goose island

new threads don't upset me, it's the drivel that gets copied and posted straight from any divvy pundit's mouth on sky sports news that upsets me.

don't be daft. we don't need to approach him. he loves us, he'd walk over broken glass just to operate in these circumstances at our club.

i love how the same people who want the manager replaced, are up in arms about gerrard being slated and refer to past performances as a benchmark for the fact that he should be (i) captain (ii) play every game he is fit to start (iii) generally exempt from pointing out that he is underperforming our fanbase is a mirror image of newcastle f***ing united. for gerrard, they had alan shearer. benitiez has had 5 years of pretty consistent improvement in our league performance, yet his position seems to have been untenable for some since 2007. one bad season now, and we want him out. we want attacking football and we don't care what the results we get are. pure newcastle f***ing united.

not really on topic, but i've always wondered since we didn't re-invest the Keane transfer money what would have happened if he'd turned out to be a success and not be sold in January. would we have had to recoup that money somehow in the summer? would the Xabi & Arbeloa sales have basically been our only transfer activity that window?

nah, the Welsh FA will never let it happen to them. they are the Real Madrid of Welsh football.

i think time will be the judge of that. the movement is currently riding high on a wave of momentum. but we're getting to the business end of the season, how much will the fact that they're still challenging for glory on the pitch deter people from joining in chants (obviously they'll still wear the scarves, but the visual impact of that only really achieves the first wave of publicity) like they were last night. glazer doesn't appear to be in a rush to sell, and the lack of any further action could start to lose this momentum they've built up. especially if they win trophies again.

he's embarrassing himself now. seriously, if this was a foreign manager behaving like this yard dog, he would be getting hammered from absolutely every angle by the press. because it's sam "i'm the man from the lma" allardyce no-one dares pass comment.

yep, could be this years dark horses. potential to make the final if the draw suits.

if italian football isn't a barometer, who else is in the competition other than english clubs? united will walk over arsenal if they meet (who, by the way, seem to never play anyone remotely decent until the quarter finals every year). barcelona? beyond them and chelsea (and man u) there really is no-one capable of winning it this year.

in a one-off game like last years final yes, but over two legs i united will be happy to soak that up. look at the way they play arsenal. even without ronaldo, they can still be lightning on the break. it's the old turn up for a 0-0, smash and grab they used at anfield a few years back.

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can't look beyond man u for this. the only side i fancy to give them a game over 2 legs will be chelsea. not sure barcelona will have enough to get to the final 2 years running.

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nah, it's newcastle.

what about the fact that we put them out 2 and half years ago. and despite no trophies since 2005, and regularly finishing below us in the league table, they've kept the same manager and are now challenging on 2 fronts. oh yeah, that and the fact that they NEVER play anyone decent in Europe until the quarters!

that's ridiculous. real madrid have had how much money thrown at their side in the last 19 years. personally, i would hate to be that sort of club, the equivalent of chelsea or what manchester city aspire to now. stability isn't the only factor that breeds success, but i'd say it's a key one. we are not funded by the spanish government. besides, if we replace the manager we are ultimately at the stage of squad re-building because of a lack of investment over the last 2/3 seasons. yes, we've spent big on Keane, Johnson & Aquilani recently, and yes, Johnson aside it looks like this money has been used poorly. but we've constantly had to sell to in order to support our transfer budget for at least since Rafa's arrival. no, not every purchase has been funded by a sale, but since 2008, we've effectively not spent any money at all. ok, this could have worked out differently if the money had been used better (for what it's worth i think we've suffered from missing out on Gareth Barry, not sure how much of City anyone on here watches, but a couple of season ticket holders i know rate him highly). i know the Man U net spend will now get brought up, but the fact is the money is there for Ferguson, he's said so himself, he just hasn't used it. i.e. when they bought Valencia this summer, it wasn't offset by the sale of Ronaldo. we can't compare ourselves to Real Madrid, Man U, Chelsea, City, Spurs, Villa. all of these go out and sign players without the worry of having to supplement their transfer budget with sales. Arsenal are an anomaly, but the point stands that Wenger does not need to make a sale before he buys. stability, starting with the boardroom, is what will bring us success. we may ride a feelgood factor from a new manager, which by the way won't be mourinho or hiddink to name a couple of pie in the sky suggestions, but this won't last. we have two 30+ central defenders, another that is injury prone, another out until the end of the season, an injury prone left back and one too young to be first choice.

haha, imagine that after his years of meticulous planning, looking at every detail, Rafa just turns up sticks the team on the board and says "go on lads, just go and express yourselves a bit"

brilliant. now try joining the rest of us in the real world, we've been waiting here for a while.

i think he's developed some sort of reputation within the refereeing club..."look out for that torres, he's always looking to con you into giving free kicks" also seems that funny hand gesture he does when a decision goes against him is more worthy of a booking than wayne rooney's red-faced, volley of abuse.

funny that, you'd probably have said the same though if he defended them.

does that make him a good captain?

it was certainly the case last year that Torres & Reina wouldn't think twice about following Benitez out of the door if he left. the fact you allude to players not performing might be something you want to wake up to yourself. still, i'm sure both torres and gerrard will be nice and fresh for the world cup, eh.

what's that sachin? can't hear you, with all the centuries being scored like.

have to admit, it's something that got my attention looking at the stats after the match. "big" sam was surprised that blackburn got 5 bookings at anfield out of 25 tackles, but according to the bbc we've had 5 last night out of 14. we also got 6 bookings at city, at least torres' and gerrards were not bookings in that match in my opinion. just wonder if that s*** that wee davey moyes threw at us about being a dirty team after the derby has stuck with referees. personally, i think they make calls on reputation too often* *this excludes wayne rooney who is allowed to serve you a volley of abuse and confront you about every decision that doesn't go his sides way throughout the game.