rainman

You're a very naughty boy

Rodgers given a REALity check by Madrid, BUggers it up against the Bulgarians, but makes the SWISS roll.

Err....5 big shiny things?

i try not to.

i think that if we all read two of the above paragraphs carefully, and examine the current playing situations of the named players, then it will tell us all we need to know about henry's knowledge of football, and also his suitability to be "running" a major socca franchise.

recall that he got an award from german tv for that. think it was a nasty injury, that and getting glassed in his girlfiend's father's nightclub in wolverhampton started his slide.

great times. we all sang "go back to italy" to the tune of "santa lucia". of course, all of this was in the days when there used to be a football club at anfield.

Great shout. Remember these games well. Was torn between him and my eventual choice of Dwyer from Swansea in the fa cup. Still shudder at the thought of ronnie Moran' s penalty nearly smashing me in the face.

Noel dwyer

i suppose some of it depends on whether you're selling or buying. if i'm selling, then as much as i can con out of some dimwitted fool who believes all the media hype. if i'm buying - nothing. because i wouldn't touch the diving, cheating, crybaby with a barge pole. does any of this contravene the new thought police regime being imposed by the jellyfish currently running OUR club? seriously though, he's nowhere near as good as he, or the london-centric meeja finks he is. so about the same as downing then. but it's all about systems.

evidence?

i don't think that either of us is going to persuade the other to change our points of view. i do think that we agree on the possibility of them becoming weaker under ginger, as today's telegraph article tends to suggest. however - a trend, (to use the language of gertrude stein), is a trend, is a trend. but, the question is - will it bend? will it alter it's course through some unforseen force - and come to a premature end? i would like to see us "hoovering up" titles, (as we used to), but other than the 2 league games against them, i can't see how we can weaken them. the only solution is to become stronger than them. like it, or not, they are the current champions, thereby setting the benchmark. we have to raise our game. not too sure how we do that in our curent cicumstances. anyway, nice to debate this with you, without it descending to levels of personal abuse, (so far?), as sometimes happens with other posters. ps are you related to captain thain, or what?

Good use of humour.

with you on most of that, but it would still be funny to see them collapse completely. i still remember getting battered as a team, and me individually, at old toilet the season they got relegated. unfortunately, they came back. they were poorer than before, last season, and although they got off to a weak start, they still recovered to finish above us. i think that the point that i'm trying to make is, that despite some set backs, they have an annoying habit of finishing above us in recent times. in order for us to reverse this we must get stronger, not them get weaker.

nice one centurion. like it. like it.

gerrard to chavski * 2. but i accept that this is a poor model, as i said on the day that he signed that suarez would be gone within 21/2 years. expected it to be to poisonous madrid though. if it happens we must get top price for him - and then use the money effectively, not let it be stolen by stock market pirates. would prefer him to stay. would be very disappointed if he left for an ingerlish club.

sorry i was so unclear. the point that i was hoping would be understood, was that, although the evil empire lost their 1st game of the season to a load of shite, (and we all laughed and rejoiced), sorrowfully, both sides subsequently finished above us in the table at the end of the season. hope that clarifies any confusion. ps are you any relation to captain thain?

20th August 2012 1st game of season Blueshite 1 v evil empire 0 Unfortunately, that didn't work out too well for us, did it.

Seem to remember frank worthington being a bit of a belter.

Pele - "I should have signed for the blushite" (patented 1966), was the funniest.

so's that.

That's a bit hurtful.

(And also funnneeeee and babb'sburstnad). Apologies to all concerned if you didn't spot my obvious attempted humorous amendments to ladyman's interesting original article. Don't blame him for our collective lack of a funny bone.

just because i'm paranoid, that doesn't mean that they're not out for world domination:- construction of the death star continues UEFA give Gill power to punish United's rivals... if they fall foul of financial fair play By Ian Ladyman PUBLISHED: 23:00, 17 June 2013 | UPDATED: 00:47, 18 June 2013 Former M********* U***** chief executive David Gill has been handed power by UEFA to recommend bans on clubs such as rivals M********* sChity and Chavski, who may find themselves in breach of new European Financial Fair Play rules. Having stepped down from his post at Old Toilet at the end of last season to become a UEFA executive member, Gill has now been appointed chairman of the governing body’s extremely influential Club Licensing Committee. The committee essentially decides which clubs are entitled to licences to play Champions League and Europa League football. This will become increasingly important as UEFA’s FFP rules shape the landscape of European football in the coming years. Influential: Chavski and M********* sChity could potentially suffer at the hands of David Gill Gill is a known advocate of FFP and one of four Barclays Premier League chiefs who proposed similar rules be implemented in English domestic football back in January. He said 18 months ago that the new European system would only work if ‘appropriate sanctions’ were imposed on those who missed the targets. Sanctions already discussed by UEFA president Michel Platini have included fines and, for severe offences, competition bans. Gill’s appointment will certainly raise eyebrows at clubs such as sChity and Chavski who are currently striving to ensure their losses are no greater than the 845million (£38m) limit allowed by FFP across last and next season. Long allegiance: Gill spent 10 years alongside Slur eckie Ferguscum at M********* U***** Money men: Sheikh Mansour and Roman Abramovich have funded much of M********* sChity's and Chavski's success Both clubs have been used to viewing Gill as a rival in recent years and it will not have escaped their attention that the 55-year-old is to remain a U***** director and board member, despite handing over the chief executive baton to Ed Woodward. On Monday night, a UEFA spokeswoman confirmed that Gill’s committee will have an influence over whether clubs’ finances entitle them to play in major European competition. This is despite that fact that the Club Financial Control Body will go through individual clubs’ finances initially to see if they meet the targets set by FFP. Gill will play no role in this part of the process.

