The Football Thread - Season 2011/2012

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Someone please tell me it's April 1st. Why else would the BBC site say that lee Clark has been sacked by Huddersfield? 3 defeats in 55 games, nicely in 4th spot and just 4 pts off auto promotion. Crazy!!!
 
Carlos Tevez had to do a fitness test last night. He had to sit, lie down and roll over.
 
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Someone please tell me it's April 1st. Why else would the BBC site say that lee Clark has been sacked by Huddersfield? 3 defeats in 55 games, nicely in 4th spot and just 4 pts off auto promotion. Crazy!!!

Yep, some chairmen are insane. Clark seems genuinely bewildered, as am I.
 
I feel for Rangers' fans. Admin is horrible, it suddenly casts a huge cloud of doubt over your club regarding the future existence.

..................................

Wouldn't wish administration upon even my worse enemy... well maybe Millwall!

Good luck Rangers and all the other clubs struggling in this modern era of football.

Rangers have been cheating the other teams in their league. They have been buying more expensive players on higher wages with taxpayer's money. Any business that cheats its competitors by regarding tax as optional deserves to go out of business.

As a Hammer I agree with you about Millwall though.

"Ten men, we only had ten men" :D
 
Doh - I thought the Arsenal might have managed a draw tonight but it's looking like they could struggle now. Needing a great start to the second half I think.....
 
dinners said:
Doh - I thought the Arsenal might have managed a draw tonight but it's looking like they could struggle now. Needing a great start to the second half I think.....

With koscielny off injured i'd be surprise if it didn't end 4-0. We've not had a sniff of goal and have looked very frail at the back although that 2nd looked a clear offside from the angle we've seen so far. Perhaps the half time analysis will show differently though.
 
Rangers have been cheating the other teams in their league. They have been buying more expensive players on higher wages with taxpayer's money. Any business that cheats its competitors by regarding tax as optional deserves to go out of business.

As a Hammer I agree with you about Millwall though.

"Ten men, we only had ten men" :D

But it's the fans that suffer. The suits at the top can just walk away.
 
TriggerHappy said:
With koscielny off injured i'd be surprise if it didn't end 4-0. We've not had a sniff of goal and have looked very frail at the back although that 2nd looked a clear offside from the angle we've seen so far. Perhaps the half time analysis will show differently though.

And that's another result I've called right...on a bit of a roll at the moment!

Chins up Gooners, at least we've made it through the group stages and don't face the humiliation of Channel 5 tomorrow night :lol:
 
With koscielny off injured i'd be surprise if it didn't end 4-0. We've not had a sniff of goal and have looked very frail at the back although that 2nd looked a clear offside from the angle we've seen so far. Perhaps the half time analysis will show differently though.

That's what you get for not investing in the team. The closest djorou should be to the CL is watching it on TV. Why was Ox not played from the start, seeing how he has been awesome of late?
 
And that's another result I've called right...on a bit of a roll at the moment!

Chins up Gooners, at least we've made it through the group stages and don't face the humiliation of Channel 5 tomorrow night :lol:

It's the place to be :naughty:
 
Yep, some chairmen are insane. Clark seems genuinely bewildered, as am I.

Sounds like some kind of behind-the-scenes bust up... has to be!

No matter anyway - Charlton running away with it! CAFC, c'mon the Addicks! ;)
 
And that's another result I've called right...on a bit of a roll at the moment!

Chins up Gooners, at least we've made it through the group stages and don't face the humiliation of Channel 5 tomorrow night :lol:

no thats next season:D
 
Someone please tell me it's April 1st. Why else would the BBC site say that lee Clark has been sacked by Huddersfield? 3 defeats in 55 games, nicely in 4th spot and just 4 pts off auto promotion. Crazy!!!

There might have been only 3 defeats in 55 games, but 17 points out of the last 36 is hardly promotion form. Chairman has presumably spent a lot of money and wants / needs promotion, and is concerned the team will miss out again.
 
So hopefully Chelsea can keep up English Interest in the CL........

