itt liverpool not winning things; sandbox i love football

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