Punk

Epic thread! If the pressure on that pair of Cunts wasn't already great at the time, it multiplied a thousandfold after the OP's email reply from Cunt Jr. And what a damaging blow to the Hicks and Gillet regime the original poster of this thread caused. Thanks OP. Where and why have nearly all of the good people disappeared from this forum? I didn't post on here much, but I did enjoy visiting to lurk every now and then. These days I rarely visit here much. But when I do all I see is a lot of nastiness, bickering and arguing. A real shame that there are too many D***heads on the FF these days who are always trying to get one over on each other.

Not sure if this has been posted anywhere, haven't checked. By GABRIELE MARCOTTI Some coaches get their shot with a major club at a relatively tender age (in coaching years, anyway). Barcelona's Pep Guardiola was 37 when he got the gig. And there are those who get a crack at the big time without ever having played beyond amaetur level, like Aston Villa's Gerard Houllier. There's another, smaller subset which includes those who advanced to top jobs with little or no head-coaching experience, like Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho when he took over at Benfica. But the above examples are all rare. Rarer still is a guy like Porto boss Andre Villas Boas, who falls squarely in all three categories and, if his vertical ascent continues, could herald a change in the way clubs recruit managers. Mr. Villas Boas's side goes for its 12th consecutive win in a competitive match on Monday night when it makes the short drive inland to take on Vitoria Guimaraes. Right now, Porto is 11 for 11 in the Portuguese League, Europa League and Portuguese SuperCup. What's more, it has shut out the opposition in all but two games. And it did it despite the departure of two stalwarts – defender Bruno Alves and midfielder Raul Meireles – over the summer. All of this is remarkable enough until you consider that Mr. Villas Boas is just 33 years old and, prior to this season, had just 23 league games' worth of managerial experience, all of them at Academica Coimbra, the provincial club which appointed him just over a year ago. When he took charge of Academica, it was winless and dead last. By the time the season was over, Mr. Villas Boas had guided it to respectability (11th place in the 16-team league) and to the semifinal of the Portuguese League Cup. It was enough for Porto – one of the traditional Portuguese giants – to put its eggs in Mr. Villas Boas's basket in an attempt to bounce back from a rare season which saw it finish third, only the second time since 2002 that it failed to win the league. Mr. Villas Boas was still a teenager when he started working in Porto's scouting department way back in the mid-1990s. The club was impressed both by the breadth of his tactical understanding and his ability to produce scouting reports players could digest easily. Yet he may never have gone any further if, in early 2002, the club had not turned to Mr. Mourinho, himself an unorthodox rising star of management. Mr. Mourinho took him under his wing, making Mr. Villas Boas an integral part of his staff, both at Porto, where he won two league titles, the Champions League and the UEFA Cup and later during his successful spells at Chelsea and Inter Milan. By the time he moved to Chelsea, Mr. Villas Boas's pre-match scouting included personalized DVDs for each player, outlining their direct opponent in the next game, including strengths, weaknesses and tendencies. Given Mr. Mourinho's reputation, it was quite the calling card, and Mr. Villas Boas openly admits that it helped him land the Academica job. But he bristles at those who consider him Luke Skywalker to Mourinho's Yoda. Or, among his detractors, Mini Me to the self-anointed "Special One's" Dr. Evil. While Mr. Villas Boas employs the 4-3-3 formation Mr. Mourinho used to such great effect at Chelsea, it's a more fluid system, with the wingers often turning into strikers. He lacks Mr. Mourinho's charisma – that unparalleled ability to seduce players, media and fans – and comes across as less confrontational and self-assured. On the other hand, he may be more tactically sophisticated and his Porto squad attacks more than Mourinho's teams at Chelsea and Inter (the jury's still out on Real Madrid). It's tempting to call Mr. Villas Boas soccer's answer to Theo Epstein, who rose from the San Diego Padres' public relations department to become general manager of the Boston Red Sox at age 29. Both are outsiders who brought a novel approach to understanding the sport and landed important jobs at a young age. But the crucial difference is that Mr. Villas Boas's role is far more hands-on, running training sessions and making all the game-day decisions. He's an interloper in the inner sanctum, having never played the game at any significant level. And while he's not the first to do so, those who came before him, like Mr. Houllier, served long apprenticeships working their way up through the lower leagues. Mr. Villas Boas's appointment obviously owes a lot to his mentor. But it's also a bold move, a striking departure from the groupthink and conventional wisdom so prevalent in soccer. You'll know whether it worked the day you read a profile of Mr. Villas Boas that does not mention Mr. Mourinho. A Budding Brain in the Bundesliga Another young manager is making waves in Germany's Bundesliga. Saturday's 4-2 win over Hoffenheim made it seven straight wins to start the season for Thomas Tuchel and Mainz, matching a record held by Bayern Munich (1995-96) and Kaiserslautern (2001-02). It's particularly remarkable when you consider that the 37-year-old Mr. Tuchel is only in his second season as manager and that Mainz is historically a small club with a shoestring budget. (It only gained promotion to the Bundesliga two years ago.) LIke Mr. Villas-Boas, Mr. Tuchel's path to the top has been somewhat unorthodox. When forced to retire from injury at 24, he chose to enroll in university while coaching youth teams on the side and tending bar a few nights a week to pay his tuition. He soon developed a reputation as a workaholic talent-spotter with a knack for developing players. Mainz appointed him last summer and now, in his second season in charge, he sits atop the Bundesliga. Mr. Tuchel's formula for success is a blend of tactical know-how and flexibility (he often switches formations several times in the course of a single game), hard work (he spends four to five hours a day reviewing film, both games and training sessions) and some new-age management techniques (he demands players look each other in the eye when greeting one another and everyone gets addresed by their first name.) The Bundesliga is perhaps the most balanced and unpredictable of Europe's top leagues, so it's too early to crown Mr. Tuchel as the next big thing. But Mainz has already beaten such heavyweights as Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg (the last two on the road), suggesting that perhaps the hype is not entirely misplaced. online.wsj. com/article/SB10001424052748704380504575530111481441870.html Can't post the link in one piece, so I have left out the http//: and separated the "wsj." from the "com".

