what the hell happened to that guy? he was amazing, as i recall. now he’s barely 30 and going downhill so fast? how is he ever gonna make it to 40 at this rate?

There's been question marks about Hart for years now. Adrian absolutely deserved the place and he must've made it his to lose now.

Couldn't fault WH, for the performance as much as the result. It started against Man City (where even they must admit they got lucky) and now this. From a purely footballing perspective I'm feeling positive but until we get new owners I can't see us moving forward in any real way. But this season's all about survival and today showed there is some fight there, and with Moyes someone with a bit of tactical know-how.

did he turn out to be all speed and reflexes but no brains?

anyway a bit late for this now tired meme but hahaha

“the group of death”

He's a confidence keeper who's confidence is shot and sometimes tries to cover that up with acts of bravado. I don't rate him anywhere near as highly now as I used to. I don't know how much you've seen of DeGea recently but he has to be a contender for world #1 right now. Incredible keeper.

On the subject of number ones, Ronaldo wins the B'allon d'or. Equalling Messi's record of 5. While I'll always be for Messi, I sort of hope neither win another one so at least in that measure they can go into the record books as equals. Not sure who's in a position to seriously challenge them yet, though: Neymar? DeBruyne?

Oh and in case the world has forgotten, West Ham beat Chelsea yesterday.

ronaldo, that son of a bitch. he’s really great though.

man, speaking of bravado, i am sure missing the hell out of this sport in spite of my outward stoicism.

“hopefully” (as they say) i’ll be all set for the world cup.

btw, saw a trailer for a vin diesel movie recently and neymar was in it ha hah a. he doing ok at psg?

I've not heard anything about PSG so I assume all's well. I really don't want him to win a ballon d'or though.

I'm pretty much wrapped up in the prem this season. West Ham are in too precarious a position to concentrate on much else. For the neutral though, it's been worth watching just to see MC evolve into something pretty brilliant. We all agree Pep has his faults but when he gets it right it's a thing to behold. Debruyne and Silva are playing some next-level football right now.

Meanwhile what about old Everton, now sitting comfortably in mid table. Whatever I might think about Allardyce I can see him getting the best out of Rooney, who I can see being locked quite lucratively into Allardyce's trademark Kevin Nolan role. And Calvert Lewin seems ideal for whenever Sam goes long.

West Ham are starting to beef up under Moyes , the one thing I haven't been able to say about them for years, even during the Allardyce years. But I'm really wary of reading too much into the MC and Chelsea performances. That was back to the wall stuff, totally focused on defence. I'll have to wait and see how we do against teams that we'll be expected to chase. The match against Stoke will say more about where WH really are in terms of progress. But if the game against MC gave me a hint of optimism, the Chelsea win has given me a little bit of confidence.

Agreed with the Ballo d'or and wanting to keep it just at 5 each. Besides, already we can see neither of them are having vintage years and that there are more consistent players out there. Honestly, as much as I hate the idea, if PSG win the champions league and Neymar gets to the final with Brazil then they'll give it him. *through gritted teeth* "it's a damn popularity contest with you kids"

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW!!

Juventus v Tottenham
Basel v Manchester City
Porto v Liverpool
Sevilla v Manchester United
Real Madrid v Paris Saint-Germain
Shakhtar Donetsk v Roma
Chelsea v Barcelona
Bayern Munich v Besiktas

What a draw that is. Some potentially great games there!

Lothar Matthäus says that Chile will be the country that he will miss the most in the World Cup in Russia

(That's the Google translation; original article in Spanish here.)

I'm getting to the point where I'm gutted if I miss either a live game or MOTD when Man City play.

I feel like I could bang on and on about how great it is to watch them play. I know symbols has some weird desire to see him fail, but what he's done for that team is something else. Honestly, in football terms he's an absolute genius. Whilst we've seen what he did for Barcelona and (to a lesser extent) Bayern, this just confirms what we already knew the.

ha ha ha, come on, no. it’s not like that... exactly

when it works, pep can make teams levitate off the ground and it’s a wonder to witness.

i’ll never forget the 7-0 they inflicted upon roma in the champions. it was pure wizardry.

i don’t know what he’s doing these days, but in bayern he was too much the idealist. he forced players out of position and sometimes it was great but sometimes it was terrible.

his use of neuer as the ultimate sweeper keeper was genius.

that genius was used to cover a vulnerable defense. a vulnerability in part created by his insistence in moving lahm to the midfield.

so bayern fell to fast counters once and again and again and he did nothing to make up for that except double down on his gamble and fail worse and get punked repeatedly.

not in the bundesliga where winning had become trivial at that point, given the collapse of dortmund and the pilfering of wolfsburg (they had the great debruyne and he was taken and the team collapsed) . but in the champions where it mattered most.

bayern was supposed to rule the champions and oooops! no. his soft underbelly was exposed and cut open.

i don’t know what he’s doing in the prem except for your reports, and i don’t know if he’s learned from past mistakes and evolved something else, so i can’t say i wish him ill.

i don’t have a problem with the guy or his ideals—only with the hubris and tyranny that come with it. he’s great, until he isn’t. do i make sense or am i just rambling incoherently? please tell me ha ha ha.

you got me curious and went reading and holy shit

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42381736

he’s turned the prem into the bundesliga :D

I completely agree. I get the same excitement watching MC this season that I got seeing Barcelona at their peak. I had my doubts about Pep last season but I was wrong. What he's done to players like De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling, Sane, Stones, etc, is nothing short of miraculous.

Meanwhile ...



Ya beauty

Ah man, real glad he's made the turn around you needed. Liked Arnautovic's baiting of Stoke yesterday too.

Yeah, so far I couldn't ask for more! He seems to have brought the best out of Arnie and actually given us a bit of grit - something WH have never been associated with, even during their better periods.

