For about 5 years now I have been getting a few recurring dreams. Sopme are actually quite disturbing. 1. The first I get is where I am on some mode of transport - usually a train, sometimes a boat - and I am being chased by a "terminator" type thing that cannot be killed. I usually go through the carriages and pick up weapons but they just don't work. Sometimes I try to shoot and there is no ammo. I get chased to the end of the train whree the dream ends. The majority of the time I am just about to be killed and then I wake up. Most times I am hiding underneath the train or behind a seat and then the train starts moving, crushing me, or the terminator thing sees me. However, sometimes, I actually get killed and then wake up. It can be a bit upsetting, but it's nowhere near as bad as my next dream. 2. This dream is slightly less frequent, but much more upsetting. It involves my family members being killed, or harm coming to them. Usually when I stay at my girlfriends I will have a dream where she is killed and I have to watch. I wake up in a cold swet and have to wake her up, hug her and bring her close to me. The dreams are really bad. I also dream about my mum and dad eitehr dying or being killed. A few times I have also dreamed that I have killed my mum or dad. 3. The third recurring dream I get reflects some of my insecurities. A common one will be getting into a fight with somebody I know that is much weaker than myself, but not being able to hit him hard - as if my arms are being weighed down. I get laughed at by whoever is in the dream. Another type of dream i get it where my brother keeps on beating me at something. Maybe a race. 4. Another dream that I haven't had in a long while, but used to have a lot, is where my teeth either get broken or cracked or start to hurt. Often, during the dream, I will start to force one row of teeth over the other so that it really hurts and feel like they are bending, knowing consciously that I am doing it, but not being able to prevent it. 5. The last of the lot is where I somehow come into contact with a person I used to have feelings for and one of two things usually happens: in the first instance, the girl will completely ignore / repel me, in the second they will be really intimet with me and it will be really nice. I'm sure there are more that I have but I just can't remember them right now.

Pennant is a good player, that is not in doubt, but 6.2 million is quite an over-inflated price, in my opinion.

Cannot believe the appeal was successful. Juventus will be straight back in Serie A next season and the implications of one season out of Europe for Lazio and Fiorentina will be like a slap on the wrist. AC Milan haven't even been punished to be honest! Absolute disgrace.

Unless you bring in some quality defenders and at least two quality forwards, then I certainly think we will finish above you.

Newcastle have a very strong midfield, but really are lacking in attack and defense. 10 million is one hell of a lot to spend on a unessential player. If they could bring in two top quality forwards, a top quality centre back and another versatile defender, then they have a top 6 squad for certain, but even then they aren't close to the champions league places. It's all rather amusing really.

Phillip, I'd say Parker is a top, top player and should be playing ahead of Carrick and Hargreaves in the England midfield. Incidently, he has just been made Newcastle captain.

I actually really like that goalkeepers kit... :ph34r: I think the away kit is pretty good.

Not only will the top teams in the world be after a fair few of these players, but there will also be plenty of clubs as a similar or lesser level to Rovers,. We might be in Europe but have just sold our best player and there are definately a lot of clubs that might appear more attractive, clubs with higher attendances, more attractive areas, better players and, most importantly, hugehr wages. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of these players joining other Italian clubs. I don't think we should rule out trying to buy these players, but I doubt we'll have much luck. I wonder what Miccoli's situation is right now.

Haha quality Den

Ha! Please tell me I saw correctly and Ronaldo was crying!

Thankyou, that is my point exactly.

I wasn't having a go, just pointing out that this signing is hardly free as, even if his basic wage is as little as 10k, then he will still be earning 450k + a year. I'd say those wages would be better spent on a younger player, but I suppose that Hughes has played alongside Jeffers before and has been trying to sign him for a while now. EDIT: "younger player" is misleading - I mean a young player as opposed to a player that has been trying to resurrect his career for over 5 years.

It won't cost us anything, except his wages. Even if he is on a heavily incentive-based contract, he will still be receiving a decent basic wage. Perhaps not a great sum, but his signing will hardly be free.

