hahaha ;(

Apparently Beckham played well last night...

I was imagining the game though.

http://forum.football365.com/index.php?t=msg&th=349070&prevloaded=1&rid=&S=dae02921cc29a37842a734cd045b3151&rev=&reveal=&start=80&count=40#msg_num_22

not football-related per se but pretty lollin

This (http://i19.tinypic.com/4lsdpmq.gif) one is hilarious.

hahaha, it's funny because in 5 years they still won't have found her

It's funny because it is all 29 MINUTES ON THE NEWS EVERY NIGHT FOR ONE PERSON. People get so hysterical for that sort of shit.

now it's 29 minutes a night for a logo

Premiership fixtures for 07/08 have been released.

Bolton managed to get Newcastle on the first game of the season, lol'in.

THE HUNT FOR MADELEINE DAY 563

pompey have the big 4 within the first 6 games
:(

4 easy games Top-Cat.

4 easy games. :D

well we might beat man u, we always seem to

Man, the whole Maddie acse is getting on my nerves, it's like half an hour per news, and everyone is worried about Portugal becoming unactractive for the brittish.

Also Portugal sub-21 aren't playing shit, again

everyone is worried about Portugal becoming unactractive for the brittish.


Hahahaha, Portuguese news takes a highly appealing stance on the issue.

WHERE'S MADELEINE ? THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IS OTHERWISE DOOMED

At home to Spurs on the first day. Also, first match against the Toon Army is in November but for once it's at the Stadium of Light first.

It will be interesting to see us face off against Man U, can't wait for it.

THE HUNT FOR MADELEINE DAY 563

Faggot.

why? ^.~

Southend host Leyton Orient, first fixture.

Come on Shrimpers, back into the Championship this season plz.

Blackpool in the Championship. Well bugger me, Terrence.

Leicester first up, Sheff United last up. Bloody hell.

And of course the scum over Christmas. Have it.

I take it you mean Southampton when you say the Scum?

not if sheff utd whine their way out of relegation

why? ^.~

Poor kid is likely dead and you take the piss like that.

I'm not taking the piss out of her. :/

but i still found it a bit insane that they were still broadcasting whole half hour segments on sky news like a month after she went missing, because i realy don't know if the completely insane publicity helps anything. and i don't think anybody in the tabloids/tv stations really cares about anything other than sales etc. but i didnt mean it in an "OMG a little girl is missing and i can make fun of that on the internet am i not a riot" sort of way =/

i like how some portugese person telephones the law with a description of a girl that might just look a little bit like a 6 year old brit and the next minute its MADELINE SPOTTED IN COAL SHED PLAYING BACKGAMMON WITH TOM PETTY AND A CHAIN-SMOKING MONKEY

any chance there might be a few fibbers and blaggards on the iberian peninsula? judging by their 2006 performance and nadir afonso's latter works, it's a fair bet.


also yah yah football

since im from maryland i like the redskins....is this right? is this thread soccer or football?

I'm not taking the piss out of her. :/

Well I'm sorry man but it's been a tough week and you hit a nerve.

since im from maryland i like the redskins....is this right? is this thread soccer or football?
football...


proper football that is



lol traditional brit zing

I don't care about the Madeline story, and I make no secret of it. Yeah I hope she is found and is safe and all but I am not too bothered really. The news could be focused on more important things and I don't see what the whole "KEEP IT IN THE PUBLIC EYE" thing achieves. Just because someone seen it on ITV isn't going to help them recall some repressed memories, it's just going to pressurise them into making mistakes, contacting the police with false leads and wasting time. Anyhow, sad for the family, yes I suppose, sad for me, not really.

actually i agree 100% with mossy, as much as i know it makes me seem like a complete bastard

1 person of about madeleine's age a day goes missing in this country alone. just because maddy's parents are rich and she's a little blonde girl doesn't make her any more worthy of press attention, as far as i'm concerned. i'd love for her to be found tomorrow, of course i would, but as far as i'm concerned it's not something that should be headline news. little girls go missing! and dogs bite people! there are, frankly, bigger issues in the world. this whole media hyperbole is why the people of this country are fucking terrified of everything.

this whole media hyperbole is why the people of this country are fucking terrified of everything.

True, I hear they banned the sack race from school sports days because apparently it was 'too dangerous'.

L8r Thierry.

However, this is not altogether a bad thing. Henry is basically 30, before next season kicks off he will be. �16m, though perhaps a slight undervaluation, is good money for a player his age. Last season he scored 13 goals I think, which isn't bad when you consider how little he was fit for. But, the fact that he wasn't fit for such long spells is evidence that he is an aging player and I reckon you can expect him to spend long periods out again next year. More than anything though, as much as I have admired the man and he is undeniably one of the best players of all time imo, the way he has handled the whole affair has angered me. He spent most of the last month sending out hallow assurances that he would see out his career with Arsenal, so for him to leave after making those sorts of guarantees is a bit, well, dubious.

Arsenal aren't going to suffer any marked decline as a result of his leaving either. Van Persie and Adebayor are both very good strikers, the latter perhaps not so much, and Walcott is a natural replacement for Henry even if he is a little bit shit atm. All said, if Arsenal start next season with no new signings other than Fabianski, I'd be pretty certain they'll finish fourth again. If they want to seriously compete for the title again, they need to seriously contemplate buying some players. One defender, one winger and one striker is the way I see it right now.

the problem with arsenal is they keep selling their best players and refuse to buy replacements.

fabregas is doing ok but he's no viera, let's be honest. and there isn't another henry in arsenal's ranks right now.

Well, THE TALK OF THE TOWN is that they are going to buy Joao Moutinho from Sporting who T66 informs me is great and Ryan Babel from Ajax who is a very good young player. It also seems likely that they'll put an offer in for Tevez now too, and he is an excellent footballer.

they can't buy the chelsea manager mossy, that's just SILLY


:ROLLINDAROLL:

Mossy, admit it.

You are weeping into your GCSE papers.

You were thrown out of one exam for excessive lamentation.

and given 3 extra marks in the next due to mourning

hahahaha THATS FUCKING TEAMWORK

tc and meph for new comedy pairing on the BBC.

Man, I am not happy, but still, NIC ANELKA. That'd be pretty cool, it is like a film or something.

9 YEARS AGO A MENTALIST CALLED NICOLAS ANELKA LEFT FOR MADRID.

IN THAT TIME, THIERRY HENRY SCORED HUNDREDS OF GOAL

BUT NOW HE'S BACK AND MORE CRAZY THAN EVER

It will be a better film than Rise of the Silver Surfer anyhow.

hahahaha THATS FUCKING TEAMWORK

tc and meph for new comedy pairing on the BBC.

we'd be the new.... fantastic comedy pairing

also, anelka wouldn't replace henry by any length... you'd need 2 anelkas i imagine


then again replacing the best player to ever grace the premier division will always be a challenge

Anelka is an immensely talented footballer, I think, and I have always said this, NOT JUST NOW OR ANYTHING. His temperament is just massively questionable. If he had have stuck with Arsenal back in 98, I think he had all the potential to be one of the greatest players of all time, better than Henry even. Of course, a decade as a journeyman throughout Europe and in his late twenties, Anelka is never going to be able to enjoy the sort of success he might have done, but he will still do an excellent job I think. Arsenal's style of play suits him and I really think he can be a 20 goals a season player until age hits him in a big way, Henry was usually 30 goals though, so he doesn't quite fulfil that sort of role. Nonetheless, I am sure Wenger sees Walcott as the true long term successor to Henry and as he continues to be groomed for the role, Anelka will be an excellent stopgap.

This is all a little forward I guess. Though I am certain Arsenal are interested in Anelka due to the sheer amount of papers reporting it as the case, nothing has even begun to be negotiated and we are still miles off signing any deals. Anyway, if Nicolas Anelka does return, I will fish out an old JVC jersey and be all retro about it.

i dislike anelka

=(

In CM 01-02, I had this guy Anelka, I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT HIS FIRST NAME WAS, in 2020 or something. He was Zinedine Zidane reincarnated really and I evetually sold him to Lazio for �30m. That team had some fantastic players, I had reincarnations of Kahn, Ferdinand, Hofland, Nesta, Gattuso, Candela, Carragher, Vieira, Roy Keane, Totti, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and OTHER GOOD KIDS.

in one championship manager game i bought 50 players and sold about 3


oh wait that's all my games

In Pro Evo 5, Eusebio was the greatest striker to ever play for Southend United.

I usually have a pretty good record in the market now. When I first played I was rubbish though, tbf.

In PES5, Eusebio is THE LIGHTNING LORD for his speed. I partner him with Cruijff and then Tostao/Maradona supporting to the left and Rooney or Schuster on the right. It is a 4 man attack really.

i just keep on buying all the time :/

henry goes to barca for 16 mil. darren FUCKING BENT goes to yids for 16.5.

a deposed, asset-frozen dodgy as fuck ex thai president buys man citeh and a man worth 20 billion FUCKING QUID is linked with buying out FUCKING BIRMINGHAM CITY.

footballs a bit shite these days isnt it.

oh yes

There was something in the air that night
The stars were bright, fernando~~

Rather delighted we've finally bedded down the kid with a 6 year contract, and even more so should the reported €20 million fee be accurate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wolverhampton_wanderers/6270492.stm

Southend has lost its Henry :(

2mil though. Fucking sweet for an outfit like Southend.

this is not a dig at liverpool - or even torres - in any way, but this deal is so blatantly symbolic of the business direction the sport has taken. here we have the club captain of atletico madrid, a hero to the club's fans, a fan of the club himself since he was a little boy and a player who has played for the club since he was 11 leaving for liverpool because they are giving him a 90 grand a week wage, which would not have been possible without the investment of hicks and gillett.

i know this started years ago with abramovich, and if you want to go further than that decades ago with spurs and united becoming plcs, and i know torres has claimed he wants to go back to atletico one day and he has moved for sporting reasons (which makes sense, 1 champions league and another CL final in 3 years for liverpool) but from the perspective i offer above it is a symbol of the sport's complete transition into a business.

at least the mancs didnt get him. although that was made easier by the fact they've already spent 50 million this summer.

and yes i will continue bitching about the game.

Focus on the lower leagues for football with passion.

Not as good looking, but it has the passion.

and the brick shithouse chavs and the rain and dodging bottles on the train back.

great laff :D chester shrewsbury, or even better chester wrexham. family fun

i know torres has claimed he wants to go back to atletico one day and he has moved for sporting reasons (which makes sense, 1 champions league and another CL final in 3 years for liverpool) but from the perspective i offer above it is a symbol of the sport's complete transition into a business.
I couldn't agree with that, at least not specifically with viewing nando's move as a symbol of the current businesslike situation of professional football (re: ballack and shevchenko)

Torres started with Athletico at the age of 13, made his way up through the youth ranks, and eventually took on the reign of captain. During his time there he has played in la liga's second division and has turned down approaches from the likes of Real Madrid & Chelsea, purely because he wanted to help his club succeed. He's always been naturally hungry for success, so how could anyone possibly fault him for leaving after 12 year's service without any major award to show for it?

Athletico's inability to drive itself forward was the cause for torres moving on, not the player's own desire to cash in. The club's own president even admitted he was shocked that a player of torres' quality was still at a club like that after such a period of time.

I would agree, however, that the sport has become more about business and politics than the actual game itself, but sadly I really can't see that changing.

I couldn't agree with that, at least not specifically with viewing nando's move as a symbol of the current businesslike situation of professional football (re: ballack and shevchenko)

Torres started with Athletico at the age of 13, made his way up through the youth ranks, and eventually took on the reign of captain. During his time there he has played in la liga's second division and has turned down approaches from the likes of Real Madrid & Chelsea, purely because he wanted to help his club succeed. He's always been naturally hungry for success, so how could anyone possibly fault him for leaving after 12 year's service without any major award to show for it?

Athletico's inability to drive itself forward was the cause for torres moving on, not the player's own desire to cash in. The club's own president even admitted he was shocked that a player of torres' quality was still at a club like that after such a period of time.