is it fortunate that we aren't good enough to be invited to this? or would the money be useful? would you trust the yankees to spend it properly? eg more coutinhos, no allens:- Rupert Murdoch plans summer contest for football's top clubs16 teams from European leagues would play in cities around the world under plans by tycoon's global broadcasting company The Guardian, Friday 14 June 2013 19.48 BST Rupert Murdoch's broadcasters around the world would air matches from the competition under the plans. Rupert Murdoch's global broadcasting company is exploring an ambitious plan to create a summer football competition featuring Europe's top clubs, including English Premier League sides, with matches to be played in cities from Los Angeles to Shanghai. Leading clubs such as Manchester United and Chelsea would be invited to participate, should the tournament come to fruition, competing with the biggest clubs from Europe's other top leagues – the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. The idea would see a 16-team competition run for 10 years with a potential start date of 2015 in the close season when clubs traditionally play exhibition matches. Matches would be aired on Sky and by Murdoch's other broadcasters worldwide. The mogul's 21st Century Fox company – being separated from publishing business News Corporation later this month – also owns broadcasters in Italy, Germany, Asia and the United States. One source described the plan as akin to the "Formula One-isation of football", with cities from Europe, Asia and the Americas bidding to host tournament matches. The Guardian understands that approaches have been made to a number of cities by executives from Murdoch subsidiary Fox International to explore partnerships to host the exhibition-style tournament matches. But the proposal is at its early stages. "One of the major issues is if it gets to the stage of trying to pull the empire together and paying what they think is a fair share," said a second source. With more than half of the clubs in the Premier League in the hands of overseas owners, and five of those now owned by Americans including Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, the desire to go global has increased. Manchester United, third behind Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid in terms of overall revenues, have shown the way in commercialising their overseas fanbase, vastly increasing their income by tapping into international sponsorship markets. As such, plans for overseas tours in the close season have also become increasingly ambitious. Chelsea, for example, headed to the US to play Manchester City as soon as their marathon season finished and will head to Thailand, Malaysia, India and back to America before the start of the 2013-14 season. Manchester United will go to Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Hong Kong. It is in that context that Fox International executives have drawn up their plan, but they will have to convince club owners it represents a better bet than forging their own path. The Guinness International Cup, featuring eight clubs including Milan, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Juventus and LA Galaxy would appear to be a dry run for the more ambitious scheme. Early rounds will take place in Europe, with the finals in Miami in August. The thinking may also be influenced by the fact that Fox has lost the rights to live Premier League football in the US to NBC for the next three seasons. In what is expected to be a watershed moment for the appeal of football in the US, NBC will show every match live including 20 on its main network. Murdoch has made several attempts to shake up sports – in the 1990s News Corp set up its own rugby Super League in Australia, forcing the sport's national governing body to partner to create the National Rugby League competition. Earlier this year it emerged that BSkyB and News Corp were interested in creating a new world series of cycling – while in 2011 Murdoch's media group made an unsuccessful attempt to take control of Formula One. Plans for a European Super League have been proposed with various degrees of seriousness several times in the past decade. There was a detailed plan doing the rounds in 2009 and again in 2011, but the Uefa president, Michel Platini, has been alive to the threat and sealed a deal in 2012 with the European Clubs Association, representing 137 of the biggest clubs, that will hold until 2018 and should keep them within the Uefa fold. With the idea of playing regular season games abroad torpedoed in the short term by the negative reaction to the Premier League's unusually half-baked "39th game" plan in 2008, attention has turned to the close season. News Corp and BSkyB declined to comment. Drawing up ambitious plans for a close season tournament would allow the clubs involved to avoid clashing with their domestic leagues and the existing European club competitions, although Fifa and Uefa may have concerns over what is becoming an increasingly cluttered summer football calendar. The fixture list has become a battleground for the ongoing political battles between the clubs, leagues and governing bodies jostling for control of the calendar.