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Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:16 pm
by Moon-Crane
Ugh. Van Persie to Man Utd. That's got to be a crushing blow to Arsenal fans. The final nail in the coffin of any beliefs that they're serious title challengers to Man Utd/Man City/Chelsea?

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 10:37 pm
by Hans the German Butler
To some extent I think it smacks of desperation from Utd. £22m plus add-ons for a 29-year old injury prone player is papering over the cracks when the players they really need to replace are Giggs, Scholes, Evra, Rafael, Fabio, Anderson and Fletcher. Unless he's planning to move Rooney back into the Scholes position, I don't see how you play him, RVP and Kagawa in the same team.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:05 am
by Moon-Crane
Hans the German Butler wrote:To some extent I think it smacks of desperation from Utd. £22m plus add-ons for a 29-year old injury prone player is papering over the cracks when the players they really need to replace are Giggs, Scholes, Evra, Rafael, Fabio, Anderson and Fletcher. Unless he's planning to move Rooney back into the Scholes position, I don't see how you play him, RVP and Kagawa in the same team.


Absolutely agree that it's a lot of money for a potentially risky crock. But he's a top striker when fit and able - and i just see the move as a symbolic crushing for Arsenal fans, to see their place starkly in the pecking order of Premiership clubs, more than anything else. Selling to your rivals is seen as more problematic in this country than others.

I think Man utd are simply looking to bolster the rotating attack options in the short term to try and match the Aguero/Tevez/Dzeko/Balotelli strike force options. I'm not sure Welbeck, Hernandez, Macheda, are really seen as strong enough backup for Rooney. I guess they've also got Berbatov but Fergie doesn't seem to be fussed with or trust him.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:10 am
by Hans the German Butler
Moon-Crane wrote:Absolutely agree that it's a lot of money for a potentially risky crock. But he's a top striker when fit and able - and i just see the move as a symbolic crushing for Arsenal fans, to see their place starkly in the pecking order of Premiership clubs, more than anything else. Selling to your rivals is seen as more problematic in this country than others.

I think Man utd are simply looking to bolster the rotating attack options in the short term to try and match the Aguero/Tevez/Dzeko/Balotelli strike force options. I'm not sure Welbeck, Hernandez, Macheda, are really seen as strong enough backup for Rooney. I guess they've also got Berbatov but Fergie doesn't seem to be fussed with or trust him.


I've never really understood that. Everytime I've seen him play he's looked quality. He's one of those players who never looks rushed but always happens to be in the right place at the right time. It will be interesting to see if Arsenal spend big to replace RVP. I think they will need a statement of intent to keep the fans on boards, despite having already signed Giroud, Podolski and Santi Cazorla. Two of those three were just making up for a bad last transfer window where they lost Nasri and brought in Arteta and Benayoun.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 10:29 am
by woggle
Moon-Crane wrote:Ugh. Van Persie to Man Utd. That's got to be a crushing blow to Arsenal fans. The final nail in the coffin of any beliefs that they're serious title challengers to Man Utd/Man City/Chelsea?


Im so totaly fucked of about RVP i cannot funtion!!!!! i will not watch any games between us this season ... can forgive him for leaving but not for going to the scum!!!!

Can't quite see how he and Rooney will work together some how ... aside from last season hes been quite injury hit and at his age i reckon that a lorra money but ef it they can have him .

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 8:11 pm
by Moon-Crane
Tricky Champions League group draw for Man City. Group D is definitely the 'group of death'.

Champions League groups:
Group A: Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Paris St Germain, Dinamo Zagreb
Group B: Arsenal, Schalke, Olympiakos, Montpellier
Group C: AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga
Group D: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund
Group E: Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, FC Nordsjaelland
Group F: Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov
Group G: Barcelona, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Celtic
Group H: Manchester United, Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 8:32 pm
by Moon-Crane
Chelsea are getting properly spanked in the Super Cup!

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:43 pm
by Hans the German Butler
Moon-Crane wrote:Tricky Champions League group draw for Man City. Group D is definitely the 'group of death'.

