Prediction for the final placings in the EPL :

1. Chelsea
2. Liverpool
3. Man.City
4. Arsenal

5. Everton / Man.Utd
6. Everton/ Man.Utd *

* depends on the result of Everton v Man.Utd at Goodison imo.

This will be probably be completely wide of the mark in what has been the most competitive PL season I can ever remember : amazing for the neutral, though the English doesn't have any of the best sides in Europe in my opinion (that's still Bayern, Real and Barca imo). Any of the top 4 could still win it. I think the current top 4 will remain the top 4 in some order or other. I can't see City, without a 100% fit Aguero (unlikely now) doing well enough at OT, The Emorates and Anfield to win it. Liverpool have the momentum and are the best attacking team in the PL, but Chelsea are the most solid and Mourinho (much as I dislike him) is the best tactician. Arsenal are not totally out of it but I think they will win the FA Cup and probably finish 4th (they seem to like this achievement).

As for United, I don't think they will win the Champions League but I think they could beat the likes of Dortmund, Chelsea, PSG, Atletico over two legs - if the players can get themselves up for it.

Question for you, as a United fan : If Moyes can win you the Champions League (unlikely I think) will you be behind him for the future, assuming you are disillusioned with him at the moment ?

If Pellegrini fails to win the PL for City, btw, I will be worried about keeping him at the helm, especially considering that he is so old already ! Say what you like about Mancini but he drove City to finish spectacularly well two seasons in a row and was a tad unlucky to be sacked in my opinion. I like Pellegrini's attacking philosophy but our central defence and central midfield is our Achilles' Heel, and without Aguero (constantly injured) we are also a bit shaky up front.

No need at all to apologize - but possibly this is an absolution of a blackguard! :-p

I feel a bit self-conscious of ever so often even opening a thread, and then being pulled off from the internet by the tangible world - but I also think that a fair opinion is not time limited, really.

I did not want to blast Kompany before your view, and I shall not as such blast him now, even if shirt pulling is not ideal - but I have to say I would understand if the kicking bit got him additional sanction. And I admit I judge him a little more stringent because he is the Captain.

What I meanwhile very much agree with you is the fact that the ability of being a "play maker" - that hermetic tactical and personal quality of uplifting the whole team and deciding a match, is very important; and also admirable, but also a certain sense of humility is needed. And I also hope: moral backbone.

I think Bale could be a good captain one day, possibly, for admirable Wales, as he seems an earnest lad, whereas most renown strikers are more about themselves than about the team. Ronaldo; Suarez; Balotelli or Zlatan - individually brilliant, but lacking something, still, I find.

As such, it seems strikers make rarely good captains, minus, presumably, Alan Shearer - whom per retroactive reading seems like an impressive player indeed.
Out of curiosity: what about German National team - would you find it weakened, should Mertesacker or Neuer be the captain?

Can't say I agree with that in regards to Suarez. Don't really follow him at Liverpool, but for Uruguay he sweats blood, constantly feeds passes and creates chances not only for himself but for his teammates.

I will look towards Uruguay with a favorable eye even in WC14 thanks to Forlan, whom I think is most likely past his prime as it comes, but I should have liked him to lift the trophy in 2010 - as much as any an African nation - and Ghana was after all wronged by Suarez,

I have to meanwhile ask you: with the biting and Evra insult incidents, can you truly maintain that Suarez does not hate blacks?

Ghana wasn't wronged by Suarez, he didn't kick Ghana's penalty, Gyan did. Besides Ghana wouldn't have had that penalty without Adiyiah diving to win the freekick to begin with, nevermind that the linesman somehow managed to miss about half a dozen offside calls in that final cross alone. Yet I somewhat doubt anyone would still be talking about Uruguay being wrongfully eliminated if Suarez hadn't handballed that header.

Also; Schnellinger, Chalton, Kempes, Villarroya, Fritz... guess what all these players have in common. And that's just offhand.

Seriously? No, I don't believe he hates blacks or that he even insulted Evra.

I'm not a fan of the so-called "Champions League" to be honest. I preferred the old set up : European Champions Cup (for champions only), UEFA Cup (the hardest one to win) and the Cup Winners' Cup. It's not just sour grapes on my part because City haven't done very well in the Champions League, it's got more to do with the way it has affected domestic football. Nowadays it is more important - and you can understand why from a purely financial point of view - to finish 4th in the Premier League than it is to win that old, sacred chalice, the FA Cup. This is a ridiculous state of affairs in my opinion. Also, there are too many European games and this affects the destination of the domestic trophies - which is what people are really bothered about at the end of the day, Bob.

