"Teams Patrice Evra Hasn't Lied to the FA About" - OTT 20 [R]

USA looked ok

 

More trouble in Italy. I wonder how deep it goes. Have these types of allegations ever been reported in the English game? Why does Italy just seem so corrupt politically and football wise?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18232319

Joe McGinnis' book The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro is a good read about this sort of thing. I think usscouse had a sig line from that book at one point.

 

There is an old, old Italian joke:

Two Italians walk into a bar. The one offers the other to buy him a drink.

 

Plastics seems to have landed hazard... Not good.

 

Meh. He was always going to end up at a rival and our rivals were always going to strengthen. It's "not good" in the sense that rain in Manchester is not good. You'd do your nut in if you worried about it too much.

 

This years Romeu

 

But the media told us we had first right of refusal!*

*I don't know if they actually did.

 

Lukaku, anyone? Over-hyped on tw@tter, so far.

 

Uh, Hazard's the real deal. Probably could be one of the top 5 or 6 players in the world. Diva on the twitter mess, but he's still a good young player.

 

Hasn't Hazard been the best player in Ligue 1 for the last couple of years?

 

2. Doesn't always mean a ton, but he can be special. Better Chelsea than either Manchester clubs, but he's a brilliant player.

 

I think he was always going to Chelsea, he was just waiting to see whether or not they would qualify for the Champions League. If they hadn't, he would have gone to one of the Manchester clubs, who were the backup plan.

The way he went about his choice made him look bad to me, though.

 

In terms of filling needs in a squad, he was probably a better fit at ManU - he would've either been an upgrade on the left wing or someone who could run at defenses from central midfield or the hole, both glaring needs.

So yeah, small consolation. I guess that means full on recruitment of Kagawa from the Mancunians.

Agreed.

 

He's an upgrade for any of the 3 clubs with a realistic shot.

I do think the CL was the kicker. There are also a few of his Belgian friends there.

 

Yeah, he should have tweeted, "******** it, I'm going to Chelsea."

 

Pretty much a done deal from what I've read.

 

I was hoping that we would have made a swoop for him, just like I was hoping we'd do the same for Mata. But it seems the owners are not making the big plays in the transfer market (maybe not yet at least).

Worried? Heh. Nah. It's just football mate.

 

Yeah, and look what Joe Cole is doing there, he'd even delude into thinking he can still do the job at Liverpool. Maybe Hazard is the mutt's nuts but I remain to be convinced that this is not a hubristic job.

 

Without CL football, the Hazards won't end up here.

 

Or for that Mata, Hulk or M'Vila, if I could Hazard a guess. It's a Messi situation.

 

It is obviously much harder to do without CL football. But the same argument could have been made for City back when they got bought by the Arabs. Yet, here we are today with City not only having top talent but an excess amount of it.

The point is, you have to start from somewhere. And given our current situation, we need to devise a strategy to overcome such hurdles. That is something I addressed elsewhere.

 

Point taken. Endless fortune does provide an exception to every rule. How do you think Mitt Romney ended up nominee for President.

 

Though it's a tad bit easier without UEFA's FFP Rule - you tell Yaya that he'll miss CL this year but he gets 240,000 a year.

 

Yeah, you can get there if you want to give Gareth Barry 160k a week.

 

LOL