Eddie

Maybe so, but things didn't go wrong that often when he was in charge.

Yep, I mean he had a very good group of players, no doubting that, but he has to go down as a good England manager. Have to say that he was pretty unlucky with how England were knocked out in every tournament he went to, the line between success and failure at international tournaments is tiny once you start talking about penalty shoot-outs.

When I was 17 I traveled to Egypt in November to compete in a football tournament and in the third and final group game we faced the Egyptian side. In order to qualify for the knock-out stages we needed a win, but we went in at half-time trailing 2-0. It was hot, probably in the low 30 to mid 30's, no wind and the pitch itself had no shade despite the stands around it. The Egyptian's faded fast later on in the match and we went on to win the match 3-2 and eventually won the tournament, I have no doubt that their fasting played a role in that match. They were obviously the only Egyptian side that we faced, but how devout they were despite the obvious problems it caused amazed me. Not only were they not eating, but they even refused to have a proper intake of liquids, allowing themselves to only swill water around their mouths at half-time, but apart from that have nothing to drink. I believe that Ramadan allows for people to break their fast if it puts others lives in danger (for example for pilots), but you would have thought that when your profession could put your own life at risk by fasting that you would also be allowed certain breaks. I don't see how a footballer sticking to the fast could be played.

We'll see Neekoy, you may still end up being right. They haven't had too many challenges and we'll see how he manages when the wheels come off a bit. They were basically untested domestically and it wasn't until the semi-final and final that they faced serious opposition in the champions league and he was tactically out-thought in 2 of those 3 games. I think a lot of us would find it fairly easy to manage the side that they have now, what makes or breaks managers at top clubs is when they have to change the side a bit or when a batch of players lose form. Too soon to say that he's made the grade.

Don't know why you all find Barcelona any less annoying than United. Personally I dislike the two equally, Barcelona fans tend to be the same glory hunting bunch who know nothing about football and think less of clubs because they don't manage to play "real" football. The whole more than a club attitude is fine when you're talking to a true supporter (which there are few of), but when it's some a$$hole from who knows where it's as annoying as any fan can get. I'm sure it's not as bad for most of you as you are in England, but on the continent I find Barcelona fans to be the worst around.

United play excellent football and started brightly, they simply didn't recover from the early goal and never did anything to knock Barcelona out of their stride once it happened, but those two sides could play open football games 100 times and they'd probably split them. Two great sides and to see that number of really quality players on show was great. Why people are using it as an opportunity to knock football, English football in particular, or United is a bit beyond me. Oh, yeah - Rover6. He's pretty good when it comes to managing football sides. He might want to keep what he's doing that allows them to win the league each year, a cup or two on top of that and get far in, if not win, the champions league.

I'd still argue that. That isn't to say he wouldn't be world class still, but I just don't think he would be AS good. I think if Ronaldo went to Spain he would look a lot better, same for a lot of the more technically gifted players who have been in the premiership. I don't think Henry would still be as relevant in this league as he is in La Liga, but then I think Tevez, Nani, Anderson or Berbatov would look even better in Spain. Each league asks something slightly different of players, the very best in the world will look good everywhere (Messi, Ronaldo, etc), but that doesn't mean that there aren't leagues where they will be more effective. There's no way that a team in England would ever have the +70ish goal difference that Barcelona have, it is an indication of how their open style of play leads goals being scored and also allows a great side to dominate far more easily than in England. Messi would be a fantastic player anywhere in the world, but the slower pace and less physical nature of the Spanish game makes his life a bit easier.

He was overweight for a footballer, but certainly not obese and I'm sure most on here wouldn't be lining up to stand next to him on the beach this summer.

Having often been dropped for a centre half despite scoring some crucial goals I wouldn't entirely blame him if he is looking elsewhere now.

He made it clear that he wasn't going to sign a deal quite a long time before his contract was up, so we could have easily sold him at any point during that time.

