Monday football thread
As Taggart once said 'Football bloody hell'.
Two very different london teams score two vey different late goals in two very different finals with the end result being victories for both.
I'll let DK and the rest talk about the Champions League final but as far as the play-off final went I've never enjoyed a game of football less than that. Apart from the two minutes when West Ham scored it was an absolutely nerve wrangling torturous 88 minutes. It was painful to watch made all the worse by Blackpool being the better team. But as we saw twice on Saturday it's not always about the better team winning.
West Ham winning meant I didn't even begrudge Chelsea winning which was a strange feeling. Still I got my schadenfreude fix with Tottenham now not being in the Champions League next season.
Football.
Thread not appearing correctly? Click here to rebuild | Report this
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
I've slept a bit and am sober for the first time in a little while
so have some more incoherent thoughts ...
- Just a brilliant day, all in. Glorious weather in Munich all day Saturday, got to have a few drinks with a really good friend I haven't seen in years, got to have a few more with a several thousand new friends, teaching a load of Bayern fans the bouncy on the Munich underground ... Perfect even before a ball was kicked.
- It's a really, really impressive ground, even if it does a little bit like the Michelin man took a giant shit.
- Bayern absolutely murdered us but made very few genuine chances. Gomez is another of those players with a formidable record who I've never personally seen play well. Pretty glad that continued.
- Picking Bertrand and then how Bertand played: the two biggest displays of balls I've seen at Chelsea in a long time.
- I've absolutely no time for anyone who doesn't still rate Cech as among the best 3 or 4 goalkeepers in the world. Yeah, maybe he's not as great as he once was, but that's only because of the ridiculous level he was once at. He's brilliant, an absolute hero.
- Didier Drogba. Didier fucking Drogba.
- Not really sure how I go back to normal life at work tomorrow. The last few days have been utterly surreal. I know Chelsea are a huge global corporate monster type thing now and that Chelsea have won a European Cup over the last few years isn't a huge surprise (although it is bizarre that it's this season in particular they managed it) to many, but it never even occured to me that I'd see my side lift the biggest trophy in club football when I was first shoved into a Chelsea shirt. Wow.
After Drogba rolled in his penalty i thought to myself.....
aye well, Daniel Kelly will be a happy man! :)
You're the only chelsea fan i know (even though we don't actually know each other)!
I really thought Cech had lost his nerve a few months ago
But his transformation under Di Matteo has been superb. They look like such a tight, professional outfit now.
If I was Hodgson, I'd be starting Terry, Cole and Cahill with Lampard holding in front, given how well they've done it in recent weeks.
Cole is a GREAT player, isn't he? Even if he's a massive douche.
Congrats pal
It made me want to throw up in my mouth but I'm well chuffed for you. Enjoy it.
Felt sick to my stomach when Drogba's penalty went in
Europa League again next season for us, and I'm sure Chelsea and Arsenal will strengthen as we get weaker. Feeling pretty low about football (especially with my "other team" Luton failing in the play-offs for the 3rd successive season yesterday too).
How can Di matteo NOT get the job?
Can someone answer me this?
He's done fantastically
but getting the senior players onside and galvanising this squad for 6 months is a completely different job from that facing whoever starts next season in charge.
Not saying he shouldn't get it, but I think it's a lot less nailed on than it would be if, say, the core of that side were 25.
You can point to his league form; 5 wins in 11.
Not a fair indicator, imo- the Liverpool and Newcastle games were effectively thrown in favour of CL football, while the Arsenal one would have been if only they'd managed to score. Losing to City at the Etihad, and very narrowly at that, is par for pretty much any club and manager now, too.
As benni says, the job he's had since March is not the job that that needs to be done from now on. He clearly had the ability to do the interim job and to an extremely high standard. Can he convince the board he can do the other job? Who knows.
