Football Season 2012/2013

[Nerph-]

Heh, seems the media is taking the Ronaldo sadness news thing 1 step further, and are now linking him to possible tranfers, like back to United, or to City or PSG...

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...t-8104470.html

[Larath]

all seems very over the top.

[Nerph-]

all seems very over the top.

Indeed, but we all know the media, they'll make up news if they have to for the sake of having news.

---------- Post added 2012-09-04 at 07:15 PM ----------

Apparently Stoke have signed Owen on a 12 month deal, so doesn't look he'll be going to Liverpool. Think Rodgers just got that little bit more buggered, as I think Owen was their best bet personally.

BBC News (UK) ‏@BBCNews
#Stoke City FC sign ex-England striker @themichaelowen on a 12-month deal, club confirms on #Twitter http://bbc.in/PZ0Hp5

#bbcfootball

[koodledrum]

See you think Rodgers is buggered now but this is just the prologue - the date he officially becomes buggered is 4th October, because that's when the Red Sox's season is finished in the US and for a good month the Fenway group have nothing better to do than to watch Liverpool being crap until February when the Red Sox report for spring training.

[Nerph-]

See you think Rodgers is buggered now but this is just the prologue - the date he officially becomes buggered is 4th October, because that's when the Red Sox's season is finished in the US and for a good month the Fenway group have nothing better to do than to watch Liverpool being crap until February when the Red Sox report for spring training.

Why do I get the feeling this season is about to become very interesting and entertaining...

[Wrien]

The English league is soooverrated.

Bayern Munchen are one of the best teams in the world behind Barcelona, and a little above Real Madrid.


Don't come here with Chelsea. Chelsea was just lucky to win CL. They didn't deserve it at all!


Bayern and (Lyon) ftw!

[koodledrum]

Why do I get the feeling this season is about to become very interesting and entertaining...

Because lets be blunt here, their whole sporting empire has been a shambles for over a year now & I get the feeling they're starting to lose patience - so fireworks wouldn't be out of the question.

And sorry Wrien, if you said to me "you can have a dream match, pick two teams" Bayern Munich would not be in the top 10 teams I would pick, it's debatable if they'd even be in the top 20 - Barcelona would be in the top 5 & Real Madrid in the top 10 with ease.

[Northern Goblin]

If a team can't put the game away on their home turf in 90 minutes, with 30 minutes ET and a missed penalty, they don't really deserve it either.

[Nerph-]

The English league is soooverrated.

Bayern Munchen are one of the best teams in the world behind Barcelona, and a little above Real Madrid.


Don't come here with Chelsea. Chelsea was just lucky to win CL. They didn't deserve it at all!


Bayern and (Lyon) ftw!

While it's obvious you're a diehard fan of FC Bayern Munich, you need to be realistic. Above Real Madrid? I don't think so. They're a good team, no doubt about that, but there are a handful of better teams.

I'd agree with you that Chelsea didn't deserve to win the CL, they got lucky, but as Fengore said, if Bayern couldn't win on their own turf in 90 mins, + 30 mins ET and missing a penalty that would have won them the game, they didn't really deserve it that day either. Chelsea just got lucky that their last opponents in the final stages of the CL somehow messed up each match in one way or another.

But it does seem that English teams in the past years are not performing as well as they used too compared to teams from other countries. Manchester United and Manchester City both flopping out of the CL group stages, and then also out of the Europa League last season was big enough proof of that.

I'm hoping this year will be different, but judging by United's performance in their first 3 PL games so far, I'm having serious doubts. They have the talent, they really need to step up and show it, especially in defense. I'm hoping the near loss to Southampton will have been a bit of a wake up call, we shall see.

In other news, it seems Berbatov is having a bit of a dig at United about his departure and move to Fulham... Apparently he didn't say "Goodbye" to Ferguson as he felt he didn't deserve it. The drama!

[Lenin]

The English league is soooverrated.

Bayern Munchen are one of the best teams in the world behind Barcelona, and a little above Real Madrid.


Don't come here with Chelsea. Chelsea was just lucky to win CL. They didn't deserve it at all!


Bayern and (Lyon) ftw!

And then where is Dortmund ?
Son, if your Bayern is so good they would win CL after 120 minutes + penalities.
Please don't say that your Bayern is one of the best teams when you are basicly eaten by Dortmund two seasons in a row.
I am not RM fan nor Chelsea fan, I am just realistic.

