English Football Thread 2008-2009 Season

[Rocket Edge]

Wow i'm really pleased with our performance tonight, its the best i've seen us play in a long time. It's probably the spur we got from the spurs game *joke cough..*. Tevez is so important to us, and even though I have time for Berbatov, he would be my choice to partner Rooney up front. I'm also happy with the result, although I can't help but feel we should have gotten more out of the game. Even if it were 2-0, the tie would be dead & buried. 1-0 is still very open to anything.

As for the PFA award, my feelings are the same as Paul's.

[charliepanayi]

We've clearly taken our gameplan from the Harlem Globetrotters in Futurama! To paraphrase Ethan 'Bubblegum' Tate:

"It was always our plan to be behind at half-time, thus deepning Man Utd's eventual humiliation!"

See, we just want to lull them into a false sense of security! Away goals? Pah, who needs them!

[Heath]

Also I stand by what I said about Giggs earlier. Apparently he's only started 12 league games this season. I suppose he deserved to win it eventually, as he's the only footballer I can remember still being around from when I first got into it and he's still playing consistently well at a Premiership level, but Vidic can feel hard done by.

Yeah, I agree; Vidic probably deserved it. I think someone on the LJ Premiership community made the point that Darren Anderton has started more games this season than Giggs. And he retired in December.

[Psychotic]

Well, we've done our bit to get the Barcodes relegated. How about YOU?

Mmm Michael Owen let me lick your tears. :D

[Heath]

Thank you, Liverpool, for doing your bit to get Newcastle relegated. I, for one, support you in those particular endeavours.

Also well done to Preston sneaking into the play-offs too. I was disappointed that Tranmere were unfortunate enough to lose out on a play-off spot yesterday, but good luck to Alan Irvine.

[Psychotic]

Thank you, Liverpool, for doing your bit to get Newcastle relegated. I, for one, support you in those particular endeavours.You've got a funny way of showing it...!

[Heath]

Well, sod you winning the league. I'm more than happy for you to help relegate Newcastle!

Decent result for us today. Dull first half but the second half was good. The fun tomorrow is seeing who is actually in the worst form: Hull or Villa. Hopefully Hull can do us a favour by beating Villa.

[charliepanayi]

Newcastle v Middlesbrough - expect them to draw, thus screwing each other to probable relegation. But if Hull lose tomorrow they and Sunserland are still right in the brown stuff if there is a winner in the Newcastle v Boro game.

Birmingham go up to the Premiership next year, and one of Sheffield United/Preston/Reading/Burnley will join them. No Cardiff in the playoffs, hooray!

Norwich, Southampton and Charlton all relegated to Division Two/League One, pretty grim all round for those teams. Did Southampton really make the FA Cup final only six years ago?

[Psychotic]

Well, sod you winning the league. I'm more than happy for you to help relegate Newcastle!

Decent result for us today. Dull first half but the second half was good. The fun tomorrow is seeing who is actually in the worst form: Hull or Villa. Hopefully Hull can do us a favour by beating Villa.My point was that said decent result was an odd way to help us relegate Newcastle, seeing as Sunderland are also relegation threatened. Couldn't you have taken one for the team? :p

[Rocket Edge]

I just thought I'd pop in to say, come on United! :D

[charliepanayi]

I'm worried, very worried :(

[Psychotic]

If Arsenal win, you just know they're going to play crap players in the league against United (like we played our reserves in the league after making it to the final in '07) and for my faint and distant title dream, that simply cannot happen! So I guess I have to want United to win.

[charliepanayi]

If Arsenal win, you just know they're going to play crap players in the league against United (like we played our reserves in the league after making it to the final in '07) and for my faint and distant title dream, that simply cannot happen! So I guess I have to want United to win.

I don't think we'd do that, especially if the title is still up for grabs. Not that it will matter as I can't see us winning tonight!

EDIT: This really hurts. Oh well roll on August...

EDIT 2: This really really hurts. How ****ing :bou::bou::bou::bou: were we? Next time can we just lose to Roma and be done with it?

[Rocket Edge]

I'm happy with the result obviously but in a strange way I feel sorry for Arsenal somehow tonight. They didn't really have much luck. I sympatise with Gibbs, it looks like his mistake really got to him. After the first goal was scored Arsenal just wanted to go home. I thought the goals were good but the third I thought was a spectacular move.

