English Football Thread! 2007-2008 Season

[Psychotic]

Look, I think we can all agree that Liverpool represent the forces of good in the football world. There is no disputing that. In an ideal world, yes, we would win it and football would be set right once more. Supporters of all righteous and decent teams (ie every team that isn't United, Chelsea, Everton and Arsenal) would stand up and cheer. It would be like the end of Episode VI!

But as it stands, we're out of it now. As for the teams who are still left, United are foul, I still haven't forgiven Chelsea for the Mourinho era and while Arsenal are certainly evil, they're the lesser of the three evils. Who do United and Chelsea have who is anywhere near as awesome as Kolo Toure? Nobody!

[Jess]

I TAKE IT BACK.

Out of the three, I'm hoping for Chelski to win it.

[Psychotic]

Remind me again who you wanted to win when we met up and Arsenal were playing on TV? And remind me again of what I was cheering for.

[Jess]

Who were they playing? and things change when they beat us 4 times in one season. They should never win anything ever ever again.

[Psychotic]

Spurs. Let me refresh your memory: You were cheering for Arsenal, and I was cheering for broken legs, or at the very least a penalty shoot out. I went away disappointed.

[Jess]

I only wanted them to win so I could mock my friend who supports Spurs. It will never happen again. Ever.

[DK]

You are both failures at life of the highest order.

[Cz]

These are exciting developments.

[Loony BoB]

Seriously, anyone who thinks that a Premiership team represents the forces of good in football is kidding themselves as much as anyone else. Liverpool are owned by a couple of guys who want to take money earned by football and put it into the NFL. The forces of good in football are always going to be the lower league sides. However, the forces of good aren't always highly entertaining and the best of the best when it comes to talent, so we're all happy to sit around supporting the capitalist clubs that either are owned by foreigners, charge their fans too much, exploit every possible situation, have managers that moan constantly about things they really shouldn't moan about, can't keep a manager, keep a manager who only buys in foreign players, or, well, I don't know what else.

But anyone with an ounce of respect in their noggin should realise that Chelsea is by far the worse of the top three right now. Arsenal at least play entertaining football and I give credit to them for dropping off Henry and kicking out half of their cheating bastards of recent times (Reyes the main culprit for me, hated him so bad).

Obviously I want United to win. After that, I'd probably concede first to Arsenal only because I think they've earned my respect this year as a side instead of the side I used to know and despise. Liverpool and Chelsea both bore me too much to have me consider them worth winning the title. I find City more entertaining. Chelsea's only true entertainer - Jose - has gone so it wouldn't even be worth having them win. No character, that bloke. His wife drinks her own urine, too. I mean, seriously, that's the highlight of Chelsea. They have a manager who has a wife who drinks her own urine. That's it.

Jess, you support them ahead of Manchester United? Guess who you're dead to now. After all the players we sold to you! You just get back to your Galactico supporting ways, young lady. Begone!

[Psychotic]

Seriously, anyone who thinks that a Premiership team represents the forces of good in football is kidding themselves as much as anyone else.

Key word in your sentence is "seriously".

[Loony BoB]

I don't get it.

I have decided that Newcastle is probably as close to a "force for good" as you'll get in the Premiership.

1. Entertaining football is more important to them than winning.
2. They sack boring managers, even if they don't deserve it.
3. They're owned by an Englishman.
4. They're managed by an Englishman.
5. Their main sponsor isn't a highly successful business, and is actually just struggling to get by.
6. Despite not really winning anything for such a long time, they still have a massive amount of fans.
7. They have an English captain.
8. They have a fair amount of English players.

[Psychotic]

5 = Come on now.

6 can probably be explained by Newcastle United being the only team in Newcastle. Other large cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol, Birmingham, etc. are all split.

[DK]

I don't get it.

I have decided that Newcastle is probably as close to a "force for good" as you'll get in the Premiership.

1. Entertaining football is more important to them than winning.
2. They sack boring managers, even if they don't deserve it.
3. They're owned by an Englishman.
4. They're managed by an Englishman.
5. Their main sponsor isn't a highly successful business, and is actually just struggling to get by.
6. Despite not really winning anything for such a long time, they still have a massive amount of fans.
7. They have an English captain.
8. They have a fair amount of English players.

9. They're . We all know the British people have a soft spot for sporting failures! Eddie the Eagle! Tim Henman! Newcastle United!

Also, Chelsea aren't worth hating. They amount to bugger all if Red Rom hadn't come in and thrown his money around, and that could have happened to any team. I don't care if they play boring football or not because I don't watch Chelsea games. I just look at them with mild amusement!

[Heath]

Both Dan and Paul made valid points there. I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of Newcastle as a team and so I'm not terribly likely to agree they're a force for good.

[Cz]

There are plenty of "good" teams in the Premiership. I've got nothing against a good half of the league, as long as they're not taking points away from us. Portsmouth and Villa are good sides with some exciting players, Derby, Reading and co. are acceptable because everybody likes to root for the underdogs, and City, Fulham and Everton get special treatment for not being United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Then there are the teams with obvious flaws who are saved by some redeeming feature. In Newcastle's case, the flaws (Alan Smith, Joey Barton) are offset by the fact that Newcastle fans think those guys are as worthless as the rest of us. Plus they got rid of Sam Allardyce, and what's not to love about that?

When you add it all up, I'd say only about a quarter of the league could be considered truly evil. The rest is split between pretty evenly between teams that are good, teams that are equal parts good and evil, and teams that nobody cares about. Because I have never met a Wigan Athletic fan in my life, and I'm convinced that the guys who show up at The Emirates every season are just actors hired by Dave Whelan so as not to embarrass the team.