I would agree, however, that the sport has become more about business and politics than the actual game itself, but sadly I really can't see that changing.

it is symbolic because of a perspective that exists with regards to the facts, not because torres categorically moved for the mullah (although that has to be a factor, and trust me im not blaming him either)

as we have both illustrated through information about torres' career, he is an icon, a fan, the captain and therefore the model of a loyal lifelong player for atletico. then he moves to liverpool, and arrives to a wage of 90 grand a week. so from that particular perspective, the transfer can be interpreted as symbolic of that shift from sport to business.

you mention ballack and shevchenko. of course they moved for the even greater wages, but torres' move is more poignant in terms of this symbolism because those two were already at CL participating, title winning clubs, on silly money. torres meanwhile was at a club that wasnt achieving that much, and probably on a smaller wage, as well as being that loyal homegrown kid player.

of course the situation is going to change. its going to become even more business orientated, at the top level at least.

im not taking digs at pool or torres. this is merely an observation.

it is symbolic because of a perspective that exists with regards to the facts, not because torres categorically moved for the mullah (although that has to be a factor, and trust me im not blaming him either)

as we have both illustrated through information about torres' career, he is an icon, a fan, the captain and therefore the model of a loyal lifelong player for atletico. then he moves to liverpool, and arrives to a wage of 90 grand a week. so from that particular perspective, the transfer can be interpreted as symbolic of that shift from sport to business.

you mention ballack and shevchenko. of course they moved for the even greater wages, but torres' move is more poignant in terms of this symbolism because those two were already at CL participating, title winning clubs, on silly money. torres meanwhile was at a club that wasnt achieving that much, and probably on a smaller wage, as well as being that loyal homegrown kid player.

of course the situation is going to change. its going to become even more business orientated, at the top level at least.

im not taking digs at pool or torres. this is merely an observation.Again, I can't see the correlation between the increasingly businesslike nature of the sport and torres' move, not least because he was already earning extraordinary wages with Athletico, and turned down even higher offers from other clubs. His desire to move was based on hunger for success, something he clearly wasn't going to achieve with his boyhood club, and the fact he had always been an admirer of liverpool (which is to be taken with a certain pinch of salt, naturally)



LFC.TV: Tell me about the captain's armband you displayed during a game against Real Sociedad last season, with You'll Never Walk Alone written on the inside?

Torres: There is a group of my mates, about five or six of us, and we've all grown up supporting Liverpool. Because they are all so committed to Liverpool, they've had We'll Never Walk Alone tattooed on their arms. It's changed slightly because it's a symbol of our friendship as well as our support for the club. Obviously I couldn't have that tattooed on my arm playing for Atletico, but they gave me this armband as a present for my last birthday.Just one interesting question he answered.

Like I said, I agree that many of the high profile transfers that take place today are taking place purely from a business perspective, but I wouldn't put Fernando's move into that category. The fact he arrived at liverpool on 90 grand is more a factor of the inflated wages that exist for all professional footballers. Sure, he could have signed on for 50 grand a week, but when the club are already paying the likes of jamie carragher (scouse through and through) 100 grand a week, and stevie g somewhere in the region of 120 grand a week, it really wouldn't have been on par with the typical earnings of the club's most valued players.

Again, I can't see the correlation between the increasingly businesslike nature of the sport and torres' move, not least because he was already earning extraordinary wages with Athletico, and turned down even higher offers from other clubs. His desire to move was based on hunger for success, something he clearly wasn't going to achieve with his boyhood club, and the fact he had always been an admirer of liverpool (which is to be taken with a certain pinch of salt, naturally)

Just one interesting question he answered.

Like I said, I agree that many of the high profile transfers that take place today are taking place purely from a business perspective, but I wouldn't put Fernando's move into that category. The fact he arrived at liverpool on 90 grand is more a factor of the inflated wages that exist for all professional footballers. Sure, he could have signed on for 50 grand a week, but when the club are already paying the likes of jamie carragher (scouse through and through) 100 grand a week, and stevie g somewhere in the region of 120 grand a week, it really wouldn't have been on par with the typical earnings of the club's most valued players.

i get the feeling you think i am singling out the player for criticism and trying to imply that he went solely for the money, which i am clearly not. the very fact that he is walking onto 90 grand a week after leaving his boyhood club shows the business aspect of the game, regardless of astronomical wage structures at liverpool or a lack of ambition on atletico's part or torres' intentions and affection for his old club or him turning down other big clubs.

the fact is, he left his boyhood club, and he is now earning 90 fucking grand A WEEK. i know you are going to be defensive as an lfc fan and that's fair enough but be objective for a second. i am not fucking criticising him for it either; if i had talent and was sought after then i'd jump at it too. he clearly has some integrity but then chose ambition over loyalty as all players do nowadays due to the never-so-lucrative-as-this opportunities available. matt le tissier and alan shearer never won fuck all but stayed with their clubs. just a comparison.

fear that he'll be the next morientes or forlan is what's stopping me from being all jubilant and the like.

i think voronin may be the star signing, as he's been brought in under the shadow of the torres deal. quality talent, imo.

also, leto and lucas may prove some worth in the long run as well.

I get the feeling you think i am singling out the player for criticism and trying to imply that he went solely for the money, which i am clearly not. Not at all.



the fact is, he left his boyhood club, and he is now earning 90 fucking grand A WEEK. i know you are going to be defensive as an lfc fan and that's fair enough but be objective for a second. i am not fucking criticising him for it either; if i had talent and was sought after then i'd jump at it too. He was earning 103 thousand a week with Athletico, just for the record.

You seem to be misunderstaning me, i'm not attacking you, i'm merley disagreeing with what you're saying. I don't think i'm being defensive really. Just because i'm a liverpool fan doesn't mean I can't base an informed, unbiased opinion. I just feel that of all the transfer deals that take place, this one in particular could hardly be viewed as typical of the increasing businesslike nature of the sport.


he clearly has some integrity but then chose ambition over loyalty as all players do nowadays due to the never-so-lucrative-as-this opportunities available. matt le tissier and alan shearer never won fuck all but stayed with their clubs. just a comparison.Blind loyalty is hardly something to aspire to though, to be fair. Had he remained with Athletico, he may well have spent his whole career without a reward to his name. Don't forget, he himself has something to prove, and wants to be regarded as a true great in the sport, something he could only accomplish with another team.


fear that he'll be the next morientes or forlan is what's stopping me from being all jubilant and the like.

i think voronin may be the star signing, as he's been brought in under the shadow of the torres deal. quality talent, imo.

also, leto and lucas may prove some worth in the long run as well.I'm hoping his youth and experience being a lone striker will give him a bit of an edge, should be interesting though.

Agree with voronin, he seems to have a good eye for a shot, built pretty well, and has a little bit of pace to him. I think the best thing about both of these guys is that it will let kuyt do what he was meant to do, poach around the box for goals. He could easily be our 20+ goal a season striker we need.

Haven't seen much of leto tbh, but lucas looks a tidy little kid - just hopes he takes to the premiership well.

fear that he'll be the next morientes or forlan is what's stopping me from being all jubilant and the like.

i think voronin may be the star signing, as he's been brought in under the shadow of the torres deal. quality talent, imo.

also, leto and lucas may prove some worth in the long run as well.

he might need time to settle in. voronin might be more suited to the harsher weather being a ukrainian; he's not the best forward around though.

rafa is turning pool into a right latin club, youth up. selling people like warnock and that and bringing in the latin quater


Not at all.

He was earning 103 thousand a week with Athletico, just for the record.

You seem to be misunderstaning me, i'm not attacking you, i'm merley disagreeing with what you're saying. I don't think i'm being defensive really. Just because i'm a liverpool fan doesn't mean I can't base an informed, unbiased opinion. I just feel that of all the transfer deals that take place, this one in particular could hardly be viewed as typical of the increasing businesslike nature of the sport.

Blind loyalty is hardly something to aspire to though, to be fair. Had he remained with Athletico, he may well have spent his whole career without a reward to his name. Don't forget, he himself has something to prove, and wants to be regarded as a true great in the sport, something he could only accomplish with another team.

I'm hoping his youth and experience being a lone striker will give him a bit of an edge, should be interesting though.

Agree with voronin, he seems to have a good eye for a shot, built pretty well, and has a little bit of pace to him. I think the best thing about both of these guys is that it will let kuyt do what he was meant to do, poach around the box for goals. He could easily be our 20+ goal a season striker we need.

Haven't seen much of leto tbh, but lucas looks a tidy little kid - just hopes he takes to the premiership well.

103 thousand? euros or quid? if quid then fuck me, that does put a dent in my argument.

and i beg to differ, anelka will never be revered by a whole city or region of people like shearer or le tiss or maldini or dario gradi (is he?? lol) or whoever, and loyalty can be admirable because it's more of a challenge to stick with your club and do the best you can for them as opposed to fucking off to a big club where it will be easier to make your name bigger and win more.

and dont worry, i dont think you're attacking me. as far as conversations on this forum go, this is too civilised :P

103 thousand? euros or quid? if quid then fuck me, that does put a dent in my argument. 103 thousand quid, if i'm not mistaken.


LFC.TV: Is it right he has taken a pay cut to come here?

Rafa: Yes, it's true. He had a good contract at Atletico Madrid because he was the icon of the team, the captain, and he'd been there for many years. He was the top scorer. It's difficult to move a player like him, but he decided to come and he reduced his wages. When you talk about him, everything is positive in terms of his commitment for us.


and i beg to differ, anelka will never be revered by a whole city or region of people like shearer or le tiss or maldini or dario gradi (is he?? lol) or whoever, and loyalty can be admirable because it's more of a challenge to stick with your club and do the best you can for them as opposed to fucking off to a big club where it will be easier to make your name bigger and win more.I suppose it all depends on how you measure someone's success. In terms of silverware, shearer may not technically be classed a 'success', in the literal sense of the word, but I'd still consider him to be one of the best strikers the premiership has seen.

I agree through, in an ideal world - sure, the sport as a whole would benefit from having more players with shearer's level of commitment and loyalty, but at the same time I wouldn't fault torres' either, as he gave nearly 12 years service to athletico, more than most players would ever play at one club.

103 thousand quid, if i'm not mistaken.



I suppose it all depends on how you measure someone's success. In terms of silverware, shearer may not technically be classed a 'success', in the literal sense of the word, but I'd still consider him to be one of the best strikers the premiership has seen.

I agree through, in an ideal world - sure, the sport as a whole would benefit from having more players with shearer's level of commitment and loyalty, but at the same time I wouldn't fault torres' either, as he gave nearly 12 years service to athletico, more than most players would ever play at one club.

well, kudos to the fucker then. and yes, an ideal world witnesses such loyalty in profession. instead the capitalist ideal and the exploitative nature of the businesses and the vast investment and return perpetuates a mercenary climate in football.

tevez off to united????? i thought the yanks had taken out big fuck off loans to buy the club. where is all this money coming from??

chelsea signing alex and malouda, too. they will be very strong again next year, and perhaps show more flair too. this coming season will be very interesting

toddy :( why did we sell toddy :( especially considering we actually need someone who can score goals

tevez to man u is a distinct probability, wouldn't be surprised at taht at all tbh

sold todorov? thought he was a bit of a hero at fratton park.

mate who's a pompey fan told me something funny - fratton park <---> krap nottarf :P

avram grant, some yid mate of romans, joins chelsea - and goes onto the board too. what a surprise.

haha i know about the fratton park thing, it's pretty ace

toddy's been a hero for us ever since he got 26 goals the season we went up, but he's been injured for ages... i guess it was always going to happen. but we still need a goalscorer, seems stupid to sell a striker whichever way you put it.

who does pompey have up front now then; andy cole, lua lua, mvuemba, mwuarauari, mumumyhsdfsdf i guess

just a question but whats with all the random, rubbish africans pompey get (apart from lua lua)? i mean the only reason benjani mwuaudfdbdh whatever stayed is because he was their record signing.

i might go see QPR play next season. my life is getting quite intense and serious right now and ill need something to laugh at

i don#'t know why we keep signing crap players really? it's all a bit odd

but benjani's one of our best strikers, in terms of work rate and what he does apart from goalscoring, he just cannot put the ball in the net, it's quite upsetting all round :(

i follow qpr (my mum supports them) ! they might actually do alright next year, if they're lucky... or just decide not to be shit again eh

i live 5 minutes from loftus road and a few of my old mates still see them so i might head down

work rate is always appreciated but managers and owners increasingly value the end product with all that hinges on every single goal nowadays

exactly, and the fact that he couldn't hit the net if it was 30 ft wide doesn't help either

Rather pleased with the signings of yossi and babel, the latter in particular - he looks quite the prospect given his young age.

