Going back to something I said earlier in this thread. It remains a mystery to me (well actually it isn't) that Carrick is preferred to Huddlestone - a player in the form of his career and who single handedly saved Spurs from oblivion in the first leg against Young Boys.

Is it better to have loved and lost than to.....blah, blah, blah........you know what I mean though. I'm sure it is hard to watch Man U catching up with your medal tally, but at least you could put on the Betamax and watch them back.

Absolutely. Eriksson was rightly castigated for sticking with players regardless of form or fitness. It was a relief to hear Capello, when he was new to the job, telling us all that he'd only pick players who were fit, playing regularly and in form.

What an absolute nonsense that turned out to be. It's the same old private members club, only with slightly different faces. If you're in, you're in - no matter how badly you're playing for your club.

It's annoying to see the media giving him an easy time over this, but crucifying him for other stuff which IMO is less important or even not entirely in his hands.

I too have championed the case of 'Big Tom', when he first came on the scene I thought he was a little bit of a luxury and didn't get around the park enough, but watching him last season you certainly can't say that anymore. If Jenas was once touted as the next big thing and Tom has knocked him into submission, surely he deserves a shot

Oh dear, looks like young Wayne has been golfing and gotten his wood out again. They're certainly going ballistic over on the MUFC board, as I'm sure Sir Alex will be if he even remotely thinks Rooney's tryst has impacted his onfield activities. Which of course is what most MUFC fans care about.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/09/04/wayne-rooney-cheats-on-pregnant-wife-coleen-with-1k-a-night-prostitute-115875-22537906/

When will they ever learn, as if a hooker is going to keep her gob shut ........still he isnt the brightest is he?..............

If the young lady kept her gob shut maybe Rooney wouldnt have hired her...lol

Very good, but true

I wonder what affect, if any this will have on his club form. It'll go one of two ways that's for sure. Why are the best players seemingly always shrowded in controversy? Messi aside, although I'm dying for his squeeky clean image to be exposed as a scam

Oh dear, looks like young Wayne has been golfing and gotten his wood out again. They're certainly going ballistic over on the MUFC board, as I'm sure Sir Alex will be if he even remotely thinks Rooney's tryst has impacted his onfield activities. Which of course is what most MUFC fans care about.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/09/04/wayne-rooney-cheats-on-pregnant-wife-coleen-with-1k-a-night-prostitute-115875-22537906/

Matty H wrote:

When will they ever learn, as if a hooker is going to keep her gob shut ........still he isnt the brightest is he?..............

future_is_orange wrote:

If the young lady kept her gob shut maybe Rooney wouldnt have hired her...lol

Gooner wrote:

I wonder what affect, if any this will have on his club form. It'll go one of two ways that's for sure. Why are the best players seemingly always shrowded in controversy? Messi aside, although I'm dying for his squeeky clean image to be exposed as a scam

SEMerc wrote:

Seems every top player is at it these days...

Terry, Lampard, A Cole, Ferdinand, Rooney, Crouch, Beckham (?), Gerrard (?)........ You could probably make an England / Prem team out of these prats

I think this could really affect Rooney i think SAF will have is work cut out from stopping Rooney hitting the self destruct button. It beggars belief that these players think they will get away with it.... they r not the ordinary Joe with a bit on the side.

This would explain his recent dip in form I guess.........I would imagine it must be difficult to give anything near 100% concentration in the knowledge it's only a matter of time before the proverbial hits the fan. Another bloke with his brains in his underpants........what a fool

Wouldnt suprise me if ends up packing his bags and ends up / punted to Reak Madrid in the near future.. No doubt Coleen will chuck him out, the fans will get on his back and his form will suffer.. unlike Terry and Cole i think Rooney will be totaly gutted on the affect his stupidity has / will have had. Agree with John above Rooney is a total fool.. the lad had everything and hes blown it.

The strange thing is though that Rooney played well on Friday night when Postman Pat - either by accident or design - decided to play him in the hole. No pun intended of course.

W R is a total muppet, it really makes you wonder what the hell goes on in their heads.......amazing

I know SEMerc likes to refer to failed signings of crap players as 'dodging a bullet', but looks like Villa will be getting one right between the eyes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/8969268.stm

Oh dear! He was a disaster for Liverpool. Yes, we won some knock-out cups - famously, that sort of treble - but the amount of money he spent at Liverpool was eye-popping. If he'd have assembled a side of galacticos that went on to dominate the League, then fair enough. But he didn't. He signed players like Diouf (£10m); Heskey (£11m); Cisse (£13m), along with a whole host of other distinctly average footballers not up to the job, who cost around the £5m mark - players like Bruno Cheyrou, Anthony Le Tallec, Florent Sinama Pongolle, Igor Biscan, Djimi Traore, Salif Diao, Bernard Diomede, Jean-Michel Ferri (to name but far too many). All left Anfield for peanuts a year or two later, their careers having tanked.

Houllier spent something like £130m on players, and brought in just £48m (£11m of which was for Fowler - oh, how we loved Peter Ridsdale!). His net spend was, IIRC, worse than Benitez' - and at a time before Chavski's millions distorted the transfer market so much.

He's most recently been technical director of the French national team. Hardly something to highlight on one's CV, given recent matters.

I cannot understand Lerner's thinking. Houllier uses a scattergun approach to signing good players - buy 20 at inflated prices and he might unearth a couple of gems.

I forsee a short reign and a stormy exit.

