youlots

Sweet Jesus: shock, amazement, incredulity... Hope that helps

No doubt Hunt will be selling his wares to get back to the EPL again. Hope he ends up at Leeds!

There was some talk of some swap deal with Sampdoria for Cassano wasn't there?

Filth very interested from what I've heard & Villa is the smokescreen to keep the price down. Kuyt must be a bit nervous about all this.

Yeah me too. Apparently they begged him to stay. Not such a rosy future for Reading next year is it.

Well I can't see anyone out there offering anything like 22 million for him at present. If someone wanted him for 22 million I think as someone has already posted that we'd be mad not to get em' to pay an extra 3. For 25 you'd probably have to sell him so no arguments on that figure.

This topic seems to do the rounds every few years with the same line up more or less. The filth for me has been at No. 1 on the Loath List for the last 5 years or so. Spuds & Manure - equal third on the podium; Spam/Le Arse off the podium but always circling/whining to get on (Spam a bit less with Zola & Clarkey at the helm); LUFC not even in or close to the ground anymore (make sure it stays that way Millwall!).

Whilst I appreciate, as you claim, that there are some pundits that rate Diarra over Mikel I suspect that it is the minority view. Further, all of the supporters of Le Arse, Manure and the Filth that I know and know well (either socially or professionally) and who've either played football (some at the highest level) or having been watching religiously for years, rate Mikel. Hence, I'm genuinely suprised that you haven't been party to any such comments/opinions concerning him. And I don't think its necessarily the case that anyone on here, whilst being appreciative of his abilities & potential and development, has been regularly painting his wagon at every given opportunity. My memories of Diarra at Chels are mixed - I thought he was competent when he filled in at RB - and we very occasionally saw flashes/evidence from him that he might be able to take over from Maka long-term but I seem to recall that those moments mostly took place against lesser opposition. When Flamini came along at the Arse, he was supplanted. Obviously he did have his best spell with Pompey - but again, I recall that it was never in games against the top 6 & was mostly in their cup run against lower division teams. Everyone I know was flabbergasted when Real paid 20 million for him - probably some of the best bit of business Harry ever did. And why did Real pay that much? Simply because they no doubt thought, poor souls, that he was the new Maka and that a lot of their problems would be solved and they could return to the halycon years. Can't see anyone else out there paying 20 million for him - maybe 10 at a stretch. Can you?

Had a great game in el clasico recently. :lol: Seems to regularly go missing in the important matches. I've always thought he should play with Bendtner - same sort of self-righteous attitude/estimate of one's abilities. And some rate him above Mikel. Sweet Jesus.

Further to Paulo's post above, some on here may have vague memories of Foster: prior to retiring as an (alleged) attacking midfielder & becoming the so-called "senior tactical commentator" on The World Game on tv channel SBS here in Australia , he had a couple of rather forgetable years playing for Palace towards the end of the last milennium (3 goals in 2 seasons) after being turfed out of Pompey by Alan Ball after less than a year. Apparently a fair few Palace supporters have him within their worst Palace IXs of all time. As a commentator he has always been an avowed spokesman of football being played as "the beautiful game"; the article above being, for him, the usual unavowed Barca/Beautiful game lovefest & Typical Chelsea Diatribe guff all in one. The article is very typical of his attempts at journalism over the years: short on facts (not one mention of Ovrebo's performance or the penalties turned down, nor Essien's glorious strike or of shutting down Messi), wrong on figures and as vitriolic and poisonous as they come on all things Chelsea/Mourinho ( that latter whom he professes/believes to be the Satan of football but whose image, hairstyle and clothing he has copied religiously for years). All Chels down here despise him as a popinjay. His wikipedia entry is instructive and imo, an accurate synopsis of Foster. Unfortunately, he and Les Murray (the host of The World Game on SBS) are, for reasons that have always escaped me, the face of football broadcasting in Australia. Will we never be set free?!?

Williams' article in the Guardian has been mostly & rightly pilloried in the comments in response to the article. He's never liked us but up until this article he's always managed with various guises to hide that real dislike and to outwardly project a (small) semblence of objectivity. However, you always knew that at some stage that he just wouldn't be able to help himself and that his latent hatred of Chels would unmask itself for all to see. Any credibility he had is now well and truly gone with his embrace and trumpeting that we should be banned from europe. What a colossol blunder on his part. He must surely realize after perusing some of the more erudite and balanced responses to his article (most of which are from non-Chels) that he'll never be taken seriously again. In a way, his own ovrebo nightmare has begun.

