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Edited.

I feel very bad for Benteke; he's out for a long time with an Achilles injury. I was looking forward to seeing his performance in the world cup this summer (and this will perhaps put more eyes/offers on Lukaku).
 
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/03/christian-benteke-suffers-achilles-injury-aston-villa-belgium-world-cup

What ever happened to that other English midfeiler, Surman was it?
 
He was touted as a good prospect at one point...

just an idea, instead of creating threads for 1 off topics that only get 1 or 2 reponses we could have a general thread copying the idea of the off-topic one. If the discussion becomes big enough, maybe mods can split it then. If admin dont like it, get rid of it, just thought i might help keep the place a bit tidier!
 
Anyway, reason i thought of it was just read that Utd have announced 80m loss:
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11499023
 
seems the only reason they didnt announce a loss last year was because of the whining-little-gobshite sale, which other wise wouldve made 120m in 2 years! The Shite should be careful (or not depending on who you are) before considering another american investor!

Cech just gone off injured, Liverpools forward line no doubt happy about that.

Zzzz
Ronaldo and Gerd Muller lmao! you're on a wind up.

I'm just going to divorce myself from this game now, as it's about to commence apparently, and I have zero interest in this, but have to admit, would enjoy a Brazil victory if they can manage it. Feeling a bit apprehensive about some of the awful piece of shit news publications tomorrow in the event of an England win and nauseating saturation coverage, even if it is, a nothing fixture all said, that won't mean much.
 
Have to say, people always say Brazil 1982 were the best side never to win the World Cup.
 
Not so. It was Hungary in 1954, and after that, the Netherlands in 1974, some will remember.

http://www.goal.com/en-za/news/4633/soccerex/2014/04/01/4723111/the-original-transfer-window-to-be-displayed-at-national

It's become so tedious hasn't it? All the English press report about is the 2022 World Cup, it's received more coverage than 2014 and 2018 combined.
 
FIFA messed up by not making Qatar put forward their bid for a January world cup. Qatar hosted the Asian Cup in January a few years ago, AFC usually change the Asia Cupschedule to suit the climate of the host nation.
 
FIFA have brought the problems on to themselves. If they held another vote which paired off Australia, United States and Qatar (January 2022), and Qatar won again, would that be the end of it?
 
If FIFA move the competition forward five months, they miss out on tv revenue and possibly have to reimburse the bidding nations (I don't personally see why), if they move the competition out of Qatar, they'll have to reimburse Qatar for the stadiums they are building. Personally, I think FIFA'll take the hit from tv revenue, they sold the 2018 and 2022 rights together (USA paid the most at £312m - four times what they were sold for in 2010 - which was a profitable World Cup). It won't matter to them, if they do take the hit, it'll still be a profitable World cup.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/
 
It has just been announced over on the Beeb that Fabio Capello has left his role of England manager and I can't help but think that this is because of the John Terry argument and I hate to say it but I am rather gutted. Fabio had a shocking World Cup 2010 but we were playing very well in preperation for the Euro's and I do feel that this is too close to the Euro's for managerial changes.
 
It might be the heat of the moment statement but I'm also angry at the FA, whether the decision was right or wrong to remove Terry as England skipper it should come from the manager as he is running the team, if the manager does not have control over who is his captain then what does he have control over? I can understand Fabio's frustrations and I wish him the very best in the future.
 
Obviously our good friend Harry Redknapp is all over the news sites as the replacement...

I prefer anyone to Wigan.
 
Edit: Stoke have just equalised too through a penalty, this time Jonathon Walters is the scorer (40').

I was unable to comprehend any of the direct above.

All the players I mention have been active in the last 10 years.
 
There is definately a difference between all time and current. I know that. My list is no where near an all time one.

Daily mail mate, says it all

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/10200933/Robin-van-Persies-pre-season-injury-niggle-is-down-to-dinosaur-coaching-methods-says-Dutch-fitness-expert.html
 
 
oh dear...

