zequist

Lemme try to simplify that a little. In the comprehensive European-wide club rankings, Everton's point total puts them right about #100 on the list. However, half the teams ahead of us can be thrown out right away: either they are already qualified for the Champions' League group stages, or they did not qualify for European football at all this year. That leaves about 52-53 teams who could POTENTIALLY end up in the UEFA Cup first round who have more points than we do - but not all of them will make it. 17-18 of them will for certain because they've locked up spots in the first round field like we have, but the other 35 or so are going to be involved in CL qualifying, Intertoto qualifying, and the earlier qualifying rounds of the UEFA Cup that we're skipping. Some of them will be eliminated early, some of them (as that article noted) will probably eliminate each other, and some will qualify for the Champions League and avoid the UEFA Cup entirely. The bottom line is that it isn't mathematically impossible for us to get bumped into the bottom half of the first round bracket, but it is extremely unlikely. Once all the fields are set, I'll post the complete list of the 50-odd teams ahead of us in line and what competitions they are in.

Hey, that sounds like fun! Let me try one. For sale by owner: Import model striker, low-mileage, with a nose for the net. Highly responsive clutch gives you that extra push when you really need it! Requires a lot of TLC and a steady diet of Champions League football for optimum performance; will only consider offer from a good home that can provide such. Contact Kia J. if interested. Carlos Tevez

High drama in France today. Lens and Bordeaux both lose, and Rennes gives up a game-tying goal to Lille at the death, which allows Toulouse to jump from 6th all the way to 3rd and steal the last Champions' League spot. Toulouse finishes the season with 58 points, Lens, Bordeaux, Rennes, and Sochaux all finish tied for fourth with 57 points. Rennes would've finished third on 59 points and taken the UCL spot if they hadn't conceded that goal, but they still go to the UEFA Cup on GD, and so do Bordeaux and Sochaux as France's two Cup winners this year. Lens, who started the day in third, is stuck with the Intertoto Cup. I bet there will probably be some controversy after the fact, because the Toulouse-Nantes match was abandoned last weekend with the score still 0-0 when the Nantes fans invaded the pitch, and on Thursday the French professional league elected to declare it a forfeit by Nantes and award Toulouse all three points instead of just one. Without those two extra points, Rennes goes to the UCL despite the draw and Lens goes to the UEFA Cup, and Toulouse either goes to the Intertoto Cup or goes home.

Actually, all three of the Bucharest triplets (Dinamo, Rapid, and Steaua) were in the first round of the UEFA Cup that year (and all three advanced to the group stages too), so technically what I said was true - they would be joining us "in the first round" again. But obviously that wasn't what I meant, and you're right. Rapid beat Feyenoord in the first round, not us. Too many teams from Bucharest, they're almost as bad as teams from Moscow for getting all jumbled up in my head.

Lots of action this weekend that's going to go a long way towards fleshing out the UEFA Cup field Today: another round of fixtures in Spain and Ukraine, last day of the season in France, Serbia, and Poland, Cup finals in Belgium and Romania (the latter of which will decide whether Rapid Bucharest is joining us in the first round again or packing off to the Intertoto Cup) Tomorrow: 2nd leg of the Dutch playoff between Ajax and Alkmaar (winner goes to the Champions League, loser goes to the UEFA Cup), Cup final in Russia Monday: last day of the season in the Czech Republic, Cup final in Switzerland All 11 of those countries have one or more UEFA Cup berths still up for grabs Several other leagues are finishing their seasons this weekend but have only Intertoto spots left to play for (meaning potential UEFA Cup competitors for us down the road), including Italy, Israel, Bulgaria, and Hungary

Actually, equating netball and rounders to basketball and baseball is like equating futsal or futebol de salão to regular football. Superficially similar in some ways, but the playing fields and rules are completely different, and for the most part the necessary skills to master are different too.

