*Official* English Football Season 2009-2010

[Uppercut]

A tad pricey for a bench player tbh. Especially when their manager loves to warble on about how much of a poor little club they are.

I don't think it is a tad pricy for a bench player. Replacing quality with quality is crucial to winning titles, which is what Liverpool are aiming for. The United side of last year had four strikers, Ronaldo (sold for £80m), Berbatov (bought for £30m), Rooney (bought for £30m) and Tevez (valued at £30m). All in all, the latter three all ended up playing as many games as each other. When your main striker is someone as injury prone as Fernando Torres, your backup is massively important, and you should spend on him accordingly.

Benitez instead has a tendency to buy hordes of average players, on the grounds that you don't want to overstretch yourself on utility men. It doesn't cut it though. Bellamy, Pennant, Crouch, Kuyt. When he did fork out big for a player he knew for sure was quality, he got Fernando Torres, a massive success.

 

[duffer]

I'd argue Keane isn't much more than an above average player and 20 million or so they spent on him could've/should've gone to a considerably better player. They don't have the resources that other clubs do to spend that much on a bench player.

 

[Craig]

Closed doors might be worth a crack for the next meeting, but to prevent the fixture from happening could have knock on effects.

Pretty sure Serie A went through a phase of the closed doors games after some stabbings/general dickheadry between fans.

The other, more popular, option would be to disband Millwall.

Quite often they ban fans from travelling to away matches if the authorities think there will be trouble. Juventus "fans" shouted racist abuse at Inter's Mario Balotelli (born in Palermo to Ghanian parents) and they had to play their next home game behind closed doors.

 

[TT Boy]

What do people think about Harry Redknapp's idea that West Ham and Millwall should never be allowed to meet in Cup competitions and if they somehow meet in the same league, then those games have to be played behind closed doors? I thought it was pretty extreme myself.

West Ham had that the other night. **** all Millwall fans went and West Ham still went into a frenzied overdrive. Imagine if Millwall really did turn up...

But in 20 years time, sides like Millwall won't exist. Their support base no longer exists in East London (White people) and isn't like the Bengali Boys or Somalis are going to get behind them. They support Man U/Arsenal/Chelsea/Man Citeh (not Liverpool) on an ad-hoc basis.

It was surprising seeing so many White people in East Ham. It was like 15 years ago. Reminded me of South Africa and watching rugby there. The last bastion of White solidarity.

 

[duffer]

Surprisingly level-headed piece from Rob Kelly in the Telegraph regarding Dudu.

Eduardo’s dive to win a penalty against Celtic on Wednesday night was an unedifying episode which only served to detract from another impressive Arsenal display. It was a clear dive and the striker should be retrospectively punished by Uefa - that is not in doubt. Celtic have every reason to feel aggrieved, and Eduardo embarrassed.

But the furore ever since has been slightly embarrassing. After the incident, the ITV commentary team just would not leave it alone, constantly returning to heap opprobrium on Eduardo. And that would be fine, if the same rule applied every time the likes of Steven Gerrard, Wayen Rooney or Joe Cole fell over an imaginary leg.

Diving is not a foreign disease, it is not the exclusive preserve of Eduardo, Cristiano Ronaldo or Didier Drogba. Those suddenly on the moral high ground should pour as much scorn on Gerrard when he collapses in a heap after minimal contact as they do on the likes of Eduardo. But they don’t, simply because Gerrard/Rooney/Cole is ‘one of us’. The hyprocisy would be laughable, if it wasn’t so irritating.

Match of the Day is as guilty as anyone of highlighting the worst excesses of foreign imports, while brushing the bad behaviour of home-grown miscreants under the carpet, or simply not highlighting it at all. At best, we will get a bland comment such as, ‘he’s let himself down there’ if a British player dives. However, should a foreign team-mate do the same, a public flogging is called for.

We can surely all agree that diving should be driven out of football, but how will the issue ever truly be addressed if there is one rule for some, and another rule for others. It is time for a level of consistency in our approach to divers, whether they originate from these shores or not.

Linkage

 

[aussie]

Bumbaclathhhhh yo, why the hell didn't SAF go for one of the dutch boys @ Real. Now they gone rass, this is straight BS maynnnnn. Plus M Diarra would also be top by given Hargreaves situation.

BTW did anyone see Benzema's goals vs Rosenborg?. I'm a bit late in seeing them..

 

[Craig]

You would think if SAF wanted any of them, they would of been included in the Ronaldo deal.

 

[roseboy64]

Correct. He wants none.

 

[duffer]

Wenger - "We got a penalty [against us] two years ago in the quarter-final of the Champions League [at Liverpool] that made the difference when [Ryan] Babel dived, nobody ever apologised to us, it was a blatant dive and nobody spoke about it."

