General Discussion

[The Dude]

http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00183/Eric_Cantona_183290g.jpg

[Jurassic Pork]

http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/javaImages/e2/32/0,,10265%7E3748578,00.jpg

So happy weve signed Cuellar, our defence is now starting to look quality

[Datači]

I miss Roy Keane. As a player.

[One Under]

We caved and handed Frank a five year deal he wanted. No way will he be productive in 5 years, not good business in my opinion.

[Will]

If i was a Chelsea fan I'd have mixed feelings about this, clearly it's great to get him on board but the greed and lack of loyalty he displayed has tarnished his reputation in my book.

As it is I'm a Boro fan and I'm left having to contemplate signing Hoyte, bad times.

[grimoald]

My thoughts on Frank are well documented, though not on here, and that contract is just fucking stupid from a football standpoint. However I think with this, and the likes of Wayne Bridge's contract you are taking the approach of keeping them to prevent other teams getting them.

Are you going to be playing 4 central midfielders this year, not to mention DMs.

[Jurassic Pork]

its crazy the amount Chelsea just spent on him, someone younger will come in the next season or too, and theyll rue the length of it, any ideas wat signing on fee he got?

[Jurassic Pork]

man city looked awful, and johnson shud of gone at the end

[Whiffleball]

Definitely absurd how they splashed so much money on a 30-year-old like that. It just shows how fucked up it is when you can spend that $$$ not because you value that player that much but because you want to dissuade other clubs from getting them (in this case, Jose and Inter). You end up with players like Bridge, Wright-Phillips and Sheva who could be playing first team somewhere but they're just warming the bench and getting paid to eat orange slices.

Man City should be embarrassed but they must be unsettled with everything happening behind the scenes.

[Datači]

Whoever is playing fantasy league, could ya join this one too?

764857-145703

thanks.

[grimoald]

City looked terrible. Though most of the British teams did in Europe this week.

[rovdyr]

piss poor by liverpool, thank god for reina. what a difference from preseason, we were winning games 4 nil and 4 1

[rovdyr]

Whoever is playing fantasy league, could ya join this one too?

764857-145703

thanks.
which site?

[Jurassic Pork]

for anyone who still thinks steve mclaren is a good coach, this video shows how much of a fucking retard he is

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

why do a dodgy dutch accent on top of his normal voice?

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

youtube aint working by the looks of it?

[grimoald]

That was just incredibly odd, and slightly cuntish. It must have been an inside joke, there is no way someone can actually be that much of a dick and as patronising as he was.

[medlar]

this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/7440416.stm) has got to hurt.
He'll appeal of course, but I doubt he gets paid enough to pay for it. It could be the most expensive line of coke he's ever snorted. Too bad it's Chelsea getting the cash.


*Big kick off for the Fantasy Premier League tommorrow. I have high hopes for Liverpool. Good luck.

[rovdyr]

Wasnt that like 2 years ago? Is the FA just bringing it back to make an example or what?

[rovdyr]

Wow. Dean Ashton is a fucking beast. 2 nil already?

[One Under]

Not the kind of performance I was expecting from Spurs.

[Jurassic Pork]

Liverpool looked shabby too

[rovdyr]

His armband proved he was a Red, Torres, Torres
That culd have been humiliating. Good start to my fantasy season tho, Arteta, Trres, Santa Cruz all scoring.
Judging from today, and admittedly simply looking at the scorelines, Stoke's fucked this season. Maybe worse than Derby.

[Jurassic Pork]

Paddy Power (UK Betting company) are already paying out to people who bet on Stoke to go down

[Whiffleball]

Mutu being hit with that fine does indeed send a message and it is rough on him considering his career is closer to its conclusion than its beginning. I don't have a ton of sympathy for him however considering that he acted like a baby when he was under Mourinho and then the coke thing happened. It is kind of stupid how a player is paying millions to a club that is richer than God but hopefully the same thing would happen if, say, a Fulham player did the same thing.

I watched the Liverpool-Sunderland game. Both sides were signing "The Fields of Athenry". Liverpool looked absolutely dreadful and of course their fans are saying, "It doesn't matter if you play like shit if you score" but that is only true if you have someone like Torres playing at world class level to bail your ass out. Keane blocking that shot is worrying and shows the partnership needs time to evolve before you can really rave about it.

The same can be said about the entire Spurs squad after falling to Boro. The fact is why the squad looks good on paper there are so many new players there under a new manager that they need to form some kind of chemistry before they can really click and deliver excellent results. I also think Dimitar "Andy Garcia" Berbatov is unsettled with all the Manchester United interest which is why he didn't start.

[One Under]

Absolute domination. Deco was fantastic.

[rovdyr]

yes, that was frightening. It looks like chelsea have finally found their attractive football, and it actually works. Is drogba injured or at the olympics, or is he just on his way out?

[Jurassic Pork]

Gabby was on fire today

[medlar]

That was a good win. It looked edgy at 1-1 with ManU starting to dominate, but that hat trick just blew them away. It great to win against a decent team and score loads of goals, especially for Gabby to get three since he's been off a bit lately. Barry seemed as though he was busting a gut for the Villa and Petra played well.

Next week Stoke, and hopefully they can batter them and go top.

[Will]

Villa will do well this season, theres a lot to be said for building a strong English backbone instead of just imports.

Did anyone hear Agbonlahor's post match interview? Jesus, he sounds about as intelligent as a loaf of bread, proper thick fucker

[Jurassic Pork]

yeh he always is, and his thick Erdington twang just makes it worse

[medlar]

I just checked out the Fantasy Premier League..and I'm stunned. I have NEVER been even close to the top of the roster. \O/

[Jurassic Pork]

so so fucked off. we were dire, GB was useless too

would make a spurs joke, but were just as bad

[Hulud]

so fucking angry, pathetic performance today against another shit team. glad im out of town next weekend for the chelski game.

[Hulud]

well at least Arsenal lost to Fulham, makes me feel slightly better but im still furious.

[rovdyr]

poor performances across the board. We're lucky tho, Stevie put in that extra effort at the end even tho he was exhausted. That's definitely his greatest quality, and it really surprised me that it didnt win him the england captaincy.

[Hulud]

i would have probably said gerrard too. better choice than terry or ferdinand.

[rovdyr]

i mean i'll support them regardless, as long as there are lfc players in the squad

[dick_darlington]

so so fucked off. we were dire, GB was useless too

would make a spurs joke, but were just as bad

grrr... when the transfer window closes, barry and berbatov will be in form again.

[Jurassic Pork]

grrr... when the transfer window closes, barry and berbatov will be in form again.

yeh and utd and liverpool will have em and paid 25% less than the requested transfer fee, its always the way

[rovdyr]

I d0ubt we'll be g0ing back in f0r barry, besides Liverp00l need an actual winger m0re than anything else. . . n0 idea why we went f0r barry all summer anyway. . . G00d thing riera wants t0 j0in us 0ver evert0n, 0r we'd be c0mpletely screwed. S0 did anyb0dy else n0tice h0w many strikers we br0ught in this summer? n0t just first teamers either. . . Saric, Ng0g, Keane, 2 0f the 3 hungarians, that p0lish guy, etc.


I hate fantasy f00tball. i always d0 well the first r0und 0f matches but then i get screwed by s0mething 0n sunday

[medlar]

Masch back from China = Back to some similiar formations. Keane on the right, and Gerrard behind Torres or the other way round.

There's been nothing convincing from LiverPool so far, and one convincing win by Chelsea and kind of weak from ManU and Arsenal, but. It's still early on for the League. Go Hull!!

