(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer

[HappyDayRiot]

Scunthorpe at home for us. They're only bringing about 20 fans!

QPR v Forest... no idea how I want that to go. A draw I suppose, though a QPR win would be less disastrous than a Forest win.

Derby could do with beating Leicester for us as well, just to hold them off until we play them on Tuesday week.

 

[Angel4576]

Great win for us today, our keeper didn't even need to make a save.....oh no, wait, that was them!

Still, at least we were away....oh no, sh1t, wrong again.

Another gutless display.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

Yeah thanks for the favour Derby :eyeroll:

Yet another useless performance against one of the bottom clubs by Cardiff yesterday, but at least we won this time, however scrappy and dull it was. Scunthorpe made no attempt at playing football at all and deserved to lose. They can beat Forest and sod off back to League One for all I care.

Truly beyond the pale, too, that both Swansea and Norwich got 95th minute winners. Unbelievable.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Bah, football sucks; first game after two months winter break, still fucking cold, wasting half a day driving to the backwater shithole only to get humiliated by a bunch of castaways who collectively probably don't even earn a quarter of my club's "players". And I didn't have any beer left at home anymore.

 

[Angel4576]

Bah, football sucks; first game after two months winter break, still fucking cold, wasting half a day driving to the backwater shithole only to get humiliated by a bunch of castaways who collectively probably don't even earn a quarter of my club's "players". And I didn't have any beer left at home anymore.

Apart from the winter break, that story sounds eerily familiar.....

 

[Starkers]

we have only 18 fit players at moment so I would wish Billy would stop buying Strikers.

Yeah Billy's like that. In our last promotion season we were top of the table just after Christmas but injuries were thinning our squad out. Needed replacements all over the place but Billy just brought in a load of midfielders which was really the one area where we didn't need anyone! Ended up unbalancing the team and we clung on to third and went up in the playoffs.

Leicester at home for us, on the telly, hence que defeat.

A load of midfielders and full backs, one of whom was so lacking in match fitness that he was shite until the play off final (where fair dos Mears looked awesome!)

Clough seems obsessed with attacking midfielders at the moment, oh and now we're after a defender...seriously just what does he have against actual honest to God strikers? I sometimes wonder if it's because he was one of those curious not quite a midfielder/not quite a striker type of players that that's all he can relate too!

Another day, another loss, another protest (too small to make much noise yet, especially given that the people who own DCFC are never gonna hear about it.)

 

[Angel4576]

Protests will have little effect as the majority of our owners are so far removed from the day-to-day affairs of the club that they'll likely not notice or even be informed.

The only way to really get it on their radar is to vote with your feet when it comes time for season ticket renewal. GSE can't hide that from them as it'll be very noticeable on the balance sheet. We bring in over £5m in season ticket sales during the summer. Even halving that would make them sit up and take notice.

Ordinarily most Derby fans seem to be averse to that approach and end up renewing anyway, but speaking to a few people, and families, who I would have said would have taken that attitude, they're now saying that they're not renewing next season.

I think that things are beginning to come to a head and will probably do so during the summer. Hopefully. I know there's no guarantee of anyone else coming in and doing a better job, but really, what's the point of having a great balance sheet but being in the third tier?

 

[Starkers]

This is true, I'm all for us being run sensibly, but at the moment we're not even frugal, we're the miser who turns the heating down and wears and extra sweater and reuses his Christmas cards!

I don't even thing the lack of season ticket sales will be noticed, I have a supicion that GSE have already primed the owners to expect a reduction in ticket revenue due to the recession rather than us being crap/badly run! That said the protests are being noticed by GSE at least, and unless things improve they will only get worse!

It's annoying because I don't think they'd have to do much to placate the fans.

I am starting to worry about Nigel though, I've backed him until now but some of his decisions of late seem curious to say the least, and though I didn't see the game Saturday I've heard that he just sat there looking defeated, looking like he didn't have an idea how to turn things around. I doubt GSE would have the balls to sack him and even if they did, whoever came in would have to work under the same restrictions.