Yes, yes, yes.

 

[NUFAN]

I think he's decent. Hard-working and technically good but a very poor finisher. Only 15 goals in 67 Premiership games for Boro.

Stoke's probably his level, maybe marginally below. Not good enough for Spurs or City and certainly not good enough for Liverpool's bench.

Haha what's with the last part? If he's not good enough for clubs like Spurs and City obviously he's not good enough for a bench spot with Pool.

 

[GIMH]

Liverpool's bench is awful though.

Need a goal in the last 15 minutes as Liverpool manager, you turn around and see Ryan Babel and David N'Gog, then you'd wish for literally anyone else.

What do people think about Harry Redknapp's idea that West Ham and Millwall should never be allowed to meet in Cup competitions and if they somehow meet in the same league, then those games have to be played behind closed doors? I thought it was pretty extreme myself.

Personally I think behind closed doors, or failing that make it that any meeting they have is a morning kick-off. Them playing each other on a Tuesday night was asking for trouble.

Wenger - "We got a penalty [against us] two years ago in the quarter-final of the Champions League [at Liverpool] that made the difference when [Ryan] Babel dived, nobody ever apologised to us, it was a blatant dive and nobody spoke about it."

Yes, yes, yes.

Two wrongs don't make a right Arsene

 

[duffer]

.

Two wrongs don't make a right Arsene

Not the point he was making at all.

 

[GIMH]

Don't see the point in bringing it up, every manager could bring up a time when their team has been screwed by diving.

That being said I don't think there should be any retrospective punishments so if that's what he's talking about then fair enough.

 

[duffer]

Don't see the point in bringing it up, every manager could bring up a time when their team has been screwed by diving.

That being said I don't think there should be any retrospective punishments so if that's what he's talking about then fair enough.

I think he was more or less saying it's happened to us plenty of times, where was the universal moral outrage then? I certainly don't remember it. When rags start writing headlines like "Cheat-ed" then you'd think he did a Dida or something like that.

 

[GIMH]

There was fair outrage when United broke your unbeaten run courtesy of a Rooney dive back in 04 IIRC

edit - rose to claim it wasn't a dive in 5...4...3..

 

[Ikki]

Benitez instead has a tendency to buy hordes of average players, on the grounds that you don't want to overstretch yourself on utility men. It doesn't cut it though. Bellamy, Pennant, Crouch, Kuyt. When he did fork out big for a player he knew for sure was quality, he got Fernando Torres, a massive success.

Benitez buys average players, takes a punt because that's frankly all we could afford. If he could afford to buy bigger players, he would.

And Keane, with the money we spent on him, wasn't bought to be on the bench. He was bought to play next to Torres, but he just got in Nando's way half the time.

 

[Ikki]

Wenger - "We got a penalty [against us] two years ago in the quarter-final of the Champions League [at Liverpool] that made the difference when [Ryan] Babel dived, nobody ever apologised to us, it was a blatant dive and nobody spoke about it."

Yes, yes, yes.

Comparing Babel going down easy and Eduardo's blatant, no contact, dive is a travesty. Every player in the world draws fouls and often makes most of contact, but you don't see many go down without even a hint of being touched. I wish I could say Eduardo fell, because he lost his footing in speed, but he dived blatantly and such a thing should be beneath a forward of his talent. There's going down easy and then there's simulation.

Anyway, every club gets a player called out, whether it be Rooney, Cesc, Lamps, Cole, Henry, Torres, Gerrard, etc. Reading a few boards here and there, it seems Arsenal fans wanted people to say absolutely nothing. That just because there are other divers attention shouldn't be drawn here.

 

[duffer]

There was fair outrage when United broke your unbeaten run courtesy of a Rooney dive back in 04 IIRC

edit - rose to claim it wasn't a dive in 5...4...3..

Most media if I remember correctly did very much like that Telegraph article said and said he was being "a bit naughty" or "made the most of it" tbh. Don't remember them spending the rest of the match bringing up his dive every second minute or seeing headlines and studio analysts blatantly calling him a cheat.

 

[duffer]

Reading a few boards here and there, it seems Arsenal fans wanted people to say absolutely nothing. That just because there are other divers attention shouldn't be drawn here.

Most Arsenal fans I know have just been saying be consistent with the criticism. If you can brush off many other players dives as nothing much, why is this the most horrific thing that's ever happened?

If we see this type of reaction and outrage every time a player dives no matter who it is then fine. But we all know that isn't going to happen.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

And Keane, with the money we spent on him, wasn't bought to be on the bench. He was bought to play next to Torres, but he just got in Nando's way half the time.

Well then Benitez is a complete ****in' idiot then. Keane (if he'd ever actually watched him play) plays the exact same position as Gerrard plays for Liverpool.