Let's face it: a penalty kick especially at WC is a high-pressure situation - and there is quite a difference between a sure goal and a penalty.

And pray tell, what exactly Schnellinger, Chalton, Kempes, Villarroya, Fritz have in common? I am meanwhile assuming cheating or some sort of unsportsmanlike situation.

As to Suarez biting and Evra incidents - why should Suarez not intelligently protect his reputation, if he does not hate blacks, but appear to make it so?

As said, I do find that the French national team was more defendable in their treatment of Cantona as ManU, but I also think that most opponents probably would prefer to be kung-fu kicked as opposed to bitten. How could one come back with that, realistically?

+1 I can only say! Except that now it probably shall be ManC / Liverpool to the Premier league title. Such pity about Arsenal, I like their style very much actually.

The above because Champions' League (CL) is more about television rights than about good football. I cannot recall when there was particularly enjoyable games in CL of late - but a fair FA cup style knock out competition would add a lot of unpredictability and combat.

Europa League I find more raw and real.

Plus: wikileaks on Uefa would prove most interesting, if this really was any bother with the guys fighting for transparency, really, I suspect.

Yes, that's the point of committing a handball, or a shirt tug or last resort tackle, preventing a sure thing. They didn't seem too bothered about the penalty when Suarez was sent off, they were all jumping around celebrating. Failing to capitalize on it is Gyan and Ghana's failing.

Intentional handball on the goal-line during a World Cup. Again, I've never seen anyone saying the teams were "wronged" like Ghana apparently were.

What reputation is he protecting? He's already considered the antichrist of football by many.

That's entirely debatable. Neither of Suarez's bites even pierced the skin, meanwhile a kick like Cantona's is potentially careerer ending. Would depend on the player I suppose.

The Europa League is an extremely protracted competition, is very difficult to win owing to the inclusion of teams which finished 3rd in the CL groups (not sure this is fair tbh), and even if you do win it, lacks the prestige of the Champions League. Without checking I don't know how many games the winners need to play but it's enough to play havoc with a team's domestic campaign, especially in England, where the domestic season is already pretty gruelling even without European football. It's a lot of hard work for little recognition in my opinion, and concentrating on it can damage a team's domestic campaign.

To a lesser extent I think the Champions League has too many games and can interfere with a club's domestic performances. For instance, Pellegrini played a weakened side against Wigan in the FA Cup quarter final vs. Wigan because City were travelling to the Nou Camp a few days later to try to overturn a 2-0 deficit from the first leg. City had very little chance of winning the tie vs. Barca and I can only imagine that the owners told Pellegrini to concentrate on the Barcelona game at the expense of the FA Cup. This illustrates my point perfectly : in playing a weakened side vs. Wigan City crashed out of the FA Cup, which in my opinion is a SACRED competition. As a City fan I was very angry about this. Wigan, as FA Cup holders (having beaten City in the final last year), were bound to be fired up for that game. Predictably, a few days later they also crashed out of the CL at Barca., so it wasn't worth resting players anyway. The way football is set up now it is impossible to play a full strength side in every game and this spoils the game a little for me.

As a forty-something I remember how football used to be and have very fond memories of FA Cup finals, especially around the late 70s and early 80s (Arsenal v Man.Utd, Spurs v. Man.City).The single biggest objection I have against the Champions League is that it has devalued the FA Cup (and also the League Cup) to the extent that it is now more important to finish 4th in the Premier League than it is to win the FA Cup, which is sacrilege ! As a football fan - which is an entirely optional pastime let us not forget - I want to see my team win trophies and create glorious memories, not aim to finish 4th ! It is totally ridiculous that we should be forced to prefer our teams to finish 4th rather than winning the FA Cup. I don't think much to the way football is set up these days, but I suppose "money talks".

Having said that, this year's Premier League is possibly the most exciting ever - at both ends of the table.

I must say, I appreciate your opinion about the FA cup - less money maybe than CL - but suck it, the tradition and the need to give one's best at any given game due to knock out system is what makes it also very cool.

