NeilS

I was thinking the same, he has been involved in a lot of the summer promo stuff. I hope he doesn't leave, though you can never be certain.

He has and we were. We'll soon find out if there was anything to it. I personally think Frey will be Arsenal bound... Me too, although I did see that Arsenal were linked with a bid for Schwarzer of Fulham a couple of days ago so you never know.

That was shocking. Truely shocking. Amazed Sky were not allowed this World Cup at all. Obviously the games needed to be available terrestrially, but I'd have thought SKY would have tried harder to get the games aswell as BBC/ITV. I guess FIFA want all of the games available to everyone to watch. Otherwise Sky would have blown all other bids out of the water. I kind of agree with that view, as it is unfair to not have World Cup games available to everyone in the world with a TV.

eh? Well I saw it It is true, I heard on ITV HD channel the coverage cut out. The mother in law was complaining about that. Hehehe.

I remember watching the Liverpool v Everton cup match a year or so ago. last minute of extra time, ITV blunder into an ad break only to return back to the match to see Everton players rolling on the floor celebrating the last minute winner. After that the option of the BBC is the only one for me.

24million? Would you accept? As unwilling sellers then I'd accept no less than what we originally asked. Otherwise we're being bullied into selling our best players. I also say no to deals involving add ons. They have just agreed to pay a player over £200k per week for 5 years, they can pay us up front in my opinion.

To be fair I think some people are being a bit picky. You could put a negative spin on most businesses looking to sponsor shirts in the Prem. AIG bailed out by US taxpayers, Mansion - Online gambling addicts, Carlsberg - encouraging binge drinking etc. We have had far worse sponsorship deals over the years. We should be happy that we're not sponsored by Cows or 32Red anymore! If they just go with the FxPro logo as shown on the Virgin F1 Car, and pay us plenty of cash to do so, I will be happy.

Not just you, this is what I think as well.

I reckon it will be announced after the last game of the season. I don't think Randy will want to take the focus off Acorns until the season has ended.

Yeah I thought the same, they had 9 on target if I recall correctly. So they must have been fairly clinical with their finishing. I didn't bother watching MotD, for some reason I didn't feel compelled to. So I can't really comment on the game, other than to say the result made me feel very ashamed. We need to bounce back from this, and use this as motivation for the rest of the season. If not, then I fear another disappointing ending to the season.

This was pretty much what I was saying to my Dad at the weekend. If we get a reaction from the defeat and finish the season strongly he may stay. If we finish the season limply, then I wouldn't be suprised to see him go in the summer. I would disagree with the poor manager label being given to MON. I think he has done reasonably well so far, I do wonder however, if he has taken us as far as he can go.

but is kicking other teams off the pitch really the United way ? tbh I think one would have to be crazy to take the Man U job ..impossible act to follow and it's not the youngest team there at the moment so they are soon due for a major rebuild .. without Rooney this season would they be in contention ? Exactly my thought on that second bit, Tony. It's probably managerial suicide to try and succeed SAF. You are quite right, the next manager would be on a hiding to nothing having to follow SAF the most succesful manager of modern times. You would need an massive ego, with a large dose of self confidence. Step forward..... Jose Mourinho.

I think they have the momentum now, we are struggling to get wins wheras they are picking up some great results. If we keep on drawing games then they'll soon pass us. I said a month ago that Everton shouldn't be ruled out of the 4th place battle, and with the way teams above keep blowing hot and cold they might just sneak it.

This is pissing me off as well. They make it sound like Gabby is heading for the corner flag. If running directly at the goal means running straight between the goalposts then a lot of Red Cards have been wrongly issued over time, and the FA are going to have lots of appeals to handle in the future. I think they are taking the rule too literally, to make excuses for a blatant mistake/cheat by the ref.

warnocks slip was when they hit the post at the end of the 45th minute ... wasn't it ? Indeed. In fairness to him though the pitch was very slippery and in a poor condition. His tackle on Valencia in the first half when he caught up with him was brilliant. the pitch was absolutely dire! during Valencia's run that you refer to the ball kept jumping about a foot off the surface. not good enough really - then again they probly used it for american football/rugby league/car racing during the week :shock: When they interviewed Dion on SSN before the match they showed that they had a giant plastic tent covering the pitch. This was because of the torrential rain in London over the weekend. They also had blowers on it beforehand to try and keep it dry. I'm guessing this didn't have the desired effect.