I suppose one encouraging thing is that Hughes must think a lot of Jeffers as he wanted to sign him in the january transfer window, and now after finishing sixth and getting into Europe, he has turned to Jeffers again. I'm not ruling Jeffers out at all, but all his birthdays and wishes must have come together at once by getting a move to a team playing european football.

I think that Roberts is a very good player, but presuming we are signing three new strikers, then eiether he or Jeffers is going to be a regular starter. If we were to bring in Mido, then I just don't think he and Roberts could play well alongside each other, which would make Jeffers the regular starter. This also puts usw in the same position as last season in that as soon as Mido gets injured, which he will do at some stage in the season, then we will have no real quality up front. That is presuming Mido is even contemplating joining! If we could get these two and bring in another two top quality strikers then I would be ecstatic, but I don't think that's going to happen.

We never deserved to l,ose that match in a million years. We didn't play amazingly, but we played well enough. I was actually very surprised at the stick England got at half time as I thought they looked the better team. I also think we battled like soldiers in the second half and deserved to hang on. The main reason we did not play better was Gerrard and Lampard failing to support Rooney, leaving him isolated. With Hargreaves sitting back, they had no excuse. I also think that Lampard deserves everything he is getting. He has been abysmal this world cup and the team would be better without him. I just wish footballers could accept when they're playing badly, hold their hands up and tell the fans they will try harder in the future, rather than sulking and hitting out at the media. I also thought that Rooney's "stamp" looked completely accidental. I hate Ronaldo, I hope Rooney beats the living _ out of him. Maybe Nistelrooy can join in too. I don't think the ref was going to even book Rooney until Ronaldo came on the scene and complained. Only after Rooney pushed him did the ref get his book out. I guess the one humerous thing to come from that altercation is that the Manchester United training ground will be a pretty hostile place. I bet Ferguson is regretting leaving Nistelrooy out at the end of last season, because now it looks as though both he and Ronaldo will be on their way out. Good news!

I'm adament that I could have taken a better penalty than Gerrard, Lampard and Carragher did.

First of all, what a free kick from Beckham. That was a hell of a long way out and he put it in perfectly. Cracking goal, absolutely world class. It's a shame that this team under Eriksson will never do the collective same. We deserved to win, but that's not saying much as we were playing the worst team in the knockout stages who had little, if any, attacking intent all game. Still, we only just managed to beat them and could easily have gone a goal down because of Terry's mistake. After that we created precious little. I think Rooney had a good game but was let down by Gerrard, Cole and especially Lampard (again) in midfield not supporting well enough. Lampard must be dropped. He has performed no better than average in all four games. He hasn't played horribly bad, but is just the most anonymous player in the competition. The only real positives that I can take from the game are that, once the players are used to playing the 4-5-1 formation, then we will start playing better football. All too often there would be acres of space through the middle and yet the defense and wide midfielders would insist in playing balls down the line of over the top. I think Carrick did ok, nothing special mind. Played a few very good passes and broke a few moves down. We got through with only Terry from our first team in any real risk of getting suspended. Erm, I'm struggling for any others. I think we have a chance against Portugal. We would have been murdered by either Holland or Portugal has the ref not have carded the entire Portugal team. The have something like six players on yellow cards and two suspended. I can't see them going in for so many 50/50's and I wouldn't be surprised if that last game took a lot out of them. I put this formation forward after every game, but I still think we should play this midfield against Portugal: Lennon / Beckham / Carrick / Gerrard / J. Cole Let Lennon and Beckham rip their left side to pieces!

I thought the Argentina - Mexico was a perfect example of how football should be played. Both teams were playing wide open attacking football and then counter attacking with devestating effect. I think that because Argentina are open to the counter attack that they can definately be beaten, but it will take some doing. They have absolute quality and experience in teh starting 11 and then great youth talent on the bench that can change a game in an instant. They were my bet for winners before the tournament and they have even surprised me! I think that Mexico played very well last night, but Argentina were dictating the game, especially in the second half when the Mexicans were content to counter attack.

