Hafnia

That's positive news Mike, good to hear mate.

Having hodgson manage this world cup team is giving me the same feeling as a Davie Moyes Everton team going to play Liverpool... You get excited because of the enormity of it and you just know you are going to be disappointed. Gary Neville could be a useful member of his backroom team.... If he could say something like "listen Roy, Wayne has been wearing undershirts in 98f heat in order to get fit and lose weight, he's so clearly off the pace, drop the fat sod and play lallana, sterling and Barkley behind sturridge"

Gerrard will hopefully tell hodgson to unleash him.

The prick targetted Gareth bale on two occasions causing serious injury. I'm all for a tackle, he's a thug who tries to injure fellow pros.

I'd sooner sign that absolute Tit Jonathan Wilkes and make him captain. See him last night? What a first rate beaut that lad is.

Wtf

I'm sorry but international football crys out for players like Barkley and lallana. It's dull as Fuck.

Is it me or when players stick the national shirts on do they think."I'm gonna be a boring negative Tit for the next90 minutes" poor Ross.

Has anyone actually considered that Welbeck has operated on the wing the last two years? He has Rooney and RVP ahead of him. I spent most of the season laughing at how moyes was instructing United to play so I'm not going to slate welbeck too much for this season, after all Rooney + rvp together this season scored only a couple more than RVP alone last season. Shukes actually nailed one word just before "fan boy". I wouldn't have thought this applies to footballers but it does seem people have very selective process for rating someone so highly. And conversely dismissing someone not as popular. It's a bit like the old Commodore Amiga vs Atari st debate.

I'm not against Lukaku - i'm against spending £20-£25m on him. If it was him or Welbeck for £10m I would plump for Lukaku. My argument for being "less convinced" that Lukaku will improve by much is that it is technical - if it aint there by now it is highly unlikely to be there any time. With Welbeck it is mental which he can most certainly do - composure, confidence. For the money I feel Welbeck will give us more bang for the buck. I really do think as a number 1 striker he will get that "arrogance" as Martinez calls it. I think he will bloom - I really do.

Mate who is season ticket holder said he has been deployed out wide - moreso under Moyes (surprise surprise) - when given games in the middle he has really impressed and when rooney was out was very good indeed. Loads of ability - just a little lightweight considering his size. His goal tally for england suggests more to come better than one in three.

Bar the finishing I have seen to nothing whatsoever to conclude that Lukaus touch and build up play is anything other than sub standard. Wellbeck is very under rated in this regard. His team mates rate him very highly RVP loves his ability in linking up and working for the team. Rio Ferdinand stated that if he was a manager then Wellbeck would be the first united player he would sign - apart from getting the number of goals he should "HE HAS EVERYTHING" - the goals will come when he isn't played on the wing as much. From my own pov I have seen games where he very effective dropping deep and bringing midfielders into play.

yeah unfortunately, ITV tried to get him.

The last time the world cup was in south america Mario Kempes was top scorer - Brazil finished 3rd, Argentina won it. I think the weight of expectation may be too much for Brazil.

I think Torres on 4 is the flaw in the calc.

interested to know your excel ratio - I did something similar a few year ago to normalise olympic medals so that in the competition points were awarded on historical averages. I just feel thaqt after the season he has had and time off with injury he will be fresh. £5 back per goal - no brainer.

No doubt, however I believe Aguero will get the central attacking role - at Paddy Power with Aguero as top goalscoirer bet over £20, you get a fiver for each goal he scores - sorry but thats just nuts. Mad not to take that bet.

he's doing punditry too, love it!

For me the way to estimate top scorer is to look at opportunity - which top countries with good strikers are going to play against teams with leaky defences. For me I wouldn't pick a player from Englands group as I believe they will be low scoring games. The same can be said for Spains group with Holland and Chile. For me the best team with easiest group is Argentina - they face Iran, Nigeria, and Bosnia. Aguero for me will get 4 goals in those group stages + a couple more in the knock outs, at 14/1 I feel it is printing money.

"Garcia has spent more than a year and £6m travelling the world to interview those involved in the race to host the 2018 and 2022 tournaments and investigate allegations of bribery and corruption. He has interviewed representatives from all nine of the bidding nations, including a summit with a Qatari delegation on Monday. His findings will inform the Fifa president Sepp Blatter's decision on whether to order a revote." Whats Garcias next job? Visiting Bernhard Matthews factory and asking the turkeys if the want to cancel Christmas? I think we along with rest of Europe should boycott that world cup and have another Euro championships tournament.

That fight scene was one of the best choreographed I have seen. Was amazing, the scenery the lot. I'm a bit of a lazy watcher, I find the dialogue hard to follow at the time I watch it, i'm normally shattered with little ability to concentrate - but I get the general flow. I do think reading the book first would greatly help. Really hope Tyrion doesn't get written out, he's my favourite character - but yeah the red viper was ace also. Really never expected that turn around - I spent the last hours of last night saying "why didn't you stand in front of him!, why get so sloppy after pretty much a flawless performance"

Surely it was a draw at worst!

I think your concerns mirror mine, but the overall conclusion differs. System wise I think we need to change to get the best out of Lukaku, I feel that he needs a "busy" strike partner to take the focus of centre halves off him. As a lone man with his back to the defenders he lacks the ability to succeed. When he drops deep and picks the ball up and runs, or is in the box he is great. He needs the partner to do the work for him, I actually think Kone could be a great foil for him.

Wellbeck is in the Tom Cleverley, Darron Gibson spoilt Man United fan grouping of:- "why aren't you world class, we are used to Scholes, RVN - if you aren't 99% of the player they were, you just aren't good enough" It then cascades through football, the prawn butty brigade slate these players at every opportunity because they didn't cost anything and United must have the best players in thew world. It soon catches on and people just say "hmmmm, not for me, he's garbage". The diifference in opinion of Lukaku vs Welbeck is "lets sign Lukaku for £25m - he's gonna be world class, Welbeck for £10m?! waste of money, he's usless" The reality is that ability wise there is no great difference at all. A year or so ago 90% of football experts fans beleived Aaron Ramsey to be awful... amazing what game time and a manager that believes in you can do... I guess a few fans needed to eat humble pie.

Well this is it... A very nice player to watch, does really nice things on the ball and is very talented. However it became clear that he wasn't suited to Mourinho's style of play, Defensively he doesn't offer what Mourinho demands - rightly or wrongly Mourinho knows what players need to have for his system. You look at what they have as a team now and it is more disciplined - as much as Willian or Oscar aren't as subtle as Mata, they make up for it with their work off the ball, something that Mourinho demands from all his players. Keep possession and fight to retain possession. I believe Chelsea will win the league next season.