itt liverpool not winning things; sandbox i love football

rip gary speed

little ronaldinho

spanish dudes scoring from the halfway line

spurs are *only* 20/1 to win the league - is this not worth sticking a fiver on?

johan cruyff is the worst.

Former Arsenal player Eduardo is facing financial problems with his former agent claiming he is entitled to 20% of the player's earnings since 2007.
Full story: Daily Mail

Shit poor bugger is only making about £2.1m a year plus bonuses. Won't someone think of the children?

Don't hate on Cruijff, the man's bringing us all huge lols over here

What's he gone & done then?

Hostile takeover of Ajax innit?

fitba

Fitba was great at the weekend. We have a new starlet for everyone to gush over until he disappears into the reserves and gets punted on loan to Burnley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXhXz3z_C-w

very nice

a bit surprised spl is broadcast in france these days

I'm surprised it's broadcast at all (& it might be better if it wasn't - we do a hell of a lot of fixture shuffling to make ~£1.5m a year from the telly deal).

My reaction to wonder-run at the time was "ffs, pass it to Stokes!", fwiw.

Xabi Alonso put it best: "Iñigo Martínez is my idol." He scored an injury-time winner to give Real Sociedad a 3-2 victory over Betis. From inside his own half. It was the second time he has done so this season. The only question now is which of his two strikes is the goal of the season.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/27/inigo-martinez-second-halfway-line-goal

is this something they teach at real sociedad

Former Brazil winger Mancini, 31, has been jailed for two years and eight months after being found guilty of sexual assault by a Milan judge. Mancini, who has been playing for Atletico Mineiro, was accused of assaulting a young Brazilian woman while playing for AC Milan on loan from Inter Milan.

oh, Mancinipaws.

You once had a decent season at Roma, doesn't mean you can now take advntage of ladies.

is Iñigo Martínez actually any good? He is 20 so is this his Beckham v. Wimbledon moment? lol 2/3rd of his career goals for the first team have been from his own half.

Thread title's all wrong btw - Liverpool very much winning things atm, moral victories, hearts of the nation, etc

hearts of the nation?

the nation of uruguay

wait how did speed die? just saw a headline that ramsey was 'devistated by suicide'

Hanged himself.

That is what, two football related suicide attempts within a week? Damn.

On that note I thought Ferguson singling out the linesman was particularly poor ("not for me to say if he should ever get a game again"). Did you get one bad decision, diddums?

yeah i thought that was unnecessary

spurs are certainly in title-winning form having taken the most points (28) from the last 10 games of any team in the league. Dirk Kuyt still doesn't think of them as a big team though

"The way we have played against the top sides has been fantastic – we beat Arsenal and Chelsea away and I think we deserved more against United and City. We will keep going in this way. We have also played well against the other teams and I think the future is bright."

i thought it was fucking cuntish. what's the shit decision count for/against at OT under the old bag of shite?

xp i'd imagine lfc tryin v hard to forget playing us

spent the whole of tinker tailor that evening thinking "4-0"

tinker gerrard
tailor lol spice boys
soldier sgt carragher
spy agent carroll still working for newcastle imo

ask a mexican futbol legend anything

is there a dumber "trick" than the Cuauhtemiña?

how dare you, I have fooled more than a dozen Columbus Crew players in my time with the bunny hop!

"We are a bunch of dwarfs and we need to improve" - After Barcelona's 1-0 defeat to Getafe, Dani Alves sums up a problem that will not go away, with or without special hormone growth medicine.

They really did look like Arsenal, is the thing.

multi-layered zing

Fantasy talk: Week after week I think I should get rid of the underperforming Rooney, but week after week I look at United's upcoming fixtures and think "No, that's an easy one, if I sell him he's bound to get a hat-trick" so I lose my nerve, keep him in, and he scores next to no points. However, this week I finally took the plunge. Come Saturday afternoon, while disappointed with the result against Newcastle, I was slapping myself on the back (metaphorically) for shipping out Rooney and bringing in Adebayor. Except, when I checked my scores, I remembered that I'd bottled it again, reinstated Rooney and gone for a pointless Barton out-Pilkington in masterstroke instead.

lol why the shit do you have rooney? who is he keeping out yr team? rvi? aguero? dzeko? ba? also lol at then trusting ade - that guy is going to get bored any game now, it is adebayor.

Rooney's slumps rarely last all season, he'll come good at some point.

except for last season iirc.

"You know why I’m leaving, but I can’t explain myself publicly because it would damage the good name of Everton Football Club and I’m not prepared to do that."[16]

Why did Gary Speed leave Everton?

Howard Wilkinson:

He left one of his clubs after having been required to give a half-time talk, as captain, in place of his manager, whom drink had rendered temporarily incapable of speech. The fans of the club in question were mystified by his departure, but he had signed a confidentiality agreement and never spoke of the incident.

lol/wow

ade has had a mini-slump already and i do acknowledge the likelihood of sam's doubts

i just want him to acknowledge that rvp will break very soon indeed, and then who's more fucked?

Wenger: “We have a few players on the edge like Van Persie and Walcott, who had a hamstring alert, and Ramsey. We’ll have to see how they respond to 24 hours rest."

if rvi breaks, and i genuinely don't think its gonna happen*, then still spurs. because we then move theo upfront and arshavin or benny noon on the wing, whereas spurs will then... play pav, i guess?

None of them are playing midweek, so its cool.

I didn't finish that post. Could have mentioned lol Park, who Wenger 'believes' in and we'll see how he does v. City tomorrow. Also the *was to say i've most prob jinxed him now.

Chris - did you enjoy big Andy's cameos the last two Sundays?

adebayor is somewhat baffling to me. when he had that great season for arsenal i was convinced that he wasn't that good, he was just putting away chances created by others. watching him play every week for spurs, i can see how good he is at holding the ball up and creating chances for others, but his finishing seems poor. he had 9 shots on target against west brom, the most of any player in a single game the last 5 seasons.

He has the ability to be the best forward in the world. He can have an astounding first touch, a beasty shot, perfect in the air, knows his positioning, can beat his man with ease, has strength to stay up and intimidate, can spot a pass in a way only top players can...

Unfortunately he'll only be working on half of these, at most, in 95% of matches.

That and he just stops caring to play, you know, football, every couple of months or so. I think we got 3 amazing months out of him post-Eduardogate and that was his longest reign of form.

I thought that was an xp until you mentioned Eduardo

spurs def need to sell pav and buy a young-ish cf in january to either replace ade or at least strengthen their negotiating position.

Wonder how Coulibaly is getting on?

he's 16 and short, don't think he can lead the line yet

Nah i know. Just an idle thought

xposts. Not watched the Chelsea game again, but was Andy's control as lol-worthy as I think it was? Good save from Hart last night.

