― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 13 February 2006 15:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― the firefox, Monday, 13 February 2006 15:28 (eighteen years ago) link
"Diddums" is my considered response to this. Everton, as I never tire of telling people, played 63 games in 84-85 (winning 45 of them and scoring 126 goals, fact fans) with a vastly smaller squad and only really started to show fatigue in May (Cup final defeat, lost three of last four league games). The great Liverpool teams of the period also didn't wither mid-season under a similar avalanche of fixtures.
I don't think Rafa's lot are, either (more's the pity). Recent form might suggest a swift end to their Cup campaigns in the next week or two and a loosening grip on 3rd spot. Ain't gonna happen. They're flattering to deceive - getting my hopes up.
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 13 February 2006 17:39 (eighteen years ago) link
It's true, you never tire of it - it must be because of your meticulous pre-season - the way you start off in late June on exercises involving telling different people about individual games for no more than 5 minutes, then work up gradually by 5 minutes a week with a different statistic added unpredictably to keep things fresh. It's at this stage, amid the dirty keyboards and clogged threads of February, that that training really pays dividends in posts like the one above. Ray.
― the pinefox, Monday, 13 February 2006 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:38 (eighteen years ago) link
For example, i've seen reports that modern players have much less time on the ball, so they must control and pass in the same thought process. I thought of this watching the 1979 ECWC final between Barca and Dusseldorf, and it was, well, shocking. It was the moment where you realise that football has moved on. I knew, for example, that the era of matthews and finney was one I couldn't relate to, but I left in the respectful category instead.
Seeing this match, I realised that it was close enough to the football I knew to mean I couldn't write it off as part of the olden days, but couldn't escape the fact that it was a bit bobbins.
Taking this together - if players today have less time on the ball, have less opportunity to decide what to do, then modern football time is compressed, and so simple comparison to back in the day aren't appropriate at all are they?
< / pissed on train home>
― Dave B (daveb), Monday, 13 February 2006 21:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tehrannosaurus HoBB (the pirate king), Monday, 13 February 2006 22:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 10:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 12:53 (eighteen years ago) link
However, Liverpool revealed on their website that a deal has now been finalised, subject to a medical.
Paletta, who turns 20 on Wednesday, helped Argentina win the Under-20 World Cup in 2005.
He has made 33 appearances for Banfield and scored five goals.
Paletta's arrival will further boost Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez's defensive options following the recent acquisitions of Daniel Agger and Jan Kromkamp.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 14:20 (eighteen years ago) link
Recent reports have suggested that Mr Villalonga could head a consortium looking to invest in Liverpool.
On Monday, he was quoted by the Daily Express as saying: "I want Liverpool to change from a domestically-focused club into a global force."
Oh great, a global force.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 09:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 09:53 (eighteen years ago) link
Brian Labone was right, you know, about Liverpudlians.
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 09:57 (eighteen years ago) link
I believe he was appointed to Telefonica because he was friends with then president Aznar. I could be getting my cronyisms muddled up, but just to be on the safe side let's assume he is a right wing psychopath.
I'd like to think Xabi would leave in protest.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 29 March 2006 10:05 (eighteen years ago) link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/e/everton/4941542.stm
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 08:16 (eighteen years ago) link
Everton have responded angrily to Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez branding the Toffees a "small club". The Spaniard said after Saturday's 0-0 Merseyside derby: "When you play against the smaller teams at Anfield you know the game will be narrow."
Everton chief executive Keith Wyness responded on the club website and said: "Benitez is in a minority of one in believing Everton is a small club.
"Somehow we just expect more of a Liverpool manager."
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 5 February 2007 11:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Friendly Tree (688), Monday, 5 February 2007 12:02 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't. I don't expect anything else. No class.
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 5 February 2007 12:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 5 February 2007 12:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 5 February 2007 12:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Pete W (peterw), Monday, 5 February 2007 12:57 (seventeen years ago) link
Manchester City midfielder Barton, called up by England for the first time, said in January that Gerrard and Lampard could not play together in the same midfield as they "needed a ball each to succeed".