At what point do we (England) loose a place in the CL and the Prem League becomes all about teams aiming for the top 3 ?
 
So hopefully Chelsea can keep up English Interest in the CL........

At what point do we (England) loose a place in the CL and the Prem League becomes all about teams aiming for the top 3 ?

what do you mean?

is that on the cards then?

It is very much on the cards as Uefa want to try and 'spread' the wealth. The big 4 (Eng, Spain, Italy & Germany) do not auto have 4 teams in the CL, it all depends on past seasons progress. I don't think they can alter for next years qualification but if Chelsea do not get to the semis I reckon we will be down to 3.
 
There might have been only 3 defeats in 55 games, but 17 points out of the last 36 is hardly promotion form. Chairman has presumably spent a lot of money and wants / needs promotion, and is concerned the team will miss out again.

I dont recall them being loads of points in front, without checking I would say that the Sheffield teams have similar points totals from those games. All teams (bar Charlton) have form dips, 17 points equates to 1.4 per game, hardly poor, when 2 per game will see auto promotion.
 
It is very much on the cards as Uefa want to try and 'spread' the wealth. The big 4 (Eng, Spain, Italy & Germany) do not auto have 4 teams in the CL, it all depends on past seasons progress. I don't think they can alter for next years qualification but if Chelsea do not get to the semis I reckon we will be down to 3.

And the world would end. Sky would have to retrain everyone who works for them to remember to say 'Top 3' instead of 'Top 4'.

No biggy. Move on.
 
And the world would end. Sky would have to retrain everyone who works for them to remember to say 'Top 3' instead of 'Top 4'.

No biggy. Move on.

Why would a palace fan worry about the CL?

Believe it or not it used to be 1 place.
 
And the world would end. Sky would have to retrain everyone who works for them to remember to say 'Top 3' instead of 'Top 4'.

No biggy. Move on.

it would be a biggy. Because it would mean less prize money for the teams in the PL, 1 team less would be getting the CL payment. Also that then affects their income from sky.

It would have a knock on effect that you aren't thinking of.
 
Why would a palace fan worry about the CL?

Believe it or not it used to be 1 place.

I'm not worrying about it, trust me... although I haven't been about to sleep recently, but I've been putting that down to the huge lumps of cheese I have been consuming most evenings. Who knows...!

I am well aware that it used to be one place, back in the bygone age when it truly was a 'Champions League' (although not named so). This was probably before 92/93 when football was invented.
 
their income from sky

Worrying statement and thought.

Those clubs that rely so heavily on their annul paycheques from *** (I don't what to say the word again) are the same soulless ones who's fans have become so spoilt with success (success these days apparently means 4th place... that's not even a bronze!), so expectant and detached from being a supporter that they will boo their own team in the very rare occasions they may be 1-0 at half time, or scream "Season's over!" in mid-January, because *** told you so.

That over fed, watered down, Old Division 1 of ours is something I hope never to be part of.

Please stay away from the 'Championship', ***. I would rather like to keep my club as it is, something I can touch and feel, and not have to paw at through glass on a Monday night.
 
So back in Scotland and with the Rangers situation, the administrators held what could only be described as the most pointless press conference I've seen.

Basically they can not, or will not say, where £24 million of money from Ticketus has gone to, the £9 million in PAYE money was put back into running of the club and yet they still made a loss of a reported £10 million from the month of May 2011. Also they still want to take on a player at a reported £7,500 per week wage despite being in administration (good luck getting that one around the rules, but will not be surprised if the SFA/SPL bent over backwards for them). They also state that it's highly unlikely that Rangers will go into liquidation, despite a possible tax bill of roughly £55 million (low end estimate) to £75 million (common reported figure)

One things for sure, it will be an interesting next couple of weeks and I think there will be some strange stuff reviled about going on's in the board room of Ibrox.
 
BREAKING NEWS: Harry Redknapp has turned down the England Manager job, he's now Rangers' tax advisor.
 
More breaking news: Rangers have announced their first redundancies. 2 referees and 4 linesman are to leave with immediate effect.
 
