Grounded Wingman

You can't judge the table until after 38 games, sadly, because I'd really like to celebrate Liverpool being champions. Having said that, I'd be surprised if Villa don't make the top 6.

The expansion will make the group stages of the final's tournament worse, much like it is at the World Cup, because they'll seed it so you don't get a group with 4 top teams in it (or 4 crap teams). They shouldn't seed it though, it would be way more fun. Group A: Italy, France, Germany, England Group B: Scotland, Latvia, Finland, Slovakia Group B is box office.

I think it's a good draw for Liverpool because we always seem to play better against bigger name teams. I'm confident of progress.

The thing about Mascherano is that, if he plays, the fullbacks will be more likely to push forward and offer width, because there is the security of having Mascherano back covering. The team also looks better when Babel and El Zhar have been on the pitch, as opposed to Kuyt and Benayoun (I thought Benayoun was dreadful tonight - no that anyone was exactly magnificent, but Benayoun was the worst of the lot).

Rumour is that Rangers plan to use him more as a central defender than a midfielder.

Rangers will struggle to keep the squad happy. If they don't sell, and they play 4-4-2 (no need for European 4-5-1's) then they have to select 2 from Ferguson, Davis, Mendes, Thompson and Hemdani in the centre midfield and 2 from Darcheville, Cousin, Miller, Velicka and Boyd up front. They probably won't pick Boyd because, well, why would they pick their best goalscorer every week. That would be stupid.

The interesting thing is that Quaresma comes out of the interview looking quite good. The way he dealt with the journalist's questions does him credit. If anyone thought he was a whiny little bitch then they could read that interview and see that is not the case. He comes across as an opinionated guy but a polite one. I am also impressed that he had enough strength in his own convictions to turn down Liverpool because they wanted to change the way he played.

Not necessarily, because spitting can cause you to salivate more.

"Professional footballers spit all the time, so their mouth's will be all slavery." That is not absurd.

Maybe they're doing it because the last time they threatened to report someone they got £10m, from Roman Abramovich, to sweep it under the rug.

Isn't £3.5 million a bit (or a lot) too much? No wonder teams go abroad for players when it costs £3m plus for players like Ameobi and Earnshaw.

Livingston weren't elected into the league. They just bought over Meadowbank Thistle and relocated to Livingston. As a Saintees fan, who had to suffer James Grady's last minute goal sending Gretna into the SPL on the last day of the 2006-07 season, I would just like to say to Gretna: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" That is all.

Arsenal Whinger.

I think you can set it, on the player status screen, that any offer under a certain amount is automatically rejected.

It is if Thaksin had bet a few million of his 'acquired' funds on Boro winning 8-1.

I expect Liverpool to be signing wingers and fullbacks this summer. I also think that if Barry arrives it will be to replace Alonso. We should get more for Alonso than we will pay for Barry, and Barry is a good signing, especially if FIFA bring in the 6 plus 5 rule in a couple of years.

If a board takeover was completed on the day after he was hired then he could be fired.

I think there's an application for cm01/02 that allows you to change the games start date, so you can get the update and then set the game to start in summer 2007 or 2008.

1. Diego Maradona 2. Zinedine Zidane 3. Luis Figo 4. Frank Rijkaard 5. Lothar Matthaus 6. Peter Schmeichel 7. Raul 8. Gheorghe Hagi 9. Javier Zanetti 10. Fat Ronaldo

Hire a top notch assistant manager (Mourinho might even take an offer, but he will be stolen from you as soon as a good job comes up), take control of all teams and go on holiday for 1 day whenever the first team or reserves have a match. Make your youth signings early on in the summer and then go on holiday until the start of the season, giving your assistant permission to sell whoever he likes and sign players from your shortlist.

I was going to ask similar earlier. I couldn't work out which team he was actually playing as. I thought he might be using a "Millwall" formation that he'd used previously, or might actually be Millwall. How the hell he got those players though (without the editor) is beyond me.

McGhee would be too much of a knee jerk appointment. He's had a good 6 months in charge of Motherwell, but he has hardly set the heather alight at any of his other clubs, and I bet that he (like Smith and McLeish) would leave the Scotland post at the first sign of a Premier job. Burley is an okay manager but, again, nothing outstanding. Burns has been out of the management game for a while and would almost be a sympathy choice, given that he didn't get interviewed the last time or when Vogts left. Souness is a bastard, but he has managed at the top level pretty recently, has foreign experience and a small degree of success. Souness is probably the best of a bad bunch. Craig Levein would have been a better option than all of them.