mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
re: Cole to Liverpool, it's a bit of a strange one I think. If it was financial, you'd think Tottenham could match Liverpool for wages and also have the prospect of possibly playing CL this season. Maybe Hodgson has some grand plan that persuaded him.
 

paolo

Mechanical phantoms
What with 4-2-3-1 being all the rage now, Liverpool are only a few players away from having a really strong side

Reina - Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, do they even have any left backs - Mascherano, Lucas :confused: - Cole, Gerrard, Kuyt - Torres
 

paolo

Mechanical phantoms
However, Cole hasn't actually passed a medical yet, and we all know what he's been like with injuries over the last year. And there's not a lot of depth there
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
What with 4-2-3-1 being all the rage now, Liverpool are only a few players away from having a really strong side

Reina - Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, do they even have any left backs - <del>Mascherano</del>, Lucas :confused: - Cole, Gerrard, Kuyt - Torres

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btw, does anyone know much about this Remy fella they're trying to sign? £12m for someone who Lyon sold to Nice and who can't even get in the French squad ahead of Cisse....maybe he'll be Hodge's new Zamora?
 
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don_quixote

Trent End
that 'send them victorious' book is very funny indeed

incidentally, two weeks until the start of the season and we still haven't signed someone. worrrried
 

mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
I was watching a bit of Sweden vs Colombia under-20 Women's World Cup when out of nowhere Kristin Karlsson delivered this hilarious flip throw in. Unfortunately I can't find a video of it (for some reason FIFA didn't include it in their highlights) but there are these two pictures that hopefully give you an idea. Sweden were 2-0 down at the time.

1277394_full-lnd.jpg


1277393_full-lnd.jpg


Also, has anyone been watching any of the under-19s Euros? France have looked good, Spain not too bad and England a bit uninspiring. Suppose it is quite difficult to know what to read into the performances at the tournament though; quite a few players who star in this sort of thing never go onto achieve anything of any real note.
 

don_quixote

Trent End
well spain = england should be interesting then... i haven't been watching it

flip throw ins are rare but she's not unique, someone once did one for newcastle united... hold on... can't find it, found this awesome video though

 

paolo

Mechanical phantoms
I know it's early August but I will not stand idly by and let the football blather sink below the rugby and cricket threads. Problem is that there haven't even been any good transfer sagas recently (Milner to Man City is about as exciting as it's been :slanted:)

So, anyone got any thoughts on who'll win the Prem?
 

don_quixote

Trent End
i made this post on a forest forum yesterday actually, could be interesting for your thoughts. i entitled it "transfer dynamics":

i wanted to make a post to assauge fears over our lack of activity in this transfer window. currently the situation we are in is a 'climate of fear', maintained by changing premier league rules, the global financial situation and the unpredictability of the league that we are in.

firstly i want to say that in terms of our transfer activity i dread to think how crazy we would be going this summer if we'd been promoted. it appears that the main driver of player valuation is not the value of the player to the selling club, but the perception of how much the buying club would be willing to pay. currently blackpool have managed to bring one player in - an israeli on a free. they want to bring dobbie and dudley campbell to the club, but were reckless enough not to include anything as part of their loan to do with a future transfer and swansea and leicester respectively are trying to grab a piece of their premier league pie but attempting to force them to pay over the odds. i can only begin to imagine what swansea would be trying to get out of us for pratley if we'd been promoted, or what cardiff would be trying to get out of us for whittingham. envy and greed take over here - i don't know how much this has to do with how much we got out of newcastle for perch. i was very surprised about the fee. if tyson does go to blackpool, you better believe we'd be getting over a million for him.

next - the unpredictability of the championship and the fact we have a league here which many believe is wide open is stopping players making the drop from the premiership. players who have made that step are few and far between and of those who have many are coming to the end of their careers. the only ones i can make out who are former premiership regulars and not 'past it' have been nicky hunt (to bristol city) and andy griffin (to reading). players are afraid of making the step down lest they get "stuck" down here.

finally last summer we had what is widely regarded as the best transfer window since frank clark signed colin cooper, stan collymore, lars bohinen and alf-inge haaland. the key to this was that all the transfers happened in what seemed like a 5 day period. teams firstly didn't consider forest a threat and secondly didn't perceive forest as being able to pull this off. unfortunately this success has had a backlash this summer as teams reckon forest have a bit of money swilling about and they want a piece of that pie. therefore we are in a difficult situation where we are forced to either pay over the odds or be dragged back into the pack.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...mmer-2010.html

look at that - do you think any teams have made any really good deals this year? as good as £250k for paul anderson. or £1.75m for someone as good as chris gunter?

and in response to people saying it was a positive post:

on the contrary i'm not sure it's a feelgood post. in fact i think it's very, very worrying indeed. it seems like the championship is now full of teams scrabbling so much to get to the top of the cliff that we're all pulling each other back trying to reach it. the envy and jealousy and desperately wanting the riches and our piece of the pie is holding us all back, and in turn, making the hedgemony of the premiership stronger.

blackpool have been royally fucked. they shouldn't have made the playoffs and they did holding a load of clubs who thought they had a chance back. they won the play-offs and held teams back who were in stronger positions and not so reliant on loanees, they lived the dream... but the rest of the division has said it's final "FUCK YOU". if blackpool had stayed down they would have more chance of signing the players they're trying to buy. any hope they had of staying up has been crippled, not by a lack of ambition, but by the envy of others.

dj campbell doesn't belong in leicester. he belongs in blackpool. leicester are cutting their noses off to spite their face right now because they think they can get a bit of blackpool's booty. dj campbell is not worth £1m to them but they want a bit of what blackpool have got. and if they don't get it, they're gonna drag blackpool back down with them.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I know it's early August but I will not stand idly by and let the football blather sink below the rugby and cricket threads. Problem is that there haven't even been any good transfer sagas recently (Milner to Man City is about as exciting as it's been :slanted:)

So, anyone got any thoughts on who'll win the Prem?

I think you got a choice of two. i'm gonna try to avoid the Prem this season, for reasons of sanity - I'll prob last about five weeks.
 

morgan

procrastination expert
I think its definitely a seller's market at the moment. so many teams within the same leagues are in different stratospheres financially.

By virtue of a late season surge and a play off win Blackpool now have access to £20m+ TV money, and I think its only natural that their Championship peers want a share of that.

I'm not sure I would describe B'Pool as fucked by this either. If they decide to remain modest in the transfer market, couldn't they always effectively pocket the TV money even if they go straight back down? I know that's not particularly romantic but tbh they are not likely to make it as a long-term top-flight team. Yet that money could really rejuvenate them as a solid second tier side, which hasn't always been the case.

Perhaps the new home-grown quota ruling will force some of the more established PL sides to start recruiting more from the championship, and the TV money might trickle down a bit more?

As for Forest it's probably the fact that your now seen as a big threat in the division that will make it hard for you to buy cheaply.
 
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