It really was - he had half-a-dozen touches in his three minutes and every one gave the ball away or iirc a risky free-kick. Not ideal when you're trying to see out injury time. He looked like the kid at school who gets picked first 'cos he's big, but can't actually play football. Yet for a moment yesterday he looked the business.

Hart had more than the one great save too - was gutted when I saw the highlights.

Matty Taylor for England & GOAL of the season

Ah, the sandbox of five years ago, when Pardew had gone to Charlton, Chris Coleman was still somebody, DJ Martian still existed, and there was speculation about Liverpool's chances of overhauling both United and Chelsea to win that elusive league title...

what happened to DJM?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Giovanni_Trapattoni.jpg

out

if rvi breaks, and i genuinely don't think its gonna happen*, then still spurs. because we then move theo upfront and arshavin or benny noon on the wing, whereas spurs will then... play pav, i guess?

u crack me up

i try

is ade playing for togo again? just remembered we gots a anc come jan.

It really was - he had half-a-dozen touches in his three minutes and every one gave the ball away or iirc a risky free-kick. Not ideal when you're trying to see out injury time. He looked like the kid at school who gets picked first 'cos he's big, but can't actually play football. Yet for a moment yesterday he looked the business.

Aye, just watched the last few minutes of Chelsea again and that's spot on - so Jekyll and Hyde. Thought we were great v City. Lucas just keeps getting better, and Adam's really impressing me now. The defence is looking very good - great to see Skrtel and Agger getting a run of games together.

Argh, just remembered Spurs v Villa. What a shame ILX was down for that one.

yeah i think he's going back to togo. psyched for the pavness

carroll very unlucky vs city imo

yaya p much the only player the league is going to miss, right?

cameroon didn't qualify. thank the fucking lord. going without song would be 3000 times worse than going without rvi.

uhm

Newcastle might miss Demba Ba

& tiote

yeah, that just occurred to me also. Of course the wheels might come off before that

coulibaly gonna come into his own late on imo

Chelsea losing Mikel might be a blessing in disguise

draw at old trafford seems like a high water mark

they've had a run of form so strong ppl have even talked about the championship level ryan taylor as a 'top fullback'

oriol romeu played on saturday and got good notices in absentia mikel

stephen and ryan taylor will surely start to happen to newcastle very soon

lol ok yeah my bad for forgetting newcastle

they do of course have former new maldini davide santon to blood into lb

never rated stephen taylor, a nonsense of a no-nonsense defender

coloccini was alright at depor but is eminently nonsensical and i doubt this new composure will last

togo and nigeria didn't qualify

trap in (extnded through 2014 qualifying)

unsure what i think of that

ledley king has been booked once in 69 games. phenomenal defender.

Going back to 2007! I should pay more attention to that guy, I'm willing to accept that that probably is phenomenal defending rather than just plain being unable to move around the pitch.

well tbf it'd be going back to 2009 had he a normal injury record, but yeah he's the great lost english talent of his generation, fuck a jokehole or dyer

Rio had 2 in 71 going back to 2009

That's fantastic, you get so used to Lucas or Vidic seemingly always taking a yellow for the team that I'd never noticed guys not operating like that. I wonder how it breaks down for DMs in general, actually.

up until this weekend rio got exemptions in home games iirc

That's mainly Vidic in fairness

Still better than Ledley King though (xp)

That stat includes England games by the way

i'd rate them closely, alright. if both had enjoyed injury/drug free careers there wouldn't be much room for john terry.

What, are you blind or something?

Terry can be grateful for ILF being down, he and cohorts were all over the place against Liverpool.

Ferdinand would have faced some slightly more challenging opposition over that time of course

is tony hart defending rio or terry?

If king had stayed injury free he'd have left, tho tbh defending at spurs prob left you a lot more exposed that rio might have been facing this past few years.

spurs taking andy najar on trial? good move

For comparisons sake Vidic has 32 (+ 4 reds) in 142 appearances over the same period.

is tony hart defending rio or terry?

You've blacksided me there

i'm only observing yr chosen manoeuvres

Ledley, had his knee not given out, would probably have turned up at United or Liverpool in the mid-00s.

He's been immense this season, although I'm wondering if his improved fitness is down to Parker being in the team and saving him from a shedload of additional running and tackling he was having to do.

the biggest link icr with ledley was after euro ?2000?2002?

Anyway, he'd had a good run and it was to arsenal he was headed, apparently

Euro 2004 I think, the France game in particular was what really established his reputation.

yeah could be, jesus that was seven years ago

lol if we replaced sol with ledley.

he is most probably on par w/ cole for the most talented englisher of his generation. much more likable too. basically king >>> a whole gen.

i dunno would i rate him above rio, tbh, who was extraordinarily good for a number of years, but for spurs he could have made a huge difference.

think i'll watch barceona/rayo and maybe flick over to arsenal/city

want to watch napoli-juve, but am stuck with carling cup

1-0 Napoli, very skippy stream unfortunately & I missed it

napoli are just about the most liked team in europe atm

where's Cavani? Having to bring in Pandev to replace hime is :/

Andy Carrlol. Should've headed it.

Did he hammer it down the middle?

2-0 napoli

I believe so xp - I'm not actually watching, though my mate is there so I'll get a full report idc

It was pandev with the 2nd btw

Oxlade-Chamberlain is great to watch

my apologies to Pandev

that was a great strike by Ox

hmmn kolorav didn't look that bad

seemed like nasri wanted to come off?

awes goal from alexis and very neat assist from xavi for his second

2-1, Juve start the second half by walking the ball in

2055: GOALFLASH Cardiff 2-0 Blackburn (Anthony Gerrard)

Kean still not out.

Are Blackburn at 'full strength'?

Not far off it.

Win %
Graeme Souness: 40.57
Mark Hughes: 43.62
Paul Ince: 28.57
Sam Allardyce: 34.88
Steve Kean: 17.65

they said on football weekly that he was just given a pay raise

aiui the quid pro quo was a cut in his severance entitlement

cut to £800,000 btw

3-1 Pandev does it again - this was a fabulous goal, winger had run into a dead end but got a blind cross in, pandev touch-and-swivel then banged in off the post

liverpool's lucas getting stretchered off

qi with ruby wax

and 3-2

carrol with a heavy shoulder into david luiz just to knock the shit out of him, kinda lolzy

3-3, superb individual goal from Pepe (run from halfway, one lucky deflection). It's pretty good, this.

Finishes 3-3, Napoli should kick themselves after that. Well worth watching anyway.

And I didn't realise Liverpool were fielding such a strong XI. I approve of such sneakiness.

Dear me, Chelsea were poor tonight. Hope Lucas is ok.

