[Bruvva]

Oh you're playing Sunderland, well you should win that one. As decent-ish a run of form that they're in, Arsenal should have too much for them.

That may be jinxing them actually. To make it fair, Liverpool will HAMMER Swansea tomorrow

[Bruvva]

Blimey, that Liverpool jinx nearly worked! 4th with THAT defence, got to chuckle.

Anyway, was idly thinking about the world cup the other day and was trying to come up with a starting 11 for England. Only got as far as this :

Sturridge
Oxlade Chamberlain -Rooney - Sterling
Wilshere-Carrick/Henderson/Gerrard
Cole--Jagielka-Cahill--Clyne? Flanagan?
Hart

I suspect Hodgson will arse things up by playing Cleverley and Welbeck though.

[Bonanzoid]

I highly doubt Nathaniel Clyne will make the World Cup, nor Jon Flanagan unfortunately. If Johnson's fit then I'm guessing he'll get the nod. At this rate too, Oxlade Chamberlain could replace Carrick/Wilshere in centre mid with Lallana ahead of them alongside Rooney and Sterling.

I wonder if people will suspect bias given the number of Liverpool names in your team, but I reckon they could be there on merit. If Sterling could improve his finishing, he'd be a very decent player.

[Bruvva]

Oh aye, OF COURSE there's bias in there, that's half the fun

Henderson SHOULD be there or thereabouts in the team though. I really like the lad.

Anyway, Champions' League...Why the surprise about Utd getting their arse handed to them? They're shit this season.

[Bonanzoid]

Some people may struggle to admit it, but Jordan Henderson has been fantastic this year. He's a very effective centre mid, and fits in to Rodger's way of playing perfectly. He may have an unorthodox run, but it's a run you'll always see him doing. Presses tirelessly. I'm a big fan.

I didn't see the United match, but listening to the pundits they were absolutely dreadful. Oh I'm enjoying their season a lot.

[The Deadly]

United are awful. I know they aren't a sacking club but they have to get rid of Moyes. He's just plain out of his depth and you can see he's lost the players.

[Bruvva]

Nah, they should keep him and let him finish his contract. I'm sure he can take Utd to the level they deserve to be at.

Also, wish the media would stop the knee jerk "English football in decline" thing that seems to be going on. So far in Europe, City lost due to a penalty (given for a foul outside the area) and a red card, the same for Arsenal (although this time it was a pen) and Utd are very much a team in transistion/terminal decline (depending on your bias). Of the two that beat City and Arsenal, they are VERY good (and funded by underhanded tax breaks but that's another discussion) so things are nowhere near as bleak as they're being painted.

[dimtimjim]

Nah, they should keep him and let him finish his contract. I'm sure he can take Utd to the level they deserve to be at.

[The Deadly]

I've been told by a contact that David Moyes has resigned.

[chrysostom]

@Deadly_ITK

I can't see Moyes resigning - would be incredibly tough to turn down the £££ from getting the sack.

[The Deadly]

A senior source at Old Trafford has told me that David Moyses' car park space has been repainted and it now reads "A Wenger".

[chrysostom]

As if he'd want to ruin his record of playing in the Champion's League Group stages every year for the last 16 years

[The Deadly]

Just imagine how physically ill you'd be if that did ever happen?

[chrysostom]

Still wouldn't hurt as much as it did Spurs fans when Sol Campbell signed for us on a free.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. *breathes*

[Bruvva]

IF Moyes goes and I'm far from convinced he will, it'll be at the end of the season. I think they'll give him until the end of next season after giving him a reasonable bundle'o'cash to spend on players over the summer. Missing out on one season of Champions League football won't hurt them overmuch, the money clubs earn for just existing in the premiership is vast (supposedly in excess of 60 million for finishing BOTTOM of the table after the new BT deal was signed) and the CL prize/tv money although large won't make that much of a difference to clubs in the top 6/7 in England.

[chrysostom]

Very dangerous game to play though.

Chelsea will only get better under Mourinho, Liverpool have moved so far forward from where they were last year, Arsenal seem *fingers crossed* to have stopped their regular implosions which have kept them so far from even being the second best team in England, and City are just a well oiled (pun intended) machine who continue to improve.

Missing out on the CL for 1 season isn't the end of the world for Utd financially, but with Moyes in charge and no CL football - the calibre of player they can attract puts them below Arsenal, City, Liverpool & Chelsea. This *could* mean that the aforementioned clubs will continue to improve while Utd play catch up, and missing out on the CL for a few years will hurt them financially (especially if they have the Europa league to faff about with).

Don't forget that CL TV money is also going up as part of BT's deal, so will likely improve massively as all CL clubs have 2 separate income sources from CL.

1 is the prize money:

Base fee for group stage: €8,600,000
Group match victory: €1,000,000
Group match draw: €500,000
Round of 16: €3,500,000
Quarter-finals: €3,900,000
Semi-finals: €4,900,000
Losing finalist: €6,500,000
Winning the Final: €10,500,000

The second is a "market pool" (worth a look at here - the amount of money which the CL TV rights are worth in Italy are absolutely staggering, Juve who went out in the quarters earned more than Bayern who won!), the distribution of which is determined by the value of the television market in each country.

Meaning BT's new deal will increase the TV revenue which goes to UK clubs by 125%, increasing the total value of being in the CL to around £60-70m.

If they keep Moyes next season and they start badly, he'll be gone VERY quickly. Their commercial deals are brilliant, but if they fall behind the 'new Top 4', the gulf in class could widen suddenly.

[Bruvva]

*Looks at the league table*

It's the hope that kills you, you know.

[The Deadly]

I'm not talking about football for at least a week after seeing what I saw earlier.

[Bruvva]

Oh dear me, Kidderminster, Kidderminster, Kidderminster...It takes a quite special performance to go from 1-0 up to losing 5-1.

[Bruvva]

Well, blimey, Suarez DID have a 40 million "buy out clause", it seems that such clauses are basically meaningless.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/mar/02/liverpool-john-henry-luis-suarez-clause

[chrysostom]

Couple of journos have said Henry might have his wording wrong there, but certainly seems a big step forwards for clubs who want to keep their players. A little unnerving for players though!

[chrysostom]

This, from Hull City [Tigers'] owners is quite hard to argue against:



"We've invested £75m and have come out of it with a club that is probably worth just under £75m. We can't afford to invest any more money & this might help us stand out from the crowd".

[dimtimjim]

good idea to move away from the 6 teams already suffixed as 'City' (should be 7 next season when mighty-mighty-Leicester get promoted)...

although, given it's Hull, I'd have gone with Hull Shitty. More apt.

[Bruvva]

Right, I'm going to say this now...Wayne Rooney should not be picked by England for the World Cup.

1 goal in the last four major tournaments. ONE.

Three hundred grand a week, he must have some very incriminating pictures of someone at Old Trafford.

[chrysostom]

Bit harsh to keep him out the squad, but I agree that he's not obviously bringing anything to the starting XI.

I'd like to see this team play



With subs:

Forster
Jones
Johnson
Barry (Yes, Barry)
Lallana
Rooney
Lambert

(Unused - Ruddy, Cole, Caulker, Welbeck, Rodriguez)