Full FA Cup first round draw:
Gillingham v Southend
Grimsby v Bath City
Gateshead v Brentford
Chesterfield v Bournemouth
Blyth or AFC Telford v Lincoln
Stockport v Tooting & Mitcham or Eastbourne
Burton v Oxford City
Barrow or Chester v Eastleigh
Oldham v Leeds
Lincoln Utd or Cambridge Utd v Ilkeston
York v Crewe
Wycombe v Brighton
Hereford v Sutton
Nuneaton Town v Exeter
Bristol R v Southampton
Carlisle v Morecambe
Forest Green v Mansfield
Oxford Utd v Yeovil
Paulton Rovers v Norwich
Swindon v Woking
Port Vale v Stevenage
Luton v Rochdale
Bromley v Colchester
Accrington v Farnborough or Salisbury
Millwall v Crawley or AFC Wimbledon
Stourbridge v Walsall
Shrewsbury v Staines
Wealdstone v Rotherham
Torquay v Cheltenham
Barnet v Darlington
Notts County v Bradford
Huddersfield v Dagenham & Redbridge
MK Dons v Macclesfield
Rushden & D v Hinckley Utd
Northwich Vic v Charlton
Aldershot v Bury
Wrexham v Gloucester or Lowestoft
Hartlepool v Kettering or Redditch
Tranmere v Leyton Orient
Northampton v Kidderminster or Fleetwood
Ties to take place on weekend of 7/8 November


Looks like Brighton will be out early and Shrewsbury wont be far behind with a non league side...

TORRES!!!

This is boiling.

Owen suddenly knows what it's like to be hated by 40,000 people...those boos were deafening as he came on!

THIRD straight Liverpool match with a red card for Vidic!!! Holy crap...

...ANOTHER RED CARD! This one for Mascherano!!

And a second goal for Liverpool to seal a famous win! This derby NEVER fails to entertain us!

Gordon Strachan confirmed as the new Boro manager, as expected...

League Cup quarter-final draw...

Blackburn Rovers v Chelsea
Manchester City v Arsenal
Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur
Portsmouth v Aston Villa

The language of DOND makes it into the football world! Just heard Liverpool's season described as a "one-box game" on Final Score...

If they lose to Lyon I think they could be left with an all-blue board...

A neat reversal of Geordie referencing the Istanbul final in one really bad game during his wing run - of course if you're looking for a DoND equivalent of that game you need look no further than Keran!!

With this start and their financial difficulties, I'm wondering if it's worth a cheeky enquiry on their odds of being relegated next season... I cannot look at their current situation without thinking 'this is going to be Leeds United on an even bigger scale'.

I'm not sure about that, the equivalent of relegation for Liverpool would be finishing fifth. There's still such a huge gap between the big four and the rest, although Man City's money is closing it, and Liverpool probably haven't been out of the top half for about 40 years!

Liverpool and Man Utd are the two English clubs whose name and history alone is worth millions if not billions, and as a result they will always be up there to some extent.

I don't even think Liverpool will finish fifth at this rate...

...They'll do well to qualify for the Europa League, but that alone will have a severe impact on income...I don't even understand how this has happened to Liverpool to be quite honest...frankly the only key difference is Xabi Alonso. Aquilani is thought to be just as good a player, though with a different mentality to the game than Alonso, so when he is match-fit, on paper they should provide just as good results as last season.

Or are we seeing concrete evidence that they will SORELY miss Stevie G when he retires?

Interesting point from Power5; I get that (though how long ago was it that Shankly took them from Second Division to one of the top clubs in Europe? Was it more than 40 years ago?), and it implies that there'll be another billionaire to bail them out if they do finish fifth or worse this season.

My opinion is that only this will save them from 'doing a Leeds'... and personally I think it will take a club 'too big to fail' to fail that badly in order to get football finance in order again...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_F.C._seasons

Liverpool were promoted to the then First Division in 1962, their worst finish since then is 8th (which they "achieved" in their first season up in 1962-63 and more recently in 1993-94). So it's actually closing in on half a century! Even Man Utd can't match that kind of consistency, if you look back 20 years or more they had seasons where they struggled and were even relegated once in the 1970s.

I think football clubs will always be a licence to print money in a way, I mean every club has to chase the dream and only a handful will ever be successful even by their own standards at any point in time. And unlike perhaps any other type of business there's always someone with money who cares about the club enough to put together some kind of rescue package, and the leagues are very reluctant to kick clubs out, you go backwards if you don't spend excessively so there's no incentive to manage the finances well. Unless they bring in American football style salary caps, and then it would have to be Europe-wide or even worldwide as otherwise all the best players would just move to a different country.

Man U had better not lose to Burnley.

I literally have a lot riding on it.

Oooh what do you have riding on it?!

£75!

And I only earn £50 a week as it is!

Why have you put £75 on it? And why has this been bet made now? They dont meet until January.

It'll give Man U time to improve!

Utterly Utterly Utterly sickening. A travesty of football has been committed tonight.

That I'm looking forward to, but I'm not entirely sure we'll win it. I'm backing Pompey as I always have done, of course, and I think we stand as much a chance of winning as Villa regardless of place in the Premiership. But I will concede that there is a reason for our place in the premiership and that is that we've played appallingly 75% of the time.
But that was something that sort of dissipated itself about a month back. Certainly for a while now Pompey have been better by a huge amount..possibly enough to beat Villa, in my mind certainly enough to keep a draw at the least. I'm not putting any money on it, as I'm a bit short of money, but I'll make a prediction. Portsmouth to win 2-1.

Man U v. Spurs looks like a good one to watch.