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2011-12 Football/Soccer Thread
- Thread starter The_Chaser
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it's a joke man. and it has always been this way. remember matt le tissier...arguably one of the best english players the premiership has ever seen and he got like what, 8 caps? he got shafted because he didn't play for a big club but at the same time people like Darren Anderton and Phil Neville were getting capped. and we wonder why England are perpetual underachievers? the team is picked on 'who you know' rather than 'what you can do.' bring back England B and it'll probably be better than the England we have now.
a certain mr scott parker, who is rather surprisingly still with west ham
so much for bringing in a foreign coach, it hasnt translated into results for england so far. i was surprised myself that capello survived the world cup aftermath
meanwhile eto'o is about to join roberto carlos at anzhi.......wow.
oh by the way, is wenger just trying to get citeh and barca to fuck off about nasri and fabregas by including them in the champions league squad, or is it for real that they're staying, however unlikely it seems?
i've got 3 doubtful guys on my fantasy squad, all rated at 75% to play, so i guess the injury bug didnt hit me as hard. lucky me
so much for bringing in a foreign coach, it hasnt translated into results for england so far. i was surprised myself that capello survived the world cup aftermath
meanwhile eto'o is about to join roberto carlos at anzhi.......wow.
oh by the way, is wenger just trying to get citeh and barca to fuck off about nasri and fabregas by including them in the champions league squad, or is it for real that they're staying, however unlikely it seems?
i've got 3 doubtful guys on my fantasy squad, all rated at 75% to play, so i guess the injury bug didnt hit me as hard. lucky me
GRANT HOLT SHOULD BE ENGLAND'S NUMBER 9, who's with me?
lol reminding me of the geordie guy in im on setanta sports/ special 1 tv.
Speaking of Shola, he signed a two year extension on his current contract at the toon \o/ Lots of people hate on him, but I really like him.. great touch for a big man and really strong. He just gets injured far too much and therefore can't get a run of games.. hopefully this season he'll stay fit.
i was at an army enrolment day thingymabob once where we had to stand up and talk about ourselves and surprisingly enough Shola's cousin was applying. he looked the spit of him and stood up and said 'unlike my cousin i don't like football...i'm rubbish at it.' then with a level of synchronisation that would impress an olympic swimmer a room full of Geordies responded with 'so's your cousin.' think that sums it up really.
Sneijder to Man Utd, Nasri to Man City, Modric to Chelsea, Crouch & Palacios to Stoke, Gibson to Blackburn.
I think all of these deals will probably go through and we could see as much as £400million spent between all of the Premier League clubs combined. If I was a Tottenham fan, I'd be quite worried at the thought of losing those players. Can they be replaced in time? What kind of top level striker can Tottenham bring in to have a chance at them pushing forward? Crouch, Defoe, Pavlyuchenko, Keane etc are all decent, but none of them were really Champions League level like van der Vaart, Modric, Bale etc.
Spurs are finishing 6th at best (even if they don't sell all of those players).
I think all of these deals will probably go through and we could see as much as £400million spent between all of the Premier League clubs combined. If I was a Tottenham fan, I'd be quite worried at the thought of losing those players. Can they be replaced in time? What kind of top level striker can Tottenham bring in to have a chance at them pushing forward? Crouch, Defoe, Pavlyuchenko, Keane etc are all decent, but none of them were really Champions League level like van der Vaart, Modric, Bale etc.
Spurs are finishing 6th at best (even if they don't sell all of those players).
HBK
Subtlety is my middle name
He better leave if he wants to win SOMETHING.Also the loss of crouch isn't a big deal,he sucks and they can probably get a better striker from what they earned off him.Palacios is,on the other hand,a big loss but yeah this just confirms that they won't go higher than 6th.Also I doubt arsenal will qualify for CL this season,Liverpool's gonna finish 4th IMO
Arsenal are falling behind the pack imo. They are losing two of their most important players, don't have a particularly solid defence, and solid attack can only get you so far. Will be interesting to see how Wenger plays this one out.
Hopefully none of the fixtures will be called off either, looking forward to a good opening weekend, goals aplenty.
Hopefully none of the fixtures will be called off either, looking forward to a good opening weekend, goals aplenty.
@ Sharkz
Well Anzhi got purchased by a billionare and are now cash rich , they are capable of purchasing him and are capable of more big steps in the transfer market . But this is a horrible loss , if he goes . Sneijder is also said to be going as well,( everyone knows this ) i.e to Man U of course . But If these two happen to leave, then Inter will watch AC.Milan raise another Scudetto again .
Well Anzhi got purchased by a billionare and are now cash rich , they are capable of purchasing him and are capable of more big steps in the transfer market . But this is a horrible loss , if he goes . Sneijder is also said to be going as well,( everyone knows this ) i.e to Man U of course . But If these two happen to leave, then Inter will watch AC.Milan raise another Scudetto again .
Wouldn't surpise me if Crouch is going to make way for Llorente.
I think Arsenal got a reasonable amount for Fabregas, if the reported 35m is true.
15m would see them a very good defender, and i am certain 20m could probably bring someone in like Eriksen, Arteta would be a good idea if he wasn't so injury prone.
