Official Football Thread

Albie said:
All we need now is for some rich tycoon from Brunei to want to invest in English football and plump a ton of money at the door of Roots Hall. :D
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I'm sure Mittal could spare a billion for Southend too. :D

@Eddies Wingman: You are right - Everton and Fiorentina are tough opponents, I think both should progress. And I personally think that all of the rest of the UEFA cup participants should be wary of Everton. I can see them doing a Middlesbrough - but going one further.
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UEFA Cup is always so hard to call, I mean Middlesborough got to the final! But this year, Bayern Munich really should win shouldn't they?
 
national acrobat said:
UEFA Cup is always so hard to call, I mean Middlesborough got to the final! But this year, Bayern Munich really should win shouldn't they?
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True, the UEFA is tough to call, but I'm basing the form on how good the team was in the group stages. Everton played 4, won 4. Bayern, not as good. Although Bayern does have a damn good European pedigree - unlike the Toffees.
 
Big game for QPR today, home against Colchester, who are on equal points with us. I should have gone really, not sure why I didn't.
Hopefully I'll get a half-season ticket, didn't have the cash at the start of the season. See what Christmas Day brings. ;)
 
Countdown: 21 hours and counting...

I went down the Bush on New Years Day to see QPR trounce Leicester 3-1, and the place was ROCKING! The concrete beneath my feet was shaking! I've never heard Loftus Road so loud. A revolution is happening to the finest football team the world has ever seen.
And we'll probably get beaten by Chelscum tomorrow. ;) The omens aren't good: we haven't won in the FA Cup for 6/7 years. I also worry that we've bought too many players too quickly, and also that some of them just aren't good enough. We'll see.
 
national acrobat said:
A revolution is happening to the finest football team the world has ever seen.
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Finest? Hmm. :P

Still, how confident do you feel about promotion this season? Or should we wait 'til next season and go up as champions?
 
Albie said:
Finest? Hmm. :P

Still, how confident do you feel about promotion this season? Or should we wait 'til next season and go up as champions?
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I would say we have little to no chance of going up this season; if the new players settle in well, we could have a top 10 finish. I did hear a week or two that we're favourites to go up next season. :bigsmile:

By all accounts, we did pretty well at Chelsea and can hold our heads high (which helps when a workmate was at the game as a home supporter ), and anyway I can console myself that we'll be finishing above them in the league in a few years time. ;)

And yes, the finest football team the world has ever seen.
 
national acrobat said:
I would say we have little to no chance of going up this season; if the new players settle in well, we could have a top 10 finish. I did hear a week or two that we're favourites to go up next season. :bigsmile:
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At the time of writing, QPR are only 9 points away from 6th place. I'm sure Sunderland had a bigger gap to climb last season - it's not impossible.
 
national acrobat said:
I would say we have little to no chance of going up this season; if the new players settle in well, we could have a top 10 finish. I did hear a week or two that we're favourites to go up next season. :bigsmile:

By all accounts, we did pretty well at Chelsea and can hold our heads high (which helps when a workmate was at the game as a home supporter ), and anyway I can console myself that we'll be finishing above them in the league in a few years time. ;)

And yes, the finest football team the world has ever seen.
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Too bad QPR couldn't kick Chelsea out of the cup. Was it a close call or was it just poor finishing that kept the result from becoming worse than 1-0? Next year, National Acrobat. Next year.

Guess the Villa fans still feel bad about having to meet Manchester United in the cup. Now it is 13 unbeaten for United against Villa - if I'm not completely mistaken, that must be one of the longest unbeaten runs against a single Premiership teams. There must be something with the air in that part of Birmingham ... I mean, Aston Villa have been a good team for many years but they seem to lose it completely when they face United.


As an apropos to the cup game, here comes a little rant about Norwegian media:

Why the fuck do they have to be so obsessed with our own players in the Premiership? When Blackburn lost 0-1 th Chelsea on December the 23rd, the teletext of TV2, the biggest commercial TV channel in Norway, had a heading "Gamst lost to Chelsea" referring to Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn). Impressive. But even worse, the team name Blackburn Rovers wasn't mentioned once in the text!!!

This was a grim example, usually they aren't that bad. But it is always "Just a draw for Riise", "United's super-duo sunk Carew" and so on. I think it is great when Norwegian footballers do well abroad, but this is not where my interest in English football comes from. When I started following it, there were very few Norwegians there (Erik Thorstvedt in Tottenham is the only one I can remember) and the Solskjær-worshipping of the Norwegian tabloid press and TV was a bit ridiculous. Now that he's retired, I can finally read articles about United where the main focus isn't what he did or did not during the match. Of course, he's a hero at Old Trafford, but there are many. And when the papers and TV channels focus on players who play far smaller roles in their respective teams, instead of focusing at the teams, I get annoyed.

Well, no more ranting today. But it helps to rant when one has a headache.
 
@EW: A good reason why Manu U does so well against Villa is down to the pitch itself. Villa Park is one of the biggest pitches in England (I believe) and it suits Man U as they tend to play with a lot of width. This is backed up by the fact that Man U never seem to loose a cup tie at Villa Park (and a lot of Semi's get played there as well).
 
Eddies Wingman said:
Too bad QPR couldn't kick Chelsea out of the cup. Was it a close call or was it just poor finishing that kept the result from becoming worse than 1-0? Next year, National Acrobat. Next year.
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Apparantly QPR weren't very good (bad finishing, not enough creativity), but Chelsea weren't much better and it was just a freak goal that made the difference.

