cuppatea

He's looked class whenever I've seen him but then you have to wonder what a 25 year old is doing at Blackpool, having been sold to a Championship club for £500k in his mid-20's after failing to make the grade at Rangers. Not to be a negative bastard but I recall a fair few on here calling for us to sign Amr Zaki after he enjoyed a similarly impressive start to his Premiership career and gave our defence the runaround at Anfield. He's now playing his football in the Egyptian league at the age of 27.

Doomed from the start. We spent the summer chasing Malouda and when he chose Chelsea we needed someone else to play on the left, so we turned to a youngster who had just played well in the final of the U21 European Championships (without doing much prior to that match) and signed him for a hugely inflated fee. Ajax fans were pissing themselves at how much we paid for him, or even that we'd want him at all. He was asked what he thought was his best position in his first press conference and he replied "striker", despite the fact we'd clearly signed him to play left wing. He looked braindead in his first few pre-season friendlies and it never really got any better than that. He was a good athlete with decent technique and no idea how to apply it on a football pitch. Bad signing all-around but good luck to lad.

Not sure what your point is really. Gerrard is definitely one of the "favourites" amongst England fans, certainly more so than Lampard. I really couldn't give a fuck how much pride any of our players take in playing for their country, whether it's England or otherwise, providing it doesn't come at the expense of Liverpool Football Club. To be honest, though, and I'm from the city myself, I really find the whole "oh the whole world hates us and we hate everyone" mentality so prevalent in Liverpool quite boring.

It's depressing to think we've not had anything even approaching a top class wide midfielder since McManaman left the club over 11 years ago.

Well that's bollocks because he's started every single league and Champions League game he's been available for since joining the club.

He was good in the final but that's about it, he was completely ordinary for most of that tournament and outshone and outscored by Maceo Rigters, who had a failed trial at Southend last year after failing to get anywhere near the Blackburn first team. I'll never remember reading through a Dutch Ajax forum on the day we signed Babel. The reaction of their fans was similar to what you'd expect on here if we got a £10m offer for Degen; just this bizarre mix of bemusement and sheer fucking euphoria. It was such a kick in the teeth to see their fans pissing themselves at the idea of us wanting to pay so much for him (or wanting him at all for that matter), after being assured by half of RAWK (most of whom had clearly never seen him kick a ball) that he was the best young player in world football (the quote "he's like Zidane but with pace" still stands out, as well as the numerous Henry and Ronaldo comparisons). If a club offered us anything close to what we paid for him I'd bite their hand off.

City's prospects for success in the near future are far better than Villa's and if Milner has any faith in his own ability he'll believe he's good enough to hold down a regular first team place there. The money, as much as football fans don't care for it and do their own jobs purely for the love of their profession, is a nice bonus.

Every talented youngster to come through at Everton feels like a failure on our part. In fact it's amazing how few of the North West players currently in the Premiership were ever at Liverpool, especially considering some of the dross we keep on our books well into their late teens/early 20's, many of whom struggle to make a career in the game after leaving here.

I'm not Lucas' biggest fan but they'd be taking the piss by offering £5m. To claim that is "too much" is a fucking insult.

Scarface isn't in the same league as the other 2 and really doesn't belong in the discussion. 1) Godfather Part 2 2) Goodfellas *Huge gap* 3) Scarface

Here's the "golden generation" according to wikipedia: * Michael Owen * Steven Gerrard * Frank Lampard * David Beckham * Rio Ferdinand * Paul Scholes * Wayne Rooney * John Terry * Ashley Cole * Sol Campbell * Joe Cole * Owen Hargreaves They've all been big players for big teams. Apart from our lads they've all won multiple league titles. Apart from Owen they've all played in Champions League finals. Between them they've represented Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Bayern Munich and collected a boat load of medals (both team and individual) along the way. That's a lot of top class players for any country to produce at once.

Can't understand a fucking word he says. Seedorf is class but the decision to hire Adebayor continues to baffle me.

