Wake up you footy fans!!!

This is for all non-EC or peripheral-EC topics. We all know how much we love talking about 'The Man' but sometimes we have other interests.
Post Reply
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Wot, no Chelsea comments? :lol:

I too made the foolish mistake of captaining Ashley - if only I'd gone for Bale. I was thinking of selling him due to his refusal to turn it on in the Prem the way he does against Inter, but boy did he make me glad I didn't. On a good day he's unstoppably talented.
My Chelsea comment - when did we become Arsenal? Injuries could really hurt us. On the other hand we are top of the table and all of the "big clubs" have issues this season. It's anyone's game.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Yes, but 0-3 at home to Sunderland!?!?!?!?!?
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Yes, but 0-3 at home to Sunderland!?!?!?!?!?
Not gonna overreact to one result. When I saw Ferreira at center back I knew it could be a long day.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
alexv
Posts: 772
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2003 2:32 pm
Location: USA

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by alexv »

What's happenned to the footy discussion?

I've got a question. Been watching the Premiership games for a few years, but I know very little about the game. The players who have impressed me over the years have been Ronaldo (although never liked the fancy moves that went nowhere), Henri, that Rudd guy, sometimes Torres. They somehow usually stood out. This year nobody I've seen has impressed me to that level. But i"ve caught a couple of games where Gareth Bale has been unbelievable. He practically flies down the wing, has great control and makes the most unbelievable passes. His combination of talent, athleticism and competitiveness reminds me of MJ in his basketball prime. Where did this kid come from? Is he really all that, or am I missing something? It may be that i'm overestimating the effect of sheer speed in this game. I still recall a number of years ago (maybe two World Cups ago) being blown away by Duff from Ireland. I see him in the Barclays now and he's good but nothing spectacular.

Be gentle.
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

alexv wrote:What's happenned to the footy discussion?

I've got a question. Been watching the Premiership games for a few years, but I know very little about the game. The players who have impressed me over the years have been Ronaldo (although never liked the fancy moves that went nowhere), Henri, that Rudd guy, sometimes Torres. They somehow usually stood out. This year nobody I've seen has impressed me to that level. But i"ve caught a couple of games where Gareth Bale has been unbelievable. He practically flies down the wing, has great control and makes the most unbelievable passes. His combination of talent, athleticism and competitiveness reminds me of MJ in his basketball prime. Where did this kid come from? Is he really all that, or am I missing something? It may be that i'm overestimating the effect of sheer speed in this game. I still recall a number of years ago (maybe two World Cups ago) being blown away by Duff from Ireland. I see him in the Barclays now and he's good but nothing spectacular.

Be gentle.
Bale was highly touted when Tottenham acquired him from Southampton, but through a combination of injuries, mis-use and clueless managers he never really got a consistent run with them. He also, at one point, had the unenviable distinction of never appearing for Tottenham when they won a game (not his fault, but more of a fluke I think). Redknapp has taken the reins off and allowed him to be an attacking player - and he has thrived. Definitely in any Best XI Premiership team this season, I would think. I saw him play in pre-season at Red Bull Arena and could tell that he was gearing up for a great season. The only thing I worried about was burnout.

Your observations are very astute. I would say that overall the Premier League is lacking in quality this season. Manchester United is undefeated but hardly dominant, having drawn a lot of matches. Arsenal look great one day then mediocre the next. Chelsea started like a house on fire but has fallen to pieces as a result of age and injuries and God knows what else. Manchester City is on the rise but I have doubts about their manager and you never know from one week to the next what their lineup will look like. Tottenham has been more consistent this season but still has the odd bad result. Overall it makes for a more competitive league, even if questions might be asked about the quality.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
sulky lad
Posts: 2425
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 5:21 pm
Location: Out of the kitchen,she's gone with the wind

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by sulky lad »

Perfect summation WSS - it's anybody's at the moment. It's interesting to see that when Chelsea had bucketloads of money thrown at them they eventually got JM as manager and suddenly looked unstoppable. Wonder how long it will take the Eastlands crew to realise that Mancini s no Mourinho (can't spell sorry).
As for us Gooners, Wigan's equaliser showed Fabianski flapping round like a naive 14 year old running across the goal and getting nowhere, so please a real goalkeeper and Vermaelen back fit so we can get our grubby hands on some silverware - other than the League Cup where we'll probably lose to a resolute but ultimately extremely boring Birmingham in the final. :oops:
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

What a fucking goal by Rooney today. I'm no kind of Man United fan, but my jaw hit the floor when that went in.

Pretty vexing season overall as a Chelsea fan. Still in the FA Cup (for now) and CL but really struggling domestically.

