Eddie

For me Peter has the largest amount of potential of all the current youth products (that's including Derbyshire and Gallagher). He has the pace and crossing ability to make himself into a very good left winger. All he will need is a good run of games of first team football to refine those skills and get used to playing. He may need to go on loan for a while because unless MGP leaves he is unlikely to get that chance.

At least by putting it in a quote you have ensured that he can't revise that idea... :ph34r:

Yes, but Derbyshire has been getting regular football over the past few months and has been scoring goals, when was the last time that Nonda even played?

I don't think Bentley dives much really, he simply makes the most of challenges. He'll throw himself in the air and dip his shoulder as he falls to make challenges look worse then they were, but they are usually fouls. I'd rather not see a player do it, but what he's doing isn't horrible.

...Still a chance of him being the top goal scorer in the league.

That makes sense, it's a good quality of the game, but these were managers I had, had no interaction with before; except in the case of Wenger who I had dealt with before and we were even "friends".

Anyone else had a problem with clubs refusing to accept bids even after they've accepted similar bids, sometimes even less money, from other clubs. I've recently had four teams who refused to accept bids from me, even when I put in a bid woth up to 272,000,000 for a player worth 345k and they had already accepted bids of 500k. In a slight less ridiculous example I was bidding for Muamba and, despite the fact that Arsenal had already accepted bids of 1.3 million, they wouldn't sell him to me even if I bid up to 5 million (money that I had). They had already accepted bids for me for other players so it wasn't simply that they didn't like me or something. It is a very annoying glitch.

Got Crystal Palace to the playoff final only two have my two best players, including my star striker who had scored 12 in 14, go away on international duty.

Always good movies.

That could be amazing, could be rather crap. I really enjoy playing online games much more than just by myself, so it will certainly be something I'll try and get.

Shame he missed the chance from Roberts great run, but it was a wonderfully taken goal.

They are quite easy to find in France, which I find to be a bit odd.

Warnock played well with the exception of his attempts to volley or half volley balls clear towards the end of the game and when he was caught on the ball and put Drogba clean through.

I wouldn't drop Samba at this point. He's been playing pretty well and as it looks unlikely that we can claim a European spot through the league it might be best to give these games to him to allow him to gain more experience.

No doubt, but then with United's buying power and their expectations I would imagine that the plan is to bring in a big name and have Saha firmly as third choice. Benni would probably do very well for them, I just can't see them buying him.

Can't see Ferguson buying Benni. He's been great for us this season but there are better options out there, especially if you are a club like United.

The thing is, can the FA even afford to fire him? They are still paying Sven and I think it unlikely that they could pay Sven, McLaren and the next manager (well they could but would probably rather put up with a couple of poor years rather than have to do it). What Mclaren did yesterday by walking out in front of the press showed that he doesn't have the character required to be in such a high profile and high pressure position. He acted like a child who thought that he had somehow proven a point by managing an England team to a victory over Andorra, very sad. It really makes you appreciate the times under SGE and never having to worry about World Cup qualification, though that in itself was not really an achievement (although his record was quite something). The sooner he goes the better and the decisions the FA has made over the past 12-18 months regarding the England team have been laughable. To think that this time last year we were looking forward to our golden nation lifting the world cup and now we are wondering if we can even make it to the European championships.

Yes, because had it not been for his dedication to football Ferdinand would have been a prominent academic. I won't comment on Corbett as I've never heard him talk or know anything about him, but most footballers are pretty think and rather than sacrificing anything football offers them the opportunity to escape an otherwise pretty dull and unproductive lives. I'm not saying they don't have to work hard for it and take some risks in pursuing it, but no more so than anyone does with any profession.

Never thought much of Barry, bit of a media darling in my opinion and over-hyped along with Aston Villa in general.

Well I disagree with a lot of those picks. Govou, Silvestre, Chimbonda and Cisse wouldn't make it. I wouldn't pick Escude or Anelka either. You are then faced with several age arguments and I would probably drop Viera now and replace him with Hargreaves, Thuram would be replaced with someone younger (even just putting Ferdinand in) and Foster would make the squad instead of one of those keepers. The other 6 places would go to Ferdinand (if he replaces Thuram then I would pick another midfielder or striker), Neville, Carragher, A. Cole, J. Cole and Beckham. It is maybe a little short on strikers but 4 in a squad of 25 with several midfielders who can fill in or the choice of changing the formation seems fine to me.

In the first 11 it is a difficult question, but if you made a squad more English players would make it than French. Terry, Ferdinand, Cole, Neville, Carragher, Hargreaves, Joe Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney and Owen would all make a France-England squad. You'd then have several English players in contention, like SWP, Lennon, Bentley, Carrick, Robinson and probably one or two others. England certainly have greater strength in depth then the French and a better first 11 on paper but the French have managed to work out a way of playing. This has been the result of a bit of luck and the coaching staff making some difficult decisions and picking a formation that not everyone thought was best and that the players certainly didn't like at first.

Bit harsh to lump Rooney and Jeffers together. Rooney works very hard, certainly as hard as Derbyshire does, he just hasn't been in very good form for most of this season (which could easily be attributed to the fact that he may well have been rushed back from an injury).

As long as he doesn't play every international it isn't too worrying. It doesn't seem like he would based on that article and it is a shame that a country like South Africa should be missing their best player.

That is a fair point, but I think you have to be looking for a player who then switches sides regularly for his club as well, which Ljungberg has done for Arsenal as well; if less frequently. Bentley never plays on the left for us, except in the most rare of circumstances and so shouldn't be considered as an option for that position for the England team. I must also add and this would be another exception, that as far as I'm aware Bentley has never regularly played on the left during his career at either Norwich or Arsenal. If he had simply made a position switch for us and it was a relatively slight one then I think that would be fine.

I've not been critical of his pass because he's "only a Blackburn lad", simply because although it was very good vision I don't think the execution was perfect and 9/10 it would have been cut out. As for your comment about "if you took away their blistering pace", well that's all very well and good but pace makes up for a lot and it gives them an ability to hurt a team in a way that even a much more complete footballer, but slower, could. We all need to cast our minds back to Lennon's performances of last season, including in the world cup and SWP's performances for Man City (even his goal against Spurs) and then decide whether we would be making such a fuss about him if we weren't Rovers fans. Now I'm not saying he isn't a very good player, he is and I think I am one of a handful who was delighted to see him brought here on loan and even happier when we signed him as I thought he was a player with great potential, but England have some very talented players at the moment and it isn't so cut and dried as to who is better and who you would pick. All three of the players in competition for that spot are young, talented and offer something slightly different, when you then throw Beckham into the mix it isn't a simple decision to make. Going back to Derbyshire, can anyone honestly say that he has been any more impressive this season than Lita? I think we always need to think of the players make similar impacts at other clubs before we think we are onto the next Michael Owen or the best uncapped English striker in the premiership (I'm not saying anyone has said that, just using it as an example).