4117 réponses à ce sujet

[Kimosabe]

City wants to have 29 million for Balotelli, which is a bit much for a risk like that. However, AC Milan and City are still talking so nothing is certain yet..

It is certain that Sneijder is leaving Inter. Galatasaray and Inter already had an agreement buy Sneijder himself waited with signing it, probably hoping for a better offer from England or Germany. But since that didn't come, he finally signed the contract.

You won't be the only foreigner but there are less than in the bigger cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam and a big part of those people are there for either work or are Belgian.
There are some old spanish-esqe building but not much, it all happend in the 16th and 17th century so much has changed since then. It does not feal like Spain and nobody speaks Spanish because we didn't want them here and ended up rebelling against them.

I don't know if it will be good for German football with Guardiola there. I hope that he doens't try to change the playing style to much because I really like how they are playing now. I like how Barca plays as well but that is for Barca only, if to many other clubs adopt is succesfully it won't be as unique anymore. But he is a great coach and if he can adapt to the differences, I have no doubt that he will be succesful.


@OBakaSama
Diving, smart falling.. that discussion will rage on forever. If he gets a penalty it is smart falling, if he doesn't it was an obvious dive. As they say: History is written by the victor.

And as a finishing note; A friend of mine sent me this video:, it is a Budweiser commercial for the FA Cup. There is not much special about it except for one thing: the chanting you hear is Dutch, and stranger, it is chanting for my club, NAC. Are the fans in England so boring that they have to take chanting from the number 16 in The Netherlands to fill their needs?

[Druss99]

That United 7-1 Roma match still haunts me, it was the only match I'd missed in around 7 years despite actually going to the bar to watch it. Instead I had paramilitary threats, bizarre hooker/Christians and a man turning purple, all while I missed the bloody match.

I wouldn't pay 29p for Balotelli. Not only is he not worth all the crap, but what in the blue hell makes him so highly rated? Seriously, can someone explain the hype? £29m for him is almost as bad as £35m for Carroll to me. I was going to say its worse but then remembered it was actually £35m for Andy Carroll and I went back to laughing at it.

I'm not so sure Guardiola will make that much difference to German football, he's just a coach who hasn't proven an awful lot other than he can win things with the best team in the world. Now he gets to test himself with...one of the biggest and best teams in Europe. I'm not seeing anything exciting there yet.

It's still a dive even if you get the penalty. But I think you guys take a different view of it on the continent, some countries seem to view it as a skill in itself. Suarez seems to have a bit of Tevez about him in that he thinks he can go back to South America and say what he wants and no one will know. Not the first time he's gone to mouth off in Uruguay. He made his manager look like a dick, something he needs absolutely no help with at all. Does Rodgers give anyone else the creeps?

Speaking of Tevez, his yearly "I want to leave!!" fiasco seems to be starting.

I've never seen that ad on tv. To be honest it looks like its of the quality of those cheap and nasty ads you see late at night advertising phone lines for um...lonely gentlemen. I suspect its probably to do with licencing. Although I think we have discussed here before that there does seem to be much better atmosphere's in The Netherlands(that is the right one isn't it?) and Germany than in England.

Discussion I had in work today and we got no real answer for: Why in the blue hell are the media insisting on this mental crusade to force Chelsea to offer Lampard a new contract? Why weren't they doing it for Cole who is a much, much better player? It makes no bloody sense. We got sidetracked from the discussion when a guy said "I hate that f*cker Redknapp..." before launching into a tirade about him and a Spurs fan who called in earlier and claimed Redknapp was great but could offer no evidence as to why. I then declared him my favourite person, despite his lack of boobs.

Is it true that Snjeider is a bit of a dick and doesn't get along with RVP at all?

When will Norwich decide to turn up against Liverpool or Man City? It's becoming upsetting.

Modifié par Druss99, 21 janvier 2013 - 08:25 .

[OBakaSama]

Procrastinating.....

The diving debate will rage forever. If it didn't we'd have less to discuss. It's true that history is written by the victors (insofar as most understand it), but I'll always remember that Portsmouth were conned out of a win by Pires which would have ended Arsenal's streak. As such that team will be the Invincibles for years to come.