Personally, I'm not convinced he can take us forward, but I'd 100% give him the job. There are two or three managers in football who are not gambles and WILL get you success. None of them are available. So we'll have to take a gamble. Why not take a gamble with the man who is Chelsea through and through, the players (most of them will still be there next season) like, won the FA Cup and the biggest trophy in club football?
all managers are gambles
some less so than others. Often the talk straight after finals is what players are going to be brought in, who will be the manager etc. Pardew made a good point on Saturday in saying that this can all be discussed next week, until then let the players and managers who performed heroics enjoy their moment in the sun rather than talking about who will replace them.
I'd say people like Mourinho and Ferguson aren't gambles at all
but we essentially mean the same thing. And I agree about the future- no need to discuss it yet.
Ferguson was a gamble when Man U hired him
Mourinho's probably the only successful journeyman manager (ie goes to a club for a couple of years, wins something, fucks off somewhere else, repeat)
Still, I bet the west brom chairman feels like a right moron
yep, because they replaced him with a rubbish manager and had a terrible season
You're being sarcastic, you scamp
judging by what happened to their last two managers
west brom is pretty much the perfect stepladder to greatness, right?
It was worse than that
Easily the most torturous sporting event I've ever endured full-stop, nevermind football. Don't think I even smiled when Vaz Te's goal went in, my eyes just slowly rolled back in their sockets and I fell into a deep sleep for the next 14 hours.
Missed the play-off final
Wish I'd missed the Champions League one as well. As much as I dislike Chelsea and didn't want Abramovich to win the cup, the game was so dull I actually stopped caring long before Bayern scored. I liked the coin toss for the penalty shoot-out, the ref did a sort of reverse backhanded catch. That was good. As was Luiz's penalty run up. Wish I'd watched it with some Spurs fans though.
Considering his run up
Luiz's pelanty was great. I was expecting him to blaze it over.
gonna post this here again:
http://i.minus.com/ibfg5PpWRW1qSR.jpg
The fact that he stripped off and put on the kit is the best bit
He must have only had a 5 minute window between Drogba's penalty and the presentation to get changed. WHAT a bellend
All four suspended players were in full kits.
All four suspended players trained at the Alliansz on Friday, and all four participated in training and tactical sessions during the week. I thought it was a nice touch, tbh- keep them all involved, make it all about the team. SO FUCK YOU, LUCIEN.
Yeah, there is that
But John Terry.
:DD
Didn't even realise he had! Was he the only lot out of the suspended players to do that? A-fucking-1.
If I was JT
I would wear shin guards and full body armour most of the time.
I could have sworn I saw him wearing a suit during the match
Don't make me watch the footage again. Anyway, given it could be argued his brainfart in Barcelona was almost as big an impediment to them getting their hands on the trophy as their final two opponents, it still takes some stones to swagger around like James Brown in his pomp at the presentation ceremony.
I think the important thing is that we all agree
that Bosingwa's absolute hogging of the limelight when the trophy was first handed over was sensational.
as was his little dance down the guard of honour.
great stuff.
His continued indifference to sorting out that unibrow
is up there in the unfathomability stakes with Lemmy never dealing with those warts. They've GOT the money. Take five minutes mate, make yourself look beautiful
Lemmy? make yourself look beautiful?
5 MINUTES????
I'm so annoyed that he gets to be happy and I don't
At least everyone else will enjoy Spurs' demise
WE'LL BE RUNNING ROUND TOTTENHAM WITH OUR EUROPEAN CUP
I feel a little bad for Spurs, tbh. I don't get too much satisfaction from stealing their CL spot.
See I can't even begrudge Terry that
and it feels very weird indeed. Happy for them.
I was cheering when Drogba's penalty went in
Still doesn't make John Terry seem less of a douche. Celebrate by all means, but push your way to the front of the line to lift the trophy? No.
Think I'm just cranky because this will cheapen the Tears of Terry moment, one of my most cherished sporting memories
Oh shit :(
Literally only just realised the implications of this for Tears of Terry. Oh man.
