Football 2010/2011 Season

[GoochDogHigh5s]

Does anyone else think that Orient buying 9 players in the close season is too much?

[boki]

Depends - how many have they shipped out?

[GoochDogHigh5s]

Five
I guess it is just a case of a new manager getting players that he knows and trusts, in early

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Aren't you the guy who was suggesting last season that United shouldn't have a youth team because they can afford to buy players? Is there any room in your imagination for a team that has both a youth policy and also signs players?

I don't think it makes any sense to have a youth policy when you spend £100 million on 3 or 4 players. Is it any wonder your 'youth policy' is so spectacularly unsuccessful- I don't think I'd have much ambition to break into the United first team when anytime you make a breakthrough the club buys another couple of players taking up your place in the pecking order. I'm not saying Man Utd shouldn't be allowed to, just dismayed that they can do it and still afford to continue spending money when it fails.

But then I am a bit of a footballing luddite and want to set up a rival equivalent to the football league where teams are comprised 100% of local players from their home town and transfers are non-existant. Every teams youth policy would be like it was in the past- pretty crucial to a teams success.

You might think like me when Giggs/Scholes/Neville and Alex Ferguson retires. When they go a genuine era worth being proud of dies, and you become another Chelsea/Citeh club comprised of mercenaries who sack their foreign manager every 2 years. I'd love to be wrong, I might actually learn to love Man United. That's the reason I hate your money spending, because you are abandoning the few worthy and respectable aspects of your club. Everytime you spend 20 million on a really fucking average English player someone else trained, your legacy goes down the pan.

Yes I'm on big downer on club football at the moment. After hearing Liverpool fans hoping their clubs gets 'a rich Arab buyout' I'm sick of the way it's going that even the fans desire nothing except success at any cost. Exceptionally depressing considering Liverpudlians have spent much of their lives with rich people shitting on them from a great height that their main aspiration is to join them. Maybe spending so much on a season ticket and a Sky package fosters that kind of mentality. They should be grateful they have a decent guy in charge and not a lot of money to spend.

[confettiinmyhair]

Does anyone have any firmer news about Spurs' possible signing of Cole, Simon Kjaer and Edinson Cavani? I like the latter two for only £28m, but Cole? I guess it depends on the money really. No need to unsettle the squad (and our niggardly pay-cap) for one good but not amaaaaazing player, is there?

We've def got that Blackwood kid from Arsenal, who I remember heaing being bigged up last year and we have that keeper on a year long loan, which again I think is smart work (Pletikosa, needed to look it up!). Oh for a decent LB though, that'd be smashing.

Blackwood signed last season. We're apparently in negotiations with Micah Richards, and Connor Wickham (who was last week shown around Spurs Lodge). Due to Levy driving a hard bargain we are finding it hard to get rid of our unwanted squad players. Joe Cole has been spoken about, but I can't see why we'd want Cole when we've got the likes of Modric and Kranjcar?

As for your wishlist. I doubt we will sign a LB since Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Gareth Bale cover that area pretty well. A keeper might not be a priority if Cudicini has fully recovered from his bike accident.

[chand]

I don't think it makes any sense to have a youth policy when you spend £100 million on 3 or 4 players.

But you were saying there's no point having a youth policy and spending money, and yet you're now saying Fletcher, a product of that youth policy, has turned out more useful than Veron (£20-something-million). Which is true. So is it really 'spectacularly unsuccessful'?

I don't think I'd have much ambition to break into the United first team when anytime you make a breakthrough the club buys another couple of players taking up your place in the pecking order.

But that's the same everywhere, the only difference is the amount of money. Imagine how dispiriting it must be for an up-and-coming young Newcastle midfielder when the club goes out and spends money on some cunt they've watched on YouTube. Or £5m on Joey. Fucking. Barton. Although I suppose in that case the young player will get a chance every time Barton goes to prison.

It's just such a baffling complaint. United have a youth policy in the hope we'll get some excellent players out of it. Some of them stay, most of them move on. Some of them (Danny Guthrie, Danny Simpson), end up playing for you. We also buy players. This differs from other clubs not one iota. Since the 'class of 92' we've had Brown, O'Shea, Fletcher and most recently Jonny Evans who've become mainstays of the squad. Our young players will continue to get chances; Evans played 28 times for the senior team last season, Gibson 23 times, Welbeck made 11 appearances before he went out on loan. They're getting a fair crack of the whip, and if they're good enough, as Evans in particular seems to be, then they get to play for us. If not then we have to buy players.

There's no point hating United for it; the money is in the game and there's a pressure to be successful. Under those circumstances it is very difficult to win titles and Champions League with whatever teenagers you can dig up from Longsight and Levenshulme.

