Sport Football Thread 2011/2012

[Windowlicker]

Do any people who know anything about football actually want Redknapp as England manager? It always seems to be his old boy's club and clueless know-nothings demanding he be put in charge, and put in charge this instant. I can't see it being anything else than yet another fiasco.

It would keep sports 'journalists' and comedians in work for a good while.

[Guest]

Do any people who know anything about football actually want Redknapp as England manager? It always seems to be his old boy's club and clueless know-nothings demanding he be put in charge, and put in charge this instant. I can't see it being anything else than yet another fiasco.

The whole Redknapp thing for England is ridiculous. English manager fails, we want a foreigner. Foreigner fails we want an English manager - usually the flavour of the month.

Redknapp is not qualified and doesn't have anything about him to say he could do the job. He's admitted he can't read or write, and can't operate a phone. Yet he's seen as a great manager?

Of course if he does end up as manager the best case is he does mildly well, the worse is that he shames himself properly - and as England are an excuse for a team now that option sounds far more appealing.

My concern if Harry was to take us into the Euro's was that he would be chasing his dream and his legacy. A load of old players and nothing put in place for the future - and lets stay he stays on for longer...why would he do anything regarding bringing players on? That's not his MO. He will get in players to do a job, and again we'll be on a short term mind set that isn't going to get us any nearer to actually doing well at a major tournament.

If you look how Spain rebuilt everything from the ground up, that's what we should be going for. Yet all we talk about is Our Arry and wanting to do well in one tournament.

[dan_tm]

Did Southgate just say it wasn't definitive?

[Frosty]

Do any people who know anything about football actually want Redknapp as England manager? It always seems to be his old boy's club and clueless know-nothings demanding he be put in charge, and put in charge this instant. I can't see it being anything else than yet another fiasco.

He did get West Ham playing some great stuff, his time at Portsmouth may be shrouded in controversy but he did get them overachieving irrespective of if he spent too much doing it and Spurs had a great time in the Champions League and have been admittedly more consistent in the league since he took over, but just recently something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

[Rev]

For the last World Cup, I think bringing in 'arry to manage it would have made sense. The squad were players he had been involved with, he'd had a good season and (as it turned out) Capello made a right bollocks of it so it's fairly hard to imagine how he could have done a worse job.

But now, we're beyond that. The players we're interested in, the ones just coming through, haven't had much contact with him. He's not got any momentum coming to it any more, he's not the brightest spark tactically. And it always feels very much like there is a scandal bubbling under the surface too - I'm sure The Sun have got a few headlines ready to roll already.

I'm sure he'll be announced as soon as Spurs drop out of the Champion's League slots.

[PinkMoon]

The hilarious thing about Young is that he did exactly the same kind of thing while at Villa yet nobody have a shit, let alone start a blog about it.

He made himself pretty unpopular amongst a fair proportion of Villa fans in his final season when he took his diving to the next level. It was painful to watch sometimes; he was more interested in playing the victim than playing the game. I figured that Ferguson would have stamped it out at United though.

[DC Lemon]

Terry might have been better off not admitting the ball hadn't crossed the line for Chelsea's 2nd goal in his post-match interview when you go back and look at how he celebrated it.

Footballers are the best. We should embrace the cheating instead of getting wound up by it. The authorities aren't interested in eradicating it.

[Halo]

In my opinion what's needed is goal-line technology, video challenges for red cards/penalties/disallowed goals and retrospective bans and fines for diving. That would solve 90% of the problems with modern football.

[ckny]

I thought racism made up 95% of the problems of modern football!

[humdrum]

He made himself pretty unpopular amongst a fair proportion of Villa fans in his final season when he took his diving to the next level. It was painful to watch sometimes; he was more interested in playing the victim than playing the game. I figured that Ferguson would have stamped it out at United though.

i'm guessing your don't watch many man utd games

[meatbin]

Kudos to Chelsea and Tottenham there, you really are the worst kind of people.

A. It wasn't all the fans, let alone all people who support them

B. According to media reports post-match, the boos came from the Chelsea fans.

C. You're a cock.

[Rev]

He made himself pretty unpopular amongst a fair proportion of Villa fans in his final season when he took his diving to the next level. It was painful to watch sometimes; he was more interested in playing the victim than playing the game. I figured that Ferguson would have stamped it out at United though.

Young just need a few more caps, then the media will stop noticing he does it.

[PinkMoon]

i'm guessing your don't watch many man utd games

I do try to avoid them, yeah! But I just figured that Ferguson's old-school sensibility might have discouraged Young from being too much of a cheating twat; at the very least, the complaining and rolling about on the ground he did towards the end of his Villa career was detrimental to his own game (never mind reputation) on several occasions. Maybe Ferguson has simply encouraged him to dive more efficiently. Mark of a top manager, I guess.

And speaking of top managers, it seems that Alex McLeish is hiding behind the penalty as the reason for Villa's poor performance. What a feckless cunt.

[Windowlicker]

A. It wasn't all the fans, let alone all people who support them

B. According to media reports post-match, the boos came from the Chelsea fans.

C. You're a cock.

You failed to notice my post a bit later on, it was not clear who was hateful enough to shout during a moments silence to mark the anniversary of 96 people dying at a football match.

