According to the BBC, Portsmouth have agreed a deal for Jermain Defoe, with rumours Saviola could be moving on loan to Spurs!

Now that would be a nice bit of business!

I agree, I've been a Benitez supporter for a while, but I think it's time for a change.

Gallas = Cry Baby.


That is all.

Arsenal 2 - 2 Birmingham

how quickly people turn against a guy that's lead liverpool to more international success than any manager since their 80's hey day. I think Benitez's successes with the team has earned him a little breathing room.

Glory, glory Tottenham Hotspur!

Please post in the Carling Cup thread.

Sorry Doug, link??

Ive gone thru the last yeas posts and cant find it, mighta missed it tho

LOL was a joke, it wasn't intended to make you search through last years posts though.

oh haha, it was only 5 pages in this section lol

But seriously, how ****en awesome is Juande Ramos?

Edit: You are Brum City fan?

meh, ramos is pretty good im friends with a tottenham fan. Im actually a west brom fan but I dont really follow football so much now i've gone to university. I just watch match of the day sometimes and know the scores. Im not really too bothered about who wins or loses. Tottenham and Aston Villa will do well this/next season.

Another 3 goal performance from Torres, Pool back in 4th.

Im a humble Newcastle fan,

of course as an irish fan I attempt to keep up my obligated anti english campaign, I always support any of the english teams in the champions league. Our own league consists of one professional team(Shelbourne) and the rest amatuers. Its pretty bad.


I've seen a lot of flucked up shit supporting Newcastle but this is the first time being in a proper relegation battle.
I never realised how brilliant it is, of course it is horrible, but instead of relying on one team, you are paying attention closely to 8 different teams.

I don't wish this on anyone, but seriously the relegation battle is a nail biter, my first time experiencing it.

And shut the **** up Doug, if West Brom get promoted you will become a loyal fan all over again

Enough said.

Did anyone see the Spurs - Chelsea game last night, brilliant stuff.

Yeah, very entertaining game and great goal by Keane... pleasing to see Chelsea drop some points too. Looking at the top four teams' run ins, I think Chelsea have the easiest fixtures (Arsenal have the hardest, imo), so as a United fan I was extra pleased about that, because it gives us a little more breathing room and MAYBE the privilage of being satisfied with a draw when we go to Stamford Bridge. - Not that we'll play for a draw, but, ya know.

Also, from that game, Ashley Cole once again reinforces everything I hate about the modern (in particular, English, I'm ashamed to say) footballer. Rude, arrogant, overpaid prat, with absolutely no respect for officials or the example that they are setting for the younger generation. I mean, what was he complaining about for God's sake? Makes a ridiculous challenge and is lucky to escape a red card, then has the audacity to act like he's somehow the victim, screaming at the ref. I hate Ashley Cole and everything he represents.

Anyway, should be a great day of football on Sunday. The big four in action, so could go a long way to deciding the outcome of the League this season.

My predictions:

Manchester United 1 - 0 Liverpool

Chelsea 2 - 2 Arsenal

Just got a job in Israel, Sundays are our Mondays. I dont know why Im here either.


Keanes goal was brilliant, especially after the whole repeatedly subbing him off and then fining him, and he scores with 2 minutes to go.
Not argueing with the fine, as big headed as I am, I'd never question Ramos.


Newcastle Birmingham was a bad game, exciting for me, I have no idea why he took Martins off, or why Owen got so much praise. Martins set up the goal and everytime he got the ball, the Birmingham defense ,who were solid all night long, started to fall apart.

Holeheartedly agree. And what is with Terry and his CONSTANT getting in the face of referees over every little decision! Does my skull in. Even when the ref was about to book the spurs boy for diving (I forget who) the Chelsea players were all over him like a rash, if it was a penalty he'd point at the spot you morons!

Anyway, no Chelsea fans in this forum so that was a kind of pointless rant but anyways...

Liverpool>Manchester Utd

Chelsea>Arsenal.

Can't pick scores though, it's that damn close.

Yep, Terry is pretty bad for that too. He's the captain, so he should have the right to voice his opinion, but he still goes overboard. Actually, I think there should be a rule imposed where ONLY the captains are allowed to challenge decisions/argue decisions within reason, with the ref. If anyone else gets overly involved or rants & swears at the ref, automatic yellow card. Well... if they behave like spoilt children, they deserve to be treated as such.

