Yeah, ok, crap title.
Congratulations to Zenit St Peterburg for a deserved 2-0 win over Rangers last night. Predictably the Rangers fans celebrate their sides achievement by tearing up Manchester City Centre. I caught a bit of the news today and there was allegations of heavy handed policing. Why is it always the fault of the police? These are grown men who should be able to exercise a little bit of self control.
Also congratulations to Hull for a really impressive 4-1 over Watford in the Championship Play off semi 2nd leg. 3 goals in the last 20 minutes giving the aggregate scoreline a real nice gloss.
2nd leg of Carlisle v Leeds tonight. Most neutrals (myself included) I guess will be rooting for a home win.
Sad news from the green half of Glasgow as Celtic coach Tommy Burns dies of cancer. RIP.
Avram Grant undoes some of his good work my questioning referees and saying that a number of them have favoured Manchester United this season.
Barcelona will offer Milan Ronaldinho, Deco and £16m for Kaka.
Liverpool want Florent Malouda for £10million and Andrei Voronin could return to Bayer Leverkusen.
Martin O'Neill wants Steve Sidwell, possibly to replace Gareth Barry. Villa are also the latest club to throw their hat into the ring to sign David Bentley.
Manchester United defender Jonny Evans is hoping to move to Sunderland on a permanent basis.
Sheffield United want to pinch Rob Earnshaw from under the noses of Nottingham Forest.
West Ham want to land Mark Bresciano, a target for Man City last summer, for £4million.
Michael Chopra could be on his way back to Cardiff in the summer. Presumably not for £5million.
Harry Redknapp may quit Pompey and football after the FA Cup Final.
Michael Laudrup may be in line to replace Sven at Man City.
imagine being the bloke
trying to fix that large screen in the square? I feel nervous enough when a powerpoint presentation goes down.
And to think
everyone was concerned about the Russians rather than the Scottish.
What was the Zenith Data Systems Cup?
It was a 3rd cup wasn't it? I can't remember that well.. around the same time as the league cup was called the Rumbelows Cup?
Yup
it used to be the Simod Cup and was introduced when English clubs were banned from Europe...
Yep
and Forest won it in 1989 beating Everton 4-3 at Wembley in one of the most exciting games I've ever been to in my life.
One of the most
exciting games I've ever been to was Oldham 5-3 Forest in August 1992. Gary Bannister was playing up front for Forest.
Yeah I remember it well
Mark Crossley had a 'mare and we ended up going down. Cloughie's last season too...
Liverpool want Malouda?
Massive LOL. I'm really quite pleased at how the Championship play offs have gone so far
^This, they can have him.
He seemed really good at the start of the season
...then just seemed to fade into nothingness. What went wrong?
Defenders found out how to play him.
He's not strong enough physically.
'arry..
I think will quit IF they win. Being a Hammer, I really hope Pompey win on Saturday. Grew up with Harry at us and would love to see him lift the title.
I love Harry
and I like Pompey a lot being a native... It'd be nice to see them try scoring for a change on Saturday.
good morning sports fans
i think we all know that foreign football is the winner here
*nods*
i'd much prefer Earnie to got to the Blades
I was travelling back from 5-a-side (scored at both ends last night, both devastating finishes) when i heard John Murray saying about that screen going down in Picadilly Gardens. I'd have been shitting myself if i was there, i get nervous just hearing about social disorder. i'd have soiled my new lot of M&S boxers time after time with thousands of rampaging Scots about. nice to see the great English tradition of fucking simple things up hasn't been lost in this new technological age. How many of the TVs in the 2006 Fan Zones went down?
Doesn't matter where
Earnshaw ends up mate; I think Jewell will regret letting him leave when he scores 20+ goals for another Championship side next season.
i agree!
He obviously doesn't like his attitude, or the attitude of most of the players. Hardly any of our squad did themselevs any favours. Maybe only Tyrone Mears, and we'll probably sell him as he'd be a good player in a better team.
also...
Come On Carlisle!
Yes
Come on Carlisle!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
^ this
looking forward to watching it tonight.
Wenger has defended Eboue today
saying he gives the side 'great balance' and that he shouldn't be judged on goals and assists. But that still doesn't make up for him being a complete cunt at times. I think Arsenal fans will be a little dissappointed if he continues there next season.
He has
been a massive letdown in midfield. People forget how good he was at right back though. He should be back up for Sagna.
I could not understand
why Wenger didn't play him there when Sagna was injured. He chose to break up the centre back pairing and play Toure out of position, than play Walcott and Eboue on the right. Obviously i'm sure he knows better than me, but that if it was football manager there's no way I'd have made those choices.
Good right back
not good enough to be a right midfielder imho. That's without taking his suspect mood swings into account.
Should he be judged on the fact he acts like a fucking child!?
I'll be very disappointed if he continues to start in the right of midfield.
Eboue is useless
I really can't understand why Arsene persists with him there. He was good at right back, but as a right midfielder he didn't score one goal and gave us a handful of assists. Squad player at best IMO.
o no!
With the imminent departure of Boatang and Rockembach I would have though Southgate would be enquiring about Sidwell. I hope Villa manage to sign Bentley and drop their efforts for Sidwell at the same time. I cannot see us competing with Villa in the transfer market.
Wheater will be off as well
if that helps
Am pleased it's Hull we've got in the play-off final.
It's one of those nice situations where, disappointed though I'd be if (Bristol) City got this far and didn't go up, Hull are certainly a team I'd wish well if they were in the Premier League.