He also condemned some England players for bringing out autobiographies after the dismal showing in the World Cup last summer, of which Gerrard was one.
But Gerrard added: "I haven't seen Joey yet but I'll give him a knock on his door and present him with a signed copy of the book so he can read it over the next couple of days.
Actually it is not witty at all, but it will have to do.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 5 February 2007 14:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 5 February 2007 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link
At ease.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 5 February 2007 14:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 5 February 2007 14:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 5 February 2007 14:36 (seventeen years ago) link
I was surprised to read, during the transfer window, that Joey is an Evertonian - considering the stick they gave him about his half-brother.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 5 February 2007 14:39 (seventeen years ago) link
If his complaint had finished here I'd back him to the hilt but otherwise he just sounds like a moany douche who can't find the point
― Hell Hath No Furry (DJ Mencap), Monday, 5 February 2007 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 5 February 2007 16:14 (seventeen years ago) link
Exact quote from Joey Barton here. Dude's got a point.
― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 5 February 2007 21:09 (seventeen years ago) link
I've just changed it again to The Cabbage Cats
― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 5 February 2007 21:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sir Tehrance HoBB (the pirate king), Monday, 5 February 2007 22:13 (seventeen years ago) link
Everton midfielder Lee Carsley says Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez's comment that the Toffees are a small club was a "stupid thing to say".
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 12:26 (seventeen years ago) link
At bleeding last. I am slightly troubled at the club being owned by meat billionaires; I hope the shirts don't end up being sponsored by Turkey Twizzlers or whatnot. Still, I suppose they might have endeed up with DIC written across them.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 12:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― onimo (onimo), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 12:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 12:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― I don't know whether to play the trumpet, read a book or be a lesbian. (aldo_cow, Tuesday, 6 February 2007 12:43 (seventeen years ago) link
Wimbledon FC footballer Robbie Earl is working with the Society by appearing in promotional literature as part of the 'Men and Meat' campaign, to show that leading sports people are vegetarian, including the male of the species.
― onimo (onimo), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 12:45 (seventeen years ago) link
Meat billionaires! Shirts red with the blood of slaughtered cattle. Enduring image.
I wonder if they own Hafnia?
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 12:52 (seventeen years ago) link
I haven't seen the article in which he learned about these connections, and don't know whether or not they're true.
― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 12:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 13:07 (seventeen years ago) link
:(
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 13:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 13:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 13:13 (seventeen years ago) link
However, the reason for me thinking this is he invited Ron Saunders back, and he is a born again Christian fundamentalist.
What on earth am I talking about? I don't know.
(That was my Martin O'Neill impersonation.)
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 13:34 (seventeen years ago) link
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dONtFBuCztM
― Pete W (peterw), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link
It's true, they are into both Dubya and Giuliani. I agree that you don't expect billionaires to be nice, but it would help if these ones were tactfully discreet and enigmatic about their views.
My sense was that Benitez didn't call Everton a small club: he said (something like:) they had done what you would expect a small club to do - which is not really the same thing. Yet I have read in more than one newspaper that he made a point of going around and sounding off on this point repeatedly, so perhaps my judgement is too generous.
I think that Moyes said that Everton were 'one of the big clubs in England', didn't he? I think I agree with him. Possibly even one of the great clubs of Europe.
― the pinefox (the pinefox), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 16:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 16:07 (seventeen years ago) link
...But Liverpool's new co-owner George Gillett denied the attraction was to take advantage.
"If you were to put down the list of objectives we have, money would be nowhere near the top," he said when announcing their Anfield arrival to a room of cynical onlookers.
"It would start with winning, it would start with passion, it would have respect for tradition and history. It would have the word legacy very near the top and it would have the word thank you to David Moores for giving us the chance to own this wonderful franchise and hopefully add to its history."
Kind of spoils it there
― Sir Tehrance HoBB (the pirate king), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 00:18 (seventeen years ago) link