Grounded Wingman

Lol, match isn't even over yet and City fans are saying Mancini OUT.

Bunch of wankers the lot of 'em.

Isn't this Man City's highest ever Premier League finish too? Fickle, fickle fans.

But it's all about the trajectory of the results though, isn't it? I expect I'll see Garry Cook's mug on my television, spouting more drivel about a sacked manager, soon enough.

Football:

Liverpool - my main team. I have followed them since I was 8 and my gran came back from a holiday in Spain and gave me a Liverpool shirt (I've never asked her why she bought an English club shirt and not a Spanish one).

St Johnstone - born in Perth, lived close to Perth for 30 years. Saints are my home town team and I was a season ticket holder for a number of years (it's not as if I could afford to go to Anfield every other week).

Norwich - Since I moved last year they are my local team.

Barcelona - the history, the style, the deal with UNICEF. Pure class.

Tennis: For years it was Pat Rafter. These days it's Andy Murray.

Snooker: Back in the 80's it was Cliff Thorburn. Now it's John Higgins.

For US Sport I don't really follow much, but have 2 teams I have a soft spot for thanks to EA Sports games in the 90's. The first is Phoenix Suns from NBA Live (Charles Barkley), and I remember Hakeem Olajuwon from Houston Rockets too. The other is Kansas City Chiefs from John Madden.

My football game playing history is as follows:

Atari XE - Emlyn Hughes Soccer, which was awesome. There was also a built in game just called Soccer, which was ridiculously addictive but a turn was done in stages (I remember my brother telling me that the players turned like a London bus).

I had a few football games on my ZX Spectrum but the only one that I really loved was Footballer of the Year. You played as 1 player and didn't play a full game, you just got 1 to 4 chances (decided at random apparently) to score with 2 defenders coming at you and a keeper in the sticks. I also remember a game called Soccer Sixes - six a side and Steve Nicol was legendary.

My Atari ST was where I formed my love for Championship Manager (now Football Manager) including CM Italia. My brother was more of a Premier Manager fan because he liked sorting the sponsorship, ticket prices etc. I also remember being vilified because I preferred Kick Off 2 to Sensible Soccer, but Sensi was too easy to play. I remember making a bet with one of my friends that I could turn the TV screen off and still beat the computer. Final score was 8-3 to me. Player Manager was a spin off of Kick Off 2, where you performed a managerial role and could also play as either just yourself (player manager) or the whole team. Final Whistle was a super little add on to Kick Off 2 as well - bringing in European teams and competitions.

Console wise I remember Libero Grande, Euro 96 (where it was incredibly difficult to score) and Worldwide Soccer on the Sega Saturn, as well as your FIFA's and Pro Evo's.

Babel could figure out why he wasn't getting in the squad, the fact that Riera seemingly can't says it all.

Didn't Babel have a talk with Benitez about what he needed to do to get in the team?

My guess is that Rafa's answer was not "Just bitch and whine on a Spanish radio program".

I think the Premier League rules state that all the club's prior games that season are voided if they goes to the wall, so it'll be results based on the 19 teams in the league.

The Premier League won't fund Portsmouth for 2 reasons.

1. It sets a dangerous precedent and every club would be wanting them to pony up and cover debts.

2. It is an incredibly egotistical, arrogant and self-righteous group. It would be tantamount to admitting they made mistakes in how they set up and conduct the "fit and proper persons" test and the other regulations they have. I can't imagine perfect Premier League admitting they have made mistakes.

Surely Portsmouth can't get a takeover through in a week (I thought any prospective owners would need 2 weeks due diligence anyway) so I reckon it's either liquidation or administration for them.

Anybody got any ideas how I can get my successful tackles percentage up? It's usually between 50-65%, which is pretty low for a team aiming for the CL. Would it be down to strength/aggression? Looking at the matches it seemed my team was closing down too much so I set closing down to default and it didn't make much difference. Putting tackling to harder would just seem to get me more bookings as well.

