Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

[Eruption]

looks like someone working for MUTV is losing his/her job tomorrow

Between this and the Carrick image, all of United's media staff should probably be sacked.

Looks like some wheels are about to move on some transfers down here. Seems as if we will be going for an ex-Boro player, Gary O'Neil on a free. I believe he has moved deeper as his career has progressed , for that reason he should complement our remaining central midfielders pretty well. Most probably means the rumours about Tettey moving to Sunderland are true. Also 95% sure Leroy Fer will be off, we'll be getting somewhere near £10m so I'd be hoping a bit more than a freebie replacement for him.

Lukaku finally moves.

I suppose O'Neil has a lot of experience of getting out of the division now so he could be a very worthwhile player to sign.

How many years will Lukaku get at Everton before Real Madrid or a team like that come calling? I'm going to say one.

Boro have signed another Spanish player (technically he's Equatoginean now but whatever), Emilio Nsue. Unlike Kike, I've heard of him before and since he's a free transfer I'm pretty confident this will be a good deal for us.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

Ryan Bertrand joins Southampton on loan for the season. That's Southampton, West Brom and West Ham with new left backs that aren't Martin Olsson.

If it's true what Mou is saying about Lukaku about him not wanting to compete with other class forwards then maybe he'd be happy to stay with them for a bit longer. Or maybe he just hated the fact that the system at Chelsea is rather restrictive for forwards.

Can't say I've seen Nsue play but reading up he sounds interesting. Also with the signing of James Husband it would appear that Karanka likes his wingbacks.

 

[Eruption]

Apparently Karanka views Nsue as a winger so I don't think we'll see him at wingback too often. Also we're supposedly in for Lowton from Aston Villa on loan which would be a great signing in my opinion.

I wonder how much interest has been shown in the Norwich players that have been held on to so far.

Also, shock of the transfer window - Blackpool have actually spent money on a player.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

It has either been kept extremely quiet or there really hasn't been much. Papers putting 2 and 2 together and getting 38 and agents doing their thing of course but genuine intent to bid, I'm not sure.

We know that QPR are interested in Fer, they have a tw@t of a manager that openly speaks out to the press about transfer targets after all. They were supposedly quite interested in Hooper at one point, might still be once Remy passes a medical somewhere.

I can't see Olsson not being on shortlists of sides, he was one of the few player in our squad whom didn't under perform last season.

Most recent van Wolfswinkel rumour is that Saint Etienne are interested, ''the Championship is not the stage on which he plays football'' says his agent. Does just seem he is hoping hoping to stir up some interest to me but who knows. As soon as we were confirmed down I presumed he might well end up loaned to a Dutch/Portuguese/French/Russian side.

Have heard nothing solid about the likes of Bassong, Becchio, Redmond and Ruddy. Not really sure why there haven't been more departures, perhaps it is the long contracts and decent financial position.

Didn't see much of Lowton last season but in 12/13 he was good.

Edit - Looks like the van Wolfswinkel thing was true.

 

[Eruption]

Off goes RvW then.

It looks like we've beaten Brighton to sign Adam Clayton. I think I'm more excited that we can beat Brighton to a player than I am over the actual signing.

Reina to Bayern seems like an odd move from Bayern's perspective, especially if he's fetching the same wage he was at Liverpool.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

I like how the general opinion of RVW over here has changed from positive things like I've been saying to ''worst signing ever''. Oh well.

Huddersfield have/have had some good players over the last few years. Pilks, Rhodes, Clayton, Smithies and I think they were the ones that took James Vaughan off our hands. Seems like another good signing for Boro.

Some sort of makeweight so that Shaqiri can go the other way?

Away from the RVW thing it was a decent day here. Both Wes Hoolahan and Ryan Bennett signed new contracts and of course the Gary O'Neil signing was confirmed. Also QPR signed Cardiff's best central midfielder so their interest in Fer should cool. I still think he'll go but I'd hate to lose a player to QPR more than most other sides.

Edit - haha how cruel, it seems that QPR fans are convinced they've had an offer accepted. Also Tony Fernandes is now following him on Twitter.

 

[bobandbill]

Whelp, bad news for the Polish team I (and more so my dad) support...

Celtic's UEFA Champions League reprieve earned it a clash with Slovenian champion Maribor in the final playoff round.

The Scottish league winner was beaten 6-1 on aggregate by Poland's Legia Warsaw in the previous round but the Polish club was punished for fielding an ineligible player.

Bartosz Bereszynski, who came on as an 86th-minute substitute as Legia won the second leg 2-0 at Murrayfield on Thursday (AEST), was suspended after a red card for violent conduct in last season's UEFA Europa League.

Hours before the draw for the next round was to be made, UEFA announced that Celtic had been awarded a 3-0 win in the second leg and therefore qualified on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate result.

Pretty rubbish, really. Sure, there's the letter of the law, but there's also the fact the guy came on in the 86th minute of the second leg with the result at 6-1. It's not like he's had any influence on the result. A previous case had only a fine given to the offending team, so why is there a different decision here?