Also, nugent to pompey was a steal. I'd have liked to see him at sunderland personally, but it was a tidy bit of business by the oul grafter redknapp. I'm sure he'll be a hit.

Ryan Babel is great, Arsenal are just absolute spastics for not making a firm bid for him. Not a big fan of Benayoun, tbh.

typical, you wait ages for a striker and two come along at once

i guess that's it for kanu, though, unless he signs quick he won't have a spot left at pompey next year. nugent took his bloody time though, not awfully sure about his commitment - particularly as he looks like he'll up and move to everton first chance he gets.

edit: bloody hell, utaka joined us over man u! that's got to be good

exactly, and the fact that he couldn't hit the net if it was 30 ft wide doesn't help either

problem solved now.


Rather pleased with the signings of yossi and babel, the latter in particular - he looks quite the prospect given his young age.

Also, nugent to pompey was a steal. I'd have liked to see him at sunderland personally, but it was a tidy bit of business by the oul grafter redknapp. I'm sure he'll be a hit.

i don't think either moves are confirmed yet?... babel's isnt, anyway. but yeah, rafa wanted a winger. now he has one with premiership experience, and potentially one of the best young ones in europe.


Ryan Babel is great, Arsenal are just absolute spastics for not making a firm bid for him. Not a big fan of Benayoun, tbh.

considering arsenal's proficiency of nicking THE best talent in europe over anyone else, and their history with great dutch players signing, this is a big loss if liverpool pull it off

perhaps they know something we dont about babel. personally, i think it's more likely the speculation over wenger's future following henry's and dein's departures has really shaken things up at the club. ljungberg is talking about fiorentina now.


typical, you wait ages for a striker and two come along at once

i guess that's it for kanu, though, unless he signs quick he won't have a spot left at pompey next year. nugent took his bloody time though, not awfully sure about his commitment - particularly as he looks like he'll up and move to everton first chance he gets.

edit: bloody hell, utaka joined us over man u! that's got to be good

kanu already wanted a return to ajax once last season, before staying. he'll probably leave now, yes, although im sure harry said he wants kanu to stay as well

perhaps because he'll be trying to get into a front line boasting tevez, rooney, saha, smith, solskjaer and rossi? or perhaps he saw pompey fuck united up last season =D

Arsenal are talking about Fiorentina, I don't think Ljungberg is quite so keen. �3.5m for player that is well past his prime and has spent two seasons injured? I'd take the arm off Fiorentina. LOVE FREDDIE, BUT YOU GOTTA BE RUTHLESS.

makes sense. it would have served arsenal well to get babel in as a replacement though; he was mint at the euro U21's. holland have a good future too - they defended that title; it's their second in a row!

"Police have raided three football clubs as part of an investigation into alleged corruption.

Newcastle United, Portsmouth and Rangers are the three clubs involved in the raids. "

WELL THAT'S UNSURPRISING

so john terry signs a 5 year contract. astronomical money ill bet. couldnt give a fuck if limelight lampard or swandive robben sign on now - i would honestly prefer to see joe cole in the middle and wright phillips out wide instead.

There's nothing left at Newcastle that's suspicious, Fat Freddy went emo and left and Sam hasn't did anything worth investigating, at Newcastle that is. It was Souness, the angry Scot that screwed up Liverpool and Newcastle left that mess.

Speaking of the Toon: Newcastle 2 Juventus 0

john terry is now earning 130 grand a week. that is just shocking, IMO.

the newcastle situation is similar to west ham and the argentine transfers with MSI - old club employees or owners who have now left.

this coming season is going to be interesting at the top.

130 grand a week! fuck me, that is appalling

football is due a recession. i just hope it comes sooner rather than later

I wish I could earn 130 grand a year. That would do me quite nicely...

Imagine how much the tax-man's getting...

football is due a recession. i just hope it comes sooner rather than later

Sooner for reasons we already talked about in secret MSN sessions.

no sign with all the investment, if you're realistic about it :(

tax will be at least 40 % right? or am i just tripping.

40% at most, without national insurance etc

but he'll probably find ways of avoiding it all. alas.

no sign with all the investment, if you're realistic about it :(


Nope, in my view, it is precisely because of all the investment that the Premier League will inevitably have to enter a cooldown period very soon. 9 Premiership clubs have foreign owners now, after Abramovich started the trend in 2003 with Chelsea. Add Arsenal by virtue of being one of the big four and that makes 10. All 10 of these clubs are chasing after 4 spots, 4 very very secure spots. Maybe Tottenham might be able to fight it out with Arsenal for fourth this season, I doubt it, but maybe. But then, beyond Tottenham, none of the rest are in with a real chance of cracking the top four this year, and probably any subsequent years in the foreseeable future. Given the level of investment these billionaires are pumping in, tens of millions of pounds in the cases of West Ham, Man City and Pompey, they don't want to wait five seasons while they consolidate themselves in mid-table, they want quick returns fast. When that doesn't happen, I can see the owners selling off very quickly and for significantly less than they paid in the first place.

pompey are launching a chinese site amidst lots of talk of the "portsmouth brand". not sure how i feel about it - on one hand it still feels pretty odd, after all those seasons of being rubbish, to have a fantastic team of brilliant players, but on the other hand... i kind of miss the days of fighting it out in the lower half of division one. proper football, you know? didn't talk about the "pompey brand name" because we didn't have one, instead we were more focused on signing some west ham reserves or something. can't say i'm unhappy that we're now a pretty good team, with a pretty decent chance of europe next year, but still... it's a bit of a paradigm shift.

it would be funny to see them leave again in their droves, and the less financially strong and more fickle (like egghead over at west ham), IMO will be the kind to fuck off like you suggest when it doesnt all go to plan. they are spending a lot on players, since xmas, and want a stadium move, and they sacked pardew sharpish; if it doesnt click it could see a change of hands.

abramovichs inception with the help of dickhead bates opened the possibility of major investment, which is now unfolding to an extent i never thought would happen. but the likes of al fayed and whatshisname over at mk dons started what was a likelihood as soon as clubs became plcs. the FA never updated their laws, league 1 and the european cup got bought out, tv companies got clued up and got cut in, G14 got formed and voila.

kroenke for the win joke

i think i might start supporting QPR. i am not being serious.

yeah topcat. imagine the lawyers and personal advisors and financial assistants at his disposal. most top level footballers are now businessmen anyway. robbie fowlers owns loads of houses in cheshire - you wouldnt know it if you lived in one apparently. and riise's hotel business failed LOL

Man, Kroenke will stay away, if he knows what's good for him.

haha, it is nice to see the stance of the arsenal board members with regards to kroenke's advances and all the speculation. i wonder how that will all end up with them; i dont think they'll sell out to kroenke, but with the debt and the increased financial competition perhaps in a couple of seasons i believe arsenal might need to get an investor in. losing dein was a bit of a blow.

Well, last season only two Premiership clubs made a profit, Man U at 31m and Arsenal at 16. And their debt, albeit big, is not a bad debt, not that there is good debt or anything, but I dunno. I'll use Leeds as an example to show what I mean. They got crippling debt from buying lots of players on huge wages. On the other hand, Arsenal built a new stadium, so over time they will recuperate their debt and eventually it will make them money. Anyway, if Arsenal did sell, I honestly think I'd stop supporting anybody and just neutrally observe.

Newcastle, beat Juventus... THEY BEAT JUVENTUS. wtf?
So far it seems Newcastle's going to do well this season as good as things so far are looking. Interesting.

Sunderland, Free points to any team who play 'em, that's what the score with those mackem gits is. Although I am heavily Biased Being from the other riverside.

mossy join chat now plx thx

also jumpers for goalposts etc

Duo, my green light me have been on but I was gone but the time you made that post =(

Gilbert has joined Southend on loan from Arsenal.

Gilbert is quite good.

I know, looking forward to him working his Samba magic for DA SHRIMPERS.

West Ham and Man City will be the most entertaining opener, I shouldn't wonder. What with all the new talent they're both boasting.

We'll probably struggle for the first ten games, have a corking mid-season, and then peter out to third or fourth. You know, as usual.

As for Arsenal, I think the pressure's been lifted weith the majority of the media writing them off before a ball has been kicked. Losing the one player everyone talks about isn't always a bad thing. Rooney when he left Everton for example.

Plus I seem to remember Man United been written off after they got rid of four or five top stars to replace them with kids. Expect Arsenal to take a few people by suprise.

The premiership? United will walk it.

I'm a Man U fan, and I'm happy to say I've been to a few games, rather than just supporting the club for silverware. I have a plaque on my wall, with a ticket from the Man U A.S Roma game back in April when we won 7-1, and various pics from the game which has pride of place above my bed on the wall :D. Alas, one of the heroes from that game, Alan Smith, has now left to join Newcastle for �6 million, I'll miss him.

I think we have a great chance of regaining the Prem, Tevez is going to imminently sign a 2 year loan deal with Man U for about �4.5 million each year, and once that's finished, sign a 3 year contract. Anderson, Nani and Hargreaves will all have a fairly good season, but it might take some time for Anderson and Nani to settle. When they do, Anderson will be as good as Ronaldinho in 3-4 years time, and Nani will blossom in about 3 years time IMO.

I think the other signings that have been made by the top 4 teams have been average, Chelsea have made a great signing in Malouda, but Ben Haim and Sidwell will prove to be largely unneeded. Pizarro may struggle to adapt to the Prems pace, but he will probably bag a few more goals than Shevchenko did.

Liverpool have signed roughly the 6041st Spanish player for their club in Fernando Torres, who isn't worth over �20 million. Athletico Madrid fans say that he won't get 20 goals a season because he's not in that mould. Babel is a good player, although he won't be as good as Henry, despite what Babel himself says. Benayoun is just looking for better wages.

Arsenal have signed players I don't know, so I have no opinion of them.

Chelsea's signings of Ben Haim and Sidwell are the complete opposite of unneeded, they were pretty much vital. Same with Pizarro. None are going to be regulars, but Chelsea are going to be hit hard by the African cup of Nations this year, losing Essien, Drogba and Kalou, so they do need plenty of cover. It's the same reason Arsenal bought Bakari Sagna, to fill in for Eboue and be a midfield utility man. That and it doesn't look like Hoyte is going to make it, probably end up at a mid-table club though because he is by no means a bad player.

