Howay

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/15455362.stm

Aye that's him, mental to think it's still going on in this day and age. Spain should have been hit with heavy fines/playing in empty stadia/bans for fans abusing players (e.g. SWP etc), Italy in all.

I think Balotelli is only the 2nd black player to be capped for Italy (the 1st lad played for Palermo iirc), on the topic I've no clue how Fifa tolerate all the racist bile that Italian and Spaniard fans throw at players in internationals.

I'm pretty sure he once said he wouldn't celebrate a goal until he scored the winner in a World Cup Final. He's easily good enough to play for Italy but they really, really don't like him because he's black. Sadly true.

Further proof of Capello getting it wrong handing it back to him.

Aye I don't see any disrespect in walking close to them, shouldn't have to just stand there and watch like a gaggle of muppets tbh. Iirc the Irish walked right up to a haka a few year back. Aye it was them

Please say Christmas tree didn't actually make that.

His brother is also the one that had an affair with that young lads wife isnt he? total shitbag family the Terry's are.

Richards, Kompany and 4 or 5 others that were playing before the mega spend came through their youth system. And you're right ManU have been spending 50m a year on average most seasons and hoovering up all the talent as have Chelsea. The Kompany they bought from Hamburg? All these clubs spend mega bucks it's what's needed to be a top team nowadays, agree that Man U fans can't use it as some attack on Man City fans especially as a lot of their youth players are poached from other clubs now. City worry them and rightly so tbh, also agree on the point that we'd all love to be in the position Man City are in now (Man Utd fans too with their whackjob of an owner).

Hopefully Marveux and Ben Arfa start vs Stoke, Obertan was woeful today.

What a shambles of a man, I missed that corker about him using an example of every club he'd ever left either getting relegated or facing relegation only that man could turn it into a positive I'd say it's fair enough if you got them to the dizzying heights and then they went shite a few year after you left but to be struggling that soon only points to one thing Sam. The England stuff is depressing because you know he'll be in the frame for the job and have a somewhat decent shot at getting it especially as someone pointed out the BBC have a love obsession with him for some reason. Agree with Ewerk in that it will finally expose him for all these dickends that spout about how we were mugs to sack him (even though we're higher now than we ever were under him and playing far better football) when he starts Davies and Heskey up front in a competitive game, the major downside would be we'd have to hear him warble on a lot more than we do now and of course when England sack him it wouldn't be his fault.

Bunch of bamps, if anyone here whacked a conservatory onto their house without planning permission it'd get torn down. It's a process everyone knows they just chose to ignore it and got what happens to everyone else.

He's not doing himself a favor trying to seem like he's hard done by, he's easily on at least £10k a week probably earns about the same in a month as the people he's trying to convince earn a year.

Surprised how good this is seeing as I moan about it

I think this is a key point, the competitiveness of the Prem is what sets the league apart from La Liga in terms of viewers etc. Fox soccer channel over here bigs games up between mid table teams almost as much as a clash between 'top 4' teams, the other week they put on Boltons game over a Liverpool match and we've been on a fair few times. Man utd have pretty much every game televised but what's interesting is how much they're going crazy over Man City, Liverpool will soon be overtaken I reckon. If the league lost its competitiveness I think the brand would definitely suffer and they forget alot of these Liverpool 'fans' are also 'fans of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

People will lose interest in Liverpool and move onto Man city etc, most the foreign glory hunter types are fickle I've spoken to lads that went from Man utd to Chelsea to Liverpool then back to Man utd. Agree with others that this is a pish idea and will ruin the league, to be clear is the red dipper wanting those 4 teams to get an equal increased stake or will the increase be based on their popularity meaning Man utd will probably get a fair whack more which would be all the league needs.

Aye there's been a distinct lack of Jenas in this thread for a while

http://flamingmeaux.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/i-love-wearing-hats-shola-ameobi/

Luke Chadwick

Aye I could see him spouting most of that. I agree the Mackems have some cheek expecting better their squad is woeful they should have seen bad results coming tbh.

The problem with it is that not all his moneys guaranteed etc, like there was an Oakland Raider called Jamarcus Russell, one of the best prospects out of college(picked number 1 first round), was given in insanely good contract, turned out he couldnt handle to pro game and had his contract terminated after a few years I think he only ended up getting like $40 million of his $60 million contract. Also, with the drafts, I love them personally, really helps keep things even, and make sure its not just the same team winning every year, sort of thing that wouldn't work at all in football, but our system wouldn't work over there, it's just nice to have each sport with a differing system. Aye Bradford is guaranteed $50m of it, I like the draft system in all shittest team gets the highest pick and all but it only works over here because you can't get relegated like back home. Russell was a nightmare turned up to training camp after 4 woeful seasons weighing over 300lbs that's the one downside of the draft I guess, you have to pay the best prospects mental money with no guarantee they'll be able to handle it.

It's an odd one I'd agree with Stevie that Rooney and co are more worldwide marketable than the yank sportsmen but the money in American sports is unbelievable I think the Yankees have 3 of the top 5 highest paid sportsmen in the world in their squad, then you get ones like that Sam Bradford who's on that list that gets a $78m contract over 6 year and that's just off his club, absolutely mental. Must come from all the adverts every 20 seconds in the games.

Aye that about sums it up like. Most people recognize Ronaldo as the 2nd best player at the moment but just happen to also think he's a cockend, also not sure I've heard anybody say he's wasting his talents or whatever the article says. Stevie's right it does scream yank like, very weird that he sees Cruyff slating Ronaldo as an issue, not really surprising a Barca legend making negative remarks about a Real Madrid player. It's an ok read but I don't think anyone doubts how good C.Ronaldo is, I must have missed the English journalists that rate Nani as being as good as Ronaldo.

Is that the one from Portugal 2004? http://image.ohozaa.com/iv/estadio_municip...braga031%5D.jpg

Just hope they keep the faith in Bruce, he's doing a wonderful job.