Runehammer

This content is not viewable to guests.,This content is not viewable to guests.

Third would be enough I reckon, first season we were already underway, next season we had to start the qualifiers from the very beginning and this season was the World Cup. That's been highly disruptive for any pre-season planning, next season hopefully will be his first campaign that he'll have control over from the start.

Spot on and also Rafa has yet to have had a proper pre-season either.

Good as Barca undoubtedly can be, they really created bugger all last night and that's largely down to Momo (not to mention Rafa's peerless tactical nous). I'd expect a similar performance at home and it isn't us that have a mountain to climb.

Mine too, tho' to be fair I don't know any of his predecessors.

Agree with you and regarding, the highlighted comment, I fear it will end up with a "European super league" which is basically going to be a group of 16-20 billionaires, battling out to show who's best, the club names will become irrelevent. Of course I want us to be able to compete but I'd sooner prefer people like Abramovich barred from owning a football team or, at the very least, legislation that prevented any club to act like Chelsea do unless their books balance.

I suppose it's a fair point that we've got the hardest away matches out of the way first, and I do believe the extraordinary amount of non 3pm ko's have had some negative impact, but I have absolutely zero reason to be confident about winning at Boro'. I just hope I'm wrong and we go unbeaten for the remainder of the season.

I'm not sure many people know what happened to him, I believe that Wolves held on to his registration before finally "releasing him on a free" in 1982 (no takers).

As Benitez said it's for decoration, the official explanation being: Club Crest: The new City badgeThe new crest looks rather like a military emblem of some sort. At the top are three stars, underneath is a golden eagle and imposed on that is the new club crest. The ship is still there, underneath that is MCFC and then three diagonal strikes (like the round badge in the early 70's?). At the bottom of the whole thing is a bit of latin, Superbia In Proelio which means Pride In Battle. Here is the official note on the reson for the change. "Manchester City Football Club would like to announce that they have commissioned a new crest to replace the round badge that has only existed since 1974. The new club crest is based on elements from the original "Arms of the City of Manchester", the crest which is still used by Manchester City PLC today and worn on the team shirt for all Wembley occasions. It retains the original shield set against an eagle taken from the Badge of the City of Manchester, dating from 1957, also originally found on the City of Manchester Crest, on the ribbon flowing from the knight's helmet. Below the shield is the new club motto "Superbia In Proelio", a Latin phrase translating to "Pride in Battle". The three stars above the eagle constitute a design element that relate a more continental feel to the design.

Rafa's teams are notoriously slow starters for whatever reason, but they tend to get stronger/peak in about November and stay there. Hopefully it will be enough. If not then I think our horrendous opening schedule is a big factor, it's is both ridiculous and outrageous that our first Saturday 3pm kick off isn't until mid october. If we don't win it this year tho' I think it is imperative that we finish second to avoid another early CL qualifier interfering with pre-season.

The gooner I know claims that the baord were ready and willing to pay him the £60k until his agent demanded his slice and Arsenal then knocked it off. Either way he has conveniently forgotten that it was his own actions that caused the problem in the first place.

This content is not viewable to guests.,This content is not viewable to guests.

I was not aware of his alleged refusal to play in last seasons FA cup semi when I posted. If that's true then yes he was bang out of order. The own goal business is also wrong, but, to put it bluntly, I don't believe a damn word that comes out of Kenyon or Mourinho's mouth, if they said the sky was blue I'd have to go outside and check myself. This isn't blind prejudice on my part they have previous over Jose's "I was in Italy" claim about the meeting with Cole.

If he has a point, and I don't believe he does, then how is it going to be decided which nations get 4 entries? Presumably he'd like to get the casting vote and, no doubt, a say in who Chelsea get to play every round.

Gallas might just end up at Arsenal since Chelsea seem desperate for Cole but I don't see that happening until the last possible moment. I am 99% certain that Mourinho won't allow any players to leave for domestic teams he considers to be rivals unless there is no alternative.

I think this is the greatest song-related idea since Rafa in Istanbul!

I'm concerned that come January I will still have no real idea of how to properly pronounce Dirk Kuyt's name!

Bale for me too closely followed by Nugent so, in order to contribute something I think the Hungarian Buzacky that played for Plymouth last season could step up but I don't know his age.

Agree with that and if it's only cover we're talking about it wouldn't exactly be disastrous to play Stevie there for the odd match.

Garcia is a very valuable player for us and it seems to me, albeit from the few games this season, that he's not giving the ball away so much and that was the only quibble I had with him. It'd be madness to offload him unless it were for a ridiculous price IMHO.

It's a big difference of scale between Manure and Chelsea (and yes Manure earnt their corn) but I still only see Chelsea as a logical progression of the trend set by Manure. Does anyone seriously think Manure wouldn't do exactly the same if they had a bottomless pit? Tho' I will give them credit for their self-imposed wage cap (if it's still in place).

This content is not viewable to guests.,This content is not viewable to guests.

Liverpool Chelsea Arsenal Spurs Manure

Not a chance, he is absolutely phenomenal now and looks to be improving all the time, he could easily become the best midfielder in the World by the time he's in his late 20's. I'd be curious to know exactly how pissed off Moyes is.

The trouble is that people with that noble mindset tend not to acquire that kind of money, it's the selfish, ruthless barstewards that get most of it. I'd like him more if he would see his way to chucking a few million a season at the likes of Wrexham and the plethora of other clubs going to the wall but he's not a football man.