True, but in some cases he was also a victim of circumstance (ie Angel)

Villa are being charged with making illegal approaches for James Beattie after having a 6million pound bid turned down in the summer.

Chelsea APPARENTLY want to get Dyer in January in exchange for Huth and some money :'(. Like we need another atacking midfielder, we should wait till the end of the season and see if Veron can get a new club or else we'll have Duff, Robben, Lampard, Veron, Cole and Dyer all fighting for three places. I realise Duff and Robben play out wide but Jose like playing them inside too.

Ian Rush has confirmed he is not going to be the new Wales manager, he would rather stay with Chester City :lol:

Meh everyone makes illegal approaches all the time don't mean much really.

Yeah but no one gets charged for it, Stam even admitted the whole United transfer was done illegally, Manchester United made illegal approaches to RvN (I.E inviting him to train with them in an attempt to lure him from PSV, without asking for PSV's permission) They got Barthez to speak to Vieira about moving to United apparently.

West Ham were accused by Newcastle of illegally tapping Bernard but nothing happened with this, I guess it might be lack of evidence of something, I dunno. Just have to wait and see what happens. I doubt there will be a bad punishment.

Actually West Ham did illegally approach Bernard and he actually signed a contract for them. Problem was he still had a year and a half left on his contract not half a year and so he had to return and was pretty much guilted into signing an extension. Probably why he doesn't want to sign a new contract now. To be fair I think it's more his dodgy agent filling his head with lies and nonsense which causes him to behave like this.

Oh and please take Dyer off our hands, he's not that much of a trouble maker and most certainly is not a waster...honest :shifty:.

Franchise in the LDV tonight. That should be fun sitting in a stadium with 15 other people. :lol:

Wolves' misery and despair continues as they lose 3-1 to Sunderland. Sunderland move up to third.

I didn't know that about Bernard, I thought the Geordies accused West Aam of illegally approaching him but nothing happened, I guess I should have looked into it further.

We have enough midfeilders, we also have enough midfeilders who spend most of their time injured on the sidelines.

You can never have enough injury prone midfielders. We'll take Damien Duff and Gallas if it's such a problem ;).

Which makes me wonder why we want to add Huth into the deal, when Gallas gets injured every other game we need another centre back.

Well Mourinho has denied the rumours (I can't tell you how devastating it was to hear that Kieron Dyer won't be leaving). Souness has confirmed we are interested in Huth and Dawson. That's all well and good but what we need is experienced defenders. I think I may well die if any of our current center halves (bar Young Steven Taylor) are still here in 2 years.

I don't wanna lose Huth, the guy has a great free kick and is fucking solid. He even provided evidence to Mourinho that he never said he wants to leave the club a few weeks ago

Yes and he was superb against Norwich in the Carling Cup. He made Bramble look brilliant too. I think he got injured afterwards (probably by breathing) as he missed the Bolton match and he hasn't been heard from since.

Why would he go there.

It's the Sun, they don't know anything...:$

I still want Bobby Robson or Strachan but I know the odds against either of them are pretty damn long :(

7 months and a 20k fine for Mutu. Seems about what was expected, I'm against the whole idea of total football suspension, sacking is all that should have happened in my view but he's got what the FA was expected to give him.

that's wank. if Ferdinand had admitted taking cocaine, even if he hadn't, he'd have got a shorter ban?

bunch of toss.

mutu got off lightly because he admitted and his club sacked him and didnt fight for him being not guilty. with ferdinand, united fought all the way and in the end made it worse for rio.

now mutu has no income from a club and is kinda tainted for life. i just hope he doesnt slip into oblivion and comes back from his ban next season.

Take that, Lee Dixon

To be fair though, if players knew Rio got a shorter ban because he missed the test then it would just encourage them to do it as well when they knew they were screwed. Rio's was about 8 months, Mutu's is like 7 months (Goes till the end of the season so he won't play for another 3 months after that) then it seems fair to me. No place for players to hide.

I said it a week ago and i'll say it again, WHEN UNITED ASKED WHY FERDINAND GOT AN 8 MONTH BAN THEY SAID IT WAS BECAUSE THEY FAILED TO STICK TO ONE STORY, TWO OF THE MAIN PEOPLE TRIED SHAFTING THE BLAME ON EACH OTHER. HAD UNITED STUCK TO ONE STORY IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SHORTER.

Middlesbrough 2 - 0 Lazio, I bet none of you predicted that fucker, and anyone who bets against stewart downing playing for England before Germany is a sick and twisted person in need of psychiatric help.

