Please Mr McClaren...

Wednesday, October 11, 2006
...don't play Frank Lampard again until he rediscovers his form for Chelsea. He brings nothing to the England team at the moment, except a lack of ambition in midfield and a stream of mis-placed passes. Also, just because Peter Crouch's England career started well, that doesn't necessarily mean that he is not technically good enough to compete against well-organised defences.

Use a player with a bit of pace, strength and someone who can drive into the box ahead of Rooney and his passes. Darren Bent or Andy Johnson when he's fit (the latter admittedly was in your plans).

Oh and what the hell was the 3-5-2 formation about?

"Pot", "Kettle", "Black"

Thursday, October 05, 2006
Most football fans are more than slightly fed up with Chelsea, their transfer dealings and endless supply of cash, but when Real Madrid accuse the Blues over-inflating transfer fees for other European clubs with their spending power, you feel that Chelsea are being unfairly targetted.

After all Real are the team that spent a then record £38.7 million on Luis Figo in 2000 which was soon to be broken by the €66 million spent on Zidane, which in turn was followed by approximately €39 million for Ronaldo. And I haven't even come to the money used to buy David Beckham, Walter Samuel, Sergio Ramos, Michael Owen, Robinho and Julio Baptista.