Soccer thread 08/09 (will have spoilers!)
Moderators: Bill_Abner, ScoopBrady
-
davet010
- DSP-Funk All-Star
- Posts: 3563
- Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:00 am
- Location: Manchester, England
Well, we already tried doing you a favour by selling Sun Jihai to your streaky-backed neighbours (think he got sent off again last night, for an appalling challenge), what more do you want. I have seen a couple of the goals though - one of them in particular was very similar to the sort of defending I used to see when I played in pub leagues.fsquid wrote:Reading 6 - Sheffield Wednesday 0
Any defenders available Dave?
At least those players had an excuse...it was Sunday morning, so they were either hungover or coming down. Lord knows what the Wed players excuses are.
As for available defenders, I suspect that
Nedum Onouha
Michael Ball
Javier Garrido
..are all January possibles
Richard Dunne
..may well be a summer departure.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
-
davet010
- DSP-Funk All-Star
- Posts: 3563
- Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:00 am
- Location: Manchester, England
You may well be able to pick up at least one of them on loan. Alternatively, a number of the FA Youth Cup winning team might be on the cardsfsquid wrote:no, we don't have the money to buy, we need loans
Daniel Sturridge (F)
Ched Evans (F)
Ben Mee (D)
Vladimir Wiess (M)
Sturridge and Evans have both played for the first team this year. Mee is a big centre half, but I can't remember whether he's been loaned out already.
Still, it's probably not me you or your chairman needs to be ringing up to arrange these things...
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
-
davet010
- DSP-Funk All-Star
- Posts: 3563
- Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:00 am
- Location: Manchester, England
Ashley is asking for 480m, which is about 3x what he paid for it about 18 months ago. Dubai investment boys have apparently just stopped laughing at this and told him to do one. By all accounts his tales of having been physically threatened haven't exactly made a good impression either.pk500 wrote:Count your blessings: Newcastle doesn't have a full-time manager, a full-time reserves manager and has an owner who is looking to sell as quickly as possible before he is killed by the Toon Army.fsquid wrote:You forgot, we don't have a chairman right now!
Take care,
PK
Does confuse me why some of these investment groups
(a) Want to be involved with Newcastle...the ground is poor, the town is not exactly an investment hub and the the legendary Geordie devotion is laughable when you look at their attendance figures from the 80s-90s. If you were going to pick somewhere on those sort of bases, I'd buy Ken Bates out of Leeds instead, at probably 1/6 of the cost.
(b) Would countenance re-engaging Keegan...the guy is yesterday's news, although I can see that his capacity for self deception mirrors that of the Barcode fans. He's also too fragile an ego to countenance operating as a figurehead, so it may be that any new owners would get him in to calm down the knuckle-draggers, then rely on him throwing the towel in within 6 months at which point they can just throw up their hands in mock-horror and get a decent manager.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
Still in the EPL though and money is there one way or the other. Still waiting for someone to buy Wednesday. It has only been up for sale for 10 months.pk500 wrote:Count your blessings: Newcastle doesn't have a full-time manager or a full-time reserve team manager, and the club has an owner who is looking to sell as quickly as possible before he is killed by the Toon Army.fsquid wrote:You forgot, we don't have a chairman right now!
Take care,
PK
-
davet010
- DSP-Funk All-Star
- Posts: 3563
- Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:00 am
- Location: Manchester, England
Dunno if you saw this article, squid - Georges Monbiot is quite a well respected political commentator and activist over here
Fanning The Flames
Here's a good news story during these dark times. The author and political activist George Monbiot is now free 'to write about the worst example of legal bullying I have ever seen'. As good as his word, Monbiot has duly devoted his weekly column in The Guardian to the tale of how Sheffield Wednesday brought almost complete ruin to the lives of supporters of the club over trivial and heartflelt posts on an obscure internet site.
For Monbiot, 'the point of this story is not that the directors of Sheffield Wednesday have behaved like a bunch of petulant bullies [but that] It's that the law equips them to do so and the internet ensures that the law of defamation now threatens anyone who stands up for what he believes to be right.'
Others will see it as indicative of the crumbling relationship between football clubs and those they were originally founded to represent. Either way, it's one that deserves retelling and greater public awareness. So Mediawatch makes no apology for the lengthy extracts from Monbiot's column that follow.
'The club has had serious problems, on and off the pitch, and many of its fans use an internet forum - owlstalk.co.uk - to discuss them. They make the kind of comments you would expect to find on any talk board, and which would normally be forgotten within 15 minutes. Two and half years ago the club launched its first suit. Only now have the people who posted these comments emerged blinking from the labyrinthine nightmare of English law.
'Here are some of the comments over which the club complained. "What an embarrassing, pathetic, laughing stock of a football club we've become." "Another day, another blunder. I doubt even Leeds were in such a mess this time last summer, and look what happened to them." "I am waiting with bated breath to hear who the Chuckle Brothers have signed after their trip to watch players abroad. With the amount of money they have to spend and the wages they can offer the best we can hope for is that little known Transvestitavian International I Sukblodov, who last scored in a brothel."
