Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Last year Arsenal did well until the last few games of the season. They kept up with the top of the table for a while, showed a lot of mental strength to come from behind quite a few times, not least against Barcelona!

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Hmm aren't yo-yo's meant to come back up at some point though! I really wanted to play them away at the start or end of the season as well, great summer away day, still wasn't to be.

---------- Post added at 08:37 ---------- Previous post was at 08:33 ----------

Dunno about Liverpool finishing no where, unlike their main challengers (Villa, Everton, Spuds and er Blackpool) they have 2 or 3 genuine World class players, I think they'll challenge City all the way for 4th.

---------- Post added at 08:40 ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 ----------

Schwatzer is a done deal and I can see Joe Cole ending up there to + one more at least.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

not sure United will be up there to be honest. We had a poor season and we only stayed in the race because all the other teams played just as bad and all the top four had more loses than normal.

If that trend continues we will be ok but if not I can't see us staying in the title race all season.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

If United have their customary slow start to the season, I think it might be a big job to catch up this time around, they can't keep on relying on Rooney. Hernandez will take time to settle in, plus Berbatov is not up to the mark, so I am not sure where the goals will come from.
There is talk, albeit paper talk that some youngsters will be blooded, if it is a repeat of the class of 92, it won't be so bad, but I have a feeling it won't be.
Still, United have had a fair amount of success, and all things come to an end.
I just wish the Glazers ownership would come to an end, even if it meant United sitting mid table for the next four of five seasons, I could put up with that.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

I see Fabregas had his Barcelona shirt on when celebrating in Madrid today, ready for the new season ;) :)

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Yeah, It appears the Barcelona players brought it and made him wear it. More pathetic behaviour from them in their attempts to force the sell to happen. They have been doing this for months now, quotes to the media that the team want him there, that he has Barcelona in his DNA, and that he will come and so on.

Fair enough if he wants to go but Barcelona are obviously using their team members to put more pressure on in order to lower the price to £30 million or lower. Probably because they are in a pile of debt and can't afford him for what he is worth (they paid at least twice that for Ibrahimovic).

Just insulting the way they have gone about this, always thought they behaved better than Madrid did.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Sad, sad day for English and International football as a whole...

Aston Villa striker Emile Heskey has announced his retirement from international football with England

http://www.football365.com/story/0,1...261624,00.html

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Well Done to him for this career as an International Footballer. :clap:

It's fashionable to bash Heskey but successive England managers picked him and he always worked hard, made important passes, and helped all those around him without ever getting, nor seeking, much attention or praise. Just a model of a professional, modest footballer without much of an Ego. England need more players like him and not less.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

I for one totally agree and would love to see an England team of 11 Emile Heskeys.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

I see HMRC have quite rightly appealed against Portsmouth's CVA.

Best thing Portsmouth can do now is exit admin without a CVA & take the 17 point hit to start over a la Leeds.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

If clubs are to be hit by a points deduction for falling into admin, why don't they relegate them TWO divisions, if they are in the lower league, just boot them out, its that simple.

To give them 8 /11 points deduction is silly, if they cannot get the points to a reasonable position without being relegation, they might as well do it before.

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

lololol me too :D

---------- Post added at 20:55 ---------- Previous post was at 20:54 ----------

And what chance would they then have to get back on their feet?

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

Absolutely, we need more strikers with a record of 7 in 62 games and picking him probably has something to do with why 3 of his 4 international managers are no longer in charge and the 4th is clinging on by his fingernails and as for all this guff about 'Rooney likes playing with him' they didn't even pass to each other in one of the group games until the 39 minute!

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

City sign Aleksander Kolarov from Lazio for £16 million. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ty/8829949.stm

Mancini really is going to have to shift some players or we`ll end up with enough players to field 3 teams...

Re: Close Season Football Thread
 

I hope this is not true.....

Shall I have a moan about the Glazers......no, I'll give it a miss this time :mad: