The Kraken

Don't agree at all. As KRG said, Lukaku has modelled a lot of his game on Drogba, citing Drogba as his "idol". Drogba himself has also said that Lukaku is better than he was at that age. There's plenty of "tall, black" strikers who rightly don't get compared to Drogba; in Lukaku's case the comparison is valid IMO.

Yeah fair point, although I think playing in a side like Chelsea would push Lukaku on a little. I think he's definitely got more to him than Torres, Eto'o and Ba. Mourinho clearly didn't rate him for this season though, which I find strange.

Mourinho would be mad if he didn't take Lukaku back; mind you, he was mad to let him go this season, he's a ready made replacement for Drogba.

It depends how it is implemented, but there's definitely a possibility that referrals could be used in the wrong way. It's not as simple as to say that you can go back and refer it once the ball has gone out of play, as it can stay active for quite some time. So when, and how, does play get stopped when a manager makes a challenge? I genuinely don't know, but the rules would have to be crystal clear on it. Say a striker is bearing down on goal, and the opposing manager makes a challenge; when is play stopped? There's no saying when the ball will go out. I also think there's a definite grey area, in that some refs will deem something a foul whereas others wouldn't. We've seen it many times on MOTD where pundits will disagree about whether it was a penalty or not. And yes, the refs would need to be encouraged to dispense with their pride and actually refer the challenges if in any doubt whatsoever.

Actually, I don't really like the challenge system idea for football. Simply for the fact that I think it's open for abuse by managers. I prefer the system in rugby where the ref can go "upstairs" and ask if there's any reason he can't award the try; he can also watch the video replay and make the call for himself.

So, given yesterday's utter howler for City's second goal, where do you stand on video replay? A season or two ago I would have said no way, don't want it, don't think it would work. But I think I'm reversing my opinion on it, with modern technology as it is decisions like yesterday could be reviewed in a matter of seconds. I'm not sure where the boundaries should be of what can get reviewed, and exactly how it should be implemented, but as someone who was staunchly against video replay I'm surprised to find myself starting to favour the idea.

Is this your new Bill Murray thing? It's very hilarious.

MLG is my favourite user of the edit button. When someone quotes and corrects one of his mistakes, he always, always goes back and corrects it by editing. As if people won't then notice his original error. Does make me laugh.

Quoted so Tim can't change his mind.

They've been doing this for some time. I, er, know someone who completed the 2010 World Cup album and it was exactly the same for, erm, him.

That's true Bear, but the FA Cup win gets more attention (rightly so IMO), and we were a second division side at the time.

Looks like a Man Utd training top. Awful.

Or the wrong team.

"Win the FA Cup" would be nice. Although I can't say I'm a fan of any club coming out and saying what they're going to do, or going to achieve. It's good to have goals but I see no need to pander to a fanbase with empty rhetoric. Just get on with it.

They were about the most robust socks I owned. I was left distraught when my mum washed them after yet another kickabout in them and somehow turned the white parts a devastating shade of dark grey.

Yep, that's a nice shirt. I don't mind conventional red and white stripes but much prefer the variations we've had (1976 and Rank Xerox). That said the 1989 red and white stripes were our best ever "normal" stripes and IMO looked superb. I also got the socks for 99p in Sportskit...

Dunno what "historical stats" you're looking at Dave. But 1 in 3 over 38 games is roughly 13 goals a season, which would have been enough to get into the top ten scorers in 4 of the last 5 league seasons. If that's what you consider average then fair enough.

This and Hypo's original post are about as balanced a statement as you're likely to see regarding Cortese. Quite how it has developed into a "get some perspective" accusation and various other claptrap is somewhat mysterious. Or not, I should say.

Sounds like a fair comment to me.

When did you grow up to not see Saints in stripes for a period of 13 years? 1885?

I should hope they would.

As opposed to what, Bradders?

I genuinely have no clue who he is, or if his name is Rod. I hope it's Rod.

Rod Rodriguez is a good left back, we should sign him if Shaw leaves.

I voted for the purple one, it seemed like the most disgusting one of the three (they're all sh*t though, to be fair).