Sport Football Thread 2011/2012

[El Pibe]

Yeah, but jumping up and down? It's a bit much.

indeed!

So glad we have a terrace and can jump up and down when there's a miracle and we win a game!

[Mr Do 71]

Real Madrid still 0-0 with Valencia with minutes to go!

[Chewylegs]

Jonathan Pearce is an utter prick. Apparently it was definitely a penalty once the offside was missed!

No, it was a blatant dive and it was offside. Just listening to him he's obviously a united supporter.

[CGB]

Jonathan Pearce is an utter prick. Apparently it was definitely a penalty once the offside was missed!

No, it was a blatant dive and it was offside. Just listening to him he's obviously a united supporter.

I'm surprised he didn't say "he had a right to go down there!"

[spaceman]

Real Madrid still 0-0 with Valencia with minutes to go!

What a great game this was. 4 point gap now, bet Real hammer Athletico on Wednesday.

[Chewylegs]

I'm surprised he didn't say "he had a right to go down there!"

Lol!

Then gushing over Paul Scholes for probably a good minute as well!!

[Chooch]

Lol bitter liverpool fans!

[Daley]

I was at the Arsenal game today and I would just like to apologise for celebrating, jumping up and down and cheering as we beat the team that have spent several hundred million pounds on players, including several of our players, while we have spent about £8.57. I think I clapped a bit too. I have let myself down, my club and football in general. Thanks for listening.

[Guest]

Love how Dinobot is trying to force conversation about Liverpool whilst we all talk about who's gonna win the league and Champions league spots

Ginna? Well done.

[Gabzy]

Isn't Balotelli just the biggest cunt? His career can surely only go downhill from here.

[JamesTW]

At least he goes the game

[dogsout]

Funny how whenever Man Utd receive a fortuitious decision all the whiners come out spouting their conspiracy theories. It's a textbook case of confirmation bias, not to mention denial.

It's almost as annoying as the ones that come out shouting their "CONSPIRACY THEORISTS" bullshit. One of you acknowledged it was a bad decision before saying it didn't actually change anything or matter. The rest of you (bar one, by my count) have just been crying about people being annoyed by a ridiculous decision. Classless.

[DeadRussian]

I was at the Arsenal game today and I would just like to apologise for celebrating, jumping up and down and cheering as we beat the team that have spent several hundred million pounds on players, including several of our players, while we have spent about £8.57. I think I clapped a bit too. I have let myself down, my club and football in general. Thanks for listening.

Arsenal can celebrate all they like, I'm not sure why people were having a pop. Sulking, I'm sure. However...

Gervinho - £10.6 million

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - £12 million

Mikel Arteta - £10 million

Per Mertesacker - £10 million

Andre Santos - £6.2 million

Laurent Koscielny - £10 million

Sebastien Squillaci - £4 million

Park Chu-Young - £3 million

Boo-fucking-hoo. The Premiership is on another planet. A real awful garish planet, full of neon thrills and cheap tat. Finishing in the top 4 of the top division in the world on a consistent basis must be really trying. You could buy about seventy Andrea Silenzi's for that kind of cash.

[exwhyzed]

At least he goes the game

oh hsit som its easter sunday traisn be trippin

[whizzo]

Arsenal can celebrate all they like, I'm not sure why people were having a pop. Sulking, I'm sure. However...

Gervinho - £10.6 million

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - £12 million

Mikel Arteta - £10 million

Per Mertesacker - £10 million

Andre Santos - £6.2 million

Laurent Koscielny - £10 million

Sebastien Squillaci - £4 million

Park Chu-Young - £3 million

Boo-fucking-hoo. The Premiership is on another planet. A real awful garish planet, full of neon thrills and cheap tat. Finishing in the top 4 of the top division in the world on a consistent basis must be really trying. You could buy about seventy Andrea Silenzi's for that kind of cash.

Great bit of selective fact getting. He was wrong to say they have spent £8.57 eh? Yeah they actually spent 51 million pounds! Crazy!. Oh by the way they made £73 million selling players.

[Daley]

Yea he's got me there. Arsenal spent more than £8.57, I can't deny it.

[whizzo]

They actully didnt

[Daley]

They actully didnt

I didn't want to mention the fact that Arsenal again made a profit on transfers last summer.

[Naysonymous]

Arsenal do play the "we dont spend any money" card a bit too often imo. Yes, they do remarkably well with transfer fees but the squad still costs about as much or more than every team they finish above and their wage bill is still a lot higher than most other clubs. They definitely have a top four budget so they finish about where they should be finishing based on expenditure.

[Daley]

Oh dear. I was just trying to explain why Arsenal fans might have been a bit pleased at winning yesterday. Sorry if I overdone the plucky little Arsenal beat big bad Man City. My post wasn't 100% serious yesterday or based totally on fact.

[SaintM]

Jesus guys, keep to the programme. It's Man City who get the jibes after Liverpool, then it's Chelsea and then we go to Arsenal at the start of the next campaign after they fail in the transfer market again.

