Spain are finally getting it together, fair play.

I thought it would be another tournament where they excel in the group stages at go out in the quarter-finals (probably on penalties) and when they faced the Italians in a shoot-out I would have put my mortgage (if I actually had one) on the Italians. So well done to them for proving me wrong.

I'd still fancy the Germans in the final though.

:) deserved.

the torres goal wasn't exactly memorable in that lahm was easily tugged and lehmann was ridiculous in coming out so uncertainly, but it was a deserved lead and germany showed nothing of their previous attacking quality, besides a 5 minute spell in the second half. i think they might have had more impetus had loew kept lahm on though. spain must be difficult to play against, like turkey; everyone who played either side showed a shadow of their former performances.

germany spent the evening fouling and getting studs in and were insipid in their lack of invention and cynical attempts to intimidate the opposition who admirably ignored it and played their game to perfection. players like ballack and metzelder and frings dwelled on the ball far too long, although the spanish did that in attacking moves too which led to saves and misses as opposed to further goals.

VIVA ESPANA! a fitting winner of a spectacular tournament.

also, motty, your calm and knowledgable rhetoric shall be missed. i may avoid watching live bbc footie altogether if hansen joins lawro in the commentator's box.

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_3758558,00.html

get it over with, lock him up and flush the key down the shitter.


also, gj Spain, well deserved. Senna should have won player of the tourny but xavi was outstanding also.

yeah, people, me more then most probably, like to label good or admirable players legends and bad or despicable players cunts to the erosion of those terms, but barton is a cunt of the highest order, a truly horrible human being. hopefully he'll be put away for a long time and made an example of owing to his public status and the severity of his violence. what the fuck was he thinking??

edit: i keep forgetting to say this, but silva had a shocker in the euro final and i think he was lucky to avoid a red following the zidane, drogba, hitzlsperger, volkan etc. reds in other high profile matches in this euro and the CL and world cup; silly cunt, although the germans spent all night winding them up and podolski was just as culpable for squaring up; silly cunt.

i think it's worth splicing this issue into this post though, just to contrast that with barton

can't believe what chelsea have become. deco is the straw for me; maybe i should have abandoned any association with the club after avram got his seat on the board and they signed anelka, or even before when bates ran the club into the ground with debt and had to sell up, all the same timing it to perfection with the oligarch exodus;

anyway, deco's another nepotistic move; it doesn't make any sense otherwise; even ignoring periphery players like sidwell and mikel we have ballack, makelele, essien and lampard as first choice central midfielders, and after all the procrastination over what would seem like a pretty simple situation regarding lampard's contract, it looks like he'll get the exotic move he's probably been angling for since last summer - no other explanation for why he hasn't signed, all his i-love-chelsea and wait-till-season's-over bleating is irrelevant - and deco is his replacement.

look at our squad; a cole, mikel, ballack, malouda, deco, drogba, anelka; horrible cunts to a man; they've managed to appoint a bigger arsehole then grant in scolari; arnesen, de visser, zahavi, kenyon etc. running scouting and contracts; tennenbaum, buck etc. on the board, and abramovich the oligarch who's created this club; what a bunch of cunts

i'm surprised the portugeuse brazilian clique has resurrected after mourinho left though, especially if despite it carvalho still leaves. anyway, i've only been to one match under the abramovich era and it was a testimonial and a celebration of zola, the brightest beacon of that great late 90s side. i miss those days.

Yeah, Chelsea are turning into a real pile of cunt tbh. Lampard and Sidwell are supposed to be off, and Makelele can't be far off retirement. So that should solve the middle of the park situation.

Scolari will be interesting as he's been in international management for years. Not used to the day in-day out grind, plus the ferocity of the British media. Will still finish in the top two though.

I'm hoping we can actually start getting the players we need to push on and catch the Arse next season, instead of replacing departing players. Keane for Crouch, Barry for Alonso, and some guy from Udinese for Riise.

Get rid of Carson to Villa and Pennant wherever, and bring in quality down the flanks. Bentley's looking for a move - snap their fucking hand off. Plus we still need another striker and POSSIBLY another Full Back, depending on how good Degen is (I have flashbacks of Kromkamp and Nunez).

We're still at least five world class and five squad players off the title.

The spine of the team is top quality - Reina, Skrtel/Agger/Carragher, Mascherano/Lucas/Gerrard, Torres. On the flanks it looks a bit ropey, although I think Babel will turn out to be a godsend if he can adapt fully and come into his role.

Still saying that, Bentley would be top of the wish list if the Silva deal never happens, need some serious quality on the wings to help Torres out up front. Not sure we desperately need Barry and I hope he doesn't come into the team as a utility player and end up playing left back/left midfield/ centre midfield.

Will reserve judgement on the fullbacks, but from what I've heard they look like pretty decent signings.

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_3767713,00.html

lol @ the delusional idiots.

wow, rumour has it Fat Mike wants to sell Newcastle to some Yankee businessmen :O, I hope its only a rumour because I'd hate the thought of Americans pulling the strings on a team built head to toe on local pride and energy. They just wont mix, hell even if there were many geordies in the team itself!

This sort of thing is what turns me off the Premiership. The clubs' owners and players are so far cut off from the actual community that it makes supporting a club feel empty. For me, at least.

Lower league, non-league and International football are the only places you can actually strike up some sort of emotional attachment to the team for me, and that is what supporting a team should be about. Ronaldinho and Jo have no emotional attachment to Man City and are basically just there as mercenaries, and the foreign owners are just there to make money. Fair enough, running a club as a business which needs to be financially viable is one thing, but seeing purely as a cash cow is quite another. It's really dumb.

Yeah, Chelsea are turning into a real pile of cunt tbh. Lampard and Sidwell are supposed to be off, and Makelele can't be far off retirement. So that should solve the middle of the park situation.

shame that the ones that will remain aren't quite the sort of people who you'd want to cheer for.


The spine of the team is top quality - Reina, Skrtel/Agger/Carragher, Mascherano/Lucas/Gerrard, Torres. On the flanks it looks a bit ropey, although I think Babel will turn out to be a godsend if he can adapt fully and come into his role.

kewell's gone but he faded anyway. babel is a great winger and has a bright future, he has a lot of quality and a good work ethic about him, despite oversleeping that time; i think that was a freak incident though.


http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_3767713,00.html

lol @ the delusional idiots.

citeh have some great young players but hughes was stupid to move there after thaksin's eriksson deposition; like, you wouldn't get with a bird who's cheated on other boyfriend's she's had; she'll probably do the same thing to you.

anyway, i wouldn't even want ronaldinho at my club after the season he's just had at barca. his ego went into orbit and even teammates criticised him. he's got the magic touch but he's also a brand and a stellar ego. i guess he'd fit in at fuckin chelsea then.


wow, rumour has it Fat Mike wants to sell Newcastle to some Yankee businessmen :O, I hope its only a rumour because I'd hate the thought of Americans pulling the strings on a team built head to toe on local pride and energy. They just wont mix, hell even if there were many geordies in the team itself!

hell, look at liverpool and the mess their yank owners have made. stupid cunts. even with an owner who doesn't cause problems like abramovich, the club becomes a removed entity; it doesn't fit with what a football club should be like.

the only big investor or company owned club i can think of that's actually run like a traditional club, whose owner seems to give a fuck, is villa. the randy lerner's done a great job and i'm surprised barry wants to turn his back on that.

mind you, pompey seem to be doing alright too. their russki must be alright. and their stadium won't be krap nottarf soon!


This sort of thing is what turns me off the Premiership. The clubs' owners and players are so far cut off from the actual community that it makes supporting a club feel empty. For me, at least.

Lower league, non-league and International football are the only places you can actually strike up some sort of emotional attachment to the team for me, and that is what supporting a team should be about. Ronaldinho and Jo have no emotional attachment to Man City and are basically just there as mercenaries, and the foreign owners are just there to make money. Fair enough, running a club as a business which needs to be financially viable is one thing, but seeing purely as a cash cow is quite another. It's really dumb. :smrt:

I'm sorry to inform you,but this thread is in the process of being removed due to terms of use violation.

fuck off.

nice one hex, although i think absolute ignorance is the best way to deal with dicks like that; also his post got deleted lol

and i know it's tennis but the federer nadal final was a fucking beauty wasn't it? federer did keep overhitting the baseline or slicing into the net but he'd recover with a searing ace or a rally; anyway, what a fucking good match, i couldn't call who would break serve because they're both born winners, you could see it in their eyes, despite fed's mistakes nadal won that one and he won it hard.

also check their comments - gentlemen both of them. when's the last time you saw a footballer as respectful and humble as they were? last final i watched was ivanisevic winning - i do pick em!

contrast to fat sam telling newcastle not to sack barton and give him another chance - he's had enough chances, and it's a sorry sight to see supposedly respectful, mature managers giving this PR rhetoric to try and rebuild his image. what a joke

Archie Knox joins Paul Ince at Blackburn. Not sure what to make of that.

Personally, I hope Newcastle do get taken over by the Bin Laden family.

Looks like we're getting Crouch, which is a good move, though I'd rather it didn't also mean we'd sell Nugent. As for Lampard, he's off as well by the looks of it, which can't be a bad thing.

I read that Bin Laden rumour on the BBC's gossip column and personally think it is funny as fuck. Joey Barton can't get away with being the only terrorist at the club now.

this () is all i have to say about Newcastle right now.

also, why is every footballer a monumental prick these days? Gareth Barry, Hleb are being total arseholes.

Barry has been with Villa all his life and he acts like he does. its a disgrace and i hope the cunt is happy when he sits on the bench at liverpool next season after taking the baton from Sidwell.

Archie Knox joins Paul Ince at Blackburn. Not sure what to make of that.

blackburn should recover from losing hughes. i would have liked him at chelsea, but he doesn't seem like the sort of personality that would work with the cunts there. ince did well with mk dons from what i know. tickets still low price?


As for Lampard, he's off as well by the looks of it, which can't be a bad thing.

it just renders all that 'chelsea lovin', 'concentrate on football' bleating for nought when he'll go to inter; he's already on silly money so there's no excuse. his slow, pragmatic style should suit those cunts.


also, why is every footballer a monumental prick these days? Gareth Barry, Hleb are being total arseholes.

Barry has been with Villa all his life and he acts like he does. its a disgrace and i hope the cunt is happy when he sits on the bench at liverpool next season after taking the baton from Sidwell.

there's been a few hearty transfers this summer - pique rejoining his beloved barca for example. but in the club game this summer's been all about just how little the clubs mean to the players now in any sporting sense, probably a symptom of the clubs and the amounts of money and exposure involved.

there's a load throwing their bosman bloated weight around with thinly veiled excuses and keenly measured value-related demands, like flamini, hleb, adebayor, lampard, arshavin, ronaldinho, some geezer at PSG, all the chavs at crystal palace, pretty much everyone really, and then there's the likes of ronaldo and barry who are just being plain illogical

it's all been said about ronaldo and it beggars belief but i think the same of barry really; he's at a club with one of the few decent investor owner blokes and a great manager commanding a very good young squad. a couple more seasons and some good signings and they could sneak into the CL, but it's his fickle. mellberg left for the same reason but he was clear about his intentions and showed his appreciation to the club and fans; barry played this whole situation wrong and unlike mellberg it's not like he's coming to his last chance for glory.

the transfer season used to be so exciting. i'm glad i wrote all that shite about euro 08 though; highlight of a bad season.

LOL! Fergie got himself a huge slap in the face with that slavery comment from Mr. Executive!

Haven't you noticed that the Bin Laden rumour didn't appear on the official site or any local papers? Its just a rumour, another wild guess at who Mr. Fat Bastard Mike Ashley wants to sell to I suppose. I don't think Barton should be given so much pity, this is what happened with Lee Bowyer and Craig Bellamy, we let the bad boys do as they pleased and turned a blind eye.

feck.

Sack Barton, he's a cunt.

Crouch - yes. We now have a Good Squad and I think next season looks alright. Another top-10 finish and a good run in the cups and Europe and I'll be pleased.

LOL! Fergie got himself a huge slap in the face with that slavery comment from Mr. Executive!

when blatter said that slavery comment and ronaldo agreed, i laughed hysterically. i mean, a mature, intelligent successful man would simply not say something like that. it's quite incredible that one is the supposed best player in the world and the other is the fucking president of the entire game. considering how important the media is to football and how many PR and legal guys everyone in the profession have around them, especially those 2 who are of the highest profile, you'd think someone, anyone would turn around and say 'hey, dude, i get the point you're trying to make, but, well, you should really think this one through and just not say anything about slavery and football players'

also is shay given insane, or maybe he knows he won't get so much action consistently in every single game anywhere else in the world ever


Sack Barton, he's a cunt.

Crouch - yes. We now have a Good Squad and I think next season looks alright. Another top-10 finish and a good run in the cups and Europe and I'll be pleased.

11 m though? although alongside defoe a good little and large/lanky partnership could develop

11m might be excessive but, to be fair, it's better than 15m and Crouch will actually score goals. Now we have 2 strikers with a proven goal record, and Kanu and Nugent in reserve, we should be able to put paid to any runs like our amazing goalless streak last season.

Well, now Portsmouth is gonna be a club with more than just a mouth, they have teeth to bite with now, nice going with Crouch!
Honestly, when Ronaldo concurred to the Slavery comment I almost cried laughing, the PC brigade is going to swoom in and demand that the comment be revoked now though. Ronaldo's just a tosspot I can't wait to see the back of and I'm really hoping Barton gets what's coming, or at least sell him to West Ham with the other ex-Newcastle bad boys!

crouch is a great singing for pompey. he might not be a footballing purist but he is certainly effective.

i think he'll do well upfront with Defoe, they werent too bad for england either.

crouch is a good bit of business for both clubs. how we don't have enough money now we've got 11m for him, 16m for alonso, 4.5m for riise and 3m for pennant imminent is beyond me. the yanks really have fingered us in the pooper quite a lot.

also, the whole barry situation is just as much o'neills fault as barrys for behaving like a spoilt child and refusing to speak to him whilst loving the sound of his own voice in austria.

but then again, we're all getting our info from press reports. and lets be honest, they're a bigger pack of cunts than any football club thats ever existed.


ps ps ps - the fact last season villa stated they'd pay up to 10m for carson and yet he hasn't even been mentioned as part of the barry deal is evidence how poor liverpool are at bartering.

lol @ Massive Citeh thinking they can sign Ronaldinho.

why the fuck would he go there?

oh right, money.

No doubt Wayne Bridge's affection for "the lads" at Chelsea was the pivotal reason why he signed a new four-year deal with the club but the small matter of being paid almost �17m for the inconvenience of being a part-time footballer may also have been a factor.

Bridge yesterday snubbed a move to Portsmouth and the opportunity of first-team football by signing a contract extension with Chelsea despite the fact that the presence of Ashley Cole limited him to just nine Premier League starts last season.

"I'm just happy. I love it at Chelsea - the lads, the staff, everybody. I'm happy to be here, hopefully for the next four years," he said after the announcement that he would remain at Stamford Bridge.

