raise a finger against the traditional giants of the game- the big 3 Italian's, the 2 Spanish, Man United, Liverpool and Arsenal, Ajax as well as Bayern Munich. They absolutely loathe upstart clubs like us and City and PSG and Anzhi who come along and threaten to upset the apple cart. They're trying to freeze it so that the 4 current 'sugar daddy' clubs are the only ones who can be a threat, they don't want anyone else with no 'history' to come along and become the greatest force football has ever seen. I'm not sure why they're against it, football will surely be better when money competes with prestige. And its a lot better to have 20 cash rich, history poor clubs competing against the "HUGE 10™" historical European clubs, it adds something new from all the hegemony. How great would it be if Luch-Energiya Vladivostok won the Champions League? A club thats languished in the Russian second division for much of its history, struggling to remain even in the Russian league system because of the tyranny of distance. As a neutral I'd much rather see a club from the Russian-Korean border which has struggled its entire existence to complete a fairytale victory rather than seeing the HUGE 10™win the UEFA Super Glory Hunting Championship ™ all the fucking time. There is absolutely no romance, no underdog factor with the HUGE 10™. They are just machines, and its them, not us, the noveau riche that are killing off football. All we're after is a bit more competition, they want to lock it in so that until the end of time there will only be around 15 clubs that have ever been the Super Glory Hunting Champions of Europe™. I can see this in 50 years time, UEFA™ introduces the League of the Best Clubs of All Time ™. Ticket prices only cost 10,000 pounds a head, and the HUGE 10™ will never play in their inferior national leagues anymore.

He played Real Madrid and other European powerhouses dozens of times in his club career. And still dominated. Whereas Messi bottles it whenever he comes up against Jose Bosingwa, Salomon Kalou or Javier Zanetti. Edit: And he played against Bobby Moore in Mexico 1970, and despite not scoring had a pretty decent game. That was the game where Banks pulled off the impossible save. On top of that he scored against the Italian's in 1970, where he played against the likes of Facchetti.

I don't know if we need a player like Tiote, Ramires is fairly similar to him and Essien used to be- he may well get that back. Not opposing signing him, I just think the money could be better spent elsewhere.

No, FIFA ratings are based on reputation not skill. Which is why Wayne Rooney is like 92 and why Frank Lampard is ~ 85, when Lampard should be 70 at best and Rooney 80 at best.

No way. Torres has 0 confidence and a penalty kick would put so much pressure on him. I'd bet my house that he'd miss, especially if its needed to equalise/take the lead.

Realistically, how much can we get for Torres? 10 million would be pushing it, no?

Quite comfortably player of his generation, tbf.

If only our players were half as professional as Alex.. the guy wasn't even allowed to use our car park and yet he still delivers an unbiased opinion. Good on you, mate.

I disagree. The best part is he has complete freedom to do whatever he wants to with the players. He can shatter player power once and for all, they cannot respond at all. He'll lose the job come June anyway, so he can fuck off half the squad and get away scot free.

I'm not convinced. This is the usual new manager honeymoon period. Watch out for it to all go to shit in April/May.

Drogba's not a natural penalty taker and he messed up his last penalty.

Perhaps we should sign a German just to take penalties.

No one beats the Germans at taking penalties. IIRC Podolski's miss in South Africa was the first miss in either general play or a shootout in 28 years by the German NT.