Champions League groups:
Group A: Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Paris St Germain, Dinamo Zagreb
Group B: Arsenal, Schalke, Olympiakos, Montpellier
Group C: AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga
Group D: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund
Group E: Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, FC Nordsjaelland
Group F: Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov
Group G: Barcelona, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Celtic
Group H: Manchester United, Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj


How easy a group did Man Utd draw? :?

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 3:10 pm
by Moon-Crane
Hans the German Butler wrote:
Moon-Crane wrote:Tricky Champions League group draw for Man City. Group D is definitely the 'group of death'.

Champions League groups:
Group A: Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Paris St Germain, Dinamo Zagreb
Group B: Arsenal, Schalke, Olympiakos, Montpellier
Group C: AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga
Group D: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund
Group E: Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, FC Nordsjaelland
Group F: Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov
Group G: Barcelona, Benfica, Spartak Moscow, Celtic
Group H: Manchester United, Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj


How easy a group did Man Utd draw? :?


Very easy. If they don't qualify this year there'd have to be serious questions.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 3:11 pm
by Moon-Crane
What did you make of the transfer window for Liverpool, Hans? You're looking light up front? Certainly don't need any injuries to Suarez and Borini. Was surprised to see Dempsey end up at Spurs after all the speculation - especially for £6m.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 9:31 am
by Hans the German Butler
Moon-Crane wrote:What did you make of the transfer window for Liverpool, Hans? You're looking light up front? Certainly don't need any injuries to Suarez and Borini. Was surprised to see Dempsey end up at Spurs after all the speculation - especially for £6m.


A bit bemused to be honest. They did spend over £30m when you account for Allen (£15m), Borini (£11m), Assaidi (£3m), Yesil (£1m) and a loan fee for Nuri Sahin reported to be over £2.5m, making us relatively high net spenders because we only recouped money on Charlie Adam and loan fees on Spearing and Carroll; so I suppose that is not a reason to complain. Even so, I was disappointed we didn't bring in a recognised goal-getter. It is the one area we do look quite weak. Apparently we've also trimmed the wage bill by over £20m a year, which can't be a bad thing. It would be good to offload Joe Cole and add another £5m a year to that figure. I was quite surprised that they didn't stump up the extra cash for Dempsey, because, besides anything else FSG have been great at improving revenue streams and US shirt sales for an American player at a club owned by Americans could have represented a significant revenue stream and over the three years he has left would likely pay for him a few times over.

As to the players we've brought in; Allen has looked class so I'm pleased with that signing. Borini looks like he needs time in order to develop some more composure in the English game. I haven't seen Assaidi yet but I get a feeling he's more of a squad player at present, who is likely to play in League Cup and Europa games. Sahin should play later against Arsenal and I'm looking forward to seeing him. We will miss Lucas for the three months he's out though!

Things seemed a bit quiet with Newcastle. I was surprised they didn't come back in with a £15m offer for Carroll given that the two Dembas will be going to the African Cup of Nations in January.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Sat Sep 08, 2012 12:10 am
by Moon-Crane
Hans the German Butler wrote:
Moon-Crane wrote:What did you make of the transfer window for Liverpool, Hans? You're looking light up front? Certainly don't need any injuries to Suarez and Borini. Was surprised to see Dempsey end up at Spurs after all the speculation - especially for £6m.


A bit bemused to be honest. They did spend over £30m when you account for Allen (£15m), Borini (£11m), Assaidi (£3m), Yesil (£1m) and a loan fee for Nuri Sahin reported to be over £2.5m, making us relatively high net spenders because we only recouped money on Charlie Adam and loan fees on Spearing and Carroll; so I suppose that is not a reason to complain. Even so, I was disappointed we didn't bring in a recognised goal-getter. It is the one area we do look quite weak. Apparently we've also trimmed the wage bill by over £20m a year, which can't be a bad thing. It would be good to offload Joe Cole and add another £5m a year to that figure. I was quite surprised that they didn't stump up the extra cash for Dempsey, because, besides anything else FSG have been great at improving revenue streams and US shirt sales for an American player at a club owned by Americans could have represented a significant revenue stream and over the three years he has left would likely pay for him a few times over.

