2008/09 Soccer Thread in Shock £50m Chelsea Switch! (And Other Ludicrousness)

There will be a load of Spanish clubs interested in Ramos - Athletico Madrid look a good bet, since they are in perpetual turmoil. In fact, it strikes me that Harry would have felt really at home there, after all their history of criminality is legendary (Jesus Gil siphoning off large amounts of municipal funds from Marbella, for a start), and their fans are knuckle-dragging scum.

Wish I could be in Portsmouth today (and it isn't very often that I type that...) to see 'Onest 'Arry pick up his Freedom of the City, as awarded after their cup win. Apparently he is planning to turn up...

Hope Levy's got a back up plan.

And just to increase the degree to which I despise Spurs and 'Arry, he's appointed Kevin Bond to his backroom team. Bond was one of the most hated players ever at City, partly due to him being around when City began their first descent into the abyss in the early 80's, also partly due to his dad (John Bond) being manager at the time and Bond Jr being perceived to be in the team at the expense of better players.

Liverpool vs. Portsmouth 4pm *LIVE

Arsenal vs. Spurs 6pm

not live tomorrow over here in Canada but I cant wait! Adams, Wenger! Arsenal double

This will end in hilarious, hilarious tears.

Prederick wrote:

This will end in hilarious, hilarious tears.

haha!

;_; for the Arsenal today. They are taking years off my life this season.

Hey, they scored four. Noone mentioned not letting in that many.

jowner wrote:

They are taking years off my life this season.

That's exact reason why I'm not even mentioning that game. I've got to get a couple weeks off...

UCRC wrote:
jowner wrote:

They are taking years off my life this season.

That's exact reason why I'm not even mentioning that game. I've got to get a couple weeks off...

And you probably won't want to mention today either. Rory Delap becomes some sort of Herculean demi-god when standing on the touchline with the ball in his hands.

If i'm Wenger, i'm especially displeased now because a Silverware-less season this year may push Mr. Fabregas somewhere else. It's looking like losing Hleb wasn't an issue, but losing Flamini was, and Gallas, Toure and Silvestre cannot defend for spit.

Well, I'm not sure that losing Flamini was problem, problem is that they didn't spent money they should have to cover-up. (And hey, given that Liverpool was willing to sell Xabi Alonso this summer...)
Also, if they'd buy solid defender in place of Flamini I'd be pretty happy, I don't think that defensive midfielder is the biggest issue right now.

I'm worried right now. Fabregas was poor, his passing inaccurate, we didn't create chances we should. Draw with Tottenham was Liverpool scenario from yesterday: we were in total domination for most of the game (for first 60 minutes they had one shot at goal... you know which) and got unlucky (and careless). But this game with Stoke? If Delap's throws were undefendable, we should have scored three, then. But in fact we weren't anywhere near the goal for most of the game and Stoke was enjoying more possession than Tottenham did against us. Not to mention losing Adebayor, van Persie and Walcott.
But hey, Liverpool got even more unlucky ;]

ugh. Didn't see the game as I was working but ugh Stoke? I think its pretty clear the league is out of reach this year as the team has no consistency but cups are a different monster as Liverpool has proved in the past.

I have a hard time faulting Wenger as I can't really name the guys he should of bought but atleast Arsenal fans have the consolation that the team has money its just a matter of Wenger giving up on his current failures (Gallas, find Cesc a little helper) which will come sooner then later with them dropping points in the last minute vs Spurs and losing to teams like Stoke. Cesc has really been a ghost compared to what he has done in the past so far this season problem is its hard to figure out if its fatigue of from the long year he is coming off of or losing Flamini as his ball retriever.

Not going to give up on silverware though as the FA cup doesn't even start for them until January or the knockout round of the CL so theres still time to sort the team out for that.

jowner wrote:

Cesc has really been a ghost compared to what he has done in the past

It isn't that, he's been awesome in few games spraying his killer through balls right and left (remember goals with Fenerbahce?), problem seems to be consistency and concentration on pitch. With Stoke he didn't seem to be trying too hard and that's a really bad sign.

jowner wrote:

ugh. Didn't see the game as I was working but ugh Stoke?

They were outmuscled, most of Stoke players are nearly seven feet high but it isn't just about that. They didn't look like they were likely to make something happen, they were bleak, for a lack of the better word, that was almost antithesis of Arsenal.

If for some weird reason you're not watching Arsenal - Man Utd, do it now. It's 1-0 at half-time, great entertainment.

NASSSSSSSSSRI!

atleast Wenger made one solid move this year upgrading to Nasri from Hleb.

What a game. Shame we didn't had either van Persie or Adebayor up there (cause Bendtner still doesn't look to be cut out to be a for a 'Big Four' club) but after all it's deserved result. To win with Man Utd playing without three best strikers is surely a great win.

I'm no longer going to even try to predict how Arsenal will finish this year. They're good enough to beat ManU, bad enough to lose to Stoke. That entire team is schizophrenic.

Ugh go to class or watch Arsenal in the Carling cup? its such a crap shoot. They will either win 5-1 or something in a exhibition of the youth revolution or get tonked by Heskey.

edit: oh yea just cause it was so nice.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodi...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot... So... to put it into perspectove, for the time being it seems that Arsenal is the only team that have managed not to lose with them so far

And even better...Chelsea go out on penalties to the mighty Burnley

Did I call it or did I call it? Arsenal will win some games astonishingly, and then ineptly lose in others. 2-0 to the Villa while Chelsea, Liverpool and ManU all win easily.

Call it you did.

meh had to work and caught the score from my ManU co-worker who came in later. I've already written off the title after the 3 first bad losses.

Kinda funny but I haven't had to witness any of the Arsenal league defeats this year yet as my work schedule has ironically saved me from watching matches I wanted to but that turned out to be losses.