Xavi's never meant that backheel

it wasn't really a backheel

im not entirely sure how deliberate it was but it's xavi so

i like how mancini gives the same interview every game

Looks to me like he's flicking it on for himself but yeah, it's xavi so

maybe he was trying to outdo guti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LEyA8fER9A

Kean has got to stay, surely? This is top entertainment - like the Hodgson era, only this time as farce.

Ah, that Guti touch is exquisite! Never seen that before. I love totally unexpected moments like that, gets me laughing out loud.

Exclusive from sandbox news network:

"It was a good match. Torres was poor. Very lazy indeed. No conviction, no confidence, no enjoyment at all. I rather feel he knows he's entered a faustian pact and is resigned to a joyless career. sad.

Carroll was much better. A work horse is what he is. He's bulky and tires defenders and as the game wears on his nimbler team mates can exploit the space. He has the potential to get close to john hartson at his best. He's in the same mould and his physique is the same.

Carragher had a good game for once. Usually he's knackered by half time. He looked fresh.

Maxi is a class act."

Thanks for that IK. Sounds like Coates was excellent too.

The first penalty shout was Coates I think - utterly stonewall according to the MBMs, yet Luiz got booked for diving.

Coates completely missed the ball but Luiz threw a leg out Pires style. I sided with the ref

otm

dunno why i thought the games wd be good tonight, Citeh-Arsenal was gash, highlights of Chels-Pool was gash, apparently the funniest game of the night got no coverage, somebody shoot this dogshit "competition" in the back of the head and let's not worry bout it no more

jamie's great british food was a strange mix, happily avoided too much embarrassing forced inclusion of chinese five spice into his mash tonight

jamie is gash too obv

nah ees pucker mate pucker get that bad boy in there bro

am gonna watch Dead Man in bed and forget football exists tbh

AOC looks three to four times the footballer feo will ever be

feo that was touted as a replacement for the inevitably-injured RVP itvt not a day ago

napoli are just about the most liked team in europe atm

― ilx bandsox (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 29 November 2011 20:13 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

am gonna do nap v. dortmund poll when ilx starts back up.

so we play aoc on the wing when the most in-form winger in the league goes into the centre. cool. we'd not miss a lick of rvi.

?

Nani? Lennon? Leighton Baines?

Who scores for you when rvp gets injured?

Gervinho? Arshavin? Theo? Ramsey? Chamakh is just out of form but he's perfect for the tap-ins RVI is currently putting away. Just because we have a striker going through a purple patch doesn't mean we aren't built around a team performance. A team performance built that way because RVI used to get long injuries, I might add.

More Pompey woes, David Conn laments another failure of the fit-and-proper-person test.

"Greg Clarke, its chairman [of the Football League], is seeking prevention rather than cure, encouraging clubs to be responsibly run rather than looking for further scrutiny of owners."

I've got my head in my hands that this is still an open question tbh.

LFC looked good from what I could tell from the highlights last night. Love Maxi. Am coming round to Henderson (awful 'tackle' on him by Lukaku btw)

Meanwhile am quite enjoying Bayern's mini collapse due to Schweinsteiger's injury. They tried Kroos at DM vs Dortmund - didn't work cos it's really not his position. Against Mainz they went with Alaba at DM - safe to say it didn't work seeing as Mainz scored 3 and missed at least 3 more great chances. Meanwhile Bayern left Robben on the bench for the entire game amidst rumours of a 'falling out' (don't know the real story there)

So 4 points cover the top 5, including joint top Gladbach who were rock bottom when Lucien Favre took over in February this year!

There's playing a weakened team then there's this shite:

"We are in a position where we have forfeited going through and having the chance to reach a cup final."

Lame-o

Raising the stakes for the Swansea game, I like his style. I'm thinking that's becoming a must-watch, actually, Swansea could destroy them if all goes well.

sam r u srs?

Those guys miss goals, they don't score them.

Stop windin

Chamakh was utterly non-existent last night and Gervinho must be one the least composed players in the league

Who scores for you when rvp gets injured?
― daramaracas.jpg (p much resigned to deems), Wednesday, 30 November 2011 09:26 (4 hours ago) Permalink

Gervinho? Arshavin? Theo? Ramsey?

sandbox excelsior?

Makes you wonder why Wenger perseveres with RVP, tbh

Gervinho has his uses, i mean tbf he'd be a hell of a beater on a pheasant hunt.

Walcott's improved, but he's still just a quick bad footballer

Arshavin hasn't played a decent 90 mins since his first tax bill came in.

Must have missed Ramsey rattling them in throughout his career.

Chamakh doesn't figure in Wenger's plans, tho that's hardly his fault. Guy is shit but reasonably effective.

Claiming you're not a one-man team when one guy scores half of your goals is nonsense. It just....is.

and it's not as if it's a mcleish tactic of 'we'll keep it tight and rely on bent' type of 'one guy scores all your goals'. You're an attack minded team that has conceded 23 vs 26 scored.

I've kind of gotten the impression that Arhsavin's Arsenal career is over anyway

he scored 4 goals once in one game though

so did Baptista

Arsenal should buy him back actually

that only works against one team unfortunately
xp baptista and arshavin

two of my fav players

so we play aoc on the wing when the most in-form winger in the league goes into the centre

Is he talking about Theo?!!??

i

I think so

Lil dude's crackin up

Happens to the best of us, look at M. Wenger

Theo's become good in fairness, I'd say now good enough to be an automatic choice for Arsenal and a justified England regular. And he's got scope to keep improving too, though this talk about moving to CF is a bit much.

Lucas out for 6 months? Please no. Fucking hell.

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/7293799/theo-walcott-deserves-more-recognition-being-excellent-footballer-michael-cox

villified players that are overly-championed by partisans, lucas vs walcott

Walcott vs Lennon atm? For right wing I choose Lennon, tho he's prob better on the left. Is Walcott playing striker at all?

uncomfortable using the word "winger" for dudes who can't cross a ball, wd prefer "inside forward" or "crazylegs crane" or something

Unfair. Theo did a good cross on Saturday.

xxp. Impossible to exaggerate how good Lucas has been these last 3 games - he's been fucking immense.

i'd say it's possible, chris, but come now i've always rated the lad.

Julie lagger otm but who is julie lagger?

Walcott and lennon are wingers neither, it's true. Lennon inside left, walcott- striker? track?

i used to post to I Love Football as "darraghmac"

that dick

Jol out

Julie out

http://static2.dmcdn.net/static/video/803/608/17806308:jpeg_preview_large.jpg?20110708082454

L-R: Arsh, Theo

Both of you outed, now

I was never in!

is theo that much taller than arshavin?

they're the same size more or less except for the crazy legs

ken c turning up as 'ken c' has blown all my theories

nah i'm still lost, tho i reckon nb&s and maybe.... rtc?

lovely legs, they are

xpost i was in new zealand for a few months now back

NBS is teh_hoBB I'm sure. Not sure NV is around at all.

