Football Focus

[Sandperson]

Jah, Surely resorting to effectively calling Rio Ferdiand a stupid idiot is resorting to lame stereotypes, as is the use (liberally here) of Manure etc. I'm just giving as good as I get.

Anyway, I'm sure JT will make a great captain. He is passionate and strong and I believe that they are two valuable assets. I think, given time, Rio would make a good captain for England too. I think it's a shame that SG isn't considered anymore but I think in actual fact he is more useful in a Beckham style 'pull 'em up by their bootlaces and show 'em how it's done' role for when the rest of the team (as is inevitable) disappear on the big night.

[Annasfield]

Why are you getting personal about the people (my family) of a city from where the club I support are from?

I think that JT and Rio make excellent captains, which is probably why they captain their respective clubs. Two clubs which finished first and second in the league and both ended up in a CL final last season. Of course they are deserving. I was simply stating that their off pitch antics leave a lot to be desired. That is not an attack on Chelsea or Man united.

[Keef]

To be fair to Rio Ferdinand, he does seem to have grown up a bit, but I guess the manager has chosen the captain who will shout loudest on the pitch.

Atila would have put you all straight, feckin chavski and manure, and what about those spuds, you'll never win anything whilst le boss is about!!!!!! But no player is bigger than the team, they can fcuk off and roast in hell on a spit!

God I miss that guy.

[Sandperson]

Don't forget 'you mug'!

Anna, as far as 'bin dippers' goes , I have only ever heard of it being used in connection with Liverpool football fans. I was not disparaging the whole of Liverpool. I saw what happened to Boris Johnson.

[SeanMacGabhann]

This. Even now I haven't seen anyone tear away as regularly on one of those runs since he left.

I nearly coughed up my cornflakes when I read this earlier today:

Silvestre in shock move to Arsenal

Leaving aside the nagging doubt about why Ferguson is happy to let him go, this might actually be the best thing to happen to Gallas

[Jimbob]

is that because playing along side silvestre would make gallas look good;-)

[Sandperson]

That's an interesting idea Bob. They both have very similar careers so it's worth comparing their honours.

William Gallas honours:

With Caen

Ligue 2 Championship Winner 1995-96

With Chelsea

FA Premier League Winner 2004-05, 2005-06

Football League Cup 2005

Community Shield 2005

F.A Cup Runner Up 2002

With Arsenal

League Cup Runners-Up 2007

Mikael Silvestre honours:

Manchester United

Premier League

Winner (4): 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07

Runner-up (1): 2005-06

FA Cup

Winner (1): 2004

Runner-up (2): 2005, 2007

Football League Cup

Winner (1): 2006

Runner-up (1): 2003

FA Community Shield

Winner (2): 2003, 2007

Runner-up (3): 2000, 2001, 2004

UEFA Champions League

Winner (1): 2008

Intercontinental Cup

Winner (1): 1999

I can't understand why we'd sell him to Arsenal. But I guess Fergie knows best.

I see there's talk of Forlan to Spurs. Who wants to bet he scores his first hattrick against Man Utd?

[bon3yard]

Ingerland Schmingerland. :'(

[Keef]

I can't understand why we'd sell him to Arsenal. But I guess Fergie knows best.

For me, Man U no longer need him, and to be honest (and I'm not having a dig at Arsenal here), I doubt Fergie really looks at Arsenal as a major threat right now.

[Jah Lush]

I agree Keef, apart from the last bit. Let's face it, he's hardly featured in the last couple of seasons and at 33 he's surplus to requirements. But, he's French, can play in several positions in the back four and he'll add much needed experience to a young Arsenal side.

[SeanMacGabhann]

hmmm - he should do IMO - we were mere 4 points behind them last season and if it weren't for that Birmingham game I reckon we would have done it (not the result or the injury which cause us problems - it was the distress of witnessing the incident which played on players minds I reckon)

[Jah Lush]

Yeah, that and that prat Gallas turning his back on the penalty and making a complete cock of himself.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Not mom and pop Gallas' proudest moment I'll wager, 'tis true

[Keef]

Sorry Sean, but if I was Fergie, I'd be looking no further than Chelsea as a real threat to me this season.

