Is that the same Argentina that England beat a few months ago neekoy?

It happens every tournament. Stop acting surprised and get over it! As for the BBC...it serves the nation, which is 50 million English/5 millions scots and about 4 million Welsh/Northern Irish (I'm guessing there), of course it's going to be overblown, hyped up and Anglocentric! It's what the viewers want to see!

Souness rules himself out of Palace job "I met Simon and I was very impressed," Souness told the Mirror. "But I've had a chat with my family and the job is not for me."

At times in the past they have been considered our main rivals. Many seasons have seen our highest crowd for the Preston home game.

A pun on words dillo - I made it up (at least I thought I did, maybe I plagiarised it without knowing). Doner Kebab / former player George Donis. It wasn't very good...I wasn't in a funny mood. Was hoping it would inspire some more hilarity from the regular japesters on this board.

Lucas does have a life outside this thread Colin, and it's pretty obvious he is weighing up his options. I've no problem with this, I'd like him to be a bit more tactful with his remarks regarding Blackburn but, hey, it's a free country and he can say what he likes and so can I. If the comments on this read make you think that..."To my mind it's simple hysteria" then I think you should look for a more suitable word. Hysteria??? Which comments? None of them seem amazingly over the top. In fact, it's the usual stuff you get every day of the week on football forums. Ultimately the best for the club is what matters and if we can get a good price for him after some decent performances at the World Cup then all will be happy.

Because he has worked at the same place for five years. It happens.

'A Grabbi' - Synonym of poo. Often used as a euphemism for going toilet, e.g. "i'm just off for a Grabbi' A Donis Kebab - food type. Arrives quickly and looks good but lacks substance, will be gone before you have feel you have had your money's worth. And probably some more...

The article mentions - "In fact, you would think if even one out of every five people in China took an interest in soccer, that would be some big pool of talent to draw from when picking a squad" Actually, I'd reckon about 1 in 5 of youngsters (at least) might be right in those who take an interest, far more if only counting boys. Just because they play it however doesn't stop the vast majority being crap at it. Personally I thought the article was quite funny. Not Oscar Wilde witticisms or anything but interesting. As can be seen by this part... "I just wonder, though, if there's something that could be done to boost soccer's popularity. I wanted to save hockey too, but obviously I was too late. I know when baseball took a dive in this country — and you can look it up — steroids brought the fans back in droves as they watched big player after big player power the ball out of the park. You could even argue that steroids put the NFL on the map years ago, the huge hits making it the must-see TV that it is every Sunday." Now...why are people on here taking this article seriously and making themselves look silly? It's more than a little tongue in cheek, relax guys. That's true, it is growing in popularity but I find it hard to see it ever overtaking football as it isn't quite as simple a sport, football's genius is in its simplicity; all you need is a ball. Anyway, most people I know like more than one sport - whether cricket/rugby/hockey/basketball/formula 1 etc. Don't see why people should have to keep comparing them with each other, they all have their own place. It never has to be one or the other.

There are ways to do that without putting Blackburn down, he just needs to be a bit cleverer in how he phrases his answers. If he leaves then as long as we get a decent price for him then fair enough. Neill is probably feeling it is a bit stale at Ewood after five or so years and would like to see new horizons. Can't really blame him for that.

So you've managed to narrow down the likely winners to just under 30% of the teams left? Good work Smithy!

In your dreams David! The Bentley of footballers he ain't...if he wants to even get a sniff of a big club he will have to improve a heck of a lot! Quite right about the lack of consistency Bing.

He doesn't like the town, who can blame him? - Nobody He doesn't like the town so he criticises it in the media, who can blame him? - We can No need to put down the town where a lot of the fans who pay to cheer him work and live. If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything. You don't go round somebody's house then tell them it is a s***hole now do you?

I doubt Lucas could be diplomatic if he tried, he seems to be believing the hype and thinking he is too good for the club. Unfortnately, as Souness or Hughes never really bothered getting any competition for his place Neill has had almost a guaranteed spot in the team for over the last four years. No player is bigger than the club, if Lucas is thinking that he is (and this isn't his first little needless put-down of Blackburn or Rovers) then good riddance. Hopefully he'll see how good he has it at Ewood though and stay. It's be funny if really did believe that rubbish about AC Milan wanting him though!

It's good to see that relegation hasn't stopped Birmingham being A BIG CLUB. Take for example their new signing, Jerome... "The West Midlands club will pay a basic £3million for the 19-year-old England Under-21 international which could rise to £4million." Jerome's first words to the press conference were... 'I'm delighted to be joining a big club like this,' Maybe if you keep saying it enough Cameron it'll eventually be true!

Imagine how Souness must feel!

Not at all, I did have that pleasure but we weren't going down again under Kidd. As bad as we were, he was sacked for our faltering promotion bid. I'm pretty sure we weren't near the relegation zone when we were sacked.

We sacked him at about the end of October as we were pottering around midtable. Now I know we have some Mystic Megs on here but to suggest we would have been relegated again...no, sorry. We wouldn't have been. Not with that squad. Even Kidd couldn't have managed that.

No way were we going down - the worst we must have been was about 15th. We were midtable mediocrity all that season.

Yeah but I can only count to two. Spain usually flatter to deceive but I don't think they have some quality of squad as they have had in previous tournaments, which may mean it is finally theit job to finally make a decent fist of it.

Me too.

Which is a fair point, however I think Spain will have to look for Villa for goals unless Raul suddenly rediscovers the form that has deserted him for the past two seasons.

Fife Rover - That was well before the Blackburn End had a roof wasn't it? What else can you remember about Ewood from those days?

Oh yeah that's right Ozzie, I was getting mixed up. Beecher was that fellow who had a brook.

Jimmy Greaves sounds like a goalscorer if you read his Wikipedia entry but Raul has still had a poor season, especially by his standards.