Thursday interim football thread
Rafa gets cross; BBC describes him as "erudite". It was no Kevin Keegan "I would love it..."
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http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/gif-joey-barton-tells-zlatan-ibrahimovic-he-has-a-big-nose/
:DDD
As a man with a large, LARGE nose, I can say there's nowt better than some irredeemable scrote who couldn't get anywhere close to you at any facet of existence trying desperately to get a rise by pointing out something that's really exceedingly obvious to everyone within a 5-mile radius.
Barton v Zlatan would be interesting
big graceful swedish martial artist vs plucky never say die english brawler
It would be like when Ozymandias atomises Rorschach at the end of Watchmen
Fucking hate it when Barton does this.
...appears genuinely likeable/funny, luring you into thinking "Is he really that bad?". It's like with the Lampard thing, or sacrificing himself to ensure Man City won the title, or the Frenglish accent, you can't help but love him at times...then he'll do something completely fucking stupid.
Like repeatedly kicking and punching a floored, unconscious man,
or stubbing out a cigar in a child's eye, or smashing another child's teeth out.
eugh, he's a horrible human being
and that comes off as really desperate and insecure.
zlatan's superior in every single way.
Wouldn't be surprised if that was the end of Benitez at Chelsea.
Mixed feelings, really. On the one hand, he's a pretty unlikeable guy who doesn't really help himself. On the other, he's probably right, it was always a fucking weird appointment, and Chelsea fans are sub-human scum.
Zola or Poyet in to clinch 4th before being replaced by a more experienced, probably unpopular man in the summer. Joke club.
Having listened to it...
...I can't really disagree with anything he says about the arrangement. Although, as DanielKelly and I were discussing yesterday - why on earth did he walk into it? Hiding to nothing and all that.
A strange man in a strange situation. This rant hasn't done him any favours at all.
^ this
there's not much said that he didn't know (or shouldn't have known) before he took the job.
Unlikeable?
i've always found him quite likeable.
although that has been more when he hasn't been in management.
I've not really been keeping up with the Chelsea Circus of late.
Has he had an on camera meltdown on the same scale as his 'I have seen some facts' from his time at Liverpool?
I'm not sure if he said the same to the cameras
but this was on five live. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21611064
That really isn't that 'amazing', is it?
basically the bbc response was
"ummmm benitez is in troublllllle" (like in the voice of an eight-year-old)
The two don't seem that comparable...
...the paper waggling one was his concocting something mental out of nothing other than his own sense of paranoia. This is a pretty accurate summation of his situation, albeit one which suggests he's probably madder than ever.
Spot on.
Poor Benitez.
You could see how hard he'd been working on appearing calm and sane during press conferences and post-match interviews. For a little while I really thought he'd manage to keep it up until May.
Always nice to see a kid get their debut, especially when they give a pretty solid display. Only thing of real note in last night's game, tbh.
Nathan Ake?
How did he do?
All right.
He was deep in midfield against a team with no real threat until the 80th minute and some of the worst form in the league, but he looked comfortable and he'll probably be satisfied with that as his first professional 90 minutes.
good lad!
first of many, hopefully
Purple Ake
I'm sure it's very nice for Ake to get his first start,
but where the fuck is Nortei Nortei?
Worth a follow on twitter that lad. Quite amusing and
Bale is a joke of a player but never been a Ronaldo #steaddddyy
Half my post missing here. Makes it quite funny tho..
very nortei ah ah ah ah ah
he's a good
Well done Rafa
Hope he stays till the end of the season, but starts dressing really scruffily and playing with his phone during games.
I'm not sure he's got scruffy in him.
Look at that beard. This is a man with a strict grooming regime.
I watched some youtube compilations of Franco Baresi
he was pretty good.
One of the boys from a couple years above me at school used to call me Franco Baresi
I've never worked out why.
it's a cool name.
There was a lad at our school called Malcolm.
We called him Malcolm van Basten.
link us up dr. youtube.
The verdict on the Rangers undisclosed payments case is due at noon.
No idea which way that'll go.
Not talking about last night then?
:/
Complacent bastards. I couldn't find a decent stream, so I'm only going by commentary, but it sounds like ambrose was a wally re. the second 'well goal. I'm starting to not like him v much. Exquisite to have big shag samaras back though. Am I the only boy who thinks he's magic? (probably)
On the rangers case, I am following with interest....
