Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

wait WHAT?

I expect he's talking about his pariah status rather than, y'know, Muslims.

unless hughes has moved training to gitmo

that or he has joined the taliban

t/s -- tweeting about the courteeners vs destroying the bamiyan buddhas

oh dear, sorry for that over the top cuntish remark yesterday ronan. i was rather drunk at the time. think i'll give the pre-match drinks a miss next time.

no need to apologise at all.

qpr really are signing julio cesar apparently. i take it all back, the club's being run by complete morons. scary.

so, so, so bad and uselessly disjointed on the pitch btw - as of right now i have no doubt there's not a worse side in the league functionally speaking. city and chelsea next and i'll be mildly gobsmacked if we let in under ten, regardless of who else we sign this week.

Via his twitter account, the controversial midfielder expressed his love for the club and asked Stephane Mbia to stay at Marseille.

“J'espère que vous resterez frère (I hope you stay brother) Vous êtes un grand joueur, j'aimerais jouer avec vous (You are a great player, I would love to play with you),” tweeted Barton.

now imagine how i lolled when his move collapsed

has julio cesar had a spectacular collapse in ability over the last year or is this signing really that mental?

i am kinda more interested in why he always looks like a normal bloke photoshopped to look fat, it's genuinely bizarre

hahaha

i remember a few lolworthy performances the last time Inter were in the CL. Don't know about his general form.

£50k a week to rob green then dumped after two games

nb it's the first part there that's the real problem

no even for a mediocre player green's form has been unexpectedly and bewilderingly bad, like mental issues bad

even still ffs hughes he hasnt had his arms and legs blown off maybe coach him a bit, find out what's up idk? play a reserve keeper for a bit if you really have to? no let's just write off 50k a week for the next two years and sign someone else for (a reported) 80k

it barely fucking matters anyway, even if we were signing gigi buffon what the fuck miracles is he supposed to perform behind a bunch of guys that either havent met or haven't particularly been told to do anything

something in hughes has mutated horrendously awry since city (the realisation of his delusions of grandeur, he will brook no blame for it), this awful mix of "good players should know what to do" cash n carry redknappism motivated by a blank hoddle-ist contempt for players he was better than in his day

but then with some office management profesh speak chucked in as well, not the fun adkins moneyball loony shit just the pure brutalist stuff

who on earth could feel love for this terrible man

he is your leader, you'd go over the top if he told you to

honestly klats who could have ever doubted you were a liverpool fan

no way Dempsey went to Sunderland

heh xp

Dempsey hasn't gone anywhere yet as far as I can tell. Wouldn't bet against some other club coming in and hijacking the move but I dunno, there's a decent attacking midfield building up at Sunderland. With a useless/injured collection of journeymen strikers to pass it to.

Offtopic since obv. not playing in Prem but Zlatan cultists may be surprised at where he turned up. As you were.

I love that interview

something in hughes has mutated horrendously awry since city (the realisation of his delusions of grandeur, he will brook no blame for it), this awful mix of "good players should know what to do" cash n carry redknappism motivated by a blank hoddle-ist contempt for players he was better than in his day

but then with some office management profesh speak chucked in as well, not the fun adkins moneyball loony shit just the pure brutalist stuff

who on earth could feel love for this terrible man

Harry Redknapp will be at Loftus Rd proclaiming Park Ji Sung a triffic lad by October.

we won't have a paella thread till friday's draws but i'm annoyed i didn't see udinese-braga is on until now. ten minutes of extra time to go, 2-2 on ag.

and holy crap! udinese should be winning if not for a TERRIBLE first touch right there, on a little chip that gave the guy an incredible amount of space in the box.

Braga manager being a dick to Pasquale as he tries to take a throw in. I absolutely nothing to base this on but I don't like Braga.

Penalties on ITV4.

From the Bleacher Report: "In what looks like a 'Hail Mary' in the waning days of the summer transfer window, Tottenham Hotspur Chairman Daniel Levy has reportedly given new manager Andre Villas-Boas the go-ahead to spend all £30 million the club received for selling midfielder Luka Modric to Real Madrid."

I actually read "hail mary" as "mail harry."

oh dear

lmao panenka fuck up by udinese

just reading about moussa dembele to spurs

Park, Santos, Mertesacker, Arteta and Benayoun in

Braga through, all because of a silly silly panenka.

Ismael, ?

Spurs' strategy reminding me of your lot last year is all

in picking up sensible, half decent deals like vert, siggy and ade for the price of 1 superstar? sure, i see that.

(Udinese are kind of the reason Watford sacked DYCHE, so no sympathy from these parts)

And we've got our first win! Against Stevenage, but it was away, so that's something.

Also, does anyone know if Zambian international forward Emmanuel Mayuka is any good? We've signed him from Young Boys Berne according to Twitter.

Dembele's going to Tottenham. BOOOOO! :(

yeah, i'm a bit miffed

ritchie de laet is as good as it will get for belgians in salford

             Friedal
Walker    Vert    Kaboul   BAE
             Sandro
Lennon   Dembele  Siggy   Bale
            Adebayor

??? there needs to be a deeper playmaker type, you know, a modric. or is avb hoping to have dembele as he used ramires as p much his best player last season? either way that team is top heavy without anyone doing the hardwork to create/win the ball.

Vertonghen's distribution is excellent, he might come to resemble something like a deep-lying playmaker.

Wait, a hoy hoy... How the hell do you think Sandro should be in the first team?

Also, Aaron Lennon seems to have slowed down a lot in the past couple of years. I think we need something new on the right side.

I read today we're linked with a goalkeeper from... France or something. I still think Friedel is our best choice for one more year. How could he not be? AFAICT he did well last year.

yeah, Hugo Lloris. He's kind of a big deal

Slow Lloris jokes.

oh. Seems like it's a done deal anyway. Don't see how you'd be displeased with that, as long as it doesn't come at the expense of a few more outfield signings

utd bid 5m for him, the cheeky cunts

dembele has been playing in central midfield and winning lots of plaudits for his tackling, possession, and dribbling. still not a great passer maybe, but he was the best option for deep playmaker of all the names linked with spurs, outside of moutinho who was way too expensive.

we'll be bidding 30m in a couple of years no doubt

i posted this on the spurs thread, but here are some stats on dembele vs utd in comparison with spurs cms from last weekend
http://news.5minstokickoff.com/index.php/moussa-dembele-still-totes-awesome/

speaking of belgians and utd, i thought utd were gonna buy steven defour, has he been any good for porto?