The above said, you must also give some fair credit to Wigan - winning the cup would be their highest possible achievement during the season, fair enough, besides climbing back to the Premier League, but also: their resources are much more limited than those of ManC, whose second squad should be of such sterling value on paper as to trash a lower division team.

Spanish League has same number of teams at the top flight than England, and Germany but two less, or 18. I do not think it really can be said that these two other leagues, just for the sake of comparison, can be said to be in any way less exacting than the Premier League?

Arsenal is now off for PL - but... ManC and Liverpool remain to maintain my hopes for a personally pleasing result.

What meanwhile I do not like about CL is the over-representation of big nations. Either I think one should do a real intra-European competition, or give Europa League better prestige.

I meant that I was angry, as a City fan, with City for prioritising the Champions League rather than the FA Cup - something which would not have happened back in the pre-Champions League era - and consequently crashing out of both competitions. This goes to show how far the importance (to clubs, not supporters) of the FA Cup has fallen since the beginning of the so-called "Champions League" (which is not even only for domestic champions). I give full credit to Wigan for beating City in the final last year and again in the quarter finals this year, though it was a painful for me as a City fan. I was angry with City, not Wigan. It would be incredible if Wigan could win it again this year. If, as expected, Arsenal win it though, City will basically have handed it to them by fielding a weakened team and (unwisely) prioritising the CL.

I think it is the fact that in England we have two domestic cups (FA Cup and League Cup) to compete for, plus the lack of a winter break (a hiatus which I am against because I love my football over the festive period !) which means that of all the European domestic campaigns the English season is the most gruelling, owing to teams having to play more matches in total (including the two cups) with less recovery time in between them, of all the European domestic campaigns. Plus, the English Premier League is also the most competitive : any team can beat any team. This makes the EPL the most entertaining league to follow but it also means that all games are "high pressure" games, which makes the season even more gruelling.

La Liga (Spain) is also very competitive this year at both ends of the table, but if you were to take out Atletico Madrid it would once again be all about just two teams at the top : Real Madrid and Barcelona. This is the same pretty much every season and I personally find it boring ! In Germany Bayern Munich have already won the title. They are a great team but the Bundesliga at the moment is poor as a competition precisely because Munich are so dominant. No sooner have Dortmund assembled an excellent team than two of their best players - Gotze now and Lewandowski in the summer - leave for Bayern to strengthen them even further. The Bundesliga is boring for the neutral at the moment and probably also for any German who does not support Bayern Munich. Italy is a harder league to analyse, though it appears that Juventus have the title wrapped up already. The Scottish Premier League is possibly the most farcical league in Europe and will be so even when Glasgow Rangers get back in it. But that isn't Scotland's fault since it is a small nation with very few clubs, though any league which is always only about two clubs is bound to be boring. That league needs restructuring so that clubs such as Aberdeen, Dundee United, Hibernian and Hearts can finish closer to the two "Old Firm" teams, otherwise it will forever be a dull-as-ditchwater procession - a bit like the Bundesliga this season.

The old European Champions Cup, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup were purely knockout competitions with each tie played over two legs. I preferred this set up. There were also fewer teams competing for these trophies (though the UEFA Cup had many entrants and was therefore arguably the hardest tournament to win) and therefore fewer matches overall, which meant that clubs did not have to de-prioritise other (domestic) competitions, such as the FA Cup, in order to concentrate on European games. I agree that there are too many meaningless games in the group stages of both the CL and the Europa League. I would like to see these two tournaments become knockout competitions again with no group phase and I also think that seedlings ought to be abolished. There is, however, absolutely no chance of this happening because the tournament organisers, being interested solely in their revenues, want to ensure that the biggest teams get through to the final stages for fear that otherwise interest in the tournaments will recede. There were no seedings in the old European tournaments.

I also agree with your objection to the over-representation of the bigger nations. It is ridiculous when the champions of a smaller nation have to win a qualifying round in order to enter the tournament proper whilst a 3rd placed team from a bigger nation doesn't. But it's all about money and nothing will change anytime soon, sadly.

I think that Carles Puyol could be used as a mold to make new captains, add a vote for him.

Another one-team man - that has to be respected. And I do agree he has a commanding presence. And I do think, a rather clean playing style?

So a good captain - except, I trust he could not really be replicated by any one mold, or another, eh! :-p