Agreed, I tend to ignore the opinion of a referee who fails to send off a player until he issues him with his 3rd yellow. If he can't even get that simple rule correct, his view means nothing to me.

That is quite right, and if I remember correctly the Chelsea player was heading further away from goal than Gabby was at the time.

Gabby did have to change direction, mainly due to Vidic grabbing his shirt, but he still had a large view of the goal to aim at, until Vidic pulled him over his leg. They are trying to make it sound like he was heading for the corner flag. I don't understand how anyone can even consider defending this decision. It was outrageous, and Phil Dowd should never be allowed to referee a top game ever again! 85 Minutes against 10 men with a goal headstart. Even my pesimisitic self would fancy our chances with that. I feel robbed, that once again when one of the so called big 4 need a break it magically appears for them.

Does Carew enter the final year of his contract next season? If so it wouldn't suprise me to see him move on in the summer for a small fee (£3m). I'd love him to come good and bang a few goals in, but I don't think he has offered enough consistancy against the top teams to push us onto that next level.

I thought that we would be in for a tough game at Palace, and wasn't suprised to see how the game panned out over the 90 minutes. I'm relieved that we are still in the cup, as I believe we should be trying to win both cups. I'm quite suprised by some of the comments on here and other forums, as I didn't think we did too badly. I think that people perhaps thought it was going to be a relatively easy victory, and got frustrated when it didn't work out. Palace battled hard, and roughed up our players at every opportunity. How Lee didn't get sent off for the elbow I'll never know. If he trys that again at Villa Park, I would expect a straight red. I thought Brad was at fault for the first goal, and perhaps could have done better with the free kick. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the 2nd as it was a great strike and he may have been unsighted by the Palace forward on the edge of the box. There were some great balls in to the box, we didn't always get on the end of them though. I thought Ashley Young had won it at the death (from I think Downing's cross), but again just missed out the killer touch. We scored from two great set pieces, though they were almost identical deliveries. Heskey should have done better with a similar 1st half effort, but ballooned it over. You would have thought they would have wised up to that type of delivery. Luckily they didn't and Petrov capitalised near the end. All in all, relatively satisfied with a draw. We could have done without a replay, but at least we get another chance in the competition. Still some work to do before we can start planning the next round though as I expect another tough game at VP.

This kind of sums up my feelings as well. Yes I know they are suffering an injury crisis at the moment, but they are still seeming to pick up some very good results. Add to that, the fact the game is at OT, and the extra man they have on the pitch, plus Fergie time at the end if required. I'm not so confident as some of you guys.

I think Carragher retired from England duties during the McLaren reign.

Mabs and McGrath were different types of defender completely. Mabs was a blood and thunder defender, who wore his heart on his sleeve. Spurs legend but never as talented as Mcgrath. King is a different kettle of fish to Mabs, he has all the attributes that Mabs didn't snd had to make up for with sheer endevour. OK I'm glad we're agreeing on the Mabbutt thing, as my mate wasn't having any of it at the time. Which has led me to take everything Spurs supporters say with a pinch of salt. I don't think we'll ever be able to agree on King/McGrath. It must say something of McGrath, the idolisation he receives from all Villa and Ireland fans many years after he has finished playing the game. That combined with the fact he was a Central Defender, not the most glamorous/glorified position in the team. Will King be as fondly remembered ten years after he finishes playing?

If you would have watched McGrath week in week out you would fully appreciate the class of the player. Yes he had his low points, but when he was at his peak with us he was immense. His reading of the game was second to none, he was also a very skillful player with the ball. I remember little skillful backheels and flicks to safety. I used to have a conversation with my Spurs supporting friend, who used to claim Mabbutt was as good as McGrath. Did Mabbutt win Player of the year? No! I'll admit Mabbutt was a good defender, but nothing special like McGrath. Again Ledley King, decent defender, but still not in McGraths class I'm afraid.

I haven't seen the game so cannot comment on the performance, but it does sound like we were poor in the first half. A draw is not a bad result, I will not be too down hearted about that. I would have liked a win, but considering the form of the home team and tricky conditions then a draw is not all bad. A lot of teams will find it hard going away to Burnley this season.