Sherwood (the former Tottenham player) should be glad he's retired just in case he runs in to all 6'4" of Emmanuel Adebayor on a pitch some time.
Setanta is a shambles. I may well be bitter because nowhere and no one in my town has it for me to watch, but there's something about the pundits on there that utterly infuriates me. At the end of the day, you cannot beat Gary and the Alans (but not Lawro). Re Man City - not turning out very well at all is it? I remember the day Hughes signed up I sat staring at the TV thinking "what are you doing?" Man City is NOT a step-up from Blackburn in my eyes, and thanks to his move both clubs look in disarray at the moment. Although they're models of efficiency compared to West Ham. Can they go a single game without someone getting injured or a single day without reports of Curbishley being on the verge of the sack? Oh dear me I forgot about that. One of my favourite games last season I love a big club crash every now and again
Speaking about West Ham, I feel there fans are a disgrace because 18 months ago, Curbs came in and took West Ham who were 19th to finish 16th. The following season he finishes 10th and thats only 3 years since there return from the Championship. Surly Curbs can have at least one more season outside UEFA Cup before he is in any threat of the sack
Bendtner needs a good talking to every now and again. Sorry, the beating we took off Man U I will cop to but we clearly could not care less about the Carling Cup. Arsene said on Arsenal TV the other day that it's down there with friendly tournaments for him. He, quite sensibly, rates finishing in the Champions League places as a far greater achievement. Plus, given the money Spurs have spent they should beat us big four types a bit more often than they do.
Absolutely agreed. Same thing happened with Glenn Roeder at Newcastle two seasons ago, and he was treated like shit for getting to the last 16 of UEFA Cup and finished 9th! It is a fact of life: the Carling Cup is only good if you win it, and for the 'smaller teams' it's a good chance to get to Europe. As for Spurs beating top 4 - whenever they play Arsenal it's like they play from a script. Spurs score first and then crumble to a 2-1 or a 3-1; they seem to do okay against Liverpool and Chelsea, and I can only think of that one game last season where they got even a draw with Man Utd. However, Spurs, Pompey and Villa are the only teams who seem to be able to touch the 4 lately - well, except the mighty Boro of course.
Eventually the top 4 will crumble because Liverpool are in total shambles at the moment and sooner or later Wenger will need to spend big to stay in the top 4 but I dunno if they have the resources. However saying that only Villa and Spurs will be able to compete outside of the current top 4 with them because they have the fanbase and money to do so with decent sqauds. * Man City is the next Leeds * Portsmouth will struggle when Harry retires in a few years * Everton don't have the money and Moyes will leave eventually * Newcastle Utd and West Ham will not succed with the current regime and the stupidty of there own fans.
We made the final in 2007 and still put out a below strength side. The interview with Arsene talked about Arsenal not winning a trophy. I agree with him when he says that if you win a cup and don't at least challenge for the league then you've done nothing. I will take 3rd in the Premier League over Tottenham's Carling Cup win or Portsmouth's FA Cup win any day of the week and they would too because they know what playing in the Champions League does for your bank balance and for your team when you play against top European sides every week. Tottenham might say "We won a trophy, you didn't!" but neither did Chelsea and I still rate their achievement of finishing second a lot higher than winning a tin pot. Would Chelsea supporters swap their Champions League place for winning the Carling Cup final ? Of course they wouldn't. The league table does not lie. A lot of trophyless teams finished above Spurs and Portsmouth last season.
Even if you lose Liverpool's rich American owners, both they and Arsenal have very, very large fanbases all over the world and can more than afford to pay the bills without sugar daddies. Ultimately, what pays the bills in football is bums on seats in your stadium on a Saturday. They still make more money out of that than anything else.
I know but teams outside the top 4 are becoming richer so they can compete more with them though that leads to a problem of new promoted teams but hey the system was never perfect before the arrival of every billionaire in the world in the PL.
Again, I believe a turnover cap to restrict this problem. It would not hurt clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United and it would not hurt well-managed promoted teams either or teams like Middlesbrough, Everton, Tottenham, Blackburn etc who make money through tickets and TV rights and pay their own bills. It would hurt teams with rich owners who "loan" them money to spend on wages that they can't possibly pay back.
News to me. Do you mean the Royal Bank of Scotland? With one big difference. Leeds at least had Elland Road as an asset, whereas Eastlands is council owned. Apparently Shinawatra hasn't actually put much money in at all, with all the transfer fees being small downpayments funded through banks. They could be in serious, serious shit. The attempts to sell Ireland and Corluka behind Hughes' back, and Johnson's reticence to sign a new contract are tangible clues.
I heard that Man City will be paying off most of the transfers from the past 12 months over the next 4/5 years and of course that will only grow with any future signings. Michael Johnson, Joe Hart and Micah Richards need to jump ships soon though I feel Man City will crumble and will be forced to sell once these debts mount up.
^No, I'm trying to bring some sense to the Premier League before it all explodes in our faces and we're back to the dark ages of the early Premier League days. If Roman Abramovic wants to spend his money on transfer fees, fine. If he wants to spend it building Chelsea a 100,000 capacity stadium so they have the match day income to spend on wages, that's fine too. All I'm saying is that Premier League clubs are living dangerously and they just need to check themselves. I don't want to see any football club go under, even Spurs, because I know how I'd feel if it happened to mine.
Yeah good points - the best thing the NHL ever did was introduce a salary cap with both a ceiling for spending and a floor. Now you have more parity in the league and therefore more fan interest and 'bums in the seats'.
So Capello will name his ENG sqaud this week and ENG captian next week before we face Czech Republic. We will most likely see his lineup that he will choose to face Croatia (I expect a different one for Andorra). Who would you choose for the next ENG squad ? My England 23 Man Squad...(providing injury free) GK - James, Kirkland, Carson RB - Richards, Brown CB - Terry, Ferdinand (c), Woodgate, Lescott LB - A.Cole, Shorey RM - Beckham, Bentley CM - Gerrard, Hargreaves, Barry, Carrick LM - J.Cole, Young FW- Owen, Heskey, Walcott, Crouch Let me explain a few things... First no Hart and Agbonlahor as they will be better off getting 90 mins for U21 especially as Pearce has a huge game in October that will decide there U21 championship fate. Now Shorey is back in the PL with Aston Villa, I feel he is easily the prefered choice over Bridge and Warnock. I do like Baines but he needs game time with Everton first. No G.Neville as its too soon and I would not even consider him till the October Q/F matches or November match against Germany. If Ledley King can prove his fitness but its ability is in no doubt then I feel he could push Lescott out of a place for the September Q/F games. Owen n Heskey does work and I feel we need a short term solution for the upcoming game against Croatia, Heskey can bully defenders and that could be crucial in the huge away game in September. No Rooney because I feel being dropped would give him a kick up the backside to stop dropping back and stay up front, run at players and fucking score.
Last I heard Owen and Rooney will still be injured or ill and won't be taking part. To demonstrate how England really are at the moment, Capello has said he might be calling up the one and only Darren Bent And I'll be very surprised if Defoe misses out on this one. At the moment I feel like whoever plays, England will still struggle to win against practically anyone.
^ Rooney is back in training so I doubt he will be unfit and Owen is 50/50 for opening weekend. Bent has been on good form though maybe Walcott could get his chance. Crouch and Defoe are probably 100% picks from Fabio.
Oh yeah this is a couple of weeks off isn't it? And it's a friendly... I automatically assumed it was the qualifiers. Well if Rooney and Owen are fit they'll be in, but I agree with you about Rooney needing a kick in the ass to set him straight.