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Football Thread 13/14 |OT18| Coming Early by L. Piscium

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W

Wilbur

Banned
Salazar said:
Was that the sex, or the culinary aftermath ?
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frU10tR.png
 
G

GQman2121

Banned
My HP notebook get's so hot that I have to put an ice pack under it or my football streams stutter and lag. It's only for the NBC site too, which seems to be a resource hog.
 
A

Arnie

Member
Lakitu said:
Liverpool interested in Toni Kroos according to Oli Kay (but it's unlikely to happen).

Come, Kroos.
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Published a minute ago, here's the text:

Liverpool miracle-worker Brendan Rodgers needs money to match said:
Back in the days when Liverpool could not splurge £35 million on an ill-fitting, injury-prone Andy Carroll without someone trying to tell you it was a “classic Moneyball” signing, John W. Henry declared that he and his colleagues in the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) have “a unique skill-set for what we in the United States call breaking curses”.

Good luck with that, you thought. Even after lifting the so-called “Curse of the Bambino”, as the Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, FSG appeared to have underestimated the size of the challenge at Liverpool, whose own “curse” was their failure to win a league title since 1990.

In Major League Baseball, heavily regulated and thrillingly competitive, there was always a way back for the Red Sox, one of nine different World Series winners between 2001 and 2010. In the Barclays Premier League, it looked a long, long journey for Liverpool, who were one point off the bottom of the Premier League table under Roy Hodgson when FSG bought them in October 2010 and, with a slow, ageing, inefficient, dispirited, divided squad, looked in a serious state of disrepair even after things picked up a little under Kenny Dalglish.

What has happened this season, as Liverpool have been transformed into title challengers under Brendan Rodgers, has been extraordinary. For this squad — “eight players short of becoming genuine title contenders” according to Sir Alex Ferguson last October, when few other than Rodgers seemed to take issue — to be top of the Premier League at this late stage of the season, having scored 90 goals in 33 matches, would seem to suggest, along with Everton’s progression under Roberto Martínez, that there is something special in the air on Merseyside.

A personal view is that Manchester City, four points behind but with two games in hand, will ultimately prove just too strong for Liverpool and indeed Chelsea, but that prediction will have to be revised should Manuel Pellegrini’s team become the latest to falter in a fervent atmosphere at Anfield.

Liverpool, under Rodgers, have built up an incredible momentum, a positive energy that has taken not only Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge but also a rejuvenated Steven Gerrard and an ebullient Luis Suárez to a level that looked far beyond them 18 months ago. Beat City and they will believe that anything is possible this season.
You will note that the previous paragraph finishes with “this season”. It is a caveat of sorts. It reflects a belief that, no matter how startling their improvement under Rodgers, it will be hard to sustain in a climate in which, even when reacquainted with Champions League riches, even when their commercial revenues rise further, even when Anfield is finally redeveloped, they will find it hard to compete — and, it is suggested, hard to justify trying to compete — in the transfer market with Chelsea, City and Manchester United.
A source at Liverpool revealed this week that the club, like United, have been looking into the possibility of signing Toni Kroos, the outstanding Bayern Munich midfield player. In some circumstances, such a revelation might merit a banner headline, but Liverpool’s interest in Kroos, at present, is unlikely to crystallise into a firm bid because, if he were really tempted to leave Bayern (and the suspicion remains that he will stay in Munich, his pay increased substiantially), it would require a five-year contract worth upwards of £220,000 a week plus a transfer fee of more than £35 million.

It remains to be seen whether United would commit more than £90 million on a single player — and, more to the point, if someone of Kroos’s talent would leave Bayern for a club who are rebuilding without being able to offer Champions League football — but Liverpool, unless there is a dramatic rethink, will not.

After the experience with Carroll, the club’s transfer committee, encouraged by their success with Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge, have concluded that there is little point trying to shop at the very top end and that there is comparable quality in the £10 million to £25 million range if you know where to look — as they felt they did last summer with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who preferred to join Borussia Dortmund, and Willian, for whom they were gazumped by Tottenham Hotspur, who in turn were gazumped by Chelsea.
Nobody tries to link Liverpool’s transfer policy with “Moneyball” any more, largely because the extravagant outlays on Carroll and Stewart Downing, both sold to West Ham United at significant losses, were so at odds with the analytical, sabermetric approach to recruitment, pioneered by Billy Beane at the Oakland A’s before being taken on by Theo Epstein with the Red Sox. That is what Liverpool’s transfer committee are trying to do, though, trying to find value that others fail to see.

Liverpool have spent money under FSG, but they have never competed at the top end of the transfer market since Rodgers arrived, recruitment being overseen by committee. A shade under £100 million has been spent on Fabio Borini, Joe Allen, Coutinho, Sturridge, Luis Alberto, Simon Mignolet, Iago Aspas, Kolo Touré, Tiago Ilori, Mamadou Sakho and others, with very mixed results. Coutinho, Sturridge and, to a lesser extent, Mignolet have contributed fully this season, but Liverpool’s improvement has to be seen as an emphatic endorsement of Rodgers’s skills as a coach and a man-manager, rather than of the club’s recruitment strategy.

Irrespective of whether Liverpool win the Premier League this season, they need a much stronger squad next season if they are to compete in the Champions League as well as on the domestic front. Most of what José Mourinho says about Chelsea’s competitors can be disregarded, but he is right when he says that Liverpool’s title challenge has been aided by freshness because of a lack of commitments in Europe.

What he neglects to mention, of course, is that this perceived advantage does not begin to measure up to the benefits, in terms of finance and prestige, that Champions League qualification brings.

