capriccioso

Are we getting paid for this?

Torres or Sturridge plus money, yes; not Meireles. We can't replace a midfielder with a striker, we're already so lightweight in centre midfield. We have 3 proven centre midfielders, one of whom loses the ball habitually (Ramires) when played there; one who is 35 and one who many of our fans still believe is the weakest link in the squad. We need Meireles, he's by far our best 4th choice midfielder. If we let go of him we need to replace him as soon as possible with an experienced centre midfielder, Romeu, Essien, et al won't cut it for the upcoming season. We cannot make the same mistake Carlo made and replace our experienced backups with youth, that just won't work unless our youth are world beaters, which they're not by any stretch of the imagination.

Coutinho didn't really impress me, in honesty. Though to be fair not many from Inter have since Jose left. The great one still taunts us and Inter from beyond the 'grave'.

Austar = Foxtel? You didn't need it. Back in the good old days SBS had everything, even the Premier League . There used to be this weekly highlights show of Serie A as part of the 4 hour long TWG, hosted on SBS by Murray and that fat Italian guy, Palombo or something.

We're talking basics here. His 'movement' is hardly out of this world, its basic striker positioning. Any competent goal scorer would know where to be instinctively, and if they didn't, their coaches would drum it into their heads. Now we've established that praising him for positioning is not valid, we have to examine his finishing, which is absolutely terrible, you cannot rely on him to tuck away a chance. You don't know if he'll hit the top corner or do something like this: And that is exactly what's not needed in a striker. We need someone confident. Someone who'll tuck away the chances he will get. Any idiot can get himself in the same goal scoring positions Torres was in several times last season.

Never watched the '06 World Cup/Champions League between 2003 and 2007? I used to watch every CL fixture involving an Italian team back in those days. They always showed up a defensive masterclass. Shame Serie A has slipped, football in general was great when the Italians were on top.

Yep, Spanish football is predicated on the condition that Barcelona and Real Madrid always receive 130+ million in TV rights and under absolutely no circumstances must a third club earn more than 50 million, which is one of the major factors in how far ahead of the pack they are. The other teams know the Europa League is the only chance they get at a trophy- all the domestic ones will invariably end up in the hands of the big two and that explains why Spanish teams take the EL so seriously and tend to do very well. That kind of scenario lends itself to murky corruption (Operacion Puerto) and domination. England are nowhere near that and thankfully never will be. Domination like that is just not possible anymore. Even Man United in the PL era have never walked to a title, they've always had at least one rival and they've had to fight their way to the title on many occasions.

They're exceptions to the rule. Also my point wasn't that Madrid produced cunty players, it was that they had a load of players who lived a sort of playboy/non professional lifestyle. Like Ronaldo, he really let himself go physically in Spain.

But the Italian duo have a World Cup medal and Terry doesn't. If I had to choose a back 4, based off seeing many of these players in the twilights of their careers: Thuram-Nesta-Cannavaro-Maldini. Terry of course has been a fantastic player but I still think he is a cut (albeit a very thin one) below those two.

Peace called it all in February when many still had some hopes for him : He's also spot on in the post above mine; he's not been confident for a long time now. Even that Barcelona goal, a confident player would have taken a shot earlier than him- he took an extra touch to get it round Valdes.

No I wasn't Yes, he was an enormous douchebag. He was a typical Madrid Galactico era footballer though, very much a champagne man on and off the pitch.

Guti is a titan. One of my favourite players. Shame he was so inconsistent, at his peak Xavi, Scholes et al have/had nothing on him.

Yep, he's finished. First off, he was never that good unless the entire team was absolutely dedicated to doing nothing else than getting goals out of him- probably because they had no other choice but to play like that to remain competitive (hi Atletico) or because they relied on a nucleus of players and had very little in striking depth (hi Kopites). Though recently I've had a spate of calling people shit before them responding with incredible performances, at the first possible occasion, making me look a fool. Now I've said that he'll probably score 4 goals in the Community Shield.

Will you two give City-United 'DOMINATION FOREVER' a rest? If Term's right then they'll go to shit in 5 seasons. If Justin is right they'll go to shit in 5 seasons. Both the arguments fail to realise that they, reasonably soon, will be hit with the same problems we have been having since 2010, selling their ageing shite.

Totally agree. Experience > youth, always. Unless your youth happen to be world beaters, which ours plainly aren't. And Mikel.

Good point. I guess we won't know until it happens. A touch of disappointment that we've been unable to go back-to-back, I guess. As long as we don't embarrass ourselves and at least get to the knockout stages, I don't think we'll be that crushed.

The stature of the teams doesn't change the fact that its a glorified pre season friendly.

I'm sorry Mr. Strong, Silent Type.

You could say the same for Hazard as well

It seems AC Milan are willing to take a risk on him.

Hello Mr. Redknapp, how goes the hunt for a new job?

You saw it here first.

Not funny as such, but still

I use football to get away from my moods. 90 minutes of total concentration on the game tends to make me forget, temporarily, my problems .

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