Billy Castell

How are our academy teams doing? Have they done well over the last few years, or badly? I wonder as perhaps some changes may need to be made to the youth set up so we can bring on players capable of achieving a first team place. The last real regulars we had from the youth team were Duff and Dunn.

I said I had FM 2005 in an earlier post. It's actually FM 2006. Is FM 2007 enough of an improvement to warrant the upgrade?

Most of it is probably produced by the effing drummers drowning everyone out.

If someone can subsidise me around £900-2,500 per year, I'll buy a season ticket and go to all the games. Should cover transport costs (can't drive) and any time I have to take off work.

My God you're miserable aren't you? Moan moan moan. You're like that kid in the Peanuts cartoon who has a perminent raincloud above his head. And on the rare occaision you do say something positive you have to ruin by having a go at a certain ex-manager. Really, just watch you favourite Bigot Brother then you might cheer up. Mind you, they did get whumped on Wednesday.

I've been thinking of a similar comparasion. He is like a Dwight Yorke who gives a crap.

Keith Gillespie?

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe as a player/coach he can help bring on a bit of skill in the youngsters.

Is that Dhorasoo still knocking about? A contract till the end of the season could be good given our situation.

Looks like a really entertaining night .

Well Carvaliho chopped Messi in half with a good boot, and Marquez stamped on Essien. It showed the best of football, but also a whole lot of the worst. The sooner these tarts sod off to the Euro Super League with their G14 bum chums the better.

What could have been a great game was ruined by diving, whining and blatant fouls. Marquez and Drogba should have been sent off. For moments both teams showed that they can play fantastic football, but those moves were lost in a forest of childish antics. That bunch of pussies should be sent to Iraq, then they'll sharpen up their act.

Tedious, pointless bloodfest. Fair enough have blood and gore, but if the only selling point is someone having their face ripped off by something, the film has no quality. Films like the Saw series are just caught in a boring cycle of trying to out do the last film for violent ways to kill people. So Saw 4 will have a 13 year old girl being raped and hacked to bits with a meat cleaver whilst a time bomb is ticking within the other person's guts. See, I can write a screenplay for a a film like that, and I have no artistic skill whatsoever.

I was hoping to wind him up if he ever came back by saying Poland is like Kazakhstan if you know what I mean .

I've been reading a good book about Italy called The dark heart of Italy by Tobias Jones. It's by a British guy who has lived in Italy for a good few years, and it explains the culture of corruption, the importance of appearance in Italy. It is a couple of years old, and talks the latest football scandal was the nandrolone business, but it is enlightening about certain aspects of Italian society. For instance, bending the rules is not frowned upon, and is seen as showing guile and cunning in the face of an overwhelmingly bureaucratic system. Hence why Italian football has so many divers, as if you can con a ref into giving a penalty, you should do it.

I know they are not in the Euro yet, but I'm guessing 120 zlotys equal one pound, so it's not much of a statement. Euros sound better anyway.

So being racist is a macho and manly thing? Interesting interpretation. Should Benni have punched the Polish player instead, to assert his masculinity? As for the alleged favouritism of England may I just refer to a few incidents: 1. Two Leeds United fans get stabbed whilst visiting Turkey for a European match. 2. AC Milan keeper Dida suffers 2nd degree burns after Inter fans hit him with flares. 3. A referee suffers concussion after being hit by a coin thrown by a Roma fan. 4. In a friendly against Spain, thousands of Spainish supporters racially abuse England's black players. I bet you many Euros that if English people and English teams they would have been dealt with in a far harder way than the Italians, Spaniards and Turks, all of whom have problems with hooliganism. And anyway, the only English people involved were the FA, who want to see racism dealt with in a strong manner for once. Is that wrong? Face it Robin, your side were rubbish, we beat you, and you have a racist tool playing for you.

3-0 to West Ham. We always do bad against crisis clubs, whoever they may be.

The programmers must go completely goggle eyed during the production of such a game. I bet there are a few who have worked there for 12 years thinking 'I wish this was Championship manager 1996/7'.

I'm knocked off my chair. UEFA did something about racism. Well done.

Right ho. Always wondered about that sort of thing with games that come out every year. Could people just use the database editor and make everyone unlikely to get injuries? I ask because not everyone has the internet (I obviously do now), and downloading the required patches could be a bit of an effort. Wasn't CM4 so shocking with its bugs that they brought out CM03/04?

I assume later copies will be produced with these patches built in, or the bugs sorted out. Would that sort of thing happen? Or will SI produce the exactly the same game, and expect the customer to download the patches themselves?

I can't see Hughes going to the barcodes for the reasons Ronin has just stated. It's a higher profile job, but it is much more demanding, and it often ruins a managers reputation. Nor do I see him going to Everton for that matter. Moyes is pretty secure there, and whilst they are a more famous club, they are currently at a similar level to Rovers in terms of financial clout and hfootballing ability. So that leaves Man Utd, and who knows when Ferguson will retire/die/sent off to a nursing home.

How about a loan, with a future transfer for Ball, and sounding out Chelsea for Bridge if Ball is crap?

Is Roberto Carlos still at Real.? I'm not putting his name forward in any way, as I think he's gone crap. I was just wondering.