Anyway, I agree with Minty about Arsenal, a lot of pessimism surrounding them since the sale of Henry but I think the squad has been pretty well strengthened, not weakened at all. Sold Ljunberg which is great, big wage for a very poor player in the last few seasons, got rid of that flop Reyes, for 6m no less, who was a very talented young lad but ultimately couldn't adapt to life in England. As for Henry, I've said what I thought of his transfer on a number of occasions. He is a player who will almost certainly be plagued by injury from now until the end of his career and although still brilliant when on the field- I recall his goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup and another against Newcastle in the Premiership as being amongst his best- his brilliance is inevitably declining. Last season van Persie scored more than Henry and I reckon that he along with da Silva will make up Arsenal's attack next season (I know critics talk about Adebayor's skill a lot, but he didn't really score or do very much last year). Look out for Niklas Bendtner too, the very fact Wenger didn't sell him to Birmingham last season says a lot and he's had an excellent pre-season. We kept Flamini which is excellent, he is a sort of underrated talent imo, extremely versatile and extremely competent in awkward positions, such as playing left back for 6 months when Cole and Clichy were out during the run to the Champions League final. Lehmann stayed too, and that looked as though it was in the balance at the start of the transfer window. Regardless of temperament issues, he is the second best goalie in the Premiership after Petr Cech. In all, I don't reckon Arsenal will finish any higher than fourth this season but what do you expect? All of the other big clubs have spent tens of millions on new signings, whereas Arsenal have yet again refused to pay inflated prices for players and stuck with youth, Frank Ribery's sale to Munich sort of exemplifying this. Not that I wouldn't like Arsenal to sign some of the guys that the other teams have, but the money United paid fro Nani and Anderson was ridiculous and Torres' fee was at least a bit too high as well. On the other hand, I don't see them finishing any lower than fourth either. Tottenham, I feel, are the only team outside the top 4 with any realistic chance of breaking into it but they have a huge problem- one of the best offences in Europe partnered with one of the weakest defences in the Premiership. Paul Robinson is one of the worst goalkeepers in the Premiership but people don't seem to realise it, David James is vastly superior and ought to be England number 1. All said, if Arsenal don't ultimately finish fourth, I reckon they'll be finishing higher than it rather than lower.

EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but Sparta Prague is a very, very tough team to have to play for Champions League qualification. If Arsenal start the season slow and gather momentum or if they are just outright complacent, they aren't going to make the group stages. Celtic got Spartak Moscow didn't they? I reckon Celtic will lose, it takes a special team to go to Moscow and get a result. Although, that's the case during the tournament proper, during the winter, but Russia enjoys very nice summers, so maybe that will not be a factor at all.

Well, last season only two Premiership clubs made a profit, Man U at 31m and Arsenal at 16. And their debt, albeit big, is not a bad debt, not that there is good debt or anything, but I dunno. I'll use Leeds as an example to show what I mean. They got crippling debt from buying lots of players on huge wages. On the other hand, Arsenal built a new stadium, so over time they will recuperate their debt and eventually it will make them money. Anyway, if Arsenal did sell, I honestly think I'd stop supporting anybody and just neutrally observe.

well, i still technically follow chelsea, but i dont pay any money towards their cause, or wear any of the new shirts (ive got my old zola shirt, always proud to wear that)


Newcastle, beat Juventus... THEY BEAT JUVENTUS. wtf?
So far it seems Newcastle's going to do well this season as good as things so far are looking. Interesting.

Sunderland, Free points to any team who play 'em, that's what the score with those mackem gits is. Although I am heavily Biased Being from the other riverside.

newcastle have a very good squad of internationals now, and allardyce is a fat prick, but you cant fault his ability as a manager. he is very objective, motivationally adept and imposing and he gets results. i think he made a mistake selling parker though


West Ham and Man City will be the most entertaining opener, I shouldn't wonder. What with all the new talent they're both boasting.

We'll probably struggle for the first ten games, have a corking mid-season, and then peter out to third or fourth. You know, as usual.

As for Arsenal, I think the pressure's been lifted weith the majority of the media writing them off before a ball has been kicked. Losing the one player everyone talks about isn't always a bad thing. Rooney when he left Everton for example.

Plus I seem to remember Man United been written off after they got rid of four or five top stars to replace them with kids. Expect Arsenal to take a few people by suprise.

The premiership? United will walk it.

united look the most likely team to win it; their signings have been improvements over their sales, simply put. they were excellent last year and as such its obvious to expect better.


I'm a Man U fan, and I'm happy to say I've been to a few games, rather than just supporting the club for silverware. I have a plaque on my wall, with a ticket from the Man U A.S Roma game back in April when we won 7-1, and various pics from the game which has pride of place above my bed on the wall :D. Alas, one of the heroes from that game, Alan Smith, has now left to join Newcastle for �6 million, I'll miss him.

I think we have a great chance of regaining the Prem, Tevez is going to imminently sign a 2 year loan deal with Man U for about �4.5 million each year, and once that's finished, sign a 3 year contract. Anderson, Nani and Hargreaves will all have a fairly good season, but it might take some time for Anderson and Nani to settle. When they do, Anderson will be as good as Ronaldinho in 3-4 years time, and Nani will blossom in about 3 years time IMO.

I think the other signings that have been made by the top 4 teams have been average, Chelsea have made a great signing in Malouda, but Ben Haim and Sidwell will prove to be largely unneeded. Pizarro may struggle to adapt to the Prems pace, but he will probably bag a few more goals than Shevchenko did.

Liverpool have signed roughly the 6041st Spanish player for their club in Fernando Torres, who isn't worth over �20 million. Athletico Madrid fans say that he won't get 20 goals a season because he's not in that mould. Babel is a good player, although he won't be as good as Henry, despite what Babel himself says. Benayoun is just looking for better wages.

Arsenal have signed players I don't know, so I have no opinion of them.

that game against roma was an example of united at their best, but also roma at their worst. i followed roma last season and they beat inter 6 2 in the cup final and finished second, as well as knocking lyon out of the CL before facing united (and beating united in the first leg) their fans are a bunch of wankers though.

Alot of Newcastle fans think it was a mistake to sell Parker.
Sam Allardyce is the kind of prick we need in charge, he knows what he's doing too though. Roeder's problem was that he was too "nice" He wasn't at all disciplinary towards players. A very good manager but his polite and "moral" style of managing was his downfall there. A club where strictness isn't needed and where his attitude and ways of managing is where he belongs.

There has to be a sort of reason as to why he sold Parker.

Chelsea's signings of Ben Haim and Sidwell are the complete opposite of unneeded, they were pretty much vital. Same with Pizarro. None are going to be regulars, but Chelsea are going to be hit hard by the African cup of Nations this year, losing Essien, Drogba and Kalou, so they do need plenty of cover. It's the same reason Arsenal bought Bakari Sagna, to fill in for Eboue and be a midfield utility man. That and it doesn't look like Hoyte is going to make it, probably end up at a mid-table club though because he is by no means a bad player.

Anyway, I agree with Minty about Arsenal, a lot of pessimism surrounding them since the sale of Henry but I think the squad has been pretty well strengthened, not weakened at all. Sold Ljunberg which is great, big wage for a very poor player in the last few seasons, got rid of that flop Reyes, for 6m no less, who was a very talented young lad but ultimately couldn't adapt to life in England. As for Henry, I've said what I thought of his transfer on a number of occasions. He is a player who will almost certainly be plagued by injury from now until the end of his career and although still brilliant when on the field- I recall his goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup and another against Newcastle in the Premiership as being amongst his best- his brilliance is inevitably declining. Last season van Persie scored more than Henry and I reckon that he along with da Silva will make up Arsenal's attack next season (I know critics talk about Adebayor's skill a lot, but he didn't really score or do very much last year). Look out for Niklas Bendtner too, the very fact Wenger didn't sell him to Birmingham last season says a lot and he's had an excellent pre-season. We kept Flamini which is excellent, he is a sort of underrated talent imo, extremely versatile and extremely competent in awkward positions, such as playing left back for 6 months when Cole and Clichy were out during the run to the Champions League final. Lehmann stayed too, and that looked as though it was in the balance at the start of the transfer window. Regardless of temperament issues, he is the second best goalie in the Premiership after Petr Cech. In all, I don't reckon Arsenal will finish any higher than fourth this season but what do you expect? All of the other big clubs have spent tens of millions on new signings, whereas Arsenal have yet again refused to pay inflated prices for players and stuck with youth, Frank Ribery's sale to Munich sort of exemplifying this. Not that I wouldn't like Arsenal to sign some of the guys that the other teams have, but the money United paid fro Nani and Anderson was ridiculous and Torres' fee was at least a bit too high as well. On the other hand, I don't see them finishing any lower than fourth either. Tottenham, I feel, are the only team outside the top 4 with any realistic chance of breaking into it but they have a huge problem- one of the best offences in Europe partnered with one of the weakest defences in the Premiership. Paul Robinson is one of the worst goalkeepers in the Premiership but people don't seem to realise it, David James is vastly superior and ought to be England number 1. All said, if Arsenal don't ultimately finish fourth, I reckon they'll be finishing higher than it rather than lower.

EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but Sparta Prague is a very, very tough team to have to play for Champions League qualification. If Arsenal start the season slow and gather momentum or if they are just outright complacent, they aren't going to make the group stages. Celtic got Spartak Moscow didn't they? I reckon Celtic will lose, it takes a special team to go to Moscow and get a result. Although, that's the case during the tournament proper, during the winter, but Russia enjoys very nice summers, so maybe that will not be a factor at all.

hey we got a work permit for alex too, who wants to join us - when that's wrapped up we'll have a hell of a defender, perhaps a replacement for gallas. ben haim can fuck off as far as im concerned; as far as i know we signed him because he scored against us a few times. we signed jes hogh for the same reason all those years ago. (ok so that's bollocks but he's not a top class defender, he's utter utility.)

i dont get the hatred for robinson, so he punches the ball sometimes and isnt good with divots. james is famous for his fair share of mistakes too; i think robinson isnt the best keeper but has enough talent to iron out his performances and pull of the consistency and the gasp look at that saves. anyway, shay given and van der sar deserve a look in, and you cant forget reina, who is uber confident with penalties and looks very athletic.

rosicky came from sparta.


Alot of Newcastle fans think it was a mistake to sell Parker.
Sam Allardyce is the kind of prick we need in charge, he knows what he's doing too though. Roeder's problem was that he was too "nice" He wasn't at all disciplinary towards players. A very good manager but his polite and "moral" style of managing was his downfall there. A club where strictness isn't needed and where his attitude and ways of managing is where he belongs.

There has to be a sort of reason as to why he sold Parker.

roeder also said some stupid things (failure ingrained at newcastle haha) you're right about his nice attitude, he didnt have much in the way of bollocks.

i wouldnt mind going to st james and lapping up the geordie atmosphere, it seems pretty special. id fucking love to be there to see west ham play, watch the stick bowyer and dyer will get haha, i guess parker will get a few cheers though, he's a pro wherever he goes, all the chels lot i know including me feel he was hard done by getting dumped by the club because he was always 100% effort, didnt do his career any harm going to newcastle though.

i dont get the hatred for robinson, so he punches the ball sometimes and isnt good with divots. james is famous for his fair share of mistakes too; i think robinson isnt the best keeper but has enough talent to iron out his performances and pull of the consistency and the gasp look at that saves.

Statistically speaking, Paul Robinson was the second worst player in the Premiership last season, based on the Fink Tank's rather thorough analysis. THAT IS THE ROOT OF MAH DISLIKE.

Statistically speaking, Paul Robinson was the second worst player in the Premiership last season, based on the Fink Tank's rather thorough analysis. THAT IS THE ROOT OF MAH DISLIKE.

ive seen the fink tank website, and had a look at the rankings; pretty damning stuff.

i was talking to bz about this earlier, but i reckon pompey should go back to the 3-5-2 we had in 2003. now we've got the squad to do it in the prem i reckon it'd be worth a try:


James

Distin Campbell Primus

Lauren Taylor

Muntari Krancjar
Mendes

Utaka Benjani

it removes options on the wing, but lauren and taylor are both fairly adapt at running from defence to attack (taylor played that exact position in 2003) and it gives us a lot of strength in the centre. it also removes a lot of selection worries!

Lauren used to play pretty much like that for Arsenal, tirelessly working up and down the wings. It was a leg injury of some description that caused his layoff that caused Ebou� to replace him in the Arsenal setup though, so maybe he wouldn't be up to that same level of physical stamina and intensity. I am not Lauren though, so I can't be sure. Distin, Campbell and Primus are all very capable defenders too, so packing the defence like that makes sense. I don't reckon the 3 central midfielders go together so well, all being pretty attack minded. I like a double anchor central midfield like Vieira-Petit, Keane-Scholes, Makelele-Lampard, just someone to break up the play and protect the defence, which is even more critical in 3-5-2 since there is less defenders. Up front this tactic doesn't really get past Portsmouth's lack of serious firepower. Utaka might be alright, but I don't reckon he is anything special, if you were able to buy Yakubu back that'd be a pretty major coup because asides from attack the squad is pretty well set. Ultimately though, formations always look great on paper, it's on the field that they will succeed or fail.

pompey don't do defensive midfielders though ! o'neil could be an option and i reckon he'd do a good job defensively but apart from that we've got nothing. we can't score for shit, anyway, so attacking midfielders is probably a good idea.