One of Boros best performances so far this year, we took one of the biggest sides in Europe and completely shut them down, fucked them up and put two past them.

Fair point could be made that it was an understrength Lazio, However Middlesbrough have around the same amount of injury problems.

I predict Middlesbrough making it to the last 8 of the Uefa Cup, without a sweat.

TBF as much as I hate 'Boro ( which is a lot ) it's a good result even though Lazio ain't the team they used to be.

Wait till the Champions League teams come into it next round. Suddenly it won't be so easy.

Right lets look at who's getting knocked out of the Champions League shall we?

Anderlect, Celtic, Shakhtar, Rosenborg, Tel Aviv, Sparta, Fenerbache, Panathinaikos, Deportive, Ajax, Roma, PSG, Porto, Valencia

Only one team there I think we may struggle against, Valencia. However they had a lot of top players leave during the summer, a great manager left during the summer and they havn't yet recovered.

Lazio are favourites to win the Uefa Cup, with the understrength squad they now have. Middlesbrough totally annihilated them last night.

Porto, Valencia, Deportivo, Roma and Celtic would all take 'Boro

Deportivo - Sitting bottom of their Champions League group with two points from 4 games. Just Lost to Liverpool, who had a fucking dismal game. Also Deportivo are sitting 10th in La Liga with 13 points from 9 games.

Valencia - Sitting 6th in La Liga with 15 points from 9 games and have played all of the bottom 5. Ranieri has no control over the squad and has had to take Fiore away from the first team due to the disruption he's causing. Corradi hasn't settled in down the right. and their top scorer is out injured for 6 months.

Porto - are obviously not the side they were last year, Mourinho has gone and a lot of the talent has followed. Sat Rock bottom of Group H, arguably the weakest group in the competition. Maniche is the only world class player they have left. being the playmake in the side it's important to them that he plays well, he is not performing and hasn't been all season.

Roma - Another side bottom of their Champions league group. Montella, the top scorer injured his ankle in the Leverkusen game and is reported to be out for 4 - 5 months. Baldini the director of football at Roma has recently said he was on the verge of walkign out then changed his mind. The coach Delnieri is tasting his first time in european football and has obviously made tough work of it.

Celtic - Larsson is gone, Hartson is reportedly on his way out, Thier domestic form is lookign good, but to be fair to them, West Brom would finish in the top three in that league. The only thing I would consider challenging against Celtic is Martin O'Neills tactics, He's come up with some amazing stuff against us in the past when he was boss at Leicester.

I will admit that Boro look the weaker team on paper than all of the above, but if you read into it slightly the table definately starts to turn.

The only one of those who might make the UEFA Cup (Ie 3rd in their group) are Valencia.

Celtic, Shakhtar, Sparta, Panathinaikos, Deportivo, Ajax, PSG and Valencia would all give you incredibly hard games. Even Rosenborg held Arsenal to a draw.

You can't look at it and say "The only team we might struggle against is Valencia" because matches in Europe don't work like that. All it takes is for a clever bit of trickery and you're down to 10 men. So called rubbish teams pull off shock results all the time because they can defend like lions and pinch goals at any time.

Also Lazio's injury problems:

INJURED

Angelo Peruzzi (GK)
Matteo Sereni (GK)
Luciano Zauri (DF)
Sebastiano Siviglia (DF)
Emanuele Filippini (MF)
Fabio Liverani (MF)
Dino Baggio (MF)
Simone Inzaghi (ST)
Roberto Muzzi (ST)

Guiliano Giannichedda also got taken off early on due to an injury.

INELIGIBLE

Jose Leonardo Talamonti (DF)
Matias Lequi (DF)
Esteban Gonzalez (MF)
Miguel Angel Mea Vitaly (MF)
Bryan Robert (MF)
Claudio De Sousa (ST)

OTHER

Top scorer Tomasso Rocchi was on the bench
Regular starters like Christian Manfredini and Goran Pandev were on the bench

----------------

To say you anhiliated the favourites is taken a bit out of context.

Lazio are a poor side even at full-stregnth.
It's saying something that their top scorer so far is a regular sub.

Millwall tonight, on Sky :cool:

Santini has just resigned.

Yeah for personal reasons apparently.

Whoops Tottenham

Yo haven't been around recently.

Funniest thing while I've been away - Andy Gray saying it was "definitely" a penalty when Rooney fell over.