As to the players we've brought in; Allen has looked class so I'm pleased with that signing. Borini looks like he needs time in order to develop some more composure in the English game. I haven't seen Assaidi yet but I get a feeling he's more of a squad player at present, who is likely to play in League Cup and Europa games. Sahin should play later against Arsenal and I'm looking forward to seeing him. We will miss Lucas for the three months he's out though!

Things seemed a bit quiet with Newcastle. I was surprised they didn't come back in with a £15m offer for Carroll given that the two Dembas will be going to the African Cup of Nations in January.


I'm just pleased to see Owen end up with Stoke for a year after the press were trying to equate his free agent status and Liverpool's lack of strikers as a match made in heaven. Could you imagine Mr Popular returning? I couldn't. :lol:

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Sat Sep 08, 2012 12:12 am
by Moon-Crane
Good win for England tonight. Decent enough performance. People can dismiss it as 'only' Moldova, but how many away games in the Eastern Bloc have we fucked up in the past.

Some decent performances anyway. We're not 3rd in the world, no matter what the FIFA rankings claim, but we did alright.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Sat Sep 08, 2012 9:56 pm
by Hans the German Butler
Moon-Crane wrote:I'm just pleased to see Owen end up with Stoke for a year after the press were trying to equate his free agent status and Liverpool's lack of strikers as a match made in heaven. Could you imagine Mr Popular returning? I couldn't. :lol:


We probably will struggle until January unless one of the youngsters really steps up to the plate; but I would rather that than have Owen back. He forced us to sell him to Real Madrid by prevaricating on a new contract offer and went on to play for the scum. He might as well never have played for us at all.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:21 pm
by Moon-Crane
Two crazy games in two nights. Everton v Newcastle had plenty of drama, and then Real Madrid v Man City took it on another step at the end.

Good win for your bunch, Woggle. Coming together nicely at the moment.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 11:34 am
by woggle
Moon-Crane wrote:Two crazy games in two nights. Everton v Newcastle had plenty of drama, and then Real Madrid v Man City took it on another step at the end.

Good win for your bunch, Woggle. Coming together nicely at the moment.


I caught most of the second half and i was well worried for most of it i didn't think we'd make it to the end with the win but we did *phew* . Im a lot happier with poldolski he's fitting in with our play nicely and Gervinio has found his shooting boots...much happier with me team right now ...big test on sunday thou .

Did sneak a laugh when Ronaldo's shot went in at the death looked like by that time both teams had forgotten their defence!

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Sun Sep 23, 2012 8:16 pm
by Hans the German Butler
I don't think I have ever been so furious about a refereeing performance in my life!

Shelvey lunged at the ball and got it - but he was out of control so I can accept a red card. However, Jonny Evans also lunged at the ball, two-footed with studs up. If you dismiss one, you have to dismiss both.

Johnson made no contact at all on Valencia, other than the brush of a hand against his back. If that was a penalty, Liverpool should have had two for fouls on Agger and Suarez.

Valencia not booked for a professional foul on Gerrard. Evra, Evans, Ferdinand and Scholes in concerted efforts to cripple Sterling with only Scholes booked (his challenge was two-footed). Van Persie made a two-footed lunge on Suso and got only a yellow. It was 10 against 12 today. :evil:

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 2:01 pm
by Moon-Crane
Hehe, it was a tough day there. I personally did think it was a penalty for Man Utd - very soft but i thought it was a foul from behind. And i thought that Suarez dived in looking for the pen at the other end - but i can understand the frustration from the game. They were slight enough decisions where i tend to expect the home side to get the benefit of the doubt. I certainly thought Evans could have gone, along with Shelvey, for that incident.

