Ongoing Soccer Thread

[blacksun]

Thank you Fulham for winning today and thereby insuring Pompey are safe for another season with 2 games to go :top: arty:

Pompey were already safe none of that lot down the bottom were gonna win 2 games lol
Good for the area tho, despite them not being my team Im glad they stayed up.

 

[Swear Engine]

as a united fan for over 10 years, i think im in the distinct minority of supporters who thinks that tevez leaving would not be the worst thing in the world. yes he does give his all every single game and his energy and direct style of play has picked us up this season (see wigan 2 weeks ago). but i am not sure he is worth 22 million as is being reported. i am more than sure if he were available at around 15 mill, ferguson would snap him up no questions asked, but 22 mill could go towards financing a move for benzema or david villa. yes i would LOVE to see tevez stay, but the logical side of me is saying that kia joorabchian is just trying to hold our club to ransom milking as much money as he can get from the situation. if tevez leaves so be it, no hard feelings and we will always welcome him back to old trafford whichever team he plays for.

on a related note, i think the fact that ferguson decided to start him against arsenal tonight is a solid indication that he wants tevez to stay. but i trust ferguson and the board enough to let them deal with the situation, they've always proven themselves right in the end.

PS. CHAMPIONS!!! GLORY GLORY MAN UTD!! ONWARDS TO ROME!

United don't want to pay the 20 odd million that their agreement with Joorabchian stipulates they should pay if they want to sign Tevez at the end of their loan agreement:deal:. Apparently Tevez wants to stay in England but Liverpool supposedly won't blow most of their transfer war chest on one player. That only realistically leaves Man City and Chelsea.... although Everton can offer the Europa League and he wouldn't have to move houses.... c'mon Charlie boy fancy being a Toffee?

 

[passback]

^^Waddle^^ Sheffield Wednesday legend.

Sheffield is home to the oldest football club in the world - Sheffield FC - its where it all began!!!

 

[passback]

http://www.sheffieldfc.com/

 

[S93]

Have to give probs to the WBA fans.
They cheered there team on all the way even after relagation was unavoidable.
Looks like Liverpool has second locked in, hopefully Rafa will let some of the young players+Hyppia play against Tottenham

 

[Swear Engine]

Have to give probs to the WBA fans.
They cheered there team on all the way even after relagation was unavoidable.
Looks like Liverpool has second locked in, hopefully Rafa will let some of the young players+Hyppia play against Tottenham

Yup, the difference between WBA fans today and the 7000 empty seats at Boro's ground yesterday says a lot. Talk about deserting your team when they need you.
I remember the season Everton were closest to relegation when we beat Wimbledon on the last day 3-2 after trailing 2-0. For most of the season we'd had attendances well below capacity but as the final 5 or 6 games came around the Blues came to support their team in their darkest hour. I remember leaving Elland Road after we lost 3-0 with 1 or 2 games to go and thinking we were down. What followed on the last day would make a decent sports movie. As i approached Goodison with about a mile to go i was already seeing people going home. It was a lockout with literally thousands outside the ground. I raced home to catch the commentary on the radio and spent one of the most emotional afternoons of my life alone on tenterhooks. Anyhoo... I'd like to wish the Baggies all the best for next season and hope that they can bounce straight back up. As long as they improve their defence they will be a welcome addition to the top flight. They've impressed going forward this year but been caught out by some rank defending. For their tremendous fans i hope they keep playing good football, keep their manager and should roll over most of the cloggers in the Championship. Boing Boing Boing.

 

[jyow]

west brom really are strange to me. this is what... the 3rd time they've been relegated in the past 10 years? you would think after the first 2 times they would have figured that they need to splash the cash a bit in order to stay up. they do have some decent players going forward with greening and brunt but like swear said they need to invest in defence. look at teams like sunderland and stoke city. they got promoted, spent a bit to improve the squad (or in sunderland's case, a lot!) and stoke are virtually assured of their premier league status next season whereas sunderland will probably manage to stay up for their 2nd straight season. i'm not sure if the west brom board just lacks ambition - it definitely is a risk to spend alot after getting promoted to the premier league cuz you still might get relegated and have to deal with the substantially lower TV revenues in the championship, but using the "we might get relegated again" excuse is pretty lousy. It's as though they won't even bother giving it a shot

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

the problem is is you splash the cash too much and then go back down you run the risk of "doing a leeds", not recovering, and ending up in a world of pain.

west ham for example used to be a yo-yo club in the early 90's - they've never gone that crazy with money but look at them now - well established in the prem for the last however many years.

