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So, cricket then?
Thanks u to have answer to my question lol lets be focus about the season now! Lol
I'm not sure LOL means what Disco Benny thinks it means...
Getting AVB is a go-big-or-go-home kind of move. It's only with a visionary manager that a second- or third-tier payroll club can compete at the highest level in the EPL for any real span of time. Villas-Boas may not be that coach, and he might in fact be a total disaster, but he gives fans something to hope on. And that's fun.
I don't think he's necessarily the visionary manager but I think he's capable of being very good. It feels a bit like a Francona to Valentine move though. In Harry you had a guy who had "his guys" and rode them, with AVB you have a guy who has the potential to really piss off some guys who have been very good but may in fact be better for other, younger players. I think where AVB works is that the guy you least want to piss off (Bale) is so obviously the engine that drives the team that there is no reason to pull a Youkilis on him. It's not like AVB is going to be saying "hmmmm...that young left winger we have on the reserve squad is probably a better player than Bale."
I swear when I started typing that I had a point.
You probably have a better sense of this but it seems to me people are more likely to write like they speak today, particularly in e-mail that is still unfortunately viewed as an informal platform. Including the "LOL" is a way of including those nervous tics most of us have.
I see where you're going! Bale signed his new contract with the knowledge AVB was the guy, so I think he's on board. The rest of the team...I can't say. My guess is AVB will stress fitness more than Harry and that might rub some players the wrong way. I don't know, we'll see. Definitely heading into the great unknown here but I'm hoping they give him the best chance to succeed, even if it means shipping out club favorites. If anyone isn't on board, they gotta go. They can't afford to half-ass this.
I'm pretty sure AVB understands the concept of squad rotation, which should also help with the team's fitness levels in the later parts of the season.
Benny uses LOLs like the rest of us use periods lol
I was thinking more about training regiments. Juande Ramos, by many accounts, drove some players nuts with all the exercising and lack of pies and what not.
I wonder how Bale fits in ABV´s system if not at left back. I think having Bale play even higher up the pitch ina 4-3-3 negates his biggest asset, which is his speed.
Not sure. As a left-sided mifielder in a 4-3-3? Will he play him as a forward? Like I said, I'm not sure what AVB has planned but I think I will check out that friendly in New York now to get a sneak preview. I can't see Bale moving back to LB, though. Those days are gone forever.
Naw, he smuggled them to the Queen Vic and sold them for half price, the dodgy geezer.
And Ganso turned down a new deal from Santos, but he is still signed for 3 years so who knows what that means.
I don't know. This Euro´s best left back was a winger not that long ago. If he moves to Barca or Real he will probably have to be a left back. And as a left sided midfielder he still would not be able to use his speed as much. Dribbling technique is more important in the center and he is not as good in that department.
The other solution is Villas Boas switching to a 4-2-3-1.
I recently sold a computer (via Craigslist) to a guy whose first email to me was, "i want to buy your laptop lol."
And is probably one of the reasons he just signed another contract with Spurs. He's a pretty meh defender and like to play as far up the pitch as he can anymore. I don't put too much stock in those Real and Barcelona rumors, to be honest. It's the Italians I worry about when it comes to snatching Bale, but they all seem to be broke right now. Whew!
The thing with Bale is that he seems to think it is still 1996 when 4-4-2 ruled English football and Ryan Giggs was King. Now, because of the way teams often set up, the "out" ball is very often to the fullback and why they are so important for good teams.
It's why Alba was so critical for Spain, why Maicon was critical for Brazil, Dani Alves for Barcelona and Glen Johnson was often England's most threatening attacker.
My observation of Bale is that he simply doesn't have the level of in close ball control and general awareness needed to be anything buy sporadically effective pushed up the pitch and is most dangerous when afforded space to run into and drive either towards goal to shoot or down the touchline to deliver a cross. Something which in modern formations is best accomplished from fullback, in those same formations not having the defensive solidity of Arbeloa style fullbacks is not so important if you have a holding midfielder capable of screening the centerbacks or dropping in between them so they can push wide as the fullbacks get forward to support the midfield.
So does the prawn sandwich brigade in the FA.
Ha ha. But it's not just them.
David Cameron reportedly thought it stood for "Lots Of Love"...
I hope this goes as well as Facebook stock did.
Lot to digest in that one. They seem to have cleaned out the debt closet really well, they have a lot of debt of course, but it's not toxic sludge anymore; they can keep from snickering when discussing the DHL training kit deal, that can't be easy; and they get seventeen ####### million pounds in revenue from mobile.
I hope this goes as well as Facebook stock did.
So you want the Glazers to make out like bandits?
Probably not the best analogy. I meant in terms of being a dud. Facebook made a boatload though, so good for them?
They discuss FFP in the prospect, they are within bounds already and believe it will work to their advantage.