Dowd didn't have the perfect game - refs rarely do. However, in the context of Ovrebo's shambolic performance, Dowd's handling of the match was noteworthy to me & hence I somewhat cheekily, and within the wider context, put him forward as my MoM. In respect of the incidents you mention my take is that Fabregas was initially booked not for the rather benign clip on Drogs per se but for trying to convince Dowd by gesticulating with his hands that Drogs had dived - that is, for making the case for the ref to book another player & not the tackle of and by itself. Perhaps you both saw it differently than me - perhaps it was given for a bit of both - none of us will ever really know unless we get hold of the match report. As for the possibility of Fabregas getting the 2nd yellow I agree that it was open to Dowd to book him for that tackle on Malouda and, it seems to me, that he no doubt would have but for the fact that it would've meant that Fabregas was off. Now at this point you can, as you do, make the case that irrespective of the reason for the 1st yellow, a ref shouldn't play politics on the field: if a player has already been cautioned and deserves another caution then the ref should have no discretion whatsoever; the player should be cautioned again and then sent off. Now I don't disagree with you that Dowd could've shown Fabregas the 2nd yellow for the tackle per se which, it follows, would've meant red. In that split second Dowd had a choice to make. From memory we were either 2 nil or 3 nil at that point, possibly 3 - 1, I can't remember, but we clearly had the wood on them. I remember thinking at the time if he does yellow him as opposed to a stern word and then the Arse are down to ten and it'll take the gloss off us being clearly superior etc etc (and with the later inevitable tosh from some Arse licker journo that Dowd was trying to somehow balance the books for Ovrebo and therefore was biased all game etc etc - you could see the angles that could possibly be dredged up). So anyway, imo Dowd did us a favour at this point by not giving Fabregas the 2nd yellow. And in looking at both incidents for their collective gravity, I reckon any neutral would probably come to the view that Fabregas should stay on the field. On the Adebayor dive - clearly a dive - should've been booked fullstop so no argument from me on that score. Again though, the game was pretty well gone at that stage for the Arse. In retrospect though and in the context of the voyeur's ridiculous comments about Drogs, we can all at least have the inevitable chuckle about how the voyeur consistently outdoes all and sundry in championing the truth of his stereotyping!

Some in the press peddling the line that Inter want him in a swap deal for Ibrahimovic: Gonzo for Zlatan!!! They cry; (vale Hunter S. methinks) - if it happems maybe Brian M will become Brian Madrid.

Got up for the tie; when it happened the commentators were all reaching for the rule book & all agreed that when it hit the ball of paper it should have been a deadball situation. But the ref & the limesman missed it and Gravgaard just looked rueful & stoic & made no complaint to the ref whatsoever! (I thought at the time - you wouldn't fit in at Chels Gravgaard!). Probably worth having a look at a hamburger site to see how there coping in the face of one of their own unconsciously sabotaging their own team. The resultant goal really turned the tie. Poor old Martin Jol - bested by Bremen in both the cup and the UC semi.

Shut up voyeur!

Phil Dowd. An excellent game.

Another couple would be nice. Men against boys again.

f**kin' get in Drogs!

Tory Spelling - daughter of ET - the Hollywood tv producer.

Play on words - Tory as in horseface the alleged actress! He was a good bloke, well liked & one of the best teachers I ever had - apparently he slept with every decent female teacher & librarian at school & ultimately had to move on because the school couldn't handle the scandal.

Yeah I know cain!

Thanks Ms Spelling, or is that Tory!! Disagree about "best" being a misnomer though; a euphemism for "best flesh" - your ass as opposed to the hands. He always generously gave you the choice of the sandshoe or the cain or a mix of both and would somewhat apologetically utter "This is going to hurt me more than it is you" which used to make us laugh.

My sixth form English teacher (PHD Oxon) who was born and raised in Kent would give us 6 of the best if we used "f**kin' instead on "f**king"; on topic, he once awarded a penalty (saved) in a game whilst reffing for this - ie. for the heinous and obscene crime of abbrievation. So I guess origin is a misnomer.