Lets Talk Football

Am I the only one who thought/knew that there was no chance of Villa moving anywhere this transfer window, let alone Arsenal? God, I really have learned to loathe the January transfer window.

I'm not one for stats, well, not overly anyway, however, one did catch my eye this weekend. Stoke had 53% of possession against Arsenal... At Arsenal. Let that one sink in. I'd have loved Stoke to've won, just to hear the excuse Wenger came up with.

9 points clear. That's as good as I could hope for this weekend, as I still, after all these years, can't hope for a Liverpool win. Even against City. So the draw was what I was hoping for.

Lastly, get some help Gazza and good luck to ya.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

GO BALTIMORE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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no one else is dealing with your demons friend - tyler joseph.

Wrong kind of football.

Not that I care at all about either kind, but this thread is for what we Americans call "soccer" and the rest of the world calls "football."

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It says Football. I'm sorry I got lost in the moment.

I doubt if anyone even made a serious enquiry about him. If QPR haven't bankrupted Tony Fernandes next season and by some miracle they stay up he's the sort of marquee signing you could see happening. They've already got one player on 100k a week (Lord help us) with a ground who's capacity is much the same as Windsor Park.

Just shows how important the Sky money is to smaller clubs when they can gamble like that on staying up and getting a full slice of the pie.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Hehe.

To be honest, I think Villa's a natural born striker. Great finisher, fleet of foot, reads the play well, draws defenders towards him and aids his fellow players. There's talk of him moving to Arsenal during the summer for about 14 million. I think that'd be fantastic.

But leave it to Wenger to buy some 16-year-old for a fourth of that price.

Villa, A great player but I like Wenger more. I may be American but I do like European Sports.

Anyone watch United vs Real Madrid?

Cracking result for United with that all important away goal.

Bring on the second leg!

This is fantastic.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013...n_2667551.html

Good result for United. Not the best, but I'd have taken it before the match, so I've no complaints.

I know everyone's said it, but Ronaldo's goal and De Gea's save from Coentrao?!?! Bloody hell. Still not expecting United to go through, but we have a chance and we're at home. Knowing United, we'll draw 2-2 and go out on away goals like Bayer Leverkusen in 2002. Didn't lose a game that season. It still galls me. As I tell Arsenal fans banging on about their unbeaten season, it';s winning the title at the end of it that matters, not that you went unbeaten. That's merely a statistical quirk. Had they been unbeaten and finished second or third that year, they'd be a pub quiz question.

Good result tonight. As with any knockout competition, all that matters is going through. Now let's see if Chelsea can do their bit.

Heh, I was thinking of posting that earlier. Good old Mediawatch. I'm embarrassed that the guy's a fellow Ulsterman. Bryan 'Mike from The Young Ones' Hamilton was a better manager.

What odds for a Man U treble now?

High. There's a reason it happens so rarely. The league does look good, though if City decide to turn up every game till the end of the season it might get interesting. It would seem that we'll get Chelsea in the next round, but there's still City and, probably, Everton if we get to the semi's and, as for the CL, I just can't see us getting to the final, let alone winning it. Of course, I'd have said the same about Chelsea last year, but realistically, even if we make it past Real, assuming the big hitters win their ties, there's still going to be Barca, Juventus, who are a really good team and Bayern Munich who are stolling the Bundesliga even more easily than we are the Premier League. Throw in a wonderful Dortmund team, a Galatasaray which now has Drogba and Sneijder (Didn't he play for Inter in the CL this season? I'm sure he did, so why isn't he cup-tied) and, possibly, a Malaga team that doesn't appear to know that it's Malaga. I've not even mentioned the FM experiment that is PSG.

******* Blackburn...

Wenger not too happy at the pre Bayern press conference.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21499782

I think he gets a bit of a hard time for not winning trophies the last few years. I mean how can you possibly break the dominance of Chelsea's Oil Baron Billions, Man City's Oil Billions and Man Utd resources? He has to do the best he can with what he's got and he consistently gets Arsenal into 4th which is about as good as can be expected atm.

I think he's right that he deserves a little more respect.

He'll look even less happy now.

I agree with you about Wenger and what he's expected to do, though. The only way they can get 3rd is if Chelsea have a massive meltdown, well, more than one massive meltdown per season, so that's 4th place, at best.

I think the real problem Wenger will have is if they don't finish 4th, especially if they lose out to Spurs.

I love the guy and think he's second only to Ferguson in the modern British era. He changed a club from top to bottom into a title winning outfit and has perpetually kept them within touching distance of the SuperClubs, which is more than, say, Kendall-era Everton did.

His big problem, as I see it, is the press reporting massive amounts of money to spend which never seems to get spent. Either Wenger just isn't spending the money or Arsenal don't actually have it to spend. I'd be inclined to believe the latter even though Wenger is possibly the most stubborn human being since the dawn of time.

Saying that, I do think it's time for the board to start considering moving him upstairs but who on earth would do a better job with the resources at hand? A new manager will have a massive salary, a great stadium and facilities with a talented squad. Turning them into a serious title-challenging outfit once more would require a sugar daddy and someone of Jose's stature to attract the players.

Fond memories of this night. In his prime, Batistuta is up there with all time strikers.

Yes, Batigol was a great striker. I would've loved him at Old Trafford.

Anyone watching Real-Man U? Really entertaining for a scoreless game, so far. Vidic had a header off the crossbar, which was the best chance so far. Di Maria went off injured and was replaced by Kaka. Also, Rooney didn't start, which seemed odd.

This is my first time seeing Varane, the Real defender. Is he seriously only 19?? He's really, really solid back there.

Man United - sore losers. Why are they even complaining about the ref's decisions? That horrendous Nani tackle was a clear, obvious red.

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Letterboxd

Yeah, that was a pretty ill-advised flying karate kick (is there any other version?). I would have liked to see how the match would have finished if it stayed 11 on 11 until the end though, because it was so tight.