Carling Cup QF scores

[Marky]

Just saw the clips from the Chelsea game, **** that was some save Robinson made from Ballack's pen. Don't rate the fat ****er but credit where credits due.

Are the semi-final matches played over 2 legs?

Hope City go on to win it.

[Shaggy]

Two legs, yeah.

I am getting sick of all this "young side" bollocks. First United the other night - never in a million years a 'team of kids' - now Chelsea. This is from the BBC:

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti insisted he made the right decision to rest key players after their defeat on penalties at Blackburn in the Carling Cup.

Ancelotti selected a young side and the match finished 3-3 after extra-time before 18-year-old Gael Kakuta missed his spot kick in the quarter-final tie.

"This is good for our season," said Ancelotti, whose side head the league. "I wanted to see our young players.

"I think they did a good job. It was a good opportunity to gain experience."

**** off with this ****e.

# 40 Hilario
# 02 Ivanovic
# 19 Ferreira
# 35 Belletti
# 10 J Cole
# 12 Mikel
# 13 Ballack
# 15 Malouda
# 18 Zhirkov
# 20 Deco
# 21 Kalou


Not a single young player in the starting XI! Not ****ing ONE! At a push Mikel could be described as 'young' but he plays in their strongest XI nearly every week so clearly he doesn't qualify. How can everyone get away with peddling such utter, utter ****e?

[dww]

The players who came on were young though and seemed to do well. I agree that the media seems to swallow the story whole when it comes to United and Chelsea which is annoying.

[Shaggy]

The players who came on were young though and seemed to do well.

Two of them! Two!

[MrsB]

Calm down Shaggy.

[Shaggy]

Calm down Shaggy.

[Guest]

I reckon we mass mail those ****ers with complaints. Getting sick too of all the ****ing press. Last night I grabbed the Times and they also had the headlines of 'United kids' or something of the sort. This is just ridiculous.

And when Rafa plays his reserves it's an outrage. I just don't get it.

[Marky]

I love Shaggy's random outbursts

He's right though, there's **** all youngsters there. In fact that's a very strong, experienced Chelsea side. Drogba came on at half-time too.

[dww]

Two of them! Two!

Maybe they've only got two. In which case Ancelotti was bang on

To be fair while yesterday there was lots of talk of young players the reports I have seen today have mostly just attacked the madness of the selection and criticised the decision to make all three subs at once.

[Exiled_red]

Two legs, yeah.

I am getting sick of all this "young side" bollocks. First United the other night - never in a million years a 'team of kids' - now Chelsea. This is from the BBC:



**** off with this ****e.

# 40 Hilario
# 02 Ivanovic
# 19 Ferreira
# 35 Belletti
# 10 J Cole
# 12 Mikel
# 13 Ballack
# 15 Malouda
# 18 Zhirkov
# 20 Deco
# 21 Kalou


Not a single young player in the starting XI! Not ****ing ONE! At a push Mikel could be described as 'young' but he plays in their strongest XI nearly every week so clearly he doesn't qualify. How can everyone get away with peddling such utter, utter ****e?

I love Shaggy's random outbursts

He's right though, there's **** all youngsters there. In fact that's a very strong, experienced Chelsea side. Drogba came on at half-time too.

[Joe King]

I thought Wenger did well to deflect the attention from his young team with his refusal of offering a handshake. Textbook imo.

[Exiled_red]

I thought Wenger did well to deflect the attention from his young team with his refusal of offering a handshake. Textbook imo.

[dww]

Mark Hughes's hypocrisy heightens farce of a very English outrage

Posted by Amy Lawrence Thursday 3 December 2009 15.29 GMT guardian.co.uk

The furore over Arsène Wenger failing to shake his City counterpart's hand could only happen on these shores


Mark Hughes contemplates the back of Arsène Wenger's head. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty

Being a bad loser is nothing to be proud of, but nor is being a hypocrite. It was bizarre to see Mark Hughes taking the moral high ground as he took umbrage to the post-match handshake snub delivered by Arsène Wenger, when the Manchester City manager had hardly been a paragon of courtesy during the game itself.

Let's rewind to an incident in the first half – the root cause of the handshake slight. The ball went out of play in front of the away dugout when the game was scoreless and devoid of any particular tension. Hughes sauntered into the Arsenal technical area, patrolled right in front of Wenger, kicked the ball, and strode back out of enemy territory as if he was auditioning for a John Wayne movie. When Wenger expressed his disapproval of a gesture that was plainly designed to be provocative, Hughes responded with the kind of posturing normally seen by someone who has had a little too much ale and is looking for a late night fight. It was written all over his face: "Oi, Wenger, outside!"

Hughes said afterwards that Wenger "should have been more gracious". It was almost brilliant in its audacity. Naturally, the English media lapped it up, and Wenger woke up to another of the handshake storms that seem to exist in a strange microclimate over the UK. Rafael Benítez and José Mourinho have experienced them before, as well as Wenger on previous occasions. Do these foreign managers not realise that disrespect for the handshake is a heinous sin punishable by 20 lashes in the great British heartland of fair play?

Well, actually, they don't, and with perfectly good reason. A highly scientific phone around some fellow football reporters in Europe's major leagues gave a unanimous verdict. The handshake is not an institution elsewhere. While it is not abnormal for opposing coaches to shake hands, it is not a cause célèbre if they don't. "It is not an issue," said the man from Spain, who pointed out that the real place to go for any potential flashpoints was the tribune of honour, where the two club presidents are forced to sit next to one another through gritted teeth for the entire game and produce a Hollywood-style embrace at the end. "You can do what you want, nobody cares," said the man from Italy. "It is not a formal obligation and not a big story," said the man from France. "It's a habit but if somebody forgets or runs off to the dressing room they can do it later," said the man from Germany.

The Bundesliga offers a platform to do it later – a perfect stage for the post-match handshake, in fact. After every German league game, both coaches attend the press conference together, side by side. What a brilliant idea. Just imagine Sir Alex Ferguson and Benítez sharing a microphone after a Merseyside derby, or Wenger perched next to Sam Allardyce. Genius.

In all seriousness, it is an idea with merit. Coaches would surely require a little more restraint, or as Hughes would have it, graciousness, were they to offer their post-match assessments in tandem. Having a few minutes to decompress in their own dressing rooms, and possibly the chance to consult some video replays before commenting on controversial issues, should lead to a little more sanity. And if it makes everybody happy, it might even consign the occasional handshake snub to history too. Even Wenger might have accepted Hughes's offering after a cooling-off period. And if not, it would make for a superb Punch and Judy show.

[Kenneth]

I loathe Mark Hughes. Ever since he faked being headbutted for Utd in some Utd game against someone in my dim and distant childhood memories.

[Reece]

Currently West Ham 3 Man Utd 0