Turkish Delight

United to win the league with us second. Chelsea to be poor defensively and win nothing. Deco to be a diving little shit and get a Liverpool player sent off. Hughes to be first manager to leave his job. Everton to sign only Alan Smith from all of their Summer targets. Sunderland to get relegated.

For the record I voted Barry and the reason behind this was because there were many occasions last season where I felt the movement in the centre of our midfield was very poor. I even commented on here at one point that I felt we looked better with Lucas in the team than Alonso for this reason even though I feel Alonso has more natural ability than Lucas. However, I hope the rumours about a deal that is effectively 8 million + Alonso for Barry don't come about as that would be a very poor bit of business.

There's a few horrible treks there and Atletico and Gala are a bit trickier than you'd want this early in the season. I quite fancy playing FC Twente so we can knock McClaren out.

I was speaking to somebody who has contacts at Everton. Phillip Green is the guy who owns BHS and apparently Kenwright has been using him as a consultant and he is the person approving all transfers. I was told by this guy this morning that even though they've sold Johnson that there is no money to spend and while Moutinho would for some reason like to go there they won't be signing him. It would tie in with this nice little outburst as well...

I've never rated him so I'm pleased that with the loans etc we'll have made a good whack out of him. He reminds me of Richard Wright when he was younger in that he's an average shot-stopper who doesn't command his area but has been hyped beyond all recognition for being young and English. It's just a shame we didn't sell him to the blueshite so we could listen to them boasting about having England's future number one while he was gifting goals every week.

Bearing in mind how much better the squad United had 4 years ago was than ours do you believe that the gap on United should have been closed taking into account the much stronger base they had to build on? It's all very well mentioning net spend but you also have to consider that 8 players from their squad in 2003-04 are still there now compared to our four plus the fact that they negotiated good fees on players who left. Does this not also count when debating whether we should have caught them?

Surely everyone knows the glory associated to the Asia Premier League trophy thing and whatever the name of that Rotterdam tournament was? Call yourself football fans :dunno:

I'm prepared to put my cock on the block* with this one and say that I think he's decent but won't prove to be worth the money as based on the three games I've seen he seems to dwell on the ball too much and get caught in possession too ofen. I also predict that Arda Turan will be this tournament's Poborsky if anyone takes a punt on him and that if Arshavin comes to the Premier League he'll take a fair while to adapt before being a top player. * The phrase above about my cock being on the block is a euphamism so if any of the statements above prove to be incorrect I will refuse to be publicly castrated.

Babb

Scales

To be honest when I see bluenoses feeling bitter in the way that you are after we've won things it only enhances my enjoyment. If they congratulate me on our success it makes me feel uncomfortable.

I was massively pissed off last night but this morning I'm consoling myself with the fact that if they had to win then it was that cunt's misfortune rather than a moment of genius that the press could focus on.

I think you're being very harsh. None of us have seen him play so we all know that this is the one signing we MUST make this summer.

It was my 23rd birthday and I bravely (stupidly) had a dirty pint with about 15 shots in that my mates bought me. At the end of the night I knocked on the back door of an ambulance and told the fella inside I was dying and needed to go to hospital to get my stomach pumped. He told me to fuck off. I then got a lift home in my mate's car and threw up all over it. We had a car flashing its lights behind us and after my mate in the back had put 2 fingers up to them had a Buweiser bottle thrown through the back window before the other car passed us at about 120 mile an hour. One of the other lads who was nearly as bad as me called the police and told them we'd been shot so we ended up with half a dozen police cars coming out to us. Can't remember how they reacted though as I was too busy chucking up over the wall at Calderstones park.

Alonso may cover more ground but I don't think his movement is as good as Lucas's. Lucas always seems to be close to the play when we're in possession and offering an easy pass. I don't believe he's as gifted on the ball as Xabi but he acts as a good link man for the team and I feel we play more fluid football when he plays. Barry also plays in a similar fashion but is a bit more solid than Lucas is and personally I'd be all for bringing him in to replace Xabi.

I've never voted before but the Lib Dem council is so fucking useless that I shall be getting off my arse tonight and voting Labour to get the cunts out.

I'm in an office full of people that's deathly silent apart from the clicking of keys on a keyboard and I'm not even going the match tonight but I've got an incredible urge to stand up and start shouting 'I'm gonna bounce in a minute'. Can't fucking wait for tonight. This one is going down in folklore.

Try flylal.com mate. Can't remember how the exchange rate works out but there's still flights available.

I now know I'm not going to be able to afford it either way but I did see a cheap route (165 quid return last I looked a couple of weeks back). Liverpool to Riga with Ryanair and then Riga to Moscow (via Vilnius) with some Lithuanian airline. Can't remember the exact name of it but if you google Riga to Moscow flights then it comes up. You'd be looking at a Monday to Friday job though if memory serves me right.

We took the same route to and from Istanbul as him for the final a few years ago and bumped into him in the centre of Brussels on the way there and Amsterdam coming back. Didn't have any massive conversations with him but while his match-going attire isn't for me I thought he seemed like a nice enough fella. Having read through the thread though I'm obviously in the minority!

I was totally gutted last night but on reflection we've shown in our games with them over the past couple of years that our maximum level is better than their's. And if Wigan, Villa, the Blueshite and Rosenborg can all get a 1-1 or better at Stamford Bridge then we certainly fucking can do.

On the basis that I think we will win and the number of likely first scorers for us is low I've had a fiver each on Torres (5/1), Gerrard (9/1) and Kuyt (15.5/1) first goal on Betfair. To be honest as long as we get a good result I don't care if I lose my money.

Isn't that just spotted dick?

That really is ace.

Absolutely spot on. The difference was that Fulham beat our shit side while they could only draw with it. On top of that, they still only needed a point off Wigan at home in the next game to be safe and couldn't even manage that. They went down because they were shite and for no other reason.