Sorry but Etuhu is an abysmal footballer. Use of the ball is terrible.

It's an absolutely vulgar comparison and Blatter should apologise immediately.

As I've said before, how many chemists are going to be happy stocking this stuff and having 20 smackheads queueing in their shop, probably helping themselves to various other items whilst they're there? And is the resident junkie going to nip down to Boots and pay £5 for a fix (complete with £3 tax) or is he going to ring up Dodgy Dave and get it illegally for half the price?

I absolutely agree. Gerrard has exceptional work rate and can strike the ball tremendously as witnessed at Newcastle. But in terms of making the play or being a pivotal central midfielder he falls way short. In the 2005 Champions League final, Gerrard scored an important goal but Dietmar Hamman was the player responsible for balancing Liverpool's ship and that's because Gerrard does not have the discipline or the intelligence to play effectively as one of two central midfielders. The pundits scream blue murder when Benitez shunts him to the right but he isn't actually as good a central midfielder as either Mascherano or Alonso. Mascherano and Alonso have the ability to retain possession in midfield with intelligence passing and movement, and also to screen their defence responsibly. Gerrard is a match-winner, but he's lacking as a footballer. He's exactly the same as Lampard. Neither have the skills to suit the international, or European, style and both have their best success when played alongside TWO midfielders with better understanding of the requirements in this regard.

A team of footballers will always beat a team of athletes. The difference in ball retention is ridiculous. Can we now stop this nonsense that Gerrard and Lampard are world class footballers? They're good in the crash bang wallop of the Premier League but they've both been overshadowed by Modric who looks a tremendously talented player.

I disagree. He stood out at City because he was a whole-hearted aggressive player in amongst a team of rubber dingy men. He's no more of player than a Michael Brown or Lee Carsley. David Dunn is a much more talented footballer and Barton wouldn't be an improvement on Reid or Savage.

And a bit of talent. Joey Barton isn't a very good footballer. He was absymal against Sunderland. His ball retention was awful.

Decent showing tonight but Beckham's quality masks a total lack of imagination everywhere else in the team. He's set up 3 out of 4 of our goals this past week but I'm failing to remember any chances created via any other avenue. Nothing's changed from the Croatia, Israel and Macedonia games apart from Becks coming back to save the day.

We produce athletes in this country who can run all day and hustle and bustle. Its why someone with guile and composure like Tugay can still dominate almost any midfield in the Premiership despite being 58. The touch and technique of even our supposed top players like Lampard is terrible. Someone like Carrick who is touted as some silky midfield ball-player is frankly ordinary and then in the ties against Milan progressing to "found out" and "awful".

Talking about the Lampard/Gerrard issue is pointless now. The reality is that Frank Lampard isn't an international footballer. Gerrard shouldn't be part of that debate.

Jenas?! McClaren's having a laugh now.

Downing and Dyer coming on.

Absolutely ridiculous. Bentley could realistically be playing in Estonia on June 6th, joining up with the U-21s for their first game on the 11th and playing in the final on June 23rd and we have our first friendly at Wrexham on the 10th July. If he does join up with the U-21 squad, I can't see him featuring in any of our Intertoto matches.

On another forum I visit, I know a Chelsea fan (who wouldn't bs me) and he was at the Nuts awards. He said to Benni that he'd love to see him at Chelsea and Benni was as non-committal as he could be but did say "we'll see by Friday". A guy Benni was with was a little less diplomatic and said that Benni and Peter Kenyon had had talks earlier in the day. On a lighter note, he brought up the story of the Tugay substitution/Stephen Hunt's antics I'd told him earlier in the week. When describing Stephen Hunt, Benni used quite a few expletives that I couldn't possibly reproduce here.

To be fair to Corbett, I was a little vague with my description of what he's up to. I understand that he is concentrating on training to be a pharmacist now rather than simply working as a shop assistant at Boots.