Pointless fact of the day about Van Persie's penalty - mentioned by Richard Keys on TalkSport this morning. In the time it took between the foul being given and the penalty being taken, Robbie Fowler had scored that fastest Premier League hat-trick against Arsenal those years ago.

Did anyone see David Luiz go through the guy against Stoke and not get red? That was a strange one - far worse lunge than Shelvey's, i thought, yet he only received yellow and they didn't seem to make a single comment about it on MotD. Too interested in waffling on about John Terry.

We got away with a win against Norwich. We're playing ok in patches, but we need a bit of spark from more than Ben Arfa.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 5:55 pm
by Hans the German Butler
Moon-Crane wrote:Hehe, it was a tough day there. I personally did think it was a penalty for Man Utd - very soft but i thought it was a foul from behind. And i thought that Suarez dived in looking for the pen at the other end - but i can understand the frustration from the game. They were slight enough decisions where i tend to expect the home side to get the benefit of the doubt. I certainly thought Evans could have gone, along with Shelvey, for that incident.

Pointless fact of the day about Van Persie's penalty - mentioned by Richard Keys on TalkSport this morning. In the time it took between the foul being given and the penalty being taken, Robbie Fowler had scored that fastest Premier League hat-trick against Arsenal those years ago.

Did anyone see David Luiz go through the guy against Stoke and not get red? That was a strange one - far worse lunge than Shelvey's, i thought, yet he only received yellow and they didn't seem to make a single comment about it on MotD. Too interested in waffling on about John Terry.

We got away with a win against Norwich. We're playing ok in patches, but we need a bit of spark from more than Ben Arfa.


To be fair Demba Ba seems to knocking them in, in between firing his mouth off about how unfortunate he is. We play Norwich next up in the league. I just hope we post our first league win, give us a bit of momentum going into the game versus Stoke the following week.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:55 pm
by Moon-Crane
Hans the German Butler wrote:To be fair Demba Ba seems to knocking them in, in between firing his mouth off about how unfortunate he is. We play Norwich next up in the league. I just hope we post our first league win, give us a bit of momentum going into the game versus Stoke the following week.


I think you'll be seeing a win there. I hope Hughton can do a job for them, but i think they're in for a long, hard season.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 11:07 pm
by Hans the German Butler
Moon-Crane wrote:I think you'll be seeing a win there. I hope Hughton can do a job for them, but i think they're in for a long, hard season.


I like Hughton and his treatment by NUFC must still rankle with him, but I suspect you're right. Now that the euphoria of the first season in the Prem is over it's down to business and they don't have any real depth.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 11:12 am
by Moon-Crane
Couple of League Cup shocks last night. Hopefully tonight will see the red Mancs dumped out alongside the blue side.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:33 pm
by Hans the German Butler
Moon-Crane wrote:Couple of League Cup shocks last night. Hopefully tonight will see the red Mancs dumped out alongside the blue side.


I was hoping for the same thing but unless the Toon do them in the next 3 minutes of stoppage time I'm afraid they'll have scraped through.

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Thu Sep 27, 2012 1:17 pm
by Moon-Crane
Hans the German Butler wrote:
Moon-Crane wrote:Couple of League Cup shocks last night. Hopefully tonight will see the red Mancs dumped out alongside the blue side.


I was hoping for the same thing but unless the Toon do them in the next 3 minutes of stoppage time I'm afraid they'll have scraped through.


Yep. Typical. At least your lot won!

Re: The Footy Thread!

PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2012 12:34 am
by Hans the German Butler
Moon-Crane wrote:
Hans the German Butler wrote:
Moon-Crane wrote:Couple of League Cup shocks last night. Hopefully tonight will see the red Mancs dumped out alongside the blue side.


I was hoping for the same thing but unless the Toon do them in the next 3 minutes of stoppage time I'm afraid they'll have scraped through.


Yep. Typical. At least your lot won!


Finally we have a domestic win under our belts. We need some in the league though. Another shocking refereeing performance by all accounts. To the extent that BR contact Mike Riley this morning to complain!