ethicalstrategy

Yeah - he scored a hatfull for us in his last season and then went on to be leading scorer at Barca after their top striker was injured - or am I remembering it wrong?

Well Boula didnt travel to the US because discussions are ongoing about his future. So one must assume that Robben is staying as he has travelled. I certainly hope so.

The situation would have still arisen - it's just that some other poor sods would have been in it! The point is that West Ham should have been relegated and they weren't. So someone else is being shafted. Doesn't matter if it's Sheffield Utd, Wigan, Charlton, Man City or anyone else. If I was in that situation I would feel mightily aggrieved, and with good reason.

Utd's summer spending is looking quite interesting. Utd line up for next season: ------------VDS/Foster Neville----Vidic---Ferdinand-----Evra --------------Hargreaves/Carrick Ronaldo----------------------Giggs/Nani --------------Anderson/Scholes -------Rooney/Tevez? ----------------------Saha Plus: Brown, O'Shea, Smith, Richardson, Heinze, Silvestre, Fletcher, Park, Solskjaer + some youngsters like Eagles If I was a Utd fan I would be quite happy about their strength in depth now. I would be a bit worried about how SAF is going to accomodate all of these players. Scholes and Giggs are getting on a bit so signing players to cover their positions makes good sense. It will give him the opportunity to introduce them slowly and rest the old timers as the season progresses. I still see a problem with the main striker position as Saha is so injury prone. Solskjaer has never been a starter and Smith is just not top quality. Hargreaves will be an interesting one. I assume that he will be a starter, but I can't see both he and Carrick featuring together all that often. I assume Carrick won't be too happy to sit on the bench after playing a big part in their last season. I'm still confident that we are a better side than them head to head but they look well placed - better than last season - to offer a serious challenge again over 38 matches. Even if Tevez doesn't go there.

to be fair they do have something to moan about! They have been the victim of an absolute farce. How the FA can show their face in public is beyond me. They are a disgrace.

He is? Are you sure? Looked nice on the front cover of OK magazine though (Yes I know JT was on it the week before - I guess we should blame the wives!)

or, more likely, unemployed if you repeatedly got it so wrong in your job? After reading all the crap spouted in the press over the last few weeks it just made me wonder what other job allows you to be so wrong, so often and yet be allowed to stay employed?

I voted no, but I don't necessarily agree that we would finish 2nd or 3rd next season without him. I do think we would be immeasurably worse off if he did leave. I'm astonished that so many people are happy to see him go. I seem to remember that there has been a lot of gnashing of teeth and wailing when other players, who couldn't hold a candle to Frank's achievements, decide to move on. You'll miss him a lot if he goes that is for sure!

If the article is true - about what Grant's role will be rather than just his appointment - then I don't believe that Mourinho will last the season. What is suggested is an absolute joke. It is possible to appoint a coach who simply has the job of managing the players that the club give him, although I don't see that as being compatible with Jose's style. Abramovich should either give Mourinho complete control over footballing matters or sack him. That doesn't mean that he has to buy whoever the manager wants at whatever price, but it does mean giving him the right to decide if he wants a player or not. The arrangement described in the article will just lead to catastrophe!

In the spirit of fostering anglo-otherplace relations it is spelt atmosphere (? Russ Abbott) (I'm guessing that the "sphere" part refers to the shape of the planet)

Personally, I think it is the right of any player to decide if and when he wants to play for his national side. It is also the right of the international side to leave the player out if they don't think he is committed. Take David Bentley as an example. If he doesn't want to play for England in the U21 championships that's his decision. If I was in charge of selecting England teams then he would never be considered for selection again and I would have made that clear to him at the time. I don't think you can force someone to play if they don't want to, but equally, I wouldn't let a player pick and choose his matches if I was an international selector.

I'd endorse the rapidshare method. You can make each clip up to 100mb before needing to split it and as far as I can see there is no limit to the amount you can upload. You can password protect your folders and files if you want to restrict access. The downside is that it is a bit slow and clunky for people to access the files without a subscription. Premium users can get files very quickly and easily. I certainly thought it was worth the cost of an annual subscription.

I made the same point a few weeks ago http://www.csrforums2.co.uk/viewtopic.p ... highlight= I know it seems a little harsh given that he scored a great goal, but if he does go back to his old ways then he's not going to get much playing time under Jose.

ACTIM, the official suppliers of match stats to the FA announced their team of the season based on their stats: http://www.premierleague.com/fapl.rac?c ... fTheSeason david james 489 (13) steve finnan 469 (19) ricardo carvalho 463 (23) rio ferdinand 461 (26) phil neville 454 (27) cristiano ronaldo 617 (2) frank lampard 572 (5) cesc fabregas 565 (7) mikel arteta 567 (6) dimitar berbatov 611 (3) didier drogba 628 (1) The first figure by each name is their total points for the season. The figure in brackets is their overall position. I might take issue with Phil Neville but otherwise it looks pretty good. Nice to see 3 Chelsea players in there. The stats seems to count against players who miss quite a lot of games so it's no surprise not to see Cech or Terry featuring. I'm guessiing also that Essien's constant changing of position didn't help his cause. Suprising to many will be Frank's appearance - what a poor season he had!