The word 'money' was conspicuous by its absence in his pledge of loyalty, a somewhat curious oversight given reports that his new deal is worth �80,000 a week. Were his four-year contract to be paid in full, that adds up to an astonishing �16.6m. No wonder he is a happy man.

sigh.

11m might be excessive but, to be fair, it's better than 15m and Crouch will actually score goals. Now we have 2 strikers with a proven goal record, and Kanu and Nugent in reserve, we should be able to put paid to any runs like our amazing goalless streak last season.

as long as they click. service will help though with people like muntari etc. spraying balls in


but then again, we're all getting our info from press reports. and lets be honest, they're a bigger pack of cunts than any football club thats ever existed.

see simon jordan's picture perfect quotes today? http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=556317&sec=england&cc=5739
beautiful


sigh.

always liked bridgey and although it's obvious why he stayed - he's still the most admirable kind of footballer these days. that's how bad it's got.


lol @ Massive Citeh thinking they can sign Ronaldinho.

why the fuck would he go there?

oh right, money.

has to be said - even 200 grand a week couldn't bring a top class footballer to citeh. hilarious. they've got a good manager and some good young players, but everyone knows they're a travelling thai circus.

and so it now is. show me a real football club.

No post in 10 days. Come on people, that's a poor effort.

Anyway, it's the early rounds of Europe right now. Rangers just drew 0-0 with Kaunas. Shocking.

Also it's pre-season friendly time - has your team been involved in games lately, and against whom?

hey guys i heard you were talking about soccer i mean football

oh my god i've posted so much shite in this thread

olympic football looks not interesting this time. good that the clubs are letting their players stay out there though. could have just bitched about compensation rather then being arses about it. should be wise about pissing off their best players. english clubs let their players go after all, smooth move. hopefully brazil argentina final

and no team GB, that's a worse idea then 39th game. this isn't 1912.

contrast china's opening ceremony - which was to be fair epic win - with their poorest regions and the general populace's knowledge of the outside world. then think how many recessions, wars etc. are going on right now. and what is every cunt with a tv watching. lolin

i have a chinese mate though, she's cool. very driven. does indie films right now. plays bass. fuckin hot too.

gutted chelsea haven't signed materazzi, diouf, barton, thatcher, bowyer etc. yet, or made berezovsky, that MSI guy joorabchian, thaksin, hicks, gillett, the glazers etc. 'partners' - still enough there to rename them cuntsea though; sea of cunts, or rather sandpit if you know anything about the bridge.

also funny as fuck if the clubs just go ahead and franchise which they probably will, and then break away and hold a superleague in monaco and the algarve whenever they feel like it

edit - also rangers, LOLin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l9BFJYiPxA

i LOLed, excessively and heartily, for an extended period of time.

oh steve, you total cunt.

you just know he left the country because he wouldn't be able to take the stick he'd get here, i mean football is populated by total cunts but few are able to totally decimate their own reputation and integrity so utterly and spectacularly fail at their job as this man. ronaldo managed on the former but he's just had one of the best seasons any footballer will ever have, so he will probably try to emulate it to win back the fickle season ticket holders, with a wave of publicity supporting him.

have to say though, 'i'll stay at united for another year' i think his contract says 4. then again contracts mean absolutely fuck all in football, obviously.

steve steve steve, when will you learn

McClaren just can't get a break.

That video was funny though.

pompey: :facepalm:

mclaren = hilariously epic fail. seen a few articles claiming capello's following his lead a lot with squad choices though, worryingly. give the villa yoof a chance fabio

gutted for pompey, but chelsea looked ominously good. glad essien signed on and joe cole wants to stay for life, favourite players at the club. lampard was pretty clever/lucky to get his sillymoney contract.

anyone watched olympic footie after all the bitching over player selection and tournament officiality? group stages were amateurish and full of ref mistakes but quarters and semis = very good.
quarters
- argentina v holland, close, full of skill, cream of U23 dutch and argie talent, end to end, argies 2 1.
- italy looked imperious in the group stages; belgium had 2 reds, one undeserved, from brazil game, and kompany forced to return to hamburg. italy's diving, pen and a red for belgian, ex united rossi scored... belgium equalised! italy went ahead through another pen, then belgium scored. twice. upset but deserved, 3 2!
- brazil v cameroon was full of 'pro fouls' but brazil eventually won out 2 0, sweet goals, real madrid have a great fullback in marcelo.
- nigeria have looked like the late 90s nigeria, and beat ivory coast 2 0
semis
- nigeria beat belgium 4 1, both sides should have scored more, defences were awful although both keepers were good, belgium were in it until about an hour, nervous going forward, nigeria were fucking incredible, passing it around silky, through balls, one twos etc. like brazil 1970 or something, and 2 of the goals were magnificent. belgium deserved a goal and got a late one
- argentina 3 0 brazil! should have been the final but for the draw, and the holders really fucked brazil over after brazil had won in the copa america final last year. brazil hadn't conceded until this semi. loads of the best young talent from both countries playing. all the goals came in the second half as sides went for it, and riquelme, aguero, messi etc. were just too good for ronaldinho, pato, jo, sobis, neves etc. in the last 10 minutes, lucas and neves both hacked mascherano down and got straight reds, and then argentina just toyed with brazil and nearly got a 4th.

bronze match will be brazil v belgium on friday, probably a non event, i doubt all the stars for either side will stay, friday at noon anyway, gold - silver final will be nigeria v argentina on saturday at 5 am. probably worth getting up for though, both teams have been fucking awesome so far, and this is a rematch - nigeria beat argentina in the 96 olympic final, and argentina won gold in athens 4 years ago, so this should be a sweet final.

oh! and you thought i'd slipped off my pedestal and gone away, never to post again. ha ha.

england were terrible tonight, looked exactly the same as under mclaren, sven etc.

You think you have it bad?

We lost to Georgia. At home.

I hope to God that last night was just an abberation, otherwise it's going to be another long, hard qualification campaign in which we finish miles off even the play-off standard.

Olympics final kicks off at 5am and I have work at 6 so I'm usually up about half for that. Not a big fan of the early starts, but if I'm getting up anyway, I may as well lose the half hour and catch the first half. If it is the best half of football ever played a lot of people will be jealous, I bet.

Well, I stayed up and fell asleep halfway through the first half. Partially through tiredness and partially through boredom. It wasn't a terrible game as such, but there were very few clear chances from what I saw. Congrats to Argentina though.

yeah i got up especially and both teams were excellent in the semis but the match was shite - bit like the last nations cup, awesome tourno after clubs moaning about losing players, loads of goals and then a shit final. still, you guys should check out the quarters and semis if you're interested - good play, good goals.

also, brazil beat belgium 3 0 in bronza match, that one wasn't too bad. brazilians are quite cynical, nasty challenge or two from jo, ronaldinho nearly pulling off the most convincing dive i've ever seen but the ref nabbing him instead of pen, but they do have silky skills and deserved the bronze.

prem's warming up nicely so far. robinho's free to join chelsea apparently

I haven't played a Pro Evo game since PES5. I am considering getting a new one though, just to get some updated squads. It is a pain in the arse continually updating these, particularly for club teams.


Don't do it Ceidwad! PES5 is the best! It's only two problems are the AI does stupid runs a lot and the referees are too lenient especially about carding last men when you're on the attack, but it is almost perfect bar that. The newer ones are basically FIFA without the licences, and FIFA is bad!

Well, I gave up and relented over the weekend. I bought PES 2008 which was only �15 from Woolies.

I disagree that it is like FIFA. Certainly the gameplay is not as flowing as in PES5, but there are a number of things I feel it has done well. In PES5 it was practically impossible to score from a crossed free-kick. I have already scored from about 5 in the new version. The refs also make more bookings which is definitely a good thing, although the number of fouls is way down which I feel is a step backwards in realism. Another bonus is the increase in the number of licensed teams compared to PES5.

Overall I would say PES5 is still the best but the new ones aren't bad.

Just thought I'd post this as this thread seems quiet lately, along with most of GD.

Darren Fletchers going to get 40 goals this season.




























or maybe not.

That's it. The Newcastle board have proven incompetence for the last time, this Dennis Wise is a nutjob, USELESS. Ashley's interested only in money and results and not the welfare and keepsake of prize players, at this rate we're gonna lose Owen.
If Keegan protests he's gone too but that would just cause the entire Newcastle fanbase and the entire football club to perform mutiny and force the fat bastard out.

Why the hell did they need to sell James Milner, why? All he wanted was a contract and a higher wage which he deserved for performing as he does! Bastard. This is going to leave a huge hole in the mid field.

i was delighted when scholes did the hand of sod and got promptly sent off for it ^_^ a cynical rat of a player and it's good that he occasionally loses the plot just to remind even blinkered shites like tildsley and all the other manyoo brigadiers what a total fucking cunt he is. still, it was the red devils or the red army. i think the lesser of two evils won, but just about.

gutted for newcy, you've got a point shoden although undoubtedly milner loved his time at villa and it's likely he was playing for a move, at least so far this season. but then villa looks like a well run club right now, good team

feel sorry for moyes, decent bloke, good manager, marginalised by backroom squabbling and new stadium bullshit. saha's a bad move but this summer's been full of wars of attrition and incomprehensible transfers - senderos to milan??

kenyon talked his way into ridicule again - 'yeah we've got robinho, roll out the red carpet' 2 days later and nothing. see that report where he told the press how important jose was before they sacked him/he jumped the next day.

interesting draw in the CL and UEFA. wisla spuds should be fun for the firms. arsenal have a tricky group, fener and kiev and porto all solid teams. united and chelsea should breeze theirs, though. liverpool will have to be on the ball though, 3 solid teams with them too, liege were unlucky although can't fault kuijt's effort and if anyone deserved to nick it it was him. he gets a lot of totally undeserved stick, i don't understand why he gets it, i'd rather have a guy like him then that spineless cunt malouda flapping about wide.

and platini's got a point too, clubs who operate in the red are an affront to good business and should be penalised for splashing out what they don't have. the press here have it easy rebuking him

but i salute platini, he's got a good point with a lot of what he says and although some of his ideas are too radical to shunt out the moneymen if he gets some support behind him, not just incompetent figureheads like blatter but the chessmasters behind the scenes, he may drag the game some way back to what it once was. too many of them are the sort of people he wants to remove if his visions have any chance of being realised though

also, lol, the mafia tried to buy lazio a few years ago. not surprisingly really

also shame ronaldo didn't fuck off. i'm really surprised no one else went after van der vaart though, especially after his showing at the euros.

also funny how spurs, united, liverpool, real etc. bleat at each other about tapping up and poor conduct. pot kettle etc.

So I watched Motd earlier.

Arsenal were great today but will be too inconsistent to win the title. They still don't have a replacement for Henry and as much as they will always play good football they need a matchwinner. I don't really know who they could sign to get them 20+ goals a season but Wenger has to be considering some sort of move, surely? That said, I admire the way Arsenal run the club, they are not getting dragged into spending ridiculous amounts on players that don't warrant it.

Wigan v Hull, well, what can you say? Wigan won 5-0 and they weren't even that good. I have seen better defending from my local parks team and that is not an exaggeration. Hull look like another Derby - just seem like they'll roll along for the ride this year with no realistic expectation of staying up, but they'll take the �30m and be financially secure for ages. Sounds good, but what happens then is that your players have no motivation and this leaves them badly unprepared for the next season, as Jewell is finding out.

Portsmouth were flattered by the scoreline but Johnson's goal was excellent and overall they showed much more in the final third than Everton. Other than that it was a pretty even game that should have been maybe 3-2, but anyway, I think Pompey will be a top 10 side again this year.

West Ham again flattered by the scoreline. I was pretty surprised to hear that Curbishley is one of the favourites in the sack race this year. Hopefully that is just idle gossip and nothing comes of it. He is a good manager and a decent guy and if he goes I don't really see who could do a better job.

Nice to see Bellamy back and scoring too. I know he's not everyone's favourite player but when he's fit I think he'd get into any team in the Premiership. The internationals are coming up so hopefully he does not get crocked again before then!

Boro v Stoke: Southgate seems to be making good progress at Boro, they also have a lot of local young talent at the club which is good. I think they'll have to settle for mid-table again this year but there is no question about safety. Stoke I think will do better than Hull, but that's about it.

Bolton v West Brom had some good moments, but to be honest I think West Brom will also be struggling to avoid going straight back down. Mowbray's been around the block a few times and knows his stuff but as the pundits on Motd said there is no telling where the goals will come from. Bolton should be safe but will not trouble the top half.

Hooray for Pompey, and it's good to see Arsenal winning as well as they've always been my favourite top 4 team.

premiership and 1st div never used to be seperated by such a gulf

pompey were excellent. nice to see glen doing well too, thought we should have kept a hold but probably wouldn't have developed like he has with harry; good squad, should continue to improve barring injuries

england squad - bullard, awesome! where's agbonlahor, a young, joe hart though; swp also deserves a call up, at least after today. what a return to citeh.

mossy, jarosik, minty etc. need to get the fuck back here. browsed the rest of the forum - seems a little barren now

No Owen is odd for England, he's a natural goalscorer when he isn't injured. Bullard, yes please.

Deadline day - I hope Berba goes to City, for the laugh factor. But if Barton goes to Pompey, fucking hell.

robinho to man city, fucking brilliant

fucking sky sports news. yeah i know i heard it here first, stop repeating it.

citeh take2over *shakes head* i guess it was inevitable; celebs and self made brit suits, yank tycoons and corporate investors, scandanavian egghead consortiums, red commie bastards, far eastern dodgy fucks all bustling around for lucrative clubs, not long before those oil soggy towels got in on it. retiring stars have been playi-getting paid to appear in that region for decades now anyway

so many clubs have gone into private ownership, it's incredible; after the plc rush and all the leagues and competitions getting bought out and sponsored and TV dealed to fuck, it was still a recognisable sport though;

but now; there's quite a few companies and investors in russia of course, at clubs like cska, zenit etc. austria - red bull salzburg - one or two in italy - bologna - although most are of course run by major family run ity businesses and companies for a long time now anyway like fiat at juve, pirelli at inter and berlusconi, galliani etc. at milan, and deffo some in the mls i think - surely, sport is a franchise there more then anywhere, where clubs move to new cities and no one in the stands actually knows whats going on

a couple of nuts went to scotland - romanov at hearts - and of course the hegemonical political cartolas in brazil as well as that dodgy MSI group, but they've mainly headed to england because of all the money involved there more then perhaps anywhere else.

even before roman came in and saved bates' sizzling bacon and created 'chelski' the likes of fulham and mk dons had passed into that sort of ownership - stoke too, i think, scandanavian owners right - and of course watford, norwich etc. were owned by big celebs. now most of them are, west ham, pompey, liverpool, man u, arsenal nearly, brum nearly, citeh, newcastle, villa, chelsea, derby, qpr, vale - robbie williams HAHA

envy spanish and german clubs, run like political parties with elected leaders. french, dutch, portugeuse, greek, turk etc. all plc brands or owned by private investors but from the last generation, not on the sort of scale of all these new industry leaders and mega rich elites.

think i'll support ebbsfleet

as if citeh actually got robinho though, makes their pursuit of ronaldinho less ridiculous. they'll actually threaten to make europe if not the top 4 with the squad they've got, elano, richards, dunne, hart, petrov, all superb performers and chuck jo and robinho in with them - fair play.