Dyer deal fell through and Curbs is trying to start a war about it. Allardyce is in the blame game but it is true. Dyer is worth a bit more than 6m. No matter how big a douche and fag he is. He'll be right at home with Bowyer. BELLAMY GETS TO REF!

Signed U-21 Spanish Left Back Enrique Sanchez

I ejaculate Southend FC.

GO ON YOU SHRIMPERS!

I still reckon Nugent will be a better option up front. >:

nugent is a good signing and should settle in quickly at pompey. utaka maybe less so, but nigerians tend to do well in the prem when they play as far as i know - jay jay and babayaro petered out a bit in their last few seasons, although babayaro went the same way as lebouef and ballack and the like in relaxing when rich and having won a trophy or two and never exerting themselves again, or selectively. but kanu obviously has been consistenly good, and utaka would do well to look up to him.

west ham are a right cunt of a club right now; pricks like neill and bowyer and bellamy and a cosmo selection of fashionable and talented players playing for a club run by a consortium;

who succeeded a previous board that did well in getting promoted back to the premiership and getting into europe no less that season with a young team, and fucked it up by getting mascherano and tevez in even though everyone who knows anything about football knows their rights are/were (whats the deal with them now?) owned by a company shadier then the dark side of the moon. they unbalanced the team, much like ballack and shevchenko did at chelsea, and lampard does by being untouchable but cynical and lazy at times, and then the club got bought out, perhaps as a way to escape the consequences of such dodginess when joorabchain didnt buy west ham himself, and now the dyer and tevez 'sagas' (i hate the way the media calls a transfer that doesnt go smoothly these days a saga, or a player that scores a hattrick or wins an important match a legend regardless of anything else he's done or bad form in the past or whatever nowadays, tabloid trash) has further sullied their good name. their fans are cunts anyway.

at least they're not leeds.

adam, nugent is unproven in the prem. i reckon he'll do a job for us but, at the same time, he could end up like ricardo fuller... seems good, does well in division 1, but can't make the step up. hopefully i'll be proven wrong and he'll score 20 a season and play in the euros next year, but you never know.

Nugent is unproven in the Premiership, but Utaka is? ?__?

Go with the Englishman. That's what I say!

utaka cost us more ;o

Another point well taken.

Hey, we're arguing over good players for a change. Instead of Lee Bradbury.

haha, lee bradbury was alright though. for a little bit

him and rory "injury" allen

Mon the hoops :)

Alex Hleb~!

Southend lost to the Orient.

At home.


/cut

mika forsell what a legend

great opening weekend, actually. i loled at lehmann

i am steven gerrard

referees are IN MY POCKET!

free kick, sir. FREE KICK I SAY!

i can also put it in from 30 YARDS!






GOAL!!!!

Pretty good opening weekend here. Won Spurs 1-0, we were quite lucky I suppose. Quality goal.

2-2 against Derby Cunty. Rough. :(

Also, I am not sure if selling Lua Lua is a good or bad thing. I am guessing his opportunities will be limited now we've got Nugent and Utaka, but meh.

lua lua was an unlikely modern legend for pompey, although apparently he only scored 19 goals. his chances would definitely be limited if he stayed though.

celtic won well. derby pompey was entertaining; gutted for southend :P; gerrard got a dubious pen against sheffield last seasons opener too; chopra did the best he could have done, and celebrated like a mackem when it worked.

Celtic V's Spartak Moscow (played on astro turf) 1-1
Hartleys' first goal for Celtic was jist magic :)

2 away goals against a tricky opponent, left it late though.

arsenal always do, normally after dominating

sookie, do you know what the deal is with zurawski? he doesnt seem to be on the team sheet much anymore

also check everton out. dark horses.

EDIT - seen all the highlights barring united pompey (get in pompey)

robinson wasnt great. yidos pretty shit so far. everton look good and underappreciated for their form. reading were excellent and their fans were in good voice and chelseas defence - what a shambles. it will be awesome when alex and terry link up; ive always hated carvalho and cole and they were shocking today, bridge should be in the first team too, haim and ferreira werent much better. pizarro was a snidey cunt with his rolling antics to get that player sent off. 2 classy goals and some astute tactics seperate the teams, as chelsea are efficient at doing. wigan v boro shocking attendance, 14000; those 2, bolton and fulham are riddled with mercenaries and shite diving posers no better then those that litter chelseas squad, the only difference being footballing quality, which is superior at the bridge. of course you have warriors and homegrowns and admirable players like mcbride, downing, heskey (nice bloke, not a good player obviously) niemi and so forth but the minority cant save them. birmingham seem to have a pretty rabid fanbase, and they should stay up, along with sunderland. the ref missed two blatant decisions in that match that a top level referee really shouldnt miss.

even when it's just complaining i love the premiership

when will spurs learn to defend?

also, benjani's scored 2 in 2 games now. he might actually reach double figures this year, this is unheard of. ronaldo was a bit of a twat though

arsenal are going to win the world cup this year, i stake my reputation on it.

mossy

do you have cm 01/02 yet :(

i swear i downloaded it though i may have lost it when laptop got broked, will check this hd i have here, now, TO BE SURE.

benjani's workrate is admirable considering his goal return and price have been disproportionate so far

pande bear i loled. 01/02 was brilliant, roma are the best team on it, assancao emerson aldair zago totti awesome

Wills - fook knows :confused: :confused: zurawski isn't playing well @ the moment - missing easy shots , passes etc , seems uninterested in playing @ his best - think some celtic supporters are tiring of him , as the feel he has had many chances @ the club , and is letting the team down :(

Duo, I have tried uploading it twice AND TWICE IT FUCKED UP. Working on it right now and it's at 70% so another 20 minutes or so and it'll be done.

ALSO: Guys, we are going to get a CM01-02 FFShrine network game going hopefully, so if you have it or want to be involved you should say so. We are gonna be in division 3 and stuff, it'll be crazy!

i bagsy kidderminster, and propose a "no rushden" rule

also, i am working at argyle tomorrow, selling ... items

i am playing as crewe alexandra... well, i got bored and didnt get past the friendlies. i might stick it on my usb stick and play it at work =D

why was the sound muted? it doesnt seem to work for me at all :/

Ugh, a 3-0 loss to Wigan. They're looking a bit more promising than last season.

pompey won, decent game. utaka's goal was good. i spent today watching plymouth vs ipswich, having sold lottery tickets. �19.10 for an hour and a half's work ain't bad. wasn't a great game and ipswich are fucking dirty bastards but i wasn't paying so it made it all so much better.

Southend twonked by the dirty Leeds, 4-1. Leaves me feeling quite ill.

Also: bagsy Southend for CM :x

The Mackems got absolutely slaughtered. Can't really say the same for the Newcastle Match, 0-0, not enough daring runs and brave dashes to the other goal.

Only thing that matters, mackems lost.

Rob Styles


....


'nuff said really.

Doing it again !!! Celtic 3 - Aberdeen 1

i am playing as crewe alexandra... well, i got bored and didnt get past the friendlies. i might stick it on my usb stick and play it at work =D

why was the sound muted? it doesnt seem to work for me at all :/

The sound isn't working? It's no loss man, it's just people going like "YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" when you score, but I dunno why it isn't working!

sound doesn't play if you have a match speed that is above "normal" iirc

hello mr styles

you are a dead man, sir

also, john terry. you should not be on the pitch! no, you should be dead in a ditch. you cunt.

So Pompey for the title? :)

Mossy, my version of CM you sent me is very slow and decrepit, help please.

So Pompey for the title? :)

hells yes

Wills - fook knows :confused: :confused: zurawski isn't playing well @ the moment - missing easy shots , passes etc , seems uninterested in playing @ his best - think some celtic supporters are tiring of him , as the feel he has had many chances @ the club , and is letting the team down :(

thats a shame :( my family is polish, came over in the 80s, so i take an interest in polish players. i remember he did quite well in the beginning. i messaged the cunt on facebook but he never replied. do you reckon the club have quite replaced larsson then? he was a genuine legend. brought the best out of sutton too.


Rob Styles


....


'nuff said really.

yep a tit, video replays - rugby and cricket use them, so why the fuck not football, especially when there is so much money and reputation at stake for so many people?


Duo, I have tried uploading it twice AND TWICE IT FUCKED UP. Working on it right now and it's at 70% so another 20 minutes or so and it'll be done.

ALSO: Guys, we are going to get a CM01-02 FFShrine network game going hopefully, so if you have it or want to be involved you should say so. We are gonna be in division 3 and stuff, it'll be crazy!

my 01/02 dont work no more :( i tried to upload it but the disc is fucked


pompey won, decent game. utaka's goal was good. i spent today watching plymouth vs ipswich, having sold lottery tickets. �19.10 for an hour and a half's work ain't bad. wasn't a great game and ipswich are fucking dirty bastards but i wasn't paying so it made it all so much better.

well played sir, selling lottery at a game? ace.


hello mr styles

you are a dead man, sir

also, john terry. you should not be on the pitch! no, you should be dead in a ditch. you cunt.

'you met my mate stanley?'

edit - tonights game; fucking shite. swp and micah richards impressed, and joe cole showed a little endeavour, but i cant believe robinson, and i cant stand lampard passing the fucking ball backwards all the time (one pass to joe cole was right behind him and left him in a heap as he tried to get it to keep the move going) and beckham showed that he is an overrated tit; about 85 % of his crosses were fucking shit. smith and crouch are completely pointless.

i know it was only a friendly, mid league games; but i feel sorry for the sods who paid and turned up, and although england will grind a win and a draw or a narrow win against yids and commies they will doubtless show the same disorganised, over the top ball laden, pragmatic approach to games that gets them to quater finals in major tournaments but doesnt ever impress or destroy the opposition.

Wills - Majic played today - but I got a feeling that maybe his last game for Celtic , which is a shame , I think he may be sold this week , before the transfer window closes :( But got to say my fav Polish player just now has got to be Artur Boruc - the holy goalie , he's class :)

Today - Celtic 5 Hearts 0 :)

(Got a sore throat now ) :)

replace Larsson ?? - oompht !! - that some doing :)

Wills - Majic played today - but I got a feeling that maybe his last game for Celtic , which is a shame , I think he may be sold this week , before the transfer window closes :( But got to say my fav Polish player just now has got to be Artur Boruc - the holy goalie , he's class :)

Today - Celtic 5 Hearts 0 :)

(Got a sore throat now ) :)

yeah i saw, strachans doing alright, good squad assembled. it will take a lot to replace larsson indeed, maybe nakamura is going some way towards it?

yeah boruc is the polish number one, and he's a quality keeper, for a time villa and arsenal wanted him, but he stayed. i think he got in trouble for inciting protestants or something too lol

zurawski replied to me on facebook, lol. not great english and pretty generic shit, but at least he bothered. he said he would want to do well for celtic and injuries have bogged him down; sort of thing people spout in post match interviews endlessly. oh well, every honeymoon must come to an end

zurawski replied to me on facebook, lol. not great english and pretty generic shit, but at least he bothered. he said he would want to do well for celtic and injuries have bogged him down; sort of thing people spout in post match interviews endlessly. oh well, every honeymoon must come to an end

Kwl that he responded to you - he's been good and done well for the club in general -everyone has their ups and downs :) and it must be frustrating at times not being able to talk freely to many people - Nakamura is simply amazing :)

Ooo and as far as Boruc goes - Rangers fans wanted him arrested because he caused them offence by blessing himself (as he always does) :(

As someone who is not in the least bit interested in any religion personally , and witnesses Boruc blessing himself on a regular basis - I can safely say I have never felt offended or had any adverse ill effects in any way, by Boruc blessing himself , and hereby imply anyone who does , is suffering from some sort of mental illness :)

Kwl that he responded to you - he's been good and done well for the club in general -everyone has their ups and downs :) and it must be frustrating at times not being able to talk freely to many people - Nakamura is simply amazing :)


Ooo and as far as Boruc goes - Rangers fans wanted him arrested because he caused them offence by blessing himself (as he always does) :(

As someone who is not in the least bit interested in any religion personally , and witnesses Boruc blessing himself on a regular basis - I can safely say I have never felt offended or had any adverse ill effects in any way, by Boruc blessing himself , and hereby imply anyone who does , is suffering from some sort of mental illness :)

not bitching or anything but i think double posting is frowned upon here.

yeah, top level footballers these days are big businessmen with plenty hanging on what they say and most have their own PR advisors, so its rare to have an interview when a player or manager actually expresses themself now. i loved micah richards being interviewed after he scored his first goal for citeh though; he was well happy and he said something like 'yeah it was fuckin mint' and garth crooks had to say 'sorry micah but this is a family hour for TV audiences' (it was on final score, not MOTD)

was that all it was, him blessing himself? the sectarian conflict between the hardline huns and bhoys brings that sort of response though. fiery shit

soz about the double post - ooopsy :)



was that all it was, him blessing himself? the sectarian conflict between the hardline huns and bhoys brings that sort of response though. fiery shit

yip that's all he done - The Rangers fans say his action were a deliberate attempt to wind them up :confused: - complete nonsense !!

