villaglint

I am nothing if not a careful reader

You can imagine some poor kid working as hard as possible, in all weathers, to improve himself, to realise his dream of being a professional football. Then, hailed as one of the brightest prospects of his generation, he's drafted to Small Heath I used to dream of being a Mitre Ultimax when I was a kid but then I found the booze and ended up as a 99p beach football. Oh the regrets...

Apparently David Moyes told Phil Neville the quality outside of the top teams in Spain is League 2 standard.

Anecdotally I would speculate that though Premier League doesnt have the quality it is much more competitive than the Spanish or German leagues. This probably has an effect as teams try to juggle squads (fitness, form etc) coming into the crunch period of the season.

Agreed he is basically the best playmaker in the world as well as best dribbler and best finisher

Does anyone know when the extra criteria dates will be announced ? (i.e beyond what they announced yesterday). I've had a bit of a knightmare in that most of the games I've been to this year were on my old mans booking history and we didnt attach it to me aswell (school boy error). I spoke to them yesterday and it can't be moved over after the match has finished. So for my own booking history I am on a measly 2! Thinking of going this Saturday which will be a big mission and piss the missus off but that would get me to three.

I think he did lose his way at RB a bit last year, seem to remember him having a stinker against Fulham away and then really struggled for a few consecutive games. As you say though he did also have excellent games, I think Hull away was his first game there and he was excellent. In general I'd say he has all the natural abilities required to be a very good attacking RB, his game awareness and positioning though is very poor. Which shouldnt be a surprise as it is not his natural position. Whether he can pick that up through coaching, game time and experience, we will see.

I do like him as he seems to effective in that he does create and score goals. I'd be reluctant about dropping Hutton though who has been pretty much our best player over the course of the season. I think the Utd, Spurs and City games I'd definitely want Hutton but I could be tempted to keep Leo for Swansea and re-evaluate. If nothing else you can't really drop someone after a performance like that. Also sends a great signal to everyone else in the squad. Miss a game and you may lose your place, come in and show what you've got and you'll keep your place.

Yeah 7 goals this year all together. Thought it was odd at the time that we sold him rather than loaned him. Proving to turn out this way, especially with Sherwood you would have fancied him to get some game time next year.

Excellent today his best performance for us in a long long time, it's really weird watching him pass it so often

Turned into Cafu for a day, good man a lot to like about this guy

Anyone know when we last won three in a row?

Amazing suddenly six points clear and turned around what was a dreadful goal difference situation.

Hilarious, we've played some great stuff but Sunderland are scarily bad!!

2 winners and 3 places so far, £96 up but sure I'll fritter that before the day is out

Agreed - though the first 11 has excellent balance they dont have the irrestibale strikeforce of some of the top teams. Probably explains to a certain extent why they seek to win some of these games by the odd goal rather than make sure of the win by continuing to press forward. ie they back their midfield and defensive organisation to be better than most teams and enough to protect any lead they manage to fashion.

I think yes and no to your post there V4Europe. Yes - the league is poor in terms of quality a lot of the time. Villa being a great example that we have survived these last few years despite being a woeful woeful football team. I also think likes of City and LIverpool are way off competing with the best in Europe. Arsenal have the quality but not the mentality I think this comes from Wenger. Chelsea I do believe have the quality to go toe to toe with any of the big boys. However they didnt have the killer instinct last night to kill it off, that came from Mourinho and his tentative approach to two legged games, he's lost a lot like that in the past and will do in the future. It has also worked for him the odd time of course !!

What a masterclass of centre midfield play that was from Verratti and Motta last night. A man down and up against Fabregas, Matic and Ramires and these two kept their composure (even upped it) and absolutley dominated the game. Big shout to Pistore who was just slightly below these two in my eyes. Matuidi barely had a kick in the second half and Cavani seemed to have the touch of Gabby for some reason. It was a real pleasure to watch three guys outplay such a big name opposition pretty much on their own.

Tony not sure if you've already booked as this is a bit old but I've been to Kracow and Warsaw before so to add my two pence. I'd definitely go back to Kracow but wouldn't be hurrying back to Warsaw. It's basically one massive admittedly fairly impressive building and other than that a fairly sterile communist city. The building itself isn't a huge amount to look at inside, there are some nice gardens etc dotted around but I was left feeling pretty uninspired whereas Kracow was tons of fun and somewhere I've been a few times now, more through other people's choice than mine. Anyway seeing as you seem to be visiting the entire planet at some point in your life you may as well knock Warsaw off the list but personally I wouldn't go out of your way

But as nobody else has bought him I don't think Utd have any say in it now

My take on Top Gear is that I enjoyed it when it was a decent car programme that was occassionally funny in their off the cuff moments. It changed a lot for me when they actively started trying to write the funny stuff and all the spontaneity went out of the window. It was so clunky as to be cring worthy and as they have aged it has become pretty embarresing in my eyes. However for the real car die hards it is still clearly the main show to watch which is great each to their own and all that.

Just said something very similar to a colleague Risso. He is a classic case of someone who has created a caricature and then come to believe it, blurred lines and all that.

Meyer has been very very good tonight, 19yrs old and putting in that kind of performance away at Madrid I'm impressed

I'm with you on the give him time before judging but he has never, or will ever, have the pace that Hazard was born with

Any ideas when we know which day we will be playing on?