Football ('Soccer') Season 10/11

[RandBlade]

I printed a calendar I'd made out for my week this week and showed it to Amanda last night; on Sunday 4-6 was reserved for "Liverpool v Arsenal". She tore Sunday out of the page, ripped it up into tiny pieces and complained "awww, I thought football was over. Now I find out its coming back again"

Yes that's right, the new football season is upon us

I was really concerned after our dreadful showing last season that Liverpool would lose stars like Gerrard and Torres for clubs which could guarantee them Champions League football. One of the best images in the summer was of Torres celebrating winning the World Cup in their dressing room with a Liverpool scarf on.

Instead we haven't lost our stars but have got what seems like a good signing in the form of Joe Cole on a free transfer.

There really wasn't much difference between the club that nearly won the Premiership the year before last and the one that did so atrociously last season. As much as I never stopped liking RB (how could I with such a cool name ), hopefully the club can hit some form again under Hodgson.

[RandBlade]

Where've all the Englishmen (and interested other) gone?

First day of the Premiership today. This season could be very competitive indeed, after years of the so-called Big 4 there should now be at least 6 clubs jostling for the top of the table - Chelsea, Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and City. Some big clashes this weekend already, Spurs v City and Liverpool v Arsenal tomorrow

[Timbuk2]

Where've all the Englishmen (and interested other) gone?

Just flew in from Crete at 4am this morn.

First day of the Premiership today. This season could be very competitive indeed, after years of the so-called Big 4 there should now be at least 6 clubs jostling for the top of the table - Chelsea, Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and City. Some big clashes this weekend already, Spurs v City and Liverpool v Arsenal tomorrow

Had no idea the season was starting so early! 14th August? Really?

Yep lookin' forward to the season.

Hammers have made a large number of signings over the summer, including Hitzlsperger the German international and Pablo Barrera, the fiery young Mexican international nicknamed 'Dynamite', who should light up Upton Park if his abilities shine.

Avram Grant is our new boss too, whom I'm hoping will make a decent impact on the team.

And yep, the top of the table will be interesting this season.

Gonna be a good 'un.

[DecoyMilk]

Today is a good day to be a Villa fan!

MON is gone, and at first I was a bit sad, but honestly, some of his policies were just dross. It was so refreshing to see some of the up and coming youth players get a start, something MON NEVER did. Also, K-MAC used the substitutes! That's what they're their for! And he brought on more youth and experienced players! Instead of what MON would have done, which is wait until the 87th minute, take off carew, and put on Heskey then think 'Yep, that's all the tactics I need to do'.

AND AND AND, K-MAC played a Right Back at Right Back! Amazing!

I thought we absolutely pasted Wet Spam. It wasn't even a competition, we had 57% of possession and ~80% pass completion, just running it round them. We should have scored 6 or 7, Carew hit the post twice, had 2 decent penalty shouts denied, and Downing hit the crossbar from a lovely free kick.

Genuinely so happy with that match. Albrighton was awesome. He loved to run straight at the defence, he is gonna be so, so amazing. I hope he gets more games this season.

Looks like Milner is definitely going, I would chew off my left bollock to keep him though. At least if it does go through we'll be likely to get Ireland, who is a very capable midfielder with plenty of creativity.



Things are looking up at the Villa! Martin who?

[Timbuk2]

Hm.

How much of that match was West Ham looking shit and Villa looking good remains to be seen ...

We had no defence to speak of. A beer-drinkers team of sunday amateurs would have made your 57% possession and 80% pass completion and would have looked good against us.

Your first real test will come on thursday with a visit to Rapid Vienna for the UEFA qualifiers, and Everton on 29th Aug.

~

Sooo ... all is looking normal.

Chelsea thumping WBA 6-0 to go top of the table. West Ham immediately hovering around the relegation zone.

Other top-four contenders all drawing their matches against each other ... Spurs v Man C 1-1, and Liverpool v Arsenal 1-1.

Man U debut tonight.

[xaero1]

I'm worried about Man Utd's finances at the moment. Since Glazer took over they've racked up hundreds of millions in debt. How they're going to manage to pay it all back I just don't know

[Lor]

I'm worried about Man Utd's finances at the moment. Since Glazer took over they've racked up hundreds of millions in debt. How they're going to manage to pay it all back I just don't know

They'll be fine, as much as it pains me to say.

Arsenal drew yesterday - bloody annoying! Get RVP and Fabregas back in.

[RandBlade]

The only thing that could stuff up United is a failure to qualify for Europe. Even then it'd probably have to happen a couple of years in a row. Even then a new tycoon would just buy them out again.

[Lor]

What a weekend, it was all about the number 6.

Chelsea beat Wigan 6 - 0
Arsenal beat Blackpool 6 - 0
Newcastle beat Villa 6 - 0

Man Utd let 2 points slip which i'm not surprised at being Fulham are Utd's boogey team.

West Ham are in a spot of difficult already and i'm going to predict they'll struggle even more this year. Sorry Tim!

[RandBlade]

Chelsea, 2 games, goal difference: 12

WTF?

