The Football Thread

[victor meldrew]

Nice to see the three wise monkeys have split the fan base, those believing they have saved the club the rest of us waking up and smelling the coffee.

[Ace1965]

Originally Posted by Motorboater

Tottenham will win the premiership. They just signed my man Fernando Llorente!!!

As an Everton fan. I'm very, very nervous about this weekend

Him and Kane? A defence's worst nightmare!

Get ready to park those buses!

Without Llorente and Sigurdsson can Swansea avoid relegation?

Also what's up with Ross Barkley changing his mind in the middle of his medical?

[Meini Again]

The Barkley camp claim he was never at Chelsea, and never had a medical.

Chelsea agreed a fee of £35 million for Barkley, as Everton had refused to deal with Tottenham on the final day of the transfer window. But Barkley was uncomfortable with having his future dictated by the Toffees and informed Chelsea that he wants to wait until January to make a decision on his next move.
Chelsea will try for Barkley again in the New Year and it remains to be seen whether or not Everton will change their stance and listen to a bid from Tottenham in the next transfer window.

[victor meldrew]

Nice one Mr Sullivan lets pretend who you offered and pass the buck to the Manager.

I just don't see Slav at the financial negotiating table.

Bilic in the Evening Standard transfers will not solve the problem only hard work.

It would appear Sporting Lisbon are far from happy with Mr Sullivan's statement.

The bottom of the toilet beckons, worse than the bloody bond scheme.

[george anson]

Originally Posted by victor meldrew

Have PSG signed football's death warrant and killed Ligue 1 title race into a one horse affair for the foreseeable future?

Arsenal, Liverpool Southampton and us all hanging onto players who want to be else where, is this going to reflect badly on team morale and seriously mess up the season, in our case it already is.

Given Sakho's antics over the last 48 hours is this going to start a trend of players trying to arrange a way out if a club refuses to sell them or they are just generally unhappy with the current lot?

Players have far too much power. Governing bodies need to come to sort of agreement with employment bodies over making players reneging on contracts having to pay their contract with no help from the club they wish to move to.

Far too many one sided leagues in Europe as well. Bayern hoovering up any potential German talent from what are by no means minnow of clubs. PSG buying their way to a monopoly. Even the runners up Monaco cannot compete.

Decent enough transfer window for us. Stiffening up the defence with Wague and Zeegelaar and Karnezis. Shame we did not get Gaitan. Staggering to see us just linked with him. It does show the financial lure of the PL even to South Americans who would normally prefer Spain and Italy as ports of call.

In CONMEBOL Brazil sail their merry way under Tite to Russia while six nations are covered by five points in a mad scramble for three automatic spots and a playoff against New Zealand. Tuesday's matches will be crucial in determining who has palpitations in the last round and who will be breathing a sigh of relief. It is still by no means certain Argentina will qualify after a rather dull draw against Uruguay 0-0 in Montevideo.

[pierrelm]

A few late thoughts on the tedious business of still feeling the need to watch England.
We appear to have gone full circle from the days od England taking the pitch, determined that tactics are all well and good but if we run like stink, then the fact that we are unable to put three passes together will be of no concern. And we won precisely nothing.
Now England keep possesion. we ensure that passes are reasonably accurate albeit offering no threat to either goal. If we retain the golden pill, then we are more likely to score than the opposition, at least in theory.
Someone please reassure me that there is more to international football than this?

I'd just like to add a personal note of thanks to young fella m'lad Rashford for losing all sense of dignity and trying to run at the opposition. Wildly enjoyable.

In the meantime, it transpires that it really didn't matter who was in goal, and it confirmed that Walker is undeniably quick, but, along with the hopelessly over-rated Oxlade Chamberlain and Raheem Stirling, they cannot cross a decent ball between them.

Oh I still don't understand how Livermore makes the international squad, let alone plays alongside Henderson, to deter the threat of the mighty Maltese. Surely the ideal fixture to give one of the untried lads a run out?

Meantime Coutinho apparently cried because he hasn't moved and LFC might have dropped one in not selling him for the ludicrous £160M(?) offered, especially given the fabulous wealth of midfielders they have at Anfield. One of whom scored a very nice goal on his Welsh debut. Funny old game.

[victor meldrew]

This weekend I thought I would watch the home nations in the World Cup qualifiers; thus far I have been bored to death. Malta v England was dire to say the least and 4-0 was certainly a flattering result. If Southgate believes Hart is our best keeper I would suggest he keeps drinking the Carlsberg.
Move on 24 hours to Wales v Austria best thing about the game was the Russ Abbot song the football was even worse than England. Fair play to Woodburn on a sweet strike but I am sure Tim Lovejoy would have had a field day with the Sunday morning defending
I am wondering if it is possible to get broken ribs through laughing as the Stoke boardroom must be in apoplexy mugging us for £25 mill for Marco Astronaut who could not even hit a barn door
I will give Hungry v Portugal a watch today if it’s on the small screen and should it be on a par with the previous two games myself and international footie will be going in opposite directions as its almost on a par with ye old Yardbirds song Over Under Sideways Down, backwards forwards square and round.
Rant over.

[footstep]

Stupid reactions after France Netherlands 4 0 Thursday : we can be world champion etc...
Yesterday 0 0 home vs Luxemburg...

[countjimmoriarty]

Originally Posted by victor meldrew

This weekend I thought I would watch the home nations in the World Cup qualifiers; thus far I have been bored to death. Malta v England was dire to say the least and 4-0 was certainly a flattering result. If Southgate believes Hart is our best keeper I would suggest he keeps drinking the Carlsberg.
Move on 24 hours to Wales v Austria best thing about the game was the Russ Abbot song the football was even worse than England. Fair play to Woodburn on a sweet strike but I am sure Tim Lovejoy would have had a field day with the Sunday morning defending
I am wondering if it is possible to get broken ribs through laughing as the Stoke boardroom must be in apoplexy mugging us for £25 mill for Marco Astronaut who could not even hit a barn door
I will give Hungry v Portugal a watch today if it’s on the small screen and should it be on a par with the previous two games myself and international footie will be going in opposite directions as its almost on a par with ye old Yardbirds song Over Under Sideways Down, backwards forwards square and round.
Rant over.

Lovejoy? The next intelligent word he utters will be his first. Ludicrous self-regarding bellend.

[buttsie]

Originally Posted by pierrelm

A few late thoughts on the tedious business of still feeling the need to watch England.
We appear to have gone full circle from the days od England taking the pitch, determined that tactics are all well and good but if we run like stink, then the fact that we are unable to put three passes together will be of no concern. And we won precisely nothing.
Now England keep possesion. we ensure that passes are reasonably accurate albeit offering no threat to either goal. If we retain the golden pill, then we are more likely to score than the opposition, at least in theory.
Someone please reassure me that there is more to international football than this?

If you need a reason to stop watching the international farce

Russia & Qatar and plenty of World Cups previously were all bought through bribery
from the most corrupt instituition on the planet judging by their checkered history

2006 was my favourite - Oceania was voting for South Africa but its representative
decided to abstain from voting - no comeback - the fifa scum got what they wanted
Germany / Europe wins one more time

Does seem a bit stupid to be supporting such a regime till its replaced with nobody that was there before.

I'm not fooled by blatter and platini being banned for only 4/5 years