He captained us through a relatively successful period, so he obviously did a decent job of it. If he was respected and focused on the job (which he clearly was) then I don't have a problem with the captaincy. We could have sold him to solve the problem, but couldn't find a suitable option and thought he was doing a good job. Ooijer is a bit different as he didn't decide he was leaving 18 months ago and I really only think he is going as he isn't a regular and is unlikely to ever be one. I also wouldn't be surprised if he would have had to have accepted a pay cut (if we even put in any effort to keep him). It's been clear for several months that he is going, but he never came out publicly and said so, which was the professional thing to do. Neill could have easily done the same, he doesn't need to be as hated as he is, but he didn't handle it in the best possible manner either.

Any club would have requested that right to appeal, especially when there was a fairly large amount of public attention and pressure.

You're right, but football isn't unusual for why Barton would be a bad signing. The football club does actually have to consider its public image and how that might affect sponsors, corporate entertainment, season ticket sales, merchandising and the rest. This is no different from a clothing company, record label or any other business for that matter factoring in public opinion when making a decision. Beyond that, the Barton's on the field actions will most likely lead to him missing time and possible fines for the club, whilst his off the field actions could further damage the clubs image and also lead to him missing time. I just don't want to have to support the guy. Diouf is unpleasant, but he hasn't made a habit of beating people up. Drog, you'd usually be on ICBINF calling for more severe prison sentences, don't you think Barton should still be in prison rather than potentially trotting out at Ewood Park?

Considering he plays for a side that doesn't create many chances and hasn't played for a lot of the season the number of goals he has scored has been pretty good. When he got a decent run at the start of Allardyce's reign he was in lethal form. If he plays in a 4-4-2 and with a good partner he'll be a 15+ goal a season man for us, no one else in our team offers that. He's never going to chase lost causes all day, but then I'd take Benni over Derbyshire any day.

You will have made the tackle on purpose.

How old are you again? Some rules have to be clear. Personally I have nothing wrong with this one.

Those are the rules, deny a clear goalscoring opportunity or if you are the last man it is supposed to be a straight red. Whether or not a penalty is sufficient punishment is an entirely different matter.

Listen to the Poll interview that has now been linked. Interesting to hear his take on it.

Come on theno, we all know that had that been a Rovers player tackled it would have at least been a 50/50 split on here as to whether or not it was a penalty. Here's my interpretation on it: with the benefit of replays he touches the ball first and so that isn't a foul, but the ref was right in my view to give it. There was absolutely no way to tell that Fletcher touched that in real time and with such minimal contact on the ball it would have been an odd one for the officials not to give. No ref in the world wouldn't have given it. Once he had given it, he had to send Fletcher off.

He's on 60k a week at Newcastle. How much of a pay cut do you think he would take? Think this one is dead in the water as far as "shrewd signings" go. I don't want to see someone like that playing for our club.

I don't think we can exactly take the moral high ground on free flowing football at the moment. Chelsea went out with a game plan and executed it perfectly. The diving could be done away with, but not as if it is something you never see Barcelona players doing. They made Barcelona look like a fairly average side and that is quite an achievement. It will hopefully be a good final, but Chelsea were the side that deserved to get through.

Really? You know a lot of players who have repeatedly beaten people up, gone to court and gone to prison?

He's a thug, a genuinely unpleasant human being. I really don't want to see our club forking out loads of money to him. There comes a time when you have to say that certain things are just wrong, and I couldn't support Barton. You get into a fight once that can be forgiven, but he has repeatedly acted brutally and isn't someone who should be playing premiership football.

Why would I care about him being Scottish? He was there last year. He plays for United, it's hardly his only chance at the big time. I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Always sad to see a player miss out on a final, but this is far from the worst example I've seen.

Not a rule of the game, it's a rule for the competition. The rule should be different, but they can't change it mid-tournament. It's sad for him, but it's not exactly a tragedy.