Soccer thread 07/08

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 9:46 am

Essentially, players are contracted employees, and unless the club has breached that contract then the player has no legal right to a move. However, there is an EU clause that allows players over a certain age with one year left on their contract to buy themselves out of it.

The other side though is that you could potentially be paying someone £50k or £100k per week to sit in the reserves (and some teams have even abolished their reserve teams), whereas you could realise some money by selling him and use that to get a player who does actually want to play for you.

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 11:20 am

Good riddance to the greasy show pony( he is the only likeness in fifa08 that looks correct).

Now we dont have to suffer Pigpen selecting him as team capt in fantasy every week, walking away to feed babys and thinking hes a good manager.

seanmac31 · Post by **seanmac31** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 12:31 pm

Any thoughts on how Dos Santos will fit with Tottenham? I'm pretty stoked, myself.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 1:57 pm

Didn't look anything special for Barcelona, and I saw almost all their games last year. They don't usually get rid of their young players unless they don't see much of a future for them....and don't Spurs already have Aaron Lennon for the right hand side ?

Despite their fortunate Cup win, Spurs have spent an absolute fortune over the last 2 years and aren't really in the running still - they didn't get much better in the latter part of the season.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:24 pm

Jimmydeicide wrote:greasy show pony

OK greasy is a bit of Anglo stereotyping of Latins. Or is it some moral judgment of some perceived shady behavior?

What is "show pony"?

Pretty to look at but not quality?

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:36 pm

wco81 wrote:
Jimmydeicide wrote:greasy show pony

OK greasy is a bit of Anglo stereotyping of Latins. Or is it some moral judgment of some perceived shady behavior?

What is "show pony"?

Pretty to look at but not quality?

Greasy = is his freaking hair! That guy wears way more &hit in his hair than any human being should. And I'm not even going to refight the World Cup battle that I had with Scoop over the phrase. The hair product speaks for itself

Show pony = preening twat.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:57 pm

RobVarak wrote:
wco81 wrote:
Jimmydeicide wrote:greasy show pony

OK greasy is a bit of Anglo stereotyping of Latins. Or is it some moral judgment of some perceived shady behavior?

What is "show pony"?

Pretty to look at but not quality?
Greasy = is his freaking hair! That guy wears way more &hit in his hair than any human being should. And I'm not even going to refight the World Cup battle that I had with Scoop over the phrase. The hair product speaks for itself

Show pony = preening twat.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 4:34 pm

A show pony is also someone who can't be relied upon when it gets tough.

Such as in the following Premiership fixtures

Man City 1 Man Utd 0

Man Utd 1 Man City 2

No stereotyping intended of the raging bender.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:09 am

How did ESPN get Andy Gray?

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 1:49 am

Poor souls - Gray is an self-opinionated tosspot of the highest order. His preferred strategy is to launch into refs, usually to his refrain of 'I can't understand how the official missed that - terrible decision', ignoring the fact that it's taken 35 seconds of footage in super slow motion using 6 different cameras to work out that so and so was offside.....obviously very like trying to do it in real time.

No, Gray's available because Sky TV don't have the rights to broadcast Euro 2008 - it's one of the events that the British Govt have deemed must always be broadcast free to air. I did, of course, read somewhere that that camp Frog tw*t and his corrupt UEFA minions have taken the Govt to the European Court over this restraint to them milking every last dollar out of the TV revenues.

If they're so short of money at UEFA, why not ask Blatter and his cronies what happened to the marketing deal they signed with that German firm that went bust...?

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 1:53 am

Dave,

Gray maybe poor in your eyes, but given the standard of football commentary on this side of the pond he's positively brilliant. Sad indeed, but he's such an improvement over 90% of the American commentators.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:27 am

RobVarak wrote:Dave,

Gray maybe poor in your eyes, but given the standard of football commentary on this side of the pond he's positively brilliant. Sad indeed, but he's such an improvement over 90% of the American commentators.

Oh, there's no doubt that he knows the game (he's got League and European Cup winners medals from his time with Aston Villa), it's just that he harps on about certain things far too much, and his constant toadying to the big 4 is annoying, although it's difficult to tell whether that's his preference or he's under Sky's orders.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 11:22 pm

I've actually seen nothing that Dave has mentioned about Andy Gray. He's been a breath of fresh air. Certainly he has to be asking himself what he's doing in America analyzing the tourney with a girl next to him.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:14 am

And conversely, I'd have to agree with everything Dave said; I think Gray's a useless hack attached to a Random-Football-Cliche-Generator (TM).

Can't stand the man (even in FIFA....lol).

