givemeasmile

Cleared out 3 strikers, there's no way we can't afford his wages so I reckon this will happen. Maybe not Monday, but McInnes has said he wants all business wrapped up before the start of July.

Vermaelen and Kompany lining up for City and United in the league but playing together in defence at national level would be pretty interesting.

Well my boys won last night/this morning, immensely proud of the lads.

Resting Didier from the start was a good shout, will need him more moving forward.

3 touches from Robben to score. I can't stand him but his composure there was world class.

Have had to sub 2 players in my fantasy team already because they haven't started!

Just so everyone knows, there's no restriction on subs but if you take somebody off you can't play them for the rest of the round.

David Bentley has retired from football, and is now running restaurants in Spain.

 

The interview with him from last month is pretty hard to watch. He broke into tears, and just admitted that any love for the game he ever had is now gone. It's quite hard to imagine that could happen when it's practically the dream job, and he wasn't half bad when he first made a name for himself. Probably didn't help that he was being called "The next David Beckham" within his first couple of seasons at Blackburn. The hype that is pelted at young English players who look a little bit handy must be crippling.

The goal he scored against Arsenal in the 4-4 match was incredible.

Lee Dixon mentioned that he was English and therefore played for England, referring to the players who he claimed "pick and choose" which country they want to play for.

All of this unfolded in the company of Senegalese Patrick Viera who chose to play for France. Nice one Dixon, you prick.

Luka Modric also had a haircut and looks stupid. I want Thiago Silva to get injured so Dante is drafted in to make it the hairiest defence ever to play at the World Cup.

Little Kicks are good. To much naw material though.

What does this mean?

http://www.chips-plus.co.uk/

I've always used these guys, ring them up and see what they say.

Thanks for the advice! When you say it's better if the person has changed the valves, is that so it's 'fresher' and I could break it in more?

I'm thinking of the Vox AC15 for it's portability and price range, then I like the idea of dual speakers in the AC30. I guess you need the extra speaker because 30 watts through one amp speaker doesn't sound too... Healthy?

Nah man my hotrod deluxe is a 40 watt valve amp with a single speaker and sounds great, I've only ever owned one valve amp with a twin speaker (Marshall TSL602 combo) and sold it. Just for the record I am in no way saying that 1 speaker is better than 2; I mean that in the context of the situation I found an amp I liked better that only had one speaker, and was more suitable to the sound I was trying to achieve.

And the whole valve thing is that your amp power is driven by the valves, and that like a light bulb for example, they have a life span and will run out. Obviously the newer they are the longer this will take to happen, so if they've been replaced then it'll be ages before you have to do this yourself (certainly if they have used half decent ones anyway). If you notice a loss of volume (this will be obvious to you once you've played through the amp a fair bit) then it's likely to be a valve or multiple valves needing changed out, and if this does happen it is generally considered best practice to change the whole set despite it being rather costly, and again this will depend on the amp you go for. Although if you do decide to change the tubes individually you can recognise the duds as ones that don't light up, and under no circumstances try to change them when the amp is still hot as you'll probably kill yourself. There's a lot to consider when buying a valve amp and these are just a couple of things you have to be aware of as an owner of one. Sorry to go off on a tangent, but these are things I learned the hard way and would have appreciated to know before buying my first tube amp. The benefits are second to none though.

Lloris - Eva, Ramos, Silva - Oscar, De Bruyne, Hazard, Di Maria - Neymar, Messi, Lukaku.

 

Just don't ask to see my bench.

A lot of folk going for Lukaku. He was a bit of a bargain eh?

4-3-3...GOALS!

                     Lloris

Zabaleta, Vlaar, Mertesacker, Baines

        Pogba, Pirlo, Ramirez

Messi          Giroud          Lukaku

I thought I'd go with Giroud as he's looked pretty good in the friendlies. Don't have much quality on the bench aside from Nacir Chadli, Helder Postiga and Jean Makoun. I have recruited Sol Bamba but have decided not to start him so you all have a chance in the first game. I'll be clearing up once I get him involved.

Yeah I watched the England Honduras game the other night; also thought that England looked better after replacing Rooney/Gerrard with Wilshere/Barkley.

If Roy Hodgson is serious about challenging for the World Cup then he has to look at the players who will actually win matches, as opposed to manipulating his squad to accomodate the 'bigger' players. This Rooney playing on the left hand side is a load of pish, especially when Oxlaide Chamberlain, Sterling and Welbeck are all available. I know Barkley is still a bit raw at this level but I honestly think that he should get a start ahead of Rooney against Italy due to his level of energy. Maybe Sturridge should get dropped because of poor finishing and have Rooney play up top, but either way I think over the two friendlies Ross Barkley has done enough to show that he should be starting.

What I have suggested above will never happen though; even if Barkley was to make an impact as a substitute and essentially win the game himself he probably still wouldn't start the next match.

The snowball game and the caterpillar at the end! I remember Dadi doing that spin past Balde. That was epic, Balde had no idea what had just happened.

I was 12 years old and had never experienced atmosphere at a football match like that before. We beat them with 10 men too as Derek Whyte was red carded; the Mackie tackle on Rab Douglas was also phenomenal.

Back to current football though...I think it's a pretty bold appointment by Celtic. I look forward to seeing how they get on, and he seems like quite a likeable character which is odd for a Celtic gaffer.

Hahaha, fucking hell

I need this book.

I can't believe FRANCE SLAYER Papa Bouba Diop is in none of these teams.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/06/jimmy-bullard-small-talk-football

I can't believe he was once teabagged by Jimmy Bullard.

Dave Bus was a centre half tbf.

Was he? My memory must be going. Maybe he was that terrible that his position was unrecognisable.

If any of you get Ivory Coast in your work draw then they'll probably just hand the winnings to you as well.

John 'Budgie' Stewart, Derek Young, Chris Clark, Richard Foster, Calvin Zola, Eugene Dadi...

Are you being SERIOUS?

Dadi destroyed Celtic when we beat them 2-0 at Pittodrie to win our 9th home league game in a row. That's one of my all time favourite games at Pittodrie.

Although I agree Clark (second spell) and Foster were pish, they're nae strikers.

Now I think about it, Paul Sheerin was absolute quality when he first arrived, then turned pish.

Steven Craig was also awful.

Zerouali was pretty exciting for a while, but terribly inconsistent.

Best strikers for the Dons since 1990: Duncan Shearer/Dean Windass/Niall McGinn

Worst: Dave Bus/Laurent D'Jaffo/Leigh Hinds

I hold Miller in the same regard as Severin/Nicholson as the best signings made by Jimmy Calderwood.

I love a five-at-the-back-with-wing-backs.

 

I'd have every team play that way tbh. I've said before in the 13/14 Season Thread that I thought that before they signed Mata, United should've played that way last season. Obviously Kagawa was replaced with Mata.

 

De Gea

Ferdinand - Vidic - Evans

Rafael-------------------------------------Evra

Carrick - Fellaini

Mata

RvP - Rooney

I find it to be an odd philosophy that adding an extra defender would allow Utd to accomodate the star players in their favoured positions. The work rate of a wing back has to be exceptional though, I think Rafael would last a campaign in that position but Evra wouldn't be able to play every game like he has done for the past 8 years or so. New left back is definitely needed moving forward in any case.

EDIT: I totally agree with the above formation, my first sentence perhaps comes across as a bit cynical.