*bhoy
Contrary to popular belief, I am in fact a girl and not a fat trucker called mike.
Not a lot to say about last night, really.
From what I hear some people didn't look very interested, which might be understandable but not excusable.
Love Samaras though, genuinely think he's absolutely unique. Like an alien that's been taught to play football, and half the time can't quite remember how but the other half is amazing.
As I say, don't know how the Rangers verdict will go - my only hope is that if found guilty then appropriate action is taken, not a token fine and slap on the wrist.
yesss, another samaras lover. <3
The lack of consistency in the team frightens me sometimes, especially with next week looming.
Agreed on the verdict/ sentencing, although what I will say is- punishment needs to be directed at the correct recipients. The fans have been punished enough.
I know what you mean about the fans - they've kind of been collateral damage to an extent of the monumental fuck-ups of the people running Rangers over the past 20 years.
But if (and it's a big if) Rangers are found guilty of winning X trophies over the years, millions of pounds in prize money, access to the Champions League, etc, while deliberately not operating to the same rules as anyone else, I can't see any reasonable sanctions that wouldn't hurt the fans. If guilty, title stripping should just be the start.
agreed
I imagine any sanctions will have to be against 'old rangers', yes? I can't see the commission piercing the corporate veil, so sevco should be safe. well, that is until the fans, disillusoned, stop going to away games, any games, and the house of cards collapses. SO maybe this is actually in the hands of the fans. If the want a team and feel they desrve a team, they have to support them (sevco) properly and try to draw a line under the happenings at oldco.
According to this article, sanctions could be placed on the newco:
http://sport.stv.tv/215653-rangers-to-learn-spl-title-stripping-investigation-fate-on-thursday/
Don't really know under what circumstances that would happen or what they would be - probably pointless speculating with only an hour and a half to go until the announcement. Either way, it'll be another line drawn under the saga (he says, as the first of a thousand appeals is no doubt launched).
there must be an SPL rule which allows you to look through the separate legal personality of the corporate entities where there's been a restructuring
Exciting! Well, see you back here in 90 mins or so.
Confirmed - no titles stripped
Full report still due.
wow
No tramp kissing for me. Let's see what the report finds...
If they're not guilty, then they're not guilty and that's fine.
If they are found guilty then I won't be too chuffed with this.
Oldco fined around £250k apparently
Doesn't sound like a not guilty verdict to me.
hmm.
how will that be paid then?
Surely the administrators of oldco have settled the deal with creditors? Also, if these payments were, as alleged by oldcol, 'loans' in nature as opposed to remuneratoin, then that is money which surely ought to have been paid back as a preference into the pot for creditors. What next- creditors arguing that the administration has been botched? What a mess. (I love speculating before the facts are at hand.)
I genuinely have no idea.
I've made clear what I think should have happened for a guilty verdict up the thread, but this obviously isn't even close. Maybe there are mitigating circumstances, who knows.
Essentially the SFA would only allow Rangers NewCo
to gain membership under the condition (amongst others) that the NewCo would accept any punishments deemed appropriate for the OldCo's misdemeanors. (Slightly simplistic, but I don't have the time to hunt for the relevant piece on 200% from last summer)
Makes sense that it was a condition of the transfer
Ah well, it's an emotive subject, but let's be objective because title stripping is irreleveant anyway. OldCo, which held the titles, is in liquidation. The titles were NOT transferred to Newco, which currently has no titles, until it presumably wins the third division later in the spring.
they've closer to 140 days
than 140 years of history :D
no surprise about the titles as there'd have been blood on the streets if it happened, don't even think that's an exaggeration
I think it's all in all the right decision
draw a line under it, move on.
you're being quite sporting here
i want them to be stripped of everything they've ever won.
They, collectively, are a bunch of cheating cunts, of that I'm quite sure and I will massivelky laugh my face off and run into the street and kiss a tramp oif they get stripped, I'm fairly sure of it.
However, once the shadenfreude ebbs away, what do we have left? I'm just not sure what the appropriate sanctions are, given that plenty of fans paid in good faith for season tickets (admittedly so that hey could ride on the coattails of success that had been fabricated for them buy their board and the company's advisers). BUt still, they did so in the majority of cases inncocently and in good faith. The whole thing sucks. Murray should certainly be stripped of his Kt honour.
It's possible that Efe isn't very good at all.