 

[stealthy1]

I'm watching the Portsmouth vs Sunderland game just now and have had to put it on mute. That idiot with the bell/s does my nut in, I would hate to be sat/standing next to him.

Is the guy with the bells the same guy with all the tattoos?

 

[beardyian]

I'm watching the Portsmouth vs Sunderland game just now and have had to put it on mute. That idiot with the bell/s does my nut in, I would hate to be sat/standing next to him.

Is the guy with the bells the same guy with all the tattoos?

Yes thats him, been a bit quiet i thought lol

He is a love him or hate him figure and most of the regulars dont really love him

 

[Crystal Blue]

You mean this individual?

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

cliffnotes of portsmouth v sunderland so far

edit: zomg a goal

 

[beardyian]

Weeeeeeeeee arty:

2nd half was all Pompeys :top: after a change to 5-3-2 with wing-backs attacking :top:

Good to see Linvoy Primus get a chance to play one last time after 2 years out and being a great person and top charity worker.

We need a lot of work before next season and i really hope something happens or we will be struggling again i fear.

Play up Pompey

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

i like how it actually got entertaining about 2 minutes after i posted

 

[jyow]

the problem is is you splash the cash too much and then go back down you run the risk of "doing a leeds", not recovering, and ending up in a world of pain.

west ham for example used to be a yo-yo club in the early 90's - they've never gone that crazy with money but look at them now - well established in the prem for the last however many years.

the amount that west ham spent to keep themselves in the prem is far more significant than the amount of money west brom have spent. I do agree it's a risk, but this "safety first" tactic hasn't kept the baggies in the prem the last 2 times they should have at least *tried* to buy a bit more quality this season. hell, they could just spend more on their scouting network instead of transfer fees - look at wigan uncovering gems like palacios and figueroa from honduras

 

[Crystal Blue]

Relegated teams do also get 2 years worth of parachute payments to help ease the financial burden these days. Though I can't say what the full impact of that might be. I think in Birmingham's case because they bounced right back up at the first time of asking this season, they received a years worth and the planned second payment was redistributed to other lucky beneficiaries. Or at least that's what Karen Brady said happens with the second payment. The odd thing about it, is that they don't/didn't receive the first payment until the season was over instead of having it when the season began.

 

[blacksun]

the amount that west ham spent to keep themselves in the prem is far more significant than the amount of money west brom have spent. I do agree it's a risk, but this "safety first" tactic hasn't kept the baggies in the prem the last 2 times they should have at least *tried* to buy a bit more quality this season. hell, they could just spend more on their scouting network instead of transfer fees - look at wigan uncovering gems like palacios and figueroa from honduras

The problem with this strategy is if it doesnt work, and on numerous occasions with numerous teams, look at boro when they had ravanelli, juninho etc they still go down and have players on huge contracts who wont leave unless someone matches it and this can end up bankrupting a club, ala Leeds. Many teams are now so concerned with this that they would rather yoyo between the top 2 divisions than risk going bankrupt, which in the long run is probably the better strategy.

 

[S93]

The problem with this strategy is if it doesnt work, and on numerous occasions with numerous teams, look at boro when they had ravanelli, juninho etc they still go down and have players on huge contracts who wont leave unless someone matches it and this can end up bankrupting a club, ala Leeds. Many teams are now so concerned with this that they would rather yoyo between the top 2 divisions than risk going bankrupt, which in the long run is probably the better strategy.

This.
Better to spend just a fraction of the money Sunderland for example spend on players on improving the youth acdemy and scouting network then risk bankruptcy.

 

[blacksun]

This.
Better to spend just a fraction of the money Sunderland for example spend on players on improving the youth acdemy and scouting network then risk bankruptcy.