I have a horrible feeling it's gonna get worse before it gets any better...

 

[Angel4576]

I think on Saturday I can completely understand Nigel's attitude. Admittedly he got the tactics wrong, and not for the first time, but on Saturday it wouldn't have mattered. I think that's why he looked resigned, there was literally nothing that he could do to change the outcome of the game. Sad to say but Leicester were so much better than us it was untrue. Some people say that we were better in the second half, and that's true only to the extent that Leicester let us come more into the game as they eased their foot off the pedal, the game already having been won.

 

[Starkers]

^ Yeah, but still, it's things like putting Bueno on with only 8 minutes to go that really grate, we were 2-0 down, did we really have much to lose by going for it in the last 20 minutes?

It does sound like we were outclassed, but then if we could afford to pay Yakubu 40 grand a week then maybe we'd have been able to deal with them better! (And it still annoys me that we were supposedly v close to signing Yakubu all those years ago)

 

[Angel4576]

Yep, even got a recommendation from SAF but that still wasn't good enough to get him a work permit. Lo-and-behold, a few years later and no such problems for Portsmouth.

GSE have today stated their commitment to the current plan/approach. Great.

Edit: Suddenly the timing of the above statement becomes clear - Gadsby's put another bid in, GSE have rejected it. Should make the next home game interesting. Can only see the pressure increasing on the Americans now.

 

[trekkiebaggio]

Ronaldo has retired.

He was a phenomenon. I remember seeing some of his goals for Barcelona and it was amazing how good he was. Even more amazing how he managed to come back after many had written him off, after those lengthy injuries.

 

[Starkers]

Yep, even got a recommendation from SAF but that still wasn't good enough to get him a work permit. Lo-and-behold, a few years later and no such problems for Portsmouth.

GSE have today stated their commitment to the current plan/approach. Great.

Edit: Suddenly the timing of the above statement becomes clear - Gadsby's put another bid in, GSE have rejected it. Should make the next home game interesting. Can only see the pressure increasing on the Americans now.

And I have the strangest sense of deja vu!

I give Gadsby credit for being local and, so I believe, and actual fan, but does he really have the financial backing to do any better than GSE's backers? I mean last time he bought us he'd got rid within 18 months....I'd just hate for us to go through the same cycle again with him selling us off to the first promising buyer on the horizon.

If I'm honest I wish there was a third alternative, but then again that might be someone from the middle or far east so maybe it's better the devil you know!

 

[Angel4576]

And I have the strangest sense of deja vu!

I give Gadsby credit for being local and, so I believe, and actual fan, but does he really have the financial backing to do any better than GSE's backers? I mean last time he bought us he'd got rid within 18 months....I'd just hate for us to go through the same cycle again with him selling us off to the first promising buyer on the horizon.

If I'm honest I wish there was a third alternative, but then again that might be someone from the middle or far east so maybe it's better the devil you know!

I don't think that Gadsby's the best option, but he's the better option than GSE in my opinion. I think there's more money knocking around the division than the last time Gadsby took us over, so their spending power wouldn't stretch as far as it did then. However, he certainly wouldn't spend any less than we're currently spending. Gadsby at seems to be aware of the concept of speculating to accumulate.

I welcome this news I have to say. There have been a few e-mails from Andy Appleby that have made their way into the public domain over the past few weeks that would seem to suggest that they now realise that we were a bad investment for them. That being the case it's hard to see them investing any more monies. If that's the case, time to move on IMO.

I think with Gadsby, he'll have learn't from the previous experience. He won't make that mistake again.

 

[Jax]

Ronaldo has retired.

He was a phenomenon. I remember seeing some of his goals for Barcelona and it was amazing how good he was. Even more amazing how he managed to come back after many had written him off, after those lengthy injuries.

Ronaldo was the best striker of his generation, a true legend despite any issues later in his career just look at these stats...