Dunno if that would be it. They're much more relaxed about third-party owners in Portugal than they are in the EPL. Maybe they're willing to sell simply because they have a deep enough pool of midfielders that they can afford to part with him and use the money to shore up other areas. They do have four national team midfielders on their squad already, and at some point it stops making sense to pay market value to someone who's unlikely to crack the starting lineup anytime soon. Here's their midfield roster right now, with my best guess as to the order of depth. Just the ones they kept on the roster this year, not any that they loaned out. 6 Petit (Portuguese int'l, WC 06/Euro 08) 20 Simao (Portuguese int'l, WC 06/Euro 08) 8 Kostas Katsouranis (Greek int'l, WC 06/Euro 08) 26 Giorgios Karagounis (Greek int'l, WC 06/Euro 08) 10 Rui Costa (getting up there in years, but was once of course one of the all-time greats) 25 Nuno Assis 15 Paulo Jorge 28 Joao Coimbra (Portuguese U-21 team member, has 22 caps and 7 goals for them) 18 Manu (younger player with potential who can play wing or forward) 16 Beto 7 Marco Ferreira

A few more teams to add Italy Fiorentina (1st round) Italy Palermo (1st round) Portugal Pacos de Ferreira (1st round) Scotland Aberdeen (2QR OR 1st round) There's a fan's website that keeps up-to-date info on who has qualified for what competitions out of every league in Europe. If you can decipher all the abbreviations he uses, it's at http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/qual2007.html

Lack of Italian teams because most of their spots are still up in the air. Ditto Spain - both those leagues still have a few more weeks to go yet.

Conference playoffs are in the books...and score one for Licker. Morecambe posts a 2-1 come-from-behind win over Exeter, with the winning goal scored in the 82nd minute. Edit: Guess Mike and I were cross-posting. Anyway, second the congrats to the Shrimps, and good luck in L2.

Absolutely you hold onto him. If you sell him now for that price, that's a 5 million profit. Okay, fine, 5 mil isn't anything to sneeze at (altho some of that might go back to his old team if they negotiated a "sell-on" clause). But we could potentially make two or three times that much by keeping him, if he helps us get into the UCL in the next few years. Teams that made the group stages of the last year's UCL (the one we had a shot to qualify for) were guaranteed to take home at least a 3.5 million payout even if they lost every game (they also got bonus money for wins and draws), plus whatever they made from TV share and gate receipts. And I'm sure those figures are higher for this year's UCL and likely to keep going up in the future. Is it a bit of a risk? Of course it is - there's always risk involved with any player. He could continue to be a stud and be worth much more than 10 mil in a couple of years, or he could step out on the training ground in July and blow out three knee ligaments and there goes our whole investment. But if you have pride and ambition (which we all know Moyes does) and aren't content to just settle for finishing 5th or 6th every year while the "cartel of four" monopolizes all the silverware, then you have to take a few calculated risks and not bite like a brainless fish every single time Chelsea and Manchester come around dangling their baited hooks.

What about the report of Scharner possibly coming back the other way if Carsley goes - would anyone take that switch? I don't know much about him or if he'd fit into our scheme, that's why I'm asking.

I saw the final score on that one - that was either a fantastic comeback by Yeovil or a monumental choke by Forest. Anyway, looks like Yeovil gets Blackpool in the final, so they might need a little more of that mojo because Blackpool is probably the hottest team in any division right now. They've won nine straight games and 11 of their last 12.

It's down to West Brom vs. Derby for the last spot in the Premiership next season. Further down, Exeter and Morecambe will be playing for the right to move up from the Conference to the League. L1 and L2 final rounds are still TBA. Anyone got any rooting interests for or against in any of those matchups?

King Henry VIII, Arnold Rimmer, and The Knights who say ni That would be awesome! Talk about the ultimate goalkeeper...all he'd have to do is stand back there and force-choke anyone who looked like they might threaten to score!

Took a one-year contract, and said it was an "easy" decision to stay. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...460&cc=5901

Premiership team of the season according to the Actim Index is: GK: David James (489 pts) Defenders: Steve Finnan (469 pts), Ricardo Carvalho (463 pts), Rio Ferdinand (461 pts), Phil Neville (454 pts) Midfield: Cristiano Ronaldo (617 pts), Frank Lampard (572 pts), Mikel Arteta (567 pts), Cesc Fabregas (565 pts) Forwards: Didier Drogba (628 pts), Dimitar Berbatov (611 pts) Final position rankings: Keepers 1 david james 489 2 marcus hahnemann 482 3 tim howard 467 4 edwin van der sar 462 5 jose reina 462 Defenders 1 steve finnan 469 2 ricardo carvalho 463 3 rio ferdinand 461 4 phil neville 454 5 kolo toure 454 6 joleon lescott 452 Midfielders 1 cristiano ronaldo 617 2 frank lampard 572 3 mikel arteta 567 4 cesc fabregas 565 5 gareth barry 561 Strikers 1 didier drogba 628 2 dimitar berbatov 611 3 wayne rooney 580 4 benni mccarthy 535 5 gabriel agbonlahor 517 6 andy johnson 498 (was neck-and-neck with Berbatov until the last injury) Everton players in the overall top 100 Arteta #6 Johnson #12 Howard #21 Neville #27 Lescott #30 Yobo #64 Carsley #82 Not bad!