'Such comments were deemed by Sheffield Wednesday's lawyers to be "false and seriously defamatory messages" which had caused grievous injury to the delicate flowers who ran the club. Wednesday went to court to demand the names and email addresses of 14 people who had posted comments on owlstalk. The lawyers threatened "proceedings to include claims for injunctions, damages, interest and legal costs (which could be substantial)". The judge threw most of the application out, but instructed the forum's host to reveal the email addresses of four of the posters, whose remarks seem to me to be almost as trivial as those he dismissed. This took place a year ago, and the long shadow of the law hung over the posters until the club's lawyers dropped the case last week.
'Another case dates back to February 2006, when the club sent a warning letter to a fan called Nigel Short. When he received the letter he offered to apologise and to change his comments, but the club rejected this. He was able to fight it only because he found a lawyer - Mark Lewis of George Davies Solicitors in Manchester - who was incensed by this case and was prepared to represent him. "I've had two and a half years of worrying I was going to lose my house," Short tells me. "It's been hell. If Mark hadn't done this no win, no fee, I would have been bankrupt by now."
'In November 2007, Short was diagnosed with throat cancer. The case continued. But on Wednesday September 3 he announced that his treatment had been successful. On Friday September 5, the club dropped the case and agreed to pay his costs. It issued a press release which suggested it had done so because of "Mr Short's medical condition". I asked the club whether it had abandoned the case because it knew that Short would now live to fight the action. It has refused to answer my questions.'
Fanning The Flames
Here's a good news story during these dark times. The author and political activist George Monbiot is now free 'to write about the worst example of legal bullying I have ever seen'. As good as his word, Monbiot has duly devoted his weekly column in The Guardian to the tale of how Sheffield Wednesday brought almost complete ruin to the lives of supporters of the club over trivial and heartflelt posts on an obscure internet site.
For Monbiot, 'the point of this story is not that the directors of Sheffield Wednesday have behaved like a bunch of petulant bullies [but that] It's that the law equips them to do so and the internet ensures that the law of defamation now threatens anyone who stands up for what he believes to be right.'
Others will see it as indicative of the crumbling relationship between football clubs and those they were originally founded to represent. Either way, it's one that deserves retelling and greater public awareness. So Mediawatch makes no apology for the lengthy extracts from Monbiot's column that follow.
'The club has had serious problems, on and off the pitch, and many of its fans use an internet forum - owlstalk.co.uk - to discuss them. They make the kind of comments you would expect to find on any talk board, and which would normally be forgotten within 15 minutes. Two and half years ago the club launched its first suit. Only now have the people who posted these comments emerged blinking from the labyrinthine nightmare of English law.
'Here are some of the comments over which the club complained. "What an embarrassing, pathetic, laughing stock of a football club we've become." "Another day, another blunder. I doubt even Leeds were in such a mess this time last summer, and look what happened to them." "I am waiting with bated breath to hear who the Chuckle Brothers have signed after their trip to watch players abroad. With the amount of money they have to spend and the wages they can offer the best we can hope for is that little known Transvestitavian International I Sukblodov, who last scored in a brothel."
'Such comments were deemed by Sheffield Wednesday's lawyers to be "false and seriously defamatory messages" which had caused grievous injury to the delicate flowers who ran the club. Wednesday went to court to demand the names and email addresses of 14 people who had posted comments on owlstalk. The lawyers threatened "proceedings to include claims for injunctions, damages, interest and legal costs (which could be substantial)". The judge threw most of the application out, but instructed the forum's host to reveal the email addresses of four of the posters, whose remarks seem to me to be almost as trivial as those he dismissed. This took place a year ago, and the long shadow of the law hung over the posters until the club's lawyers dropped the case last week.
'Another case dates back to February 2006, when the club sent a warning letter to a fan called Nigel Short. When he received the letter he offered to apologise and to change his comments, but the club rejected this. He was able to fight it only because he found a lawyer - Mark Lewis of George Davies Solicitors in Manchester - who was incensed by this case and was prepared to represent him. "I've had two and a half years of worrying I was going to lose my house," Short tells me. "It's been hell. If Mark hadn't done this no win, no fee, I would have been bankrupt by now."
'In November 2007, Short was diagnosed with throat cancer. The case continued. But on Wednesday September 3 he announced that his treatment had been successful. On Friday September 5, the club dropped the case and agreed to pay his costs. It issued a press release which suggested it had done so because of "Mr Short's medical condition". I asked the club whether it had abandoned the case because it knew that Short would now live to fight the action. It has refused to answer my questions.'
