do these fucks never learn

Jack Rodwell insists England's players are on par with the Spanish team and thinks almost half of the senior squad could play for Barcelona.

He told reporters: "We might not have shown it the other night, but we do have players with excellent technical ability.

"You look at our senior side, we have some of the best players in the world.

"Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Ferdinand, Rooney, the list goes on. If they were in the Barcelona squad I'm sure all of them would start.

need a compilation of english football indulging in ludicrous wish fulfillment imo

Don't worry, cos:

Marc Albrighton: "I think we're technically gifted, maybe not as much, but we've got the fight and the passion that overtakes that. I don't think many countries have got the passion and the hard work that England possess."

Never get tired of this one...

Stevie Me on Joe Cole: "Messi can do some amazing things, but anything he can do Joe can do as well, if not better. He used to shock us in training by doing footy tricks with a golf ball that most players can't even do with a football. I really fancy Joe for the [player of the year] award this season."

the passion and the hard work that England possess

the hard work will have been possessed

Q: Are you passionate about football?
A: I, and the rest of the English team, do possess some passion.

yeah yeah, we've done this

i'm not sure it's technical ability so much as technical thought. most of england's attacking players can trap a ball (lol heskey) but they don't always (in fact pretty rarely) trap it with intent, already moving in a considered or preparing for the next pass- as xavi, iniesta, modric do

― "It's far from 'lol' you were reared, boy" (darraghmac), Friday, 23 July 2010 15:03 (10 months ago) Bookmark

basically

they are generally technically inferior too

that's another topic covered elsewhere tho

Asked if Young deserves to be described in the same company as the Barcelona playmaker, and Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo, O'Neill replied: "Yes. In my opinion. I see a lot of games in Europe, I watch a lot of football, and you see a lot of players in the game who are very functional.

"Some are decent, some are more than decent and some are very, very good. And then you have the players who are absolutely exceptional. And Ashley Young is absolutely exceptional."

they are generally technically inferior too

― http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhiteAmericanFolks.jpg (nakhchivan),

eyes read this three times and 'genetically inferior'

do think there is scope for a separate thread noting when british isles footballers claim technical parity with... well, anyone, i guess.

"Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Ferdinand, Rooney, the list goes on. If they were in the Barcelona squad I'm sure all of them would start."

This quote to start the thread is all time. I refuse to accept Rodwell actually believes this. He just can't. HE CAN'T!!!

english footballers mostly pretty stupid so yeah he can

ferdinand might get a game...

lol at the rest.

bentley on the right

Yeah I would have made a case for Ferdinand up until about two years ago. He'd probably walk into the Barca team now. Maybe Rooney a year or two ago but not since they signed Villa. The others are lol.

You get the feeling the combined England-Barcelona XI would be ten England players plus Messi

Messi??? England have Joe Cole!!

Even the most mental England player would probably put in Busquets over Gareth Barry. Or try and convert Iniesta into a defensive midfielder.

Busquets is a cheat though. So's Alves. Iniesta and Puyol get respect though, they'd get shoehorned in there probably but not sure exactly where what with Rio/Terry, Lampard/Gerrard/Wilshere et al.

what makes me lol is there is one player in the england team i'd have over his barca counterpart in a heartbeat based on ability alone and he wasn't mentioned: ashley cole

            Valdes
Alves  Ferdinand  Terry  Abidal
    Gerrard  Xavi  Lampard  
     Rooney  Messi  Villa

I genuinely can't imagine how this team would operate

It wouldn't.

jesus ik wtf is that

Iniesta suffers from enough injuries that you could put Lampard Keita in there easily...

Hell I couldn't even finish that sentence.

Do Barca have a mascot? Rio could be on the pitch with his trademark merking style that way.

oic nm

Xavi would pass to Gerrard and stand there as if waiting for it to be passed back to him while Gerrard bombed forward and hoofed it over the bar.

Would be quite fun to see Alves make roughly 500 overlapping runs never to receive the ball from Gerrard tho.

and rightly so

Wd have johnson, richards and hutton over alves

valdes not much better than any of england's shit keepers mind you...

Valdes
Alves Pique Ferdinand Cole
Busquets Xavi Iniesta
Messi Villa Rooney

Would be alright. Being charitable to Rooney there, and I don't even think Valdes is that good. Maybe Joe Hart could make it depending on how he does in the Champions League next year.

Valdes has been ridiculously good for the past 2 seasons

Also Pedro >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Rooney

what makes me lol is there is one player in the england team i'd have over his barca counterpart in a heartbeat based on ability alone and he wasn't mentioned: ashley cole
--ladyboner (a hoy hoy)

totally

       james
alves  ferdinand  pique  rooney
            
   xavi   fabregas   iniesta
messi                    gerrard
            villa

i'm going to create this team tonight on fifa.

tbfttl rodwell seems fairly intelligent for an english footballer

i guess he is in the awkward position of answering leading qns from hacks

albrighton quote worse

the only english midfielder that could work at barca is huddlestone

foster

alves dann pique warnock

xavi gerrard lampard messi

rooney carroll

do think there is scope for a separate thread noting when british isles footballers claim technical parity with... well, anyone, i guess.

Not sure who these "British Isles Footballers" are... any of them not English?

fletcher >>>>>>> busquiets

uhm

no

Absolutely, have you ever seen him play for Scotland?

Absolutely, not as good as Busquets, in case there's any confusion there. Not even as good as Gary Caldwell when he plays for Scotland.

fletcher is pretty good but busquets is probably the best dmid around now

sandro, thudd, jenas

but busquiets is a dick

is there a reason u spel it like that

boo

cambiasso was great but i think he trailed off badly in the last year

Fletcher is hardly that likeable is he? Suppose anyone looks good in comparison to Busquets. He was also pretty crap last season even before his mysterious virus

i kinda like him

makes the most of his talents

Yaya Toure > Busquets

uhm

no

uhm

yes

yaya isn't a dmid, he was a playmaker at monaco and has just has his best season ever playing predominantly as a goalscoring box to box type

so... a creative player who is still better at dm than sergio buscunts

do u srsly think he is better than the player who has just replaced him

i mean i know it's a hoy but still

eduardo replaced henry doesn't mean he was better than him

yeah that's exactly the right comparison

Can't think why Barcelona would have replaced the African midfielder with the homegrown Catalan type.

jesus u ppl

like do u get anything about football

touré was patently inferior to busquets at dmid while they were still playing in the same side

toure is better than busquets, but not at dm, and certainly not as dm at barca

Song is also not a dm, and neither is thudd. They just hang round there while performing other functions

like do u get anything about football

― http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhiteAmericanFolks.jpg (nakhchivan), Thursday, 16 June 2011 15:02 (5 minutes ago)

this is the one where they throw the ball, wear helmets and text pictures of their weiners, right?

touré will never be as good at any given role as busquets is at his

featuring delap, cech and shelvey, yeah xp

:-)

if u srsly believe barcelona overpromote their own youngsters at the expense of bought players u might want to consider former new messi bojan krkic whose agent is currently complaining he is getting shafted by barca who are trying to sell him to udinese against his will

DM at Barca is kinda different to being DM anywhere else though because they keep posession so well there just aren't as many opposition attacks to break up. Be interesting to see how Busquets would do behind midfielders that aren't Xavi and Iniesta.

In any other team Toure or Mascherano would be the better pick. Obviously Busquets is by miles a better passer of the ball than Mascherano, even if Masch is as good at positioning and better at tackling.

I mean obviously Barca are the best team in 20 years so who are we to judge but...

busquet's main attributes are his close control and positioning, his passing is usually pretty simple

How many simple passes have you seen Mascherano fuck up though?

i kinda hate busquets, wanted them to keep touré and thought mascherano would displace him this season, but the last season confirmed he is just insanely good at what he does, and i think 80% of that is transferrable to another top level side

then again my idea was that barca could do without without a dedicated deep lying, purely destructive midfielder hence my pref for touré as a kinda roving box to box type alongside x & i

but seeing busquets this season i doubt even fabregas is good enough to displace busquets and change the system of their midfield

cesc is going because xavi is getting on and iniesta hasn't the greatest injury record, not because of the cunt

idk if he is going

think arsenal would be happy to sell for a good price but barca have their own financial issues so

if it does happen, he will get enough games to keep him from bitching but assuming x & i are fit, their starting xi for big games will remain the same imo

xavi is getting on, is he

xavi could play for longer than scholes imo. He simply doesn't get tackled.

wouldn't mind seeing x & i vs xi england u-21 players in a possession competition

you'd want busquets there to keep the naughty stuff out of it, and alves there to run around a lot, dive and provide fuck-all end product

alves usually has one of the best assist records in la liga

he is one of those rare players whose obnoxiousness makes them even more useful, he is really exceptionally good at diving/feigning/sly fouls

the last time i played for barca i got six assists

Yeah but i created more "goal-scoring chances"

Didn't Xavi and Iniesta start out at Barca as deeper-lying mids, more about short distribution than "playmaking"? Could see Busquets expanding his passing range and becoming a direct heir to one or the other of them. He's a dick but really, really good.