Every time he tries to play out from the back it's a potential calamity. As is pretty much always the case, we're a centre back away from a convincing defence. Rogne looks like he's really panicking to impress since his return. It's a shame as with the impressive Matthews/Lustig on the right, Izzy on the left and Wilson really maturing in the centre and Wanyama/Kayal sweeping ahead we should be beyond these errors.
And Samaras has become a proper icon over the last 2 or 3 years, almost definitely my favourite member of the squad. We really miss him when he's not available. And his big sad mid-transformation werewolf face.
Q:
are defenders rubbish nowadays?
seems like in the glorious 96-2002 era there were always been a few defenders who would've been in the top 5-10 players in the world (Maldini, cannavaro, cafu, maybe some others). Can't think of any around now who's that good. Vidic or puyol or terry in the past 5 years maybe, but not now.
Defenders are as good as they have ever been.
Phillip Lahm for instance is one of the finest players there has ever been. But in a world where football greatness is defined in either `OMG look how many goals Messi scored!11!` or `LOL Xavi's pass completion rates are MENTAL!11!`, defenders aren't going to get the critical acclaim they had during the 90s for instance.
Shame.
^ Lahm
Kompany? Arguably City's most important player last season.
I think it's just an illusion caused by the fact Football Italia isn't on anymore.
that's 'cos the best ones are racist twunts*
*attach appropriate disclaimer here
Lahm.
i really, really rate dani alves as well.
Thiago Silva was very highly rated but his move to PSG didn't help his case
Baines has probably been the best English player in the PL this season. Gerard Piqué. Jordi Alba. Marcelo. All in addition to those already mentioned, it is a problem of recognition not quality I'd wager.
And, apparently, the heir to Maldini is currently at Newcastle
step up Davide Santon.
Anzi Macaroni are mental
- Oh hi Spurs, we see your only good defender is back from injury, can we have him....on loan?
only good defender?
okay then
Gary Mabbutt retired quite a while ago
Sorry to break it to you.
did anyone watch their liverpool games properly?
what chance do le toon have (away leg first)?
Is this old news?
Danish motorbike firm Lauge Jensen, raidef £43,250 for charity by auctioning a customised diamond-encrusted bike co-designed by £220,000-a-week Wayne Rooney. The uncustomised bike's retail value: £56,000.
*raised
I'm struggling to imagine what Rooney's input into the design process would've been
Other than to 'put sparkly things on it'
I imagine after much gentle cajoling from Coleen a picture done in wax crayon was solemnly placed into a showroom assistant's hand
:D
also :(
You'd think they'd have learnt from last time...
http://www.ransacker.co.uk/football-boots/diamond-boots-were-385k-now-60k/
I was told last night that Rafa'd had another MASSIVE RANT
Arguably the most well-controlled, least-dangerous meltdown I've ever seen.
I'll be gutted if he leaves. We were all madly looking forward to the Chelsea game to welcome him back and give him a reception he deserves. Probably won't get the chance now.
If he does make it back to Anfield...
...I wonder if there will have ever been a wider discrepancy between the reception a travelling manager will get from the home support, as opposed to the reception he will get from his own away support. It'll be quite astonishing.
But, sure, he deserves a massive welcome back. It's been 3 years now. Wow.
Rafa had a few reasonable points
but nothing really strong enough to hide the fact that he's basically the Iberian George Costanza
I didn't realise this morning
that he claimed to not know his job title would be interim because that was lost in translation. :')
Otherwise masking the fact
that his agent's incapable of doing his job properly.
classic Costanza
Presumably John Terry's taking the role of Kramer in this?
David Luiz is Kramer
JT is Newman
and that female physio ... she's Elaine
Frankie Lamps is Jerry of course
Ray Wilkins was the bubble boy
the bbc site has an annoying way of listing results.
i don't like the way you have to know what you are looking for. just show last nights results for fucks sake.
The revamped BBC Sport page has the stench of Sean Adam's liquid piss
This works
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/results
can't be bothered to think of anything antagonistic to say aboyt Chelsea
Everyone knows that they've been the most loathsome club in the Premier League for the past decade and poor Rafa's ego couldn't allow him to say no to a Big Job no matter how temporary.
I do feel sorry for him considering the lack of respect he has received from fans (and players?) who were never going to give him a chance though.
