*Official* English Football Season 2013-14

[grecian]

So how many are City going to get? I am thinking 8.

really hope it's something like that, a humiliation for BFS, and that joke of a board.

 

[grecian]

i did like that West Ham decided not to challenge toure there, probably wouldn't have done any good.

 

[Pothas]

Really don't think this City side gets enough love, such fun to watch. Yaya just storming through like the big kid in the playground just one of the many joys in watching them.

 

[Cabinet96]

Nine goals conceded in just one and a half games now. But I thought their problem was that they missed a few chances against Arsenal?

 

[Tom Halsey]

I can't see either Moyes or the players giving half a ****. You just don't go onto the pitch thinking about the fact that Ferguson's watching, I'd be fairly surprised if they even knew he was there.

The reasoning is just bad pop psychology. It could also have applied to Busby and Charlton's involvement when Ferguson took over. I guarantee that if the team had performed well this season, people would have cited continuity and keeping in touch with its history by keeping Ferguson involved as a reason why. It's just something that happens when a team is losing games: people pick up on irrelevant details and write stories about why they're making everything terrible.

Again I agree with some of this and disagree with other bits.

Yeah if Moyes had succeeded I have no doubt the press would have cited continuity with Ferguson still being a director and so on.

I don't think there's much argument against Ferguson still being at the club in any more than an ambassadorial making it harder though. There are lots of examples of this from the past. In the early 70s you still had all the players who had played under Busby referring to him as Boss. Wouldn't surprise me if this is also the case at the moment with Ferguson. In no way can that be helpful. Busby was still around when Ferguson was appointed but he was no longer influential. He had resigned from the board due to the transfer fee we spent to sign Brian Robson IIRC. He was only president, a purely titular roll. He wasn't important.

I've thought this for a while and mentioned it in here too. The reasons for the decline from our 60s glory days to our 70s nadir are fairly accepted and fairly well known. We are repeating the vast majority of them right now, from the reasons we appointed our manager to what our previous manager's job title is to the characteristics of the squad. I still don't think the result will be quite so catastrophic obviously but I don't think it will be good.

 

[BoyBrumby]

So how many are City going to get? I am thinking 8.

Sounds about right...

God, West Ham are poor. Surely BFS cannot survive for much longer?

 

[Tom Halsey]

Really don't think this City side gets enough love, such fun to watch. Yaya just storming through like the big kid in the playground just one of the many joys in watching them.

Yeah they're really good in an individual sense.

Possibly a bit underrated because their individual errors at the back do mean they drop utterly ridiculous points quite regularly but if there is any English side to challenge the top Spanish and German sides then it's clearly City on a good day IMO.

 

[BoyBrumby]

On the Fergie/Busby comparison, by the time Ferguson took over I think there was sufficient distance between his reign for Sir Matt's presence not to be like Banquo's ghost.

However by most accounts him still being around destroyed any authority Wilf McGuinness had in his immediate aftermath.

Not making excuses for Moyes, it does seem as if he's been over-promoted, but for a squad of what is still almost exclusively Ferguson's players to have their hyper successful ex-boss in relatively frequent contact can't help.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah they're really good in an individual sense.

Possibly a bit underrated because their individual errors at the back do mean they drop utterly ridiculous points quite regularly but if there is any English side to challenge the top Spanish and German sides then it's clearly City on a good day IMO.

The errors all part of the charm. There is just so much to enjoy, as well as Toure you have two wonderfuly talented strikers, then Silva and Nasri (yeah no one likes him) who are both lovely footballers. Navas is great in a very different way, then Kompany and Zabaleta are both likeable as well as very good. All that and the manager is not a ****.

Shame about Clichy really.

The way Bayern destroyed them is really quite amazing when you think about how they have beaten every English side at home this season, really shows what a great side they are.

 

[Furball]

Nope.

One is an Arse man (sorry, innuendos are an illness), but not a Pom.

Ljungberg?

 

[Uppercut]

I hate them and want them to lose every game but Citeh play wonderful football. I love how they keep sprinting in behind at every opportunity even when they're 4 or 5 goals up. We've not had too many clubs playing an ultra-attacking game as a point of principle in England. Our culture favours defenders a lot more than most others.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Good job West Ham rested their first team at the weekend to stop them getting thra... Oh.

 

[sledger]

Was in a v.long term relationship until sometime in 2007 so I doubt anything at all was suspected for the first half of his career. Don't think teammates were aware though as he also said "I wonder if something was ever said of the fact I liked to read" or words to that effect after he said that it was only of the stereotypically 'gay' differences he had.

Wait, what? Is this actually a thing?

 

[Jarquis]

Wait, what? Is this actually a thing?

Thomas Hitzlsperger gay: Recap of reaction as first former Premier League footballer comes out - Mirror Online

Thomas Hitzlsperger admitted to Zeit that nobody in football has told him that they are gay - the same problem found by Robbie Rogers- and he wonders now whether people talked about him.

However, he is aware that he was portrayed in a different way by the media. He knew he had different interests to his colleague; he liked to read, for example, and the media knew that too.

"There is probably hardly any other sign in my character though, 'what is typically gay'?

"Anybody who felt the way that I performed onto a football field was unmanly isn't worth thinking about."

 

[sledger]

Good grief. Since when has enjoying a book been an indicator of someone's ***uality?

 

[James]

Sounds about right...

God, West Ham are poor. Surely BFS cannot survive for much longer?

Seems to be based solely on the fact of all the injuries they're suffering and that the board feel no other manager would cope better with the players available.

For me, it all comes down to the Cardiff match at the weekend. Win that and he'll hang around, but lose it and no matter what he'll be gone.

Apparently Carroll is nearly fit, so what will probably happen is, Big Sam will rush him in to try and save himself and he'll get injured inside the first 30 mins and be out for another 6 months.

 

[Nate]

I still wub big ole stupid Andy. <3

 

[BoyBrumby]

Good grief. Since when has enjoying a book been an indicator of someone's ***uality?

Graeme Le Saux was famously thought of as a little fruity because he read The Guardian.

Robbie Fowler (who's usually a good bloke, tbf to him) once showed his backside to him and said something to the effect of "Come on, give it me up the arse."

Pretty sure they were England team mates at the time too.

 

[Nate]

@ Smalling's party outfit. Just wow.

 

[Pothas]

Akpom in on loan, plenty of these youth loans have not worked out in the past but still quite excited about this. January business done for us, window to shut now please.