Soccer thread 08/09 (will have spoilers!)

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:27 pm

The Pigs are retards? Yes

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 1:49 am

The Crazy Gang is back at Newcastle! John Hartson may be spotted in a barcode shirt, while Carl Cort wants to make amends for his prior horror show at Newcastle now that Joe Kinnear is in charge.

(HEAVY SARCASM SHOWER HAS PASSED)

Take care,
PK

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 4:07 am

pk500 wrote:The Crazy Gang is back at Newcastle! John Hartson may be spotted in a barcode shirt, while Carl Cort wants to make amends for his prior horror show at Newcastle now that Joe Kinnear is in charge.

(HEAVY SARCASM SHOWER HAS PASSED)

Take care,
PK

John Hartson and Joey Barton...you do know that FC stands for 'football club' and not 'fight club', don't you ?

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 9:49 am

Thank you Fernando, thank you.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 1:51 am

Macca00 wrote:Thank you Fernando, thank you.

Amen! And he should've had his hat trick on that play where Kuyt was whistled in the box.

Shame to see Tim Cahill sent off. Real shame...

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 2:16 am

Good job by Mike Ashley again in appointing Joe Kinnear as temporary boss - he's not worked out that Kinnear is serving a month long touchline ban dating back to his time at Nottm Forest in 2004. Obviously Ashley is happy with Chris Hughton's stirling work at pitchside so far.

Nice to see Man U get their usual assistance from the referee as well.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 9:47 am

Wednesday won again and are 9th. Surely they'll screw it up. Also, Frankie Simek's career might be over. Still can't recover from a knee injury 10 months ago.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 10:18 am

After reading a non-stop wank-fest about Arsenal and Wenger's AMAAAAAZING youngsters who are no doubt the greatest team on the face of the earth I'm surprised that Wenger just didn't play THEM against Hull instead of his regular starting 11.

davet010 wrote: Nice to see Man U get their usual assistance from the referee as well.

For real, that was f'ing ridiculous - Ronaldo and his f***in trailing leg, I'd like to chop it off!

RobVarak wrote:
Macca00 wrote:Thank you Fernando, thank you.
Amen! And he should've had his hat trick on that play where Kuyt was whistled in the box.

Shame to see Tim Cahill sent off. Real shame...

A trick against the blue sh!te would have been delicious.

Pompey are 2-0 up on Tottenham....could you imagine if they got relegated!?!?!

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 11:18 am

Seroiusly who didn't see something like this happening to the Spurs before the season got underway. Success in he premier league involves scoring goals and apparently Ramos doesn't understand that. Giving up two sensational strikers, not putting bent on until the 73'? I don't see them getting relegated but wow thingsarent looking good at White Hart Lame.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 12:01 pm

macsomjrr wrote:Seroiusly who didn't see something like this happening to the Spurs before the season got underway. Success in he premier league involves scoring goals and apparently Ramos doesn't understand that. Giving up two sensational strikers, not putting bent on until the 73'? I don't see them getting relegated but wow thingsarent looking good at White Hart Lame.

I can see them finishing bottom half - their purchases have been well overpriced and they finished last season poorly...and the defence is still shite and Gomez looks about as good a goalie as me.

Still, they ARE the media darlings and City ARE ruining football, despite the fact they spent more money (gross, not net of their two ill-advised sales).

Oh, and there's a reason Bent didn't come on until late on - he's utter horse.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 12:04 pm

macsomjrr wrote:Seroiusly who didn't see something like this happening to the Spurs before the season got underway. Success in he premier league involves scoring goals and apparently Ramos doesn't understand that. Giving up two sensational strikers, not putting bent on until the 73'? I don't see them getting relegated but wow thingsarent looking good at White Hart Lame.

You say that as if Ramos had any say in letting Keane and Berbatov go. They both wanted to go and Ramos couldn't keep them.

I'd be shocked if they get relegated, but they won't finish much better than 15th I think. At least when they got off to their terrible start last year they were playing pretty well, but weren't getting results. This year they've just been awful.