The standard they used in the Altrincham case was that the player was used in 15 matches while he was ineligible and scored in six of them, so they were docked 3 points for each of the six matches where he scored, for a total of 18 points. No other adjustments were made, though; their opponents for those six matches were not given points back if they lost or anything. If they applied that standard to West Ham with Tevez then they could lose anywhere from 18 points to zero points depending on the exact date they got his contract straightened out and made it "legal" for him to be there. Because he also scored in six different games, but didn't score his first goal for them (in any competition) until March 4 against Tottenham, after the problems with his contract had already come to light.

I heard somewhere that when Liverpool took Mascherano they also bought out the third party that owned him at the same time. IF that's true (and it could be shite, but I don't know), then they wouldn't have been breaking any rules by playing him. AFC Wimbledon was originally deducted 18 points, BTW, a penalty that the FA said publicly was excessive when they reduced it to 3. However, Altrincham was also deducted 18 points for the same infraction last season (fielding an ineligible player) and the sanction against them was upheld on appeal, even though it would have left them relegated from the conference had outside circumstances not saved them. Just another example of politics and BS trumping fairness. West Ham and Wimbledon have political clout at their respective competition levels, Altrincham doesn't.

Then you would lose your bet. All four of them are still sounding a united front, and now they've apparently gotten Boro's backing for their cause too. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...113&cc=5901

The UEFA Cup format goes 1st qualifying round 2nd qualifying round 1st Round First Group Stage Second Group Stage Knockout rounds The teams finishing 5, 6, and 7 in the EPL (i.e. our team) skip the two qualifying rounds and go straight to the 1st round, which has 80 teams. The 40 with the most European points (which will almost certainly include us) are put in one pool, and their opponents are drawn randomly from among the 40 teams in the other half of the pool. Matches are over two legs, the 40 match winners go on to the first group stage. Intertoto Cup winners enter the competition at the 2nd qualifying round, BTW, so had we finished 8th we would've had to play two extra rounds of knockout matches to get to the same spot where we're going automatically by finishing 6th.

Our minimum wage levels don't vary by age of the worker, but they do vary by location. Individual states and even cities have the power to set a minimum wage over and above the federally mandated level ($5.15/hr), and many have done so. At least 29 of the 50 states are over it, with the state of Washington currently the highest ($7.93/hr), and some cities go higher than that. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, for instance, the minimum wage is $9.50 per hour (very close to the adult minimum wage level in the UK), and in San Francisco it's $9.14 per hour.

According to Actim's ranking system, Lescott and Neville have been the 4th and 5th best defenders in the Premiership this year (after Finnan, Carvalho, and Ferdinand), and the 27th and 28th best overall players (all positions). If that's shite, then I'd love to see what we could do with a couple more shite defenders

Sidwell is Arsenal-bound, if you believe the rumor wagon.

I wasn't trying to ignite another debate, just trying to get a little clarification on your position, so I know where you're coming from. And regarding #3 it isn't complete nonsense. We often have scenarios like that in American sports. Not exactly like the one I proposed, but you might see a manager over here who has an aging star on the team rest him sometimes when there is too short a turnaround between games (like having games scheduled two nights in a row, which sometimes happens with basketball and hockey and is routine in baseball) and he can't recover quickly enough. Reasons vary - he may have some kind of chronic injury like arthritis or tendinitis or a bad back that doesn't respond well to being asked to play two in a row, or he may not have as much stamina as the younger guys and the manager thinks that giving him days off will keep him fresher and healthier for the end of the season and (with our sports) the playoffs. Or in hockey, for instance, it's standard practice when a team has games on consecutive nights to play their first string goaltender in only one of the two games - usually against the stronger of the two opponents - and let his backup play the other one, simply because the position is so demanding. That's why I was curious to know more about your take, because I'm coming from a different sports culture with a totally different perspective on the issue, but also one where the seasons are much longer (82 games for basketball and hockey, 162 for baseball, plus playoffs in every sport) and games are played more frequently. Edit: I just saw this article where SAF talks about the issue of resting players in relation to ManU's games with Chelsea and West Ham this week. Just thought I'd pop it up here since it touches on some of the points already raised in this thread. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/preview?id=215428&cc=5901