[Naysonymous]

Oh dear. I was just trying to explain why Arsenal fans might have been a bit pleased at winning yesterday.

Surely the fact that you won a must win game with a late goal which happened to be an absolute screamer was enough? Yeah, there was a comment about Arsenal celebrating as if they had won the league or something, but the truth is Arsenal needed three points from the game yesterday every bit as much as Man City did.

[Stig]

Think people have misinterpreted what I meant. There's Arsenal fans on here saying they celebrated like that cause they just beat a team thats spent ridiculous amounts of money. Youre Arsenal football club, you should be beating the like of City at home or at least putting up a good fight, just like you did yesterday, regardless. If you were Swansea or Norwich with a team full of (respectfully) nobodies who's stadium probably costs less than Cities top player then I'd be all for the massive celebrations. I Understand staying in the top 4 is important especially as no one gave you a chance with the start you had, but the scenes yesterday just seemed a little OTT for a club such as Arsenals stature. Celebrating going above Spurs like they'd just booked their place in the FA Cup final.

[DC Lemon]

I'm surprised he didn't say "he had a right to go down there!"

Derry didn't have a right to put his hand out in an attempt to put Young off balance (for there could be no other excuse for his hand to be where it was) but he did it anyway. Young could have stayed on his feet, but the cynical defending gave him the opportunity to dive.

Don't get me wrong, if it was a player from another club, I'd be focusing on the dive. And none of this changes the fact that it was blatantly offside.

[Chewylegs]

Derry didn't have a right to put his hand out in an attempt to put Young off balance (for there could be no other excuse for his hand to be where it was) but he did it anyway. Young could have stayed on his feet, but the cynical defending gave him the opportunity to dive.

Don't get me wrong, if it was a player from another club, I'd be focusing on the dive. And none of this changes the fact that it was blatantly offside.

Hold on people, seriously, if that was a foul then we might as well call football a non contact sport!! It was a tiny little grab/push, no way would that be a free kick anywhere else on the pitch.

[DC Lemon]

Hold on people, seriously, if that was a foul then we might as well call football a non contact sport!! It was a tiny little grab/push, no way would that be a free kick anywhere else on the pitch.

I'm not saying it was a foul, I'm saying Derry made it easy to con the ref and the only possible reason for his hand to be there would be if he wanted to put Young off balance.

[Stig]

Hold on people, seriously, if that was a foul then we might as well call football a non contact sport!! It was a tiny little grab/push, no way would that be a free kick anywhere else on the pitch.

There lies the problem, there's no consistency from the ref these days. One minute they'll give a foul outside the box and then when the exact same thing happens in the box they ignore it. Is a foul not a foul, no matter where it is? I've lost count the amount of times I've seen defenders holder players down or having their arms wrapped around someone restricted their movement in the box and nothing's been given.

[Fry Crayola]

Indeed, and I don't buy the complaint that "then you'd see three or four penalties a match!". If players know they're going to be penalised and still do it, then it's their own dumb fault. They'll quickly stop.

[Petrousgyre]

Arsenal do play the "we dont spend any money" card a bit too often imo. Yes, they do remarkably well with transfer fees but the squad still costs about as much or more than every team they finish above and their wage bill is still a lot higher than most other clubs. They definitely have a top four budget so they finish about where they should be finishing based on expenditure.

So I was wondering how true this was. Looking at team spend over the last six completed seasons ie 05/06 -10/11. This comprises wages and net transfer spend then compared with average Premiership finish over the same period and worked out how many teams they finished above, on average, per season. Dividing PA spend by the teams they finished above gives you an idea of how much it has cost each team in millions per place in the Premiership table on average for the last six years. The table is limited to the 'Top 6', mainly because I can't be arsed doing the rest and I could only easily find wage data for these sides.

A few things are clear, there is a substantial difference between clubs in terms of expenditure versus Premiership finish. Spurs have spent less than half that of City yet finished three places higher, on average. In terms of analysis the clear issue with this information is it assumes the Premiership is a linear scale, which it isn't. Arsenal fans would argue the additional half million they've spent per place has been worth them finishing roughly three positions above Spurs with Champions league football and all that entails. Similarly ManU fans would claim the additional million per place they've spent versus Arsenal has enabled them to win the title four times in this period.

Regardless, Arsenal would appear to be well ahead in terms of Premiership finish based on expenditure.

[DeadRussian]

Great bit of selective fact getting. He was wrong to say they have spent £8.57 eh? Yeah they actually spent 51 million pounds! Crazy!. Oh by the way they made £73 million selling players.

This post is rubbish.

Obviously my point was that Arsenal have still spent a great deal of money over the last two years. The fans still bang on about the supposed trifling sums they spend in comparison to a group of insanely wealthy Saudi oil barons and a group of American fraudsters, who use their club as an elaborate Ponzi scheme.

£8. 57! Lol! That IS a small amount of money.