To get your tackle success rate up you should probably go to easy tackling - that way players will only go in when they feel they are certain to win the ball. If you have a few players on hard tackling (especially in midfield) then it stands to reason that they will lose out a decent amount of the the time in 50/50's and they will also be going in for tackles where the opposition are favourite to win the ball.

Is this the only way to do it? There's no "let assistant handle friendlies" or smth, like in previous games?

I think you need to click on the team name drop down, and team options/team settings at the bottom is where you set can ask your assistant to take charge of friendlies.

Ignoring our defense which is brutal, we should be top 4. But yeah our defense drops us down to 6th which is why this is so ridicilious unless you place 100% of the blame on Hughes for the piss poor defense.

Should? Nobody should be top 4. You have to earn it and Man City have earned nothing.

Plus, shouldn't Hughes get the blame for the piss poor defence? He spent £40M on Toure and Lescott - neither of whom were ever any fan-dabi-dozi shakes defensively, and let Richard Dunne leave - who has been superb at Villa.

I was listening online, and it's quite concerning that so many people were texting in saying that the X Factor kid deserved it because he worked hard. I'm not sure quite how winning a glorified talent show gives you any right to anything other than the top prize for said talent show, and is doing a couple of covers really hard work? Maybe if the dude had written his own song, he'd be a little more deserving.

Well, come on, it's not as if Rage maintaining their career is as difficult as being picked off the street and doing karaoke for 4 months.

Andy Goram

I thought I'd fix this for you, as everyone knows there is only 2 Andy Goram's (greatest football chant ever!!!!)

Mancini isn't the answer. His success was handed to him at Inter because of the match fixing scandal, and I don't see that he brings anything other than being a more high profile global name for attracting players.

Worrying times at Liverpool, I'm guessing it'll be a quiet January in the transfer market, but Rafa is bulletproof - it would cost Harry and Lloyd £20M+ to get rid of him and his staff, which I doubt they can afford.

Fernando Redondo, Alan Hansen and Steve Nicol all got less than 30 caps for their countries.

Hansen is especially weird, given that he was arguably the best centre back in Britain for a number of years.

Theo Snelders - who was awesome for years at Aberdeen in the late 80's/early 90's only got 1 cap for Holland and Pepe Reina, who is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, has only got 19 caps for Spain.

Like the German arguement.. he's up against Casillas.

I know, but this is a discussion about the best footballer who was never a regular for his country. It doesn't say that they had to be deserving of a place in the team.

Fernando Redondo, Alan Hansen and Steve Nicol all got less than 30 caps for their countries.

Hansen is especially weird, given that he was arguably the best centre back in Britain for a number of years.

Theo Snelders - who was awesome for years at Aberdeen in the late 80's/early 90's only got 1 cap for Holland and Pepe Reina, who is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, has only got 19 caps for Spain.

I'm fucking about with the editor. I'm currently entertaining the idea of removing Portsmouth and creating a new team in their place in some sort of MK Dons/Wimbeldon scenario. At the moment thinking up names for this new team, which I shall probably base in Portsmouth and I'm currently toying with the idea of the name Portsmouth Warriors

FC Portsmouth of Portsmouth.

The best CV in football belongs to Alex Ferguson - decades of success at both Aberdeen and Man Utd.

Current players who have represented the most big clubs is a difficult question.

Figo would have been in with a shout before retiring. A lot of the Ajax team from the early 90's have been round the grounds with 3 or 4 big teams too.

Okay, I have to admit seeing picture was a bit like seeing your old girlfriend going out with a guy you don't like.

If your girlfriend kept saying she was going to marry you (back when she was still hot), then fucked off with a Spanish bloke for a year, then started dating a fat Geordie and really let herself go, before going out with the guy you don't like.

Pfft, so much ignorance about the awesomeness of the mighty Saints of Perth.