The Bhoys only have problems with hardline huns .
The hardline huns have problems with everyone who do not think the same as them. :)

so pompey might be selling nugent?

bizarre

Very, Top Cat... I don't even see Anelka as that great a replacement, to be honest!

i prefer butt wretling to football.


-

All of Arsenal's goals were very well worked last night but the scoreline flattered them, they were complacent and Sparta had the chances to make a game of it if they had been able to convert on even the smallest scale. Fabrages is looking great though, three goals so far this season, and although he has always been influential as a passer and playmaker it is a fair criticism that he didn't score enough. This season though he's started brightly and it looks like he and Hleb might be able to emulate something of the midfield goalscoring potency provided by Ljunberg and Pires back in the day. Even Rosicky looks better this year, and last season he was absolutely terrible, MAKE NO MISTAKE.

West Ham's stealing our players! :< well they have a fair share of ex magpies.

Dyer, Solano, Bowyer, Bellamy. There's probably more I forgot.

Diarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrra, helllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllo.

Earlier this week Sammy Lee�s Bolton Wanderers pulled off an extraordinary plan by managing to trick French striker Nicolas Anelka into signing a contract extension.

Inside information has told us that the Bolton manager Sammy Lee had falsely informed Anelka that they had accepted an offer from Manchester United. Our inside source goes on to tell us that Anelka was so pleased with his apparent move, that he failed to read any of the contract that Sammy Lee had given him. The title of the contract was in fact �Transfer to Manchester United�, however, Anelka had actually signed a contract extension till 2011.

EatFootball managed to catch up with an ecstatic Sammy Lee �Well, we finally did it! We had been planning this for months and after all of the clubs efforts it�s great to see the plan work. Now we can concentrate on winning games�.

Sammy Lee then went on to explain that Anelka is now the lowest paid player in the premiership, earning just over �140 a week, of which 90% of his salary is now donated to the �Belarusian Bikes for Bats� charity. Other clauses were also sneaked into the contract, including the immediate sale of Anelka�s 14 bedroom house for club funds and the ever popular �no win no fee� clause.

A spokesman for Nicolas Anelka said he was �displeased� with his new contract.

I chuckled.

haha jester


can't believe we've sold GON :( he's a proper pompey legend.

soz about the double post - ooopsy :)

yip that's all he done - The Rangers fans say his action were a deliberate attempt to wind them up :confused: - complete nonsense !!

The Bhoys only have problems with hardline huns .
The hardline huns have problems with everyone who do not think the same as them. :)

fuckin bigots


West Ham's stealing our players! :< well they have a fair share of ex magpies.

Dyer, Solano, Bowyer, Bellamy. There's probably more I forgot.

do you honestly miss any of them (besides nobby, if i was a geordie he'd be a hero of mine)?


All of Arsenal's goals were very well worked last night but the scoreline flattered them, they were complacent and Sparta had the chances to make a game of it if they had been able to convert on even the smallest scale. Fabrages is looking great though, three goals so far this season, and although he has always been influential as a passer and playmaker it is a fair criticism that he didn't score enough. This season though he's started brightly and it looks like he and Hleb might be able to emulate something of the midfield goalscoring potency provided by Ljunberg and Pires back in the day. Even Rosicky looks better this year, and last season he was absolutely terrible, MAKE NO MISTAKE.

rosicky has always been a talented midfield livewire. he scored against arsenal for sparta, i believe, back in the day.

i cant believe we sold diarra to yous. must be the frogs gallas and wenger meddling. shocking that we nurtured and developed a promising young player - then sold him to arguably our biggest rivals.


haha jester

can't believe we've sold GON :( he's a proper pompey legend.

is nugent going then?

and was o neil a youth product? or is that taylor? and i believe he went to boro??? whats the fuckin sense in that. oh well

by the way, who watched cagliari juventus today?? i was fucking appalled. both teams are a bunch of cheating fucking cunts, diving and rolling around like fairies, the referee was on smack - probably due to his second, hushed up payroll - and the crossing made the fucking league 1 highlights i watched look good. absolutely shocking.

nugent seems to be staying until january at least, don't really know the story on that one. o'neil was a youth product of ours, yeah, though he came from millwall originally. not quite home-born but close enough, been at pompey 7 years anyhow.

but, jesus, we were shit today.

Parker and Nobby are a miss. They are excellent players and Nobby is pretty much a saint considering how much he's done for Newcastle..

rosicky has always been a talented midfield livewire. he scored against arsenal for sparta, i believe, back in the day.

That goal is actually spectacular, he cuts into the box at lightning speed and from a terrible angle just bangs it in. But yeah, Rosicky is a really good player, but for most of last season he didn't demonstrate that. Hopefully it was just because he hadn't settled, because he has started this term brightly.

yip that's all he done - The Rangers fans say his action were a deliberate attempt to wind them up :confused: - complete nonsense !!

The Bhoys only have problems with hardline huns .
The hardline huns have problems with everyone who do not think the same as them. :)

and the celtic fans didn't overreact at all when gascoigne played the flute a few years back, did they? six of one, half a dozen of the other in glasgow. it's outrageously dumb.


That goal is actually spectacular, he cuts into the box at lightning speed and from a terrible angle just bangs it in.

quick thinking granted, but terrible defending as well.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/table/default.stm

remember where you were, gentlemen.

nugent seems to be staying until january at least, don't really know the story on that one. o'neil was a youth product of ours, yeah, though he came from millwall originally. not quite home-born but close enough, been at pompey 7 years anyhow.

but, jesus, we were shit today.

ah millwall, bastion of shit


Parker and Nobby are a miss. They are excellent players and Nobby is pretty much a saint considering how much he's done for Newcastle..

parker is the right sort of player who works his arse off. he fucked off to ham too didnt he. halkf the fucking prem is mercenary united now,


and the celtic fans didn't overreact at all when gascoigne played the flute a few years back, did they? six of one, half a dozen of the other in glasgow. it's outrageously dumb.



quick thinking granted, but terrible defending as well.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/table/default.stm

remember where you were, gentlemen.

all hardliners and the yobbo contignent who start rows at matches and after are cunts, misguided and as far as im aware they scare some fans away.

liverpool have been the best team this season, followed closely by everton.

We haven't discussed Antonio Puerta in here yet, have we? Well, I'd just like to say how sad his death made me. I must admit I'd never heard of him until his death but the fact he was so young, just 22, with such a bright and promising career in prospect and, more than all that, that his girlfriend is expecting his first child make his heart attack seem so much more crushing. Rest in peace, Antonio. Sad youtube video =( (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0v1ovZrOfQ) You can see, as he crumples over, the centre back jogging over to check on him and then when he outright falls flat breaking into a sprint and then the physios and all sprinting off the touchlines, it is terrible.

We haven't discussed Antonio Puerta in here yet, have we? Well, I'd just like to say how sad his death made me. I must admit I'd never heard of him until his death but the fact he was so young, just 22, with such a bright and promising career in prospect and, more than all that, that his girlfriend is expecting his first child make his heart attack seem so much more crushing. Rest in peace, Antonio. Sad youtube video =( (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0v1ovZrOfQ) You can see, as he crumples over, the centre back jogging over to check on him and then when he outright falls flat breaking into a sprint and then the physios and all sprinting off the touchlines, it is terrible.

as well as all that, he was a sevilla youth product, and i think involved in plenty of community work, which marks him out as a better bloke then most footballers.

a shame, RIP to the lad

oh my fucking god... its half time and POLSKA are beating the diving cunts 1 0... away... chance to do the double over them

YES!!!!!!! FUCKING GET IN!!!!!! so the pig fucker maniche scores and then faggot fairy ronaldo puts the cunts ahead - but we equalise minutes from time, and deny them a chance to close the gap at the top of group a! now for those racist serbian inbreds and the fucking eskimos to slip up, and we could draw against them both and finish top. poland have won the olympics and been in 3 finals and come third in the world cup twice, and gregorz lato won the golden boot, but we've never even qualified for the euros we're hosting with the ukraine in 2012. this is our best chance now! POLSKA POLSKA

and the celtic fans didn't overreact at all when gascoigne played the flute a few years back, did they? six of one, half a dozen of the other in glasgow. it's outrageously dumb.


Ehh???
Boruc (who is Polish) ,only blessed himself (as he is religious), and is something he always does !! I did not think doing so was a crime :( :confused: :confused:
I am not aware of any religion , requiring the "worshipper" to play the flute as part of their believes , and certainly don't think it is practised in any churches !!!
Gasgoignes' "stunt" was a blatant reference of support to a minority of people who consider it acceptable to be, or use derogative actions/terms to insult and degrade anyone with an Irish or Catholic background!! - This "Minty" mate - is called Racism !!!!!!

I find your "comparison" very insulting and disturbing :( :( :(
And I'm slightly concerned that you can not tell the difference !! :mad:

Just for reference sake :- I'm am neither Irish or Catholic, and have great experience from both sets of fans.
I have found the majority of Rangers Fans to be venomous , in and outside of football.
I'm just not a racist , bigot , etc ..,and deeply despise anyone (whether they be Rangers or Celtic fans) who show these traits !!!

And I really don't find it "dumb" for the Celtic supporters to voice their concerns over the hardcore views held by most Rangers supporters.
Celtic supporters refuse to be bullied by these "people"
This is where the "conflict" from the clubs comes from!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco_national_football_team

haha. what.

oh yeah and lampard and beckham dont play for england, and england play well. surprising? no. i doubt mclaren will learn though

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco_national_football_team

haha. what.

lol, most pointless team ever, considering the fact that monaco is basically a rich persons playground. the club side is supported by businessmen mainly. pavel nedved is a fan

and the celtic fans didn't overreact at all when gascoigne played the flute a few years back, did they? six of one, half a dozen of the other in glasgow. it's outrageously dumb.

The only thing outrageouslly dumb here is you!!
Gascoine mimicked an orange order flute band member. The orange order exists solely as an anti catholic sectarian organisation who have threatened to take up an armed struggle if Ireland is united as one nation again.

Boruc was simply blessing himself as many Catholic and indeed Orthodox players do.
As for the 2 sides of the same coin,- a pathetic attempt at a retort by an ill educated fool. Try actually talking about a subject that you have first hand information of in future, and please refrain from religious content here as it is a personal issue and not a football related one. :notgood: :notgood:

The only thing outrageouslly dumb here is you!!
You might try waiting until he actually responds to your original post before requoting and disputing him again.

