capriccioso

China are absolute piss and wind. An embarrassment to the AFC. Kyrgyzstan would have put up a better fight.

Perhaps, but London will always be a bigger drawcard than Makachkala or Leningrad. They can pack their team in with youth a la Porto and reap the benefits from that, instead of going for the established stars like we and other noveau riche clubs have traditionally done.

It has mercifully cooled down today. We shouldn't be looking at much more than 20, which for September is around about where it should be. I can't stand 30+ degree days in the first couple of weeks of spring.

They really aren't far away from becoming the next big team in England. Obviously they'll never do it with their current crop but they will be able to buy a brand new, top class squad if Mittal starts to plough his money into QPR rather than his Formula 1 team.

You can't hit me with a fish unless you're telling me the truth. Or else I shall hit you back with that 272kg tuna I posted a few pages back.

Not that long ago, Arsenal fans could have said the same about us. They're not that far away. If Lakshmi Mittal decides to stop dicking around with Formula 1 and ramps up his investment in QPR (he currently owns about a 20% stake and is far, far richer than Roman) then they can be a real force.

But I do mind. Tell me what it is!!

Weird. Perhaps my celebration over Alberto scared everyone off.

Oliver Kahn played the World Cup final in 2002 with a broken wrist.

Cech speaks perfect English. Why are we forgetting that our last captain was a Frenchman? And other clubs, such as Arsenal, haven't had an English captain for years.

You've just raised an interesting point. What if AVB's success at Porto was down to simply getting the best out of Falcao, Hulk et al and permitting individual brilliance rather than a collective team effort to win matches?

Football matches in Europe sound so intimidating. I'd sooner pick a fight with Mick Dundee than get caught in the wrong crowd.

Someone must make a Sparta! reference. Newton really needs to be kept away from the microphone.

I don't have twitter. If I did I would follow you for sure

There's an online archive that has close to all Trotsky's major works and quite a few fron Lenin. I think its called Trotsky.org or .net. I'm studying Arts at uni atm, I should be eligiBle to start specialising in Russia next year.

Time to change it

Torres came with a 50 million price tag and came from a club we despise. It's obvious that he's going to get a lot of support through thickness and anorexia alike for those reasons.

Not leagues per se, but the Champions League will be only won by 10 different clubs for the rest of its history. (in order of UEFA preference for marketing, brand value, and making money in general) Man United Real Madrid Barcelona AC Milan Liverpool Inter Juventus Arsenal Chelsea PSG/Man City/Anzhi/any other noveau riche club. With the first winner of that lot to take up 10th spot. It will kill off the other great clubs of Europe. Porto, Benfica, Sporting, Athletic (Bilbao), Napoli, and so on... that don't have anywhere near as much marketing potential as those 10 or so I listed above.

Forever alone

You don't need to be a good player to be a great captain, in any sport. Case in point, Misbah-ul-Haq.

So, 'Boswinga'. I have a feeling he will lord it against us.

Hardly, we still don't have a quick enough defence for his high line. We'd still lose games 4-3 all the time. He implemented it just fine at Porto. Perhaps England isn't right for him. He would do well to go back to the continent where his style of football would be more accepted by the players as opposed to England.

?? The squad that went through the 2003/04 Premier League season without losing a single match. I consider their era to span 2003 and 2006.

No it wasn't. I'll not have insults given out about an icon of Australian history! The term swag developed from 'swagman', an itinerant wanderer in rural Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Swagmen were basically handymen in the bush, they could perform a wide variety of farm and farming related tasks (most famously, herding livestock on horseback and shearing) and were paid in return. They would spend their money immediately on payday on a massive orgy of drunkenness and debauchery. What little money they had left the morning after was spent on more alcohol, which they carried in their 'swags' (shoulder bags) to tide them over until they made it to their next place of work. Less stereotypical swagmen carried supplies and bedding in their swags, but they are no fun and weren't immortalised in poetry by Banjo Patterson, so their voices in the historical narrative are irrelevant