Im expecting city to finish mid table , i hope im wrong and we do get promoted again .

I believe there is one mitigating factor in Barcelona’s well-publicized campaign to re-acquire Fabregas. Barcelona, unlike a lot of teams (Inter Milan comes to mind), actually tries to stack their squad with players who come from Spain, or even more specifically, the Catalonia region. I think that is a laudable thing. Barcelona, being “more than a team”, truly does try to develop a squad which can take pride in being a representation of its actual geographical location. Accordingly, its La Masia training school is filled with local talent whom Barcelona spends years working to groom into the quality talented teams we see on the pitch of Camp Nou. Fabregas was one such player. Thus, it makes sense to me, given Barcelona’s desire to field Catelonian players, and given the investment they put into Fabregas’ development while at La Masia, that Barcelona would really make a strong effort to secure Fabregas when they are looking to reinforce their squad at the forward mid-field position.

I do feel we still need an experienced CB id Campbell leaves and a new GK. Outside of that I think we have enough to compete with Man Utd and Chelsea, who in my view have not improved o last season at all. Man City could be a threat of course, but I still think they are just a band of journey men who will crumble when the heat is really on. Spurs will find it difficult to balance CL and EPL. As a result I think they will lose that top 4 spot to either City or Pool.

People love to predict Arsenal will drop out of the top 4 every year….and yet every year we prove a point. We not only get top 4 but usually challenge. I can see us going that little bit closer this year.

Who know’s though. There is a very fine line between having a great season and actually becoming champions. We will need our luck with injuries and some big decisions.

I like the idea of the no points for a 0-0 tie rule too.

The aussies have this one last chance to show the world how Australian Football has evolved.

Im sorry to say that this is the last world cup australia will compete in for a long time as the quality of young players is a worry.

“May the Gods keep the wolves in the hills and the women in our beds!”

We still have some of them, but they’re not as common as a few decades ago when all the players were here.

The 90s were terrible for Brazilian football. Not only on the pitch, but also in the federations. Some teams that were supposed to be relegated didn’t go to the second division and that just diminishes the Brazilian football.

Without the great players and the good credibility, the fans lost interest in the league.

And when you don’t have good players, increasing prices keeps the fans away from the stadium.

By the way, Inter already have more than 100,000 registered members.

If the point is to create a level playing field by eradicating the ridiculous levels of debt, then I can agree with this.

It is one thing to “buy” a trophy, and quite another to borrow enough to buy a trophy, and then default on the borrowings.

Year after year, Abramovich writes off the Chelsea debt, using his own money, and though it puts the rest of us at a disadvantage, it’s not for me to say how he should spend his money.

By the same token, I don’t believe that Platini should interfere if this is the real issue he dislikes. Otherwise, we are effectively bringing a form of socialism into football. What do we next to equlise the playing field? Insist that teams field mputees?

If I was you, go put a bet on Spurs to be out of europe by the second week of the season, never mind quarter final!

If Liverpool get the right owners then our return to the top 4 will be swift. Arsenal are the club who should be worried long-term as they are a similar size and fanbase to Spurs

Further saying that “ they rightly saw the need to move” etc… what a pile of poo…. Research shyster No 1 Hicks and read about his “ Brazil Corinthians” debacle and you will see a strange parallel to the lies and false promises as to ourselves. As for a spade in the ground within 60 days; over 1,000 days later and all there is is a fence around the bit of the park that they’ve trashed, and millions of OUR money spent on reviews, revisions, new plans, etc etc just to spin us all along and hide the fact that have not got the will or the money to invest in the club, as they promised!

Hard facts: When they took over our debt was about £40 million, it now stands at somewhere in the region of £240 million, although there are concerns that it’s significantly more than this due to “accounting practices”.

The sooner these 2 slime balls crawl back under their stones that they came from with their spawn, the better!

Many international youth academies focus just as much on education as footballing talent, the UK seem to have fallen behind in this ethos but the recent initiatives put in place will hopefully change that for the stars (and the “almost made its”) of the future.

Many youngsters (myself included) dreamt of fame and fortune in the footballing world but a lot can be said for plying your trade as a QS behind a desk……ahem

Thank you for making everything so clear, without saying anything substantive or externally verifiable. That is the power of opinion.

