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I'd be a bit worried if I was an Arsenal fan losing your club captain and relying on a fellow Welshman to take his place.

No from South Wales. Dad is from Merseyside though and stood on Galdwys street for most of his teens. First went to the 'Old Lady in 1989 to watch Utd get hammered and went 3-4 times a year twice to Goodison and once in London where my Uncle lives. I've been to a few of the old London grounds Highbury, Upton Park, Selhurst Park, and Stamford Bridge when it was a building site.

Plastic eh? Despite living halfway round the world I still manage to get to one or two games a season and when I go its three generations of my family watching. Hardly call that plastic.

Yes we as is in the club and I. Isn't that how most football fans talk about their club .

Interesting but possibly overly analytical look at Moyes as a manager. Everyone knows he doesn't have money to spend but if you look at the results for the last half of last season Everton finished very strongly I think only United and possibly another team had a better second half of the season. So I don't the magic has quite worn off. Yes they didn't get into Europe but they could hardly expect to given their start. I agree that they need investment and as an Everton fan it pains me to see other clubs around us or above us spending much more. Yet I think you can't buy team spirit and that is what Everton have in abundance. A better start to the season and I think if Saha stays fit for more than 5 games or Beckford is given a run in the team he will score goals and we will do well.

I think this is the article
Reasonable balanced and I agree with most of it. What I do find interesting is what happens if Liverpool don't start well. How much time with Daglish be given by the club and the fans? I think other than Suarez and possibly Downing thats a lot of money to be spending on players with potential rather than world class performers.

Oh, and who else cheered and bounced on the couch when Hoogerland gave it a dig?

More a cheer and "go on son" in the pub here in Beijing. Cracking day yesterday spoilt a bit by the shitty internet connection in the pub and riding home in a thunderstorm to catch the last climb. Very happy to see Voeckler keep yellow and the Schlecks finally getting their double act together. The fact that Geraint Thomas put in a stirling ride also left Sino - Welsh relations at a new high!

A good day to be a Welshman. Great ride by Geraint alas today it was not to be but one for the future thats for sure.

1. He was in better form than in 2009.

2. Contador probably used his best form on the Giro.

3. 2009 showed that he can possibly do better than Evans.

4. One crash involving Andy Schleck could have changed everything.

Instead, the crash involved Wiggins.

There is a lot of chance in the Tour as well as a lot of bloody hard work.

Yes to all of those.Wiggins was in the form of his life, he was leaner than he's ever been winning the Criterium and showing Evans up in the mountains there. I guess we'll never know now and he isn't getting any younger. Next year who knows what might happen but I cant see Wiggins challenging again for GC. I hope I'm proved wrong and I'm glad British cycling is where it is at the moment. I remember watching Tours without British riders then Boardman came along who excelled in TT but was never going to challenge and then Millar and we all know how that ended. So its nice now to see Cav getting stage wins Millar leading Garmin and Sky pushing though young British cyclists.

To be fair though was Wiggins ever a contender for the GC? Yes he got 4th on a easyish tour but since then has not lived up to the hype. Granted he could possibly have done better this year than last by we will never know. Cavendish on the other hand has 18 stage wins and that pushes him firmly into the top ten of all time in terms of stage wins. I think it would be nice to have Cav a British cycling legend on a British team but right now Team Sky is bringing through some quality young British riders who may in the future do great things. If Cav goes there the dynamic and focus will change for stage wins and green rather than riding for the GC.

Grr double post

Not sure how can get those stats for Downing but yes he probably created quite a few more chances than the 9 times the ball actually crossed the white line.

@ John H yes increased turnover means more money but if your costs go up you don't really have more money do you. Clubs could have a turnover of 500 million but if their operating costs are 650 million the turnover is meaningless. The whole premier league is a train wreck waiting to happen. Clubs overpaying for average players and agents basically holding clubs to ransom is the biggest cause. You can say well they are only paying what the transfer market values them at but the market isn't really accurate when none of the clubs make a profit.

Not sure how can get those stats for Downing but yes he probably created quite a few more chances than the 9 times the ball actually crossed the white line.

@ John H yes increased turnover means more money but if your costs go up you don't really have more money do you. Clubs could have a turnover of 500 million but if their operating costs are 650 million the turnover is meaningless. The whole premier league is a train wreck waiting to happen. Clubs overpaying for average players and agents basically holding clubs to ransom is the biggest cause. You can say well they are only paying what the transfer market values them at but the market isn't really accurate when none of the clubs make a profit.

http://www.football365.com/news/21554/7033565/Downing-Could-Be-A-Moneyball-Buy

I don't know, could someone find out, but how many goals came from his 134 crosses? I'll tweet opta joe.

Well according to premier statistics he had 9 assists in the 2010-11 season. So I'm thinking not that many from 134 crosses. MInd you just 9 assists puts him in the top 12 for the year.

You are missing the point though, there are a lot of factors at play here.

For a British Premier League player, £20m is now what £5m was 10 years ago.

1) Every team has much more money, with the big TV deals, and money filtering down the pyramid from the sugar daddies transfers, £20m is small change

Saying every team has more money isn't really true though. None of the top 7 clubs bar Arsenal made a profit last year. They made a big £56 million profit due to the Highbury development. The only other premiership club to make a substantial profit was Wolves £9million and that was due to promotion and increase in TV money but not a big increase in wages. A few other clubs made minor profits but non that are significant.

Ok yes turnover may have increased but so have wages which pretty much cancel each other out. So basically teams are borrowing more against assets. They don't really have more money though they just accumulate more debt. We all know though that this isn't sustainable and can't last forever unless you have some rich owner like Chelsea and Man City who have pretty much bought or tried to buy success by throwing bucket loads of (dodgyish) money at the situation. Cue UEFA getting involved and trying to level out the field by bringing in much needed financial regulation to the game. Im still to be convinced it will work but if it doesn't we will see more clubs like Portsmouth and potentially Birmingham go under as almost all Premiership teams overspend.

Hope this isn't a repost. For all the photographers on here.

YouTube - ‪2D Photography Rube Goldberg‬‏

test

YouTube - ‪2D Photography Rube Goldberg‬‏

Cav looked like he threw the towel in again. wtf.

Nah he just went too early

Great stuff and a tricky finish is going to make for an interesting conclusion. Just hope there aren't any big crashes on the two big corners in the final Km.

A decent player but I think he will struggle at Liverpool. At Blackpool he was pretty much given a free role in the midfield to do whatever he pleased and as club captain would probably have been the centre of the dressing room. At Liverpool he won't be given any special treatment and won't start every game. I imagine he will become one of the many many players who go from being a successful lower or middle premier league player to a struggling squad player at a bigger club.

Cracking ride by Evans very happy he held of Cuntador on the line and chapeau to Thor for staying in the group keeping the yellow jersey.

Ahhhh Fuck good effort but not quite enough. No yellow for Thomas today, Sky 4 seconds behind Garmin

Come on Sky they've dropped behind Garmin. Big effort required to get GT in yellow.

does anyone have a working audio stream please?

Should be one working here http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/#live

Great ride from Garmin. That will be very tough to beat. Come on Sky lets see a welshman in yellow!