I miss Grandstand too. But the Soccer AM Cup Final build up has been great over the last few years, though im not watching it atm. Tim Lovejoy is crap doing the 606 phone in but hes perfect at doing soccer AM.

I don't get Sky so can't see soccer AM. Have seen it round a mates house before though, and thought it was all a bit blokey. You'd not find Jimmy Hill chatting up page three girls in Derby tops, I know that much.

Anyway, I've got a packet of 20 Pall Malls, a family sized bar of Dairy Milk, a jumbo sized bottle of Fanta and a tube of sour cream and chive Pringles so I'm all ready now. Don't really care who wins but a couple of sendings off, a disputed penalty, a fight between a couple of players and having it come down to penalties after ET will leave me well happy. I think you have to fancy Pompey, but its the FA Cup, so it's anyone's I suppose.

Nah, its good fun. The new bloke (and i mean BLOKE) who has replaced Tim Lovejoy is tedious but way back when it was a really nice show. Frankly a show about football HAS to be blokey to a degree.
I think Pompey will win it 1-0 with Judas Campbell and insane David James as men of the match.

Yeah, fair enough, I've only seen it with the new bloke.

Agree with the likely score. Although I think if Portsmouth go a goal up early it could be a bit of a landslide. Cardiff's chances are gonna depend a lot on Hasselbiank finding some form of old.

jimmy floyd moneyinthebaink......

doesnt look like it, sadly.
I like watching good defensive play because i myself am a defender but this game has been pointless

The fat Eddie Murphy himself:

Agree with Ikara, very boring. No real quality from either side.

If Wankywank Kanu is the most exciting thing about a game its a sad state of affairs...

Yeah, I think the commentators were bigging it up largely cos of the passion of the two teams' fans, rather than anything that happened on the pitch. Not as bad as some FA Cups but there was a sense of 'so what' about the whole thing. I like it when a smaller team get there, but you do sort of need one of the big four in it as well for neutrals to really get a sense of excitement. Saying that, it's not for the neutrals and Pompey fans could probably care less that it wasn't exactly a classic.

nope, not a classic... not a classic at all.. but still. great day for pompey fans....

Indeed. The FA Cup, probably more than any other competition in English football is primarily one for the fans of the teams involved and I'm sure the Portsmouth fans had a great day out. I remember West Ham beating Arsenal in the 1980 FA Cup as vividly as if it'd happened yesterday. Same with the final a couple of years ago when we lost to Liverpool which, despite the result, still remains an amazing memory. I think every teams' fans, regardless of the size of their club, deserves an FA Cup final day to call their own. In this age of big business and behind the scenes cynicism, it maintains a certain romance that I don't think exists anywhere else in the today's game. Play up Pompey indeed.

That was a good day. A very good day. For me.

all i can say is i hate keith houchen, gazza is a legend and my earliest live fa cup memory is of ricky villa... legend!

hull city are promoted to the premiership....

if anyone else has been to Hull, i am delighted that Rio and Cristiano will have the pleasure

dean windass back in top flight football...... classic!

germany beat poland :D

i made £10

+ germany won yesterday
- russia lost today

YEAH! SPAIN WON!

Now they can go on to win this thing.

Spartak Moscow striker Roman Pavlyuchenko is already in talks with Tottenham. BBC Sport says the Russia international has discussed personal terms with Spurs officials as he prepares to move to London.
The 26-year-old Russia international met representatives from the north London club last week, although no deal has been agreed yet.
The £15m-rated Pavlyuchenko impressed during Euro 2008, scoring three goals.





ive just wet myself!

... and Bentley has just joined them...
Santa Cruz will be to Blackburn what Anelka was to Bolton last year, the best player, and the one who leaves the sinking ship.

Liverpool have signed Robbie Keane.

spurs talks with arshavin has broke down. palychencko looks likely. bently and modric... man spurs are looking good!!!! berbs staying for the moment!! wouldnt it be nice to finish ahead of the pool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J62gcFkBHMQ

I just want everyone to see this if they havent already. He's Finished!

It reminds me of another guy on talksport once arguing that Sven should be sacked for ignoring Ryan Giggs.

