mhlower47

We are at the result critical stage of all competitions now, and particularly the CL. Personally, it's a win (go through) at all costs scenario. Gonna love the game, be great to be there and all that.....but I don't really mind how we get the result, just get it. Get as many PSG players booked as early as we can. Make the most of every foul, they fouled Hazard as soon as he got the ball in Paris and rotated the duty, thus restricting his time with the ball and his impact on the game. The players, the management and the crowd can play their part in this and get some pressure on the officials. In particular get Verratti in the ref's book early on, that's half his effectiveness removed. Getting through is everything.

Not really. If the figures being quoted are true (£60k per week), his wages are not high - comparatively speaking of course. Someone that's performing at the level he is, will attract attention from the Real Madrid's, Barcelona's, Man City's of the footballing world and they wouldn't think twice about increasing his pay to £100k per week or maybe even more. His actual wages won't be a secret either. The club are doing the sensible thing, he's come in and performed very well - to prevent the predators coming in, we've moved to attempt to ensure he's with us for a good while yet. It wouldn't stop a 'silly' offer from a desperate club (Man City at the end of this season or next season?) but will stop most.

For what it's worth, I think that thus far in Italy he's played in a team that sits deepish and plays on the break. That means he's got space in front of him to run into and then beyond the opponents defenders, that's one of his main assets. He runs in fairly straight lines, with speed as his main asset, unlike, for instance Eden Hazard. He didn't get that here and probably wouldn't given how our opponents in the PL often play against us i.e. plenty of men behind the ball and sitting quite deep. The one thing/skill that did seem to desert him here was his finishing, maybe this was a confidence issue? Still, fair play to him for doing really well thus far. At the moment it would seem that as regards him, the club wins either way. Namely that, he comes back with better confidence and games behind him or if he stays in form and we sell him, we'll make a decent profit.

I believe you'll find that Mr Samuel is a fan of a certain East End club who we'll be playing later on today. More credit to him then, as JT has never been all that popular with their fans (he left their youth set-up for ours, and it's got progressively worse since).

With all these jokes going about I'll have to 'tread' carefully, I don't want to upset the excellent 'balance' these boards have. Most certainly don't want to 'puncture' the enthusiasm. Don't suppose anyone has a 'spare', this weekend!

Possibly not, following Mr Scudamore saying this: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12040/9730010/winter-world-cup-recommendation-disappoints-fa-chief-peter-scudamore Watch out for the dodgy decisions in CL games with PL sides in now. I had real hope for Costa getting off and look how that turned out, not Matic though, they've lined the reasons up already.

Now here's the dilemma, normally I would never want to see the bin dippers win a raffle, never mind a football match. Problem is that their game against City at the weekend could be vital in the race for the title. Hate to admit it, but I am seriously considering not wanting the victims to lose. Need to wash my hands now, after typing that!

Quite

Never believe anyone is alone in their lunacy, he'll have a few mates lined up to say they've cancelled their subscriptions (if they had them if the first place) & a few Celtic fans

If you were an opportunist and really wanted Collymore off the TV/Radio/Papers etc and to quote dear old Charlie Hughes - there is now a 'position of maximum opportunity'. If people start e-mailing Talksport and his other media outlets and quoting his tweets etc, they will probably buckle and remove him.

If we were singing it for maximum impact, coverage etc, it would be better to drop the swearing.I'm not any sort of prude, but if the purpose is to show our condemnation of racism/racists to as many people as possible, it'll be broadcast to far,far more outlets and people without the f-off bit. Substitute the swearing for 'ban the racists' or something like that.

He steals a living in the 'media'. He needs publicity to promote himself, and he's pretty good at self-publicity (as well as self pity, unsurprising seeing as who he played for). Self publicity is supposedly better than no publicity and it's the 'oxygen' that feeds his career. Starve him of the need to publicise himself, starve him of the 'oxygen' and his media career will die off. The less people that react, listen, call in and switch off the shows he's on, the quicker he'll be shown the door. In my view the petition will fuel his fire, he'll play the victim and accuse us of racism etc. I was going to sign it, thought again and won't now. A better way would be to email the stations he's on and tell them you're cancelling subscriptions, not using their advertisers products because of his views etc. That'd work better, in my view.

Start an alternative thread titled: Martin Skrtel - Orc from Lord of The Rings

That's the one where the German keeps repeating "bitte Bastien" just before he misses the pen, I think? I've watched that one a few times.

Thanks for the comments. It's a strange thing, even now after almost three years, occasionally when either watching the end of the game on TV, the video's that have been made of that campaign, and now the montage put on at the ground, I can still find myself welling up a bit.

Bit self indulgent of me, but it's a decent enough excuse to bump the thread. For my birthday, the wife has got my CL Final programme and tickets mounted in a frame. It's got a silver plaque with the game's details, she'd even got a type of glass for the frame that prevents the UV rays from fading the paper. It's a bit of an idea and gives me the excuse to smile, every time I sit in the living room.