Anyway, roll on the final! :monster:

[Heath]

Well, sod you winning the league. I'm more than happy for you to help relegate Newcastle!

Decent result for us today. Dull first half but the second half was good. The fun tomorrow is seeing who is actually in the worst form: Hull or Villa. Hopefully Hull can do us a favour by beating Villa.My point was that said decent result was an odd way to help us relegate Newcastle, seeing as Sunderland are also relegation threatened. Couldn't you have taken one for the team? :p

Oh yes, but I'm fairly confident United will win the League and I've thought as much for a while now. I - however - am not confident of us getting 5th and so we need the points more than Newcastle's rivals don't. You being a close 2nd is less important to me than Newcastle going down, which is less important than us finishing 5th :p

[Loony BoB]

Fletcher. :( One of my favourite players at United. So gutted. Hope something happens to allow him to play in the final - he was on the bench for the whole game last time around.

[demondude]

I would just like to say I am still extremely pissed.

[charliepanayi]

There is a footballing god after all, I've been spared Man Utd v Chelsea again. Now to pin all my hopes on Barcelona and Everton at the end of the month.

[Rocket Edge]

What happened on wednesday night was an absolute disgrace (or in the words of Didier Drogba, a fucking disgrace). That ref was obviously for Barca because there was at least 2 solid penalty claims turned down. Even though I'm happy with the final, I feel sorry for Chelsea.

[charliepanayi]

What happened on wednesday night was an absolute disgrace (or in the words of Didier Drogba, a smurfing disgrace). That ref was obviously for Barca because there was at least 2 solid penalty claims turned down. Even though I'm happy with the final, I feel sorry for Chelsea.

Er...and him sending off a Barcelona player for no real reason? That was to put everyone off the scent was it?

The referee had a poor game, but any suggestion that he was 'for' Barcelona is a load of old tripe. As for teams having good penalty appeals turned down, it's called football! We could all point to games where the teams we supported were on the end of bad decisions.

And Drogba was probably so pissed off as deep down he knew he had a great chance to make the game safe, and he missed it.

[Heath]

My God, last night was hilarious, was it not?

[Rocket Edge]

Er...and him sending off a Barcelona player for no real reason? That was to put everyone off the scent was it?
To be fair, I'd rather 4 penalty decisions to a player on the opposite team getting sent off. The sending off was a joke sure, but Chelsea came out of the game being easily the team hardest done by.

The referee had a poor game, but any suggestion that he was 'for' Barcelona is a load of old tripe. As for teams having good penalty appeals turned down, it's called football! We could all point to games where the teams we supported were on the end of bad decisions.
Of course but 4 legit claims in a game isn't just down to bad refereeing, its a disgrace. As for the ref being for Barca, well, that's seems like a reasonable explaination to me after what I witnessed the other night.

And Drogba was probably so pissed off as deep down he knew he had a great chance to make the game safe, and he missed it.
True enough I guess, also coupled with the fact that he knows next season Chelsea will be Hiddink-less. Not getting any younger either is he.

[charliepanayi]

If he was 'for' Barcelona, why send off a player of theirs at all, no matter how many penalty shouts Chelsea had. And for the record I think they had two legitimate shouts for a penalty. Again these things happen in football. It's a load of old rubbish, if this game had happened the other way round everyone would be hailing Chelsea for a masterclass in hanging in there and grabbing a late goal. The referee was certainly poor, but that's all. And he sure as hell wasn't responsible for the chance Drogba missed (maybe he'd have found a reason to disallow it!) or for Chelsea deciding to play for a 0-0 in the first leg. You don't score an away goal, it's always a gamble. Sure, they can feel hard done by with some of the decisions, I'd feel hard done by, but any accusations of skullduggery are just daft. Plus referees would be more likely to give Drogba decisions I imagine if he wasn't such a git.

Heath - seeing Jamie Redknapp ready to explode after the game just really put the seal on it.

