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Liverpool Have Acted Grotesquely
Am I the only one who things it is grotesque that Liverpool have been allowed to court Gareth Barry all summer long - clearly unsettling the player, before it seems, finally deciding that they cannot afford him and instead will go after Robbie Keane.

If Rafa's transfer policy depended upon selling people such as Alonso first surely he should have got that done before publicly tapping up Barry et al. As a result of his complete incompetence he has upset a club and a player and left both with nowhere to go. It is also nice to see he has now turned his attentions to Robbie Keane - lets see how this one turns out.

There is of course one other possible thought on this, Rafa has decided that he cannot beat his rivals on the pitch so he will instead destabilise the clubs from within, starting with Villa, then Spurs, expect a public statement any day now regarding Blackburn and how much he wants to pair up Santa Cruz, quickly followed by protestations of love for Arteta and how the missing link was always Lescott.

It is about time the FA told these managers to either put in a transfer offer and if the club says no that's it or threatens them with action. Even though I would like to see Berbatov at Man Utd if we have made an offer and Spurs say no that's it - end of story. Clubs complain about lack of loyalty and player power but they are all hypocrites and whenever it suits them they try to envoke player protest etc to force moves - nonsense the lot if it!
Jan de Clare


Let's See If They Bite
Is it just me or have Liverpool given up the fight for the Premiership before the season has already started and concentrating on the battle for forth place? I reckon they don't even want Barry or Keane but are just trying to unsettle their main challengers for forth place next season by sending out reports saying that they want to sign their captains. Nice ploy!
Darren Spring


Laughing At Barry
On hearing the news of Liverpool cooling their interest in Barry, his snub by Martin O'Neill and his foot injury. Can I be the first to say Bwahahahahaha. That my disloyal friend is called come-uppance. It has made my day, now lets keep his valuation at 18mil so nobody will buy him and let him rot in the reserves, then maybe let him be a squad player if we get some injuries. The fact our owner is a billionaire means we don't need any money and I would be far happier seeing him rot for his actions. So for once a greedy footballer gets what he deserves.

Also a note to the "Big 3" and Liverpool, poaching our players is not easy even with underhanded tactics. So please note when Ashley Young plays awesome again this season.
Conor (still laughing) Byrne, AVFC


Does Rafa Have A Plan B?
One of the most boring transfer sagas last year was the Heinze to Liverpool story. In the end Rafa didn't get his man and (like his team on the pitch) there was no Plan B in place.

Fast forward one year and we see the ridiculous Garry Barry melodrama.

So Rafa, what are you going to do if you don't get him?
Andy G, Cheshire Chelsea


Arsenal Now Have Plenty To Spend
So far, with the hype surrounding Ronaldo, Lampard, Adebayor and Barry, the biggest transfer story of the summer is Alex Hleb. F**king typical. I've been waiting for three years for him to finish something and it's actually only in his departure that he makes any sort of impression. I've just had a look at Nasri on YouTube, essentially he is the French Hleb, incredible close control, a lot of blind alleys and not a barn door troubled in sight. Ace.

Anyway, would people stop saying we're skint. We had £25 million to spend this summer, have spent £17 million of it on Ramsey and Nasri and are about to recoup about £13 million for Hleb and Gilberto. Thus leaving us with £21 million, which is one Gareth Barry/Xabi Alonso and a £3/6 million defender.

I might be naïve but I don't really see how this £25 million annual debt repayment is hamstringing us more than anyone else. Our stadium generates £90 million of matchday revenue, Lord only knows what we get in television money, there's probably a nice chunk of sponsorship/advertising revenue and then we have Highbury Square, where less than 10% of the flats are left and they start at £345,000!

Adebayor was mouthing off, his agent was being a total dick and the Arse were considering cashing in on a striker who has had one very good season. Just because you're considering selling your centre forward doesn't mean you're desperate for cash. Besides, why, if we were, would we stump up £5 million up front for Ramsey and remain one of the only Premiership clubs not dicking around the US/Far East (let's face it, the annual jaunt to Austria ain't exactly a commercial exercise is it?)?

