My first post…

In response to Statto99’s question, Joe Baker - born in Liverpool, grew up in Scotland - got his first cap for England having only previously played for Hibernian.

Many thanks, and welcome, Jimmy and the Fish! That was really beginning to bother me.

The Mighty Kubelgog!!! wrote:
But right now, things aren't really that bad.

Now why did you have to go and say that? A minute after I read that paragraph, this news item popped up...


Manchester United are giving strong consideration to increasing season-ticket prices to help with the club's enormous interest payments, despite being acutely aware such a move would increase the sense of animosity that has led to fans protesting against the ruling Glazer family.

The Glazers have begun discussions with the club's England-based directors about next season's prices, with an official announcement due in the next month, and the early talks have been geared towards United continuing their habit of making supporters pay more every year since the Americans took control in 2005.

Season tickets have gone up by an average of 48% in that time, and by as much as 69% in some areas of Old Trafford, but the Glazers are said to be largely unmoved by the prospect of further antagonising the supporters, placing more emphasis on how to increase match-day revenue at a time when the club have £700m-plus worth of borrowings and paid £67m in interest payments last year.

The alternative is that the Glazers freeze or lower prices, as they have done with their NFL team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but, as yet, that idea has been discussed only briefly. Indeed, there is a sense that the situation in Florida may push the Glazers further towards bumping up the prices at Old Trafford. One source close to the family explained their thinking: "Will the club's financial issues affect their decision-making? Yes. Will the current climate of the protests and support anger influence them? Not at all."

United were the only club in the Premier League not to reduce or freeze season-ticket prices for the current season


Yeah.

Colm's obsession with size is starting to sound liek he has a complex or something.

The Mighty Kubelgog!!! wrote:
. like a big game steve mcManaman. .

Is that the same Steve McManaman that has scored in more European Cup finals than Ryan Giggs, or a different one?

Or does playing in Spain not count?

nah liq, Every single player on the chelsea team against inter milan was six feet tall or over, and that is very unusual in football. If there is someone who was obsessed with height it was jose, and you assume it was with good reason. in no small part that was due to mourinho wanting a team like Mid nineties juventus, a team that could play quite a bit of football, but could also roll right over the opposition. Of course that team only really fell apart when the IOC found the huge stash of drugs needed to keep up that type of game with players as they enter their 30's.

But Chelsea don't really have any small nippy players, except for joe cole, and you could see that against he's on the way out. By contrast only berbatov, carrick and fletcher are over 6' tall in man utd's squad of midfielders and forwards. It's no wonder they have a different style of playing.

Inter milan were able to deal with big relatively slow opponents the other night. Walter Samuel and lucio can fight with didier drogba all day. It might be more interesting to see those players having to deal with small scuttling players pinging the ball around at speed. They had that in sneijder, eto'o and pandev. It was an edge they had over chelsea

ould fellah I was just being a little mean about mcManaman.

Ashley Cole is small and nippy, as is Carvalho, in comparison to other centre backs. Malouda isn't massive either. I think you're just scared of all those black people and their massive wangers. Admit it.

heh, michael ballack is the tallest and stodgiest player at the club, lampard, terry, ivanovic, zhirkov, are all pretty white to me. and Carvalho and malouda are both on the line of 6'. It's true that cole and essien are small, but while essien is shorter than the usual chelsea midfielder, he is also called 'the bison', for obvious reasons. And apart from beletti, Ashley cole is the only full back at the club who isn't over six feet tall. They're the anti arsenal.

But you've seen it yourself. Sometimes having all these big tall players makes for increasingly stodgy football. There's none of the terrifying speed and scurrying of the days of robben and duff. This season it's a lot more about drogba bullying most centre halves he meets. That didn't work so well against inter and the play wasn't quick enough to make space for the attackers to score.

It's harsh on Mourinho to characterise all of his Chelsea tenure as being about physical power. The first season he played Robben and Duff regularly, and later on Joe Cole. In his later Chelsea teams you could argue it was more power and less finesse but that might plausibly have been cos he felt Robben and Duff were too injury-prone and hence why he sold them.

Also, looking at the team Chelsea had out on Tues, most of those weren't signed by Mourinho anyway - Terry, Ivanovic, Lampard, Alex, Anelka, Turnbull. And most would argue that while he was manager when Ballack signed it wasn't Mourinho's decision.

TMK, I figured but I still couldn't let it lie.

yeah, you're right. I think to be honest though, that the brilliance of robben when he played (chelsea went from winning games 1-0 and 2-0 to winning them all 4-0) hid that mourinho didn't really see them as wingers, but as wide counter attackers who were to attack the space behind defenders.

He didn't really want them to take on their man in wide positions when the team was in possession, and risk losing the ball. So he kept punishment substituting players, and made damien duff very conservative indeed. Even then it was particularly direct. I don't know if anelka and malouda are as electric as duff and robben and the midfielders are taking a little longer to get in the box.

The Mighty Kubelgog!!! wrote:
nah liq, Every single player on the chelsea team against inter milan was six feet tall or over

Like your previous claim that Gallas is usually the tallest player on Arsenal's team, this is also wrong. As another post said, your obsession with size is interesting, but what's more interesting is that you don't actually seem to get your size claims right. Which is never good.

Chelsea's best player against Inter was under six feet, and of course one of the substitutes that came on was also under 6ft; had Chelsea not had out a number of their regular starting eleven out injured, there would have been quite a few of them under 6 ft. So your claim can be reduced to "a lot of Chelsea's regular subs are tall."

But then I also recall the derisive tone about the size of Barcelona's 'gnomes' and how they'd be bullied off the ball. That was before the gnomish Messi jumped up between Ferdinand and O'Shea to head over Van der Sar, who together are about five thousand feet tall, yes? What's your deal, anyway -- too tall, and it's bad. Too short, and it's bad. Is anyone the RIGHT size for you? Well, aside from United, of course...

michael ballack is the tallest and stodgiest player at the club

Two of Chelsea's outfield players against Inter are the same height as Ballack (one of them is debatable), and of course Turnbull and Cech are both taller.

has this been posted yet

the Italian (what looks like) SSN studio reaction to the goal

not dissimilar to mine

That's the Telelombardia show with the extreme "hometown" commentators that people have posted clips from clips from before.

I would love to see their Juventino's reaction to Dempsey's strike.

i reckon the odds of united being drawn against arsenal tomorrow, thus ensuring only one english semi finalist must be running close to 80% by now.

You're not scared of Arsenal are you?

To win it, you have to be prepared to play and beat anyone TMK...

He didn't really want them to take on their man in wide positions when the team was in possession, and risk losing the ball. So he kept punishment substituting players, and made damien duff very conservative indeed.

Aaaaaah not this Mourinho ruined Duff bollocks again. Injuries ruined Duff, not Mourinho.

(I am not following you Liq)

When Duff played for Chelsea, he was exceptional (for him).

When he plays elsewhere, he is... patchy, with occasional good stuff.

Now, to me, that means, when he plays with good players, he is 'exceptional'.

But, fuck it, Celtic are awaiting.

(fuck... Liedson scored a beauty... and oh fuck, 'Kun' is really annoying'

UEFA's presentation of this draw and the video packages that accompany all point to the assumption that Real Madrid would be in the tournament in the long run. So it would be a most beautiful irony if Barcelona sweep up the competition.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I do not like them doing draws for the next two rounds together.