Dr Gloom

you haven't predicted it as confidently as stevie did so doubt it'll come back to haunt you in the same way. i hope you're itk's on the right track

he did well last night against one of the worst defences in the league. he looks a confidence player so hopefully he will get going now and chip in with a few more goals but i haven't seen enough at this stage to suggest he isn't worth getting rid of if we're able to bring in a striker with a bit more pedigree.

and exhale

eh? ben arfa has to be in there shirley?

shame. i thought he'd do a job for us and give a nice balance to our midfield.

i'm staying up tonight for sure. should be some good scenes at the scg. i'm sure at least two thirds will be barmy army. the aussies don't usually turn up when they know they're going to be on the wrogn end of a hiding. happy days

No way! Is that true? i'd love that to be true

the problem is he was shit

it's all set up to be a classic with us both coming on the back of good wins and them after revenge after the 5-1 drubbing. a win will put us right back in the mix at the right end of the table

would you not rather we finished higher up the table and qualified for europe than further down just to avoid the europa cup?

half the europea league is a waste of time and it's annoying the way you end up with shedloads of non televised sundya games but i'd rathe rbe in it than not. it raises the club's profile across europe. obvioulsy the champions league is where we'd all like to be but we're light years away from getting back there.

i hope they get daglish/ i can't imagine him being anything other than a massive flop. never go back

i suppose if our more destructive stroke players can learn to play the situation and occupy the crease when required then we won't need another colly. i always found it comforting though when he came in between pietersen and flintoff. you had two of the game's biggest sloggers with king of the low backlift stone wall sandwiched inbetween

i can't help but wonder if in years to come we all look back and laugh at the time when carroll might have been sold for £30m. i hope we don't sell him and i hope he goes on to fulfil his potential but you have to admit that's a lot of money for an unproven 21 year old. i doubt whether an offer like that was ever on the table. it was ashley would surely have teken it - it was probably tabloid speculation but it would have been a pretty good bit of business.

Did you txt TMS with this as well, DG? Sure I just read something very similar on there. no that wasn't me. It's funny how it takes a guy to retire though before the plaudits start rolling in. Colly really was the king of the nudge and the nurdle. The ugly shovel into the on side. But fair play to him - a brilliant career and a cv that his more talented predecessors would envy. The one worry about him going is that he'll almost certainly be replaced by another attacking stroke maker. Who will be rock in the middle order that will occupy the crease and grind out the backs to the wall innings colly built his reputation on, like Cardiff last summer?

I've got a lot of respect for colly. He's an example to all players with limited ability. He got to the top through hard graft, application and knowing his limitations. His fielding is the best ive ever seen and is an example the rest of the squad has followed and now he finishes his test career with three ashes victories and a 2020 world cup medal on his cv plus a test average of over 40. Not a bad way to go out.

He could go a long way towards building bridges in this transfer window. He just needs to show some ambition. Football fans are generally a fickle and forgiving bunch if things are going well on the pitch. If he put his finger in his pocket, hung on to our best players and got us back into Europe, the fcb chants would cease pretty quickly. The problem is there's no sign of him doing it - he blatantly has no regard at all for the fans. Some of his decisions-like sacking keegan and hughton and the stadium naming rights - show he has zero interest in winning us over, that has to change if he wants support from the terraces.

He just retired. Might not even bat again in tests now tbh

I don't understand how Del Bosque not call Enrique for the national team...is the best left defender of Spain because Capdevila is old... Is he highly rated in Spain? Is there even any talk at all in the media of him being called up?

Fucking 0-0 draw to start proceedings instead of a 5-0 hammering. Typical

In a nutshell

that will take the gloss off if it's a serious injury. hes been immense again tonight

nicely taken to be fair

might sound harsh but i'm not that bothered. think williamson has looked sharper this season