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MikeO

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Everything posted by MikeO

  1. MikeO

    Hi All

    Cracking post, faultless reasoning, correct decision (although, as we all know, you never really had any choice in the matter, you were annointed at birth...it just took you a while to discover it ).
  2. I have no idea who Kitbag are (I'll have a look) but JJB are fucking useless so they can hopefully be no worse!
  3. Arsene Wenger... "To stop Arsenal you have to kick Arsenal, that kind of thing was waiting to happen.....we escaped a few times but it's just not acceptable....if that is football we are better to stop it." Really? ARSENAL'S RED CARDS UNDER ARSENE WENGER 1996 Sep 28: Arsene Wenger appointed Nov 26: Steve Bould v Liverpool Nov 30: Tony Adams v Newcastle Dec 21: Ian Wright v Nottm Forest 1997 Jan 1: John Hartson v Middlesbrough Jan 11: Dennis Bergkamp v Sunderland May 11: Tony Adams v Derby Oct 14: Jason Crowe v Birmingham Oct 26: Emmanuel Petit v Aston Villa 1998 Jan 17: Patrick Vieira v Coventry Feb 18: Patrick Vieira v Chelsea Mar 17: Dennis Bergkamp v West Ham Mar 31: Martin Keown v Bolton Aug 29: Emmanuel Petit v Charlton Sep 9: Lee Dixon v Chelsea Sep 26: Martin Keown v Sheff Wed Nov 25: Ray Parlour v Lens Dec 20: Gilles Grimandi v Leeds Dec 28: Patrick Vieira v Charlton 1999 Jan 24: Emmanuel Petit v Wolves Mar 13: Emmanuel Petit v Everton Apr 6: Martin Keown v Blackburn Apr 11: Nelson Vivas v Man Utd Sep 29: Gilles Grimandi v Barcelona Oct 2: Patrick Vieira v West Ham Nov 7: Fredrik Ljungberg and Martin Keown v Tottenham 2000 Mar 19: Gilles Grimandi v Tottenham Mar 23: Thierry Henry v Werder Bremen Apr 1: Oleg Luzhny v Wimbledon Aug 19: Patrick Vieira v Sunderland Aug 21: Patrick Vieira v Liverpool 2001 Apr 18: Gilles Grimandi v Aston Villa Aug 18: Ray Parlour v Middlesbrough Aug 25: Patrick Vieira v Leicester Sep 11: Ashley Cole v Real Mallorca Sep 29: Martin Keown v Derby Oct 30: Oleg Luzhny v Schalke Nov 5: John Halls v Man Utd Dec 18: Ray Parlour v Newcastle Dec 23: Giovanni van Bronckhorst v Liverpool 2002 Jan 27: Dennis Bergkamp and Martin Keown v Liverpool Jan 30: Oleg Luzhny v Blackburn Feb 19: Ray Parlour v Bayer Leverkusen Sep 1: Patrick Vieira v Chelsea Nov 23: Sol Campbell v Southampton Dec 12: Kolo Toure v PSV Eindhoven 2003 Mar 25: Pascal Cygan v Chelsea Apr 16: Sol Campbell v Man Utd Aug 10: Francis Jeffers v Man Utd Aug 16: Sol Campbell v Everton Sept 21: Patrick Vieira v Man Utd Dec 6: Ashley Cole v Leicester 2004 Feb 4: Martin Keown v Middlesbrough Nov 24: Lauren and Patrick Vieira v PSV Eindhoven 2005 Feb 19: Dennis Bergkamp v Sheff Utd Feb 26: Robin van Persie v Southampton May 21: Jose Antonio Reyes v Man Utd Sep 14: Robin van Persie v FC Thun Dec 10: Gilberto v Newcastle Scroll down for more 2006 Jan 21: Cesc Fabregas v Everton May 18: Jens Lehmann v Barcelona Nov 29: Philippe Senderos v Fulham 2007 Jan 13: Gilberto Silva v Blackburn Feb 3: Philippe Senderos v Middlesbrough Feb 25: Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor v Chelsea Sep 2: Philippe Senderos v Portsmouth Dec 18: Denilson v Blackburn Dec 29: Nicklas Bendtner v Everton 2008 Feb 16: Emmanuel Eboue v Man United Seventy-two in total. Not sure how that compares with other teams but I'd have thought it was well above average. Wenger can't comment I shouldn't think because he didn't see any of them . He's a fine manager but a finer hypocrite.