[Rocket Edge]

What? No they wouldn't. If Chelsea played like Barcelona the papers would still hound them the next morning regardless. I know if United played like that I'd be very frustrated at the least. I think the sending off doesn't really count (as I said in my previous post). Now that I think of it more, I think the whole game was just a comedy of errors from the ref.

Anyway, I guess we just have differant opinions here.

[charliepanayi]

So the referee was allegedly for Barcelona, but him putting them a man down when they needed a goal 'doesn't count'? There is clearly a difference of opinion here, but my opinion doesn't involve an accusation with no evidence for said opinion whatsoever. As I already said, it is one thing to feel pissed off over poor decisions, another to say more sinister forces were at work. I'll agree about the litany of errors though.

Also Jamie Redknapp pontificating about how referees from outside the big European leagues shouldn't be officiating games like this, perhaps next time we can get a top British referee for a big European tie. Someone like Howard 'I give hilariously awful penalty decisions' Webb or Graham 'I can't remember giving a player two yellow cards' Poll. Not to mention the referee who (harshly) sent off Fletcher was er. . . Italian.

[Psychotic]

I was going to make a post on Saturday saying "Liverpool? Top of the league in May? Am I dreaming?!" but, well, you know.

[charliepanayi]

Don't worry Liverpool fans, we'll hold Man Utd on Saturday...they'll win by no more than three goals I swear! :)

Good to see us manage to turn a dead rubber into an embarrassment on the weekend, I'm getting echoes of that 6-1 at Old Trafford a few years back for this Saturday. Newcastle might not even go down now, nothing is going right this year :(

Burnley v Sheffield United to see who gets into the Premiership next year. My money is on the latter.

And the Bundesliga this season looks set to go for the award for most absurdly exciting end to a season ever - four teams are separated by two points at the top with two games to go.

[Rocket Edge]

So the referee was allegedly for Barcelona, but him putting them a man down when they needed a goal 'doesn't count'? There is clearly a difference of opinion here, but my opinion doesn't involve an accusation with no evidence for said opinion whatsoever.
Since when do I need evidence to say what I think? We have a differance of opinion, lets just leave it at that.

Fingers crossed for United to lift the trophey this weekend after the win against Wigan. Arsenal ironically did it to us on our home turf if I can recall properly!

[charliepanayi]

We did, in 2002.

EDIT: Leeds get to spend another year in Division Two/League One. What a shame! :)

EDIT 2: We couldn't get the win to take it to the final weekend but the performance was much improved today. If only we'd played a bit more like that in the two cup semi-finals. But then the problem this season in the league hasn't been playing Man Utd/Chelsea/Liverpool (there was last weekend but we're not the only team to lose 4-1 at home to a big rival this year after all), it was about all the points dropped against the rest of the league. Far too many games drawn at home, losing to Hull and Stoke etc. Liverpool will be left kicking themselves for all their draws at home, but it will be interesting to see if they can go one better next year.

The relegation scrap will be going to the final weekend at least. I think Hull will drop and Newcastle will survive. It'd be nice if by some miracle both went down though!

[Cuchulainn]

Champions again :)

[Psychotic]

Bye West Brom. :( They have some of the best fans in the Premiership imho.

[Old Manus]

I was so looking forward to joining you guys next season too :(

[Rocket Edge]

Hat-trick of titles, I'm very happy. :monster:

I thought West Brom really brought something to the premiership this season. Although relegated they can leave with their heads held high.

[Loony BoB]

And we'll probably see them in a couple of seasons anyway.

[charliepanayi]

And we'll probably see them in a couple of seasons anyway.

Which is more than can be said for Newcastle if they go down maybe :D - well you never know I guess, but seeing as Division Two/League One next season will have five ex-Premiership teams in it relegation can really mess some teams up. I think West Brom will be back anyway.

In other news (sees everyone rapidly fall asleep), I see that England are getting their bid for the 2018/2022 World Cup (FIFA will decide both simultaneously) underway. The following countries are bidding:

2018 or 2022: Australia, England, Indonesia (!), Qatar (!!), Mexico, Russia, China, USA, Greece, Belgium/Holland, Portugal/Spain.

2022 only: Austria/Switzerland, Japan/South Korea (again?!)