Arsenal are a strange paradox. They have an infinite wealth of incredible, young talent that by all accounts represent the future of world football, but while that's a huge bonus it's also their biggest downfall. They lack experience, and have about 2 or 3 senior players who can slap the rest of the kids across the face and tell them to keep on truckin' when the chips are down.

Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, they all have established talent. Players who've seen and done just about everything. That much seems to be the difference.

Arsenal wont win a damn thing for a few years yet, but I do still love to watch them play.

2-2 draw with Hull City, another question on the lips of the footballing world is whether or not Mark Hughes will keep his job for the year. I think the Sheiks will give him through January, at least. I'd rate others for the sack before him.

Which makes me wonder, who's the top three in your EPL sack race? My list goes...

1.) Gary Megson
2.) Paul Ince
3.) Tony Mowbray/Gianfranco Zola (to hard to choose)

Lou Chou wrote:

Arsenal are a strange paradox. They have an infinite wealth of incredible, young talent that by all accounts represent the future of world football, but while that's a huge bonus it's also their biggest downfall. They lack experience, and have about 2 or 3 senior players who can slap the rest of the kids across the face and tell them to keep on truckin' when the chips are down.

Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, they all have established talent. Players who've seen and done just about everything. That much seems to be the difference.

Arsenal wont win a damn thing for a few years yet, but I do still love to watch them play.

I'm willing to write off the league as its the true measure of consistency but I honestly cant imagine them going a couple more years without winning anything. With cups it can be luck of the draw if anything for example Arsenal just dodged Man U and a reborn Spurs in the quarters of the Carling Cup and got Burnley instead. Contrast this to last year where Arsenal got Man U in the FA cup fairly early in the middle of a serious fixture pileup. In the span of one week they lost to Man U in the FA Cup 4-0, tied AC Milan at home 0-0 and went off to Birmingham 2-2 draw and a broken leg where the train came off the tracks for the title.

Knock on wood they could honestly find themselves in the final of the Carling Cup if they keep drawing teams the kids can match and once in a final all bets are off its anyone's to win. I could honestly see Arsenal so out of the title race by Feb that they take the FA very seriously while the other big 3 are trying to balance their squads around the League the CL and the FA cup last.

England winger Theo Walcott has been ruled out of the friendly against Germany after dislocating his right shoulder in training, the Football Association have confirmed.

The Arsenal youngster was taken to hospital where the shoulder was put back into place and a decision will be taken on Wednesday over when Walcott will return to England.

f*ckING f*ckFHDHAHDAHD!!#!#!#!#!#$.

Earlier in the day I was warming to the idea of the friendlies as England vs Germany and Portugal vs Brazil sounded to good to moan about.

jowner wrote:

f*ckING f*ckFHDHAHDAHD!!#!#!#!#!#$.

I'm with you.

Landon Donovan moves on Loan to Bayern Munich. Because it worked so well at Leverkusen. Either Bayern are a complete shambles, or they felt that Landon's posterior was best designed to warm the Allianz-Arena bench.

And Monsieur Gallas is feeling stroppy.

Arsenal skipper William Gallas has revealed rifts in the dressing room undermining the club's current campaign and has suggested his team-mates have been unsettled by one member of the squad.

Gallas has called Arsene Wenger's side ''not brave enough in battle'' and has urged them to fight to revive a season that has already included four Premier League defeats.

As opposed to, of course, not being competent enough at defending.

"There are things that can't be said and can't be tolerated," Gallas said on the Times website. "When, as captain, some players come up to you and talk to you about a player ... complaining about him ... and then during the match you speak to this player and the player in question insults us.

"There comes a time where we can no longer comprehend how this can happen. I am trying to defend myself a bit without giving names. Otherwise I'm taking all the blame. It's very frustrating. I'm 31, the player is six years younger than me.

"There was a problem at half-time at Tottenham.The only thing that I could say at half-time was 'Guys, we resolve these problems after the match, not at half-time.'"

Currently there are four 25-year-olds in the squad: Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Eboue, Eduardo and Bacary Sagna, although it is not clear who the offending player is.

I'm not going to say the wheels are coming off Arsenal's season already. I will say that axle looks a little wobbly and Mr. Fabregas may enjoy a ride on Pep Guardiola's truck instead.

Riiighto.

Prederick wrote:

As opposed to, of course, not being competent enough at defending.

I'm with you, but I've got to add: I think he have tried really hard in couple of last games, in Man Utd game he was really *the* captain , and they've looked confident in defence.

Sometimes it needs to get worse much worse before it gets better and for the first time ever I love Gallas. Why might you ask? because the guy is digging his own grave much faster by being average at best on the field and flapping his mouth in the press. There's no way in hell Wenger is going to stay loyal to this guy while he stinks out the joint on the field and pulls a second shift of being a big mouth to the rags.

And honestly when would be a better time to be at your complete worst then 1 month before the transfer window. Between now and January Arsenal can only be bounced out of the league cup and cant be knocked out of finishing 4th in the league so by all means suck and suck hard so come the 1st Wenger has no other option then take action.

In the last couple days Wenger has talked up Djourou getting more playtime in the first team and the Van Buyten rumors are in the papers.

All I can hope for is this economic situation turns the market into sellers not buyers and Arsenal who are still sitting on a mound of cash find a bargain first 11 player.

hehe always the optimist. I just spun Gallas being a complete sh*thead into a good thing because he will get axed.... hopefully... please Wenger

Bugger - if Arsenal drop all their first team, that means that they'll murder us tomorrow....

Just have to instruct Richard Dunne to hammer a couple of those kids off the pitch early on. He's scored 3 own goals this season, so City will be better off if he gets sent off anyway, so he might as well put in a few 'reducers' (as Big Ron would put it) beforehand.