2006-07 Soccer Thread

[Critch]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

That reminds me, Boulahrouz was today quoted saying: "My philosophy of playing soccer is simple. I get on the pitch to win. I'm a defender, it's my duty to stop the striker. I try to do it in a honest way. I don't kick players into the hospital and do not put my elbow in someone's face. I don't like it and don't need it." (I tried to translate it from Dutch to English as best as I can.)

I thought his philosophy was to fake injury before HSV's Champions League qualifying game so that he wouldn't have to play and cup-tie himself and kill his move to Chelsea

Nigel de Jong seems to have suddenly justified his transfer to the HSV fans. He's not been doing too well so far but he scored the equalizer tonight to get HSV past Osasuna, so I'm sure they'll be warming to him.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Critch

Obafemi Martins says he's going to sign for Newcastle. That'll be an interesting one, maybe enough to get Newcastle challenging for 5th place.

If anything, it's gonna make the Magpies thoroughly entertaining to watch. All offense, no defense.

[Katon]

Originally Posted by Critch

I'm betting Boumsong turns out ok at Juventus. Newcastle United wasn't right for him. The defence was a mess with or without him plus it was Newcastle, they're always on the verge of a drama. There were also some stories that his wife was seriously ill in France, so he wasnt training with the team, he spent the week in France to be near to his family.

You don't go from being a good player to a bad player overnight, so he'll bounce back. Plus the pace of the Italian League will probably suit him better, he'll be less rushed into doing something bad while trying to play out of danger.

Or maybe he's just crap.

Little of column A, little of column B. I don't think he's ever looked up to playing in one of the top leagues, but getting away from Bramble can't hurt.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

If anything, it's gonna make the Magpies thoroughly entertaining to watch. All offense, no defense.

Hey, they just sold Boumsong. That defense improved 10-fold overnight.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Hey, they just sold Boumsong. That defense improved 10-fold overnight.

Bench defense doesn't count.

[cthomer5000]

Lord almighty, what the hell is going on in Sunderland? We don't have any fans here, do we?

[Critch]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Lord almighty, what the hell is going on in Sunderland? We don't have any fans here, do we?

It's not every day you see a manager fire himself.

[Critch]

dola....

Two bits of news that may or may not be connected:

1. Carlos Tevez has gone on strike, says he doesn't want to play for Corinthians anymore and wants a transfer to Europe.

2. Ramon Calderon (Real Madrid's president) has hinted that Real Madrid will make a big signing in the next couple of days.

So you can add 2+2 there and come up with Real Madrid signing Tevez, or you can get creative with the other rumors and have AC Milan in the mix with Kaka and Ronaldo moving around too.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Critch

It's not every day you see a manager fire himself.

So when the chairman gives the manager a vote of confidence at Sunderland, who's on the hot seat ?

[AlexB]

Roy Keane is being reported as the new Sunderland manager - just needs to sort the final details of the contract out.

That was out of left-field: if you're a club in crisis, and you've just lost 5 straight with an untried manager, what do you do? Go get another one of course! Should be fun!

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

Roy Keane is being reported as the new Sunderland manager - just needs to sort the final details of the contract out.

That was out of left-field: if you're a club in crisis, and you've just lost 5 straight with an untried manager, what do you do? Go get another one of course! Should be fun!

Especially out of left-field when Niall Quinn was talking about how Sunderland had a World Class manager lined up. Not sure how somebody who's never been a manager can be classed as world class. The bookies favorite had been Alan Curbishley, maybe a stretch to call him world class, but at least he's got experience.

Good to see Chelsea lose tonight

[cthomer5000]

I'm really hoping Bayern Munich ends up in Man U's Champions League group. Whatever the outcome of the Owen Hargreaves situation, I think it would be a nice sub-plot.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Critch

Especially out of left-field when Niall Quinn was talking about how Sunderland had a World Class manager lined up. Not sure how somebody who's never been a manager can be classed as world class. The bookies favorite had been Alan Curbishley, maybe a stretch to call him world class, but at least he's got experience.

Good to see Chelsea lose tonight

Now he's saying he always said 'a manager with a world class reputation', 'world class standing' or the like. If I was a Mackem, I would be extremely wary by the whole Niall Quinn thing - Keane may work by simply intimidating his players into improvement, but tbh the start of the Quinn regime has been pure comedy.

[law90026]

So latest rumours involving Arsenal:
1) Reyes to Athletico Madrid for 11million pounds (and maybe first option on Torres)
2) Bid for Kahladze from AC Milan (I remember Kahladze having a good tournament a long time back, hence his move to Milan ... it doesn't bode well that Kahladze isn't a first-team regular there though ... although to be fair Viera was a reserve there as well)

I'm watching the Owen Hargreaves thing with interest. It's just getting more and more shocking each year that players are forcing moves for themselves. Maybe it is fair, considering they are employees and not slaves ... but at the same time, they knew full well what they were doing when they signed their contracts. I wonder if it would be possible to sue a player for damages in the future if they forced a move, so the club in question would have to pay not just a transfer fee but have to provide further compensation as well.