Which to be fair to Boro is what they are doing, bringing players thru into the 1st team year after year. They will offload a few of the big earners when they go down and bring more youth or freebies in and hope to get them back up.

 

[Gesshoo]

The thing is that no matter what you may spend, 3 teams will go down every year. The good thing to see is that almost every year 1 and sometimes 2 of the newcomers manage to stay up.

There is a top 7 or 8 next year that you can almost name right now - ManU, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Villa, Everton, Spurs (7).

Then there are teams in the middle section - West Ham, Fulham, Man City, Portsmouth (hopefully) (4).

Then there are the others - Birmingham, Wolves, SheffU/Burnley, Sunderland, Stoke, Hull, Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn (9)

There may be some movement between the areas but for the most part I think we can all agree this would not be any surprise.

So, you have 9 or 10 teams and 3 will go down. I know it is (a little) early but that won't be far off next season, IMO.

 

[beardyian]

There is a top 7 or 8 next year that you can almost name right now - ManU, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Villa, Everton, Spurs (7).

Then there are teams in the middle section - West Ham, Fulham, Man City, Portsmouth (hopefully) (4).

Then there are the others - Birmingham, Wolves, SheffU/Burnley, Sunderland, Stoke, Hull, Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn (9)

I would swap Spurs & Man City around - Spurs, well biased maybe (Harry ) but with the Summer window opening Man City should have a better idea of what to do and who to buy in, instead of just flashing the cash as before.

 

[jyow]

The thing is that no matter what you may spend, 3 teams will go down every year. The good thing to see is that almost every year 1 and sometimes 2 of the newcomers manage to stay up.

There is a top 7 or 8 next year that you can almost name right now - ManU, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Villa, Everton, Spurs (7).

Then there are teams in the middle section - West Ham, Fulham, Man City, Portsmouth (hopefully) (4).

Then there are the others - Birmingham, Wolves, SheffU/Burnley, Sunderland, Stoke, Hull, Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn (9)

There may be some movement between the areas but for the most part I think we can all agree this would not be any surprise.

So, you have 9 or 10 teams and 3 will go down. I know it is (a little) early but that won't be far off next season, IMO.

definitely a bit early to say considering the transfer window hasn't even opened yet but if i were to speculate i would say that villa probably won't be in the top 7 next year. They look very likely to lose barry in the summer and while I do rate martin o'neil as a manager, i don't think he'll be able to attract that sort of quality player as a replacement on top of adding good depth to the side. Also, teams will have them figured out by next season so it'll definitely be tougher.

the rest i agree with beardyian. maybe swapping portsmouth with blackburn who i do think can move up now that big sam has a transfer window to work with.

 

[Machidon7]

Tonight takes place the game between Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk, the last one of UEFA Cup before its latest facelift;hope it will be an memorable one :smile: and Shakhtar will win(their couch is a romanian Mircea Lucescu ,he couched Inter Milan in the past)....Almeida and Diego are out for Werder (the last one is a great lost for his team); Hübschman is out for Shakhtar (not a big lost )....a lot of money for the winner;the romanian couch waited for this game (this final)20 years ;his team has a few brasilians who played a lot togheter and they know well each other(Shakhtar payed for them over 50.000.000 $); all this make me think Shakhtar will win tonight:joyman:

 

[Worak]

Tonight takes place the game between Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk, the last one of UEFA Cup before its latest facelift;hope it will be an memorable one :smile: and Shakhtar will win(their couch is a romanian Mircea Lucescu ,he couched Inter Milan in the past)....Almeida and Diego are out for Werder (the last one is a great lost for his team); Hübschman is out for Shakhtar (not a big lost )....a lot of money for the winner;the romanian couch waited for this game (this final)20 years ;his team has a few brasilians who played a lot togheter and they know well each other(Shakhtar payed for them over 50.000.000 $); all this make me think Shakhtar will win tonight:joyman:

I agree that Werder Bremen will miss Diego but I'm not that sure about Donezk winning the final.
The Bremen players are 7cm taller than the Donezk players on the average, not sure what the Donezk defenders can do about that.

 

[S93]

Bremen got out classed to night imo.
Shaktar wanted it more and where more dangerouse going forward.
Bad mistake from the Shaktar keeper the only reason they got back into it....