Troubadour
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Everything posted by Troubadour
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Cheers RiS. I'd rep you, but I need to spread first. As it were. This any better? [YOUTUBE]efsF4GubMK8[/YOUTUBE] 3.38 into this one [YOUTUBE]ztdXVsgt2Rw[/YOUTUBE] and [YOUTUBE]c4Mjf9UNcdE[/YOUTUBE]
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Right, putting those embeds in didn't work. Fuck it. This one's brilliant too. I miss James Richardson. YouTube - FC Inter, an amazing goal by Yuri Djorkaeff
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Normally when I try to embed stuff, it doesn't work. So I'll do these both ways. [YOUTUBE] [/YOUTUBE] This one's 3.38 in. It's one of the best games i can remember from the glory days of Mezzanotte on Channel 4. It's worth watching all six minutes, actually, if you're bored. Chance after chance after chance. It was the season Igor Protti scored 24 in one season, all of them identical, and secured his place in my affections as my favourite non-Liverpool player ever. Also worth noting that Javier Zanetti is playing for Inter. In 1996, I think. Insane. [YOUTUBE] [/YOUTUBE]
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In that case, it would be extremely churlish of me to disagree with someone who has done more research into the subject than me. Wenger's policy is an interesting one - he had no problem spending at all for the first five years or so of his time at Arsenal, and comparatively big money for the time went on Overmars, Henry, Petit and the others. Even Reyes in 2004, in fact, was a massive money signing. Since then he seems to have run the club almost as a personal experiment. I like him as a manager, obviously, and I like his style of play, but you do wonder whether he's the ultimate example of self-indulgence. I have a mate, not an Arsenal fan, who knows whereof he speaks, who told me the other day that Arsenal's financial power in 10 years time will be frightening, once it's all clicked. They are, in his view, the ultimate example of how a modern football club should be run, and have written the last five years off as they put their masterplan in place. You appear to share his view, and with plenty of good reason. But then Wenger genuinely believes he cannot afford to pay big wages and big transfer fees. This is odd. He has enough goodwill among Arsenal fans just to say he doesn't want to sign players for a lot of money, so doesn't need to lie. This perplexes me a little.
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Allardyce's own logic opened him up to a pop from Rafa. If you're allowed to criticise someone who's criticised you, then Rafa had every right to have a go at his behaviour, his philosophy, his dirty bunch of shithouses that he calls a team, his endless bullshit about Benitez. The only thing Rafa did wrong was not having a go at Wiley, who also spent most of his afternoon being a cunt.
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£100m? Chump change, that. Wouldn't keep John Terry in abortions. In a shock internet tactic, I'd be prepared to admit I'm wrong, but from what I know - which isn't very much - a lot of the financial bullishness from the boardroom is posturing. They don't have the money to break their wage structure and spend big, even if they can pay down the debt. Don't know how it works, though, so I should probably keep my mouth shut. Apologies. Just irritates me when they're held up as a paradigm for the rest of us to follow, when as far as I can tell they've just got lucky by having a manager who is prepared to work with youth team players and had put that plan in place before they ran out of cash, out of philosophy, rather than necessity. As I say, though, I'm no expert, and that's all just opinion. It may be utterly wrong. I'd be stunned to see them spend big in the summer, though. Or any summer. Even after Wenger leaves.
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Arsenal genuinely don't have the money. They just leak that they've got plenty every so often to keep the fans onside. Happens once every three months as soon as anyone even dares to mention that maybe they're not the example of fucking sweetness and light they pretend they are. I'd back UEFA introducing these rules, but UEM's spot on. There's too many big clubs laden with debt to make it feasible. Plus there'll defo be a loophole to let them shovel it all in to holding companies and all that jazz. But this is the sort of thing we should be welcoming. Debt is bad. That's the point of wanting new owners. All measures should be taken to make clubs sustainable, especially if they're draconian and might shock the game into action.
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I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
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No, you're wrong. We do sign attacking midfielders. It's just that we don't sign good ones.