Hopefully he'll well up when the judge sends him down
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=vfgwag&s=6
John Terry seems to have annoyed an awful lot of people by celebrating
The man's an arse and, if it's true that he was wearing shinpads, clearly slightly unhinged, but the outcry is a bit much, no? Personally found it all pretty funny.
Whatever else you think of Terry, it's pretty clear that Chelsea means a lot to him, so it would have been a bit of a surprise for him not to celebrate the biggest night in their history. Yeah it was lacking in any humility or self awareness, though that surely surprises nobody, but of all the things to despise the man for, this should be a long way down the list
:') No shame, no remorse
http://www.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article841946.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Chelsea%27s+John+Terry+holds+the+trophy+at+the+end+of+the+Champions+League+final
Dear god
Lot of love for Didier Drogba
The fact that in the space of two crucial, knockout games against superior opponents he's managed to give away two penalties...and still be the hero. He's a lucky, lucky lad.
still waiting for a gif of him driving the cup around the pitch
and changing gear. I was with a lot of drunken mates, and at the time it was one of best things we had ever seen.
I just help but enjoy him. Despite his record against us
Consistently good value during trophy celebrations, too.
Also enjoyed Cech's interview where he saw Drogba was getting all the love and started, quite rightly, pointing out that he'd saved 3 penalties and gone the right way for the other 3.
There was a comment on the Guardian site where they asked Cech why he dived the way he did
Usually a keper just says 'Luck innit?' or something profound. Cech it turns out had watched 2 hours of Bayern penalties from 2007 onwards, studied every player and had it already worked out. With Robben, he figured that he was left footed, tired and looking for placement so that's why he went where he did.
Great deduction.
Blackpool were the better team in the second half...
...but they didn't bury their chances. You have to take your chances or you get beaten. And West Ham have got too much quality in their side to be wasteful in front of.
It was a horrible goal to see go in, in light of the wonderful football Blackpool played in the second half, but that's what profligacy in front of goal does for you. Football's a cruel business.
Well done York City.
v happy with this result, from a purely selfish point of view & also cos York are so much more likeable than Luton
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mba1sse8BP0
Thanks!
Beating Luton makes it that bit sweeter. Not being able to go to Wembley for the second year in a row as I was working doesn't.
Well done Montpellier
At the risk of sounding like David Brent
(didn't want to stay up, so...) I don’t think I’d want to swap avoiding relegation last season for what eventually happened – the year in the championship was in its own way far more enjoyable than another slog to survive in the premier league – admittedly easier to say knowing it’s only for a finite period.
But it’s like a good curry clearout – one of the last home PL games I went to last season lined up with a midfield of Luis Boa Morte, Jonathan Spector and Radoslav Kovac. FUCKING HELL. The club feels a little like it’s been detoxed.
How do you reckon you'll do next season?
I've not been convinced by West Ham this year but I think you had off-days both times you played Bristol City so I've probably got a skewed perspective.
Impossible to say really
You're not wrong that it never looked that convincing. There were maybe only a few more than half a dozen games where it all properly clicked - but most of them came in the last few weeks which is a good sign.
I wouldn't have chosen Fat Sam, but it's likely he would have been in charge whether they stayed up or not last year. But his caution probably suits staying up in the top division more than pounding away to win the championship.
Genuine answer though - no idea. Last promotion through the play-offs - with a team that probably on paper looked worse than the current one - finished the first season back in 9th and coming within a minute of winning the FA Cup. You can never tell
it will be strange in the prem
as I've just about got used to managers in post match interviews talking about how strong West Ham are, how quality the squad is and how they can't afford to match their financial muscle. And next season it will be the exact opposite and we'll be rejoicing picking up draws at home rather than moaning about it.
I didn't enjoy that aspect at all
Being considered a shambolic underachieving circus is much preferable to being the monolithic loadsamoney favourite all the time
Straw ^this poll: Which of the two below European Cup winning sides was better?