Starting to wonder if we might be playing Europa league again next season, like in the good old days.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Best place for you! At least you're magnanimous about Rooney's self-described best goal ever (he was very sweet in the interview, despite his fire and reputation, he comes across here as he did in the excellent Street Soccer Skills series he did with a bunch of ball-magician urban teens as humble and gentle).

I will never forget this moment. I was round at a CIty fan's house (who was asking for it with it being OT and all, though the first 30 mins had me worrying), with another fellow fan beside him, and two others who were wanting City to do the business. I screamed the house down. Totally brilliant. Never seen anything like it. Was speaking to a market trader today who had a Hat of the Brotherhood on, so we got talking and he saw the legendary Denis Law score a similar one (and also Best's first game for Utd, lucky bugger!).

Despite generally average and often quite ropey play, our near-refusal to lose and occasional bouts of unrivalled brilliance have all but returned the trophy to its rightful home.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Any good Ashley Cole air rifle jokes out there? Thought people would be all over that story. Here's one for Arsenal...

What the difference between Arsene Wenger and Fagin from Oliver Twist?

When Fagin sends his kids out, they come back with silverware.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Saw this on When Saturday Comes forum, penned by one Hartley Sebag-Ffiennes...
'Twas as foul and base a spectacle as any conjured up by the poet Pope in The Dunciad, one which caused the nostrils of those of a properly Augustan sensibility to wrinkle with disdain, to watch the rank, blue-clad hordes spill out of Wembley stadium yestreen. The friction of knuckles against paving stones, the discernible motion in their trouser seats of hidden tails wagging furiously, the loud, collective mooing; one does not wish to descend into whimsical anthropomorphism by ascribing human emotions to these cattle but one could imagine that they were experiencing what we as sentient, thinking, feeling beings would call “joy”. Evidently, in their bovine obtuseness, these sub-people had misinterpreted entirely yesterday's association football result and its ramifications.

Yes, the score read 1-2 (it is as well that there were no further goals as this would have confounded the numerical capability of the average West Midlander) but this fails to take into account a raft of exquisite, aesthetic intangibles, beyond the ken of a mere scoreboard. What of poise? Deportment? Grace? Elan? Panache?

To descend into the linguistic cesspit that is the element of the “Brummie”, here is what they imagined to have occurred upon the football field yesterday. “Weeaoow put the ball more toimes than thiy did in the nit, loike – and at the end, we got a coop.” Ah yes, the Carling Cup – had the game resolved itself in such a way that this trophy had been presented to Arsenal, then in the unlikely event that our players had accepted the trophy, M Wenger would have marched furiously onto the pitch and prevented the exchange, in the manner of Sir Alfred Ramsey intervening physically in 1966 to stop an English player from swapping his shirt with his Argentinean counterpart.

Arsenal do not play football purely out of some base, banal, magpie-like desire for the acquisition of cheap and vulgar baubles, sponsored by the brewers of urinal alcoholic products. Does one imagine, for example, that Da Vinci was motivated to paint purely in the hope that he might one day be awarded the Luigi's Grog Pot? He did not; he painted for the betterment of men, and so that such men, in being bettered thus could know that they were better than other men.

So it is with Arsenal. Once again, the troglodytes could be heard to bray, “WHY DOESN'T ONE OF THEM SHOOT? JUST FOR FUCKING ONCE, ONE OF YOU MINCING LITTLE FUCKING BANTAMWEIGHTS JUST PUT YOUR FUCKING FOOT THROUGH IT RATHER THAN LOOKING TO LAY IT BACK TO BACARY FUCKING SAGNA WHEN YOU'VE A FUCKING OPEN GOAL GAPING UP IN FRONT OF YOU!”

All of which is to miss the point. Many a time in training some raw swain from the youth team is invited to play in a session with the masters of the first eleven – and, with his impetuosity having got the better of him, he is liable, upon receipt of the ball six or seven yards out, to let fly and blast it in into the top corner of the net. Whereupon both the manager on the touchline and the senior players will wince and tut-tut at his grotesque gaffe, for he has committed a faux pas equivalent to Rembrandt, having only half-completed one of his canvases, punching a hole in it with his fist.