Oh god... Keegan looks like he's out...

yeah, not surprised, ashley's not been too smart with his decision making and keegan does like a dramatic exit anyway. doesn't bode well for the season to come for newcastle though.

oh and city do look ominously strong now. it was weird seeing swp return there amidst all the fuss with thaksin - bangkok's now in a state of emergency, check it - but it makes sense now. shame they didn't snatch berba from the red cunts. sirloin alex really enjoyed swanning around old trashford with the emo, but he'll fit in and play well and spurs will enjoy their big transfer fee.

oh yeah, MANYOO BOUGHT THE LEAGUE NANANA hang on when's the last time they *didn't* pay in excess of 20 mil for a first teamer... pop quiz for you all there.

middle eastlands eh. apparently quite a few arab groups tried to get citeh according to the rags. i wonder if DIC tried? maybe they'll go back in for liverpool, or perhaps someone else. these guys are ridiculous though, a multi billionaire and royal family members. all that buying out and player transferring spits in the face of recession and rising living costs

We've got a fat bastard who can't tell the difference between a cup of lager and a soft drink nevermore industrial profit/loss business and the world of football. Promises of money yet he gives sod all.

bye bye king kev, bye bye newcastle i guess

city are looking very strong at the moment, they'll get 5th this season if not 4th seeing as spurs have 3 strikers, one of whom is fraizer campbell and neither villa nor pompey have stronger teams than city.

There is no point in supporting or following the Premier League anymore. Congratulations on creating the most appalling league in the world, FA.

it is pretty dire.

as are england, or so i hear. i'm not watching the game on the principle that england are always shit. congrats to wales and the republic though.

I am disappointed that so many England fans are deserting their team just because they are shit. I also don't know why international football attracts less support that the Premier League (or at least less apparent enthusiasm) when compred to the latest goings-on in domestic football there is, for me at least, more more of a sense of belonging and stability about international football. I know England have been comparitively rubbish lately but they are still probably one of the 10 best teams in Europe in absolute terms.

Even though we were awful on Saturday and Azerbaijan nearly got a draw I would still rather watch Wales than any club team. I haven't seriously cared about the Premier League since Abramovich came in and the latest movements have pretty much killed off what interest I had, though I'll still probably continue to watch MOtd just for Motty, Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen.

League One all the fucking way dudes.

You know it makes sense - you have got to love a league that plays host to Southend on Sea.

And you know management games are always more fun when you start near the bottom.

League One for the win!

christ, 4 1?? this rivals 4 1 v holland at euro 96 and 5 1 in munich qualifier. i like bilic a lot, but he got this one wrong. cap pulled a good one out today, and it's good to see a new catalyst - walcott. haven't seen the match yet as the beeb don't show qualification matches anymore but it sounds like a stormer. and heskey always seems to be involved. lol.

qualifiers usually throw up a few crazy daves but this one's pretty mental - luxembourg beat switzerland 2 1. away.

andorra lost but they also managed to score against belarus. 'no easy games' finally applies? probably not. switzerland didn't look THAT shite at euro 08 though. which they hosted. meanwhile finland drew 3 3 with germany, and belgium managed 1 1 in turkey. they looked quite tasty at the olympics. no other big shocks, although i've noticed the beeb website never prints serbian goalscorers, oddly.

ceidwad's post - agreed, poland's NT is currently pushing depths rivalling the insipid lifeless teams of the 90s after such a good last decade, of qualifiers at least - but they beat san marino 2 0 today and that's made my day. along with our result in zagreb of course. ^_^ unlucky wales but the cossacks look good

also zola at hammers? fuck.

THEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha united although they started last season even worse after 3 games and ended up with the title and CL although not by much in the end you cunts also the dark knight is extraordinary. it's not perfect, but it's stunning and magnificent and comes close. bale is all rage and complex fury at difficult decisions, eckhart is an excellent and developed twoface, gyllenhall makes a good replacement for holmes - stupid cunt, should have kept her role, it was designed on her for fuck sake - and i was sad when dawes died, caine and freeman are their usual reliably good selves, oldman breathes emotion, purpose and struggle, all the smaller faces contribute well and ledger...

terrifying. genuinely terrifying to watch. the scene when he walks out of the hospital and gets annoyed at the bomb trigger not working - that's nonchalant brutality for you. and the scene where he films himself with the batman wannabe, and pretty much every other scene with him - his ferocity is truly breathtaking.

what a movie

the mike ashley saga is boring me already, for god's sake. geordies need to learn to cope with the fact that newcastle aren't brilliant, and fast.

pompey :)

europe looked good. nice to see scolari still pissed despite a 4 0 win, during which, when we pressed, we really completely dominated. liverpool flickered from sheer penetratative brilliance to total incompetence in the space of minutes during their match; didn't see celtic, united or arsenal but surprised none of them won. makes things more interesting, at least for an extra round of matches.

also funny that a polish club side, especially after the recent match fixing scandal in our league, was almost able to draw with them away, although with their signings, despite their sales, they were bound to get started at some point. hopefully their agony and hilarious incompetence will last a while yet though, and besides wisla drew with liverpool in a pre season friendly and beat barcelona in a CL qualifier (although they'd lost the other leg 4 0 or something)

well done pompey. liege looked good.

season looks good so far too

I hope pompey pull something awesome out of the bag at city! Good luck to them anyway.

I just put �20 on United to beat Chelsea 3-1...the odds were 25 to 1.

Its so unlikely. But if it happens i'll be lolin all the way to eastlands.

Lol. It was funny to see City brought back down to reality last night. In my opinion, they will always be a pale blue streak of shit of the face of footballing toilet paper.

We need to improve at the moment. When we went to Chelsea on Sunday, at the start of the game I would have gladly took a point, when we went ahead I was ecstatic, by the end I was begging for the final whistle. I'll be there on Saturday, and hopefully we will stuff Bolton! I don't fancy driving home from another bad result.

As for the arse. Well, not much to say. They are playing great! It'll be interesting to see what happens when we finally come up against them.

When we signed Berbatov, i couldn't have been happier, but he is pissing me off. The laziness in him is ridiculous. He wants it on his toes every time. That's not United's Style, and he needs to learn that, and quick!

I really hope Rooney improves. He works like a cunt up and down the field, and he is being played out of position, but the guy just looks off at the moment. He doesn't seem to want to shoot, and when he does, it's like he knows he has missed even before he pulls the trigger. Cumon lad, get back to the form of 06/07!

Haha. The Arse lost to Hull!!

I was at Old Trafford today. The only exiting thing was Rooney's goal. We really should have stuffed them. 3 points is good. But the game wasn't anything to write my aunt in Istanbul about.

Still, I'm happy with the result.

A CLEAN SHEET


and we won too, but it's Spurs so no surprises

haha, hull's victory over arsenal at the emirates - priceless. geovanni's goal was truly magnificent. enjoyed the silence at the end! think you need to write a new motivational sheet arsene

united really fortuitous with the penalty - seriously, tv replays guys, that sort of mistake can't be ignored, or allowed to define a match - but they did outplay bolton. shame fickle cunts aren't getting on cronaldo's back.

pompey back on track, not really a crisis club, surprised they shipped 10 goals in the previous 2 games. crouch shit signing and muntari big loss - as if gaydamak wants to sell up though

spuds though - HA HA HA HA HA - martin jol's hamburg are top of the bundesliga right now - while spuds are bottom of the premiership after their worst league campaign start for 53 years.

OOPS.

also, i heard newcastle have a new manager now, there must be a joe kinnear somewhere, oh right there it is

Hahaha.

Guys, please join me in the laughs that are to be had from this man.

I think I know who I'd prefer commentating over the games i watch :)

There are more than the ones i have linked here.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xDcJ1Jb7Khs

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7sZoGJCo3Dc&feature=related

hehe..something tells me this bloke does not like Rangers!

The penalty decision for Man Utd at the weekend was shocking. Can you imagine if Bolton had got it and gone on to take points off Man Utd? The poor ref would probably be recieving death threats as we speak.

Arsenal will always struggle against weaker sides until they have a plan B.

Hahaha.

Guys, please join me in the laughs that are to be had from this man.

I think I know who I'd prefer commentating over the games i watch :)

There are more than the ones i have linked here.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xDcJ1Jb7Khs

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7sZoGJCo3Dc&feature=related

hehe..something tells me this bloke does not like Rangers!

:D funny as fuck that


The penalty decision for Man Utd at the weekend was shocking. Can you imagine if Bolton had got it and gone on to take points off Man Utd? The poor ref would probably be recieving death threats as we speak.

Arsenal will always struggle against weaker sides until they have a plan B.

not to mention fergie, a whole army of older gen players and coaches, probably the pl, fa, pfa etc. too bleating and screaming about it. some refs have defended the cunt too but styles is a fucking disgrace, and that was one of the worst decisions i have ever seen from a referee. truly unacceptable. megson shouldn't accept any apologies, he should say 'on your fucking bike until you've publically admitted your error at the very least' but pr demands leniency and smoothing the rails etc. whatever. i hope united don't win the league by a point, ahead of anyone, because that will make such a travesty of a decision pivotal in a title race. it's just not sporting.

meanwhile, in the CL - anorthosis of cyprus, the first cypriot team to qualify for the CL, have 4 points after 2 games??? a draw with werder bremen and a 3 1 win over panathinaikos today? CFR cluj the upstart romanian champs with 4 points from 2 games themselves? an AWAY victory at roma and a home draw with chelsea? and BELARUSIAN team BATE drawing 2 2 with juve, and being 2 0 up too?

mind you united, arsenal, liverpool, chelsea, real, barca - late win against shahktar today - look good. should be a good CL this year. jose's inter meanwhile coming apart at the seams - hilarious. all your chat can't cloud the results jose. hopefully bayern, werder, lyon, atletico etc. help mix it up too.

as for government interference in football - FIFA, UEFA etc. stand in total opposition to it, with good reasons to that end. in recent years, kuwait, iraq, and i believe greece and portugal and others have all have bans or sanctions put in place to deter direct governmental influence in the game. but when poland's government sacks the polish FA's board for corruption related issues, isn't that a positive move? shouldn't the game's governing bodies support that tough stance against corruption which would otherwise line pockets and deteriorate the game and otherwise if left unopposed?

the possiblity that we could now lose euro 2012 is very much probably now again. after the match fixing scandal which rooted out the corrupt in polish football and the promising euro 08 qualifiers as well as the output of talent into european clubs everywhere and the awarding of the 2012 tournament with the ukraine, polish football looked so healthy and promising. as usual a totally embarrassing comedy of errors has undone all that again. what a fucking disgrace.

The 'minnows' are doing awfully well in this year's CL. Hopefully this will prompt the mainstream media to drop the minnow tag with reference to them, but I guess I shouldn't expect too much.

uefa cup was fun, wisla did alright against spuds but not enough quality to take them out, good goal from brozek though, liege looked great against everton although their captain should have been sent off, but they deserved their win, everton ran out of ideas, and pompey - great comeback in extra time, guimaraes were awesome in the first half but ran out of steam. i was ready to laugh at crouch for being a dismal failure but he proved his worth. some players can turn a match in a minute and dont need to riproar the match around for 90 minutes to do that. anyway UEFA cup's called the euro league or something next year onwards; won't change much i don't think

If they want to make the UEFA Cup good, they should reduce the number of teams that go into the Champions' League and have them enter the UEFA instead. At present the UEFA Cup is an entertaining and competitive competition (moreso than the CL anyway), but doesn't have the big names required to make it lucrative. Lumping in Arsenal and Liverpool instead of Everton and Pompey (or Villa, Man City etc) would make it much more high-profile and wouldn't change much about the level of competitiveness either, in my opinion.

Have the CL open to the top two teams in a country, but no more than that. Too many teams qualify for Europe from the top countries.

Spurs, lol.

England squad - Owen still out, but can see why. Crouch deserves the recall.

If they want to make the UEFA Cup good, they should reduce the number of teams that go into the Champions' League and have them enter the UEFA instead. At present the UEFA Cup is an entertaining and competitive competition (moreso than the CL anyway), but doesn't have the big names required to make it lucrative. Lumping in Arsenal and Liverpool instead of Everton and Pompey (or Villa, Man City etc) would make it much more high-profile and wouldn't change much about the level of competitiveness either, in my opinion.

Have the CL open to the top two teams in a country, but no more than that. Too many teams qualify for Europe from the top countries.

that's what platini was trying to do, reduce the CL entrants - eventually anyway - to the champions of each nation, thus returning it to the format it once had and evening the playing field throughout europe and giving a boost to the smaller leagues. unfortunately the status quo and powerhouses in football are quite happy with the way it is and platini's plans are now full of compromises and holes because he'd rather get them all onside then swim against a strong tide and now he looks like a fucking idiot for it.

your proposal is spot on but it won't happen.


Spurs, lol.

England squad - Owen still out, but can see why. Crouch deserves the recall.

yeah, extreme lol ^_^ i wonder if frasier campbell felt like a knob at the end, since he turned hull down for spuds

owen's too fragile and besides crouch does actually deserve to be in the squad. i've always thought he was a flukey beanpole but i watched pompey against guimaraes and when the delivery finally came for him, he made it count with the header, and then his second goal showed his quality, after 100 minutes to still be sharp enough to put it away so confidently. and then the overhead kick;

i must mention chelsea; without carvalho, deco and essien, and j cole injured in the second half - and yet they managed 35 shots on goal, and over 60% possesion against a very good villa team who've been in the top 4 in recent weeks and who chelsea hadn't beaten in 5 league fixtures; we played some fucking awesome stuff; i don't like the team much anymore but this is pretty much what roman was after; strength in depth, cosmopolitan class and thrilling incisive football. scolari's adding versatility and adaptability to his world class repertoire. im sure kenyon had an insipid word in the ear about that embarrassing bit of i-love-capello+england PR though

also arsenal lol

have to post, that was The Worst 5 1 england win i've ever seen, i think it's never been more obvious that trying to shoehorn lampard and gerrard into the same side just won't work, and the booing of cashley when rio the pedestrian donkey was as responsible for standing around and letting the borat in and the moronic beckham mania just summed up for me what's wrong with england football. i mean he played 15 minutes against a knackered, decidedly amateur bunch of borats and managed to pull a grin and a few crosses out of his arse, and even got past someone for the first time since 2001 as noticed by the beeb. yeah, hero, right.

it's not seperate from the club divisions and the politics and the oneupmanship and the unbearably fickle tide of support and abuse from the 'fans'. from the FA to the fans the england setup is a flawed diamond. it's good to see capello and pearce in close co-op though. i do have confidence in them and the U21 side is great too.

upson cannot be the best centre back beyond terry and rio though and brown cannot be our best right back, or we're in trouble against better teams. at least if we don't turn up like we didn't tonight. why am i even saying we? mind you, rooney was quite good, the goal glut at the end was a welcome upturn from the hideous 70 minutes that preceded it and the whole setup is not the same dubious shambles that mclaren orchestrated.

meanwhile poland beat the czechs 2 1 :) dortmund winger blaszczykowski, injured for the euros, and longtime prodigal big hope pawel brozek scored the goals and we looked a better side. we started the euro qualifiers in similar fashion and after the fun and games involving the FA, the gov'ment and FIFA and UEFA, the result was a welcome positive.

it's all about the pressure really. no coincidence that the two huge victories this century (germany and croatia away) basically came about because the fans and the media didn't expect them to win the game.

look back to after the germany game in 2001. struggled to beat albania at home, then had to be rescued at home against greece by a late beckham free kick. it's all pressure, or fear, as capello has labelled it. at least this time we finished the job in some sort of style...eventually.

i'm not going to criticise england. i agree with will. there's far too many people quick to jump on their back. it must be hard to play with world class foreign outfits for several weeks then suddenly be thrown together with compatriots from several other teams and expect to blow away teams that for the most part put two banks of four behind the ball and close down hard and quick. the qualifiers is filled with teams like kazakhstan (we're playing another sort on wednesday).

what i will say is that i, the humble fan with an opinion, cannot understand how you duff up the best team in the group away from home and then change your formation to accommodate a partnership that has been proven time after time after time that it does. not. work. i know carrick and hargreaves are injured, but they and barry are all of the international mould and should merit a slot in the midfield alongside EITHER lamps or stevie (personally, i'd start with fat frank because he's blistering for the russians at the moment).

here's hoping we go 4-4-2 against belarus.

also, congrats to wales and lol to the jocks.

ps - props to big emile. the most underrated work horse on the pitch at the minute. never thought i'd be saying that four years ago.

