pr1tpal

Hilarious

Hes gonna manage this club one day. and its gonna be fucking awesome.

Reckon we might see spearing starting a few more games ahead of poulsen. they must have some trust in him if he played the derby with a broken toe

has he signed yet?

'There's no easy game in the premiership. Fantastic performance. Massive point for us. Lifts us out of the bottom three. One point closer to safety' What Roy will say

revenge on the football league for Northampton

Havent seen or heard any of this game yet, but reckon its Lucas' fault

Theyve just sold possebon back to brazil too thought this guy was supposed to be the next ladyboy Santos to sign Possebon - Manchester United Official Web Site

Thats cus Brazils new manager is Lucas old boss from Gremio. Expect lucas to take felipe melos place in that side

Official Cavalieri, Degen, Darby, Kelly, Ayala, Amoo, Eccleston, Lucas, Spearing, Aquilani, Ngog. Subs: Gulacsi, Irwin, Palsson, Robinson, Shelvey, Ince, Dalla Valle, Riera.

double post

can we carry on contributing to this thread please. thanks in advance

Its not this brother is it? Wealthy brother of UK football chief linked to gruesome Gulf 'torture tape' | World news | The Observer A shocking videotape showing a wealthy prince from the United Arab Emirates brutally torturing a man in the desert has brought a sharp focus on western dealings with the oil-rich Gulf state. The man at the centre of the 45-minute tape, which shows bloodcurdling scenes of abuse and was smuggled out of the country in secret, is Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a half-brother of the owner of Manchester City FC. Issa is shown attacking a helpless Afghan merchant he accuses of cheating him on a business deal. He fires guns at him, inserts a cattle prod in his anus, sets fire to his testicles and runs him over. The tape was first obtained by the ABC News television channel and broadcast last week. The tape is so gruesome that it is bound to cause ructions across the world because of Issa's network of family connections, many of them friendly with western firms, universities and politicians, and the fact that he has not been punished for the attack. Issa is the brother of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy head of the UAE armed forces. He is also the half-brother of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who last year spent £210m buying a 90% per cent stake in Manchester City. Mansour is a key political figure and is a member of the UAE federal cabinet and minister of presidential affairs. The tape is a terrible blow to the human rights image of the UAE, which for decades has been portraying itself as a western-friendly country ripe for trade and investment. US congressman James McGovern has already called for a freeze on government aid to the UAE. He also wants Issa to be refused US visas. In a letter to the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, he said: "I cannot describe the horror and revulsion I felt when witnessing what is on this video ... I could not watch it without constantly flinching." The video is especially shocking because it also shows a man in police uniform helping to tie up the victim and hold him down in the middle of the desert. At the start of the torture session, which is believed to have happened some time before 2005, Issa stuffs sand in the victim's mouth and fires a machine gun into the sand around him as the man screams helplessly. At one point, Issa tells the cameraman to get a close-up. "Get closer. Get closer. Get closer. Let his suffering show," the sheikh says. Later the sheikh beats the man with a wooden plank with a nail protruding from it, and pours salt in the bloody wounds left by his blows. He also inserts an electric cattle prod in the man's anus and turns it on, and pours lighter fluid over the man's testicles, which he then sets alight. Finally, the man is held down in the sand and a Mercedes is driven over him. The sound of bones breaking can be clearly heard. The victim, an Afghan grain merchant called Mohammed Shah Poor, apparently survived the experience, because the government later justified taking no action against the sheikh by saying the matter had been settled privately between the two men and each had agreed not to press charges against the other. Another of Issa's brothers is the interior minister. Despite one police officer helping to carry out the torture, part of the UAE government's statement on the matter said: "All rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the police department." The tape was smuggled out of the UAE by US citizen and Houston businessman Bassam Nabulsi, a former business partner of Issa. Nabulsi claimed he himself was tortured in the UAE after refusing to hand over the videotapes after falling out with the sheikh. Nabulsi claims Issa ordered Nabulsi's brother to record the torture scene in order to watch it later at his own leisure. Nabulsi is now suing in America for the alleged mistreatment he received. But the story does not end there. Nabulsi credits US embassy staff with keeping him alive while in prison, but he also says he brought the existence of the torture tape - and the collusion of the police - to the US's attention to little effect, including to a US official assigned to train UAE police. McGovern has called on Hillary Clinton to investigate this side of the story and discover when US officials knew about the tape, if they took any action and, if not, why not. He urged Clinton and all relevant US officials to watch the tape in its entirety. "It shocks the conscience," he said.

