Ditto. But
WoW! 4 goals! In the same match!
Tell her that it’s in Mauritania. Nobody wants to go there – it’s a poor, dry, hot place that aspires to be Western Sahara. Then afterwards you can let on it was Mauritius and that you always get the two confused.
Except that they’ve signed Pietersen for this season. Assuming he’s not constantly away with England, he ought to put in some good performances.
But back to the vague topic, looks like we were practising our tactics for Arsenal against Liverpool last night. And you’re welcome for the result, Myler. Sorry it couldn’t have been slightly better.
Christ, if only we could get a decent striker or two, we’d be up there hoping for a UEFA cup spot rather than scrapping with West Brom for the lowest scorers title. Despite a couple of 4-0 losses early on, we’ve still only conceded 6 more than Arsenal and less than some of the current challegers for Europe. Hopefully Sparky’ll get his act together in the summer. Dickov’s alright, but he really needs an out-and-out goalscorer with him and since Jansen’s accident we just haven’t had anyone to fit the bill.
The race for the European places is coming down to the stretch. Hows it all going to shake out? Here are the remaining games for teams 4-9 (bollocks to 1-3 :D)
**Everton [51] **: Liverpool(A), West Brom(A), C Palace(H), Arsenal(A), Man U(H), Birmingham(H), Fulham(A), Newcastle(H), Bolton (A)
Liverpool [44]:Everton (H), Bolton (H), Man City (A), Tottenham (H), Portsmouth (A) , C Palace (A) , Middlesbrough (H) , Arsenal (A) , Aston Villa (H)
Bolton [43]: Norwich (H), Liverpool (A), Fulham (H), Charlton (A), Southampton (H), Aston Villa (A), Chelsea (H), Portsmouth (A), Everton (H)
**Middlesbrough [42] **: Southampton (H), C Palace (A), Arsenal (H) ,Newcastle (A), Fulham (H), West Brom (A) , Liverpool (A) , Tottenham (H), Man City (A)
** Charlton [43]**: West Brom (H), Portsmouth (A) , Man City (H) , Bolton (H) , Aston Villa (A) , Norwich (A) ,Man United (H) ,Chelsea (A) , C Palace (H)
Tottenham [39]: Man City (H), Birmingham (A), Newcastle (H), Liverpool (A), West Brom (H), Arsenal (A), Aston Villa (H), Middlesbrough (A) , Blackburn (H)
Couple of things: There’s plenty of football still to be played. Its highly likely that one or more of these teams will start to stink the place out, and a lower placed one go on a tear (Newcastle being the obvious pick).
None of these teams are playing well, as far as I can make out, with the exception of Bolton maybe. I realised the other day that the current Liverpool side is probably the worst one in my lifetime.
As has been pointed out, a MUFC/Arsenal FA cup final puts the European places down to seventh.
Its all down to momentum in my view. One loss won’t mean anything much, but string together a few bad reverses and there is a real danger that the wheels start to come off. The teams that have the balls to see the season through will qualify for Europe, simple.
Traditionally Bolton close out the season strongly. However if we’re going by tradition then Bolton have also never qualified for European competition, so i guess one of these traditions isn’t going to work out this year. I know which one i want to happen 
I know it was a different thread we were discussing this in, but I’ve just come across a series of magazine articles about Rangers written by Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Celtic fans. All of them with the exception of Killie refer to Rangers as “the huns”.
I will be happy to forward these on to anyone who still wants to believe that the term refers to Protestants rather than Rangers fans.
I for one think it refers to both. It’s similar to “yid” in that it can mean a spurs fan of any religious stripe, and it can also be a racial epithet. Many people call me a “yid” who wouldn’t dream of using it in a racial/religious abuse context.
In this thread a few pages back an Irish poster referred the the English as “The Hun” which makes the point perfectly.
- Liverpool v Juventus
- Milan v Inter
- Lyon v PSV
- Chelsea v Bayern
Semis
1 v 4
2 v 3
So, if Chelsea and Liverpool meet it will be in the semis. We could have an all Italian finals. And I’m guessing that ESPN will choose to televise Chelsea v Bayern, although I could be wrong on that.
I already acknowledged that in Derry it is used as a religious epithet. My insistence that it is a footballing term was based upon its use in Scotland - and the fact that an Irish poster uses it to refer to the English does not contradict this.
[QUOTE=Myler Keogh]
The race for the European places is coming down to the stretch. Hows it all going to shake out? Here are the remaining games for teams 4-9 (bollocks to 1-3 :D)
[QUOTE]
Don’t forget about Newcastle for UEFA Cup. They are the hottest team in the league right now, and are only 6 points shy of Bolton for the 6th spot with a game in hand. They can easily make a run for the last UEFA Cup spot (or they could somehow find a way to win the FA Cup).