[Butter]

What a great comeback by Boro over Chelsea. Thoroughly deserved, they dominated the last half hour.

[Critch]

Ben Thatcher's "tackle" on Mendes last night:

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH5MyVrCXbE

Amazingly Thatcher was only booked, but looks like the FA are going to charge him anyway and he may even be facing an assault charge from the police.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by Critch

Amazingly Thatcher was only booked, but looks like the FA are going to charge him anyway and he may even be facing an assault charge from the police.

I have a slight issue with this to be honest. The rules are that once you're booked or the referee has seen the incident, it's over. You can't be charged after that by the FA.

Yeah, it was horrible and apparently it's not the first time Ben Thatcher has done it. But it's also an arbitrary exception if the FA decides to charge him and it sets a potentially bad precedent imo. It's like the tackle late last season in the Arsenal-Sunderland game where Diaby had his ankle broken. Referee saw it, end of matter, despite the fact it looked horrible/outrageous. Ben Thatcher's offence is more serious ... but the rules are there for a reason.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Critch

Ben Thatcher's "tackle" on Mendes last night:

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH5MyVrCXbE

Amazingly Thatcher was only booked, but looks like the FA are going to charge him anyway and he may even be facing an assault charge from the police.

Pretty outrageous stuff.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by law90026

Yeah, it was horrible and apparently it's not the first time Ben Thatcher has done it. But it's also an arbitrary exception if the FA decides to charge him and it sets a potentially bad precedent imo. It's like the tackle late last season in the Arsenal-Sunderland game where Diaby had his ankle broken. Referee saw it, end of matter, despite the fact it looked horrible/outrageous. Ben Thatcher's offence is more serious ... but the rules are there for a reason.

I kind of half agree with you, but I kind of half disagree too. There are some incidents that are serious enough that the FA has to do something beyond the booking. A player can appeal using tv evidence if they've been wrongfully booked, so the process should be able to work in the other direction. But I do agree that the FA shouldn't be twisting their own rules for one-off cases, they should change the rule going forward.

Thatcher last night, the Sunderland player last season, Michael Brown's attempt to end Giggs' career at the weekend, they're all serious enough that the booking isn't enough to me.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Critch

I kind of half agree with you, but I kind of half disagree too. There are some incidents that are serious enough that the FA has to do something beyond the booking. A player can appeal using tv evidence if they've been wrongfully booked, so the process should be able to work in the other direction. But I do agree that the FA shouldn't be twisting their own rules for one-off cases, they should change the rule going forward.

Thatcher last night, the Sunderland player last season, Michael Brown's attempt to end Giggs' career at the weekend, they're all serious enough that the booking isn't enough to me.

I'm leaning this way. If there is a board to review dubious goal-scoring decisions (own goal vs. credited to a shooter), i think you really need to be able to intervene when a referee clearly screwed the pooch or when something is so vicious that the standard red card isn't enough. And it blows my mind that he only got a yellow for this.

[Fighter of Foo]

From where the ref was likely standing, I don't see how he could give more than a yellow. I didn't even see the elbow raised until the replay. It just looks like usual knocking of an opponent after they play the ball.

[scooter]

Interesting that as you watch that video clip, at the beginning when Thatcher gets up, Glen Johnson is running over to check on Mendes - Thatcher thinks he's coming at him and has words with him. Johnson ignores him. To me that shows that Thatcher knew what he was doing and expected someone to come after him right away. I think Mr. Thatcher is looking at a lengthy ban.

[SirFozzie]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...340368&cc=5901

Champions League groups drawn.

Notable Group Stage matchups: Barca-Chelski (wot, again?) and Celtic-Manyoo

[Critch]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Notable Group Stage matchups: Barca-Chelski (wot, again?)

Well that really messes up my bet that Werder would go further than Bayern or HSV.

[Coffee Warlord]

It's official. Obafemi Martins completed the deal with Newcastle.

Booyah!

[Fighter of Foo]

OK so who's going to score more in the EPL, Martins or Kuyt?

I say neither of them breaks into double digits.

[Katon]

Anyone want to start taking bets which Chelsea player gets sent off this year?

I say Kuijt outscores Martins, by the way.

[MIJB#19]

Hmmm, the draw was a day earlier than I expected it to be. I guess I should kick start the 2006/2007 CL prediction thread soon.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by scooter

Interesting that as you watch that video clip, at the beginning when Thatcher gets up, Glen Johnson is running over to check on Mendes - Thatcher thinks he's coming at him and has words with him. Johnson ignores him. To me that shows that Thatcher knew what he was doing and expected someone to come after him right away. I think Mr. Thatcher is looking at a lengthy ban.