[Timbuk2]

West Ham are in a spot of difficult already and i'm going to predict they'll struggle even more this year. Sorry Tim!

Yup.

We travel to Old Trafford this saturday, and we have Chelsea coming to us the following saturday.

Oh joy.

Seriously gonna look up the odds of us being bottom of the table at end of Sept. Worth a tenner.

~

Think the Arsenal are looking good this year tho!

~

Aye - some seriously huge scores already.

Chelsea to win this year surely.

[Spawnie]

United are my bet, again. United runners up by 1 point despite having most of their defensive line injured for most of the season. Didnt they have Evra at centre back for a while? And Carrick at left back? Now they have the same team, in form (rooney aside), relatively young (or great) and with some promising-looking backup in both attack and defense.

Towards the end of last season i even saw berbatov running about a bit.

Anyway, with the mighty Tigers battling it out in the Championship this season, ive been scouting out a premiership team to support due to the scandalous lack of Championship football on the TV. My two general inklings are aston villa and everton, though i quite like spurs as well.

Hmm. What're your thoughts? Im leaning towards everton. Despite not having the genuinely great Donovan back this season, they have a few other key players back, especially in midfield. I think Arteta and Felleini are both back and looking strong. Hmmm

[Timbuk2]

Spurs all the way the dude.

Follow the guv'nor!



'Specially now that you're a laandana !

[RandBlade]

Missed my first Liverpool Premiership match of the season today, had to work during it. Continued what appears to be a disturbing habit so far this season.

So far this season I have not seen a Liverpool victory live. Of the two matches I've watched we've drawn one and humiliatingly lost one. Of the 3 games so far I haven't (one Premiership, both Euro qualifiers) we've won them all ...

Glad for the victory, would suck if we could only win matches I don't get to see though

EDIT: Come to think of it, even the drawn one I missed our goal for. I had to take a phone call during Half Time so left the room to take it and by the time I got back we'd scored. After I returned we suffered a red card and a last minute equaliser ...

[Spawnie]

Have missed so much footbal this season so far. Saw the two Spurs vs Young Boys and the Villa - Rapid Vienna, but almost nothing else.

Seems that having a full time job and girlfriend means you arent allowed to doss around for hours watching men kick a ball.

Speaking of which - ill add a probably redundant SPOILER tag here for anyone who plans to watch the Challenge Cup final and doesnt yet know the score

It turns out that Saturday was not only the hugely important Challenge Cup final, but also two years since my g/f and i had our first kiss. Which she wanted to mark in some way.

Anyway, in a fit of insanity, i opted for the girl, and told myself i would watch the rugby the next day. After spending all day avoiding radios, tvs, the net, facebook, twitter, and the legions of rugby fans that came down to london to see it, i step in my door, give myself a little round of applause, and my fucking DICK of a housemate greets me with "You see Leeds get smashed yesterday?"

What a cock.

[GGT]

Poor Spawnie. You've got a girl friend who expects you to avoid radios, tvs, the net, facebook, twitter, and legions of London rugby fans........to commemorate a first kiss?

[RandBlade]

LOL Spawnie.

Livining in Warringon I couldn't avoid the result even if I want to. What is funny though is at work for the second year running ordinarily healthy men around here all became sick on Saturday. Strange

[Lor]

Seems that having a full time job and girlfriend means you arent allowed to doss around for hours watching men kick a ball.

I've had that for 6 years, doesn't get any better i assure you.

[termite]

Seems that having a full time job and girlfriend means you arent allowed to doss around for hours watching men kick a ball.

I've had that for 6 years, doesn't get any better i assure you.

For the love of Pete! You are the man! (men actually)
Put your foot down on matters concerning football, if that doesn't work use your in built negotiating skills (which is mostly lots of blustering and waving arms). If you do this correctly, at some point she will feel so sorry for you she will go out shopping or something and you can watch the football!

If none of that works, simply offer to invite friends over and say you will cook a BBQ for everyone - put a little telly and a beer cooler next to the BBQ and be sure to cook slowly.... (Jamie Oliver has some brilliant slow cooking BBQ dishes, he knows how to see a game of Football)

Sorta OT: My AFL footy team (Fremantle) is in the Finals for the first time since 2006, we're playing the Premier's from 2 seasons ago and they are a tough team to beat. We do however have a significant home ground advantage and will hopefully get a win and move to the second week of the Finals.

I will be at the game enjoying every moment, my wife is dropping me and the lads off and picking us up so we can drink beer and not worry about driving home.

I have a good one don't I...

A Warning! Don't ever say to your wife/girlfriend "But Steve's wife lets him do it." this is an irreconcilable slur against her for which you will pay dearly for the rest of your life....or until she dumps you. If by chance you have already made this mistake, it would be a good time to tell her that you've decided that you are in fact gay and will have to separate immediately. This is the only way you will leave with your balls in anything other than her purse.

Here we go! Ere we go! Ere we go!
Here we go! Ere we go! Ere we gooooo on!