Still on the positive side it was great to see the Riverside so full, hopefully a lot of these people will come back for the league games and cheer Boro on to promotion.
HAHAHAHAHAHHA FUCK YOU CELTIC!!!!
Though The Straits Be Broad Or Narrow,
Then Follow We Will, Follow We Will, Follow We Will,
Though The Streets Be Broad Or Narrow,
Then Follow We Will, We Will Follow In The Footsteps Of Our Team,
Follow Follow We Will Follow Rangers,
Everywhere, Anywhere We Will Follow On,
Follow Follow We Will Follow Rangers,
If They Go To Dublin We Will Follow On,
For There's Not A Team Like The Glasgow Rangers,
No Not One, And There Never Shall Be One,
Celtic Know All About Their Troubles,
We Will Fight Till The Day Is Done,
For There's Not A Team Like The Glasgow Rangers,
No Not One, And There Never Shall Be One,
Follow Follow We Will Follow Rangers,
Everywhere, Anywhere We Will Follow On,
Follow Follow We Will Follow Rangers,
Should They Go To Dublin We Will Follow On.
wow
John McGlynn's left Hearts.
It is officially ALL GO in Scotland today.
Arsenal are going to build a statue of Dennis Bergkamp.
Presumably showing him slyly elbowing someone in the face off the ball.
Not sure how you imply slyness (slight?) in a statue,
but that would be excellent
I enjoyed the Football Rambles suggestion this week that
Arsenal should use some of the 123m war chest to build a statue of Arsene in his long coat angrily throwing down a water bottle though Pat Rice riding Gunnersaurus would also go down well in terms of public art.
Pat Rice riding Gunnersaurus :D
Ha, oh Chelsea.
I hope you get stuck with Steve McClaren
McClaren may not be very good,
but he's honest and would do his best. The soon to be gone Interim has openly treated the fans, the club and the owners with contempt right from the start. I would agree that Chelsea are reaping what they have sowed, but any 'Poor Rafa' sentiment is wildly misplaced.
- Has openly treated the fans, the club and the owners with contempt from the start -
Really? Appreciate he's a hard man to love, but thought he'd been relatively dignified and diplomatic considering he's bascially been told to fuck off ever since he arrived.
I think contempt is a harsh accusation
but he's certainly got his little nods and digs in every now and then. He started his damage limitation programme a little while ago- apparently Chelsea was an amazing opportunity to win multiple trophies in November but the odds have been stacked further and further against him in the time since.
Agreed that he'd certainly done his best to be diplomatic so far though. There was only so long before some supporters and constant prodding of journalists and pundits was gonna get to him though.
Enjoying this:
*McClaren may not be very good but he's honest and would do his best.*
Are you his mum?
Do we have any Cardiff fans on here?
Would be interested to hear what they think of chucking their toys out of the pram this summer now. Course, still time for it to go tits up and that, but unlikely, you'd think. £100m of investment in return for a new kit & badge always seemed like a good deal, imho.
*If they don't want to come to support our business, that's fine. We need the majority*
*Have they achieved any success under this bluebirds brand? So why do we hold onto something that hasn't achieved much success?*
Utterly, utterly depressing.
Unfortunate prasing, but nothing more than that.
Surprised no-one's knocked up a quick Dos and Donts booklet for new owners really, just saying "Try not to say the words 'Brand', 'Project' or 'Business' and you'll be reet". Ultimately, though, a great deal for Cardiff.
* phrasing.
Do you honestly believe it's only the phrasing that's at fault though?
The phrasing belies an attitude that should be kept as far away from football and frankly, sport in general, as possible.
Again, with the disclaimer that as a Utd fan, we opened the door to this shit and it's depressing but the idea that a club with years of history and tradition can be reduced to a *brand*, *project* or *business* is the most depressing thing regardless of whether those words are actually used or not.
True, but i can see both sides of it.
Ultimately, if Cardiff are promoted, that will mean more people in the stadium, more jobs, more money for small local businesses, etc, etc. I'd draw the line at clubs being taken away from their towns or cities, but with stuff like changing kits, you have to look at the bigger picture over yearnings for tradition, especially when it comes to completely superficial stuff. Virtually every club's changed their badge over the years, most of them have changed kit colours at some point, i'm not sure fans get hugely attached to that stuff on an emotional level.
