The Football Topic (Page 5 of 52)

Called off?  Rain, snow, mud, -25 temperatures....Maybe we should just remove the "foot" from our version and add an "s".  
Rock On & Keep the Faith,
Rocket

"He still doesn't charge for mistakes! "
http://jbonamassa.com/tour-dates/
"Everybody wants ta get inta the act!"
“Now, this isn’t your ordinary party crowd, here.  I mean, there are professionals in here.”

Messi named World Player of Year

(CNN)  -- Barcelona star Lionel Messi was named FIFA World Player of the Year in Zurich on Monday, capping a remarkable 2009 for the Argentina star.

Messi helped his club side Barcelona win a historic treble of Champions League, Spanish League and Spanish Cup and at the weekend scored the winner as the Catalan giants claimed the Club World Cup trophy.

Messi, who claimed the top European honor, the Ballon d'Or, earlier this month, beat off the challenge of last year's winner Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka of Real Madrid and fellow Barca stars Andres Iniesta and Xavi in the annual poll. (more)

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/footb … index.html

So pleased about this! Unlike the previous winner, Leo does not appear to be an arrogant *&%# and he totally deserved this award.

He normally updates his signature with the score immediately, but not yesterday.

Our result was entirely to be expected since our first striker had to retire, our second striker is injured and our third striker was suspended. We didn't do badly in the circumstances, the Arse simply have more quality all round. Anyway, we need to concentrate on the league, as they say.

The game against Wolves will be a biggy for both teams.

I watched the Arsenal tie on the box with my daughter who is no football fan. But shortly after the second half started she calmly observed that having counted all the passes over a 10 minute period Arsenal averaged 5 completed whilst WHU barely got above 2.

She was bang on in her assessment and the writing was on the wall. I noted the morning after the tie one of the papers actually quoted that Arsenal completed 525 passes in the game to WH 200+ or so. Says it all. Even when they were losing, their overall quality on the ball and with the ball shone through. It was just going to be a matter of time.

I think if Parker had been fit then it might habe been a better performance but from my observations there really wasn't a leader out there for WH. Its a worrying time for sure as with all teams 'down there', the heads can go down so quickly without some inspirational leadership on the field.

Yes, the Wolves game will be another '6 pointer' as will all the games against the bottom 10 or so clubs. I can see this being the tightest relegation battle ever with possibly all 3 places still up for rabs on the last day. If Portsmouth get some short term relief financially, then it could be that none of the bottom clubs fall adrift too much from the pack. No-one, bar the top 6 are probably too good (anymore) to go down.

Did anyone here bring up the 'McCarthy Plan' at MU? I'm sure Brack wouldn't have minded his tactics for that one!. You are a WW fan, so what was the general feeling? For my 2 pence worth MM has my complete support. There are 2 leagues in EPL. A top four, soon to be 6 perhaps, and the rest. McCarthy's job, as with the other managers is to keep the club in the division in order to avoid financial ruin. If the EPL or Wenger doesn't like it then they should change the financial share out, instigate a salary cap for a 5 year period after which 'every' club should be required to prove it can meet the wage bill from its annual income and not the pockets of some billionaire. Oh yeah, as a last point, reintroduce a maximum of 6 foreign (not holding a British passport) players in any side.

I don't care if it hurts Liverpool or Arsenals chance of winning the Champions League. It is about preserving the future of the game in Britain and the prospects of our national teams in world competition.

Hmmm. Maybe I should have put this in the 'rant' section. Been drinking far too much port over Crimbo. Always gets me Jingoism going:lol:

Hi Hansamike

There were two distinct camps among supporters on that one, and I can sympathise with both viewpoints.
Strongest emotions ran among the three thosand travelling fans who having paid £40+ for a ticket, plus travel costs, and were expecting a strong Wolves team capable of taking the game to the Reds, who had their own team selection problems. The 3 - 0 turnover by Fulham the following week only served to fuel the flames on that view.
The other view is that the grumblings from the media and a certain Mr Whinger were overblown in suggesting that Wolves had essentially fielded "the reserves" (one report I read even called it our youth team - utter nonsense). The team McCarthy put out included six full internationals, and three Under 21 internationals, and only one of the starting 11 had not previously featured in the Premier League this season. Even he was recalled from loan at a Championship club (so was fit and had regular games under his belt) to replace an injured team-mate. McCarthy's explanation that the team that had beaten Spurs had worked themselves into the ground in protecting an early lead was his justification for resting many of that team, while others had picked up minor injuries. Given the quality and depth that United have he felt that a fresh set of legs might stand a better chance of getting something from the game. He's the manager and knows his players better than any outside commentators. I do wonder how his boss (Chairman Steve Morgan) would have reacted had we not beaten Burnley in the next game.
What really annoyed me about the whole thing was the outright hypocracy shown by certain other managers in their attacks on McCarthy's actions - is it ok for the "big" clubs to do this when they have important games coming up, but not the "lesser" clubs?

Ian

That's good!
Must have been put together by some Arsenal supporters though - where were "The Pires" and "The Bergkamp"?

Sorry to say I can't get behind Birmingham George. They are our local rivals and besides I have a couple of Man U players in my fantasy football team, and points are going to be scarce this week.

Ian

As a character I liked Fernandes (also a Plaistow boy) but he has a lot on his place with Lotus F1 and an airline to run.

Sulli and Gold have been after WH for 20 years and they tried before buying Birmingham as we know. I'm optimistic. However they make or made their money, they took a clapped out Brum with a clapped out stadium and made them financially stable and a club, at least with a premiership view. They sold it in a good state and now want to do the same with their favoured club. There won't be Abromavich style expenditure, but it will be realistically run. The club does have great potential to be an EPL fixture and should look to occasional cup success.

Its about all we should hope for given the current state of the game. Survival is all important this year, but even if we did go down with Sulli and Gold they have experienced that a couple of times with Brum and they know what to do. They are old hands at this now.

That's the price of doing business in a large metro area. Here on the other side of the pond, the pro clubs are pricing themselves out of the market. When business was better, they could plan on corporate box sales and business write off on expenses for entertaining clients. Now?

Rick