That said, I wouldn't personally recommend insulting respected members of this board for no justifiable reason, save your own immaturity, you silly tart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco_national_football_team

haha. what.

hahaha, love it

best sort of wikipedia vandalism, that

You might try waiting until he actually responds to your original post before requoting and disputing him again.

That said, I wouldn't personally recommend insulting respected members of this board for no justifiable reason, save your own immaturity, you silly tart.

No reason??? lol - He is spouting crap as fact !!! -He is an idiot , with one massive mouth - bit like yourself :) Am I meant to care that he is a "respected member " of the board ? - that I don't doubt :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
I think you should take your own advice -

Oh n Jester - the fact your trying to drag me down by referring to my gender and insinuating I'm your mother - tends to be a "put down" generally used by people with low intelligence ,low self esteem and a lack of imagination !! :laugh: I can think of so many better insults you could have used :) - your ever so slightly boring :)

Try getting out more :)

You really are a prize idiot. The fact that I was merely pointing out religion has no place in football and any reference, no matter how light, should not be tolerated, and you dramatically fly off the handle whilst actually agreeing with me, suggests you're the poorly educated fool.

Usually i'd have the decency to post a lengthy rebutle, but frankly I can't be fucked responding to you with anymore than this. To take virtually every word both Jester and I have posted and inform us we need "to get out more" and are "poorly educated", coupled with the fact you felt the need to quote my post twice just to vent your spleen and try and make me look like a mug (gj making yourself look like one in the process), smacks of immaturity and a lack of self control and general awareness.

The majority of people I've had disagreements in the past actually respond with some sense of a balanced opinion. But judging by your poor sentence structure and general tone, i'm going to dignify you with nothing more than my ignore button and end the matter now.

Seems to me you need to learn to control your temper, you touchy fucking cunt. And stop shitting up the thread.

No reason??? lol - He is spouting crap as fact !!! -He is an idiot , with one massive mouth - bit like yourself :) Am I meant to care that he is a "respected member " of the board ? - that I don't doubt :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
I think you should take your own advice - Insulting someone because you disagree with their personal opinion is not a genuine reason. You seem to be misunderstanding me, I couldn't care less if you heed my advice or not, it was simply that - advice. But the fact remains that if you continue to insult members of the board for no reason, not only will people instantly dismiss your opinions on future topics (be they football related or not), you'll quite likely end up being banned.


Oh n Jester - the fact your trying to drag me down by referring to my gender and insinuating I'm your mother - tends to be a "put down" generally used by people with low intelligence ,low self esteem and a lack of imagination !! :laugh: I can think of so many better insults you could have used :) - your ever so slightly boring :)

Try getting out more :)My use of the term was not gender specific, I had no Idea you were female. The main part of the insult was the former, referring to you as silly, given your over the top reaction. The latter could have been anything from varieties of cheeses to random inanimate objects, it was irrelevant.

The matter is closed as far as i'm concerned, if you have anything else to say take it to PM's - this thread is a shining example of a drama free zone.

Back on topic (i.e. the game of football), Wales actually win a game! 5-2 in Slovakia. Bellamy was top class.

Watching England now, have to say I was sceptical when McClaren called Heskey up but he's been excellent in the last two games. They can't deal with his style. Credit to McClaren for that.

Heskey done really well against Israel, and he's doing well now against Russia, but that's the most frustrating thing about him. He's been asked to prove he merits a place in the England squad, and he's going about it in the right way, but wait until he plays another 5 England internationals and he'll be back to the same lumbering donkey that spends more time lying on his back than standing on his feet.

It's really been his rep since day one, going back to his liverpool days, and you could accept it if he wasn't talented and couldn't get the job done, but you know he has this ability to boss defenders about. As soon as he gets comfortable in a setup he loses that edge to show people what he truly has, and his game inevitably suffers because of it.

Back on topic (i.e. the game of football), Wales actually win a game! 5-2 in Slovakia. Bellamy was top class.

Watching England now, have to say I was sceptical when McClaren called Heskey up but he's been excellent in the last two games. They can't deal with his style. Credit to McClaren for that.

well done wales, but they arent as decisive and threatening as they were under hughes. still, maybe they can build on this win; these euro qualifiers have thrown up some mad results across the board


Heskey done really well against Israel, and he's doing well now against Russia, but that's the most frustrating thing about him. He's been asked to prove he merits a place in the England squad, and he's going about it in the right way, but wait until he plays another 5 England internationals and he'll be back to the same lumbering donkey that spends more time lying on his back than standing on his feet.

It's really been his rep since day one, going back to his liverpool days, and you could accept it if he wasn't talented and couldn't get the job done, but you know he has this ability to boss defenders about. As soon as he gets comfortable in a setup he loses that edge to show people what he truly has, and his game inevitably suffers because of it.

he's a nice bloke too though, he gave leicester a load of money when they were struggling with debt to help them out. (i think)

the performance tonight was good, although the commies were stylish without substance. still, the egos of terry and gerrard were suppressed enough to allow the team game to flow, and as ive always said the side have benefited enormously from the lack of lampard and beckham. i do think mclarens taking the piss keeping faith with clubfoot crouch and not even giving defoe a look in but thats englands loss. as a team, england were excellent tonight and look more like the sort of team you'd expect a squad as good on paper as it is to be like.

in group A, the way it shaped up to be until two games ago was POLSKA with a slender lead over cunting portugal, finland and inbred serbia. 4 horse race; in the last two games, poland drew with both portugal and finland, away; a very impressive couple of draws. they didnt go for the wins, but they played it safe and got what they needed rather then risking it all and losing, and credit to them for that.

also scotland beating france away... HA!

I disagree. We had a few flukey wins under Hughes and the rest was pure unadulterated shite. At the moment even though we're not playing great results are no worse than most of Hughes's reign and we've got a squad whose best years are well ahead of them.

If they develop into the players they have the potential to be we will have a better team than we've had for years.

I disagree. We had a few flukey wins under Hughes and the rest was pure unadulterated shite. At the moment even though we're not playing great results are no worse than most of Hughes's reign and we've got a squad whose best years are well ahead of them.

If they develop into the players they have the potential to be we will have a better team than we've had for years.

well... you're clearly welsh so you should know better. from the outside it seemed rosy - full millenium stadium, pushing for qualification with wins and talking up chances. oh well

The big attendances were down to cheap tickets which have now gone. If we were charging �8 these days we'd still most likely be getting 75,000. The support is there, people just don't want to pay �25 for the cheapest seat you can get.

We had a few excellent wins in a row under Hughes, then it all went downhill really. Kind of like Northern Ireland this time around.

The big attendances were down to cheap tickets which have now gone. If we were charging �8 these days we'd still most likely be getting 75,000. The support is there, people just don't want to pay �25 for the cheapest seat you can get.

We had a few excellent wins in a row under Hughes, then it all went downhill really. Kind of like Northern Ireland this time around.

shasme that footbal completely re volverds aroumnd mopney nopw.

impissed

What a thoroughly dull game.

Credit to pompey, they easily deserved all 3 points.

Rafa would want to get his mallet around the fundamental flaws of rotation pretty sharpish. I mean for the love of christ, the new season is only 5 games old.

Biiiirmingham 1 Bolton 0

All to shit since THE HORROR. Trotters notice that Owen did well in the last England game, perhaps it's Big Sam's skillzzzz....

As Arsenal continue to perform, pundits predict a season of glory is in the offing. A 3-0 hammering of Sevilla did much to reinforce these claims.

Anyhow, on a serious note, Arsenal have performed superbly and I reckon they have a real chance of not finishing 4th now, although I am not sure at whose expense. Time will tell, but it is by no means impossible for them to put up a serious title challenge if they can remain consistent.

Up the Villa.

That is all I have to say.

See ya Jose...

Portsmouth's manager-in-waiting, I wonder? ;)

hahahaha.

You imagine these moments, you pray they're everything you dreamt they'd be, and they flat out just blow your mind when they come true.

Cheerio maureen.

what fantastic news

Wah! Who had their money on JM as the first casualty of the new season?

Top of tha league, and perhaps pulling away a little bit too with Liverpool dropping points against Birmingham today. Yeah, Derby are absolutely terrible, in the highlights they didn't have a single opportunity or attack or anything. Conversely, however, Arsenal played very well and could have scored as much as 10.

1-0 to Pompey today. Canoe with the goal. :)

Look out Chelski. We're gonna be the best team in blue this year. Well, ignoring Man City. And Everton. And Wigan. And... Reading... o_o

well 1-0 against blackburn away is always a decent result. it's good to be winning at least, considering our start.

Luton 3 Charlton 1 AET

Excellent. 4th round here we come.

Take a bow, young fernando.

6 goals in 9 games, or 6 in 6 starts if you're a stats fan.

Credit to reading for making a game of it. Mind you, the referee didn't half help them along the way, but I shan't be bitter tonight. Decent performance, good first half display from the newly arrived south american lads leto and leiva, and a hattrick from torres - plenty to be optimistic about.

Arsenal Juniorz convincingly beat Newcastle 2-0. Newcastle are generally considered to be a stronger Premiership side, outside of the top 4. All in all, Arsenal's youth players are nothing short of fantastic given their lack of experience and general development; this could be a 5th consecutive season of really challenging for the cup with just the youth players, more or less.

Newcastle are generally considered to be a stronger Premiership side, outside of the top 4.

Your Arsenal kids are awesome, but please, don't talk shit. Newcastle have been eternally pants. The fact that some folk to refer to them as a 'big' club is largely due to their following. Fifty thousand idiots fill St. James' every weekend, failing to realise that they're watching a team who have won fuck all for the last God knows how many years.

not hard when you see the trail of shit managers they've had to endure over that tenure. but allardyce has a knack of getting the best from his players, which suggests owen (staying match fit will be key for him) and viduka up front should knock in the goals at home they sorely need. a lot of football is about confidence, and when newcastle regain that they'll start making st james a fortress. and that's all you really need to crack the top 7.

i like how the daft spaniard trots out �27m pounds worth of talent in the carling cup but neglects to start him in the most important and frankly most honest assesment of a teams progress and ability. and he's suggested he'll not start him against wigan. what a cunt. we've not been no.1 for 17 year, you melon.

mind you, there's been a lot of guff about the rotation strategy being to blame. true, fundamental football logic suggests you play your strongest 11 and/or never change a winning team, but when you look at the side that actually played against pompey and brum it wasn't exactly lacking in quality. if you can't beat these sort of teams with the players we had on the pitch, rotation or not, you don't deserve to challenge for the crown of best team in the land. sorry, but that's that imo.

Your Arsenal kids are awesome, but please, don't talk shit. Newcastle have been eternally pants. The fact that some folk to refer to them as a 'big' club is largely due to their following. Fifty thousand idiots fill St. James' every weekend, failing to realise that they're watching a team who have won fuck all for the last God knows how many years.

That's as may be, but they're among the favourites to break the top 4, and Allardyce has better credentials than Chelsea's new gaff. (lol)

Porto lost to Fatima

(First league team against, 2nd division series B league) for the national cup. That made my week

I'm thinking the Brit contingent of FFS create our own football themed Pokemon beating bullshit.. erm, theme. ie. everyone picks a club (preferably the one they support) and don't fucking shut up about it like Garamond with his Pokebollocks.

COME ON THE SUSSEX!!!

Oh sorry, wrong sport.

COME ON THE PORTSMOUTH!!!

Man Jarosik, I can occasionally post at length about Arsenal in the style of Garamond, but I don't have the commitment to make it a concentrated effort. When you think about, Garamond's continued ability to make those posts is pretty astounding!

Three guesses which game I'm watching on Match of the Day tonight.

7-4. The defence really must not have been trying!

amazing result, benjani scored a hat trick. not too long ago he'd be hard-pressed to score 3 a season.

Three guesses which game I'm watching on Match of the Day tonight.

7-4. The defence really must not have been trying!Pompey V Reading is first in the running order, naturally enough. I'm looking forward to it.

