matthew123

I stand corrected on who was in the upper tier. It never crossed my mind England would have been allowed in upper tier.

Bottom line is the media have jeopodised what is in the public interest

Actually for that England riot think it may have been 1995 - as remember Liverpool playing Palace in a League Cup semi final the same week (which they played in both '95 and '01)

SeanMacGabhann Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I also remember being jeered at in a > cathedral city in England as English fans tore > apart an Irish stadium because the poor diddums > were losing to Ireland Was this in 2001 when the 'friendly' International was abandoned? As I remember watching the trouble on TV and it looked like to me the Irish were throwing missiles down at the English yobs from the upper tier.

Well done Arsenal going joint top. How they have done it with no money and playing entertaining football tells you everything you need to know about Arsene Wenger the Manager.

Hadn't intended making this one - but the draw of the EDT was simply too much! It was a good evening with everyone on top form.

Argentina should be one of the favourites but the way they struggled to qualify suggests Maradona is not going to turn into a good enough Manager before start of World Cup. What I saw of England last night is that they have the same defects of Hollywood passing and ball watching as they do leading into all major Championships. Not enough pace in midfield and quite frankly when you cut through the reputations do England have enough players that cut the mustard to even reach the semi finals? Walcott has gone backwards in my opinion since his Southampton days. Bit like Michael Owen in his pomp his chief asset is pace but I don't think he is technically good enough to play the wing at the top level.

The problem with a foreign Manager is they are often more articulate than your typically challenged British Manager and so it is assumed they are in total control with their comments whereas likes of old whiskey nose appears to have lost the plot with his rantings and is thus excused of his conveyor belt of bile by his mates in the media.

Successful teams have leadership all over the park - so even if Gerrard is the Captain you'd still expect one of the centre halves to command the defence. Better to have the Captain in midfield who is usually more balanced about defensive & attacking requirements.

Sandperson Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Terry constantly goes in and out of form which is > precisely why he shouldn't have been England > captain in the first place and why he shouldn't be > an automatic choice for the first team. Even so, JT is still England's best and most consistent centre half. It makes a mockery of the hard line taken against Terry to actually replace him with Rio and all his baggage. Rio has neither the temperament, fitness or focus to lead England anywhere but for an early flight home.

Come on JTT time to behave before Admin gives you a Red card! Talking of Red cards how long before Spurs wise up and oust Harry Redknapp!

Has any Club in same or worse predicament been saved ... as I cannot recall any Club (with the exception of perhaps Aldershot who were in the 4th tier) to be booted out of league mid-season. I always expect a Club to quickly reincarnate itself as new company but retain it's league status... we touched on this last week but the consequences of Pompey having their results removed from League would be more costly than propping the Club up til at least end of season. Even if they do fold in the sense they are wound up and the stadium is bulldozed I have no doubt the supporters would quickly reform and shoot back up into the Football League as appears to be the case with AFC Wimbledon (although under different motives).

The questions were directed at Oliver, I'm sure he won't begrudge me answers.

They had an advert up in the Vale yesterday that Chopper Harris is going to be there Wednesday night. But seeing as no Chelsea fans on this thread which ex-player of your Club (still alive and who you've never met) would you like to have a pint with an a chinwag about the good 'ol days? For me it'd be Ian Rush and talk about the season he scored 50 goals when Liverpool won European Cup, League and League Cup treble.

Oliver - if you are elected how are you going to deal with fellow Labour councillors who argue that their parts of Southwark should have prioritised spending at the expense of much need improvements in East Dulwich? Secondly, if elected would you back the opposition on any proposals that served East Dulwich more favourably than those proposed by your Labour council party whip?

Not been following City so not sure about Mancini - but Rafa definately makes keeping a clean sheet his number 1 priority.

All I saw was a load of namby pamby choir boys in blue shirts rolling about til the Ref obliged by booking Liverpool players. How the hell Barry was not booked for jumping on Gerrard so he could not break free down wing in first half, or Yossi was not given a penalty near the end just shows what a biased Referee was prancing around today! City were the home team and should have shown a bit more guts going forward - but saying that typical Rafa tactics of not even trying to play football.

Sorry to hear that Joe. Perhaps Alleyns school has CCTV trained onto that Road and still has copy of the silver car? just a thought.

Something not right with Rooney today - maybe the usual fire in his belly was extinguished by Moyes calling for fans to finally forgive him after he walked out on his boyhood Club. I was impressed with Everton's football today, I actually enjoyed their performance (putting aside the fact they actually won). They have a lot of youngsters with PL experience at Everton - the lad who scored the final goal was rejected by Liverpool when he was 6 years-old (during Roy Evans era)!

Declan I was thinking introduction of regional divisions at 4th tier - e.g. South England & Wales, North England & Scotland - with automatic promotion for Champions then play off between runners-up to who goes into what is now League 1.

I reckon it's BBW up to his old tricks!

Scotland to lose one it's CL qualifying spots - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8524079.stm Long gone are the days when Europe feared Scottish teams. Maybe the turning point was Souness taking charge of Rangers as his strategy of bringing in foreigners soon spread to the rest of the division and it is that conveyor belt of third rate players who have maybe stunted the development of Scottish youngsters. I don't know, maybe it is because of social problems as Gordon Strachen mentioned only last year (I think). Either way would it be good for Scottish football to fully intergrate into the English Football League?

If Pompey really do go bust mid-season and their results are stripped from the table - and it makes the difference between who finishes in 4th spot await the legal challenges!

Wolves found guilty of throwing United game - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wolverhampton_wanderers/8521603.stm