I was impressed with Huskie. His touch to set up the fifth was blinding. It's a shame he didn't get on the score-sheet himself.

Rooney looks more like a thug than ever with his bald head.

I get the feeling the fans booed Ashley because he's a bit of a dick in real life. Had it been Rooney, they probably wouldn't have been so harsh...

Anyone see Iwelumo's miss? Dear God in heaven, that poor sod is never going to live that one down.

I agree with BZ about Cole. He is a dick. And he deserves the boos.

Heskey still has all the strength of a mule, and all the skills of one too. But at least he has his job and does it well. Better to have donkeys who can succeed as a team than have 11 Gerrard/Lampard players who form terrible partnerships.

Wales v Liechtenstein was your routine match against this kind of opposition. Wasn't pretty but we got the win. Now onto Germany on Wednesday. If we play as we did away to Russia I feel we may sneak a point which would put us in a decent position after 4 games.

yeah iwelumos miss was hysterical, although it's not -quite - as funny as this

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uOivzoRc0I8

get in boris, sehr gut, sehr gut!

anyway yeah heskey played well, and the stick he's got is more of that fickle.

well done wales, as austria and switzerland has shown in recent qualifiers even the likes of luxembourg and the faroes are getting their shit together now, can't take anything for granted.

as for england, well belarus are a step up from borat to be honest but then england barely lurched out of first gear against borat anyway. should be aiming for a win

Wales v Liechtenstein was your routine match against this kind of opposition. Wasn't pretty but we got the win. Now onto Germany on Wednesday. If we play as we did away to Russia I feel we may sneak a point which would put us in a decent position after 4 games.

Doubt we can put in a good enough performance against the Germans, although I'm hopeful we might actually have someone with some confidence take up penalty responsibilities.

yeah iwelumos miss was hysterical, although it's not -quite - as funny as this

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uOivzoRc0I8

get in boris, sehr gut, sehr gut!


oh boris, you spectacular twat

yeah iwelumos miss was hysterical, although it's not -quite - as funny as this

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uOivzoRc0I8

get in boris, sehr gut, sehr gut!

Oh, my sides.

Extended version (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1EN7YvqHAMg&feature=related)

Last night's performance was epic, shame we couldn't hold on.

yeah really pushed ze jurmans, unlucky, tough group though

poland lost to slovakia lol

rooney's goals were pretty damn good. i dont know why people have criticised him for lack of goals because he's worth 3 or 4 players with his running, commitment to challenge and teamplay. only things you can really fault him for are elitism and dangerous tackling but he's one of those players you really want with you rather then against you

i liked roma a lot for a number of years so it's weird seeing roma and chelsea about to play in the CL, match i'd always hoped to see one day. should be a good couple of ties

lets see how prem develops. turning into an interesting season

Pompey was alright, 0-0 a fair result I reckon.

Hull are great, they look to be doing a Reading (but hopefully won't get relegated next season). Once again, Spurs, lol. Miserable team full of failures.

as a chelsea fan, and as someone disgusted by the way martin jol, who was by all accounts doing a great job and slowly, falteringly but surely building a good spurs team, was treated, i am REALLY enjoying this spud disaster. 6 defeats now, worst league start ever. classic!

meanwhile chelsea played some scintillating stuff yesterday. awesome. any idea about who threw the missile at villa? pompey draw away at villa is definitely a good result. liverpool lucky again meanwhile - although fair play for playing to the final whistle, for grinding out wins, and for kujt too who gets a lot of stick - arsenal fair play but gutted they didnt lose again, massive props to hull too

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/oct/21/tottenham-hotspur-jokes

brilliant, thanks, that's enough ammunition for weeks of fun

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RESULTS 08/09 group stage week 3

GROUP E
Man Utd 3-0 Celtic
Villarreal 6-3 AaB

GROUP F
Bayern Munich 3-0 Fiorentina
Steaua Bucharest 3-5 Lyon

GROUP G
FC Porto 0-1 Dynamo Kiev
Fenerbahce 2-5 Arsenal

GROUP H
Juventus 2-1 Real Madrid
Zenit St Petersburg 1-1 FC BATE

that's 36 goals on one evening, amazing, apparently one group stage evening in 2000 had the same number of goals and it's the current record in the CL

manyoo showed how much strength in depth they have on and off the pitch, they look very strong again now, berbatov goals were just about offside though, and rooney's offside goal wasn't, linesmen were abit shit really but united deserved the win, celtic had no ideas to go with all their work and passing. boruc's spill to berbatov for the second was also a sorry sight. celtic could have had more of a crack at united but at old trafford, with all the united players fit, they were able to impose their cuntishly good selves on the game as usual. famousgrouson said 'bout time we got a break' on the offsides. i'd love to split his rudolph with a well placed haymaker.

arsenal meanwhile were truly amazing against fenerbahce, seriously. i hate them cunts to a man but they were incredible, their goals were brilliant, incisive passing and confidence and skill, and they took advantage of the hilariously vacant turkish defending with gusto. still, almunia rescued them a couple of times and defensively they were all over the place, and at other times during their constant attacking they literally tried to pass the ball into the net, but despite that they managed 5 goals. it's good for the rest of us they don't have a big, old brick shithouse defensive midfielder and a disciplined veteran defender to bail them out when they get heady with their silky passing and opponents counter, hence hull and sunderland results. great to watch tonight though

itv commentary is insipid o_O looking forward to tomorrow though, atletico liverpool and chelsea roma should be exciting

edit - 2 things, pundits and websites say that the villareal aalborg score is only beaten in champions league history by the monaco deportivo 8-3 win 5 years ago. i'm sure there were bigger scores in the european cup - in fact there's a famous one, real madrid's 5th consecutive cup at hamden against eintracht frankfurt, 1960 i think, 7-3. it's really insipid and shallow the way people talk about the premier league and the champions league as though the old first division and the european cup were different fucking competitions o_O

also, last time everyone went on about the hell turkish fans create in the CL, chelsea beat galatasaray 5-0 or 5-1 or whatever away. shows you what that does to them haha

Diary of Elisabeth Fritzl:

Mon - Raped by Josef
Tue - Beaten by Josef
Wed - Tortured by Josef
Thur - Fisted by Josef
Fri - Bukkake'd by Josef
Sat - Went to see Spurs...should have stayed at home.

Diary of Elisabeth Fritzl:

Mon - Raped by Josef
Tue - Beaten by Josef
Wed - Tortured by Josef
Thur - Fisted by Josef
Fri - Bukkake'd by Josef
Sat - Went to see Spurs...should have stayed at home.

win

it was funny to watch them capitulate again last night. udinese did their part but if spuds had more composure and cohesion they could have taken them apart. gomes' mistake for the pen was hilarious, although he made some good saves in the second half. bale was terrible and i'm surprised he wasn't fucked off free kick and corner duty for someone like modric, wasted every single one. bent was also a ghost of anonymity, absolutely useless and totally overrated. o hara's sending off was not harsh either, it was stupid on the part of the player. zokora was also useless, losing the ball constantly

lennon, modric, dos santos and king were all pretty good but one central defender and some lightweight creative midfielders can't win football matches, everyone else needs to pitch in and they completely lack someone to put the ball away and someone strong in the centre of the park, and as a result udinese' own calamity james got away with a few mistakes, because no one was sharp enough to punish him; bent looked like he had a hernia most of the time. terrible stuff

villa ajax was a great fuckin game though, end to end, good footie from both sides, few nasty challenges - just commited - and good goals. it's weird to watch creative teams play after watching an italian team; although udinese are one of the better ones. also, i agree with the commentators - it's baffling that ashley young and agbonlahor haven't been called up. perhaps it's an agreement between pearcey and cap to develop them to the full in the U21 and for that level to have some success first, more likely with them on board.

collymore mentioned that the CL dropouts into the UEFA cup are good for the competition and the teams in the UEFA cup from the beginning from an experience and quality POV and i think that it's a valid argument but it also devalues the competition somewhat because teams in the CL gear up for the biggest success and then the UEFA is seen as an unwelcome distraction when they fail, and when they fail and drop into UEFA, that increases their chances of winning euro silverware and decreases chances of those in the UEFA from the beginning; i guess that only applies to the biggest sides though; the smaller sides, like BATE, cluj and anorthosis, who've done well but will still probably finish 3rd in their groups, will have the chance to continue and mix it with teams more on their level financially, with the benefit of those impressive upstart performances in the CL group stages. double edged sword i guess, but perhaps it is actually more positive then negative, by mixing up the levels of european contender a little. still, they'll need a big PR effort and better knockout organisation when it turns into the 'europa super league' or whatever, to change perceptions of the tournament.

also i miss the cup winners cup. that was a cool competition

harry is a cunt and if spurs don't go down i will be very upset

oh dear, gutted for pompey lads. spurs are winning too. dont get worried though lads, it's only bolton at lane. interesting to see how pompey react in the fulham tie and against milan, and whether the team stay together

Ditto Top Cat's comments.

Seriously, I'm not sure who would even be able to keep the team together... There aren't that many big names around at the moment... I wouldn't know where to turn unless Jose Mourinho wants to leave Inter for a better club?

Diary of Elisabeth Fritzl:

Mon - Raped by Josef
Tue - Beaten by Josef
Wed - Tortured by Josef
Thur - Fisted by Josef
Fri - Bukkake'd by Josef
Sat - Went to see Spurs...should have stayed at home.

I feel so guilty for laughing at this.

Ditto Top Cat's comments.

Seriously, I'm not sure who would even be able to keep the team together... There aren't that many big names around at the moment... I wouldn't know where to turn unless Jose Mourinho wants to leave Inter for a better club?

tony adams :):)

And no-one mentions we've ended Chelsea's 86 match unbeaten home record.

And I still don't think we'll win the title.


harry is a cunt and if spurs don't go down i will be very upset

.






































































Hahahahahaha (sorry)

Yes Mr Cat. After a bit of pondering I thought Adams was the man for the job just for continuity and let's hope he does a good job. :)

His first challenge is to keep the squad together during the transfer market. I have a horrible feeling that a few players are going to move to London...

Adams was at Wycombe before, wasn't he? I'd say it's a gamble by Pompey, although they should at least be safe from relegation this year.

pompeys, i think adams will do a good job. he'll have a little difficulty holding on to a few people though, obviously. wonder why he said it'll be his team next season. they can still achieve a lot with this squad this season. ah well, good luck to them.

minty, fair play, liverpool outplayed chelsea on sunday. was a good performance; outthinking chelsea after their recent form was impressive. didnt much enjoy weekend results.

today however...

(including yesterday's match)

Newcastle 2-1 West Brom
Arsenal 4-4 Tottenham
Aston Villa 3-2 Blackburn
Bolton 0-1 Everton
Fulham 2-0 Wigan
Hull City 0-3 Chelsea
Liverpool 1-0 Portsmouth
Man Utd 2-0 West Ham
Middlesbrough 2-0 Man City
Stoke City 1-0 Sunderland

say what you like about barton, i don't think he deserves his chance, but he's showing character to play on and remind everyone he is underneath all the nasty a good player.

goons and spuds - what a match. funny mistakes from both sides, and what a goal from bentley, and from jenas. harry will get credit though he's barely done anything. confidence is everything; and after all the last gasp winners arsenal have had over the years, it's great to see them taste it.

liverpool - not at their best, but still getting the win. bit lucky with the pen - arguable whether diop fisted it - but they finally look like they've got that edge and grit and ugly perseverence. i hope the wheels come off again though

chelsea back to best. lampard's goal - i'm sorry but it was absolutely magnificent. lovely to see something like that. shame he doesn't reproduce for england, whatever.

united look good too though. berbatov's skill was impressive, but the defender could have done more. it was simply confidence and skill and reading the guy following him. takes class to pull it off though. for all his sulking he's something amazing.

stoke and rory delap's throwing - i'm sure there was another guy who had that same throwing range and used it loads over the years for norwich or someone? can't rermember his name, but it's a hilarious not to mention effective trick. i remember delap of old and it's good to see him and stoke doing well.

Andy Legg, former Wales international had the longest throw-ins in football at over 45 yards. Not sure if he played for Norwich. He was still playing local football last year in the Welsh league.

Andy Legg, former Wales international had the longest throw-ins in football at over 45 yards. Not sure if he played for Norwich. He was still playing local football last year in the Welsh league.

Still playing ain't he? Not that I can get to Llanelli to watch him but I assume he's still down there.


stoke and rory delap's throwing - i'm sure there was another guy who had that same throwing range and used it loads over the years for norwich or someone? can't rermember his name, but it's a hilarious not to mention effective trick. i remember delap of old and it's good to see him and stoke doing well.

It's quite a spectacle watching him hurl them in from 30 yards to the amazement of the opposite team. I can't get over how accurate they are, although I suppose if you practice over and over then you'd get that way. Wish he could give our hookers some coaching.

Rory Delap is a good lad, I'm glad for Stoke, and Hull, too.

FOR FUCK SAKE.

What is it with these cunts? Is the Liverpool mission statement to kill off all their fans with heart trauma? Virtually every game this season we've taken it to the wire. Why can't we just close a game out 2-0 like United or the Russians?

Well, at least we're back to normal now. Absolutely dicked Spurs off the park and only got one early goal, panicked and just gifted them the three points.

I am sat here with a fully functioning laptop at my command, and I cannot conjure the words to describe just how utterly frustrated and fed up I am. Nearly twenty pissing years since we stood at the top, and it doesn't look like it's going to change AGAIN.

FUCK.



Here, Russia. I am giving you the title.

I'm going to live under a rock for the next seven months.