[Jurassic Pork]

wat a game Cov v Newcastle was

[Datači]

Ćorluka is the shit.
City - WHU game was fun. That's the only game i managed to watch this season.

[Will]

Another impressive performance from the Boro, good to see the two new lads getting on the sheet with 2 good goals, and Jinky curling in a beauty as well.

[dick_darlington]

pavlyuchenko to spurs? (http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=835688) i hope not! i was hoping spurs would get huntelaar.

[rovdyr]

well, im c0nfident riera will be j0ining the reds n0w. n0t 0ur first ch0ice either, i kn0w the feeling

[grimoald]

Hopefully we have a year that continues this way. It is much more interesting when teams are all beating each other, even if it means the top 2 or 3 will have an even bigger lead in the table.

Masch back from China = Back to some similiar formations. Keane on the right, and Gerrard behind Torres or the other way round.

Keane on the right wing, seriously?

I can't believe Benitez still hasn't bought a top quality winger. How many above average strikers does he want to but and then play them out of position.

It just seems absurd to me that the team's one glaring weakness hasn't been properly addressed in 4 seasons.

[Will]

Same old story with Benitez, he hasnt known his best team ever since he took over. Fair enough he has a good tactical nouse for Europe, but they haven't even come close to doing anything in the league which surely has to be a priority now. They've been a one man team for too long (Gerrard) and now theyre a 2-man team with Torres, but they seem to rely on one or the other bailing them out far too often to be a league success.

[Jurassic Pork]

so lucky tonight

Arsenal looked good tho, saying that Twente didnt look that special

[One Under]

Wright-Philips back to City for undisclosed fee, but I assume we lost a ton of money compared to the retarded amount we paid for him 3 years ago. This has to mean the Robinho deal is almost done.

[Datači]

Shaun is a great player. Just not in chelsea. Kinda like schevchenko.

[medlar]

I hope I don't see a game that bad again for the rest of the season, involving Liverpool or anyone else. Everyone stank out the place..Apart from Riena and El-Zahar who did everything at speed. Like the opposition did. Not the best performance but we are through again and hopefully on our way to another final. Come you Reds!! Beat Villa on their home turf and things will be looking positive. It can only get better.

Gerrard is having a groin operation today I think and is out for fifteen days... I hope he's back for the Utd game.

[fuldstændigamok]

Jesus fucking christ! Tell me about the loosiest group possible! Liverpool, Athletico and PSV. That fucking sucks.

[Datači]

loosiest? :confused:

Also, who the fuck are bate borisov?

[dick_darlington]

Wright-Philips back to City for undisclosed fee, but I assume we lost a ton of money compared to the retarded amount we paid for him 3 years ago. This has to mean the Robinho deal is almost done.
i think the only time chelsea hasn't lost money on a transfer was from tiago to lyon. i think that man city only paid 7 mill pounds to get him back.

swp was stupid to leave for chelsea in the first place. he set his career back 4 years because of that. if he didn't move, he would have been the de facto successor to beckham.

if robinho goes to chelsea, i think he will be a flop. he is better off going to italy than england.

[Evil]

Jesus fucking christ! Tell me about the loosiest group possible! Liverpool, Athletico and PSV. That fucking sucks.

Liverpool will pawn that group.

The hardest group is the Madrid one. Madrid in pot 2 next year? Would have been this year if stupid Milan had actually qualified.

[One Under]

This is going to be a crazy close to the transfer window. Man City has new owners and supposedly made a 30 million pound bid for Berbatov. The Robinho saga drags one because Calderon is a twat. Only a few hours left.

[Datači]

City just sold Ćorluka to the Spurs.

[One Under]

City also just made bid for Gomez and Villa. What the hell is going on?

[fuldstændigamok]

Liverpool will pawn that group.



Well, then maybe Marseille can buy it back.

[fuldstændigamok]

Who the fuck is Tyrone Mears?

[Will]

He's an attacking style full back, formerly of Preston, West Ham (I think) and last season Derby. He's shit really, never going to be a Premiership regular for anyone other than the bottom few teams and he's playing in the Championship now.

Probably do a job as backup player or a starter if your current right back is awful

[fuldstændigamok]

Na, our right back is pretty good, he's on loan to be a backup player. Ah, well, we'll see I guess.

[Evil]

Spanish radio is claiming Madrid have accepted an an offer for Robinho from Man City, and rejected one from Chelsea.

[Hulud]

Robinho has signed for man shitty.

crazy day for them.

shitty deadline day for spurs, although i do rate Corluka so happy hes signed - but i think hes cup tied for uefa

[Hulud]

oh and how long before Hughes gets replaced by a big name at City? not too long i reckon

[Hulud]

well spurs got predictably rolled over by man utd for berbatov. frazier campbell, darren bent and a uefa cup tied pavlyuchenko for the season.

gutted.

[Will]

Haha yeah, I couldnt help but laugh that the sweetener was Campbell and youve dropped the charges against Man U. Ferguson must be laughing his red ruddied face off.

[Hulud]

disgraceful incompetence from the board.

[rovdyr]

Jesus, city what the fuck?

[Evil]

I cannot describe how delighted I feel now.

Madrid's squad just looks so small, they have no strength in depth what so ever. Putting all their eggs in one basket really has not payed off.

They needed a striker and a winger, got neither and lost a winger. Haha.

Now long till Robben is broken again?

[dick_darlington]

well spurs got predictably rolled over by man utd for berbatov. frazier campbell, darren bent and a uefa cup tied pavlyuchenko for the season.

gutted.
don't remind me. this fucking sucks. im glad berbatov left though, he was being a twatty bitch. he says it was a dream move but he decided to go to spurs instead of manure 2 years ago. WHAT THE FUCK???

i read on sky sports that bayern munich put in a bid as well. if i was levy i would have accepted that bid and sent him back to germany. or, levy should have sent him to man city and drive them even further into debt. because man city won't do shit anyways.

hulud, why is dos santos playing as a striker? i thought he would have solved our problems at left midfield.

i really hope there is an option for campbell to be signed at the end of the season. from what i have seen, he is pretty good.

[Lone Wolf]

Where the fuck is ESPN's Len Pasquarelli these days?

[Jack Bauer]

nice one

Ireland 2 - 1 Georgia

Hopefully we can keep this up for the rest of the leg. We need to hit the World Cup this time around. It was shit last time.

cant believe the dicks let in a late goal though. that was kinda gay

[Hulud]

nice one

Ireland 2 - 1 Georgia

Hopefully we can keep this up for the rest of the leg. We need to hit the World Cup this time around. It was shit last time.

cant believe the dicks let in a late goal though. that was kinda gay

wales snuck a win past azerbaijan, scots lost to macedonia.

england doing their best to be as shit as possible against andorra. good thing we have capello to select downing and heskey for us... couldnt mcclaren have done that?

[Jurassic Pork]

england doing their best to be as shit as possible against andorra. good thing we have capello to select downing and heskey for us... couldnt mcclaren have done that?

Kazakhstan beat Andorra 3-0, yet we struggled, the night before the u21s destroyed a decent portugal team with pace and power, yet last nite the only pace we had was Walcott, and he was hardly used by the players. Rooney is still shit for England, and Capello is too scared to drop him and call up the talent. Ashley Young being the biggest wonder why.

As for McClaren, fuck him. hes an idiot, we all no the England manager it shud of been is at Villa, and thank fuck for that

[Hulud]

will certainly be interesting to see what the result is against croatia. thinking 3-1 croatia.

