Torres

Was it not? That`s nonsense. It was a lot tougher as you only played champions. Mr Keith would hardly be an expert on that era.......................having not seen a game.

True, though I`m confident we can change that soon....................we simply have to.

Milner to Liverpool...................interesting.

Thinking long term is a smart move on his part and does not mean he`s not a football man. It means London Mike is a clever football man. If he`d continued with your previous policy you`d do a Leeds big time.

I would probably say despite that the Italian fans are quality. My only problem with it is that FIFA/UEFA ignore the flaws, e.g the fighting & when an England fan abroad drops his can of coke on the floor he gets a batton to the face and their is a UEFA report favouring the policeman. However some fans deserve it, Liverpool fans in Istanbul & Athens acted like complete tools. Respect to the football league. Clubs like Nottingham Forest and Leeds getting + 30k. That's more than some premier league teams! Some may have.........................but the vast majority were a credit to the club. We did ourselves proud in Istanlbul in the greatest final to date.

Reina again top 'keeper Liverpool's Spanish goalkeeper Jose Reina has claimed the Premier League's golden gloves award for the third season in succession ahead of today's final game of the season at Tottenham. Reina has kept more clean sheets than any other goalkeeper in the top flight, and is assured of the title this season with closest rival David James out injured in Portsmouth's final game of the campaign. But Reina is more concerned with Liverpool's overall progress following a campaign that has seen them trophyless for the second season on the trot, while already being assured of fourth spot in the table and Champions League qualification for next term. "We are growing up as a team, year in and year out," Reina said. "We need to keep improving all the time because if you do that it gives you an even better chance of winning trophies. But we also need to bring in some more good players like Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano. "The most important thing is to keep on making progress so that we can get closer and closer to the sides at the top. "But for me the job is now done. We have managed to secure fourth place and from a personal point of view I am happy to get the golden gloves.''

A certainty.

Does the success of English clubs show that football is in rude health? Why are we asking this now? Who is involved? So is it the managers who make the difference? Sam Wallace asks The Big Questions on English Soccer Why are we asking this now? Unless you've been in a cave on the Isle of Man for the past 24 hours you will not have been able to avoid the fact that - for the first time in history - there are two English clubs, Manchester United and Chelsea, contesting the Champions League final in Moscow on 21 May. For those of you who can remember earlier than 1992 that's the European Cup final. The Big One. The trophy that every giant of football from Milan to Munich to Madrid wants. Who is involved? United and Chelsea have the biggest contingents of top English players of any of the clubs in the Premier League. In the blue corner will be JT, Lampsy, Coley, SWP, Ashley and Bridgey. In the red there will be Rio, Wazza, Scholesy, Hargreaves, Wes, Carrick and Red Nev. Come 21 May, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow will feel like a Premier League ground on a Saturday afternoon. Haven't foreign players helped hugely? There are plenty of them, too and the prevailing mood is that English football's pre-eminence at the moment is less to do with the Englishmen in the top teams and more to do with the incredible wealth lavished on some of the biggest stars in the world. Among others, Chelsea have Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack, both of them on upwards of €130,000 a week. United have Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the best player in the world. He earns €155,000 a week, and he's still only 23. Last summer, United spent the best part of €50m on transfer fees for Luis Anderson and Luis Nani who were both playing in Portugal. If our football is so good, how come the England team is in such disarray? Don't spoil the mood. But, yes, on 7 June, the European Championships - Euro 2008 - kick off without England. It's the first time they have not qualified for a major international tournament since the 1994 World Cup. It was a national embarrassment largely laid at the feet of the former manager Steve McClaren. In fact one of our most damaging defeats last year was to Russia in October at ... the Luzhniki Stadium. Have English clubs dominated the European Cup before? Yes, between 1977 and 1982 an English club won it every year. Back then it was more of an open tournament - only the champions from each domestic league qualified and football in general was less dominated by wealth. Nottingham Forest even won it twice (1979 and 1980) under Brian Clough. Liverpool won it three times in that period and even Aston Villa picked it up in 1982. The late Tony Barton was in charge of Villa that day, his next job was at Northampton Town. So is it the managers who make the difference? Not according to the Chelsea fans. Their manager is Avram Grant, an Israeli unknown outside his native country until he controversially succeeded Jose Mourinho in September. Grant is a close friend of Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who has bankrolled Chelsea's success to the tune of €745m over the past five years. Chelsea are in their first Champions League final ever, and still the fans won't sing Grant's name. Most of them think the team is so good you could put the groundsman in charge. Although perhaps not the groundsmen who were involved in the brawl with United players last Saturday ... but that's another story. So Abramovich has spent the money to make Chelsea contenders? We're getting to the nub of it now. The English Premier League is the richest in the world. Chelsea have made losses totalling €492m over the past four years. United have debts of around €770m because they are mortgaged up the eyeballs by their American owners. But both benefit from the extraordinary television deals that the Premier League has done domestically and all over the world. What are these clubs earning from television? The Premier League deal in total is worth €3.4bn to the 20 clubs over three years from 2007 to 2010. That's before you take into consideration match-day revenue and merchandising. These clubs are raking it in and they spend it all on player wages and transfer fees. Look at Liverpool. They signed the Spanish striker Fernando Torres in the summer from Atletico Madrid for €34m. Everyone in Europe wanted Torres but he wanted to come to Liverpool. The Premier League is the place to be. It hasn't always been like that? No. In the late 1980s and the 1990s, Italy was the place to be for the best players in the world and English football was miles behind. British players like Paul Gascoigne, Ian Rush, David Platt and Paul Ince played in Italy. Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes went to Spain. In the late 1990s those top players who were past their best started gravitating towards the Premier League. Now, with the likes of Ronaldo and Torres, the Premiership is getting the best players in the world in their prime. So shouldn't the Premier League's success be celebrated? Funnily enough, the chief executive Richard Scudamore almost got run out of his job in February when he suggested adding an extra game to the 38-match season and playing it abroad, like a travelling roadshow for the foreign fans. English supporters hated the idea. In many respects the wealth and the big foreign stars make the average fan feel they know their team less intimately. Most worryingly, big clubs are importing young players from abroad, rather than develop English kids. It doesn't look good for the England national team, the success of which is the true yardstick for the health of English football. So it's not so good after all? And that's before you get to Moscow, with hotel prices inflated to €2,500-a-night, big queues for a visa and brutal policing tactics. Even so, we can't wait. Are English clubs the best in Europe? Yes... * The have made a financial success of our league while Italy, for example, is beset by corruption, hooliganism and crumbling stadiums * The best players want to be in England and anyway, once here they still play the frantic, fast-paced English style we love * Look at the crowds - even the Football League is reporting record attendances No... * The Italians won the last World Cup in 2006; England did not even make the semi-finals, and haven't qualified for Euro 2008 * If the money stops coming, so will the top players - it's all about greed * Clubs are being bought by wealthy foreign owners who don't care about the fans -

