A_S

Hell, you'd very happily stay in shape and do a few warm-up exercises each week for 1/100th of what this cunt earns.

It's funny, as when Messi scored from that free kick at the Camp Nou, they had a 3-0 lead in a CL semi-final, had the league all but wrapped up and were firm favourites to win the Copa Del Rey. In short, they were raging favourites to win another treble. Fair to say your assessment is accurate.

It was about as mad a first 10 days as a free agent #2 keeper could have. Only halfway into his first competitive fixture and he's suddenly in the game. Then he's straight on a plane for a cup final of sorts. Gives away a pen, then saves one to ultimately become the hero of the day and collect his first ever trophy as a player. Gets injured by a fan in the process of celebrating! All this on top of the fact he's replacing a man who has run out of hands to fit all the golden gloves he's accumulated this year alone. That's a load of pressure. It's no surprise if he's not had perfect performances so far. In a way, his couple of errors could be a positive, in that they ultimately didn't cost the team, yet they'll keep him grounded and help get his head back into the game.

The people doing the Champions Wall have just asked for a raise.

I'm just impressed she can stand to begin with!

I wonder what the costs would be to enter the English system and work up through the divisions, relative to plodding along in the SPL. Obviously, there'd be a drop initially in money and exposure, but the potential if they eventually reached the top two divisions could be enormous.

Not getting Premier League opponents for every fucking cup tie the last couple of seasons would help.

The injury-enforced break he took late in the season may well be a blessing in disguise. It ultimately didn't cost the team, thanks largely to Divock's crucial late-season form, yet it gave Bobby a break from the hustle and bustle of season-defining games every few days. The most recent Copa America is probably the most international tournament minutes he's ever played, so he's got his fitness and sharpness back up due to that. When has he ever started a season for Liverpool in such a positive manner?

Watching Bobby and Sadio interact is always worth a smile or laugh.

Calf a good result compared to an Achilles.

£26.5M, so even value him now at half that and Cancelo is around the £40M mark.

Straight from the Alistair Cook book of declarations, that. Unless the plan is to have Lyon bowl unchanged from one end with 9 men around the bat. Fuck sake. I'll be most annoyed if England reach stumps 8 down and Anderson not required to bat. 350 from around 100 overs would've drawn a few more attacking strokes from the English batsmen, many of whom aren't exactly known for their restraint with bat in hand.

Ha, was my first thought too. The arrogant fuck.

A pretty good day's cricket, all up. England still marginally ahead on account of the Aussies effectively being 3/34, but Smith still being in is huge. They mentioned he's averaged over 100 in 1st innings scores over the last 6 years. That's absolutely absurd, especially when you consider his technique not exactly one you'd teach kids. A lead of 225-250 would make an interesting chase. Surely Burns can't play and miss another 40 deliveries? Can he?

I think I read somewhere that roughly 2/3 of the elite umpires are English/ Australian (two of the best in recent times being Taufel and Kettleborough). Given the outdated rule of competing nation umpires not being permitted to officiate, you have the Ashes, arguably the biggest Test series in cricket, having to use a very small group of officials for a 5-Test series. It's ridiculous. As for the game, Australia bowled pretty damn well without much luck. Granted, they didn't use the DRS as well as they could've, but the shocking umpiring in this match has left the players a bit confused too, I'm guessing. Burns batted well but definitely rode his luck, but he's got an Ashes ton now and has probably booked his spot for the series. I'm still not sure about Roy in the longer format, but we'll see how that goes. Probably the one advantage Australia has is they'll bowl last on a pitch that showed glimpses of uneven bounce and turn. That said, they've got a lot of work to do before that advantage can even be utilized. Keeping the lead to under 100 is pretty crucial for them to stay in the game.