DISQUS

Cheers Gaffer, when the office gets quiet I have an activity to plough through this afternoon!

Definitely a black day for football, i think and i am not entirely up to speed on this a team in Germany is doing the same thing and buying expensive players and the ownership bought a cheap club, got them up to the to pand are now a reasonable force in the bundesliga. - i forget the name of the team. Its not building a fanbase and developing players anymore. Its about signing the best players for the most ludicrous prices. As a City fan I would be delighted - they can now compete with the best. Chelsea started this nonsense (Abramovich rather than Chelsea) and its now getting out of control. Football spending should be tied to your income and not a billionaires wallet. Arsenal generate their own income and do a great job, it is doable but this is now a joke. It wont change without legislation either. Robinho getting 160,000 a week is laughable - he's not that good, i cant see him having a big impact in England and yet he has become the highest paid footballer on the planet by a non-football man. I hate the way football is going , i really do. Its now to the point where you need a rich Russian or Saudi or Sheik or billionaire entrepreneur to fund your club or you havent a chance.
I am just reading the perry Groves biography, terrific stuff and harkens back to a different time - of only 20 years ago where Perry got 350 for a win bonus and at one point was on 350 pounds a week at Arsenal, a lot of the players were English and the league was more interesting. The quality has since improved of the product but the game itself has gone backwards.
PS) I am a gooner and dont begrudge a lub having a billionaire but I begrudge football for allowing it.

Last years was fine on PC, I am hoping to pick up the Xbox 360 version this year if its any good. Pro Ev feels much more real than Fifa , though I loved Fifa 99, best gameplay it ever produced.

By resigning though you dont get your massive payoff which is why most managers hang on forever... until the axe. God knows whats going on at Newcastle, i assume Ashley is trying to worm out of paying Keegan.

Still not as good as Pro Evo - by far and away the best football game. I think thats out mid Nov.. :)

Sacked according to latest reports - granted I think he was wrong to hang on to Barton but Barton didnt want to leave and Keegan has to play someone in midfield, you cant get rid of all your players and not replace them. Football will be poorer for his absence. When you see that fool Ashley downing that pint at the Emirates you cant help but think what a poor image that presents of the club. I like Keegan , always have, always will.

The network is a joke but the content is fine - as long as they leave the product of football alone and dont splash commercials all over the match I can cope with the rest of it.

Brilliant episode - last weeks Berbatov appeal was inspired.

I am nan Arsenal fan and I think this reaction is over the top. Barton made one slightly zealous tackle, not that over the top. The crown gave him stick - he laughed sarcastically at THE CROWDS reaction and then got tripped by Nasri who was booked, probably harshly. thats all that happened, nothing too terrribly malicious.

This article is slightly unwarranted, we'll see again in 3 weeks.

PS) Mad uncle - should have been mad stepdad..!

I have no sympathy for him - he chose to go there to a team packed in the middleand had good wingers at the time (Cole, Robben and I think Duff was still there).
He should have gone to Arsenal who were in for him rather than Liverpool (who i cant remember being close to signing him).
So he went to Chelsea, he took the cash, he complained he didnt get games, his mad Uncle complained he didnt get games and he pis*ed away 3 years of his career though as Pete says didnt come away empty handed but it sort of looks that way. I think he will have a good season at City and Hughes has a good signing on his hands.

There is only so much football you can care about, i am not saying the Carling Cup is rubbish as in the past it provided some great moments , much like the FA Cup but does anyone really see the need for both? Most European leagues dont care about one cup, they have it but its treated poorly. In England we have 2, its overkill. Several top flight teams treat it as a hindrance to their league games and with European competitions now producing so many fixtures clubs have to prioritise and its only natural that the weaker of the 2 cups gets the brunt. One cup please.

The big clubs treat it as fodder, i have seen some of the smaller clubs treat it as fodder too. At the end of the day the FA Cup is the bigger of the 2 cups, and even that is treated poorly by some of the bigger clubs - those same clubs which have a bye through this round because they have more important things to worry about.
I would get rid of the Carling Cup altogether, no country needs 2 cup competitions. Have one proper cup competition so that clubs have to take it more seriously.

I would remove Gallas and Adebayor and sub in Eboue for the both of them and would have Jens before his escape. Barton, Ronaldo, Nani, both Kevins at Bolton, Drogba the hideous diving fool, Diouf, Paul Dickov before he left and something about Mido annoys me too.

This annoys me, I hate Scudamore and Cook. To take away relegation would be a disaster - all the lower teams would never be able to come up, what would West Brom do every 2 years?
Seriously though one of the great things is the relegation chase, nothing better than watching the last day of the season and then Match of the Day's coverage of it minute by minute once its all done. Money one day will consume football and break it.

I think most people would have chosen Rio over Terry because the average laymen tends to like Rio more than Terry. There is something thats offputting about Terry. That said, this sentiment has nothing to do with sport but in England that sort of public perception as silly as it sounds matters.
I like Gerrard but as Rob says above he hasnt performed that well for England. I'd have picked Rio, an all round better footballer than Terry and apparently more popular in the dressing room. Terry is a great captain at Chelsea though no question, though i dont like him either :)

Very underwhelming ad with a bad cut where he does the juggling.
I would love to see the old Sean Bean Sky premiership ad from the mid 90's if anyone can dig that up - best footy talk up ad ever.

Bojinov needs to be the captain, this poor sod cant get a break and is out for 6 months after a warm up injury now! Owen a close second.
Rosicky for sure and where is sicnote, Darren ANderton to manage them!

I wouldnt say United have it in the bad , Ronaldo missing for an estimated 6 weeks could well hurt them and if Chelsea mass a good start they will struggle plus we'll see just how committed Ronaldo is when he comes back. Looks like Berbatov will happen but I am not 100% convinced they will repeat. Chelsea havent strengthened that much , pending Robinho transfer but I still think they will edge United by the end.

I am all for it but not the 3-5 timeslot, games arent on telly then so they shouldnt be on the web then as it will reduce attendance at games themselves. All other games though would be great to see on the web but I think it would crack under the bandwidth pressures! Plus they will never do it overseas, just in England. Boo.

Toss me in the Boro camp, i tiped them to go down last year and they came very good second half of the season and I feel they can push on now. They are very good against the top 4.

Sorry gaffer, its not exactly news to anyone. What did you think they were earning? You thought they gave it all to charity? In a perfect world my friend but in real life its fast cars, nice houses, bigger houses which are still nice and then the racetrack. I am not so offended by it unless its flaunted at me.

Not the worst written article by Michael I have ever seen but not good either - replace what Michael wrote with what JM wrote up half way up and you will have what amounts to proper analysis. Truth be told Arsenal could finish anything from 1st to 4th again - last year it was a 4 point margin so clearly we are capable of challenging and in truth we should have done it last year but blew it at the end quite badly. Thats experience though, water under the bridge and I have seen little improvement at Chelsea and especially United this Summer so we shouldnt be too far back of them and may even win it. Tottenham have a great side this year if they can gel them but they wont gel them in time. They can concentrate on their 'big cup' they will want to defend in January.

Houlihan was good, but he was always at loggerheads with that moron in the bad glasses and dodgy curly hair who thinks he knows everything on Soccer Sunday. Gary someone I think. I am pretty sure Andy Houlihan couldnt stand him.
Barton is an odd choice but hopefully works out!

Rubbish idea. Will Wenger and the like play their best teams to win a nonsense cup where no-one else from the top 5 is in your competition? Of course not, they will treat it like the League cup. Best solution i have heard is send the Community Shield and stuff like the Emirates cup overseas and be done with it.