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
-
davet010
- DSP-Funk All-Star
- Posts: 3563
- Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:00 am
- Location: Manchester, England
Could be worse, squid - Newcastle's putative next manager is David O'Leary...
Brought in to proffer his experience of helming sinking ships, I'm presuming, not for his equally useful knowledge of wildly overpaying for players (Seth Johnson et al).
Maybe Ashley can sell out to a consortium headed by Peter Ridsdale as well ? Then we can all get the popcorn out and watch a car wreckage of Blues Brothers proportions.
PK - sorry mate, but when your own club has been close to the abyss, whatever sympathy you may feel is fleeting....plus it's time some of the Barcode fans received a wake up call about what history and support they really have got. Reality is often slightly further removed for suppoerters of clubs with no rival in the same city....see Leeds for proof.
Brought in to proffer his experience of helming sinking ships, I'm presuming, not for his equally useful knowledge of wildly overpaying for players (Seth Johnson et al).
Maybe Ashley can sell out to a consortium headed by Peter Ridsdale as well ? Then we can all get the popcorn out and watch a car wreckage of Blues Brothers proportions.
PK - sorry mate, but when your own club has been close to the abyss, whatever sympathy you may feel is fleeting....plus it's time some of the Barcode fans received a wake up call about what history and support they really have got. Reality is often slightly further removed for suppoerters of clubs with no rival in the same city....see Leeds for proof.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
-
davet010
- DSP-Funk All-Star
- Posts: 3563
- Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:00 am
- Location: Manchester, England
Not really - Leeds itself has a metropolitan population of 750,000 or so, and unlike the NorthWest, the bulk of the towns and cities around Leeds (with the possible exception of Sheffield and Bradford) don't really have successful clubs of their own. As such, the hinterland from which Leeds Utd draws support certainly extends up as far as York...contrast that to the old Greater Manchester county, which contains 4 Premiership clubs (MC, MU, Bolton and Wigan) and 4 other league clubs (Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury).
For much of the time, Leeds has been the only club from North or West Yorks in the top flight...Huddersfield's glory days ended in the 20's, and Bradford have never really done anything before and after their phoenix-like ascent and descent into the bottom tier.
For much of the time, Leeds has been the only club from North or West Yorks in the top flight...Huddersfield's glory days ended in the 20's, and Bradford have never really done anything before and after their phoenix-like ascent and descent into the bottom tier.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
-
davet010
- DSP-Funk All-Star
- Posts: 3563
- Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 3:00 am
- Location: Manchester, England
Speaking as someone who has been exposed to their antics both at home and away, I couldn't agree more.fsquid wrote:doesn't matter anyways, Leeds are scum
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
MLS is also a lot worse than people realize.Jared wrote:Anyone here paying attention to the CONCACAF Champions League? I've been watching some of these games, and a lot of these Central American teams are a lot better than I expected.
[url=http://sensiblecoasters.wordpress.com/][b]Sensible Coasters - A critique of sports games, reviews, gaming sites and news. Questionably Proofread![/b][/url]
Ha...I'd be saying that, except the Mexican teams are doing poorly as well. Cruz Azul lost, Pumas tied...it's been crazy.JRod wrote:MLS is also a lot worse than people realize.Jared wrote:Anyone here paying attention to the CONCACAF Champions League? I've been watching some of these games, and a lot of these Central American teams are a lot better than I expected.
If you watched the WC qualifiers as I have, you realize why teams like Argentina and Brazil have fits with these guys. You just can't show up with your jersey anymore. Look who's in first place at the moment for the qualifiers: Paraguay.Jared wrote:Anyone here paying attention to the CONCACAF Champions League? I've been watching some of these games, and a lot of these Central American teams are a lot better than I expected.
Unbelievable....I'm at a loss for words.
SEVENTY SIX PERCENT POSSESSION
SIXTEEN CORNERS
TWENTY EIGHT SHOTS
And sweet f@$K all to show for it. Absolutely awful.
My only highlite was that d***** Lou Macari stating "Liverpool haven't had a meaningful shot on goal all game"....30 seconds later followed by; "Thomas Sorenson is man of the match for me - he's been brilliant."
I'm off to get drunk...at lunchtime....
Hopefully United and CSKA London play to a draw with lots of season ending injuries tomorrow.
EDIT: And Rafa needs to have those retards practice corners even my indoor team does a better job.
SEVENTY SIX PERCENT POSSESSION
SIXTEEN CORNERS
TWENTY EIGHT SHOTS
And sweet f@$K all to show for it. Absolutely awful.
My only highlite was that d***** Lou Macari stating "Liverpool haven't had a meaningful shot on goal all game"....30 seconds later followed by; "Thomas Sorenson is man of the match for me - he's been brilliant."
I'm off to get drunk...at lunchtime....
Hopefully United and CSKA London play to a draw with lots of season ending injuries tomorrow.
EDIT: And Rafa needs to have those retards practice corners even my indoor team does a better job.