The Football Thread 2011/12

[Ginga]

Torres is a stupid banana split. Can't wait for all you shitheads to cry when Liverpool dominate England under Sir Rafael Benitez. strawberry float you all.

He's Spanish. He can't use the 'Sir' part.

[Preezy]

Torres is a stupid banana split.

Seems to be doing quite well for himself, to be fair.

[Finiarél]

Torres is a stupid banana split. Can't wait for all you shitheads to cry when Liverpool dominate England under Sir Rafael Benitez. strawberry float you all.

Can we not go ahead and ban this cretin?

[PES Fan]

Anyway, Will be interesting (or terrifying) to see if any of Spurs big players stay on.

Modric has gone, but he was gone in anycase. Bale might stay, Adebayor will go, Ekotto will go.

Parker & Friedal are old.

Lot of rebuilding to be done.

Makes me hate the way football is so focused on those 4 CL places, it can't be healthy for the game in the long run.


He says now.

It's not all doom and gloom mate. Modric is nearly 27 and you will get £40m for him. If Bale goes, you'd get the same price. And that money can be used on the team.

[BCFC Fan]

Torres is a stupid banana split. Can't wait for all you shitheads to cry when Liverpool dominate England under Sir Rafael Benitez. strawberry float you all.

He's Spanish. He can't use the 'Sir' part.

He didn't use it.

[Ginga]

The deservedly beat Napoli, Benfica and Barca and Munich.

Ok. I'll play. Who deserved to beat them?

Barcelona and Bayern. If you're going to argue about it, I'd like to know your definition of "deservedly".

[Denster]

Torres is a stupid banana split. Can't wait for all you shitheads to cry when Liverpool dominate England under Sir Rafael Benitez. strawberry float you all.

Can we not go ahead and ban this cretin?

Nothing of value would be lost.

[BCFC Fan]

I'm in charge of this thread and I'm not getting banned, quit your bitching.

[Preezy]

Chelsea didn't deserve to win after getting all the way to the final, having beat the World's All-Star Team of Superheros™ along the way?

gooseberry fool, best tell them to give Bayern the trophy then.

[PaperMacheMario]

The deservedly beat Napoli, Benfica and Barca and Munich.

Ok. I'll play. Who deserved to beat them?

Barcelona and Bayern. If you're going to argue about it, I'd like to know your definition of "deservedly".

They defended better than Barca and Bayern attacked, and took their chances. I said it earlier, but why is a decent defensive display worse than a decent attacking display?

[Bigerich]

Chelsea didn't deserve to win after getting all the way to the final, having beat the World's All-Star Team of Superheros™ along the way?

gooseberry fool, best tell them to give Bayern the trophy then.

Goalscoring Superstar Heroes?

[Denster]

The deservedly beat Napoli, Benfica and Barca and Munich.

Ok. I'll play. Who deserved to beat them?

Barcelona and Bayern. If you're going to argue about it, I'd like to know your definition of "deservedly".

Scored more goals is one of the criteria i use but i suspect that may not be enouigh for you. Barcelona didn't win either of their games against Chelsea. Failed to capitalise against ten men at home when they only needed one more goal. Fail to see how this makes them more deserving? Same with Munich - for failing to convert their superiority in terms of possession and chances they lost but somehow deserved to win? They couldn't hold onto a lead for ten minutes and missed a penalty in extra time and then two in the shootout. How on earth did they deserve anything. They and Barca got what they deserved - strawberry float all.

Chelsea are worthy Champions. They turned their season around in splendid fashion - it;s just a shame that it comes at the expense of spurs.

[Peter Crisp]

Chelsea didn't deserve to win after getting all the way to the final, having beat the World's All-Star Team of Superheros™ along the way?

gooseberry fool, best tell them to give Bayern the trophy then.

Goalscoring Superstar Heroes?

Where every goal, goal, goal says you're the best in the land?

[7256930752]

Scored more goals is one of the criteria i use but i suspect that may not be enouigh for you. Barcelona didn't win either of their games against Chelsea. Failed to capitalise against ten men at home when they only needed one more goal. Fail to see how this makes them more deserving? Same with Munich - for failing to convert their superiority in terms of possession and chances they lost but somehow deserved to win? They couldn't hold onto a lead for ten minutes and missed a penalty in extra time and then two in the shootout. How on earth did they deserve anything. They and Barca got what they deserved - strawberry float all.

Chelsea are worthy Champions. They turned their season around in splendid fashion - it;s just a shame that it comes at the expense of spurs.

Agreed. They got a bit of good fortune but nothing like the '12th man' Barca had against Chelsea in 2009. Both Barca and Bayern had a number of chances (both missed a penalty for strawberry float sake) but they failed to take them.