Other things:

GO EVERTON
Robben is the man
Pompey are the men (bar today where they were shit)
Dnimo Tblisi are terrible
Kluivert is coming good eventually as is dirty dirty Bowyer
Souness is doing better than I ever thought possible
Inter for the champions league
Oh yeah and Middlesbrough are good but no way will they win the UEFA cup

Guys I know that alot of you won't know this bloke (except Wee Gooner and Downunder) but he's passed away and I'm truly gutted at the news....the person I'm talking about is Johnny Warren, who to me WAS Australian football. I just thought, seeing this is a football thread and all, to post this article in here so as to give you an insight into this incredible man and what he's done trying to improve the state of football in Australia.

http://wwiii.sbs.com.au/home/index.php3?id=51508

Farewell 'Captain Socceroo'
SBS

Socceroos legend Johnny Warren has lost his brave battle with cancer.

The man affectionately known as 'Captain Socceroo' died at Prince Alfred Hospital at approximately 5.30pm on Saturday evening with his family and friends by his side.

He was admitted to hospital on Wednesday suffering from major breathing problems and other complications associated with the cancer, which was first diagnosed in late 2002.

Funeral arrangements will be announced in the coming days.

The face of Australian soccer for the past 30 years, Johnny captained the Socceroos for eight years (between 1966 and 1972) and led Australia through three World Cup campaigns, including a major involvement in the Socceroos' only appearance at the 1974 World Cup finals.

His involvement with SBS Television began in 1980. He called and co-commentated several major matches including Australia's World Cup campaigns, the network's telecasts of the 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Cups, the European Championships and Cup Winners Cups and World Youth Championships and was the chief football analyst on SBS Television's The World Game.

In 1998, he was one of 200 sports starts to be inducted into the Australian Hall of Fame.

In 2002, Johnny published his first book Sheila's Wogs and Poofters, which has gone on to become an Australian best seller. He was also included among the Queen's birthday honours list, receiving a Medal of the Order of Australia.

In July of this year, Johnny was honoured for his services to soccer by FIFA president Sepp Blatter and was awarded the Centennial Medal of Honour in a formal ceremony in Sydney.

"I want Australia to embrace this fabulous game," he said on receiving the honour. "It's not 'wog-ball'. This is the game of the world."

Johnny Warren was 61.
http://203.15.102.146/media/8833jw.jpg

I just feel like absolute shit hearing this news and yeah, I'm still stunned. I really, sincerely hope Australia qualifies for the 2006 World Cup for Johnny. A true legend will be missed. :'(

LOL there was a streaker at the match today.

And he never got to see Australia qualify for another World Cup.

We'll fuck 'em next year for Johnny :y::'(.

Just got back from watchong the Milwall match at the pub. Inexperienced defence and trying to beat Millwall at their own game cost us methinks.

Villa twonked Pompey :D Not sure if twonked is a word really but it sounds great so I'll roll with it

I'll never forget the night Iran knocked us out at the MCG with that 2-2 draw and he was in tears when he was trying to give his post-match analysis on SBS. :'(

http://www.football365.com/opinion/m...y_132784.shtml

…It should be noted that almost two and a half months of Rio Ferdinand's ban ran while he would not have been playing football (Mid May-Early June, Late June-Mid August), whereas it is effectively 10 months before Mutu can again play competitive football (as he will not be fit for WC qualifiers).
Eoghan, Dublin

THE Eoghan? :eek:

Robben truely is the man, he was BY FAR our best player yesterday, I can't think who else played very well. Can't wait to see more of him.

lol 4 minutes into the derby and 4 players have had to have treatment for clashing of heads, 2 clearences off city's line and united could have had 2 penalties if a lesser referee than graham poll was in charge.

Yeah Mike Riley would have been creaming himself by now if he was in charge.

can someone explain why united payed so much for saha?? ive lost count of how many times hes been offside and that free header from 6 yards just sums up uniteds season - we've completely dominated the game but cant score for shit at the moment.

Saha started well, scoring 7 in 9 games (although the free kick on his debut shouldnt count its still credited to him)

I SHOULD feel sorry for Saha, he got headbutted, fouled int he area, bundled over in the second half and got fuck all for it. As it happens he plays for united so I couldn't care less.

United deserved at least a 3-0 win, if not 7-0.

Good to see Smith get sent off, he always has been and always will be a fucking prick. Can't deny his football ability though.

What do you think about Mourinho's comments about the Chelsea fans yesterday Dazz?

