Mattocks has been pretty damn impressive, considering he missed the start of the season after badly burning his upper body cooking.
Truly the difference between MLS and the Premier League. Our players would never subject themselves to cooking their own meals, they burn houses not themselves.
Okay what the fuck is going on in Vancouver? They just traded Sebastien Le Toux to NYRB for Dane Richards. This is coming right off the heels of them losing Davide Chiumiento (their most creative player, imo), who requested to be traded because he was so homesick.
Beckham in form tonight, 2 goals in the first 25 minutes off a free-kick and a classic Beckham bender. And now a Donovan PK, so Timbers score in the 2nd minute and allow 3 unanswered.
ed holy crap now Keane makes it 4-1in the 29th min.
Rangers getting dumped out of the SPL, can only be a good thing. Supporters from other clubs didn't care about who came first out of Celtic or Rangers, so I doubt they're fussed that it's going to be Celtic now. The 2nd spot and its rewards are now up for grabs.
Also, those teams can attempt to actually change some things in the league. The SPL requires an 11-1 vote to change how it works; so any previous attempt at making the league more competitive basically got stopped by Celtic and Rangers, who liked the arrangement where they were at the top getting most of the money. With Rangers gone, maybe some things can be done.
Celtic now don't have to spend so much to compete with (a cheating) Rangers. In the short term, yes, I imagine Celtic are going to walk away with the title, but maybe the other teams can close the gap in a few seasons Sevco aren't there.
From what I've read, season tickets are up for nearly all of the other clubs. Now would be the time for those supporters to get behind their clubs and back them up over their decision to get rid of Rangers.
That's a very romantic view unfortunately it doesn't seem to be very likely.
The benefits of finishing second behind Celtic are going to decrease very quickly as our European Co-Efficient goes down, Celtic haven't even reached the group stage of the Champions League since 2008 with their current income, so as that decreases I imagine so will their chances.
As for "maybe some things can be done" about the distribution of money in the SPL now Rangers are gone. Well the amount of money going into the SPL is going to be drastically reduced. Some chairmen are talking about up to 5 teams going into administration this year due to the all the contracts having to be renogotiated as the interest in the SPL without Old Firm games is tiny. So there is absolutely no financial benefit to the clubs from this decision.
Season tickets may be up, not sure how true that is, and I severely doubt there will be any long term increase in attendances as clubs have to sell their current players because they can't afford the contracts they had them on due to the TV deals, and won't be able to bring in replacements of the same ability so the standard of quality will probably drop from its already low perch.
I agree completely with the decision to put Rangers in division 3, but I fail to see how it "can only be a good thing". I don't see competition increasing, as at the end of the day we now have one team in the SPL getting income from 60,000 fans every week and the next best will be about 15,000. (Hearts were 3rd last year with an average of 13,000 so I'm being generous and assuming they will increase that this year, although since they've struggled to pay wages even on their current income then I think they may be struggling to avoid admin this season.)
I personally view this as a time to change Scottish Football completely. Summer football (why a country with a climate like us decides to miss out the best 3 months for playing football baffles me) and teams only playing each other twice a season seems like a good start.
Any chance the FA will do the right thing and bring Terry up on a charge of bringing the game into disrepute? (I think that#s what it's called)
On a different tack, I guess I'm the only Spurs fan here?
Another one here, chief!
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TavIrish Minister for DefenceRegistered Userregular
Fwiw, the league of Ireland introduced summer football a few years ago and there was pretty much no increase in attendances. Hell, a premier league club folded like a month ago because they weren't bringing in enough fans to pay the bills.
It must of helped with the postponing of games? I imagine that costs the Scottish league a bit of money each season having to cancel and re arrange stuff.
Les Davies is now on UEFA's yearly "Best player in Europe" list because a single Welsh journalist nominated him. Davies is now on a list that includes 13 Premier League players, Leo Messi, and Ronaldo. He currently plays for Bangor City in the Welsh Premier League. The journalist that nominated him deserves a medal for such a blatant abuse of power for the sake of comedy.
Full list:
Uefa best player in Europe long list: Aguero (Manchester City), Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Balotelli (Manchester City), Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund), Buffon (Juventus), Casillas (Real Madrid), Cech (Chelsea), Coentrao (Real Madrid), Davies (Bangor City), Drogba (Shanghai Shenhua), Fabregas (Barcelona), Falcao (Atletico Madrid), Hart (Manchester City), Ibrahimovic (AC Milan), Iniesta (Barcelona), Kagawa (Manchester Utd), Kompany (Manchester City), Lampard (Chelsea), Messi (Barcelona), Modric (Tottenham), Ozil (Real Madrid), Pepe (Real Madrid), Pirlo (Juventus), Ramos (Real Madrid), Raul (Al-Sadd Sports Club), Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Rooney (Manchester Utd), Silva (Manchester City), Torres (Chelsea), Y Toure (Manchester City), van Persie (Arsenal), Xavi (Barcelona).
