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Wednesday Football Thread
Congratulations to Reading, who secure promotion to the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Forest. West Ham's draw keeps their automatic promotion hopes more 'just breathing' than 'alive'. Alive, conversely, is what their opponents Bristol City look to be after results elsewhere.
Bayern secure a late 2-1 win over a fairly poor-looking Real side in what threatened to be a quite ill-tempered game. Real are probably slight favourites to go through.
A few journos make a big deal out of some fairly innocuous Fabregas quotes, which is odd really seeing as Dani Alves was fairly openly an arrogant cunt in a direct interview just a little while earlier. Lot's of 'we're not scared' and 'we respect them' rhetoric emanating from the respective camps. Heart says a 2-2 draw tonight, head says that's not *impossible* but that we're going out big-style either tonight or next week anyway, so what does it matter ...
AOB?
tonights prediction?
Not with rune stones or anything..
I reckon, unfortunately, that it'll be Chelsea 1 Barce 2, possibly 3.
I don't agree with the seeming consensus
that this Barca team is better than the one we faced in 2009. We're talking the slightest of slights here because they're obviously still a stupendously good team, but I think the 2009 side was more terrifying in itself. Chelsea, on the other hand, are considerably and indisputably worse than they were in 2009. That's what unnerves me going into this game.
We're going out, and probably by three or four clear goals imo. But if I squint really hard, I can just about see a respectable result tonight (we'll lose 0-7).
Kingstonian 1-1 Hendon (Kingstonian win 5-3 on penalties)
Didn't think Alves was too bad either was he? (Assuming this is the Sid Lowe interview)
Basically said Chelsea had seemed hesitant and defensive rather than trying to kill them off at when a goal and a man up at Stamford Bridge, but because it was translated as 'fear' the rest of the media leapt on it and turned it into "'Chelsea shit themselves lol' Roars Cocky Alves".
Thought he came across quite well in the rest of that interview too. He's obviously pretty impressed with himself and a bit of a pillock on the pitch, but that hardly makes him a one-off in football, plus he's really bloody good.
Yes, but he has rape eyes.
You're right, he wasn't that bad. I'd suggest that, if you had your heart set on shit-stirring and/or being offended, that his quotes press the better buttons though.
Essentially I was defending Fabregas. But you Arsenal supporters are NEVER happy, are you?!!
He does have rape eyes, you make a good point
Also he should stop wearing shirts with skinny ties, it makes his head look unfeasibly large.
(And no, not till everybody in football admits that we're the only ones who play the game the right way and apologises for all their underhand tactics like tackling and spending money)
.
I still didn't really understand why he has an office.
i don't understand it.
but i like it.
.
I agree with this, thought he came off OK. I mean, compare it with Balotelli saying he takes Tevez as an inspiration for work ethic...
.
Supposed to be a reply to benni..damn site.
Disappointing game last night, i thought.
Can't see how tonight's will be. Either Chelsea will be good or they'll be horrid. Either their plastic supporters will have their little plastic flags our or they'll be on the team's back. Either Barca will dish out a footballing lesson or they'll have a wobble. Any of those things, for one reason or another, would be entertaining.
Stating the obvious, perhaps, but if Chelsea prevent Barca scoring them they've got a chance, they'll certainly score themselves in Spain. Fail to do that, though, and it *should* more or less be over.
Win/win for them, though. They'd have never dreamt of getting this far after being ripped apart in Naples. If they were playing anyone else but Barca i'd probably want them to progress, but i couldn't face the prospect of seeing them ruin another final. In the interests of the general public, it has to be Bayern v Barca.
Whether it be tonight or next Tuesday, we're going to be dismantled.
Fairly sure of it. And I can't say I'm not bothered- it'll be thoroughly miserable to sit through. But I essentially agree with you. Getting to the semi-finals is an achievement for all but the two Spanish sides who start the season with winning the CL as a minimum requirement.
