Hurray!
I remember when he first signed. There was uproar. Etuhu himself wasn't too happy about
this, his facebook status updates suggesting that he felt a bit... maligned. I actually
messaged him once (by way of encouragement) and he wrote back quite quickly saying that we had
nothing to worry about, and that as soon as he was match fit he'd be playing well and showing
everyone what he could do.
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I've heard Australian cricket commentators use a brilliant phrase for a certain type of batsman,
a player who takes risks, who reasons that while the odds may be against him, the rewards (and the
fun) are high. The Australian commentators say "he's not going to die wondering" about a player
like this.
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Not being miserable or anything, but Defoe's hat-trick probably means Bob's not going to start
for England for a bit. Shame, I thought he might have done tonight if fit. Now look what's
happened.
Still, nice win for England, and Captain Murphy's been a fine pundit, too.
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But not in the way you might have expected. Below the line are all (most) transfers since
2006.
First, just goes to show how many players come and go. We know this, of course, but seeing
them all written down is nevertheless very surprising.
I had a quick look through the ins and figured maybe 19 good signings, 16 bad ones, and another
19 in between.
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What did you think of the transfer dealings then? Here is a roundup of everything, showing
that we've balanced the books better than most this off-season (mainly because we had a decent
squad and no manager, perhaps!).
The big move was Paul Konchesky to Liverpool. On the surface this is really disappointing, not
least because it's not a move that, for footballing reasons at least, needed making.
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Due to popular demand, I've reprinted the latest Fulham Review. I got a good deal from the
printer so it's still £5 a go.
www.godsfoot.com tobuy.
If in doubt, please do get one! You know it makes sense. Easily the biggest and best
version yet. If you haven't got one, why not?
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The goals on Saturday were down to individual mistakes, no doubt about it, but under Hodgson
they probably wouldn't have happened.
By committing men forward Hughes is making life much more interesting for supporters, but is
leaving his defence a bit exposed.
For the first goal we can see that Stephen Kelly's been caught well upfield.
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Blackpool 2 Fulham 2
A strange and entertaining match which we could have won, but nearly lost. In the end we had to
settle for our third draw out of three – perhaps a disappointment after the week's previous
results had raised our expectations so high. But this wasn't your average Fulham away point.
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On the pitch:
1) Was there any better way to break Matthew Briggs into the team than last night? Home
game (but small crowd), weak opposition, surrounded by first team players all 'looking out' for
you. Really well done by Hughes, and Briggs will have gained a lot from that, not least because
he's no longer just the answer to a trivia question and is (finally) getting the chance he's wanted
for a while;
2) Bobby Zamora would probably feel he could do a job for Barcelona at this point.
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The heavens opened over South West 6 tonight but the football was divine. Port Vale are
clearly not a wet weather team, but this was like watching Muhammad Ali sparring with a stuffed
bear: "If the pitch gets slick I'll hit them for six"...
It was brilliant to watch, for all kinds of reasons.
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WSC's Taylor Parkes gives James Cordon the Tim Lovejoy treatment. Brilliant:
Abbey Clancy was hired to do what Abbey Clancy does; the backroom boys worked out some skits
about how Uruguay's players had long hair and looked like girls; a polo-shirted audience whooped
with well-marshalled efficiency.
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Thrills and spills and bellyaches at Craven Cottage this afternoon as Brede Hangeland moved to
the top of my own private "Great People" list and David Stockdale made an unforgettable penalty
save that he'll still be talking about when he's an old man.
We were 2-1 down when referee Peter Walton (who had a strange game) awarded United a penalty
based on some kind of infraction from Damien Duff.
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Before I get started, allow me a quick introduction. I'm Colin, who you may remember from my
dormant blog Championship at Best. Yep, I'm that stats geek. Rich invited me to contribute an
occasional piece over here, and since I haven't really had the time to maintain a site on my own,
that invitation sounded excellent.
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