On the Eve of the new Season...

sounds like a lot of money. pretty good story though

chelsea aren't really going to go all season with terry and alex in the middle, right?

godsshoeshine wrote:
signs it's early august: i'm nearly done with "how soccer explains the world", i just spent my lunch looking at vintage tops on ebay, and the toon have "nearly" signed 3 guys that will never play in black and white. oh and it's really hot outside

I have that book, and it's kind of a mess. It should really just be called "10 essays on Soccer." It really has nothing to do with globalization, or that Thomas Friedman/Malcolm Gladwell genre, but it's kind of marketed to be a soccer response to those books. l give it a C. 

welcome to mid-august, where i'm not interested in discussing a book

godsshoeshine wrote:
chelsea aren't really going to go all season with terry and alex in the middle, right?

Sounds like my response to an email I just recieved from my Chelsea supporting friend:

"United's not really going to go the whole season with Vidic and Evans are they because Rio is done…"

I'll take half a Rio over a full Terry anyday after watching Chicharito blow right past him last week….

first off i'm picking mufc to win the prem this year
 
second, i dont think the league is as strong as it was two years ago
 
but on terry (or as cohen calls him "the traitor") he hasnt been as good for a couple of years now. he's coasted on a great combination of reputation, tactics and supporting cast. but i cant see them playing 3 central midfielders every match again this year and alex is no carvalho

Holy hell what a kickoff weekend.

Spurs and City
Liverpool and Arsenal
Manchester United and Newcastle

my dvr is going to get a workout

decided to make a full table prediction over lunch today:
01 man u
02 chelsea
03 arsenal
04 shitty
05 everton
06 spurs
07 'pool
08 brum
09 fulham
10 villa
11 stoke
12 mackems
13 wolves
14 toon
15 blackburn
16 wigan
17 bolton
18 w. ham
19 wba
20 blackpool

Aight, I'll play along:

1. MUFC
2. Chelsea
3. Spurs
4. Arsenal (assuming they change Almunia)
5. City (if no Almuia deal, swap City and Arsenal)
6. Liverpool
7. Everton
8. Aston Villa (sad)
9. Fulham
10. Bolton
11. Stoke
12. Sunderland
13. Birmingham
14. West Ham
15. Blackburn
16. Toon
17. Wolves
18. Wigan
19. West Brom
20. Blackpool

I'll even add Forest, Cardiff and QPR all come up.

should be interesting if spurs can keep the cl and league campaigns going at once

trying to decide what's worse: a) the inevitable thrashing the toon is going to take tonight b) the fact that i won't see it until 8 o'clock or c) that so much hd soccer makes almost not care

godsshoeshine wrote:
b) the fact that i won't see it until 8 o'clock or

Thanks for the heads up.

godsshoeshine wrote:c) that so much hd soccer makes almost not care

F'off.

i almost feel bad for enjoying it so much

the hd feed for the everton match didn't work for like 10 minutes so it wasn't perfect

"11.41 BST: Our man in the know, Harry Harris, reliably informs us that Cardiff are paying just £6,000 a week for Craig Bellamy's services, with Manchester City still stumping up the rest of his £90,000-a-week wages. "

When I read that, I thought to myself, if I had the money, I'd pay Bellamy £6,000 a week to sit on my couch just talk to me about the games.

i would wager it wouldn't be boring. nothing with bels ever is


if i ever start watching the french league, remind me not to support l'om

best toon game in years

godsshoeshine wrote:
best toon game in years

nicely done

the less terrible taylor wants £60k a week? talk about a delusional geordie

I'm telling you, Sir Alex has had his eye on this for sometime and will reap domestic rewards:

Homegrown: Gibson, Giggs, Brown, Evans, Rio, Scholes, Neville, O'Shea, Carrick, Owen & Rooney.

Other: Amos, Fletcher, Kuszczak, Van der Sar, Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson, Park, Evra, Valencia, Berbatov, Chicharito & Vidic.

Plus under 21s Fabio, Rafael, De Laet, Obertan, Bebe, Smalling & Macheda

the rule makes no sense, but i think i've beaten that to death. at least it made me realize i share a birthday with andy carroll

for £5m i think hughton did great

To futher my point, neither Arsenal nor Chelsea can make the homegrown quotient without including thier under 21's.  There's a lot of veteran depth on United and even the under 21's are stronger than the other two.

Arsenal:

Homegrown: Nicklas Bendtner, Gael Clichy, Denilson, Johan Djourou, Cesc Fabregas, Vito Mannone, Alex Song (7)

Others: Manuel Almunia, Andrei Arshavin, Marouane Chamakh, Abou Diaby, Emmanuel Eboue, Lukasz Fabianski, Laurent Koscielny, Samir Nasri, Tomas Rosicky, Bacary Sagna, Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen, Sebastien Squillaci.

(Arsenal can also use young players including: Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Carlos Vela, Emmanuel Frimpong, Aaron Ramsey.)

NB: Arsenal have only 20 senior players over 21 and can make up their homegrown quota through youth players

Chelsea

Homegrown: Ross Turnbull, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard

Others: Petr Cech, Henrique Hilario, Branislav Ivanovic,  Jose Bosingwa, Paulo Ferreira, Yuri Zhirkov,  Alex, Michael Essien, Ramires, John Obi Mikel,  Yossi Benayoun, Florent Malouda, Salomon Kalou, Nicolas Anelka, Didier Drogba.

(Chelsea can also use young players including: Patrick van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Josh McEachran, Gael Kakuta, Daniel Sturridge, Fabio Borini.)

NB: Chelsea have only 19 senior players over 21 and can make up their homegrown quota through youth players