In other news, david nugent should focus more on trying to break into the first team setup rather than sending camshots of his tallywhacker to teen jailbait. Silly slag has gone and developed england squad syndrome. I fully expect to see his autobiography gathering cobwebs in a bookstore near me quite soon.

1-0 to Pompey today. Canoe with the goal. :)

Look out Chelski. We're gonna be the best team in blue this year. Well, ignoring Man City. And Everton. And Wigan. And... Reading... o_o

oh yeah?

been in poland for a week where everyone's gone mad over euro qualifying, and are stressing out over the shoddy condition of the ukraine and the possibility of losing hosting rights in 2012. it'll probably be a disaster anyway but i hope they keep the rights as i never thought id see poland hosting a major footie tourno :) it was funny to watch a few top league (ekstraklasa) matches though. i think it was slask against gornik zabrze, and jesus, the ground was conference standard, and so was the footie, slow and tentative as you like. hilarious. it was pretty honest though, and no one pulled back from challenges or made any glaring mistakes either.

back here and the mourinho situation... 'we hate tottenham' lol. (the jew spuds link is outdated though) anyway, chelsea will completely fall apart as we know it, and ambramovich will remodel the ruins as a supercompanyclub. i guess i can look back at 96-05 and smile. i wonder how many other clubs will end up like this?

ps - cl yesterday, not the biggest rangers fan (huns :P) but fuck, they impressed. and man u were a bit lucky but pulled out a typical win with loads of confidence, and arsenal, well they're still riding the crest of their wave.

I'M RUNNIN

I'M RUNNIN

OMG MY FACE HURTS NOW ACTUALLY I AM GOING TO FALL OVER ICE PACK!! ICE PACK!!!! AFK

gj celtic though

Absolutely disgusted with that liverpool performance. It was nothing more than a team of strangers in the same kit chasing shadows for 90 minutes.

Good win for celtic, although i'm fairly certain Michel Platini will crucify them by mid next week.

Edit: I heard about the Dida incident before seeing it. Platini will still come down on celtic pretty hard, but might I add at Dida's expense: hahahahaha, you silly, silly, silly tart.

chelsea beat valencia away. haha, brilliant.

also..... scotland, rangers, celtic? how long do you think the media will harp on about the renaissance of scottish footie for? but then, to beat france, away, lyon away and the fucking european champs in euros and CL in quick succession is pretty amazing and unexpected.

and dida has always been a silly tart, with the odd good reflex. its funny to see so many tarts like him keeping goal for so long for the biggest clubs in the world.

manchester win again, as always 1 nil...getting abit boring now, hope they dont end up winning the whole league with 1 nil wins

i dont see it happening if arsenal hold their form :B

4 0?

1 saturday 3pm? wtf?

I'M RUNNIN

I'M RUNNIN

OMG MY FACE HURTS NOW ACTUALLY I AM GOING TO FALL OVER ICE PACK!! ICE PACK!!!! AFK

I lolled.

kamaras disallowed superman goal against villa yesterday and derbys defending made me lol

benitez has no humility. and as much as it pains me to admit it the norf london chavs are playing the best football, again. united look imperious too. citeh and pompey are also gelling well.

another decent result, given our fixtures (big 4 already) we've started very well and if we can keep this up we might be able to challenge for europe come may time.

arsenal are playing well, though their lack of experience showed against sunderland. still wouldn't put it past them to break back into the top 2 though.

if they can sort their defence out, they'll be frighteningly good. i was hoping they'd capitulate too, after dein and henry left. bastards.

another thing that made me lol - owen stumbling through his post match interview.

Haha man, I KNEW ARSENAL WOULD NOT DESTRUCT THIS YEAR. But they have performed beyond my expectations also, so, good stuff all round.

How can Luton do awesomely in the cup, and manage to draw with Yeovil and Doncaster?

Jumping fucking jesus.

because they raised their game for the big tie? i havent seen luton play this year so i dunno

Bolton v Bayern Munich in the next round. Oh dear.

Go Raiders!!!!

:|

because they raised their game for the big tie? i havent seen luton play this year so i dunno

But surely if they can play like that, and know they can, why haven't they done it once this season?

IT'S SOOOOO FRUSTRATING FOR MEES!

Bolton v Bayern Munich in the next round. Oh dear.

LOL.


But surely if they can play like that, and know they can, why haven't they done it once this season?

IT'S SOOOOO FRUSTRATING FOR MEES!

my only experience of this is in 2002 when poland obliterated all before them in the qualifiers, and then played like a bunch of drunken wankers and got knocked out of the world cup in the group stages. but yeah, it sucks. a lot of players dont have their priorities or motivations straight.

EUROS -

england first half = wonderful performance. robinson didnt really have anything to do, sol and rio were comfortable, micah and wright phillips combined well (good goal from shaun), joe and ashley ran at people well, rooney and owen were lively (owen didnt do that much though, come on, he's like trezeguet, absolute world class finisher, but doesnt really do anything else, decent movement though) barry was assured again and looked good alongside gerrard. second half, 1 dodgy spill from robinson, defoe or bentley should have been given a run out ahead of lamps, booing of lamps and neville as they came on was a bit obvious and boring but not blah blah bang out of order like everyone harps on, ahsleys injury didnt look good, match petered out.

scotland, wow. good performance and atmosphere

wales, LOL. also cypriot stadium - they look football mad dont they.

in group A, there are 8 teams. azerbaijan, armenia and kazakhstan are the fodder backward nations, although they've all caused upsets. belgium have some good players but never got into the running. before the match, POLSKA lead the group by two points over finland, and they had both played 11 matches. portugal and serbia had a game in hand and were 2 and 3 points behind finland consecutively. portugal beat azerbaijan 2 0 as expected. poland went 1 0 down at HOME to the borats and then the internetz told me the match had been suspended. i thought 'oh my god. they've managed to blow it. fucking hooligans ruining things, legia fans already tore up stadium and got them banned in europe this season. fucking unprofessional player pricks losing AT HOME TO KAZAKHSTAN. fucking poland.' but apparently the floodlights merely failed, game restarted when they were fixed, ebi smolarek gets a hattrick and we win. then belgium and armenia hold finland and serbia to draws which basically derails both their challenges :D :D

so basically poland and england are virtually through.

RUGBY WORLD CUP SEMI aside

that was a fucking good match. i always love aussia NZ matchups but england france is just as good, especially when we recover from that 36 0 to get to the semi and france is the host. great atmosphere, good paced match, france looked sharp and aggressive, of course it was going to be tight, they nearly got through a number of times, when jonnys kick hit the post fuck me that was insane, and then, we fucking did it, we beat them!! bring on the argies or boks for revenge!!

God Ireland are rubbish.

Also, lol @ Wales.

How can Luton do awesomely in the cup, and manage to draw with Yeovil and Doncaster?

Jumping fucking jesus.


You won 4-1 against Northampton (if my newspaper snippet reading memory serves me rightly) last night. Not such a bad thing ;)

Topic of the moment surely has to be Frank 'The Pie' Lampard being booed by the England crowd (or were they Estonians in disguise?). Frankly, excuse the pun, I think the abuse was wrong. Perhaps justifiable to a certain extent on the basis that he has been pants for England for a while now, but to boo him is extreme to say the least. Counter productive and uncalled for.

Tomorrows game against Russia will be interesting on the fabled 'watery' and 'plastic' pitch. A win would guarantee qualification, and anything less would leave us needing the win against Croatia in the final match, which is arguably the toughest of the whole lot. If I could suggest one thing to McClaren it would be to start David Bentley, simply because he's had more competetive experience of playing on an artificial surface than most others in that team. (Salzburg v Rovers - UEFA Cup qualifier).

Anyway, good luck England. Though I'll be vesting a far greater interest in the Scots blazing trail to the Euro's ;)

so lads, the rugby then

england gonna get thrashed, but i hope to be proved wrong.


this is valid as rugby is a form of football, technically at least

God Ireland are rubbish.

Also, lol @ Wales.

It wasn't as bad as your result in Cyprus.

That is all I have to say.

So, Bryan Habana, he can sure run good.

Hey Mossy, don't try and change the subject just because I proved Ireland are as shit as we are. :p

Haha man, I would never dispute that. We are unbelievably bad, but it is to be expected when our youth policy basically involves stealing the players who England don't want.

If I could suggest one thing to McClaren it would be to start David Bentley, simply because he's had more competetive experience of playing on an artificial surface than most others in that team. (Salzburg v Rovers - UEFA Cup qualifier).

Anyway, good luck England. Though I'll be vesting a far greater interest in the Scots blazing trail to the Euro's ;)

bentley got booed as well; england fans aren't the best 12th man in international football. i don't think it's entirely uncalled for, but like you say it's counter productive for the national team, although mclaren should have given someone else a runout ahead of lampard against estonia, considering we had won the match, people like bentley and defoe could do with the experience and barry and gerrard have struck up a good understanding in the centre.

im surprised at how well scotland have done (and celtic rangers and aberdeen have followed suit) but it's not over yet, and hutton is out for georgia too. the last time ireland i think it was went there, someone from the crowd threw a knife at the ref.


so lads, the rugby then

england gonna get thrashed, but i hope to be proved wrong.

this is valid as rugby is a form of football, technically at least

some etonian picked the ball up and baffled his chums by touching it down over the goal line about 190 years ago i believe.

i dont know, the game england play isnt perfect and i thought the forwards didnt push on enough when we had the ball but they look more assured and confident. i would love to see robinson try with one of his runs


It wasn't as bad as your result in Cyprus.

That is all I have to say.

toshack criticises his players professionalism and accuses them of being stuck up (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=472958&cc=5739) what do you think? your screen name suggests you know more about welsh footballers and the game in general then me

toshack criticises his players professionalism and accuses them of being stuck up (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=472958&cc=5739) what do you think? your screen name suggests you know more about welsh footballers and the game in general then me

Toshack threw a wobbly last time we lost in Cyprus too.

He seems to think we should be doing better and trying harder, though maybe he should re-think that when he considers the standard of our players and the fact that much better teams with much better players (eg Germany) couldn't even win in Cyprus.

Also, publicly slagging everyone off a couple of days before a game in San Marino that we absolutley have to win, and win convincingly, is not going to be good for morale.

No one's questioning Toshack's ability as a coach but he does have the ability to be a grade A cunt at times. He's almost as bad as Savage.

I don't rate Toshack as a coach tbh, I think he's grossly over-rated. His man-management skills are appalling too.

His coaching abilities are pretty good. You could see an improvement in our passing and ball possession in the early part of this campaign. However, we've been poor the last couple of games, even in Slovakia (they just happened to have the worst defence and tactics I've ever seen from an international team)

My theory is that Toshack has lost the dressing room and they won't listen to him because he's ostracised so many players.

I don't espically rate him in any event, he has won fuck all as a manager.

And I don't ever remember seeing Wales playing any decent football at all.

Also, i'm looking foward to seeing the England players all end up with career-threatning injuries due to that death trap of a pitch. Should be fun.

He is a good manager with bad players at Wales. I mean, he broke 100 goals in the league with Madrid back in the day (I can't think of any other occasion of this happening in one of the major European leagues, maybe it happened in Andorra or something) and done an amazing job with Real Sociedad considering their resources. I actually reckon he is one of the top managers, if not the world, that has ever come from the British Isles.

england, what a lol. oh dear, trust us to fuck up, though at least no-one got crocked by that bloody pitch. watering it before the game is a pretty low step.

Shamelessly stolen from boards.ie, but nevertheless apt:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=46221&d=1192653245

In all fairness, i'd position the blame entirely with the FAI for appointing stan in the first place.

The lad was offered the chance to manage his international team, so I won't fault him for accepting the position and trying his best.

well, wales beat san marino, by a single goal margin. i think toshack and mclaren are fucked to be honest, and in the case of mclaren, excellent.

supersub time! lets bring on - boro pet downing, a lampard who doesnt fit the current england system well and fucking crouch. also, gerrards miss was horrific.

what a bad day for the home nations. also, liechtenstein beat iceland 3 0, as if to try and upstage luxembourgs first ever win against belarus on saturday