Football/Soccer Discussion Thread

I hope Falcao does go to Chelsea, I'm not a fan of teams buying the league but I dislike both Manchester clubs so yeah.

Well I used to dislike United, but it's got to a point where I sincerely hope they do win the league, because the other options seem to be Endless Pit of Money A and Endless Pit of Money B. Long-term planning? Homegrown players? Getting regular players and trying to make them the best? Why, when you can simply put a bunch of millions and buy the best of the best every summer? (note my dislike for Real Madrid as well).

And the fact that one of those teams are casually talking about taking our best player in mid-season as if it was the most natural thing ever doesn't help.

Manchester United did just buy Robin van Persie for 30 mill + 250k per week wages. They're all as bad as each other.

It's never nice having your best players linked to other clubs but hey, if they weren't attracting attention they're obviously not doing a good job.

Saying that If he keeps doing what he's doing I can see our Norwegian defensive midfielder Alexander Tettey attracting some big clubs very soon. I'd honestly never heard of him before he signed in the summer but he's been a monster in the middle of the park for us. Who needs Yaya?

RIP In Peace Nasri's potential children.

FC Barcelona 4-1 Atletico de Madrid FT in Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain.

On the 31st minute Atletico starman Radamel Falcao opened the scoring to put the Madrid club 0-1 up at the Camp Nou with a brilliant chip over Valdes, but 5 minutes later Adriano responded with a cracking finesse shot from about 22-24 yards out which hit the post and went in to make it 1-1. Right before half-time, Sergio Busquets was on the end of a rebounded header to slot home into the empty net ( for Atleti's keeper and one of their CB's were on the ground ) to make it 2-1 Barcelona. Shortly after the break, Lionel Messi added a fine third for Barcelona from around the same distance as Adriano with a low finesse shot, followed by which close to the end of the game, Leo stole the ball from an Atletico defender and chipped home to make it 4-1 to the Catalans with his 90th strike in 2012!

So yeah, that put's Barca 9 points above Atletico and 13 points above Real now ( after Real drew 2-2 with Espanyol ). La Liga MAY already be decided, guys! I say that, but I remember in Pep's first season we had a 12 point advantage over Real Madrid at one point in the season and ended up having to go the Bernabeau to win the league ( where we won 2-6 but still....), so we better not call it a day in La Liga until we're about 15 points above Madrid.

As for my preferred destination for Falcao, anywhere but Real Madrid :)

Haven't been following La Liga but damn, Madrid 13 points off the pace. Time for a stupidly expensive transfer window?

My team won again and moved up to 7th. We're on the second longest unbeaten run in Europe apparently, suck on that pundits that relegated us before the season started.

Yeah a 13 point lead this early on in the season has even surprised me ( a Barcelona fan that has never recognized Real Madrid as not even the second best team in the world, I've never rated them ), but I don't think they can bring in more than one player actually worth a penny in January. They'll most likely try to bring in Falcao in January, and if they do get through with that, they'd have spent about 50-60 million right there, and Gareth Bale would cost an additional 60 million to bring in as well, so unless they want to owe MASSIVE, MASSIVE debts when FFP comes into effect, they won't be spending that big just to try and revive a title challenge that's Barcelona's to lose already, that's not smart. I can see Atletico breaking the bank to bring in some reinforcements to try and tussle with Barca, but I really don't know who will want to go to Atleti...maybe a Torres return, but other than that...I'm not sure ANY Spanish team will be doing much business in the January transfer window. Also, if Madrid don't be carefull, they may just find themselves 15 or 16 points off Barca by the Christmas break seeing as their next game is away to Malaga :D

/rant

How have the old Arsenal players (Cesc and Song) settled in at Barca? Arsenal are currently sitting in 8th and clearly missing these two. Totally wouldn't put it past them to slip up against the bottom team tonight.

Cesc is slowly recapturing the form he showed when he had now arrived in 2011, while Song doesn't really play much. Arsenal are definitely missing the two, but they miss Cesc way more than Song, Cesc was the driving force of Arsenal, the main playmaker in the middle of midfield, and the way he played when he was in North London...he was God lol! They miss Song, don't get me wrong, just not as much as Fabregas.

Arsenal are a team with no ambition right now, they got knocked out of the Capital One Cup by some League 2 side on penalties the other day, they're surely not winning the FA Cup and the League, and more than that, THEY DON'T WANT to win the league, they want 4th spot. They're also planning to loan Henry, what? The club Arsenal have become has really surprised me! If Pep goes to Arsenal, that could change, though.

