(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer

[Roger Wilco]

Hm, you're right, I guess it does. If there are 3 english clubs in the CL semis every year from now on, it'll seem even more like the Premier League is the place where the real action takes place, and not the Champions League.

[Tomalak]

I don't remember Fifa complaining about Italian football when Milan were in three finals in five years. Then again, Italian football had other problems around then. There's no guarantee there will be three for four English semi finalists anyway. They might be spending big (apart from Mr Myopia), but it's a knockout competition, and teams can upset the form book. Liverpool might not even get out of a tough group. I doubt United can repeat last year's run, especially now they are stuck with a Ferguson-Phelan axis with an interesting understanding of tactics. Chelsea might go far under Scolari, but Arsenal in Europe? It doesn't sound right does it?

[Starkers]

TheArsenal wrote:

---

Everything Mike Ashley says can be boiled down to: "I bought the club without doing proper due diligence. I'm an idiot."

I understand that Barazite is looking pretty useful.

Yeah he looks useful, turned the game on Saturday- I'm somewhat confused as to how long we have him for (a month, half a season, the season) but he definitely gives us more options.

[Tomalak]

Quelle surprise, Terry gets Club England immunity, rather than the deserved additional ban for a pointless appeal. It was clearly serious foul play, and furthermore his protests flew in the face of the 'respect' campaign.

[Starkers]

Angel4576 wrote:

---

Hands off. Eventually, when he's finished cutting his teeth in the lower leagues, Clough jr. will be returning to the family's spiritual home.

One of the reasons that I love the East Midlands derby, despite a fierce rivalry between the two clubs, at the heart of it all, there's a deep respect between the two clubs and their fans, largely down to one man, Brian Clough. He did more for East Midlands football than anyone else ever will.

You have to feel sorry for Leicester fans, he firmly planted Derby and Forest on the footballing map, establishing them as the pinnacle of East Midlands football. Leicester, have never been, and never will be, a major force in the East Midlands.

Re Barazite, a very useful player. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't start tomorrow night at Swansea. Think we've got him until Christmas, hopefully we'll be able to extend that until the end of the season.

Re Earnshaw, I never really thought that we got the best out of him TBH. I thought that he'd bang in a load of goals this season. Just keep him off the pop and out of the bookies and you'll be alright.....

Question is; if you were Nigel Clough would you really want the pressure that would come with managing either Derby of forest? However good a manager he is/becomes he isn't likely to be able to replicate anything near the successes his father achieved with clubs our size. Leicester's only hope of getting on the footballing map would have been to hang onto Martin O'Neil. As for Earnshaw, yeah I feel he should have got more of a try last season. Dunno what his problem is (heard many different rumours) but for Billy D, Paul Jewell and Toshack to all basically ignore him must mean something. He will score goals at championship level though- so I expect he'll score against us come November (luckily Commons' hat trick will more than compensate )

[Starkers]

Tomalak wrote:

---

Quelle surprise, Terry gets Club England immunity, rather than the deserved additional ban for a pointless appeal. It was clearly serious foul play, and furthermore his protests flew in the face of the 'respect' campaign.

I'm no huge fan of Terry of Chelsea, but I thought the red was a bit harsh- and there at least ought to be consistency, Dawson's bone crunching shoulder charge in similar circumstances last night only got a yellow.

[HappyDayRiot]

I don't like Terry or Chelsea either, but for once I think the Mysterious Appeals Board have actually done it right. Unfortunately, as it's Chelsea/a Big Club, EVERYONE will be moaning about it for months. "What about Aliadiere last season!?" will naturally be the rallying cry.

It was a stupid tackle, but a straight red? I don't think so.

Isn't there any measure in place to just downgrade a red to a yellow? That'd be much fairer. As it is now, Terry is free to play with no consequences.

[Hermiod]

^That's the ref's fault for showing him a straight red for a foul that only merited a booking.

The fact that a clumsy bit of defending from John Terry when two defenders would have made it back in time gets the same punishment as a Danny Guthrie or a Martin Taylor seems a bit suspect to me.

[Tomalak]

It was a clear foul, with no effort made to play the ball, denying a goal scoring opportunity. It doesn't matter if Carvalho was covering, as two City players would have been through, and would clearly have had an advantage. In any case, it's gamesmanship to break the rules thinking all you will get is a yellow, and hardly in the spirit of the game.

The usual protests and players surrounding the referee made a mockery of the 'respect' campaign. Any other player would have been given an extended ban for a frivolous appeal. If it wasn't a red card, there should still be consequences, but there is no mechanism in place for that.

In the Champions League, a pleasing result for us. We looked tired from Saturday, but played some really good stuff here and there. Three points away from home in the bag, which substantially eases our passage. We should just need home wins to qualify.

[Hermiod]

Tomalak wrote:

---

It was a clear foul, with no effort made to play the ball, denying a goal scoring opportunity. It doesn't matter if Carvalho was covering, as two City players would have been through, and would clearly have had an advantage. In any case, it's gamesmanship to break the rules thinking all you will get is a yellow, and hardly in the spirit of the game.

It does matter. He has to be denying a clear goal scoring opportunity. Ricardo Carvalho and Jose Bosingwa between you and the goal makes the opportunity anything but clear.

[Tomalak]

Apparently he was sent off for violent conduct, not a professional foul as I thought. In that case the referee needs to admit an error for the red card to be rescinded. Mark Halsey stood by his decision, which should have put an end to it, given that Terry rugby tackled Jo to the ground to stop him getting through.

However, Chelsea appealed to the FA, who decided to change the rules, and have demoted to Halsey to league two this weekend. I wouldn't mind if there was some consistency, but the FA make a habit of picking and chosing rules. How can they demand players and fans respect referees if the FA doesn't?

[Hermiod]

^Violent conduct ? What ? If that's violent conduct I expect Bolton to be down to 7 men before the end of our game against them on Saturday if they play their usual way.

[trekkiebaggio]

Can't believe Terry got away with that. Completely cynical and no attempt to play the ball whatsoever. And now because they FA have rescinded the red card and they can't downgrade it to a yellow card they're saying that that challenge isn't even worth a booked

So much for respect the referees eh. As soon as it's captain of England oh God can't have him being suspended. What is the point of having these respect the referee campaigns if they're just going to undermine them.

[Hermiod]

^The referee got it wrong. It was not a professional foul as it did not deny a clear goalscoring opportunity. It was barely past the halfway line and there were two covering defenders. It's a booking, tops. Every defender in the Premier League will do the same thing once or twice a season.

If they're saying it's violent conduct then that is a joke, the FA are comedians and should be performing at the Edinburgh Festival, not running the country's most popular sport.

As an Arsenal fan who has seen the "let him know you're there" type "defending" the it's grim oop north defenders playing for the likes of Bolton and Blackburn get away with, calling that violent conduct is not even funny, it's an insult.

Referees have to earn respect first.

[trekkiebaggio]

The ref didn't send him off for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. That has nothing to do with it. Terry tried to slice him down with his foot; which Jo evaded. Then Terry put his arm around Jo's waist and pulled him down. No attempt to play the ball at all. Just another instance of Terry (And Chelsea in general) thinking they can get away with anything.

But a good example of referee's earning respect - David Moyes is going to get a touchline ban for his reaction. But Howard Webb has suggested it should be as little as possible because he accepted that he made a mistake in not giving Everton a penalty at some stage in the match.