Football Season 2012/2013

[EqualWin]

Fabregas has no impact on Barca's game whatsoever other than pushing Xavi further back. Xavi used to be able to roam much further up for chips over the defence, 1-2s with Messi or just constant through balls. But now he is so far back he can't do that anymore. Fabregas accomplishes nothing.

yeah I was praying they played with villa from the start instead of fabregas :/ there's not room between busquest-xavi-iniesta-messi for him

[Northern Goblin]

Hi to the new people o/

As a Liverpool supporter, and one trying desperately not to live in the glory years of his youth when we won things, I have to admit this past couple of seasons have turned up some surprising events.

The Premier league table speaks for itself. It's been a while since I considered Tottenham in with a chance of a top league finish. Then we have the likes of West Brom, Swansea and Stoke all in the top 10. I remember when Wimbledon were a decent mid table team a few years back when the Premiership become a 4 horse race at the top.

I think what amazes me is I think back to when I was a kid, and the Premier League was in its early years, the teams that were in the EPL and where they are now, and the teams that exist and where they've come from. To add to your list, Reading, Wigan and Fulham all there, as well as over the years teams like Hull, Wolves and Charlton have all been there.

Then you've Leeds who went from winning the last ever League One before the Premiership and disappearing into obscurity.

Bliss.


Anyway there's what, 7 clubs that have stayed in the top flight since it's inception: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Man United, Spurs and Villa? I think we're going to be one short of that by next season.

I'm glad other teams are joining in up there, it did start to get a bit dull seeing the same 3 names in the top 3 and Liverpool trying to hit 4th to get in Europe

I think the same names will somewhat persist, Chelsea were a good club before Abramovich came in, the investment needed wasn't as high as it was at City for example. While Spurs and Everton are building up great teams I still think there's potential at Arsenal to bring in the right players to be a title winning squad again. The issue is their manager and his seemingly public lack of ambition, speaking of public lack of ambition there's far too many City players this season that seem to care little on the pitch, for the investment into the club the return has been dreadful.

[mirodin]

You can't expect a lot of commitment from mercenaries, and that's how i look at the City players. At least Chelsea still has some pre-Abramovich left overs in Lampard and Terry that can influence the players around them. As long as City continues buying and not developing players they won't be a dominant force.

As far as Arsenal goes, i don't even know what to say. It's being run as a corporation and not a football club. For one of the richest clubs in football it amazes me that they still want to buy cheap then turn profit later. I still believe that selling RVP was a massive mistake even with 1 year left on his contract. There have been some rumors about potential transfers this summer, like Hummels, Goetze, Reus even Cavani, but somehow i don't think any of them will come even if we qualify for the CL.

[Xanjori]

and Charlton have all been there.

I always smile when I think of Charlton. Alan Curbishley worked a miracle with that team (they were my local team btw) and as the years went on the fans just turned against him. When he is gone they just vanish, I don't even know what division they're in now, but I bet there are many Charlton fans that wish Curbs was still there.

[Deleted]

1-3

Madrid is the best counterattacking team in the world. I assume Alex Ferguson has taken notes. I'd probably just give Madrid the ball and counter them.

In the first leg De Gea was the main reason why the match ended a draw, If I was SAF, I wouldn't risk having Real to attack all the time, again. Plus, in my opinion, United's defence knows how to deal with counterattacks.

[Valeron]

hehe @ Benitez's rant after the game today

not a fan of his but he is 100% correct here

[koodledrum]

Yeah I just saw that on the BBC site, got to say it was always going to be a thankless task despite to replace Di Mateo - who a number of fans, no offense overwork his importance managerially to Chelski, did he win a Champions League & FA cup, yeah, but AVB still had a massive part to play in both those victories. But then again, it's Chelski, so fucking stupid that they think they EARNED anything over the last 10 years, without Abramovich's millions they'd be in the same position in the league as Liverpool only without the pedigree behind them. (Same can be said about Man City) The difference between Man United (who incidentally, I dislike massively) & City/Chelski is that United have done it properly, they build a nucleus of a team & augment it where Chelski & City just signed cheques - that's not football, that's business, if you want to play that game fuck off to the stock market!

So while I wouldn't say Rafa's been manager of the year, I have some sympathy for him, but ultimately he signed the damn contract knowing what would happen, suck it up & see it through til May then flip the bird as you walk away for good.

Rangers drew last night 1-1 with Stirling Albion away, Rangers in 2 visits there this season have failed to record a victory having suffered their only league defeat (thus far) of the season there earlier in the campaign, still sit 20 points clear of Queens Park who have 2 games in hand. Celtic suffered away defeat to Motherwell tonight, despite dropping 25 points this season in the SPL they still sit 19 points clear atop the league... competition in the SPL, when I stop laughing at that notion I'll let you know, don't wait up though!