He definitely knew what he was doing - had a look at the bloke before impact (i.e. ignored the ball). Ball going out of play near opponent's penalty box, and Mendes is going to play the ball... The football equivalent of Rodney Harrison seeing a WR making a jumping stretching catch over the middle a couple of yards in front of him.

Thatcher played for Leicester for a bit, and while he does have a (deserved) reputation, he has never done anything that bad before. According to Stuart Pearce he was 'ashen faced' when they talked about it, and has realised how serious a challenge like that could be.

[cthomer5000]

Kuyt looked pretty good in his first game for Liverpool (but no goal).

Peter Crouch is on fire lately. 5 goals in his last 5 games: Community Shield, 2 for the national team against Greece, CL Qualifier, and his first league goal of the season today. A nice little move on his goal today (the eventual game. winner)

[Critch]

Yeah, Kuyt looked good today. Don't know if anybody could play with that much energy for a full 90 minutes though, he was buzzing everywhere for his 30mins.

I'm glad I'm not an Arsenal fan. Today's game against Man City and last weeks v Villa were two of the most frustrating games I've seen, the kind of games I thought only happened in FM. I'd be suicidal if I actually wanted them to win

[law90026]

Originally Posted by Critch

I'm glad I'm not an Arsenal fan. Today's game against Man City and last weeks v Villa were two of the most frustrating games I've seen, the kind of games I thought only happened in FM. I'd be suicidal if I actually wanted them to win

Over-elaborate unlucky Arsenal ... sigh

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Critch

Yeah, Kuyt looked good today. Don't know if anybody could play with that much energy for a full 90 minutes though, he was buzzing everywhere for his 30mins.

Get ready for more of that, 90 minutes long. That's the Dirk Kuijt I (tried to) describe a bunch of posts back in this thread.

[cthomer5000]

So i had to stop watching the Tottenham match at the half today... it was 0-0 and they had a one-man advantage.... I was stunned to see they lost 2-0... un-freakin-believable boys.

[FrogMan]

Cleat is a pretty cute comic strip about kids who play soccer. Well I find it cute because many of the strips talk about stuff I go through with my son playing soccer...

They had a good one today:




FM

[cthomer5000]

Mido back with Tottenham. Good news for the club, bad news for Jermain Defoe I think.

Amazing to me that at age 23 Mido has played in the Egyptian, Belgian, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and English Premier Leagues.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by law90026

Over-elaborate unlucky Arsenal ... sigh

I'm not actually that upset over it. I mean, yes, 1 point in 2 games isn't going to cut it. But we had good stretches and bad stretches during the game but we generally looked good.

To me, the good:

1) The penalty was legit. I hate losing to crappy penalties.
2) We're playing with a young right-back at left-back. I expect us to look much better when Clichy gets healthy. Or, Heaven forbids, Ass Hole, er, Ash Cole stays.
3) Djourou is doing a solid job covering for Senderos. When Senderos is healthy, I will be quite happy with our 3-man rotation in the middle.
4) We hit the post twice and Henry had a one-on-one that the keeper made a brilliant save on (fucking FM-style superkeeper at City! ).
5) Our attack looked much better with Rosicky in the lineup. Basically like having another Cesc (ie, distributor-playmaker) on the pitch.

The bad:

1) The panalty was legit. I hate losing.
2) Henry and Van Persie have shown HORRIBLE first touch in the first two games. If their first touch were up to their standard, we have 6 points.
3) Clichy is (again) hurt, Flamini has looked bad this preseason and Hoyte is just not (yet) ready. The left-back position needs a solution.
4) And there should be neither 'Cy' nor 'gan' involved in that solution.
5) Hleb seems to still be phasinig in and out of games. We need him to be more involved over 90 minutes.
6) Eboue has looked horrible. His final ball is not improving and he's still making poor choices at the end of his runs (which are very good).
7) Mascherano is still not wearing the red-and-white of the Gunners.

[law90026]

Don't get me wrong, it's not that Arsenal sucks ...

But it's just the same old story don't you think? Outplay the other side but not score? It's so pretty but sometimes it's so frustrating because it's just so much ... fluff.

I understand Wenger saying the players like playing the ball to feet ... but that's completely different from asking your players from shooting and taking chances. Look at the Aegar goal for Liverpool, he just gave it a solid whack (good strike though). You just seldom see that with Arsenal.

Instead, you see a pass here, a pass there, a flick to another player, a ball to Henry on the wing, he beats one man, passes to the edge of the box, another attempted pass to another player ... and the ball gets cut out by the Defence.

On an aside, Henry is clearly not ready for the season still. He's nowhere near ready imo.

