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Great League Cup Final. However the constant patronising of Cardiff by the Sky commentators annoyed me. Then when they lose the peno shoot -out he says the supporters will hurt for a while but will look back with pride later. Cr/p. They will be hurting about it for the rest of their lives.
Yeah agreed. How they managed that equaliser with half their team limping around with cramp was a bit special. Pretty rare a team misses their first two penalties and win the shoot out so it was opportunity missed big time.
New Chelsea manager? I see Rafa B has put himself in the frame. No hope and Bob Hope I'd say. Capello perhaps?
sequencing of these stories on bbc gossip page made me laugh!
Quote:
Man City are preparing to listen to serious offers for striker Mario Balotelli, who took exception to being singled out during a dressing-room confrontation.
Full story: The Times
Balotelli, meanwhile, is at the centre of a storm following a dressing-room fight with Yaya Toure as the pair came to blows.
Full story: Daily Star
Man City captain Vincent Kompany insists title-race nerves are not getting to his team-mates.
Full story: Daily Mail
Great win for Norwich yesterday at Spurs. Paul Lambert has them playing some nice football. They seem to have a great spirit about them as well which obviously helps. Long may it continue. Interesting fight for fourth spot now going into the final few games. Haven't seen the fixtures but Newcastle really have nothing to lose at all. Chelsea have a lot of games with the pressure as well of not finishing in the top four and Spurs as well will be under pressure after being so far ahead at one stage to now potentially missing out.
I think Sunday is D-Day for Spurs. If they beat Chelsea I reckon they'll kick on and get the points they need to finish 4th (they've an okay run-in). If they lose I think their season could crumble.
Spurs...
QPR (a)
Blackburn (h)
Bolton (a)
Aston Villa (a)
Fulham (h)
Newcastle...
Stoke (h)
Wigan (a)
Chelsea (a)
Man City (h)
Everton (a)
Chelsea...
Arsenal (a)
QPR (h)
Newcastle (h)
Liverpool (a)
Blackburn (h)
Spurs look as if they have an easy run-in. However, they are not going to win the CL and Bale may be going to Barca so it's all academic really whether they play a few games in the CL or not. As a fan I'd prefer to be a Liverpool supporter with my team winning the League Cup and playing in the FA Cup Final.
Fun as usual is at the the other end of the table. Great couple of results for Wigan. How do they always manage to produce performances like that at the end of the season?
In terms of signing players, regular Champions League football is a big deal. Spurs put themselves on the map two years ago by qualifying and getting to the quarter finals, but they need to back it up now or they'll appear to be a one season wonder. It might also generate the extra revenue to be able to add these players. Liverpool's Carling Cup win won't count for much in that regard even if it was a nice day out for the supporters. That said, I think Spurs were mad to win the FA Cup this season. To be fair they should have been a goal or two up by the time Drogba struck on Sunday, and who knows what way it would have panned out if the mess of the second goal hadn't occured.
Yes but look at Arsenal for the past number of 6 or 7 seasons (don't know how many off the top of my head). Champions League ad nauseum but their players leave with no medal to celebrate their years at the club. "Hey dad, did you win anything when playing for Arsenal?" "Errr, no son but I played in the Champions League!". "Ummm, I am going out to play with my friends now dad ".
Playing for a top club and winning nothing. No thanks. As a fan (and my English club has won one trophy in my lifetime and I remember it so well) I'd prefer to win things and have the memory of that than what end up as meaningless games soon forgotton. Yes qualification is important to kick on and earn revenue but top clubs should be aiming not just to make money but to win trophies as well.
Relegation is looking a serious possibility for Villa now. One more win would do them but at the moment it's hard to see where it's coming from. All of a sudden their team sheet is hugely unfamiliar and without Collins and Dunne it's inevitable that they will concede goals. Along with Wolves, they could take a serious amount of Irish guys with them although, unlike the Wolves contingent, I'm sure most if not all of them would move to PL teams. I don't think any PL team will be breaking the door down for Kevin Doyle now, a return to Reading might be his best bet.