I'm not too greedy, I won't ask for a win tonight. Just a respectable score draw. Being dismantled away never feels quite as bad as receiving a home dicking.
the fake plastic chelsea fans
with their fake plastic chelsea flags
and fake fra-aaaaaank leboeuf
i was gutted to have not been there last night
we were stuck in a rehearsal room checking the scores and it was great when we won, but a bit of an anticlimx of a promotion really. i Kind of want the title to go down to the last day of the season but i also want to just have it won.
re: Alves
DanielKelly in wholeheartedly believing something a footballer said in the press shocker...
this question occurred to me, apropros of nothing in particular -
do you reckon any footballers read DiS football threads? like premiership footballers.
Not sure many of them read at all.
I guess it's possible that some of the more evolved specimens managed to search for something resembling their names when desperately smashing their palms against their keyboards.
I know that a few Chelsea players occasionally browsed a Chelsea forum I use in the past, don't know if any of them still do.
i doubt many even read their club-specific forums, tbh.
why would you, you earn enough money to do whatever you want, get loads of chicks, and people are going to slag you off whatever you do.
i remember Micah Richards signing up to a City forum during his first season, just so people could ask him questions and stuff.
yeah but tbh
90% of the young footballers seem to finish training and bugger off home to watch tv and play on their iphones or pay fifa or something. Im sure they an find time to do a bit of internet surfing.
I mean look how many of them tweet obsessively. Before twitter you can bet they were checking on the internet to see what people were saying about them.
no, but as ex-Prem players go, Ugo Ehiogu might do.
seeing as he manages Little Comets, so may have reason to come to the site for promotion.
so THAT'S why people go to Little Comets gigs.
except for Gareth Barry under one of his many psuedonyms?
Nicky Shorey writes for the Guardian
pretty sure that's as good as it gets.
*Danny Murphy
he's tweeted while Danny Murphy's been playing before
so it's not him
hmmmm
maybe it is Shorey then. He's always been my 'second choice'.
it wouldn't be hard to get someone at the guardian to tweet for him would it...
Mark fucking Hudson eh
You see plenty more of those goals nowadays dontcha - or maybe that's just the 'more games are filmed' 101gg instant-global-highlight effect
When Reading went down my dad said it was a sign we were going up
As there's only room for one Super Hoops in the Premiership.
He was a few years out, but I guess that nails our relegation too
Still can't get over the Wigan result
FUCKING ARSENAL
watch them lose 4 - 0 to Fulham in their next game
now they've beaten Man U and Arsenal
Yes please
Chelsea will need a 2 goal lead minimum after tonight
to stand any chance of going through. Just cant see it happening.
igoogle tells me that...
'di matteo 'eyes' two perfect legs'. Who is that hottie on the Chelsea bench anyway? Not Torres, the other one.
presume you mean Eva Carneiro, the doctor?
you should probably log in on your other account to post sexist stuff pal
show me your tits and i will
A few times on here I've suggested that teams shouldn't get any points for 0-0 draws
In light of Forest staying up I hereby retract my argument.
they lost 1-0, champ.
Think they've played more than one game this season
I'll check though.
Excellent Harry Redknapp story from the guardian media diary
Derek McGovern, who helped write Harry's autobiography, tells the football magazine FourFourTwo of an interview with Redknapp as the manager indulged his other passion, horse-racing at Sandown. "Halfway through, his mobile phone went," says McGovern. "It was his wife Sandra, worried sick, telling him that his infant grandchild had swallowed Flash detergent – and asking him what she should do. He said: 'Have you tried mopping the floor with him?'
Papiss Cisse
What a nice man
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/9209010/Newcastle-Uniteds-Papiss-Demba-Cisse-surprises-young-fans-with-home-visit.html
Though I don't know why they pointlessly bring up his religion in the article. Is it one of the pillars of Islam to visit 7 year old boys on their birthdays?
hnnghghghgh
*must not make catholicism joke*
what a legend
:)
between this and Ba's strawberry syrup addiction
we've got some fucking lovable strikers up here at the moment
a word for Ceefax.
before the internet/24hr sky sports news came along, Ceefax was the shit. i can't remember if it was Ceefax or Aertel (Irish equivalent) where i read that Bergkamp had signed for Arsenal and started dancing around the house. happy, innocent times.
waiting for a 14-page thread to load up 13 times. refreshing the latest scores. putting it on half-text, half-tv. enduring image, isn't it?
transfer deadline day was best.
when i was younger i'd just sit there watching the transfer page all day...and writing them all down, as ya do.
the worst thing was when you used it to keep up to date with scores, and you'd think you'd equalised or even taken the lead, but it was just a bit of fuzz making it go haywaire...
