NAMING RIGHTS THREAD: Liverpool really won't win the Premiership 2010-2011

This is especially true as Utd will drop down the league as their money troubles pile up, their older players retire and their world renowned manager eventually dies in the job

gleeful sentence imo

who are the types of people that like wayne rooney? people that date rape?
do fans of, say, man u's intense rivals hate a guy like rooney during the EPL season but then root for him when he plays for the nat'l team? is that a weird thing or am i making too much of it? we don't really have anything like that in the US
― BIG SANTA aka the sleighdriver (J0rdan S.)

The thing is, Jordan, most top footballers nowadays (at every club) are detestable scum *as people*, but many supporters turn a blind eye to off-the-pitch behaviour of their club's players if those players produce the goods on the pitch. There's an attitude of 'he may be a cunt, but he's our cunt'. Players like, say, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, John Terry, etc. will all be hated by supporters of other clubs, but generally liked by their own supporters. When it comes to the national team, it very much depends on the individual: there's a certain type of fan who's very patriotic and sees the England team as more important than club football, and they would suspend their hatred of said players (until England flop out of the tournament), but there will also be plenty who would cheer an England goal scored by one of those players while still hating them and wishing somebody else had scored it.

Man Utd fans have never *loved* Rooney the way they did with their other great goalscorers in my lifetime (see: Cantona, Ronaldo).

Nobody has been as unambiguously loved as Cantona in my lifetime. The nearest would be Roy Keane and Bryan Robson. While Rooney has never been accepted by all supporters, he was definitely well-liked by a large majority - those that had a problem with him had issues with a scouser playing for United. Certainly opinion was far less divided on him than on Ronaldo. I think it's fair to say opinion is far more divided now, obviously.

cantona is probably the most universally-loved footballer in the premiership's history, also he is a man of the ppl

and if a few palace fans got beef, well, they barely count

also, you have to make a nod to the huge hype surrounding him since he was 16, and in a lot of people who aren't english/man u fans he's done little enough to justify since he moved to Utd. He had a phenomenal year in terms of goalscoring last season, but hasn't really shown the kind of virtuoso magic that brought him to the fore at Everton for a couple of seasons now. So add that slightly-underwhelming return on investment/hype to the fact that he's scouse and a dick, and yeah try as Man U fans might to take him into their inner sanctums it ain't ever gonna happen.

I know what you mean, in that he's never really replicated the form he showed for England in Euro 2004, but I don't think any United supporters would regard him as an underwhelming return on the intial investment. His form goes through periodic ruts (of which this is by far the longest), but he's scored plenty of goals (despite often being mystifyingly shunted out to the wing) and put in plenty of great performances since he joined United. I think he was popular with the majority of supporters, despite being scouse and clearly a dick. His popularity has suffered as a result of the whole Stretford/City/Massive Contract fiasco and it doesn't help that he's been largely shit since he got injured against Bayern last season.

who are the types of people that like wayne rooney? people that date rape?
do fans of, say, man u's intense rivals hate a guy like rooney during the EPL season but then root for him when he plays for the nat'l team? is that a weird thing or am i making too much of it? we don't really have anything like that in the US
― BIG SANTA aka the sleighdriver (J0rdan S.)

I don't think it's *too* different from the way people viewed Kobe during the Olympic run - I'm not an American so I couldn't say for sure but that's the closest US parallel I can think of.

Talking about Spain kinda muddies the issue imo - it's not just 'the wrong club team', it's a club team from what in the minds of many isn't even the same country - don't know much about it but I'd imagine there's less booing by Barca fans of, say, Athletic Bilbao players.

nah u just muddied the issue by suggesting spain play in catalonia/euskadi which they don't iirc

incident i was thinking of was sevilla/betis iirc

I don't think any United supporters would regard him as an underwhelming return on the intial investment

i did say slightly, tbf- i know he's popular, and yes he's not been bad value, as such....... but.....

Oh I don't know anything about that. I just assumed that any 'Spain has less nat'l-football unity than other countries' thing would be Civil-War-Related, sorry :(

he's snappy on some things tbh- like you and MIKA iirc :D

salright grav

spain is full of weird resentments i'll never understand

enterprising young fellows will want to know

# ilfchatz

on aim is the place to see or be seen rite now

no idea what that means, but I'll be here keeping the flame burning

:(

form guide's pretty damning of chelsea
http://www.premierleague.com/page/FormGuide

Hm would I swap Hodgson for McCarthy? Probably not. Will Andy Gray ever criticize Gerrard when he kicks a 40 yard pass out of play? Probably not. Will we concede from a set piece tonight? Almost certainly.

form guide's pretty damning of chelsea

Good grief. I don't think I can remember a top team collapsing quite like this.

you'd say it can't just be wilkins, but

I don't think it's *too* different from the way people viewed Kobe during the Olympic run - I'm not an American so I couldn't say for sure but that's the closest US parallel I can think of.

yeah i was thinking this

god liverpool are shit

not great so far alright

but wolves will tire, and they're not exactly troubling ye yet

had a few decent chances. can we please buy some wingers, it's a total joke playing a striker and a centre mid on the wings.

Commentators going on about how they can't believe how well Wolves are playing and they've lost all these away games in a row but tonight they're playing well etc. They don't seem to consider that perhaps Wolves are playing to the same level they always play at but Liverpool are simply THAT bad.

pandemic you are the platonic ideal of a liverpool fan

no tantrums or weird resentments, just lucid sorrow at the disgrace of yr beloved team ;_;

xp to Ronan
Kuyt is okay wide in a 4-2-3-1 but in a 4-4-2 he is inadequate out there.

xp
Thanks :)

meireles drifts in as well. i like him as a player but it's not his position really.

yeah, when meirelles has impressed this season it's always been centrally

god is he being played wide rmde

he's a cmid and nothing else

he's appearing in the centre a lot but officially is on the right wing. he's been one of the few positive points of this season when he's played in the centre imo.

some real imcompetence on display here

should be a peno there

Yeah me too, I'm always glad to see you around pandemic xp

Reina in danger of breaking Xavi's passing record tonight. As to whether he'll complete 98% like Xavi I rather think not. Still trying to get my head around Kuyt playing as a LEFT winger! Ryan Babel Roy Hodgson thinks you're just that bad.

wolves doing what we should be doing and pressing high up the pitch. story of our season.

Only caught the end of that but it looked and sounded terrible. Massive 45 mins ahead here I feel - if Liverpool have any ambitions to do other than just scrap around midtable they have to put in a top run 'til the end of January, and this should be the easiest game of that sequence.

Apparently Chelsea yet to muster a shot on target at home to a Lee-less Bolton!!

yeah they're shit

they're 1-0 up

how now

wolves 1-0

Oh dear

ffs

oh my actual days

Wolves clearly came into this game knowing it was eminently winnable. Tbh a perfectly reasonable assumption.

http://twitter.com/#!/search/rafa

thistrader Shaun Loh
#Liverpool fans who wanted Rafa gone, you have got your wish, and hope you burn in hell

dubdoyle83 John Doyle
My beloved team reduced to this by media scum, purslow and that idiot Roy. Rafa why ever u say would never have us looking like this.