[rudi]

Blackwood signed last season. We're apparently in negotiations with Micah Richards, and Connor Wickham (who was last week shown around Spurs Lodge). Due to Levy driving a hard bargain we are finding it hard to get rid of our unwanted squad players. Joe Cole has been spoken about, but I can't see why we'd want Cole when we've got the likes of Modric and Kranjcar?

As for your wishlist. I doubt we will sign a LB since Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Gareth Bale cover that area pretty well. A keeper might not be a priority if Cudicini has fully recovered from his bike accident.

A keeper's no longer a priority now we have that Croatian fellow in for the year. As for LB, BAE makes one glaring error every game and Bale needs to learn how to defend (especially as Arry says that's where he wants to play him [go to talksport.net and listen to the two-part interview linked to ion the front page: it's genuinely interesting and honest]). People seem  to have forgotten what a liability CB was at LB when his chance came.

[Danger Man]

There's no point hating United for it; the money borrowed from banks which will eventually be repaid at 1 penny in the pound when we go bankrupt is in the game and there's a pressure to be successful.

Fixed! You Lehman Brothers supporter, you.

[chand]

Yeah, the Glazer takeover made us rich beyond our wildest dreams. Until all that borrowed money came in we didn't have a pot to piss in.

[Danger Man]

Your owners are over £1 billion in debt with, it appears, 16% interest on repayments.

Good luck with that.

(Though, in fairness, maybe the taxpayer will pick up that bill as well)

[Geraint]

I don't think it makes any sense to have a youth policy when you spend £100 million on 3 or 4 players. Is it any wonder your 'youth policy' is so spectacularly unsuccessful- I don't think I'd have much ambition to break into the United first team when anytime you make a breakthrough the club buys another couple of players taking up your place in the pecking order. I'm not saying Man Utd shouldn't be allowed to, just dismayed that they can do it and still afford to continue spending money when it fails.

are we still on about Man Utd? because !!!!. Their youth system creates more players that have a successful professional career than any in Britain, and as many as any club in the world. The only way you could describe it as 'unsuccessful' is that not a great deal of these players end up first team regulars for Manchester United. But this is largely because of the unprecedented quality of their early 90s intakes - there are only so many players you can have and give a passable amount of pitch time, even in the 60 game season of modern big clubs. Yet after nearly 2 decades you've still got Giggs and Scholes playing fairly important roles and Gary Neville also on the books. You've also got Wes Brown and Darren Fletcher, versatile players with hundreds of Utd appearances and dozens of international caps between them. If two clubs bring through, say, a promising teenage striker each, one club already has four good strikers, some of whom are former youth products, the rest partially paid for by the success or transfer market profit brought by their youngsters, and the other club are a low-mid table side without much depth up front - which one is more likely to 'succeed' in the short term in your terms and provide obvious on-pitch benefit to their club? It's your Stoke City man. Does that mean Stoke City have a better youth system than Man Utd? Like it or not. we've moved past the late 1960s where you could build one of the best sides in the world almost completely out of homegrown players and young signings.

Apart from ex-Man Utd prospects that play at a Champions League level, are regular internationals for great sides, yet couldn't get a game as more than backup at Utd  - most obviously Pique and Rossi, who combined brought in a shitload of transfer money (worth bearing in mind when so much of your argument is based around 'wasting £Xm on X player' - there are literally dozens of Man Utd academy prospects currently at Premier League, Championship, or foreign top flight clubs. It's a frequent occurence for Championship sides to bring in 'middling' Man Utd prospects on loan who are seen as having a tiny chance of ever being Old Trafford regulars - see Cathcart and Gray at Plymouth, plus their £200k signing of Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, or see Cleverly at Watford - and these are immediately star players at these clubs and amongst the best in their division - usually aged 20 or under with lots of room to still develop.

If you look at clubs that would seem a more 'obvious' success in your terms regarding youth development - Man City, Middlesbrough and Aston Villa stand out off the top of my head - do you really think that if you swapped the players round from one of them and Man Utds equivalent yearly intake there's a great difference in quality? Would Gabriel Agbonlahor, Stewart Downing or Micah Richards have necessarily been regulars at Man Utd? Would it be any indictment on their or their clubs' quality if they'd had to go elsewhere for first team football because there was already a logjam in their positions?

[confettiinmyhair]

Anyone find this Ronaldo paying a surrogate mother to have his baby story a bit strange?

[jimmy jazz]

I remember Ricky Martin doing the same.

...

[chand]

Sky TV fixtures have been announced for the opening weekend:

Saturday 14 Tottenham v Man City 12.45pm
Sunday 15 Liverpool v Arsenal 4pm
Monday 16 Man Utd v Newcastle 8pm

So us and Newcastle don't start our season til the Monday night, which is a bit annoying.

