Guatered

He was the penalty taker I was most confident would score last night. Has a calm head on him.

We're not even as entertaining as that.

His beard used to annoy me, but it certainly looks well-groomed in the Nivea ad. Hoping his Anfield career can show a similar turn-around.

Absolutely. Not a lot of fun to watch, but a great win to have on the board.

Agree that Arsenal are a good price. I think they're a bit like Spain about a decade ago, i.e. everyone knew they were good but thought they'd never actually win anything. But once they got going they were obviously the best team around. Pains me to say it, but I could see a few good years coming up for Arsenal.

I think we'll be lucky to get that for Balotelli, this year at least. The issue will probably be his wages as much as the fee. It's a real shame as I'd have loved him to make it, but I'm beginning to fear that our best solution is probably going to be some Qatar team or similar who just want to buy a big name.

I'd be very happy indeed to look as scrappy as Ramos. I'd say the current Spain team has a decent shout to be the most handsome team in world football

And a great beard it is too. More handsome than Alonso's, I'd dare to say.

I'm from Northern Ireland. I don't know McClean's exact political sympathies, but I wouldn't describe myself as Republican and personally wouldn't have done what he did. Nevertheless - I think the fuss is unfair. I think that exactly the same as any other employee in any line of work, he has the right to not participate in symbolic political actions, even such as observing ceremonies. To reverse things - if an English person living in Ireland wanted to refuse to take part in a specific ceremony, I would be interested to know why, but certainly wouldn't get outraged and demand that he should leave the country. Indeed I think I'd admire the independence of spirit and thought, something that should surely be encouraged.

We did used to have god up front

Xabi. The only man at Bayern with the decency not to be oggling the assistant.

Certainly a lot of weapons there

Risk isn't just about the fee/wages. It's also about using the limited slots we have for first team players. Ballotelli didn't just cost us the £16m fee + wages, there was also the opportunity cost of not having another striker fighting for his place in the team. If we signed Falcao, that would surely affect our chances with any other striker we might go for.

This whole story just gets better and better. The cliche about 'you couldn't make it up' actually does apply in this case. Never mind Blatter, even the supporting cast are great - Warner, Delaney, Blazer. Who knows what's coming next?

Agreed, great signing. The fact that City are very disappointed to lose him says it all. Great workrate too.

Me too. Remember he was brilliant against us when he came on in the 3-2 match. Think he would add a lot technically, and seems to have an excellent attitude too.

Or the hoodie/cap combo

Well that stands to reason. Pedro and Austin, very much interchangeable.

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This article is good - pointing out that although Mario was rather foolish to make that Twitter post, in the bigger picture it is rather ridiculous that he was punished by the FA for racism. Also calls out the smug attitude many have here over racism in other countries. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/apr/16/social-media-hate-players-football-authorities-police-internet "It always felt askew that Mario Balotelli, who has suffered overt racism throughout his difficult childhood and football career in Italy, should have been himself disciplined by the Football Association, banned for a game and fined £25,000, for posting an image of racist content on Instagram. Balotelli argued in mitigation he had not realised the image was offensive and that he himself has”suffered from racism on a great number of occasions”".

To think we were close to signing Diego Costa to play up front with him. That would have been the most needle-y frontline in history.

Always good to see a training ground routine pay off.

Agreed. A cap on loan players should be easy to implement and would probably make more of the players think twice about signing for Chelsea in the first place.

He does, yeah! Good bonus.

This is the game for Ballotelli to start scoring. I can feel it.