Florist Cinema Pond Goal

I wouldn't take Rafa's post-Athens comments as gospel.

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I'd understand the disappointment if we were to sign Bent, after all the American money was purported to minimize our risks in the market allowing us to purchase 'here and now' players of the Eto'o calibre. But where do these players start off? It's personal opinion whether he'd make it here or not but I've had this guy down as Owen's heir to the England no. 9 shirt since he started banging them in for the lower level national sides. Signing Bent would represent a weightier leap of faith than the likes of Owen but the long term benefits may well be more significant. The argument about only playing 1 way is unfair, yes he has pace, he has power, he can finish, but his game intelligence is good in spite of this not showing through too well on MOTD highlights or his 2 senior international appearances. This is a player who revels in playing as a sole striker - he works hard and holds the ball up, runs the channels, gets in the box and offers a great aerial threat and could well be more effective in that role than Crouch or Kuyt and indeed more so than one Michael Owen. I'd be pissed off if United nab him as he'd get 20 league goals there easy.

There sure is. Sign neither, spend it all on booze, fags and women and go on a year long ultimate bender in Mexico.

I had that thought too once upon a time, about the time when both scored good goals at home to Sheff Weds. What a bellend I was.

When Stevie does press ups he doesn't push himself up, he pushes the earth down. He's that good.

Happy days.

Add a fit Henry to our side for 30 league games of next season and we'd be champions.

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Don't know if Defoe and Lennon will be so compliant.

Hopping backwards would be a big issue. (OK probably not the best analogy.)

That game really shouldn't be used as a marker of which players are potentially expendable - a substantial part of it was a battle in which many talented players failed to impose themselves. Unless he is leaving of his own accord we'd be crazy to cash in on him. You wouldn't cut your foot off to get another eye, especially when that foot played a vital part in getting you where you are today.

How King gets ahead of Carra is beyond me. I never thought I'd get to this stage but I wouldn't mind an England defeat tonight.

Villa want to link up Reo-Coker with Sneijder from Ajax who naturally will want the challenge of playing non-Champions League football in Birmingham. http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/pr...icle2617381.ece

Tuesday morning Guardian..."Despite his woeful performance against Brazil, Alan Smith is set to start in Tallinn tomorrow."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle1890443.ece The other serious issue for BenÍtez is attempting to secure the long-term future of the key players within his squad. Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, the vice-captain, signed new four-year contracts on Monday and an agreement is understood to be close with José Manuel Reina, the goalkeeper, but there has been a disturbing lack of progress in talks with Xabi Alonso. The Spain midfield player is known to be attracting firm interest from Barcelona and Real Madrid. If Alonso does not sign a new contract, he is likely to be offered to Barcelona as a makeweight in a deal to sign Samuel Eto?o, the Cameroon forward, who is an ambitious target.

Just did and Parry answered. Deal's fallen through then.

Ah yes, El-Hadji. I had the delight of meeting him during his stint at my local chess club. Nice chap. If only he'd stop spitting over the pawns.

BBC says 'McClaren is set to reunite Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the centre. ' But as you say we have to wait to find out.

Ah that's OK then. Stevie G as holding midfielder with Frank just ahead of him, don't know why we didn't try this earlier. I'm especially sure it will work against a team with so many willing runners from midfield. Go Team McClaren!

Have I misunderstood or is Alan Smith playing ahead of England's best striker of the last 12 months?

I can only remember 2 games since the 5-1 where England have really performed, both against Argentina funnily enough - the group stage match at WC 02 and the friendly in 06.

It was just the language barrier, in French he's wickedly charismatic. Sort of a French Russell Brand but more camp.

Totally agree, this was our problem against Portugal in the WC with Rooney only supported once Lennon came on.

The tactical writings definitely. It's as if Rafa is saying 'yep, just as I planned' when he's actually writing 'do a poo at half time then some English words out of my mouth'.