May 16, 201312 yr 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.
May 17, 201312 yr 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.
May 18, 201312 yr 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.
May 18, 201312 yr 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.
May 19, 201312 yr 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 for the most part 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!
May 19, 201312 yr 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.
May 20, 201312 yr Meanwhile... A trophyless season for a team of our standing, no wonder Brian Kidd is in charge for the American tour! Congratulations to Michael!
May 20, 201312 yr ^Much appreciated Fred! Pleased to be back on top after a couple of lean years. I might even consider talking to the press again.
May 20, 201312 yr How to commemorate Michael's victory: guard of honour? Minutes applause? Or do we just go for convention and build a rubbish statue of Michael Jackson?
May 21, 201312 yr http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQFMtHgx2ds After getting blown out 5+ to 0 again, I respect the pros all the more .
May 23, 201311 yr Benteke gave the first hint at giving a preference to leaving Villa Park.He said he will not necessarily accept the clubs decision to wave off any offers.
May 23, 201311 yr Straight from the Belgian press corps who are following the Belgian team on their American training camp.
May 23, 201311 yr Straight from the Belgian press corps who are following the Belgian team on their American training camp.
May 24, 201311 yr Looks like ol' Sparky is in the running for Stoke. First signing Jose "relegation heh heh heh" Boswinga?
May 24, 201311 yr I hope Pulis goes to Real Madrid.Pepe and Shawcross together? Mind your ankles!Predictions for 2013/14, part one of one...Tony Pulis takes charge at Madrid. Switching to the classic British 4-4-2, Benzema and Higuain are moved to the wings, with Ronaldo up front to get on the end of Crouchy's knock-downs. Ozil, Modric and Coentrao are dropped for their lack of height. At the back, Shawcross and Pepe hit the La Liga fops with assorted 'reducers' while Pulis attempts to accuse all and sundry of play-acting.Lionel Messi finally decides to give this Premier League lark a try and scores 120 goals in his debut season for a newly minted Arsenal, to cries of 'aha, but could he do it on a cold wet night at the Bernabeu?' from the rogues gallery on Soccer Saturday.The Stoke board, having been turned down by Roberto Martinez, Gus Poyet, Pep Guardiola and Arsene Wenger, revert to the 'more of the same' approach and get Lawrence Dallaglio in.
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