On the Eve of the new Season...

I'm starting a new campaign.  It's the "Bring Back the Toon" campaign.

I'm starting by loaning Man United's 3rd string to Newcastle.  That should be enough.  If only I had thought of this in January, you could be watching the Premiere League next season…

riiiight, and this has NOTHING to do with the fact he's on 70 grand a week and couldn;t hope to even get half of it at another club


DAMIEN DUFF is preparing for life in the Championship after pledging his future to Newcastle United following their shock relegation.

"I'm as loyal as they come, whether the gaffer stays or goes," said Duff. "I'd love to try to get us back up. I've loved working with him (Shearer); it's been a proper, proper football club for eight weeks and it's about time.

I was shocked when I read there was no clause in the Newcastle contracts that required reduced wages should the squad be relegated.  There's gonna be major fallout on Tyneside this summer.

there arent clauses like that on players making £50k and up for any premier side i would wager. maybe a couple here and there. i would guess that duff wont be around with out a wage reduction. beye and steven tayor say they will stick around, though i'm not sure any of them really will

really trying to make money in two straight transfer windows with an already shite squad is bad enough. trying to go the whole season without a manager on top of that is almost laughable. selling milner for £12m seemed like good business if you buy more players. a fat kevin nolan and the even worse taylor werent going to cut it.

i could rant about the players, but frankly we'll be rid of all of them soon enough

if i could still watch matches i could see that as silver lining, but i just cant at this point. its the end of the footballing world, and i've seen it since the february 1. i was mad then, now its just a numbness

i would guess of the regular starters maybe 4 left next year. tops

godsshoeshine wrote:
if i could still watch matches i could see that as silver lining, but i just cant at this point. its the end of the footballing world, and i've seen it since the february 1. i was mad then, now its just a numbness

and belated commiserations by the way - you called it way before everyone else - I still couldn't believe a club that 'big' could go down until about a month ago

I shouldn't have to post this, but here you go:



Wednesday, May 26

2:45pm Barcelona vs Manchester United (ESPNHD)



I will not be on the board at all tomorrow.

good luck to you all tomorrow. i'll end up watching it at 8 at night as usual i am sure

brennser wrote:

godsshoeshine wrote:
if i could still watch matches i could see that as silver lining, but i just cant at this point. its the end of the footballing world, and i've seen it since the february 1. i was mad then, now its just a numbness

and belated commiserations by the way - you called it way before everyone else - I still couldn't believe a club that 'big' could go down until about a month ago

thanks

Really, really nervous here. My brother and some friends are already in Rome. I have to watch it form Haiti. not sure what to do before the game, difficult to work. afraid on Manchester United, very, very afraid, we have a weak defense tomorrow against these great players United has. Let's hope for the better!

Força Barça!

will the game be re-played later tonight?  i can't skip out of work today (just came back from a 4-day weekend), but would love to watch it later tonight.  i don't have access to dvr or slingbox or anything of the type, unfortunately.

it usually is

got it: ESPN2 (and ESPN2HD) @ 11 pm EDT. 

edit: i was a verizon DSL subscriber 2+ years ago, looks like it's still valid for espn360 login!  so now i have to choose between not getting anything done this afternoon and watching the game on a web stream (relatively decent video), or keeping it in my pants until 11 pm.  grrrrrr.  thoughts?

i dvred it, but i would totally watch the stream if i wasnt up to my eyeballs in work

sweetcell wrote:
got it: ESPN2 (and ESPN2HD) @ 11 pm EDT. 

edit: i was a verizon DSL subscriber 2+ years ago, looks like it's still valid for espn360 login!  so now i have to choose between not getting anything done this afternoon and watching the game on a web stream (relatively decent video), or keeping it in my pants until 11 pm.  grrrrrr.  thoughts?

its just a soccer game man. you can wait til 11pm. or how about do what i am doing and just check the score every 20 minutes.  (i'll keep the score to myself)

Barca were perfect.

Fuckers.

wrong, Manchester United wasn't in the game, what a terrible performance

Probably one of the best days in my life, this is like watching a live show with the Arcade Fire, the Pixies, the Who, (early) Fleetwood Mac, Band of Horses, Talking Heads, Grandaddy, My Morning Jacket, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Peter Tosh… all in one day.

what a game! we were so afraid of Manchester United, even the Barcelona players looked scared at the beginning of the game, but once Iniesta, Xavi, and Messi decided to pass the ball as they usually do, short passes everywhere, we started to get more confident. It is a huge achievement to beat this Manchester United. And great to win with Silvinho (rarely plays these days), Busquets (last year he was in the thid division in Spain) and also with Toure Yaya in defense.

congrats Barcelona (and Barcelona)

we were shit……if some of Ronaldos shots in the first 10 mins it might have been different but I'm man enough to know when we've been outclassed*

*still think we are a better team, just not better on the night (and thats all that counts)

i was actually pretty neutral in this match, but i really didnt like the side that saf put out there. once you push rooney out wide and start berba and tevez on the bench, that really decreases the effectiveness of 75% of your best attackers. too much pressure on carrick in my opinion

but iniesta/xavi seemed like 4 guys out there, along with the always brilliant messi. congrats to barca, when they fire like that they are a treat for a neutral to watch

Thanks Brennser and also nice to see godsshoeshine comment.

I won´t say Barcelona is better than Manchester United. I think Manchester United, Chelsea, and Barcelona, are the best teams now, with Liverpool a bit behind, my opinion. Just that yesterday we played better than Manchester United. However, I was really disappointed by Scholes' tackle at the end of the game, kind of lost the respect for him. And Ronaldo and all he did to Puyol, no comments, just sell Ronaldo, he fits into Real Madrid, a team where the only thing that matters is money regardless of ethics or any other thing.