capriccioso

The great man has retired. Appreciate his career here:

It's so tight already

We should smash them.

Foy

Sorry Spike. I voted for manpe. The greatest typist known in forum history deserves every honour he can get.

Copycat.

I'm an anxious person, though. I worry for a living.

Actually I think Villas-Boas will be a success at Spurs. His touchline squatting and other acts that scream "WANKER" would go down well. People give him a lot of shit and venerate Bielsa, though they share a similar managerial philosophy. Though in Bielsa's defence he's not incompetent with the press, nor does he squat on the touchline.

If he's splitting his resources 3 ways (4, if you include his role in the Russian FA), that can't be a great thing for us. He should pull out of CSKA/the Russian FA.

And I forgot the bench: Turnbull Ferreira Essien Romeu Malouda Torres Sturridge There's an invincible team. They would probably smash Spain, even Brazil 1970.

That would make it club number 3 he has a hand in. He tried to own CSKA Moscow as well, but wasn't permitted to. He's probably some sort of secret investor there. At least Arkady only has one love...

4-2-3-1 ---------------------Cech Bosingwa-David Luiz-Cahill-Cole -----------------Mikel-Lampard Kalou ©----------Mata-------Bertrand --------------------Drogba

Red Rom wouldn't go as far as to own another club, would he?

They can help when you're still developing in your teens. Doping someone allows them to focus a lot less on physical training and a lot more on technical training, which at that developmental stage makes a massive difference. You're already getting naturally bigger, faster, stronger from puberty, pumping drugs in at that stage can allow a youth player to virtually ignore physical training. Also cyclists' drugs help only with recovery. HGH isn't used in cycling anymore, its all blood doping. Football seems to be more or less the same, except they prefer nandrolene rather than EPO, but the amount of heart related deaths/strokes we've seen on the pitch in recent years confirms that EPO is very much in use. Recovery cuts down injury time, the likelihood of injury is also reduced as there's less fatigue in an individuals muscles. It also allows even fully fledged players to devote themselves to technical training and limit time spent on physical training.

Those stats are incredible. He loses the ball once a match and has a 5 in 6 tackle success rate. And he's only been beaten 11 times.

I think you're forgetting that we have the wealth of nations in our bank account. United, Arsenal, even AC Milan, don't and therefore they're selling clubs. Our players are way out of the reach of any club in the world, we only sell if we don't want him.

Perhaps I am. I blame Floyd Landis for turning me into a cynic. I remember as a 12 year old being amazed by his exploits, a week later he got exposed. It shattered my trust in athletes, and these days I tend to go off the assumption that anyone good is on something and wait for them to prove that they're not. In my opinion, the right of presumed innocence has sailed in professional sports; and the burden of proof rests on the defence, not the prosecution; especially when you get cases like Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong who 'never tested positive' (well, actually, the courts revealed a couple of days ago that Lance had tested positive in 1999 but it had been hushed up). It's happened too often now. We need a massive fall out for it to be stamped out of sport altogether, or we'll have farces like the 100 metres men's final in the 1988 Seoul Games (where every single competitor tested positive) as the norm.

No one takes you seriously? No one takes me seriously, either.

Apologies.

On the contrary, I take everything you say quite seriously. I can't tell when you're serious or not.

Alright, whatever he is, he is an extraordinarily corrupt man. That doesn't take away from his awesomeness, though. Re: Chelsea and doping: http://www.guardian....newsstory.sport Cleared by the UK authorities or not, its still a drug and in other sports would see hefty punishment. I would say every top flight club in every major league in Europe indulges in the practice. There's so much money at stake. You hear stories of athletes from other sports pumping this lethal stuff into their bodies- for maybe an extra 100 grand at the end of the year. A footballer who juices his way to the top can earn that in a week. A football clubs entire financial future can depend on its league position (hi, Leeds) http://www.newscient.../article/dn7375 Lets not be naive here. Just because we love someone or something doesn't mean its does not invest in illegal medical practices.

Do you think they would have offered to pay for the treatment if Messi had been some street kid with no talent whatsoever?

Why does that shock you? We're owned by a Russian mobster and our doctor is Spanish. It would be a surprise if it was the other way.

But if everyone declines and he stays the same, can that be considered an improvement? I would say no. Also for a player to play in excess of 75 games a season on average (including internationals and pre season) 5 years running whilst hardly ever getting injured and only looking fatigued for one month towards the end of that 5 year period stretches my belief. Furthermore he does a lot more running than other winger/strikers, because of Barcelona's pressing. And then there are the likes of Xavi, who also turn out for Catalunya (albeit rarely) in addition to Spain and Barcelona. EPO is used widely throughout football, as evidenced by all those sudden cardiac arrests we've seen in recent years, the Juventus doping case in the 90s, and Operacion Puerto. We'll know when he's about 40. EPO enlarges the head, causes heart disease and cancer, increases the risk of cardiac arrest, etc.

He lacks the attitude at this point. As Clevemayer said he needs to become more aggressive.