I think it's the other way round, they're missing the more combative player. They seem to have found the Cesc replacement in another Spaniard, Santi Cazorla but they have nothing in that holding position.

Santi Cazorla is getting old ( at 27 ) and is getting tired as well ( cause Arsene Wenger is too over-reliant on him ) and Diaby is a good holding midfielder. Arsenal...they really need to sort out their business, because they DO have great players.

27 is hardly old and he hasn't looked tired to me. Just the whole team as a whole are predictable and they seem uninterested in some games. They came to our ground and we easily stopped their attacks and beat them 1 - 0.

Diaby is pretty good but far too injury prone. I remember seeing him for the first time and thinking they have an amazing Viera replacement, but nope.

There's a rumour going around that they're looking at bringing "the next Essien" Afriyie Acquah in in January. If they pull it off and he's anywhere near as good as Essien they'll improve dramatically.

The man no one can say is not the most missed at the Emirates, though, is Robin van Persie. Giroud is no replacement for him, once they get a replacement ( a proper one ) for Van Persie they're good. Someone like Benzema, David Villa, Soldado, Giuseppe Rossi, Nilmar, etc.

Anyone hear that Fellaini is meant to be banned for 9 matches for this-



Though what I don't understand is how him being banned will help Stoke?

What did he do? I don't see anything wrong with that, certainly not more than a yellow card at most.

Meanwhile over here in Spain Mourinho has been up to his regular mind-games saying that '' Real Madrid winning the La Liga title is almost impossible '', which is kinda true, but still, all he wants is for our boys to mess up and drop points!

I also hear that Arsenal are interested in buying the guy from Crystal Palace named Zaha. They need a holding mid, so I don't why they're after Zaha for.

Mind games? Actually I see it as a sign of giving up because, really, if they can't beat the dead-last Espanyol (now up to 19th thanks to that point!), the team which has conceded the most goals against Real Madrid in the Liga's history, with a 27-0 in the last 7 years, if they can't beat them this year at home, well, I can't see them winning the league. No way. Period. Unless they buy United over the winter transfer season or something, and that'd be kind of pointless since they only really want to win the CL now (and I'm pretty sure disaster will be coming for them this Thursday).

But this is pointless anyway. The question is: how is a team with an almost-perfect scorecard (15 wins, one draw) going to drop 9 points of a sudden? Or 13 if Madrid wants to be back in play. After coming back from a 2-1 against Sevilla in the 89th minute and other similarly ridiculous over-the-line wins, it's hard to figure how they can lose that much. And Rangers don't play in La Liga sooo.

Mind games? It truly sounds like Real are imploding and the rumours abour Mourinho being sacked in the following two months are louder than ever before. Usually the mind games involved putting pressure on their rivals. This year, except for that line (which was used by Pep last year as well- and guess what, Barcelona lost as expected), Mourinho has been insulting his team and the press. That's not mind games, that's something worse.

Or better, depending from where you are looking :D

You know what pisses me off? Everytime Real Madrid lose or draw they have some excuse...Oh my God that's getting old...-_- But yeah I guess for Real Madrid La Liga IS over, but Atleti still have an 80-20 chance lol :D

If Madrid meet Dortmund in the UCL KO Stages they're out, for sure. Against all other teams in the competition they still have a SLIGHT chance ( yeah, yeah, even against Barca I'll admit ) but if they meet Dortmund, they're out.

At the end of the season it's either Mou is going to be sacked or he'll resign.

EDIT: By the way, I'd like to go off-topic for a bit and say this: Mantenir la calma i parlar català! Stay Calm and Speak Catalan!!!

It's been a phrase floating around our city for a while now because of what's currently happening, and I'd just like to say that I'm in full support of the continued teaching of the Catalan language, it's not about politics, it's about our culture, and our language! So once again I repeat: Stay calm and speak Catalan!

The Fellaini thing was a headbutt and also another couple of instances of dangerous play. If it wasn't for his comedy Scouser haircut I'm sure it would have hurt Ryan Shawcross.



His punishment isn't 9 games, it's 3, 3 pretty important games if Everton want European football.

Oh it was a headbutt, that's what I wanted to know -_- Yeah 3 games for that is very, very lucky. Normally you can probably get banned for about 12 games for headbutting.