Lets Talk Football

Hleb has put in some quality displays for the Arse this season. But yeah, they are more like an international dream-team than a local club

Rooney really is a wrecking ball i'nt he . And did you see Joe Cole in our last friendly as well? Chelsea's been good for him.

If Owen and King are fit our squad will be looking pretty tasty. All the over-the-top patriotism might be a bit more warrented than usual this time . I'm sure we'll still manage to labour our way through games tho, like always. The Sweden-England game is gonna be fun tho

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

I was very positively surprised by Hleb (I'm not really following the Premier League games). To me he was probably the best offensive player second only to Henry. Who I rank as the second best striker in the world after Ronaldinho. The first word that comes to mind is "elegance". He just glides through the defense...

I didn't see that game, no. But, yeah, I have to say that the England team looks more solid than in a long while. At least the midfield and the strikers are giving me nightmares. Just the fact that you didn't even mention Gerard, Lampard or Beckham in your post is proof of the strength of the team. If you weren't in the same group as us I would probably root for England. And I would love it if Svennis left with the English press looking like the biggest asses.

Who's the starting defenders nowadays? Sol and Rio or what? Who else? Who's your goalie?

Who do you think will win Champions League by the way, Gol?

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

Typical, the only Football thread is Premiership, Premiership, Premiership.

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Oh, but we can talk Allsvenskan instead if you wish!

But I'm way too depressed to talk about Glentoran right now...

I saw the match too Peter. L'Arse are a fantastic team on their night - if they start well they can blow anyone away but some of the young guys are just too inexperienced to change their gameplan when the going gets tough. And quite a few Prem teams have figured that out this season.

I can see them winning the competition though.

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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

Henry is something else. When he doesn't play, the Arse struggle. Which is weird, coz they've got a mean team going on.

But so have my lot (Spurs - the more English-enriched North London team ). And the derby we've got going on this saturday should be a blast . (We're not quite in the same 'league' as them yet, but it's always fun to be a challenging underdog )

Heh, i'd love that too . We're still an uncohesive lot, as always, but it seems like we've got enough 'stars' packed onto the park now that we might actually do some damage. If Sven can sort that out, i'll be proud either way

Sol's a doubt, but the main pair is Rio and Terry. King (Spurs) would've been a solid back-up, but he's an injury-doubt too now. But there's a young'un called Dawson (Spurs ) who might get the call for emergencies. The goalie is Robinson (Spurs ). Who's a touch dodgey on crosses sometimes, but all-round sound otherwise.

I've been so caught up in Middlesborough's UEFA battles that i'm not sure what's going on. I'd love to see Arsenal vs Barca tho . All i know is that if Arsenal win it, and Spurs come 4th in the Premiership above them, we'd lose our Champions League place (under the new 'Liverpool' rule - seeing as the Arse are languising in 5th).

And to be honest, i'd find that kind of amusing. So long as football wins (and my team's playing good stuff) i don't much mind

I continue to stand by my opinion that Gareth Barry should be playing left midfield. Hopefully after Svens gone the next England manager will see the potential there.

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I hope Barca win the Champions league, Ronaldinho is fantastic to watch, and any player that enjoys playing football that much deserves a medal, it would also be nice to see Henrik Larsson leave Barca with a CL winners medal.
Football season is over for me up here, Celtic cruised the league this year, despite a horriffic start, Strachan has done well.
Would love to see Spurs win against Arsenal this weekend and secure the last CL spot, Jol is the man, Spurs have had so many false prophets, good to see them doing so well.
Chelsea will buy the league again, but I can't complain, it's good to see Man U and Arsenal's dominance broken up, I just hope Man U can mount a serious challenge next year.
Arsenal need to buy heavily, great first 11, but their squad lacks depth and quality.
As for the world cup, I'll be supporting Brazil and anyone who plays against England!

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Hey Pepe, would you say I have a plethora of presents?


Toga, toga, toga......


Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour?