I've not heard them (at least not to anywhere near this extent) in any of the African Cup of Nations games I've seen or in any of the South African rugby games I've seen. As far as I'm aware it's local to South African football and is a fairly recent phenomenon. Also, it's hardly just the UK moaning about them, the whole fucking world hates them. Just have a look at a few international football forums for evidence of that.

The disappointment for me was the realisation that so much of the past 6 years was meaningless, irrelevant filler. The answer to so many of the questions (that we were led to believe were extremely important) ultimately proved to be "because the writers needed some cool shit to fill up 100 odd episodes." As for "it was about the characters," I'm not having that, sorry. That may have been part of it but I certainly wasn't tuning in each week for the flashbacks (which I fucking hated). Whenever I saw people discussing Lost online or spoke to people about the show in real life it was always about the mysteries. That's why people obsessed over a four toed statue that barely featured in the show but didn't give a flying fuck about half the characters in it (anyone pining for a Shannon/Sayid reunion over the last few years? Didn't think so. Anyone mouning the supposed death of Lapidus last week? Me neither). Take the sci-fi elements out of the show and you're not left with much. Finally, I can't believe you're claiming the Mother character was "telling it straight." One of the first things she said was "every question you ask will just lead to another. Just rest and be grateful you're alive." What did she tell straight? "Okay boys, you can't hurt each other but I won't say how or why. You have to guard this magic light but I won't say how or why. It's impossible for you to leave the island but I won't say how or why." She didn't explain ANYTHING, that's a big part of why so many hated that episode. Everything she said was either some cryptic bollocks that created more questions than it answered or just a bare faced lie. Telling it straight, my arse! With all that said, I wasn't hugely let down by the finale or anything. I thought it was quite good but I'm just a bit fucked off at realising so many of the things I (and many others) cared about in the show was just made up bollocks designed to prolong the series, presumably for entirely financial reasons. They basically answered none of the mysteries they had created throughout the show because none of them mattered, even though the viewers were very clearly made to believe otherwise.

Ronaldo is a World and European Player of the Year who has won everything at club level and is the most expensive footballer in the history of the game. He was the most influential player in the Man Utd team that won 3 consecutive league titles and went to 2 consecutive European Cup finals and now he's the most influential player in a Real Madrid side which has won 30 of their 36 league games and could yet pip Barca to the Spanish League title. He'd quite easily walk into any side on the planet and (with the possible exception of Barcelona) vastly improve the lot of them. Reina, on the other hand (as much as I love the bloke), can't get a game for his national team and is held no higher regard outside of Liverpool than about half a dozen other top class keepers. He's won nothing at club level besides the FA Cup and has played every game this season for a side which has limped to a 6th/7th place finish in the league. I can't imagine there's a single manager on the entire planet (Benitez included) who would take Pepe over Ronaldo if given the choice. Nor can I imagine a single football fan on the planet (outside a small minority of Liverpool fans) who wouldn't burst out laughing at your claim Reina is the better of the 2. I think there may be a bit of bias creeping in when you use "he's a massive cuntface" and "he's got greasy hair" as reasons to declare the widely regarded 2nd best player on the planet as being a worse footballer than our goalkeeper.

Yes.

Year 1 - We finish on our 2nd lowest points tally of the Premiership era, 5th in the league, behind a very average Everton squad and without winning a trophy, which means no Champions League football the following season. Year 2 - Gerrard fucks off to Chelsea in the summer, we win nothing again and struggle in the league in the absence of the man who was named PFA Player of the Year that season. Year 3 - Trophyless again and a poor league campaign. Year 4 - He has a bust up with the owners, as our European hopes hang by a thread in November and, minus the fan support that the Champions League victory in his first season bought him, is sacked after 5 league games without a win in February sees our title hopes disappear for another year. Don't get me wrong, I like Rafa and don't want him sacked but to say he'd be in a healthier position now if he'd won nothing in 6 years at the club is utterly absurd.