Feel free to expand if you feel it necessary.
Chelsea 2012
Not by much though
I'm mainly thinking of Kewell/Baros v Mata/Drogba and Ashley Cole v Djimi Traore
Liverpool 2005
Admittedly Liverpool were dire in the first-half v Milan
but coming back from 3-0 is damned impressive.
We're talking performance on the night rather than team in general, yeah?
I read it as player for player
If that's the case, definitely Chelsea.
Nah, just the better side
I think it's Chelsea by a long distance in that regard, but was more interested by what other people think.
Nunez, Biscan, Kewell
DJIMI BLEEDIN' TRAORE. Benitex should have burnt as a withc, that team should have been relgated
Neither
Radiohead
you didn't include
the team that won in '08?
the team that would have won it three times in four years if it wasn't for the best club side ever?
OH, OKAY.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Sorry.
John Terry crying in the Champion's League final?
no, he looked really happy. you must be thinking of Bastian Schweinsteiger.
I think you've really misunderstood what I was getting at.
yup
are you talking about teams that won despite poor league campaigns, maybe?
just twigged
okay. Chelsea, definitely.
found it really hard to watch the champions league final on telly
much easier being there. not going to lie, i avoided the penalties completely. probably the reason we won, along with my lucky shirt, not going to munich and having chips for lunch that day (trust me).
i think mikel and ashley cole both had great games on saturday night.
really glad west ham won on saturday. spoken to a few people about this and they seem mystified, but i'd much rather play west ham than blackpool twice a season...
Blackpool would be better if you knew you could go on a proper
WAHEY LAD weekend trip to the seaside in August. But you just know the away game will be on a pissing Tuesday night in January.
Watched the Champions League final in a bar where there were a group of drunk Hull City fans being absolute dicks to everyone around.
And loudly proclaiming their hatred of Chelsea. And, for reasons I'm still to fathom, their love of Liam Rosenior.
In any case, the absolutely gutted look on their faces when Chelsea got the last minute goal, Munich missed the penalty and then Chelsea won made my night.
I do sometimes wonder at the mentality of football fans and where they choose to watch games
I was in the Elbow rooms for a stag do on Saturday, where 7 skin head West Ham shirt wearing men were also watching the game. They mainly spent 2 hours shouting 'Fucking CUNT' at the telly in an environment full of young Shoreditch folk playing pool (not including us, obvs).
I just can't fathom WHY they'd choose that place to watch the game? They barely had the sound on, the screen was tiny and there was no atmosphere whatsoever. Baffling...
See my post above - it was quite similar.
I was in the downstairs of a bar on Denmark Street. Most of us there watching it were neutrals enjoying the game and it wasn't that busy and quite expensive - I only was in there 'cos I was playng a gig across the road so it was convenient; it's not somewhere you'd go by choice.. The 8 or so massively anti-Chelsea Hull fans were really, really incongruous.
yeah my pub of choice was full of Hull cunts
maybe everywhere else was too packed?
to the point where they couldn't see the tv.
i watched it on my phone in the pub.
http://tinyurl.com/cnxakj2
WAAAAAHbulance for Torres
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18139581
(Great choice of photo)
The person in charge of putting up photos on BBC Sports
is doing some GREAT trolling of late
Can somebody shut Eden Hazard up, please?
Can't find a Youtube clip
but Eden Hazard just makes me think of that bit in Father Ted where Dougal's trying to decide what he'd do if he had three wishes and just gets stupidly enthusiastic about whatever Ted suggests...
The moon rises but twice above the jade monkey. EH
Something that annoyed me about the playoff final
They played We Are The Champions at the end. They categorically are not the champions.
The winner gets a trophy as well - but the team that finishes second doesn't.
In reality though, it's supposed to be considered a separate mini-tournament to see who goes up rather than anything to do with the league - the actual finishing places are already decided so Blackpool would still be considered to have finished 5th regardless of whether they won at the weekend.