If that`s true he`s off. He`s motivated by two things: money and England caps. I can`t stand the little sneak despite all he did for us.

Youtube can make any player look good (apart from Bramble). Wasn`t really much use to his team this season was fat ron.

Spot on.

If true, that`s the end of Owen at Newcastle.....................and proves why he went there in the first place. 120,000 a week for a crock is a bizarre sum.

He`d fit right in at Newcastle, wouldn`t bet against it.

I`d say it`s because it`s so easy to do. Most of it is down to the shambolic way the club has been run which makes it an easy target for such vultures. Now, with regards to Bowyer & Dyer scrapping etc I would agree. But we cant talk about board room tiffs can we because then we would have to involve other clubs in that wouldnt we? Sure! We would have to involve every club that ever existed. But you guys are better at shambles than anybody else on the planet. Kudos. Try to have one constructive post which isn't a pathetic attempt at a wind-up. nob. If it were a pathetic attempt, you would n`t be so wound-up now, would you? If you try to be constructive on here you just get racist rubbish thrown at you or people (mods) alter your posts to make you look silly.

Maybe there telling it like it really is. Spurs seem to be rubbing your noses in it in the transfer market.

I`d say it`s because it`s so easy to do. Most of it is down to the shambolic way the club has been run which makes it an easy target for such vultures. Now, with regards to Bowyer & Dyer scrapping etc I would agree. But we cant talk about board room tiffs can we because then we would have to involve other clubs in that wouldnt we? Sure! We would have to involve every club that ever existed. But you guys are better at shambles than anybody else on the planet. Kudos.

Wigan will bend over for Manure. Don`t care about Leeds but I hope you stuff Neverton.

I`d say it`s because it`s so easy to do. Most of it is down to the shambolic way the club has been run which makes it an easy target for such vultures.

Btw..................nice kit!

I agree (but secretly he'll just be FFS wearing a lifelike mask). It is a real possibility though. London Mike & Wise will prove too much for the messiah and the only way to appease the booing hoards would be to appoint a big name. He wouldn`t stay longer than a season but hey....what`s new!

You don't know the difference between this ` and this ' though do you? Of course I do, however, I use a foreign keyboard so it doesn`t have all the figures which are necessary which means I have to improvise. Not that I expect you to understand, having never been outside your backyard.

This could be interesting. He might join newcastle for 6 months of ridiculous wages and a massive pay-off, as soon as London Mike upsets the messiah causing him to exit swiftly after throwing all his toys outta the pram.

Nice try mate........................but you can always alter the answer if it`s not to your liking.

I welcome I really appreciate from the natives like. What does that even mean? Fuck all. I just what to use that stupid "like" before I`m banned. It meant: A welcome I really appreciate from the natives ( you lot) like. But the same person who has been altering my details is clearly doing so with my posts aswell. Very manly that is. Bullshit. It was a typo Nope. It was altered. Very clever.

I welcome I really appreciate from the natives like. What does that even mean? Fuck all. I just what to use that stupid "like" before I`m banned. You don't even know how to use Scouse dialect. Tit. I don`t use it because it`s grammatically incorrect you moron. I know how to use the language properly.