For Liverpool to break the curse this season, as Henry might have it, would be remarkable. To go from 52 points two seasons ago to 61 points and then to somewhere north of 80 points this — whether it is enough to win the title or not — would be remarkable when you consider that it has not been the result of the type of “accelerated recruitment strategy” that City, Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers and indeed, to differing degrees, Arsenal and United underwent in the seasons before they started challenging for and winning Premier League titles. Since their previous top-five finish, never mind title challenge, in 2009, not too many of Liverpool’s signings have, as Ferguson put it in his autobiography, “haunted me at night”.

Should they beat City tomorrow, it is quite possible that Liverpool could end up right back “on their f***ing perch” at the time when, after their frivolousness of previous decades, they almost least expected it. Regardless of whether they achieve it, though, Rodgers might need a little more assistance to stay there.

Loan debate should focus on elite hoarders

Amid all of this gnashing of teeth about the loan system, no one seems willing to face up to the crux of the problem, which is the stockpiling of players by the biggest, richest clubs. Chelsea have 28 players out on loan, including Thibaut Courtois at Atlético Madrid, Romelu Lukaku at Everton, Victor Moses at Liverpool, Wallace at Inter Milan and five, including Lucas Piazon, at Vitesse Arnhem. Manchester United have 24.

Some accuse Everton of having gained an unfair advantage by signing Gareth Barry, Gerard Deulofeu and Lukaku on loan from Manchester City, Barcelona and Chelsea respectively.

An unfair advantage over whom? Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and United, whom they hope to beat to Champions League qualification? Hardly. The loan system is one of the few ways to bring even a small degree of competitive balance in a world in which the biggest clubs, flushed with Champions League riches, hoover up more of the best players than they know what to do with. As Roberto Martínez points out, Everton have given Deulofeu and Lukaku opportunities that they would not get at their parent clubs.

Do not complain about Everton, who are one of the few clubs to have worked the loan market well. The issue should be about the competitive imbalance in European football, where so many of the best players are owned by so few clubs. It rarely seems to be in the players’ interests, let alone the interests of competition. The other debate — over whether the integrity of a competition is compromised more by players appearing against their parent club or by not doing so — is secondary.
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W

Wilbur

Banned
Willkiller said:
I mean, I really...really hope Liverpool do it on Sunday. People seem to forget they still have Chelsea to play though...
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I've started pulling for City the nearer we've got to the date. The more it's become a reality that Liverpool may win the title, I've wanted City to do it.

In a perfect world it's a draw, Chelsea beat Swansea and win at Anfield while City lose at Everton.
 
Y

Yurt

il capo silenzioso
Wilbur said:
I've started pulling for City the nearer we've got to the date. The more it's become a reality that Liverpool may win the title, I've wanted City to do it.

In a perfect world it's a draw, Chelsea beat Swansea and win at Anfield while City lose at Everton.
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Please I just want Gerrard to win ONE PL title

NOW COME ON

he can't retire without one

16-17 seasons with one club is too long :(
 
W

Wilbur

Banned
Re: the loan bit at the end of that article Arnie quoted. Martin Samuel, cunt that he is, wrote a great article on the Mail's website and a follow up that are really worth looking for.
 
S

Salazar

Member
Arnie said:
It seems we understand and accept our limitations.
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Odd that you're so proud of this humility muppet show, this Brenty sonata of wibble.

"We're interested in Kroos but we know it's not practically feasible"

Then pipe down. Do a crossword. Scout the Internazionale petri dish again.
 
Y

Yurt

il capo silenzioso
Salazar said:
Odd that you're so proud of this humility muppet show, this Brenty sonata of wibble.

"We're interested in Kroos but we know it's not practically feasible"

Then pipe down. Do a crossword. Scout the Internazionale petri dish again.
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LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
 
C

Clegg

Member
WoodenLung said:
Yeah I don't understand either. Assumed it was just because I'm dead inside. I liked tangled a lot more.
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There have been a lot more musical numbers in Frozen then I can remember in Tangled. Breaks up the flow of the movie and they aren't even good songs.
 
B

Blablurn

Member
El Chupacabra said:
I haven't watched it, but it is beyond me how someone could consider 'Let it go' an all-time classic on par with the greatest masterpieces of the 90s. Really good song, but the sequence is lacking.
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not if you watched the movie. the lead up to let it go was fantastic. everything afterwards was boring.
 
S

Salazar

Member
Arnie said:
As opposed to Moyes' sock draw?
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We've got two deals all-but-done, Arnold.

Wooders probably just needs to make a sub-visible affirmative movement with his hand and it will be sealed.

And you can snark all you want about Osman, but Everton won't sell to us anymore. That line of satire is barren. We're dredging Portugal again.
 
B

Blablurn

Member
El Chupacabra said:
Such an amazing song. Lion King has so many great songs, it's unbelievable. That and Aladdin had more great songs than maybe all Disney movies afterwards together. Lion King also has the greatest opening of a Disney movie.

As for newer Disney songs, I haven't watched the movie, but Friends on the other side is a pretty good song/scene (from 'Princess of the frog') and the villain's death is pretty nice.



I'll check it out some day.
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and you know what. i listened to all version of let it go and the german one wins. its really strong. love it.
 
W

Wilbur

Banned
I liked Frozen. The songs were overrated, but it's a nice little film. Nothing special, but entertaining enough.

Yurt said:
Please I just want Gerrard to win ONE title

NOW COME ON

he can't retire without one
Click to expand...

no fuck off

It's a constant source of hilarity that these are the players with more Premier League titles than Steven Gerrard:

Darren Ferguson
Mike Phelan
Tim Sherwood
Luis Boa Morte
Mark Bosnich
Luke Chadwick
Matthew Upson
John O'Shea
Quinton Fortune
Robert Huth
Kieran Richardson
Anderson
Salomon Kalou
Michael Owen (tee hee)
Darron Gibson
James Milner
Tom Cleverley
 
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