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Why? He's an attacking midfielder. Saying central defender would just be weird. In fact, if you google him, the Evening Standard says he's a striker. Never seen him play - and I'm guessing I'm not alone in that - but there's a lot of hype about him. QPR were supposedly ready to put him in their first team to convince him to stay, so he must be quite useful. Whatever anyone thinks of Rafa, Purslow, McParland, Lucas and everyone else, they (well, not Lucas, though you never know, he may have made an appeal in person) deserve credit for bringing one of the country's brightest prospects to the club.
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Warnock is now a good left back - no more than that, a 7 out of 10 - but when he left he was a 5 or so, which is nowhere near good enough for Liverpool. He's developed because he went to a club where he could play every week. The curse of being Liverpool, rather than a Blackburn, and i mean no disrespect to them there, is that Liverpool can't play players who need time to develop as easily or as much. We do, of course, in Ngog and Insua, but only through necessity - or at least perceived necessity - not through choice. At the time Warnock was here, Riise and Fabio were both better than he was. Had he stayed, he wouldn't necessarily be the player he is now. The logic in the debate that we should have kept him is utterly flawed. I don't know why everyone's suddenly decided that Terry wasn't shagging Bridge's missus before they split up. Don't think the timelines are anything like that cut and dried. Not saying he definitely was, just that sometimes people like to get their portion of sloppy seconds before they go cold. Bridge has taken the only option he could, really, so fair play to him. It also avoids the humiliation of Capello making the very same decision for him. It's just a damning indictment of the moral vaccuum that football exists in when a man who is the victim of a betrayal not only has to punish himself for being a victim, but is then also criticised for being a victim, told he's a bottler because of his emotions, and generally incites the full misplaced, misguided and hypocritical faux-moral outrage of little England because he's not patriotic enough. This country...
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I have a theory that the world changed with Rob Jones's injury. I think it may have caused global warming, the Iraq war and the disappearance of Ladysmith Black Mambazo from the pop charts. But I can't be sure.
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No. But I'm not going to bed before you tell me. I have no truck with your split episode of Diagnosis Murder cliffhangers...
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Eminently fair point. In a normal season, we'd have been cut adrift long ago. In a normal season, one of the other three would have put a run together (as Villa did last year) and closed the gap on the top three - who have also been rubbish - and put us out of it completely. Regardless, we are in it, and at most four points off fourth if City win their game in hand (against Everton, which I'm not convinced they'll win, given both sides' form). Our run-in has four difficult looking games, given our problems - United, Wigan and Birmingham away, and Chelsea at home. The other seven (Hull and Burnley away, Blackburn, Sunderland, Fulham, West Ham and Portsmouth at home) are all definite must wins, and to be honest if we were playing well I'd back us to win at least two of the others. The other three, on the other hand, all have to play each other, all have to play Everton, and have to play at least two of the top three, too (I think, City have them all, at least). If we can find a bit of form - and that's a big if - the run in should favour us. Rafa and the players deserve credit, whatever you think of him, for not letting the whole season collapse after the Reading game, so well said Red Nick.
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Was Leicester his debut? Fucking brilliant player, Berger. If only he'd learned to tackle or, you know, not be a bit of a shithouse sometimes. I was about 15 when he signed, and I've literally never been as excited about a new signing as I was about him. The only one who came close was Morientes, bad as that turned out. But Berger was our first foreign player when the big influx started (ignoring the sundry Scandinavians before that, and a couple of Israelis) after Euro 96, and he was one of the most exciting young players in Europe. I thought he'd win the league on his own. He didn't. Shame. But he did score that free kick at Old Trafford. Other impressive debuts? Kuyt did really well on his, looked a world beater. Collymore against Wednesday. But Fowler's takes some beating.
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What sort of hat? If he stays with us until he's 24, say, scores a few goals as sub or stand-in, as he's doing now, and then gets sold for £5 million that goes towards a better player, that's fine by me. Although I find it truly stunning that anyone's complaining about him. He's 20. He cost £1.5m. He's not a bad player. He has his flaws, but he also has his strengths. Is this a Championship Manager generation thing, where everyone thinks you have to have 22 world class players in your squad? He's about as good as Daniel Sturridge, say, or that Diouf lad Ferguson bought. All teams have young players who they take a chance on. It's just that our financial situation and Torres's injury means we have to play ours all the time, so he has more time to make more mistakes.
