Greenback

It isn't entirely clear that she broke the law in the first place... Anyway, silly moral relativism aside, it is pertinent to the issue to state that the Islamic law being put into practice here is more of a mental illness than a system of government.

Pretty easy to comment from way up on that high horse. She had a classroom assistant with her to guide her through the minefield of cultural difficulties - an assistant who approved the childrens' decision to name the bear Mohammad. It is a preposterous case, brought about by a preposterous government which is in tow to a preposterous form of 'law'. Heaven help us that some people in civilised countires want Sharia intoduced. Barmy.

Can hardly believe that a manager as careful as Rafa has taken such a massive gamble on Torres. He is a talented player, but a big fish in a little pond at Athletico. It will take Torres a long time to adjust to the Premiership and as a still-young man it's how he deals mentally with the inevitable bad times that will decided whether he's a success or not.

Another 'glorious' failure. Couldn't close out a 1-0 lead because they couldn't keep the ball. Reo-Coker and Noble worked hard and credit to them for that. But... When will we learn to produce players who can hold on to the ball and control it in tight areas with one touch to keep possession and dictate a tempo? Almost every other nation in the WORLD impresses such vital skills into its youngsters, yet despite the obscene money sloshing around in the Premiership it is beyond us to do the same. It was painful to watch at times last night. Where is the class? Will it ever arrive?

Interesting only one person picks Peter Crouch... the most under-appreciated footballer in the country. IMO head-down-and-run merchants like Andy Johnson and Darren Bent shouldn't be anywhere near the England side. They've been proven to be short on class.

If I were Rafa (!) I'd go for Diego Milito over Torres. When your club has been mortgaged to the hilt you'd better watch those pennies.. Interesting that, for some unknown reason, a carthorse like Darren Bent is bein touted at £18million as opposed to Torres' £15million. As for Trezeguet, I'd have thought his best days were behind him.

If you had seen it, you'd think differently They were abysmal — very poor skills, no cohesion, no movement. We keep getting told about the great crop of youngsters we have. They don't exist. They are rubbish. Chris Waddle was on the radio last night talking more sense than I've heard from anyone in a long while about the miserable state of youth coaching in this country. We don't breed footballers, we breed running machines who are told to get it, then give it, and get back into position. Then it comes to matchday and they are asked to dribble the ball — poor lads can't do it. I've seen it myself. Skilful, exuberant young kids go to professional clubs and are made bigger and stronger, developing an unwillingness to produce something out of the ordinary on the ball. Winning games is everything and individual development is a secondary concern. In my view there should be no competitive youth football up to the age of 14. It is ruining potentially skilful players. The only ones who seem to emerge unscathed through our system in recent times, in terms of skills, are the bloody-minded (Bentley, Rooney), the dedicated (Beckham), the freaks (Joe Cole, Gazza) or the ones who missed out on coaching altogether (Waddle).

No, but Gerrard is over-rated and, as mikebayly says, goes missing a lot. There's a reason a coach as astute as Rafa Benitez is reluctant to play him in the middle of the field - he's frequently on the fringe of games. He can shoot though.

Ashley Cole? He's not even the best left-back at Chelsea, though I conceded he's a legend in his own mind!

We just won 3-0. Anyway, all the talk of the manager being usless is a smokescreen, designed to mask the fact that our much hyped 'GLOBAL SUPERSTARS' aren't actually that good at all. How come nobody ever talks about the real reason England always failt to get past the quarter-finals — the lack of technique and players who are comfortable in possession?

Premiership footballers pay tax like the rest of us, only more so than most because they earn more. What motive to pick on them for a public shaming session, other than the fact that millions (including me) are jealous of their wage packet? There's no moral point being made here at all. Thousands of footballers do loads of community and charity work, the majority of which is unseen. The project may have raised some significant cash but to me it seems disingenuous.

That'll be the famous Scouse siege mentality then, will it? It was just the fact that Kuyt was hyped for so long and so much speculation surrounded him going to this team and that before Liverpool signed him — and he turned out to be not that great at all.

I'm sure $tevie MBE Gerrard regards the financial 'achievement' as the biggie amongst that lot. Especially seeing as he was anonymous in the Champions' League final, just as he has been all year, just as he has been throughout his depressingly ordinary England career. Goals against teams of milkmen don't quite cut it for me, no matter how extravagant the look-at-me-and-my-MBE celebration happens to be. Still, Frank Lampard eh? Boo, etc etc.

The world's best talent won't be going anywhere if they aren't paid for by the stolen wealth of Russian peasants. Manchester United can't afford to buy established talent with their crippling debt repayments, ditto Liverpool. Arsenal are still paying for their stadium. It will be a fairly quiet summer, unless you buy into the tabloid hype and start extolling crushingly average players like, say, Dirk Kuyt as "big" signings...

James Essien Shorey Vidic Lescott Bentley Carrick Lampard Ronaldo McCarthy Drogba Subs: Jaaskelainen Carvalho Arteta Berbatov Crouch