Demitri_C

I can’t see them playing Toure at CB when he did such a good job in CM last night. Abidal has played at CB for France and Lyon before so seems the logical one unless they have a player we don’t know about or if Marquez makes a miraculous recovery. Hleb wouldn’t take Toure’s place if it did happen anyway… Keita or Busquets are his replacements for the DM position.

i think it did trent, he was talking to teh ref in German that helped in taht decison

drogba is going o have a field day with no puyol or marquez. who the hell they going to have playing cb? also barce have a game against real madrid this weekend. i think chelsea are going to spank them

warnock is a legend

Wolves not as good as Sheffield United, insists Warnock

Former Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock, right, stands between Kevin Blackwell’s Blades and a possible return to the Premier League on Sunday Picture: Bruce Rollinson.

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28 April 2009

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WHEN the fixture list for the Championship was published last summer, the potential significance of a final day meeting between Neil Warnock's Crystal Palace and Sheffield United was not lost on anyone.

Not only was the Eagles manager a lifelong Blades fan, but he had also had a well-publicised fall-out with the current incumbent at Bramall Lane following Kevin Blackwell's acrimonious switch to Leeds United in 2003.

Throw in the likelihood that both Palace, losing semi-finalists last season after a storming run in the final weeks, and a newly-revitalised United would be among the main challengers for promotion and it was clear even last June just how important the Selhurst Park meeting could be.

Nearly 10 months later, however, any hope of a last day duel between two promotion chasers has been banished with it being just the Yorkshire side who go into Sunday's game looking to claim a victory that could seal a return to the Premier League.

Palace, sitting 14th after an injury-hit campaign, may not have anything other than pride to play for but, with Warnock in the home dugout, no-one in the United camp is expecting anything but a tough afternoon.

The club's longest-serving player, Nick Montgomery, articulated this better than anyone after Saturday's crucial win at home to Swansea City when he said: "Neil will be desperate to win and, even with his history at Sheffield United, he will want to put up a good fight."

That 'history' includes watching his first game at Bramall Lane as a fresh-faced schoolboy before going on to manage his beloved club for eight years until 2007.

However, come 1.15pm on Sunday when his side kick off in front of the live Sky cameras, Warnock insists his only concern will be ensuring the Eagles end the campaign on a high.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Post from London, the former United manager said: "I saw Monty's comments after the Swansea game and, of course, he is right that I want to win the game. It doesn't matter who we are playing, I want to win every game.

"Kevin wouldn't accept any favours, anyway, because he will believe – as I have done all season – that he has the best squad in the Championship and they should be going up automatically.

"I honestly did not think it would come down to this game as I thought Sheffield United would be up by now. They have a better squad than Wolves so all credit to Mick McCarthy because his squad is not as good as Sheffield United's."

Whether Warnock's last comment marked the official start of the mind games between the two managers ahead of Sunday afternoon remains to be seen.

But what is not in doubt is the affection that Warnock still has for the club he managed until a couple of days after relegation from the Premier League had been confirmed in 2007.

He said: "I was hoping they would be up by now but it is not to be. They have had a couple of stumbles recently against Nottingham Forest and Burnley so it is now all down to the final day.

"If Sheffield United bring their best game to the table (on Sunday) then they will beat us. We are without a few of our key players as I allowed the likes of Shaun Derry and Sean Scannell to undergo operations to make sure they are ready for the start of next season.

"It means we have had to give a few more kids a chance, though it will be difficult to do that against Sheffield United."

The Blades could be backed by a 6,000 strong travelling army of fans in south London after Palace yesterday agreed to release an additional allocation of tickets. The initial batch of 3,000 sold out and a further 2,000 tickets will go on sale from 8am today.

United also have an option on a further 1,000 tickets.

Demand is expected to be high and the Blades seem certain to be backed by their largest following of the season outside South Yorkshire.

Warnock added: "The club asked me if they should release any more tickets to the Blades fans and I said 'yes' straight away.

