itt liverpool not winning things; sandbox i love football

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?

Nice work by motd, playing ferguson's interview ("you see those in the box every day not being given. That sums up the referee's performance today") over the clearest possible footage of Berbatov hauling down Samba.

btw there's a difference in legal-speak between credibility and reliability. Credibility is whether you're telling the truth or not; reliability is whether or not you're accurate. Suarez is mostly found wanting on reliability, not credibility. They sound the same but they're not quite - it's normal for witnesses to be unreliable on certain points because of bad memory, time lag, things happening fast, been drinking, etc. Lack of credibility is much worse, but even then iirc he's incredible about explanations more than facts.

Also the comments about standard of proof are interesting. They're working to 'balance of probabilities' i.e. on the evidence before them Suarez was more likely than not to have done it. The CPS work to a different test - they have to consider there to be a realistic prospect of proof beyond reasonable doubt before they can prosecute. We don't know what evidence they have against Terry, but as it passed the tougher CPS test it's got to be very likely that, when he's charged by the FA, it would comfortably pass the 'balance of probabilities' test.

Was there a statement/explanation from the police about Suarez not being charged?

Not that I'm aware of. I don't think there was even a complaint made to them. And reading the FA report, there's no way he'd've been convicted - this was a marginal call in which they essentially had to choose one or other and preferred Evra's version - an actual criminal trial isn't like that, you have to get over the 'beyond reasonable doubt' hurdle and anything short of that means not guilty.

Also the charge would've been different. The FA's 'insults with reference to colour' is weaker than 'threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress which was racially aggravated' like Terry's been charged with.

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/EMP-6274166.jpg

Is Scharner some kind of hipster or something?

― Number None, Wednesday, December 21, 2011 11:34 PM (1 week ago)

I feel like we never really got the bottom of this. A cursory GIS yields not very much. Bad mistake for the goal completing a bad day for our Williamsburg-dwelling, tweed-wearing hero.

Need a gif of Hodgson's Head Banging to go alongside the Face Rub. #HodgsonForEngland

Not that I'm aware of. I don't think there was even a complaint made to them.

I don't know why, but that does seem to be the rule that gets cited. I can't imagine that's how they decide whether to get involved in gunfights or unclaimed dead bodies, right enough.

City laying siege is something to behold

Good lord.

Woohoo!

That was a beauty

Clearly offside!

half a step, but yeah.

Well-taken by the lad tbf.

keeps the league interesting

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

best weekend of the season?

ayo!

Nobody actually wants to win this league, do they?

I do

Then you can have it.

You know what I thought last night? It's like the pension thing - a race to the bottom. Look at Liverpool over the past few years; up for the big matches but dropping points like crazy to teams in the bottom half of the table: still one of the 'Big 4' (until Man City did what they did.). And what do we have now? Looking impressive against each other (City's 6-1, Utd's 8-2 etc) but losing to sides in the bottom three.

Martin Tyler bested his MACHEDAAAAA moment there. Missed yesterday's game due to being at a wedding, wonder if i should subject myself to the highlights

no

Yeah, didn't think so
http://i.imgur.com/PBCQu.jpg

The Suarez Report is weirdly engrossing. Quite amusing reading references to Mr. Kuyt and so on

I'm sure that was done for his benefit

<stands up>
<applauds>

Heh!

quality

A+ footcelsior material there.

so will liv appeal?

not if they've got any sense

Be mad to IMO. Comolli, Dalglish and Kuyt both largely agree with Evra's version of events and said as much to Marinner, Dowd and the FA (respectively) and Suarez himself said he wouldn't call an Englishman 'black' because they might find it offensive (implying he knows full well it could be taken the wrong way).

Where this leaves Glen Johnson, who apparently gets called 'negro' all the time during training without question from anybody at the club, fuck knows.

Yeah, I'd've thought not. Assessment of the evidence is usually a matter solely for the panel hearing it, and they've been so meticulous about it in the report that there's not a great deal of scope to argue that they've made an obvious error. There might be scope for appealing the length of ban, but again they've carefully explained why they considered & rejected longer & shorter bans, so that's probably a no-goer too. Put City to the sword on Tuesday then quietly let the whole thing drop while muttering about it being harsh, lessons learnt, chance for the summer break he hasn't had since 2009, etc etc would be best I think.

http://transalchemy.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/f081a_vlcsnap-410621.png

glen johnson at a liverpool team-building session.

I thought that was John Barnes?

suspense of waiting to see what Hartson would choose for his goal of the month on MOTD2 slightly undermined by him saying Van Persie was his goal of the season three minutes earlier

Martin Tyler's commentary for that Ji goal was sensational.

didn't see this so

http://h10.abload.de/img/roysworlduyptz.gif

ffs

http://h10.abload.de/img/roysworlduyptz.gif

Swansea winning at Villa! Stoke winning at Blackburn! Torres starts for Chelsea! Is Drogba injured? Not even on the bench.

eh drogba moved to PSG yesterday dude

Real ilx is back now Chris - some pure gold immigration rules discussion going on on that thread atm.

Ah sorry, didn't realise.

'salright, Drogba moving to PSG would've passed me by otherwise

Fun fact from Beeb ticker: seven clubs into his career, Wayne Routledge scores his first Premier League goal.