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Sun Sep 28, 2008 1:07 pm

Naples39 wrote:
macsomjrr wrote:Seroiusly who didn't see something like this happening to the Spurs before the season got underway. Success in he premier league involves scoring goals and apparently Ramos doesn't understand that. Giving up two sensational strikers, not putting bent on until the 73'? I don't see them getting relegated but wow thingsarent looking good at White Hart Lame.
You say that as if Ramos had any say in letting Keane and Berbatov go. They both wanted to go and Ramos couldn't keep them.

I'd be shocked if they get relegated, but they won't finish much better than 15th I think. At least when they got off to their terrible start last year they were playing pretty well, but weren't getting results. This year they've just been awful.

You're right it isn't all Ramos and I don't know how hard he was lobbying to keep those guys but publicly I didn't hear a lot of outcy from the spurs camp. It was more of a "whatcha gonna do?" sort of response. And then u still had people claiming thy were going to break into the top four. I still am confused but the single striker move against Pompey though.

Just saw Man c's result against Wigan. Maybe with all their new found fortune they can get a player who'll fall down a bit more in the box;)

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 11:30 am

Just when you thought the comedy show at Newcastle couldn't become more farcical:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... nd&cc=5901

The horror ... the horror.

Take care,
PK

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:12 pm

pk500 wrote:Just when you thought the comedy show at Newcastle couldn't become more farcical:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... nd&cc=5901

The horror ... the horror.

Take care,
PK

That's bugger all that - compared to Man City 1996-98, that's child's play.

1996 - Home v Liverpool, last game of season. Pull back to 2-2 against a frankly disinterested Liverpool, but are reliant on other results to stay up. Steve Lomas gets an incorrect message from crowd and starts playing keepball in the corner.....but City really needed 3 points and go down.

1996-97 - Appoint Steve Coppell, who lasts about 40 days before various unsavoury allegations about his sexual predilections and Manchester's red light district force him out. Finish 14th, lowest ever....can it get any worse?

1997-98 - Oh yes, it surely can. City hang about near the bottom all season, blowing chance after chance to escape. Last home game v QPR, score after 40 secs then give away 2 ludicrous goals, including probably the best own goal ever..unless you follow City.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAc8JooS3MY

Last game of the season away to Stoke, who are also up s*** creek. Need a win and if any one of the 3 teams above (who are all away) don't win, City are safe....

10 mins to go, City 5-2 up and cruising, though violence is in the offing as that takes Stoke down. Gradually, the news filters through that all 3 of the teams above, all of whom have been bobbins all year, are winning away...and that's how it finishes. Cue tears from the City faithful as the club drops to its lowest ever position in what is now Div 1, then the running of the gauntlet as the Stoke City fans mull over the fact that we have dragged them down as well...coaches are bricked etc.

Still, the season after really did mark the turning point, as City got average gates of 31,000 plus (or 90-95% capacity). But you don't know what supporting a club is really like til you've hit rock bottom like that...Christ, in the 98-99 season, both Bury and Stockport County were in the Division above...

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:57 am

your team isn't bankrupt and suing fans, shut up Dave.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:14 am

fsquid wrote:your team isn't bankrupt and suing fans, shut up Dave.

Not now it isn't, but in mid-August it was strongly rumoured (well, it was in that bastion of accurate reporting, the British tabloid press) that City were about to go bust.

Oddly enough, that walking beer barrel Alan Brazil spent 3 or 4 weeks in a row ranting on Talksh*te that the takeover of City was stalled because of problems in the due diligence review and that the transfer of Robinho was a sham because City had only paid 3-4 mill up front.

It now appears that there was nothing wrong with the DD (as the takeover has been formally completed), and that the transfer of Robinho was completed so quickly because the payment was made in cash and in full to Real Madrid. Surprisingly, the pickled old soak hasn't got round to updating the few people who listen to his nonsense of this.

