matthew123

Not good losing to Tel Aviv - maybe Eduardo did them a favour after all

Yes Keef bad injury situation upfront so I guess it's back to Bellamy and errrr... Are Man City so dopey not to appeal or do they have Tevez up their sleeve? I cannot see City posing many problems if it's just Bellamy who is fit.

Adebayor thus banned for Manchester derby on Sunday because City "decided against contesting Adebayor's violent conduct charge, enabling the Football Association to implement its fast-track disciplinary procedure."

It was a very dull game Keef. Although one positive was Ryan Babel's cameo appearance on the right wing. One way to spice up the group stages would be having same seeds in same group e.g. Liverpool, Barcelona, United, Milan in group A. Every group would then be super competitive. Yes it may reduce some blockbuster knockout ties later in competition but overall it would be exciting from matchday 1 to the eventual Final. It would also allow 8 minnows (seeds 3 & 4) into the knockout stages. Overtime I think this would spread more money to the lesser nations whilst exposing them to higher competition and making quality of football better across Europe. What do you think?

MM - Haven't all recent American Presidents been from a minority of sorts, e.g. George Bush the Texan and ol' Southern boy Bill Clinton both got it pretty rough. I certainly remember the Clintons also being torn apart when they tried to bring in, unsuccessfully, healthcare reforms back in early nineties.

Not a big fan of Peter Kenyon, some of the quotes attributed to him such as Chelsea had a core fanbase worldwide of 90 million often had no foundation. My favourite Kenyon moment was this when he took a telephone enquiry from Steve Staunton for the vacant Chelsea job

Keef this is going to be a tough game tonight against the Hungarian Champions - they're a young team so they're likely to ping the ball about and test our mobility at the back. Of course if you prefer to watch the Academy of Football versus the School of Science then I hope it's a not a cloudy night as you might spend half the game wondering where the ball has disappeared.

Well Keef as a neutral I'd want to watch the Inter Milan v Barcelona match tonight In general though I'd rather watch a CL group match than say Everton v West Ham, or Wigan v Chelsea Watched the Chelsea v Porto game last night and that was good value - some exciting football. I think it depends on the strength of the group really as in all honesty Liverpool and Arsenal can both lose tonight and it wouldn't be as catastrophic as say United or Chelsea having lost due to strength of groups.

Very good red devil.. but why did the Manchester Guardian crop the original?

Exactly what I said Mick - do you think he reads the EDF for his material? lol

Anyone see the penalty awarded against Real Madrid last night? It was worse than Eduardo. If UEFA had stuck to their original punishment then perhaps the Zurich player may have thought twice before diving. It's a shame but UEFA reversing their decision is worse than if they'd swept the original Eduardo incident under the carpet. Good to see Ronaldo fitting in at Real Madrid with his new team mates. All Guti had to do was make a 10 yard square pass for him to complete his hat-trick in front of an empty goal - but instead Guti made it 5-2 with an audacious 20 yard chip over the keeper. Not sure where Flamini learnt his tackling skills but his two footed torpedo lunge against Marseille was pure thuggary - but I guess it's a sign of how weak UEFA Rules are that the Ref only dished out a yellow card.

'A medal-winning Irish Olympic boxer has been found dead by his manager at his flat in Bromley, south London. Darren Sutherland, 27, who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Games in Beijing, was discovered on Monday by Frank Maloney.'

Ladygooner Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think the whole point of contact is very > relevant. Would he have gone down like that if he was running for the bus? Course not. There may have been some contact like the wind blowing through his hair but that should not give the right to hit the turf like he'd been shot in the back. We need to get away from this, someone brushes your baggy shorts and automatically you have the right to perform a triple backward somersault. It's wrong. As for Celtic taking the moral ground well that was blown out of the water with their own diving antics just a few days later. It's unfortunate but likes of UEFA and FA have a knee jerk reaction to these things and once it dies down in the media they tend to lose their resolve for action. Once Adebayor gets his ban for celebrating in front of the Arsenal fans there will be an outcry in the media about worse celebratory offences that went unpunished. I suspect what Adebayor did will be repeated by someone else but next time it'll be all about 'if the fans dish it out they got to take it as well'.

Didn't Celtic have 2 players making blatant dives in their following SPL game, one of which saw McGeady sent off? Shame about UEFA - whether or not there was minimal contact is irrelevent as he was already going to ground before the phantom clip of the heel. A strong message had been sent but now it seems UEFA is condoning simulation / diving for the cleverest players.

