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Football Thread |OT14| Only Wilbury's belly is smoother than BAAAYEEERNs season

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Meus Renaissance

Meus Renaissance

Member
MPW said:
Bale himself was reported to have said last week that he thinks Cristiano Ronaldo is a more complete player than Leo Messi, and that his dream is to play alongside the Real Madrid forward. This is the sort of thing that folks like to hear in Madrid. Bale failed to add that he is more accustomed to playing in white than in the blue and scarlet of Barcelona, but maybe it wasn't necessary.

Looking at the issue from a strictly footballing perspective, however, Bale is more of a Madrid type than a Barcelona one. Barcelona tend to require the players they sign from outside the church of La Masia to fit into the mould, and if necessary, to subordinate some of their natural instincts to the service of the collective. Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and even David Villa have been recent victims of this, and the prodigal son Cesc Fabregas has not found the transition from undisputed big fish to often-disputed smaller one an easy ride.

At the Bernabeu, he would be welcomed for what he is: a leader of men, a fearless predator. Ronaldo is a good example of this. For all his apparent egomania, he has finally convinced the Madrid hardcore that he is committed to the cause - unlike his mercenary manager, a man who has brought some trophies and restored some self-belief at the club but who is ultimately only interested in his own trajectory. Bale has that vaguely indestructible air of Ronaldo about him - übermensch, as they would say in Munich. He would fit in perfectly, at least as far as his playing style is concerned. How exactly Madrid's new manager would accommodate him is another question that needs to be answered before they splash the millions on his transfer though. Assuming Marcelo can shed a few kilos and become the player he was until recently, the left side of the park is reasonably well covered, although you could argue that Fabio Coentrao would be one of the players that Madrid would want to make a few euros from in the summer, leaving some room for a player of Bale's characteristics.

http://espnfc.com/columns/story/_/id/1344546/phil-ball:-madrid-looking-for-bale-out?cc=5901

i wonder if fabregas will ever be as good as his arsenal days at barca
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Cesc was given a free role in between the front man and midfield. He won't get that type of freedom at Barcelona, but you often see his skill on display with his vision. Don't forget when he started at Barcelona, he had a crazy amount of goals and assists.

Cesc is just as good as he was

Vivalaraza said:
Nah.
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Why not? Who cant we beat?
 
S

Sleeplessnights

Banned
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
I agreed with him - the rumour of him signing a contract extension is nothing but an incendiary to bring up his future as a topic of discussion amongst the papers. They aren't going to ask him "Arsene, will you resign if you get knocked out in the CL?", so instead they chose to force an answer from him by denying the rumours.

It's boring.

Every football fan and journalist knows the status quo at Arsenal. There's no point trying to dramatise whenever we lose a game
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I don't disagree with him, the press can be rather stupid at times but the way he handled some questions was weirder than the questions themselves. His reply to question about wanting to win the CL was the funniest.
 
W

Wes

venison crêpe
Meier said:
Were their follow-ups posts or are their comments considered "meta" because they didn't expound upon their views? I don't post much in the gaming side these days so I'm a bit unfamiliar with the new rules.
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I would guess it's because they didn't contribute anything to the discussion beyond what could be deemed as spam.
 
C

Clegg

Member
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
Barca. Granted, we don't have the same team but neither are we facing the same quality of opposition. One constant in both examples is that we, in a background of a disappointing league run, were faced with a monumental challenge in Europe.

We have enough quality to beat Bayern and most of the teams remaining in this tournament. It's just a question of whether we'll manage to conjure that quality tomorrow. Football logic says we can. How often have we seen teams out of form produce a performance when they most needed it?
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I'm quoting this again for the new page.

What makes you think Arsenal have enough quality to beat most of the remaining teams in this seasons Champions League?
 
V

Vivalaraza

Member
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
Why not? Who cant we beat?
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You don't have the quality to beat Barca, Real Madrid, Bayern, Man United, Juventus and Dortmund - i'm 95% sure about that. 5% because in football you never ever know.

And I think a few of the others would beat you too.

Chelsea had a poor season last year but they had genuine quality in the team. Cech, Terry, Mata, Lampard, Drogba, A.Cole - top top quality players.