I've watch more football in the past week than is probably allowed by America law since discoveing that I get GolTV and FoxSoccerChannel now. At least 2 matches a day, sometimes 4.
Last one was live FC Bayern Munich-2, Hamburg-2

cmon the spurs.. it starts now... can we break into the top 4...maybe if we beat boro away today!!! first day nerves and expectations to be dashed in 2 hours or so!!

I'm still stunned over that 94th minute goal to put Blackburn over Everton.

West Ham have turned over Wigan but it is Wigan, no disrespect to them, but there's obviously gonna be bigger challenges ahead. Still, three points is three points and if we can continue to get results against the teams more likely to struggle, we should at least be safe.

......

Still, i think Darren Bent is gonna come good this season, especially once Berbatov goes and we re-sign Sergei Rebrov.

BERBATOV SHOULD EITHER BE PLAYED OR SIMPLY BE DROPPED! END OF STORY. BERB AND LEDLY ON THE BENCH.. I WILL BE SUPRISED IF BENT DOES COME GOOD. I DONT THINK MUCH OF HIM TO BE HONEST. GIOVANNI LOOKS THE BUSINESS AND BENTLEY LOOKED OK, IF A BIT RASH! WE NEED A STRIKER BIG TIME....

fuck caps lock! sorry.....

we are totally unthreatening going forward..... and we say we wont miss keane.. jesus we do! we need a star striker now.. berbatov surely is bringing the team down with this whole scenario... eiter play or dont play!

first day depression.. i should be used to that by now tho......

I see Crystal Palace got hammered by Preston 2-0 yesterday. Ugh. Come on Palace, pull your fingers out, for crying out loud!

Liverpool beat Sunderland 1-0.

Ramos is a quality manager and you do underachieve, but I don't think I've ever seen a really complete Spurs team since at least Perryman was captain. They always seem a good three or four players short.

It's impossible now for any but the top four (maybe even just MU and Chelsea) to really build a team. You bring in someone you can begin to build around and then, when they start to perform, they fuck off to the sunshine, the kings road or Old Trafford. Something needs to be done about it. It wouldn't be difficult. Any player that wants to break their contract is free to do so, but they aren't allowed to play for another club for three years. It works that way for a lot of people that work for banks, I don't know why football can't adopt it. A player's contract would actually mean something at last. Whatever happens, if things stay the same as they are there really will just be half a dozen competitive teams in the whole of Europe.

End of gripe.

yeah its true.. i mean if berbatov goes from spurs to man u, that is gonna be the end of spurs ever trying to achieve something great. they will become a feeder toteam, essentially mid table......no more no less....

berbatov has a 4 year contract... he got sulky and moody after a few months, then look at him when we won the league cup..... amazing commitment and passion for the game, for spurs but now he wants out because he cant play top european football... he is an amazingly gifted player, possibly the greatest player ever to put on a spurs shirt but now he wants to break his 4 year contract after only 2 to play for a team in the champions league..... and he is allowed to sulk and i believe bring down the morale of the squad! i mean bent isnt great, i wasnever a fan, giovanni is good but he is young.. after that we have no one.. we have stopped looking at arshavin, we have stopped pursuing paulychenko, michael owen rumours was bullplop. we might get saha from united if berbs goes... we have no strikeforce at all!!! its scary times at the lane but also exciting times too, i mean bently and modric.. amazing signings and hopefully they will do ok but we need hard hitting forwards too!!!

as for robbie keane, i really hope he does well at the pool, they have got a dedicated, enthusiastic and LOYAL player in keano and he is lioving his childhood dream for the pool. i sicerely hope when the pool play at white hart lane the yid posse give him a standing ovation because he truly deserves it......

A bit-off-topic question: why in football , there's an irish team , a scottish team, a welsh team , and in the olympic games , there's just "Great Britain"??

It's an ongoing debate. The individual nations within the UK have their own Football Associations but the olympic commitee is independent. Some people think we should have a Great Britain football team anyway, but in all honesty, as a national team, it's hard to think of too many candidates that'd make the team outside of the current England set-up. Certainly Ryan Giggs would've been a shoe in a few years ago, and maybe Robbie Keane now, but not too many others.

Craig Bellamy, perhaps?

ireland is not part of the united kingdom or the u.k. or great britain!!

ireland is an independent country since 1916!!!!! we dont have anything to do with the queen...

northern ireland or ulster is part of the u.k.

so robbie keane, damnien duff and the rest cant and wouldnt play for great britain!!!