Wenger will make at least one more signing this summer, and it'll probably be the central midfielder we need. Who knows, if the right player comes along we might even see another defender sign too. Some Arsenal fans might think we need to sign Berbatov, Arshavin etc. but we'll strengthen where we need to, our players will be another year older, we have exciting young players like Walcott, Vela and Ramsey and we'll be a match for anyone on our day (fitness permitting).
Will O'Doherty


Never Forgiving Hleb For Replacing Pires
So at long last it's goodbye to Alex Hleb as he leaves the hubbub of North London for the rural paradise that is Barcelona. Undoubtedly a talented player, though his goal tally would suggest otherwise, I'm not sorry to see him go but perhaps for a different reason to others.

I have never been quite able to forget that in the Champions League Final of 2006, when Jens Lehmann was sent off against Barca, Alex was left on the pitch. Meanwhile, perhaps the most under-rated player of the last decade, Robert Pires, was taken off to allow Manuel Almunia to come on in goal.

I firmly believe that if Le Bob had been left on the pitch (a) we would have won the darned match and (b) Le Bob would not have subsequently left Arsenal for Villarreal. Of course, I know that the substitution was not Hleb's decision but somehow I just can't help holding him partially responsible (for being in the team in the first place if nothing else).
Carolyn, (over-excited) South London Gooner (as only two days until our first pre-season friendly)


Good Riddance!
Helb joined us 3 seasons ago.

3 seasons ago we stopped winning things.

Helb is gone.

Come on!
Matt (Still liked him in our team though) Wright, Gunner in Aus


That's The Spirit!
I totally agree with Mark Hughes when he states that Man City deserve to be complimented for their attempts to sign everyones favourite crazy toothed maestro, Ronaldinho.

May I also just add that I've been attempting to sink my balls into Kelly Brook via a continued campaign of saucy letters and soiled underwear over the last few years so any compliments I'm due on that score could you kindly send them my way.
Robert Melia


What's The Difference?
...between Wayne Bridge and Ole "3 minute run out" Solskjaer?

One had no ambition, wasn't good enough to be a starting player but had no guilt about picking up his wage packet every week, the other one is English.
Spic


...According to Simon Habba, Wayne (bench warmer) Bridge has shown the same loyalty as OGS and should be commended..

However I would point out that even during the two seasons OGS was out with his legs in plaster, he probably started more games than the bench warmer. Throughout his fit years he contributed enough goals per season to make him top scorer for most premiership clubs, and made other irrelevent contributions such as scoring last minute winners against the scousers in the FA cup, 4 goals in the last 20 mins against Forest, countless last gasp winners - oh and the winning goal in the European cup final.

Bridge on the otherhand could regularly be seen competing for the most comfortable bench spot and hot water bottle with Winston Bogarde!!

I am sorry to say, Bridge is a prime example of a lazy a*re good time charlie happy to take his millions each year for doing next to s*d all!
Richard, Manchester


A Proper Comparison
To all those defending Wayne Bridge and comparing him to an office worker, its not the same. Of course if I was asked to sit on the bench / do less work for more money then I'd do it, but your not comparing the right things.

Bridge is probably already set for life and knows wherever he goes next he will be paid fantastically. He does not have to worry about making ends meet or think about what a wage increase will bring. The next few years are his prime and all he should think about is football. If he believes that staying at Chelsea is best from a football point of view then fair enough, but most people don't believe that.

Of course its hard to imagine being in his situation, of being able to not worry about money only what you enjoy. If given the option between a highly paid job I didn't like or one for less that I did, with both being enough for me to live on extremely comfortably, I'd go with enjoyment.
Chris (guess you can pass on my email to Marion/Pamela as well) L


...Defending Bridge on the basis of "Well, if you worked in an office and got offered millions of pounts for doing not a lot, would YOU turn it down?" is a pretty silly analogy. Of coure the office worker would take the job, but then they're most likely not already a millionaire like Wayne, are they?

To make the comparison accurate, you would have to have a millionaire vice president who is happy to make the tea and do a bit of filing.
John Beavis


...A nice point about Wayne Bridge from Chris from Winchester - but sadly it is bollocks.

I would like Chris to imagine one thing.

Would those same mates of yours really be happy if they had to slog 50 hours a week to earn in a year half what you did in a week, cough up 100 quid from their non-footballing salaries each time they took their kids to Stamford Bridge plus £100 a season on a new football shirts on top of their monthly Sky Sports subscriptions. And see all that money and millions more go to you - for doing little or nothing.