I am pretty happy with this addition. Sigurdsson isn't a big name (yet?), but he has considerable talent and is one of those "tactically flexible" players that the younger managers seem to love. A nice first step for the Villas-Boas Era.
On the other hand, the SPL has now given the decision about where the Rangers end up to the SFL, and for them three years of games against Rangers must seem far yummier than Rangers slumming it in First for a year, right?
Because it's not about the money. As a Spurs fan, I should be mocking this, but that is one condescending open letter from Van Persie and his people.
Good news about Sigurdsson. He's young AND makes Spurs immediately better even if he's too dumb to understand the privilege it would have been to play for Lverpool Football Club. Vertonghen should be done soon, as well. Those rumors about Spurs having 80 millions pounds to spend? I want to smoke what they're smoking!
On the other hand, the SPL has now given the decision about where the Rangers end up to the SFL, and for them three years of games against Rangers must seem far yummier than Rangers slumming it in First for a year, right?
It's fascinating. They have, of course, to be admitted into the SFL first. The SPL have threatened to create their own second division outside the SFL, too. Scotland is drunker and more violent than usual right now!
Enjoy the holiday!
I do think it's a reasonable estimate that Villas-Boas would be given £40M to spend right off the bat. Harry spent very little the last two years, so Spurs should have some money to burn. I don't know the exact figures, but I reckon they've already brought in £10-15M from the transfers of Kranjcar and Corluka.
If the last member of Tottenham's Croatian trio goes, I would imagine a good chunk of that fee will be sunk back into the squad.
Corinthians are champions of South America for the first time!
And there are a crap load of Europa games today, a few of which involve teams I've heard of.
Twente are by far the most relevant team in today's Europa games, though MTK and Honved have the impoverished gentry aspect to them.
Is there a 3rd option? There's gotta be a 3rd option, right? The good news about Van Persie's public letter is it's making it more likely Adebayor comes back to Spurs as Man City are even more desperate to clear room. Rumors in Spurs land are that Adebayor and Vertonghen will be done by the end of the weekend. Still, that letter was a dick move by Van Persie.
You don't try to bring a player to a club like LFC for Swansea wages and expect him to be grateful for the opportunity. I'm not usually a smack-talker, but I'm hoping Gylfi Sigurdsson scores a couple against Liverpool this year as it looks more and more like it's LFC's own fault they didn't lock this down. It's not Gylfi's fault Joe Cole is making 90K a week for the next couple of years or that Stuart Downing makes more that 2 quid a week so that they have to find players on the cheap. Now I have to watch the Anfield Rap video a couple of times to rekindle the affection I want to maintain for them.
It would seem Usmanov's grand plan is to get Arsenal supporters to hate Kroencke so much that Kroencke will sell out to Usmanov and run back to America in tears. It doesn't really sound like a great plan.
You're internet skills frighten me.
That's certainly one way to look at it. The other is, as the article mentions, that Rodgers has a good idea of what the player is capable of, given that he's had him for two separate clubs and he simply decided the money could be better spent elsewhere. Taking either view requires going off of a fair bit of speculation(*) and if you enjoy making pronouncements on that then hey, knock yourself out. Still doesn't pass as actual, worthwhile analysis, though.
(*)Which is why the "Bravo, Brendan!" in the linked piece comes off as rather silly.
Except the gracious thing to do is say good luck to him and we're moving on and not to feed the story that the Liverpool media have been pushing that he's asking for outrageous wages and cares more about money than playing football. I'm pretty sure Rodgers got a bump in wages moving from Swansea to Liverpool, himself. Also, I'm pretty sure Tottenham plan on playing Sigurdsson so I'm not sure where Rodgers' crack about playing time comes from, either.
There would be - David Dein rejoins the board.
It's a failure to sell van Persie on their plans as much as anything, which is the effect when you have a tennis ball-headed numpty in Gazidis running the show. Their inability to close out transfers and manage a squad doesn't help. Part of that is nobody is there who can really negotiate a transfer, and nobody is there who can challenge Wenger.
They did this several times during the games. I don't know, does it bug anyone else? Can't they just show the games live and uncut anymore? I don't really need to manipulated anymore than I already am during a broadcast.
Unlimited sudden-death overtime, such that the match could theoretically last 6 hours, like in the NHL playoffs?
The objection is that the players are all tired and there aren't any substitutes left. And practically, the players being all tired makes it LESS likely that a goal will be scored, until you reach the point that defenders just start lying down on the ground.
Players would die of exhaustion, I think, is the main objection. They used to replay the game in the entirety but that's not an option anymore for logistical and television reasons. No one likes PK's but coming up with an alternative is tough.
eedi: I'm just going to head out and buy some cokes and stuff. Be right back!
I wonder how that worked for traveling support back in the day, or was that not such a big thing then?
For (b), I have a really hard time believing that selling out the final match of a world class tournament would be problem.