  4. Agree Bill. Wasn't it Fulham who went full time pro for a while? Didn't last sadly. The England squad for a European qualifying game next week contains.. Eight Arsenal players, six from Everton and only five from other teams (Chelsea x 2, Leeds x 2 and Birmingham). Even the pro league in America, where Kelly Smith (from Arsenal, supposedly England's best and one of the world's best) played has shut down. It's a shame.
  5. Which island are you from? We already have a member from Guernsey (which I know very well incidentally), are we breaking new ground?
  6. They won everything domestically plus the UEFA cup last year. Great achievement to beat them...didn't know Iain Dowie's neice played for us!
  7. The womens team beat Arsenal 1-0 tonight in the League Cup final. Big upset....Arsenal have been virtually unbeatable for ages, good on ya lasses!!!
  8. Takes Pauls point though, that if the league was more competitive and evenly matched it'd be less predictable and more exciting. No-one will ever do what we did back in the eighties and go from being nobodies to title winnners in one season, or what Forest did when they won the old championship in their first season after promotion. We're averaging 1.852 points per game at the moment for the season. That would put us top of the current Championship with 64 points from 35 games because it's so much more competitive than the Premier (and second in Division One).
  9. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7269372.stm
  10. Interesting take from a Spurs fan (from SpursPies.tv). In the aftermath of Sunday's cup victory, a lot of articles in the mainstream press have pointed to the fact that Spurs are the first non-'Big Four' club to win a major trophy since Middlesbrough won the same competition in 2004. The fact that four clubs have had such a stranglehold on our domestic game is certainly an astonishing development, but it does lead to some interesting questions. For years, fans of clubs such as Spurs, Everton, Manchester City, Aston Villa and others have argued over whether or not their clubs still count as 'big', despite prolonged periods without success. The desire to be considered 'big' is seemingly huge in the modern game, and the established Big Four, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, rarely miss an opportunity to stress just how mighty and powerful they are. The recent publishing of football's richest clubs only served to emphasise this fact, in which United were surpassed only by Real Madrid, and the other three clubs all featured in the top 8. But truly, can money be a serious factor in deducing whether or not a team is 'big'? The only two English clubs outside of the Big Four to be featured were Spurs and Newcastle, but surely Newcastle's lack of silverware leaves them a long way behind the likes of Villa and Everton when it comes to stature. Truly, in my eyes, the size of a football club can be measured on three equally important factors. Trophies, fanbase, and fame. These can all be measured to varying degrees of accuracy, and I don't think there are any other factors that play anything more than a minor role in the assessment of a club's influence. Using these factors, there are a couple of indisputable facts. Only the most ardent of Liverpool or City supporters would attempt to argue that Manchester United are not the biggest club in England. United have now amassed 16 league titles, only two behind Liverpool, and though they have underperformed in Europe, their complete dominance of the English game over the last 15 years is enough to secure their place at the top of the pile. Liverpool's tradition and continued cup success sees them run United a close second, whilst, as much as it pains me to say it, Arsenal have third place pretty much sewn up. Then comes the difficult part, under the current hierarchy, those West London upstarts would presume that their place in the top four biggest clubs is assured, but as far as I'm concerned they fall short on all three counts, and there are a whole host of clubs with more of a claim than Chelsea. The Spurs cause gathers momentum on the back of our latest victory, but taking my lilywhite-tinted spectacles off for a second, I'd have to concede fourth place to Everton, due to their far superior league record. Both clubs have very similar sized fanbases, and were both members of the old 'Big Five', but sadly our lack of league titles means that Everton