Now fuck off you useless twat.

[redbloodcell]

I thought racism made up 95% of the problems of modern football!

Nah, you can just shake hands for that!

[Guest]

There's also no way they don't practice this skill, which is something else to think about.

I'm not saying it wasn't a dive, as I've not seen it yet, but do you have evidence of this? I'd be interested to see it.

[phresh]

He made himself pretty unpopular amongst a fair proportion of Villa fans in his final season when he took his diving to the next level. It was painful to watch sometimes; he was more interested in playing the victim than playing the game. I figured that Ferguson would have stamped it out at United though.

Why would Ferguson? In terms of simulating as the game is refereed today it's about balance. If you cry wolf too often you end up like Nani and more recently Suarez and won't get the genuine decisions yet why bother to play fair when there is no onus on anyone to do so?

I think Windowlicker said a few pages back about how the FA are spineless for doing nothing about diving yet as we know too well the PL and the clubs pull the strings. Hence why goal line technology is coming in and hence why there is no crackdown on simulation. There is just no desire from the clubs or the players to punish it as the fans want. People can virtual high-five Ryan Taylor and QPR's chairman for their tweets but they mean absolutely nothing as I will guarantee they wouldn't post the same about a player doing the same in their own team. It's just heat of the moment shit that will get them favour with a few fans but is ultimately meaningless.

Numerous players put there names to schemes to do with racism, are happy to do the same to projects outside football and more often than not call for goal line technology to be introduced yet have you ever heard a player actually come out against simulation in the game as an actual game-wide problem rather than just focussing on single events that get the most media coverage? Maybe they have but i've never heard of one.

I think Bowser posted a link to a Neville article where he pointed out how some of the United players essentially had to learn to 'cheat' (not just simulation) to compete in Europe (in the 90's) and while some of this was down to how parts of the game played out rather than just plain cheating why would the clubs, PL and FA want to take a moral high ground that would only disadvantage their biggest marketing assets on the biggest stage? Any combating of simulation would have to come from the very top and quite frankly we all know how likely that is. Not that I agree with that mind, 95% of the football I watch is with teams based in the top 4 English leagues so i'd be more than happy for the FA to take serious action against it whatever the effect was elsewhere.

[Timmo]

Jonas Gutierrez is the biggest diver in the league, he wins more free kicks than anyone else in the Prem, it's something like 5 every game. He's good at it though, watch him closely next time they play.

[phresh]

Jonas Gutierrez is the biggest diver in the league, he wins more free kicks than anyone else in the Prem, it's something like 5 every game. He's good at it though, watch him closely next time they play.

I was going to mention him in my last post seeing as Ryan Taylor plays for the same team. Gutierrez is hilarious though, he just looks like a Giraffe on an ice rink whenever an opposing player gets near him.

[Timmo]

Yeah, maybe that's part of the reason he took his tweet down.

[meatbin]

You failed to notice my post a bit later on, it was not clear who was hateful enough to shout during a moments silence to mark the anniversary of 96 people dying at a football match.

Now fuck off you useless twat.

Well I read the thread as it goes so I missed your later post, so fair enough about what you say, but even still that was a massive sweeping generalisation of the supporters you mention.

[humdrum]

I'm not saying it wasn't a dive, as I've not seen it yet, but do you have evidence of this? I'd be interested to see it.

[El Pibe]

ITV...FFS. Can we talk about more than just the non-goal?

They'd bugged Ledley King to talk about it and then booted him off when he tried to talk about the bloody result.

[Timmo]

Looks worse the more you see it. A shame England have absolutely no one else who can play that position well (do they? Downing has basically died as a footballer, can Johnson play on the left? Will Matt Jarvis ever be considered again? I still like him)

[Revival]

Didn't Bale admit earlier this week he thought Spuds were a better team than Chelsea?

Dear Gareth,

We hope you enjoy the FA Cup Final this year!..

..Sat on yer Arse in front of the TV

[Dude Ranch]

I'm not saying it wasn't a dive, as I've not seen it yet, but do you have evidence of this? I'd be interested to see it.

You've seen it now, what do you think? Another one. Don't defend him though, we're watching .

[Naysonymous]

Bit LTTP, but I dont think we have much cause to complain over the Ashley Young dive. He dived more than Jacques Cousteau while he was at the Villa and won us plenty of penalties and free kicks. We just got a taste of our medicine, and pointing to the dive is just deflecting from the fact that we were utterly annihilated today and that we are a very poor team.

[redbloodcell]

Still a well cunty thing to do to your former team, where (I guess) he used to have friends still.

[Naysonymous]

Yeah, but he is getting paid by Manchester United to earn points for Manchester United. I guess when you are earning £100k+ a week or whatever then you can say that the club who pays you expect you to do everything in your power to help them win.

It will be interesting to see how it affects his relationship with Villa fans though, he had five seasons at Villa Park and most people wished him well when he moved on as he was clearly never going to win the medals his talent deserves at Aston Villa. We had a crack at it, we failed and some of the players felt it was time to move on. Ash got a warm reception when he came back earlier this season, he might not next year.

[Guest]

Yeah, it certainly looks like a dive from that, but that wasn't my question. I want evidence that United train their players to dive.