Balotelli is one of those players who seems to be inconsistent, but when they play well everyone seems to know about it. Given his age perhaps clubs are buying into his potential rather than his form and actual ability.

I wish Norwich would turn up for those games as well. A 5-0 drubbing.....ouch.

Anyone think Tevez says he wants to go home after he sets foot and close the door behind him back in Argentina?

Oh, and Bradford making it to the League Cup final. The romance of cup competitions.

[Druss99]

Before this all kicks off and becomes a whole thing, Eden Hazard didn't attack a ballboy. I literally just turned on the tv as it was happening. He was incredibly stupid, a bit of a pr*ck and deserves a ban for sheer idiocy. But it's nowhere near as bad as it's going to be turned into.

What happened was the ballboy went to lift the ball and throw it back to the keeper for a goal kick. Before he could lift it Hazard was at him, he was leaning forwards to lift the ball when Hazard arrived and gave him a bit of a mild shove, enough to tip him forwards onto the ball. Ball boy is then ontop of the ball with Hazard still over him trying to move him, Hazard then kicks the ball out from under him, prodding with his toe.

The whole thing lasted about 3 or 4 seconds. Stupidity and complete ignorance from Hazard, he had no business being anywhere near the ball boy, absolutely no business putting his hands on him and was just a pig ignorant pr*ck. But before the papers start building it up as an assault, it really wasn't, I don't think his foot or leg even touched him. Then again maybe the media won't bite on this one as he isn't a United player. I'd imagine an extended ban is in order.

Podolski's goal for Arsenal tonight was a great strike.

Modifié par Druss99, 23 janvier 2013 - 10:53 .

[OBakaSama]

Saw a gif of the incident and....well....found the follow up by the press about Twitter quite funny to be honest. A good bit of relief in a rather hectic and testing time for me. Doesn't look like the situation will be left untouched though, not with the current ruling.

Aston Villa's season seems to be going from bad to worse. I wonder whether Paul Lambert regrets leaving Norwich and not wait for a 'bigger' club is he really wanted to leave.

[Kimosabe]

The media really did make it worse that it was. I agree, he had absolutely no business being there but he did not intentionally kick the ballboy. It was reported here that the ballboy posted a tweet before the match saying that he would make sure to wast as much time as possible if it was in the advantage of Swansea.
But the FA is pressing charges against him, believing that 3 match ban isn't enough...

I am not saying that I support the idea of diving to get a penalty, it just how it works at the moment,

Almost everyone who played for The Netherlands during the WC is a dick. Sneijder, Van Persie, Robben, Van der Vaart etc, they all have a ego bigger than their country.. Not one of them is selected for the upcoming practise match against Italy btw.

So.. it is definitive, the EC 2020 will be held in 13 different countries. Is this good?, can it promote a more European feeling amongst the fans or is it just Platini's attempt to get as many countries as possible to support him when he runs as head of the FIFA?

[Druss99]

I think they have to ban him for more than 3 matches, 3 matches is just for the red card. He actually went off the pitch and caused this utterly stupid incident of his own accord. It's not like a miss timed tackle or something, its an off the pitch incident so I'd expect 4 or 5 game ban. He didn't do an awful lot but ban for stupidity alone is in order.

I didn't think RVP or Van der Vaart were that bad from their time in England. Robben I can see being a massive **** though. I recall past complaints about Van Nistlerooy, Davids, De Jong, Kluivert and various others all being dicks, seems to be a problem you've been cursed with over the years.

The 13 countries thing sounds like a bit of a mess, what about fans who travel over for tournaments and stay until the team goes out. Won't this cost them even more of a fortune? I don't think I like the sound of it.

[OBakaSama]

Not entirely sure about the multiple countries thing. Seems to spread the tournament out and lose its identity without a proper host nation which can make a tournament special. Plus the logistics of supporters going to certain countries and stadiums....I can see some being affected by such a decision. If they spread it over so many countries why not go the full hog and have home and away matches?

