Lets Talk Football

Well Celtic have signed the biggest name in european football, well it's the longest name anyway, old Jan Vanegoor of Hessellink.
Definetly won't be getting his name printed on my shirt, probably cheaper just to buy the player himself!!!
As for the prem, as a Man U fan, the start of the season has been all well and good, but we're still lacking a few key men to really push Chelski all the way. I expect Chelski to struggle a little this season, and Liverpool could be serious contenders, but I'll stick my neck on the line and go for Man U to just win the EPL this season.
Although not having the greatest squad, there is a real sense of togetherness at Man U that I don't detect at either Chelsea or Liverpool, Solskjaer and Smith's return are welcome bonuses, Rossi is definetly one to watch, whilst if Saha stays fit I predict 20-25 goals for him, plus Brown has matured a bit and in Vidic we have the no nonesense type partner that Rio " bags of cash, hold the club to ransom " Ferdinand needs, plus Heinze back, yep, I got a good feeling this year.
My other big prediction that you can all laugh at in ten months is Spurs to beat Arsenal into 4th place, in fact Arsenal finishing just in the top six wouldn't surprise me, they have lost too many quality players over the summer, and although Van Persie, Fabregas, Cliche,Senderos and a few others have matured greatly, along with the addition of Rosicky, I just don't feel they have enough depth in their squad.
Teams at the wrong end, I expect Boro, Charlton, Sheff U, Reading to be fighting it out with maybe Wigan in the mix.
I agree with Tacitus' views on Newcastle, can't see Roedrer lasting the season, expect West Ham to finish top eight again.
That's about it, if Celtic sign Gravensen over the next few days, I would expect us to win the league again, although Rangers have a new coach in the excellent Paul Le Guen, he has strugled to bring in players of the calibre he requires and has inherited some right duds from the McLeish era.
P.S. Barca for the Champions league, but don't tell anyone, it's a secret!!!!!!

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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?

Aston Villa have certainly started off on the right foot. Perhaps the addition of fresh managerial blood has done the trick? Time will tell for certian.
Even though we got a draw against Arsenal for AV that is a pretty good result based on previous seasons.
Newcastle should not be under-estimated when we play them next. Confidence should not turn to cockiness.

I've also joined the Channel 4 Fantasy Football league!
http://channel4.fantasyleague.com/

My team (Rough Housers) as follows...

GK - J Dudek - LIV
FB - A Cole - ARS
FB - G Neville - MU
CB - J Carragher - LIV
CB - L King - TOT
MF - R Giggs - MU
MF - G Barry - AV
MF - J Jenas - TOT
MF - H Mullins - WH
ST - T Henry - ARS
ST - JP Angel -AV

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Good to see the MON effect at Villa, he's a great man-manager, and in Walford and Robertson, you have two excellent coaches.
Petrov would be a great signing, I have said for years that he is capable of playing in a better league than the predictable two horse race SPL ( Hearts will be one season wonders, trust me )
Good luck to Villa this season, here's hoping old Randy puts his hand in his pocket! Actually that sounds kinda rude.......

Here was me thinking that a randy learner was a twinkly-eyed virginal male spending his lottery winnings in a brothel...

Villa's performances so far just go to show what a good manager the jumpy Ulsterman is, and what an awful one Deary O'Dreary was - on a par with Graeme '£8 million for Boumsong' Souness.

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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

just when I was beginning to banish those memories...

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I wish everybody would stop saying that West Ham made an amazing "transfer coup". Considering they haven't actually bought the players in question and are just being used as a shop window.

People keep saying that the fans won't care and they will just be pleased to be able to see these players helping the club. I do not support the club but I cannot believe that is true. Mackem's notwithstanding, football fans are not stupid and West Ham supporters must be concerned, what with the takeover talk as well.

Doubly so as it's emerged today that MSI (I'm sure they made my motherboard...) have been hawking the two young Argentinians to every club in Europe - on the same terms - and didn't get a bite until West Ham. Even Dirty Harry wouldn't take them to Portsmouth, which says it all really...

I really don't know whether everybody is just as confused and annoyed almost as me and people are just keeping quiet, or whether this has been accepted asthe way it is nowadays.

The fact is that these two players do not belong to West Ham. I do not think West Ham have spent any money in getting these players and I think West Ham will be very lucky to see anything when the players are sold on. It is clearly obvious to me that both of them are going to be at West Ham until next summer (unless an amazing bid comes in in January) during which time they will get used to the speed of the premiership and push their value through the roof. I think it has already been made public that 90% of any sale will go to MSI.

I might be old, but this is just all wrong as far as I'm concerned.

It's pretty common for young South American players to have their contracts owned by agents (and I've heard of some transfers falling through because clubs had to agree a fee with 5 or 6 different representatives) rather than clubs. It happened all the time with Brazilians heading for Portugal but now the former USSR seems to be the favoured destination (a couple of the new-look Brazil squad on telly on Sunday play in Russia/Ukraine) with the billions of dirty roubles begging to be laundered by shady management companies.

I agree it's daft and it's hemorrhaging talent, and therefore money, from fanatical footballing countries with notoriously insecure financially-structured clubs and a high poverty level which provokes young lads to sign any bit of paper waved in front of them for a way out of the favela.

On a side note to the NI press - fer gawd's sake don't ever make Norn Iron favourites for a match again...

Ah, welcome to the wibbly wobbly world of the Scottish press. You think we'd have learnt our lesson over the years, Peru, Costa Rica etc, but our super intelligent football pundits believe that there are still so called diddy teams that Scotland should thrash 10-0.
Unfortunately, most of these teams concentrate on ball skills rather than physical pressence, hence the decline of the Scottish national team from around the late 80's when we did have some genuine world class players.
We've started out well, I can't remember the last time Scotland scored 5 goals in a first half, but unfortunately the Scottish media have got carried away again, hence I expect a humiliating defeat at the hands of Diddy Lithuania who held Italy to a 1-1 draw!
Oh well, they'll never take our freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedom!

As far as the West Ham coup, I worry greatly about the possible outcome, fair enough if it's only for a season and the Hammers get two great players, but the whole deal appears dodgier that Fast Harry Redknapp, considering even he turned it down, it doesn't bode well for Pardew and the Hammers.

Football is truely turning into an ugly game off the field, the whole Cole/Gallas saga is a disgrace, I have no time for either player after their behavior.

Anyway, I'm off to put a bet on Scotland and Macedonia.......

football is

somewhat fun

if a fair amount of ethanol

has found its way

by means of ingestion

or perhaps colonically

(that is to say via enima)

wyh

So far so good

Norn Iron 3 - 2 Spain

Fantastic.

Heart, guts, team spirit - coming twice from behind with a superb Healy hat-trick. What on earth is this guy doing in The Championship? 24 international goals in 51 games is a world-class strike rate.

A wonderful performance, almost a year to the day (and I think even better than) from the victory over England. We had an 18 year old Man Ewe reserve centre back making his debut at left back and an 18 year old 6' 4" striker who's just broken into the Burnley first team.

Add to that the other full back who's really a central defender, a right back playing the holding role in midfield and the keeper pulling his groin (stop sniggering at the back!) 5 minutes in...