*Official* English Football Season 2007-08

[Tom Halsey]

I don't think United protested too strongly, in all fairness, but there was pressure on them to go from the FA to assist our failed bid for the 2006 WC. If United hadn't gone they'd have been replaced by Bayern and Jerry was one of our main rivals for the tournament (and obviously won the rights to stage it anyway).

Not sure we protested at all tbh - can't remember really. I still don't think we had much choice though - pressure from FIFA, the Government, and, as you say, the FA, saw to that.

While missing out on the FA Cup that year was certainly unfortunate, I don't mind the fact that we went at all. While no-one from Europe took it too seriously (us and Real Madrid), I still think the competition has the potential to be the most important club competition there is - saying you are the best team in the World clearly sounds better than saying you are the best team in Europe. No-one took the European Cup that seriously at first either, and the World Cup itself didn't exactly get off to a flying start either.

 

[grecian]

Good penalty save by James, Poor penalty though, good height for the GK. What I don't get is why the PNE players were just standing around on the edge of the box, if they'd made some runs someone may have picked up the rebound.

 

[sledger]

Not sure we protested at all tbh - can't remember really. I still don't think we had much choice though - pressure from FIFA, the Government, and, as you say, the FA, saw to that.

While missing out on the FA Cup that year was certainly unfortunate, I don't mind the fact that we went at all. While no-one from Europe took it too seriously (us and Real Madrid), I still think the competition has the potential to be the most important club competition there is - saying you are the best team in the World clearly sounds better than saying you are the best team in Europe. No-one took the European Cup that seriously at first either, and the World Cup itself didn't exactly get off to a flying start either.

problem is though outside of europe there is a lack of decent teams, barring a few from south america. If for example only 2-4 teams from Europe were allowed to play in the competition, there would arguably be other teams in europe who would be better than the rest of the teams in the competition. It's all very well saying that you are the club champions of the world, but what shows the true strength of a team better? playing various clubs from africa, asia and australia/new zealand and a few from south america, or playing against the likes of the european heavyweights?

For me its definitely the latter, if there truly was a world club cup that worked well, i'd wager that it would be won by a team from one of the major european leagues pretty routinely, the only possible resistance coming from either argentina or brazil, but with the far superior financial resouces held by the big teams in europe, I wouldnt look past them for a potential winner.

 

[sledger]

Good penalty save by James, Poor penalty though, good height for the GK. What I don't get is why the PNE players were just standing around on the edge of the box, if they'd made some runs someone may have picked up the rebound.

Man of the match display from what i've heard, makes mcdonuts decision to persist with paul robinson and scott carson even more stupid.

 

[Tom Halsey]

problem is though outside of europe there is a lack of decent teams, barring a few from south america. If for example only 2-4 teams from Europe were allowed to play in the competition, there would arguably be other teams in europe who would be better than the rest of the teams in the competition. It's all very well saying that you are the club champions of the world, but what shows the true strength of a team better? playing various clubs from africa, asia and australia/new zealand and a few from south america, or playing against the likes of the european heavyweights?

For me its definitely the latter, if there truly was a world club cup that worked well, i'd wager that it would be won by a team from one of the major european leagues pretty routinely, the only possible resistance coming from either argentina or brazil, but with the far superior financial resouces held by the big teams in europe, I wouldnt look past them for a potential winner.

Ideally I'd only like the European champions to compete - a similar system to how the old European Cup used to be, except with continents. Although if you wanted to allow the more successful Continents to enter in more teams, I wouldn't mind that much.

Much of what you said in this post could also be said about the World Cup, that's mainly European except for Brfazil and Argentina - but it's still undoubtedly more prestigious than the European Championships. And while the World Club Cup has not taken entirely seriously by anyone yet, the fact remains that no European side had won it until Milan last year.

 

[Agent TBY]

Man of the match display from what i've heard, makes mcdonuts decision to persist with paul robinson and scott carson even more stupid.

Well, he did, however, goal kick the ball straight to a Preston player about a minute after the penalty save.

James' eccentricity (FM ) is almost on par with Barthez's.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Yes, I didn't think James was *that* impressive yesterday. The penalty save was one of those where if he picked right he couldn't miss it, the save off Mellor was good but nothing more. And his kicking in general yesterday wasn't good at all.

 

[The Sean]

Portsmouth in the quarter-finals. FFS. That's eleven consecutive FA Cup matches against Premiership opposition, and 17 of our last 20.

Full 6th round draw:

Sheff United/Middlesbrough v Cardiff City

Manchester United v Portsmouth

Bristol Rovers v West Brom

Barnsley v Chelsea

 

[Tom Halsey]

Not overly bothered about Portsmouth tbh, it's the quarter finals now anyway so we should be expecting Premiership opposition. Think we'll beat them anyways. That said, 11 Premiership teams in a row is something to point to when confronted with an ABU idiot who says we get everything our own way.

 

[cpr]

We didnt miss out on the FA cup that year did we? Thought we came in at the 5th round, hence why it made a mockery of the cup and killed its spirit.

And utd didnt protest, least the board didnt, Martin Edwards relished the chance to pick up some Brazilian ladyboys.

 

[Tom Halsey]

We didnt miss out on the FA cup that year did we? Thought we came in at the 5th round, hence why it made a mockery of the cup and killed its spirit.

And utd didnt protest, least the board didnt, Martin Edwards relished the chance to pick up some Brazilian ladyboys.

No, we didn't compete at all. There was talk we'd get a bye to the fifth round, but that didn't happen, fortunately.

 

[headhunter]

Should take a preformance, but think we should beat Portsmouth.
Nice to see a tie that ensures at least one non Premiership side in the semi's

 

[GIMH]

Can I just interrupt all discussion and remind you all that the whites are going up? Thanks.

 

[Loony BoB]

Should take a preformance, but think we should beat Portsmouth.
Nice to see a tie that ensures at least one non Premiership side in the semi's

And, should Middlesbrough lose out, it's possible that we could have a non-Premiership-sides semifinal, ensuring one of them make the final! That would be wonderful.

 

[Matteh]

Part of me wants that, but another part of me thinks back to Man Utd v Millwall. Yeah they're at Wembley, but they're just going to get dicked.

 

[Loony BoB]

Still better than United v Chelsea, I'd say, if only for the fact that they'd have made it so far and would also be going into the UEFA Cup, which would provide a bright day for a potentially smaller club's history.

 

[cpr]

Agreed. Especially given how utter **** last years final was. Plus we'd have a better chance of winning

 

[BoyBrumby]

Part of me wants that, but another part of me thinks back to Man Utd v Millwall. Yeah they're at Wembley, but they're just going to get dicked.

Fair point, but FA Cup finals are almost invariably dire anyway. Even when you get two good teams (like Arsenal/ManUre in 2005 & ManUre/Chavs last year) they're ****. The only really good one in the last 20 years was West Ham v Liverpool in 2006.

 

[Tom Halsey]

In all fairness the 1990 final was pretty good, but you make a good point.

Anyway as far as the sodding Scousers go, how lucky are they with this ref? It's been alluded to in commentary, the worst home ref I've seen for some time, ridiculous sending off, ffs. Inter didn't really look that good even before the sending off, but it goes without saying that I hope they hold out then batter them in Italy.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Just completely wasted 45 minutes of my life, what a dire game Liverpool/Inter is.