[dick_darlington]

i didn't see the match for england/andorra. but, im thinking 2-0 is a shitty scoreline for england's so called caliber.

i say ditch capello now and convince redknapp to coach the england nt! he will do more than anyone has taken england in the past 10 years!

[One Under]

Essien gone for season. Devastating news.

[ruffdog]

world cup qualifiers anyone?

[dick_darlington]

world cup qualifiers anyone?
croatia lost because of you!

[ruffdog]

ahahaha fuckyes

but Serbia lost 2-1 to France...damnit

[Jurassic Pork]

Theo was immence, but Lampard was shit again

[Hulud]

great result, didnt see it coming

[medlar]

England, the first team ever to win a competetive international in Croatia. Great highlights.

It was good to see Rooney hit the net, it'll bring up his confidence and get the wankers off his back.

I thought Croatia to be a bit dirty in the game and I'm glad England beat them. Two away games. Two wins. Wait till Gerrard plays on left again, back to business.

[Evil]

England are going to win that group no problem.

League format = Capello's thing.

[One Under]

Surprised no one is talking about the weekend.

Pool beating ManU, and deservedly so, was great to see. Without Ronaldo, they aren't really that scary of a side. Their backfield looks weaker than it has the last couple seasons, which could mean trouble, especially if they lose anyone for an extended period of time.

It was nice beating the piss out of City. Robinho scoring that freekick was not fun to see, but he was non-existant in the second half. If they think they will be in the CL next season, they are very wrong. Still a lot of work to do.

Lamard's goal was class. Ashley is starting to look like the player he was for Arsenal. And it's looking like Deco might be the best bit of business we have done since Zola.

[Jurassic Pork]

Tottenham Who?

shocking by Spurs, but i honestly think thats the best we've ever played away from home under O'Neill

[One Under]

Who would have guessed Spurs would be sitting last in the league through 4 games after spending that much cash?

[dick_darlington]

Who would have guessed Spurs would be sitting last in the league through 4 games after spending that much cash?
not i, i would have thought mid table at the very worst right now.

the next string of games we have to win. thankfully they are against the newly promoted teams (stoke and hull) and some lower teams (wigan)

i still think our summer signings are good, but levy (damn fucktard) left it late to sell berbatwat and sign pavlyuchenko and corluka. so there is no chemistry within the team right now.

[medlar]

I like the look of the top four: Liverpool, Chelsea, Aresenal and Hull City. This is the future.

Liverpool deserved their win. United weren't in it the second half, Liverpool won every loose ball, every challenge, every header. They wanted more and they went out and took it. I think Liverpool played well for the first time this season! Without their two best players (apart from Gerrard's 20 mins)

I noticed that I've been dropped from the fantasy league..whats up with that then? Has the league gone? My boys were on top.:confused:

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g14/RMario/Masch.jpg

[Jurassic Pork]

I like the look of the top four: Liverpool, Chelsea, Aresenal and ASTON VILLA. This is the future.

edited

[One Under]

Roma really fucking dropped the ball. Awful start for them on all fronts.

[exsterminator]

Anyone see the Newcastle v Spurs game this evening? Appalling game with two abysmal teams. The first half was possibly the most diur 45 I can ever remember watching.

[Jurassic Pork]

we got done by QPR at VP, shameful really

[dick_darlington]

Anyone see the Newcastle v Spurs game this evening? Appalling game with two abysmal teams. The first half was possibly the most diur 45 I can ever remember watching.
i fell asleep 35 min into it.

i was watching the game on justin.tv and someone said that if ramos gets knocked out of the uefa cup or loses to portsmouth, strachan might replace him... i highly doubt that.. but still something to think about.

[Will]

I caught the last 10 mins in the bar after I'd been to the gym, such a shame to see 2 of the most arrogant sets of supporters in the Premiership suffering.

[dick_darlington]

spurs fans are arrogant?

[cowboy dan]

Where do you guys think Podolski will end up?? Will Bayern straighten up and start him on a regular basis...

Or will he go to the spurs who had interest in the off season, or will he go to man city, or real madrid

[Jurassic Pork]

wud love him at Villa, chances are tho i doubt itll be the prem. spirs will go down the Arsharvin route and Man City will have 10 strikers by then

[fuldstændigamok]

Uefa to expand Euro championship

The European championship is set to be expanded to feature 24 teams from 2016 instead of the current 16, according to Franz Beckenbauer.

bladebladebla

Super duper de fantastic, you bunch of morons! Not only will we have some amazingly interesting first round games like Georgia vs Luxembourg but we\re going 20 years back, world cup like, to figure out which two best third teams will go to the quarter finals! Germany/Austria, anyone, you liked it? Well, be happy, you\re gonna see it again.
IDIOTS!

[Will]

spurs fans are arrogant?

Yes mate without doubt, I doubt you get a sense of it with living in the US but the vast majority of Spurs believe and have believed for as long as I can remember they are a big club when results say otherwise and every season they can't wait to tell you how well theyre going to do and how they'll be "guaranteed" a Champions League place only for it to all come inevitably crashing down.

Add to this how the club conducts itself both in general and in how it poaches young players from lower division clubs (Bostock) and you theyre a set of fans that are probably one of the most disliked in the UK.

[exsterminator]

Add to this how the club conducts itself both in general and in how it poaches young players from lower division clubs (Bostock) and you theyre a set of fans that are probably one of the most disliked in the UK.

Putting them a distant 4th behind Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal

[Evil]

Well as a non Brit living in a place that gets lots of British on holiday, I can honestly say I despise Liverpool and Celtic fans the most, with Newcaslte running a distant 3rd.

They all appear to be inbred morons, who have no idea how to speak their own language.

[Will]

Putting them a distant 4th behind Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal

Not in my book, at least those clubs have had genuine success to back them up, Spurs and Newcastle have arrogance based on a severe sense of delusion

[dick_darlington]

Yes mate without doubt, I doubt you get a sense of it with living in the US but the vast majority of Spurs believe and have believed for as long as I can remember they are a big club when results say otherwise and every season they can't wait to tell you how well theyre going to do and how they'll be "guaranteed" a Champions League place only for it to all come inevitably crashing down.

Add to this how the club conducts itself both in general and in how it poaches young players from lower division clubs (Bostock) and you theyre a set of fans that are probably one of the most disliked in the UK.
dang i didn't know that. i believe that spurs are a big club in terms of wealth, and that would probably be the extent of it. we haven't won anything slightly major since the 80s. the only things i hope for is to consistently qualify for europe and get better each year.

ill remember if i go to england i won't wear my spurs jersey since i probably will get stabbed.

[Hulud]

we won the fa cup in 91

not saying much, but its post 80s

[dick_darlington]

i don't consider that major. in the english game yes, but the only thing that was "big" in europe was the uefa cup two times.

[exsterminator]

talking of spurs, another abysmal performance and result on sunday. and what were the odds on hull beating arsenal at the emirates???? fantastic performance from them and a cracking equalizer!

[Jurassic Pork]

Geovannis goals was unreal

[exsterminator]

Geovannis goals was unreal

There were some goal of the season contenders this weekend - geovanni and that lad from wigan

[Hulud]

being a Spurs fan is especially fun right now. i'm honestly worried about our Thursday uefa cup 2nd leg against Wisla Krakow in Poland. apparently they are strong at home (beat Barca there in champs league qual i think, or drew at least)

[dick_darlington]

being a Spurs fan is especially fun right now. i'm honestly worried about our Thursday uefa cup 2nd leg against Wisla Krakow in Poland. apparently they are strong at home (beat Barca there in champs league qual i think, or drew at least)
i hope you are being sarcastic. i knew it was gonna get ugly, but not this ugly with the losses of berbatov and keane.

even people on the thfc forum on bigsoccer.com are already talking about the dreaded 'r' word.