[Preezy]

There will be those that denigrate Chelsea's achievement in winning this game because they 'parked the bus.' Well, with probably four first-choice players unavailable, what exactly did you expect? Roberto Di Matteo set the team up in a manner that would stop Bayern defending, and it worked. The old argument that an 'ugly' win is somehow less worthy than a free-flowing, attacking one is ludicrously short-sighted. This was, largely an exceptional defensive performance, punctuated with a few bits of luck and some Didier Drogba inspiration.

[Ginga]

The deservedly beat Napoli, Benfica and Barca and Munich.

Ok. I'll play. Who deserved to beat them?

Barcelona and Bayern. If you're going to argue about it, I'd like to know your definition of "deservedly".

They defended better than Barca and Bayern attacked, and took their chances. I said it earlier, but why is a decent defensive display better than a decent attacking display?

For starters, it's a poor excuse for a side that have poured money in buying the best players in both attack and defence, not to mention a £50million striker.
But besides that, it wasn't a particularly good defensive display in either game - if Messi or Robben had scored penalties, this wouldn't be their year. You can then add the chances that came off posts or were disallowed. "Luck" is an intangible thing – and I'm taking nothing away from Chelsea's determination and belief which played a massive part – but you only need to look at the misses from Barca and Munich to see these games have seen some very fortunate turn of events.

Barca and Munich went to create and were caught with sucker punches. I've got no appreciation for football played like that on this stage, not when you want to claim to be the best in Europe. It just seems...silly? But hey-ho, I was only puzzled by Denny's misuse of the word "deservedly".

Although, if you believe putting everyone into the box is an inspired tactical decision then what can I say?

Edit: Christ, the EDL are out quick tonight.

[Preezy]

But if the other teams don't take all their chances (as Barca and Munich failed to do, repeatedly), how does that make them more deserving of the win?

It doesn't make sense.

[Bigerich]

Scored more goals is one of the criteria i use but i suspect that may not be enouigh for you. Barcelona didn't win either of their games against Chelsea. Failed to capitalise against ten men at home when they only needed one more goal. Fail to see how this makes them more deserving? Same with Munich - for failing to convert their superiority in terms of possession and chances they lost but somehow deserved to win? They couldn't hold onto a lead for ten minutes and missed a penalty in extra time and then two in the shootout. How on earth did they deserve anything. They and Barca got what they deserved - strawberry float all.

Chelsea are worthy Champions. They turned their season around in splendid fashion - it;s just a shame that it comes at the expense of spurs.

Agreed. They got a bit of good fortune but nothing like the '12th man' Barca had against Chelsea in 2009. Both Barca and Bayern had a number of chances (both missed a penalty for strawberry float sake) but they failed to take them.

Speaking of 12th man, here is another piece of stunning refereeing from Norway:

[Mockmaster]

Bale gone. Modric gone. Assou Ekotto gone. Big signings far less likely. Meanwhile everyone else will strengthen. The repercussions of this cannot be understated. Feels like an entire season's effort is down the pan. All that emphasis we placed on finishing in the top 4, fighting tooth and nail to do so, and it has been for nothing.

I don't mind Bale and Modric going for big money. Bale thinks he's Ronaldo when he clearly has a long way to go. Modric changes our style of play but his contribution to game-changing moments is very poor.

The one thing I hope we do get from this is a replacement for Redknapp. Tactically he's so strawberry floating weak that it leaves us exposed and easy to take advantage of. There's no excuse for dropping 13 points like we did. Even against Villa we should have won to go into 3rd but his decision making was shocking, as it has been all season.

This is a devastating blow for us, and Levy needs to make the right decisions to ensure we focus on building a squad that can genuinely challenge next season, with a strong manager at the helm.

Yes, Bale does think he is Ronaldo and does have a long way to go, but he is still young at 22 years of age and can be so much better than even he already is. At his best he is a gamechanger and a talisman and I don't think there are many fans of other clubs that would not want him in their team. We need him. If we can't keep our big players, how will we attract more of them?

Our only hope is that Daniel Levy is one of the savviest chairmen around. He will either somehow convince him that as he is still young, he can afford to stick it out at Spurs and give it another bash next season, or sell him for a British transfer record. There is no keeping Modric though.

[7256930752]

Although, if you believe putting everyone into the box is an inspired tactical decision then what can I say?

Are teams supposed to just let Barca out pass them and go on to win the match? Says more about Barca that they couldn't come up with a different tactical approach to beat a team that didn't have a "particularly good defensive display in either game".