itt liverpool not winning things; sandbox i love football

You won't catch me out that easily. we all know there are 2 NV
xp

They retired that trophy with Shearer. No one could compete xpost

You won't catch me out that easily. we all know there are 2 NV

Stoke and Man City

The 'Europa League' is a pile of shite. It's not just the parachuting losers in halfway through, it's also the group format and the pool of teams (i.e. 5th-7th-best instead of 2nd-4th best). Old UEFA Cup & Cup Winner's Cup >>>>>>>>>> Europa League.

Here's Neymar scoring a nice goal in the WCC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ntRlXNVggQ

tbf if the Europa was still 2nd to 4th best clubs then Man U wd still be taking part

I quite fancy watching Santos-Barca. Is it on Sunday?

(xp) next season, yeah, not this one - unless they introduced a rolling-impratical-where-you-are-in-the-table-right-now criterium

:D

Er, 'criterion', sorry (got bike racing on the brain)

Utd are going top on the weekend anyway

It's still the 2nd-4th best (or higher) for most countries, lamenting absence of the CL elite is very much a first world problem.

Yeah, but that wasn't how it used to work - it isn't 'still' 2nd-4th for those countries, because those countries would never have had three places in the old days.

According to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient
the top three leagues (currently England, Spain and Germany) get four CL spots and then three EL spots; then the next three (Italy, France and Portugal) get three of each; then the 7th to 14th leagues (from Russia down to Austria) get two places in the CL and either 3 or 4 in the EL. It's only once you get down to the 16th-best league (Cyprus!*) that the second-placed team goes into the Europa League. Of course it gets muddied by teams getting knocked out of the CL in the qualification stages or group stages and getting booted down a level and also whether cup competitions are used instead of your league placing.

Also according to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Europa_League
in the good old days (1980-1999), outside of the top eight leagues only one or two clubs would have been entered into the UEFA Cup.

*Scotland come 18th, just behind Israel.

* Oof, and that's with Rangers' 2008 Uefa Cup final run due to drop out of the counting shortly.

The elite players are nearly all with the top dozen clubs nowadays too; I'm fine with the competition below Harlem Globetrotters level being a broad church.

In fact it drops out next year (it's the single biggest year for anyone outside the top eight leagues) and without it Scotland drop down to football-failed-state level i.e. Hungary. A lot hinges on Celtic giving Serie A leaders Udinese a damn good thrashing tonight.

without it Scotland drop down to football-failed-state level i.e. Hungary

Failed a long time ago. Hungary are better than Scotland these days, aren't they? National team's a lot better than it was.

They do seem to have revived a bit. Probably roughly on a par these days, though Scotland losing their best player isn't ideal either. We need Hungary and Scotland back almost winning world cups imo.

D. Fletcher might be Scotland's best player but not when he's playing for Scotland

... so I don't think he'll be missed tbh

I guess 'Scotland's best player' rarely plays for Scotland, for various reasons (usually spats)

Man Utd player not playing as well for his country, who'd've thought it?

I guess 'Scotland's best player' rarely plays for Scotland, for various reasons (usually spats)

It's true that Jock Stein didn't look kindly on Charlie Nicholas turning up to training in a pair of these
http://www.partydomain.co.uk/images/P/22650.jpg

http://www.partydomain.co.uk/images/P/22650.jpg

So funny I had to post it twice.

Only left footers in spats

I was 'hoping' that image would be his apocryphal modelling shoot in fetching leather-jacket-and-speedos combo.

Before a recent Copa del Rey game against L'Hospitalet, Guardiola admitted that Villa was struggling. "He has a small problem with the tibia, it is very painful but he puts up with it because he is very strong and very competitive," the Barcelona coach said. That small problem was, it appears, a fissure. Before Spain played England at Wembley Villa admitted: "I feel fine but it is true that I've had some shin pain lately. Not pain that stops me playing but pain that does make me uncomfortable."

On Thursday Guardiola associated Villa's injury with the "huge effort he has been making to play for a number of months with a stress fracture in the tibia". That poses questions about Villa's fitness and the decision to continue playing.

ugh, I've had 3 or 4 tib-fib stress fractures, they're awful & keeping weight off them is about all you can do. Poor handling if he ran on it for months imo.

villa is an awesome player, i think that 'fighting spirit' cliche ppl use about crap defensive midfielders is apt for him

I blame The Hodge for my hatred of Eurovision.

to get back to something that was said upthread, it's not only the english clubs that dgaf about the europa league. French clubs also usually consider it like a useless tournament, often playing second string players. same usually goes for italian teams. the thing that's fucked up is that, at least for french clubs, they play all season aiming for "european spots", then qualify for europa league and throw it away, saying they have to focus on the league in order to qualify for european spots... and on the rare occasion when one of those europa league teams get in the champions league, they say it's impossible for them to copete because they're in the 3rd or 4th pot, hence playing much stronger teams. why they are in those pots is because they have very few uefa points, BECAUSE they didn't take the europa league seriously.

