MikeO

This is an interesting article... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/james-lawton-moyes-predicament-shows-why-a-salary-cap-is-not-such-a-mad-idea-1775712.html

It wasn't meant to be....it was my little attempt at irony. I'm sorry if I disappointed you .

Nah....that'll just be Kenwright paying the Daily Mail to print it to con the fans. Davey probably lent him the cash then they both had a good laugh about it on the bus home.

Plus gate receipts for an extra eight home games.....even with smallish crowds to start with that should bring in £4-5m.

He's here because presumably Moyes thinks he might make the grade.....his non-inclusion (which I guess is what you mean) is because he's never played at a level remotely like the premier league before. Why stiletto?

More important than anything else it's cheques my yankee friend, not checks. This is England after all !

160 all out. Lead of 172 . Gonna need to screw up big time to not win this now.

Swann's chipped in....108-5 . Collapse of English proportions at the mo .

Thinking about doing the free shirt offer with Paddy Power (place four £10 bets and get a shirt) but I'm not a gambler . Any advice on the best way to (try to) break even? Or even make a couple of quid. Can't bet on anything less than evens or have more than one bet on a single event.

Interesting first day practice in Valencia. Brawn back in business by the look of it in the heat, second and third behind Alonso. Vettel & Webber 9th & 14th. Hamilton spun out.

Many do....including about 75% of Kipper at the last count...doesn't change my opinion. Only my opinion you'll notice....I don't claim to know "the truth," unlike the writer of that piece .

Am I missing something? Where in that article does it say that it may be no players?

Only another fifteen games and we're in the final .

That would be too much....you should be scarlet with embarrassment for suggesting such a thing Bill. Welcome Monkey, back in a bit....just going to tuck into some breakfast .

Current Player of the Year standings.... Pienaar 15 Saha 9 Fellaini 6 Neville 2 MOTM winners.... Arsenal (H)...Steven Pienaar

Looked like he was texting his agent that time....he looks cheerful enough when he's been chatting to Yak and Arteta (think it was Mikel to his left, only got a glance). Keep a clean sheet now and we should be OK for the group stages. Easier said than done maybe. See Villa lost 1-0 in Vienna.

Rodders!!!! All of a sudden things are looking up .

Like the lower case typeface on the shirts.

Kharkiv again. Hopefully they'll run out of gas but they're looking useful so far . 1-0 Saha!

He's in the crowd at Goodison tonight, looking relaxed and having a laugh with the Yak. Read into that what you like .

Howard, Hibbert, Baines, Yobo, Neville, Fellaini, Osman, Pienaar, Cahill, Rodwell, Saha. Subs: Nash, Duffy, Gosling, Baxter, Wallace, Vaughan, Jo. Pip at center back hopefully .

This (and the ad infinitum arguments like it) is, for me, based on the fundamentally flawed assumption that the club are knowingly and intentionally conning the fans....from Kenwright though Moyes and Ross and all the way down. When any piece goes down that road I yawn and switch off . There are real problems to address without adding imaginary ones.

We won!!!!! The toss.....it's a start :gay: .

Last year against Liege was only 28,000, Kharkiv was 37,000 (but about 15,000 were still in the Bullens Road at kick-off). Hope it's not too poor.

Martin O'Neill got pissed off today when asked whether he'd done the right thing in playing a weakened team in the UEFA Cup last season... (He) maintains that he made the right call to send out a weakened team against CSKA Moscow last season as Aston Villa were knocked out of the Uefa Cup and has retaliated against the critics who questioned his judgment. As Villa re-enter European competition in the Europa League play-off, first leg away to Rapid Vienna tonight, the Villa manager said: I have never seen something rumble on so long in my life. It really is mind-blowing that people are looking to that to explain what happened at the end of last season. If you remember, according to the BBC at the time... O'Neill has prioritised achieving a Champions League spot ahead of trying to win the Uefa Cup. So there you are then. How could anyone possibly question the wisdom of his decision?