They
are the largest city in England who have never had a team in the top flight.
So I gather.
Incidentally is Bristol the largest city without a team in the top flight at the moment? It must be between us, Nottingham, Leeds and Sheffield and I've a feeling Bristol's the biggest of the four...
I think Leeds and Sheffield are bigger
population wise anyway
You're right - I just checked.
Also Bradford may or may not be bigger (depending on how you define a city)
Leicester may also be bigger.
8th largest population in the UK apparently, or something like that.
Nah
Leicester's 13th in the UK and 10th in England whereas Bristol's 10th in the UK and 6th in England.
Maybe I'm thinking of largest.
Tommy Burns has died?!
Very sad
Indeed
RIP
I was in Manchester yesterday for a few hours
It was intimidating enough being outside the station, let alone nine hours later in front of a broken big telly. 'kin football fans.
'Mon the Leeds!
Just for bamos
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
We all hate LeedsSCUM!
Brian Clough was a pox on humanity.
Steve Sutton was a wonky-eyed freak.
Ian Woan slept with your brother.
Tony Gubba is a paedophile
THE NATION'S FAVOURITE
STANLEY MATTHEWS CORPSE
Brian Clough = GOD
End of...
Do people think Hull/Bristol City are ready for the Premier League?
Or will they be another Derby? I don't watch enough Championship football or know enough about their respective set ups to judge how they will fare in the prem.
From what I've seen I don't think so
Depends what they do over the summer I guess
Yeah
I think Hull will probably start from a better position in terms of their squad etc at the moment, there's plenty of Premier League know how, even if it's getting on a bit. Bristol City are a completely unknown quantity at top flight level. Both sides are probably going to have to invest heavily.
Bristol City's main problem (as Lawro will undoubtedly point out if they go up)
is a lack of a regular goalscorer, even at Championship level. Basso may be a lower-Premier league level keeper and, at Championshop level, our defence is pretty solid (bar the odd heavy away defeat this season), we've got two decent wingers and a good holding midfielder and Noble, Carle and Johnson aren't bad creative midfielders (although I'm not sure if they're Premier league level) but we really, really need someone to score goals.
But I don't doubt that Gary Johnson knows that and will do what he can to buy what's needed if we get up. The Chairman's been talking about investing £30m of the £45m we'd get for being in the top flight back into the squad but obviously
a) I'd rather we didn't risk our long-term future for short-term survival
b) Even with £30m we still need to persuade players to come...
It's rare promoted teams are as bad as Derby
and I don't think either Hull or Bristol City will be quite that bad. Realistically either's gonna struggle to stay up (or even finish 19th) but I certainly don't think Bristol City would capitluate in quite the way Derby have and I doubt Hull would either.
I may be wrong but I think Hull have got a source of investment somewhere too and could plausibly spend if they went up.
I don't think Hull or Bristol City
would throw in the towel as early as Derby did. They might not have that much quality in the teams but I'd at least expect them to battle games a bit more. Derby didn't do that.
Precisely my feeling.
I will be rooting for Hull though, sorry!
(John Prescott connection).
'S Fair enough...
As I say above, it's one of these nice situations where it'd be good to see either team go up.
Obviously I'd much rather it was us though...
little trivia question -
what's the furthest distance between league grounds? is it carlisle and plymouth? If so I want carlisle to win.
I believe you are correct.
Anyone else who watched the UEFA cup final last night...
think that they showed the two ugly female zenit fans a bit too much? culminating in aclose-up of her filming OTHER zenit fans on her bloody digital camera? AND they were ugly. what?
Non League lineups
were announced last night.
Notable for
- Cambridge not being relegated (possibly pending their appeal?) but Alsager Town being relegated for the same reason
- Halifax not getting a place anywhere
- Altrincham, Hucknall, Borehamwood and Slough getting a reprieve.
How do
Boreham Wood get their reprieve?
Not that I particularly mind
it saves having to go to Billericay or somewhere equally stupid on Boxing Day.
ha ha ha
as if you'll be going anywhere on boxing day.
^ this
anyway, it's a knock on from the Halifax situation. This year, they seem to have decided that the deciding factor for reprieves is on best league record, which at Step 3 is Boreham Wood over Bedford (only three went down from the Unibond anyway since they ran a club short this season).
It makes a change for the FA to do it fairly rather than geographically... if I were a Carshalton, I'd be quite upset over being relegated last season.
Thank god you're not a Carshalton...
sorry, pedantic. I'm genuinely pleased for Slough.
As am I
It's about time something good happened to them, although sad that it's at the expense of another team.
Also quietly happy that we get should a local derby rather than Dover or similar.
YES!
League switch-arounds meaning Gresley are in the same league as Leek Town and Lincoln United next season. I love both of those clubs dearly.
Shame Chasetown weren't moved across as the Kempmeister predicted. I might have finally got to visit them.
leek is not a town. it's a vegetable.
Quorn are in the same league.
Leek v Quorn. VEGGIE WARS.
I carrot believe it
^ AMAZING!!!
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LA LA LA LA LA
WOOD!
LA LA LA LA LA
WOOD!
apparently it was only a minority of rangers fans
yeah right...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F965rbxetrw
The way they attack the police officer at the end is sick and they should get banned from europe. Also amusingly they apparently attacked the technician coming to fix the screen which they apparently broke by pissing on it, nice one.
something about ironing
good to see that copper
get up at the end.
Pretty much blows the "heavy-handed policing" argument out the water.