Arsenal don't have a single top quality player on the defensive side of things - something they would need when playing the better teams.

Going forwards they have at most 2. The teams above have 4 or 5 in most cases.
 
T

Tim the Wiz

Banned
Vivalaraza said:
Not sure exactly but "gobby" is the word used to describe him.
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He put a gob-stopper in Fergie's hair? It does seem a bit odd, after all those years of patience, that he'd suddenly turn against Nani, even with the recent average form.

Edit: Oh, Lindegaard. Not surprised; he's been pretty vocal about not settling for the bench. Point still stands, though.
 
Meus Renaissance

Meus Renaissance

Member
Clegg said:
I'm quoting this again for the new page.

What makes you think Arsenal have enough quality to beat most of the remaining teams in this seasons Champions League?
Click to expand...

Real Madrid
Man. United
Porto
Málaga
Bayern
Milan
Barcelona
Galatasaray
Schalke
Celtic
Juventus
Valencia
PSG
Shakhtar Do.
Dortmund

I'd be comfortable in playing all but the bolded, out of which only Barca would I believe we had no chance of winning.

We showed brief signs early in the season of the team linking up well and defending even better. We saw the potential quality of the side in those games. There's no reason it can't come up again in big games. Is it likely? No. But importantly is it within us? I believe so
 
A

AndresON777

shooting blanks
dea1d62c79e211e2a2ce22000a1fa411_7.jpg


.
 
V

Vivalaraza

Member
Tim the Wiz said:
He put a gob-stopper in Fergie's hair? It does seem a bit odd, after all those years of patience, that he'd suddenly turn against Nani, even with the recent average form.
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Lindegaard I meant.

Nani is a different story. Two issues, the obvious one of the contract and there are reports the staff have lost faith in him.

Clegg said:
I suppose Fergie could accept a bit of gobbiness from an important player like Rooney or RVP. But a sub keeper?

Cheerio Anders.
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Heh yeah. I am not sure what exactly happened but RedIssue reported 2 months ago he kept disrespecting Ferguson in training. Since then he hasn't played a single minute for us and our 3rd choice keeper has been recalled from loan and is on the bench sometimes. Sounds about right.
 
P

PrematureQuiche

Member
Wes said:
I'd probably only play with you guys and I don't know how active you lot are to justify it!
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Before I lost my Internet we were playing daily with 6/7 players. Since I have stopped I don't think anyone is playing at the moment. I know when I come back I am going to force everyone to start playing again!
 
M

Meier

Member
L1NETT said:
Probably over Matt Richie's transfer. Kid was absolute quality, and was sold without PdC's consent (apparently).
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Yeah, I know he was quoted as saying he might leave due to this. Swindon Town obviously played great football under him.. he'll have another job in no time. They were on the cusp of having a shot at getting up to the Championship too -- a real shame.
 
Y

Yurt

il capo silenzioso
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
Real Madrid
Man. United
Porto
Málaga
Bayern
Milan
Barcelona
Galatasaray
Schalke
Celtic
Juventus
Valencia
PSG
Shakhtar Do.
Dortmund

I'd be comfortable in playing all but the bolded, out of which only Barca would I believe we had no chance of winning.

We showed brief signs early in the season of the team linking up well and defending even better. We saw the potential quality of the side in those games. There's no reason it can't come up again in big games. Is it likely? No. But importantly is it within us? I believe so
Click to expand...

Lol, we would fucking murder you.
 
C

Clegg

Member
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
Real Madrid
Man. United
Porto
Málaga
Bayern
Milan
Barcelona
Galatasaray
Schalke
Celtic
Juventus
Valencia
PSG
Shakhtar Do.
Dortmund

I'd be comfortable in playing all but the bolded, out of which only Barca would I believe we had no chance of winning.

We showed brief signs early in the season of the team linking up well and defending even better. We saw the potential quality of the side in those games. There's no reason it can't come up again in big games. Is it likely? No. But importantly is it within us? I believe so
Click to expand...
Thats not most of the teams in the CL. 6 is a fairly large number in this case. And you left out Juventus who would most likely destroy you.

And a couple of matches where you played well isn't enough to assess a teams quality. The pattern of the season determines how good a team are. You've been far too insipid this season to be called anything but slightly above average.
 
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