I don't think your mates, Chris, would stick around for long.
Josh, Brighton


Bored Of The Summer Talk
It's summer and all that that brings with it. Ridiculous and unfounded expectations of sunshine, transfer sagas (which unlike Norse sagas are very very boring) and of course pointless one-upmanship from Singaporean Chelsea and Man. Utd. fans regarding the coming season.

It has also, unfortunately, given me time to reflect upon the state of club football in England.

I'm not someone who can look back for long pre-premiership because I'm only 26 so this isn't a "things-were-better-in-my-day-when-there-were-no-poofs-or-substitutions-or-replays-or-assistant-referees-we-called-them-linesmen-or-bastards-in-black" kind of email but it's easy to see that now more than ever we're having the wool well and truly pulled over our collective eyes. Now this may be beautifully spun yarn which feels fresh and sensual on our faces but nevertheless we are being duped.

Many intelligent people have written in on this point before me and maybe in more eloquent or concise ways but I feel amid the morass of rot that has been in the mailbox lately regarding Barry, Ronaldo, my club's bigger than your club, Pamela is hotter than Marian, my dad would beat your dad up, that it's necessary to reiterate the point.

Stop buying the merchandise, stop being their target audience, let all the fools from Ireland (where I'm from) or wherever, fill Old Trafford or Anfield because nobody really cares about your support, they care about your money. On the plus side I can have the West Ham crest on my credit card.
Gearóid (Immediately disregards any email in which the "EPL" is mentioned.. oh!)


...The whole 'Top Four' thing always seems to come up in many a F365 readers mail. Mostly negatively. Mostly citing boredom as the cause. But I'm not so sure boredom really is the main motive behind the 'Top Four/ Premier league is tedious' bashing and I felt the need to offer some defense. I mean just how tiresome is it really?

In all sporting competitions involving a large number of teams/competitors, there's always only going to be the few who excel and actually have any chance of winning the competition, that's just natural. Even in sports where money isn't a big factor in a teams success, there are still only a few teams that are better than the rest, and let's not deny the fact that although they have most of the money now as an advantage to stay where they are, the likes of Man U and Arsenal built their way up to their lofty positions..Chelsea, less so!

I feel, if anything, that compared to the days of when it was usually a two horse race most of the time in the league, that having four teams with genuine title aspirations each year is actually quite good going! I know the obvious objection is that its boring because its the same 4 clubs, but i remember watching Italian football over the years and always thinking how much more interesting it was having the likes of Inter, AC Milan, Roma, Juve and Lazio all going at it, rather than the two pronged affair the Premier League always used to be. I'm not sure it ever occurred to me that I was actually "bored" watching these teams battle it out year after year, and longed for Udinese to replace Juve or something to "spice" it up!?

Having said all that, to be fair, it would of course be nice to see a few teams make some progress, variety is of course the spice of life and all that, and it's really not that impossible to see the likes of Villa, Spurs or Everton break into the upper echelons in my opinion, in the near future. Maybe folks should be less pessimistic, but more importantly maybe folks should be less quick to compound our rather great premier league as being dull when maybe its more a case of personal allegiances bringing on the 'apparent' boredom.
Ben Daniels, London


The Weather In Manchester
Griff,

Manchester Weather:

Mean temperature 9 °C

Mean precipitation 71mm

Mean relative humidity 78%

Mean hours of sunshine per day 4 h

Four f-ing hours a day...and that goes down to 1 hr per day in the winter.

So: 365 x 4 = 1460 hours

1460 hours / 24 = 60.833 days of sunshine a year.

So it wasn't far off.

To be fair though you're not so far North that you have 24 hours of sunshine in a day.

Still you have to admit, Manchester is a very grey town. I know because it looks grey everytime I see the place on Police, Camera, Action. I have never seen Madrid on any British cop reality show, so I have to assume that it's pretty wonderful there and has low crime figures (plus double the amount of sunshine).