Of course Wenger will spend 2m on a French 16 year old attacker and not spend the rest.
I think Arsenal got a reasonable amount for Fabregas, if the reported 35m is true.
15m would see them a very good defender, and i am certain 20m could probably bring someone in like Eriksen, Arteta would be a good idea if he wasn't so injury prone.
Of course Wenger will spend 2m on a French 16 year old attacker and not spend the rest.
I would. To be perfectly honest, I think Tottenham have ruined their chances at being a big club because they didn't take advantage of their CL club status at the time. They didn't sign a CF in the last two windows even though it was a glaring weakness (Crouch, Defoe and Pav are decent... for a mid-table team) and don't look like signing one now. These strikers were the ones that were able to perform when Tottenham weren't distracted by European football and should be the ones that participate in the transition to a ''big club''. The three of them are all ageing now, so they need to find new strikers. IMO, they would be better off signing an exciting young player that could end up being a world-beater because classy players like Llorente are always looking for a big step-up and there isn't that much of a gap between Bilbao and Spurs.
Also, @ Lee:
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/reds-agree-enrique-deal
It's official! For a reported £5.5m. Excellent price, which balances out the Carroll fee
How on earth does that balance out the carroll fee lol. 40.5m for the two players who should be worth no more than 20-25m together.
I was going to post the exact same, with the same valuation lol. Luckily it doesn't matter as much due to the Torres sale, but Newcastle have still done you while you were desperate to bring someone in. That is a good price for Enrique, though.
However, I strongly agree with the Tottenham comments. They've lacked the real top drawer striker for a long time now (since they lost Berbatov) and didn't take advantage of their Champions League qualification. The other five teams they should be trying to better, or at least emulate (Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City) all have at least one striker who you would say is 'World Class'. Tottenham I feel will finish 6th and fall short of being able to match these teams until they can buy this kind of striker and still keep hold of their best players (which they normally don't).
Arsenal are going to lose big players and I don't think they'll replace them any time soon. The only reason Arsenal will stay in the top 5 is because Spurs and Everton still don't have the strikers to give them that edge. But that could still change soon.
Cool stats on Enrique:
1 on 1, Enrique's very hard to beat. Only 9 times last season did a player beat Enrique 1 on 1. Compare that to Ashley Cole (38 times), Clichy (26 times), Baines (24 times) & Evra (23 times)
Successful dribbles 2010/2011 Season: Enrique (65), Evra (26), Baines (26), Clichy (21), Ash Cole (17)
Tackle Success % 2010/2011 Season: Enrique (84%), Evra (76%), Baines (74%), Clichy (81%), Ashley Cole (61%).
Anyway, I'm extremely satisfied with Liverpool's business so far.
Enrique ==> huge LB weakness at the club. solid player.
Downing ==> huge LW problem too. consistent 'chalk on his boots' winger with a sweet cross.
Adam ==> deep lying playmaker and left footed set-piece taker (suarez, gerrard and adam are decent options for free-kicks) needed.
Henderson ==> RM/CM the only purchase that i didn't really like overall. We already have top-class international CMs (like Aquilani and Meireles...etc..) and there are better players that can occupy a wide position. The only explanation i can come up with is that kenny's 88-89 league winning team had a dynamic CM at RM and a more pacey winger on the left (barnes / downing) and he's just being employed as a luxury deputy for Gerrard (playing at RM). good idea since gerrard is struggling with injuries
What now? Probably a CB (Liverpool bid for P. Jones so i can only assume that a cb is on kenny's list). My choices are:
1) Cahill
2) Subotic
3) Samba
4) Scott Dann
1 on 1, Enrique's very hard to beat. Only 9 times last season did a player beat Enrique 1 on 1. Compare that to Ashley Cole (38 times), Clichy (26 times), Baines (24 times) & Evra (23 times)
Successful dribbles 2010/2011 Season: Enrique (65), Evra (26), Baines (26), Clichy (21), Ash Cole (17)
Tackle Success % 2010/2011 Season: Enrique (84%), Evra (76%), Baines (74%), Clichy (81%), Ashley Cole (61%).
Anyway, I'm extremely satisfied with Liverpool's business so far.
Enrique ==> huge LB weakness at the club. solid player.
Downing ==> huge LW problem too. consistent 'chalk on his boots' winger with a sweet cross.
Adam ==> deep lying playmaker and left footed set-piece taker (suarez, gerrard and adam are decent options for free-kicks) needed.
Henderson ==> RM/CM the only purchase that i didn't really like overall. We already have top-class international CMs (like Aquilani and Meireles...etc..) and there are better players that can occupy a wide position. The only explanation i can come up with is that kenny's 88-89 league winning team had a dynamic CM at RM and a more pacey winger on the left (barnes / downing) and he's just being employed as a luxury deputy for Gerrard (playing at RM). good idea since gerrard is struggling with injuries
What now? Probably a CB (Liverpool bid for P. Jones so i can only assume that a cb is on kenny's list). My choices are:
1) Cahill
2) Subotic
3) Samba
4) Scott Dann
I think Liverpool got an absolute bargain for Suarez, so kinda balances the huge overpayment on Carroll.
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