TorontoChelsea

Third straight game for Torres where he gets an assist.

Beautiful goal!

Not just inflation, but inflation of how much teams spent. 10M was massive then. I agree with you though, doesn't really matter. Both were awful signings.

But at that time, it was still a lot of money. (12M pounds I think). It would be about the equivalent of 30-35M now. True, not as expensive as Torres, but he was also worse.

Italian fashion. Have you seen the face-masks on the catwalks of Milan this year? Just gorgeous.

Public relations.

I think the opposite. Since when did Mourinho let his players free to roam around the pitch? He demands defensive solidity and shape. Hazard is developing very well but Oscar isn't yet. I don't think it's down to coaching, I think it's that the role Oscar would be best in, is already taken by a superior player (Mata). By saying he belongs in the middle of the pitch, you are moving Mata out to the wing and where does Hazard go? Right wing? You are going to de-emphasize our two best offensive players for a player who hasn't scored a goal from open play yet in the league? It's up to Oscar to adapt his game rather than Chelsea changing our entire lineup to suite him.

I agree. Especially in a close game like this. If the match is 4-1 there's almost no chance of changing the MOTM, but 2-1? If Fred scored the equalizer he'd have had 2 goals. How would he not be MOTM?

The ref did his best to make sure Ghana would go through, but the right team won in the end.

Ghana and Burkina Faso going to penalties

Walcott is just destroying Adriano.

SUPER FRANK!

Oh Gary...

Happy that Cole and Lampard will only play a half each. They need the rest.

Congrats Stingray. Well deserved.

The problem is, what IS the third best league? Premier League and La Liga are clearly #1 and #2 in some order and while Italy used to be as good as any league in the world, absurd levels of corruption and much less money means that it just isn't at that level. I think the reason Bayern will dominate is simply money. Over the past 2 years, Bayern has spent around 95M pounds on transfers. That's three times more than any other team. You can't compete long-term while being outspent like that.

I hope Luiz doesn't play. Hate to see someone not fit for us but fit enough to play in an international friendly.

I'd sort of love to approach a footballer making 150K a week right before a massive game and offer them like 83p to throw it.

I'm not sure of how much of that is Le Saux's fault and how much was his teammates. It can be difficult to act intelligent and sophisticated in sporting environments because you're always seen as not "one of the guys". One of my favourite sports books is Ball Four about one baseball player's 1969 season. The writer was always seen as an outsider himself and he also recounts some funny anecdotes about one player who management didn't like because he had long hair and liked to read Dostoevsky. (The manager's favourite and almost only advice in all situations was "go pound some Budweiser".) I'm not saying athletes are mostly dumb, but there is a certain sort of jock chumminess that if you don't have, will get you disliked. Even at the relatively low levels of sports that I played, this was evident.

It isn't only the referee. In the case of the Liverpool game, it was the keeper. Sometimes, more than one player on a team can be involved. Often it is not the whole game that is fixed, it is something else, but sometimes it is the whole game and a referee in a match between fairly even clubs could make a huge difference.

I don't understand what you're saying. Romeu is not playing for the rest of the year because he's injured. There's no other reason. Malouda's status has zero effect on that.

Romeu is out for the year. Nobody is taking his spot.

He's out of contract so it's up to him. I think Dortmund is the best place for him, but he might decide he'd rather be elsewhere. What's so incredible about Dortmund is that not only do they have amazing talent, is that their talent is almost all very young. Goetze is one of the best players in the Bundesliga at 20. Reus, Lewondowski, Hummels, Subotic,Gundogen, and Bender are all 22-24 years old. Still, Bayern just spends so much more money than other clubs, it will be hard for anyone in the Bundesliga to keep up with them.

The sums we're talking about, it has to be mostly smaller sides. If you're making even 5K a week, would you risk throwing away your career for one, two months pay? And for big players? If you're making 50K a week, it would take 10s of millions of pounds to get anyone to throw something.

More info on it....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/9848809/Liverpools-2009-Champions-League-match-against-Debrecen-allegedly-fixed-by-Hungarian-sides-goalkeeper.html