I watched brief moments of Liverpool-Atletico. What did others make of the penalty decision? Personally, I thought it was terrible call by the ref, seemed pretty 50-50 to me. But from what i saw Liverpool deserved the draw on balance. There was one moment in the 2nd half where Gerrard and kuyt played a wonderful 1-2 on the edge of the box with a backheel flick from Gerrard. Great stuff.

Chelsea's result gave me lols, but I didn't see any of it.

It wasn't a penalty, really. But yeah, the ref had a bit of a 'mare. He got so many calls wrong. We had two clear cut corners turned down and then one awarded that clearly wasn't, plus a stonewall pen for handball not given either.

I supposed you could argue justice was done as we did dominate the game, but to be honest nothing changes from my point above. We just did not have any sharpness to kill the game off at any stage and got out of jail again. The bench is rather poor as there's no player we can bring on that you feel would influence the game, apart from Babel.

And may I also echo your lol at Chelsea (sorry Will).

It wasn't a penalty, really.

The bold part is the key part I reckon, as although I doubt many referees would have given it but there's certainly an argument for it. I pretty much agree with what Gerrard came out and said about it, something along the lines of it would have been a free kick outside the box so should have been a penalty, although he sympathised with the decision. I can't understand why he went down as if he had been shot with a sniper though...

Regarding penalties, anyone else see the new ref on the weekend, think he was officiating between West brom and Blackburn. He gave a penalty for the least offensive shirt pull I've ever seen and sent off Benni Mcarthy for a second yellow, for a handball. Like the Gerrard incident, shocked people, but if you apply the law as it's written then both seem pretty correct.

Roma looked top class, surprising considering how badly they've been playing.

Andy Legg, former Wales international had the longest throw-ins in football at over 45 yards. Not sure if he played for Norwich. He was still playing local football last year in the Welsh league.

i reckon that's the guy i was thinking of. i know that the beeb made a fuss about the guy at the time. impressive stuff at 45 yards, my geriatric sockets hurt when i chuck a ball too hard, i doubt i can kick a ball 45 fucking yards let alone rocket


It's quite a spectacle watching him hurl them in from 30 yards to the amazement of the opposite team. I can't get over how accurate they are, although I suppose if you practice over and over then you'd get that way. Wish he could give our hookers some coaching.

i'm assuming you're refering to rugby players and not ladies of the night, i mean i was confused at first

i'm a bit of an imbecile you see

anyway seriously it is pretty funny to see defences panic when those balls get arrowed in. i wonder why more teams haven't cottoned on to the idea though, i mean you can't be offside from a throw in; there's plenty you can get out of it if you can find someone who can actually chuck it well like delap's found out he can


Rory Delap is a good lad, I'm glad for Stoke, and Hull, too.

lovely to see arsenal undone yet again, and by good old rory again

who else thinks wenger's comments were genuinely disgusting by the way? i did. in an ideal world everyone would like the opposition not to go in a little hard all the time obviously but it's not realistic to actually complain about it and expect to be taken seriously, and really amateur to reel off such unprofessionally vindictive accusations of deliberate injury against his players, even if a couple of them may have been accurate, when in the same game his own forward RVP knocked the stoke keeper down like a fucking moron out of frustration and got that most predictable red of the season so far. nothing to say about that mr wankstain? of course not. must have slipped your memory.

the shawcross on adebayor was a little too hefty but it's not the same as ben thatcher decking pedro mendes, it's just a poor challenge; doesn't excuse it but doesn't mean the guy was trying to break legs either.

wenger's simply trying to compensate for his team's ineptitude in the face of physical and obtuse challenges on and off the pitch. he created a team of kids and a few old heads and the elders swelled with ego among all those inexperienced little tykes while those loved the shiny new megastadium and london and the PL and CL heights and a few of them rejected wenger's romantic arsenal dream and left the team with no backbone to deal with these challenges, and his own immature way of making any significant problem out to be a horrible fucking injustice even when it's not really has rubbed off on the staff and players indelibly and oppositions exploit it leaving them to bleat to the media about it afterwards

it taints their beautiful football - i watched them against fenerbahce away, and i really hate to admit it, but they were magnificent; when they face someone who can't unsettle them and their game flows, it is quite awesome - and their boards refusal to allow any massive investors take over, although one of usmanov or kroenke, or dein with someone from the outside, probably will eventually.

sorry mossy :P


It wasn't a penalty, really. But yeah, the ref had a bit of a 'mare. He got so many calls wrong. We had two clear cut corners turned down and then one awarded that clearly wasn't, plus a stonewall pen for handball not given either.

I supposed you could argue justice was done as we did dominate the game, but to be honest nothing changes from my point above. We just did not have any sharpness to kill the game off at any stage and got out of jail again. The bench is rather poor as there's no player we can bring on that you feel would influence the game, apart from Babel.

And may I also echo your lol at Chelsea (sorry Will).

watched both chelsea and liverpool, weird night, both played quite and really well but lost and drew respectively. yeah the gerrard penalty was not a penalty :D but the earlier handball should have been given. like berbatov about his offside goals a few weeks ago 'it's up to the ref to see it, i just play my game' hard to argue with that really

liverpool atletico was weird. it's easy to see how much class atletico have; a good squad, good fluency and able to do jobs, but they did let liverpool run all over them. but then again liverpool have a brilliant squad; i simply cannot understand the criticism kujt gets, he chases every ball down like a starved bloodhound and his interplay with arbeloa, gerrard etc. is brilliant, he stretches the extra few yards to make chances and cutbacks and crosses out of every overhit ball. chelsea could fucking do with someone like him.

liverpool deserved to win, not just to draw, but that's the game. they didn't deserve anything against citeh or wigan but barnstormed comebacks. they beat chelsea and united by shutting down their games. then they completely destroyed spurs - and lost, similar to atletico match. i really hate siege mentality michellin rafa and his merry band of scousers and spaniards but they will challenge and they have a great team, good spirit, good support etc.

as for chelsea, i know we're probably more despised even then plastic united now for obvious reasons and i'm used to the defeat lulz but it's different this season; we're actually playing nice football. a lot of mourinho's success was bittersweet because we had the odd slaughter-and-feast but it was rare amidst the endless grind and contain and spit at the law, and the players were happy to oblige. funny that mourinho wanted more from the crowd. i guess his PR exercise just doesn't ever let up. of course he thinks that everyone at the bridge has had a season ticket since dixon, speedie etc.

we played pretty decent stuff against roma, but they simply took the pace out of the game, and the remnants of that compacency crept in as we were happy to play at their pace, and then the defence went missing for the first and mikel gave the ball away for the third. the second was absolutely magnificent from vucinic though, credit. also i'd be very surprised if the olimpico actually remains the host for the final, even if the trouble this time was limited. italy's hooligan problem is pretty big. napoli fans hijacked a train earlier in the season, lulz


The bold part is the key part I reckon, as although I doubt many referees would have given it but there's certainly an argument for it. I pretty much agree with what Gerrard came out and said about it, something along the lines of it would have been a free kick outside the box so should have been a penalty, although he sympathised with the decision. I can't understand why he went down as if he had been shot with a sniper though...

Regarding penalties, anyone else see the new ref on the weekend, think he was officiating between West brom and Blackburn. He gave a penalty for the least offensive shirt pull I've ever seen and sent off Benni Mcarthy for a second yellow, for a handball. Like the Gerrard incident, shocked people, but if you apply the law as it's written then both seem pretty correct.

Roma looked top class, surprising considering how badly they've been playing.

yeah gerrard's come-on-ref-he's-barged-me look is horrible, but whatever gets the job done i guess. and he's not going to come out and say he overdid it is he. can't blame him for doing it i guess

and that ref at the blackburn west brom game; i actually thought he did alright; like you say law's law.

so yeah obama says Come Help A Negro Get Elected and bob's your uncle. lulz. nah seriously i wonder if he'll actually do the trick, when the fuss has died down; stabilise the economy, strengthen relations between world powers; way i see it it doesn't matter that much who actually won in the end, they're all a big boy's club up there, masons etc. well done to him though, interesting times ahead

Yeah, I think Wenger was a bit out of line with his whinge about Stoke. Football's still a physical game and I don't think they were too bad, but Arsenal have forever been pretty featherweight. He's still a great manager though.

yeah he's like your dream champ man campaign, he can see a kid's talent and judge his character like anyone else can read a wall of numbers and statistics

i watched man city beat twente in the uefa cup yesterday - i've never seen such an open european game, or seen anyone give the ball away so many times - the twente players - in a single match. it was like one of those europe v rest of world charity exhibitions

65 pages and still stickied to the top, I'm proud of you guys. Really proud.

Ugh!

I could be a gracious loser and say that we didn't really play as a team, and that overall Arsenal were better. And probably deserved the win in the end. Even if our goal was a screamer! Their passing in some points of that game was amazing. Like the arsenal of two seasons ago. Ronaldo should be pissed off with himself for missing that sitter. I'm also getting tired of the defence. They are a great defence, I'm not denying that. But I hate the way nearly all of them back off from the tackle until the last possible minute, which usually means that if they do tackle, it's risking a penalty, or a free kick, so they end up having to back away more, and that's when the shots open up.

But instead I'll say that once again Gallas shows what a cunt he is. The worst captain in a long time. Remember his crying last season? The other thing I'll get to is that Arsenal can enjoy their win, because I'm sure it's the only thing they will be enjoying this season. Even if they do get in a competitive place towards the end, they won't see it out.

As much as it pains me to say it, I think Chelsea are going to take it this season. Arsenal need to win it against the big clubs, as they have already lost to two small teams. Beating us is a big step. I just don't think they have it in them to go all the way. As soon as anything starts to go wrong for them, the toys come out of the pram and the faces start to turn.

I'll end this now as it's just a bitter rant. Yes, arsenal deserved the win yesterday.

I will also say that I had an great dream last night. I was in the pub I watch some games, and on the box were Arsenal and Portsmouth playing. Arsenal were 4-0 up at half time. Then, during the break I went on a fruit machine and won �25, then after the break Portsmouth came out, and in the end, Defoe scored a last minute goal which put portsmouth 5-4 up! It was a weird dream. But I loved it.

i went to see qpr vs cardiff. qpr won man they didnt deserve to though it was enjoyable, woo.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH FUCKING CHELSEA, EVERY TIME, CUNTFLAPS!!!

65 pages and still stickied to the top, I'm proud of you guys. Really proud.

no greater praise then that really!


arsenal rant and luck turning dream

agree with everything you say about arsenal, and that dream will go down well with topcat, bahamut zero et al

i think everyone would agree actually. especially mr adams!


i went to see qpr vs cardiff. qpr won man they didnt deserve to though it was enjoyable, woo.

see football brings the best out of everybody!


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH FUCKING CHELSEA, EVERY TIME, CUNTFLAPS!!!

hey at least it's not early 00s when we lost first round of UEFA cup 3 or 4 seasons in a row to amateurs. well played burnley, always good to see an upset too. level the playing field etc.

villa win at the emirates was fantastic. i thought they'd go on to lose when young missed the pen but fair play, they pulled it off. united looked impressive but i still wish injuries on ronaldo, his post match interview was pathetic, he's so far up himself. good strike by that black kid though. park's a great player that doesn't get headlines. and carrick is worth his england call up although it would be hard to drop barry, lampard or gerrard for the forseeable future

liverpool were lucky, the bolton goal was legal and gardner should have put his chances away, but then keane and gerrard also missed those sitters. chelsea looked magnificent again and it's difficult to see them faltering, hopefully they won't be unbalanced when cash, ballack, dogbreath etc. try to muscle into the team again.

wigan were really unlucky today, that sending off was ridiculous. it looked a little hard but boyce got the ball. also gomes is an awesome comedian. even for a footballer he looks agitated now; he made a few at PSV but not enough to detract from his overall repetoire

nice to see ashley young and agbonlahor selected for england although mid season friendlies can't be a good thing. i just don't see the point, not at this point in the season.

im off for a few days, see yas

No, friendlies just before Christmas make very little sense, especially as everyone moans about fixture congestion over the Christmas/ New Year period. Friendlies should be toward the end of the season if they are to be at all.

Paul Ince should be fired.

So the idiots say on the BBC's 606.

I realise this will get me killed by the likes of TC but COME ON GERMANY (For wednesday)

haha, i stopped supporting england a while back. i follow them and all but i can't bring myself to actually support the side, i just no longer feel an attachment to them.

I actually like international friendlies. Makes a nice change from hearing the usual 'Chelsea/Man Utd are going to spend �ridiculous on over-rated twat X, Y, or Z in January' stories every week.

defoe and agbonlahor up front? that's an odd pairing to choose, imo

also, you know it's defensive crisis when upson is playing.

i'm glad some of the 'big names' aren't featuring. don't really see the point of friendly internationals other than to test out the fringe players and some youngsters.

and it's not like this is a real 'test'. germany are shit at the moment.

Paul Ince should be fired.

So the idiots say on the BBC's 606.

i always read through a few 606 comments on a matchday for a giggle, plenty of trolls, some decent banter too though


haha, i stopped supporting england a while back. i follow them and all but i can't bring myself to actually support the side, i just no longer feel an attachment to them.

it's a collection of club names rather then a country's representatives with england, certainly. win was nice though hehe


I actually like international friendlies. Makes a nice change from hearing the usual 'Chelsea/Man Utd are going to spend �ridiculous on over-rated twat X, Y, or Z in January' stories every week.

brazil accused ronaldo of trying to break legs after they dicked portugal 6 2. some pretty good friendlies actually past week, serbia 6 1 bulgaria and two missed pens, surprised that savo milosevic is an old bastard now though, time flies. great to see poland win in ireland too, although it weren't the best game. i still think it was a silly time to play them though.


i'm glad some of the 'big names' aren't featuring. don't really see the point of friendly internationals other than to test out the fringe players and some youngsters.

and it's not like this is a real 'test'. germany are shit at the moment.

that's exactly it, and they did alright too. i would have laughed at that germany comment, they were euro finalists, but you're spot on in actual fact.

got to say about terry, terrible mistake, but it was good to see him take responsibility for it after the match, fair play. plus he scored, and it was only a friendly. say what you like about him but he's a great player and character as far as im concerned

arsenal, united, liverpool and chelsea all fail to score? wtf? arsenal loss was hilarious, they gave the ball away about 30/40 times, robinho goal was to be fair pure class, boy's a stupid cunt but he's good.

also, i've always been gutted we lost gallas to arsenal... until now. what a fantastically stupid cunt. chelsea have made a pig's ear of PR in recent years but it was a good idea to get rid of that dick. oh wait, we also got ashley cole

oh snap

brazil accused ronaldo of trying to break legs after they dicked portugal 6 2. some pretty good friendlies actually past week, serbia 6 1 bulgaria and two missed pens, surprised that savo milosevic is an old bastard now though, time flies. great to see poland win in ireland too, although it weren't the best game. i still think it was a silly time to play them though.

Don't forget Denmark 0-1 Wales :D

I was seriously pleased with that result, the team really does seem to be going places now, though now I've said that we'll probably go on and lose in Azerbaijan or something similar.