Diego forlan

In case anyone is still wondering how shit we are we're closer to finishing 14th than we are to 1st and we've scored less goals away from home than wolves. and one more than relegated burnley

I've got em if anyone wants em, PM me emails if you want them.

According to the accounts, the financing agreement ended on the 3rd March 2010, so refinancing mustve been sorted a while ago

March 31, 2010 Is Martin O'Neill all he is cracked up to be? Oneill_blog Gabriele Marcotti Tuesday offered a textbook case of how quickly rumours can spread. Peter Lansley's piece sums up neatly how unconfirmed reports of Martin O'Neill's resignation as Aston Villa manager romped around the web and the airwaves. Heck, I was part of it too ... retweeting Oli Kay's tweet (which, responsibly, reminded us that it was UNCONFIRMED) and then watching the mayhem unfold. I have to confess I don't understand the O'Neill phenomenon. Maybe it's my fault. I don't think he plays outstanding, innovative football. I do think he sets out his teams in a well-organised counter-attacking system and generally gets them to execute his game plan very well. But so do others. I don't think he's particularly shrewd or creative in the transfer market. By my reckoning, since arriving at Villa Park, his club have spent more money than any other team in the Premier League (£88 million in net terms) with the exception of Manchester City. And, after all that expense, Villa will probably finish somewhere between fifth and seventh which basically equates to the club punching its weight. Take a quick look at history. O'Neill finished 11th in his first season and sixth the last two years. The much maligned David O'Leary took Villa to sixth place in 2003-04. That was his first season at the club and he took over a side which had finished just three points above relegation the previous year. In the seven seasons between 1995 and 2002, Villa finished fourth, fifth, seventh, sixth, sixth, eighth and eighth, while winning the League Cup in 1996. The guys managing Villa in those years were Brian Little and John Gregory (with a bit of Graham Taylor thrown in). Neither Little nor Gregory (let alone O'Leary) are spoken of in the same glowing terms as O'Neill. And yet they achieved what they achieved without the massive investment from Randy Lerner, but with the rather more cautious Doug Ellis at the helm. I fail to see what in his results at Aston Villa suggests he's any different from his peers who achieved comparable results, like Harry Redknapp (with a comparable budget) or David Moyes (with a smaller budget and smaller wage bill). Further muddying the waters - and, again, it's probably just me - is the fact that I don't understand what his transfer strategy is. Since arriving at Villa he has only bought players from British clubs, with three exceptions: John Carew, reserve goalkeeper Brad Guzan and Moustapha Salifou (who is 26 and has yet to start a league game). It has been a pattern throughout his career. At Celtic, in five seasons he brought in three players from abroad: Bobo Balde and Joos Valgaeren who were pretty good and Michael Herbert, who never played a single league game for the club. Now, you obviously don't need to buy players from abroad to be a good manager. But the fact that he has bought just six in nearly nine seasons is a bit of a head-scratcher. Unless he's somehow prejudiced against them (and I don't think he is), it suggests his scouting network and decision-making maybe isn't what it should be. Instead, he's bought British players, mostly young ones, for which he's been widely praised. But again, it's not as if he's unearthed gems, signing some teenage left back from Colchester who then goes on to become the next Stuart Pearce or an underrated striker from Reading whose career he helps get back on track. Most of his British signings are fairly obvious ones - well-known players at market prices, whether it's Stewart Downing or Ashley Young or James Milner. There's no great nous or imagination there, it's basically a case of bringing in brand names. And paying accordingly for the privilege. He's supposed to be some kind of guru to young players, but, in fact, he's given league debuts to just four home-grown players in four seasons. One of them, Isaiah Osbourne, is now