Dehumanized on
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TavIrish Minister for DefenceRegistered Userregular
It must of helped with the postponing of games? I imagine that costs the Scottish league a bit of money each season having to cancel and re arrange stuff.
We just played through the bad weather. It was actually pretty rare for games to get cancelled here (it seems like a much bigger occurrence in Scotland)
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Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
Lol, its the fact that most of the games aren't in London that is the problem. My girlfriend was offered tickets in Coventry, but fuck that, it's miles away. It's a sure fire way to guarantee no one interested in the olympics will go to them, as everyone wants to see a main event, in London (mostly, sod off sailing, we could of done it in the river!) anyone travelling is not going to want to go London -> Coventry - > Home if they have tickets to more than one event.
Venues are:
Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff, Wembley)
Two are in different countries (Although they get let off this as technically it is GB not England at the olympics).
They should of just given them to local schools to the grounds. My girlfriend works in Enfield, yet the school was given tickets to a game in Coventry. And guess how many they got?
9.
For the whole school. Not even worth putting a coach on, so the school decided to offer them to teachers instead of letting 9 kids go as it would of been difficult explaining to the other few hundred kids. That wasn't even one per class.
A lot of the football takes place outside of London though, even in Wales and Scotland which is where the biggest amount of unsold tickets are. I think it's only Wembley in London that's hosting games and they were always going to struggle to sell 90,000+ tickets for anything but the final (although with ticket prices between £40-185 I doubt they'll be a sell out for that either). I'd also like to go to see a couple of games at Wembley but the process for buying tickets was pretty convoluted before and I don't know what days I'll have off of work yet, as with all bars and restaurants in central London we're expecting a massive spike in visitors so chances are I will be working quite a lot. If they are selling tickets at the gate and I'm off that day I'd probably go unless it were Egypt vs New Zealand or something.
either,or on
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TavIrish Minister for DefenceRegistered Userregular
how is player eligibility for Olympic football decided? What is stopping someone like Spain from fielding their best possible team and steamrolling everything?
how is player eligibility for Olympic football decided? What is stopping someone like Spain from fielding their best possible team and steamrolling everything?
Wait, so there are at least 4 premiere league stadia and wembley in London proper and they're only using wembley? Lol games organizers. Giving tix to all students at the schools in the area would have been much better than just covering seats unsold.
Yup, they could have hosted it all in London, although that may have added an extra heart attack or two amongst the members of the Met Police (but it's all good, we have the army on the streets now! not when London was being looted, but for a glorified sports day).Although I can't imagine there would be any kind of trouble compared to a normal football match, unless Mexico and Gabon have some heated rivarly I never heard about. But I suppose it was intended to spread people out a bit.
Also I doubt they will get 25k people at each game, so in London you could have used:
25,700 Fulham
26,225 Crystal Palace
27,111 Charlton Athletic
35,303 West Ham United
36,230 Tottenham Hotspur
42,449 Chelsea
60,361 Arsenal
The four smallest ones there, plus wembley. Job done. Not that I would want to show the world Upton Park adn the surrounding area, it's a shit hole.
Do you own a phone? Do you like managing the footballs? Because Football Manager Handheld 2012 (FMH2012 for acronym fans) is now cheaper than it was. I grabbed it for £2.99 on Android last night.
It's waaaay too easy though. Have won the A-League premiership, championship, asian champions league and club world cup 3 years running. I have bought no players. Through winning those club world cups I have beaten Real Madrid once and Barcelona twice.
Glad I was there to send off Levesque, but this is gonna be the last of these kinds of friendlies I attend. The temporary grass that they install for these things is utter shit and I really hope that Brad Evans is not injured in any lasting fashion.
edit: Evans saying on Twitter that he's okay. Still, I can't take the stress of seeing another player twist and fall on these awful temporary surfaces for a meaningless game. Not coming to another.
Ledley King is retiring from professional football, but will be staying on at Spurs in an ambassadorial role. Dude should be coaching the defence. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18902734
It's a shame, but I saw it coming. His training regime sounds like it's been "is my knee a balloon? If yes, sit and hope I can play. If no, sit and hope I can play".
It's waaaay too easy though. Have won the A-League premiership, championship, asian champions league and club world cup 3 years running. I have bought no players. Through winning those club world cups I have beaten Real Madrid once and Barcelona twice.
Not when every other game ends in a last-minute goal to equalise. I take every one as a personal insult.