How are you finding Big Sam?

is that that moyes guy? face looks familiar

wait wasn’t he the one took over man u after fergie left? lol pieces starting to come back together.

congrats on the lucky turn at the musical chairs!

The Moyessiah to you, son.

haa haa ha haa!

fine. but i have no dog in that fight!

Here he is, already thinking about strengthening in January.

Haha! Messi can't even look him in the eye he's that enamoured with him.

Aye, Big Sam is doing what he does, isn't he? Thing is, like at West Ham it'll be the same situation. Nice lovely relationship, then as time goes on the dull games begin to grate etc. etc.
It'll be interesting to see what the board decide after the season is over.

In other news, all is forgotten from Liverpool's two drab draws where they couldn't break down defences. Now Klopp is a genius again and the team are world beaters. It's actually incredible how short peoples memories are.

In a way you'd be better off him keeping you safe but no more, in case the board are tempted to extend his contract. He'll hopefully do a job for you but you don't wanna see him start to build a team in his image.

As for Liverpool, yeah. They're obviously great going forward but that defence will always let them down in the big games.

Anyway, Everton Swansea in a minute. You should get past them.

thats what i said! ��

I don't see anyone making outrageous claims about Pep. Right now he has MC playing really well. Of course injuries to key players would have an impact and of course no success is indefinite. And we know that sometimes his eccentricities can back-fire. I disagree about there being some kind of pattern to him being found out, though, or any kind of inevitability to it. It's not like his ideas are a secret. His overall record, though, shows that knowing what he does and stopping it are usually two different things. Sure, weaker teams can park the proverbial bus and hope for the best, and sometimes it'll work, or they might simply face a better team, with better individual players. But isn't that just how the game works? Right now he probably has the best crop of players in the Prem but maybe not when you look at the top end of Europe, where they may still come unstuck. We'll have to see. In the meantime, just enjoy them for what they're doing.

So the Guardian's doing its annual top 100 thingy

100-11 so far

https://www.theguardian.com/football...17-interactive

The usual silliness. I mean everyone loves Buffon but a better keeper in 2017 than De Gea? And who's actually watching these players if David Silva can rank lower than Dele Alli?

Ha! I've not even bothered looking cos I know they're picking them out of a hat.

The top ten will be interesting that's for sure.

Top 10 finally revealed:

1. Messi
2. Ronaldo
3. Neymar
4. De Bruyne
5. Kane
6. Modric
7. Lewandowski
8. Mbappe
9. Kroos
10. Hazard

The usual suspects. Really hoping this year is the end of the Ronaldo/Messi duopoly.

All ready for the MEGA intense premier league Christmas? I do wonder what it must be like for players coming from Germany when they get to Christmas. "Wanting a Christmas holiday? No chance. You're gonna work EVEN HARDER!"

FUUUUUUUUKKK instead of quote and reply i edited my original email!

now i can’t reconstruct what i said

im fucking drunk ha ha ha

i mean my original post. o well. there’s that.

i need sleep

And again last night. Deja vu all over again.

Last night's game was nuts. Two weirdly dysfunctional teams in a weird dysfunctionality pissing contest.

Also, something that really irritates me about West Ham fans. I watch a lot of fan podcasts and they were all really down on Moyes in the week for obviously prioritising today's league game against Newcastle over the Arsenal cup game in the week. This obsession with cup runs, which I appreciate have been the clubs only route to any glory in the past, and probably ever. Thing is, even after some really encouraging results/performances, they're still in a relegation battle and probably will be till the end of the season. Moyes wasn't brought in to get us trophies, but to keep us in the prem, end of. West Ham fans can be amongst the most deluded out there sometimes.

As today has shown.

Thing is, present company excepted, I fucking hate West Ham fans for that exact reason. I mean, the way you hear some of them talk you'd think they're meant to be in the Champions League every year without fail.

So Barca battered Real today. Zidane really should have left after the last Champions League win knowing he'd never be able to top that. Now the problem is that there's an ageing squad there that needs a massive overhaul.

I dunno about the CL bit, but yeah, it doesn't take much for some to start deluding themselves. Saying that, the majority I know, who aren't talking on these fancasts, or to the media, have a far more realistic view of the situation. Essentially WH are club that's probably a bit too good for the Championship but can never really get a firm foothold in the Prem. Hence the regular yo-yoing between the two divisions.

There you have it. Van Dijk goes for £70mill to Liverpool and monopoly money gets even more ridiculous. Absolutely mental. I reckon you could buy BOTH Bonnuci and Thiago Silva for that money. The funny thing is (if the rumours are to believed) that they're having to sell Coutinho to do it. Good thinking there.

Dude, just what in all that is F was up with Rafa Benítez's "strategy" vs Manchester City yesterday. Anti-fútbol that shit was. Lock him up.

ha ha. just read. bilardismo lives!

pincharratas of the world unite xD

The price is obviously inflated but I think he'll improve Liverpool and, if he does, the money will become irrelevant. But he isn't a 1 man solution. They'll need further reinforcements if they're to become real title challengers. It's a step in the right direction, though.

We'll have to see how the transfer reflects more generally on prices. Personally I accept that top players now go for silly money but what I hate is when average players go for a fortune, too. Van Dijk isn't worth 75m but I can understand why a team like Liverpool would pay it. West Ham are looking at Swansea defender Alfie Mawson, who's being priced at 40m. That's just obscene.

Suarez back to Anfield? :eek: !?!

He can compare racist insults with Firminho.

Seriously though, I'd fucking love seeing him back in the Prem.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/fo...ransfer-gossip

ha ha ha!

klopp 4 guardiola 3

yeeeeeessssss ��

(of course i couldn’t see it so joke’s on me)