2011/12 Soccer Thread - Because Vacations Are For Cowards

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What a beautiful moment. The fact that City won it in Fergie Time™ just makes it all the more perfect.

Sometimes in life, the parade DOES pass your way

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I note that Fergie, who was actually quite dignified yesterday, is now back on message, with his bleating that City will 'never have the history of United'. Notwithstanding the Stalinist one-eyed nature of that fatuous remark, I think he's right. After all, history is all about yesterday - we are more interested in today and tomorrow.

Just waiting for the 'we never spend any money' (United spent more last summer than every PL club bar 3), 'City bought success' (United's first XI last week cost more than City's) and the real clincher for me 'City were given 2 minutes of bonus time' (Fergie, talking about added time - you couldn't make it up. Though maybe SAF might care to stopwatch how long it took for the ref to consult the linesman, dismiss Barton and then get him off the pitch).

Another thought. It has been said that this is United's 'weakest squad in a number of years', etc. Well, given that United have only one really long-term casualty (Vidic), who is at fault for this weakness ? Could it be the man who bought the players and picks the team ?

davet010 wrote:

Sometimes in life, the parade DOES pass your way

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I note that Fergie, who was actually quite dignified yesterday, is now back on message, with his bleating that City will 'never have the history of United'. Notwithstanding the Stalinist one-eyed nature of that fatuous remark, I think he's right. After all, history is all about yesterday - we are more interested in today and tomorrow.

Just waiting for the 'we never spend any money' (United spent more last summer than every PL club bar 3), 'City bought success' (United's first XI last week cost more than City's) and the real clincher for me 'City were given 2 minutes of bonus time' (Fergie, talking about added time - you couldn't make it up. Though maybe SAF might care to stopwatch how long it took for the ref to consult the linesman, dismiss Barton and then get him off the pitch).

Another thought. It has been said that this is United's 'weakest squad in a number of years', etc. Well, given that United have only one really long-term casualty (Vidic), who is at fault for this weakness ? Could it be the man who bought the players and picks the team ?

Ferguson is being the poor loser he often tends to be when he brings up history like that, that's not something I personally enjoyed seeing myself, especially given it's exactly that same sentiment that United crapped all over against Liverpool under the reign of Ferguson himself (though with things like the Financial Fairplay Rules I hardly suspect Man City will pull a "Liverpool" on United... hahahahaha I can't help but laugh at such ridiculous notions). Also whining about 'extra time' was pretty cheap and silly.

But really? Bar 3? Lol. That is a massive 'caveat' you're casually throwing around there to make yourself feel better about City being a byproduct of some rich Sheikh's boredom. Of course' United was fourth in Summer Spendings. Top Clubs have to spend acquire AND retain the top-tier players they need to keep winning and stay competitive, which admittedly becomes incredibly hard when you have clubs like Chelsea and City crapping all over the transfer market and over-inflating the players' sense of self-worth by taking wage expectations to ridiculous heights. The fact that we were FOURTH in last summer's transfer spendings and still yet managed to tie your club on points is actually rather telling of the club's ability to make best of resources that are 'limited' for a club playing at the highest standard. Also, wages, don't even get me started on what your club has done to players wages expectations. Of course Rooney is going to throw a Female Doggo-fit when he sees that some overrated whiney crackpot like Adebayor (who is currently on a loan-spree for god sakes) is getting 170k a week next door (not that I agree with such an asinine behavior... still haven't really come around Rooney for that reason). As ugly as it might become for us with Glazers leeching our money, I sure as hell can't wait to see Financial Play Rules to really start kicking in on City's door to start pissing all over the obnoxious self-entitled delusion of yours.

Just get over the fact that City's last two owners have poured asinine amount of money into the club in a pretty damn short span of time that makes even Abromivich's lavish and childish spending sprees at Stamford Bridge look reasonable as cost of winning the league.

At the end of the day, you won the league. Good for you, congratulations are in order. Mancini did a good job and made some nice key acquisitions. I will glad sit and watch you parade around like no blues have for over 40 years. But seriously, the last thing you should do is bring up United's recent summer spendings when you're a bloody City fan.

Well pardon me, I was merely attempting to do some mathematics.

Q1) League title winning squad (2010/11) minus Van der Sar plus £60m of talent = 'Worst squad for years' ? How does that compute ?

Q2) Team A has >£500m of debt, which it restructures to hide in a shell company incorporated in a US state with the lowest disclosure requirements (Vermont or Delaware, one or the other) It also has built no facilities in the town in which it plays. Team B has no debt whatsoever, and its owners are currently entering into the construction of a £170m academy facility next to the ground on the lines of the Barcelona one.

According to Platini's 'Keep The Rich Club Monopoly Through Tortured Logic' (aka FFP - what a misnomer) rules, which of these clubs currently satisfies his criteria. Yes, that's right - Team A.

Congrats to Dave and Mark E. Smith!

Euro 2012!!!!! usually I'm more excited.