I know where I'd be going.
Daniel (Police, Camera, Action is on SKY isn't it?) Rolfe


Helping Out The BBC
In response to Richard G's email on the debate about BBC punditry in the mailbox this morning, I too wrote an email to the BBC but rather than merely provide opinion on their commentary team I also gave my expert analysis on how they can improve their offerings:

Dear Sir,

I would like to offer my expert opinion on the punditry and commentary provided by the team on Match of the Day, and in particular focus upon Alan Shearer's input. When there is football on he talks and makes comments about it. If a player has crossed the ball then for example he will point out that he has crossed the ball. I think he will be pleased with himself about that, and he has every right to be. He does a job for the team and he knows it and we all know it too. Still, punditry is very much a game of two halves and he may not want to count his chickens yet because there's still much to comment on but I think he'll look back on his contributions so far and say that he has done a job.

I hope my insightful analysis of his commentary will be helpful for you in your future programming and I look forward to receiving a cheque for twenty thousand pounds.
Graham G


And Helping Out Luton
Further to recent emails on the subject of clubs being penalised through the mis-management of others, with the fans being the ones to ultimately suffer whilst the guilty walk away with a mere slap on the wrist, I would be grateful if you could publish the link to this petition - http://www.petitiononline.com/BeFairFL/petition.html
- to give those interested the opportunity to sign, for the good of football.

A number of readers will not like Luton as a team (or a place if they've had the pleasure of visiting Kenilworth Road!), but this is more about the integrity of the game than support for any specific team. I'm sure a number of football fans, particularly of 'smaller' teams, have looked at these rulings with disbelief and fear that it could easily happen to them. If the Leeds points deduction set a precedent, these deductions from both the Football League and The FA goes further still, and jeopardises ALL teams in the future, should the usual type of crook get control of their club after passing the 'fit and proper' test (what can that be anyway - having a pulse??).

I renewed my England Fans membership just the other week, and now feel totally shafted by the FA, who are supposed to have the interests of the game at their core. I am considering asking for a refund and cutting all my financial ties to their coffers in terms of any potential ticket purchases / merchandise having been right royally kicked in the teeth by the custodians of our game. I will, however, have no hesitation in renewing my season ticket this weekend despite the penalties, and will be proud to see my club and the new consortium who have been rocked by this to come out fighting and survive beyond this season.

Thanks for your anticipated support!
Nick Stafford, LTFC forever


Hmmm
On the subject of Marion,

Andrew Houghton claims to be a polite, well educated and well traveled Spurs Fan..

C'mon son, try and least make it believable for the poor girl.
Matt (Face of Clooney, body of Pitt and wit of Gervais) Hunter


Beat That
I am a polite, well educated, well travelled-ARSENAL fan who likes quiet evenings in, dinners out, and the weekends watching sport.

Might still not be a winner with Marion and Pamela, but one up on Andrew Houghton, at least.
Nic G-E, Singapore


The Mailbox's New Favourite
Now Sally, don't be bitchy. I actually rather think this Marion & Pamela situation is a welcome and funny diversion of the long boring emails of late. Wish all these men with GSOH would contribute more. And for all you men who are worried about Marion being too far away etc, trust me it can work, I lived 500 miles away from my man when I met him, it worked out. 9 years later I'm still hearing "QPR will definitely be going up' God Love Him!

Marion & Pamela, to be continued...........
Lynne, Kent Celt


I didn't really want to add any more fuel to the dating365 fire, however.... Sally (I didn't mean to sound mean, honest, as I'm sure they're both absolutely lovely with not a sensible cardie in sight!) ..... sound's much more interesting than Pam and Marion. Got to love the feisty ones. Feel free to pass on my email....
Dave (what's a metro-sexual?) Davis


...I like the sound of Sally,

mean and makes witty observations, I'm guessing she likes football and if she's fit (I'm sure she is) she's the perfect woman!

Can 365 fix it for me?
Si (I'd still live with Marion & Pamela though)


...Well said, Sally (I didn't mean to sound mean, honest, as I'm sure they're both absolutely lovely with not a sensible cardie in sight!) , couldn't have put it better myself.

So, want to meet up for a drink for a drink and a nice meal then?
Ronan Maddock


And Finally...
Daniel Zaïre's, email should never have been considered for the 'And Finally' slot, due to the unnecessary use of an exclamation mark at the end. It just ruined it.
Eoghan, Dublin