You will follow L. Jagger anyway, won't you? (xp)

'anywhere' that should be. anyway still works tho

http://www.itisamystery.com/itisamystery.gif

Theo is better as a winger than he is at any other position even if you want to specify that he's a crazy crane or whatever. He can't be a speed demon forever so he'd better figure out a more or less natural position or develop an optimum one and I'm pretty sure that isn't going to be as a striker

maybe he shd learn to cross a ball then

don't see nv around tbh, tho if we start a 'blue saturday' thread with obscure youtubes and nonsense cocktail ideas he'll be drawn out i reckon

Not that many footballers can cross a ball well, tbf 2 Theo

i don't consider it an essential skill but wd argue it is a necessary constituent of wingerdom

Who's the best crosser in the league then?

Sure I've seen plenty in my time who couldn't manage it (xp)

maybe he shd learn to cross a ball then

Frankly, every footballer should know how to cross and yes, Theo needs to work on that but I had despaired of him ever really amounting to anything but a one-time WC tourist until I saw him play the wing against Udinese and (admittedly not cross) make that run into the box to score. It was unWalcottesque to me or at least a novelty.

xxp

god knows, hardly anybody plays wingers any more. Baines is a better crosser of the ball than Theo but it ain't him

Oh I know you've always rated him Darragh. Just sayin' - last few weeks in particular he's been so so good. God I love him. (xposts)

being a winger who can't cross is like being a striker who can't shoot straight oh wait gervinho i see a pattern

tbf half the wingers in the league are of the cutting inside variety these days. You don't see many getting to the byline

i know, i just think that if you mainly do that, especially if you're playing on yr weaker side and consequently are more or less unable to cross, u shd be called something other than a winger. not that Theo plays on his weaker side. but it's like the difference between being a "centre forward" and a "striker"

K. Doyle for example is a centre forward but i don't think he's a striker

tbf half the wingers in the league are of the cutting inside variety these days. You don't see many getting to the byline

Heaven knows why, as the latter is about a million times more effective... provided you can cross the ball, oh, that's where it falls down

also unless you have a 30 million pound totem pole in the middle to head the crosses in this tactic mayn't be effective

It can't be Jermaine Pennant

Valencia used to do it but he seems to be completely frightened of taking on a defender since he came back from injury, and since he still plays on the right and doesn't even have the semblance of a left foot cutting inside is completely pointless

Who's the best crosser in the league then?

charlie adam's corners are worth 10 million quid don't ya know.

Corners are another kettle of fish entirely. Nani is an excellent crosser but his corners and set-pieces in general are awful

baines, bale, bellamy, gerrard, young, valencia all p good from top of my head, i'm sure there's loads more.

Cleverley landed a few beauties against us too, nani prob worth mention. Downing always used to be, but these days i dunno.

i've seen some rotten corners this season too, guys who regularly can't beat the first defender, several of them wearing Old Gold

rory delap, in a way.

Was going to mention C. Adam, but bombing down the wing and pinging over crosses seems beyond his physical capabilities (xxxxp)

Argh! Lucas! Six months! Now what? Henderson has got to step up big time.

Convinced that moaning about footballers being unable to cross the ball is a sign of getting older

don't mind footballers being unable to cross, think wingers shd be able to. obviously i'm getting old and senile but that's beside the point

I'm not sure if guys like Jimmy Johnstone, or whoever, were particularly great crossers either

NBS is teh_hoBB I'm sure

aye, just temporarily going back in time

Best crossers currently = Nani, Bale, Baines, Young. I'd probably rate Nani the best of those.

Assou-Ekotto is pretty sweet when it comes to putting in crosses as well.

corluka's a good crosser

Footballers being one-footed, not being able to cross, set pieces being poor- pet peeves

Trevor Francis is the earliest "dude who can run really fast down a wing and has no end product when he gets to the byline" player i can remember but he perhaps didn't invent it

bae- yep

Remembers Trevor Francis = noodle vague, no?

i thought it was obvious ages ago tbh

toyed with claiming to be pinefox for a moment

garrincha!

Oh yeah Mata as well.

dunno how Alan Ball was as a crosser of the ball but read an anecdote once where he complained to Ramsay that all he'd done was run up and down all match without receiving the ball

steve guppy- proper fuckin winger, son

have woken from my afternoon nap to be greeted with this 'lucas out for 6 months' news. Am sad for the player. Am sad for myself. May go for a nap for the rest of the season :(

will chime in with the 'players being one footed' pet peeve. Especially when they would rather not cross the ball at all than even attempt a cross with their 'wrong' foot!

xp. It's not official, but Shelvey has returned from Blackpool, which is pretty ominous. Just as Sky and the rest had woken up to the fact that he's rather decent, too. Gutted for him.

Shamrock putting up a proper fight against Rubin Kazan right now, 2-1 down at half-time

Don't get why we think Shelvey is suddenly going to transform into a top class DM when that's never been the role we've had in mind for him. Our overreliance on Lucas and our unwillingness to give him a rest has been hugely irresponsible and nothing short of a joke. Still, at least the fans can still dream of a trip to the new Wembley. And we do exist to win trophies. Yeah right. Fucking fuming right now.

Bruce gone

woah

woah. Hughes? McClaren?

Rafa or GTFO

Ha, just finished the Guardian's everyone-stays piece that's just gone up

Hahaha, looks like it's been pulled

Martin O'Neill seems to be the early favourite but that's a standard reaction at this point i assume

He's not gonna want to be last on MOTD is he?
Got a shock when I saw Alan Curbishley on the list of candidates, had forgotten he was a football manager!

It is interesting to see you guys go "Arsenal are a 1 man team, Theo is shit and can't cross." Umm, who do you think made all his goals, and how they were made? Like 50% came from Theo crosses. Because he is the best winger in the league. But its cool, y'all still see him as the 16 year old who hadn't developed yet.

RIP Bruce, heaven needed an updated Iain Dowie in the shit manager who kept getting top jobs without any talent.

Am I right in thinking Bruce hasn't been sacked before?

Theo the second best winger in the league. Behind Micah Richards.

He usually walks to pastures new iirc
xp

I know, but not because he's been about to get the bullet I don't think. I don't recall him ever overachieving or being under huge pressure until now - maybe he is a good choice for an unambitious provincial club after all.

haven't seen the 'like' stats for assists, assume they're not akin to the actual stats tbh

In any case, the original claim was that theo would stroll in and get rvp's goals as and when needed. Is that 'like' goals or real ones?