Thought Id open a generic thread were people can argue/debate/insult/etc our neighbours over the park. Besides, needed somewhere to post this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/12987917.stm

Sounds like theyre getting hit hard with injuries too, which might give us an edge as the season draws to a close!

Just been looking around the forum to talk about the Chelsea game at the moment and I realised that there's no specific thread for other teams matches on the weekend. Of course there is the 'Longest Thread for Sport Talk' but seeing as that is full of other sports it's not that convinient for people that want to discuss whats going on during the weekend. I've started this thread so that people watching Sky Sports can discuss what is going on with other teams around us in the league and discuss the days events - hope you enjoy.

If the Mod/Admin don't like this thread then feel free to delete it.

I've seen this on other sites. The idea is to state views you hold on football which are not popular. Another reason for the thread is for people to freely say what they genuinely believe, regardless of how eyebrow-raising, without being attacked for it because many disagree.
 
I will start us off to get going, feel free to discuss:
 
Cristiano Ronaldo, while a great player and one of the very best players in the world today, is highly overrated in comparison to the all-time greats. By this I mean many people consider him top 10 or 5 of all time, whereas I think he's nowhere near that level - in fact I wouldn't have him top twenty. When you look at guys like Maradona, Pele, Messi, Di Stefano, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Zico, Platini, Zidane and Garrincha, they all had far more to their game than he does in terms of footballing intelligence, ability to dictate games and the ability to drag their team back into games when they were being outplayed. Ronaldo, on the other hand, is a fantastic goalscorer, but it takes far, far more than that to be one of the greatest of all time (otherwise Josef Bican and Gerd Muller would be up there with Pele, and they're not). He's more reliant on his team-mates than all of the above are or were.
 
People who boast about his goal stats overlook the poor defending in the current era, as well as the imbalance in La Liga and Europe generally (see the overreaction to his performance last night against Schale, despite the fact that Schalke ar a good but not great team and have been pumped by lots of elite teams). His effect on games diminishes as the opposition get better. He's the best player I have ever seen at scoring the fourth or fifth goals in a 5-0 win, or scoring a goal and being anonymous for the other 89 mins.
 
I also think him being a 'complete player' is an utter myth, as most of his qualities come under the banner of one thing - athleticism (height, power, pace, jump height). He's good with both feet and great in the air, but he's not a great passer of the ball, his dribbling has declined since his Man U days, and he's also not the best in terms of vision. The skills he's not as good in are far more important than being able to head a ball. He's also the most overrated free-kick taker I have ever seen, with the exception of Roberto Carlos. His strike rate is appalling. And don't get me started on how many stupid shots he takes outside the box when his team-mates are free.
 
He's the poster boy for the modern football fan - the FIFA generation who look at football in a superficial manner e,g, "OMG he scored so of course he played well". Too many people listen to muppets like Souness gushing over him on Sky.
 
He was mince in every big game last year (Barca, Atletico Copa Del Rey final, the Dortmund games) with the exception of the second leg vs Sweden, yet he ends up winning the Golden Ball (which has always been a pointless award anyway, and a glorified popularity contest). Such a travesty when guys like Lahm and Ribery were consistently brilliant, regardless of opponent. They were playing in a better team yes, but Ronaldo is part of the most expensively assembled team in history, so there's no excuse. He essentially won that award for racking up goals against the lesser teams and his performance vs Sweden.
 
I could elaborate much more on the myth of this guy, but I need a rest as I'm very tired. There's some food for thought anyway.
 
He's a fantastic player, but he's not an all-time great. No chance.
 
I hope I haven't offended anyone here, but I'm sick of hearing about the guy.

For those who want to track the goings on of one of our best managers, discuss here. If you dont want to, thats up to you but nothing wrong with keeping tabs.

I agree, if he asks them to play like Cambridge united in the John Beck days they should do it and behave...
 
Just listened to talk sport, Eric Harrison was on who is very close to the players, apparently the atmosphere around Carrington was awful under Moyes - really bad.

Both Arsenal goals came from poor clearances by West Ham by players who were under no pressure. The ref was a 'homer'.