No no, it will be impressed upon the neophyte; this is not the Arsenal way. And, session by session, he will be versed in the more sublime, tantric delights of the endless passing game – the eternal dance of the cut-off, the layback, the forward jab, the flick, the succession of triangular motions, the Euclidian spectacle which is the true end in itself. And then, once this philosophy is ingrained in every fibre of his being, his initiation will be complete when he is at last invited to visit the Emirates trophy room and behold its cabinet, a contemporary masterpiece of uncluttered minimalism, a triumph of form over content. Here, he will be invited to marvel at the spotless glass through which all is visible is one's own reflection, the finish of teak shelving, untouched by base metal. For this, is the Arsenal way, and thus it is destined to remain. Rosicky!
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Love that last para. God that was the funniest goal I've ever seen. Where is So Lack these days?

Surely Arsene's time will have to come one he ends yet another seasons maintaining the minimalism of that cabinet? Arse ain't gonna stop the mighty Man Utd now, and they will come a cropper against Barca or someone for sure. Brilliant.

All the English clubs desire to match MU for domination and brilliance, but even a largely off-colour and undelivering Utd can still piss over the lot of them from a great height. Gotta love the comedic aspect of football.

Someone ought to shove an air rifle very far up Ashley's anus and fire several rounds with it.
Last edited by Otis Westinghouse on Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Oh the taste of victory is sweet, Otis! :D :D
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:but even a largely off-colour and undelivering Utd can still piss over the lot of them from a great height.
Why the hell did I go and write that! Should really have waited a day.

What happened? We were totally outclassing you lot in the first half and then Chelsea started playing properly.

At least Torres didn't score, that would have been truly vomitworthy.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
verbal gymnastics
Posts: 13637
Joined: Wed Jun 11, 2003 6:44 am
Location: Magic lantern land

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by verbal gymnastics »

There's always a silver lining Otis :lol:
Who’s this kid with his mumbo jumbo?
sulky lad
Posts: 2425
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 5:21 pm
Location: Out of the kitchen,she's gone with the wind

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by sulky lad »

Just amazed at how Barca do nothing all match but sit back and wait for the odd chance to snatch an undeserved winner. :oops: Seriously, I so hope they win it because if they don't it will be because some mediocre side has stifled them like Inter did last year. Any comments on van Persie sending off ? not that it made much difference if we'd played him and Bendtner (making 12 v 11 !!)
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

I hate Barca. Sanctimonious snotty nosed midgets constantly aided by corrupt referees. Screw them.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
invisible Pole
Posts: 2228
Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2004 2:20 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by invisible Pole »

Yes, Van Persie sending-off was outrageous, but as much as I like Arsenal I think they played a very mediocre game and did not deserve to go through to quarterfinals.
Just look at the official statistics –
Attempts on target – 0
Attempts off target – 0
For a team like Arsenal this is shocking and only shows that
1. Wenger got his tactics wrong for the game (or maybe he should have left Fabregas and Van Persie – both not fully fit – on the bench)
2. they were completely outplayed by Barcelona.

As for Barca, on a bad day (mine, that is) their constant passing of the ball gets on my nerves, but on a good day they look like the best team in the history of football.
If you don't know what is wrong with me
Then you don't know what you've missed
sulky lad
Posts: 2425
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 5:21 pm
Location: Out of the kitchen,she's gone with the wind

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by sulky lad »

I don't know if I want Barca to get the other North London side (apart from Arsenal Ladies side that is) or not - hope that barca will murder them or fear that the other side might do better than us !!
sheeptotheslaughter
Posts: 762
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:51 am

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by sheeptotheslaughter »

Arsenal had only 2 touches iin the Barca area.
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

sheeptotheslaughter wrote:Arsenal had only 2 touches iin the Barca area.
For me it's not that they deserved to win (they didn't), but rather the fact that Barca consistently gets help from friendly referees in big European games. I have no love for Arsenal, but the Van Persie sending off was ridiculous. First Frisk, then Ovrebo and now Busacca.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
so lacklustre
Posts: 3183
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 2:36 pm
Location: half way to bliss

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by so lacklustre »

Dare I mention Ryan Giggs again, superstar former sports personality of the year ha ha.
signed with love and vicious kisses
User avatar
mood swung
Posts: 6908
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:59 pm
Location: out looking for my tribe
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by mood swung »

What's a "testimonial match"?
Like me, the "g" is silent.
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

mood swung wrote:What's a "testimonial match"?
Match played to honor a retired or retiring player.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

so lacklustre wrote:Dare I mention Ryan Giggs again, superstar former sports personality of the year ha ha.
Makes John Terry look like a saint - that takes some doing.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
Jackson Monk
Posts: 1919
Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2003 4:33 pm
Location: At the other end of the telescope

Re: Wake up you footy fans!!!

Post by Jackson Monk »

I notice that this particular thread has gone very quiet since Arse's long awaited demise began.......(-:
corruptio optimi pessima
Post Reply