Ha, just finished the Guardian's everyone-stays piece that's just gone up

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 30 November 2011 18:21 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

Hahaha, looks like it's been pulled

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 30 November 2011 18:23 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink

lol do you have the original link for this? the google cache might have saved it from the memory hole

RIP Bruce, heaven needed an updated Iain Dowie in the shit manager who kept getting top jobs without any talent.

― big popppa hoy, Wednesday, 30 November 2011 19:16 (50 minutes ago)

sunderland won something like 5 in 29

he is dreadful

Premier League managers seem safer with sack-happy culture on wane
Has the closeness of the Premier League meant chairmen are finally resisting pulling the trigger as soon as a poor run occurs?

Newcastle's Chris Hughton was the first Premier League manager to be sacked last season - on 6 December. Photograph: Craig Brough/Action Images
Jamie Jackson
The Guardian, Wed 30 Nov 2011 15.39 GMT
Blogpost

In the sack-happy culture of football, next week could prove a landmark in the fragile life of a manager. If all 20 Premier League No1s wake on Wednesday still employed, a record will be set and a trend may be developing.

Newcastle United's Chris Hughton was dismissed by Mike Ashley on 6 December last year, the first to go in the 2010-11 season. Before that, at least one Premier League manager had been sacked by then in every term this century (Martin O'Neill, who left Aston Villa just before the campaign started, resigned).

To explain this season's lack of changes Neil Warnock points to the Premier League's competitiveness, where Aston Villa in eighth are separated by nine points from bottom-placed Blackburn Rovers. "Everybody's so close," the Queens Park Rangers manager says. "Apart from the top seven teams, from Villa below, everybody knows they're in a battle."

While it may be too early to declare that chairmen are finally resisting pulling the trigger whenever a poor run occurs, a shift is found throughout the game, with only six managers sacked so far in the Football League, again lower than every season this century except for last term. "Stability is key, you need time in any job – more so than ever at the minute," Warnock says. "That's what the owners are trying to do. When you look at the Premier League they're all trying to support their managers – I look at Chelsea and clubs like that."

The League Managers Association, though, urges caution. Since the Premier League was formed in 1992 160 managers have been removed – an average of more than eight each season who are forced to look for a new job. Last year, 50% of clubs across all four divisions finished with a different man in charge, while around half of first-time managers are not employed elsewhere.

"We normally review the stats in December and that's when we'll know whether or not there's been a change," says Richard Bevan, the LMA chief executive, before offering the following reasons for the past two seasons' trend. "There's always less sacked in the Premier League than the Football League, and we have some incredibly talented and experienced managers. If you were the owner of Wolverhampton Wanderers you wouldn't want other than Mick McCarthy or Roberto Martínez [at Wigan Athletic], or Sir Alex Ferguson or Roberto Mancini at the top."

Jez Moxey, the Wolves chief executive, agrees: "You must get the right manager. Once you think you have, maintaining him in the post over the medium to long term has a whole range of benefits that perhaps aren't seen by supporters and others if they don't get immediate results."

Bevan is clear regarding the advantages of stability. "At the end of last season 50% of our clubs had had their manager in for less than 12 months, so that brings a nervousness around the boardroom, the fans, the local media, the players," he says. "In any form of working life – business, government or sport – you need time to build your team and deliver that philosophy on what you're looking to achieve. So from that perspective, it's great news that no Premier League manager has been relieved of his duties.

"Hopefully the owners are recognising that if they want to achieve their objectives they've only got to look at Sir Alex Ferguson celebrating 25 years this season. In the main I think most do recognise that. Clubs are beginning to recognise that they have to manage the expectations around them. For example, for the owners of Blackburn Rovers [Venky's], it was nonsensical for them to come out and say: 'We're looking to finish in the top four or five.' I don't think you'll say many statements like that."

Moxey believes ditching a manager too soon is foolish. "The downsides of changing are enormous and costly – it's almost like a roll of the craps dice," he says. "As long as they are doing the things that you want them to do and in the way the club is set out [it should be OK]."

Bevan agrees that both the board and manager must have a shared vision. "From a manager's perspective everyone has a different objective. For some survival will be an achievement in itself, others it's trophies or promotion. One of our guys said the other day it's about: 'Staying in the race long enough to win.' If you look at any other industry or went to any business school they would tell you that if you change the most important person in your organisation every 10 months it doesn't take rocket science to recognise that all you're going to achieve is nowhere near your fans' expectations.

"What you need to do is look at the core business and make sure the people running the clubs are having very close liaison with the key personnel. An example: until recently I haven't seen in many clubs a written document of what the board is looking to achieve with the manager and the players. In business we call them key performance indicators. We are glad that for a lot of chairmen, chief executives and managers the communication is beginning to improve, that they are saying: 'Let's meet on a quarterly basis to ask what are our goals? OK, we haven't achieved our last quarter, let's set our expectations for the next quarter, for where we want to be. Let's make sure the fans, the local media don't think we should be top of the league.'"

December, though, can still be the cruellest month: after Hughton last year, five more managers were axed before the new year.

lol yeah that showed up in my google reader like 2 spots below BRUCE OUT

thank you, great timing

If you were the owner of Wolverhampton Wanderers you wouldn't want other than Mick McCarthy

if i were the owner?

Utd match is pretty grim. Problem with these games is Fergie just uses them to give the bench warmers a run-out, so you get Berbatov, Macheda and Diouf all playing instead of any attempt at a coherent team. And Gibson. Fucking Gibson. The club tried to get rid of him in the summer and yet they're still giving him games over promising players like Morrison and Pogba (who's threatening to leave). Fabio went off after half an hour. I feel bad but playing him is basically throwing away a sub at this point. I'm not sure he's ever completed a game for Utd.

any links to spurs streams

www.wiziwig.tv is the new incarnation of myp2p

haven't seen the 'like' stats for assists, assume they're not akin to the actual stats tbh

In any case, the original claim was that theo would stroll in and get rvp's goals as and when needed. Is that 'like' goals or real ones?

― daramaracas.jpg (p much resigned to deems), Wednesday, 30 November 2011 19:49 (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

Actually the original claim was that Arsenal would do better with RVI out than Ade out, but whatever, keep changing the goal posts.

btw lol at the first four suggestions you get when you type in robin van persie to google being "robin van persie twitter" "... muslim" "... rape" and "...stats".