UEFA have some history with Legia too. Last year in Europa, they forced the team's home stadium to be closed because a banner at the match had been in some text font has some nazi links or something, on top of a large fine. A banner the officials had inspected before the match (standard procedure apparently) and they said was fine then. I'll remind you that this is a Polish team as well we're talking about, so it doesn't even make sense for the club to have banners supporting that.

And curiously, Celtic benefited from a similar event only three years ago. How about that.

But then, we're talking about football administration, the same sort of corrupt folk who give world cups to Qatar despite qualified fears of plan/fan/worker safety. =/ [/rant]

Edit: regarding previous cases, 'In 2010 Debrecen were fined for something similar. In 2003 Russia fielded a drug cheat against Wales and were not slung out - a far more egregious offence.' So much for those cases.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

UEFA showing their corrupt nature yet again.

Anyway, new Champs season starts in under an hour. Feels good.

 

[Eruption]

That Legia decision was ridiculous, I'm hoping there's some sort of appeal being created. I didn't know about UEFA's past action against Legia though, knowing UEFA it does seem a bit fishy.

Yay football is back. In the first half hour all that has happened for us is our centre back is injured.

Blackpool just conceded their first goal, lets see how many goals end up being put past them.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

Looks like it was a good start for Boro, even against a poorish Brum side that have just lost one of their better players.

Shame that Fulham couldn't draw level. If Town can play like that in the derby I don't think it'll be another walkover like the last couple.

 

[Alexxturnerr]

Happy about the boro result yesterday and even happier that kike scored. He hopefully will be a good buy for us, now hoping that Adam Clayton signs and we get at least one other signing before the transfer window closes.

 

[Banz]

Wolves are obviously going to win the Championship and get promoted.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

I thought that Wolves would finish in the top half before the season started and they've proven that they will be a tough side for anyone. Don't think they have deep enough squad for the playoffs though.

That being said it was certainly a loss that could have been avoided today. Tactical naivety and a silly sending off by Martin Olsson lost this one for us. I have no idea why we didn't simply go for the 4231/433 with Bennett and Redmond tearing down the wings, it will work at home but away at a solid team like Wolves. Also not so keen on Martin in central defense, he's a proven right back at this level and Ryan Bennett imo is our best central defender. I though Adams would have learned this last season during the Liverpool game.

 

[Eruption]

Indeed, a great start for Boro. From what I've heard there were a lot of positives in terms of Kike & Tomlin forming a partnership as well. Unfortunately I don't have a season ticket for this season since I'll be off to uni soon and the price has doubled due to my age so I don't know for myself.

I'm not too bothered about Clayton to be honest, if Huddersfield are going to carry this on for much longer I'm sure we can find someone worth more value for money elsewhere.

If there's one positive for you to take from this weekend about Norwich, it's that I'm 99% more certain Fulham will stay down based on Magath's decisions.

 

[Limey-chan]

The Premier League season's not far off now! Anyone got any predictions?

For me:
1. City
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Man United
---------------
5. Liverpool

The relegation battle looks set to be close again this season; QPR aside, the newly-promoted sides haven't done an awful lot of business (certainly with bringing in Premier League quality), I can see Swansea, Aston Villa and Southampton being down there among it, it'll be interesting to see how Hull handle the increased fixture list, and i'm not even sure West Brom have bought anybody in this window so far. I think if I had to stick my neck out, i'd go for West Brom, Leicester and Burnley for the drop.

 

[Surigamaru]

The Premier League season's not far off now! Anyone got any predictions?

For me:
1. City
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Man United
---------------
5. Liverpool

The relegation battle looks set to be close again this season; QPR aside, the newly-promoted sides haven't done an awful lot of business (certainly with bringing in Premier League quality), I can see Swansea, Aston Villa and Southampton being down there among it, it'll be interesting to see how Hull handle the increased fixture list, and i'm not even sure West Brom have bought anybody in this window so far. I think if I had to stick my neck out, i'd go for West Brom, Leicester and Burnley for the drop.

1. Chelsea
2. Arsenal
3. United
4. City

I just have a feeling one of Chelsea or Arsenal will win the title. United will be close but they definitely will be in the UCL next season.

 

[Dreg]

I think it will be:

1. Arsenal
2. Chelsea
3. Man City
4. Man United

and for the drop, I'm guessing this year it will be West Brom, Aston Villa and Burnley.

 

[Eruption]

Chelsea
Man United
Man City
Arsenal

Liverpool & Spurs should drop off quite a bit from that pack. I'm thinking United win a cup this year and set a platform for a great shot at the title next season.

I'll say Palace get second season syndrome and go down with Burnley and Leicester.

I usually waste a few hours on a game by game predictor before the season starts so I'll edit in my league table from that if I do it.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

Swap the Manchester clubs around in Nuke's prediction and you have mine.

Norwich selling Anthony Pilkington to Cardiff. Would like to look at it as getting rid of an injury prone player but realistically he was one of our best. Feels like the sort of transfer that could well end up biting Adams and us on the ass.

 

[Alexxturnerr]

So undecided on my fantasy football team, I'm not sure whether to have nasri silva or fabregas in my midfield and torn between jovetic and dzeko up front, or just take a midfielder out and add bojan up front