It does seem strange, particularly if you add to it FSG's recent moves with Boston(*). Even so, I don't know that any hard numbers have been released, i.e. what Spurs were offering compared to Liverpool. I think the Liverpool Echo said something like double the money, but like Shooty I'm hesitant to have much faith in that figure.
(*)I mean, as a White Sox fan I'm more than happy to have Youkilis for $2 million, a useful bench player and a fringe bullpen arm, but from Boston's perspective it seems odd to have not received more/paid less of the contract.
Except the gracious thing to do is say good luck to him and we're moving on and not to feed the story that the Liverpool media have been pushing that he's asking for outrageous wages and cares more about money than playing football.
Going only off of the quotes in the article, as I did not see the actual interview as it's behind a paywall on LFC.tv -- I'm not reading those quotes the same way you are. I'm just seeing an honest, "We didn't want to match what Spurs were offering." Now the bottom quote they link -- the one about Liverpool being a "real footballing institution" -- now that puts a big grin on my face, but I could see why you might either be irked or simply laugh uncontrollably at that.
Looking very likely Everton is getting Pienaar back which is good news for them, I think, as he looked great back in Everton down the stretch. His days at Tottenham will become a hazily remembered interlude of surreality...He helped beat Milan, though, so good luck to him!
I take the point that exhaustion would ensue. I guess I wondered if strategies would changed based on the threat of exhaustion. But the risks of losing seem so colossal …
I guess that leaves baseball as one of the few one-way-substitution team sports where a game can go on indefinitely.
How many days later is the replay? Because fans aren't planning to stick around for days "just in case."
Just irked a bit. I've seen a couple of other stories about what Rodgers said that seem a little softer, so that's good. Sigurdsson seems like a good enough kid and, while his choosing Spurs over LFC is a bit of an upset win for Spurs, but it's not like he's going to play for Anzhi and babbling about he just admires the project and the beauty of Dagestan so much.
In the European Championship in 1968 there was a replay in the final. But they also used the other common tiebreaker for the other rounds, Italy won the semi on a coin toss.
---------------
Grant Wahl is tweeting that the wheels are apparently moving on the USMNT's involvement in Copa America 2016, with the possibility of even hosting it. From the US' perspective, that would be all kinds of cool.
This would be fantastic and hopefully a step in the direction of a merger with CONMEBOL. I guess the Brazilian and Argentine FA's enjoyed all the cash they got from that friendly in Jersey.
Bayern and Atletico Madrid drew 1-1 in the first leg in Brussels (both goals came in extra time, with Bayern's equalizer coming at the death). Bayern then won the replay (two days later) 4-0. The crowd at the replay was roughly half that at the first match.
Jonathan Wilson- Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football
Tim Parks- A Season With Verona
Hosting it would be awesome. Not getting out of the group stage again, not so much.
EDIT: I'm sorry I had not read the rules. They are actually paying 23/1.
Worth a tenner, no?
Summer soccer reading list (if I ever make it through Infinite Jest first):
Jonathan Wilson- Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football
Tim Parks- A Season With Verona
Anyone read the Jonathan Wilson book about Clough, yet? It's still not available in the States except as an e-book.
I also know nothing about gambling, so don't feel bad.
Bookies sometimes make mistakes with the independence of events, they lost a massive amount when they allowed combinations of leading goalscorer and winner in WC2002. Not that they would ever have made the mistake of allowing one to combine a bet with a bet that's a superset of the first.
Aren't you working in finance? Gambling is just like buying European bonds or setting money on fire, except that you sometimes don't lose when gambling.
This might be my next read.
Any player who goes down on the pitch has to stay off for at least as much time as they went down for. So if Drogba writhes around for five minutes, he can return five minutes after the restart. Just a thought. It might curtail some of the stalling that happens.
I suppose it's possible this could lead to more dirty play by defenders to force opposing players off the pitch, but I'd be curious what the result would be.
Let me rephrase that to sports gambling. Investing seems less like gambling and more like musical chairs...
This will have minimal effect because it would so rarely be implemented and it might be worth the trade off. It's rare that a player writhes around for more than a minute or two and is either not carted off and replaced or receives treatment on the sideline and then re-enters the game. The dicking around at the end of games is problematic but they don't spend five minutes flailing about. And would you trade a minute without a striker for a minute of wasted time? I might.
If they're legitimately injured, they're subbing out anyway. If there's a way to prevent writhing followed by sprinting with a 10 second turnaround, I'm all for it.
I don't know about keeping a stopwatch on them, but maybe sitting out until your next legit stoppage of play occurs (same rule as a sub coming on).
AKA: New kits!
Fine, replace "injured" with "hurt".
Best: Swansea's home kits, Stoke's red/white/blue combo, Everton's away kits.
Worst: Fulham's black/yellow thing. Please don't have Clint Dempsey wear that.
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