true Number None but that was home to Oviedo in the cup...I wouldn't be giving up the day job

i lolled nn, i lolled

xavi was more of a guardiola type early in his career yeah

when iniesta was breaking through, rijkaard tended to favour a 2-1 midfield with deco as a dedicated attacking mid, so most of iniesta's opportunity's came in the '2' behind him, then by 2006 or so he got quite a few games at left wing

i don't think either of them played with as restricted a defensive role as busquets currently does, nor were they as good at retrieving possession

i can see him playing further ahead through his career, but i doubt he will ever be employed there on a permanent basis

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/273513/Theo-Walcott-to-be-new-Lionel-Messi

Walcott is confident he has the skill, pace and firepower to do for Arsenal what the little Argy does for Barcelona, playing as a striker rather than as a winger

made a nice cross for 2-0 today but Pique or Abidal would've finished the chances he missed

“The yellow cards are just a case of showing passion – and perhaps a little bit of frustration – with the way things have been going this season.

that article highlights the lack of any sense of how formations work, there was another bbc article a few weeks ago suggesting walcott be played in a free role behind van persie where he could flitter about and presumably fire off savicevic style sliderule passes every two minutes

France are over-rated. I was a bit disappointed with them. How many of their players would get into the England team?

jamie redknapp after one creditable result by england

to answer him, ferdinand, hart and ashley cole would get in an entente cordiale xi

i don't think you can make a reasonable case for any of the others, twp would get in as a supporting striker but most teams don't play one and as a #9 benzema is now above him

barry might be the closest, for all his limitations he is a regla in a title winning team

even then france have toulalan, alou diarra, lasanna diarra, yann m'vila, cabaye, flamini, matuidi etc

Pires goes for Hart, Terry and Rooney. Inclusion of Clichy is a puzzler

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jun/07/robert-pires-france-england-euro-2012

http://i.imgur.com/gMddhJA.jpg

MANCHESTER CITY could enter the fray to sign Real Madrid’s coveted youngster Raphael Varane.

The Frenchman has been given a more regular run out at the Bernebeu by Jose Mourinho this season, and he has been getting a number of alluring glances from Europe’s top clubs.

And his performance in last week’s Copa del Rey first-leg semi-final meeting against Barcelona, in which he headed home the equaliser, made many clubs sit up and take notice.

City may plot a move for him, as they are planning a major overhaul of the squad in the summer and Joleon Lescott is tipped to leave the Etihad.

I heard Jamie Redknapp say on Super Sunday that Bale is 'absolutely world class', that he's 'as good as Ronaldo'.

I don't often disagree with Jamie, but I think it's got to the stage where you can say that Bale is better than Ronaldo because he's simply unplayable.

That's not to denigrate Ronaldo, who has got all the tricks and dynamite in his boots - but so has Bale.

What Bale's got that Ronaldo hasn't is incredible strength and power; Ronaldo is quick but when Bale gets up a head of steam, there's no stopping him.

http://www.skysports.com/opinion/story/0,25212,12088_8477969,00.html

stick to the shit puns Jeff

‘The problem we’ve got is that we think we should be competing against them on their terms – being technical and playing from the back.

‘Well, hang about, England have always been a country based on passion and motivation, getting in people’s faces. Yes we can play football. But you go back to Euro 96, we played some fantastic sides. There’s no-one more technical than the Dutch and we beat them just by being on the front foot with passion and, yeah, a bit of quality.

‘Bulldog spirit is what English football is based on. If you can add technical players to that then great but don’t think it’s all got to be technical. Don’t change the culture. Can we add to it? But keep the passion and motivation.

‘That’s what we’re good at and yet we’re trying to go from that and change our whole culture of the English game that’s been there for God knows how long.

‘That’s the problem. What happened to the passion, to being on the front foot, to closing down? Has that gone out of the window now all of a sudden? Because when we do that we’re good.

jesus fucking christ the retard actually uses the word 'eyetie'

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6heA4SKBJ0#t=288

top of the Championship nakh, can't knock it

a bit harsh chiding someone for using 'eyetie' in the same sentence you drop the 'r' bomb

Gretar steinsson ‏@gretz1982 30m
England's u21 trailing to Finland u21 due to the amount of foreigners in the Premier League #Immigration

"The unpalatable truth," wrote the Swedish journalist Ceve Linde in Idrottsbladet, "is that English soccer has gradually deteriorated, finally fallen off its pedestal and now keeps rolling downwards. The sorriest feature in the drama is that the English, with very few exceptions, cannot get themselves to recognise what has happened. In their self-satisfaction and conceit they still fancy themselves the first in the football world and their defeats sheer accidents.

"The fact is that English soccer has an enormous amount to learn from the rest of the world, about training, courses, tactics, organisation and strategy … 'England must find her traditional spirit' they are writing now. This is easily said but how shall this be found again in a country which has been hit so hard by two world wars and which has been forced by national weakness to let go her possessions all over the world? The same tiredness is to be found in English soccer. This perfectly understandable lack of strength, however, is mated with a haughtiness which to an outsider appears unpleasant, even frightening …"

After the 1951 tour of South America, Winterbottom knew the tide was against him. "Some good players are coming through," he said, "but in team play we are way behind. From match to match there are too many changes to make planning possible."

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/nov/25/hungary-england-1953-alf-ramsey

i know that's from half a century ago and all but it does add to the long-harboured suspicion that (based on the odd quote here and there admittedly) fitba journalism that is not from england is often of a much higher standard

forced by national weakness to let go her possessions all over the world

maybe they should have sterilised more minorities

NOTTS County need the same fighting spirit as Carl Froch, says boss Shaun Derry.

The Magpies lost 1-0 at Shrewsbury Town to stay rock bottom of League One hours before Froch recovered from a first-round knockdown to defend his two world titles against George Groves in Manchester.

And ahead of their trip to Bradford City tonight (7.45pm), Derry joked he might even get on the phone to four-time world champion Froch and get him into Meadow Lane to inspire even more fight in his players – even though 'The Cobra' is a Nottingham Forest fan.

"Cor yeah, we'd like to have a one-on-one with him," said Derry.

"We'll get him in. We'll get him in a black and white shirt, he'll be alright for an afternoon."

"Ultimately it's hard work, there's no shortcuts to any success here and I've said that to the boys," he said.

"I've said 'don't question what we're trying to do, believe in it, come together as a group'.

"I don't know how to dress it up any other way, it's black and white for me – hard work and togetherness, these are major factors that are going to get Notts County in a better place.

"Damn hard work, there's no easy way and they know that, I stress that every single day.

"Every minute I have with them I tell them how hard it's going to be, but they'll love it at the end of it, I know they will."

Janis as asst manager

my dad's report of County from their recent visit to the Wolves is that they're pretty close to Froch in all the key areas

"For me, he is Sir Arsène Wenger, he is really something, I love him," Klopp adds, before miming a polite handshake. "But I'm this guy, with high fives. I always want it loud. I want to have this … " Klopp makes the sound of an exploding bomb. (An article with him demands stage direction).

"If Barcelona's team of the last four years were the first one that I saw play when I was four years of age ... with their serenity, winning 5-0, 6-0 … I would have played tennis. Sorry, that is not enough for me. What I love is that there are some things you can do in football to allow each team to win most of the matches.

"It is not serenity football, it is fighting football – that is what I like. What we call in German – English football … rainy day, heavy pitch, everybody is dirty in the face and they go home and can't play football for the next four weeks. This is Borussia.

"When I watch Arsenal in the last 10 years, it is nearly perfect football, but we all know they didn't win a title. In Britain they say that they like Arsenal but they have to win something. Who wins the title? Chelsea, but with different football, I would say. This is the philosophy of Arsène Wenger. I love this but I cannot coach this because I am a different guy. You think many things are similar? I hope so in some moments, but there are big differences, too."

Klopp will face Wenger in Dortmund on Wednesday night, in Champions League Group F, knowing that a repeat of the victory at Emirates Stadium the week before last would put his team in the driving seat to qualify. That 2-1 win was built on trademark pressing and quick transitions but what appeared to please Klopp the most was the statistic that said his players had run a collective 11.5km more than their opponents.

"Coaches will say that it's not important for their team to run more and they prefer to make games the right way," Klopp says. "I want to make games only the right way and run 10km more. It's a rule to give all and it can make the difference if you work more. If you don't have to give all and you still win, what's this? You don't like this game? It's like this [Klopp yawns]. What, you can win Wimbledon like this?"

this prob goes here as well:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2513409/Tony-Pulis-takes-inspiration-Churchill-Napoleon-lead-Crustal-Palace-battle-relegation.html?ito=feeds-videoxml

lol crustal palace

"I’ve read loads of books on loads of leaders all the way through; Genghis Khan, the lot."

And he did it while having to deal with continuous criticism about his perceived long-ball style; in many ways, like Napolean, Pulis became the Premier League outsider.

lol crustal palace

Headline obv written by a New Zealander

This thread also requires a nod tward shane longs goal being 'up there with bergkamp' tbf

it was p sweet

i mean gary neville scoffing at it. he's hardly got two goals to rub together.

scored a peach against Paul Robinson that time

Mates of mine saw problimson in an italian on the south quays last month, three plates in front of him, they banged on the window and mimed enormous stomachs at him and he got so enraged he ate six desserts

same as lloris then

Boom

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/12/06/article-2519609-19DFFDFD00000578-333_634x423.jpg

How the English game lacks players like Martinez and Lahm. People talk about a lack of technique but, for me, the bigger problem is the understanding of the game our players have, which enables them to play in a variety of positions during the same game. There are players in England who could play with such flexibility. Steven Gerrard, for instance, could play as a sweeper and adjust like Martinez, but too many English players cannot.

Sherwood, who said he would not accept serving as a No2 to another manager, intimated that he could have a similar effect on Tottenham to the one that Brendan Rodgers has had at Liverpool, the club whose 5-0 triumph at White Hart Lane last Sunday triggered the ejector seat under Villas-Boas.

"From what I've been doing and my experience, I think I'd be a long-term appointment but I'm realistic enough to know that you can't just lose games," he said. "I don't want to insult the intelligence of the punters by saying: 'Don't worry, I'll turn it around in a minute.' They ain't got time for that. It's about the club sticking with you. I think Brendan [Rodgers] is a good example of that. He's done it at Liverpool. The sun wasn't always shining there but it seems like he's turned it around now and is doing very well.

there's a return of the repressed ambience about tim sherwood, get rid of the technocrat and appoint mediocre expro with no experience, who loses first game at home playing a 442 with two forwards and touchline wingers under orders to 'fill up the box' but thinks he deserves the job fulltime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clNcoUfAjzg

How come he hasn't got the requisite coaching badges yet?

QPR did very well in the transfer market but the club which impressed me most on deadline day was Stoke.

They spent more than £20m on Peter Crouch, Wilson Palacios and Cameron Jerome and their manager Tony Pulis just keeps adding quality to his squad. The Britannia Stadium was already a hard place to go before they brought those three guys in, and it will be even more difficult now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/14811107

Now 46, Ince reacted as he usually does. “It’s made me more determined. If I felt I couldn’t do the job as a manager I’d go and work on TV. Every club I have been to has involved firefighting: Macclesfield, MK Dons, Blackburn, Notts County, Blackpool. I’ve managed to steer them away from trouble. I know what I’m doing. I work hard. I have an eye for good players.’’

Blackburn have sacked manager Paul Ince after less than six months in charge with the club second-bottom of the Premier League.

Surprised to discover Mark Hughes (who Ince replaced) has the highest win % of any Blackburn manager since Dalglish.

Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Ince says the club have no leaders and have not replaced ex-captain Roy Keane.
Full story: the Sun

yeah incey theyve been lacking leaders since that one guy left and its only lead to 5 titles and 1 cl. a team rudderless for the past 9 years.

Alan Hansen on Man City's CL campaign - "This year we all thought City would win it but they will have learned from their experience. "

Domínguez, 32, scored the first before Joel Campbell escaped from Carrick to curl in the second. Such was Wayne Rooney’s respect for Domínguez’s shift of work that he handed the Olympiakos No 35 his shirt after the final whistle.

Only Rooney, who ran more than anybody on the pitch (12.06 km), seemed aware of the need to show some urgency.

Only Rooney seemed to appreciate that United’s darkening season depended on a splash of colour here

twp getting fawned over by henry winter after another game where he was virtually useless

the shift which was put in

yeah but he ran around

RVP only gave him the ball once, may he was running too much to be picked out.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BhWhCNxCEAAh2W-.jpg

Crocker explains that no stone has been left unturned. "The biggest thing we're looking at in addition to what other countries are doing is research innovation. How Apple or Nike take an idea or a concept, put it into some type of process and it comes out the other end as ingrained in their culture. So it's massively broader than football. This is where Dave Reddin coming in [as head of performance services] is brilliant. We've opened our minds to all kinds of things that football would have probably frowned upon a few years ago."

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/mar/03/fa-matt-rigg-matt-croker-english-football

the aidy boothroyds of the next gen

A while back, this column revealed that the FA, for all its talk of moving into a modern era, had employed John Beck to take the next generation of coaches through their Uefa B-level badges.

Beck has a devoted group of younger followers and many have pointed out it is a long time now since the days when he went by the nickname of Dracula (on the basis that so many people thought he was sucking the blood out of the sport) and awarded cash bonuses to the players at Cambridge who kicked the ball the furthest. However, he does apparently still reference his tactics at Cambridge – gems such as "zig-zag to the onion bag", meaning to knock it up to the far post – during those courses at St George's Park, the place the FA trumpets as the future of English football.

Equally, it is not entirely clear whether the FA is operating to a clear and concise plan, or if it even understands its own philosophy, when Aidy Boothroyd, another manager synonymous with long-ball football, is suddenly deemed the best qualified candidate to manage and improve England Under-20s.

At Watford, Boothroyd took the team into the Premier League, which was a wonderful achievement. But it was not exactly progressive football. One of the team's sayings used to be "put it in the cage". The centre-halves would roar it during matches. The cage was the penalty area. Stop messing around, and put it in the cage.

Boothroyd is not remembered with huge fondness at Colchester or Coventry either and his latest appointment, I am reliably informed, has bemused some of his colleagues in other departments of the FA. Within his own profession, the words "numbing shock" have been used. Boothroyd once worked with Dan Ashworth, the FA's director of elite development, at Peterborough. A few years later, he appointed Ashworth to help him run West Brom's academy. Now, it is Ashworth's turn to do the hiring.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/mar/08/football-association-fa-england-under-20s-steven-gerrard

is this the aidy boothroyd who was steering northampton town out of the league or are there two aidy boothroyds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgMfdabYkUU

this is hilarious, aidy boothroyd talks neurolinguistic programming

i know what organized, athletic, committed human beings can do

a lot of players say "what's a mortgage?"

the most important space on a football pitch, make no mistake, is between a player's ears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii15pCuIWXY

when marlon king points to his own head in an effort to calm you down

Spanish football writer Andy West at the Camp Nou: "Two defensive errors - one from Martin Demichelis two weeks ago and one from Joleon Lescott tonight - were punished by two goals from Lionel Messi, and that was the essential difference between the sides. Forget refereeing controversies: the main lesson City should take from the tie is that they're not too far away from competing with the elite."

the only english midfielder that could work at barca is huddlestone

― beta the drivel you know (darraghmac), Thursday, 16 June 2011 11:46 (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Rooney has the talent to join Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on that elite platform close to football utopia. He just doesn’t show it consistently enough. He has the vision, the individual talent and creative football brain to try what he did at West Ham on Saturday. Hodgson needs to get that out of him this summer.

Don’t stick him in a 4-4-2 and ask him to run channels. Let him play, make him smile, and that way we’ll get the best out of Rooney. I want a smiling Rooney, not a snarling one.

Messi and Ronaldo are the very best, but neither has taken a World Cup by storm. If Rooney does it this summer, he can suddenly elevate himself to their level.

Rooney scored a cracker in the Maracana for England last June. There are many who still doubt his world-class quality. Only he can prove them wrong.

This is Rooney’s time to shine at a World Cup. Show us what you can do Wayne.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tog_GYFHbMA

Published on 9 May 2013

Sport football pundits Alan Hansen, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Mark Lawrenson give their thoughts on how David Moyes might get on at Manchester United.

By way of proving he could most definitely finish what he started, Barkley concluded matters by curling a left-foot shot beyond Krul's grasp and into the roof of the net. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say the goal contained shades of Maradona and his exploits in the 1986 World Cup.

if maradona shit where a lightsource could intercept the dropping droppings as they fell, those shades would still be demonstrative of more skill and guile than the very sub-bale rush-and-cunt effort from barkley tonight

lol i missed this, good response to dumb qn

Speaking to The Daily Mail ahead of Brazil's friendly with England, he said: "Messi for the last three or four years has been the best player in the world - he has been at a level of consistency I don't think the world has seen before.

The 32-year-old also denied that he regrets not choosing to play in England, but expressed sorrow having not played with former Barca team-mate Messi for longer.

He added: "Do I regret not playing in England? No, because I have played for some of the biggest teams in the world and won everything.

ronaldinho obv

Retired defender Jamie Carragher says he played in better Liverpool teams than the one currently challenging for the Premier League title.
Full story: Sunday Times

Carra OTM

PSG's second goal was just unfortunate from Chelsea's point of view, and I didn't think the French side were that good in any department.

In midfield they were average and the number of times they got caught with the ball showed that, in terms of quality, Ligue 1 and the Premier League are a million miles apart.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26810322

i'm into nakh's dn in the first post

yeah i did a thread about those

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhiteAmericanFolks.jpg

BBC FOOTBALL EXPERT

Pandemic otm bout carra being otm but i think there's something to being a 75% functioning expansive swashbuckling side atm that is proving harder to crack than did being an 85% crablike defensive unit under benitez.

