The9

No, Aktobe, Wroclaw and Zilina all starting in the 1st Qualifying Round, there's no guarantee they'll make the 3QR and they definitely won't be directly in the 3QR draw on 17th as they'll either be out already or still be playing in the 2QR until 23rd.

Lallana took 6 months to get remotely decent for them, they may as well have not bothered to sign Lambert, Lovren has been an unmitigated disaster. Surprised they haven't tried to sign Tadic, he had an assist against them last season... You're right it's not their spine though, it's not even the reserve team spine.

It's only worrying if you're a spoon who doesn't appreciate we could get a player cheaply with good European experience who's had few injury problems and already knows the club. Koeman knows best.

I'm pretty sure even PCC can release a picture with some red on it to get the appropriate publicity for their new sponsors, and then release another one a couple of days later. Emirates probably told them it was a condition of the deal.

Lingard looks decent and has done all tournament, not impressed with many of the others, Kane included.

This was my theory before they even announced they were "changing" it. They seemed to get the "alternative" design out pretty quickly...

"Nowadays"!!! I assure you the pointless lie was firmly ensconced in society by the time I got to junior school in the late 70s.

Except Cardiff's original plans were designed with a view to being able to extend - which is also how they managed to build the whole thing so quickly and cheaply. Saints would have to do a load of investigative work and basically go from scratch to add to the existing site. Meanwhile, paying for an entirely new stadium invokes all the economies of scale you don't get from adding to a 15 year old stadium. As it happens, we've all recently, and very clearly been told that IT IS NOT HAPPENING UNTIL WE SELL OUT ALL THE TIME, so if you could just give it a bloody rest, that would be super.

Granty was over there and basically said the English FA told the fans they couldn't get a block of tickets so they were all over the stadium, whilst the Swedes "somehow" managed it, and their group of maybe a couple of hundred, all shirted up behind the goal, were much more visible.

Absolutely not.

1st Leg is 30th July, 2nd Leg 6th August. We won't know whether we're home or away until 17th July, when we also find out who we (might) play in the 3QR. Because the 2QR isn't complete until 23rd July, we'll only know the opponents immediately if we're drawn against an unseeded team that's also gone straight into the 3QR. Play-Off Round dates are 20th and 27th August but even if we get through its unlikely we'll be seeded for that, and unless Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Hibernians of Malta in the CL 2QR and then lose in the Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round AND are seeded when we're not ijn the Play-Off round, there's no other Israeli sides we could face in that round (assuming, as is likely, that we're not seeded in the Play-Off round).

Well if nothing else it proves that red and gold never works.

Because the trick is that we're not the best by any criteria other than "we like them most", I think. I lost track of the irony and who was posturing on what about 3 days ago.

You don't say.

Getting out of Israel into a neighbouring country would be a truly impressive feat.

There were loads of clubs all over Europe with this problem for years starting from the initial CL season. For instance:

Except... he didn't ask for the poll, one of the worst abusers of FM stats around is Southampton-based, and there are Rooney rule supporters everywhere (albeit, I think, misguided).

I sifted, and I have to say if you think Liverpool's relatively poor performance last season was down to anything other than 1) Sturridge being injured for almost the entire season 2) Steven Gerrard being absolute gash but being indulged by Rodgers on some weird losing retirement tour for reasons which remain unclear 3) Lovren and Skrtel not being able to play together in defence ...you're nuts. In summary, two of the things you've identified as massive problems for them are already resolved. Sturridge being back goes a long way to solving the Suarez problem - he was irreplaceable but losing him AND Sturridge gave them no chance for ages, and Gerrard was part of the problem and his absence is already part of the solution. Apart from anything if they sign a centre back they can play Can in his actual position in midfield. They do need a centre back though, and more depth up front. Still not sure why Mignolet has been getting pelters, when he's got nothing in front of him and has just been completely exposed by rubbish defending rather than being actually bad.

What's not true about it? There were UEFA regulations that teams couldn't use the front row of seats - it was due to the ad boards, but it was still a UEFA rule.

Which is to be expected, and what we'll do IF we end up playing the equivalent of Andorran part-timers - but it's a lot less likely in the 3QR even as a seeded team. I think it'll be at least £20.

Emerson at Middlesbrough (not quite as good at Juninho but he did do a no-look pass at a free-kick once).

Mmm, I think we would, it's European football. Though West Ham are taking care of that specific problem for us anyway.

I voted for Liverpool. Now I've seen the other results, I feel a bit bad. Not sure how this thread has got so far without some kind of trophy-based p155ing contest. Can't we at least have some kind of communal criteria... oh, I've just realised I don't even care.

The club has clearly learned a lot from how things panned out last season (though actually we signed two players early last pre-season as well).

What was noticeable was us not having Schneiderlin and Wanyama in front of the defence and Alderweireld in the back line. Goalkeepers didn't really have much to do with it.