(League goals only)

Cruzeiro - 12 goals (14 apps)

PSV - 42 goals (46 apps)

Barcelona - 34 goals (37 apps)

Inter Milan - 49 goals (68 apps)

Real Madrid - 83 goals (127 apps)

AC Milan - 9 goals (20 apps)

Corinthians - 18 goals (31 apps)

TOTAL OF...

247 League Goals in 343 League appearances

Also his record for Brazil was 62 goals in 97 games including two goals in the 2002 World Cup Final and he holds the record for most WC goals scored by 1 player at 15 I think it is.

What a striker

 

[Starkers]

And I have the strangest sense of deja vu!

I give Gadsby credit for being local and, so I believe, and actual fan, but does he really have the financial backing to do any better than GSE's backers? I mean last time he bought us he'd got rid within 18 months....I'd just hate for us to go through the same cycle again with him selling us off to the first promising buyer on the horizon.

If I'm honest I wish there was a third alternative, but then again that might be someone from the middle or far east so maybe it's better the devil you know!

I don't think that Gadsby's the best option, but he's the better option than GSE in my opinion. I think there's more money knocking around the division than the last time Gadsby took us over, so their spending power wouldn't stretch as far as it did then. However, he certainly wouldn't spend any less than we're currently spending. Gadsby at seems to be aware of the concept of speculating to accumulate.

I welcome this news I have to say. There have been a few e-mails from Andy Appleby that have made their way into the public domain over the past few weeks that would seem to suggest that they now realise that we were a bad investment for them. That being the case it's hard to see them investing any more monies. If that's the case, time to move on IMO.

I think with Gadsby, he'll have learn't from the previous experience. He won't make that mistake again.

Well let's hope not, and I just hope that his business plan doesn't revolve around borrowing millions and getting us into financial trouble again.

As someone pointed out, he made his offer at the same time last year, ie just before all the season ticket renewals.

I don't think he's the best option, but he might be the only option, it just worries me if we keep going back to him like a comfortable ex or something!

That said at least we'd know who bloody owned us!

I just worry that the people who do own us are so wealthy they don't need to sell, and for all the negative press GSE can still point to us as a big part of their portfolio, so they may not want the ownders to sell either.

Just for once it'd be nice for DCFC to have a bog standard season of mid table mediocrtity!

 

[Angel4576]

Following Derby since the mid 80s I think I can literally remember one season in all that time where we weren't involved in either a promotion race or a relegation dogfight!

I think, regarding Gadsby and his spending, the only time he borrowed heavily was in the summer prior to the Premier League campaign, but that was leveraged against the guaranteed TV monies, hence not really that problematic, or risky at least.

I think it's definitely a case of better the devil you know, and at the moment, I don't think anyone's quite sure what the score is with our current owners. They have more money than some small countries but they won't invest on the pitch? I'm at a loss as to just how they expect to get us into the Premier League on that footing.

 

[Starkers]

Yeah it's odd when you think that they could probably placate a lot of fans with quite modest investment?

I know he wasn't perfect, but I don't think any of us realised how lucky we were when Lionel was in charge.

 

[Angel4576]

Indeed. Sensible, modest investment, that's all that's needed.

The last time PG bid, he pledged £5m instantly for transfers. That would be enough to make a decent start IMO. I'm not sure that GSE have spent £5m in total on the pitch since that initial January splurge in the Premier League.

 

[Starkers]

Yeah but that £5 million figure was very vague. Was it purly for transfers (in which case where was the money for wages coming from?) or was it for transfers and wages (in which case it likely wouldn't go as far as it looked, even 5K a week for a two year contract is still over half a million quid). As for GSE spending 5 mill post the Prem, well Hulse was 1.7, Varney a million, Ellington a million (loan fee) Barker was 900K, Steve Davis was 200K (if I recall) so that's almost five million there, not even factoring in how much all those free transfers of Jewell like Green, Commons, Connolly etc actually cost in wages/signing on fees.