I just love teams that play that forward-at-any-cost kind of football. Arsenal didn't have to attack - Villa Real clearly wasn't interested in scoring any goals - but it was as if they didn't know how to not play offensive football.

I think it's cool that at least three of the last four teams in the Champions League play offensive powerful football (I really haven't seen enough of VR to say what I think of them, but they were rather dull against Arsenal). Milan, Barca and Arsenal are really entertaining to watch. Of course I wanted Zlatan Ibrahimovic to be successful in the cup but Juve plays really boring to tell you the truth.

You know, it's not that weird although it didn't have to be that way. I watched how Arsenal played and many times when a player was totally open, the guy with the ball still passed a much more difficult pass to Henry. Well, it happend a couple of times anyway. That is the kind of play that teams with only one really good player play. But, as we both said, Arsenal has a bunch of really technical and/or fast players that can deliver when Henry isn't playable or, even worse, not playing at all. Wenger should instruct them to not stare themselves blind on Henry - even if it's hard not to when he plays as brilliantly as the other night.

Sorry, but I haven't seen much of Tottenham. The Premiership is showed on a pay channel here.

Yeah. But on the other hand, the fall will be much heavier if England fails. This time you really are a contendor. I didn't believe in England at all half a year ago, but that has totally changed. FEEL THE PRESSURE!! LOSE AGAINST SWEDEN!!! THE PRESSURE!! SO SO HEAVY!!!!

Ok. The swedish team looks ok on the midfield, really good in the strikers department, solid goalie but actually a mess in the defenders line. That's a bit unusual too. We've always had good defensive team players, but now it looks unstable, while we have lots of guys who can score goals. And England looks great... The world's turned upside down.

Arsenal vs. Barcelona would be nice, yeah. I don't care who win it as long as the game will be fun to watch. Ok, maybe Barca deserves it a little bit more to be honest. They have been the best team in Europe this season, imo.

It would be nice for Larsson, yeah. Too bad he got injured now that he was kind of on a roll. I have to say that I'm really happy for him. The way that Rijkaard puts his confidence in him is really great to see. He's had a fantastic career, Larsson.

I've actually heard some rumours that Arsenal are interested in buying Zlatan Ibrahimovic. I would love that! He should play in an offensive thinking team, he's definitely a player that should get the ball on the move. Juventus is almost stationary with the ball. And Zlatan with Henry.. my god!

The only Juve matches I've seen this season were the two legs against L'Arse and Ibrahimovic had a couple of stinkers (though he wasn't alone there, and his striking partner was even worse). I got the feeling he'd have gladly swapped shirts for a team more appreciative of his talents.

It wouldn't surprise me if he's Chelski bound this summer...

Lord help him.

I've watched Ibrahimovic a lot over the last couple of years, I think he'd be a revelation in the Premiership. Possible replacement for Henry???
Does anyone else feel that Chelsea are becoming less attractive to footballers, talk about competition for places!
Watch out for the Man U revival next season, Chelsea players will start to revolt against Mourinho and his team selections, I expect a mass exodus over the next two years as more players become frustrated at having to sit on the bench.
Far too many quality midfielders to keep everyone happy.

Well, we just booked our place in Europe yesterday, so you may get to see a bit more of us now

Hopefully you'll get to see Carrick, the Spurs defensive midfielder, playing for England. He's been quality this season (and he bossed Arsenal yesterday ). If he keeps this up he's a much more natural choice then either Gerrard or Lampard for the defensive midfield slot.

We've got a livewire winger called Aaron Lennon who may just sneak into the England squad as well. He's playing more than Shuan Wright Phillips, and he's been on fire recently as well.

Heh, don't worry, we're bound to self-destruct one way or the other . Death by press is the normal technique (especially with Sven about to leave - one bad game and they'll be calling for his blood )

Yeah, agreed, from what i've seen. The Arse are obviously still in transition at the moment - but they'll give Barca a damn good game if they make it. When they hit top gear they're hard to stop.