Tomorrow Rangers will find out the result of the SPL's "investigation" into titles won between 2000-2010 during which time the club used EBT systems judged by an HMRC panel to be above board, although I'll be blunt, if they don't strip titles I'll be so shocked it might actually kill me. Potentially any one of 18 sanctions can be leveled against the club "if" they're found guilty, although lets be brutally honest here, we'd not have heard about the number of sanctions had the outcome already been prejudged. Regardless as to the result of this I will continue to acknowledge each of Rangers legitimate 54 titles as last I checked, they were won on the pitch, not in the boardroom or on paper, the tribunal chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith can remove the 5 titles won by Rangers during that period. As I said though, given events the chances of us getting a positive result here are zero - that's not even Rangers bias talking here, that's plain common sense, the SPL will continue wherever they can to punish Rangers in any and all ways open to them for as long as is humanly possible.

---------- Post added 2013-02-28 at 11:48 AM ----------

NEWSFLASH: Hell has frozen over, bears don't shit in the woods & William Hill have just installed me as favourite for Miss World.... NO titles will be stripped, the old company (liquidated) has been fined £250k (fucking idiotic).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21604986

[Northern Goblin]

So the shock didn't kill you then?

Got to say I'm pretty surprised they didn't strip Rangers myself, maybe they think they've already done enough.


Meanwhile Benitez' rant is one of the best things that's happened this season, I love it when this guy goes off the rails but for once, he was absolutely right.

[koodledrum]

So the shock didn't kill you then?

Got to say I'm pretty surprised they didn't strip Rangers myself, maybe they think they've already done enough.


Meanwhile Benitez' rant is one of the best things that's happened this season, I love it when this guy goes off the rails but for once, he was absolutely right.

It's not killed me yet, but it came close, biggest shock I've ever had and god knows I have an oncologist....

We've been punished as heavily as I can remember any club being hit in football, lets be brutally honest here we have went from being reasonably punished (10 point deduction for going into administration) to it being ludicrous (signing bans which were ruled illegal in a court of law) - although "fans" from smaller teams still want more. Problem is these "fans" have done fuck all to help the "clubs" they "support" - attendances well down, no money in clubs, lack of investment yet for some reason they genuinely think they have the right to keep us down. What's even funnier is the fact they continually question our relevancy, sorry, when you're drawing 45,000 fans every other week, you're relevant, no matter what way you dress it up.

[laffling]

What do you lot think about Cardiff City's owner open to name change, I think the owner has gone power hungry and it's one step to far.

[Deleted]

I don't get what is Benitez right about? He knew exactly what is he getting into the moment he signed the contract with the dev... ugh Abramovich. Chelsea's fans don't hate him because of his poor results(or at least not only), they hate him because of all the shit he said about these very same fans when he was still managing Liverpool. He knew Chelsea's politics regarding their managers, he knew that the fans hated him because of his big mouth, he knew that he is signing till the end of the season as an "interim" manager, what was he expecting? He could have made it easier for himself if the club played well, but he didn't manage to do that either... When he took over Chelea they were, what, 4 or 5 points behind United? Now they are 19 points behind, and probably won't be able to keep even this difference till the end of the season. Rafa went there for the (presumably)easy $$ and now is trying to make the board of directors(or whoever is taking these decisions) to fire him so he can get the rest of his money, just like he did in Inter. In my opinion, he deserves everything coming his way.

[koodledrum]

He's right because what he's saying is the following in slightly more agreeable language.

"I know you think I'm a cunt, you know I think you are cunts, but support the damn team rather than bringing signs saying I'm a cunt"

I can see his point, as a supporter of a club I don't go to matches to protest against the manager, I go to matches to give 100% support to the team - if I want to have my say about a manager I'll do it after a game outside the ground, during the match you want exactly the same thing as the manager, either 3 points in the bag or progression to the next round. The supporters bringing signs to the game, singing songs about getting shot of him aren't supporting the team, they're being jerks and that's counterproductive, they want things to improve short term get the hell behind the team - if you're not going to do that 100% then stay the hell away from the ground & let the manager, regardless as to what's been said previously, do his bloody job!

[Valeron]

Chelsea is a train wreck. Unless they get a really big paycheck that they can't get somewhere else I don't see any self respecting manager taking that job.

