Its been a tough time for the French national team which was clearly obvious during their time in trhe World Cup the team looked unsettled and reports where that none of the players had any confidence or respect for the previous coach Raymond Domenech, to be honest looking at the coaches body language during the tournament he looked as if he could not be bothered him self showing no emotion on the touch line.

During the tournament Anelka of Chelsea criticised the coach which led to him being sent home and causing turmoil with in the camp at a hearing yesterday a number of players received bans such as Anelka’s 18 game ban, Evras five game ban and Riberys three game ban.

I’m a Manchester United Fan, and I don’t mind admitting that I’m one of the few who don’t mind Manchester City doing well…OK…reasonably well. I think it’s been absolutely fantastic to actually have a rivalry between the 2 clubs this season. I’ve grown up with a divided family where my Mum and my brother support City, and my Dad and myself follow the mighty reds. Derby games have been a bit boring over recent years, when City were battling to survive in the Premiership and United were challenging for all the major honours. Our biggest games were always against Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea respectively.

This year however, I doubt you’ll get a better atmosphere anywhere than at Old Trafford for the Carling Cup semi final, when Wayne Rooney bagged another late winner to sink Mancini and his men. The new City boss kind of set himself up for a fall by saying that at the end of this season, the famous rotating banner at the Stretford end indicating the number of years since City last won a major trophy (currently 34 years) would have to come down, as City were pushing for Carling Cup and FA Cup glory.

Roll on a few months, and déjà vu seems to be happening. We’re two thirds through the season, and City are out of every competition they realistically had a chance of winning. I’ve got loads of bitter blue mates, and I even refrained from sending a text to one of my closest mates last night saying “35 years, Ha!”. He sends me countless text messages every time United are knocked out of a cup, or Europe, or even lose a league game. The one thing I’d like to think is that most United fans are above the ridiculing and gloating. I’m a season ticket holder and prefer to let our team and our results do the talking, I don’t gloat (that often). But for City fans, it will be 35 years at the end of the season since your team last won a trophy. This may change soon, but I think Mancini was a bit premature with his statement.

The Stretford Enders will soon be singing:

In ‘76, now this is true, a trophy was won by the team in blue

Its been a long time, since that day

So we’ll sing em a song that they f***ing HATE

35 years, f**k all, 35 years, f**k all…

Sorry City fans, maybe I just had to gloat a little bit.

Wayne Rooney continues to be in ‘devastating’ form according to Sir Alex Ferguson, following Manchester United’s first ever win at the San Siro in Italy on Tuesday night.

Rooney is now tipped to pass 30 goals this season, having already notched up 25 following his brace against Milan in the second half of the UEFA Champions League last 16 knockout stage. United won the game 3-2 after going a goal down to a deflected Ronaldinho effort early on. The red devils weathered the storm in the first half before a moment of luck levelled matters before the break when Paul Scholes scored with a miss kick – the ball coming off his standing leg and trickling past the stranded Dida.

Rooney then dazzled with 2 goals to put United 3-1 up, before Clarence Seedorf pulled one back with 5 minutes to go. Michael Carrick was sent off for kicking the ball away on David Beckham’s first game against his former club. The second leg is played in just under 3 weeks time.

It has been confirmed. After a 12 minute meeting with Fabio Capello, John Terry has been axed as England Captain. Revelations about is affair with Vanessa Perroncel have hit every news bulletin over the past week and Capello has decided that it is best for England to releave Terry from his duties.

You’ve probably heard all the jokes over the past week:

JOKE: “Sorry to ruin your day mate, but I’ve just driven past your house and John Terry’s car is parked outside”

JOKE: “Fabio Capello phones up Wayne Bridge and say’s…Wayne, I need your help. John Terry seems to have lost his captain’s armband. Could you do me a favour and look under your bed for me?”!!!

Rio Ferdinand is set to take over as new captain with Steven Gerrard as vice captain.

Former Newcastle United player Obafemi Martins has been recalled to Nigerian Squad for their World Cup tie against Mozambique. This is to be played in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital in October.