1: St Johnstone

2: Celtic

3: Rangers

4: Aberdeen

5: Hibs

6: Hearts

7: Dundee Utd

8: Motherwell

9: Hamilton

10: Kilmarnock

11: St Mirren

12: Falkirk

Hopefully McInnes stays as I'm fed up of losing managers to better things. In all seriousness I'd expect Saints to be flirting with getting into the top 6, rather than worrying about relegation.

I fancy Celtic to topple Rangers, especially if they balls up the Chamions League qualifiers and can concentrate on the SPL from September.

Hearts finally have a decent man in charge, so he'll be sacked by September. Will be interested to see how McGhee and Hughes do, and how United replace Zaluska. Good season ahead I reckon.

Andy Murray is a knob. He's a winner and we can't be having that. We'd rather cheer on the plucky losers.

I didn't know you were Scottish

When do the home-grown regulations come in? I would think that Liverpool are a bit short on that front (from the first team squad I think it's only Gerrard, Carragher and, in a year, Insua), which will mean more English developed players will need to be signed, unless there are players waiting to come through the ranks.

So Real's midfield and attack is going to be (I guess):

Diarra - Gago as DM's

Ronaldo - Kaka - Robben

Huntelaar

This leaves out fuckin' Van der Vaart and Sneijder, two players who should be playing in the starting line-up for a world class team. They are now basically for the taking, it's insane. Also, I was wondering if Real really buy Silva from Valencia, then Robben can go to Man Utd as Ronaldo's replacement maybe?

There full team will be more like:

								   Casillas


Ramos			  Garay					 Pepe			New Left Back


							New Central Midfielder


			 Ronaldo				  Kaka				Sneijer/Robben/Van der Vaart


							Villa				  Huntelaar

I would reckon Raul will still be a first teamer, unless Perez and/or Pellegrini wants to get lynched by Madrid fans.

"It will be very difficult to fill the void that will be left by Kak, a shining example of professionalism, commitment and professionalism.

Remember folks, this guy is a professional.

He shouldn't be wearing white then.

I'd love us to sign Trezeguet If our summer signings consisted of Tuncay, Distin, Trezeguet and Lavezzi I'd be ecstatic, with Babel, Dossena and Voronin all going. Unfortunately I don't see clubs wanting to sell their players for some loose change and party size boxes of smarties.

That's a bit overkill on the striker front, considering it'll only be 1 up front unless Benitez either changes system or reverts to heavy rotation. One decent striker, who is happy to play backup, is a must, any more and there is danger of another Robbie Keane situation.

Having said that, it's catch 22. If the only striker signed is Tuncay, and Torres gets injured then we are fucked. If a big name striker signs and doesn't play he'll be crying about it (and being 'misquoted') within a few months.

Somebody said the me the other day that they'd love to see Owen back, and then they spat the dummy when I said that Owen is a little shit and I'd rather have Crouch back.

I don't get Valencia at all. Earlier this week their president resigned and said that Villa and Silva may go but they're now worth loads more than what they were valued last year.

Valencia are in £300m+ debt (with no Billionaire backer to allow this to run smoothly), they have struggled to pay player wages this year, they own two stadiums and two training grounds and can't sell either of them until the 'new' ones have been completely built, they are technically owned by a bank after they seized control of the club after lack of repayments.

How the hell can these players be magically worth more? How can they turn down £30m+ bids if these players wages alone would cripple the club even moreso?

It seems like Valencia want their two biggest players to leave and magically cure all their financial problems, whilst the rest of the world realise that unless Valencia consistently pay these players their wages they could sue the club and/or leave on frees.

The big plus for Valencia is that Villa and Silva have both said that they are happy to stay (as has Albiol). This gives the club a bit of negotiating strength because if the players don't spit the dummy then the club can pretty much still name their price, regardless of their financial situation.

"For the good old American life. For the money, for the glory and for the fun.....mostly for the money" Bandit, Smokey and the Bandit

"I am your father" - James Earl Jones/Dave Prowse - Empire Strikes Back.