English Football Thread 2012/2013

[JBlues08]

True - Chelsea are currently sliding out of the title race, but this season has been so odd, I wouldn't count anyone out. Any one of the other teams could embark on such a bad run as Chelsea are on - it's going to be fun!

A bad run of over 2 months and playing like we are now? Highly unlikely.

We are playing like a team that is doom for relegation. We hardly able to string any sort of good passes together in recent games. All we do is just pump long balls to Drogba way too many times. Even then, Drogba rarely got at the end of it. We might as well get Big Sam in!

I'm not into the crap of fans suggesting Ancelotti should be sacked but it really annoys me that he will most likely only buys a defender if Alex fails to recover by end of January. Regardless of that, he should go out and get one. You never know who and when is going to get suspended or injured.

We also need a creative midfielder. Too often we lack of ideas when things are not working out and with so many players out of form, it's absolutely ridiculous! Our current squad is too thin at the moment and hardly get any rest because we can't rotate as much as we possibly can like last season when we had the likes of Ballack, Deco, Beletti that can do a decent job for us. Injuries to Benayoun and Mikel have not help matters as well.

Having said all of that, is Roman going to fully back him on that? Kinda doubt it considering he is probably toying around with the planning for the World Cup in Russia.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Benayoun would've been the perfect player to fill in when Lampard was injured. It was a real shame when he got injured.

 

[JBlues08]

Benayoun would've been the perfect player to fill in when Lampard was injured. It was a real shame when he got injured.

Precisely. McEachran can probably be the player to fill in but it will probably be asking too much from him given that he is still very young. Will still like Ancelotti to try him though.

 

[JBlues08]

So, Dzeko has finally signed for Man City. I wonder how is Mancini going to play Dzeko and Tevez together considering he has been playing with 1 striker for much of the season so far and Balotelli is still around too.

 

[Will Browne]

Man City buy like I do on a Fifa game they just buy strikers regardless of the fact that they need to. Its not the level of skill in the team thats the problem, its the fact that they often look so tentative in front of goal. They need that out instead of just buying, buying, buying

 

[JBlues08]

That is what Man City have been pretty much doing for like the past 1-2 years. Buy buy buy without actually looking to have an idea of how to fit the players in. And the fact that 3 players they bought are also in my team in FIFA just makes me mad!

 

[War]

So, Dzeko has finally signed for Man City. I wonder how is Mancini going to play Dzeko and Tevez together considering he has been playing with 1 striker for much of the season so far and Balotelli is still around too.

Ye certainly seems an weird buy & just another example of City wasting money. Unless they sell Jo & Santa Cruz in this january transfer window.

 

[Ollie_H]

Maybe they're aim is to win the reserve league?

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Santa Cruz' move to Lazio is all but finalised.

Mancini said Dzeko is "the missing piece in the puzzle", and I highly doubt 30m would be spent on a benchwarmer (even City). I guess Tevez would be moved out wide-left and Balotelli on the right as inside forwards. Would be difficult to drop Milner though.

 

[JBlues08]

Santa Cruz' move to Lazio is all but finalised.

Mancini said Dzeko is "the missing piece in the puzzle", and I highly doubt 30m would be spent on a benchwarmer (even City). I guess Tevez would be moved out wide-left and Balotelli on the right as inside forwards. Would be difficult to drop Milner though.

That would mean Mancini dropping one of this three favored defensive midfielders as I'm sure he would want to play Silva. However if he plays all 3 of them, Mancini is going to suffer if suddenly all 3 gets injured or something like that.

 

[JBlues08]

Hoping for a good match at the Emirates later but that might not happen depending how Mancini approaches the game.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Man City buy like I do on a Fifa game they just buy strikers regardless of the fact that they need to. Its not the level of skill in the team thats the problem, its the fact that they often look so tentative in front of goal. They need that out instead of just buying, buying, buying

Exactly - what a great way to put it - they are buying like they're playing Fifa with the unlimited money cheat on. Well, the new ruling in 2012 will put an end to that nonsense. Dzeko, Tevez, Balotelli among others - good luck with all those egos Mancini, you idiot. And enjoy the 'glory' of second place if you manage it because you're sure as hell not going to win the league.

Sorry - just a little rant at City there that I needed to get off my chest.

 

[Ollie_H]

Well, the new ruling in 2012 will put an end to that nonsense. Dzeko, Tevez, Balotelli among others - good luck with all those egos Mancini, you idiot.

Yes, that is something I always thought would happen to but I read a fantastic article in The Times yesterday that said they could very well get away with what they are doing. Unfortunately, I don't think I can send you the article as you have to pay for it to be able to read it.

The article was actually about the position Chelsea are in and how they can not get out of their current problem by getting Abramovich to write them a fat cheque like they used to, but they now have to do it through turnover. A stat that the article points out is, 'They [city] already have the Barclays Premier League's largest wage bill, which exceeds - yes exceeds - their turnover of ?125 million. And that's before we include Yaya Toure.' But Matt Dickinson goes on to talk about how City are going to get away with it and can cover all these costs that they incurring; they have recently signed an agreement to co-develop 'Sportcity' & are developing a luxury hotel. But what they do have a MASSIVE advantage over is the market they come from. Their list of sponsors includes Etihad (UAE Airline), etislat (UAE telecom giant), aabar (a global investment company, owned by the Abu Dhabi Government) & also the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority. So, as you can see, City have a massive advantage in the sponsorship market and this could very well be how they manage to stay in these fairplay rules, if they can get large sponsorship deals they will cover it. I mean look at what Barcelona did, they were paying Unicef to be there sponsors and then they sold it off for ?125 million to the Qatar/Aspire Sports Foundation.

It's going to be an interesting time for European Football with these new regulations and now sponsorship is going to pay a huge part in it.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Another fantastic (albeit quite long) article about City and how they could get away with their spending:

The Swiss Ramble: How Manchester City Could Break Even

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Roy out. I'm sick of his spineless football - you just can't do that against Blackburn, you don't even need to do that against Blackburn when you have Gerrard and Torres! And this is coming from a Utd fan.

Hopefully Rangnick replaces him, would be a great long term project for Liverpool. He'll completely change the whole club, for the better - will play attractive football, concentrate on developing youth, get best out of reliable players.