[Navitas]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/...-2012112350187

If the owner picks the wrong guy you blame the owner, not the poor sod he signed. Chelsea fan's always seem to blame someone, anyone, just so long as it's not their saviour Roman. Chelsea fans should have some class, before 2003 they had nothing. Literally nothing. And now after their short rein they believe they're entitled to keep on winning and think they have a right to choose who the manager is. It's disgusting. Please remember Chelsea fans: Before Roman you had nothing and after he leaves you'll be nothing again.

[Northern Goblin]

As Koodle said, Chelsea fans are putting more passion into hating the manager than supporting the club. That has a detrimental effect on the players, who are barely above mercenary status as it is. He's made his point, he's leaving in May, just get behind the team for the next 3 months and deal with the hand you're played.

[koodledrum]

Problem is the Chelski fans will never blame Abramovich because they fear what will happen without him, they genuinely think he's brought them the trophies over the last 10 years and credit him with all that when in reality, he's a grown up version of that annoying little shit kid who screams "I want a pony" and their Daddy signs a fucking cheque. What makes it even worse is the fact the guy's dodgy, I wouldn't trust him far as I could throw him & I don't believe much of that money came from hard graft, it came from shadowy methods from a shadowy time in a shadowy place! Problem for the Chelski fans is he got what he came for, he has his Champions League, so it's a matter of does he have the passion to hang around, frankly I question if he does, I mean c'mon we're expected to believe this oligarch from fucknowswhereville Russia actually gives a toss about Chelsea?!?

[Larath]

Problem is the Chelski fans will never blame Abramovich because they fear what will happen without him, they genuinely think he's brought them the trophies over the last 10 years and credit him with all that when in reality, he's a grown up version of that annoying little shit kid who screams "I want a pony" and their Daddy signs a fucking cheque. What makes it even worse is the fact the guy's dodgy, I wouldn't trust him far as I could throw him & I don't believe much of that money came from hard graft, it came from shadowy methods from a shadowy time in a shadowy place! Problem for the Chelski fans is he got what he came for, he has his Champions League, so it's a matter of does he have the passion to hang around, frankly I question if he does, I mean c'mon we're expected to believe this oligarch from fucknowswhereville Russia actually gives a toss about Chelsea?!?

I honestly thing he does care tbh, he's there watching matches alot and seem to wanna build chelsea up to be selfsupporting but he's not afraid to go in with cash if needed, whats different from a english, malaysian and a russian chelsea supporter? not much tbh.

[koodledrum]

I honestly thing he does care tbh, he's there watching matches alot and seem to wanna build chelsea up to be selfsupporting but he's not afraid to go in with cash if needed, whats different from a english, malaysian and a russian chelsea supporter? not much tbh.

The fact that with an English chelski supporter it's something they've more than likely been brought up with their entire life, with a foreign one I'd question their sincerity - do you honestly think at 6-7 years of age he was a Chelsea fan, strongly doubt it, do you think if he could have got in on Man United he'd have bought Chelsea, again, strongly doubt it. He's there because it was the biggest club available at that time, he bought it as a status symbol, you know how in the 80's bankers used to go out and buy Rolex watches - yeah, welcome to "new money" thinking, especially in a foreign setting. Buying a football club shows you're minted & gives you a sense of power because lets face it, anyone with a few bob can go buy a supercar or a yacht, buy themselves a nice house with more toilets than the average street has or fly everywhere on a private plane, but you need serious bank to be in charge of a top 6 Premiership football club.

What I see in Abramovich is someone who wanted to show he's minted, I don't believe he cares, he's doing this as a way of showing off - fair play to the guy, but that's not right for football, you've seen that with his attitude to managers, attitude toward playing staff & lack of understanding as to how a club SHOULD run. I'll point out Man United, now I know they're foreign owned, but they've had the same manager for 25 years, they bring in high price imports but Ryan Giggs is a classic example, just signed another year long deal to stay at Old Trafford, supplemented by products of the United academy. Fergie has faith in his youth set up to run the club properly atleast on a footballing footing, at Chelsea, no fuck that noise, we need a centre back, where's my chequebook!

[OscaR]

Teams operate differently, there's no "right" way for football. Abramovich came in, Chelsea won trophies and is now a much bigger club, I'd say that's a success. It doesn't matter if he was a Chelsea fan when he was 6 or 7, he is clearly a Chelsea fan right now. They won everything he wanted but he continues spending. It doesn't matter if it is to show off or whatever his intentions are, Chelsea is much bigger than what they were before he came and Chelsea fans like that fact.
Of course he didn't single-handedly bring them the trophies, everyone knows that, but he plays a big part in it. And it's not even true when you say Chelsea fans don't blame Abramovich cuz many do.

[Valeron]

should be a good game coming up in about 10 minutes, Napoli-Juventus