[Druss99]

Yeah I think it will lose its identity and become just like extended qualifiers without a host nation. Saying that though I hear there was only three bids, Scotland/Wales/Ireland joint bid(doesn't sound great at all, is there anywhere near enough stadiums?), Turkey(don't know about the infrastructure but surely a great atmosphere, if not too scary for some) and...someone else who I forget. Apparently Portugal spent a fortune on stadiums when they hosted, which they now can't fill and barely use, no one wants to be lumbered with that. Maybe they should just rotate it between joint bids and the "bigger" footballing nations like Germany, Italy, Spain, England, France and Holland/Belgium. If you win it then you get dibs on hosting next time if you want it.

But Barca where winning before Guardiola and are winning still without him. I really don't see whats so special. He's going to walk away with the league in Germany too if this season is anything to go by. I don't get whats so special about Mourinho either.

Oh god, please don't buy into that media nonsense about Lampard, Modjo. He is some sort of saint because his mother died? Wes Brown lost his dad(or brother) and played next day without the big dramatic show about it. The way the press go on you'd think Lampard was the only player ever to lose a loved one. Also he's not even a midfielder or a striker or an attacking midfielder, what the hell does he do? Notice no big clubs have been in for him despite his contract being up? I'd be horrified if he turned up at United, him being linked with us was one of the stupidest things I've heard in years. Exactly what we need, a "midfielder" who needs two other midfielders before he is even close to effective. He scores goals, but he's not a striker so you sort of expect...more.

Look on Youtube for Pires dive versus Portsmouth to see it in all it's glory. It was kind of hilarious but infuriating at the time. When we eventually ended their run they were incensed that Rooney dived for our penalty, I genuinely can't recall if it was a dive or not but I think it was.

I'm not actually sure where I got the idea that RVN was a dick. I heard he was a model pro but there was alot of bust ups at United, including him leaving Ronaldo in tears, which is kind of comical, he was eventually forced out somewhat against his will. Shame because he was amazing and my favourite player back when he was here. I think I recall reports of him having bust ups while on international duty too.

I thought Ronaldo was the best player I've ever seen, the original one, not the one who plays for Real and never passes. He could do absolutely everything and when on form was truly unstoppable. Ronaldinho was great to watch, but no Ronaldo. I've trouble picking between Ronaldo and George Best as the greatest player, but I'm biased towards Best I suppose.

Speaking of the Lampard family(didn't we have a name for him?), The Iron Gerbil is up to his classic tricks, after picking a team that lost in the cup he basically said "I knew those players were sh*t, but you all wanted me to give them a chance and now look, not my fault 'guv." When they win it's all him, when they lose it's the players fault. Then there's him saying he doesn't want to spend the chairmans money, they already spend far too much on wages. Hhmmm how did they get Remy ahead of Newcastle? Then the Odemwinggie thing, he anounces they are after him, unsettles the player completely and then starts saying "Someone" has leaked it. Absolute joke and the FA should do him for tapping up, finally.

Moving on to spineless gits. Rodgers, anyone recall him criticising his big players, ever? Other than when Suarez left him with no choice, even then he barely criticised him. He is terrified of saying the wrong thing about Gerrard or Suarez, he blames an FA Cup exit on his youngsters not stepping up. Seriously? He's going on about wanting to bring in youngsters, build the team around that and....then he blames them when the team lose? Why not criticise your captain who disapeared completely in the second half?

I can't believe someone spent £17m on Balotelli, it seems like utter madness. Surely you can get a proven striker for that price.

It seems rather strange, but finally Michael Carrick is getting the credit he deserves. He's been the heartbeat of our team for atleast a couple of years and has been massively underrated for his positioning and passing. I think his finest game was the CL semi final against Chelsea a couple of seasons ago when he was utterly immense. The media and pundits seem to have finally caught on that he is a class act. Him and Cleverly/Wilshere is a much better proposition for England than Gerrard/Lampard.

Modifié par Druss99, 30 janvier 2013 - 03:35 .

[Druss99]

^I meant the Brazilian Ronaldo. At the top of his game he was completely unplayable. I think the player that Cristiano Ronaldo was at United was well on his way to becoming the one he is at Madrid. He was always greedy and didn't work for the team, towards the end was getting pushed upfront with Rooney or Tevez being shoved out wide to do the tracking back that he wouldn't do. For all his great skills and stunning goals, I find him infuriating to watch.

