Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

My insider sources reckon hughton might be looking at everyone's least favourite Middlesbrough player Marvin Emnes, it's nothing concrete yet but still a possibility. I can only hope someone takes him this summer.

If Remy gets convincted, he may become the most infamous footballer of all time.

EUROPA LEAGUE CHAMPIONS BABY. UUUUH YEEAAAA

Benfica played better than us, not gonna lie. Shame their finishing let them down.

No, lets be honest that happens in football all the time. The only real tragedy is that John Terry got his filthy hands on that trophy. Lampard should've lifted it on his own, or with the manager, or even Abramovich if he wanted (don't know if he's there though) but not Terry. I could kinda understand it when he went to get the Champions League trophy - although it was his own stupid fault for being sent off against Barcelona, he'd made a contribution to their campaign. He hasn't had much impact on the Europa League though. If I remember rightly he played all of their Champions League matches - look where that got them. Benitez fair excluded him, and look at the success!

I just hope there's another John Terry photoshop storm like last year.

Anyway, Benfica deserved to win, I was going to place a bet on Torres to score first but didn't. So all in all, pretty bad match for me.

Haha, know how you feel. Was saying for weeks how I'd put a tenner or some stupid amount of money on Wigan winning the FA Cup. #bottledit

David Beckham joins the increasing list of high profile retirements this season.

His career was basically over six years ago in my opinion so I'm not too affected by this.

Yah, it was over when he joined LA. Still a pretty great guy and a decent footballer though. I'd say he'll be missed but I'm sure his media presence will be there for years to come.

As for the Euro final...I just didn't care this time. Teams that drop out of the CL shouldn't get another chance for silverware.

Watched the Paris game. He was fighting back the tears that entire second half.

Zlatan (the man that is so good we don't use his last name anymore) completely stole the show though. Even though he was far from his best he scored two making this his record league goalscoring season.

Beckham's final assist was so bad, it didn't seem fitting personally.

Anyway, we're saying goodbye to a large amount of players in the final day of the Premiership today, MOTD will be interesting just for the apparent stream of chances given to Carragher today. He just hit the post from 25 yards, I feel sorry for him if he doesn't score by the end.

It's always nice to tune in for a Man City loss as well.

Howson scoring 2 goal of the month contenders in 2 games, not bad.

Final position of 11th means decent prize money (nearly 3m more than if we would have lost) and that Hughton actually improved on Lambert's finish last year. It hasn't been pretty at times but it certainly sets up for a very interesting summer.

Looks like the prem went a bit mad today, I guess something had to make up for the lack of positions being decided.

And Mourinho has just become part of Real Madrid's dark history, with Ancelotti being his likely successor. Karanka will probably fill in Madrid's bench for the last two matches this season.

I'm very proud to be a supporter of Atlético Madrid, since we were the last nail on his coffin :D Winning the Cup at the Bernabéu, coming back from 1-0 to 1-2, after 14 years of losing against them every match, with Mou and Ronaldo being sent off with straight reds. Ahh, the joy. Bloody wonderful season.

My condolences to whoever has to endure him now.

Bet he comes and wins the prem with Chelsea now. TBH I want him in Ingerland even if it is only for the mad bantz in his press conferences.

Ahhh Norwich have released one of my favourite players, Simeon Jackson you will be missed. Really hope he finds a nice home, hopefully in the Championship. Don't think he can cut it at the top level but getting the goal which clinched second for us makes him a hero.

Korey Smith, Elliot Ward and Lee Camp are the other notable guys going out on frees whilst Martin and Tierney have already found clubs.

Considering David Fox, Dani Ayala and possibly Andrew Surman (I hope he stays) will probably be sold this means we should see a fair few additions to the squad this summer. Guess I'll be checking the site 50 times a day.

Edit - Oh, James Vaughan as well. Didn't set the championship alight last season so he'll probably not play for us again. Perhaps another loan.

I'm sure Mowbray will be looking in to the worst of that bunch at the moment so he can disappoint me with some more terrible signings.

Hopefully Mourinho is coming back, he can have no complaints with how things ended in Madrid, finishing so far behind because he hated all the decent Madrid players except Ronaldo. Ronaldo's red card in the final was a bit ridiculous on a separate note by the way.

Just had la look at your signings over recent years and I see what you mean.

I am also reminded of the massive Afonso Alves one. He lost me top spot in my fantasy football league that year. Why did I put him in based on goals in Holland?

We prefer to forget that name in Middlesbrough, at least there was a reason for signing him though. Most of Mowbray's signings have involved signing a terrible L1/L2 player on the off chance they turn out good and it really hasn't worked.

Nuke said:

Hopefully Mourinho is coming back, he can have no complaints with how things ended in Madrid, finishing so far behind because he hated all the decent Madrid players except Ronaldo. Ronaldo's red card in the final was a bit ridiculous on a separate note by the way.

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Well, if you add foot to the face + Gabi starts having a nosebleed of a sudden, then maybe the red card starts looking more warranted.

Unless you mean that the fact that it even came down to it was ridiculous, which I agree with.

Well obviously I can't be the greatest judge, but from the angle of the replay on youtube it looks like Ronaldo doesn't catch him at all and the flick looks natural. Obviously if his nose starts bleeding he must have caught him a little, but it didn't look intentional either way. I'm also amazed Gabi didn't get any punishment for the original foul.

Pulis seems to have gone. Can't be bad for the Premier league, that.

>Norwich City earn £46.07m in Premier League television income for 2012/13
and that'll be taking another big bump next season with that new TV deal.

We were creaming our pants over the rumour of a 2m investment just 6 seasons ago.

Nuke said:

Well obviously I can't be the greatest judge, but from the angle of the replay on youtube it looks like Ronaldo doesn't catch him at all and the flick looks natural. Obviously if his nose starts bleeding he must have caught him a little, but it didn't look intentional either way. I'm also amazed Gabi didn't get any punishment for the original foul.

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He did pick up a yellow, which caused him to be dismissed in the 124th minute.

And don't worry, the narrators here also thought there was no contact until they saw Gabi bleeding. I think there is another angle where it's seen more clearly. It is amazing though that the ref caught it immediately, kudos to him.

I wouldn't be surprised if the ref wasn't sure and just made the decision anyway, but I guess it ended well.

As for Pulis' departure, it seems like a good thing all round. Give the PL a new interesting team and perhaps allow Stoke to progress (he's taken them backwards season after season despite massive investment but no one picks up on it). On the other hand, it might let one of the newly promoted teams have an easy chance to stay up if Stoke collapse.