[Deleted]

The English league is soooverrated.

Bayern Munchen are one of the best teams in the world behind Barcelona, and a little above Real Madrid.


Don't come here with Chelsea. Chelsea was just lucky to win CL. They didn't deserve it at all!


Bayern and (Lyon) ftw!

I like your loyalty with your club! That's a good thing. I also agree with you on the Chelsea-Champions League thing. They didn't really deserve to win the tournament, but neither did Bayern. I also strongly disagree with your top 3 ranking. Nowhere in the world is Bayern close second to Barca and a little above Real (I'm neither a Barca nor a Real fan by the way!)

[Larath]

Not happy there is no league football this week, time to look for the lower divisions :P

[Demoncrash]

So what do you guys think about this?

[mirodin]

A few seasons to late imo, Owen needed to join a small club after that stint in Newcastle, or at least stay there. I think he still has it in him to score some goals in the PL, but these last few seasons sitting on the bench at Manchester haven't done him any good.

[Deleted]

So what do you guys think about this?

If its a deal largely based on pay-as-you-play clauses then its a sound bit of business for Stoke. He won't play 90mins week in week out (or 90mins at all) but as an impact sub for the odd 20mins he still has the ability to score goals. People often just brush Owen's ability aside as he has lost all his pace now that he is 32 but he is still a stunning finisher. His fitness is always going to be a concern but he will certainly fill the gap left by Fuller.

[Nerph-]

A few seasons to late imo, Owen needed to join a small club after that stint in Newcastle, or at least stay there. I think he still has it in him to score some goals in the PL, but these last few seasons sitting on the bench at Manchester haven't done him any good.

Yeah I agree, in his 3 year United career he made a whopping 31 appearances and 5 goals (wikipedia says at least), he made more appearances in his 1 year at Real Madrid (36)... Probably would have been in his best interest to have never joined United at all and gone straight to a team like Stoke back in 2009.

In other news, a rather funny idea, Ferguson has apparently said he's considering letting Usain Bolt play for Manchester United in next year's Real Madrid Legends charity match. Could be rather fun to watch lol, hope he gets the chance to sprint down the wing a few times and watch people try to keep up ^^

Source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...iendly?cc=5739

And it seems Fiorentina are still annoyed about paying for Berbatov and his agent's plane tickets after he never showed up in Florence after deciding to join Fulham instead, and are "demanding" Berbatov and his agent pay them back for the tickets. Not an unreasonable demand I guess, he kinda did go to the airport, get ready to go on the plane but then never turned up in Florence, the least he could do is pay the club back for the money they spent on the ticket's they generously paid for and then he never used. As far as I remember he didn't even "let them know" he wasn't going to arrive in Florence.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...v-plane-ticket

And last but not least for this post, Zenit St Petersburg have confirmed they are negotiating for the £25 million rated Nani. Wonder if he'll still demand £5 million from United if he was to leave...

Source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...r-nani?cc=5739

---------- Post added 2012-09-07 at 07:38 PM ----------

Wales - Belgium tonight... I hope we can keep the same form we had against our 4-2 win against the Netherlands... GAME ON! Really wanna see Belgium back in the World Cup. While I'm in no way saying Wales is a bad team, we really should win this one.

[Larath]

in a very "exciting" match Sweden beat China 1-0 while managing to hit the lowest attendance record for X years (don't really remember) :P

[Xanjori]

The English win was pretty good, I know it wasnt vs a good team but it was still nice to see us dominate a game the way we should. Its been too long since England actually crushed an inferior opponent (5-1 vs Germany was the last time!)(Sorry it had to be done)

Hopefully we'll beat Ukraine 3-0 or something just to show we're still improving.

[Deleted]

i think you`ll find it was 1-5 to england, as we wouldnt want ppl thinking england were at home lol
up the owls!!!

[Nerph-]

Wales played better than I thought they would, considering what players they were missing. The red card was justified, was a pretty bad tackle, pity it was the first red card of Collins career apparently. But other than that I think Belgium were the better side and deserved the win. Biggest test is Tuesday against Croatia... going to have to play well to beat them, but if we do, it's a good sign that Belgium might actually be able to end the years of not qualifying for tournaments...