M@NC##3T* C%£Y 9-2 A!!"N VI(&A
i remember the C4 wrestling one
which was a mix of news from a month ago and fans sending in rumours/gossip. i still remember the one from Darren, 8 who had heard Owen Hart was going to win the WWF title, 4 months after he'd died.
i remember
going mad excited for football results, grabbing the remote from my brother 308 (3rd division) or 303 (Prem) and then on odd days they'd change the latest scores to 304 or 317 or something unusual and there wasn't anything on 303 so the numbers just went round again and ahhhhh no!!! try 305 (1st division) nothing... before resorting to 302 main page... ahhh it's on 309 ?! maybe just me?
the best ones were when you'd flick through and see some whopping scores (Gillingham 6-1 Barnet) and be all wow and others where the screen was littered with red text and both sides had been reduced to 9 men in the space of 5 minutes and you'd try and piece together the sequence of events without knowing anything about the game
I followed England's 0-0 qualifying match against Italy for World Cup 98
Just sat there waiting for it to update for well over 90 minutes (TV in the background obvs)
:D
in stitches here.
or watching the live scores on 303
which might be 3 pages long, then you check back later and you go straight to page 4/4 and you're like OMG SOMETHING AMAZING HAS HAPPENED IN A GAME ON PAGE 1 2 OR 3!
i meant 316 obviously (i think)
312 was pretty much the olden days equivalent of the opening post of the daily football thread on the drownedinsound website
:D
Finding out that Jamie Carragher had scored for Liverpool on his full debut against Villa...
...and being convinced it was a typo/o.g. because I'd never heard of him and he wasn't on the squad poster I had in my room for that season.
Nipped over to teletext and it said the same thing. Had to wait wait for 7 hours to watch MOTD to find out what the hell was going on.
Great days.
Elgin City 7 (SEVEN) - 0 Brechin
Liverpool sign 'highly rated' English player
for £300,000. Presumably a typo in their initial bid of £30m.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17755809
We've been scouting him for a year.
Everything was agreed between the clubs, but he reportedly asked for a (relatively) obscene amount of money, so we let him go elsewhere.
They've got a few that Premier League sides are looking at again - Nick Powell, Harry Davis, Luke Murphy...
They'd be fuckind mad to go to City, truth be told, or pretty much any top six side bar possibly Arsenal.
Youth academies are a mad thing
There's something irritating about the fact that they seem to be set up to produce a profit from player sales rather than to generate players for their clubs. 'Good' academies don't seem to have done Crewe/Forest/Southampton* much good.
*Maybe worked quite well for Southampton. Maybe.
Jack Cork seems to be doing ok
Didn't really earn Chelsea all that much after ~12 years of investment.
Since the youth development agreement went through
smaller clubs don't even have the profit motivation to keep their academies going. It's a really sad state of affairs.
it really is.
could have disastrous consequences for clubs who rely on their academies to survive. Watford, for instance.
What's the youth development agreement?
set fees for the syphoning of young players.
and a relaxing of the catchment area rules.
it basically means a top club can pinch any player they want, irrespective of location, and for ridiculously low compensation (£3k-£40k for each year they've been at their club).
There's a description of it here
http://www.fsf.org.uk/news/EPPP-and-why-youth-development-matters.php
Not sure why the reported fee for Smith seems to exceed the compensation you would expect under the structure outlined.
i don't think it's come into place yet.
but yeah, they could probably wait til next season and save £100k or so, but there are a few clubs after him, and not all of them are thoroughly mid-table outfits, so...
I have a theory
that the bigger clubs will abandon their academies, or at least massively downscale them, in the next 10-15 years. They're financial blackholes- very, very rarely do the likes of Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool see any return (never mind profit/gain, be it on the pitch or financially) for their youth investment. The new youth development agreement is paving the way towards that, imo.
i think they might be outsourced in the future
as in academies will be run seperately to clubs (private acadamies or FA sponsored ones), and the academies will sell players on to clubs.
