"When will you get it into your head? You're not Mr T!"

Thats Mario fucked then
Only thing keeping him at City is Mancini

yeh but who will have him? he's such a liability and prone to such stupid acts that i dont know who will be willing to pay for a player like that. although that said quite a lot of players have been stupid and unruly and matured to the point where they can play week after week without decking the manager. he's entertaining at least so i hope he stays.

he can come to palace and be back up for Glen Murray

we need a few more decent strikers, Jermaine Easter hasn't really set our world alight!

i keep reading rumors of milan though

Ah another classic FA cup day already.

The lovely mixture of some shocks and no surprise. It's not all over yet but Fulham struggling to get a draw at Blackpool? Chelsea gently but cruelly nailing Southampton aint no surprise, but the best one is clearly Newcastle getting nailed by..Brighton. Brilliant.

That 8 year contract for Pardew still never fails to astound.

AND we have the United-West Ham game is on normal telly! Great. And if Hernandez is reading this-



I'm watching you...

Will Joe Cole be able to play today?

Gutted for West Ham. Then again I don't know why I still get surprised by these last minute goals.

And yes I noticed the set up by Hernandez and yes I noticed it was a bloody good run by him

Ah, that was rough. We looked OK. Joe Cole seemed to fit in nicely but inside I knew MU would equalise once we went ahead. No less horrible when it happened, though.


Berlusconi has just said he's not interested anymore. He's blaming Balotelli's immaturity but the reality is they're in bad financial shape; having to sell more than buy to balance their books. I think Man City are stuck with him unless they do a loan deal where they'll still pay some of his wages, but it's hard to think of any manager risking it even on those terms. He's young enough to hopefully rebuild his career in the future but it'd take a complete turnaround in personality and for the time being his career looks effectively dead.

Following the Ballon d'or awards online. Some awards given out so far:

Coach of the Year: Del Bosque (other nominees, Mourinho and Guardiola)

World XI:

GK: Iker Casillas

DEF: Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo.

MID: Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Iniesta.

ATT: Messi, Falcao, Ronaldo.

Still yet to announce the best player. Nominees are Messi, Ronaldo and Iniesta. Can't see anything other than another Messi win.

[Edit 1] Franz Beckenbauer just got some kind of special 'presidential' award, whatever that is.

[Edit 2] I didn't know it involved so many awards. I just thought it was for the best player. Uzbekistan's FA have just won the 'Fair Play' award for least amount of bookings in a season. This is better than the Oscars!

[Edit 3] And the goal of the year? This, apparently.

Damn Spanish teams taking over our football.

Ok so hypothetical question. If Ronaldo, Messi and Falcao were all on the same team do you reckon they could work well together? Or would it just end being like the supergroups you get in music ie/too much ego going on?

Sooo, Messi wins player of the year. (41% of votes to Ronaldo's 29%)


Doesn't Falcao play more as an out and striker than either Messi or Ronaldo? The bigger problem might be in trying to find a way for Ronaldo and Iniesta to work together.

Just seen the FIFA TOP 11. What a crock of shit. You're honestly telling me that there's no other player outside of Real and Barca (Falcao withstanding) who deserve to be on that list?

Not Hummels? Neymar? Fellaini? (I jest on the last one...slightly..)

hot damn those are some fancy pajamas!

i don't see a lot of ego in messi, but ronaldo... we all know about him. yet if they split the wings w/ falcao in the middle it would be pure murder for the opposing defense...



the other day w/ demonyo we were talking about defenders yeah? he didn't like either pique or sergio ramos if i recall. i find ramos annoying as shit, but gotta admit he's really good. is he the best though? that list looks fucking inbred. i'd put hummels or lahm but lahm vs. dani alves... hm... i dont watch barca enough.

neymar is a pussy and he needs to be tested in big teams to see if he can perform under pressure. it's easy to dance when you face a 2nd rate defense.

it would be sad for the rest of the world if barcelona/ real madrid make the champions final (haven't yet examined fixtures to see if it's possible).

For champions league final I honestly think a german side will be one of them.

Yeah that's gonna be one of them suits where he'll look back, if not tomorrow then certainly in 7 years time and think "...what the frig was I wearing?"

I like Ramos, and Piquet. I just don't think either of them are especially outstanding. Very good, yes, obviously, but I'd be surprised if we end up looking back at them as being anything more than that. As we've chatted about, changes in rules and a general infatuation with Barca/Spain-style midfields have altered the defender's role massively, so my problem is trying to square new methods and approaches with more outdated ones. Although I do still think that too many of today's supposedly great defenders are falling down on some pretty fundamental stuff when they're required simply to defend (proven by a player like Marcello making the FIFA XI).


I suppose the argument is if they were that good, they'd be playing for either Real or Barcelona. I obviously don't agree with that but I suppose there is at least a grain of truth to it. I'm inclined to agree about Hummels, though. And Lahm should arguably be in there ahead of either Alves or Marcello, two players definitely riding on the coat tails of their teams' successes.

Meanwhile, let the hysteria and speculations begin ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...-pep-guardiola

Personally, despite the English press playing it down, I think he may well go to Bayern.