Enrico

Well yes, I do expect it to be after his contract runs out, since it's only for another year. It would not surprise me however if it were to happen now.

The difference, I'm guessing, is Liam didn't declare he'd "walk" if that happened with his job. (or did you, bitch?) If you also believe Shevchenko is Roman's signing, then this isn't the first incident that Mourinho said he'd "walk" because of. So, is Mourinho just full of it?

What are the odds Wenger is on the way to Barca?

Was still going to say Joe Cole, but your comments about Mikel are also correct. Mikel has great awareness (better than Joe Cole actually, near Lampard's level in fact), and composure, but still lacks experience in decision-making, and his passing over anything more than 15 yards isn't great. Pretty sure he will improve and his potential is fantastic, but he is not a great player yet.

I don't either. It's ironic but he is a big part of the reason why we're "effective but boring". We're boring because we lob the ball up all the time and that's due simply to Drogba's presence on the pitch.

So they get drunk, get angry, sell him in a pique, regret it, and try to get him back. Idiots. [web]http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/6739101.stm[/web]

"To give 17,000 tickets to the two teams, particularly knowing Liverpool is going to bring 40,000 fans is insane. " What about, to bring 40,000 when you know there are only 17,000 tickets is plain stupid?

Perhaps only a joke that has made the rounds since the time we were sh*t would appeal to you. I have not mentioned Drogba since two seasons ago when I pointed out all his faults, some of which have been improved on, simply because I do not like the kind of player he is, and the kind of football we are made to play simply because of his presence on the pitch. I would rather be quiet on him than grudgingly say something insincere like "he had a reasonable game" or "yes he scored a lot of goals" then follow it up with a "snide remark" like "he only does it against sh*t teams", "he's never available when we need him", or "he'll never win anything". But which is it for you? You also said we do not good going forward as often as you'd like, and do not play good football as often as you'd like. 32 goals is not a common goal tally. Would you say it has come about more because of our attacking football or Drogba's magnificence? Opposition defenders not always being able to shackle Drogba does not equate to us having a good attack. And since you agree with Graham Taylor's assessment, isn't it generally true then that they do play that way 32 league games out of 38? The fixtures against us, Arsenal and Liverpool being the possible exceptions. We on the other hand seem like we play that way only for those 6 'big games'. Like Gullit4 mentioned, our lack of wide attacking outlets was by choice. If you're going to use that as an argument then do you think it is essential for good attacking play? If not, then is the lack of it still largely to blame, as you've already said we don't attack well enough, often enough? If you do, then since we've largely done without it this season, how has our attack not been poor? ps: Wembley. I thought the final was ours right from the start. Their mistake was trying to play us at our game, and as we're so used to playing that way, we were always going to outlast them.

Dammit, you're right. A good number of goals takes the problems away. So Drogba is finally filling Jimmy's shoes, eh?

The impressions of those games drawn where we should have won, lost where we could have won/drawn stuck in my head... And I didn't say nobody knew about Franco. I said 'many probably' didn't know much about him, which some of the more honest postors admitted in the thread.

Ok Terry has been average this season by his standards, Carvalho very good. Part of defending is keeping the ball, innit, and I just don't see it as that when we pass sideways, sideways, sideways, then PUMP, to Drogba, one touch, lose the ball. The midfield doesn't press, opposition wide players have no midfield to contend with and can go straight for our fullbacks, and everyone is expected to help in defence so when we regain possession there's no one to play it up to for a break, thus we repeat sideways, sideways, sideways and pump. And while we're dire in attack we're also conceding more than we should at the back. I can't believe you 'enjoy' this art of defending?

Maybe the thread should be "Top 5 exciting signings, other than Ruud Gullit".

Never realised it actually, but does this happen anywhere else?

You just had a funny way of showing it.

Exciting when they signed? Ruud Gullit, Marcel Desailly, Albert Ferrer, Gianluca Vialli, Hernan Crespo. Sparky? Didn't many hate his guts when he signed? And about Franco, I'm sorry but many of you probably didn't know much about him when he signed for us. If you're talking about what they did after they signed then there's no faulting the choices of course.

Who is that? Meatloaf's inbred brother?

Nor did he make a hobby out of belittling others to make himself look good. Well he wasn't the only one.

The admins and mods are the ones who set the standards here and if that's the standard they've set then fair enough. I appreciate that they put in a lot of time and effort (ok just some time and effort for loz) which is why I don't challenge their decisions, which aren't always easy ones to make. But strange thing here: for some reason people are blaming Redrob for Lofty being banned; because Lofty called G4 a c**t, on a thread that simply happened to be started by the guy. Then some suddenly added 'Ban Redrob' or 'Bring back Lofty' at the end of their posts. Redrob apologised in that thread, when there was nothing for him to apologise for. From what I've observed he has not made attacks unprovoked, or gone overboard in his responses. Wanting to bringing Lofty back doesn't have to equate to banning the other guy who had nothing to do with Lofty's banning. It's like stupid idiots who will go out of their way to put down another player (e.g. Robben) just to illustrate how good their favoured player is (e.g. Joe Cole). What's that stupid 'Scouse camaraderie' thing? It's mindless mob-mentality. And this? Hm... mob-mentality. Bring back Cubano Pete! Oh, and Jesus!

Could it be because we're still losing money as a business?

Because you are England and other than John Terry you've got no one else. So you just make one up.

Well we have polls.

Wait... when things are great, Jose Mourinho meticulously plans every move of the game and our players loyally carry out his every instruction to the letter, resulting in domination and total tactical perfection. When things aren't right it means the players have deviated from the plan which would have worked had it been stuck to, and they should be executed but because the exalted one is magnanimous and benevolent they are spared their lives. Right?

And... if we had been offered the same against Liverpool in the semis?

Did not know that! Now I am going to join you in ignoring his failings and hail his every touch of the ball!

I think they're naff. I wouldn't wear them to a football match. El stupido that's where you went wrong. You're supposed to eat them.