Not just ito 3pts per win vs 1 for draw, more the way the teams in the league set up now to greater combat the prevailing packed midfield or w/e that isnt worth rejigging for the sake of lfc coming to town with a genuine 433 and what that means for the fullbacks etc

the og carra quote was v innocuous and in the service of praising the current side by comparison - said the benitez 2009 team was "arguably slightly better" iirc and that's about it

they got 86 points, they'd need five wins and a draw to exceed that this season

that team was competing with the best team english football has produced in at least the last few decades though, as well as chelsea and arsenal squads far stronger than today's equivalents

they would have to win the league this season to be considered better than that side

maybe 'far' is overstating wrt arsenal but rvp, cesc, nasri and that half season when arshavin was immediately one of the best players in the league vs only really ramsey of their attacking players who has been at that level this season

Teams outside top four prob a lot stronger as a group now vs then

tend to disagree because the lower half this year is virtually useless, huge chasm beneath southampton and newcastle

the shit teams of five years ago were mostly more route-one than the current lot and this liverpool side would probably have a few difficult away games vs game raising clodhoppers if they were to face the teams from 12-16 here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%9309_Premier_League#League_table

consider this manchester city side in 10th which had about fifty times the talent of whichever team finishes 10th season, even if they did have mark hughes as manager

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008-09_Manchester_City_F.C._season

idk man 'even if'

the 10th placed team this season is also likely to have mark hughes as manager except their best player is charlie adam rather than kompany, robinho, elano, zabaleta etc

yeah it rly makes u re-evaluate adams alright

Bayern Munich: Neuer 6, Alaba 5.5, Mandzukic 6

Manchester United: Rooney 6

Ratings from ROB DRAPER at the Allianz

By Mark Ogden, Allianz Arena

Mario Mandzukic

Gave ample evidence as to why Bayern have signed Robert Lewandowski from Borussia Dortmund to lead the line from next season until he equalised. Didn’t threaten often enough and was bossed by Vidic. 6

Wayne Rooney

Booed and jeered throughout by the Bayern supporters, but every jeer appeared to lift the United forward. Missed a great chance to put United 2-1 ahead on the hour, though, following great work by Welbeck. 7

Woody • 5 hours ago
How did Rooney get an 8?
21 • Reply•Share ›

mr-ed Woody • 2 hours ago
Now a 7 strangely...
I'm sure it was an 8 earlier when I first read the article.
No better than 5 - especially as he missed 2 sitters.

lol

Ribery is most overrated player on the planet
There are those who suggest Franck Ribery is the best player in the world behind the 'big two’. Presumably that refers to 'the big two’ leagues as opposed to just a couple of players. The only way Ribery deserves mention in the same breath as Messi and Ronaldo is in a discussion about swapping World Cup Panini stickers.

The Frenchman is a good player in a competition full of truly exceptional ones. Yes, he occasionally beats his man but an end product is a hope as much as expectation. He often drags shots harmlessly wide and carries the demeanour of a footballer who has attained seriously high levels of delusions of grandeur. In short, Phil Jones probably felt he was up against a slightly upgraded version of Ashley Young. Arjen Robben, on the other hand, is world class.

Chris Bascombe is a tool of the highest order.

Ian Herbert

This was the match in which his team was supposed to tank and his own weakness be laid bare, but instead they revealed that they belonged on the stage which they will now exit for the first time in 18 years.

The high mountains of Europe are history for United and there is a long road ahead now. But Moyes has won the right to have a shot at leading them back.

couldn't agree more. lots of shots.

Within another 12 months, he was lighting up the Premier League with Chelsea. Mourinho broke the mould, he was smart, suave, supercilious and ultimately successful.

Now it's time for cool and colourful Klopp to take the leap and come to England. The Premier League would be a far more interesting place with him. He would break the mould too.

The marketplace is bustling if Klopp should choose to have a stroll through. There might be changes afoot at Arsenal or Manchester United. He might fancy a challenge like Aston Villa, West Ham or West Bromwich.

He might fancy a challenge like Aston Villa, West Ham or West Bromwich.

Aye, right

he might fancy bringing european football back to nottingham

He couldn't possibly prefer Dortmund to Stoke, it's not even in England for a start

is mercurial merry-andrew klopp ready to shamble sightlessly out of football's netherworld into the savage glare of a tier one league?

I can't think what would have attracted Mourinho to Chelsea all those years ago, but I'm sure West Brom will hold exactly the same allure for Klopp.

Gary Lineker ‏@GaryLineker 1h

Only in the Premier League could the team at the very bottom, possibly scupper a team's title aspirations.

Manuel Pellegrini suddenly resembles a house guest trying to come to terms with the relentless intensity and demanding rhythms of life in the Premier League mansion, when upstairs can be invaded by downstairs

henry winter being a sententious moron again there, where do these people get the idea from that every other league features spineless incompetents who collapse vs the grand teams? just two days ago barcelona lost to granada, bayern lost to augsburg etc etc etc

spineless incompetents who collapse vs the grand teams

Uh. Man City v Barcelona, Man Utd v Bayern....

It's obviously doubtful that Hamburg or Betis are substantially worse than West Brom, Fulham or Sunderland but you could make the case that, in terms of the number of experienced internationals and the money spent on assembling the squads, the bottom six in the PL should be more competitive for teams in the top six than in most other leagues.

because the championship is decent & well-resourced as second tier leagues go

the logic is circular: lower epl team gets a result vs a champion league side = extraordinary precisely because lower epl sides (despite being far richer than lower la liga sides) are mostly total shit so it seldom happens = the epl must be special to witness such extraordinary results, no way would anything this extraordinary happen in another country

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/269087/Ashley-Young-s-as-good-as-Messi-and-Ronaldo

from 2011 tbfttl

?

nobody without organic brain damage ever though ashley young was as good as pedro rodriguez let alone gd messi

*thought*

not arguing it wasn't stupid in 2011, just sayin he may not stand by those words today

It's going to be a banner few months for this thread what with a World Cup coming up, no need to dredge up anything from three years ago.

James Ducker @DuckerTheTimes

Lot of talk in Germany Klopp will stay at Borussia Dortmund but very much doubt he would turn down #Barca or #MUFC if offers came

WHERE NEXT FOR MOYES?

BORUSSIA DORTMUND
Jurgen Klopp could head to United in a job swap.

BAYER LEVERKUSEN
Sami Hyypia was sacked this month, leaving a vacancy.

TOTTENHAM
Tim Sherwood is on his way and Moyes has previously been linked with Spurs.

NEWCASTLE
Alan Pardew is under pressure and Mike Ashley could move for Moyes.

INTER MILAN
Walter Mazzarri’s side are 34 points off the top and his position is uncertain.

that's some punchline

The idea that Dortmund would consider Moyes is the most incredible thing I have ever read I think.

considering a "when/where will Moyes get a new management job?" poll

Looking at the prem table the only options I see for him remaining at that level are Newcastle or maybe Villa, though he could take six months and wait for the pre-Christmas panic sackings.

Neil Lennon heading south and Moyes heading north doesn't seem too much of a stretch - otherwise it's upper Championship level. I really can't see him working abroad.

Villa is the one but would he want it

he could take six months and wait for the pre-Christmas panic sackings.

That would be my advice

There's a grim inevitability at Moyes to Villa.

Carrying on the succession of failed Scottish managers there

wouldn't really have a problem with that (in fact I'd be quite chuffed), but I'm sure I'd be in the minority

He had a broadly successful, uninterrupted eleven year career in the PL. Unless he's mentally fucked, anyone below Spurs could be lucky to have him.

united maybe, they have a vacancy

xp - absolutely SV, I agree. I think his skill-set would be a pretty perfect match for Villa right now. Solid defence and an attack geared to hitting Benteke every time we get the ball is pretty much what Lambert's tried to do, but he's made a fucking pig's ear of it and has also bought appallingly while trying to play the market on the cheap. Several of the big problem areas atm seem to things which Moyes would be able to put right.

otoh I think the Villa crowd have maybe just had enough of Scottish managers for now, think the masses might be hankering after a fancy continental job when Lambert gets the boot

Joe Tarring ‏@joetarring 3h

Paul Merson tips Yannick Bolasie to play for England next season. Yannick Bolasie has 3 caps for Democratic Republic of Congo

looking forward to United's meaningless training ground exercise today being dissected by pundits with things to say

Steven Gerrard - The slip that enabled Ba to open the scoring will haunt him; so cruel as nobody had done more to keep Liverpool on the front foot. 7

gerrard finishing his career without ever winning the league because of a bad mistake he made when they seemed to have a title in the bag does have a certain appeal

he had the whole of the second half to make amends but his passionate committed leadership mostly extended to hitting speculative shots into the bleachers

i'd like them to win but if their downfall has to be gerrard in his new defensive role making an error which his centrebacks, pushed high and wide, can't cover for.....then yeah, this is the other side of the rodgers project and it would be rather apt

"I think that he [Giggs] is the one man they should go to, really," Ferguson said at a fundraising dinner in Manchester this week. "He's got 20-odd years of experience at Manchester United. I signed him as a kid at 13 years of age. He's gone through the gamut of emotions at the club – he's experienced all the highs and lows. He knows exactly what's needed to be a Manchester United player and I was so pleased he brought Paul Scholes back in, and Nicky Butt of course – two great professionals.

