2. Best players or best team: Team, usually, but there is a pleasure in taking a shine to a particular player, eg. Sex…I mean, Cesc Fabregas.

3. Number of goals a player scores or quality of opposition: The latter. Six words: Robbie Keane, record Irish international goalscorer.

4. Same as 3 but for teams: Generally, quality of opposition again.

5. Winning through diving or losing through not diving: The moral maze, eh? Partly depends on the type of dive: if it’s the kind where there is a foul and the player fouled exaggerates to ensure the ref sees it, it’s fair enough. A foul manufactured from nothing: I would retreat into a deserted wood on ponder on the quandry for forty days and forty nights, at the end of which deciding…I don’t know.

6 & 7: A miss is a miss is a miss, no? I like to think you can have a beautiful miss like you can have a beautiful goal, but that’s a different issue.

8. Penalties: mental strength or amount of practice?Mental strength, but only because technical proficiency is a subset of mental strength. If you have a well-practised routine that you know you can use in a match situation, it’s going to give you more confidence. This exists side-by-side with ‘bottle’.

9. Sacrificing career for fans or suiting yourself: Generally, suiting yourself. A career is short and job security hardly lock-tight; if a manager decides he doesn’t like your face you’re screwed.

Won’t stop me bitching about Adebayor, though.

2. Having the best team – if you’ve got great players, that’s great, but great players don’t necessarily make a great team.

3. Number of goals ultimately makes the most difference, but we most remember the ones that are scored in the derbies, the cup finals, and the title deciders.

4. Certainly better when that 5-1 is against a rival, but whenever you’re outscoring the other team, then it’s good.

5. A win is a win at the end of the day, but if it didn’t come the right way, it tends to come back around on you sooner or later, and you lose one by a questionable decision or don’t get the decision called in your favor when you should.

6. Goal-line clearance – you end up pissed off either way, but at least you know the shot was on target.

7. Missing the sitter.

8. Mental strength – Who cares if you’re the shiz and you worked hard day in, day out to get to a high level if you don’t have the stones to come through when it matters?

9. Best interests – You only live once, and when you’re in sports, you’ve got a pretty short window to make he most of your career. You don’t want to have any regrets when you hang it up.

Mine:

1. Winning the league – consistent quality over time. Cup has glamour but little substance.

2. Best team.

3. The number of goals a player scores – because goals will win you games.

4. The number of goals your team scores – same as above.

5. Winning a game through diving for a penalty – no medals given for being a honest loser at the end of the day.

6. Goal-line clearance – unless the keeper is nowhere in site and the guy from outside the box hits the crossbar instead of the empty net, the keeper usually has the shot covered. In front of the goal, anything can happen – handball, deflection, etc – it’s a harder chance but also a better goalscoring chance.

7. missing the goal from six yards out – closer to the goal = better chance to score, it’s not rocket science.

What is more important in taking penalties?

8. mental strength – at the highest professional level everyone practices penalties before key games and the regular penalty takers are well-practiced anyway. The difference ends up being your composure, and sometimes pure luck. Mental strength can minimize the influence of luck.

9 Sacrificing your career to satisfy the demands of millions of football fans – definitely the worse option. Short career, fickle fans, fickle clubs and all that.

2. The best team. You can have no famous or world class players on a team and still have a good tournament or even win it if the players have good chemistry and understand each other. ie: Russia in Euro 08. Although it always helps having a few good player but not go mad getting them like Real Madrid who would sell their soul just to get C.Ronaldo or when they got Figo, Zidane, Beckham, Ronaldo and never won crap.

3. The number of goals he scores because it is entertaining to watch him (and probably the team to) play. And generally the players that score the most goals score them against good and bad team ( I said GENERALLY, because it is not always like that)

4. This one is hard but I´d have to say Quality Of Opposition because what good will it make to score 6 or 7 goals to a crappy team if you can´t score in the important and decisive games?

5. I would rather lose a game by not diving as hard as it could be to see my team lose but I would be incredibly dissapointed if they win by diving, considering how much I hate players like Drogba who dive pretty often.

6. The question I don´t really like considering that a miss is a miss and which ever way a team won win with either but the closest probably is the bar.

7. post from outside but, again, who gives a crap? a miss is a miss what you want to do is score not get close.

8. Mental Strength because you can be a good player at set pieces (penalties) but if you don´t have enough mental strength you can get to nervous, etc and miss. ie: Schevchenko Liverpool vs Milan penalty shootout, Beckham vs France and Portugal in Euro 2004. And Fabregas vs Italy Euro 08 scores the winning penalty even when he has never been known for penalty taking and isn´t the penalty taker with Spain or Arsenal.

9. Sacrifice your career to satusfy the demands of millions of fans is worse… Why the hell would I stay if I´m beeing offered thousand or millions more and with whichever fans they will praise you if you help the team and play well and will eat you alive for one mistake. But in the case of players like Lampard I take that back, because he says a bunch of crap about staying a loving his team and it hasn´t really seemed like it the last few years and probably he will leave.

5. winning a game through diving – teams will win games and teams will lose games, the important thing is that players play the game fairly.

Scratch that and make it “losing a game by not diving”

2. having the best team – this way you are likely to win something; remember Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo & Beckham?

3. the number of goals a player scores – football is about entertainment and goals are entertaining.

4. the number of goals your team scores – ditto.

5. winning a game through diving – teams will win games and teams will lose games, the important thing is that players play the game fairly.

6. hitting the post / crossbar from outside the box.

7. hitting the post from outside the box.

8. mental strength – I know, I take these.

9. Sacrificing your career to satisfy the demands of millions of football fans – if your club has millions of fans, you would hardly be sacrificing anything by staying with them. Looking for a move away would be just selfish.

2. Having the best team.

3. The quality of opposition he scores them against, who cares if you get a hat trick against teams at the bottom when you already win 4, 5, or 6-0? If you step up big for your team in crunch time against a rival or strong opponent is key to a strong competitive run at titles Drogba’s two goals against Arsenal after being down a goal last season is the only reason Chelsea had a chance at even tying for the League Title last season.

4. Same as above, a 1-0 win against Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Real Mad. Inter Milan, B. Munich, etc. is much better for your team’s chances at success than a 4-0 win against Fulham or Cologne.

5. Winning a game through diving for a penalty, if you want to win you will do what it takes to take your team to victory. If the ref sees it your way then it must have been a foul anyway, if he doesn’t your way is when it becomes a dive.

6. Goal-line clearance (defender or keeper) from a shot six yards out. Six yards out and you can’t just power it home? Put it in the back of the net son, hitting the post? it really doesn’t have a chance of going in, it’s not in the area of a goal being able to be scored.

7. Same as above, getting that close from further out is just an unlucky/lucky event that is more difficult and usually a last stitch effort, missing from six yards out is a pathetic display of finishing.

8. Why should either matter? 12 yards out one on one with the keeper if you can’t hit the corner with a hard pass than how can you be expected to hit a runner with a pass, or a standing mate with a defender closing in? If you cant hit a penalty 99.999% of the time, find a new day job. (Sorry Terry, your slip in the CL league final is no excuse, no body else slipped, or your fancy crap Ronaldo, or Anelka blaming not warming up? its one hit at the ball, how much do you need to warm up for that?

9. It really depends. As long as you don’t lie to the fans and say how much you love them and the club just to leave 3 years later because 29m isn’t enough is a little bit of crap if you ask me. If you are honest and say you are leaving because you feel like its time to move on or just want new opportunities and never claimed to want to stay for the rest of your carrier, then go and be happy, if you lie about your intentions burn in bloody you bastard, your not irreplaceable