just about pip us, though their lack of any sort of success whatsoever in recent times makes it a very close-run thing. Then there is the possibility of Aston Villa, who have a lot of league titles and FA Cups, all amassed mainly in the 19th century. I would put us ahead of Villa though, on account of our successes having at least taken place in the last 100 years. Villa do have a European Cup to their name, but it is their only piece of European silverware, and they have only two league cups to their name since that win in 1982. After Villa, I would place Chelsea, who had only one league title to their name pre-Abramovich, and were genuinely an irrelevance in terms of global standing until as recently as five years ago. They may have picked up a handful of trophies in recent years, but quite apart from their pitiful history, their fanbase is only a fraction of the clubs I rank above them, and it shows no signs of increasing. They notoriously struggle to sell out Champions League matches, and it's safe to say that if the likes of Spurs, Villa or Everton were able to break the top four, then they would have no such problems. Below Chelsea, there are a number of clubs vying for position, and it's tough to deny the claims of Newcastle and Man City, despite each club's perennial struggle for silverware. Both teams have loyal fanbases, who have suffered through more false dawns than they would care to recall. So, without further ado, here is how the 20 Premier League teams rank in order of stature. 1.Manchester United 2.Liverpool 3.Arsenal 4.Everton 5.Spurs 6.Aston Villa 7.Chelsea 8.Newcastle United 9.Manchester City 10.West Ham United 11.Derby County 12.Sunderland 13.Blackburn Rovers 14.Bolton Wanderers 15.Birmingham City 16.Fulham 17.Portsmouth 18.Middlesbrough 19.Reading 20.Wigan Athletic
  11. Think your Babel Fish settings must be off jacko...that means.. "My hovercraft is full of eels"
  12. The time will doubtless come when the science enables artificial pitches to play exactly like grass, no idea when that will be or even if it's already here. Fifa are already considering it for the World Cup in 2010.. "We have envisaged, though it's not yet a final decision, that the 2010 World Cup could be played on artificial turf," Blatter told BBC Sport. I'll take some convincing though....needs to be trialed extensively somewhere like the Conference.
  13. 1.06 Unless the UEFA Cup title-holder qualifies for the UEFA Champions League through its domestic championship, it will be guaranteed a place in the first round of the UEFA Cup. If the title-holder does qualify for the UEFA Cup through its domestic competitions, the number of places to which its national association is entitled in the UEFA Cup does not change. If the UEFA Cup title-holder does not qualify for either the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup through its domestic competitions, its participation in the UEFA Cup will not be at the expense of the contingent of its association.
  14. I slept through the Hurricane in '87....was right in the middle of it but knew nothing until I went into my bathroom in the morning to find the ceiling had relocated itself to the floor . Total devastation when I looked out of the window. Really heavy sleeper til Josh was born, when I immediately started waking up at the slightest change in his breathing . It was a 4.7 Bill (LINK) but the Beeb seem to have upgraded it to 5.2 for sensationalisation purposes .
  15. Was wondering about that myself. Daft not to really. Extra insurance, although we'll be OK if we win it . Also we must be near the top of the "Fair play" league, that's another possible route if the league as a whole is behaving itself enough to qualify for one of the three extra places .
  16. Another mostly good article from the Telegraph, though I disagre with a couple of bits. Love that last para though!!!! >>>LINK<<<
  17. Think the initial response to the stadium design, which was mostly very positive, has been lost in the location argument... >>>LINK<<< I like it personally, but you risk being shouted at if you dare to admit it . Where it's built (or not) is a different argument, as Bill pointed out at the time.
  18. No piss taking here. Fine post, personally think we've got a little way to go before we quite reach the heights you describe, but we're well on the way and there's definitely a special feel about the club this year that we haven't had since the eighties.