on the other hand, i can also understand their logic. the prize money is shit compared to the CL, they have to play on thursdays (giving them less rest for league games on sat or sun) and lets be honest, the stadiums are half empty because playing against trabzonspor is less attractive than barcelona or man u or any other big CL club.

still, they suck and iwish they'd take that europa league more seriously, it's usually a fun tournament. also, france might lose a CL spot because portugal for ex is slowly but surely catching up on their uefa coefficient. and that's because portuguese clubs play that tournament seriously :last season they had 3 clubs in the europa semis for ex !

jibé, did speculation in the French press about the D. Zagreb match die down entirely? I know you're abroad but maybe you've still been following it.

portuguese clubs play that tournament seriously :last season they had 3 clubs in the europa semis

Absolutely!

lso, france might lose a CL spot because portugal for ex is slowly but surely catching up on their uefa coefficient. and that's because portuguese clubs play that tournament seriously

^this

You'd think some of the managers with lofty ambitions to 'ave a go at the Champions League would realise that a season or two in the embarrassing Europa League could get them a shitload of co-efficient points that would mean they would be very well seeded in those seasons that they achieved Big Club status and would therefore be better placed to 'ave a proper go and reinforce their Big Club status.

ha, there was some talk about it for a couple of days, very few people actually claiming that there could have been match fixing and a lot talking about how the spanish press really sucks for throwing out allegations of that type. tbh on the day following the match there was next to no talk about it. then marca or as talked about it and it got picked up by french media relaying the news. but since then, nothing no. there was something today in one newspaper about how a ruling had been made in croatia about match fixing allegations but they didn't link it to lyon-zagreb in any way.

long-term strategic thinking not a noted quality of that particular 'ave a go 'ero iirc and xp

Mario Balotelli's remarkable penchant for embroiling himself in controversy at Manchester City has resurfaced in the form of a training-ground confrontation with his team-mate Micah Richards.

The two players clashed towards the end of a practice match preparing for Sunday's game against Arsenal. Witnesses reported that words were exchanged before the two players squared up.

Richards, in particular, seemed aggrieved by what had been said and the defender had to be restrained by other players as he sought to prolong the argument.

The incident has been described as "minor" behind the scenes at City, where it has been stressed that it was quickly forgotten once the players had returned to the dressing room. Richards and Balotelli get on well, and Richards later used Twitter to insist: "Me & mario are all good! these things happen in training & we shook hands after. It shows passion!"

It will, however, be added to the increasingly lengthy list of misdemeanours involving Balotelli at a time when the manager, Roberto Mancini, has spoken openly about being exasperated about the striker's apparent inability to conform.

Balotelli's form on the pitch has been undermined by a series of off-the-field incidents that has left City's management wondering how prolific he could be if he were to be more devoted to the game. Instead, the man who revealed a "Why Always Me?" T-shirt after scoring the opening goal of the 6-1 thrashing of Manchester United is someone Mancini believes has stayed too young too long.

Balotelli, to put it into context, is currently living in a city-centre hotel after his country house was set on fire when he and some friends set off fireworks through a bathroom window on the eve of the United derby.

Among other issues, he also had to explain to Mancini before the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea on Monday why he had broken a curfew and was seen out at 1am in Manchester city centre on Sunday. While the latest incident is unlikely to lead to any form of disciplinary action, the frequency with which Balotelli finds himself in trouble demonstrates, again, why this is a player who can infuriate his manager.

There is also an unwanted sense of deja vu for the Premier League leaders, with a number of similar incidents breaking out at City's training ground over the last year.

Balotelli himself was involved in two of them, lashing out at Jerome Boateng after reacting badly to a challenge. Emmanuel Adebayor and Kolo Touré were photographed rolling around the floor during another fight and, with Balotelli also photographed clashing with Vincent Kompany in May, the various issues have fuelled a perception that Mancini has assembled one of the more combustible squads in the top division.

City say this is not the case and that these kinds of incidents happen at other clubs – the difference being that photographers can get easier access at their Carrington base because of a public footpath that runs by the side of the pitches. The club are putting up new fences in an attempt to keep out the cameras

spurs tbf

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/poll/2011/dec/15/greatest-premier-league-goal-ever-poll

lando back to everton iirc, wonder if he'll stay this time

He won't.

yeah :(

GTFO DUDE ITS YOUR LAST CHANCE aw fuckit

cuauhtemoc otm

actually this has made me wonder -- are these short loan deals really a common thing? like I know it happens with GKs a lot but do many outfield players do the 2 months elsewhere trip and then return to their old teams? like usually it seems like it's at least half a season/between transfer windows.

the rules don't generally allow for it within european first divisions

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01423/SNF16BIZA---_1423706a.jpg

Robin Van Persie meets his musical hero Billy Ocean

yes, lyon get apoel !!

Lyon - Aopel
Napoli - Chelsea