I do see the point and to an extent a need for pragmatism with it all
But there's limits to it, I think the changing of badges is pretty damned shit frankly, you can point to when we took the words *Football Club* off of the Utd crest as a pretty low point for the club frankly.
I think there's a distinction as well (rightly or wrongly) about these sorts of changes happening historically and them happening now. I frankly don't have the knowledge required to discuss this properly but using Utd as an example, when the name and colours were changed it was as a result of the club nearly ceasing to exist and local businessmen who were fans with a knowledge and love of the club were responsible for the changes with the motivation of keeping the club going. To compare that to the modern trend of investment with the aim of a return on that investment is missing the point a bit.
Don't really understand why United fans are so precious about the dropping of the FC, to be honest.
The words literally forming part of the badge isn't what makes a football club. It's not a hugely symbolic thing. Lots of things that have happened over the last couple of decades would've probably made me abandon the club were i born a Red - the buying of titles, the systematic, regular bullying of officials, Ferguson's ongoing questionable behaviour, the tax avoidance, the selling of arses to the Yanks, etc, etc. A slight change to a badge wouldn't have bothered me at all, really.
I suppose I've only got myself to blame here really haven't I
:D
I kind of think fans have their heads in the sand WRT this.
That horse left the stable in the 90s really. It might be sad but pretty much every professional club is treated as a business primarily now. Not just in football either, in most sports. Romance is dead.
I don't think it's a case of having heads in the sand though
There's a knowledge that the horse has bolted but that doesn't mean that it has to lead to blind acceptance. People still have every right to be pissed off about something, being largely powerless to do anything about it doesn't stop that.
Yeah I guess so.
It's a funny thing though, football fandom. You enter into it with the impression that you're a noble supporter of a club and that the club should be grateful to you and offer you an explanation if they do something you don't like. But there's no contract really, legal or social. Both sides just play along with the pretend relationship and underneath, business always comes first.
0 days since the last modern football disillusionment
There's still time for their annual bid to avoid promotion
Although it is looking more and more likely that they will go up, sadly :(
yeah :(
Swansea vs Cardiff in the Premier League is pretty exciting though
Look forward to that at 8.30 on a Sunday morning
With the fans travelling under armed guard for the entire journey.
The 'investment' in Cardiff
Is in the form of a loan at 7% interest. They already have a debt of £83million, plus lost about £14million last year alone.
If or more likely when the owners walk away from Cardiff, and call in the debt they will be in big trouble.
I'm not a Cardiff fan, but I live there
and one of the more depressing things about this whole thing is that it's pitted fans against fans. I think most, other than a hard core, could put up with the kit change and the new badge (even though the latter looks like it's been worked up on photoshop), but if they change the name I get the impression that'll be the final straw for many.
That said, the owner's aren't daft, and they're probably well aware that they'll still get plenty of people through the gates if they're in the Premiership in any event.
Biggest crowd at the Riverside for a while
They saw a performance from an out-of-form team. Never threatening.
We badly need a win against Cardiff. Oh wait.
Nice paragraph from Gregg Bakowski in his mbm: "They played some attractive football that year too, finishing sixth – their highest position for seven years. The Stamford Bridge faithful were overjoyed, as was the club's chairman, Cuddly Ken Bates. Now just imagine the reaction if Chelsea were to finish sixth and win the Cup this year? Booooooooo!"
I was really pleased to see the Riverside so full
looked like nearly 30,000
and the chelsea fan student who cheered the first goal in the pub
got a suitable set of disapproving look and some boos and reacted in a much more muted style to the second.
good work geordie drinkers
Ben Arfa not likely to be ready for the trip to Swansea this weekend
watch him come back and get his legs broke again when Stoke visit in a couple of weeks
Apologies if this has been posted before, and it's shamelessly nicked off the Guardian website,
but if you want a reminder of when football was ace, here's a compilation of the top 20 goals from BBC TV from 1953-86:
http://theworldofsport.tumblr.com/post/44054707958/the-top-20-goals-scored-on-bbc-tv-1953-1986-as#disqus_thread
no gareth bale though, are they?
watching the C4 News report on the Rangers verdict
it sounds like Rangers got away with cheating quite blatantly today
this is weird;
http://www.intereconomia.com/eplayer/punto-pelota/cristiano-ronaldo-fotografiado-camp-nou
are barca fans really taking photos of him on their smartphones after he just scored against them
i can spot on who isnt