They don't behave like that in Rugby, or any other sport I can think of for that matter. Football should be no different.

So, you think Liverpool will beat United at Old Trafford? You seem to be pretty knowledgeable (for a Scot, lol! j/k), but I've gotta disagree with you on that one.

Tell you what, I'll bet you signatures that Man Utd win. If Liverpool win, I'll change my sig to 'Scotland is the greatest footballing country in the world'. If Utd win, you have to change it in the same way, replacing Scotland with England... for a week. What d'ya say?

See the thing is, although Man Utd have owned Liverpool's soul over the last few seasons, Liverpool just seem to have a knack of beating teams that are better than them! And Man Utd are most definately better.

As for the sig bet, book it!

Booked!

Watched Football Focus today... Mark Lawrenson said exactly the same thing that only the captains should be allowed to confront the ref. I think he's been reading this thread, lol.

I wonder what his username would be? "Imconstantlywrongatpredictions"?

Either that or 'Haircutsareover-rated'.

I see that Newcastle won today....... keegan must be VERY relieved

Man Utd 3 - 0 Liverpool

Weeeeeeee... Ship it! Get that sig changed!

Done.

Reina is an anus. Wes f'n Brown, ffs.

Its Man U's league to lose now. If they beat Chelsea at the bridge in a few weeks its all over.

Way too strong for Liverpool, never in danger. Once again though, great substitutions by Ferguson to finish off the game... Nani and Tevez (along with Anderson) are really replacing the old guard now of Giggs and Scholes, like Ronaldo and Carrick/Hargreaves have already done with Beckham/Keane.

Gotta give them maximum respect possible, true United legends, but it's clear that their time is almost up. They can still produce moments of brilliance, but can't be relied on to last 90 minutes. Also, it's what the team is capable of when they're OFF the ball too. They're not as quick as they were and don't push forward or make the runs they once did. It seems we have more options when Nani and Tevez are on.

And I was just laughing my head off when Mascherano was sent off. I mean, has he got a brain cell or what? Esp after the Cole drama... he just comes out shouting and swearing at the ref from the first whistle. What a knob, lol!


Chelsea main threats now for sure. I said a few weeks ago that Arsenal would probably run out of steam, and they have (apart from a great result against Milan) been pretty poor. I just can't see us losing the title though, our squad is too strong.

Doubleaments?

Man utd have been far and away the best side in England and it would be a travesty if they didn't win the league. Mascherano is a tit, I think he's an amazing player but what he did was just brain-dead. I agree that Chelsea are the major challenger now, Arsenal might be too focused on the CL and their squad isn't deep enough. Man Utd on the other hand have a squad capable of winning everything they put their minds to.

Newcastle for 17th!!

Looks like we might pull through the relegation battle. I like how we are playing Owen Martins and Viduka together, playing tottenham now, will probably give us sever reality check after 4 important points gained.



I hate Chelsea, but I want Grant to win the League. Manchester deserve it, no doubt but after Grant made those two subs and the chelsea fans were all singing "mourhino" and booing his decisions, with Ballack shaking his head at being taken off.
It all looked dreadful for him, hes been a dead man walking since day one, then bam two goals and all thw wagon jumpers are singing his praises.

Go on Avram!

Oooooh James D?

Next time you pop in here. I'd just like to remind you off this evening's scores.

Scotland 1-1 The Team That Beat England Home and Away.

The Team Scotland Beat Home and Away 1-0 England.

Of course these are friendlies so mean nothing, but seeing as we both have nothing to look forward to this summer I'm going to pretend I care! Ribery eh? What a beast, won't be long 'til he's in the prem. I'll have to look up his contract with Bayern but I'm sure they could be sway by ££££.

And I quite like my sig after tonight, seems ironic

EDIT: Oh, and happy birthday!

Maschearno didn't swear at the referee. He asked why Torres had been yellow carded.

Which is none of his business, Torres should ask why he has been carded or Gerrard can ask on his behalf. It had nothing to do with Mascherano, he got into the referee's face and after everything that had been happening I can guarantee referees had been told to punish this to the fullest extent.
Mascherano was already on a booking and should have been looking to keep his head down and not alert any official to his presence for a good while. What he did was brainless and deserving of a booking.