Fla-Flu shares the amount of tradition and passion that any UK derby does and truely is one of the ‘great’ world derbies. Great text.

The Premier League have some strange rules in place, and they only seem to apply them to the teams lower down in the division. A clear example of this is Tevez playing at Man Utd for 2 seasons on the same conditions as at West Ham, but the Premier League gave them approval.

I agree with you that Man Utd fielded a weak side against the Hammers during “that” season, but lets not forget Fulham only stayed up thanks to a win against half a Liverpool side a week or so earlier.

I do not believe West Ham have submitted this claim to shift the blame from the poor on field performances (Zola not being aware of this is a clear indicator), they have submitted it as Fulham are suing them for £500K of lost Premier League earnings. Its a you sue us, we’ll sue you, scenario and (unfortunately) I feel its in preparation for a £50m claim should we get relegated.

As a West Ham fan I do not feel we have any “right” to stay in the league, and if we go down this season we deserve it because of our poor performances rather than what other teams did.

Should the Irons go down, I hope we do it with some dignity, and not continue the Sheffield Utd style “its not our fault” finger pointing. If they dont, relegated teams suing other teams and even officials could become common place in our beloved game.

It is blatantly obvious later in your article that you have a dislike of West Ham & i could feel you getting angrier & angrier as if you was ready to explode

Then you go on to say West Ham have form for this having crowed that we were too good to go down in 2002-2003, how do you know this did you do a poll that season outside the stadium lol

You end it with accusing West Ham supporters of claimimg that we have England’s academy, while we do say tongue in cheek that “we won the world cup” i have never heard any supporter saying we had England’s academy…in saying that we do have an academy to be proud of in recent years thanks to the brilliant job done by Tony Carr & i don’t think even with your bias you could disagree with that

I am a West Ham fan and I agree, West Ham need to stop moaning and get on with the rest of the season. If they don’t get enough points they will go down.

However, as Liam Barnes knows full well, West Ham DID NOT get fined £25M. They got fined £5.5M and settled with Sheff Utd for the balance.

There is no precedence for a points deduction for West Ham and the breach of the rules was regarding 3rd party involvement of the two Argentines. It has been confirmed that a) West Ham did not cheat and b) the players were not illegal signings.

Get your facts right mate. Man Utd in the last game of the season did rest a few players, as did Sheff Utd at Old Trafford towards the end of the season. As you well know, West Ham were battered that day, but somehow won. Sheff Utd were relegated because they had a poor team and a poor manager whose form collapsed at the end of the season.

Perhaps the author would like to come to Upton park and have a frank discussion with the WH supporters?

The Tevez affair is long gone, get over it.

It seems as though you are intent on attacking West Ham and are hiding your dislike behind a one-sided, baseless opinion. For a start you could try re-writing this article without the following words and phrases; ‘crowed’, ’self-important’, ‘arrogance, ‘deluded’, etc. Would Fulham have been such “a well-run club built on solid foundations and with a bright manager taking the Cottagers to the cathedrals of European football against the odds” if they had not taken advantage of Liverpool fielding a weakened team at the end of the same season West Ham ‘cheated’?

West Ham’s problems are of their own making, on and off the pitch, as are Sheffield United, Hull, Burnley and Portsmouth’s issues. Maybe Fulham should remember that during the good times however long they last.

To be fair, I think Japan will have a tough time of it. The only occasion where they have been able to reach the round of 16 at a World Cup was when they co-hosted it. The support at home was absolutely massive and has to have had a great impact on them.

They lack a genuine goal scorer, and their athleticism is nowhere near the likes of their European cohorts. I’m afraid that without a pointier end to their attack, it’s going to be another disappointment for Blue Samurai fans, although I dare say I’ll give it a better analysis when the World Cup rosters are announced.

O’Neill’s decision to pick the same team week in, week out is the reason for any slump.

They are minor premiers:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/coricas-men-exultant-as-newly-crowned-minor-premiers-prove-their-bigmatch-temperament-20100214-nzjb.html

Japan are good enough to make an impact at the World Cup, but lack of playing against teams outside Asia could cost them imo.