VillaChris

Richards. :? I would've had Beckham in tbh but not both Bellamy and Giggs. They'll be plenty of young welsh in the squad as it is. Third overage would've been either Chris Brunt or Stephen Fletcher. Will there be any Northern Irish in the squad now as Johnny Evans is over 23 isn't he? And is it me or is an 18 man squad a bit light for what could be 6 games if you get to the final. A few injuries and suspensions and you're down to picking the same 11, surely it should be 23 like the main tournaments?

Richards. :? I would've had Beckham in tbh but not both Bellamy and Giggs. They'll be plenty of young welsh in the squad as it is. Third overage would've been either Chris Brunt or Stephen Fletcher. Will there be any Northern Irish in the squad now as Johnny Evans is over 23 isn't he? And is it me or is an 18 man squad a bit light for what could be 6 games if you get to the final. A few injuries and suspensions and you're down to picking the same 11, surely it should be 23 like the main tournaments?

In the league they didn't improve - they got worse: their average points-per-game declined under the new manager. This makes a nonsense of your claim that "If Di Matteo was there from the start of the season, Chelsea would of been higher then 6th" In fairness Di Matteo started resting players from April in preparation for the two cup finals. AVB ended his reign away from home by drawing 0-0 at Norwich, 1-1 at Swansea and losing at Everton and WBA. Di Matteo's short spell included away games at Arsenal, Liverpool and Man. City so fair to say AVB would've struggled to win those games aswell. That's not to say I think AVB is a bad manager but I believe Spurs are in for a year or two of transition while Levy turns his attentions to getting the new stadium up and running so AVB will struggle to replicate what Redknapp's been doing the last few seasons.

Glyfi Sigurdsson looks like he's going Spurs. :shock: You would've thought he would be following Rodgers to Liverpool, could still happen I suppose.

I think it was the Pirlo penalty psyched England out, Young look petrified and Cole is usually solid penalty taker like you said Yeah that's true Zat. Pirlo chipping it majestically would've certainly put a bit of doubt back in the England players and so it proved.

0-0 against Algeria anyone? Easy to forget how awful England were in the last world cup.

Well Parker was off the pitch so couldn't take one and I get the feeling Walcott bottled his and was probably behind the bloke who says the penalties from the dutch players in that advert. Cole is usually a good penalty taker. He's scored both times in the Chelsea champions league final shoot outs and also for England in the Portugal 2004 penalties. Just Buffon psyched him out on this occasion.

He had a good start to last season and then it all went downhill after the drink driving. Bit question mark for me, are the attitude and application there?

He scored a nice goal against them last time they played in a semi final...

Because the FA spent a billion pounds on a shiny new stadium instead of coaching at grassroots level. Only 2,769 English coaches hold Uefa's B, A and Pro badges. Spain has 23,995, Italy 29,420 and Germany 34,790 (Guardian 2010). Scholes is like Pirlo but is 37 and was played out on the left when he was available for England. Only real player who could've perform the same sort of role would be Carrick with Wilshere who will be good again not available.

Pirlo's class penalty changed the momentum in that shoot out imo. Young was always going to miss his, should've just hit his penalty in the corner he always did for us as Buffon went the other way.

Balotelli won't miss his, he's ice cool when he takes them for City. Buffon saves more penalties than Hart does.

Buffon should be well rested for this penalty shoot out....he's been reading the Gazetta dello sport betting section for the last hour.

Di Natale not being used?! Methinks Prandelli has a bet on England going through in extra time here!

England central two are fcuked, even more of a surprise Milner was taken off.

Cassano needs to be hooked, he's been bleeding awful this game. If Di Natale comes on, he;ll finish off one of these chances. Good to see Roy being proactive again, Walcott and Carroll on.

Does Dos Santos have a ten year contract at Spurs or something? He signed in 2008 so it must be running out sooner or later... From memory he didn't do much on loan at Ipswich.

Bicks, stop talking about Delphy, you do realise this is the Makoun thread? :winkold:

Comedians I've seen live John Bishop- Excellent Rhod Gilbert- Good Milton Jones- Good Paddy McGuiness- Nah. Frankie Boyle- O.k for first half then the offensive ometer kicks in! Comedians I'd like to see in the next few years as I also like: Simon Amstell Miles Jupp Dave Gorman Greg Davies The mainstream ones like Carr, Russell Howard, Lee Evans etc I just don't see the attraction. The worst imo is that awful Lee Nelson character, total garbage.

Is he well down the pecking order? If we play 3 in there, the options are Herd, Clark, Ireland, Bannan, Gardner, Delph, Makoun. Clark could easily play at centre back, Ireland might not be here and I'd have him ahead of Delph.

Di Natale is class. I'd start him ahead of Cassano tbh.

Looking forward to Italy England....both teams are kind of inbetween generations if you like, a mix of young and old players. Di Natale and Balo will cause the England back 4 problems but am I the only one who thinks their centre half Chellini is very overrated? For me he ball watches and struggles against the high ball frequently so looking forward to see how he does against the England strikers.

Just me who'd prefer Corluka?

Same for me really.

On the long contract.... 5 years did seem way OTT but remember we gave Friedel a 3 year deal thinking he'd be ready to retire at the end of it so maybe the board thought it was better to offer one long one on just one wage rather than have to offer another one if Given's still able to play in 3 years?