I think that the standard of play, for the most part, has been superb. I don't remember there ever being so many sensational goals and there have been a fair few high scoring games. I think there have been a few surprises with Ecuador and Trinidad and Tobago both playing very well. I think group C and group F have been very exciting to watch and I have been surprised by the likes of the Ivory Coast who played so well, and in any other group, would have gone through. We've been treated to some mastercalssses with Spain, Brazil and Argentina as well, with the Aussies being a pleasure to watch. I think the only teams to really disapoint are Sweden, Serbia and Montenegro and, most of all, England. I'm particularly looking forward to the Germany - Argentina quarter final and think it could be the game of the tournament! Both teams have been playing wide open attacking football and I wouldn't count Germany out of getting to the final if they can pull a surprise against the Argentines. I've never enjoyed a major international competition so much before!

Confirmed that it is a cruciate ligament injury. Poor bloke, on his way back at Newcastle and then gets injured and now it's happened again, but thsi time the injury is far more serious.

Robinson made a couple of mistakes but he is a top class keeper and I can't see this happening again. Even still, he hardly had a nightmare last night. Does anyone agree with me that in playing both Beckham and Cole in a 4-4-2 formation we have hardly any width and hardly any service into the box. Joe Cole was superb, but most of what he did was when he drifted infield. In my opinion, you can't have both Cole and Beckham as wide midfielders. If you have Beckham on the right, you need Downing on the left. If you have Lennon on the right, then have Cole on the left. I disagree with people saying that Beckham had a poor game - he picked out Cole on the left wing over and over again. He had acres of space to run into but all too often came infield, and although he usually sparked something off, he rarely ran the line or put any service into the box. Time for 4-5-1, especially now Owen is out.

For what it's worth Rev, I agreed with you!

Contrary to the thoughts of many, I didn't really think we were that impressive in the first half, and were back to our usual dross in the second half. Neither halves were indicative of a team that could challange the better teams in this competition. Hargreave's inclusion certainly helped, but the rest of the team were typically unimpressive. Lampard should be dropped. I don't care how high profile a player he is or how well he plays for Chelsea, for England he is anonymous. Watching Ballack I saw all the qualities required of an attacking midfielder. His range of passing is just sublime and he actually manages to hit the target when shooting from range. He would be a real hit for Chelsea and the premiership. He is a much better player than Lampard. The only player who played well, apart from Gerrard in his brief appearance, was Joe Cole. However, his superb attacking qualities are more useful in the centre of the pitch, in my opinion. It really is difficult to pick England's midfield, but I would probably go for this in our next game: Lennon / Beckham / Hargreaves / Gerrard / J. Cole Rooney And if we need to really attack the opposition towards the end of a game, or need to really stretch them, then bring Downing on either Gerrard or Cole. Beckham and Lennon were just breathtaking together on the right of midfield, and in my opinion, are the two most valuable players to the first team, even more so than Rooney. I think we'll beat Equador comfortably - perhaps an uninspiring 2-0 victory, but as soon as we face Portugal / Holland / Argentina we will be exposed for the overrated team that we are. We have the players, but either they are being lead by poor management or cannot perform together. Perhaps a mixture of the two.

It might well be the case that he is only in the England squad because of his height, but that does not make him a bad player. He has shown what a good player he is in his last 5 ;6 England games and has scored a fair few good goals, few of them headers. Just because he is tall, this doesn't mean that his all round game is lacking. far from it, in fact. I agree with Colin, all this crap about "he's got good control for a big man is rubbish. Who cares if he is big, he scores and plays consistently well. Oh, and I disagree with Den when you say he can't head the ball particularly well. I think he does just fine. I also think that being included in ateam because you offer something different is no shame at all. Kuqi is in the Blackbu8rtn team because he was cheap, Sven could choose a number of players with power and height, but he chooses Crouch. I think having a side to your game that can make an impact is a very good attribute. Crouch is a very good player. I just wish some could get over the prejudices and realise this.