Anyway, Squid, Wed are now 5th or 6th in the division, so what's yer beef ? Though I have noticed that references to BM have been conspicuous by their absence recently

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 4:56 pm

If anyone wants to see a godawful decision by a ref along with some amazing play acting - check out Bordeaux's sending off against Roma. The Bordeaux player jumps up for a header, his arm swings out and misses the Roma player by 3 feet...no matter, the Roma player hits the deck like Lee Harvey Oswald was in the stands.

Paddy Dogsh!t scored for Liverpool so that was nice (even if he did do his naff celebration - I thought it would be less lame when he was playing for MY team - not so, still gay).

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 1:11 am

pk500 wrote:Just when you thought the comedy show at Newcastle couldn't become more farcical:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... nd&cc=5901

The horror ... the horror.

Take care,
PK

Yeah but that club is still going to fetch 300 million pounds?

That's more than most US franchises.

Does a second-tier EPL club generate a lot of revenues?

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:48 am

Not by the time Ashley finishes with it, it won't - asking price now down to about £250m from its original £480m.

If/when they go down, they'll get a 'parachute payment' for 2 years IIRC, in order to give them some time to get rid of the overpriced 'talent' and to adjust to life with significantly reduced TV revenue....that's why relegated clubs often do well in their first year down, but a couple of years and they'll be down for a while.

Mike Ashley is a strange one. He made his money selling sportswear tat in his chain stores, which doesn't count as 'essential spending' (except in Newcastle and Liverpool, where that counts as everyday clothing), reckons he's a bit of a business whizzkid, yet over the last 6 months has lost an estimated £300m punting on HBOS shares. As someone elsewhere put it "the guy appears to have the financial acumen of a duck".

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:29 am

wco81 wrote:Does a second-tier EPL club generate a lot of revenues?

Newcastle generated strong revenues before Ashley because it has the third-biggest home stadium in England -- behind only ManU and Arsenal -- and filled it with 52,000 deluded Geordies at every home match for the last eight or 10 years or so, until this season.

Plus it's the only big club in Newcastle, so it owns that city. Different from Manchester, Liverpool or Birmingham, for example, which have/recently had two clubs in the Premiership.

DaveT can fill in the rest of the details, complete with funny remarks about the insanity of Newcastle fans and their sartorial splendor!

Take care,
PK

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:08 am

Ah yes, the legendary North-East 'hotbed of soccer' myth...it's like Bigfoot, only with less evidence

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:30 am

davet010 wrote:Ah yes, the legendary North-East 'hotbed of soccer' myth...it's like Bigfoot, only with less evidence

The Geordie mantra: "Wir uh massif cloob ... "

Take care,
PK

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:39 am

This is one sick goal from last week in the Eredivisie:

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=aoLg-Uzio8o

Take care,
PK

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:29 pm

Brilliant goal, awful defending.

Oh Everton, how you entertain me so....

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 10:27 am

Can I just say, for the record, that I hate Everton almost as much as I hate Man U...just for different reasons.

The ground's shite, the fans were always (and still are) racist f**kwits of the most knuckle-dragging kind, Moyes is an over-rated arse who reminds me strongly of Andy Serkis playing Gollum, and Bill Kenwright is a moaning nob who hasn't got the money for the Prem...but then he never did.

In fact, I've hated them so much and for so long that I nearly went along to their last game of the season against Wimbledon in the mid-90's, the one where they 'miraculously' recovered from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 and stay up. Their winning goal, a sidefoot from outside the box beat Hans Segers who went down like he was encased in treacle, and must surely have been one of the most fixed results I have ever seen. Thankfully I thought better of the idea, although it's fair to say I would have had no trouble getting into the Wimbledon end, as their away support tended to travel in about 2 cars.

Hopefully they'll get the drop and go out of business. They're already in the brown stuff as Kenwright wants rid, and their planned move out to Kirkby has been banjaxed for at least another year due to a public enquiry.