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There is an element of Lucas syndrome with Babel, but the more fitting comparison is with Ngog, who doesn't have Babel's natural explosiveness but puts a shift in whenever he plays. Even against Stoke, when he got absolutely battered and was largely dreadful, he kept on showing, kept on running. Babel doesn't. He only runs when he thinks it's worth his while, rather than worth the team's while. He's also remarkably quick when going forward and remarkably slow when tracking back. There was one point on Saturday when he was walking around as Everton pushed forward, not even making an attempt to run. Or even jog. Or even mozey. The worst of it is, though, that even with all the evidence against him, whenever he gets the ball part of you thinks he might just do something brilliant, and I'd warrant most of us feel that, rather than just me being a moron. Also, Ted, I find your new-found man-love for Lucas touching. It was only a matter of time before you noticed he's actually alright now.
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They're linked. Taller players cost more money. Fact. Look at Barca. Iniesta, Xavi and Messi - average height, 5 ft 2, total cost, £0. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, average height, 6 ft 9, total cost £70m. And a lot of the ownership problems are down to Gillett's height. He'd get murdered in a Premier League midfield, too. Not Hicks, though. Hicks'd hold his own against your Cattermoles and your Browns. He may struggle if Rafa chose to play him in the holding role on his own, though, against the better sides.
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Facts? You can prove anything with facts. Lucas is taller than Masche, although there's probably not that much in it. Spearing is also too small to play in a Premier League midfield, so that bit fits.
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You're too tall, Lance, that's your problem. They all look the same height to you, but Lucas is a good bit taller than the other two (is he 5'8ish, Masche 5'6 and Spearing 5'4? I think that's right). Pepper's 5'3, which, to me, is too small. I take your point, though, but having seen him battered for the under 18s, I worry his stature will hold him back. Funnily enough, that's the same problem as Buchtmann might have. He's taller, but quite slight.
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All of this is utterly spot on. It almost makes up for that Monday thread... I wonder if he's, consciously or subconsciously, convinced himself that he has to play a lot more quickly because of the fabled tempo of the game here, and that's why he seems to be rushing his passes. Obviously, it's true you get less time on the ball here than in Italy, but maybe not as little as he's expecting. That will come in time. There were so many examples of Saturday of him playing a difficult pass because nobody moves for him that it's obvious the team has to get used to having that sort of midfielder - a totally different sort of midfielder to Xabi - in the team again. He did play poorly, obviously, but that's going to happen. He also played quite well against Spurs. The former doesn't make him shit, just as the latter doesn't make him good. He needs time, but football's only about absolutes now, there are no shades of grey, and so he won't get it. The greater criticism of Rafa - rather than the hackneyed injured argument - is more that the season after a convincing title challenge is not the time to alter your team's dynamic. Fine, Arbeloa and Alonso both wanted to go, for whatever reason, and you had to replace them. But if you want to build on what you've done, you go like for like, to cause minimum disruption.
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Shame that, he was useful, Buchtmann. You could have seen him getting into the first team squad within 18 months. Could play a few positions, too. It's still right to suggest, as Cardie did, that if the managerial situation was different, this wouldn't be an issue. It's a kid who we got for nothing leaving for £100k. None of us know why he's being let go, or why they've chosen to accept it (it's nowhere near enough to make a difference to the debt, so I'd be amazed if it was that), yet you get loads of comments expressing outrage. I agree it's kind of strange, but there are much more serious things going on, and I find it hard to get upset without any knowledge of why it's happened. As for Pepper, he's a very talented kid, but he's not big enough. He'd get murdered in a Premier League midfield, no matter how good he is. Is he quick enough to play wide? Because if he's not, he'll need to grow about four inches before he has any chance of playing for us.
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Good use of the word proles.
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It's nailed on that Rafa will go to Juve in the summer because they've handed a caretaker a caretaker's contract? Right.
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No. Not in any way. Not if you actually read it. Besides, and I'll say this slowly, Juventus appointed a caretaker manager on Friday. His name is Alberto Zaccheroni. He has a six-month contract.