I think 2018 will go to a European country (most likely England if they don't mess up their bid, Russia is too much of a logistical nightmare and FIFA dislike joint bids I think), and then 2022 will be in Australia or the USA. Would be nice to see the World Cup here with any luck.

[Cuchulainn]

It is now a famous Premier League tradition. The Brummie Yo-Yos. Too good for the Championship, too bad for the Premiership. WBA, Wolves & Birmingham City. Every season sees at least one get promoted or relegated. I think they need an all new division for themselves.

[charliepanayi]

They could just call it the 'Birmingham and surrounding towns' division

[charliepanayi]

Bye bye Newcastle! :) - the 'big club' will be playing Peterborough next year, I'll be found somewhere laughing my head off.

Hull City can consider themselves very lucky though, one win in 22 games or so, staying up with 35 points, they're only staying up because of the combined ineptitude of Newcastle and Middlesbrough. I'd say that Hull are the second worst team to survive a season in the Premiership (second only to Bradford in 2000).

[Rocket Edge]

Happy for Hull, and I laugh at Newcastle. I've never seen a club bring so much trouble upon itself and be the victom of it's own downfall.

[Heath]

5th again, I am most pleased as that's the best we'll realistically manage in the League without a serious injection of funds. Fingers crossed for Saturday, naturally. Pleased Newcastle are gone. I'll look forward to visiting St. James' Park with my Plymouth supporting friend next season!

[charliepanayi]

It was 20 years ago today...

YouTube - Anfield 89 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFSk5k_VK4M&feature=channel_page)

A shame I'm just too young to remember it really (aside from my Dad picking me up and throwing me into the air when we scored - and catching me thankfully!) but I still get a stupid big grin when I see that goal.

It's also 10 years ago today since Man Utd won some game in Barcelona, but that's not so important! ;)

Well done to Burnley, Premiership-bound next season. And there's a match on in Rome tomorrow, sounds like it could be good.

[Old Manus]

Any Tooners gonna be coming down Swansea next season? We can discuss the finer points of correct executive management and Dennis Wise over an alcoholic beverage in Wetherspoons.

[I Don't Need A Name]

Come on United! :jess:

[charliepanayi]

Come on Barcelona and Everton this week! I'm more in hope than expectation here, especially for the latter.

[Heath]

Well, Barca have won. I only hope my own team have a similar match to (what I gather) Barcelona had this evening. I'd give anything for the FA Cup.

[charliepanayi]

Woo-hoo! Go Barcelona!

[Rocket Edge]

Gutted, not particularly about the result, but just how we played. We were terrible. I've never seen the likes of Giggs, Park, & Carrick play as bad as I've seen tonight. Berbatov being sent on was an error as he's been out of confidence since January. I think the only players that bothered throughout the whole match was Ronaldo, Tevez (when he came on), and Van Der Sar. I'm just really disapointed with the team. After the first goal went in we were a tactical mess and we couldn't get a hold of the ball. I know what the circumstances were when we conceded early, our game plan being interupted & chasing the game, but It would have been nice to see us not making so many blatent mistakes. The last time we played like that was against Milan away in 07'.

But rants aside I feel the better team won regardless, so congrats to Barca.

[charliepanayi]

Man Utd are excellent and have had an excellent season, but they just ran into a team at the top of their game tonight, and picked a bad night to have a below-par performance themselves.

I think this Barcelona tonight though may get bracketed with Milan in 1994, Real Madrid in 1960 and Ajax in 1972/1973 in terms of great European Cup final team performances.

[black orb]

>>> I loved this final..

[Loony BoB]

If only we had a player who could operate in central midfield and chase a ball, we might have done better. I'm not saying if Fletcher played we would have won, but we would have looked a hell of a lot more respectable than that. We shut up shop after the first goal - someone should have told the players that you're only supposed to do that sort of thing if you score the goal. =| But yeah, outplayed and we didn't deserve to win.

[Psychotic]

Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal. Just finish ahead of Arsenal.

And win the CL. Of course.Well... 17 out of 18 goals aint bad. :aimsun:

[Heath]

Everton seem to fulfil all the goals I set them every season. Considering the only goal I ever have is a hangover from the pre-David Moyes era. "Don't get relegated."

[Psychotic]

Gareth Barry what have you done?

