The Football Thread 2011/12

[Ginga]

Ginga has succeeded where the UN peace envoys would have failed. He has united the Liverpool, United and Chelsea fans in agreement.


Kudos.

Where diplomacy fails, fuckwittery can sometimes win. Deservedly so.

Well, you are the master of that particular dark art so I really should pass all the credit to you.

[Cuttooth]

I just want all of you praising Chelsea's ability to park the bus to think twice before criticising Ireland's style of play at the Euros next month.

You're probably in the hardest group possible, any style of play Ireland play should be praised to high heaven.

[Preezy]

Ginga is so bitter at being born Scottish.

Was wondering how long it would take someone to come out with this.

He's having a pointless and unwarranted dig at English clubs and the national team, I'm only stooping to his level.

It's not unwarranted, I was commenting on the general attitude of the media. It's "Chelsea are European Champions! Our league's brilliant, English spirit wins it! We did everything perfectly!"

It just seems so fallacious, especially with the money spent to get Chelsea into that competition, with the irony of finishing 6th, and I believe that level of ignorance is having an impact on the English team. It happens wherever big money overtakes domestic ideals, the national teams suffer. It happened in Italy and Spain and with Germany. I think it's just England's turn but as long as people think that continue to believe that the only thing that matters is results, you'll continue to disappear down that hole.

If you think I'm just England bashing then I've not explained myself properly but my erratic topic of posting has a lot to do with the bizarre replies.

But what has any of the above got to do with whether or not a team deserves to win a game? You're changing the topic of your own argument

[PaperMacheMario]

Ginga is so bitter at being born Scottish.

Was wondering how long it would take someone to come out with this.

He's having a pointless and unwarranted dig at English clubs and the national team, I'm only stooping to his level.

It's not unwarranted, I was commenting on the general attitude of the media. It's "Chelsea are European Champions! Our league's brilliant, English spirit wins it! We did everything perfectly!"

It just seems so fallacious, especially with the money spent to get Chelsea into that competition, with the irony of finishing 6th, and I believe that level of ignorance is having an impact on the English team. It happens wherever big money overtakes domestic ideals, the national teams suffer. It happened in Italy and Spain and with Germany. I think it's just England's turn but as long as people think that continue to believe that the only thing that matters is results, you'll continue to disappear down that hole.

If you think I'm just England bashing then I've not explained myself properly but my erratic topic of posting has a lot to do with the bizarre replies.

Weren't all the Spanish papers saying Chelsea cheated and played disgusting football after the Barcelona game? Newspapers are newspapers, it's not the whole nations opinion.

[PaperMacheMario]

I think people jump on Stoke more for the fact that they're dirty, as well as being an 'ugly' team. If they didn't constantly bundle the goalie, people might have a different viewpoint.

EDIT: Sykes, where the hell did your post go?

[Ginga]

Ginga is so bitter at being born Scottish.

Was wondering how long it would take someone to come out with this.

He's having a pointless and unwarranted dig at English clubs and the national team, I'm only stooping to his level.

It's not unwarranted, I was commenting on the general attitude of the media. It's "Chelsea are European Champions! Our league's brilliant, English spirit wins it! We did everything perfectly!"

It just seems so fallacious, especially with the money spent to get Chelsea into that competition, with the irony of finishing 6th, and I believe that level of ignorance is having an impact on the English team. It happens wherever big money overtakes domestic ideals, the national teams suffer. It happened in Italy and Spain and with Germany. I think it's just England's turn but as long as people think that continue to believe that the only thing that matters is results, you'll continue to disappear down that hole.

If you think I'm just England bashing then I've not explained myself properly but my erratic topic of posting has a lot to do with the bizarre replies.

But what has any of the above got to do with whether or not a team deserves to win a game? You're changing the topic of your own argument

Because they didn't deserve it and as long as you delude yourself that you did, you won't see any improvement. Are you trying to say that the success of clubs and their transfer spending in England has no impact on the national team or standard/number of English players coming through?

You might not see it but my point has alsways been long-term. I don't like that style of football because it does nothing, I made a post about Greece that explained that. That's your missing link if you're looking.

I think you misunderstand - I'm not trolling, you do get worked up about things very quickly. Just look at the last few pages - it's descended from one person asking my opinion to three or four rushing to take shots while I reply.

