The Ongoing Serie A, La Liga, All English Football, Champions League Thread - Part 10

[chamber-music]

We might be able to get a few pennies for bendtner if we sell him off the end of the season.

[kit1982]

Originally Posted by the_ultimate_evil

can i just throw something out here a general question to everyone how long have you actually been a fan of your selective team

About 22 years, but in fairness I don't really think you're really a proper football fan till at least mid teens (i.e. you don't really know whats going on, the politics etc.) you're more of a sheep. I mean there are countless photo's of me in Leeds shirts at the age of 3, but I can't really remember a full season till 95/96 and even then stuff like big Ron and Keegans rant went right over my head.

Darth - 96/97 is one of my favourite seasons, Leeds were gash and only scored about 27 goals, but you had Wenger, Ravenelli, Zola, Emerson and guys like Vialli coming in. Wimbledon's rise up the table, United's crisis yet still going on and winning the league, Keegan walking out on Newcastle, Dalglish coming in. Beckhams lob, Wanchopes wonder goal at Old Trafford. You even had the better 4-3 (IMO of course) between Liverpool and Newcastle. Wonderful year!

[Dr Lee]

Hodgson confirmed as Manager of the England team..... four year contract.

[ttotheusher]

Originally Posted by Van Petrol

Sounds like a deal for M'Vila is close. I can't see why we would need him unless Song is off?...

Rumour has it that Inter have Song as a priority in the summer...

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

Worst thing about the match? Having to listen to Quinn on commentary, what a sack of ****e.

Surely Alan Smith would of been a better choice? I can't understand why you would have an ex-City player commentating, obviously there is going to be bias.

Originally Posted by the_ultimate_evil

can i just throw something out here a general question to everyone how long have you actually been a fan of your selective team

Admittedly, I wasn't really a proper football fan when I was a kid, my Dad and Grandad have always supported Manchester United, so I did as well, but it wasn't until I was about 16 that I actually started playing, watching and following football as a whole, not just United.

Originally Posted by Dr Lee

Hodgson confirmed as Manager of the England team..... four year contract.

Good for Roy...here's hoping the team back him and try there best for there country for a change!

[Poeman]

Originally Posted by Dr Lee

Hodgson confirmed as Manager of the England team..... four year contract.

England is so doomed

[Dr Lee]

Originally Posted by Poeman

England is so doomed

He did great with Fulham... and has kept WBA out of the relegation zone this season... and he's coached three international teams before now.

Redknapp ain't the messiah here....

[Poeman]

Originally Posted by Dr Lee

He did great with Fulham... and has kept WBA out of the relegation zone this season... and he's coached three international teams before now.

Redknapp ain't the messiah here....

okay, but imagine if Pep wanted the job

[Dr Lee]

Originally Posted by Poeman

okay, but imagine if Pep wanted the job

He didn't though....

[kit1982]

If he's as active with Burton as I hope and he gives youth a chance then I'm more than happy. This team doesn't need a Di Matteo to get the most out of the old guard, we aren't good enough to go far in these Euros, it needs a complete rebuild.

[bapi]

Highest-paying teams in the world

"At the start of the 2011-12 season, Barcelona had a payroll of $217 million, with an average player salary of $8.7 million, almost $1 million more than the survey's second-place finisher Real Madrid, whose players earn an average of $7.8 million per season."

[spidey-dude]

Originally Posted by Dr Lee

He did great with Fulham... and has kept WBA out of the relegation zone this season... and he's coached three international teams before now.

Redknapp ain't the messiah here....

neither are good enough tactians for international management - Ol Arry is great at getting a good deal and bringing in good players, however his tactics leave alot to be desired - Hodgson is a mid level manager, everyone keeps going on about his "experience" but when you look at his career it is vastly unremarkable, 36 years in management, only trophies of note are something like the Denmark league 1 trophy, his next best achievement was taking Fulham to UEFA final, which is a good acheivement, but in 35 years.... He gave us our worst ever start to a season for over 50 years.... He almost got Blackburn relegated, and I think he almost got Inter relegated with his stint there, every other club has been largely average other than as I said before in lower level leagues

[Dr Lee]

personally i think the problems he had at Liverpool was more to do with the players than him.... but i know we'll never agree on that....

[kit1982]

Well I'd say Roy's best achievement was getting Switzerland to number 3 in the world rankings (which is hardly the best at judging sides I admit) but still a decent achievement at International level. You say he nearly took Blackburn down, but the season before he'd taken over a relegation threatened side and to them to 6th in the league, he also helped bring through youngsters like Duff and Dunn who would go on to play a massive part in getting the club back up. I'm not Roy's biggest fan, but I'm not going to write him off because he buggered up at Liverpool or Inter.

I think we might have to accept that we're a midlevel international side with a mid-level manager.
We had a guy with a fantastic reputation, good tactician and experience of winning everything, yet he was a disaster here.
I was never into blaming players, but looking at Trapattoni who is basically a poor mans Capello at Ireland with his group of players and what he's achieved.... I don't think we'll win anything till the "Golden Generation" retire.

[Two-Face]

Originally Posted by Dr Lee

Hodgson confirmed as Manager of the England team..... four year contract.

Oh wait you're serious......

[wobbly]

So...That new TV offer giving £10 back for every goal England scores in the Euro's....

Not gonna get much of a saving methinks...

[chamber-music]

Originally Posted by kit1982

I was never into blaming players, but looking at Trapattoni who is basically a poor mans Capello at Ireland with his group of players and what he's achieved.... I don't think we'll win anything till the "Golden Generation" retire.

I agree Ireland punch above their weight and usually play pretty well. When you watch the Irish play their players play well in the national side in a way English players have not in a long time.

I know they say international football is different from Club football but there are so many England players over the last decade that have played nowhere near as good as they play at club level. They underperform.

[B]

Anyone watching the Sporting Gijon & Villarreal game? The amount of objects that have been thrown onto the pitch by the home fans is a disgrace. Beer cans, lighters, bottles etc.

They're in the 8th minute of injury time because of it.

[kit1982]

Originally Posted by B

Anyone watching the Sporting Gijon & Villarreal game? The amount of objects that have been thrown onto the pitch by the home fans is a disgrace. Beer cans, lighters, bottles etc.

They're in the 8th minute of injury time because of it.

It was awful, most of the Villareal players struggled to take corners. It seems to happen every week in La Liga, I can only imagine the trouble we'd be in if it regularly happened over here.

[spidey-dude]

Originally Posted by Dr Lee

personally i think the problems he had at Liverpool was more to do with the players than him.... but i know we'll never agree on that....

really? we were in the relagation zone at one point - we had one of the best striekrs in the world, one of the best midfielders, one of the best keepers - the squad was very similar to the one of the season before with the only differences being the awful players (except merieles) that he had brought in

[spidey-dude]

Originally Posted by kit1982

Well I'd say Roy's best achievement was getting Switzerland to number 3 in the world rankings (which is hardly the best at judging sides I admit) but still a decent achievement at International level. You say he nearly took Blackburn down, but the season before he'd taken over a relegation threatened side and to them to 6th in the league, he also helped bring through youngsters like Duff and Dunn who would go on to play a massive part in getting the club back up. I'm not Roy's biggest fan, but I'm not going to write him off because he buggered up at Liverpool or Inter.

I think we might have to accept that we're a midlevel international side with a mid-level manager.
We had a guy with a fantastic reputation, good tactician and experience of winning everything, yet he was a disaster here.
I was never into blaming players, but looking at Trapattoni who is basically a poor mans Capello at Ireland with his group of players and what he's achieved.... I don't think we'll win anything till the "Golden Generation" retire.

world rankings mea jack - werent england like 5th when we failed to make Euro 2008?

If Switzerland were ranked 3rd that is a joke as at the time there were at least 10 teams better than them


then again Woy is good at getting ****e players to put in a performance so maybe he will do okay with england.... oh I went there

[kit1982]

Originally Posted by spidey-dude

world rankings mea jack - werent england like 5th when we failed to make Euro 2008?

If Switzerland were ranked 3rd that is a joke as at the time there were at least 10 teams better than them


then again Woy is good at getting ****e players to put in a performance so maybe he will do okay with england.... oh I went there

Haha and sadly it's true! Course World Rankings mean jack, I said as much, I'm not saying under him they were the 3rd best team in the world, but still he got Switzerland to a decent international standard is an achievement and they haven't been close since.
Like I said I'm not the guys biggest fan, I never bought into that he was unlucky at Liverpool, he was awful, crap football, crap signings and telling Daniel Agger "to just f***ing hoof the thing" at Anfield was just crazy.

