xavier

Ooh groundbreaking stuff.

Liverpool fans are the red shite. And these here, are the blue shite. Should learn the lingo before you post, mate.

Cant believe that you think so Licker. The guy's a thug, an above average player and someone who disrupts the dressing to top it all off. (poking the u-21 player's eye with a cigar, injuring Ousmane Dabo on purpose during training) Even if one can disregard the first 2 things ive listed, the latter will kill team morale and to think he'll be on bumper wages is bad business IMO. You fellas finally seem to be getting it right at the moment (sigh) and Moyes will only get players who fit his ideology. (Yakubu doesnt, though. :S )

Torres is shite, dodge is correct.

Liverpool You fellas, United. Real Sociedad.

I'm back for this one We've been struggling in the middle of midfield ever since Alonso's got injured. He's touch and go to be back for the derby but im not sure whether he will. Thats a huge bonus for you as both Stevie and Mascherano have been struggling for form recently. Everything is going to be decided in the midfield battle in this one and hence i think that Moyes will go 451 to take advantage of our poor form and the importance of that position. No one reckons Anichebe will start? I rate the kid to be honest, is he not starting regularly for you?

Actually those quotes of him saying that curbs is worse than Souness or whatever is just tabloid talk. But yeah whatever. I honestly think that he was sold because he didnt add enough to the team as i thought he would at the beggining of last season. He couldn't stay on side to save his life. So maybe, he has found his level at West Ham. Thought you'd also want to quote me on the Torres comment. Torres wasnt Rafa's first choice by any means because he isnt the finished article and also too expensive. But he was the best striker who was available. So, on hindsight im happy we signed him.

So true. Especially when compared to the absolute quality you've signed this season.

Could do a lot worse for 4 million, no? Our replacement for Garcia. Will come in good use in those games where we play one up front. Quite versatile, really tricky and knows how to unlock defenses with passing just outside the opponents box. If he steps up with better quality players around him, we'd have a good player in our hands.

Remember United fans getting some trashing from Italian police in rome. Likewise, Boro fans caused a huge problem in the UEFA Cup final last season. Would you not agree with the fact that every club has its trouble makers, be it Liverpool, Everton, Man U, whoever?

Weaker, yes. But struggling?

Gerrard is our main player, yes. Are we built around him? Nope. If we were he'd have played in his centre mid position all season. And has he been pulling us through all season? Ha! He's not even been our best player this season. One out of Carra, Reina or Finnan have been. We wont 'struggle' without him, no chance. But what do i know eh..

I could understand their frustrations for not having a ticket but that is just ridiculous. Real fans my arse.

Heard some of the stories off Liverpool Fans who went to Athens on how 70 year old men were assualted and had their tickets stolen, how men with 5 year old kids were left bleeding half to death for their tickets. All this done by our own fans. Absolute scum (minority). The UEFA could have done a lot better with the policing and general security. But they're never going to take some blame that they deserve for it. Sometimes i wonder that we'd be better of with the G-14. But how 'fans' could cause that much pain to their own kind is ridiculous. I dont understand it.

Fair enough.

AND Its the General footie discussion forum isnt it? Maybe you should just remove that part of the messageboard if you cant take other fans posting down here. If you put forward the reason on WHY they were arrested, we'd actually know what had happened. Lots of shit went down in Athens yesterday. Touts having a lot of tickets in their hands (fake ones too, many gullible ones bought fakes), charging exorbitant rates, the entrace for supporters inside the stadium became bottleneck, many things. If this is a case of 'Englsih Hooliganism', then i take my words back. But these are scousers too, remember? I'm bitter on how we lost it, yeah. Took a jammy deflection off the hand in the 45th minute after a simulation by the 'worlds greatest player' (to be honest he was always going to go down when touched in that position, gerrard did in 05) But if ya'll (plural) actually read what ive written, ive said that we would have won if we had our shooting boots on. Ive put forward MOST if not all of the reasons we've lost and the refereeing, and the other moans i did we're a part of it, inderictly if not direct. Im just disappointed in the manner where some of you have completely failed to give credit where its due.

Are you still on that one man team thing? You're two years too late on that note.

Like we dont have anything better to do. And you dont need our help to go out of Europe next season. -------------- Genuinely gutted after the game. Whoever blaming Rafa's tactics is out of his mind. Rafa got it spot on. They never looking like scoring till they actually fluked one. Typical Inzhagi, never gives you anything in a game but a goal of the one chance he gets. We smothered the so called best player in the year into obscurity in the first half. Except for a good dribble, i dont recall him get one over Mascherano in the half. Buy of the season if we're able to secure a buy, would be very disappointed if we have to let him go at the end of next season. If Kaka had got anywhere near the space/chances the Gerrard did, we would have been split open. Just shows how good we are as a defensive unit. We didnt get our shooting boots on yesterday, that is what led to the loss. We had so many half chances and that Gerrard chance on the stroke of an hour shouldnt have been missed. No one could deliver the final ball. Our work rate, defending, closing down was absolutely fantastic. Just couldnt score. And the refereeing was ridiculous. Every 50-50 went their every and he whistled a good 40 seconds before the 3 minute stoppage time. Should have been 4 minutes anyways with 6 subs and a couple of injury fakes from Inzhagi. Platini must be loving it, football's finally being a non contact sport. Ah well, atleast we beat two teams against whom we were never given a chance of beating en route to Athens. And we also showed that we were the better team on the day. It wasnt our day unfortunately, it was always Milans. Our 'scandinavean' support was brilliant though, dont you think? Top draw, all the game and after. Chelsea, Arsenal, Man U and even you guys can fuck off. You werent there, we were. g'day.

Still won it 5 times more than you lot

He also apologised later after Rafa makes his opinion about him public. And i did see how exciting the Champions League 3rd placed playoff between 'the two best team in the country' was. Could have rather watched paint dry. And yeah, we've been used to mediocrity. Two CL finals in year years is nothing but mediocre.

Er..isnt that how every business works? The owners take a loan and some part of the loan is slowly payed off from the profits make by the company. What you've not quoted is the number of times, Hicks and Gillet have said that they'll support Rafa in the transfer market. They havent put a number on the budget but have said that they'll support Rafa in the window, financially. Moores wouldnt have sold us to them if he didnt think that they'd support us in the market; he just wouldnt have. Hicks has pumped in millions into his Ice Hockey side and helped them win the Stanley Cup. Same as with their baseball sides. And we're a top three side already. The only team i can see falling from the top four ladder is Arsenal, and that too only if they lose Henry (and dont sign eto'o or someone equivalent). We're not, no. But its looking good for us. David Moores as much as we loved him (he forked out 9.5 million pounds from his own pocket to fund for Dirk Kuyt, LFC through and through) knew that we'd need real money if we were to push towards the next level.(we also had a stadium to fund for). We were never going to be able to challenge for the league under him as we were always going to be out priced for the bigger players by the richer clubs. He sold the club only with the clubs main interests in mind and hence it took so long for him to find suitors for us. I know that this is a business, but i also do know that they're going to pump some money in the market, hopefully which'll see us buy whichever players we want (as opposed to the sell to buy, state which occured last year). I can see us challenging next year but not winning it, have had too many years of saying that but hopefully this time the belief will hold true. Maybe we'll win it the year after next. Lets wait and watch eh?

Benfica are a selling club just like every Portuguese club out there.

Cheers.

Apologies for my dumbness (no rs jokes please ) but how many leagues have this playoff method of promotion? I thought that only the Championship did. Are there more leagues where this is followed?

Nah. Cant even afford a ticket let alone a flight to Europe.