Posts
Seems about right to me.
edit: and then like a minute later john terry is found not guilty of being a racist cunt
just a cunt then
Truly the difference between MLS and the Premier League. Our players would never subject themselves to cooking their own meals, they burn houses not themselves.
The details of the exchange are, to me, utterly hilarious: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jul/13/john-terry-cleared-anton-ferdinand?newsfeed=true
it's like Hemingway and Wilde having a heated debate.
On a different tack, I guess I'm the only Spurs fan here?
lol rangers
ed holy crap now Keane makes it 4-1in the 29th min.
it was fun pretending there was some semblance of competition in Scotland
oh well
Also, those teams can attempt to actually change some things in the league. The SPL requires an 11-1 vote to change how it works; so any previous attempt at making the league more competitive basically got stopped by Celtic and Rangers, who liked the arrangement where they were at the top getting most of the money. With Rangers gone, maybe some things can be done.
Celtic now don't have to spend so much to compete with (a cheating) Rangers. In the short term, yes, I imagine Celtic are going to walk away with the title, but maybe the other teams can close the gap in a few seasons Sevco aren't there.
From what I've read, season tickets are up for nearly all of the other clubs. Now would be the time for those supporters to get behind their clubs and back them up over their decision to get rid of Rangers.
The benefits of finishing second behind Celtic are going to decrease very quickly as our European Co-Efficient goes down, Celtic haven't even reached the group stage of the Champions League since 2008 with their current income, so as that decreases I imagine so will their chances.
As for "maybe some things can be done" about the distribution of money in the SPL now Rangers are gone. Well the amount of money going into the SPL is going to be drastically reduced. Some chairmen are talking about up to 5 teams going into administration this year due to the all the contracts having to be renogotiated as the interest in the SPL without Old Firm games is tiny. So there is absolutely no financial benefit to the clubs from this decision.
Season tickets may be up, not sure how true that is, and I severely doubt there will be any long term increase in attendances as clubs have to sell their current players because they can't afford the contracts they had them on due to the TV deals, and won't be able to bring in replacements of the same ability so the standard of quality will probably drop from its already low perch.
I agree completely with the decision to put Rangers in division 3, but I fail to see how it "can only be a good thing". I don't see competition increasing, as at the end of the day we now have one team in the SPL getting income from 60,000 fans every week and the next best will be about 15,000. (Hearts were 3rd last year with an average of 13,000 so I'm being generous and assuming they will increase that this year, although since they've struggled to pay wages even on their current income then I think they may be struggling to avoid admin this season.)
I personally view this as a time to change Scottish Football completely. Summer football (why a country with a climate like us decides to miss out the best 3 months for playing football baffles me) and teams only playing each other twice a season seems like a good start.
Another one here, chief!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18864565
Les Davies is now on UEFA's yearly "Best player in Europe" list because a single Welsh journalist nominated him. Davies is now on a list that includes 13 Premier League players, Leo Messi, and Ronaldo. He currently plays for Bangor City in the Welsh Premier League. The journalist that nominated him deserves a medal for such a blatant abuse of power for the sake of comedy.
Full list:
We just played through the bad weather. It was actually pretty rare for games to get cancelled here (it seems like a much bigger occurrence in Scotland)
That picture at the top of the article has got to be the derpiest ever.
Poor guy...
Venues are:
Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff, Wembley)
Two are in different countries (Although they get let off this as technically it is GB not England at the olympics).
They should of just given them to local schools to the grounds. My girlfriend works in Enfield, yet the school was given tickets to a game in Coventry. And guess how many they got?
9.
For the whole school. Not even worth putting a coach on, so the school decided to offer them to teachers instead of letting 9 kids go as it would of been difficult explaining to the other few hundred kids. That wasn't even one per class.
Ridiculous.
3DS friend code: 4811-7214-5053
Its U-21 squads + 3 older players.
Also I doubt they will get 25k people at each game, so in London you could have used:
25,700 Fulham
26,225 Crystal Palace
27,111 Charlton Athletic
35,303 West Ham United
36,230 Tottenham Hotspur
42,449 Chelsea
60,361 Arsenal
The four smallest ones there, plus wembley. Job done. Not that I would want to show the world Upton Park adn the surrounding area, it's a shit hole.
Fucking hell.
Eventually, the world is going to run out of oil tycoons right? What will club soccer do then?
edit: Evans saying on Twitter that he's okay. Still, I can't take the stress of seeing another player twist and fall on these awful temporary surfaces for a meaningless game. Not coming to another.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18902734
It's a shame, but I saw it coming. His training regime sounds like it's been "is my knee a balloon? If yes, sit and hope I can play. If no, sit and hope I can play".
Not when every other game ends in a last-minute goal to equalise. I take every one as a personal insult.
Yay technology！
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