Yes, I'm in the same boat. I wonder if Giggs and Rooney can work their magic on the Wembley turf...

Is Giggsy taking Imogen on the pitch with him ?

I'm not sure

They haven't been playing particularly brilliantly this year compared to the past. They won the Premiership for sure, but if some of the other teams had performed just slightly better then it might not have been so. I will of course be cheering them on, but with a slight sense of trepidation

As always ... most other team supporters will cheer wildly if they loose, rather than support a British team in a final

They may not quite be as bad as Chelsea (or Arsenal), but the likes of Vidic, Berbatov, Nani, Evra, Hernandez, Valencia etc show that like most other teams now, it's a team of mercenaries. The "British" part is incidental nowadays.

Much the same in Spain, friends of ours from Barcelona would never, ever support Real Madrid, nor the reverse I suspect, being Catalans. Similar with Alonso, he's like Marmite, they either love him or hate him, the latter wouldn't support him. It's strange to read in a Spanish F1 forum Spanish that shout for Hamilton instead.

You dont think that Chelsea & Arsenal are teams of mercenaries?

Unfortunately whichever way you look at it, The Premiership is arguably the best football league in the world, and therefore in general attracts many of the best players in the world. It's just a shame that British players are not high up on the list, apart from the odd few (and I mean odd)

It's odd because if my memory serves me right, many moons ago British teams were regularly winning the European cup with all British players despite coming up against opponents playing with a host of star international players from many different countries.

If I read him correctly, I think he was saying the Man Utd were not as bad as Chelsea and Arsenal, ie not as many foreign players.

Correct! One of those two teams were the first to put out a team of totally foreign players. As Dick mentions, British teams were capable of competing with mainly British players in the past - it's debatable whether the influx of foreign players has denied opportunity to local players?

Same as all British sports, lack of funding at the grass roots (excuse the Pun)
I think it was Sir Bobby Robson and his Flying Dutchmen that changed the British team structure.

On the day of what hopefully will be footballs showpiece of the year, it's a shame that the headlines are taken by FIFA and the bent brigade who run it.
The whole organisation appears to be rotten to the core with the present chairman septic bladder and the guy challenging him both being the subject of numerous bribery allegations, these in addition to those already proven against other FIFA execs who were still allowed to continue in their same positions.
Apart from all the corruption they appear to be totally clueless regarding what is required to bring the game into the twenty first century as has been achieved with other sports.
It would be best if the whole set-up was dismantled and a complete new start made on a much more democratic basis, but unfortunately thats unlikely to happen.

Man Utd are 3/1 for the win. Of course Barca are the better side but at those odds????

Or am I getting carried away because I backed Inter to beat Barca last year

You can get 12/1 against Messi scoring first, which must be worth a flutter.

After watching Barcelona players diving and falling all over the place, going down like they´d been shot etc, turns out they are the Spanish champions of the "fair play" league!
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/1065.../juego/limpio/

Blatter is not attending the final ... strange that!


I've been an Man U fan since 1968, and if I'm honest ..... I'm not full of hope for tonight. I do of course hope that an English Team brings the cup back here, but I have to say over the last 3 years Barcelona have been THE team in Europe