Or academies buying into lower league/non-league clubs
Hoddle's academy in Spain bought a controlling stake in a 3rd division Spanish club that were going out of business with the idea of syphoning players into it and selling them on.
the sooner we allow b-teams in the Football League the better.
can hear it now "Nottingham Forest 0, Manchester City Elite Development Squad 8".
going a few steps further
how about applying that idea to the future education system whereby Academies produce talented wellrounded youngsters to sell on to businesses as a key skilled workforce?
Toyota do something like that i believe.
Edging closer towards an American-style farm team system.
Doni will spend the next three weeks starting for the Whitehaven Fightin' Irish to work on his shot stopping.
Bebe has been sent out to the Great Yarmouth Hornets until the end of the season to give him a chance at first team football.
etc.
itd keep Aboynamedgoo busy
*Bebe has been sent out to the Great Yarmouth Hornets until the end of the season to give him a chance at football.
wayne hennessey out for Wolves at the weekend
another bit of luck going Man City's way.
Out for six months apparently.
Poor guy.
But it means he might not attract any bids this summer, and so he'll get to stay at Wolves.
...oh hang on.
little sub thread: players that leave teams about to get relegated/promoted from the prem/champ to the champ/prem.
noticed jason roberts is on his way back to the premiership after leaving blackburn in the window. reminded me of some players who leave championship teams to play in the prem for a few months before going back down.
maybe not that interesting really...
Roger Johnson
I'd feel sorrier for him if he wasn't so obviously a complete cockend
he went at the end of the season tho.
its more about players who try to hit the big time by leaving a club that are about to get promoted for a team that are about to relegated. why? for a few months of glory? pointless.
Gorkss
was Leigterwood QPR too?
he was yeah, and Connolly's on loan at Reading too
but I think Leigterwood went to Reading before we got promoted
i'm just happy i spelt his name correctly.
I'm still working out how to pronounce it..
i thought it was Lay-ter-wood
in the Reading-Leeds game it was Liege-Er-Wood (like standard liege).
can't wait to hear John Motson's verdict.
we always just called him Legs
often combined with that nickname's most popular prefix *You're fucking shit*
steven dobbie got promoted on loan with blackpool
went home to swansea, got promoted with them. played about 3 games in the premier league, got sent back to blackpool. i'd be pretty gutted.
Marvin Sordell
Hasn't even played for Bolton. Fucking stupid.
Oh
That's not what you're talking about at all. Still: fuck you, Verbal.
i didn't know Martin Allen had gone back to Barnet
that's messed up
pretty much.
It's utterly insane isn't it?
Lawrie Sanchez is very obviously a prick so it's hard to be too sympathetic but it's insane nonetheless.
Delighted Bristol City are so close to being safe.
Trying not to take too much schadenfreude from potentially denying the team Nicky Maynard left us for their place in the Premier League.
absolutely disgusting;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIGmgN7vte4
FIFA should be doing more to stop this kind of behaviour. bans from european competition would be a good start.
How do you know it's racially-motivated?
Besiktas fans have done the same to Turkish-nationals in the past.
Cahill 50/1 to score first with Stan James
Incredible value
bet365 have 500/1 on man city to win 9-0 on sunday
not bad, reckon it'll be the first double figures match myself but i'm getting a fiver on that
BIG GAME. Big big big massive game.
Game of the season, game.
I hate football on ITV.
for fuck sake fabregas, just whack it
Waiting for Clive to say
"he IS human"
when messi fucks up
Incredible pass from Lampard for the goal there
Is that what Tyldesley said?
Didn't even mention him, that's why I said something
Tyldesley was just making up puns about Drogba being on the floor a lot.
great moment
i was punching air, for chelsea. weird feeling
DROGBAAAAAA
someone told a story about snoop playing fifa backstage at glastonbury...
anyway, that is whose voice I heard in my head why drogba scored.
fantastic pass from lamps for the goal.
*...told a story a couple weeks back....
meireles needs to stop trying the hollywood balls
Seem to be coping fairly well.