Care to enlighten me as to what he said :$

He says that the team deserve more vocal support and that the Chelsea fans were out cheered by the 2 500 Everton fans, or something to that effect.

He said last month that he wants us to have a song for every player on the pitch, Neil Barnett (our announcer) tried to get us to shout everyones surname when he announced the team line up but that didn't go too well.

In all fairness to the Chelsea fans Mourinho's dugout was between the Everton fans, them, ManYoo and Liverpool have been the only three teams to take the whole allocation of our East Stand Lower, and the dugout is on the half way line, so he had Everton fans singing to the left and right of him. I sit in the Matthew Hadring Upper, Matthew Harding lower is the 'Voice of Stamford Bridge' and we have to encourage the West Stand, Shed End (South Stand) and East Stand to sing, or they don't bother. We should have been more vocal in the match but I think we have been quieter in other games this season, alot of the time we get louder the better we play, and we were aweful yesterday, Robben was the only player who played well. I don't think Mourinho always heard us, he didn't acknowledge us when we sung about him, unlike Kezman who kepts thanking us for chanting for him, Lampard, Terry, and Gudjonhsen (:mad: ) are the ones we normally sing about whatever, but we didn't yesterday and the Everton fans were really loud. I guess I can understand his point.

I liked it when the Everton fans kept chanting "Where were you when you were shit", as it is often a quetion I would love to ask alot of Chelsea fans too. Like any team that does well our prices go up and the real fans get phased out and people with more money come in and watch games without passion.

Which is why I have often said that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if Roman Abramovich quit, we had to sell loads of players, and then the fake fans would piss off and we'd have a great atmosphere again.

Woop I'm THE Eoghan these days but alas it's not me, well not that I remember allthough he's right. In regards to the Mutu thing though see hes been made assistant manager of Romania while he serves the ban

Chelsea and Madrid target Robinho's mum was kidnapped today. No doubt shit like this will make him want him and his family out of Brazil asap

He will be ours in January for ten million, almost a dead cert.

Fucking cheating Senegalise Bastard.

That is all I have to say about the Boro/Bolton Game.

Bolton piss me off more then any team in the league, from the very first to the very last minute they time waste away from home, they have twats like Campo, Heirro and Diouf (or Dioa I dunno) and generally are a bunch of wankers.

Like you say Sir, he is a cheating twat, no doubt if he hadn't already been booked he would have been for his time wasting for the corner antics, and rolling around the pitch twice after that was disgraceful.

Pulling his socks up instead of taking the corner was great.

Those tactics seem to work. Fair play.

Well exactly, credit to Allerdyce, he sticks to a tactic, it pulls off wonders alot of the time, they drew 2-2 with arsenal, beat spurs, drew with boro, beat chelsea using them last year at our gaff, often works out for them, just annoying to watch.

Real Madrid have apparantely got first option on Robinho, guess it depends on whether Morientes goes.

Speaking of Real, Owen scored his 5th in 6 games yesterday, meant to have been quite good so i'll check it out later. They're still 7 points behind Barca though :cool:

Craig Levein's first home game tonight, i can see us winning, which would be helpful as we're unbeaten in 7 but the last 6 of those have been draws.

If you can't find it all the season's goals seem to be posted <a href="http://www.realmadridfans.net/videos.htm">here</a>

Could you retract that to, after Liverpool sell Diouf, I'd love to see him injured, that would be particularly good

Parlour had a good crack at it lol

PS theres still only one Stewie Downing

Thats fuc</>king disgraceful you shouldn't wish injury on any player

He did it against us as well. I don't like Boro much but even I was glad when they equalised just to see the smug look whiped off Fat Sam's face. Bloody Wimbledon part 2. Can't wait till they end up bankrupt falling down the divisions like Wmbledon as well.

They never prospered with they're unsportsmanlike antics in the Carling Cup last year :)

Anyone know of any transfers that might happen in the January transfer window? Anything you'd like to see?

There is talk on Teesside of Juninho coming back to Middlesbrough on loan untill the end of the season. Bad move as far as I'm concerned. I am not going against the wee fella, as a boro fan I will always regard him as one of our alltime greats. However it isn't a good move for the club at the moment, I enjoyed watching him while he was here (all three times) but I wouldn't want to see him back again.

I've heard a rumour of Gerrard moving to Chelsea but doubt it will happen before the end of the season if it happens at all.

Solskjaer possibly moving to Espanyol. a good move for him I think, as he's not likely to get a lot of first team football at Old Trafford anymore.