Van Persie has 17 goals this season and Walcott has 5 assists (1 more than RVP)

taActually the original claim was that Arsenal would do better with RVI out than Ade out, but whatever, keep changing the goal posts.

than spurs would with ade out, i take it? claim is nonsense

tks for tip #0 but that site suxxxxxx

spurs 2-1 down after 41 mins, luka took a penalty, stream lolled all the way through it so i dunno if that was our goal or not

any links to spurs streams

― daramaracas.jpg (p much resigned to deems), Wednesday, November 30, 2011 3:42 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

http://tykestv.eu/channel2.php
you should be thankful for missing the first 30 minutes

Doesn't suck if you're using sopcast. In fact my Utd stream switched to a crystal clear one of the Spurs game at half time

i dunno i've always been wary of sopcast tbph

I use nothing else these days. Complete reliability and nigh on HD quality quite a bit of the time

Morrison on for Berbatov thank fuck

sopcasting from dutch tv now- awesome

paok just pulled the most devastating offside trap i've ever seen

Would love a Joy of Six on that. Maybe a write-in poll.

FFS Rafael has to go off now. Morrison has made an appreciable difference though

Absolute wonder goal from Palace

fuckin hell rose really startin to look like that imaginary winger we were discussing earlier, kane just missed a sitter from a 'beat yr man, put it on a plate son' act from him

paok just pulled the most devastating offside trap i've ever seen

― daramaracas.jpg (p much resigned to deems), Wednesday, November 30, 2011 4:11 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

this was awesome

gif needed

i'm intrigued. was it from a free kick?

yes

Utd didn't let palace enjoy that for long

pretty much the entire spurs team was offsides when it was taken

xxp

yeah, by the time the cross reached gallas there were 8 spurs men in the box and not a paok player within 10 yards, guys were like 100m runners

harry kane is gonna be a good player for sheff utd imo

That's the other bookend to Macheda's career.

getting villa flashbacks now IK

seems to easy to predict which young players won't make it. kane has looked pretty good, imo, just ko'd some defender with a powerful ball to the head.

watched that offside play, brilliant and funny

kane has a powerful shot but his touch, movement, passing, decisions have been pretty poor in this entire uefa run

Next rooney obv

shit

Refs got that badly wrong imo

no wait, its been chalked off?

Ref still dreadful there, either he called a stop and no goal, or he didn't and it's a goal.

that's just bizarre

Have been kind of half watching the Milk Cup action tonight, but managed to miss both the goals.

like watching arsenal

think the ref got that call right just way late (assuming he called a foul on defoe not offsides)

What is this Spurs game you appear to be watching?

against PAOK in europa league action

you can't call it right after we score though!

Nobody in the box, reminds me of life before adebayor this

Palace back in front

well, that was frustrating.

Maybe the core problem was that Bruce never accepted that, sometimes, the devil really is in the detail. Soon after Ahmed Elmohamady arrived from Egypt, Sunderland's manager was asked if the winger would be observing Ramadan and if so, how the daylight fasting might affect his game.

The question was met with a blank look. "Is Elmohamady a Coptic Christian rather than a Muslim then?" the questioner persisted. It was an important distinction and the answer should have tripped off Bruce's tongue, but he clearly did not have a clue.

??

what religion is twp

Palace win

Palace youngsters better than Utd youngsters. How was Pogba?

Have not so fond memories of Cup Semi-Finals against Palace. Still rather draw them than City tbh

holy shit that goal

Rooney is Catholic obv.

It wasn't really Utd youngsters. That was the problem. Pogba wasn't great when he came on, Morrison started decently and then kind of faded

Utd dominated for most of the second half and extra time but in a toothless sort of fashion. Valencia actually started taking people on with five minutes to go and looked a different player. I really wish he would continue to play to this strengths

rooney is white

How is Gibson still at Utd, if it was gonna happen for him it would have by now. Pogba, Morrison etc are ones who still have a chance of progressing, then you had some squad players (Berba, Park, Rafael) but perhaps a few too many who fall between the two.

Actually scratch that, just saw the initial line up and most of the team are established squad/first team players.

I was complaining about that at half-time

How is Gibson still at Utd = waiting for lucrative contract when he leaves on a free next summer

Who's gonna pay him more than Utd have been? Steve Bruce hasn't got a job y'know.

Well he didn't go to Sunderland because they wouldn't match his wage demands apparently :|

yah im not saying he has good reason to, but id guess that's what he is banking on.....

palace is my team of choice to root for when watching the football league show so obv i am made up.

His shooting was actually decent tonight. He can hit them y'know

gibson is the next liam miller

transfers summer 2k12: 'darron can shank a ball over a skip from quite far away'

deegs

liv city semi

itt

Fuck!

City will play their reserves, unfortunately their reserves are better than our first team. Oh well Championship team in the Final will be good.

Couldn't care less right now tbh.

Pfft, you're forgetting we're just off the back of murdering City 1-1.

Chris's spirit died with Lucas

Totally. Just fed up with this 'we exist to win trophies' bullshit. Daft to play him v Chelsea, daft not to have adequate cover for him, daft not to manage him properly and daft to overrely on him.

I almost feel worse for you than Lucas. I wish Aquilani could come back to make everything better.

lol

Where's Christian Poulsen when ya need him?!

jay spearing gonna be the next mellor

don't know what you're moaning at tbh, our single DM is Karl fucking Henry

Psyched for Liverpool's-£20m-signing-Tiote's debut.

Igor Biscan has surely got nothing better to do. He can fill in.
xxp

igor biscan was some legend on cm4 i'll tell the world

Biscan's wonder goal at Fulham in 04/05 is one of my favourite football moments of all time. That 'wtf how did I do that' reaction afterwards was simply heartwarming. Just beautiful.

Guys, relax - Jonjo's coming back.

Actually think this could mean more of a central role for Henderson, who has improved a lot in the last few games. And Gerrard must get fit at some point?

Gerrard is done (allegedly)

I wonder whether Agger could do it? Otherwise Henderson's the way to go I reckon.

how good is martin kelly

he's good but not in midfield that i know of

btw nakh are u aware of achillhenge

yah, i am now

important local news imo

Been reading up, and apparently fatigue does indeed have an impact on the damage done by even the most (seemingly) innocuous of challenges.

http://i.imgur.com/7SfhL.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/7SfhL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7SfhL.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/7SfhL.jpg

badger, badger, badger, wanker

transfers summer 2k12: 'darron can shank a ball over a skip from quite far away'

― nakhchivan, Wednesday, 30 November 2011 22:38 (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink

i lold.

Thank God we don't have to listen to Bruce's faux-exasperated whinging about refereeing decisions in every single post match interview... for a while at least, he's the sort who always ends up with a job even tho he is shit and has never achieved anything. Wolves manager by the end of the season?

good shout, tho if i had to be i'd say villa

Pardew has a bad couple matches, ol' Ashley trolls the fans once more.

promise that i will refuse to watch Wolves so much as warm up for any length of time they spend with Bruce in charge

warm up? None of that new age nonsense from a steve bruce team.

His teams warm up by pulling pained what-have-we-done-to-deserve-this expressions, shrugging shoulders, sighing deeply etc

There were more questions, like: “One thing you couldn’t live without?”