So the champions thing isn't entirely inaccurate, even if looks - and is - a remarkably stupid choice of song
We (Sheffield Wednesday) got a trophy for finishing 2nd in L1
https://twitter.com/#!/LiamPalmer12/status/200275604820594688/photo/1
I'm only basing it on all the whingey Saints fans on Twitter
asking where their trophy is.
The FL need to give the baby its rattle
I'm 97% sure Saints got a trophy for 2nd place this season
and 1000% sure that they got one last season too
Mario Gomez urges gay footballers to come out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/nov/11/germany-bayern-mario-gomez-gay-footballers
Any Bolton fans know how much Klasnic was on?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2147457/Ivan-Klasnic-wanted-Sheffield-Wednesday.html
20-30ish, maybe?
to be honest I have no idea.
He will score about 1000 in the championship, mind.
I don't think he'd come anyway
But we shouldn't be breaking the bank for a 32 year old.
yeah
his downfall is his fitness - won't last 90 minutes but is an excellent super-sub.
Wonder what he'd be like with two working kidneys because to be honest he has to be one of the best finishers in the world. No I'm not kidding.
Did Bolton let him go? I thought he'd decided to leave.
This was from about 2 years ago.
Fair play to him though. Doubt it'll ever happen.
I'm with Lahm on this one
They'd get eaten alive. The last thing a gay player needs is added pressure being heaped on them by fellow professional do-gooders. Just let 'em alone.
oops.
Someone shared it with me, didn't check the date.
If only they'd thought to put it in the URL
I knew it would be you who popped up here.
Lukaku rinsing AVB in an interview.
https://twitter.com/#!/offcrabtree
Amazing link fail
https://twitter.com/#!/touchlinedrama
:-D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQN-jnAa8vA
Droggy Boots driving the CL trophy, changing gear on 17 seconds.
<3
thank you for making my day
again
Just been asked if I wanted to play football at the reebok on thurs
I can't make it.
Gutted face.
Trial for next season?
Most remarkable thing from Saturday night
was that ITV didn't fuck anything up.
How many times did Tyldesley say you wouldn't miss a second of it?
I was waiting for a fuck up and it wasn't coming so I turned over just before Drogba stepped up and turned back 30 seconds later, did it go in?
lukaku;
I could not stand how he was treating me. In training, he put me on the right or left wing. I really learned nothing! I have told the club that too
bit weird. sturridge and torres have been out 'on the wing' this season, and its pretty typical but put a young striker on either side in the ressies/training to help with their technique.
he was basically playing right wing
against blackburn in the last game of the season. put in three outstanding crosses and all. nice one AVB.
another triumph!
It takes a very, very special club to win the Champions League five times,
and unfortunately, Bayern just aren't special enough.
Well done to Chelsea, they fully deserved it.
We've been turned down by another manager. :'(
Who was it today?
de boer i think
Wasn't that for DoF?
dalglish
george weah's cousin
would you be adverse to solksjaer?
he's a liverpool fan, after all.
Yesh
but I really like him so I want to see him back in England. Wanted him to get the Villa job.
Steve King, who left Lewes (twice), Northwich and Farnborough in shady circumstances, appointed Macclesfield manager.
Really doesn't fill me with confidence. He seems to have a decent track record in terms of results, but that fact that he's had eight pretty successful years at Lewes and none of their fans have a positive word to say about him says a lot.
Apparently he's an Altrincham secret agent.
Sad that Hamshaw and others seem to have been informed BY POST that their contracts were not being renewed.
Yeah, it's sad that Hamshaw gone at all, but not even a phone call?
Maybe it's because there's manager or assistant manager to do it. Who else has been released?
Only know about about Hamshaw and Jack Cudworth for certain
Imagine there will be quite a few more.
this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bZzjyuVyvU
'IT'S HIS DESTINY' :'D
Cundy is such a bellend :')
^ this.
sit in the same places, SIT IN THE SAME PLACES
frank sinclair is proper annoying too
wouldn't like to watch football with him.