I don't completely agree with Nibs about our Frankie. There is no doubt that he is not showing the same outstanding form that he had in the 2004/05, 2005/06 and first part of 2006/07 seasons. I'm sure that a lot of that is down to tiredness. Having said that, he did not have the mare of a world cup that many say he did. He wasn't at his best but then neither were the majority of the rest. Unfortunately for him, he has set such high standards that failing to score for a few games is regarded as a slump in form and the criticism has had an impact on his confidence. What people shouldn't forget is that he is not a striker. He brings more to the team than just goals and not all of it is eye catching. The game against Brazil the other day is a good example. He was asked to play a more disciplined role and did so pretty well. But, of course now he is under immense scrutiny and every missed placed pass or possession lost is jumped on with glee. I saw Gerrard give the ball away just as much as Frank, but because he rushed around a lot and is the media darling he was deemed to have been excellent. Personally I think it is all bullsh*t. A Frank Lampard playing at 70% of the level he has shown for the last 2 years is more than good enough to hold down his place in the England team. Owen Hargreaves and Carrick can't hold a candle to him in my opinion. I hope that he does get the rest he needs over the summer and comes out next season all guns blazing for Chelsea and England and shows the doubters that they are talking out of their arses.

Got to pick you up on a couple of points there Pauly Jose was very specific last night on Chelsea TV that his preferred formation, given the players are fit, is 4-3-3. Of course, it doesn't mean that he won't play the diamond - he may be forced in to it to make room for Sheva - but he wants to play 4-3-3. Reaching it? maybe. Near it? well I think we've been pretty near it for 3 our of the last 4 years!

This article is from Tony Evans at the Times - a more one eyed scouser you couldn't wish to meet. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 837968.ece Even he has to admit that the Liverpool "bunkers and scallies" were the cause of the trouble.

Seems as if the Pilsbury Dough Doy is getting fed up with his team underachieving. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 837967.ece "the turbulence within Anfield threatens to escalate over the weeks and months ahead after Rafael Ben?tez laid bare his frustrations with the club?s hierarchy." "There was withering criticism of Rick Parry, the chief executive, with whom a difficult working relationship will now be more strained than ever" http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... ge_id=1779 "Rafa Benitez on Thursday warned Liverpool: Buy the players I want now or I?m off" Nice to read about something other than internal turmoil at Chelsea!

I like that team Brian, but I think he would definitely play Ballack as first choice. I also think Carlo will be on his way this summer.

I'm in favour of opposition fans being allowed if they behave. I don't see that RRM has done anything wrong. There's quite a few entertaining threads on here that wouldn't have either been started or survived without input from other fans

For: The last three seasons Against: Wife's taste in dogs

Did anyone see the clip of Jose being interviewed by Neil Barnett on Blues News on Chelsea TV last night? I am presuming that an extended version of the interview will be broadcast at some point, but it was interesting listening all the same. The talk was about tactics and Jose came out and said categorically that assuming everyone was available then he favoured the 4-3-3 formation with Cole and Robben wide. He also talked about preferring to keep a solid spine to the team and rotate around the fringes. It will be interesting to see how he organises that next season and keeps everyone happy. Based on that statement I'm thinking that his first choice team would be: ------------------------Cech ---Ferriera-----Carvalho-----Terry-------Cole ------------------------Essien ----------Ballack--------------------Lampard Cole----------------------------------------Robben ------------------------Drogba

Anyone else think that Paulo Ferreira secured that position with his performances in the last few games of this season and the FA Cup Final in particular? I must confess that I had given up on him. Those last few games reminded me that he was pretty good in his first season.

I can hardly believe that I am doing or saying this, but below is a link to a piece in the Daily Mail written by Jeff Powell. For the first time ever, he has actually made some good points. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/a ... hor_id=260 "The most illuminating remark uttered by any of those interviewed about being denied rightful access to the Olympic Stadium in Athens was this: "When they told us we could not go in because the ground was already full, that was when we told them we were going in anyway. That was when they laid into us."" "Liverpudlians are not the only supporters who believe that each and every one of them has a divine right to attend every game played by the team, but they are the most determined to exercise that impractical prerogative." "We may castigate the security forces all we like, but Liverpool will be invading Europe again next season and the only effective precaution may be to prohibit planes, trains and ships from carrying any fans not already in possession of valid match tickets before they travel." So it does seem as though the press have actually dared to make some criticism of their beloved Liverpool and their "best fans in the world" About bloody time!

Was Essien involved in Drogba's goal?