12 months would be nearer I guess bellamy .... and I got criticised roundly on here at the time for suggesting him as the best option for a proper english-style centre forward in the country.

Deep breath..... I'd wager that an England 2nd X1 managed properly by Hughes / Allardyce and containing none of Maclarens 'first choice' players could beat Israel 8 games out of 10!

I've got 2 words to say to you Rev on that subject ...... Gary and Flitcroft!

Indeed. Well spotted aggy. BUT.... Interesting reading and very accurate reminders on this thread of the general perception of Maclarens lack of abilities for the job. If we all knew that he was hopeless and English qualification for EURO 08 under serious threat even then just what does it say for the combined 'abilities' of the tossers at the FA? This and the Wembley fiasco show the lot of them as incompetants. Sacking is too good for them. Calling for Maclarens head on a platter is only half the job.

Damn! I got the bit about Boro in point 3 wrong!

Amazing crossing ability for a player not generally regarded as pacey. Bentley gets most of his cross attempts into the target area even when not apparently in front of the defender. Compare this with Emerton (and many more) who invariably hit the first defender with the ball when attempting to cross. When Bentley came to us at first I could see little premiership ability in him so it's nice to be proven wrong with the level of his development since then.

He's quite good and humerous on tele, it's just that his teams always play a physical in-your-face brand of football. The crazy gang at Wimbledon, Watford too in the past were similarly criticised, and we all know that when we did that 2 years ago nobody liked us either. Basically the rule is that you have to roll over and play dead for the big club media favourites, anybody who does not do that is fair game for the never-kicked-a-ball in their lives, sycophantic journo's.

Hawksby and Jacobs have me reaching straight for the off switch too. Their humour must contravene the Trades Descriptions Act somewhere.

More like in the nick of Gerald!

Doing the commentary was he? Anyway that dodgy tash was always ....... err ..... dodgy

That happens every week on MoTD Scouse.

So many seem to rem Bellamy as the second coming but remember we went for McArthy first! Also lets have less misty eyed nostalgia gumming up our memory...... I can well rem Bellamy having a quiet game or more too ...... when he was not injured that is! But Hughes did get Bellamy and he scored plenty before he beggered off forcing Hughes to get Benni ..... and he's scored even more! If Benni goes then Hughes will just have to find another replacement. If history repeats itself then maybe the by now far cheaper Mido will benefit from a spell at Ewood..... and hopefully next to Benni rather than in place of him. Just think in a different era we could easily have had all 3 vying to be top gun and that would have been something!

Don't subscribe to Sky but from what I have seen Andy Gray is the best analyst by far.

Worse than that Dunny missed one of them when Cole was floored by the keeper who was last man! Even more biased it was saved by the same bloody keeper after the ref deciding / (not daring) not to send him off.

Mighty odd situation last night at both semi finals. 1. Carvalho was adjudged to have brought Berbatov down when he was clean through on goal but no red card was shown. 2. Rooney gripped Boro's Morrison at the back of his neck causing an affray amongst the players, the ref reached for his cards then obviously remembered that Boy Wonder was already on a yellow and promptly changed his mind. I'll wager neither ref gets carpeted. The age old gripe that there is one law for big clubs and another for the rest was proven again last night.

How ironic is this? 'Devine' intervention for LUFC. http://uk.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geul5Whf1FD...82%26story=1460 Enough has been said about the awful decisions made by the ref and his criminally incompetant linesman yesterday but the penalty raises a problem imo. Tevez was 'nicked' by Emertons trailing foot yesterday, recovered and then slipped according to Lawrenson's post match analysis of the incident on MoTD, unfortunately this is the 3rd time that we have been the victim of strange refereeing over these incidents. Lucas Neill was sent off with a straight red against Lpool for making contact with Jamie Carragher with his trailing foot and Tugay saw red and conceded a penalty for a similar tackle of Tottenhams Ghaly. The FA have outlawed two footed slide tackles so just what is a player meant to do with his non tackling leg? It can only be tucked underneath the player when tackling, this by definition means that no intent can be attached to the player so why are such incidents punished so severely? The fact that the vast majority of ref's have never kicked a ball in anger in their lives contributes massively to their frustrating lack of understanding of football imo.

I don't want to appear unpatriotic but with any luck this time next week we might be looking for a new manager. Mind you the soft bgugers at the FA would no doubt appoint Stuart Peirce.

Must say I go to very few away games now cos of our resident plonkers. But conversely I've made a point of going to some of the UEFA matches and I've got to say our European adventures have been absolutely fantastic this year and I wouldn't have missed them for the world. It cost a fair bit but so what? Life is for living.

Crikey stu if you had taken some extra 10 grand pa job you could be going to Villa Park sipping champagne in a private helicopter!

Try em with offering £32 but promising to leave after 80 mins.

Cue enrolling on a night school course in Portugese for Billy........... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...sea/6440765.stm http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/Disciplinary/Ne...viesCharged.htm

This is funny................. Maureens an aggravating little turd but we all know what he means.......... http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2031824,00.html

Dunno but it's worrying.

Ipswich boss Jim Magilton: "Franny was outstanding and a real threat. He will always score goals at this level. "I was absolutely delighted with his performance. He was the outstanding individual for us and has real quality. "He gets one chance in this game and takes it - and that's the difference. We felt he could give us something." What a shame that he seems to keep pressing the self destruct button isn't it?

Bang on! Hughes might have chanced him on a free but he would NEVER hAve paid seriously big money for him! We were done big time and whether Souness had a finger in the pie is a far greater issue imo than Big sams son being dodgy or Arry thinking Todd is a well ard barsteward. !