[The Duck Man]

Only one of last season's top 5 kicking off at 3pm on the first Saturday. I do wish they'd leave it alone on the first day, but unfortunately that's completely unrealistic in this day and age.

EDIT: For clarity

[chand]

Same again this year, ESPN game for the same weekend is this:

Saturday 14th Chelsea v West Bromwich Albion 5:30pm

So 6 of the top 7 are moved on the opening weekend this season, it's only Villa who no-one cares about that are staying at 3pm Saturday.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

One possible consideration is that our squad aren't released from the young offenders institute until 4.

[The Duck Man]

West Ham have a set of photos on their website from the first day of pre-season.

Here, Kieron Dyer starts as he means to go on:

[chand]

Here's a picture from today, showing Sir Alex starting as he means to go on:

[Slaaaaabs]

Here's a picture from today, showing Sir Alex starting as he means to go on:

Nike are taking the piss with these new shirt designs!

[rjd2]

Hargreaves will miss the start of the season as he is injured again. The dude's body must be the total shits after the last few years of horror.

[Mr Colossal]

i'm starting to believe he's one of those fraudsters who craftily remains injured during the transfer windows so nobody can offload him. The problem is- if his knees well and truly are THAT fucked hes got to miss the best part of 2 years- by the time he comes back, at 29,  you've got to question what state of fragility he's going to be in, especially seeing as one of the main roles he was brought in for was to be a high-tempo 'attack dog' in midfield...

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/latin_america/10565346.stm

Err....*scared face*........okay....

[Lee Van Cleef]

Are y'all doing a fantasy league this year? If so I'd like to have a crack at it..

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

*shob*

I'm Hawwy Wedknapp and none of the big players will come to my cwub cos they all wants megabucks

*waaaaaahhhh*

_{Thank you for reading my sophisticated and humorous critique of the last month of Harry Redknapp.}

[Mr Colossal]

Suarez said he'd be interested, although I like the way he trails off with the hint that hes only interested in the Levy megabucks:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=807916&sec=transfers&cc=5739

"Manchester United are a great side and, along with Real Madrid, are the most prestigious club in the world. You know if you join Manchester United and are there for any length of time you will win things.

"Tottenham hold appeal as well, though. They are a team with great ambition and have done well to reach the Champions League. I like teams that have shown ambition through the money they spend.

[Lee Van Cleef]

Yahoo/Eurosport is saying that Man Utd are interested in Lahm and may exchange Park for him.

I bloody hope not.

[rjd2]

Are y'all doing a fantasy league this year? If so I'd like to have a crack at it..

Well I started one, I don't think their is any other CAB floating around.

139646-41406

[rjd2]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/latin_america/10565346.stm

Err....*scared face*........okay....

Its not looking good for him.....



http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Star-Brazilian-goalie-in-jail-for-ex-lovers-murder/articleshow/6169465.cms

Bruno Souza, 25, and six others, including his wife Dayane, are being held in the grisly case.

Souza, the goalkeeper and captain of Brazil's championship-winning club Flamengo, met the beautiful victim, Eliza Samudio, at a teammate's party last year and got her pregnant the first night they spent together, police said. But he became enraged when she insisted on keeping the baby. Samudio filed a complaint in October, saying Souza beat her and tried to force her to swallow an abortion-inducing drug.

After their child, now four months old, was born and Samudio tried to prove Souza was the father, he hired a former police detective, Luiz Aparecido Santos, to kidnap, beat and murder her, investigators said. They suspect that Samudio, 25, was kidnapped from a Rio de Janeiro hotel on June 4 and driven to a suburban house near the city of Belo Horizonte, six hours away.

One of Souza's cousins, who allegedly took part in the abduction, said in a deposition that Santos committed ''barbaric tortures'' of Samudio while loud music blared to cover her screams, the newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo said. When Samudio begged Santos to stop, saying she couldn't bear it any more, he allegedly replied, "You are not going to bear it any more. You are going to die."

Police said Santos strangled Samudio, cut up her body and fed some of the parts to Rottweiler dogs at the home. The other parts were buried in concrete, they said. They said Souza had planned the crime, told other plotters to "solve the problem" of Samudio, and witnessed her torture and strangulation. "According to witnesses, he accompanied Eliza to her sacrifice and her death," said Edson Moreira, a police investigator."An idol like Bruno, from such a major team, is a monster for what he has done to this girl," said Moreira.

Souza was taken in handcuffs from his prison cell for DNA testing on Monday to establish a physical link to the murder. But he exercised his legal right to refuse to give any samples.Souza, who captained his team to the Brazilian championship last year, said he is innocent and has a "clear conscience." He complained that the case might spoil his chance to play for Brazil in the next World Cup..

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Fucking hell....