Someone (on another board), in passing,  posted Kenny Dalglish's transfer business when he was at Newcastle. Absolutely mindblowing in its mediocrity.

Judging by that lot, there's little doubt Newcastle were a selling club at that time. But boy, when Dalglish did shell out, he certainly picked some pups. Step forward 'Stephanie' Guivarc'h.

IN:

Jan 1997 Olof Hellberg DEF Club TBC Trial
Mar 1997 Des Hamilton MID Bradford City £2,000,000
Mar 1997 Bjarni Gudjonsson FWD IA Akranes £250,000
Apr 1997 Paul Brayson FWD Swansea Loan ended
Apr 1997 Paul Brayson FWD Swansea Loan ended
Apr 1997 Stuart Elliott MID Hull City Loan ended
Jun 1997 Paddy Kelly MID Celtic Free
Jun 1997 Shay Given GKR Blackburn £1,500,000
Jun 1997 Temuri Ketsbaia MID AEKHeerenveen £2,500,000 Athens Free
Jul 1997 Jon Dahl Tomasson FWD
Jul 1997 Stuart Pearce DEF Nottingham Forest Free
Jul 1997 Alessandro Pistone DEF Inter Milan £4,500,000
Jul 1997 Brian Pinas MID Feyenoord Free
Aug 1997 John Barnes MID Liverpool Free
Aug 1997 Ian Rush FWD Leeds United Free
Oct 1997 Carlos Gonzalez FWD Sydney Olympic Free
Nov 1997 Ralf Keidel MID Schweinfurt Free
Nov 1997 Paul Dalglish FWD Liverpool Free
Jan 1998 David Terrier DEF Unattached (West Ham) Free
Jan 1998 Andreas Andersson FWD AC Milan £3,000,000
Jan 1998 Andy Griffin DEF Stoke City £1,500,000
Feb 1998 Gary Speed MID Everton £5,500,000
Feb 1998 Stuart Elliott DEF Swindon Loan ended
Mar 1998 Jimmy Crawford MID Dundee United Loan ended
Mar 1998 Jamie Coppinger FWD Darlington £250,000
Mar 1998 Paul Robinson FWD Darlington £250,000
Mar 1998 Stephen Glass MID Aberdeen £650,000
Mar 1998 Nicos Dabizas DEF Olympiakos £2,000,000
Jun 1998 George Georgiadis MID Panathanaikos £500,000
Jun 1998 Lionel Perez GKR Sunderland Free
Jun 1998 Stephane Guivarc'h FWD Auxerre £3,500,000
Jul 1998 Carl Serrant DEF Oldham £500,000 Jul 1998 Garry Brady MID Tottenham £650,000
Jul 1998 Laurent Charvet DEF Cannes £750,000
Aug 1998 Dietmar Hamann MID Bayern Munich £4,500,000
Aug 1998 Nolberto Solano MID Boca Juniors £2,500,000

Out:
Jan 1997 Paul Brayson FWD Swansea Loan
Jan 1997 Paul Kitson DEF West Ham £2,300,000
Jan 1997 Olof Hellberg DEF Club TBC Trial Ended
Feb 1997 Stuart Elliott DEF Hull City Loan
Jun 1997 Lee Clark MID Sunderland £2,500,000
Jul 1997 Robbie Elliott DEF Bolton £3,500,000
Jul 1997 David Ginola MID Tottenham £2,000,000
Jul 1997 Les Ferdinand FWD Tottenham £6,000,000
Aug 1997 Peter Beardsley FWD Bolton £450,000
Jan 1998 Tino Asprilla FWD Parma £6,000,000
Feb 1998 Jimmy Crawford MID Dundee United Loan
Feb 1998 Stuart Elliott DEF Swindon Loan
Feb 1998 John Beresford DEF Southampton £1,500,000
Mar 1998 Jimmy Crawford MID Reading £100,000
Mar 1998 Paul Brayson FWD Reading Free
May 1998 Brian Pinas MID Feyenoord £200,000
May 1998 Ian Rush FWD Wrexham Free
May 1998 Carlos Gonzalez FWD Packed In Released
Jun 1998 Jon Dahl Tomasson FWD Feyenoord £2,500,000
Jul 1998 Darren Peacock DEF Blackburn £100,000
Jul 1998 Shaka Hislop GKR West Ham Free
Jul 1998 Pavel Srnicek GKR Banik Ostrava Free

It was no great shakes at Liverpool, either - especially once he began to have to replace the stalwarts of Paisley's reign. For years I've questioned Dalglish's managerial legacy at Liverpool. IMO, it was under his reign that the rot began to set in. Saying that, any criticism of 'King Kenny' is tantamount to treason in Liverpool.

Looking at the Newcastle figures I think there's a net loss of around GBP8m - a lot by today's standards. More's the point, he did buy some dross.

Persie out until October.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/8954958.stm

TBH it's more newsworthy when he's fit to play. Surely Arsenal can't keep going with this liability much longer.

I said this at work the other week, I suggested Wenger should off load him. Agreed he is a liability

Should add I got shot down in flames for the comment as well

Thats a shocker, blimey

Gooners struggling for strikers - have to wrap Chamakh in cotton wool now!

I was talking to a season ticket holder earlier about this, and he didn't seem to think it was a good idea either.

Maybe he will a change his mind at the end of the season, a world class player is no good to anyone if he only ends up playing 15 games a season

Unsurprisingly Rooney has been left out of Man U's clash with Everton today.........