How about a 48 year old ex Liverpool player, with Dalglish guiding him as DOF. The prospective new owners certainly know all about this fella. And, according to the article below, maybe missing out on Robert Kraft wasn't such a bad thing. Sorry, not enough posts to include the URL for the article. Krafts Hint at New England Revolution as Red Sox Owners Look Toward Liverpool Manchester United has announced a £83.6 million ($137.3 million) loss in its fiscal year ended June 30, suggesting that the English Premier League doesn't exactly represent good return on an investment. If the most famous club in the world's most famous league is a money loser, thanks to the debt required to purchase it and the player salaries required to keep it competitive, that can't be a good sign for the circuit as a whole. In fact, according to a May report in The Times, the vast majority of EPL clubs were operating in the red last season. Yet despite the out-of-control costs, the lack of anything close to a level playing field and near impossibility of winning an actual trophy, Americans keep lining up to invest. The latest is New England Sports Ventures, the Boston Red Sox ownership group led by John Henry that has offered to pay around $477 million for floundering Liverpool FC. The Premier League approved the sale on Friday, but the current owners (also American) likely will try to delay or block the transaction next week in court. Even if it's approved, Henry and Co. have an uphill battle to right Liverpool's financial ship and steer the club back toward the top of a table that rewards only financial largesse. But a lot of people think Henry is up to the challenge. He transformed the Red Sox' fortunes, reversed "the curse" and helped the franchise become a financial heavyweight despite the fact that it plays in the third-smallest stadium in the majors. Boston fans must love him. Which likely stands in stark contrast to how the area's soccer fans feel about the ownership of their local club. It can be argued pretty easily that the success the New England Revolution have had over the past decade has come in spite of owners Robert and Jonathan Kraft rather than because of them. Steve Nicol's uncanny eye for talent has kept the Revs competitive, while the Krafts focus on the Patriots and treat the Revolution as their unwanted Gillette Stadium stepchild. I remember vividly the complaints of Revs fans at last year's MLS Cup Supporters Summit. They saw the Sounders signs and banners adorning Qwest Field, almost in equal number to the NFL's Seahawks, and wondered why the Krafts made so little effort to promote their soccer team (Sounders coach Sigi Schmid even references that contrast in this interview). With ownership's reluctance to create much atmosphere at Gillette (seating will be available on both sides of the stadium for the first time next season!), it should come as little surprise that the club is one of only two MLS originals that has never signed a designated player (the other is Colorado, which hasn't managed to finish above third in the Western Conference and hasn't appeared in a final of any kind since the 1999 U.S. Open Cup.) Nicol has been left to mine for talent and find gems like Clint Dempsey, Michael Parkhurst, Jeff Larentowicz, Andy Dorman and Pat Noonan in the draft. The highest-paid players currently on the New England roster, by far, are Shalrie Joseph and the inactive Taylor Twellman, both drafted in 2002. In short, the Krafts don't like to spend money on marketing, player acquistion, or soccer, period. In contrast, here are MLS commissioner Don Garber's words on Henry and Co. (he was speaking at a London conference): "The ownership has not only graced (the Red Sox' tradition) but enhanced it. They have enhanced and renovated the stadium. They have brought modern technology to improve the fans experience. They have put championship teams on the field and managed their enterprise with an eye to profitability. So they are tremendous pro-sports team owners.'' What are the chances that Garber had the Krafts' decade-plus of ambivalence on his mind when he said that? How many Revolution fans have looked wistfully up Route 1 over the past few days and wondered what NESV's $477 million would do for their soccer club? The transformation surely would be profound -- revolutionary -- and may even constitute a better investment. With its controlled costs and slow but steady growth, MLS probably presents a better long-term economic proposition than the Premier League. It's become clear over the past couple of years that an MLS 2.0 has emerged. Ambitious owners who want to win, understand the traditions of the game and market to adults and fans who know soccer have set a new standard. The Seattle Sounders, of course, lead the way, but we've seen elements of that philosophy in Toronto, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and now Kansas City. Clubs like the Revolution and D.C. United are being left behind. New England will miss the playoffs this year for the first time since 2001. It ranks 12th in the 16-team league in attendance. But, serendipitously, just as Henry's bid for Liverpool has shed light on the sad state of the Revolution, the Krafts appear to have seen some of that light for themselves. On Saturday, club COO Brian Bilello told the Boston Herald that the owners have approved the signing of up to two designated players in 2011. "At the ownership level, we've talked about it. It's no sudden story that the team hasn't performed the way we wanted this year. In talking with ownership, their priority wasn't just getting better. They want to get better quickly," Bilello said. "In all likelihood, those players will be moderate designated players. We're going to look for moderate designated players that can help the team get better regardless of their marketing impact. That's a bit of a shift from what we've said in the past." Focused perpetually on the bottom line, the Krafts perviously would consider a DP only if he would "bring more money in than you put out." That was the wrong way to look at it, of course. You must spend money to make money, and a winning team collectively has a better chance of turning a profit. John Henry certainly understands that. "Any time the ownership starts saying they're willing to open up the pocketbook and go out and get players, that is a step in the right direction," goalie Matt Reis told MLSSoccer.com. It gets better. Also last weekend, Jonathan Kraft said on NECN television that he now understood the wisdom of a soccer specific stadium. "When you've got 15,000 people in a 70,000 seat building, you don't have the energy that you get in a 20,000 seat building, and I think the scale of those buildings, which have really led to this growth, work in a city, too. They don't impact the surrounding areas the way a football stadium would, so we're hopeful that we'll be able to do that." An urban stadium for MLS's most ignored club? "We're working with various people," Kraft said. "When there's something to talk about, we'll talk about it." Perhaps it's a coincidence that the Krafts have gone public with their realization that they own an MLS team at about the same time that NESV has committed so much to Liverpool. It would be sad if Boston's soccer fans chose to support a club thousands of miles away rather than the neglected one in their own backyard. But perhaps not. It was time for the Krafts to save face and pay attention to the Patriots' little brother. Whatever the motivation, it's good for the Revolution and good for MLS. Now all Garber has to do is figure out how to get these wealthy Americans and brand new soccer fans to invest in their local club rather than a foreign one. If Phil Anschutz had decided to buy Tottenham 15 years ago, MLS wouldn't exist. If the likes of Henry, Glazer and Lerner spend at home rather than abroad, just think what it could become.