Mutu possibly becoming the coach of the Romanian national side.

Portsmouth and Man City both want Germemi on loan from Chelsea.

Everton are ready to make a £6 million bid for Scott Parker

Rangers and Newcastle both looking to sign Sunderland midfielder Julio Arca.

Valancia after Laurent Robert.

all I've seen so far

I'd like to see us sign Bischoff from Citeh permanently but I have my doubts as to whether it will happen.

Shame, cause him and Lescott potentially are an excellent partnership.

Solskjaer is fucked where did you hear that. Hes out for the season and I doubt we'll see him play again apart from maybe a honoury match for United.

Mutu is going to be Romania's assistant manager while hes banned

I can't see Solskjaer leaving, he's as loved as anyone has ever been at Old Trafford.

Normally I would agree with you, but sometimes dickheads have to learn. I was amused when I heard that Campo had to have surgery on his face, I was pleased he wasn't blinded from what happened, but the cunt had it coming, is is a complete twat.

Hes my favourite United player by a mile I dunno why, guess I must be a peadophile or something

WOOOOOOO 3-0 win. Craig Levein is already the man.

Bring on the Mackems :mad:

Bryan Robson will begin his reign as West Brom boss against familiar opposition if, as is expected, he is brought in as Gary Megson's successor.

The Baggies are tipped to confirm Robson's appointment today, giving the former England captain the opportunity to face previous employers Middlesbrough in his first game in charge on Sunday.

:lol::lol::lol:

I doubt he'll last 3 years

His connection with the club mean he'll probably be welcomed but his track record isn't the best - didn't do much at Bradford and given the financial backing he had at Boro maybe underachieved there, especially with relegation when they had the likes of Ravanelli and Juninho at his best.

Diouf is the whinest fucking dickhead in the league. Plus like when something doesnt go his way he like puts his bottom lip out and has this all like wtf look on his face as if the world is against him. Makes me hate him even more. He goes down like a pansy all the time and made me want to rip the projector screen off the wall when he plaed against us.

Plus hes fucking shite.

Ps why would we want Arca Mackem eh ain't he shit?

Oh Shut up, leave your whining till after we destroy you tomorrow.

WAYNE Rooney had an amazing escape yesterday after his car was rammed by a 23-TON truck.

The Manchester United ace was on his way to training when the lorry ploughed into his £40,000 Cadillac Escalade.

Burly Rooney, 19, clambered out of the 4x4 shocked but unscathed.

A friend of the England striker said he escaped serious injury because the car is a left-hand drive import — and the lorry smashed into its right side.

Yasser Arafat is on his death bed and wearing a Newcastle shirt, Spurs shorts and Rangers socks.

He wants to be buried in the Gazza strip.

:shifty:

The real question is, what the fuck was Rooney doing driving a 4x4 in the city

Chuh come on Dazz I mean you aren't no Fulham now are you ;)


:( yeah we are shit.

Yeah your hardly a <s>Sunderla</s> Middlesborough

LMAO Robson will get egged by the Boro Fans, No good useless twat.

:(. I reckon we can beat you but only if O'Brien and Elliott are replaced and we really raise our game above our ability as we have been capable of in the past. I hate Souness though, we'll probably be 1 down he'll sub 3 defenders off and put 3 forward players on and you'll go on to win 15-0 and then he'll defend his tactics like a complete moron.

Well, if we play like we did against Everton you MAY scrape a win. If we play like we do in Europe we will twonk you. I hope we play Cudicini, Gallas, Huth, Cavalho, Johnsen, Duff, Robben, Smertin, Cole, Lampard, Kezman.

But I doubt he will play Duff and Robben, or even Smertin and prolly not Kezman either, :(.

Kezman doesn't concern me at all. Titus Bramble marked him out of 2 UEFA Cup matches last year :lol:. Robben and Duff I am scared shitless of though, I hope they don't play.

You've probably got it won without kicking a ball, afterall our manager is Graeme Souness. He'll do his insane tactic of accomodating Bellamy, Kluivert and Shearer, whilst dropping Robert and playing Jenas in his place. Also if Robbie Elliott and O'Brien play it would be a humiliating defeat as opposed to just an ordinary one.

Bramble and O'Brien are both complete shite.

Kezman has scored in every round of the league cup we have been in this season.

Kezman booo

Robben yayyyy

Why Cudicini Dazz? Cech has been the premierships best keeper by a mile