“My kids,” replied Speed. “I’ve got two at 14 and 12.”

The final question was: ‘What item do you cherish most?’ Sometimes footballers go onto auto-pilot in interviews. They talk clichés, niceties and nonsense. Speed paused for a good 30 seconds.

“Certainly nothing material,” he replied. “I don’t even know where my championship medal is from Leeds. So I’d say family. We’re an item and they mean everything to me.”

Don't know if this was linked yet, but FourFourTwo remembering Gary Speed

:-/

God, yeah. You can see how depression must be a thing for some ex-players, losing an all-encompassing way-of-life and with not much to look forward to, but his circumstances don't seem like that at all.

tho that's really not how depression works either tbf

I think it can be, but obviously that's not all there is to it. It's been recognised as a post-career thing in cricket for ages.

yeah but that's just upper-class preciousness tbf

Very fair

Given his recent Wales record and the supposed bond with his team, I found his suicide very puzzling.

I think everybody does

As Darragh said, that's not how depression works. More to life than football.

let's not be hasty

lucas out for the season

*screams*
*bangs head on desk repeatedly*

yup, great idea playing him so soon after city. him, reina, enrique and henderson shouldn't have been anywhere near stamford bridge on tuesday.

not like he got subbed off after an hour either

stupid him starting anyway, but he should've been off as soon as that second goal went in. really angry about this.

i'd

and i hasten to say this isn't fight-picking

imagine that, having spent several gdp's on central midfielders, if lfc are that badly off because one is out injured, dalglish might have some explaining to do.

Bruce for Liverpool

am i missing the point completely? scientific research has shown that the body is more susceptible to all injuries if you do not get sufficient rest. there is no way lucas should have been playing on tuesday. correct? so why is every liverpool fan on t'internet refusing to acknowledge that it was daft to play him. am i missing something?

ha, no, not quite to that stage as yet.

xp

I dunno chris, a game on sunday, a game on tuesday, lyfe man y'know?

Was it an impact injury or did it just go?

he bumped into a chelsea player, pretty innocuous.

looked like impact with mata. optimal rest time is supposed to be 72 hours isn't it? now i aint claiming to be an expert, but playing someone who hasn't had a summer's rest as often as we've been playing him, and then playing him twice in 3 days is surely asking for trouble? gah.

it's about minimising the risk

but i kinda side with chris on this. lucas, pepe, and suarez are our 3 most important players by far and lucas was immense against City.

I mean dalglish can't have it both ways, railing against the short period between games saying he'd have no alternative but to play kids cos of the short recovery period, then starting with lucas and leaving him on for 80+ mins. He was obviously taking the chance that lucas could have 6 days rest before we played again on monday, but, well..

but it still wasn't a huge risk, tbf- it hardly happens the whole time

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15985420

A blind day for British football.

tbf when i watched the highlights i only knew the score, not that lucas had been taken off, and when they went through the teams at the start mentioning the changes and lucas appered on the team sheet i did think 'really?' but i wasn't outraged at the time or anything.

I am more sad than angry I think. I save my anger for every time I watch Milan and Aquilani plays well, which is more often than not ;)
xp

why is every liverpool fan on t'internet refusing to acknowledge that it was daft to play him. am i missing something?

Because his manager is Kenny Dalglish perhaps? Hodgson would probably have been lynched by now.

but it still wasn't a huge risk, tbf- it hardly happens the whole time

It was though. He hasn't had a rest all summer, he played all the previous rounds, and he hasn't been rotated. He's been managed terribly. The science is pretty clear.

xp. is exactly my thinking. i wouldn't dare utter it on an lfc forum though.

he bumped into a chelsea player, pretty innocuous.

you said it yourself mate. innocuous. yet he's out for the rest of the season.

If Terry is found guilty, he could lose the England captaincy

Argh! Why is this reported as if it's the most serious consequence of the whole affair? John Terry may really care about the armband, but the world in general does not.

But he's really proud of wearing that blind armband

LOL

.....

chris is right about lucas

btw, pandemic, re. 'let's not be hasty' - i don't know if that was a direct response to me (no problem if it was), but i just wanna say that i didn't mean my comment to sound as if i was theorising about what may or may not have been the cause, if that's how it came across - i probably should have worded it better. just pointing out that i can completely understand how shit can happen despite everything appearing to be fine - if that makes sense. it's really not for me to say why it happened, and i hope i didn't come across as if i know it all. it's just incredibly sad isn't it.

Peter Reid was 4th in the Fifa World Soccer player of the year award 1985 behind only Michel Platini, Preban Elkjaer & Diego Maradona.

Also Dalglish hasn't been feeding Lucas properly and hasn't cleaned out the newspaper in his hutch for weeks.

Full name 	Foluwashola Ameobi
Date of birth 	12 October 1981 (age 30)[1]
Place of birth 	Zaria, Nigeria
Height 	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) [2]
Playing position 	Striker
Club information
Current club 	Newcastle United
Number 	23
Youth career
1995–2000 	Newcastle United
Senior career*
Years 	Team 	Apps† 	(Gls)†
2000– 	Newcastle United 	242 	(250)

It's the complete absence of material to speculate on the cause that's the thing xps. You imagine you know a bit about people's lives because you watch them play or like their music or books or whatever, then something like this happens and you realise you don't know a thing.

sorry chris, my 'let's be hasty' was a glib response to your entirely sensible 'there's more to life than football' comment, born out of a couple of people pointing out to me just how much time i spend watching, reading, thinking about the game etc

I agree with both Chris and Deems about Lucas really, Dalglish shouldn't have played him but the fact he felt he had to play him so much is the result of some dodgy squad-building. Stand up Mr Comolli and yr blindspot in defensive midfield.

matt has hit upon the solution. a move for zokora in january.

ah got it, no worries mate. (xposts)

Comolli and Dalglish obviously felt at the start of the season that Spearing would be a suitable stand in (I assume that Spearing is our Lucas-in-waiting - there's no-on else it could possibly be). I don't see it myself, but there you go. Could of course play without a DM, but I'm guessing that would require the defence not to drop off and to squeeze the space left by where your covering midfielder would have been, which didn't happen against Norwich (see their goal).

argh, someone change the subject

regarding Speed & depression in football, this article just popped up about an MLS/Bundesliga player & his battles with depression, it's a good read

http://www.prostamerika.com/2011/12/01/depression-in-soccer-53315/

Really quite poignant

interesting article but the way it's written makes it seem that he was dealing with personal and professional problems rather than dealing with clinical depression.

yeah, your wife leaving you with your child does not make you depressed, it makes you sad.

Peter Reid was 4th in the Fifa World Soccer player of the year award 1985 behind only Michel Platini, Preban Elkjaer & Diego Maradona.

