In light of the fact that the fixture list is now announced, I think it’s time to begin talking about the new season. We get to see before the first month is out how Manchester United and Arsenal will shape up vis a vis each other. And Saturday, May 1, may turn out to be pivotal, as Aston Villa and Manchester City square off (oh, yeah, Liverpool and Chelsea face each other, too, that day :p).
Thoughts? Predictions? Scathing commentary? Hopeful/wishful/fanciful thinking (especially on behalf of perennial also-rans Citeh)?
United to win their 4th in a row. Arsenal to finish second. (Maybe…I’ll actually wait for the transfer window to near its closure before I make predictions.)
Jeez, give us at least a month without the footie! Besides, we still don’t know who is going to be playing where next year. Real is selling pretty much everyone from last season while buying the best players from other teams (who knows, they might get Ribery and Villa as well); and the prem league clubs have hardly started looking around yet. There is no point in making forecasts until the transfer window closes…except to say that Bolton are going down, but that is more hope than anything else
Ain’t gonna happen. Mid-table mediocrity all the way!
Poor old Burnley look good to be bottom for a while. OK away to SToke 1st game, maybe they will get some thing, but they then have Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool & Everton. Poor sods. Still at least they get them out of the way nice and early.
Oh god no, it’s almost never a lump sum. It’s usually wildly complicated, paid in instalments, and the final amount is usually connected to a string of conditions involving first team appearances, fitness and god knows what else. There are also often sell-on clauses, particularly with younger players, whereby if the buying team later sells for a massive profit, some of that goes to the club they purchased him from.
This is why (apart from shit journalism) the prices quoted as paid for a particular player can vary so widely; even the clubs won’t know precisely what they paid until a good couple of years later.
Anyone seen the Michael Owen brochure doing the rounds of the football websites? Lord have mercy, it has to be seen to be believed.
There’s a lot of talk about Everton buying him (with most fans well against it). His goals per game at Newcastle was actually pretty good, but I got the impression that a lot of them were a bit soft if you know what I mean. Scoring the winner of a bitterly hard fought CL final between Milan and Barcelona is one type of goal, whilst scoring a penalty when you’re already 3 up at home to Sunderland is another. I have the feeling Owen’s been scoring more of the latter type up in the NE.
Him having the personality of a cardboard box doesn’t endear him to fans, either. He just looks and sounds bored all the time. It’s easy to see how he was accused of swinging the lead when it all went pear-shaped at Newcastle. The guy looks like he’s got his mind on other things, like his Ladbrokes account for example. Anyhow, I reckon he’ll do well enough if he ends up somewhere half-decent. He’ll score goals if he finds a good team and if he can stay fit.
Dean Widness was a bulky, box of a striker. Owen is just a fragile little bird.
Can’t see him getting on anywhere other than as a pay-as-you-play deal. Would be worth a flutter for the Hull’s of the world just to get some bums in seats. Sadly his best days are well, well past him.
This doesn’t really belong in this thread (which I think has been started a bit to early)
The World Cup next year is in South Africa, all well and good.
I’ve watched some of The Confederation Cup games and if you ask me the fucking noise from those Vuvuzela’s is bleeding terrible.
Tuneless and really irritating, if they are going to be blowing those sodding things throughout WC games I’m afraid it’s going to ruin the spectacle for a lot of people.
It appears that they’re part and parcel of S.African football culture and there’s no chance of them being banned despite some footballers themselves calling for a ban
Fuck that, The World Cup belongs to us all and we don’t need it ruined by the noise those things generate
Of course we will be in the finals. When you are qualifying out of CONCACAF, it’s damn near a foregone conclusion, even as bad as we’ve played recently.
I’d like to point out we’ve made every Finals from 1990 on. Some European teams can’t claim that.
despite some footballers themselves calling for a ban