Don't forget Denmark 0-1 Wales :D

I was seriously pleased with that result, the team really does seem to be going places now, though now I've said that we'll probably go on and lose in Azerbaijan or something similar.

yeah i actually watched a bit of that on the bbc website, fair play, a creditable performance in germany and then that, but this weekend's results show you what consistency and luck on the day contribute to the game, i.e. almost everything.

it's no coincidence that scolari's chelsea can bang 4 or 5 past most teams but draw with or lose to the likes of roma, united, arsenal and liverpool. and i suppose it was too much to expect the likes of deco, malouda, anelka etc. to keep up their form. we're still playing nice football but a little naivety and inability to handle a challenge and a quality side playing a different style have cost us, and we're out of the tin cup and may even go out of CL which is uncharacteristic.

shame we lost, arsenal were on a nice slippery slope and it was set up for us to win, but like against united they came good. at least ronaldo's still imploding, great fun!

Well, the UEFA dream is over, and frankly with our performances against Braga and Wolfsburg tonight that's about right. We've been pretty poor in both those games, which is the story of our season really - games where we are brilliant, like AC Milan, and then dire, dire performances. Our defence looks especially vulnerable - Sol is getting old and I think this might be his last season, and we're now playing two attacking full-backs. We need to plug the gaps.

In other news, Villa, oh dear. The second Zilina goal was a marvellous team move though - absolutely gorgeous. Some positives though as the lad Delfouneso looks handy already, and only 17.

Got to hand it to Zilina. They're a small Slovakian team operating on crowds about ten times less than Aston Villa, and yet they still managed to come away to Villa Park and win. Good to see. OK, so the first goal was an outrageous fluke, but you need some luck.

As for Portsmouth, TC summed it up pretty well. I think to some degree Adams's lack of experience managing at European level might be to blame, because that is a group that was by no means impossible to qualify from, even if it was one of the tougher ones.

unlucky guys. still, positives - that game against milan was awesome even if the conclusion was unfortunate, and glen johnson and a few other players really gave a great account of themselves. and adams has potential and with being assistant for a while already he'll get a grip. like he said in one MOTD interview, next season you'll see his team.

as for villa, my second favourite team in the last few months, and they look good for a european finish but i think when everyone finally noticed their quality with their win against arse and draw with united the attention and pressure may have gotten to them a little. still they qualified from their group even with that loss to zilina and o neill and their players should keep cracking on. i'd like to see them break into the top 4 just to see the look on the faces of the club-that-misses-out's players and manager, and i think they're the most likely to this season, if anyone will.

11 away wins in a row for chelsea, nice little record to set there, after bad results recently. we need to be better against the big guns though, for some reason we've been unable to deal with any club from near the top of the table recently.

Just got back from Old Trafford now. I'd be embarrassed if I was a Sunderland fan. I understand them wanting to come here and avoid defeat, and playing for a draw. But their lack of ambition in that game was disturbing. Me and my dad were keeping track, and they didn't touch the ball in our penalty area until the 88th minute. 10 men behind the ball all the way through. If you're happy to watch your team play like that, then that's your prerogative. But it was just boring to see.

I'm happy with the win, I just wish it hadn't took us 92 minutes to get it. Ronaldo can seriously piss off to Madrid as far as I'm concerned. To me, he looks like he doesn't want to play for United anymore. it's been like that most of the season, and today is a good example of him showing lack of team efforts and respect. He lost the ball so used his earlier bump as an excuse to sulk off the pitch. Fuck him right off as far as I'm concerned.

I don't see how Fulop was not booked.. (I think it was Fulop, either Fulop or Gordon) The cheating twat.

I think it's funny how Keane resigned via a text message. He should either go to a much smaller club, or just stay away from manging for a few years.

I was laughing pretty hard when I heard the Newcastle result. Well done to Hull too.

Just got back from Old Trafford now. I'd be embarrassed if I was a Sunderland fan. I understand them wanting to come here and avoid defeat, and playing for a draw. But their lack of ambition in that game was disturbing. Me and my dad were keeping track, and they didn't touch the ball in our penalty area until the 88th minute. 10 men behind the ball all the way through. If you're happy to watch your team play like that, then that's your prerogative. But it was just boring to see.

I'm happy with the win, I just wish it hadn't took us 92 minutes to get it. Ronaldo can seriously piss off to Madrid as far as I'm concerned. To me, he looks like he doesn't want to play for United anymore. it's been like that most of the season, and today is a good example of him showing lack of team efforts and respect. He lost the ball so used his earlier bump as an excuse to sulk off the pitch. Fuck him right off as far as I'm concerned.

I don't see how Fulop was not booked.. (I think it was Fulop, either Fulop or Gordon) The cheating twat.

I think it's funny how Keane resigned via a text message. He should either go to a much smaller club, or just stay away from manging for a few years.

I was laughing pretty hard when I heard the Newcastle result. Well done to Hull too.

fair play, well done out in japan on the world club cup win, what's OT like then, good facilities? good atmosphere? and sunderland seem to have improved in recent weeks to be fair but i see where you're coming from about the defensive performance, it's ok to want to protect against a thrashing but a bit of ambition would be recompense for fans who pay hundreds of quid for season tickets, travel, merchandise, scarves etc. to support them and also pay their wages, and as much as i despise united, it's easy to see why they sell OT out so much with their players aggressive and drilled to win and dominant. ferguson's a real bastard but he's played his part in turning the club into the behemoth it now is

anyway nice to see a united fan who doesn't buy into the ronaldo crap. he had a great season last, one of the greatest anyone's ever had, but he played a massive part in stirring up the madrid crap and he's been an even bigger twat then usual this season, getting all pissed off at villa signing no.1 to fans giving him stick, whinging at villareal although he did get kicked around, handballing against city. silly boy. i too would love to see the back of him even though he could just have a more negative impact on united to come if he stays, but then he could just grow up eventually and start knocking them in and around again, which is also a worry as he may even start winning more awards to fuel his circus

anyway, fascinating CL draw, but i think that more english teams will go through. roma beat us but they've been struggling in italy this season, and even though arsenal have also been wonderfully weak, they look focused in europe. meanwhile inter have struggled in europe, drawing 3 3 with anorthosis and losing top spot in the group to panathinaikos by losing at home to them. united should turn them over in all fairness. liverpool will find it tough against real though, and chelsea could struggle if juventus boss the possession, like they did against roma.

also lech poznan beat feyenoord away to qualify for last 32 of UEFA cup. nice one. polish clubs usually suck majorly in europe

scolari's chelsea are showing cracks under pressure though. they need essien and carvalho back. shame alex wants to leave. he was one of the players i really liked but it was way too much to expect him to enjoy the fans and the club and the play for the badge. anyway we'd started the season so well with 4 and 5 goal wins all over the place, but this is the test for mr hackman now and i'm not sure they'll pass it.

also there really shouldn't be a GB team at the olympics. it's only an issue because london hosts the next one, and it's not surprising to see the scots and welsh against it. thought norn ires were up for it but it seems not. it would be questionable how many players would bother and how motivated they would be for the tournament, and also how many non english players would make the squad, and given the grounded associations and seperate identities and player bases i don't think such a team would work. anyway that's me for a few days, merry christmas to you all if i don't post again beforehand. x

i hope you all had a great christmas guys, mine was pretty good

jermaine pennant scuppered a a bid by real madrid to sign him by asking for twice as much money as they offered him. i know he's a good player but he can't get into the liverpool side and although he's supposed to support them, when real madrid come calling most players jump at the chance. i hope he plays against them in the CL - it would be fascinating to see whether he excels or fails horribly in that match

good round of boxing day footie, loved it. drogba's header was awesome. ronaldo should have been sent off for snapping at wilkinson (i think that was his name) and it was a shame that he mistimed and got his marching orders himself. it was good to see villa snatch that draw against arsenal though; they deserved it at least, although arsenal's own resilience belied their season; still wenger's pained look was priceless. i think wenger is misguided in thinking they can still win the title. i hope i'm not proven wrong!

also well done celtic today, don't know if there are any gers on here but if there are then i have a massive LOL just for them. enjoy the silence.

Christmas was fine, hop all in this thread have a good New Year. Turning to the January sales - who are your team in for, or looking to sell?

We've got Belhadj on a permanent, which is good news. What we really need now is a creative midfielder, moreso now Diarra has left, and a right-winger with pace - Little has skill but can't run and Nugent is really a striker. I honestly don't think we will sell that many - perhaps Defoe, his heart hasn't been in it lately, or Johnson will leave but I can't see the mass exodus some are predicting. No-one, except Lauren, has gone on record to say he wants to leave and so it looks like we'll keep most of the team.

Form wise, it's not looking good, but I'm confident the team will find their feet soon. I'm not sure how much it is to do with Adams, as the team has been shaky since April - what's really needed is a confidence-boosting run of wins, and maybe we will get one sooner rather than later. A revenge against Man City and beating 'Arry would be the perfect way to go about it.

I like Arsenal, but Villa look good value for 4th this season and I think they may nick it. The current Arsenal team lacks in maturity and resilience, usually, and really needs to form a cohesive whole like they haven't really had since 2003-04. Gallas isn't a leader like Adams the captain or Vieira was, I don't think, and Villa just look the better team right now. Provided they retain the services of their best players - and I see no reason why they wouldn't - I don't see how they can't break into the top four this year.

same to you top cat, and everyone else. good chrimbo? i had turkey for the first time, delicious. also a nice polish xmas eve with the family, everyone around, was good. may the new year bring us all better fortunes

first up, stevie me in trouble - i'm really interested to know exactly what went down. there should be cctv inside a club though, we'll see what happens. weird that someone of his stature would be involved in something like that though.

secondly, some bad taste mixed in with a little idiocy, always good for a giggle - gazza's got enough trouble with his mental health and drinking and now the isrealis are bombing the shite out of him - whatever next!

in reply to you top cat, i think belhadj has played his way to a permanent deal and it's nice to see him rewarded for his form in what has otherwise been an underwhelming season on and off the pitch. as for those linked away, i would think defoe would leave as he looks completely disinterested - but i don't understand why johnson would want to leave, and i don't think there'll be an exodus like you say. you need a solid central mid without mendes or diarra or muntari though.

also what's with calamity james rearing his ugly mug again. mind you a lot of good keepers have been having really catastrophic years and seasons - boruc, carson, robinson, gomes etc. just shows that one little mistake can completely derail a keeper's performance. confidence is absolutely everything for those guys.

finally i love watching arsenal in full flight but i really want villa to beat them to fourth because - i really hate arsenal, wenger's implausible-deniability self-delusional siege-mentality and the arrogance of their players, and i quite like villa, lerner, MoN and their players, and it would also be interesting to see a team enter and therefore discredit that ridiculous yet valid 'big 4' moniker.

winter transfer window should be fun and games. roll on 2009

I'm just praying that we don't flog so many players that Richard Hughes ends up as the first name on the team sheet...

A decent midfield would be nice. The left side looks solid with Belhadj and Kranjcar together, but the right side is pretty feeble. And we really need to solidify the defence...

Apparently Gerrard was displeased that the DJ refused to play his favourite tunes - Phil Collins and Coldplay. It's pretty hilarious if you ask me.

I'm surprised he didn't steal the DJ's hubcaps while he was there too...

Defoe, Hreidarsson, Duffy and Lauren are fucking off. Fair play.

Oh I fucking hope we don't sign Barton

Deserved win. We were and are the better team. I said 2 months ago that it's going to between us and Chelsea for the title. And it will be. Liverpool won't hold out.

Chelsea didn't even look like they wanted to be there. Drogba should go down as the biggest pudding ever to grace Chelsea Football Club. One of his shots was so bad, it went off for a throw-in!

Looks like Carlos will be making tracks soon. Fergie must have his reasons, but that game needed some Teves. It's all too obvious that he must be off. It's a shame, because I think that guy is great.

Liverpool drawing with Stoke made me laugh. Again.

I will stab you.

GO SOUTHEND!

Thoughts on Kaka and the reported �100m transfer from AC Milan to Man City?

Also, nice to see Luton without a negative next to their points total.

Looks like we'll have Arshavin by the end of the week. Can't say I'm thrilled, we do need a winger, but a centre back and defensive midfielder are far more urgent, and I'm not convinced Arshavin is good enough despite some excellent displays at the Euros. If we get him though, we should sell Rosicky as a matter of urgency. Has never played that well for us and the fact that he hasn't played since about 1999 through injury tells its own story. Some poor sap will buy him for �10m though, if only because the big name throws them.

...1-1 eh? Roll on the weekend, says I!!

I think we should start to see Liverpool crack now. They have this idea that, because they were top for so long, they should be knocking teams like Everton over. But they are not that great. The only reason they were top for so long is because us and Chelsea were so shit at the start. At least Benitez looks even more of a tosser than he did already.

Oh, and City. Apparently, Hughes phoned Fergie up to talk. Fergie asked Hughes where he hoped to be by May. Hughes apparently said "Well, I think we'll wrap up the Kaka deal soon. And our bad luck will run out, and we can be in the top 6 by April". He then asked Fergie the same question. Fergie was reported to have said "Well, we are already World Champions. We can piss the Carling Cup. Should have the league wrapped up by March. We can then stroll away with the FA Cup. And then we can finish it all off with a nice European Cup to add to the shelves."

Hughes then said "erm..that's a little ambitious isn't it?"

To which Fergie replied "Well..you started it.."

I think we should start to see Liverpool crack now. They have this idea that, because they were top for so long, they should be knocking teams like Everton over. But they are not that great. The only reason they were top for so long is because us and Chelsea were so shit at the start. At least Benitez looks even more of a tosser than he did already.


You would think that I'd have something rather abrupt and cutting to say about this, but being brutally honest it's all quite evidently true.

I get sick of the amount of times that people suggest we're genuine title contenders this season and that we have 'thrown away' several games at home. We didn't throw them away. We were never good enough to deal with any team that have stood up to us. We weren't all out of ideas, we never had any to start with. And if you want to win the Premier League you need to find a way through these teams, especially and more crucially at home. And that is the difference between ourselves and United. They get the job done regardless of the performance, posession, form etc.

I had a good look at our entire squad the other day, and we have around 60 full time professionals on our books. That's a sizeable weight to be carrying around. Of those 60 I would discard 40 immediately as being not up to the standard you would expect from a so-called 'big four' team. They either don't do the job they were brought in for, play in the same position as some half decent or are a total waste of space. If we chopped out the deadwood and got a reasonable amount to invest in players over the summer, I wager we'd be in a much healthier position to bring in hungry, experienced Premier League players and a few backups in positions we're severely lacking in at the minute.

Liverpool really have a decent core to the team. The central defence is probably competing with United and Chelsea (the latter no so much at this point in time) as being the best in the league; Gerrard, Alonso and Mascherano all world class and bring something different in the middle; and Torres up front. What we lack is creativity down the flanks. The full backs and wide midfield players are frankly pathetic and look up to Carragher and Gerrard with lamb eyes, hoping they can give them some ideas when they should have competence to come up with some of their own. And we need at least two in each wide spot to really start to have any genuine thoughts about going the distance with the two heavyweights and the Arse. And of course two strikers, one with pace (e.g. Michael Owen - but not Michael Owen), and one with the ability to graft and muscle the defence about to create space (Heskey, but i'm more of a fan of Marlon King).

