2010/11 Soccer Thread - Hitting The Home Stretch

davet010 wrote:

Redknapp twitching so much on his interview I thought my TV's horizontal hold had gone west.

Nice one.

Is Gomes the most error-prone Premier League keeper or should we wait until Arsenal gets rid of Almunia?

edit: hey, both Real and Barca lost their games yesterday, I wonder when was the last time this happened

RM were shocking first half, then just the defence was shocking in the second while Kaka and that Portuguese diving cheat tried to walk the ball through a packed defence.

Barca played 3 first choice players. Mascherano and the backup keeper both had shockers.

davet010 wrote:
Pikey26 wrote:

There's no WAY they're gonna get Sneijder + 10 mil off Tevez. Sneijder alone is worth more than Tevez.

RM has enough forwards in its ranks, youth program, and in other clubs lining up for them as is.

I say you sell Tevez to whoever will buy.... at pretty much any price above 10. You got his money's worth out of him during the period of transition to the big stages.... he's just gonna fester in your locker rooms otherwise.

That's odd, Inter have been touting Sneijder round for about £25m.

If RM have 'enough forwards', why did they end up taking Adebayor on loan and have to keep playing Benzema even when he couldn't hit a barn door ? Yes, Higuian is back now, but on last night's showing unless the Ladyboy plays, RM can't finish teams off.

"Any price above £10m." Arf, you're a card, you are. Maybe United could afford to take him back at that price, or perhaps you could offer Bebe plus whatever loose change has fallen down the back of the sofa ?

25+ mil is the price United offered, and we almost always start our bids below the other club's evaluations. Where as City start at club evaluations and go up. Hell, by the time City is done barging into the negotiations his price will probably go up to 35+ mil.

I can't imagine that there are too many clubs lined up for Tevez expecting to pay any price other than a 'deal'. And as for RM, Adebayor, the loan (something City likes to do with their 25+ mil signings that hate it there), was a convenient fill in for the injured Hinguin. Why should RM opt for Tevez when they've got far less moodier and more in-form prospects like Falcao, Nilmar, Rossi, Pato, and Neymar?

Unexplained mysteries of life, number 10.

"Nemanja Vidic - how does he get away with it ?"

England RU should sign him up, he's a better tackler than most of the current back row.

78% of the ball in first ten minutes. United on the ropes.

Cue goal from corner and 1-0 defeat.

edit: in words of Chris Waddle "it's a pelanty, blatant pelanty"

Chris Foy, you clueless c*ck. Man has absolutely no idea what's going on, there was a moment where he got hit by the ball and didn't notice because he's been looking the other way.

edit: Jesus Christ, he just went from getting in way to almost actively tackling the ball, this is delightful. Well, would be if I was a neutral.

edit2: Arshavin completed three perfect, ball-winning tackles in half an hour on pitch. edit: FOUR!

GOD DAMN IT !)($@&@!)(%&!@)(&!@^)_!&#*^)(!#*^

Good game.

WIFJOWFJFOUIT^!@#)^(*&)#!^

If we botch it next week against Chelsea, we're looking at a very high chance of even botching the title.

Really not much I can say after that performance.

I think we can refer to this as the season of "No you." "No you." "No, you." "No, I insist." "No I insist." et cetera, et cetera.

Well sure, I guess, why not?

RM got outplayed.... but two thoughts.

RM shouldn't have ended with 11 men.

RM shouldn't have had that goal disallowed. Ronaldo's 'foul' was totally out of his control, especially was followed by what I can only imagine was a play-on from a foul caused by Pique.

Yeah, Carvalho has been shocking ever since Mourinho brought him back - sent off on Saturday and should have gone today. Well out of position for Pedro's goal as well.

Barca managed to cut down on the rolling around histrionics as well. All apart from Mascherano that is, who continues to act like a complete Jessica every time anyone comes near him.

Hahaha you're talking about the quadruple roll towards the end there? THe one where he snuck a look at the referee after every roll (yea the channel I was watching confirmed it in super slow-mo).