Do you mean the thinking that Carrick should be in the England team? He's been United's best midfielder for the last few years and is once again our best midfielder this season. He's a class act at what he does, give him some legs beside him to get forward and close players down and he is excellent. It seems to be only now that the media are picking up on how good he actually is, if they spotted it a few years ago England might have been a better team, because we all know who picks the England team. He did have a problem where he would start seasons slowly and struggle for form until around December time, but he seems to be past that now too. As a United fan the scariest words I can hear remain "Carrick injured" even ahead of RVP being injured, because we have no one else even close to his quality in midfield.

Cabaye scored a ****** last night, it seems only a matter of time before one of the big teams make a move for him. Most times I've seen him he has looked excellent.

[Druss99]

It seems we just like different types of player, you like the magic of Ronaldinho, I like the brilliance of (the real) Ronaldo. Here's his hattrick against United where he got a standing ovation at Old Trafford...... Incidently if I was picking my all time greatest team, the guy presenting would be Ronaldo's strike partner. Maybe not one of the best players ever to the rest of the world, but to United fans he is The King.

Also the memories that video brought back, Big Ron on commentary and Barthez in his usual position, which was unfortunately usually horribly out of position.

Maybe, but if Cristiano was already set on the path to where he is now I'm not so sure Sir Alex would have put up with him for much longer and his days at United would have been numbered, he had been causing us issues for a couple of years before we sold and I'm not sure there was much patience left there. The worst part for him and his dispute with Messi is that it's barely a competition, Messi is so much better than Cristiano. I think one is a great player and the other is simply a great goal scorer. There's a big difference for me.

Yeah, we have been trying to figure out that particular puzzle on here for years. England picking a midfield that makes sense is one of the seven signs of the apocalypse.

It seems Norwich are determined to get a striker or two on deadline day. Becchio fee has been agreed apparently and they are still negotiating for Gary Hooper from Celtic.

Modifié par Druss99, 31 janvier 2013 - 03:44 .

[bFootball]

Peter Odemwingie. What. A. Fool.

[Druss99]

^ New song by Odemwingie "Sign Me Maybe"..."Hey, I just drove here. And this is crazy. I'm in your car park. So sign me maybe"

It's blatantly obvious QPR tapped Odemwingie up. He even said to SSN yesterday about the faith The Iron Gerbil was showing in him. How is he showing faith if they haven't spoken? But that will never be investigated and it will be all Odemwingie's fault. I think QPR and his agents left him out to dry. He's still a massive moron though.

Some All-Bran would sort out Alex's regularity. He looked a good defender when at Chelsea but he didn't play a whole lot, I think he upset AVB.

Anyone else praying QPR get relegated?

Weird that the Pires dive isn't on there, it shows up in the search list but no videos. He basically threw himself to the ground and kicked the defender on his way past.

[OBakaSama]

That song is way too popular.... The situation with Odemwingie is farcical though I have to admit.

Skepticism about Guardiola's ability: I'm one of them. It's not to say that he has not achieved anything, because he had with the best team in the history to ever will be existing forevermore ©. It's just that I would like to see him try his hand with a different team, which will happen later this year with Bayern Munich, and see how well he copes. A really strong team effectively plays itself. I have in mind the Galactico era of Real Madrid. If memory serves del Bosque only ever chose who played and let the players get on with it. (Maybe that's why the press think the Iron Gerbil is so great?) Another team will present a different set of circumstances. Even the same team over a longer period of time would as well. If he stayed at Barcelona it would also be interesting to see the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and the likes retire or lose a bit of pace/ability and see who gets brought up or in to the squad. I don't think we got to see that.

Another aspect which might get overlooked is whether the manager is good at team building. Granted, most managers now don't stay at a club long enough to build a team. Ferguson has done it with Man Utd during his tenure there which is why I would consider him to be a great manager. Mourinho, despite his accolades, has yet to demonstrate that ability. In fact, I'm not sure how many managers of the modern era have shown that ability. In the Premier League only Wenger and Moyes have been at their clubs long enough to build teams. To clarify further I consider team building to be the nurturing of young players and not just buying players. Mourinho bought a team which worked well at Chelsea at the time.