Does anyone really think Wenger should still be in charge?

Yet MORE defensive cock ups! Anyone who by now thinks that Squillachi or Djorou have any place on a football pitch above League 2 level is deluded. The papers report that we don't do specific defensive training or defending set piece stuff! Well, I would never have guessed!

Thats RVP probably off at the end of the season, so next year we can look at mid table obscurity!!
 
Surely Wenger should stay to the end of the season ... any replacement is stuck with the fairly average squad
 
So Warnock has been appointed as Leeds Utd Manager, any opinions? Been a Leeds fan I'm a bit dubious, wasn't long ago he said he hated LUFC.

I thought he was a bit of an arse before he came to QPR, but loved him whilst he was with us (it helped we got promoted to the Premier League of course).

I'd take what he says \ has said with a pinch of salt.

Some of the football we played was fantastic, so don't think it will all be long ball etc (we had Tarrabt and I doubt there will be many players with his talent in the championship again so that helped as well).

We signed players like Clint Hill, Shaun Derry etc and you could tell the team spirit was great, we never gave up in games and scored a few late goals as a result. That, and basically Tarrabt = promotion.

I'd say he's an excellent signing, his record on promotions is excellent and he's not as bad as you think he is, you'll grow to love him (probably) - opposition fans will continue to hate him.
 
so next year we can look at mid table obscurity!!

I'd like to sympathise, but seeing as we are back in the Premier League for the 1st time in 16 years with a good chance of going straight back down, having been relegated twice, near bankruptcy several times, a series of incompetent managers and chairman, alleged boardroom gunpoint trouble, fights with the China football team, Flavio Briotore's how to hire\fire a manager wisdom, nearly not getting promoted and only finding out hours on the day of our last match.

Not only that, but you should have seen what former gunners Stewart Houston \ Steve Morrow etc did to us :gag: and some football in later years that you can only dream of how bad. You don't know how lucky you are! Your bad is our dream! :D

That said that Djourou has been terrible every time I've seen him, no doubt someone will buy him for 4 million in a few years time though! :thinking:
 
My biggest gripe is that Wenger is oblivious to what its wrong. For the last few years he ignores the fact we can't defend and still believes we don't need to replace the likes of Viera, Henry, Fabregas etc... His buys of late have been terrible and he keeps making the same mistakes week after week, month after month which for me is unforgivable.
 
My biggest gripe is that Wenger is oblivious to what its wrong. For the last few years he ignores the fact we can't defend and still believes we don't need to replace the likes of Viera, Henry, Fabregas etc... His buys of late have been terrible and he keeps making the same mistakes week after week, month after month which for me is unforgivable.

I think everyone has seen that, first with the keeper and then the defence - it's been odd. Very odd.
 
Sack wenger. I wanted him gone years ago. The longer he stays the worse it gets. Once rvp goes at the end of the season. We are really screwed
 
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All these people calling for wengers scalp, just who do you want in his place? And I don't mean which manager do you dream of, I mean which proven manager that's currently looking for a job do you think could carry out the job required?
 
All these people calling for wengers scalp, just who do you want in his place? And I don't mean which manager do you dream of, I mean which proven manager that's currently looking for a job do you think could carry out the job required?

Well back in the day were many fans calling for Wenger when he came in? Or were Man U fans calling for Fergie back in the 80s? A manager doesn't need to be out of a job or a big name to be a target! I would love to see The Special One and that could happen, although Spurs will be after him too!

My problem with Wenger is that he refuses to admit that his way of doing things is wrong, and he is still saying the sky is pink and not blue!

IF he said that he is happy for us to be a top 8 club, and that we would always look to raise more cash than we spend fair enough. But he is deluded to think we can still go for trophies with the squad we have. He thinks his transfer strategy is sound. He ballsed up big time - he should of planned on Nasri and Cesc going and not resorted to panic buying on deadline day.