"They could have double what most other clubs bring here and I think the club wanted to know if allowing so many would potentially cause problems.

"But I said that was not a problem as I know what those fans are like."

Clicky!

looks like palace are resting their players and giving sheff united more tickets to assist with their promotion!

tahts fair enough trent but why did he book yaya toure for doing it once and ballack was doing ite very time and didnt get booked? why wasn't he sent off?

like i said was very negative i think an away goal would have been crucial could cost them now. barce defesnively were poor yesterday they should have taken advantage

have a feeling phillips will get winner for them

if they dont come up they are in big trouble all their best players will leave the likes of mcfadden, larsson. please let it happen!

What a bore fest that was. Such negative football from Chelsea. I understand they want to keep a clean sheet but going forward they offered nothing. They should have been aiming for an away goal, now they have to prevent barce from scoring again and if they do they need to score twice. iF drogba had scored that would have been robbery.

Thought eto’ and messi were quite poor less night. Also feel Ballack was influencing the German ref with some of his decisions. He should have been sent off. Also feel Barce should have had a penalty.

Chelsea to win at bridge 2-0 and then win the CL league

howard webb is ref so expect a big decison to go the blosers way which prevents tehm from losing.

i think blose will go up regardless

i fancy chelsea to score tonight. 1-1 draw think they will shock barcelona

tomorrows game will be tough to predict but going for 2-0 united win

it was so funny when preston scored the winner they showed brady and werewolf and they were screaming, (brady looked like she was getting it from behind) they showe dit on championship i hope someone can upload it, its hilarous

i dont miss the derbys the way we destroyed tem 5-1 was a perfect end to their miserable stay in the premier league

i can see them beaing reading, reading are poor, off form.

i dont think sheff united will win either

did anyone see the championship this morning? it was hilarous some stupid bloser ran on the pitch and cameron jerome did a slide tackle on him and he went flying down

circus a complete circus

all teh teams in this league are bottlers barring wolves. everytime blose dropped points none of the sodes around them would take advantage of it. sheff united could only draw 0-0 against 10 man forest while blose drew with plymouth. its been like taht all season. they are definately coming up

and i predict reading will win play offs

At the moment I'd say Lerner has performed in excess of what I hoped for from him, with O'Neill meeting expectations, no more and no less, and showing disturbing signs of being on a severe downhill slope.

sorry riss i dont mean to keep picking your quotes out but you bring up some interesting debates. i can't agree with that statement simply because i would say a severe downhill slope was when dol was here after his second and 3rd season we slided so badly and we are no where near that position. ok we have imploded lately and its ashame we have messed up for CL but i dont think we are in that bad a position as you describe.

the future is still looking good for us

without a shadow of a doubt he should stay

time to go me thinks

i dont want these scumbags up. shame reading are bottling it at the mo

Sadly, Peter doesn’t make it but at lunch Rick and I fantasise, as you do

animal she is

i think ive run out of alughter i really have, de la cruz was bad enough when we signed him but now he is 35 he is only gonna get worse

explains why that kid is a bloser look at his mum a typical chav, like all their fans

a complete laughing stock and to add insult to injury the sky blose did the double over them. embarassing

i love nandoes however its gone downhill. back in the day was cheaper and you use to get huge portions now, its more expensive and portions are smaller, so i smply ahve cut down going as i feel its a rip off even though its delicous

so more embarrassment for the blosers, frirstly thwy go and sign the clumsy traoe who is left footed and shocking i might add, and then brady gets re-arrested more fun at the sty!

if mon ever left he would be who i wanted to replace him.

arrogant but he is arguably one of the ebst managers around. i have abd feeling he will end up at man citeh

i put a pound on and won |£100

i like the look of those two from hamburg espically ollic. hopefully he impressed mon and he makes a bid. jol doesnt sound confident of keeping him

11 people voted for heskey? :shock: