Roiling football blather

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datura

white collar loafer
Can't wait to see Berbatov in a red shirt, so glad I got a season ticket this year :D

The Curbishley situation was inevitable, he brought in a lot of overpaid crocks and paid for it with the prudence of the board this transfer window. He's not a bad manager but he lacks something that the top managers have and it is only a matter of time before Ashton moves on (fitness depending).
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
I know the England game is live on setanta, but I'm scouring the TV listings for a highlights programme on terrestrial TV and can't see anything. Am I blind, or is Setanta now the only place you can see England qualifiers?

If this is Barwick's doing, I hope his fucking redundancy cheque bounces.
 
hucks

hucks

Your Message Here
crackerjack said:
I know the England game is live on setanta, but I'm scouring the TV listings for a highlights programme on terrestrial TV and can't see anything. Am I blind, or is Setanta now the only place you can see England qualifiers?

If this is Barwick's doing, I hope his fucking redundancy cheque bounces.
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The Beeb and Setanta couldn't agree a highlights package, so for the away games, yep, you've got to go satellite.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/sep/04/englandfootballteam
 
mos dan

mos dan

fact music
in our house we just got a setanta package with bt vision (for the prem games, NOT for the england qualifiers). like it just arrived yesterday...

so having watched england vs andorra, i would say you're better off without the 'highlights'. it was so awful i decided to start supporting andorra half way through to stop myself falling asleep. england just aren't very good, and are getting worse if anything.

afc wimbledon vs weston super mare this afternoon was far more entertaining, even if we couldn't secure the win (1-1, maintaining our unbeaten record). there was a great atmosphere i must say, in the absolute pissing rain in norbiton... 2900 people showed up on a day like today to watch a blue square south match.. warms the cockles dunnit :D
 
mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
don_quixote said:
england shouldn't really have to play andorra though should they?
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Too right - we already know who the best teams are, so we shouldn't have to run any competitions in the first place, right? ;)

In fact, I've heard that Argentina won't have to play any European teams at the World Cup: they turn up at the Semi Final stage to play the winner of the pre-qualifying. Brazil await the winner in the Final.

Similarly, why should Man U and Chelsea have to play any of the feeble outfits (from Liverpool downwards) you get in the Premiership? Why not just kick them out and run a properly competitive three team Premiership with Arsenal - just think of the extra tv money: EVERY SUNDAY IS SUPER SUNDAY!
 
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don_quixote

Trent End
well they're not really equivalent scenarios though are they? how about man utd don't have to play dulwich hamlet to win the fa cup do they; unless dulwich hamlet qualify to play them first.

even more absurd that andorra can't even play us in their own country.

top international sides should play each other more often than... well...

lets say the 'classical' international sides are england, france, spain, italy, germany, holland, argentina and brazil - ok? other teams may be better than these in certain tournaments but these are the most consistent sides across the last 40 years with the most football history - lets look at when they last met in competitive internationals:

england vs
france - euro 2004
spain - euro 1996
italy - world cup qualifying 1997
germany - world cup qualifying 2001
holland - euro 1996
argentina - world cup 2002
brazil - world cup 2002

france vs
spain - world cup 2006
italy - euro 2008
germany - world cup 1986
holland - euro 2008
argentina - world cup 1978
brazil - world cup 2006

spain vs
italy - euro 2008
germany - euro 2008
holland - euro qualifying 1983
argentina - world cup 1966
brazil - world cup 1986

italy vs
germany - world cup 2006
holland - euro 2008
argentina - world cup 1990
brazil - world cup 1994

germany vs
holland - euro 2004
argentina - world cup 1990
brazil - world cup 2002

holland vs
argentina - world cup 1998
brazil - world cup 1994

argentina vs
brazil - world cup qualifying 2008

germany last played france in 1986!! spain last played holland in 1983!!

is there no appetite to actually see these fixtures?
 
mos dan

mos dan

fact music
england don't deserve byes to skip playing anyone until they play less abysmally. also we shd prob wait and see if they can beat croatia first before we say they're part of any group of 'classic international sides'.. (i do take your point though)
 
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crackerjack

Well-known member
don_quixote said:
england vs
france - euro 2004
spain - euro 1996
italy - world cup qualifying 1997
germany - world cup qualifying 2001
holland - euro 1996
argentina - world cup 2002
brazil - world cup 2002
Click to expand...

Hmm, that record reads lost, won, drew, won, won, won, lost. Can we play them every week?;)

I agree with one part of your statement though - if a country can''t maintain a football ground good enough for internationals then they shouldn't be an international team.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I hear what you're saying Quixote but I think that for England to argue that there are teams that are too weak for them to play they need to be contemptuously shrugging them aside 10-0 not labouring to 2-0. I mean, if I played for my team against someone and went in 0-0 at half time, conceded 2 in the second half and then heard the opposition arguing that they were so far above us we shouln't even have to play each other I'd be pretty pissed off.
That's what I don't get though - why don't international sides bursting with top level talent (especially, but not just, England) always take the piss out of minnows bursting with part time players who wouldn't be able to compete in the leagues the established countries draw their players from? I know they say "It's difficult when you play someone and they have ten behind the ball" but how difficult is it really? What set of circumstances would an England player admit were conducive to an easy win?
 
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don_quixote

Trent End
mos dan said:
england don't deserve byes to skip playing anyone until they play less abysmally. also we shd prob wait and see if they can beat croatia first before we say they're part of any group of 'classic international sides'.. (i do take your point though)
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i'm not saying we should deny croatia their chance to compete or that any of these classical sides should just have automatic byes, but there's something to be said for some kind of world league with two year cycle, or an equivalent. something where, maybe, the players might have even a smidgen more passion for - the world cups come at the end of long long seasons and are played in searing heat.

crackerjack said:
Hmm, that record reads lost, won, drew, won, won, won, lost. Can we play them every week?;)
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and france only beat us through an inspired zidane. i wonder which player played in the most of those games... beckham? shearer? owen?

IdleRich said:
I hear what you're saying Quixote but I think that for England to argue that there are teams that are too weak for them to play they need to be contemptuously shrugging them aside 10-0 not labouring to 2-0. I mean, if I played for my team against someone and went in 0-0 at half time, conceded 2 in the second half and then heard the opposition arguing that they were so far above us we shouln't even have to play each other I'd be pretty pissed off.
That's what I don't get though - why don't international sides bursting with top level talent (especially, but not just, England) always take the piss out of minnows bursting with part time players who wouldn't be able to compete in the leagues the established countries draw their players from? I know they say "It's difficult when you play someone and they have ten behind the ball" but how difficult is it really? What set of circumstances would an England player admit were conducive to an easy win?
Click to expand...

i didn't watch the game, but from how i've seen england play in the past they just keep crossing the ball into the box again and again and again and don't really do much with it. i don't understand why they don't just run at them, gain free kicks and penalties and then get decent shots at goal again and again. is there any youtube footage of when we used to cane luxembourg 10-0 and stuff?
 
hucks

hucks

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mixed_biscuits said:
Too right - we already know who the best teams are, so we shouldn't have to run any competitions in the first place, right? ;)

In fact, I've heard that Argentina won't have to play any European teams at the World Cup: they turn up at the Semi Final stage to play the winner of the pre-qualifying. Brazil await the winner in the Final.

Similarly, why should Man U and Chelsea have to play any of the feeble outfits (from Liverpool downwards) you get in the Premiership? Why not just kick them out and run a properly competitive three team Premiership with Arsenal - just think of the extra tv money: EVERY SUNDAY IS SUPER SUNDAY!
Click to expand...

Croatia shouldn't have to play Andorra, though, because Croatia are actually demonstrably good. They got to the quarters of the last tournament, so they should be able to skip the crappy bits of qualifying. They previous quarter finalists could spend a couple of years playing matches against each other. Meanwhile, the also rans, like England, can scrap for the remaining places.

Alternatively, all these microstates should compete for one qualifying spot, and that would be their achievement -qualifying for qualifying. The point with Andorra, San Marino, Lichtenstein etc is they never, ever get any better. Andorra in particular. Now they'd have to.
 
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