We've got massively lucky with Fabregas and Sergio's balls up's though..
great goal
drogba spent more time unnecessarily on the ground in that half
than busquets has in his entire career.
ah well
yh but you're still a leeds fan
cretins!
this from the guardian live feed
"I can't be alone surely in thinking that Barcelona and their ethos are ruining football," squawks John Norris. "Ever since their ascendency it would appear that their style of play has to be the epitome or new benchmark of how the game should be played. Not for me. Every move is seemingly whooped over and analysed as some cerebral majesty for which plebeians fans should aspire to comprehend. It is football as an intellectual exercise for university educated scruffs to wank over and anyone who does not unquestioningly applaud it is viewed as a Neanderthal. Someone to be pitied. Where is the passion? Where is the power? Where is the excitement? It's nowhere. And yet Barcelona way, we are told, is the only way. It's so dull and worthy.
Football wouldn't be so bad if everyone who used 'passion' as a primary positive was shot on sight
Drogba should be wearing a troll face mask.
Drogba's really taking the piss now
He does realise that no-one actually believes he's hurt right?
but he was hurt in the dick
This is such a fucking boring game
chelsea are just stoke with the ultimate cunt up front
it was intriguing and chelsea played it perfectly
further to this, they're going to beat you this weekend, hopefully playing more or less the same way
nah it was shit
lol.
Director finding as many anxious looking Barca fans as possible
JUST 95 MINUTES (PLUS THREE SETS OF INJURY TIME) TO SAVE THEIR SEASON
Chelsea are going to get spanked away aren't they
the is no way Barcelona are going to waste that many chances again
christ
pretty boring match, but very good performance from chelsea.
combination of very good defending, and a barcelona performance that was far from vintage, and being very fortunate that barcelona were championship standard in converting the chances they inevitably would get.
still very confident that barcelona should see them off at home, but an away goal and that'll change.
messi had one of the worst big-game performances i've seen him have, though that was more to do with chelsea than anything. still showed his quality at times
pretty funny to hear the cheating chants from Chelsea considering Drogba has displayed the qualities they apparently despise from busquets etc, consistently more than anyone in england over the past 7/8 years.
sorry nestor but you're talking rubbish
what do you disagree with there
It wasn't at all boring
fair enough
dont see what else is wrong there.
and i only said boring after the last 25 or so minutes in which i think the game flattened quite a bit, barca werent their usual selves and didnt offer much attacking-wise, so in that period i dont think there was an interesting defensive/tactical performance to watch, just a flat end to the game - the chance hitting the post aside
overall i take it back though
also, in terms of it being a 'defensive masterclass'
whilst it was good, that was the flattest i've seen barcelona attack almost all season, and no better than they were against levante - i think a fair few decent teams would have held barcelona based on the performance
and still, barcelona could have had 3/4 goals if it wasnt for their own inadequacies tonight.
idk, any david/goliath match where the underdog wins
is gonna be pretty entertaining. interesting that barcelona bottled it at the bridge. chelsea playing a really disciplined game. Barca very very rarely loose. ramires's performance. drogba's theatricals. Amazing match for the neutral. even better for me.
(sorry for being bullish about it)
who are ya? who are ya/
I'm pretty sure that they meant that ironically..
I hope so, anyway.
:D
incredible trolling from Chelsea
:D "Same old Barca, always cheating"
Are you sure it's pronounced Gwadriola Roy?
Why didn't I bet on it
I had it on my betslip and then thought nah fuck it and closed the window. Why do I do that :'''''(
Fascinating game for me
Organised defence took an opportunity to break and score (with an amazing cross) and held firm for a half. Really tactically engaging.
I mean I hate Chelsea and all that but if you call that boring, fuck the fuck off
it was like a great NFL game then
two games where 1 goal is definitely not enoughq
fucking love semi-finals
Andrian Chiles needs to STFU IMMEDIATELY though
Andrian the Giant
who let the drog out
(hu hu huhu)
The manager's done fantastic.
Jay-Z's laugh
Enjoyed watching that.
Favourite bit: Puyol showing Terry his hurt wrist and Terry grabbing the exact spot. Schoolboy stuff but totally hilarious.
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1067343/ow.gif
amazing giffage
can't stop watching this
Superb performance from Chelsea
they are, however, going to get absolutely caned in the second leg.
of course
but its a good moment.
I kinda want a Bayern-Chelsea final now so Chelsea/English media can get a chub-on for a London team vs. Germany's biggest team IN GERMANY.
won't happen though, maybe one but not t'other