I let this go by earlier, but is this for real?

sundland job MON's to turn down and neil lennon said 'penchant'

that's not the most recondite term ever uttered by a fitba manager rite?

it just struck me tbh

o'neill will probably get sunderland to 8th place finishes for the next 239 years

does not make you depressed, it makes you sad

When you're sad enough to repeatedly consider suicide...

considering or even committing suicide doesn't mean you are clinically depressed

Blackburn owners Venky's hoped to use free R&B concerts to woo fans

• Venky's wanted Akon as headliners at Ewood Park
• Emails reveal extravagant failed pop plans

Hey ladies drop it down
Just want to see your secret recipe
Don't be shy girl go Banaza
Shake ya chicken like the beloved Venky

I see you windin n grindin up in those spices,
I kno you see me lookin' at you and you already kno
I wanna eat you, you already know
I wanna eat you, you already know

They won't let me have, they won't let me have, (My Venkys)
They won't let me have no, they won't let me have, (No chicken)
They won't let me have, they won't let me have, (My Venkys)
Blackburn'll let me though no, Blackburn'll let me though

I see the one, because she be that chicken! Hey!
I feel you creeping on, I can taste you from my shadow
Wanna drive-thru in my Lamborghini Gallardo
Maybe go to my place and just kick it like Chris Sutton used to
And possibly bend you over look back and watch me

[Chorus (2X):]
Season that all on the floor
Spice that give me some more
Season that 'till you get sore
Fry that oh-oooh!
I don't know how to cook.

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/attachments/general-chat/187983-tattoo-thread-dsc00053.jpg

u guys

i had this idea that we should select a random* established but undernoticed EPL player and devote a thread to them, follow their career in depth kinda thing

* except they can't be /that/ random, it has to be someone aggressively average and self-effacing and a byword for ordinariness

like?

leighton baines would have been great circa 2008 when he was just an average midtable fullback with valuable cultural interests who was only ever alluded to when ppl said things like 'sounds like a town in bedfordshire', which was considered to be quite amusing back then

it's basically got to be a fullback or defensive midfielder, stephen warnock or nigel reo-coker or something

Anton Ferdinand

'self effacing'

Is he not? Must admit I've never taken a black bit of notice of him before.

yah he got cleared of assault for pre-emptively....hitting someone he thought was eyeing up his £50k watch iirc

i mean find a self-effacing epl player

I don't know, most of them probably are

Looking forward to the draw for the Euros later. England would be nice

no they wouldn't

Course they would. Spirit of 88 and all that, not that i remember it

Why didn't they make, say, Ireland and Czech Republic top seeds with Poland & Ukraine, instead of the malformed grouping they came up with?

Come now, England + Ireland would be great

O'Neill for Sunderland btw

'agrees'

england would not be nice tho, they hardly ever are imce

He 'agreed' to take West Ham too iirc, and Leeds back in the day.

Strange how the press uses quote marks to signify that something isn't a quote.

Must admit did not know about O'Neill's tenure as manager of Shepshed Charterhouse

We want someone from Swansea or Norwich maybe?

Also George Elokobi always seems like a good dude.

Wes Hoolahan

The self-effacing Irishman with a name like the rootin'est tootin'est gunslinger west of the Pecos?

I'm going to assume he's self-effacing since he only left the League of Ireland in his mid-twenties

... to go to Livingston! And his head wasn't turned by the bright lights and superficial glamour of Livingston...

I'll nominate Wilson Palacios for the whatever it is
does everyone know the story how he got a call in the middle of the night informing him that his brother had been kidnapped and he waited outside Redknapp's doot till he came out in the morning to tell him that he had to leave cause he didn't want to wake Harry up?

'arry probably gets jumpy at the sound of knocks on the door in the middle of the night, could be the rozzers, and what with his heart...

yep, good call tbh

Palacios hasn't started a game this season as far as i know

his form would prob be separate tho

Self effacing midfielder in a newly promoted team...

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/54959000/jpg/_54959521_barton_iv.jpg

Elokobi's too poor to get regular football, much as i love him and much as our manager's a clown

for spurs i reckon kaboul is a good lad, dawson too. both break my heart, like, but nonetheless

Ward wd be the better Wolves nom, finally playing pretty well and not exackly a celeb or ever will be

scotty parker tho, eh?

His veins run red white + blue, gawd bless 'im

too old?

how about james mccarthy?

Should definitely be an Irish. Great bunch of lads

Missin' their ma + da

Let the folk dancing commence

It's gone full Eurovision now

oh i still thought you were talking about finding a middling EPL player to get behind, forgot this had started

It's gone full Eurovision now

― Number None, Friday, December 2, 2011 6:12 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

Came here to say exactly that

has to be between eire and poland for the right to be considered the nigel reo-coker of euro2k12

Preparation for England's inevitable nil points.
xp

lol

Is Ronan on sandbox btw?

who's the blind lad with the football?

Panenka's stache is grebt

We are now being paraded by a legend from each European Championship. Watch out for Steve Stone representing Euro 96.

is this a joke? i'm not really paying attention

ok it was a joke

Great in-depth interviews btw

Lol the answers the players give are on the question card of the interviewer already, the Dutch reporter just said

listening to music, god forbid actually watching this stuff properly

I'm in that weird mood, can't help myself nv :-)

TEH TANGO 2012 LADIES AND GERMS

Can already see the Tango moving in a weird way

Bubka: "It will be an enjoyable and forgettable event"

Sounds about right

hahaha

YOU KNOW WHEN YOU'VE BEEN TANGOED: HART BLAMES BALL FOR SHOCK EXIT

Is it bad to think this lady is crazy cute?

xp HAHA NN

1730: Slovenian legend Zlatko Zahovič presents Bobby Charlton with a commememorative snuff-box to mark the 47th Anniversary of the FAIRS Cup. Zahovič' slurred speech was thought to contain multiple ethnic slurs and revanchist threats, much to the amusement of Sir Bobby.

Spiffy visuals, looks like they put a lot of effort in this fixed draw!

What are those? Lemons?

They look like rugby balls to me

Well, with a tail

Darwen Hibbert on Twitter: "Impressive verbal sidestep from Wayne Rooney there as he bats away an off colour reference to his acromegaly from Platini, can't wait to see him literally evade defenders next year in the same spirit." #Mongface #Banter

You screwed us again MVB!

Have they still not drawn a single team? I hate all this pish just get the fucking draw done.

They're doing it now

they're on it now

Fuck

RIP Ireland

Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz don't let it be Portugal for us

Weak group is weak

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

come on england-ireland

omg group A

fix is in

oh shiiiiiiiiii

C'mon...

Hollland Germany Portugal Denmark lol

fuck you van basten

ENGLAND IRELAND COME ON

Balls