Thanks, seeing as my birthday was mid-week I went to my local pub to watch the football... lol, so rubbish. If we're gonna play friendlies, we could at least try to play. Unless we were trying, in which case that is very worrying... seeing as we had ONE shot at goal!! Seriously though, it was the most boring game of football I've had the misfortune to sit through for quite a while. We wern't even watching it for the last 10-15 minutes really, we kinda turned and were just drinking at the bar... that hasn't happened for a while.

Congrats on the draw.. tbh the whole international scene bores me at the moment. That's probably because I'm an England supporter though, and we haven't been worth watching since Italia '90, if I'm honest. I've got no clue what's wrong with England.. we just can't seem to perform at all. Too nervous? Too much pressure? Prefer playing for their clubs? Just not good enough? Under-perform when Beckham is in the team, and we need to get the Beckham circus out of the England set-up? I dunno, and I don't really care at the moment, lol.

Yeah, I agree that Ribery is pretty impressive.. although I lost a £10 bet just before the penalty was taken, I though James would save it, or he'd miss. LOL! I actually bet on David James! I must have been drunk.

Bring back the Premiership.. quick!


And Doug, not sure if you watched the game on Sunday, but seriously Mascherano was shouting and swearing from the first minute. He'd got up in the ref's face at every opportunity, and you didn't have to be a professional lip-reader to understand the disgusting abuse coming out of his mouth. When he came running 30 yards to question the Torres decision, when it was nothing to do with him... that was the final straw. And I fully agree he should have been sent off too, I've had it with all these little cry babies whining and swearing and complaining about not getting enough protection, while at the same time acting like jerks.. I hope they start sending off MORE of these over-paid punks, as an example to kids that you can't get away with being disrepectful

If only more players were model pros like Ryan Giggs... the Premiership would be a much better place

I'm sure Dani Behr would agree with that lol

And as for why English players underperform, I don't think anyone has a definate answer but it could be the rewards aren't as great. "Oh a chance to play through the summer, when I could not play and still earn an obscene amount, hmmmmm."

And the fact that you all hate each other. Now we all hate each other too but it's only an east/west divide and most of the squad is united by being from the west. England has:

Londoners - hate every "Northern Monkey" north of Watford. Geordies hate all the Southern Poofs, Mancs hate Scousers et vice versa and Yorkshiremen hate everyone. It must be a tough blend to bring together.

Yeah I mean you could go with your own biased opinions or you could listen to me (qualified referee) who knows how ****ed up the refereeing system is and how all the shit rises to the top, bennett, clatenberg, etc.

Um..... if you're a qualified referee, then surely you WANT bad behaviour stamped out??! That's my whole point!

If you actually read my previous posts on this subject, you'd see that it's the lower leagues/youth games/lower refereeing that will benefit, if 'stars' are not allowed to get away with stuff that should be clamped out, and that makes life hard for referees outside of the Premiership.

In fact, after re-reading your post, I'm not sure what your point is, apart from the fact that you wanted it known that you referee. Biased opinion on what? Lol, if that's what I get for trying to make life easier for lower league refs, then screw you... I hope you get verbal all the time.

Yes getting sworn at is pretty common and should be got rid of but asking the referee a question is allowed. He asked him a question and got sent off.

But the point James was making and I agree with, is that Mascherano was all over the referee from the first whistle and was already on a booking. It was no business of his what happened to Torres, there were 9 other players on the Liverpool side, none of them got involved. Why did Mascherano feel he had the right to get in the referee's face?
And he wasn't "just asking" he was very aggresive towards the referee and the referee was well within his rights to send him off. I'm sure you would do the same in whatever standard league you officiate in.

Sigh... Doug, you either a. Clearly didn't see the game, and how Mascherano was asking to be sent off with his behaviour, from the first minute, or b. Are just playing devil's advocate for some reason.

Yes, if you took that one incident in a vacuum, maybe it's not a booking (it's borderline)... but we don't know what the ref had said to him the last time he'd shouted and sworn at him (a few minutes earlier). He may have said 'this is your last chance', therefore he was stupid to act the way he did. With that considered, easy booking.