Emails sent from 6 different addresses. Use every available email possible. Keep up the pressure on the Prick!

Don't usually post, but just thought I'd add this to the thread. There are a load of fake Gerrard's on Twitter, but I'm sure this is the genuine Ste Gerrard. twitter. com/s_Gerrard8]Steven Gerrard (S_Gerrard8) on Twitter Quote: Enjoying time at the world cup but can't wait to get back with Liverpool and the new season gets on the way Won't let me post URLs so join the dot com up with the dot after twitter.

Some good moves there mate! But when those type of plays have been highlighted so much on TV, you"d expect most decent players would have clocked on to them too :whoops:.

Your fucked Hicks, why don't you just piss off and haunt someone else. Even the bullshit guru Max Clifford couldn't help you out on this one.

The Fugitive?

Ha Ha, you's are getting more jewish by the day then. Won't be long before you lot are getting called the yids!!

LMFAO. The cunts spend half their lives taking the piss out of the spurs yids. What are they gonna do now they've got one in the camp!

Crouch should know, that if he headworks his way out of the club, Mcmanaman, owen style, in an attempt to get himself a good return on his next move. Then, he'll just look like a cunt and will never be remembered with any real fondness by the majority of Liverpool fans,

Quote: Vladi Regardless of whether he wants the player or not, I reckon Rafa should throw a spanner in the works by offering West Ham 15m + Bellamy for Tevez just to piss the mancs off and complicate this murky deal even further. Would've loved to have seen Tevez at Anfield, but that aint going to happen now. Also, the Bellamy deal seems done with the Hammers. Tevez move to the mancs is going to be interesting though. If they can't sign him, then we may have the same problems signing Mascerano on a permanant deal. They could both end up playing abroad again, just to make the Prem lge's decision over West Ham look credible, especially with Sheff Utd hoping to strengthen their legal case.

I witnessed a 6ft 9 geezer being asaulted by a Fender strat. You should have seen that guitar go, it hit the assailants arse and with a mighty overhead swing, then it went crashing down on to the big lumps head. Down to his Knees he went like a bag of shite. The assailant then procceeded to give him another three mighty cracks on the head before calmly strolling away. It wasn't long before he was picked up by the law and a four and a half stretch awaited. You could tell though, he knew things were going to go pear shaped that day. He always carried an accoustic with him everywhere he went, you see. But that day he chose his guitar to fit the occasion and I'd say he chose well. Put the big guy into a coma anyway.