The Football Topic (Page 16 of 52)

The other Spurs boy Pavlyochenko did us a favour too! Looks like Jamie wants to stay with us and a fee has already been agreed. My pulse is fnally back to where it should be after all that stress yesterday afternoon. I feel for Blackpool - they've really entertained this season, but somebody had to go and rather them than Wolves.
Have to say I'm getting a bit fed up with folks saying how much they like Muppet Mick - tactically naive and for every decent player he's brought in he's brought 2 donkeys - time for a change, but I don't see it happening.
So United do it again - on merit - no doubt about that. I think they may face a bigger challenge next season from the other team with a huge following of gloryhunters  - Liverpool.

Ian

I saw a nice quote from somebody on the boards, WHU fan, just before the Sunderland game.

"ah at last. First time I can relax all season".

There seems to be a real sense of relief amongst the fans. Disappointment of course, at how things could or should have been, but the reality is that the club is sick and has been for a long while.

Keen is not the man but I fear the job may go to him. At best then he will have 10 games. Anyone will only get that. Too risky in the Championship. There could be a real danger they will drop right through. But the support will stand by them, although maybe not in the Olympic Stadium. That decision needs to be kicked right into touch now well before 2013.

Pleased for Wigan and Wolves. They scrapped and fought and made it. I know it may grate Ian that MMcCarthy has 'admirers' on here but we like him because he says it like it is. He doesn't have any Messi's in the team so scrapping and fighting for the shirt has to be a priority. I think they have done that a lot this year and not had the luck. On Sunday they did. I wish Wolves a far better 2011/12. Can't be easy being a manager under this kind of pressure all the time.

I think Wigan will flatter early again next year then later struggle. They are makeweights. Nothing more, as is half the division.

Blackpool. Lack of quality did for them in the end. Not overly sorry to see them go. Holloway is a nutter. An honest one, but a nutter all the same. His rants undermine his ability. But no doubting he is a character. Ferguson should give him a job and let him do the BBC interviews 

Birmingham. Disaster. Really. They shouldn'nt have been anywhere near the dropzone, but it just shows that organisation and grit count for nothing if you don't have anyone to stick the ball in the net.

Chelsea. After Grants sacking there were, as always, loads of Chelsea fans slagging off WH the 'lack of respect' showed to Grant. This decision to chuck out Ancelotti shows up Chelsea for all that they are. Chelsea are a club that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

It's going to be a great day when Abramovich goes and to watch them sink.

Damn....alarm set for 5:15 to catch 7:10 flight back to Balmer...woke up at at 3:15 and simply could not get back to sleep...so here I am, wide awake, killing time.....ugh.....

Looking forward to what will hopefully be a classic game today, and that the best team I have ever seen in nearly half a century of watching football will get its just reward. I just wish that the opponent was anyone other than ManU, because I cannot bring myself to properly hate the opposition today, mainly because of 'our' Edwin v.d. Sar, whose brilliant career would come to a fitting end with a CL win.

Wishing all lovers of the beautiful game a wonderful experience, and that the game is not decided by a refereeing blunder!

Visca el Barca!!! 

Men against boys, only one team in it after the first 10 minutes or so, we await Brack's congratulations. 

Cathy and I watched on a huge screen in a large bar with no more than 10 people present, all of whom favored Barca, not a Manc in the house. Happy days! 

Apparently American sports fans aren't the only ones to celebrate a Super Bowl, World Series, or NBA championship by rioting and burning their own city. I read numerous reports online of the violence that erupted in Barcelona and other parts of Spain. I just don't get it. To quote Mick Jagger @ Altamont, "C'mon people! Cool out!"

                                                                                                                     Chillax!!!

                                                                                                                     J Dawg

I guess it is just one of those times in sport.

When a team is finally assembled that can exhibit the true beauty of the sport/game.

Difficult in 'the moment' to truly marvel at it but as fans of 'the game' we should all appreciate it. It doesn't so last long. Injury and the human element undermines it in time.

I didn't see all the game. The last 20 minutes only so missed all the goals. I was shocked just reading the bald statistics today. United didn't get a corner? 13 shots on target to Barca and only 1 for United? (source BBC).

But from the 20 minutes I saw although both teams had plenty of running in them, Barcelona still had more. Always an outlet for the ball, always 2 men to tackle, always a man over in every defensive position. The workrate was astounding.

I marvel at the career of someone like Mascherano. Every team needs someone like him. What was the nickname of Deschamps? The 'water carrier' wasn't it? Every team needs one. Working tirelessly, breaking down movement, always ready to win the second ball.

At West Ham they wouldn't give him a place in the first team. Then he has a glittering career at first Liverpool and now Barcelona. It says so much more about him and those teams than it does about West Ham.

Well done to Barca and hard lines to United. They'll be back as Brack says. The competition needs such teams. For now though, as football fans, we must enjoy the moment of having one of the best teams of all time, in OUR time.

MikeH

I did hear that the real reason United will have a 19 banner at Old Trafford next season is to remind them of how many times they touched the ball in the final 

I have always detested Big Fat Sam, but am assured that he is the 'best we could get'.  A great deal will depend on what the team will look like in August, something that is impossible to forecast now. I expect that Parker, Upson and Noble will be gone, as well as all the loans from this season. New faces are bound to come, probably all players from lower divisions whom I will never have heard of.

It is what it is. Sigh.