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Any neutrals see the Spurs game or highlights? Is it just me, or is all this bitching about the goal just sour grapes? I'm sure the Arse would have carried on breaking if two of our players had run into each other behind the play

L'Arse would have done exactly the same (as would any team in the league, I suspect) and then Jol would have been the one bitching (as would any manager in the league, I suspect).

What puzzled me more was Wenger's team selection - leaving the best player in the country and your best midfielder out of such a crucial match. I know he wants to save them for next week but the trick backfired when they played Man Ewe a few weeks back, almost as if he was expecting to lose the game before it started...

No Champions League football next season is looking increasingly like the end of Henry's time at the club. I wonder if Arsene can find another club's winger to turn into a world class striker?

'Zinedine' Kilbane?

I love ir when the glove is on the other hand!!!
Mourinho moaning about players diving and wasting time, Wenger calling Jol a liar for not seeing an incident from the bench, nothing more funny than hypocritical managers getting some of their own medicine.
As for the Arsenal players, I don't mind the ball being put out of play if a player is definetly injured, but I've seen too many players feign injury when they loose possesion.
Bring back the 80's when football was a man's game, no more prima-donnas, give us more Maradonnas!!!! ( and to all English fans, yes I'm aware he put the ball in the net with his hand, possibly the greatest goal in Scottish football history!!! )

Who needs Mourinho When we've got Jacko

The rumour apparently included Chelsea and Real Madrid besides Arsenal, that they were all more or less interested in Zlatan. If there's any truth in that rumour I would definitely prefer Arsenal as his destination.

Darth mentioned about Chelski becoming less attractive to footballers and I remember last season when they were linked to Barca's Samuel E'too. He said something along the lines of Chelsea being a good club but he would never work for Mourinho as he didn't like him as a person.

Kezman said much the same after moving to Athletico Madrid - that he was a good coach but an arse of a man.

Recently I think he's become the most graceless oaf ever to manage in the English leagues and is making the Ferguson/Wenger spats of the last few seasons sound like two vicars debating whether to have tea or coffee with their battenburg cake.

Madrid need a striker as Ronaldo seems more concerned with pies than goals but it's interesting to see how many top players are 'linked' with a mega-club when their contract is up for renewal.

Once an agent drops "Chelsea are offering £5 million a season" into the negotiation conversation, whether it's actually true or not, Chairmen acorss the globe start to sweat a bit harder than usual...

I wish Chelsea would buy Rio Ferdinand, never forgiven him for the way he tried to hold Man U to ransom over his new contract after the club had stood by his drug ban.
Chelsea and Ferdinand would deserve each other!!!
As far as next season goes, I'm queitly optomistic about Man U, all the media focus on now is how much money Chelsea are paying in wages and transfer deals and which current star is being linked with them, it's meant less media attention on Fergusson and his transfer deals, Vidic and Evra look good additions for next season, hopefully Heinze and Scholes will also be back after their injuries along with Solskjaer.
Also hope Spurs keep up the good work, and aren't one season wonders like Everton.

It kind of makes sense - you only get so many goes at winning the CL. That said, it would have been nice to take on a full strength Arse - altho i'm happy enough with 70 mins of bossing their second-string team

It is phenomenal how much difference H can make tho. If he goes, i reckon their chances of challenging for the league next year go with him.

Heh, i noticed Terry and Carragher made the PFA team of the year over Rio. Wonder if that put his plaits in a twist? - maybe you should sign Anton to replace him

That'd be class alright . I'm just glad players like King, Dawson and Lennon have all signed up for the long-term. We've got strengths throughout the team now, and it's been a long time since that was the case . Reckon the transfer window is gonna be interesting tho. I do wonder whether Defoe will move on, and Mido too, but at least Robbie looks bound to stay

But I want Robbie at Celtic with Roy, the Keanes in Green!!!!
Defoe is over-rated, Mido is greedy, so he'll probably go, but Jol is a very knowledgeable man, even if all three left, I'm sure he'd bring in able replacements.
Would like to see Henry at Barca, different class.
Don't rate Eto or Drogba, they're not fit to lace Henry's boots.