[exsterminator]

while i don't often believe a team is too good to go down, especially when you look at the appalling sides that have dropped back down in recent years, the players at spurs are way too good to get relegated. the issue is that while the players are individually very strong, the team is the complete opposite and this is one example where a team OF EXCEPTIONAL INDIVIDUALS could get relegated. apparently they have started 6 center backs, 4 wide left midfielders since start of season, no continuity, never same starting 11 from game to game. also i heard that spurs had won only 3 of the last 18 prem games - WTF!!!!

ultimately i believe they will avoid relegation and end up as a mid-table team this season. loss of berba, keane and defoe (arguably best finisher in the prem) was huge and there is no way pavyluchenko (however you spell it) is a replacement for any of them.

[Will]

I remember the last time I thought a club was too good to go down - Boro in the 97-98 season. Ravanelli, Juninho, Emerson, 2 Cup finals and a last day relegation.

I'm still bitter about the 3 points we got docked for not being able to field a side against Blackburn through illness, makes a further mockery (as if they needed it) of the shambles that is the FA considering West Ham got away with fielding 2 ineligible players for half a season.

[Archangel]

PIZARRO!


Fuck yeah! Looks like Werder woke up.

[Evil]

I only caught the last 10 minutes of the Barca - Shaktar game.

Looks like I got the best part,

I laughed my ass of how naive the Ukrainians were.

[Hulud]

while i don't often believe a team is too good to go down, especially when you look at the appalling sides that have dropped back down in recent years, the players at spurs are way too good to get relegated. the issue is that while the players are individually very strong, the team is the complete opposite and this is one example where a team OF EXCEPTIONAL INDIVIDUALS could get relegated. apparently they have started 6 center backs, 4 wide left midfielders since start of season, no continuity, never same starting 11 from game to game. also i heard that spurs had won only 3 of the last 18 prem games - WTF!!!!

ultimately i believe they will avoid relegation and end up as a mid-table team this season. loss of berba, keane and defoe (arguably best finisher in the prem) was huge and there is no way pavyluchenko (however you spell it) is a replacement for any of them.

pavlyuchenko and bent are very similar players. i think if we'd gotten arshavin he could have made a big difference creatively. desperately need improvement in attack, midfield and defence though. gomes looks like a pretty awesome keeper so far though, big upgrade on robbo.

[One Under]

Wenger has something to complain about after every damn match. Give it a fucking rest already.

[Jurassic Pork]

well done to Chelsea today, first half was unreal

as for Spurs haha, it gets worse

[Will]

Its almost wrong the amount of pleasure I'm taking in Spurs' demise, shame the Geordies picked up a draw to earn some respectability.

[Hulud]

unbelievable.

[One Under]

No way will Ramos finish the season Spurs coach. 2 points from 7 games. Just disgusting.

We could have put 5 past Villa and it still wouldn't have flattered us. Absolutely dominant from beginning to end.

[Jurassic Pork]

We could have put 5 past Villa and it still wouldn't have flattered us. Absolutely dominant from beginning to end.

just proves the gap is massive

[cowboy dan]

GOOOOOOOOOOO DEUTSCHLAND

[Archangel]

Indeed.

[CarsyCarsten]

Wales - Germany 0:1

Wales:

Goal:.................... i
Defense:......... i i i i i i i i i
Offense:................ i

[medlar]

England:

Played four
Won four
Drawn 0
Lost 0
For 14
Against 3
Goal differences 11
Points 12

The only European team that is close is Spain. I don't think England is the best team in the world, but inspite of the players' abilities, I think that England has the best manager which is probabaly the reason why they are winning games in the second half. Capello is good at reading the game, and making changes to help the team win. And he has a lot of good players to choose from. You get alot of singularly good english player but collectively can be crap. Capello is using his arsenal of players like a toolkit. England is now unpredictable. I thought England were brilliant as were Belarus..quality goals from both sides.

See what happens when Capello's England plays Germany nov 19th. 2010 is still a long way though.

[Hulud]

another disgraceful spurs performance... utterly depressing.

ramos gone tonight hopefully

[dick_darlington]

i read on sky sports that ramos and the board had an emergency meeting and he after he left, he had 'confidence'. after today's result, im pretty sure it was lost in translation. we shouldn't have fired jol in the first place. this start was even shittier than last years!!! i say we sign alan curbishley if we get rid of ramos.

[Sarxos]

You sell your two best forwards and you blame the manager?

[dick_darlington]

im not blaming anyone. im saying 'if' we got rid of ramos. not that i want ramos to be gone. ramos didn't even sell keane and berbatov, it was levy and comolli.

[One Under]

They'll fire Ramos because that's the easy thing to do. The blame should all go on Levy, you can't destroy your entire front line and bring it lesser quality players at the very last second and expect results.

[Hulud]

it is not ramos' fault of course, the blame lies with the board and the clueless frenchman

but the fact is that we have 2 points from 8 games, have scored 5 goals and ramos cannot do anything to turn it around, it just keeps getting worse...

and our next run of fixtures doesnt get any easier. i have seen ramos make some strange decisions this season and our league form post carling cup win is disgraceful... i just dont have much faith left that ramos is the man that can get us out of this mess.

[Will]

What's the difference between spurs and a triangle? A triangle has 3 points. Oh lawd how I laughed at bales sending off and the penalty, the farce of taking it with the wind blowing it off the spot as if the ball itself was mocking spurs. Good times.

[Hulud]

i must have missed boro's result this weekend will, could you clue me in thanks?

[Sarxos]

HA! Brilliant.

[Jack Bauer]

What's the difference between spurs and a triangle? A triangle has 3 points. Oh lawd how I laughed at bales sending off and the penalty, the farce of taking it with the wind blowing it off the spot as if the ball itself was mocking spurs. Good times.


spurs should be taking out the back old yeller style and shot. what the fuck

[Will]

i must have missed boro's result this weekend will, could you clue me in thanks?

The difference being we were playing Chelsea, with only 1 first choice defender, and our best forward and probably player (Tuncay) out injured.

Saying that though I dont have any excuses for it, I dont mind losing to Chelsea but it was a truly gutless performance without effort and application and that should be rightly ridiculed.

The thing is Spurs have shown that kind of attitude for the majority of their matches this season.

[One Under]

i must have missed boro's result this weekend will, could you clue me in thanks?

Ha, Boro lost to one of the best teams in the world. Your last two games have been losses to Hull and Stoke and you have 2 points from 8 games. I don't think any Spurs fan has the right to talk shit.

[Archangel]

Some Greek jackass keeps pointing a laser pointer at Werder keeper Vander's eyes, and Greek authorities are just having such a hard time finding the guy.

Yeah, right.

It really is obvious that today's Greeks are genetically Turks.

[Archangel]

Southern Europeans: Worthless since 1576.

[fuldstændigamok]

So yesterday we got 20 gazillions goals a minut and today we fall asleep watching boring games. Go figure.

[Evil]

Well we destroyed some useless mountain people.

[Archangel]

Spaniards and Basques going at it? Nice.


That said, Werder played like complete crap. We were bloody lucky to escape with a point here.

[Justabot]

So I caught the end of the Liverpool v. Madrid game. The commentator on Setanta was upset about racist taunts. Did anything happen in this game or is he talking about the last game?

