A word for young Amarii Bell Played really well and coped with their right winger who was their only player that consistently needed dealing with Need a tough tackling CM and a hold up striker in the Graham mould. Otherwise we look pretty solid to see out the season! COYB!

YES YES YES Well done lads!

Apologies. That was for the added time. I see how that might've caused some to miss a beat!

FFS

Think it'll either be Chapman or Kent. Don't think we'll be going after both, considering they are both of the same ilk.

Croatia are pants. England 3-0

Too much of an overreaction? England looked very comfortable until they scored and they're still favorites to win this. They've got 3 strikers on the pitch with no hold in midfield whatsoever. I reckon England have got this.

Robbie Cotton! Is he even in the game now? Remember people on here hyping him up to be the next Steven Gerrard!

OK so you say the youngsters at our academy have a standard contract where a new contract offer is tabled if they hit 5 starts or 10 sub appearances. And, Scott Wharton has made 4 starts for us so far. Two in the league and two in the cup. So the rumors of him not being played because it triggers a new contract could actually be true.

For a second, I thought he was talking about Mowbray's barcelona-esque system.

See that cham, green, tanner, carson, forrester et al who I thought were supposedly among the brightest prospects in the academy have been released? Can someone who watches Academy games shed some light on this? Wasn't Carson the u21s captain?

What's happened to Hyuga Tanner? Don't see his name mentioned for the Academy. Wasn't he built up to be the next big thing to come out of the Academy?

I don't think FIFA will have any power over them. What do you expect them to do? And, wasn't the FFP an initiative of the UEFA? A lot of people think this is bad for Football, but frankly I think this is the start of something exciting for the game in itself. The PL big boys and their Champions League chums will sit up and start taking notice once their starlets start getting prized away and this would make for an even greater level playing field. They will in turn pressurize UEFA to scrap the FFP. Football, in general, has been commercialised to the extreme in the last two decades or so. And this in turn has created a ripple effect. What does it tell you when players like Iturbe and Inler who played for clubs which play regularly in the CL, sit on the bench at Bournemouth and Watford? What does it tell you when a non league club's chairman(forget the name) went on record to say he'd rather get Manu away in the FA cup rather than any number of plumb fixtures which might have given his team chance to win? The game is all about money these days, and that is particularly true in the case of the PL. Yes you get to watch the best footballers of the world in your backyard but when your national team hasn't won anything for yonks, there's something seriously wrong. Why is it that even second division clubs in Germany and Spain consistently produce top talent be it from the Academy or through scouting? The PL teams are all too lazy to even setup a decent scouting network. Need a player? Let's go buy a player from overseas! They never look to promote their youth or look to recruit from the lower leagues. The PL is way too money-driven and is run like a business. The owners all treat it like a business and the clubs they own are mere cashcows to them. On the other hand, clubs in Germany, with their fan-based ownership models invest heavily on grassroots and are more concerned about creating footballers than making money. Yes the league might not be the greatest and the football on offer might be "slow" but time and again those clubs comfortably beat English clubs and their fancy fast-paced football. I predict this might be start of the shift in power towards emerging markets like India, China and the US. England cannot sustain its top league without backing from its foreign owners and these same owners won't think twice to now go own a club in China considering the potential for revenue is enormous given their population. Those countries on the other hand, have significant financial power to invest in Football. And, if ever there was any doubt that Footballers care about money and money alone, this mass exodus to China should put that to rest. Players like Teixeira and Lavezzi consistently play in the CL and have promising careers ahead of them, but they still chose to move to a footballing backwater where they can't even access Facebook and Instagram! They will literally be isolated from the rest of the footballing world and good luck getting selected for the national team.

Seen a few images where Suarez is well inside the D when messi touches the ball. So one way or the other, shouldn't have stood! And, I always thought you had to be behind the ball AND behind the last defender to be onside? Unless it's a pass released when opponents are stood in your half? Is it enough if you just stay behind the ball?? And not behind the last defender??

Thanks for clearing that up. I didn't think you could pass from a penalty in the first place. They should implement this on FIFA!

Suarez was behind the ball but ahead of the last line of defence. Yes, it was onside, I feel. But, correct me if I am wrong, doesn't the ball player have to be behind the last defender? In this case, Messi had only the goalkeeper ahead of him. Suarez might well have been onside but I reckon the ball has to be played in from a position before the last defender? Or atleast that's what the crux of the argument is on the net. Actually pretty interesting few thoughts and exchanges about it on Twitter and FB. A guy who was at the stadium said the linesman called over the referee for a word after the goal was scored probably clarifying the same. Or is this all barmy and have these guys(me included) understood the offside rule wrong? But my point was more a general one. Why do teams not try this often? You have a simple tap in compared to a 50/50 penalty. Shouldn't be allowed is what I think.

Sorry, I didn't mean a shootout. I just meant a penalty in general. Doesn't the guy passing the ball have to be behind the defence? It's extremely difficult to defend against and I'm surprised others don't try it as much, particularly if you have sub-par penalty takers. Difficult to pull off perfectly, I suppose.

I saw the penalty incident and wondered if it was even legal. A few Celta players were having a word or two with the referee. I think they were as confused as I was! But, if you think about it, don't you think it's an unfair thing to do? Now a penalty shoot, for me, gives you a 50/50 chance of scoring a goal. Unless you happen to be very good in which case the odds might tilt in your favour. Now, if you do what Messi did, it's just a simple tap in from 4 or 5 yards for a fellow teammate and will almost always result in a goal considering the opponent players don't usually mark for such eventualities and just stand there going through the motions and the goalkeeper would have already dived leaving an open end to aim at. Some guy on twitter also reckoned it was offside? I'm assuming Suarez was stood in front of all Celta players, at the edge of the box?

I've always liked following Ligue 1 and, it has to be said Bryan Dabo is playing extremely well atm. I've watched his team play 2-3 times this season and I've been very impressed by him. Think a more pacy, athletic and attack minded version of Akpan. They did a full length feature on him this past week where his teammates and manager all think he's very talented and destined for greater things. They also showed a few of his highlights and some of his goals were brilliant considering the positions he mostly plays in. There was this one instance where he dispossesses Cavani, outmuscles him, dribbles past another player and launches a counter with an accurate 40 yard diagonal ball. Brilliant! And, when asked about his time at Blackburn, he sounded a bit upset(angry?) at not having been given a chance to prove himself and says that only made him stronger mentally and so in a way thanked that experience. But he said he would still love to go back and play in England. If we can get him, it would be massive as he's turned into quite a tidy player. And his manager said he can play well in 7 different positions which would give us much needed depth. At the end of the interview, the narrator even said his recent performances have forced him into national team reckoning and his manager already thinks he's good enough for France! I think that's a classic case of manager bigging his player up but be that as it may, for a player who couldn't get near our squad of 18, it seems like a dramatic turnaround. He looks set for a move to a bigger club tho and it has to be said what a cock-up by Bowyer that was. Or is the Championship a significant jump up from the Ligue 1?

That Tomlinson looks to have a proper shot on him. Isn't he a burnley lad as well? Haha. Mahoney really needs to be in and around the first team. Classy finish. Made it look so easy. Local lad. Hopefully on to bigger things.