[Heath]

I laughed quite a bit at that. It's a real shame as I'd genuinely like Barry to have come to us if there was ever a chance of that. Oh Man City, when will you learn?

Congrats to Moyes as well winning LMA Manager of the Year for a record third season. I think perhaps Hodgson deserved better, but I think yet again Moyes has had a great season.

Disappointed by the result on Saturday. Chelsea deserved to win and they were the better team. I just wish we had won because I think we deserve a trophy for how well we've played the last three or four years. We had a much tougher route to the final than Chelsea (who only played one Premiership team en route to the final, compared to Everton beating Liverpool, Man Utd, Boro and Aston Villa). I guess that's the gulf between the two teams in terms of money. I don't think the referee was fantastic and felt that booking on Hibbert was harsh, but I think the final really showed just how weak a link he is in our defence. I think on the day if we'd had Arteta, Yakubu and Jagielka than perhaps we might've won. I'm gutted, of course I am, but not entirely surprised. I just wish it were the case that we could compete with a ridiculously wealthy club like Chelsea because I think some of our players genuinely deserve a taste of success for a change and unfortunately I don't think 5th place and hitting our heads on the glass ceiling is really what some of them deserve, in spite of how good being 'best of the rest' is.

There's always next year, I guess.

[Rocket Edge]

Gareth Barry is a sellout, who'd have thought it?

[Loony BoB]

Worst excuse ever for a transfer?

[charliepanayi]

England move another step closer to the World Cup, they'll probably seal it in September. Meanwhile Australia, South Korea, Japan and Holland have become the first lot of teams to qualify.

[Psychotic]

Boy those Asian slots sure are hard to predict. :p

[charliepanayi]

North Korea may yet grab the fourth Asian place though, that would be fun :D

[Psychotic]

Didn't North Korea famously knock Italy out of the 1966 World Cup?

[charliepanayi]

Didn't North Korea famously knock Italy out of the 1966 World Cup?

Yes - in the first round after beating them 1-0. They then astonishingly went 3-0 up inside 25 minutes against Portugal in the quarter-finals before Eusebio single-handedly dragged Portugal back into it with four goals and North Korea wound up losing 5-3. It's the only World Cup they've ever reached.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Ireland actually have a decent chance of qualifying for once, Only a point behind Italy with 1 less game played, still have the 2nd Italy game to play & 5 points ahead of Bulgaria:D

[charliepanayi]

Actually they're one point behind Italy with one MORE game played. But yeah they could get second at this rate (I can't see them catching Italy) and enter a playoff with any luck.

[Heath]

And so Real Madrid pay almost half of what Man City were offering for Kaka. City are such top comedy gold sometimes.

[Psychotic]

Yeah, they are, but Real Madrid are too. I still can't get over their "We will thrash Liverpool and it will be a celebration on the streets", which ended in a 4-0 drubbing for them. Mind you, their latest effort, £59m for Kaka, is pretty funny too!

EDIT: Also hearing £56m and £62m. Make your minds up, media!

[charliepanayi]

Man Utd accept an £80 million offer from Real Madrid for Ronaldo. These amounts of money are getting ridiculous! Still, no player is indispensable and Man Utd will be able to buy plenty of players with that amount of money if the deal goes through. And it would mean no more Ronaldo in the Premiershiop - hooray!

[Loony BoB]

Would love it if we got Ribery, but am more expecting Valencia. If it is indeed the latter then I hope like hell we get another player, too. Also, apparently Nani is to be a cash-plus-player swap to Sporting for Moutinho. Would take that for sure.

[Rocket Edge]

Let him off. If he isn't happy to be at United then just go. When I heard what he said after the CL final I knew he was a goner. I'm still really thankful for everything he's done for us. Next season will be interesting, but probably less exciting. I'm a fan of Valencia & Ribery. If we got one (or two) of them then I would be delighted. With Ronaldo going, the void is there for a natural goalscorer in the team. It's the only thing that truely worries me about his departure.

As for Madrid, expect them to not make it past the 5th round in the CL next year again. You can all the talent that god gives but if your defence is that bad, you won't get very far. Sergio Ramos is an absolute joke. £138 million spent on two players, when really they should be bolstering their defence.