BTW owl is that a retraction of your previous statement that the terms “hun” and “tim” are nothing like “yid”?
re. Newcastle:
Or we could win the UEFA Cup. I’ say of the two trophies we’re in the running for, we have a slightly better chance in the UEFA Cup.
Not really. The word “yid” has two separate meanings depending on context - in a footballing context it means Spurs, in any other context it’s a not very nice word for jews - but to say that because it has an innocent meaning means that it doesn’t also have a nasty one is nonsense.
To me “hun” and “tim” are always used to refer to someones religion - not their football allegiances - although there is obviously a close relation between the two.
You may be interested to know that the whole “yid” thing is a topic of quite heated debate amongst spurs fans (FWIW I would be happy to see it go).
Why is “yid” associated with Spurs? I assume it’s associated with Jews because of Yiddish, although I suppose it could be the other way around.
And how offensive is “yid” as an ethnic slur? Is it better or worse than “Red Sea pedestrian”?
True, but we get perhaps the toughest team to play against in Sporting. Though, it’s much better than playing ManU. Though I like the fact that we are still in the running for the 6th slot in the Premiership.
If we can get through ManU somehow and Arsenal beats Blackburn (probably very likely), then we automatically get to go to Europe again! If we win, then we get a UEFA spot and if Arsenal wins, they have already qualified (pretty much) for a Champions League spot, so the runner up of the FA Cup gets to get the UEFA spot. Though it’s not that easy to just beat the Red Devils.
But you just said “hun” refers to both 
Obviously, an Aberdeen fan (who is most likely a Protestant) is not referring to a Rangers fan’s religion when he calls him a hun. And obviously, Protestant Celtic supporters (a number which is greater than you probably realise) are also not referring to religion when they call Rangers fans huns. I can’t state with any certainty what Rangers fans are referring to when they call us “Tims” but I know that no Celtic fan I know would use the word to describe anyone who isn’t a Celtic fan, regardless of their religion.
Outside of a purely spurs related context “yid” is about the worst word for a jew.
The name was given us by opposition fans as THFC has always been owned by jews, has a higher than normal proportion of jewish fans and plays in what was traditionally a jewish part of London (it’s not anymore).
Just down the road from White Hart Lane is Stamford Hill which is where most of London’s Hassidic jews live - and they’re obviously very recognisable.
We took the identity on ourselves to spike their guns. It’s now how we refer to ourselves.
This is where we differ from our charming friends north of the border and west of wales. England doesn’t have a problem with religious strife to the extent that these countries do (if at all) - therefore the whole “yid” thing is a bit of a laugh, possibly a tastless one.
However the importance attached to sectarian allegiances in Ireland and Scotland mean that any religious epithet is intended to hurt (also the vast majority of spurs fans aren’t jewish - which makes a bit of a nonsense of it, where as the vast majority of Celtic fans are RC).
The “yid” thing is quite a hot topic at the moment - even the club and kick racism out of football have got involved - and there have been surveys in the programme asking how people feel about it.
My personal opinion is that while it is harmless on a day to day basis it’s time has passed and it should be done away with. My analogy is that leicester city get the chant “you’re just a town full of pakis” - how would people feel if the Foxes started calling themselves “the pakis”.
A similar thing is happening at Ajax - who are trying to lose their “jewish” identity.
(incidentally Arsenal have more jewish fans than we do - and someone should tell those cluehunters at Chelsea that Roman Abramovich doesn’t eat bacon sandwiches)
ruadh, I understand that “Tim” is a Catholic slur, but what exactly does it refer to?
:smack: It isn’t a Catholic slur, that’s the point I’m trying to make. It means “Celtic supporter”. It is possible that some Protestants also use it to refer disparagingly to Catholics, but I do not know of a single Celtic supporter who would take offence to it - we use the term ourselves, quite extensively.
As for the origins of the name, it’s widely believed to come from a Glasgow gang of the early 20th century known as the Tim Molloys. The gang would have been Irish, and therefore most likely Catholic, so the term’s origin may be sectarian (although it would be just as accurate to call it ethnic). But as far as Celtic supporters are concerned it now has nothing to do with religion and simply means someone who follows Celtic.
:smack: My mind said “Celtic”, my hands decided otherwise. Stupid hands.
Thanks for the possible explanation, though. And I had no idea that Celtic fans used it to refer to themselves either.