So what? That's a very lame way to end any discussion.

Sorry to disappoint you.

[Cuttooth]

That was mostly the Catalan press I think.

[Preezy]

I bet the Bayern players won't be on the bus home thinking "Gee whizz, we sure deserved to win that, especially with all the chances we wasted made".

They'll more likely be thinking "strawberry floats sake, we really should have won that, bloody jammy Chelsea taking their chances, I wish we'd given Gomez his Weetabix this morning".

[bear]

I can understand the point Ginga is making. Chelsea have spent a lot of money and they playing like that, but it's up to them how they want to play.

Torres aside, Chelsea haven't spent that much in recent years, with an eye on the fair play rules coming in.

Lukaku £18million
Mata £24million
Luiz £20million
Meireles £12million

Add in the likes of Cahill, Romeu and Courtois and Chelsea's net spend over the last three transfer windows is well over £120 million. How many clubs in Europe have spent more?

[Psychic]

I think people jump on Stoke more for the fact that they're dirty, as well as being an 'ugly' team. If they didn't constantly bundle the goalie, people might have a different viewpoint.

EDIT: Sykes, where the hell did your post go?

Sorry, I thought it was a bit of a gooseberry fool question after posting so deleted it.

[Qikz]

You know what, I'm kind of glad I don't like football after reading the arguments people are having over this.

You enjoy your argument now, I'll back out again until Euro 2012.

[Blue Eyes]

Football is weird now. Certainly when it comes to the Champions League. I don't want to decry the achievements of Man City and Chelsea but surely their fans must feel a bit empty considering the way they've won their titles. They've almost proved that money is all that matters, so what does that say about any team in the world? As long as you can invest in the recognised and best players in the world with the near infinite wealth of owners then you probably should win major trophies all the time.
Financial fair play rules can't come soon enough for me.

[Pancake]

I think you misunderstand - I'm not trolling, you do get worked up about things very quickly. Just look at the last few pages - it's descended from one person asking my opinion to three or four rushing to take shots while I reply.

So what? That's a very lame way to end any discussion.

Sorry to disappoint you.

Apology accepted.

[Preezy]

Ginga, just for me, could you sum up in one sentence exactly why Chelsea didn't deserve to win the Champions League.

[PaperMacheMario]

I think people jump on Stoke more for the fact that they're dirty, as well as being an 'ugly' team. If they didn't constantly bundle the goalie, people might have a different viewpoint.

EDIT: Sykes, where the hell did your post go?

Sorry, I thought it was a bit of a gooseberry fool question after posting so deleted it.

I was thinking about it earlier though, as Stoke get a lot of stick for their style of play. I just think one factor is that Stoke are quite a 'dirty' team, so get less tolerance.

[Denster]

Football is weird now. Certainly when it comes to the Champions League. I don't want to decry the achievements of Man City and Chelsea but surely their fans must feel a bit empty considering the way they've won their titles. They've almost proved that money is all that matters, so what does that say about any team in the world? As long as you can invest in the recognised and best players in the world with the near infinite wealth of owners then you probably should win major trophies all the time.
Financial fair play rules can't come soon enough for me.

Complete and utter tripe. Luckily attention is elsewhere at the moment.

[Shadow]

Almost all bookies have suspended betting on the next Liverpool manager: http://www.oddschecker.com/football/foo ... nt-manager

Announcement incoming?

[Blue Eyes]

Football is weird now. Certainly when it comes to the Champions League. I don't want to decry the achievements of Man City and Chelsea but surely their fans must feel a bit empty considering the way they've won their titles. They've almost proved that money is all that matters, so what does that say about any team in the world? As long as you can invest in the recognised and best players in the world with the near infinite wealth of owners then you probably should win major trophies all the time.
Financial fair play rules can't come soon enough for me.

Complete and utter tripe. Luckily attention is elsewhere at the moment.

I'd be interested to know why you think that is tripe.

[DML]

So you know when people were jumping down my throat for saying Ginga often talked a load of old cobblers?

Hmm.

[Psychic]

Regardless of the talk about whether Chelsea deserve it or not, I'm surprised so many are willing to paint their victory as an all-time great backs to the wall performance and lesson in defensive prowess.