[charliepanayi]

Real Madrid are indeed trying the stratey of just buying big players for big amounts of money and hoping it all sticks, but that isn't the best strategy. Players still have to gel as a team and there's no guarantee it'll happen just because you have Ronaldo etc playing for you.

I think the above comment is rather harsh on Ramos though, he is clearly not the one pulling the strings here but he will be the one who gets the blame if the team doesn't go and win everything next year. Plus I feel sorry for Ramos, he suffers a bit from the Shevchenko effect, that even if a player or manager has been successful abroad, if they do badly in the Premiership then in the eyes of the British media they're clearly rubbish.

[Heath]

Would love it if we got Ribery, but am more expecting Valencia. If it is indeed the latter then I hope like hell we get another player, too. Also, apparently Nani is to be a cash-plus-player swap to Sporting for Moutinho. Would take that for sure.

I'll have you know that Moutinho is mere days away from joining Everton. I should know, I read about it last summer.

[Psychotic]

hahahahah £80m hahahahahahaaahha

Christ, for the money they spent on Kaka and Ronaldo they could've bought Newcastle United and then Fernando Torres!

[demondude]

Aah, there is a God.

[Psychotic]

Hey, remember that time when we bought all the world's best attacking players? That worked out really well for us! Let's do it again!

Hopefully the £80m will go on the Glazers' mortgage and not on players else we're all fucked.

[demondude]

I'm sure Ferguson will spend it on gum, no worries.

[Shattered Dreamer]

Despite his 42 goal hall in 07/08 Ronaldo is one of soccers most overrated players. He always seems to bottle it in the big games & he's a big sissy & all round douche bag. He aint worth 80m but well done to United since they only bought him for 12.5m not a bad profit. The Premiership wont miss him!

[Rocket Edge]

I have to disagree. Ronaldo over the past two years has at times single-handedly put us through games. Roma & Porto away instantly spring to mind.

@charliepanayi: I was talking about the defender, Sergio Ramos. Yeah, I'd imagine Juande has little or no say about transfers in & out at this stage.

[Psychotic]

FAO: BoB

Spain 5 New Zealand 0
Torres hat-trick

:aimsun:

[charliepanayi]

Brazil v Egypt earlier was a great game, 4-3, Egypt desperately unlucky.

Fixtures for next season on Wednesday morning.

[Loony BoB]

FAO: BoB

Spain 5 New Zealand 0
Torres hat-trick

:aimsun:
I watched some of that! I saw the first two Torres goals and the Fabregas goal. I also saw NZ take a shot at goal at one point! I was so proud. ;_;

More upset about the losses in the rugby and cricket that came about on the same weekend, personally. =/ Three NZ teams representing three sports I enjoy, all losing. Gutted!

[Heath]

Despite his 42 goal hall in 07/08 Ronaldo is one of soccers most overrated players. He always seems to bottle it in the big games & he's a big sissy & all round douche bag. He aint worth 80m but well done to United since they only bought him for 12.5m not a bad profit. The Premiership wont miss him!

As much as I really dislike Ronaldo and - in many respects - how he plays his game, I certainly think he's an extremely talented player and one who could go on to be one of the greats of football.

Also lol @ Benitez trying to get Johnson for £17m. Wasn't it just the other week he was moaning about how he doesn't have a lot of money to spend by comparison to Man Utd? I wish we had £17m to spend, never mind on one player.

[Loony BoB]

...and apparently they're going to sell off Arbeloa for £8m? If they do, it would be beyond belief. To say Johnson is worth £17-18m and Arbeloa is worth merely £8m is silly. Especially when you're, apparently, selling to Real Madrid of all clubs. They should be shelling out bucketloads more than that. And as for Real Madrid going for Sagna: Ha! Sorry, but I just don't rate Sagna as one of the best fullbacks in the world - but maybe that's just me.

[Psychotic]

It really fucking is, isn't it. It's the whole "being English" thing I suppose. :|

[charliepanayi]

Are we going to set up a new thread at some point for the new season? Or just re-name this one?

[Heath]

Yeah, we should probably set up a new one now-ish. Don't we usually start them in the close season? It's been a good one, guys, in spite of the lack of random image posting that we had at the end of the last one.