Gerrard got the goal, 3-1. Told you didn't I? But Cluj held Chelsea to 0-0. Amazing. I hear the ref was terrible though, but then I don't think I've ever seen a CL game with good reffing in it. They're ridiculously petty.
I don't think there's anyone left who still bets against 'Pool getting it done in the Champions League. They find a way. Drogba's out, although I don't know for how long.
The alternative is that they aren't a bad team. They beat Roma without massive difficulties. You make it sound like this was a jammy, backs against the walls win against the European champions. We strolled to beat the worst PSV team I've ever seen. But yes, no one can doubt our Champions League credentials. Benfica aside.
Damn you, Famagusta! Although their success in the CL at least makes it a little less pathetic that my club was defeated by them in the qualifications....
Funny, I don't remember Bolton being relegated. I know because if they had, I would have been very happy indeed. £700,000? Piss off Gartside.
^This is extremely unfair on West Ham. They registered a player, his documents weren't in order. The FA's procedures did not discover that until later and they then fined West Ham a significant amount of money. The FA chose to fine West Ham, not to dock them points. That is their decision. No court of law can decide that Carlos Tevez's presence caused West Ham to win or lose football matches. Tevez and Mascherano were extremely disruptive early on and quite possibly caused West Ham to be in a relegation battle to begin with. My understanding is that Tevez is on a two-year long loan deal with Manchester United. His registration is still owned by Media Sports Investments. Either the FA and FIFA allow third parties to hold player registrations or they do not.
The usual Bolton bullshit. You'd know if they'd gone down cos I'd be running around the streets singing really happy songs about that very fact and then me going on a drunken bender that lasted for the entire close-season, only finishing when they lost to Scunthorpe on the opening day of the Championship. Yeah. I hate Bolton. But hey let's go with Gartside on this. So Wigan can sue, because West Ham hammere them towards the end of the season as well. Oh, and Manchester United as well.
The West Ham thing will stop at Sheffield Utd, which the FA were stupid for caving in ayway. The FA did not spot a problem till the 2nd time around that they checked the papers, they should be the ones beng sued for being idiots. This Sunday Capello will name his ENG 23 for our next two WC 2010 Q/F matches against Kazakhstan (Home) & Belarus (Away & dam tricky). Who do you think he should pick ? I think is iggest problem is cover for centre backs since King is injury prone, Woodgate/Lescott form is down the toilet plus Upson am sorry is too old or two slow should I say to be a Eng regular...Oh yeh and Carragher is a whiny little bitch who retired. This is my 23 (I left out Richards because U21 need him and we should not)... GK - James, Kirkland, Green RB - Brown, Johnson CB - Terry, Ferdinand (c), Lescott, Davies LB - A.Cole, Shorey RM - Walcott, Beckham CM - Lampard, Barry, Gerrard, Jenas LM - J.Cole, Young FW- Owen, Heskey, Rooney, Crouch
Norwich 1 Derby 2 Not bad considering we were down to 10 men at 1-1. 6 unbeaten now and Forest bottom of the league. Happy days........ <sorry Mark!>
Capello may be a good coach but still makes bizzare squad choices, which will come to bite him in the ass if he has to choose a WORLD CUP squad as Sven shown its important to pick the right players... Can someone explain why Downing is stil picked, this is the guy who was our worst player against Andorra...ASHLEY YOUNG FFS . Also how does never play for Chelsea Bridge get ahread of Just as good but playing every week Shorey ? Good choice to drop Bentley and since SWP is back I hope we see him and Walcott on the flanks for the Kazakhstan game though I feel Walcott & Beckham will be the better choice for Belarus. Lampard is on wonderful form this season and while we should be able to play him and Gerrard against Kazakhstan, when it comes to Belarus then we should stick to Barry/Lampard though knowing Capello he won't resist the urge to prove his tactical genuis was a fluke by playing Gerrard on the left flank Owen should be in the ENG squad, Capello says he prefers people who does more than score (obviously needs to read up the meaning of striker and besides).... Crouch - Works decent for the team and scores a lot or ENG Rooney - Works Harder for the team and scores now and again Heskey - Works the hardest out of any striker but never scores So surly with those 3 we should just have a 4th striker who does nothing but scores and Owen does that, plsu DEFOE does NOT SCORE or work hard for the team so how does he get played. Defoe has 5 goals in 30 caps with those coming in 3 matches against Poland, Andorra & Trinidad. We still should win but Capello has a lot to learn IMO and the papers seem to agree on the Young/Owen stuff.
I don't think there's much wrong. I still think Beckham has no role to play for England. He's embarrassing enough for LA Galaxy, so international football should be out of the question. The improvement Jenas showed last season has evaporated. I'd have dropped him and kept Jimmy Bullard. Or maybe recalled Fulham's best midfielder - Danny Murphy! Defoe doesn't need any more chances to prove he just isn't international class. Owen is fit enough to play for Newcastle every week, so coming off the bench for fifteen minutes shouldn't be beyond him. I can only assume Capello doesn't want a proven international goalscorer in his team. Other than that, it's fine. I do rate Downing, and although he's rarely shown it for England so far, he could have a place. At the very least he's a left-footed player who can add some balance to the team. Young's time will come. At the moment he's more useful to the U-21s who are one match away from the finals next year.
Ashley Young cannot play for U21's anymore he will be over 23 by the time the 2009 finals begin, he played in the 2007 team. Adam Johnson took his place and let me tell you Southgate may not play him but Pearce does and hes got a bright future along with Young...Downing is simply poor for ENG. Jenas has had limited chances for ENG but always does decent work for ENG when he plays, scored Fabio's 1st goal and set up Rooney in the last game. I don't blame Capello for CB back ups because we simply have no cover there anymore and god forbid, Terry or Ferdinand gets injured while King is still trying to get over his problems.
Yeah, 1-1 away from home and down to ten men, you just know how that would have ended last season! Nice to see our strikers get the goals as well. I still think the team needs a player or two if we're going to mount a serious challenge for promotion places but at the moment I'm just enjoying not losing every week
I reckon he'll be gone by early november if the results don't improve. As for Owen, well if we play like we did against Croatia from now on then you have to wonder if we really need him anymore, although I don't see a problem with having him in the team and using him like Birmingham City are using KEvin Phillips.
Cracking UEFA group stage draw for the English teams. Group A Schalke 04 Paris St Germain MANCHESTER CITY Racing Santander FC Twente Group B Benfica Olympiakos Galatasaray Hertha Berlin Metalist Kharkiv Group C Sevilla Stuttgart Sampdoria Partizan Belgrade Standard Liege Group D TOTTENHAM Spartak Moscow Udinese Dinamo Zagreb NEC Nijmegen Group E AC Milan Heerenveen SC Braga PORTSMOUTH Vfl Wolfsburg Group F Hamburg Ajax Slavia Prague ASTON VILLA MSK Zilina Group G Valencia Club Brugge Rosenborg FC Copenhagen Saint-Etienne Group H CSKA Moscow Deportiva La Coruna Feyenoord Nancy Lech Poznan