Liverpool need more players, and Arsenal need more grown ups.

[Sandperson]

You'll never win it with kids Keef? Someone else said that once....

[Keef]

Yeah fair point, but they were a group of kids that went through the whole youth thing together.

I don't know, we shall see what happens. I hope we get similar to last year where Arsenal are absolutely storming it, and all get beyond cocky about it, then they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and end up with nothing >:D<

Sorry, that's a bit mean, but I've never felt as infuriated as I did last season by cocky fans.

I am going to use this season to make my final judgement on Rafa at Liverpool. I love some of the players, and the cup success he has brought to the club, but I really do think he made huge mistakes with rotation last year, and will be interested to see if he's learnt...

[Sandperson]

Yes, he did seem to shoot himself in the foot. Chelsea took everyone by suprise I think last year after all the early running by Arsenal. I think Man Utd will struggle this season, I can't see Ronaldo having as good a season and everyone else looks to have upped their game tbh. If Torres really gets it together (and doesn't get dropped for no apparent reason (this is not to say he wasn't great btw)) then the Pool will be ok.

[Annasfield]

Interesting reading peoples' comments about "Rafa the rotator". I have no doubt that Rafa will bring us a Premiership titled if given the full support of the board.

There's a fella who writes for LFC tv and I always find his articles quite enlightening. Keef - you might be interested in this.

[quote name=On Sky's Sunday Supplement' date=' there were further mentions of Torres being left out of two games last season; using the games as examples, when in fact they were the only examples. Without irony, the journalists also admitted ?well, he can't play every game...', without enlightening us to which kind of games they can't play. Their point seemed to be that Portsmouth away and Birmingham at home, at a stage when the Reds were playing well, was not the time.

But I might ask, when is the time? When the Reds are struggling? Er, no. Or against the best opposition? Er, no. Or in the run-in to the season? Er, no. Or when Torres, who'd just played two internationals prior to the Portsmouth game, hasn't just had a gruelling schedule? Er, no.

Looked at like that, and with his form later in the season aided by not being overplayed initially, it was the best time to rest him; unfortunately, the results didn't work out. But that's not when the title was lost. And I still maintain a point at Portsmouth was a good result; it's the sum total United have achieved there in their last two visits. ]

Food for thought I guess.

[Sandperson]

Fair point and you would have thought an Internationally respected manager would know what he was doing. I guess it's just one of those things. The results didn't go your way on the day. Who is to say that they would have won with Torres in the side. There must have been times however, a la Ranieri, when you did think 'huh?', Despite my obvious hatred for anything even close to the Mersey as you know I have the family connections by marriage and they were certainly perplexed at times.

Don't get me wrong it happens to me with MU sometimes too (ours tends more to be formation than players in recent years though).

[Keef]

The Torres example is the obvious one that everyone brings up, but there have been other decisions, things like when to make substituations. Myself and another Liverpool friend (you know the one Anna, slap head) have watched so many matches and been screaming at him to bring someone on at 70 minutes, and he'll do it on 80+

I'm not at all against Rafa, and fully agree that he needs the support of the board, but at the end of the day, he has the players he has, and it's him that picks his team, and makes the changes. Here's hoping he gets it all right this time round...

[Annasfield]

Dire, dire England game. Please remind me not to bother going to Wembley again.

[SimonM]

It was a friendly...they are always dire!

[Keef]

Last night was especially shocking though!

[Ladygooner]

I got a call from Setanta half way through the England match to see if I wanted to renew my subscription so I could watch it- I didn't renew. So glad now after reading the reports in the paper. Annasfield - the only time I will be going to Wembley will be to watch Arsenal in the Carling or FA Cup finals!

[Jah Lush]

I can't believe I sat in the pub and wasted good money on beer to watch that whole sorry mess of a match last night. England were absolutely awful. It must have hurt a lot more though to have been at Wembley and paid good money to watch that pile of crap.