11007 replies to this topic

[Frederick]

Wigan have won one in seven subsequent to winning back to back games at the end of March. Fair play for the FA Cup win and well earned it was too but enough's enough. Martinez should bite the hand offering him any route out of Dave Whelan's Werther's Originals soaked dungeon. .

[Michael*]

11,000 replies in this thread. Pretty sweet.

Disaster for Benfica, eleven lovely trophies in ten years for clueless evil mad git Abramovich (© the English press) and credit to Rafa Benitez, who leaves Chelsea in far better shape than when he arrived. Given that Ivanovic's winning goal went in on the 92 minute mark, I'd be most interested to know the exact point when John Terry decided to change into his full kit and boots.

[Michael*]

End of the road for David Beckham. Retirement seemingly contagious at the moment.

Also just heard Chris Waddle suggest that Beckham wouldn't make it onto a list of the top 1000 players of the last 40 years. You've been on too many nights out with Gazza, pal.

[Michael*]

Wildly eventful Copa Del Rey final last night at the Bernabeu, Courtois's save towards the end was as good as any goal I've seen recently. I'm putting a fiver on Belgium to win the 2016 Euros as we speak.

[Frederick]

A shame that the Bundesliga season had to end with a 'miraculous' Bayern recovery and a woeful team like Hoffenheim scabbing a win against Dortmund to avoid automatic relegation. I really hope they lose the play-off, they offer the league nothing.

[Michael*]

With a subs' bench strongly resembling a creche and another foolish red card in the second half, we eventually crumbled thanks to one of Bale's trademark potshots at the end. I'd have preferred it if Di Canio hadn't had to threaten to curtail the players' holidays in order to motivate them, but I'm fairly content with the performance. It was disciplined and we didn’t lose our brains, a spirited showing considering the meagre resources at hand. So pleased to see the back of the Premier League season. Roll on Champions League final!

[Frederick]

Another season that will surely knock a few years off of my life. December through 'til Spring was about as dark a time as is possible, 8-0 Chelsea, 0-3 Wigan, not to mention the utter humiliation of 'the Bradford affair'; heck all of that made losing to Millwall feel like a trip to Hawaii. Such is life. Its hard to overstate the importance of Benteke, from November on he's been extraordinary, scoring all manner of goals, trying desperately to inspire a team that compared to him often seem like sub-species. For that Lambert gets the credit and clearly there's more to come from the likes of Lowton, Westwood and Bennett. There is a plan but ooof did it look like 'send to Championship on a shoe string' at times. Anyway, defensively we've been hopeless from the get go, as a young back four they've taken some proper tonkings but somehow they're still standing, thanks in large part to the brilliant Brad Guzan. A terrible decision by McLeish (imagine that) to let him go, I'm so pleased we brought him back and placed him as numero uno. Weimann was another bright spot, scored some great goals, works extremely hard. Agbonlahor was atrocious for the majority of the season but then turned the corner in a major way when it mattered most. He is Mr. Aston Villa and when he scores it does tend to be extremely important.

[Frederick]

Meanwhile...



A trophyless season for a team of our standing, no wonder Brian Kidd is in charge for the American tour! Congratulations to Michael!