Basically, at no point did I ever have the slightest inclination that we'd win the title. We rode our luck an awful lot in earlier games and to our credit kept plugging away and turned things round, but lately it seems if we don't get the rub, we don't get the effort and it's probably time we all accepted we will never compete until we get the Yanks out and a willing investor in.

The only thing I will say Biscuits is that while I've probably made it clear that I am not Rafa's biggest fan, nor do I condone or understand why he's behaved like a complete tool these last few weeks, I don't think you're in a position to call anyone a tosser because your dressing room, dugout, stadium and boardroom is positively teeming with them.

Kak�. Good lad.


We've got Pennant, not really the right mentality for our relegation dogfight but at least he is actually a winger and might provide some sort of service from the flanks.

The only thing I will say Biscuits is that while I've probably made it clear that I am not Rafa's biggest fan, nor do I condone or understand why he's behaved like a complete tool these last few weeks, I don't think you're in a position to call anyone a tosser because your dressing room, dugout, stadium and boardroom is positively teeming with them.

ilu Minty!!

Also, I agree with the "dead wood" comments. Have a clearout in the boardroom and with the useless players, and spend some money on a few good quality players. If we can see that fairly obviously, why the hell can't they?

We've...

Pompey?

NOT ENOUGH TALK ABOUT SOUTHEND UNITED IN THIS THREAD

HAYDEN MULLINS

Just this minute got back from West Brom. Great win!

I'm glad they changed the kick-off to 20:15, because otherwise i'd have missed it. The traffic on the M5 was terrible. It was made worse by the silly cunts who thought it was wise to start zooming down the hard shoulder. I had a laugh with it though; A huge 4x4 with West Brom stickers all over it tried to cut inside after nearly causing a crash, and I just slowed down to let other come in from the opposite side. I think kissing my United badge helped to piss the guys who were in it off even more!

Anyway, it was a good win. Although I expected it to be easy, just not that easy. Teves needs to be signed asap. Not much else I can say really.

Oh, we are top of the league...AND THAT'S A FACT!

Fuck off Gillett

Fuck off Hicks

Take your burger and fries ideals and piss off back to cuntland.

And fuck off Benitez. Your tactics are shit, your purchases are shit and your constant mouthing off is shit.

All of you get the fuck out before you totally ruin the greatest football club in the world.

And THAT is a fact.

i like scolari

im glad chelsea are back to winning things

drogba will eventually be good enough to be on a football field again

cudicini for free!??! hes worth a good 10 mil !!

2nd yeaahhhh just gotta keep on winning and hoping for man utd to slip.. i remember this last season.. hopefully scolari has that extra oomph that avram didnt to win

hopefully scolari has that extra oomph that avram didnt to win

He doesn't. Don't get your hopes up.

BLACKBURN ARE SHIT. I hope that Diouf fella gives us some grit. I know he will give us spit, but grit I want too.

Well, can I just add.....


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/7899615.stm

and while we're at it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7922069.stm

has there ever been a more perfect week in football?

fuck you millionaire madrid

fuck you manchester cunting wankstain united

get in

get in

GET IN
GET IN

FUCK YOU

FUCK YOU

FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!

walk on

walk on

with hooooooope in your heeeeeeeeeeeeeeaart

and you'll neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever walk alooooooooooooooooooone

you'll

NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVER

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERK

ALEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NN





YES


YES


YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS







Phew. For a moment I though I was going to get all emotional about it.

Hey Minty. Let's make a bet. If Liverpool win anything this season. I'll change my avatar to their badge for a week. And If they don't, you have to use the Man U badge? Any cup/league counts...oh wait, you're only in the running for one!

Even though you beat us (congrats by the way), we are still 4 points clear with a game in hand. You still have at least 2 teams better than Madrid to play in the Champions League (Us and Chelsea). Don't be counting your stolen chickens yet, Sir.


^ That's basically what I've been saying to any scouser who has a pop at me. Even though it's shitty to say (i should just hold my hands up and admit we got hammered), it's still the truth. No matter how many Liverpool fans want to pretend otherwise.

you can say what you like mate, that's your perogative. but you still got stuffed 4-1 at home by your arch rivals.

i watched, laughed and enjoyed every minute. and frankly i couldn't give a fuck if we lose every game from here on in. we duffed the 'untouchable united' up. at home.

the reality is you've got the easiest draws in the fa cup and champs league and 4 points clear at the top, so it's probably the best opportunity for one team to sweep the board. and being honest, if we get knocked out by chelsea, i want your lot to stomp all over the cunts. apart from that, hope you lose. hope you lose. hope you lose.

Forget the top of the league: Portsmouth 2 - 1 Everton. Excellent stuff. :)

Speaking of Portsmouth, anyone know what's up with Top Cat lately?

....fuck.

At least today's results make the title race moderately interesting. And also Chelsea almost certainly won't win it now, which is no more than they deserve after the way they've treated their managers recently.

hohoho

and they thought it was all over

we had best stuff Villa something fierce tomorrow, lest the lads feel the wrath of rafa's goatee

wellwellwell

what a nice ten days it's been for us.

still don't think we'll win it. we're far too inconsistent to win nine in a row. i just hope rafa holds the winning combination and doesn't stick torres in net and don quixote leading the line.

wellwellwell

what a nice ten days it's been for us.

still don't think we'll win it. we're far too inconsistent to win nine in a row. i just hope rafa holds the winning combination and doesn't stick torres in net and don quixote leading the line.

I tell you what, chap. We keep playing the way we are at the minute, and we'll be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.

The Mancs still have their derby, a home tie to the wengerboys, spurs, villa and the bluenoses for good measure. I'd have a coronary if they didn't drop some points along the way.


I've no doubt we'll slip up ourselves, but still, how bloody good does it feel to finally be involved in a real title race?

p.s. I love you, you crew-cutted fairy :-*

That's all I'll admit to at this point (I have got to stick with the arrogant manc attitude of course). It is great to have an interesting title race. It's just suprising that in the last few years, it's been Man U, Chelsea and The Arse, and now it's mainly Liverpool and Man U.

I just feel that Benitez is too much of a Champions League manager to really care about the league. I am curious what you guys think by the way, but I'm of the idea that if you don't win anything this season, he will be down the road. But i think a Liverpool fan's opinion would shed more light on it.

I just feel that Benitez is too much of a Champions League manager to really care about the league. I am curious what you guys think by the way, but I'm of the idea that if you don't win anything this season, he will be down the road. But i think a Liverpool fan's opinion would shed more light on it.I've never bought that mainstream journalistic shite. "Rafa doesn't care about the premier league" - it's nonsense. Yes, he's definitely more suited to cup competitions thus far, but he's still essentially learning the ropes of English football. And before anyone chimes in saying "but he should have won the league by now...", take note that it took Fergie a considerable amount of time to do just that. Yes, Wenger did extremely well when he arrived in English football, fair play to him - he's nowhere at the moment.

Benitez arrived at Liverpool at roughly the same age Fergie arrived at united - the former being far more successful in his initial few years. Rafa has also had to essentially build a team from the roots, up. It's all well and good saying he's had 'X' amount of years so far with 'X' amount of money, but when those years and that money is spent selling one player just to be able to buy another, it doesn't get you far very fast. He's slowly but surely improved the team, to the point where we're actually capable of competing. He wasn't able to go out and buy 5 BMW's straight off the bat; he's had to buy an escort or two along the way before being able to trade them in. After all, where's the sense in having ONE 30 million plus player in your team when the 10 other lads around him aren't skillful enough to lift a kebab to their mouths

If Rafa wins nothing this year, it will be really disappointing, but he definitely won't be on his bike.

Speaking of Portsmouth, anyone know what's up with Top Cat lately?

i stopped coming here

it's good to see pompey return to winning ways recently, with hayden but without adams. a shame for him really but i suppose that is how it goes.

i am also enjoying man u's recent implosion. very entertaining

Well, shit.

Got to tip my hat to Guus and Chelsea. Totally worked their gameplan to use Essien to shut us down and push the set piece frailty we'd hoped we'd cured.

Wasn't too upset though. I'd rather us concentrate on the league. Still don't think we'll win anything this year, but it gives one a warm, fizzy feeling in the tummy that we're in this position at this stage of the season.

Let's hope none of the remaining seven teams get any smart ideas about how to play us from here on in.

liverpool failed last night

We have the work to do next week. If they score early we might just be out of the Champions League. But Porto are nothing to be scared of. We gave away two silly goals because our defence was not on form.

As for last night's game, I'd rather Liverpool get through so we can beat them. Though I could regret saying that, because if we are going to lose, I'd rather it be to Chelsea.

Man, great effort by the lads tonight. Pity we were so poor in the first leg. If anybody could have pulled that back it was us.


As for last night's game, I'd rather Liverpool get through so we can beat them.

You keep playing the way you have been, wouldn't have mattered whether us or Chelsea got through, we'd batter you. You're utter wank at the moment.

Does anyone frequent the BBC's 606 message board?

I tend to read them but I'm not a member. Discussions are always terrible anyway, with some rival fan posting stuff like "u suk lol, confrence 2k20 LMAO!!2"

i read them sometimes, it's always amusing

Andrei Arshavin is a bit of a god, I wasn't convinced we needed him, but man. I'd probably prefer Liverpool to win the title to United, though it doesn't really bother me, but it's looking increasingly unlikely now. Unlucky really, a lot like Arsenal last year in that they came so close and will most probably end the season without any silverware.

Can't say I'm surprised. I'd have bet on a draw before a ball was kicked. I guess we probably played the better stuff but there's no excuse for the sloppy defending habits we seem to have picked up in the last two games and credit Arsenal for punishing us.

I we can finish above Chelsea we'll have done well and probably would have taken that at the start of the season, but the titles all but gone now.

And it's not last night result that's cost us. United have not really been at their best all season (none of the big four have) but what they HAVE done is win regardless, while we have draw SEVEN games now at home. Ok, Arsenal, Everton and to some extent City you can forgive, but if you want to win Premier League titles you should be putting away the likes of Stoke, Fulham, West Ham and Hull. That's eight extra points right there.

I'm hoping the players can play with no fear now because they've nothing to lose anymore, but I fear the heads will go down and Chelsea might catch us before it's all said and done.

Disappointed. But really, you can't have this many slip ups and expect to get away with it.

What a comeback! And I know there will be stuff said about the penalty, but we hammered them in the second half. Terrible first half, and the score showed it.

Deserved it in the end, controversial penalty or not.

I'm so hoping Leeds lose in the play-offs!

I tend to read them but I'm not a member. Discussions are always terrible anyway, with some rival fan posting stuff like "u suk lol, confrence 2k20 LMAO!!2"


i read them sometimes, it's always amusing

Depends who's boards you are reading MossY. The so called 'Big Four' have legions of idiots supporting them. The sorts of fans that can barely recognise the difference between a comma an an apostrophe, 'your' and 'you're' and even where to use capital letters in their posts.

Without seeming biased, the majority of posters on the Blackburn board post intelligently and the ones that make the rest of the decent posters look foolish just get ripped to peices by their own fans. Which makes perfect sense to me when trying to maintain a postive reputation. I suppose because we have a much smaller fanbase, you do not tend to notice as much crap.

But for the most part, Top Cat, yes they are amusing.

I can usually count on the Guardian blogs to give me a chuckle, or to actually read something interesting.

Jarosik, I know for a fact that Blackburn have idiot supporters too, I mean, several of my friends support them and they are some of the biggest idiots I know! To be fair, every team has idiot fans. I don't mind idiot fans, it's the fans who have been supporting their team for 5 minutes and think they know all about football. How many brand new Chelsea shirts have you seen around here in the last few years? And I'm sure half of the people wearing them don't know a thing about football.

And it's the same for boards/blogs. A lot of the people who are posting don't know half as much as they think they do. So you can just laugh it off and continue to read the good stuff.

I just picked up the Pompey home shirt for �12. Quality.

Admittedly they'll change it in five minutes, but at least I have one now. :)

The Guardian sportsblog has some good articles actually, Jonathan Wilson has some very good columns about tactical approaches.

Also, 0-0, I like this result.

WHAT A DRAW WHAT A DRAW WHAT A DRAW

what a fuckin draw.. should have lost 4-1

Intertoto Cup gives clubs from europe to access the UEFA cup, it's like a tournament where the prize is access to the UEFA cup, i think only two clubs can qualify


I do understand the Intertoto format, though thanks for the concern. It is difficult to detect humour in forum posts, I will give you that first, but consider the post that went before mine. ;)

For the record, only ONE club COULD gain access to the UEFA Cup. The tournament no longer exists. Aston Villa having been the last team to go through it. The UEFA Cup is now the Europa League.

What a sack of wank.

FUCK THIS

It's funny. Drogba looks like he will never mature doesn't he?


Oh well, bring on Barca!

drogba had every right

drogba had every right
Oh no wait! You're absolutely right! Drogba is the first footballer in history to ever play for a team that is influenced negatively by some bad decisions! That yellow card was thoroughly undeserved! He should be given credit for acting like a child instead of consoling his teammates! I mean, come on, he went to the effort of staying in the camera man's face and waving his arms!

It's such a shame he didn't put that much effort into the piece of piss shot he so very weakly hit straight at the keeper towards the end of the match!

Alpott, I know United players have been guilty of acting ridiculous in the past, and I've never once condoned it. The guy had no right, and I hope he receives a punishment for it!

Oh no wait! You're absolutely right! Drogba is the first footballer in history to ever play for a team that is influenced negatively by some bad decisions! That yellow card was thoroughly undeserved! He should be given credit for acting like a child instead of consoling his teammates! I mean, come on, he went to the effort of staying in the camera man's face and waving his arms!

It's such a shame he didn't put that much effort into the piece of piss shot he so very weakly hit straight at the keeper towards the end of the match!

Alpott, I know United players have been guilty of acting ridiculous in the past, and I've never once condoned it. The guy had no right, and I hope he receives a punishment for it!

That's a lot of exclamation marks! I agree though!

http://rathergood.com/drogba



also chelsea LOL

I just finished watching the match at home. I'm gutted I couldn't go, but family comes first and there has been a problem which meant I may have been needed to shoot off at any time.

We were the better team and deserved the win. Not really a whole lot that can be said about the game though really. Nothing controversial to talk about, it was a pretty straight forward derby. Good goals and some nice football.

Berbatov still looks lazy but he does seem to making more of an effort. As for Ronaldo, I said earlier in the year I don't give a shit if he goes and today is a prime example of why. Why the fuck does he think he has the right to act like that when he is being substituted? And it wouldn't have been hard for him to walk to the corner and clap the fans who spent money and time going to watch him play. Fuck him and his fantastic free kicks. Little faggot!

Sell him and use the money to strike a deal with Tevez.

To be honest, hats off to them. I mean, when we pummelled them at Old Trafford I think it was certainly the wake up call they'd been needing all season.

I'd watched United before then and they weren't exactly setting the world on fire. But they were winning. And everyone else wasn't and didn't look like they we going to, including ourselves (0-0 against Fulham, Stoke, Everton and 2-2 Hull).