"They understand the club, they are hard workers, they are straight as a die. So you have got the right combinations there, there's no doubt about that."

when he says 'there's nae doot aboot that' he's lying through his teeth, always

very much doubt he believes giggs can walk straight into managing in the champions league but hes trying to keep his clique alive and hoping giggs will strongarm the board by winning crapshoots in noncompetitive games

also plausible deniability cuz when van gaal is appointed he can say he was only talking about the interim period

nb to all shit hacks -- guardiola already had a year managing barca b, the equiv of a championship tteam, before he got the main job, he had a fantastic winning percentage and brought through busquets and pedro

also he is an insanely devoted tactical thinker of the highest degree who spent his nights arguing into the small hours with his friend bielsa rather than an ever so slightly dim looking part time coach who somehow successfully managed to cuckold his own brother for a decade

two decades of sneaking in round the back of snoozing defences cuckolds

i see a margin case possibility of Giggs getting it when every decent manager declines the financial terms and expectations

irl van Gaal is a done deal already obv

there is no conceivable set of parameters that leaves an even borderline rational case for appointing him

absolutely. is there a scenario in which every competent manager enquires about the strictures and fucks them off tho?

"here's Luke Shaw and 40 million quid. finish top 4 or you're out"

there are plenty of competent managers out there when competency is defined as being less risky than a total neophyte, at least one of those would take at five million a year and a nice severance package whatever strictures are imposed

obv. let's wait and see.

malcolm glazer was a hard cunt, who knows what his wonky looking scions are like but surely they can see that the influence of ferguson and his cabal of former players within and without the current squad has been entirely unhelpful since the day he retired

to leave too many of them lingering around causing trouble for van gaal or whoever would be a foolhardy decision, they were careful to brief once giggs was appointed interim coach that he would not be under consideration for the fulltime role

if giggs is assistant to the new manager then he just sits there like a venerated version of tim sherwood, resentfully dripping poison until the manager is fired

this is the only stipulation that might alienate van gaal, his people seem to be briefing that he would like to take roy keane as an assistant (co-assistant with kluivert probably) for the obvious reason that keane unlike giggs and company has demonstrably failed as a manager already

if giggs fucks off entirely then estimate percent chance he takes a managerial job elsewhere and risks getting showed up vs chance he leads a media campaign like shearer, trying to blackmail the owners into appointing him

i think i said at the beginning it was an edge case hypothetical. this afternoon i started thinking about van Gaal asking his headhunter how much money and time he wd really have.

not an edge case hypothetical that they do bottle it and renege by giving it to giggs, that's unlikely but not vanishingly unlikely

there is something at stake here though, in that numinous phrase 'the soul of the club', that alchemical property that coalesces around a couple of dozen venerated cuckolders and hotel suite roasters, a nyse listing, a synergistic global branding portfolio and a compound in south florida, and a lot of people are invested in trying to keep the spirit of ferguson's reign alive and correctly fear that someone like van gaal would rip it up and start again

then there would be no soul left

i dunno how much clout any of the "soul of the club" folks have with the ownership at this stage? the apparent state of affairs is that Ferguson has been little more than a useful idiot for the Glazers, even if he used that status to aggrandize himself.

i mean, a Giggs wd be a purely mercenary appointment, the cheap option that wd keep the traditionalists most onside. i'm sure that the owners' main consideration is an immediate return to the Champions' League, but who's realistically advising them about the potential cost and difficulty of that target?

the most interesting imponderable about this is who those football advisers might be and what they are telling them, they could have run the whole club through the ferguson years without knowing a thing about the sport and now they have to become experts

they surely have no investment in 'the soul of the club' in anything other than a marketing sense now because ferguson's argument that they let a shit imitation of ferguson manage the team as a continuity candidate has failed so desperately, but as a marketing strategy the presence or simulation of soul counts has let liverpool maintain good commercial revenue through years of mediocrity

the nativist element that's in the air right now is slightly repugnant though, keep it in the family or the country, suspicion of foreigners and outside influence, ferguson's best years came when he let queiroz and ronaldo reshape the team, before he got old and conservative in his instincts

the extent to which that "nativism" is of real importance to the owners or their advisors is interestingly moot, too. clearly the financial value of the club doesn't depend much on the opinions of British pundits or ticket buyers on one level, but every aspect of what United - any football club, probably - is, is tied into every other. we still feel a long way from a postmodern club that can exist purely thru it's imaginary iteration to overseas fans

and so the "realness" generated by the lumpenfans is still v. important to the brand as a whole, i think

yeah it is, and if they do fail to clear out lingering embers of ferguson's reign before the fires start, it will be because their branding people have seen twitter explode and they've decided the brand needs to have some realness on the frontend

real madrid have mostly been quite successful in this respect, when they have venerated former players with exec level talent like valdano they appoint them, when they have slightly dim former demigods like zidane they put them in the dugout next to the manager and his actual assistant, they drag di stefano out at every opportunity etc etc

the day they let zidane actually manage the team will be the day it falls apart

the crassness of this little stunt with Giggs now is that it will tell nobody anything about his managerial qualities. they cd have had anybody pick teams for the 4 remaining games last Tuesday, with no pressure or expectation other than that they play a consequence-free attacking game. maybe the fact that Giggs accepted the appointment is the most telling measure of his nous.

Giggs 'could be Man Utd's Guardiola'

true in the sense that he now field himself as a deep lying playmaker if he wants to

jamie redknapps column today is sweet

Gary Neville ‏@GNev2 1h

We need manipulators of the ball/ players that drift / lads that pop up in pockets! Do we F@@k!

Gary Neville ‏@GNev2 1h

United fans- this is our philosophy ! Scrap that tippy tappy crap!! Fast/ furious / aggressive and real!

special offer on at Boozebusters?

lol, pretty choice use of "real" there

Great to be reassured that the approach that's won three international tournaments and two Champions Leagues since 2008 was secretly crap all along. #foundout

yeah i gotta say i didn't expect him to self-anoint as a realness queen

anyway, even though his motives tend towards the nativist and reactionary, there is a definite ideological split between madrid / dortmund, atletico / chelsea and bayern / barcelona and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with thinking manchester united are better suited to playing klopp style 'heavy metal football'

it's just the way it is conflated with this cynical jobs for his friends mentality and the self-aggrandizing 'british values = passion' crap and his xenophobic crusade for british managers

rooney in his current state is not good at either of those types of football he mentioned. neither is half the team. kagawa, mata, rvp - i.e. where anything can salvaged, aren't fast aggressive ronaldo types, idk if they'd even suit rodgers's english version of blitzkreig, they are 'players that drift' and thats why he's wrong imo.

Equally, Torres – El Niño in his Atlético days – is now the faded star of English football, with a desperation to extract a few more drops of glory from his career. But hurting Atlético along the way was not part of his plan. After forcing a deflected shot past Thibaut Courtois he raised his palms apologetically. The consensus seemed to be that Torres’s tenderness towards the club that raised him was more important than his bond with Chelsea, who have shown him infinite patience and might expect a little pleasure from him when he scores in a Champions League semi-final. Each to his own.

paul hayward, what a miserable cunt

hahaha fuck me. that is just special.

david james effortlessly shrugs off de boer, eredivisie. "one team league". he has seen sherwood's passion first hand at watford.

Enjoyed Sherwood claiming he would be a "hard man to replace", like he was fucking Fergie or something.

the mail reporting that garry monk is favoured to take the swansea job after an 'impressive' interim period

12 points in 13 games

lol, i think they were 12th? when he took over from Laudrup. So where this narrative of 'steered them to safety' has come from I don't know.

Felix Magath is not the right man to lead Fulham back to the top flight, says ex-Cottagers striker Rodney Marsh.

Fulham's defeat at Stoke on Saturday, coupled with Sunderland's win at Manchester United, led to their relegation from the Premier League.

The German, who took over in February, is Fulham's third manager this year.

"They need the right man who can handle the rebound," Marsh told BBC Sport. "They need a Neil Warnock or Dave Jones, who have success at that level."

Am I wrong in thinking Wolves are the only side Dave Jones has actually got promoted from the Championship?

If we needed a reminder of the huge part football plays in people’s lives, you only had to listen to the weekend phone-ins.

Relief, despair, joy, anger: it was all there in shedloads as promotion and relegation issues got sorted out.

As a player, it is easy to forget what this game means to supporters. The widespread passion makes England unique.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10808228/Gary-Cahill-keeps-his-head-down-to-become-one-of-Jose-Mourinhos-chosen-few-at-Chelsea.html

'Garry represents all the strong values we hold so dearly as a football club and everyone is looking forward to working with him.

