Talk about taking the michael!

That'll be another £50 i wont be wasting my money on. Rather have a decent night out than pay for that.

Why does the England shirt have to be done by Umbro? They pump out the same shirt with slightly different stitching every 2 years. Give me a Nike or Adidas kit over Umbro any time.

The only reason I can think of is because Umbro is English, just a shame the shirt isnt anymore eh!

Think that England top is a hoax, far too similar to the current one even by usual standards.

Its a good one if it is because theres pictures of the players wearing it [url=http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.footballshirtculture.com%2F11%2F12-kits%2Fengland-11-13-umbro-home-kit-update.html%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2BFootballShirtCultureBlog%2B%2528Football%2BShirt%2BCulture%2BBlog%2529%26utm_content%3DTwitter&h=f5287HERE[/url

EDIT: Its also available to pre order from some sports retailers too

Umbro are wholly owned by Nike so they're not any more, I'm afraid. Nike even flog man city and England tatt in their Manchester store

Silva is a top talent and slight but there are two key differences between the Spaniard and Robinho. Silva has some ‘fight’ in him and he doesn’t have mental health problems. I have a feeling Silva will be introduced gently. We could do what United do with Berbatov – only play him against the poor teams.

I think a problem we have at the moment is that, for some reason, we keep passing the ball to Silva when he has his back to goal and no one is in front of him. Let’s face it, he’s not a player who is going to do anything with the ball in that situation.

I don’t think his introduction turned the game. I think Sunderland felt that it was their day so they went for it and they got the bit of luck they needed. I still cannot believe we did not win that game.

Meh, I am not worried about Silva. If he is a success, then great. If not, we have enough quality in the squad to deal with it.

I am very happy with Yaya Toure. A proper footballer. Often midfielders in this country can only do one of the following – pass, tackle and shoot. Yaya can do them all. Top, top player.

We will get a better idea of how the team will operate once Balotelli, Boateng and Kolarov are fit. I was sat close to where Kolarov was defending at White Hart Lane and I was very impressed with how he made defending against Lennon look very easy, even though he was carrying an injury.

Kolarov and Boateng will provide some much needed width and attacking threat. With Richards and Lescott at FB, we lack balance.

I also feel Mancini’s formation will be more effective when Balotelli plays. The two support forwards are struggling to being effective while Tevez plays as a ‘false No9. With Balotelli being a striker, as well as a wide player, we should be more slick upfront with him as sone of the support forwards. It will make us more direct, as well as adding a bit of pace to our attack. Also, when Tevez fetches the ball, Balotelli will ‘took-in’ and play as striker, so we will look a bit more fluid.

Lots of options this year. 5 years ago the options were: Vassell as a striker or winger? Sun JiHai at FB or in midfield <shudders>?

There goes my theory then

In that case, what a farce. Not the slightest bit bothered, mind, as a non-England fan.

Have you ever mentioned Robinho's mental health issues before on this forum? I certainly don't recall reading it.

Aye, 4th choice DM and about 12th choice CM at Barcelona. Top player. His nickname by the fans was "El Burro". I will let you work that one out. As for him being able to pass, lol. Ok, I take it you didnt watch him the rare times he made the Barca first team?

There were no barca fans sad to see him go. The fact your "club" paid Barcelona £24m to take him off their hands is quite simply, unbelievable.

Great post.

I don't know where has got Toure being a top, top player from. Deary me.

I thought the same yesteday but it makes sense, Yobo's the captain of his country and deserves to play somethin Moyes won't offer him at the min, it seems they've had a falling out as he has hardly featured this year and hasn't been involved at all this season. Moyes prefers Jagielka and Distin as the current centre back pairing with Heitinga able to play there too, if we still need cover Neville and Rodwell can fill in. 5 players to cover two positions is more than enough.

Despite having a 60000 waiting list 4 months ago, Utd have today announced for the first time in years that they have failed to reach their target of season ticket sales: menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... ales_slump manchestersport.blogspot.com/201 ... slump.html

Despite having a 60000 waiting list 4 months ago, Utd have today announced for the first time in years that they have failed to reach their target of season ticket sales: menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... ales_slump manchestersport.blogspot.com/201 ... slump.html

Not had much time on here recently so only just had chance to put a proper reply together.