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 1:15 am

fsquid wrote:I've actually seen nothing that Dave has mentioned about Andy Gray. He's been a breath of fresh air. Certainly he has to be asking himself what he's doing in America analyzing the tourney with a girl next to him.

Even old Tommy Smyth carved Foudy up today. She was saying that the ref shouldn't have called the obvious fould on Pogatetz because it would've been a second yellow and thus changed the game. Tommy rightfully just hammered her and told her, "well that's basically match fixing, isn't it?"! Her only response was, "Well, we all wanted to see a good game."

When you can't trade intellectual jabs with that old Irish windbag, you really do need to find a line of work that doesn't involve speaking LOL

On a happier note, how about Timmy Howard tonight? Holy cow! I think that when Julio Cruz gets up to grab a midnight snack tonight, Howard is going to jump out of the shadows and knock the milk out of his hand...

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 1:20 am

fsquid wrote:I've actually seen nothing that Dave has mentioned about Andy Gray. He's been a breath of fresh air. Certainly he has to be asking himself what he's doing in America analyzing the tourney with a girl next to him.

Here's why...

ESPN is the largest broadcaster of soccer in the world. I think they get the biggest EPL worldwide ratings than anyone else. Yes I did say EPL. I just about fell out of my chair when I read that (can't remember where).

ESPN sees English soccer as a potential market around the world. I also wonder if they are attempting to break into European markets as well and take on sky.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:04 am

That USA-Argentina friendly is exactly what such a game should be, played with good pace and without either team being overly defensive. Argentina showed its class in the attack, but the US played with hustle and some glimmers of offensive spark.

It was great to see Donovan be so aggressive in the 2nd half on the attack even if he didn't create a goal. I was also excited to see Adu and Donovan on the field together. I think Kljestan's stock rose quite a bit after today, as Kljestan, Donovan and Adu were stringing together some good possession and attacking combinations towards the end of the game, which the US team has been sorely lacking in games recently. And what else can you say about Howard? Tremendous game, and his command of the box and his ability to deal with corners has come a long ways since he first joined ManU a few years ago.

Now I have to get back to checking out Euro 2008 as I'm dead last in our pick'em league.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:23 am

Poor finishing though. Way high shots on goal.

USA needs shotmakers.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:25 am

fsquid wrote:I've actually seen nothing that Dave has mentioned about Andy Gray. He's been a breath of fresh air. Certainly he has to be asking himself what he's doing in America analyzing the tourney with a girl next to him.

He's getting paid - Sky don't have any soccer over the summer because Euro 2008 is on terrestrial TV, and he doesn't do other sports in the way that some presenters do.

i do have to laugh when I hear him in Fifa 08 praising the officials, compared to his usual attitude that officials are incompetent unless they can see an offside by 2cm at a range of 60 metres.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:32 am

JRod wrote:
fsquid wrote:I've actually seen nothing that Dave has mentioned about Andy Gray. He's been a breath of fresh air. Certainly he has to be asking himself what he's doing in America analyzing the tourney with a girl next to him.
Here's why...

ESPN is the largest broadcaster of soccer in the world. I think they get the biggest EPL worldwide ratings than anyone else. Yes I did say EPL. I just about fell out of my chair when I read that (can't remember where).

ESPN sees English soccer as a potential market around the world. I also wonder if they are attempting to break into European markets as well and take on sky.

As far as I know. ESPN doesn't have the rights to EPL games in any country right now. However, they did launch ESPN Classic in the UK a year or so ago.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:34 am

I guess I'm in a minority, but I enjoy Gray. He's blunt and tells it like it is. You all can kiss my ass.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:20 am

fsquid wrote:
As far as I know. ESPN doesn't have the rights to EPL games in any country right now. However, they did launch ESPN Classic in the UK a year or so ago.

No, they own the rights all over Asia for one thing. Huge numbers!

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:46 am

Gray is fine squid, hes just forgot how difficult it is to play at that level and thinks he still could do it im sure.

We could have Tommy Smith doing both games i guess although he hasnt been that bad yet.

So far its way more listenable than the american panels they put together.

Grey brings a good players point of reference to the U.S. audience, so far he sounds like god send.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:54 am

RobVarak wrote:
fsquid wrote:
As far as I know. ESPN doesn't have the rights to EPL games in any country right now. However, they did launch ESPN Classic in the UK a year or so ago.
No, they own the rights all over Asia for one thing. Huge numbers!

I thought that Star Sports company owned it there. Did ESPN buy them?

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:58 am

If anything, I think Gray thinks footballers in this day in age are not near as tough. I can tell when the snide comments about footwear, cards for minor fouls, etc. happen