I'd absolutely love it if they did. I'm certainly rooting for them, but I'm expecting Citeh to scrape it - Aguero is starting to look ominously good again. 

No

LOL, are the Dippers about to have their pants pulled down?

Sinclair 19 (and scorer for the Dippers last week against the mighty Exeter) and a promising prospect (I know not if this is true) is reportedly stalling on his contract. Watford are said to be interested.

However, as the striker is under the age of 24, Watford would have to pay a compensation fee decided by a tribunal, likely around £5million, to sign him on a free transfer during the summer.

On the other hand Watford’s owners, the Pozzo family, could use one of their foreign clubs to sign Sinclair before loaning him to Watford.

Perfect.

It's similar to what Levy did to Ferguson.

Where's your sense of romance gone?

Leicester for the league? Would love it. Especially as ex Chelsea boss CR is in charge. Likeable chap with a GSOH

Going back to which boss I'd like to take over from Gus. Well if he did a good enough job and wanted it then I don't know why he couldn't stay. Failing that, and I don't know how other Chelsea fans feel, but what about the Spurs boss? Seems to know what he's doing and gives the youngsters a go. Only question would be if he could do it at a proper club

Looks like the Dippers have had their pants pulled down even earlier than I thought. The Stoke goal was offside.

Obviously you would still want the Foxes to win the league if Plastic FC were in the top four

Extra Time for Liverpool and Stoke, not what the managers want

Dreadful game, too 

Charlie Adam scoring the winning penalty in a shootout would be quite amusing.

Sinclair's agent is that tw*t Aidy Ward, who for some reason despises Liverpool.

He's not that great a player, certainly not the next Sterling. It's always hard to judge how a young player will kick on, but he's deffo stalled at Liverpool. In time he could do OK for a lower-half Prem team, or he could be plying his trade at Crewe in 3 years. Doesn't look like he has enough about him to make it at the top, though.

Meanwhile, in the great Liverpool form lottery, tonight we'll be mostly utterly sh*te.

No need to guess who this is; it's obvious. But it raises the more important issue of managers looking to line their pockets (if they can) before being booted out, further down the line.

A good conspiracy at least.

http://www.thesecretfootballer.com/articles/the-secret-footballer/29898/strange-case-of-star-player-caught-in-middle-of-chairman-manager-transfer-standoff/

Liverpool didn't deserve to win after that performance. But then, neither really did Stoke.

Can Everton join us at Wembley

I hope Liverpool win it , I like 'Smiler' he has fitted in well to the PL

Pato going to the Chavs on loan (if confirmed) could prove a masterstroke if................a big if............he can stay injury free. Still only 26, believe it or not.

Inevitably, Pochettino emerges as a candidate for the Chavs job.

Far more interesting is the fact the Chavs may face a transfer embargo.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/mauricio-pochettino-to-chelsea-tottenham-manager-added-to-blues-hit-list-a6835536.html

I said this to a Spud mate of mine, he dismissed it completely

Pochettino won't go to Chelsea. Or United for that matter. It simply ain't gonna happen. He might be tempted by a bigger club, such as Madrid, should Zidane eventually fail there.

I don't think he'll move (other than the potential cash to splash, I imagine working for the Russian crook would be a nightmare). It's frustrating when nothing-clubs with a paper-thin history are suddenly elevated to football's top table merely because some dodgy shyster buys them & pumps money in. I know you & I poke each other with sticks in this thread, but you Sperms are one of the traditional major English teams. Like us with Sterling, it's bloody annoying when a Johnny-come-lately club lifts its skirts and greedy little turds go running, with those cartoonesque $-signs flashing in their eyes.

Pochettino won't go for the simple fact Spurs are in a better place than say Southampton were financially.

Southampton were always going to need to generate cash, in order to regenerate as a club - hence Pochettino wasn't never going to finish his project there. The cue for him to leave was when Nicola Cortese went. It was Cortese who was the mastermind and turned that club around financially. He also brought Poch in.

Poch and Levy is a marriage made in heaven - Levy being a tight arse but always mindful of boosting the Spurs academy - if only to sell players on a profit eventually (he doen't need to now). Poch, meanwhile, is far less demanding in terms of going to the chairman and asking for the readies - unlike Pellegrini, Van Gaal and Mourinho who would appear to spend much of their spare time playing FIFA Manager and have the luxury of working/worked for egomaniac owners.

Levy learned his lesson when the Bale money was largely spunked away - only Eriksen, Chadli and Lamela have come good out of that lot.

So, it was back to Plan B i.e. promote Academy (largely English) players; much of the good work there having already been done by 'Professor Dim'. Yes, that Professor Dim who was great with young players but an utterly crap manager.

So where are we. Well to put it simply, the crop of youngsters coming through has been (and is) the best in years. Astute i.e. cheap signings have also been made such as bringing in Dier and Alli.

I don't think it unrealistic to assert that Dier, Alli and Kane could form the spine of the England team for years to come. Meanwhile, at Spurs there are very promising English youngsters, such as Pritchard and Onomah, knocking on the first team door.

I think where Pochettino has come up trumps is playing youngsters (whether by necessity/accident or by design), who have demonstrated they have the ability to play at that level and have thrived.

It's always a lottery and managers (who spend most of their time under pressure) will sadly opt for experience - even playing very average players or players playing out of position - over youth much more often than not.

At Liverpool in 2013/14, we had a full back injury crisis. At the club was a right back called Jon Flanagan, unfancied by Rodgers and had been previously loaned out where he'd looked nothing special. He got an unlikely chance (at left back!), played with massive heart and no little defensive ability and confounded expectations. He became undroppable for the rest of the season. If not for the injury crisis, he'd never have got a chance. Sadly he then picked up two consecutive serious knee injuries and he's only just coming back now, but the point is still there. Much better know was the Sterling situation. Yes, he was earmarked for great things, but only got an extended spell in the side because of injury/suspensions. Did OK at first then blossomed.

Players 'grow' when played in the first team with top players around them. Unfortunately, too many will be dismissed after only one or two games because they've not set the world on fire from the word go (whilst others, the more favoured, seem to get more time, even if they don't seem to have 'it'.

Indeed, it comes down to basic factors such as 'luck' and man management.

Dier is a classic example. Yes, he had a poor trial at Everton. However, people were aware of his potential after he started playing well at Sporting Lisbon.

He was always a CB by trade and was brought in for that reason. He was in and out of the Spurs team until Poch, due to circumstances, decided to employ him as a DM. Most Spurs fans thought Poch had lost his marbles.

Poch proved us all wrong. If you look at the current DM landscape (for England) or rather the list of players Woy plays there, Dier in effect is competing with Henderson, Shelvey, Carrick and Wheelchair Wilshere.

I think we can dismiss Carrick and Wheelchair on age and fitness grounds respectively. Which leaves us Henderson and Shelvey.

Henderson's fitness must come into question too and Shelvey for me isn't good enough to be a DM - he's more effective further up the pitch.

Soooooo.....Dier gets the nod for me; more so as Alli deserves to start and they know one another's game in the middle of the park.

Saying all of that, I need not remind you that circumstances can be a bitch, especially if you look at the career of Rob Jones who, but for his injuries, would have gotten far more England caps than the 8 he did actually get.

Up & coming Centre Half talent Matt Miazga (NY Red Bull, US international) is set to join Chavski for £5m.

Stupid boy. Do these people never learn? He'll disappear at the Chavs, get loaned out several times, never develop his career, be an also-ran by mid-20's.