'We have all been impressed with his work-rate and commitment since taking over the reins in February and how he adapted in very difficult circumstances to secure the points we needed to remain in the top-flight.

very difficult circumstances being taking about 20% fewer points per game than laudrup did in the first part of the season with probably the tenth best squad in the league

swansea's board have given every impression until this season that they know what they are doing so probably deserve some trust

even so

very difficult circumstances being taking about 20% fewer points per game than laudrup did in the first part of the season with probably the tenth best squad in the league

Laudrup left on 4th February with 24 points from 24 games, they've have 15 points from 13 since.

they have*

link? article i read had laudrup on 27

http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/premier-league/2013-2014/custom-table

Worth remembering Laudrup had more Europa games to play.

yeah laudrup was at a point per game which was underachieving but he had some excuses wrt injuries, europa league playing schedule etc

monk had the benefit of an acclimatised bony and pablo hernandez back

just over a point per game is still not great with that squad, 4 wins in 16 in all competitions apparently

It's amazing that anything over 1.0 ppg gets you comfortable mid-table these days.

yeah that one win i misattributed moves him from relegation form to mere underachiever

ever diminishing standards at the bottom of the league probably why the swansea board don't feel the risky appointment of a 35 yr old near novice to a 3 yr contract is really that much of a risk

greg dyke then

i mean, there are no words really

yeah, discussion over

.

theres a lot in there, dyke is a load of shit, probably more wrong than right here but its not terrible

Dyke wants to insert a new fifth tier into the English pyramid system — a ‘League Three’ — which would feature 10 B teams from the Premier League and 10 teams from the current fifth division, the National Conference

= this will be fuck all use to big epl academies,

the issue is and always has been youth coaching. this will simply allow clubs to hoard youth players without even loaning them out elsewhere. meanwhile their coaching isn't addressed.

it's absolute craven insanity. and to claim that this will ensure higher turnover for lower-league clubs owing to higher gate numbers is mendacious shit of the first order

it also anoints certain clubs as keepers of the flame in a way that utterly kills any pretence the PL had to competitiveness

England manager Roy Hodgson welcomed the proposals, but critics, such as Darragh Mac, believe the B team plan is unworkable.

http://fc-utd.co.uk/m_story.php?story_id=5524

Steven Gerrard: England's young World Cup talent is scary

Steven Gerrard has described England's World Cup youngsters as "scary".

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke believes Prince Harry could have inspired England to better results if he had attended games against Italy and Uruguay, as well as the final fixture against Costa Rica. Independent

next level dtfnl imo

only ginger prince that has ever been any good for england is paul scholes

harsh on the nickys

Shearer: Wayne Rooney my choice as England's next captain

If England captain Steven Gerrard decides now is the time for him to end his international career then Wayne Rooney would be my choice to succeed him as skipper.
There are not a lot of other outstanding candidates for the job in the squad, but that does not matter because Rooney is ready, and he would be perfect for the role.
Rooney is not only England's best player but he has the experience to go along with that, and he was mature enough to deal with the scrutiny that he was under at the start of this tournament.
I know myself that being England captain brings added pressure, but Rooney will be used to that because of who he is and what he has achieved.

Real Madrid are preparing a bid for Liverpool and England forward Raheem Sterling, 19, as concerns arise with the fitness of Cristiano Ronaldo after an injury-ridden World Cup campaign. Sunday Mirror

people get paid to write this. oh noes the world player of the year was injured over summer lets buy someone who is only kinda in liverpools first team and had a worse world cup than cronny

Mike Parry @mikeparry8 · 2h
If Glenn Hoddle goes to QPR to join Harry I reckon you've got what would make the nearest thing to a dream managent duo for the England team

the esteem your average bloke on the street maintains for hoddle is fucking terrifying, he is ingerland's cruyff and they won't be told otherwise

i'm crying blood this morning

honestly rather have sherwood i think

nowadays i can't remember whether he was an actually decent manager or not tbh, as long as he's stopped holding seances in training you shd be alright

nah he's a shit cunt

if i didnt happen to support the club i would probably pay good money to watch him interact with our herd of truculent bantersauruses

ffs if this works even a little our crowd will start baying

By JAMIE REDKNAPP

Raheem Sterling is England’s David Silva. He doesn’t manipulate the ball like the Spaniard, but he can play between the lines and he has something Silva doesn’t have: destructive pace.

Louis van Gaal’s decision to sell Danny Welbeck for £16m is one of the most controversial transfers in Manchester United history.

On Monday night, after he scored twice in an England shirt in his first start since a deadline day transfer to Arsenal, it felt like one of the biggest mistakes they have ever made.

One goal, against Switzerland in this Euro 2016 qualifier, was embarrassing enough for van Gaal. Two feels like humiliation.

That's a doozy that one.

redknapp spot on for a change

Henry Winter

7:32PM GMT 04 Dec 2014

All players entering the England system from 15 up to the senior team will now undergo an “induction process” into “the England way”.

The coaching staff released its “England DNA” manifesto aimed at developing a new breed of “socially-responsible, tactically-aware, athletic, intelligent and creative players”. Players will be given a “wristband memory stick” with details of the “England DNA”, showing montages of moves which they can refer to when back with their clubs.

Footballers being humans, and not robots, it will take time and effort for them to absorb the criteria laid down by the St George’s Park boot-room of Gareth Southgate, Dan Ashworth, Mike Rigg and Matt Crocker after consultation with Roy Hodgson, the women’s coach Mark Sampson and national associations in Europe and Latin America.

Two of the England players used to depict the DNA in print and digital format are Wayne Rooney and Ross Barkley, who learned their skills on the streets and local parks on Merseyside before being coached at Everton’s Academy.

The thinking behind giving the players a memory stick is that the FA felt that contenders and established seniors alike would not read a paper version currently circulating at St George’s Park. “We’ve studied how the modern player learns, and lot of it is through visual,’’ said Crocker, the FA’s head of coach and player development. “So that’s why we’ve created a pool of montages and a lot of words are backed up with a double click on and pictures of England players.”

On the memory stick, players will be informed that they must “strive for the highest standards on and off the field. We don’t settle for anything less, excellence is the minimum requirement.”

got a ballad to sing to you, the ballad of jonjo shelvey

Build England team around Harry Kane

Louis van Gaal’s decision to sell Danny Welbeck for £16m is one of the most controversial transfers in Manchester United history.

On Monday night, after he scored twice in an England shirt in his first start since a deadline day transfer to Arsenal, it felt like one of the biggest mistakes they have ever made.

One goal, against Switzerland in this Euro 2016 qualifier, was embarrassing enough for van Gaal. Two feels like humiliation.

― Nothing less than the Spirit of the Age (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 9 September 2014 16:38 (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's a doozy that one.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 9 September 2014 16:50 (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

neil ashton just wrote a new column about welbeck.........

Next month an England squad will be announced for the games against Lithuania and Italy.

Welbeck is coming under pressure from Harry Kane. He is a favourite of Hodgson’s, but to keep his place in the team for club and country the forward will need to play in his preferred position.

It seems that if Giroud is fit, he will always start ahead of Welbeck. The Frenchman has now scored 11 times in the FA Cup.

In a few weeks, as Arsenal power on for a place in the top four and another appearance in an FA Cup final, the competition will be fierce in this squad.

Heavyweights such as Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Mikel Arteta and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be making demands of Wenger as they enter a crucial phase of the season.

When that moment arrives, you begin to wonder where Welbeck will fit in.

His position is also under threat from new signing Gabriel Paulista.

Mikel Arteta, heavyweight

In 2022, a typical England player at a club competing in the Champions League could expect to have played only 14 matches games between the start and the season and the end of October.

"We've cried out for a long time for a mid-winter break, maybe this will give us a great chance of winning a World Cup," added Neville, who won 59 England caps between 1996 and 2007.

The word "maybe" seems to be working quite hard in that sentence.

Vincent Kompany 9

Kompany was a colossus in a losing cause at the Nou Camp last time.

Sergio Busquets 7

At just 26, Busquets already has more than 70 caps for his native Spain and Fernandinho will need to fill the void left by the suspended Yaya Toure.

Manchester-City-vs-Barcelona-two-teams-compare-ahead-Champions-League-16-clash.html

Kompany is one of those rare big men who have become so big that they're pretty much honorary Englishmen in the eyes of most football hacks. He's more blood-on-the-shirt for England and St George now than actual English defenders like Gary Cahill.

The only other one I can think of off the top of my head is Peter Schmeichel.

very much so

patrice vieira was only rechristened patrick in 1997

Vieira was too French and Arsenal were too un-English throughout the majority of his time there for him to count.

“At Liverpool [when Carragher played in the Champions League] we had great technical players at the time, but we were more powerful than the other teams. We had the physical intensity of the Premier League, we took that into the Champions League. Now you look at it and PSG looked more powerful than Chelsea over the two games which is probably a bigger worry more than the football.”

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/mar/12/champions-league-jamie-carragher-chelsea-liverpool-europa-league-arsenal-manchester-city

“I think it has deteriorated,” he added. “I think it has the last few years. With the new TV deal, the clubs get a lot of money. But I think that maybe because they have so much money that when you’re buying players in it doesn’t mean enough to bring a player in because you have that much money. You can bring a player in but if it doesn’t quite work out you still have the money to bring another in.