The 24-year-old former Newcastle player’s last appearance for the Nigerian Super Eagles was in the reverse leg fixture in Maputo, Mozambique about five months ago.

Martins hasn’t always been in favour with the Nigerian team selectors as his lack of seriousness towards his international  commitments compared to his club and the fact he has been injured more often than not. However Nigeria’s current top scorer Ikechukwu Uche is unavailable due to a damaged cruciate ligament.

With all the money being spent by the big clubs and Manchester City this season bringing in more fire power you would expect to see some amazing demonstrations of how to effectively and attack and destroy ones opposition.

Real Madrid have been drawing in their fans and sold season tickets well in advance to showcase their  Galactico’s and haven’t disappointed, other teams have managed to display the players they bought. However Manchester City spent clearly more than any other team squandering the GDP of a small European country in a summer and have their stars in physio!!

Their long suffering fan and now disillusioned base must be gutted. Spending a fortune on season tickets with no stars to see for what could be half a season unless they count the troll Tevez and GBH specialist Adebayor as  stars!

Sparky give us a wave, Sparky, Sparky give us a wave!!

How is your team doing?  Are your super stars turning out to be sub standard?

Come the start of the season like all red blooded males (not just because I’m a Manchester United fan!!) I was excited in having something to look forward to come the weekend as well as Match of the Day returning to our TV screens.

The excitement of the transfer window also increased the hype and anticipation of the various fantasy football games. Like most I chose my players based on last season’s performance but I’ve been let down a bit. Stephen Ireland to name one has been pants so far, so TRANSFER I think.

But hey, were not even half way through yet so it’s all good!

And here we come to the conclusion of a three part posting for absolute heroes of the Pro Evo Master League seasons into the game.

Forwards

• Messi, of Barcelona-Forget what you know of Henry and Etoo, they do not even compare to the likes of the little Lionel when his stats improve rapidly in 2012 making him one of the greatest most agile centre forwards in the game. Be wary of his shot power though, always put that little extra on the shot due to this attribute being a little under par.
• Benzema, of Olympique Lyon-The man of the decade by far, will not miss any header, strength, stamina and devastating shot accuracy to boot. He is the man for the job, centralised he can manoeuvre through defenders without loosing the ball!
• Pato, of Inter Milan, the Brazilian makes his mark, and mark my words does he, look past the microphone haircut which is just deceptive-he is your right hand man.

Get these guys and top player setting is not enough.

I’m not a bitter United Fan that wallows in the fact that we lost him, I’’ve always thought that this guy has a head from a Dog, unfortunate events he may have endured, but how has his neck become that circumference?

So why must I bring this untouched upon topic about you ask, reason is because I’d like to discuss the five players I’d like to knock out, in no particular order of course.

• Tevez – Got the post title, I’d hit him with a lead bar and he would probably look prettier
• Martin Keown – Oh dear, just one of those heads you want to see after you’ve had 10 pints of Stella on a night out. This dirt doesn’t even play anymore and he still needs doing in
• Ray Parlour – Looks too much like Simply Red to me, there’s only one Mick so sorry Ray, you have to go.
• Paul Merson – Lets face it Arsenals 99 season team all needed K.O. time so we’ll round off this list with…….
• Tony Adams – Did he have a drink before every game the Booze’o or was it the razor that kept getting stolen, have a shave you tool.

And there you have it, welcome to add your own knock out time list, managers are included if you want a go!

As mentioned in an earlier post, we discussed the quality of defenders to purchase when in the master league mode of the game.

Midfielders

• Juan-Mata, originally of Valencia this left footed superstar excels to attributes of over 90 on all midfielder requirements
• Nani – of Manchester United, peaks at the age of 26 but average of 94 in all areas where you need them in the mid section of the field
• Zarate – of Lazio, really is a support striker but this guy gets better and better through the seasons and doesn’t stop scoring, attributes of around 90 but plays fantastically.
• Sergio Aguero, of Athletico Madrid, ends up being the one of the top 5 fastest accelerating, top speed, shot power and accuracy rolled into one machine. You won’t miss with this on the inside right.

Tune in soon for the strikers post.