Headline on marca.com: WE'EV BEEN ROBBED - FANS AGREE WITH MOU[RINHO] AND CR7 is rounded up with two articles about referee and three about Mourinho, with Guardiola and Barcelona appearing somewhere at the bottom.
No mention of Calderon hitting out on Mourinho, of course.

Hasn't Calderon been written out of RM history after his unsuccessful reign ? There again, he's almost as big a self-regarding c*ck as Mourinho, so perhaps they cancel each other out, like matter and anti-matter.

Shalke's had soo many of their passes intercepted, I am losing track...

I just hope we dont let up and let another goal in. They're actually beating us on possession now ffs. Score another one maybe... we need to KILL this off completely.

THAT WAS A TONNNKIIINNNNG!!!

... time to choke against Messi and and his entourage from Glee.

That young Brazilian, Anderson, wow, looks like a great prospect! Natural goalscorer! Would love to see him at Arsenal, except we already have another marvellous Brazilian playmaker in our midfield.
Really good technique. Competent sideways passer. Tracks back for corners.

(Jesus, from what I hear we can't even sell Denilson because he's on such high wages that he either won't go and Bogarde us or we will have to cover his wages.)

It's hard to believe Anderson's been at Man Utd for nearly 4 years now. He's been such an up and down character with a long history of a wealth of doubters amongst fans.

His problems still took a peak out on occasion today, giving away possession with his runs when he really doesnt need to. That said his biggest problem, which has been confidence from inconsistancy, could start getting resolved after a performance like that on the European stage (even though it was against a, well, a poor opponent).

ps. Lol I wouldn't skip to 'natural goalscorer' about Anderson... he pretty much doubled his club career talley today..

I'll make sure to use irony tag next time, sorry.

pop quiz: just read something interesting: how many players under age of 21 has Arsenal signed in last five years? Guess!

UCRC wrote:

I'll make sure to use irony tag next time, sorry.

I m sloooww.

and i m gonna say it's a trick question and say....1 (Wilshere)?

Wilshere was at the club much, much longer and he's an academy product. But you're right! Only U21 player that we've bought in five years was Aaron Ramsey. (Might remember him, yes?) Other than him whole transfer policy was about bringing players straight into first eleven or first team (Sagna, Vermaelen, Nasri, Arshavin, Eduardo). Couple of points arise:
1) there is no "project" anymore - we are just stuck with it's products but clearly it isn't the club's policy anymore to mainly buy younger players and develop them
2) media is stupid (yes, I know, who would realise)
3) team building is a long, long process

Couldn't believe that stat at first but it's true, although it's bound to change soon because we have deals in place for couple of younger players (Silva, Miyachi) whom we are loaning out while waiting for work permits and such.

Who thinks that Chelsea can win today, raise your hand!

Just as I thought.

Thinks, or hopes ?

Yeah, not looking particularly good. Crap day for the Arsenal as well. I do think it's fair to say it's been a bit of a crap league in places, but United's been the only team who seems to comprehend what "consistency" means.

I think we're going into a form beyond 'consistency' right now. Barring that game against Arsenal, this team started playing the best I've ever seen from them all year. Especially in that game against Shalke, and this game against Chelsea, things are clearly reaaaally clicking. Passes are penetrating (sometimes it looks like whoever was playing Arsenal on the PS3 controller took over instead), the persistence on the goal is there, and the defense seems rock solid If this really was the Manchester United all the ABUs were making it out to be (Worst Manchester United Ever), we by all rights should have choked against Chelsea today. Yet we out-performed Chelsea in most ways that count. I am starting to have less and less doubt that this is the team that's gonna give us a real fight against the undisputed top team of the world at the European Finals.

ps. That said Prederick, our away record almost wrote us off of the title. Our away form is absolutely worse than Arsenal and Chelsea, and even City / Tottenham have more away wins than we did.

And so United are, barring a late collapse, champions.

In other news though, late as it is, congrats to Borussia Dortmund on winning the Bundesliga in style. I'd love to see that team stay together and try its luck in the Champions League, but we all know they're about to be raided over the summer by the big boys.

And Milan wins Serie A. To my surprise, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has now finished top of the table in his past eight seasons with five clubs in three different countries.

What the hell happened to him in Barcelona exactly? Just plain drama?