Vacations are for cowards!

maxox wrote:

Congrats to Dave and Mark E. Smith!

That's-ah congratulations-ah son, to you. He is a blue, as well.

Seriously, I thought I could sup til I saw the legend that is MES at work in a Manchester boozer - drank like a docker on amphetamines. Got his autobiography last year for my birthday...it's a work of utter genius. Lent it to a mate of mine and he said he'd laughed so hard that his missus asked him to read it out. She didn't understand it until he read it out while mimicking my accent, at which point she got the gist(-ah).

jowner - Sky over here has been running an 'in-depth expose on Ukraine's major hooligan firm'. Looked like amateur night at the Palladium, 10 fat halfwits giving half-arsed Hitler salutes, telling the camera how they don't like Spurs, then the TV crew announced they were 'clandestinely filming an organised pitched battle' with Ukraine's other major firm. This was so well organised that the subject firm were outnumbered (by 15 to 10) and got a good hiding. All I could think of while watching it was

"Jeesus, I can see bigger fights than that on any weekend, in any English town with a population of over 2,000". If either of them met an English hen night they'd get pummelled.

On a somewhat belated unrelated note...

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It happens to me from time to time as well. But hey, sometimes I confuse west with east.

Do we need separate Euro 2012 thread? Because if we do, I guess I'm legally obliged to be its creator

Hi jinks in the Dusseldorf - Hertha relegation playoff in Germany. 2-2 in the second leg, 4-3 to Dusseldorf on aggregate...Hertha only need a goal to go through.

We've had a sending off, then a pitch invasion, then a clearance, then fights on the pitch, now the teams have been led off again. I seem to recall that this is why the English league knocked relegation playoffs on the head in the late 80s. Riot police there now.

UC, not sure we need a Euro 2012 separate thread. Not too many people that interested, plus there will only be transfer gossip and stuff until the Europa League starts up.

EDIT - Surprisingly enough, Hertha opted to come back out and the game finished 2-2, so Fortuna Dusseldorf go up. Be a big fat fine heading their way though (and one for Hertha as well, whose fans started throwing flares onto the pitch when Fortuna went 2-1 up).

Relegation playoffs - one money-spinning idea too far, methinks.

UC, not sure we need a Euro 2012 separate thread. Not too many people that interested, plus there will only be transfer gossip and stuff until the Europa League starts up.

Yeah, I know, I just wanted to feel needed for five minutes.

Kagawa to Bayern looks more and more likely. I wonder how they would line up with him in the squad.

Hmm, he's being strongly linked with Man U in the press over here. No doubt just the final checks to undertake, so they can make sure he really was brought up in a Salford terrace house and was originally spotted kicking a can against the OT wall.

You going to be in Poland during the tournament ? Build up over here is very muted, don't think anyone is expecting much this time, although I am encouraged (a) by Roy H and (b) that it looks like John Terry is going to be left out. He's probably now flicking through his address book to see which of the current squad he has the address for so he can 'drop by in passing' while they are away to keep their wives/GF company. Unfortunately, Wayne Bridge will not be going (Jesus, another of Hughes' wastes of time, hope his contract is up soon).

Never saw Kagawa play. Don't know anything about the fella except that apparently Ferguson went to see him when he was having a good night and that he's not renewing the contract.

Most press tend to overhype transfer rumors just for the sake of the hype, but even with that in consideration, it does seem like this guy would be the real deal as a midifielder, something United has sorely needed to reinforce for a few years now. Like Davet, only articles I've ever seen about Kagawa were about his not-renweing the contract and him being linked with United. Although, at the end of the day, given how many big/important acquisitions United has let slipped through its fingers in the past wouldn't be surprised to see Munich snatch it.

ps. 'Man U'? with anyone else, i'd just assume it was a mere abbreviation out of laziness (as it often is), but really? Come on man.

Nasri to Arsenal fans:

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Also, i'm not sure what Roy's doing. Still love him, no idea what he's doing.

Roll on Euro 2012!

UCRC wrote:

Do we need separate Euro 2012 thread? Because if we do, I guess I'm legally obliged to be its creator ;)

Yes, we do. I think, as our host, you are obliged to start threads and provide us with cookies and tea.

England squad

Two uncapped players (Ruddy and Oxlade-Chamberlain)

No Rio Ferdinand, but John Terry in.

Andy Carroll in but not Peter Crouch ??

No Adam Johnson but Stuart f**king Downing ? The same Downing who recorded as many goals and assists this year as I did ??

No Micah Richards but Glen Johnson ??

Well, at least City's England players should be home early and hopefully fit.

Can I have coffee instead of tea, UCRC ? Black, one sugar please. Ta.

Interesting England squad. Not sure why Rob Green's there either but I guess if Hart's picks up an injury England will have goalkeeping issues no matter what.

Richards should have been in the squad and I probably would have gone for Adam Johnson over Downing as well.

I actually agree with Carroll over Crouch - Carroll's had a decent run of form lately (okay, only a couple of games dating back to the FA Cup final) and he offers a greater aerial threat you can throw on late in a match.