As an apropos to the cup game, here comes a little rant about Norwegian media:

Why the fuck do they have to be so obsessed with our own players in the Premiership? When Blackburn lost 0-1 th Chelsea on December the 23rd, the teletext of TV2, the biggest commercial TV channel in Norway, had a heading "Gamst lost to Chelsea" referring to Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn). Impressive. But even worse, the team name Blackburn Rovers wasn't mentioned once in the text!!!

This was a grim example, usually they aren't that bad. But it is always "Just a draw for Riise", "United's super-duo sunk Carew" and so on. I think it is great when Norwegian footballers do well abroad, but this is not where my interest in English football comes from. When I started following it, there were very few Norwegians there (Erik Thorstvedt in Tottenham is the only one I can remember) and the Solskjær-worshipping of the Norwegian tabloid press and TV was a bit ridiculous. Now that he's retired, I can finally read articles about United where the main focus isn't what he did or did not during the match. Of course, he's a hero at Old Trafford, but there are many. And when the papers and TV channels focus on players who play far smaller roles in their respective teams, instead of focusing at the teams, I get annoyed.

Well, no more ranting today. But it helps to rant when one has a headache.
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About Norwegian players in the Premiership, to be honest, they haven't been very good this season! I know that wasn't what your rant was about, but I thought you might like to know the opinions of fans here on Norwegian players. Gamst Pedersen has been a very good player the past couple of years, being linked to Man U and Liverpool etc, but this season he hasn't really shone, maybe because he's outshone by Bentley.

Carew's a player I see quite a lot of: he's very good at link-up play and playing unselfishly bringing other players into the game, but he just doesn't score enough goals for a centre-forward.

Riise as well is a player who has consistently been brilliantly in the Premier League, but this season a lot of Liverpool players have been saying that he looks off the pace, and just isn't up to that standard any more.
 
The only thing in your post I didn't know was the details of QPR vs Chelsea. Actually it has got some attention here in Norway that our most profiled players in the Premiership are not having their best season. Riise and Gamst Pedersen have received a lot of flak earlier for their poor performance for Norway in periods when they have been playing well for Liverpool and Blackburn. Now they seem to have lost it a bit on the club teams as well.

As for Carew, he's always been that kind of player. Strong in duels, good at holding the ball and creates chances for others, but he doesn't score many goals. It's the same story in AS Roma, Valencia, Lyon and so on. He has also been the same for Norway. Brilliant in some aspects of the game but does not score very much. Consider the fact that even in his final season in Rosenborg, before leaving for Valencia, he was only 4th on the list of most scoring players, even if he was the dominant player of the league. Considering that Rosenborg won the league by a large margin that season one would perhaps expect their best striker to be the top scorer. (That was the case for the four preceding seasons).

But enough about Norwegian footballers in England. Now time to enjoy the North London derby in the league cup. I hope for Spurs, I have always had a soft spot for them and I'm not too fond of Arsenal ...
 
Eddies Wingman said:
The only thing in your post I didn't know was the details of QPR vs Chelsea. Actually it has got some attention here in Norway that our most profiled players in the Premiership are not having their best season. Riise and Gamst Pedersen have received a lot of flak earlier for their poor performance for Norway in periods when they have been playing well for Liverpool and Blackburn. Now they seem to have lost it a bit on the club teams as well.

As for Carew, he's always been that kind of player. Strong in duels, good at holding the ball and creates chances for others, but he doesn't score many goals. It's the same story in AS Roma, Valencia, Lyon and so on. He has also been the same for Norway. Brilliant in some aspects of the game but does not score very much. Consider the fact that even in his final season in Rosenborg, before leaving for Valencia, he was only 4th on the list of most scoring players, even if he was the dominant player of the league. Considering that Rosenborg won the league by a large margin that season one would perhaps expect their best striker to be the top scorer. (That was the case for the four preceding seasons).

But enough about Norwegian footballers in England. Now time to enjoy the North London derby in the league cup. I hope for Spurs, I have always had a soft spot for them and I'm not too fond of Arsenal ...
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Well, there's more chance of a Norwegian player getting into the Arsenal team than an English player. ;) Arsenal's lack of English players really bugs me, so I'll be going for Spurs too.
 
national acrobat said:
Arsenal's lack of English players really bugs me.
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That gets up my goat as well.

As for Newcastle, the man tipped for the post is Redknapp (apparently). Assuming he goes, it will be interesting to see how he copes with a club that has greater expectations than those south coast teams he's managed (and even West Ham). After all, he was one of the contenders for the England job - so this would be a good test for him.
 
national acrobat said:
I presume you've said this to yourself everyday for the last 10 years. ;)
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Its funny cos its true :(
Redknapp turned the job down this morning thankfully. Don't think hes worth the money he was offered. Not sure who we can get who would be quality though :S
 
From the performance at Old Trafford, it was quite evident that Newcastle need a manager - they were awful. The only opportunity they had was when Owen was waved off for offside (a mistake by the linesman, but still ...) and their defense was like an open barn door. Cristiano Ronaldo got his first hat trick for Manchester United in this game ...
 
Real World said:
I noticed
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Sorry ... didn't mean to be cocky  :S

In fact, I was surprised to see them collapse that way - they were even with Chelsea and lost only because of a goal which was clearly offside. Then Big Sam had to go and in the next match they displayed the worst defending I have seen in the Premiership this season. I had expected them to be a bit more "on fire", but perhaps that "new manager" effect isn't going to come until the permanent replacement has arrived? I mean, one can quite often see teams giving a good performance the first few games after a manager change.
 
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