ASTON VILLA (PLD 35 GD -14 PTS 36): West Brom (a), Tottenham (h), Norwich (a)
QPR (PLD 35 GD -18 PTS 34): Chelsea (a), Stoke (h), Man City (a)
WIGAN (PLD 35 GD -26 PTS 34): Newcastle (h), Blackburn (a), Wolves (h)
BOLTON (PLD 34 GD -28 PTS 33): Sunderland (a), Tottenham (h), West Brom (h), Stoke (a)
BLACKBURN (PLD 35 GD -26 PTS 31): Tottenham (a), Wigan (h), Chelsea (a)
The QPR game V man city will be a huge game for both teams.
I have Blackburn and Villa to be relegated so either way I am sure I will be a happy punter
Delighted for City fans night night. They support a team in the shadow of argaubly the biggest club in the world and yet their fanbase has always been large. A bit like the Atletico Madrid fans.
Always a possibilty, however, that they will blow it against Newcastle. I don't think Man U actually had a shot on target all night but I may be wrong. Says a lot for the standard of the Premiership that the poorest Man U team for many years, humiliated by Basle in the CL, may still win the title.
...not to mention Athletic Bilbao. The flipside is that a team outside the top 4 is in the CL final.
Last night left me a bit cold. Yes, it's nice and romantic that City are on the verge of getting one over their local rivals but let's face it, they've only done so because they've been bought by an arab sovereign wealth fund. English football has tarted itself out too far I reckon. The vanity of the top flight has bankrupted the rest of the game, kicked the national team into touch and has caused financial problems in other jurisdictions too. Spain seems to be even worse. Ok, the clubs largely remain in local hands - Bilbao seems to be a great model - but they owe hundreds of millions to the taxman and are in debt up to their arsenals.
Up the Bundesliga. I love the way they approach and regulate football there. Avg ticket price is 17 euros, away fans' rail travel is free, great stadia, great fan culture, the league is in hamony with the national team, the clubs are (almost exclusively) at least 51% owned by fans, the clubs are mostly profitable, the league is unpredicatble and the football is generally good. It's not perfect but it's about as good as it gets from a holistic perspective.
Did anybody else notice the advertising hoardings around the ground? They were all for high-end cars like Jaguar and middle eastern businesses, luxury trips, etc. Apart from the Gallaghers, I'd be surprised if there was a Manchester City fan in the ground last night that could afford that stuff.
Spot on. I have been fascinated by the Bundesliga for at least 4/5 years now. It has it all if you ask me, especially all the things you listed above - passion, good footie, great fans and heaps of tradition and local pride.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
The Man City model makes me sick. It is the sort of "venture" that has ruined the English game.
Yeah, though you couldn't argue that the City supporters deserve their day in the sun, there is something artificial about it. It's like playing LMA Manager but using the cheat, where you have endless funds to buy players. It's still good fun, and you enjoy hammering teams 6-0, but it just doesn't feel right.
I never knew this, that's just fantastic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
I remember talking to a local in Mainz the time Ireland played there against Georgia. He was saying that there is very little trouble amongst supporters, in Mainz at least. He said "why would there be trouble, without them we wouldn't have a match to play".
He drew the line at Eintracht Frankfurt though, he said "We make an exception for Frankfurt, they are different, they're not human".
I accept the point but is does gives hope for every club that some day a billionaire will come in and rescue the club from penury and challenge the Man Us, Arsenals etc for trophies. Wednesday were about to go in to administration in Division Three when Mandaric bought the club, wiped the debts and they are now back in Division Two aka Championship. Without him I don't know where they would be. Man U have bought success for years albeit from their own resources but by having a huge debt but it does give hope to others. It would have been another Man U cake walk this season, even with a relatively poor side, so the Arab money made a competition out of it and made long suffering fans happy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Yes, but in a league with better financial regulation and governance there would be less pressure on clubs like SWFC to break the bank and also less flexibility for them to do so. If everyone was made to behave more rationally it's quite likely that SWFC would have retained its position as a top 10 / 15 club and they wouldn't have needed a Mandaric.
Someone like Sir Dave Richards would never have been allowed to inflict the damage he did in Germany, nor would he get rewarded by being given the chairmanship of the Premier League. I thought it's supposed to be bankers that get rewarded for failure!