As much as I hate football sometimes
Watching stuff like this always makes me laugh
Still not over it
I'm going to give you updates every day. We could obviously keep Modric at the club if we wanted to, but honestly, I don't think it's in the club's best interests anymore. He'll be 27 by the time next season comes round, his chances to play in the Champions League are running out, and I just think, if we keep him at the club, he'll be too resentful to be effective. Hopefully we can get a decent figure for him and invest the money wisely. Apparently we're looking at Kwadwo Asamoah - if that's true, it can only be as a replacement for Luka. Bale will stay, I think, at least until the end of next season. Vertonghen still wants to come, which is something at least. Next season is going to be so fucking hard - even if we start it well, I'll know that can count for absolutely fuck all.
Also, Adenayor has tweeted today that he's negotiating a permanent move to Spurs
Or rather; IamnegotiatingapermanentmovetoTottenham
Dunno how I feel about that
He ended the season well, so it's easy to focus on the good stuff, but he also had long, long periods of doing nothing much but sloppily gifting possession to the opposition. If he can stay focused on a match to match basis, he could be a great signing, but people have been saying similar things his whole career. Realistically, I can't see him being worth whatever it is we manage to negotiate him down to.
Aye, much as I dislike him, he's a brilliant player when he can be bothered
Obviously you'll have seen more of him, but I'd say he's worth keeping as much for the space he creates for others as for anything he actually does with the ball, though I guess it depends on quite how silly his wage demands are.
pretty much this^
Modric is definitely off and whilst it's going to be a big blow hopefully we can get a decent replacement with the money. Don't think Bale will leave either.
If we had got Champs league next year then i wouldn't have wanted us to sign Ade as we could have got someone better. As it is i can't see anyone decent wanting to come to us.
Next season is going to be pointless. I fucking hate football
We've gone back to looking at Leandro Damiao, according to today's papers
Obviously don't know much about him, but from what I've seen, he seems to be almost the opposite of Adebayor - not the classiest of players, but gives his all every match, which I'd very much prefer. Regardless, picking up someone from South America, who'll see a move to the Premier League as a step up whether we're in the Champions League or not, could be the way to go. Would also (having mentioned my preference for grafters) absolutely love to see Berbatov return.
lol, I also would love to see Berbatov back,
it's probably a realistic target now as well.
As for Leandro i haven't seen enough of him, but if that works out half as well as the Sandro move has then why not.
Great bit of business
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18150824
wtf
like a new signing
Baffled
I like how people say he had a seven minute season, but actually 3 of those were spent carting him off the pitch
Unconfirmed Barca away kit from Nike's outstanding line-up this year:
https://p.twimg.com/AtbaL1bCAAMHRr0.jpg
hell of a tanline, that.
Surely not.
That's what I thought when the United kit first leaked.
looks bloody awful
remind me of a Red Nose Day nose of old
This season's black effort was lovely and smart
This is the polar opposite of that.
Soccer Aid line-up is a bit rubbish this year
Martin Keown, Teddy Sheringham, Des Walker, Kevin Phillips, David Seaman, Edwin van der Sar, Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Roy Keane, Hernan Crespo, Clarence Seedorf.
no one else will care
but Norwich are basically already fucked for next season
y?
Grant Holt seems to have had some personal issue and wants to leave immediately
the longer other premier league teams don't get managers the more likely Lambert will be away.
On the plus side, we released Zak Whitbread and Aaron Wilbraham.
Bolton kit to be sponsored by Adidas next season
ending a 22-year association with Reebok...the longest kit partnership in British football history
The ... Stadium?
reebok still has stadium rights.
a sad day for fans of kit partnerships all over the country.
wigan shortly to follow suit :(
literally crying into my 93/94 away strip right now.
guys
CHELSEA WON!?!?!