on loan at Middlesbrough. The other three - Ciaran Clark, Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso - have between them started a single league game this season and played less than 300 minutes between them. He's meant to be methodical and clear-thinking, but then he signed three quarters of his starting back four (Stephen Warnock, Richard Dunne and James Collins) in the last hours of the transfer window. Which actually doesn't suggest much of a plan at all. What you're left with is his results. Which, as stated above, are good but not exceptional. Three SPL titltes, three Scottish FA Cups and a League Cup in five years. But, of course, that was at Celtic. Gordon Strachan, his successor, also won three league titles, as well as a Scottish FA Cup and two League Cups, and he did it in four years. You don't see Strachan mentioned in the same breath as Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough do you? And, yes, he did take Celtic to the Uefa Cup final. (But then Steve McClaren also took Middlesbrough to a Uefa Cup final). O'Neill strikes me, ultimately, as someone who does the job to the level you would expect, given the resources at his disposal. Nothing less, nothing more. When you have a net spend of £88 million over four years, a top six finish is the least you can expect. We'll never know, of course, but one would imagine that, say, David Moyes might have attained comparable heights if he'd had £88 million to spend, instead of the roughly £20 million net spend he's had to work with since O'Neill's arrival. Who knows? Maybe some of the folks further down the food chain would have as well. Heck, maybe even Brian Little and John Gregory. Would he have been more successful than, say Rafa Benitez at Liverpool or Wenger at Arsenal? Maybe, maybe not. But, while I can imagine an argument for why he would do worse, I have yet to hear a cogent argument for why he would definitely have done better. (I'm all ears, BTW. Though, of course, I accept that it's mere conjecture, we'll probably never know). One more thing. Lansley's article mentions suggestions that O'Neill is under pressure because Lerner, Villa's owner, is unwilling to make further large investments in the club. If that's the case, it's more than understandable. You spend big, you get the players you want and then you work on making them play well together as a team. O'Neill has succeeded in doing so with Young and Milner, now it's up to him to make it work with the others. But now comes the real test of whether he really is a special manager or just another "good" manager who succeeds when he's awash with money. Now we'll find out what he can do. Provided, of course, the unconfirmed rumours are wholly false and he does decide to stick around, even with a switched off tap.

TheGame - Times Online - WBLG: Is Martin O'Neill all he is cracked up to be?

true that.

David Zittelli made me cry. in my defence I was only 11

Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock: "I'm absolutely devastated. All my career I've had to battle against the odds. We played a Premier League team and worked our socks off. The first goal was a bit iffy but the second was a disgrace. It came off Delfouneso. The referee and linesman waited and waited and then gave a corner because it's a Premier League team. The linesman should be banned for weeks for that and all he did was smile. All they said was, 'We'll watch it on video and get feedback from our assessors'. Villa were fantastic. It was a great, committed Cup tie but they should have lost. How two officials cannot see that's a goal-kick... that's an absolute disgrace. We've got talent and commitment, we're a genuine club with great fans. Their team sheet frightens you and I though we were going to get swallowed up early on. But it was a great game." From BBC 5 live's Jacqui Oatley on Twitter: "Warnock fuming about corner given for Petrov's equaliser, forgetting Butterfield's first v Wolves came from corner that shouldn't have been."

Not a penalty, but that bastard beachball has to be in there somewhere

In other news, Lucas included in the Brazil squad for their final friendly before the world cup. Ronaldinho left out. Along with Norma from shameless (Anderson)

We need a proper song for pepe. and we need to sing it. alot.