I wonder what kind of system Roy will use. Surely he has to go with something more counter-attacking which would probably mean a 4-4-2 or a 4-2-3-1. Gerrard's tactical indiscipline means he won't fit at all in there and should probably only be used as a substitute when down a goal.

It seems obvious to me that Young-Barry-Parker-Milner should form the main part of the midfield with either Lampard ahead of them in an attacking midfielder role or Rooney dropping off the top into midfield with another striker further ahead (oh right, Rooney's suspended for tow matches).

As for a new thread, why not just start up the 2012/13 Soccer thread shortly before the Euros, lock this baby up, and use that for a season? Almost all the focus will be on the Euros for the month anyway.

You're mistaken about Downing. He had two assists. In 36 games.

Micah Richards omission is even more confusing.

I think Green is only there because Ben Foster has retired himself from international football, if I remember correctly.

4-2-3-1 looks most likely

Hart - Johnson Terry Cahill Cole - Parker Barry - Walcott Gerrard (or Lampard) Young - Carroll (or Spudface, once his suspension is over)

Major problem is that the squad looks completely lacking in surprise and creativity. Where's the player to unlock the layered defences ?

Not getting out of the group with that bunch.

Oh, and Gerrard as captain. Great.

UCRC wrote:

You're mistaken about Downing. He had two assists. In 36 games.

Micah Richards omission is even more confusing.

Hmm, according to ESPN, he got zero assists.

Andy Carroll. Wonder what Plan B will be when he looks like a complete joke against France ?

Oh Christ, now Roy is saying that 'Terry had a great end to the season'. That would be apart from getting completely exposed at Anfield, or being a total nobhead at the Nou Camp, then ?

Who do the US play in the Euro Cup? sadface

davet010 wrote:
UCRC wrote:

You're mistaken about Downing. He had two assists. In 36 games.

Micah Richards omission is even more confusing.

Hmm, according to ESPN, he got zero assists.

My mistake - he's just got his first one

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/footbal...

(He's assisted Dalglish out of a job)

Surely got to be Mark Hughes - pundits have spent 2 years explaining how he was 'unfairly' ousted from City, how he's a top British manager, yada yada. SAF even described it as 'unethical' - like it was any of his business. Let me utter two words to anyone who thinks you shouldn't line up your new manager when you know you're going to bin the current one...'Wolverhampton Wanderers'.

In reality, he's a greedy bastard who has as much chance of winning a major trophy as I do, regardless of wherever he goes. He jumped from Fulham when he thought he was in for a bigger job, but then his demands for vast transfer sums cost him the Villa job. This is the guy who landed us with a load of Premiership brownshoe dreck which we will struggle to even get close to getting value for.

Viz -

Santa Cruz, R
Adebayor, E
Bridge, W
Toure, K
Bellamy, C (We had to give the little bastard away)
Wright-Philips, S

I am surprised after all this bullsh*t Rio gets from England, he still hasn't yet completely retired from his international career and told England to f*ck off.

Really? Terry over Rio?

Terry the Asshat getting in the team aside, the strikers look kind of meh too. Rooney's been somewhat on the 'bleh' side of his never-ending pendulum swings of form, Welbeck still feels inexperienced and only seems to play well Rooney is on form, and no Crouch in favor of Carroll or Defoe is surprising to me. The wings kinda seem meh to me as well.

Who knows? Team-sheet this lackluster and questionable, just might kill off the insane expectations from the press and everyone, which has been one of England's biggest hindrances in the past in my opinion.

According to Roy, the selection of that odious man was due to concerns as to whether Rio could manage 3 group games in 8 days. He's only played 6 games less than TOM, so it sounds a bit bogus to me. I think Roy knew it was either/or, and he's planning to play Cole and Cahill. Much loath as I am to suggest it, on purely football terms I'd have taken Rio before Lescott.

Sturridge is another guy left out who probably should have been included.

Dalglish sacked by Liverpool. From the abysmal transfer dealings to the handling of Suarez' racism to their poor performance he clearly had to go. I was hoping they'd keep him for one more year to give Newcastle an easier time competing for positions in the league.

Don't worry Roke, Wigan have given Roberto Martinez permission to talk to Liverpool, and the bookies have him at 6/5 fav.

Well, at least the Grievers won't be relegated. And if you play them before 1 March, you'll batter them.

Ugh NY Rangers game and the Champion League final game overlap

Hmm, it is a shame when the CL final comes down to 'who do I hate more ?'. Now I dislike Chelsea, but when I consider a team with staggering arrogance, gormless corporate fans and human offal like Uli Hoeness, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, then how could you not root for the Russian Thief and his Cockney has-beens.

I mean, unless you are a Spurs fan, then how on Earth could you root for any team containing the odious diver Robben ? I'd rather City signed Busquets from Barca than support Bayern.

My rule of thumb is "is John Terry playing?".

Can't really go wrong with that, TBH.