Dr Gloom

...don't forget he's a year older now too and he's hardly played any cricket in a year. is his aging body up to a 5 test series? take mcgrath and warne out of their side and they're ordinary. if mcgrath isn't on song or misses a couple of tests through injury, they're beatable. Take their two main bowlers out of their side and they're ordinary? Well.........yeah! i mean look at the players who are coming through and will replace them in a couple of years... johnson, tait, clark, watson....all look fairly ordinary. once mcgrath and warne retire they're not going to be all that anymore

...don't forget he's a year older now too and he's hardly played any cricket in a year. is his aging body up to a 5 test series? take mcgrath and warne out of their side and they're ordinary. if mcgrath isn't on song or misses a couple of tests through injury, they're beatable.

why do you say that? the ozzies are an aging and unbalanced outfit - take warne out of the equation and they're perfectly beatable. a lot will depend on whether a 36 year old mcgrath has the stamina. all our batsmen are in good knick and we've finally got a spinner than can turn the ball. i fancy our chances. The Aussies are aging but they've still got alot of quality players that will bury England alive on our current form. The only chance we've got is drawing the series. i'm usually a natural born pessimist but i reckon we've got the great chance. we've got the psychological edge over a fair few of their batsmen. martyn, gilchrist and harden all struggled againt our seamers last time around and we've got far greater depth to our bowling. with watson injured, they're probably going to go with just the three fast bowlers again. the wild card is of course warne. he could win the series for them single handed. when he does eventually retire, the ozzies won't look half the side they are with him in it.

oops. i didn't see this thread.

why do you say that? the ozzies are an aging and unbalanced outfit - take warne out of the equation and they're perfectly beatable. a lot will depend on whether a 36 year old mcgrath has the stamina. all our batsmen are in good knick and we've finally got a spinner than can turn the ball. i fancy our chances.

it's 90k capacity but most of the extra seating is for corporates so there's not much more room for your average punter than the last wembley. they should have made it 100-110k

who's getting excited about the upcoming six weeks of cricket? who thinks we can retain the urn? i think we've got a great chance of at least drawing the series, but we need harmeson firing. if he hasn't got his radar on and hoggy can't find any movement in the air we could be in trouble.

they should have put an extra teir on it

a beard? he's losing it tbh

arsenal were by far the better side and probably deserved to win the game, but we looked more of a threat than we have done for a while thanks largely to dyer and martins up front. there was some nice link up play between dyer and solano too.

good to have him back. he's the best ball carrier we've got. he looked knackered at times yesterday mind. it'd be nice if we can get him fit and keep him fit

oh joy

this will be my first match of the season and i can't say i'm massively looking forward to it. i can see them knocking a few past us plus it'll be fercking freezing anyone got any team news? are we really going to wheel our shola for one final non-performance before his op? are martins and dyer fit? is our defence still shit?

legend tbh. nobby for manager?

that chopra lad looks alright. £6m replacement for shola in january?

....that we're going to wheel out a clearly crocked shola out against arsenal AGAIN? we may as well play with ten men for 90 minutes. i think roeder is losing the plot http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1948734,00.html

it's harder to laugh at yourself. it's fairly accurate though tbh - we'd all be laughing at a piece full of similar sterotypes of say, the scousers...

that's rancid tbf

not acceptable.

absolute gash. how it got beyond the pilot is a mystery

our defence is as shite as it's always been but we're only one good striker (that can play with his back to goal) away from being able to score a few goals. the reason we're so toothless at the momenht is the complete lack of any presence up top. no disrespect to le sib, he runs his heart out but when the ball goes up to him it usually comes straight back. we blatantly should have got sutton

what's jimmy nail up to these days?

we could do with sutton now. or any fit striker that can play with his back to goal

aye. he's no sibierksi like. martins hasn't done much so far but he's got to be a better option than a half fit shola, no?

if we don't get someone who half looks like a striker up front soon we're going down. what's his injury and how long's he out for?