He may not have quite fulfilled his enourmous potential but he's still right up there with the very greatest to have ever played the game imo. Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 1993–1994 Cruzeiro 14 (12) 1994–1996 PSV 46 (42) 1996–1997 Barcelona 37 (34) 1997–2002 Internazionale 68 (49) 2002–2007 Real Madrid 127 (83) 2007–2008 Milan 20 (9) 2009– Corinthians 35 (21) National team‡ 1994–2006 Brazil 97 (62) Honours Player Cruzeiro * Minas Gerais State League: 1994 * Brazil Cup: 1993 PSV Eindhoven * KNVB Cup: 1996 Barcelona * Spanish Cup: 1997 * UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1997 * Spanish Supercup: 1996 Internazionale * UEFA Cup: 1998 Real Madrid * Spanish League: 2003, 2007 * Intercontinental Cup: 2002 * UEFA Super Cup: 2002 * Spanish Supercup: 2003 Corinthians * São Paulo State League: 2009 * Brazil Cup: 2009 National team * FIFA World Cup: 1994, 2002; runner-up 1998 * Copa América: 1997, 1999; runner-up 1995 * FIFA Confederations Cup: 1997 * 1996 Summer Olympics: Bronze medal Individual * Supercopa Libertadores Top Scorer: 1993-94 * Campeonato Mineiro Top Scorer: 1993-94 * Campeonato Mineiro Team of The Year: 1994 * Eredivisie Top Scorer: 1994-95 * La Liga Top Scorer: 1996-97,2003-2004 * European Golden Boot: 1996-97 * Don Balón Award La Liga Foreign Player of the Year: 1996-97 * Copa América Final Most Valuable Player: 1997 * Copa América Most Valuable Player: 1997 * Confederations Cup All-Star Team: 1997 * Cup Winners Cup Final Most Valuable Player: 1997 * Cup Winners Cup Top Goal Scorer: 1996-1997 * IFFHS World's Top Goal Scorer of the Year: 1997 * UEFA Most Valuable Player: 1997-98 * Serie A Footballer of the Year: 1997-98 * Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year: 1997-98 * UEFA Best Forward: 1997-98 * Bravo Award : 1995, 1997, 1998 * FIFA World Cup Golden Ball: 1998 * UEFA Cup Final Most Valuable Player: 1998 * Copa América Top Scorer: 1999 * Copa América All-Star Team: 1997, 1999 * FIFA World Player of the Year: 1996, 1997, 2002 * Ballon D'or: 1997, 2002 * World Soccer Magazine World Player of The Year: 1996,1997.2002 * Onze d'Or: 1997, 2002 * FIFA World Cup Silver Ball: 2002 * FIFA 100 * FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1998, 2002 * FIFA World Cup Final Most Valuable Player: 2002 * FIFA World Cup Top Scorer: 2002 * Intercontinental Cup Most Valuable Player: 2002 * UEFA Team of The Year: 2002 * Laureus Comeback of the Year: 2002 * Strogaldo De Legendary Award 2002 * BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality: 2002 * La Liga South American Player of the Year: 1996-97, 2002-03 * Golden Foot: 2006 * Brazilian National Hall of Fame inducated: Class of 2006 * Serie A Player of the Decade: 1997-2007 * France Football Magazine: Starting eleven of all-time: 2007 * FIFA World Cup All-Time Scoring Leader * Campeonato Paulista Best Player: 2009

Even better than I was at that age. Probably. Sickening.

This is the best we've passed the ball in a long time. Thought we'd forgotten how.

He's very much a regular at Real and starts more or less every meaningful game he's fit for.

They were headlining a major festival but played 7 of 10 songs from an album that was released only a few days prior and virtually no one in the crowd knew. The place was buzzing after The Prodigy but the atmosphere died on its arse as the Arctic's set progressed, at least where I was standing. On a similar note, I'm a bit gutted looking at Radiohead's Reading setlist which, unlike the one I saw at Leeds, included the likes of Creep, Street Spirit and Karma Police. I like Radiohead and enjoyed their set (far more so than the Arctic Monkeys) but the omission of songs like the 3 above, as well as No Surprises, High and Dry, Fake Plastic Trees etc tainted it somewhat.