English Football Thread 2014/15

[Lee1981]

By signing a player? That's news to me.

No by signing the destructive Ballotelli, let's not kid ourselves and pretend he is just a normal signing, the money he cost is irrelevant, he is a liability, city couldn't wait to get rid of him[DOUBLEPOST=1408720952][/DOUBLEPOST]

Who?

Bloody hell, get back under the rock you've been living under.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

No by signing the destructive Ballotelli, let's not kid ourselves and pretend he is just a normal signing, the money he cost is irrelevant, he is a liability, city couldn't wait to get rid of him[DOUBLEPOST=1408720952][/DOUBLEPOST]
Bloody hell, get back under the rock you've been living under.

Yeah; I've seen plenty of players with self destruct buttons in my time, but Balotelli is a walking self destruct button...

 

[thedon5]

Balotelli is a hit or miss signing. Under the right manager he would be the best striker in world football. By a distance. The guy is crazy talented.

Or, he would destroy team spirit and be an absolute waste of space.

Both sides are justified in their argument, but the fact is that Liverpool fans seem to hugely overrate Rodgers. He is not the miracle worker who is going to uncover Balotelli. What makes me certain of this is how he categorically ruled out signing Balotelli a couple of weeks ago. Clearly he doesn't want the job of putting him straight and the signing was pushed through by Ayre or someone else high up.[DOUBLEPOST=1408723073][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, his goals to games ratio is quite overrated when you consider how many are penalties. Also his general contribution to play is well below par. He won't be starting at Liverpool at this stage and he'll be kicking up a fuss about that.[DOUBLEPOST=1408723157][/DOUBLEPOST]As for Liverpool in the top four, I agree with Haari. I would favour Everton, but their aging CB partnership is looking very leaky as we saw in pre-season. I doubt them to address this either as they're cash-strapped as usual. So Liverpool would have to be favourites.

 

[thedon5]

Eleven days to go - that's a long time and Di Maria has asked to leave Real Madrid so unless there's something else we don't know about, his likely destination is Man Utd. That being said, we need to sign a lot of new players and we all know how that ends up. They take a season to gel so I think we can forget the title this season.

This is funny. I hope you are just being optimistic and don't actually think that Di Maria is likely to move to United. That is his back-up back-up back-up option.

You can forget about the title for several seasons. When one area is strengthened, another will eventually crop up as weak. A lack of ability to make the top four this season will also destroy the club in the long term.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

This is funny. I hope you are just being optimistic and don't actually think that Di Maria is likely to move to United. That is his back-up back-up back-up option.

You can forget about the title for several seasons. When one area is strengthened, another will eventually crop up as weak. A lack of ability to make the top four this season will also destroy the club in the long term.

Hmph. I can see a ten or twenty year wait to be honest. Our days of dominance are over, that's for sure - unless we're taken over by someone with megabucks of course.

 

[Champagnepapi]

LVG said he doesn't want to stop development of Janujaz, so no di Maria for you. That's not coming from me, it's coming from the Mirror.
Manchester United transfer news: Angel Di Maria switch to be turned down by Van Gaal? - Mirror Online

 

[MasterBlaster76]

LVG said he doesn't want to stop development of Janujaz, so no di Maria for you. That's not coming from me, it's coming from the Mirror.
Manchester United transfer news: Angel Di Maria switch to be turned down by Van Gaal? - Mirror Online

While that might be the case, a) we have room for another winger and b) the Mirror is on a par with The Sun when it comes to accuracy during transfer silly-season.

 

[War]

Jason Roberts: I'm not surprised, the alleged texts between Malkay Mackay and Iain Moody is the true face of the sport | Mail Online

 

[War]

Paul Scholes: Manchester United need five experienced players who can turn round a desperate situation - Premier League - Football - The Independent

 

[SambarVadai]

United is in a desperate situatuion to prove that the last season was more of a one-off thing.But I see them going in the same direction as AC Milan are going.The owners are simply not ready to spend big on 'quality' players.The team has become a sort of a money minter for the Glazers.They don't care whether they are gonna win titles or not.
Anyways,even if we consider that they have a fantaqstic manager in the form of LvG,as someone quoted that if one area gets a stronghold,a weaker area will eventually pop out.This one and the further coming seasons are perhaps crucial if at all they want to return to European football...and that seems too difficult at the moment.

 

[thedon5]

Hmph. I can see a ten or twenty year wait to be honest. Our days of dominance are over, that's for sure - unless we're taken over by someone with megabucks of course.

Man Utd already spend huge amounts of money. Same as Chelsea and City if not more.

Because of that, ten to twenty years is an overstatement. I'd say 2-3 years minimum before United can cement themselves in the top four, and a further year or two to seriously challenge for the title. Dominance over? Yes.

 

[Lee1981]

Taking my boy to the bridge to watch Chelsea v Leicester today.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

How many games a season do you go to Lee?

I've only been to Bolton once (such a long and tiresome drive ). If I were a local i'd be up there every home game, nothing beats watching the footy from the stands.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

No by signing the destructive Ballotelli, let's not kid ourselves and pretend he is just a normal signing, the money he cost is irrelevant, he is a liability, city couldn't wait to get rid of him

the other thing about Balotelli is you're inviting Mino Raiola into the den, one of the worst, slimiest people in football. He'll be after sterling as soon as he's got a way in.

it's actually one of the motivations behind his sale, milan have been trying to off-load anyone connected with him for a while now because he became far too involved in club affairs.

 

[Lee1981]

How many games a season do you go to Lee?

I've only been to Bolton once (such a long and tiresome drive ). If I were a local i'd be up there every home game, nothing beats watching the footy from the stands.

Don't go all that often, now my boy is 7 and is mad into football I will try and go to about 10 games this season, he is desperate to go to all the big away matches so may try and get to a couple of those.

Yeah the match day feeling is like nothing else, however come winter time watching it in my local club in the warm comes a close second