Managers will always get things wrong - the trick is to make a mistake and learn from it. Wenger is making the same mistakes all the time, maybe its ego, but he thinks he can do no wrong yet the club is in a state. Who do we have that the other big clubs would want? RVP obviously, Ox, Wilshire certainly,maybe Vermaelen and keeper but thats it. Players like Gervinho, Rosicky, Djorou,Park would not even get into the likes of Newcastle!!!

We have been declining over the years, he is doing the same thing so we will continue to decline. If you are happy with that, fine, but I want to see our manager getting some basics right first. I see no evidence to suggest we can be an established top 4 club like we were so would it harm to change?
 
Well back in the day were many fans calling for Wenger when he came in? Or were Man U fans calling for Fergie back in the 80s? A manager doesn't need to be out of a job or a big name to be a target! I would love to see The Special One and that could happen, although Spurs will be after him too!

My problem with Wenger is that he refuses to admit that his way of doing things is wrong, and he is still saying the sky is pink and not blue!

IF he said that he is happy for us to be a top 8 club, and that we would always look to raise more cash than we spend fair enough. But he is deluded to think we can still go for trophies with the squad we have. He thinks his transfer strategy is sound. He ballsed up big time - he should of planned on Nasri and Cesc going and not resorted to panic buying on deadline day.

Managers will always get things wrong - the trick is to make a mistake and learn from it. Wenger is making the same mistakes all the time, maybe its ego, but he thinks he can do no wrong yet the club is in a state. Who do we have that the other big clubs would want? RVP obviously, Ox, Wilshire certainly,maybe Vermaelen and keeper but thats it. Players like Gervinho, Rosicky, Djorou,Park would not even get into the likes of Newcastle!!!

We have been declining over the years, he is doing the same thing so we will continue to decline. If you are happy with that, fine, but I want to see our manager getting some basics right first. I see no evidence to suggest we can be an established top 4 club like we were so would it harm to change?

But Wenger and Fergie are pretty rare finds, whilst they've escalated clubs to huge success hundreds of managers have been and gone with nothing remarkable to speak of. It's not realistic to expect us to just pluck some nobody off the street and have them return us to the success of 8ish years ago. If we use that tactic we might go through 5 or 10 managers before we get anybody approaching the skill that a top flight club requires to succeed.

If you look at our squad and consider the extent of the injuries we've suffered - almost solely to our defensive line which can only compound the devastation they've caused - and compare it with other teams in the league we're actually far weaker than an awful lot of them yet we're holding the 4th spot despite having no where near the 4th strongest team. Compare us with Chelsea's team which is massively under achieving for the talent they have, and Liverpool who similarly are under performing with greater players than we have and his achievement looks a little less terrible. That's not a complete defence of him though, since he's allowed the team to deteriorate from a league topping side to one that is only good enough for mid-table obscurity but he's only partly culpable for the lack of spending as it's the club and owners money he'd be spending and they can instruct or prevent that from happening.

My point is I can only think of one guy that could manage our club who has any sort of record for us to expect a reasonable performance from and that's Mourinho and he isn't exactly freely available although there has been speculation over his future. Anyone else would be a monumental risk and how do you judge their performance? It's not like we can spend £100m in the transfer window with a new manager and suddenly expect to win, that sort of overhaul takes time and there will be bumps and failings along the way. All this calling for Wenger's sacking just seems very ill-conceived and short sighted. I'm not saying he's perfect, the best manager for us, or that he isn't responsible, at least in part, for our decline over recent years, it's just that I don't see any feasible alternative that doesn't represent an unprecedented risk that couldn't leave us drastically worse off than we already are.
 
Typical Wenger, instead of taking responsibility is playing in the blame game on BBC site - 3 difficult away games in a week, difficult pitches, and points out that the first goal was a deflection - obviously he missed the total incompetence in defence for that one in terms of the free kick and not bothering when the kick came in!

The injuries suffered are unlucky, but the fact is Vermaelen, Sagna aside the rest are rubbish, or in Gibbs case always injured! Although Koscielny has shown improvement this season. With the exception of Luiz, any def at the top 6 or 7 clubs would easily get into our side. Why the hell did we not go for Cahill?
 
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