He captained us through a relatively successful period, so he obviously did a decent job of it. If he was respected and focused on the job (which he clearly was) then I don't have a problem with the captaincy. We could have sold him to solve the problem, but couldn't find a suitable option and thought he was doing a good job. Ooijer is a bit different as he didn't decide he was leaving 18 months ago and I really only think he is going as he isn't a regular and is unlikely to ever be one. I also wouldn't be surprised if he would have had to have accepted a pay cut (if we even put in any effort to keep him). It's been clear for several months that he is going, but he never came out publicly and said so, which was the professional thing to do. Neill could have easily done the same, he doesn't need to be as hated as he is, but he didn't handle it in the best possible manner either.

Any club would have requested that right to appeal, especially when there was a fairly large amount of public attention and pressure.

You're right, but football isn't unusual for why Barton would be a bad signing. The football club does actually have to consider its public image and how that might affect sponsors, corporate entertainment, season ticket sales, merchandising and the rest. This is no different from a clothing company, record label or any other business for that matter factoring in public opinion when making a decision. Beyond that, the Barton's on the field actions will most likely lead to him missing time and possible fines for the club, whilst his off the field actions could further damage the clubs image and also lead to him missing time. I just don't want to have to support the guy. Diouf is unpleasant, but he hasn't made a habit of beating people up. Drog, you'd usually be on ICBINF calling for more severe prison sentences, don't you think Barton should still be in prison rather than potentially trotting out at Ewood Park?

Considering he plays for a side that doesn't create many chances and hasn't played for a lot of the season the number of goals he has scored has been pretty good. When he got a decent run at the start of Allardyce's reign he was in lethal form. If he plays in a 4-4-2 and with a good partner he'll be a 15+ goal a season man for us, no one else in our team offers that. He's never going to chase lost causes all day, but then I'd take Benni over Derbyshire any day.

You will have made the tackle on purpose.

How old are you again? Some rules have to be clear. Personally I have nothing wrong with this one.

Those are the rules, deny a clear goalscoring opportunity or if you are the last man it is supposed to be a straight red. Whether or not a penalty is sufficient punishment is an entirely different matter.

Listen to the Poll interview that has now been linked. Interesting to hear his take on it.

Come on theno, we all know that had that been a Rovers player tackled it would have at least been a 50/50 split on here as to whether or not it was a penalty. Here's my interpretation on it: with the benefit of replays he touches the ball first and so that isn't a foul, but the ref was right in my view to give it. There was absolutely no way to tell that Fletcher touched that in real time and with such minimal contact on the ball it would have been an odd one for the officials not to give. No ref in the world wouldn't have given it. Once he had given it, he had to send Fletcher off.

He's on 60k a week at Newcastle. How much of a pay cut do you think he would take? Think this one is dead in the water as far as "shrewd signings" go. I don't want to see someone like that playing for our club.

I don't think we can exactly take the moral high ground on free flowing football at the moment. Chelsea went out with a game plan and executed it perfectly. The diving could be done away with, but not as if it is something you never see Barcelona players doing. They made Barcelona look like a fairly average side and that is quite an achievement. It will hopefully be a good final, but Chelsea were the side that deserved to get through.

Really? You know a lot of players who have repeatedly beaten people up, gone to court and gone to prison?

He's a thug, a genuinely unpleasant human being. I really don't want to see our club forking out loads of money to him. There comes a time when you have to say that certain things are just wrong, and I couldn't support Barton. You get into a fight once that can be forgiven, but he has repeatedly acted brutally and isn't someone who should be playing premiership football.

Why would I care about him being Scottish? He was there last year. He plays for United, it's hardly his only chance at the big time. I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Always sad to see a player miss out on a final, but this is far from the worst example I've seen.

Not a rule of the game, it's a rule for the competition. The rule should be different, but they can't change it mid-tournament. It's sad for him, but it's not exactly a tragedy.

Seeing as we are all fans of the "form expanded over the course of the season" stuff. Arsenal haven't lost in the league since November 22nd, 2008. In the past 22 league games they've picked up 51 points, which if they put on that sort of run over the course of the entire season they'd finish on 88 points and would be sitting on 81 points right now (in other words they'd be top). In that time they've also got to the champions league semi and an fa cup semi, so it's not as if they've had the advantage of focusing on only one competition. Now, I don't expect them to win the league next season and the form expanded over the course of the season stuff would make everyone's season look nice, but it does show that they got off to a particularly slow start which is why they are so far behind United and Liverpool. As philipl said, this was the year to sneak 4th. This kind of season pops up every few years where one of the top four (usually Arsenal because they are not the financial powerhouses that the other 3 are) struggles for a bit and it makes finishing in 4th realisitic. You can complain about that if you want, but it gives the chasing pack a little bit of hop. Fact remains that Arsenal are clearly in the top 4 in England and are also one of the best sides in Europe.

Walcott signed for 5 million or something, but there were added clauses that could take it to 11/12 million (I think), Ronaldo was signed for a little over 12 million. So that's a fair point, but generally Arsenal's youngsters are expensive, but aren't bank breakers. I don't think anyone is saying that it is a great season DE4, but it's been a good season. They started slowly, but have been in very good form for the past several months. Arshavin could be one of the missing links that they needed, especially if Walcott continues to develop as he has over the past 12 months or so. I know it is easy to say "they always say give them another year or two", but you have to remember that Walcott is 20, Fabregas 22, Clichy 23...etc. If anyone wants to bet with me that Arsenal don't finish in the top 4 next season I'll be happy to take your money? I'll even say that they finish at least 10 points clear of 5th.

His policy hasn't failed. If he can keep that bunch of players fit for a season and with Arshavin being there for the entire season they'll do well next year. They certainly are still firmly in the "top four" and are miles ahead of the chasing pack. Champions League Semi (getting knocked out by the soon to be Premiership Champions and in my view the best all-round team in Europe), 4th in the league, FA Cup Semi (probably knocked out by the winners). That isn't a bad season. I don't think Wenger will ever change his system, I don't think Arsenal can afford to. He and Ferguson stand head and shoulders above every other manager that's been in this league for me and I think they'd probably be smart to keep on doing what they're doing, not that they need me or anyone else to tell them that. It will have been a sizeable chunk of cash, but nothing in comparison to the youngsters the other big clubs have brought in (Ronaldo, Rooney and Mikel to name just a few) and that's before you even look at them signing more experienced players. To sign some of them they will be taking advantage of the laws in other European countries (as they did with Fabregas and United did with Macheda) and he's building a side that could potentially win a lot without spending the amount their rivals are.

Even a broken clock...

One easy way to really increase the interest in the UEFA Cup, or EUROPA Cup or whatever it is now, is to let the winners into the champions league. Several other changes could be done to make it more interesting, but in one easy change that would lead to any club that made it to the knock-out stages really taking it seriously. You certainly wouldn't see a repeat of what Villa did this year.

I think there's good logic in that. I certainly think it would be a very safe bet to say that the majority, if not all, of the next 10 champions league semis will have at least 2 English clubs in them.

Yep. Agree that the Ronaldo goal was better than Torres. Spectacular strike.

Rather likely? So you'd give me good odds on United going through then? Away goals are nice, but I'd back United to beat almost anyone in a one-off game, even away from home. United will go through.

Do they not teach languages in English anymore?

Very well handled by both Rangers and Scotland. Rare to see actions like that being taken in football nowadays.