PaddockLad

Good for Giggs and Bellamy,never appeared on the world stage before, but Beckham can fuck off. He's had his oppurtunities in front of a worldwide audience of millions at least 4 times. But Pearce can't justify Richards in the same way, and didn't he used to manage Man City when Richards was a nipper?......I'd have given his slot to Aaron Hughes.

The Rangers fans I speak to here at work tell me that the BTC is/was under appeal.....what status that has now the club dosnt exist I don't know.

Sorry I thought you were on about when Maradonna got busted for drugs. And I agree with Stevie,cheating in the heat of the moment during a match is on a different planet to what Rangers have done.

Me for one, and the wider football public in general. And theyd be right. How the majority of the supporters of the cheaating club feel is irrelevent, its what the facts are that count. They can tell themselves lies to justify it, it wont change a thing. And Brazil won the WC in 94, not Argentina.

Yeah but thats the point....if theyre found to have been cheating for the last quarter of a century in gaining that "history" then there is no history. Liquidation is the least of their worries iyam. Having everything erased from the history books that a club had acheived because they cheated would fuckin kill me as a supporter. Dont know how the Rangers fans would feel, most will have different opinions I suppose. I said this the other day; in sport, if you win something by cheating and its proven, then you're not longer the winners. If this "The Big Tax Case" is not proven against them, then what you're saying id pretty much the case. If the double contracts are found to be illegal then the only Rangers FC that a huge percentage of their fan base will have known (anyone under 35-40 say?) will be deemed to have not exisited. Thats a hard pill to swallow if you've spent you're life following any team.

No its not, its what Mike wants so its fine with everyone......well, it was in April anyway

The thing is, is a "good football match" two shite defences and it ending 4-3, or is it Italy not giving England a kick the other night and it ending nowts each? Last night was a different sort of nil nil, and it was pretty dull to be fair. But it was widely predicted that Spain weren't going to be what they were before a ball was kicked this month. Thats proven to be the case, but again the opponenents aren't being given any credit. Italy did that rare thing and actually scored against them. It looks like the absence of Villa and the midfield not being what it was has allowed sides to stop them from scoring as freely as in the last two tournaments. If that makes them less attractive fair enough, but theyre still unbleiveably hard to break down, which again isnt easy on the eye but is certainly good football.

Spain miss David Villa as much as Barca do.....and Xavi is knocking on a bit now, which I think affects the team just as much. He used to be able to skip past a pressing player and still get a pass away to continue a move, but now he's lost that ability a bit. A lot of the play goes through Alonso now and he's less attacking by nature then Xavi. Playing Busquets alongside Alonso is having an effect as well, Marcos Senna did their job on his own 4 years ago.

I think this is partially right....and the twats on the bbc lead the way in seeing the game in strictly "great/shite" terms. It was hardly a classic, but Spain were too heavily criticised and not enough credit was given to how Portugal played. Hansen,Shearer and Linekar are like fuckin cheerleading fan boys half the time, and theyve all played at the highest level. Lee Dixon talks the most sense, a lone voice of sanity. But even he didnt point out that Portugal were out on their feet in ET and gave Spain a lot more space, rather than Spain suddenly upping their game being the only factor in their improved performance.

Negredo starts for Spain tonight....I take it he's good, but how good?....relaible?...does he need 3 chances to score 1 usually?.... Portgual: Patrício; Pereira, Alves, Pepe, Coentrão; Veloso, Moutinho, Meireles; Nani, Ronaldo, Almeida. Spain: Casillas; Arbeloa, Pique, Ramos, Alba; Alonso. Busquets. Xavi; Silva, Negredo, Iniesta

Paul Allen been linked with more clubs than "generic golfer/piss head footballer comparison"

So Bale must know who the new manager is....AVB I presume?...

Mark Wright ...got mixed up in the horror of recalling the "Stamp years"...

Mark Bright was from Oxford.......Phil Stamp is what I was called when I played Sunday mornings by a particularly cruel team mate

No, MK Dons took Wimbledon FC's place in used to be divi 3.....AFC Wimbledon was formed by fans of WFC and they had to start at the bottom. Fuckin cheek, and the AFC fans must feel a massive sense of pride now theyre back in the football league. Their club in their town. If a club gets liquidated thats it, over. Most come back starting at the bottom as you say, Accrington Stanley and Aldershot did, Third Lanark and Maidstone Utd didnt.

Its a guide or indication, not definitive. Take friendly matches out of it and it would be a lot more accurate, but we really wouldnt be much different, and youd have the odd anomaly, like Honduras being 2nd for a while a few years back. The problem is how do we improve as a team so we can find a way past the quarter's/group stages. I think as a football nation we should be capable of improving, but the various things we've thrown about on here since Sunday prevent it.

judge for yourself.....theres all sorts of factors to be taken into consideration and applied. If your game is in the knockout phase, you get get 3 points for a win, 2 points for a win on penalties, and one point for a draw....but if you have a draw then win on pens it adds up to 3, the same for a win in normal time, but you've only drawn the game....it looks, to this layman at least, fuckin ludicrous http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings

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July 9th.... Ferdinand is maybe going to be the subject of a "bad character" order... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/news/9354324/John-Terry-defence-team-mulls-bad-character-case.html#

Are you convinced you'll have a league to play in next season?... Sadly, most players think like players,not fans, as soon as they sign their first contract.

I got thrown off a job in a hotel in 94 by the special branch preparing for the visit of the Tory Party to Bournemouth for their conference.....they said I had an "indistinguishable accent, possibly irish" and further security checks were needed on me

Agreed. The only luck in 46 years then. Unlucky to be unlucky for half a century don't you think?....

Football's not played on paper or on the end of a broadband connection.....Portugal have looked a far better team than Engalnd iyam.

Doubt if its much of a joke for the old Queen or McGuiness tbh...he murdered Prince Philip's uncle.

Fair one, and I certainly wouldnt be surprised if Italy won the whole thing, but theyve lacked a true cutting edge in all their games but are sat in the semi final. Why? bcause they didnt give us the ball!...its what we dont do, or rather couldnt for the last hour and a quarter of the match. Chelsea and Greece are exceptions rather than the rule in this regard.