Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

I go from complete hatred of Liverpool to thinking their alright at times. I'm managing them on Football Manager at the moment so I guess I'm in the alright phase at the moment.

Another Boro return might be happening after Woodgate & Parnaby last season, we're rumoured to be after David Wheater if anyone is aware of who he is. Considering how Woodgate & Parnaby have performed in this spell for us, I'm going to be a bit pessimistic about this one if it comes off.

I remember seeing him and thinking we had a potential England player when he first came through actually. Can't say I've seen him recently but I'm sure you could do worse than Wheater.

He has a pretty poor injury record as well which is the last thing we need really, but hopefully if it happens he comes in handy.

I completely agree about Suarez. But just like they did with Suarez after Torres, I think they'll find some new world class attacker to pull up their average team.

With Woodgate already in the squad that could backfire quite badly then.

It goes far beyond Woodgate. For the past two seasons we've had various players in and out of the team with injury problems even if they aren't injury prone like Woodgate, it must be something to do with the training regime or the physios.

Recently, Kevin Thomson who we released in January complained we played him for a while with an undiagnosed broken leg.

Undiagnosed broken leg, ok, I laughed a little.

Rumours of Keisuke Honda joining Norwich. Silly season pls end.

Haha, Honda and Van Wolfswinkel...can't tell if they're going for silly names or actually building a team that'll throw them into the Europa League spots next season (above Liverpool obviously). And undiagnosed broken leg? Hope Honda's a physio as well as a player, sounds like you have problems there...but how did he not know there was something up? I guess these lower quality players can't do self-diagnosis like Casillas, Pepe and Ronaldo when getting out of Mourinho's last game :P
Training regime? Likely explanation is there isn't one and you have fitness coaches who were around when England won the World Cup, getting the players to do laps 365 days/year.

Speaking of Liverpool...despise them. Partially as a United fan, although I admire Gerrard and Carragher. And I did support them against Milan when they were last in Champions League finals (just the done thing isn't it? Supporting the team from your country). But the way they've handled Suarez is just shocking. I know Ferdinand's hardly been a saint (I couldn't help but lol at the "choc-ice" comments) but we've never come out as practically condoning the behaviour. Although they're less annoying than John Terry, when the full kit ****** came out in the Europa League Final I started yelling at the t.v. telling him to get off the pitch etc. Should've escorted him away instead of Torres' little follower.

I think you have the wrong idea on the teams I and Lapras support based on the Honda physio comment. :P

Anyway, you complaining about Terry has reminded me that the John Terry meme should've returned following his kit wearing at the Europa League Final. Found a nice and funny round up of it all. Link

Possibly yes. I had no idea who Woodgate played for, so I was just guessing.
But if you were talking about Middlesborough with the "undiagnosed broken leg" then it's the north, what do you expect? We don't believe in injuries, that's just not being 100% :P

Some of those JT jokes are brilliant, haha.

It seems Sevilla are being pillaged of all their players now.

First Navas to City now Negredo to West Ham, who next?

I do have to wonder if West Ham have some high ambitions this season if they're planning to outlay £15m on Carroll and then nearly the same fee on Negredo.

I was going to say "West Ham, that's a bit of a step down". But actually, Sevilla only gained 4 more points than West Ham. Although they had a much better goal difference, 4 - this presumably because of Negredo.
I think everyone has high ambitions this season, but with Joe Cole to supply Negredo and Carroll (although I hope the latter gets his desired wage-drop transfer back to Newcastle), goals should be aplenty for WH next season, interesting to see where it lands them.

I would say Sevilla are the Spanish Arsenal, considering 3 years ago they sold Dani Alves and Christian Poulsen but...9th. That's a rapid fall from champions league qualification in previous seasons.

Looks like they're trying to break the 60 point barrier with brute spending power. I'm guessing their board sense that Everton could be replaced as the top of the rest team.

Yeah, with all likelihood Martinez' more flowing, attacking football will leave them with a defence as bad as United's was in 2012, without a Van Persie up front to make sure they always score more than they let in :P
Particularly if Leighton Baines follows Moyes. Or leaves somewhere else, I could see Mourinho registering an interest in him too, he's not really that great at bringing through the youth (although when he does, they tend to be brilliant, like Balotelli at Inter), so he's probably going to be looking to replace Ashley Cole before he fades too much. Although he could get a second wind like Evra seems to have.

>Manchester City have completed the signing of Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Fernandinho for a fee of about £30m
>mfw

I can't see this being a good signing at all. I don't know much about the player apart from Football Manager knowledge, but I doubt he's ever going to live up to that price tag.

Oh holy crap he's 28, yeah terrible signing.

I can't see this being a good signing at all. I don't know much about the player apart from Football Manager knowledge, but I doubt he's ever going to live up to that price tag.

Oh holy crap he's 28, yeah terrible signing.

A 28 year old Robin van Persie cost less and Man City don't even have a manager right now. Hilarious.

Edit - Finally some Norwich goss, even if it is Da Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...verpools-Jonjo-Shelvey.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

It'll be even more fun when Pellegrini their new manager wants to sign a better player for less and then the owner forces him to play Fernandinho. I can see this leading to a managerial resignation at some point, it appears to be like Shevchenko all over again.

Or Torres :)

Also, breaking news! Apparently Arsenal are bidding £22million for Fellaini, activating his release clause! Now personally I don't like this because a) Arsenal will be even stronger in midfield, where they already excel (Rosicky, who barely plays as far as I can tell, may still be one of the most gifted attacking midfielders in the Premiership), b) It'll pressure United into trying to reunite him with Moyes at great cost, which I don't want as I dislike him and I'd rather they add any money to Chevy's "Ronaldo fund", and c) It'll deplete Everton, whom I much prefer over Liverpool.