Sport Football Thread 2011/2012

[Naysonymous]

I assume it is the fella here in the white coat?

[Dandy_Sephy]

Am I the only one annoyed that pressure is being piled on Anton Ferdinand to shake John Terry's hand?

I thought the decision of both teams ignoring the hand shake altogether to be bad form. It was up to Terry and Ferdinand to decide if they would shake hands, not to casually avoid the issue altogether. Terry should have had the chance to shake Ferdinand's hand, and Ferdinand had the right to refuse it.

[Silent Runner]

So where there any good chants from the Watford fans for old 'Arry then?

'Stand up if you pay your tax' was the only one I heard on the TV.

[Dude Ranch]

I thought the decision of both teams ignoring the hand shake altogether to be bad form. It was up to Terry and Ferdinand to decide if they would shake hands, not to casually avoid the issue altogether. Terry should have had the chance to shake Ferdinand's hand, and Ferdinand had the right to refuse it.

In an ideal world maybe but this casual avoidance seems like common sense to me, the situation had gotten out of hand and it was no time to test everyone's personality and sit on the edge of our seats to see what happened.

[Plissken]

For all those decrying the death of football, this week is the 20th anniversary of one of the best pieces of writing about my club that ever appeared in a national newspaper. After Clarets are went 2-0 down at Derby in a Third Round replay, the fans started chanting. They didn't stop for the rest of the game, nor for about 15 minutes afterwards. What is surprising is that it appeared in The Sun of all places. I'll highlight the prescient bits.

Burnley Roar Out Warning to the Top Dogs by John Sadler

Jimmy Mullen is due in court this morning to answer a drink-drive allegation. On Saturday, he watched his goalkeeper inexplicably drop the ball to present Derby with a decisive second goal that swept his team out of the F.A. Cup.

No, you couldn't claim that these have been the happiest few days in the life of the manager of fourth division Burnley. And yet Mullen has found himself at the centre of a remarkable phenomenon, perhaps unique even in the grand history of football's most romantic competition. I don't care what kind of response former Burnley midfield man Brian Flynn received as manager of Wrexham on their latest day of glory at West Ham. It wouldn't have been a patch on the acclaim given to the boss of the club where he began. I want to tell you about the most heartening, stimulating and optimistic football occasion I have experienced for many, many years.

Derby v Burnley was a match in a time warp. A third round replay played on fourth round day. But the real blast from the past came from far more distant days, when fans came only to back their beloved team, not fight their opposite numbers. When fences weren't needed and policemen merely smiled in approval. Burnley took 4,000 Lancashire lads and lasses to the Midlands. And they were sensational.

Soon after goalkeeper Chris Pearce dropped his dreadful clanger they set up one of the loudest, sustained dins I've ever heard on a football ground anywhere in the world. "Jimmy Mullen's claret-and-blue-army" was the chant from the terraces and double-decker stand that housed Burnley's admiration society.

Over and over they chanted it. Clapping and stamping their feet and drumming the advertising boards in perfect rhythm. On and on for 20 minutes until the end of the match and another 15 minutes afterwards, until I urged the club's chairman to get his manager and players to leave their dressing room, return to the pitch and wave their appreciation. The bedlam was almost deafening. It was a colourful and spectacular sight.

But it is something far more important than that. I wanted others to see and hear it. Big men, important men who are making decisions that could alienate the game from ordinary working folk. I wanted Graham Kelly to be there to prove to him that those who talk of Super Leagues should not underestimate the passion of the so-called little clubs. I wanted Sir John Quinton to be there so that the bank chairman chosen to preside over the elite could learn something of life at the other end of the scale. I wanted officials of Manchester United and Arsenal, Liverpool and the other fat cats behind the move to change the face of football to hear the voices of the people.

The bedlam of Burnley was not simply a cry of support for another of the F.A. Cup's beaten teams. It was a roar of defiance. "Traditions," said Arthur Cox, Derby's manager whose time in north east football taught him all there is to know about fanaticism. "You heard the traditions of Burnley's past out there today. A major club of 30 years ago, don't forget." Those who kept up that incessant, thunderous clatter were real fans. Genuine football people with a deep love of their club, no matter the result of a single game. They had nothing to do with the executive box brigade and corporate hospitality merchants to whom football is pandering in the modern era. They stood in the rain, sat in the cold and screamed their allegiance to a game which, at the highest level, continues to turn it's back.

English football has no right to dismiss or take lightly the support of people like those who raised their voices so valiantly at the Baseball Ground. This, remember, was the support of a team who lost to a deflected free kick and a goal handed on a plate by a goalkeeper who couldn't catch the ball. The frost that caused so many postponements had the managers and scouts flocking to Derby. Brian Clough, David Pleat, Neil Warnock, Ian Branfoot together with scouts from Villa, QPR, Norwich, Portsmouth, Leicester, West Ham, Leeds, Manchester United, Oldham, Coventry, Cambridge, Blackburn to name but a few. Some will report back about individual players or one side or the other. But all will first tell the story of those incredible Burnley supporters.

So at last the message will be cast far and wide. The cry from the Fourth Division will reach high places. "In all my 23 years in the game I've never witnessed anything like that," Jimmy Mullen gasped. "It left my players feeling they were prepared to die for those people."

It left Arthur Cox thinking out loud: "Burnley have had a reminder of how things could be. It was a demonstration of potential. They now have to try and make sure they get promotion and don't let those people down."

And that is a sobering thought.

[Ryan]

This isn't particularly true. League 2 Swindon are still charging ~£25 for standard tickets which doesn't sound particularly 'affordable' to me.

That's the top rate (i.e. for Oxford, or big cup matches), most matches are far cheaper. Our season tickets were among the cheapest in the league.

Tickets for our last home game were available from £14 for an adult, £10 seniors and teenagers and £7 for kids. Not at all crazy. Season tickets were £200 for 23 games, that's under £9 a game.

[monobrow]

A few Premier League clubs are "reasonably" priced. Fulham, for a London club, are only about £30 a game. You can see Man City for about £20-£30 too.

It depresses me that Forest still charge around £27-£29 for a home game. Bunch of bollocks, that is.

I paid £23 about 4 years ago, to watch us at home to Bournemouth. In League One. I only go to reserves games now...

Edit: 'Us', being Forest

[ckny]

Sunday Times are running with this being Mourinho's last season at Madrid and he will manage in the Premier League next season. Not sure which team they think he'll be at, surely only Liverpool and Man Utd fit the bill, but I don't see Dalglish or Ferguson standing down yet. Spurs will be out of a manager this summer (one way or another!), them maybe?

[Sportello]

Cracking game between Feyenoord and Ajax at the De Kuip there. John Guidetti, on loan from Man City, gets a hat-trick for Feyenoord. Makes it something like 14 goals in 12 appearances. Finished 4-2 to the home team.

[DC Lemon]

There's no excuse for a referee to be conned by a dive like Sturridge's. The blatancy of the dive and the lack of a challenge from the nearby QPR player should be enough evidence for anyone.

[monobrow]

Sunday Times are running with this being Mourinho's last season at Madrid and he will manage in the Premier League next season. Not sure which team they think he'll be at, surely only Liverpool and Man Utd fit the bill, but I don't see Dalglish or Ferguson standing down yet. Spurs will be out of a manager this summer (one way or another!), them maybe?

Chelsea? As much as I think they should give AVB time to do things his way, can any team afford to turn down Mourinho?

Here's a thought - Arsenal? Wasn't them some talk recently of Madrid wanting him as manager again?

[El Pibe]

There's no excuse for a referee to be conned by a dive like Sturridge's. The blatancy of the dive and the lack of a challenge from the nearby QPR player should be enough evidence for anyone.

It was infuriating. The referee should have spotted it.

What I'd like is for players that cheat like that to be lambasted in the press and for it to be shown again and again. However, the media tend to be too afraid to do this sort of thing in case they get banned from the ground or lose access to teams.

Cheating b'stard.

[El Pibe]

I paid £23 about 4 years ago, to watch us at home to Bournemouth. In League One. I only go to reserves games now...

Exeter is £24 to sit down, which I think is partly due to the lack of seating.

Thankfully, you can also stand for a more reasonable £17. That said, I think standing at League One football should be a tenner.

Football is so expensive in this country.

