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

Let's do this.

thread title feels a bit wrong, other years some people were saying pool would win it.

Silly prediction:

Champions: Man Utd.
CL qualifiers: 2. Chelsea 3. Spurs 4. Man City
EL qualifiers: 5. Liverpool 6. Everton 7. Newcastle United
Relegated: Blackpool/West Ham/Birmingham
Promoted: Watford, Coventry, Hull
Top Scorer: Andy Carroll
Player of the Year: Darren Fletcher
Good signings: Nicky Shorey, Pawel Abbott, Sol Campbell
Hooky signings: everyone West Ham have signed
First manager sacked: Avram Grant
Managers who won't see out the season: Steve Bruce/Avram Grant/Alex McLeish

FA Cup: Spurs
League Cup: Arsenal

Main reiteration: West Brom won't go down

It's a temporary thread title to be changed at a later date, but yes point taken. Think people were having thread title paralysis.

Man City won't win it though.

Louis you are tipping Arsenal to finish 8th, below Newcastle?

:D

am actually enjoying having no expectations for this season.

Same here actually, we know we probably won't top last season so as long as we're there or thereabouts I'm kind of happy.

well done Matt

Looking at my FFL team trying to work out which Wigan player will have an amazing season right out of nowhere.

gah, this walk on to the pitch, line up, shake hands thing's a load of bollocks isn't it. you're supposed to run out on to the pitch roaring like a man possessed!

Well I'm much more excited than I thought I would be.

Revised predictions, to be regretted at leisure:
- Spurs to win today
- but City to win the league
- United, Chelsea, Liverpool for the CL
- then Everton, Arsenal, Spurs
- goodbye Blackpool, West Brom, Wigan

cracking opening, this

^^^

yomp!

mancini out

he made the right call re: goalkeeper!

Joe. Motherfucking. Hart.

FALSE FACTS #!: "Motherfucking" is a family name on his mother's side.

"I'm sorry that I'm leaving Inter and Italy because I would have preferred to continue my career in my own country," read a statement on his own website.

'I don't really want to be here' is a good start for Super M, but I hope it escalates soon.

Do Arsenal have an actual goalkeeper yet?

i hate this tho, hart makes a few saves and it's like "oh god he is JUSTIFYING mancini". he's supposed to make saves, it's his job. given is definitely a better keeper than a one good season guy like hart, you know he'll be in massive howler country in 2/3 weeks.

tho whoever they play is going to need to be good with this appalling defence

who is this commentator on my stream pointing out that different languages have different words for things.

So Spurs r gonna win the league, rite?

Surprise CL semifinalists, fade badly in the league imo

Who is this gimp presenting? And where are Robinho and Mascherano going to be this season?

think you guys are maybe seeing the ESPN-USA broadcast?

Richard Keys won't be on this thing.

Andy Gray on holding midfielders: "Argh, too many of them. Ruined the World Cup". Which was won by Spain, who played 2 holding midfielders.

I vaguely know the face - is it the druggy blue peter guy?

It's Ben Shephard from The Xtra Factor.

also GMTV!

And Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince according to Wikipedia!

Ben plays the role of a father of four children in the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shop. He is noticeable (behind a beard and moustache) just before Ron acknowledges his new love interest.

=-o. he certainly has all the credentials for this job.

http://i36.tinypic.com/16kqkjq.jpg

...great way to start the season here.

Ha, just realised that the Sky team today is Ben, Glenn and Sven.

who's the ben?

Ben Shephard of Xtra Factor, GMTV and Harry Potter fame!

quite glad i am too lazy to do a lil b-en shephard.jpg

Why do I look forward to this day then feel like I'm gonna be sick.

West Brom are so going down btw, and I don't say that out of malice.

Jesus we seem to be playing 5-3-2. Nice to be injury riddled at the start of a season. Fucking Keogh on the bench oh god

lol Kenwyne Jones limps off

stewart downing = first goal of the season?

Fletcher looking lively. Stoke looking kicky.

Wolves 6 inches from a penalty.

BUT SCORE FROM THE AWESOME FREE KICK INSTEAD

Karl Henry taps it to Jones, who flicks it up on his foot and rifles it over the wall into the top corner.

2-0 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGH

black motherfucking pool

"My client became a YouTube sensation at the age of 12" - rolling off-season/transfer speculation thread 2011

Read some terrifying rumours on Twitter last night that Birmingham have opted out of Eurovision and that UEFA will ask Liverpool to take their place.

That Mourinho/Adams exchange is great.

AVB might not like being tied to JM but I do think he's got a cult of personality well-established at Porto. Maybe I'm reading too much into comments from a club who've just won three trophies but it sounds like none of their best players are even considering a move this summer, they want to make the CL qfs at a minimum, etc. Frightened of that guy tbh.

and also that Chelsea and United have won exactly the same amount of major trohies since 2003

is this true?

No

Read some terrifying rumours on Twitter last night that Birmingham have opted out of Eurovision and that UEFA will ask Liverpool to take their place.

nein danke

Man United - five league titles, one FA Cup, three League Cups, one Champions League

Chelsea - three league titles, three FA Cups, two League Cups

So no.