We should welcome that with open arms, it's exactly what I think Jose wants most teams to do, be a bit more open and attack minded, especially the side we're playing tonight. Get Hazard in behind the wing-backs and running into the area where one of the three centre-halves are playing. I could actually see us being very solid this evening, not leaving space for Stirling/Coutinho/Lallana to break into and play one,twos off each other. We may be quite cautious and try hitting them on the break. An early goal would open the game up. If they score, we've got to get two to win, if we score the role is reversed. 2-2 and they go through - AET. It'll make a most welcome change from seeing most teams sit with their keeper & 9 outfield players in their own half for the majority of the game.

Done Chelsea FC sent me a transport based survey recently. You might get some decent info from them, if they were willing to share the results with you.

That'd only be if you used a stick to do it. Clearly you are a person of taste and class and wouldn't require a 'stick' at all. No offence intended.

Well, with your version of a 'selfie' stick and the use of the original version - the common theme with both is that both version's would only be used by w*****s!;-)

A few thoughts: 1. Hackett possibly has an axe to grind with Riley, who took over from him 2. Riley is rumoured to be a bit of a control freak, well Mark Halsey said so in his book, in fact Halsey slaughtered him (and Poll) 3. The PGMOL stats quoted are laughable, a professional body (i.e. Riley) trying to justify his effectiveness - How about the decisions you didn't make and were huge balls-ups? 4. Hackett is right, the standards are poor, shame he didn't name and shame Dowd 5. In my view there seems to be a theme now that no decision (penalties in particular) is better than an incorrect decision and thus not much is actually being given. Perhaps Riley's "we get 98% of decisions made in the penalty box" statistic is the causation of this 6. Technology, Manager challenges might help, but in my view refereeing was more effective when the actual referees were allowed to do their job without the PGMOL being in place. Their scrutiny, need for justification of their existence being just two reasons why refs feel so under pressure. Give the referees scope to adjust decisions based on what they see, the nature of the offence and some common sense. This wouldn't stop agenda's and I believe there are some, but would allow the better referees to flourish and make the crap ones far more obvious 7. Far too much politics involved in getting to the top in refereeing now

Come down to row b to the right of the goal, you'll get some grief then. Stood for the majority of the Arsenal game, I did this as all behind me were already standing and also checked with the row behind that it was OK to stand, no problems. Then a week and a bit later got a warning letter saying that a 'complaint' by a fellow supporter (ok, then) had been made and that we'd been observed on CCTV doing so. We'd be monitored in the future and should this offence occur again, a lengthy stadium ban would be enforced. So in essence, I and a few of the fellas around me stand up for 1 game in which all behind were already standing. Been courteous and asked those behind if there was an issue with standing and all was OK, however 1 able-bodied person clearly didn't have the same courtesy to say that it wasn't OK and just ask all to sit down, (I've had the ST's for 15 seasons in this spot and therefore pretty well established and never 'transgressed' previously)and then we're threatened with a stadium ban. Saturday was the first home game since then and we were pretty subdued in terms of vocal support. If the club do want to help improve the home atmosphere then some proper stewarding and a less aggressive stance might be a start. Get the stewards, who we know and have a bit of a relationship with, to have a quiet word rather than 'do what we say, or you're out' approach. I'm pretty sure I know who made the complaint, new ST holder this season, never says or sings a word but wants to spoil the experience for the many who've been in these positions for many years. It's the Matthew Harding stand, where supposedly some of our more fervent fans are located, perhaps the club should 'warn' new ST applicants that more standing occurs here than say the West Lower and to expect this should they go forward with their application. If Jose's comments open up some meaningful debates and get the fans to ramp up the atmosphere a bit then fair play in my opinion. Too many spectators and not enough supporters! I'm in the away scheme and it's a completely different vibe at the aways, much prefer them now, sad to say. You've like minded people, most of whom 'get' what supporting the team is about.

I thought we edged the first half, but were very poor in the second. Their equalizer changed the course of the game for me and we never recovered. From the lost 50/50 tackle thorugh to the non-tracking of the man who hit the cross for Adrian to equalise, it was very preventable. I've not watched any re-run of the game, but my view from the stand was that Luiz was a passenger for most of the game, the A.Madrid players ran past him and he wasn't able to effect them. He didn't offer the back four enough protection and as soon as he/we were having to chase the game, lost whatever discipline he did have and exposed us to their counter-attacks, that little bit more. He was so far away from them, that out 'out-ball' to him from the centre-halves and full backs disappeared. A disappointing night, what I'm reasonably sure of is that the Manager will learn more about certain players last night and will act upon it.

Like father, like son/grandson I suppose. The 'let me at im' lads are still there, just takes the one copper to 'hold'em' all back now.