Football 2011/2012

[Beagle 2]

It seems a sensible decision to me. Fuck it, I wouldn't have minded him being manager over Pearce if he wanted to be involved, but he's fucking 37 playing in a bit of a shit league. Richards will be fresh and hungry. And good.

[Slaaaaabs]

I had a chuckle imagining the Del Boy types who already have a stock of knock off TEAM GB shirts with BECKHAM on the back.

[holyzombiejesus]

Seeing as that's the over-age players sorted, who else will represent the other GB countries? It doesn't include Northern Ireland, does it?

[Utter Shit]

Steven Fletcher, Aaron Ramsey, Gareth Bale?

[holyzombiejesus]

Fletcher's too old and, depending on the definition of 'under 23', so might be Bale (who is 23, 4 days before the first match).

EDIT: Just seen that it's apparently '23 or under'.

[Utter Shit]

I don't think there are likely to be many non-English players to be honest...a quick look at the most recent squads suggests Chris Gunter/Neil Taylor/Joe Allen (Wales), Barry Bannan/Matt Phillips/Grant Hanley/James Forrest (Scotland) as reasonable possibilities for a call-up. Of those, I'd only say Taylor and Allen would be obvious picks though.

Then you have the English mob - Smalling, Walker, Cleverley, Rodwell, Sturridge, Rose, Caulker, McEachran, Amos, Sinclair, Bertrand, Gibbs, Albrighton, Lansbury, Tomkins, Colback...not a bad bunch but nothing exceptional.

[Glyn]

Fletcher's too old and, depending on the definition of 'under 23', so might be Bale (who is 23, 4 days before the first match).

EDIT: Just seen that it's apparently '23 or under'.

Just to confuse things I think the rule is that a player must be under 23 at the start of the Olympic year so Bale is eligible. I'd guess at him, Ramsey and hopefully Taylor for the welsh contingent but 5 welsh players seems a lot even to this one-eyed taff. Should be interesting to see if bale has to now be giggs' understudy though.

[RickyGerbail]

Maybe Van Persie should go to Juventus, they're working the right way, Wenger doesn't really "get it". Going to be interesting to follow them in the Champions League this year.

[Morrison Lard]

It's finally happening![nb]possibly[/nb]

I look forward to seeing them playing in blue, complete with a new badge asap.

[The Duck Man]

Thing is, only so many clubs can become the playthings of foreign billionaires. Only 17 clubs can stay up in the top flight each season, you're going to get some coming short in the Premier League's oligarch cock-waving contest.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Bullshit isn't it. Clubs should be owned by their fans, not rich billionaires from abroad.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Clubs that were owned by their fans have several times decided to sell out.

[rudi]

Clubs that were owned by their fans have several times decided to sell out.

Really? Go on...

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Notts County did. The supporters trust sold to the shady "Munto Finance" who hired Sven and Sol Campbell but almost ended up killing the oldest club in the world.

The supporters trust owned the club because the previous owners had nearly killed the oldest club in the world. I felt affronted when the trust sold out, because they'd done bucket collections at their games and I and lots of other opposition fans had chipped in.

But like most fans they got weak at the knees when someone with money came along. And almost paid the price.

[rudi]

Ok so that's one.

[Morrison Lard]

almost ended up killing the oldest club in the world.

I'm not sure Sheffield FC took that much damage to be honest

[rudi]

Controversial

[RickyGerbail]

Actually Poldi and Giroud seems like pretty stupid signings if Song isn't replaced. That's the most important way forward, except going more Barca.

[holyzombiejesus]

Port Vale were owned by the fans and that ended up being a right nightmare. A fan led consortium bought the club out of administration in 2001 and everything looked rosey; the fans would pledge a certain amount each month, everything seemed transparent, Robbie Williams chipped in, there was even other stuff like the Chairman writing in to The Guardian asking why teams couldn't use Fairtrade footballs. However, eventually it went tits up with power going to the heads of those in charge, unscrupulous stuff going on in the boardroom, directors (supposed fans) feathering their own nests (the chairman was even rumoured to have nicked the club's ladders to use when doing up a hotel in Blackpool!. The fan led consortium's take-over motto - For Us All- became laughable. It all ended six months ago (or so) with the inevitable administration (again) and I'm actually glad that now we're going to be bought by just the one man, a business man called Keith. Are Bournemouth fan owned? I often hear they are but don't think it's actually true.

[rudi]

They didn't sell out though, they went bust.

[holyzombiejesus]

Only because all potential buyers (that they'd been courting for years) took one look at the books and legged it. But yeah, they didn't sell up. I misread the original post.

[rudi]

A fair point nonetheless, I wasn't being deliberately arsey (for once)!

[The Duck Man]

Are Bournemouth fan owned? I often hear they are but don't think it's actually true.

No, they're owned by Eddie Mitchell and a dodgy-sounding Russian bloke who lives in Sandbanks. In the last season they respectively swore repeatedly on 606 and had their wife give the teamtalk.

Swansea are 20% fan owned.

[Glyn]

Should be interesting to see if bale has to now be giggs' understudy though.

Actually, scratch that.

[Gavin M]

Are Bournemouth fan owned? I often hear they are but don't think it's actually true.

We were, but being fan-owned doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be managed any better as we proved.  After becoming the country's first community club in 1997 we were overseen by well-intentioned but ultimately useless chairmen who put us into an even worse position than before we had to save ourselves from the death.  And things have never really stabilised for us since then.  His missus aside (nobody is that sure of what really happened with that team-talk) the Russian doesn't seem to be throwing his weight around, which is more than can be said of the utter gobshite Eddie Mitchell.  One thing Duck Man didn't mention was when he came on to the pitch following a defeat, armed with a microphone and a belly full of booze to defend himself to the fans.

C'mon' people, the new fixtures are out!  Permission to start the 12/13 thread?

[rudi]

Not till the Olympics are through, buddy boy...

[RickyGerbail]

can i make a 2012/2012 football thread?

[Subtle Mocking]

can i make a 2012/2012 football thread?

Well it'll be out of date by December.[nb]Typo aside, go for it. It's July 1st after all.[/nb]

[holyzombiejesus]

C'mon' people, the new fixtures are out!  Permission to start the 12/13 thread?

I suggested starting the new one when the fixtures came out but got bombarded with negative karma for being 'dumb' by our resident Swedish troll. Anyway, if one hasn't been started by the time I press return, I'll start one now.