He was a cocky liitle git in his interview.

Bergkamp and Zola both had a great first touch, better than the others you listed. Henry's first touch wasn't as great as you suggest. Many others have had a better first touch than Henry.

I still think that Robbihno and Berbatov have the best first touches I have seen in the PL.

I haven't kept an eye on Australia's qualification for the next world cup. Are they on target to qualify?

Must be tough playing the likes of Thailand rather than Samoa. Big step up in class

Bernie Ecclestone was at the game on Saturday, sat in the back row behind Abramovich.

If you're going to sell the club though, surely you don't just get rid of a new, highly paid manager and install a caretaker in his place. That'd be retarded. Wilkins has never done a thing as a manager or coach so having him in charge could be the thing that costs us a CL place. If Scolari was kept in the job then he'd have either sorted things out or if things had got worse then the blame would clearly be with him. But if we fall out of the CL placings now then the blame is obviously with Abramovich for making another dozy decision.

TBH the only situation that would make sense to me is if we already have a manager lined up to take charge instantly. Putting a caretaker in charge for the rest of the season and then bringing someone in at the end of the season just means more instability. We'd have been better off leaving Scolari in charge so he had the chance to sort things out.

I agree he was the weaker of the 5 due to being hit and miss on occasion, but it was still sublime at times. Gullit and Cantona were every bit as classy as the other 2 IMO.



Fair enough if that's your opinion, I just wonder if your judgement's clouded a little. In Robinho's case because you're probably seeing him on a more regular basis so you can think of more examples, and I think the Berbatov thing is often because people don't expect him to have such ball control because he's tall and gangly.

yes we are leading our group

just a win and draw will get us through now

win the oceana group .then play the 5th best south american side . and thats what we did last world cup . last time we played eeengland .we won



we are comming too get yer .we made the last 16 world cup germany

Frederick, you are my favourite "Other Sports" poster.

£19 season ticket for under 16's at Sunderland
wow

It's about the same at Wigan. For, what, 6 or 7 games. Great value.

Do you even know what you said, seriously?




I didn't say Crespo is still world class, he's an old man now and he's past his prime, but in his day, he was world class, Lazio broke the world transfer record to sign him, any player of that quality is world class. Crespo's not done much in the past two years, but he was world class, you said he wasn't.


As for Mascherano, I think he's the best defensive midfielder in the world, if your opinion differs, then fair enough, but I think he's world class.

Also, international football, for me, only adds to about 10% of my opinion on a player. We all know how well David Healy done for NI in the Euro qualifying, but I wouldn't use that in argument to say he's better than a good striker who's disappointed at international level. Club level is a higher level than international football now, in my opinion. Besides, Ronaldo hasn't been that bad for Portugal in his international career, he's been very good actually, he just had an average Euro's.

Are you officer crabtree from allo allo disguised as an aussie?

They were class players but I am talking about first touch.




'Clouded judgement'? I chose someone who plays for United. I promise you, I am calling it 'as I see it'.

IMO it's a combination of both club and internatonal. David Healy had a purple patch at international level. That is all.

In terms of Ronaldo at international level, I didn't say he'd been awful, just that he doesn't come across as world class at that level more often than not.

You've an affinity towards special people.

I know.

I remember an interview he did a while back and he was like.

"You serious bruvvvvvvvv".

Blimey! If the 'under-16' part refers to IQ, they'll fill the ground twice over.

I Think It Was More Of A Case Off Jump Before He Was Pushed And He Had Taken The Team As Far As He Could...

Is tackling not part of football or something now?

It's hard to explain attributes of a player that are world class, his tackling, work rate, tenacity and the way he maintains such a high tempo to his game, he can shut teams down on his own at times and that's what makes him world class.

There are plenty of different aspects in football, just because he doesn't score 30 yarders every week, or open teams up every week, doesn't mean he's not world class. When we've played in the big games this year, he's been just as key to us as any other player.

If you'd rather Alonso, then fair enough, I like Alonso and he's a class player. Off this seasons form I'd rather Alonso, he's upped his game a lot. In my opinion, ball winners can be just as important as the creators. Just look at Arsenal since they've lost Flamini, they look spineless. Did you ever see Barca when they never have Toure/Keita? They would be dominated by sides who had a strong midfield, like they were by us when we beat them in the Camp Nou, Sissoko dominated them.

Also, when you have a midfielder like Alonso, or Riquelme, passing isn't such a valuable asset. Ever since Mascherano has broke into the Argentina squad, he's established himself as a key player, for the fact that he protects the defence so well and has somebody like Riquelme playing with him, who he can just give the ball to. That's all he does, gives it to Gerrard/Alonso and let's them do the harder stuff. I'd love to see some stats on Mascherano's passing, I very much doubt it's that bad.

There shouldn't have been any notion of him being pushed in the first place. In three years he'd delivered two titles, two Carling Cups, an FA Cup, two CL semi finals. Getting rid of a manager who does that is utter lunacy. He shouldn't have been worried about being pushed, he should have been tied and padlocked into place so he couldn't leave.

Taken the team as far as he could. What utter cack.

As much as he's been trying to convince everyone on here, i don't think EE has spelt Robinho's name correctly once!

What a shot from Elano.

Very good 1st half.

Robinho goal was awsome.

I noticed that. ROBIHNO.

Great first goal by our U21s, btw.

Yeah was a cracker, that, great touch and finish.