[Archangel]

Seriously though, those Cypriots are giving everyone a scare. Barely lost against Inter, drew against Werder...

[Evil]

I just wish the knockout stages would get here sooner. The group stage is insanely predictable.

The sooner we get rid of the feeble teams the better.

[Hulud]

Tottenham Hotspur have sacked coach Juande Ramos and sporting director Damien Comolli and have appointed Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp.
Spurs have also parted company with first team coaches Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez, following the team's long string of poor results.
Backroom staff-members Clive Allen and Alex Inglethorpe will take charge of Sunday's match against Bolton.
Spurs confirmed the clear-out in a statement on their website on Saturday.
Spurs are bottom of the Premier League after taking just two points from their opening eight matches this season.
Ramos' last game in charge was Thursday's defeat to Udinese in the Uefa Cup.

[Jurassic Pork]

interesting choice. Only problem i have is watching Sky Sports cus everytime its Spurs, Jamie Redknapp will be cummin himself

[dick_darlington]

Tottenham Hotspur have sacked coach Juande Ramos and sporting director Damien Comolli and have appointed Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp.
Spurs have also parted company with first team coaches Gus Poyet and Marcos Alvarez, following the team's long string of poor results.
Backroom staff-members Clive Allen and Alex Inglethorpe will take charge of Sunday's match against Bolton.
Spurs confirmed the clear-out in a statement on their website on Saturday.
Spurs are bottom of the Premier League after taking just two points from their opening eight matches this season.
Ramos' last game in charge was Thursday's defeat to Udinese in the Uefa Cup.
THANK GOD comolli is gone!!!!

harry redknapp is a solid choice.. dunno why he left portsmouth though. i would have thought he was happy there. maybe this brings back the thought of having defoe back? personally, i would have been more than happy if curbishley was manager as well.

[Datači]

Harry Redknapp.

Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Bolton Wanderers

[Hulud]

good result for spurs to finally get a win, tough run of fixtures coming up though.

hopefully we got for Diarra from pompey in jan and get rid of jenas/zokora. Kranjcar would be nice too.

Pool beat chelscum at stamford bridge, bit surprised with that one to be honest! still think chelski will win the league in the end though.

[dick_darlington]

all i know is that we have to get rid of jenas. he is useless. a whole midfield of tom huddlestones are better than 1 jenas as the attacking midfielder.

[Archangel]

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, bitches.


Remember the name.

[Hulud]

what a match for spurs today!

[fuldstændigamok]

AC Milan, LOL.

[El Torpedo]

What a great game, the first and third Tottenham goals were glorious.

[Hulud]

great result for spurs today and off the bottom of the table. took a bit of luck against a team that controlled the first half. i do have to say that i felt that was more down to our lackings than liverpool... i think it would take a miracle for that team to win the league. (although id prefer it over chelscum, man utd or arse)

[One Under]

Fantastic comeback by Spurs. They look like a different team with Harry in charge.

Liverpool winning the league seems very unlikely. They have games like this way too often, it's going to come down to Chelsea and ManU again. Our lack of quality wingers is gonna bite us in the ass. Malouda and Kalou are incredibly inconsistent, Joey is the only one we can count on.

Lampard is playing incredibly well though, best form of his career. Any striker would be proud to have his scoring record.

[dick_darlington]

for those who watched the thfc/lfc match: was robbie keane booed???

[Evil]

I laughed my ass of when Carragher scored the own goal!!!!

[Hulud]

for those who watched the thfc/lfc match: was robbie keane booed???

yes he was by a part of the crowd, got a respectful reception for the most part when he was subbed though.

I laughed my ass of when Carragher scored the own goal!!!!

quality fact - in his career jamie carragher has scored 4 goals for liverpool - and 3 for spurs! i hate the cunt.

[One Under]

It doesn't matter how much money you have if Bolton can beat you 2-0.

There is no way that Buffon, Aguero, etc. (players they've been linked to) would ever consider going to Man City. The only players they will be able to attract will be mercenaries like Robinho.

[Evil]

Aguero is Argentinian, they have no loyalty. He will go to whoever pays the most.

[Datači]

Did anyone watch the Hull-Bolton game? Jasskelainen was insaaane!

[Hulud]

saw the highlights, he made some excellent saves.

another good result for spurs today too, so far so good 'arry

[Whiffleball]

Rory Delap could throw a bowling ball over the Great Wall of China.

742KZspdgr0

[fuldstændigamok]

Jesus, what the fuck are they feeding Anelka with in London? The man is on fire.

[medlar]

Liverpool has a great team now. That was a great first performance, but the second half was a bit patchy. Two beautiful goals and two apparent misses. Bolton missed two sitters. I thought the disallowed goal was the right call but the fact that it was Styles mad me wonder. Ten wins in thirteen would be a nice average to maintain in the next six months.

Liverpool has three winnable games coming up. If Torres and Keane start scoring and they really work, I think they've got a good chance at staying at the top. ManU and Chelsea have a couple of more difficult games coming up against Aresenal and Villa and then Liverpool's got a game against Arsenal just before christmas and if they win that their chance will look better than ever!

Keeper pushed Nolan, should have been a Bolton penalty or the goal should have stood. here (http://www.eplmatches.com/) Bolton Liverpool highlights.

[Archangel]

So Germany are playing England tonight, in Berlin, in a stadium built by Albert Speer, and there AREN'T ANY FUCKING BETTING LINES?!!?!!?n

[Evil]

I hope those dirty brits beat you Germans with their 3rd string team tonight!

[Archangel]

...


Anyway, there's a lot of young guys playing for us tonight. I'm especially gonna keep an eye on Westermann (if he can play defence outside of Schalke's system), Jones (not really young, but could be a viable option), and obviously the Leverkusen duo of Rolfes and Helmes. Marcel Schäfer, too, I really haven't seen him play much yet.

If those guys work out, 2010 could get fun.

[Evil]

I'm also praying for a Scotland win (1st time ever I think)

[Evil]

And I think I'm gonna go out and get drunk now, cannot be bothered to watch football tonight. Unless it on at the bar.

[rc113943]

2010 could get fun.

http://robcubbon.com/images/usa-flag-inside-map.jpg

[medlar]

Compare and contrast w/ a year ago this week I think, when the Croats did the business on England at Wembley. Impressive turnaround I think. I fucking hate Terry but 2-1, that was good.

Lol @ Ireland vs. Poland. It was 2-0 Poland on 86 mins, then 3-2 Poland on 90 mins.

[dick_darlington]

if germany didn't have an experimental squad, then they could have won.

[Evil]

I didn't watch the game, but I thought England were playing an experimental team also.

And we thumped Chile. Which I couldn't be bothered watching all of either.

I have decided the Scots now have the title of most pitiful nation in Europe. Treating Maradona like a god over the last few days because he cheated a goal in 86 against England. Really quite pathetic.

The man is just a disgusting slug of a man, a cheat, liar, drug abuser.

I've got my fingers crossed that Argentina fail epically over the next few years and in the world cup.

[medlar]

The Scottish glorification of cheating Argies this week doesn't extend to present day side it seems. It got "niggly" quote Colin Moffat BBC sports at Hampden.

For England/Germany No doubt Capello will forget this game immediately and restate his usual starting eleven or maybe the makings of a new eleven.

[Will]

Fucks sake Boro are so frustrating, on a 5 game unbeaten run with 2 home games coming up and we get beat by Bolton, shite finishing once again.