But we've tried everything else, we've had the tactically naive "peoples choice" motivator in Keegan, we've had the tactical Englishman in Hoddle, we've had the tactical "peoples choice" motivator in El Tel, we've had the easy going foreign manager in Sven, we've tried to copy Greece and had the tough foreigner with all the medals in Capello. None of it really has got us anywhere, so maybe the low profile Englishman is just what we need? He hasn't bee involved in the set up like McClaren was. We can't really do any worse than in recent years. We wouldn't win the Euro's with anyone so as I said if he invests alot of time at Burton, gives youth a chance and tries to change a few things lower down in the game I'll give him a chance

[chamber-music]

The fans and the media should give Woy a chance now his got the job and get behind him. Its not Woy's fault the FA choose him over Harry.

Why was Joey Barton on Newsnight being interview by Paxman about England?

Barton said Northerners thought England was a southern team because they played at Wembley and they should tour the country for home games playing at differnt stadiums instead.

I get what his trying to say and perhaps playing a few home friendlies at St James Park or Old Trafford would be a good idea but if your not supporting your national team because they play home games in the national stadium in the capital city your an idiot.

Most international teams play home games in their national stadium in their captial city and fans still support them. England isn't exactly a huge country as it is so I don't know what they are complaining about. Fans travel overseas on planes to follow the team so I don't see how spending a few hours on a train or in a car is any worst.

[kit1982]

It's not just as simple as a north/south thing or even not supporting the national team, it's the FA, they have no interest in the fans. Fans from both areas when asked to vote on the FA Website for the place of the new national stadium, unanimously voted Birmingham as it's easier to get to and around..... yet this was just thrown completely out the window.

I can see why a bloke from Newcastle would be annoyed that in order to watch England with his son, he either has to travel to the other end of the country on a saturday (which they barely ever play on) or book a couple of days off work, pull his son out of school to make it for a 7:45 pm kick off on the tuesday paying over the top petrol prices before he even sets foot in London. It's not about those who travel overseas, it's about the regular fan. Why not against a Moldova or someone instead of having 20,000 empty seats at Wembley on a tuesday night, play it at a St.James' or Anfield where it'll sell out? Every other country tours round the country so why not England? Quite often lower league clubs will pay for free coaches for the fans or at least lay on coaches at a discount, the FA would never dream of doing such a thing.

Before the new Wembley was built England did tour round the grounds and it was a massive success because you could see Englands stars at a place near you wherever you were in the country. It brought the country together footballing wise and it even helped create some amazing atmospheres at England games (no honestly!). Footballs a global game yet you can't even get the England national team out of London!

It's not the national team they aren't supporting, it's the FA.


Edit: Have to say that Barton came off very well in his interview..... makes you wonder why he's such a t***

[chamber-music]

I agree with you on playing on a England Saturday or Sunday. That midweek or Firday game stuff is stupid.

To be honest there is no way they were ever going to build a new stadium in Birmmingham over Wembley just like they are not going to move parliament to the midlands like some people want.

They don't tour now because of the amount of money they spent on Wembley stadium as Barton said. Wembley is a brand and has prestige and global recognition other stadiums don't have which is why their are NFL games in Wembley when they are honestly better off playing at twickenham.

It would be less of an issue if the country had better infrastructure like a high speed rail network.

[kit1982]

Originally Posted by chamber-music

I agree with you on playing on a England Saturday or Sunday. That midweek or Firday game stuff is stupid.

To be honest there is no way they were ever going to build a new stadium in Birmmingham over Wembley just like they are not going to move parliament to the midlands like some people want.

They don't tour now because of the amount of money they spent on Wembley stadium as Barton said. Wembley is a brand and has prestige and global recognition other stadiums don't have which is why their are NFL games in Wembley when they are honestly better off playing at twickenham.

It would be less of an issue if the country had better infrastructure like a high speed rail network.

Oh of course there wasn't a chance of it being built anywhere else, but then why the **** did they ask, why put a poll on your website? It's pretending to give a **** when they don't which makes it worse. My local club Lincoln City paid for coaches to take the fans to Cardiff for the play-off final twice. Now this is a club who are skint, but at least there's a fraction of loyalty there. All the FA care about is money and really in terms of England they alienate most of the country because they spent too much money on the new Wembley, can't blame people for not supporting them really.

I think it'd be less of an issue if they hadn't bothered building the new stadium altogether, Cardiff was great.