  19. Hola cismo!! Nice one, where abouts in Spain are you?
  20. Didn't reach down here, or at least I slept through it if it did. Only a tiddler though, I've been in much bigger in Greece . Difference being they're expected there and the houses are built to withstand. Much scope for "I told you I'd make the earth move for you darling" jokes .
  21. MikeO

    Portsmouth

    Two fuck-ups in one thread....on form today . Anyway Pompey's away form may appear impressive but they've lost at City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Sunderland (and drawn at Derby ). The only away wins of note were at Blackburn in September and Villa in December. Anywhere near top form and we'll stroll it (as long as the players don't go in with that attitude).
  22. Hate The Smiths and Morrissey solo. Never got it. Same with Joy Division (but I love New Order).
  23. David Prentice article in the Echo. It's in "Hot off the Press" but I think deserves to be posted here... MANCHESTER CITY’S spectacular stadium provided the backdrop for the lowest point of David Moyes’ time as Everton manager. It’s now the scene of the high spot, too. It was May 15, 2004 when Everton crashed 5-1 to a slack City side, limped to their lowest points tally for 116 years, scored their most meagre goals total of all-time and fielded a couple of players who had clearly decided to put on their summer flip flops early. Fast forward four years and the difference is stark. Sven Goran Eriksson’s City are a good team. But they were comprehensively dismantled by an efficient, energetic and effervescent Everton last night. The biggest travesty of the night – on an evening when the typically wretched Rob Styles perpetrated more than a few – was the scoreline. This was as comfortable a 2-0 win as you could imagine. Yakubu and Joleon Lescott scored the goals which were the least Everton’s dominance deserved. Steven Pienaar hit the bar, yet another stonewall penalty was denied, Joe Hart saved from Johnson, Carsley and Osman, Richard Dunne hacked off the line – twice; it was that dominant. And it was against a resurgent City who had just won at Old Trafford – a City side which has lost only once all season at home, to Arsenal. Eriksson was presumably using the kind of brazen front he usually reserves for the ladies when he walked into the Eastlands press lounge and claimed: “We were the better team for 31 minutes, but they defended very well.” Everton were the better team for the entire 94 minutes, and no Scandinavian sauce could hide that fact. Moyes looked like a man who might need an operation to remove the smile from his face. But was this really his high point as Everton boss? He has certainly enjoyed some scintillating and significant moments – a first win at Leeds for 51 years, a penalty shoot-out success, a fourth placed finish, a 3-0 derby win, a thrilling rampage through Europe – but they were fleeting memories. There is the suggestion of something enduring, something permanent, something progressive about this Everton squad he has created. They may fall short in the race for fourth. They may not even finish the season as their fans demand, by playing at City twice. But if those two unwanted moments take place, unlikely given their current form, this squad has the look of a side that will be back. Four players were present at the City of Manchester stadium four years ago for that Moyes nadir – Tony Hibbert, Leon Osman, Joseph Yobo and Lee Carsley. All have been instrumental in the revival – Carsley was outstanding last night – and he wasn’t alone. Phil Jagielka picked up the TV bubbly, and you couldn’t have argued. But Tim Cahill’s influence was arguably the most decisive. Cahill and Eastlands have also had a chequered history. The little Australian headed the first of his 36 Everton goals there in the autumn of 2004. It was also his first Premier League strike, but was swiftly followed by a red card. Last night, he did the dirty jobs which mattered in midfield, but also provided the creative spark which provided the breakthrough. He linked sweetly with Yakubu, waited patiently for the striker to manoeuvre into position, then delivered a perfectly weighted pass for Everton’s top scorer to finish. The result was never in doubt from that moment. One half of Everton’s make or break week has already been negotiated with a significant result. A follow-up win over Portsmouth on Sunday would really send out a forceful signal to the rest of the Champions League chasing clubs. Moyes may try and play it down, but his players are making a mockery of his self-deprecating philosophy. This Everton team is good enough to finish in a top four place this season – and they look like they’re in for the long haul.
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