Yep, that will explain the underperformance vs PSG and Monaco.

Sky Sports Jeff Stelling Thinks Arsenal Can Beat Monaco & Go Through In The CL.

(Published on 13 Mar 2015)

Sure. Arsenal win 1-0. Monaco field an illegible player just cos'. Arsenal go through.

It worked for Celtic... twice.

Here is the first footballer from these shores for a long time who could credibly be regarded as being among the top three or four players in the world and with the potential of becoming the very best.

The Welshman can become the world's best footballer but his style is being cramped by the Portuguese at the Bernabeu

Time to drop Ronaldo and let a Welshman breathe.

I'm assuming that's Martin Samuel or someone banging the drum for Bale going to Chelsea?

Jason Burt arguing that ronaldo should sling his hook back to utd, and messi should hurry up and get old so that Bale can be the star he rightfully should be I think.

At least until Harry Kane fully matures.

theres surely an argument for the epl currently being one of the worst leagues ever constituted in terms of aggregate level of quality for investment

the only real claim to fame it had was the success of the big four nee top four circa 2007-2011 or so, its achievement in the europa league has always been pitiful and gives lie to the notion that there is any depth beneath the headline teams and now the top teams are all shit too

the russian league post 2005 or so has been notably poor relative to investment but they have the huge disincentive of being in russia that raises recruitment costs

Chelsea are clearly the best team in England and they're really not that good. As for the rest....

Lewis Varey ‏@LewisVarey 10m10 minutes ago

@Guymowbray It's still the best league. Might not necessarily have the worlds very best teams. But still the best league
View conversation 0 retweets 0 favorites

AJ️ ‏@YanitedAdam 22m22 minutes ago

Regardless of our shambles in Europe this campaign, we're still the best league in the world. In terms of overall entertainment, definitely.

Morley White ‏@morleywhites 31m31 minutes ago

Premier league is still the best league in world.

Bounce In A minute ‏@Liam_CFC 47m47 minutes ago

The Premier League is still the best league in the world #FACT Other European teams want to win more than the English clubs

Jord Solomon ‏@Jordysol19 50m50 minutes ago Redditch, England

Premier League still the best league in Europe, every other league has two good teams that just dominate every year, we have at least 5

do other countries even reify 'best league' like this? fairly sure italians in the 1990s would have talked about how most of the world's best teams and players were there, but that isn't quite the same

99% of consumers don't consume 'the league as such, they watch their team plus a few choice games between big teams

the league they are referring to isn't the very small proportion of it that they consume but the brand, the ambience, the echo chamber of commercially and socially mediated boosterism

the content value of the epl needs to be shored up with a transcendent fiction that what they are seeing is as good as it is priced to be; that epl teams are doing badly doesn't show that they are shit, it shows that european competitions are shit because epl teams aren't even trying to win them

Apparently, in the Premier League, unlike any of the other major leagues, "any team can beat any other team".

.. according to some tit on Talksport.

Other European teams want to win more than the English clubs

lol see english clubs could win if they were, you know, trying

Love all this 'every game is so competitive in the epl' shit as well. Didn't Barca lose at home to Malaga or Granada just the other week?

nakh otm btw

even when these people might allow that it isn't blitw they seem so sure in the assumption that it's the most entertaining.

First published Tuesday 10 February 2015 in Sport

BURNLEY are now bigger economically than Ajax, according to Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore.

The Premier League announced a new £5.136bn television deal with Sky and BT this afternoon and Scudamore says the top flight of English football is stronger than ever.

Burnley have the least financial resources of any club in the Premier League but Scudamore says that even now they have more revenue than Dutch giants Ajax, the four-time European champions.

He said: "I read a stat the other day that Burnley are bigger economically than Ajax.

“Of course this will make our clubs even more competitive than their European counterparts.”

Yes, that's a given. Clutching @ straws tho.(xp)

(xp) Anyone remember the the Atlantic League.

More from Talksport: top teams in La Liga play maybe 8 difficult games a season, for the rest they could send out the tealady; EPL is more intense than any other league; domestic cup competitions are taken more seriously (lol delusional).

Surely it's just the safety of insular familiarity. Nobody talking this shit has ever watched a la liga game not involving barca or real, or a German match that isn't bayern v dortmund, but they've watched highlights of every west brom game this season and they like the look of that berahino, and they know that pulis is the man to make sure he knuckles down and gives 110%.

You could apply the same principle to almost any part of life that is as central as football is for many people. Sure la boqueria probably has more fancy-dan hams but I know where everything is in sainsburys, and their taste the difference ham is nice enough for me, so all in all I'd say sainsburys is the best marketplace for my food shop.

Not sure that analogy quite works, just wanted to say fancy-dan hams

Talksport: the trouble is the EPL is too strong, for instance, you can't have a strong league AND a strong national side at the same time... what??!?? By the way, these are mostly callers, so obv. cretins, but not much quibbling and quite a lot of agreement from the Talksport, er, experts.

there's a little of that, but most of them aren't saying it's the best because it is the most convenient/familiar/safe/recogniseable, they are saying it is just the best, and if objective metrics give lie to that then they will find vague, imaginary, unfalsifiable ones where it can be the best

football is of no importance but it is useful as a little thought experiment in how english exceptionalism works, how people rationalize england to be the best country in europe or the world when it is no longer the wealthiest or most powerful

really what they are asking is which football league comes closest to reaching the platonic ideal of epl-ness?

and no matter which way they look at it, the epl is the most epl-like footall league in the world; it has more steven gerrards than any other league in the world, and when he dies it will have more jordan hendersons than any league in the world

GLENN-HODDLE-Fernandinho-not-better-player-Ryan-Mason-did-cost-35m.html

The hyperbole suggested the Premier League game is falling behind the rest of Europe in terms of quality.

I hear the argument that the Premier League is over hyped….but let’s just have a reality check here.

Chelsea and Arsenal were eliminated on the basis of the antiquated away goals rule. Manchester City lost to an outstanding Barcelona team who continue to be inspired by the astonishing Messi.

Put Messi into the City team and they would have won the tie.

Indeed perhaps one of the main reasons four (the maximum thus the best allowance) English teams have all gone out of the Champions League before the quarter-finals is they may have been drained by the demands of the Premier League, which is certainly more competitive from top to bottom than any other league in the world.

Over the course of a 38 game season Chelsea are better than PSG, Arsenal are better than Monaco and, yes, when Messi plays, Barca are better than City.

After all how many BIG games do Monaco, PSG or Barcelona face in a season?

I'm not sure that success in a knockout competition like the Champions League is a particularly accurate barometer of quality - this Chelsea team is vastly superior to the one that actually won the thing in 2012. Likewise I didn't believe that the PL was The Best League In The World even when English clubs were routinely appearing in the final.

That said, most of the current English clubs just aren't that good, with the exception of Chelsea all of them have extremely obvious flaws and weaknesses and several of the players and a couple of the managers aren't streetwise enough to perform against elite-level European opposition. I don't know any fans who care about being The Best League In The World, that hype exists to justify exporting it to Asia and Africa and to an extent to the US. It may genuinely be more unpredictable on a week-by-week basis, but that's a bi-product of the randomness of inferior football.

I'm not sure that success in a knockout competition like the Champions League is a particularly accurate barometer of quality

― Matt DC, Sunday, 22 March 2015 16:22 (1 minute ago)

this is nonsense though because the aggregrate results of a half a dozen english teams across two competitions over several seasons erases the arbitrariness of individual results, not that psg beating chelsea is arbitrary at all because they are a better team

Aggregate yes, individual success not necessarily.

Barcelona's second and third-best forwards are Suarez and Neymar. City's are Dzeko and Wilfried Bony. There isn't a single football fan in the world who would make that trade.

this Chelsea team is vastly superior to the one that actually won the thing in 2012

― Matt DC, Sunday, 22 March 2015 16:22 (7 minutes ago)

they are a bit better, certainly not vastly, but the only way either of them could beat the very best teams is via a deep block counterattacking strategy, and on those terms the earlier one was better, they still had the core of his first side which had a resilience to it that they currently lack

They have as many points now, with nine games to go, as they managed in the whole of the 2011-12 season, even allowing for mismanagement and the differing quality of the EPL that's quite a gulf. But that's quibbling as at least five of the teams currently remaining in the CL are superior to this year's Chelsea.

ac milan won the champions league in 2007 and were 36 points behind inter in serie a, madrid were third and nine points off valencia when they won in 2002

in all three cases they were old squads who didn't have the squad depth or endurance for the league, it's this lack of the sort of tactically canny elite 28-32 yr old players that is most glaring about the current epl sides, lampard/drogba/cole vs serial champions league failures like kompany/hart/touré

https://scontent-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11068027_10153189730835982_2196145673726719040_n.png?oh=6039131f3b9fc286a1aa40eb461bc171&oe=55BA9125

good stuff spain guys

Join the debate at #bbceurofooty
Martin Corbett: Embarrassing this game you wouldn't catch Burnley rolling over and getting slapped 7-0.

spurs have one of those in them every season

those fucks don't seem to realize that english realness queens have to preserve their goal difference whereas in spain there is a vanishingly small chance their aggregate goal difference will make any difference at the end of the season

& that the king's fuckboys would dish out eight-nils all over the shop, given the lower-half wreckage of the epl to feast upon

well yes, terribly progressive fulminations against the capital club aside, with the possible exception of manchester united circa 2008 there has never been an english team with the absurd lineup of attacking players that madrid and barcelona field every season

rafa's chelsea put 8 past villa a season and a half ago surely.

