Crab Lungs

Henderson and Shelvey would have ****ed around with all the incisiveness and inventiveness of an American Footballer kicking a ball for the first time. Wickham would have failed to read the game entirely and would have stood pretty much in one place for the entirety of the match as he doesn't like scoring and prefers to man-mark the opposition centre-backs. Ince would have been our one creative spark and it would have been all down to him to create a moment of magic as it appears our fullbacks have been instructed not to go on any real barnstorming runs. We'd have played in completely straight lines, been slow, predictable and utterly boring to watch. Depending on what Ince would have done, we might have scraped a draw. A bit like the full side - just change the names around.

I bet that Michael Appleton will be the next U21 manager. And wow, what a squad he's got to work with! Bristling with exciting talent.

Ticks all three for me. The only thing I require now is an MLG scout report and you've got my backing.

Already looking for an "out" then.

I'm still looking for someone to join me for a Terek game! Forza, er, Grozny!

It's all about the formula. Or ridiculously ballsy bets that come in.

And how do you know he hasn't improved enough for a top-level side? Shevchenko only scored 4 for a title-winning Chelsea in his first season. How do you know how good he really is?

Done!

FWIW, this is my squad if I had to choose 23 for the WC. GK's: Hart, Foster, Forster. RB's: Walker, Clyne. LB's: Cole, Baines. CB's: Dawson, Cahill, Jagielka, P. Jones. MF's: Wilshere, Lallana, Carrick, Parker, Britton, Walcott, Lennon, Cork. ST's: Rooney, Sturridge, Defoe, Lambert. Standby; Bunn, Shawcross, Smalling, Westwood, Dyer, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Crouch, Le Fondre.

Zidane, Irwin, Figo, Yorke and Makelele really do look a cut above. Stam looks half-decent, too!

Watching Depor, Gary Birtles underlining why he's such a massive **** as usual.

Hughes is a half-decent manager, only poor performance was at QPR this season - and everyone has struggled there, even Harry Houdini.

As a first 11, we're not a million miles away. We're probably a Lukaku and Jagielka away. As a squad, we're absolutely miles away. Plenty of players who'd "do a job" like you've got at Fulham, Stoke etc but we don't have many like-for-like quality replacements when the squad gets thin.

Would be great back up for Henderson according to RAWK.

Fourth would be immense, and that's where the gravy is at. However, we'd have to get through the preliminary rounds first and knowing our luck, we'd probably draw Lyon or Milan or something and it'd be over before it started. I've never seen Saints win anything other than the JPT so for me, it's the FA Cup - just. Then we can try win that and enter the CL that way the following season... :-o

Lol, c'mon Kerins, you can do better than that, surely..... copied straight from this thread, lol.

Didn't Whelan break his leg in a FA Cup final 60 years ago?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Newcastle, but only if Steve Grant agrees to drive.

Maybe, just maybe we're going to go all Spurs about it and have different sponsor on each shirt.

I love the arrogance of the US fans that I've been reading, it's great. I hope the fight happens - Carl Froch is a much different fighter from three years ago and with the momentum he's got, a fight in the UK would really be a closer call than many think. It's a big ask but stranger things have happened. I doubt Ward would want it though - let's face it, he seems pretty happy to keep "entertaining" his 500 or so fans in Oakland to a snore-fest so it'll take big balls to come over to the UK and face up Froch. If he does, fair play and I think, possibly, he'd win on points... but Froch would run him close and if Froch can steamroll Lucien Bute, who knows what he could do to Ward three years on in his own back yard? Come on Andre, prove you're a "legend" and fight outside CA for a change...

That was absolutely brilliant, well done Carl Froch (and Mikkel Kessler). It'd be great to see Froch v Ward, but I do worry about how good Ward is. Still, if it's in England, who knows...

I really don't like our badge. Letting the marketing guys have a go at it would be a small price to pay... I'd fancy they'd do something half-decent, tbf...

Didn't hear what was said....