Oh bugger.
If there is a God he’ll make certain those retards from manure and chelski don’t get visas for Russia in time for the final
In Soviet Russia visas get you
Here’s me with a multiple entry visa, and no horse in the race…
You could allus go cheer on manure 
Innit?
I like your style and would be interested in subscribing to your magazine.
I’m a Liverpool fan surrounded by Chelsea fans. I mean, really - aren’t Africans supposed to be Arsenal fans? Why do all my Somali acquaintances support Chelsea? What went wrong there?
Anyhow. One particularly virulent Chelsea fan made a point to dig my email address out of the dregs of his inbox just to poke at me after…well, you know. I told him I’d support his side if - and only if - he admitted that Drogba was a) the most arrogant player in the Premier League and b) the most blatant diver after Ronaldo.
He hasn’t responded, which is fortunate because else I’d have to support ManUre. This would be bad because not only would chowder throw things at me, but I’d also have to shoot myself.
But now I’m getting pressure from these “friends” to take the afternoon off, pick a team to support, and watch the match anyhow. Even though I don’t care. And it will be a 1-0 defensive snooze fest. I mean, I’m going to take the afternoon off regardless but I’m not really looking forward to the ration of shit I’ll receive when I announce that I’m supporting the winner.
Suggestions?
Chelsea have a Nigerian and two Cote d’Ivorians (or however you call them) maybe that has something to do with it. ManU have Evra from Senegal, that’s about it.
I am hoping that the great Russian peoples rise up, possibly led by a horde of angry bears, to strike both teams from the face of the planet. I suggest you get a banner made up expressing a similar sentiment.
Ryan Giggs will be spared because he’s really very nice.
Yeah, Blatter’s a moron. He’s turned his sights on the Premiership now. Within a few years, the EPL will be as yawn inducing as the Spanish and Italian leagues.
You mean, it isn’t already?
I mean, look at it. What the hell is the point in even competing in the damn league? The top four spots are simply shuffled around among the same four teams. All anyone else is trying for is the ONE spot in Europe open to someone else, in the much less prestigious (and much less financially remunerative) competition for the UEFA Cup.
Personally, I’d kick the top four clubs out of the Premier League and send them gleefully to Europe to play in a Super-Liga, so that the rest of the top flight of English football could go back to having some interest. You know, like back when Blackburn or Leeds actually could win the thing…
The times they are a changing old bean.
*said a Man City fan more in hope than expectation
Was perusing the thread, realized during my reading of **Dead Badger’s ** brilliant post that my knowledge of Sepp Blatter was lacking, and found this interesting Wikipedia entry about the man.
It must be fun having a team at or near the top of the table. I’m praying Fulham’s move away from relegation is completed this weekend.
Wonder how long this part will stay in there:
If you think Blatter is bad (and he is) you should take a look at Jack Warner.
A shining example of Wikipedia accuracy, in my view. Which is more than can be said for that Sky Sports link, which describes him as a “Frenchman”. With a name like Sepp Blatter.
Oh, hell, Switzerland is nothing but a French appanage, right?
No, it isn’t. At least, no more so than any other league. Certainly, team “stickiness”* has increased a lot in the last decade or two, but let’s have a look, here. In the past decade we’ve seen unprecedented feats out of Arsenal, with Wenger constructing a team that almost made you happy to be beaten, they were so beautiful. We had unarguably the best player on the planet at the time, Thierry Henry. We’ve now got (and I’m sorry, chowder, but it’s true) pretty much the best player on the planet in Ronaldo, achieving unprecedented things for the loathsome Mancs. We’ve seen some pretty incredible football in the last ten years (some of it even from Liverpool), and it’d be churlish to deny it. Having fifteen teams in with a chance of winning the title isn’t the only measure of excitement. If it were, the Championship would be on constant rotation, and no-one would give a crap about the Premiership.
I quite agree that it’d be nice to have more than four (and, realistically, three) teams challenging for the title, but I’m not so sure that it’s different in the cough lesser leagues. Lyon are on the verge of cacking their way to a seventh (!) consecutive French title, and no-one accuses the French league of being awash with foreign squillionaires. Real Madrid, despite being managed by gibbons, are topping a Spanish league that has inexplicably squandered a frankly ridiculous concentration of footballing talent, without ever having inspired anything more than grunts of grudging acknowledgement.
IMO, the problem (if indeed it is one) is that there is a massive global market for football, but that the discrimination of that market is relatively small. For all the efforts of Asian and African associations, foreign fans react in precisely the same way English ones do; they want to support someone who is, if not the best, then very close to the best. This makes it very hard to bridge the massive gap between local teams and global giants, since huge revenues from around the world flow to the Man Us, Reals and Barcelonas of this world. At the very top end, there’s only room for a few clubs once regional allegiances break down, and they clearly have done.
So as you say, it may very well come down to a super-league. It would certainly continue football’s adherence to meritocracy over contrived competition. I don’t like the idea of salary caps or drafts (or for that matter, playoffs); to me they represent an enforced mediocrity.
I’m going to stop now, because I just realised how long this post already is. And also that it’s 3am. ZZZzzzzbonk
*to take one definition: the probability that a team will finish within two places of its previous season’s placing.
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Anyone know how to write “Go Red Army! Beat English scum!” in Cyrillic?