benjii

I generally agree but I think their chances of Champions League football next year are about 5%. I don't think they will finish top 5, nevermind top 4 and I can't see them winning the CL this year. He might want to join but we would want at least 30million and they might not be willing to spend that much on him.

Lovren definitely gave Gazza a bollocking in the second half. I like the club's measured approach to transfers but if we're going to keep players of Lovren's calibre happy we need to show him that he won't have to play alongside vastly inferior players the second we get an injury or two. Lovren, Clyne, Lallana, Shaw, Morgan, Osvaldo, potentially Ramirez... We need to sign or produce players at that level to keep growing or we will struggle to keep some of them.

No chance, the dream machine of Lampard and Gerrard will carry us to Qatar '22 and beyond.

Most of the pubs in town should be fine.

It's constructive dismissal but so what? Compensation is capped at about 70 grand so that's hardly material. His contract will no doubt contain something that enhances that. The law isn't really relevant.

Baruc has been good but it's not great that he has no serious competition and he's no spring chicken. Goalie, centre back and attacking mid/ wing are the three areas I would like us to strengthen (less so the latter if we have any faith in Gaston).

We would have beaten Sunderland and West Ham I expect. Tempted to say Villa too but that was such a freak game I doubt it would have mattered. We were very lucky to play at Anfield when we did!

His oppo.

Running round an empty terrace on your own at a youth match then getting bundled down a stair well by the stewards and handed over to the cops.

To be fair, that has been the weakest part of his game! There was a family of divs behind me leaving the ground on Wednesday slagging Shaw off. "can't attack""don't know what they see in him""sell him to Chelsea" etc.

If they really have sold 500 and policing is light it's definitely going to kick off isn't it? If not at the ground then somewhere?

If Morgan is fully fit I would bring him in for JWP but otherwise unchanged.

We won't finish above Arse, City, Chelsea or Liverpool. We almost certainly won't finish above Man U. Everton are also looking good. I would say we could finish above Newcastle or Spurs but it'll he tough. Outside those, Swansea are the only team who could come close IMO. We are significantly better than average mid table teams and will finish between 7th and 9th, I reckon.

Shame if he's injured but CM is probably our strongest area in terms of quality in depth so it's not the end of the world. An injury to Clyne, Lallana, Shaw, Lovren or Boruc is worse news. Sadly it seems Clyne and Boruc are also injured!

Exactly right.

No. The two main errors today were from Yoshida and Cork, who have hardly played. I think we've just had a spate of errors at once which is just a coincidence. Two individual errors today, the need to keep reshuffling due to injury, plus a good long range shot from the opposition. If that shot doesn't go in it's just a lucky point for Villa despite the errors. No need for a big inquest.

Lol. Jesus Christ

I would bring Cork in for Morgan alongside Vic but also bring Davis in to the "hole" role to add some fresh energy. Lambert up front with Lallana, Davis and Osvaldo supporting. JWP and Rod on the bench for this one. Think they both looked a little jaded on Sunday. Thought Lovren looked off the pace too. If he's not 100% I'd give Jos a game. I'm not a fan of shoehorning Lambert and Osvaldo into the team but I want Lambert in for this one and we will never see the best of Osvaldo if the only time he starts is away to the top teams.

The area we should look to strengthen is in creative midfield. In Lambert, Osvaldo and Rodriguez we have a great set of striking attributes. The issue is often in the speed of transition between ball retention and all-out attack. Ramirez is supposed to do that but MP either doesn't rate him or is sending him a message at the moment. Lallana is clearly capable of creating but he does that with dribbling as his passing's really not that great. We could do with someone who has a bit of acceleration and the ability to play forward looking passes. Ben Arfa is not getting in the Newcastle team and would be perfect IMO but I doubt they would want to sell him to us. Other than that, I don't see what more we could realistically expect so far. The defence and midfield have been great. It's also worth noting that expecting someone to be exceptional because they cost 12 million or 15 million is pretty silly. There's no reason why that sort of player should be any better than what we already have as a lot of our players have proven to be worth as much, if not quite a bit more. We can't go and sign a 30million pound player because they will want Champs League and 150k a week so we have to stick to the 10-15 mill sort of range and try to develop our own for now. Suggesting we should have signed more cheaper players and not taken a punt on some exciting signings is pretty stupid. How would more cheaper players have helped? They wouldn't have played, for a start. Our squad is pretty young and likely to increase in value. We're not throwing tens of millions at last-legs type players. Our strategy has been brave and pretty much spot on. We have had tough away fixtures but easy home ones so far. I think we are somewhere between seventh and ninth best team and that is where we will finish. For a team in it's second season up, with a carefully assembled young squad, that's a good place to be.

The "back 7" is an automatic pick and Lallana will play, rightly, if fit. So, it's a case of two from JWP, Davis, Rodriguez, Ramirez and the kids and one from Lambert, Osvaldo and Rodriguez. Personally, I would go with JWP and Davis from the off, I think. The danger from Chelsea comes if Hazard/Oscar/Mata are facing our goal with space 20-40 yards out. Let's push them right back from the off. Looked like Eto was hitting some form but will be out. Obviously Torres is a threat on the break but our backline's organisation is usually so good that we shouldn't be too worried about pushing right up. Upfront, Lambert is benched. He hasn't, in truth, been playing all that well in a lot of our games and away from home he really does struggle to find space in dangerous positions. I would probably start with Osvaldo as we need to try to play him into form but I would also be interested to see Rodriguez play up top in an away match soon. Either way, I think Poch needs to resist the temptation to accommodate Lambert and Osvaldo.

Like Saville, it seems as though a lot of people must have known he was up to something awful for a long time. And, like Savile, if you look at the weight of material on the Internet (there is plenty predating the criminal charges against Watkins) it is hard to imagine how he was able to carry on like this without the involvement of the authorities sooner. This case, aside from the shocking child abuse, also offers a stark illustration of the vacuity and danger of celebrity-obsessed culture and idolisation in general. It seems that his "star" status was used as a lever for abuse for years and that a lot of young women may have been victimised through it.

What's stupid is volunteering to be institutionalised to the extent that someone gives a **** how long your stride is.

This was shown on BBC4 as part of the Storyville series. I strongly recommend the series to anyone who wants to watch well made programmes which embody a gravitas seldom found on television these days. Even if the subject matter is not of interest to you in a particular programme, I bet you end up engrossed. Far better than Panaroma or suchlike guff.

He even did the tell-tale phantom free-kick in our favour on their next corner. Proper ****. In a way I'm glad Boruc made that mistake when he did because if we'd lost to that penalty decision I would have been gutted. Yes, Fonte pulle some shirt but are we seriously expected to believe that's the only shirt pull from a set piece that the ref saw all match? Come off it. Shocking decisions this weekend again. Ridiculous red card for Wes Brown. Rooney volleys someone off the ball and gets a yellow.

Agreed.