capriccioso

And sad about King. Spurs or not he is in my eyes a PL legend. Apparently he went through his career with just 8 (eight!) yellow cards and not a single red card. Outstanding for a defender.

That sounds like a good idea Not really. We'll get perhaps 100 of the 300 guests signing up, the others won't be bothered to go through the registration process.

The same applies for every single top club in the world. Huge injections of cash at some point(s) in their history made them become what they are today. 50 years from now Chelsea won't be seen as some sugar daddy club, as those clubs aren't seen like that now. The following clubs have broken the world transfer record: Arsenal (1928) Napoli (1952, 1975, 1984) Milan (1954, 1987, 1992 and 1992 again) Juventus (1957, 1968, 1976, 1990, 1992) Inter (1961, 1967, 1997, 1999) Barcelona (1973, 1982) Real Madrid (2000, 2001, 2009) British transfer record: Arsenal (1928, 1938, 1971, 1995) Man United (1962, 1981, 1995, 2001, 2002) Tottenham (1970) Liverpool (1995, 2011) Man City (2008) Chelsea (2006, 2011) We never have bought success to the same extent that the above clubs did. We've only broken the 30 million barrier twice, Real Madrid have done it an astonishing 11 times.

But the 4-3-3 (and its variants, 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, etc.) is still the formation our players like best/respond to. Mourinho ingrained that into the culture of the club. Every now and then we will have to change it to counter specific opposition threats, as Kostas once said "The greatest managers in the world are chameleons not goldfish". But it will remain the formation we use most of the time. I remember Ancelotti trying a 4-4-2 to fit Drogba and Torres in and that didn't work out very well at all.

Stop it, you sound like a RAWKite harping on about Gylfi Sigurdsson!

You can't give him credit for Ben Arfa, it was well known from his days with Benzema that he was a top player.

No it isn't. We're fucked if at any point Cech or Ivanovic get injured and if (when) Torres fails. Let's keep things firmly in perspective, we only have a few competent players in each position, 3 centre backs, 1 right back and 2 left backs. We have 1 goalkeeper. We don't have any reliable strikers. We have 2 new signings from different leagues who may take time to adjust to the different style of football. So much can go wrong there. And Manchester United are always the favourites for the PL, purely because of who they are and who their manager is. You can never write them off.

Anyone who's suggesting the French league is weak is an idiot. Lest we forget the players we've signed from there. It's one of the perfect finishing schools for youngish talents.

I was obsessed with this guy 2 years ago after seeing him run the show in a CL match against someone or other. I think he lost quite a lot of that potential in the intervening years, so his chances of being a God like player are gone. He should still be a pretty good player though, but when Ozil left it was a huge blow to Marin's development.

Agreed, he needs to spend a good 18 months or so out on loan at a place where he'll be first or second choice. Maybe even a Championship club.

Where to for Jose? Daily Mail reckons Anzhi. I hope not, that club is a graveyard for footballers and at 29 he can still go to a good team. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2176228/Jose-Bosingwa-offered-deal-Anzhi-Makhachkala.html

What I don't like there is that Bosingwa allowed fewer players to dribble past him than Azpilicueta.

Yeah but he loves the club. That's what I'm getting at, it's not just the city/money. People play for Napoli, even though Cavani had his house robbed, and the city is run by the Camorra.

You would, but a Francophone would choose Marseille. What if Drogba was offered 200,000/week at Marseille and 250,000/week at Shanghai? I think he would have gone with Marseille.

Agreed. No, otherwise everyone would be playing for Anzhi or something.

I don't understand.

He won't offer us genuine width unless we play him on the left wing where he'll find it much harder to be a typical modern winger. Someone had better school this cut inside shoot mentality out of them.

Lol at United fans saying Kagawa is better.

That football is unpredictable. Lets say 50 years from now we reach a point where its purely technical. An astute manager could set up a physical side and dominate the world. Then other managers would be forced to get more physical and balance in football would be restored again.

Its been heading in that general direction since the 50s. It'll take several more decades until physicality is completely eradicated.

Neither France or Brazil are that bad. Brazil's first division is probably on par with say the Dutch league, Ligue 1 is the 4th best league in the world. Let's not forget we got Cech, Drogba, Essien and others straight from France.

Sidewards passes are vital. Look up Xavi's passing stats, he doesn't give that much forward penetration. Retaining the ball is the most important part of playing as a DM.

We will definitely win one or more of the three mickey mouse cups. Beyond that, it's a bit of a stretch.

No, it's because the media adopt a scattergun approach. They link about 20 players a season per club. They'll at least get 2-3 of those right so they can look good.

There's no doubting that. It's the best of all time that I disagree with.