I sincerely hope Alves isnt as bad as he's looked so far this season.

[Hulud]

hopefully spurs beat blackburn tomorrow.

nice to see arse get thrashed by city.

[Datači]

5sKgCJBFdMM

[Jurassic Pork]

haha legendary

[thaddeuscox]

quality!

[Datači]

The coolest ref ever

LyvUeLkHZDU

[Cracker]

Ha ha, he'd been practising that for months I bet.

[Archangel]

Fucking Christ, ever since Ribéry came back, Bayern have been unstoppable. Next week's match against Hoffenheim will be a defining moment for this season.

[Evil]

Today was awesome, we destroyed Sevilla, and Getafe destroyed Real.

We look unstoppable at the moment

Messi looks the best player in the world by about 1000 miles.

[One Under]

The touch for his first goal was fantastic.

[Cracker]

Going to be a good day in the Premier League today; Manchester derby plus Chelsea vs. Arsenal.

[medlar]

Mancs were Ok.
Rooney's cumface (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/7747653.stm)

[One Under]

Huntelaar to Madrid. About time a big club went and got such a proven goal scorer. 20 mil euros isn't a bad price at all considering he's only 25.

[Evil]

Desperation buy, no one else showed any interest in signing for them

Lets hope he fails big time.

[dick_darlington]

i hope he fails as well.. real madrid can lick my taint.

personally, i was hoping that tottenham would have shown more interest in him in the past offseason. i thought he would have done well with the pairing of bent or pavlyuchenko.

[Jurassic Pork]

dicking Everton like that after Lescott gave it ten was pretty special

[Whiffleball]

El Clasico this weekend as Real Madrid and Barcelona clash at Camp Nou...

Barcelona are the in-form club of the moment and Real Madrid has been something of a club in crisis, with former manager Bernd Schuster basically trolling his bosses by saying winning the game would be "impossible", prompting his termination. While Juande Ramos has taken over, Los Blancos are still dealing with low morale, injuries and suspensions.

I'm predicting a 3-0 win for Barca. They are just too good right now and I don't see how a troubled club who just had a change in their coach can recover so quickly, especially going into such a heated derby with Barca holding the home field advantage.

Meanwhile, in the EPL... Can anybody explain to be why Robbie Keane has been so underwhelming this season?

[uto]

he doesnt speak spanish

[Evil]

God this weekend sucks, my father, sister and uncle are all going to the game, while I'm going to have to watch it on tv :(

If we destroy the fascist scumbags we basically finish off their hopes of winning the league. They just are not good enough to make up 12 points.

I don't think we will thrash them though, I can see them fielding a very defensive negative team playing very dirty. There is no way in hell they are going to come at us with everything they have.

And what a joke of an appointment Juande Ramos is. The man has just come of an absolutely terrible year. He is completely undeserving of one of the biggest jobs in the game.


And Robbie Keane just isn't that good.

[One Under]

Berbatov and Keane worked very well together. Apart they aren't the same players, especially Roy. Berba has shown glimpses of brilliance but overall he goes missing far too often for his 30 million dollar price tag.

[Cracker]

Berba has also forced Tevez out of favour, which is crazy since he's such an awesome striker. Good kind of a problem though, I guess.

[One Under]

Gomes is having the game of his life for Tottenham.

[Whiffleball]

And what a joke of an appointment Juande Ramos is. The man has just come of an absolutely terrible year. He is completely undeserving of one of the biggest jobs in the game.

Hey, now, he was genuinely successful with Sevilla. You do have to wonder how much the flop at Spurs was due to his inability to speak English, his managing in a foreign league and the politics behind the scenes. That being said, some of his tactical decisions (playing Modric out of position, hardly playing Bentley at all, etc.) were baffling and he clearly did nothing to bolster morale in the locker room.

Here is a link to the minute-by-minute by The Guardian if anyone is interested: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/dec/13/barcelona-real-madrid-la-liga

Berbatov and Keane worked very well together. Apart they aren't the same players, especially Roy. Berba has shown glimpses of brilliance but overall he goes missing far too often for his 30 million dollar price tag.

If memory serves me, Berba wasn't that great until after the winter break and before that was pretty quiet. He's an unusual case because he's always so languid and constantly gives the impression that he just doesn't care, but there have been multiple times he's had a decisive influence in games. I think he's one of the leading players in terms of assists.

Berba has also forced Tevez out of favour, which is crazy since he's such an awesome striker. Good kind of a problem though, I guess.

Obviously Man Utd felt sort of an obligation to play Berbatov after chasing him for so long, but I think they might also have Tevez warming the bench in order to bring down the huge price tag that his third party owners have on him. I believe they were asking for something like 35-30 million originally, but you have to think that by not playing him (thus showing they don't really need him and also not creating a lot of interest elsewhere), Man Utd is essentially calling the bluff of MSI (or whatever Tevez's owners are called) in order to lower the sign-on price.

Here's a rather amusing video summing up the EPL so far. It's by Chris Cohen, who does a lot of funny soccer-related (and sometimes not) stuff, often in music format (and sometimes not):

PjYoztp0qBs

[Hulud]

Gomes is having the game of his life for Tottenham.

Zokora owned Ronaldo today

[One Under]

Zokora owned Ronaldo today

Indeed.

Spurs really needed Bentley to show up, but he was completely useless in the second half. For all the mistake Gomes had made this year, he did enough today to make those just a distant memory.

Anyone else watching El Clasico right now?

Edit: Holy shit what a save by Casillas on the penalty.

[Whiffleball]

Real Madrid played better than expected and they owe a lot to Casillas for being so damn good. The score would have been a lot more out of whack if it wasn't for him. Still, Barcelona deserved the win. The first goal was an ugly one, with Eto'o being more than a little lucky with the ball finding his foot. The second goal by Messi was much nicer, although it looks like Cannavaro got steamrolled by that pole. Los Blancos may take some comfort in it not being the big drubbing that was expected, but cannot be happy that they are 12 points behind their rivals.

[Weenis]

Champions league draw out today. The second team gets the return leg at home...

Chelsea FC v Juventus
Villarreal v Panathinaikos
Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid v FC Porto
Olympique Lyon v FC Barcelona
Real Madrid v Liverpool
Arsenal FC v AS Roma
Inter Milan v Manchester United

Some really great matchups there.

[Fuh Q]

Wow, best line up for a few years. Man U v Inter is the one I'm most interested in. I really want Mourinho to win, but against Ronaldo, Tevez, Berbatov and Rooney I dont know. I think Arsenal will lose. Twice. I don't know what happened to Wenger, he used to build great teams, but this current crop is pathetic.

[Evil]

4 of the weakest teams drew each other, Bayern got the easiest draw out of the bigger teams.

We got a decent draw, Madrid and the English teams all got draws they wouldn't have wanted (maybe bar Arsenal)

[Hulud]

fuckin' barcodes!

[Whiffleball]

Wow, best line up for a few years. Man U v Inter is the one I'm most interested in. I really want Mourinho to win, but against Ronaldo, Tevez, Berbatov and Rooney I dont know. I think Arsenal will lose. Twice. I don't know what happened to Wenger, he used to build great teams, but this current crop is pathetic.

Vidic got a red card in the CWC, so he's out for the first leg

I think The Special One will spank Sir Alex

[Evil]

Ok, 1 question, how the fuck have Madrid signed Lassana Diarrá? Its not January yet, they have already paid for him and shown him to the press.

The transfer window is not even open yet!

Agreeing a deal while the window is closed is one thing, but as far as I know your not allowed to complete them until the window is open.