Cole has to go. There's no point keeping him I think. Same for Reyes (dickhead).

Looks like it's more likely to be Teves than Mascherano btw. I haven't seen much of Teves so I have no idea what kind of striker he is .. I hope he's the direct sort.

PS: Doesn't it really seem that keepers have super games against Arsenal?

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Mido back with Tottenham. Good news for the club, bad news for Jermain Defoe I think.

Amazing to me that at age 23 Mido has played in the Egyptian, Belgian, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and English Premier Leagues.

Put him together with Ribery and you've got oodles of passport stamps!

I wonder how long it'll be before Mido implodes, though, whether through injury or, more likely, being a headcase.

Why is the club so down on Defoe? I was under the impression that he is very good.

[law90026]

I would like to see Arsenal buy Defoe actually

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by daedalus

I wonder how long it'll be before Mido implodes, though, whether through injury or, more likely, being a headcase.

Why is the club so down on Defoe? I was under the impression that he is very good.

My guess is that they're not really down on him, but he just doesn't seem to complement anyone too well. I dunno really. I mean, he's on the national team, so he's obviously not crap. I just think they wanted Mido back for a more physical presence and counterpart to Keane. And with the signing of Berbatov... this honestly makes Defoe the most expendable of the bunch, though I haven't heard a whisper about him going anywhere. They might end up with multiple whiny players if they they try to keep all 4 forwards happy.

I'd like to see them make a move for some more help before the window closes, but everything that has been rumored this offseason simply hasn't come to pass (Duff, Martins, etc). Then when something seems promising (Stuart Downing rumors) you hear that Middlesbrough want Lennon, so you pretty much know nothing is happening there.

If they can get a good price for him and send him somewhere where he's a definite first-team guy, it might be worth moving him. Although from a depth standpoint I guess it doesn't really hurt to keep him, provided they can keep him happy.

[law90026]

So in absolutely shocking news (to me anyway), it appears Tevez and Mascherano are joining West Ham on a year long loan (BBC news ... based on a comment from Tevez's website).

Wow ...

[Northwood_DK]

Other big news is football today:

Inter and Real Madrid looks to have agreed on trading Ronaldo and Adriano

Ronaldinho and coach Frank Rijkaard might be in a conflict and the reason he missed the first match in the Spanish league was not due to injury as Barcelona claims.

The last one might not be that big but because I’m Danish I mention it anyway.

Thomas Gravesen is finished in Real Madrid and will be the best-paid player in Scottish football for Celtic.

[Dunleavy]

Originally Posted by law90026

So in absolutely shocking news (to me anyway), it appears Tevez and Mascherano are joining West Ham on a year long loan (BBC news ... based on a comment from Tevez's website).

Wow ...

something fishy about this one, dont trust that MSI

Arsenal are getting Julio Baptista from Real for J.A. Reyes in daul loan deals w/option to buy. as an Arsenal fan not that exciting but Wenger wanted him a year ago, hard to tell if he still wanted him bad or was just settling

[law90026]

So the Guardian has reported that the reason why Tevez and Mascherano have joined West Ham is because of MSI.

Rumour is that MSI is partially owned by Abrahimovic and MSI owns the contracts of these players. MSI has blocked the move of these players to Arsenal, Man U, Bayern and AC Milan .. because they are Chelsea's rivals.

Also, another of MSI's rumoured shareholders is a businessman who was interested in taking over West Ham.

So this is what I see happening.

At the end of the year loan, either these players join Chelsea (think of it as a trial at West Ham) or the businessman takes over West Ham and he has 2 brilliant players there already.

How cloak and dagger.

[AlexB]

One for your interest: Giuseppe Rossi has joined Newcastle on loan - seeing as they only have Ameobi & Martins, he will see a good amount of action I would have thought.

[law90026]

Btw, if you're bored at work and can access the Guardian website, they're keeping up a relatively entertaining running commentary of the transfers that are going on ...

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by law90026

Btw, if you're bored at work and can access the Guardian website, they're keeping up a relatively entertaining running commentary of the transfers that are going on ...

Should be a pretty wild day I would think. I'm hoping Spurs pull some moves today, they really haven't done much with the Carrick money, and they need midfield and/or defensive help really. And if Defoe has to go... so be it.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Should be a pretty wild day I would think. I'm hoping Spurs pull some moves today, they really haven't done much with the Carrick money, and they need midfield and/or defensive help really. And if Defoe has to go... so be it.

Steed Malbranque to Spurs, that should add a bit of hard work to the Spurs midfield. Good move, I hope.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Critch

Steed Malbranque to Spurs, that should add a bit of hard work to the Spurs midfield. Good move, I hope.

Although with him being out for 10 weeks, and then a couple of games to get sharp, it will be the next transfer window before Malbranque is back up to speed...