So you're saying that Ranger will 'never make it in the Premiership' mainly based on what someone has told you about him? That's a staggering statement to be honest, especially when you've barely seen him for yourself. This is also a 19-year-old we're talking about, so to write him off so easily is equally staggering. From what he's shown so far, he's very good with his back to goal, can hold the ball up very well but has pace to boot. His big issue so far is his finishing. I put that down to lack of game time as he fires them in for the Reserves but when chances have come his way, they've mainly been late on in a game when he's only been on the pitch for a short amount of time. If he keeps working hard and overcomes a few of his attitude problems (nothing serious, just what seems to happen with young footballers these days), he has every chance of becoming a good Premier League player. For what it's worth, Harry Redknapp wanted to take him to Spurs last season but decided against it in the end due to some stories he'd heard about Nile (the attitude issue).

Coloccini is the most composed member of our squad, especially with the ball at his feet. Nobody looks as comfortable as he does and he's also technically excellent. Sometimes he's loses concentration and his lack of pace doesn't help him but he reads the game very well which makes up for the lack of pace. You've mentioned that incident at Old Trafford which is fair enough, but he shouldn't have been put in that position in the first place.

Routledge has been really good so far and was Man of the Match against Wolves. He ran them ragged and made some superb runs, not just out wide but also through the middle which caused them problems all game. He's also looking better with Perch behind him rather than that piece of garbage Simpson. Perch isn't the best defensively at the moment although he is improving (barring that one tackle against Wolves) but has shown some good signs going forward.

If Ranger or Lovenkrands had been brought on instead of Ameobi against Wolves, I reckon we'd have won it. We created some brilliant chances but Nolan couldn't convert them. We lacked a bit of pace to get in behind the defence and had they been given the chances Nolan had, I'm positive one of them would have bagged.

Agree with pretty much everything there. The only thing I'd question is whether it's a risky signing - we have nothing to lose from it in my opinion. We have him on loan until the end of the season and hopefully we'll sign him permanently after that. I know you've said it will be dangerous if we become dependent on him to keep us up but I don't think that will be the case. We've looked impressive so far and have the chance to build on that in the coming weeks with him and Tiote coming into the team. I think we have the players to keep us up, with or without Ben Arfa, although I'm much happier to have him in their than not as he gives us a much better chance.

The club is currently brimming with confidence and optimism at the moment, a lot of which comes down to the team spirit. I think it will help Ben Arfa settling in entering such a friendly environment and hopefully bring the best out of him without having to worry about his attitude.

As for the Wolves game and the Barton incidents, it was pretty much a disgrace what went on. The treatment of Barton was nothing short of disgusting. Every time he got anywhere near the ball, Karl Henry was on top of him and then proceeded to chop him down. Mick McCarthy no doubt instructed him to do so but it was embarrassing how much he got away with. Could and should have been booked about five times - an absolute joke how he stayed on the pitch.

Another England kit FFS. and it's worst!

England usually change their shirts in April so I wouldn't bet on it.

Ryan Babel when given the chance as scored goals, played well and shown the glimes of brilliance he has in his locker. He just needs that game time and then the confidence will come, I personally wouldn't mind seeing him start in a Liverpool line up all week, he'd bag goals...

Reina
Konchesky Carra Dagger Johnson
Babel Gerrard TBD (Lucas not good enough) Cole
Kuyt Torres

The bitterness and envy is strong in you. I guess you are a dipper by birth.

I guess we could have signed a tramped nicknamed 'the drinker' for £8m, who hasn't even played in a top league competition.

Thank you for making me smile. Should we ignore the fact that Busquets' father being Guardiola's closest friend or highlight the fact that he is Catalans. Or that 90% of Barca fans on there most popular forum wanted him picked ahead of Busquets. Maybe you also forgot how he ran the midfield against top sides in Europe and that he and his previous club were about to receive large sums in relation to appearance bonuses or that Guardiola wanted to keep him. I guess you cannot remember that he was so poor that he even looked top class playing centre half in some games during the final stages of the CL.

I have referred to Yaya Toure being a brilliant footballer well before he joined us. Name me a team in the Prem he would not start.

I honestly believe that if someone doesn't rate Yaya Toure then they simy don't know anything about football. Thank you for proving my point. You're not alone I here though

Have we had a debate about his mental health previously? Ifnot was there a time when I was obliged to make reference to it?

I just find it funny that the day after Robinho signs for AC Milan you are making reference to him having a mental illness, when it never came up in the two years he was a Citeh player.

You were never obliged to make reference to it. But you aren't obliged to suddenly make reference to it now he's gone. The fact that you do shows what a to55er you are IMO.