And how fucking gay is this Lass shit? All the rival fans will call him diarrhea, just like they do with the other one.
http://i41.tinypic.com/qz0obr.jpg


Edit: And it was a presentation only open to the press not fans. The club didn't want any repeats of the "¿Dónde está Cristiano?" chants (Where is Cristiano?), that they got with the Huntelaar transfer.

[One Under]

What an odd career he's had. He bitched and moaned at Chelsea and Arsenal when he wasn't getting any games, whats going to prevent that from happening again at Madrid? Portsmouth was a perfect fit for him, he was a key player and was picked to start whenever he was fit. Won't be the case anymore.

[Weenis]

What an odd career he's had. He bitched and moaned at Chelsea and Arsenal when he wasn't getting any games, whats going to prevent that from happening again at Madrid? Portsmouth was a perfect fit for him, he was a key player and was picked to start whenever he was fit. Won't be the case anymore.

I think he's a good player... but a 20 million pound player? That seems like a bit much for him.

[Evil]

Madrid are desperate, diarrhea mark 1 and De La Red are both out for the season.

If he plays well he has a chance of playing regularly (until they change the coach again).

The fans also hate Diarra 1 and want rid of him.

[One Under]

Not really surprised by the price. He's young, and already becoming a regular for France.

And the fact that he has already been presented to the press confused me as well Rabbit. Portsmouth have 2 more games before the window opens, I'm sure they would have preferred to keep him until the last day possible.

[Evil]

Its nothing to do with prefer, your not allowed to sign players that are contracted to other clubs outside the transfer window, this whole thing seems ridiculous, and no one seems to be saying anything about it.

[One Under]

It's the exact kind of behavior that has become expected of Madrid.

[Hulud]

i think Diarra is quality, disappointed that Spurs never made a decent attempt to sign him.

i'd be more suprised if they actually wanted to sign Jermain Pennant... whats that all about?

Diarra can't play for Madrid till Jan 1st, guess its unusual for someone to be "signed" before the window but i think technically it doesnt go through until then.

[dick_darlington]

i actually read that benitez wants to swap lennon for pennant. wtf? ok. one time fine. ramos didn't care for keane.. but 2 times? benitez can go fuck himself.

i also read that spurs have opened talks for craig bellamy. i was kinda hoping that spurs would go for benni mccarthy. it is clear that he wants out at blackburn.

[Hulud]

i actually read that benitez wants to swap lennon for pennant. wtf? ok. one time fine. ramos didn't care for keane.. but 2 times? benitez can go fuck himself.

i also read that spurs have opened talks for craig bellamy. i was kinda hoping that spurs would go for benni mccarthy. it is clear that he wants out at blackburn.

looks like we are after bellamy... had a stormer yesterday. from what i can tell he has cleaned up his image a bit but i still rate him slightly under joey barton on the likeability scale. maybe he could do a job, at a price.

nice to see villa draw late on with arsenal, although a sad indictment of spurs' season when i'm getting more enjoyment out of arsenal's fuck ups lately.

[One Under]

Scolari is beginning to look out of his depth. His allegiance to Deco (who has been laughably bad after a good first month) is pissing off fans and players alike.

I miss the ruthlessness we had with Mourinho. We could close a game out, Scolari constantly makes the wrong subs, and bases selection off of reputation, not current form. It's like Grant all over again.

[Grieves]

Player sets record with three second dismissal (http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-englandsendingoff&prov=reuters&type=lgns)


LONDON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - A player with English minor league club Chippenham Town has set a record for the fastest-red card in senior soccer when he was sent off for a wild tackle three seconds after kickoff, British media reported on Monday.
Striker David Pratt, 21, was dismissed in a Southern Premier League game against Bashley on Saturday.
The previous fastest sending-off is generally accepted to be 10 seconds for Bologna’s Giuseppe Lorenzo after he struck an opponent in a 1990 Italian league game.
English soccer’s previous “best” was 13 seconds when Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Kevin Pressman handled outside his box in a game in 2000.

Also in 2000 an English amateur player, Lee Todd, was sent off after two seconds when he responded to the referee’s whistle to start the game by saying “xxxx me, that was loud” and was dismissed for foul and abusive language.
I thought what the last guy said to get ejected was funny as fuck.

[One Under]

Anyone have some predictions of the transfers that will happen in the next month?

Gallas is tearing up the Arsenal locker room, evidentally a bust up between him and Toure led Kolou to handing in a tranfer request.

[dick_darlington]

i read that gallas might come to tottenham.

[CAB]

you can have him...

[Weenis]

i read that gallas might come to tottenham.

WHen is the last time a player was transferred between Spurs and the Arse?

[dick_darlington]

WHen is the last time a player was transferred between Spurs and the Arse?
erm.. between spurs and the arse?? i couldn't tell you. im thinking at least since the 80s.

spurs usually sign up some arsenal reject, and again they fail.

sol campbell doesn't count because he was a free transfer.

[Weenis]

CHelsea draw 1-1 with southend united in the FA cup.... Avram Grant can't be looking so bad right now.

[One Under]

And we started close to a full strength side. Scolari looks lost.

[Hulud]

Man Utd at OT in the next round for us... that was fun while it lasted.

[medlar]

Preston North End vs Liverpool was some weird game. First half should've been 4-0 up and second half could have easily lost it. They won but shit, they sure make it hard work for themselves sometimes. Great to see Torres back and Gerrard playing well enough inspite of all the media scrutinzing.

Sweet draw!

[dick_darlington]

stephen appiah to tottenham? (http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/city-step-up-bellamy-hunt-1225840.html)

The Ghana midfielder Stephen Appiah will start training with Tottenham today with a view to signing for the club until the end of the season. Appiah, 28, is effectively out of contract although he has a long-standing legal wrangle with his former club Fenerbahce relating to his last contract.Downing hands in transfer request today? (http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11675_4745270,00.html)

The England international has been the subject of a bid from Tottenham in the January transfer window but a reported £6million figure fell well below Boro's valuation.

Spurs' approach was given short shrift by Boro chief executive Keith Lamb, who has branded the offer 'derisory'.

Downing and his representatives have yet to comment on the player's situation but Sky Sports News understands an official transfer request will be presented to Gareth Southgate and the club's board on Monday.

Southgate has been adamant in his stance that the wide man will not be sold but it would appear Downing is ready to test the club's resolve to keep him.

Downing signed a new five-year deal in February but now seems ready to quit his boyhood club for pastures new.personally, i don't see the big fuss about downing. i don't rate him at all. i was hoping that gareth bale or dos santos was going to be the next left midfielder for tottenham. i know that he is the 'traditional left winger' that harry redknapp likes. still, i don't care for him.

i also read that redknapp is a fan of adel tarrabt as well, but he still doesn't even get into the game? what the hell?

[Weenis]

I don't get Downing thing either. I hear Boro put a 15 to 18 mil price tag on him... that's crazy. This is why big teams don't buy English players. Liverpool went and bought Riera, who is a flat out better player than Downing, for about half of what Boro are asking.

[Weenis]

Preston North End vs Liverpool was some weird game. First half should've been 4-0 up and second half could have easily lost it. They won but shit, they sure make it hard work for themselves sometimes. Great to see Torres back and Gerrard playing well enough inspite of all the media scrutinzing.

Sweet draw!

Well, if Robbie Keane could finish AT ALL he'd have had a hat trick in the first half.