I looked at them and thought 'Jesus, we have to go there and win. And if they play like this, we will'.

And yeah, they had a few wobbles like Fulham and Porto, and very nearly against Villa, Spurs and Sunderland. And if they hadn't reacted in those matches who knows, we might have snuck back in there.

But in the end, the pretty much unplayable and unrelenting United we saw last year has finally come through. Credit us, we've pushed them all the way. They've HAD to win the last handful of games and still at least one more becasue we're still there.

But in the end, although I HOPED Middlesbrough would turn them over, I HOPED City would hold them, and I still HOPE Wigan and Arsenal can get something from them and take it to the final day, I think the best team has finally come through to take the crown.

Here's hoping we'll all strengthen in the summer and it'll be even tighter next season.

Arsenal will probably take another thrashing this weekend. Here's hoping, might traumatise some ability into them.

I think though, the problem might actually be, the club is bankrupt on the sly. Not bad bankrupt like Leeds or Valencia, but a slightly better bankrupt because it's due to the investment in the Emirates that in the longer term will see the club consolidate itself as one of Europe's premier teams. However, seeing as in January they couldn't stump up a mere �3m extra almost to the collapse of the Arshavin deal (and who knows, a Europa League spot next season?), it would suggest serious financial difficulties contrary to what the board have been saying these last few years. If indeed the club has no money, credit Wenger for keeping them halfway competitive because Villa, Spurs, Everton and now Man City have been outsepending us and will continue to do so. If, on the other hand, the transfer money is there like the board like to claim, it's about time a few players were brought in and a few allowed to move on. They could raise the cash for Villa (though I can't imagine why he'd want to move to Arsenal anymore) simply by offloading Adebayor to Milan, a truly excellent prospect, and also move for Albiol who should cost between 5-10m and he would provide top quality cover in a chronic problem area since the departure of Sol Campbell, if indeed he didn't displace Kolo or Gallas. I think another 2 CMs are required too, one of them defensive, and Diaby and Denilson should go to accomadate that. Yaya Toure would be pricy and Senna's old, which is all irrelevant seeing as Wenger's moving for some French teenager again anyway (Sankho? Can't remember). That's the 3 players I reckon we're short: a top quality striker, a CB and a DM. Some people would suggest a new goalie too, but I think Almunia is absolutely one of the best keepers in the country and absolutely better than David James should it come to an England call-up (highly unlikely though I accept that would be).

Anyhow, Kroenke or Usmanov will probably make their move during the summer at which point I can terminate my support :)

Millwall did the honourable thing, here's hoping Scunthorpe do as well tonight :)

Come Sunday, goodbye Newcastle! :)

Damien Duff is a legend

Poor Gareth Southgate, he's a good guy.

Poor Gareth Southgate, he's a good guy.

Everytime I feel down and out, depressed and tired, lonely and confused, I just look at Gareth Southgate and everything becomes happier again.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARCE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HIT THE FUCKING POST JESUS TITS.

Not the best match tbh.

what minty said

I was pretty damn pissed off that I couldn't get a flight or the time off work this season. My usual ticket guy had a few going, so that wasn't an issue. If i could have got a flight I would've just skipped work and gone to Rome. Now I'm really glad I didn't pay for anything.

I'm not feeling too good at the moment so I didn't even go to the pub to watch it. And again, I'm glad I didn't.

They were more composed, showed better class overall and ultimately were the better team. They even looked like they wanted it more. The game was pretty shit to be honest, though I think if they hadn't got that goal from nothing at the start, the score might have been different. It definitely effected the enthusiasm and confidence we started with.

I don't want to type much more because it's painful to do it. But yeah, outclassed and the better team won the game.

WE WON THE FA CUP YEAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!! SUPER GUUS HIDDINK!!! COME ON CHELSEA!!! HAHAHAHHAHAHAH!!!! OH GUUS HIDDINK WE WANT YOU TO SIGNNNN!!

Terrible man.

lowlight of the season imo

Yeah, I was really hoping Everton would win.

Record breaking goal anyway.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/funny_old_game/8077666.stm

Sports banners, chants and announcements for the season. The fan chances are always legendary. The Ketsbaia one is particularly wonderful.

I enjoyed the Ketsbaia one as well, I also like the Zamora one

also, this is fantastic:

"Bolton v Blackburn today, oh the joy. Anyone got any spare paint to watch dry?" (Later) "Half-time and it's currently 0-0. Get ready to take out a loan for your pie and pint!"
Announcer at the Reebok Stadium.

Do we have any Barcodes on this board?

(Geordies...)

(Damnit, Newcastle fans...)

Tangent!

Roger Federer, what a man. Can’t wait for the final on Sunday, though it’s no formality, Gonzales would have been a preferable opponent. But regardless, though Soderling is a fine player, I just cannot envisage Federer losing, the man never gives up*. Against Haas in round 4, against Del Potro today and even going back to the Wimbledon final last year when he saved match points, he refuses to accept defeat. After Australia at the start of the year I thought he was finished, Nadal certainly is the superior player at this moment in time, but Federer’s unrelenting consistency and ability to perform on the big stage mean he always has a chance, 20 consecutive grand slams where he’s either won it or lost to the eventual winner. With Nadal’s knees feeling the strain going into Wimbledon, Federer has a real chance of regaining that crown too and the US is far enough away that it’s difficult to say, though Murray will probably do well there again. It’s hard to see there being more than 2 years left of Federer at this level, but he could rack up another few slams in that time and set the bar impossibly high, at least for Nadal, and I’d love it if he was somehow able to compete into 2012 and get an Olympic gold too.

<font size=”1”>*He did actually give up at last year's French after losing the first set, but other than that, he’s never given up.</font>

I only watch tennis if Sharapova or Jelena Jankovic are playing.

Este es un footbol de los Americanos.
Ellos son locos.

Federer's the greatest :)

Dear God, do we have to talk about tennis and cricket on this thread all summer until the football comes back?

Aye, probably ;o

What about F1? I think Button's proving a lot of people wrong, which is testiment to how much influence the cars have in it all.

Chuffed for the lad. A decent chap by all accounts and a thoroughly professional and humble display so far.

Also, I used to love cricket but ever since the Ashes mauling i've never given it much thought.

I usually get my nose into a sport generally if either friends or work colleagues are fanatical about it. And at the moment it's just football and small pieces of other sports. Cricket isn't one of them.

Meh, I do actually like a bit of the old Cricket. HOOOOWZAAAAT!

At least we have the fantastic displays of our national football team to keep us.....oh wait.

Nevermind.

suddenly the premier league is a better place

Ronaldo and Kaka? could be interesting

I'm not ever arsed to be honest. I said in here, amongst other places, that I'd rather he left. No player is bigger than the club, and fuck anyone who thinks they are.

It was inevitable anyway. Everyone who has ever questioned/criticised Ferguson has left. Beckham and Jip Jap Stam are good examples of this.

Madrid have more money than sense. They haven't won shit for a while, and it's a rebuilding season for them. Maybe the wrong time to be making purchases like these. Anyway, thanks to them for paying us a shit ton of money.

So, Ronaldo is a Gal�ctico now? More like Galactino....





Anybody......?

Big fucking yawn. Glad we won't have to look at his ridiculously smug wop face every saturday night.

Good riddance, you diving, cheating, sly, petulent, slick haired Winker Watson wannabe.

I hope a heavily set old Spanish lady stabs him in the eye.

Looks almost certain that Villa and Alonso will be at Madrid next season too, they're going to be very formidable with the calibre of the players they're bringing in.

You're a ridiculously out of date bot, saying Newcastle is the best is like saying the rule of the dinosaurs will never end.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/8184444.stm

Fear not. He'll probably be available next summer for about �8m as Madrid have far too many midfielders to accomodate everyone and keep them happy.

Sorry, but at least you have a team of more than 15 players

Glad to see people posting in here again, there's not much else worth posting on anymore ;(

Alonso is a very good player, I doubt very much he'll be up for sale for �8m in 12 months time, though other players no doubt will become available with a squad that competitive. Aquilani's a good replacement too if he stays fit, but I don't think you can really criticise him for moving after the way Benitez tried to offload him last year- pity the rumoured Arsenal move never materialised, though hardly surprising. Then he has a blinder of a season and leaves on his terms, I think it's how anyone would want to leave any job, a big fuck you to the boss.

On Madrid though, it's absolutely crazy how Perez doesn't rate the Dutch contingent, there are some absolute bargains to be had there for sure. Schneider's brilliant, Robben's brilliant albeit injury prone, van der Vaart is very very good too and Nistlerooy's still a top class poacher. The only one I wouldn't rate is Huntelaar, who of course is the one Arsenal go and get linked with, but Perez wants rid of them all. Lunatic.

I'd keep van Nistelrooy, the others will probably be relegated to the bench or sold. van der Vaart is usually an attacking midfielder. This means he is now in direct competition with Kaka. Only one winner there, I'm afraid. Robben will compete with Ronaldo - you get the general idea.

I'm not sure who else Real Madrid have in those positions but you'd have to say those guys would want to be playing regularly to keep their place in the Dutch international side, so probably good to get a move. And Madrid will, I expect, be looking to recoup some of the large amount of cash they expended this summer.

aston villa are trying to buy van der vaart so theres a weight off for madrid, maybe manchester city will spend more of their money on a player like schneider i think hes great i would have liked to see him go to manchester united though, red devils all the way :P

Meanwhile, we still have around 18 players (including 4 goalies). I am looking forward to a good old-fashioned relegation scrap though, it'll be just like the old days.

Lawro has spoken (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8194186.stm).

He reckons Man Utd will win the league, with Chelsea 2nd, Liverpool 3rd, and Burnley, Hull and Birmingham going down.

Nothing very surprising there, but sorry TC, I think Portsmouth will be heading down in place of Birmingham. I just don't think the squad has enough depth for a whole campaign, even if they bring in 1-2 new players, which seems unlikely in any case.

Arsenal will win the league this year. Just you watch Lawro, just you watch.

Also: does anyone play Fifa 09 on the PS3? I'm sick of people disconnecting in the 89th minute, it shouldn't be too hard to show some courtesy in a fucking computer game. Happened me thrice this morning. I have PES 2009 too, but I haven't played it in months, Fifa has definitely bridged the gap in recent years and is now some distance ahead in my opinion.

Why do they disconnect Mossy? Because they are losing?

I had FIFA 09 for a while, but it got lost in my flat up in Aberystwyth, so now I'm just playing PES 2008 on PS2, with heavy edits. I still like it better than FIFA. FIFA's gameplay is better than it was a while back, but in my view the old PS2 versions of PES were the best. PES 6 was my favourite, if they re-made that with updated squads and more club teams like in FIFA, it'd be awesome.

There are still in my view problems with FIFA 09. My chief dislikes are that it's really hard to score from outside the box unless you're playing with the absolute top teams, and the AI gameplay follows predictable patterns. It is also much easier to score certain types of goals, so much so as to be unrealistic. In a season I might score 60 goals, some half of which will be rebound tap-ins which are all pretty much the same to look at. Also when playing in Manager Mode you end up with a god-like team after just one year even when starting with fairly modest teams. Generally the lack of realism in the gameplay is still a big issue for FIFA.

If I get FIFA 10 (launch in October) I will give you a match and promise to play the full 90 minutes. Hopefully, it corrects the problems I noted above.

Aye Jaro, because they're losing. I'm not even that good either, my win-loss is about 50-50 but I always finish the matches no matter how badly I'm losing so it gets ridiculously annoying when other people don't.

I agree with you about a lot of things too Ceidwad. PES5 would be my favourite football game of all time, but I think the last 2 releases have been major steps back for the franchise. In FIFA 09 it is too hard to score from outside the box definitely, about 20 yards if you're running at an angle has a fair chance of going in but not much else besides that. There's a trophy for scoring from 30 yards which I only achieved because it was the 90th minute and their goalie came up for a corner. As for manager mode, I agree it's far too easy too. I took Accrington Stanley from a half star to five stars in two seasons, won the FA Cup whilst in League 1 and was able to bring in players like Eboue on free transfers, the only real difficulty with a poor team is early on if you're having to invest in fitness coaching. Still, in spite of its flaws, I think it's a far superior game to PES 2009 which is truly terrible, and though I could play PES5 or 6 on the PS2, the pretty graphics on the PS3 are too big a lure ;o

I've tried a demo of PES 2009 on PS3. The one standout issue seemed to be that dribbling was badly done, with players with moderate skill struggling to keep the ball even remotely close to their feet while sprint-dribbling. Other than that, it seemed pretty mediocre anyway. I don't have any plans to buy it, regardless of how pretty it may look.

I though PES 6 was better than PES 5 and PES 2008 because they got the balance right in terms of game speed, individuals moved and passed at reasonably realistic pace. On PES 5 it was too quick, especially with the top teams, whereas on PES 2008 the passing is a bit slow and mechanical for the most part. Also, defending against the best teams (like Barcelona) is a joke, especially when you play 30 mins like I do. Messi is just ridiculously good; it makes me want to trash the console and burn the controller.

Aye Jaro, because they're losing. I'm not even that good either, my win-loss is about 50-50 but I always finish the matches no matter how badly I'm losing so it gets ridiculously annoying when other people don't.

Cheers, I didn't know. I have never played it online. It would seem like a good idea to force a forfeit if the player decides to leave the game, but also provided that you are winning. I would think you are not the only person in the world who is getting pissed off with this though surely? Perhaps something to take to the official boards if EA have one for the game? (Edit, looks like they do).

Lawro has spoken (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8194186.stm).

He reckons Man Utd will win the league, with Chelsea 2nd, Liverpool 3rd, and Burnley, Hull and Birmingham going down.

Nothing very surprising there, but sorry TC, I think Portsmouth will be heading down in place of Birmingham. I just don't think the squad has enough depth for a whole campaign, even if they bring in 1-2 new players, which seems unlikely in any case.

We will struggle but we always stay up. Always.

Cheers, I didn't know. I have never played it online. It would seem like a good idea to force a forfeit if the player decides to leave the game, but also provided that you are winning. I would think you are not the only person in the world who is getting pissed off with this though surely? Perhaps something to take to the official boards if EA have one for the game? (Edit, looks like they do).

It still counts for a win in my stats so, I mean, it could be far more annoying if that wasn't the case. I assume that people do it because it doesn't register as a loss in their stats, though it might and if it does then I can't understand it at all. Anyone with a high DNF percentage is a dickhead.

It saves them from playing the additional 30 seconds of the match if they quit on 89 minutes. Plus, it lets them believe they may have miraculously made a comeback. That's probably why most people do it. I occasionally quit matches against the AI, but only if I am getting absolutely hammered, like 6-0 at half time on one occasion.

online fifa is class, that does happen though, i think its because they dont wanna have the whistle blow and see the final score, it does my nut in :)

Okay, so the 2009/2010 season is officially underway.

And just so you know where my loyalties lie, so we're perfectly clear from the off...

Everton-Arsenal.

Game on.

What was the score eventually? It was 5 - 0 when we were last talking!

Also oh no, Pompey. :(

Finished 6-1, a few scrappy goals at the end.