Norwich getting Becchio. OK, let's see how that goes then. Going out of the FA Cup really isn't that surprising given Norwich's overall record in cup competitions. I reckon we'd go out to an under-11 team myself....

The Iron Gerbil: indeed he's up to his usual tricks. Saw the other day that he has already used the 'bare bones' excuse. That didn't take long....

I once searched for the Pires dive when I brought it up from way, way back in this thread. It truly is legendary. But it's become one of those mythic moments that doesn't really get mentioned like Arsenal beating Barcelona.

[Sparrow44]

Can't wait for all the transfer speculation to begin again when Beckham finishes his 5 months at PSG. *sarcasm*

Gotta laugh at the Odemwingie fiasco, the story begin for it in the beginning of January when he was first linked with a move and weeks later it goes to the last day and I knew all along that it wasn't going to work out with the way he conducted himself over those last few days (saying goodbyes to the club, teammates). I thought he traveled to London just to try and force a move whether West Brom wanted to agree or not, suppose you could say he tried to wing it.

What's this about a player failing a medical at Nottingham Forest due to an eye exam?

And is it me or has Ashley Young been pretty inconsistent at his time for United, he plays for a couple matches then is absent for a while and then is announced as returning from injury and then repeat over the next month or two.

I don't see Redknapp staying with QPR if they get relegated, and with the chairman Fernandes saying he'd step down if he thinks he's failed well that's two seasons to forget in the big time. How much have the club spent in less than 2 years since they were promoted? I'm thinking a scary amount for a club in the position they are in.

Sparrow.

[OBakaSama]

Norwich seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut of late with nary a win in sight. At least they didn't lose at home to Fulham.

Today's results are generally rather interesting. Southampton beating Man City is probably the result of the day for me. And of course QPR's unfortunate loss *cough* deserves a mention too.

Was pleasantly surprised to find out that England managed to beat Brazil in a friendly.

[Druss99]

I saw a good bit of the second half of the Norwich match last week and they were a much better team than QPR. Felt they deserved to win, Houlahan was very impressive.

Speaking of QPR, I look forward to seeing who The Iron Gerbil blames for today. I've never wanted a team relegated as much as them. Did you see the lookalikes on F365? The Iron Gerbil and Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's genius.

I'll cover the Southampton - City game and the England - Brazil game in one point. Joe Hart, when will the media give up the notion that he's fantastic? He's been mostly sh*t all season and has consistantly cost both England and Man City points, wait until you see his howler from tonight. If De Gea made the mistakes Hart makes he would get lynched. They are writing stories about us wanting to replace him because he didn't decapitate Vidic to make a clearance a few weeks ago, yet when Hart makes continued howlers its "Well these things happen, he's wonderful isn't he?" De Gea is a very good keeper, Hart isn't brilliant, he's good but not that good. But none of that fits the narrative, does it?

What's with the whole Bale/Ronaldo thing? The summer is going to be interesting to see if he ends up at a bigger club and what position he eventually ends up playing. Seems to keep winding up playing through the middle when I see him.

[Sparrow44]

I don't know if the goalkeeping criticisms of De Gea is anything to do with the rumors I'd heard of United being interested in Stoke City's Begovic in the summer. Not sure if there's any truth to that, but De Gea has been scrutinized ever since he joined us.

I also fear that United won't be able to capitalize on City's loss this weekend against Everton, a point would be taken with bated breath I think but 12 points is much more appealing. Southampton under Pochettino seems to be clicking so far well done to them.

OBaka; what do you make of the Becchio signing? He seems to have been a marquee player for Leeds. The allure of playing Premiership football for Norwich a good sign of the club's future in this decision perhaps?

[Druss99]

I don't see us signing another keeper to be honest. De Gea has mostly been very good, it's just that if he makes any sort of mistake the media go wild, remember when he arrived and he couldn't handle long shots because he let one in? It's a witch hunt, the complete opposite of what brave, brave Joe Hart gets.

I'd take a draw against Everton, they are becoming our bogey team lately. Although I feel a 2-1 win with a late Hernandez winner in my bones. Set up nicely for Madrid then.

What the hell does "drive" mean when pundits are talking? They say it like its some amazing quality but it just seems to be a fancy way of saying "He ran forward." I really need to start muting the tv lol.