I think it is since RA arrived, ie start of 03/04 season.

OMG FAMILY MAN RYAN GIGGS IS MR SUPERINJUNCTION.

^ suggest jail

Seedy move from the Guardian / MP but this picture was good for a childish lol:

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

Lol.

I'm not really sure I believe newspapers have a divine right to be able to print whatever they like re: the private lives of famous people but on the other hand if you don't want it published, don't behave like a short-sighted fuckwit.

Then you remember the superinjuction that was taken out to prevent the Graun reporting on Trafigura dumping toxic waste off the coast of Africa and and think again.

Truth should be the test, then sue later if they've tapped your phone/libelled you/bugged your house/done something actually naughty. This whole affair is laughable.

MPs have always used parliamentary privilege to say things they wouldn't be able to otherwise - the Trafigura case being a good example - but that's usually been backed up by some kind of clear moral case for doing so. When it comes to the private lives of individuals, i'm not sure that moral case can be made.

In a perfect society, superinjunctions are only there to keep whistleblowers secret, right?

His private life shouldn't be something the press or public care about and tbh I don't think it would have been such a huge story if he didn't try to silence them. For once the press does seem to be going at it from a more appropriate angle of 'fuck you for silencing us and making a mockery of the legal system over just getting your dick wet' than just 'hey ryan's been a naughty boy'.

His lawyers have certainly played a blinder for him.

ryan giggs?! kept that quiet

tbqh, i'm not sure the Guardian picking and choosing whose legally-enshrined human rights it'll respect is any better than the News Of The World's snickering. The whole thing's a mess though. It needs proper legislation but how that legislation's framed is going to be a nightmare to work out.

That photo is funny, though.

Breaking news
webfeed

Kolo Touré banned for six months for failed drugs test. More to follow ...

o_O

That's six months from March. So he'll miss a couple games next season. But is he still first-choice ahead of Lescott ...

Really teaching him a lesson with this one

Also, Rio Ferdinand got an 8 month ban for missing a test

In Kolo's defence, he does need to lose a bit of weight.

ferdinand missed it so he didnt fail it. The rules were fairly clearcut.

Apart from the fact that he took one the next day, passed it, and offered to give hair samples. He was an idiot but there's no suggestion of any impropriety.

there's a shit load of suggestion of impropriety, including 3-4 different excuses for missing the test. Kolo Toure was bang to rights but at no point did he or his management try to evade the verdict. Well done to Rio tho for getting tested after his manager had given him the all clear.

He actually tried to take it on the same day but the testers told him it was too late, even though they were still at the training ground. Not much point in rehashing arguments from years ago though.

Yeah, shouldn't there be a Champions League final thread we can argue in by now? Or will the season-long thread be used for that?

personally i want to see TAKING ADVANTAGE OF YOUNG BOYS at the top of SNA for one last weekend

I looked it up the other day, and Young Boys failed to secure one of Switzerland's CL places for next season - Basel and Zurich got them. So yeah, enjoy it while you can.

On the other hand, it' so hard to load that whole thread by late May.

you could just use bookmarks like the rest of us.

glad that thread title still makes ppl other than myself lol, possibly my finest thread title

what the fuck is this absolute shit

what in the fuck is this absolute shit

here, defoe- fuck off. just fuck off mate, alright? take your mum and your 30 minute special on sky sports news and your agent and fuck off.

"i don't want to leave spurs, i just want games"

"do you wanna leave spurs tho"

"nah i dont wanna leave spurs i love th eclub just need games"

"ya but do you wanna leave the club isn't it"

"no seriously love the club and the fans just need more time man"

http://www.twentysteps.com/images/bovvered.jpg

someone pulls this shit in FM i tell them to sit down and stfu then i sell them first window that opens

puts michael owen's fuckin brochure into perspective

Owen's angling for another season of bench-warming excitement in the Theatre of Dreams. Dimi shd get himself the hell out of there, he's wasted on them.

Surely to God they won't keep Owen?

i wdn't've thought so but if he's pay to play then it's possible. you've got enough young 'uns not to worry about the squad cap too much yes?

hell if we're keeping woodgate on pay per play ffs

some really first rate insight from shearer in his bbc column

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.

I don't know much about the two players the Toffees have brought in, Dutch midfielder Royston Drenthe and Argentine striker Denis Stracqualursi, but what I do know is that in David Moyes they have a fantastic manager.

fuck

lol

aye, that unknown quantity royston drenthe. played for that wee team for a few years, what are they called again, oh aye, real madrid.

I don't know much about the pundits on Match of the Day but what I do know is that in Phil Bigwood they have a fantastic Executive Producer.

Waves of sweet nostalgia warmed my heart seeing this thread re-appear <3

Shearer's uselessness took care of the cooling down though tbh. How is he still allowed to be on telly?

emil cioran, petre inspirescu, sorin cartu, cristian chivu, dan petrescu

triffic bunch of lads

― calpolaris (nakhchivan),

under the radar