[Whiffleball]

Welp, looks like Downing is staying put (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jan/05/stewart-downing-transfer-middlesbrough-tottenham)

Middlesbrough (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/middlesbrough) have rejected Stewart Downing's transfer request and turned down an improved offer for the player from Tottenham.

The England winger was the subject of an offer from Spurs over the weekend that was dismissed by Boro. That was followed today by a transfer request from the 24-year-old (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jan/05/steve-gibson-stewart-downing) and an improved offer from the London club. Both, however, have been rejected.

"We received a written transfer request from Stewart this morning. It was considered before being rejected," said the Middlesbrough chief executive, Keith Lamb. "Prior to receiving the transfer request, we received an improved offer for Stewart from Tottenham. We immediately rejected this offer and informed Tottenham that Stewart Downing is not for sale and any further interest they have in the player will not be entertained."

The Press Association reports that Spurs' latest offer amounts to in excess of £11m, although the Teessiders value him at closer to £15m.


Obviously Boro don't want to part with their best player; they don't have the means to invest in another quality player because if they did, they would have, and Downing wouldn't want to leave.

Arsenal seem to be in it for Arshavin (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jan/07/arsenal-transfer-window-arsene-wenger)

Andrei Arshavin has re-emerged as one of Arsène Wenger (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/arsene-wenger)'s prime targets of the transfer window (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/transfer-window) as the Arsenal (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/arsenal) manager attempts to strengthen his squad before eight crucial games that will determine if he can deliver some silverware after four years with no major trophy.

Zenit St Petersburg (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/zenitstpetersburg), the 27-year-old Russian's club, said that preliminary talks have taken place, and their coach, Dick Advocaat, admitted the play-maker will probably leave. "I am aware that Arsenal are interested but I don't know any more than that," he said. "However, I am expecting Arshavin to leave. He is a top player and could play for any of the top teams in England.

"Arshavin played well for us last season but he didn't play as well as he can. There is still more to come from him and people will see that. In principle, I have already bought Arshavin's successor, Danny, because I thought he was going to leave last year. So we won't be disrupted when he goes."
Wenger has been reluctant to spend in the January transfer window but has admitted that *business could be done for an "exceptional talent".

Arshavin, a star of Russia's run to the semi-finals of last summer's European Championship, would add attacking options, and though he would be cup-tied for the Champions League when Arsenal meet Roma in the last 16, this has not deterred Wenger.


I personally don't believe the Arse would spend that much on a player that is older than 16.

The shit going down at Man City is amusing to watch (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jan/05/manchester-city-mark-hughes-elano-benhaim-jo)

Mark Hughes has identified a small but influential group of Manchester City (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/manchestercity) players he fears are trying to lead a dressing-room mutiny against him. There has already been one meeting at which the ringleaders shared their grievances, and a fringe player has complained about Hughes to the club's executive chairman, Garry Cook.Hughes, the latest Premier League (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague) manager to face speculation about a prospective sacking, is said to be dismayed but unsurprised by the unrest. He has been comforted by the fact he retains the backing of the majority of his squad but he has also had prolonged difficulties with some of the players he inherited from Sven-Goran Eriksson, most notably the Brazilian midfielder Elano. His relationship has also deteriorated with two of the players who were bought to the club under his management but entirely on the say-so of the former owner Thaksin Shinawatra, Tal Ben Haim and the Brazilian striker Jo.

Hughes is already seeking ways to offload several of the players he has come to regard as bad apples. Ben Haim has been offered to Blackburn as part of a proposed cash-plus-player exchange for Roque Santa Cruz that would also see City pay a fee of around £18m, and the Israel international is unlikely to be the only player to leave Eastlands.

Elano's relationship with Hughes has rarely been anything better than tepid and, despite being recognised as one of City's more talented passers, the Brazilian has created so many problems he, too, is available to potential buyers. Jo, a £19m recruit from CSKA Moscow, will also be sold or loaned if Hughes gets his way, and it is a measure of how strongly the manager feels that he is prepared for it to impact on the happiness of a third Brazilian, Robinho.

The priority for Hughes, according to well-placed sources inside the club, is to bring in new players and he remains hopeful of taking his spending at City over the £100m mark this week by concluding the deal for Santa Cruz as well as the £12m capture of West Ham's Scott Parker. City have also resurrected their interest in Kolo Touré of Arsenal and lodged a bid for Parker's team-mate, Craig Bellamy, with a back-up offer in place to take on Tottenham Hotspur in the market for Portsmouth's Jermain Defoe. Shay Given, the Newcastle United goalkeeper, is also on Hughes's wish-list.

Once City have worked through that list of names, however, Hughes will confirm to Cook there are several players with whom he feels he can no longer work - some because of their ability but others because of their attitude.

Potential buyers will be encouraged to look at a list that includes Dietmar Hamann, Michael Ball, Javier Garrido, Kasper Schmeichel, Nedum Onuoha and Darius Vassell.


It'll be interesting to see who goes first: Hughes, the players, or the Arabs

[dick_darlington]

thank god downing is staying put. i think he isn't all that's cracked up to be.

with man city.. i kinda find it unfortunate for them that they are suffering bad. mark hughes will probably be the one that is let go. it never happens that a club just offload players. i think hughes is a solid manager, but he never had the players with the massive egos.

[dick_darlington]

defoe is back!!! (http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_4753715,00.html)

Portsmouth have agreed terms with Tottenham over the transfer of Jermain Defoe, Sky Sports News understands.

The England striker has been Harry Redknapp's main target in the January transfer window.

Pompey have thus far rejected Tottenham's advances, but now the two clubs have agreed a deal believed to be worth around £15million.

Defoe is now due in North London to undergo a medical at the club he left just 12 months ago to link up with Redknapp at Fratton Park.

The 26-year-old could be unveiled as a Tottenham player again as early as Tuesday evening when Spurs take on Burnley in the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final.
im assuming that their payment to THFC for defoe last year was deferred and kaboul's deal as well (apparently, they didn't finish the either payment yet) .

[Hulud]

i would like it if appiah works out

[dick_darlington]

i would like it if appiah works out
me too. he would be the spark that this club needs.

also, if real madrid wants jenas so badly, i say SELL!!!!!!!!

[Weenis]

I dunno about Steven Appiah. This guy has been in limbo for a few years now. I don't even remember the last time I saw him play... I wouldn't be so sure this guy could stop into the EPL and play well right away.

[Weenis]

Wenger gets Arshavin
http://www.munsterfans.com//uploads/images/dts1/Wenger.JPG

[The Dude]

Ronaldo fucked up:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2109674.ece

http://cdn.wwtdd.com//ul/17041-99.jpg

Ronaldo was travelling through a two-lane tunnel at Manchester Airport when he hit the wall – sending parts of the barrier flying across the dual carriageway.
Ronaldo was able to get out of the vehicle himself and was spoken to by police at the scene after the smash at 10.20am.
A witness said: "The front of Ronaldo's car was completely mangled. There was metal all over the road and debris - and we had to dodge our way through it. Ronaldo was just standing at the side of the road looking forlorn and bewildered.”

[Datači]

What a fucking twat.

[Weenis]

Probably was busy putting on his makeup.

[dick_darlington]

Probably was busy putting on his makeup.
or driving home after he went to the tanning beds

[The Dude]

Yeah, great joke...if not for the fact that it was 10 in the morning and he was on his way to practice

[Whiffleball]

He's always been shit at corners, hits the wall too often.

In all fairness, a car was coming up on him, he had to take a dive

[The Dude]

now that's funny

[Datači]

Defoe sucks.

[One Under]

What an awful showing...