[RandBlade]

I let Amanda dominate what's on TV most of the time but then when the football's on she feels bad and lets me watch it.

Endless parade of girly crap on TV - Britain's Next Top Model, Project Runway, 16 and Pregnant, Four Weddings and anything remotely girly in any way and that hideous crap Eastenders.

Which is fine with me, I go on the computer and put my headphones on then. Either play games, watch a show of mine I've downloaded or come to the forum and listen to music. When the football's on I gently remind her of all the crap she's watched in the last week and I get the remote for 2 hours.

The Ashes did push her to breaking point. Apparently me having the remote all day for 5 days a week wasn't fair.

EDIT: Although she is good at manipulation too. Last week she 'suggested' that if I buy her a DVD she could watch that in the bedroom while I watch the football.

[Timbuk2]

There isn't anything you both watch?

Her suggestion sounds reasonable. There are other advantages to having a DVD in the bedroom. Maybe her suggestion has ulterior motives behind it.

~

We'll usually crack open a bottle of wine or two and flick through the endless music video channels on Sky. There's usually the Eighties at Eight, followed by the Nineties at Nine - I forget which channel. Generally good old school tunes, and the vids are often ones we haven't seen before. MTV Classics maybe. Q is good too.

Or we'll watch a movie, though our movie tastes are somewhat different.

When the footy is on, like during the world cup, I dragged her down the pub to watch England. Even though she's Scottish through and through . She's a good sport.

But the pubs we go to are nice ones down by the river, with lots of reading material, so she doesn't actually watch the footy but watches the passing boats, or catches up on the newspapers or girly mags. We can both spend an entire lazy afternoon and evening at the pub, sampling red wines and reading the papers, nattering about everything and nothing, watching the world drift by.

I'll put on the Grand Prix too, if we're in on a sunday, though we're more often out.

When she's back at hers though, her viewing is very different to mine. I'll watch my movies or catch up on documentaries (watched Dawkin's God Delusion this eve, 2 hours of material from a series Dawkins ran around 4 or 5 years ago). She'll watch things like CSI or other American crime drama thingies.

~

Anyway. Um. Footy. West Ham straight to the bottom of the table with zero points.

[RandBlade]

There isn't anything you both watch?

Her suggestion sounds reasonable. There are other advantages to having a DVD in the bedroom. Maybe her suggestion has ulterior motives behind it.

Oh I don't mean a DVD Player, we already have that (actually its my old PS2 but that's all it gets used for now). I mean an actual chick-flick DVD. Would be an expensive habit if she wants one of those each week

There's a few shows we watch together. I've got her into House, while she's got me into Ghost Whisperer. Grey's Anatomy was the one we both already watched. Mostly though it is a very stereotypical gender divide in our household. She can't stand sport but went to watch the football with me during the World Cup. She wouldn't but just did that to humour me .

[Hazir]

Hmm.. I'm not really interested in national competitions and as far as EC qualifiers a match against San Marino doesn't really sound like it's serious.

So, I am sort of aloof at the moment. But quite happy that UEFA decided to ban those damn vuvuzela's.

[Lor]

I'm tempted to watch tonights EC Qualifier against Bulgaria, however i'm rather shocked at the amount of players dropping out of selection. Surely they are not all injured?

Oh and how much are we tempted to wager that Walcott won't start yet having a blinding start to the EPL thus far!

[earthJoker]

I don't know if I watch the friendly against the Aussies, but I somehow have to get Zatoo working when I am in Germany on Tuesday to watch the England match.

[Spawnie]

I'm tempted to watch tonights EC Qualifier against Bulgaria, however i'm rather shocked at the amount of players dropping out of selection. Surely they are not all injured?

Oh and how much are we tempted to wager that Walcott won't start yet having a blinding start to the EPL thus far!

Yeah right. This team gets picked soley on form. Like SWP...

[Lor]

Walcott did start, had a good first half but a not so good 2nd half.

Tuesday we play in Switzerland, alot of gossip talk Re: Rooney. Hopefully it won't impact his game!

Oh and Joe Hart - the future .

[earthJoker]

The game is tomorrow, and I'm afraid - Switzerland won't have a chance.

[Hazir]

Holland - Suomi was pretty boring, but they won 2 - `1

[Spawnie]

Yes that's right, the new football season is upon us

[...]

Instead we haven't lost our stars but have got what seems like a good signing in the form of Joe Cole on a free transfer.

There really wasn't much difference between the club that nearly won the Premiership the year before last and the one that did so atrociously last season. As much as I never stopped liking RB (how could I with such a cool name ), hopefully the club can hit some form again under Hodgson.

First day of the Premiership today. This season could be very competitive indeed, after years of the so-called Big 4 there should now be at least 6 clubs jostling for the top of the table - Chelsea, Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and City.

United are my bet, again.

Id just like to stop by to laugh at RB for Liverpools continuing dismalness and my excellent intuition that Man U were good enough even with injuries in essential positions.

Shame i hate Man U about as much as Liverpool. I watched the FA cup this weekend thinking, as I always do: "If only there was a way they could both lose..."