I'm even more surprised, that as a referee yourself, you'd defend him! And I still don't know what you mean when you say I have a biased opinion? Because I'm a United fan? Well, I've made it clear before actually that I am very fair about stuff like that... basically, I don't just blindly defend players just because they play for United. If Rooney, Ronaldo.. anyone, shows obvious disrespect to officials tomorrow, book them. If they do it again, send them off. No problem. For example, I agree that Ronaldo should get bookings for diving when he does. I'm not biased..


Anyway, tomorrow's Man U, Arsenal predictions:

Bolton 2 - 1 Arsenal... Bolton have a great record against Arsenal in recent years, and Arsenal's confidence is super low.

Man Utd 3 - 1 Villa... obv.


These are unbiased opinions, lol

At time of writing Bolton are 2-0 up - you are some kind of sorcerer.

Bolton 2 - 3 Arsenal Lol, the amount of points Arsenal have picked up this season in the last 5 minutes, and injury time, is insane. Own goal too... so lucky.

Bored, with a bit of free time, so gonna make a few predictions for this weekend's games... Let's see how many, if any, I get right.

Arsenal 2 - 0 Liverpool

Villa 2 - 1 Bolton

Blackburn 1 - 1 Spurs

Fulham 1 - 0 Sunderland

Man City 2 - 2 Chelsea

Newcastle 2 - 0 Reading

Wigan 1 - 3 Birmingham

Everton 4 - 0 Derby

Middlesbrough 0 - 2 Man Utd

Same here.
In work, finished all my work and they have nothing for me.

Arsenal 3- 1 Liverpool(Im going for a 1-1 in the 2nd leg_

Villa 1 - 1 Bolton

Blackburn 2 - 1 Spurs

Fulham 0 - 1 Sunderland

Man City 1 - 3 Chelsea

Newcastle 1 - 1 Reading

Wigan 0 - 1 Birmingham

Everton 2 - 0 Derby

Middlesbrough 1 - 1 Man Utd

Lol... I appreciate your sense of humour.


That was a joke, yeah? If not, I sense a sig bet coming on!

Middlesborough are as tough as hell lately, and my prediction is based on Ferguson feilding one of his b teams due to champs league etc.


By the way, why was Park playing agaisnt Roma, tactically? someone injured...Im figuring tactically but I dont know why

Giggs limped off at the end of the Villa game last weekend.. I assume he would have played against Roma as first choice. I was a little surprised Park started myself, but Ferguson was probably just thinking that tactically, away from home in Europe, that he wants a little more stability, therefore he didn't choose Nani. (i.e - Park is much more likely to track back and defend). He tends to play it a little safer away like that generally... like, Tevez didn't play, and also Scholes played.. who plays deeper back these days.. and he could play a really solid 3 man midfield of Scholes, Anderson and Carrick.

As for the Middlebrough prediction.. fair enough, just can't see it myself

Slapstick is correct at half-time. However, I'm sure you guys are watching in the pub, I have it on in the background as I grind the microlimit tables.

Definately more goals in it. I'm liking Afonso Alves, looks lively. I'd have played him with Tuncay though, Aliadiere is murder.

Oh dear, could this be the start of problems for Man Utd?
I don't mean the result, but with an injury to Rio now to go along with Vidic the back 4 will be looking a lot more shaky. Championships are not won with the likes of Wes Brown and John O'Shea anchoring your defence. And with Van der Saar's joints looking rustier he's going to need much better protection. Interesting times ahead...

Defensive injuries to Ferdinand and Vidic is WAY more worrying than this result. This exact same thing happened at the end of last season too, when we went to Milan without them... cost us very dearly.

I don't think it's just a coincidence that once one gets injured, the other one does, because what happens is that once one is not there, the other is pushing themselves harder and having to work a lot harder/go for challenges that they'd usually be able to leave for the other. So... they're more susceptible to an injury.

It's such an important pairing, and like I've said before, it's the only area where we don't have the necessary cover. Yes, we have Pique, O'Shea, and can move Brown into the centre... but that will not be good enough if we want to assure the title, and win in Europe.

This could really **** us up, at the very wrong time. At least one of them must be back, very soon, hopefully in time for Arsenal.