Ooooh the Mancs running scared of Citeh who'd have believed it - and I bet they'll be popping the champagne if Adebayor get's his ban before the derby this weekend

Slow day at the Daily Mirror they've just come up with this bollox about Robbie Keane joining Celtic.. they reckon ?7m in January. http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Celtic-target-Tottenham-s-Robbie-Keane-article154495.html I see Liverpool have just signed a ?20m a year deal for a new shirt sponsor from next season... David Moores must have been the only one (plus Rick of course) who actually thought a pair of cowboys were going to sink their own money into the Club rather than run it like a cash cow to eventually flog it for it's true value.

Robbie Fowler got a 4 match ban (plus another 2 for pointing his backside at Le Saux) - Gary Neville ?5k fine So who knows what punishment Adebayor will get from the FA - probably 3 games for the celebrations and 1 game for the stamp

Yes Keef Gary Neville did run the length of the pitch and it wasn't to slide on his knees either.. and I know because I was there watching his f**kwit celebrations. In fact by comparison Wayne Rooney is a very nice chap. I agree with drawing a line in the sand but I think it would be wrong to think Adebayor is the only player to have ever gone out of his way to wind up opposition supporters.

red devil Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > With Uefa drawing a line in the sand over Eduardo, > I think the Premier League should do the same with > Adenuff and his provocative celebration... They made a point on Soccer Sunday that Gary Neville only received a ?5,000 fine when he did something similar to Adebayor when running to the Liverpool fans a few years ago, similarly Rooney cupped his ears to the Kop when scoring few years back as well so I don't see how Adebayor can be anymore punished for his celebrations that any other players that have goaded opposition supporters down the years. Have to say that Adebayor's little run when he rode 3 Arsenal attempted leg breaking challenges was awesome (although I suspect Wenger did not have a clear view of those dirty tackles) - that really did deserve a goal! I bet Fergie doesn't feel as smug now as he did in the summer when he boasted he'd turned down Adebayor's late plea to join United rather than City.

Adebayor's stamp looked deliberate to me - now let's wait and see if David Gill can fast track proceeding before City play the Mancs next weekend. As for Scholes yes he may not be able to tackle and if true he should not tackle - personally I think he knows exactly what he is doing. No one can tell me that with his ball control and trickery he somehow has the dexterity of a drunkard when it comes to tackling.. just a dirty player. Good result for Liverpool yesterday - very similar to the battering of Stoke, so would not read too much into that result. Similarly with Chelsea, although far better start they've still to be really tested as only played Stoke, Burnley, Fulham, Sunderland and Hull. The fact Chelsea have fallen a goal behind in 3 of those games suggests they are not the all conquering Chelsea that 5 out of 5 wins may suggest.

Wins for Blackburn, Liverpool, Manchester, Chelsea, Sunderland, Spurs, Wigan and Fulham

Where do you draw the line Mick.. It's like diving in the box (sorry to bring this back up), where we are now at the stage that 2 players can roll theatrically in the box - and the one who has the faintest touch made on his baggy shorts is considered an honest player who won the penalty whilst the other, who is a hair from contact, is considered a cheat. In my opinion both acts of going down in the box is cheating - and gambling on throw-ins should also be dealt with in the same manner that we'd expect on someone throwing a game. It may be harsh punishment but that is the only way integrity will return to this part of football and also for it to sink into the thick skulls of many of these dopey players like Le Tissier.

Mick Mac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You are not one to get on the wrong side of Matt. > I thought you were an easy going chap. Grrrrr... eh who got on my wrong side!? Only ppl who've got on my wrong side are Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney.. and whoever else trots out for the Mancs :))

It's pathetic isn't it - it's Football's own Bloodgate. These ex-players need to be punished. You get these pundits banging on about foreign players, like Eduardo diving, whilst ignoring the fact that home grown players can be even more crooked. Time for a clamp down - as a minimum Sky should suspend Le Tissier from their Saturday afternoon show.

I always thought Matt Le Tissier was a fairly honest player but now I'm not so sure after his own revelations that he once did a spread bet on a game he played for Southampton in 1995. It may sound innocuous spread betting the time of first throw-in but it's dishonest. I dare say others have done similar bets on corner kicks, and even scorelines, but nevertheless Le Tissier has to be brought before the FA and charged with serious misconduct once Police have concluded their investigation. What makes it even more unbelievable is that this was during the period when Bruce Grobbelaar was also at Southamption and already facing criminal charges of match fixing whilst he'd been at Liverpool. Yet Le Tissier still went ahead with his bet - although to give the guy the benefit of the doubt based on his chemistry on Sky with Paul Merson it's highly likely that Le Tissier is just plain thick rather than a genuine bent footballer. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8250042.stm