[Petrousgyre]

Here's a thought - Arsenal? Wasn't them some talk recently of Madrid wanting him as manager again?

No thanks, not the grindingly tedious one.

[redbloodcell]

It was infuriating. The referee should have spotted it.

What I'd like is for players that cheat like that to be lambasted in the press and for it to be shown again and again. However, the media tend to be too afraid to do this sort of thing in case they get banned from the ground or lose access to teams.

Cheating b'stard.

Or the FA could do something about it and hand out some bans, but that's never going to happen because they're wusses.

[El Pibe]

Or the FA could do something about it and hand out some bans, but that's never going to happen because they're wusses.

Yeah, I'd kinda assumed that would never happen!

[dan_tm]

If that wasn't interfering with play I don't know what is. Of course he was offside, stood 1 yard in front of the keeper, sticking his foot out to try and kick the ball which rolled between them both.

lrn2football, ITV

[Rsdio]

I can't really see Mourinho going and living in Liverpool or Manchester so I'd be surprised if he ended up anywhere other than a London club if he came back.

Although I'm sure we'd welcome him if he wanted to come up north and embark upon a labour of love with his boyhood heroes Huddersfield Town.

Edit: LOL I'm not slagging either city off (I've lived in one and spent a fair bit of time in the other), just that I can't see Mourinho living up here.

[Silent Runner]

If that wasn't interfering with play I don't know what is. Of course he was offside, stood 1 yard in front of the keeper, sticking his foot out to try and kick the ball which rolled between them both.

lrn2football, ITV

I don't know. It looked like he was behind the keepers line of sight. It was a great finish.

[Liamness]

I can't really see Mourinho going and living in Liverpool or Manchester so I'd be surprised if he ended up anywhere other than a London club if he came back.

He wouldn't live in either City though would he? He'd get a nice mansion out in Cheshire, as is the way of the North West's football elite.

[Jack]

[Rsdio]

He wouldn't live in either City though would he? He'd get a nice mansion out in Cheshire, as is the way of the North West's football elite.

Oh yeah, if he did go to either of those two I'm sure he would. I guess it's just in my head he's like this archetypal metropolitan male or something. A penthouse suite in human form. Maybe it's just his coats.

[monobrow]

No thanks, not the grindingly tedious one.

After having been spoiled with 20 years of nice football at Forest, under Brian Clough, I would have said the same thing. Unfortunately, with what's happened since, I think I would gladly take a winning team over a pretty team.

[Dude Ranch]

After having been spoiled with 20 years of nice football at Forest, under Brian Clough, I would have said the same thing. Unfortunately, with what's happened since, I think I would gladly take a winning team over a pretty team.

Me too. We've had the pretty, it can't get any better than it was at our peak. Right now we're terrible to watch IMO. I've always wondered what Mourinho would do with the exact same players. He'd teach them to defend, I know that. And he'd sack Arshavin.

[dan_tm]

I don't know. It looked like he was behind the keepers line of sight. It was a great finish.

I can see what you mean, but any decent keeper (which you'd think they would be playing at that level) would have a rough idea of where all the opposition players were in the penalty area - especially one so close to him.

Due to the guy in an offside position the keeper can't really commit himself to a save until he knows that no one else is going to divert the ball in another direction. Who knows if he'd have been able to react in time and save the initial shot if he didn't have to worry about the one right beside him getting a toe on it.

[The Fox]

Me too. We've had the pretty, it can't get any better than it was at our peak. Right now we're terrible to watch IMO. I've always wondered what Mourinho would do with the exact same players. He'd teach them to defend, I know that. And he'd sack Arshavin.

I wouldn't want him for all the tedious baggage he brings with him. He's clearly a great manager but he's also clearly an embarrassing lunatic who sorely lacked attention as a child.

[futureshock]

[The Fox]

That stick-on beard is fooling no one.

[monobrow]

I wouldn't want him for all the tedious baggage he brings with him. He's clearly a great manager but he's also clearly an embarrassing lunatic who sorely lacked attention as a child.

Well he's more than welcome at Forest. I wonder if he knows there's a Hooters near the ground?

[Ravern]

I can't be the only one who finds Craig Burley an insufferably moany twat.