Long term embattlement

Of the other possible contenders, Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti was passed over in favour of Pellegrini following Roberto Mancini’s sacking two years ago, and the style of football played by Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid is not considered cultured enough to match City’s aspirations.

Michael Owen is so Jealous types of person who have no any ability of being Punditry rather than talking what he is thinking that were not come from good thinking. He rather very shameless kinds of person I so ever known. I finally understood that, he is a fan of Arsenal foot ball club and a high want to play for this club when he has been player but we were not afforded him such opportunity and thus why he dislike this European best ever team the Gunners. We don't surprise we such kinds of jealous person for ever.

otm

"I have to give a lot of credit to Pochettino for sticking to them boys," he added. "A lot of other managers would have gone in there and said: 'no thank you, let’s give me some of them players who end in an i or an o from foreign countries who might not be as good as these young talents and I’ll play them instead.'

"But he hasn’t, he's stuck to the plan and I've got to give him a lot of credit for that."

he's trolling right? has to be

combination of self-aggrandizing, total lack of self-awareness, and i can only assume pished 24/7

he is the dictionary definition of "full of shit"

Given that virtually his first move as manager was to stick blood-of-St-George Englishman Nabil Bentaleb into the first team it's an odd one.

name ends with a consonant like a proper englishman

turkey, algeria, close enough m8 xp

St George was conceivably Moorish, right ah FUCK OFF RTC

st george big in ethiopia, st cyprian for algeria

she my map queen let her hit the banter

ah, for the halcyon days of Carlos Kickaball.

Queens Park Ranger’s Director of Football, Les Ferdinand, talks to 5 live sport’s Mark Pougatch about the club’s financial issues.

"Jermaine Jenas, who obviously you know extremely well and works a lot with us on the BBC, had this to say this week: 'During my time there, it was not being run as a Premier League club. For too long, the thinking was just to chuck money at the team. There has been no organisation, no vision, and no discipline in the way things were done.'"

"Sounds like a Premier League club doesn't it?"

"From now on, I'm going to focus on doing my talking on the pitch," he told Sky Sports News HQ. "As a footballer, you always get critics whether you're Ronaldo, Messi or myself. All you can do is answer your critics on the pitch."

Speaking to Sky Sports News HQ, the former England skipper said: “If Gareth had picked the squad he wanted to pick, we’d have won this tournament. With those players we would have beaten Italy last night and beaten the rest of them as well.”

50 years on. I hope there's not too much of this in the year ahead, ah hae ma doots *though

(*pron. θoʊ)

Maybe starting on the 4th Jan is a clue re: how much of this there is going to be

Norwich City have agreed a deal in principle with Everton for the £8m purchase of Steven Naismith having revived interest first expressed in the summer, though they face competition from a number of rival Premier League clubs to secure the Scotland international.

Allardyce has grown increasingly concerned at the lack of opportunities for British managers, something which has become a pet topic over the years, and he believes the situation has reached a stage where the authorities must act to level the playing field.

"The problem for me is we are denying British coaches positions in all divisions now, particularly in the top division and the Championship, and we need to do something about that.

"As a country, as the FA, as the Premier League, we need to protect the position of our own highly qualified coaches who are not even getting an interview now.

"What we could do is make sure that a British coach is interviewed for every position, a bit like the Rooney Rule."

lol

tony fernandes voluntarily adopts twp rule by giving token interview to andy hinchcliffe after haisselbaink's departure clears the way for some diversity

Couldn't find the appropriate thread but england 3 hungary 6 is up on YouTube in it's entirety. P great stuff and the pace of the play way quicker than I was expecting. Kenneth Wolstenholme on the commentary quite funny when he's bemused by the hungarians interchanging of positions "the outside left takes the throw on the right touchline (2minslater)the outside left still on the right side of the field for some reason". England not as technically lacking as I was expecting tbh.

downright rude of those hungarian rotters

literally the worst offside decision of all time against hungary after 10 minutes. should be 4-0 up

best moment so far just over 5 minutes in when mortensen gets knocked out cold and the hungarian players literally pick him up and dump him off the side of the pitch

hungary's 6th goal genuinely exquisite even by modern standards, and with that i yield

Next up, the 7-1 game?

CF 9 Bedford Jezzard

abysmal and great all at once

After the 3rd Hungary goal goes in there's a shell-shocked astonishment pervading Wembley. The nearest anologue is half-time at Germany-Brazil 2014, this sense that the best team in the world is giving the much-hyped home favorites a shellacking.

Quite fancy watching that later. I've read a lot about it - even paid money to get football nemesis on special order from the library a couple years ago - but have watched maybe a minute of footage.

Nandor Hidegkuti 4eva

mortensen getting knocked out at 45 minutes, not 5

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/jan/13/louis-van-gaal-paul-scholes-manchester-united-coaching-staff

Scholes as a coach (as opposed to a manager) is not the worst idea I've ever heard, even if the article itself is terrible.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3731977/I-d-hailed-foreign-boss-claims-Burnley-manager-Sean-Dyche.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/sean-dyche-wants-a-pizza-the-action-as-burnley-return-to-the-top-flight-a7181411.html

why didnt i get round to reading this bollocks through sooner. i'm crying

that's classic material

'go on Pep, tell us about your pizzas'

bbc radio pundit following interview with Woy: "you really hope he can get a job in this country as a Director of Football and not have to go to China or America or somewhere like that"

because it would suck to work in those place, of course

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4114400/Darren-Fletcher-Manchester-United-illness-dream-West-Brom.html

'People talk about teams pressing but we did that first and then Barcelona took it on,' Fletcher explained.

'Before that in Spain it was, "You have it, we have it and then let's see who is best with it". But they saw what United did and realised that was the way to go.

'It's perfect. You don't even let the opposition have the chance to be in that lovely nice game. Barca eliminated that, but we did that first.'

Pep Guardiola has not had it all his own way at Manchester City and Fletcher's take on that and his belief in Pulis's methods are fascinating.

Fletcher said: 'I heard Guardiola speak about the English use of the 'second ball' and it was interesting. English teams recognise you can control a game without possession.

'Turning teams round, playing a ball up and not caring if you win the first ball but ensuring you win the second or third ball. That's unique to British football.

'I am not sure you get too many of those phrases in Spain, where your manager always talks about pass completion.

'That's why stats don't always work. There are times when I can play a pass that's not complete, but it's what this team needs.

'It can leave a good team facing its own goal. They have to put the ball out of play and then we have territory and a throw-in that we have worked at.

'So now the ball is in their area and we get a chance or a corner. We are progressing but I haven't completed a pass have I?

'So my stats are down but I have done my job.

'At Man City or Barcelona, your passing stats will be off the charts but you have to look at football with your eyes as well. A pass that goes five yards isn't always that dangerous, is it?'

To listen to the way Fletcher has broadened his understanding in two years is intriguing. He has designs on coaching and keeps thoughts and ideas in a notebook.

christ help us all

Fletcher is hardly that likeable is he? Suppose anyone looks good in comparison to Busquets. He was also pretty crap last season even before his mysterious virus

― Number None, Thursday, 16 June 2011 14:34 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i kinda like him

― http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhiteAmericanFolks.jpg (nakhchivan), Thursday, 16 June 2011 14:47 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

makes the most of his talents

― http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WhiteAmericanFolks.jpg (nakhchivan), Thursday, 16 June 2011 14:47 Bookmark

Posted at 20:15
Post update
Newcastle 3-0 Rochdale

In all seriousness Rochdale play some lovely football on the eye and should be applauded for it, I guess. You don't concede goals like that under Keith Curle though.

it's proving a poor night for lower-league goalies thinking they're iniesta, that's all

nothing wrong with passing it around the back if you have personnel who can handle it

lower league goalies thinking they're iniesta are tempting fate. before they know it they'll find themselves growing grapes, sending their quids on running a bodega in sussex, until one day the sky cracks open, death reigneth and a voice from above booms: 'you're trying to make wine in england ffs, what did you expect other than excrutiating pain and unending suffering, mortal?'

:D

like nigel blackwell himself

I'll take it!

it's proving a poor night for lower-league goalies thinking they're iniesta, that's all

nothing wrong with passing it around the back if you have personnel who can handle it

Did you see the Bournemouth game at the weekend?

that guy is a lower-league goalie making his three or four career EPL appearances tbf