Very sad news. Most football people tend to have their bad days but i can't remember him once ever acting in any other way than with respect towards his team and opponents. He always came accross as a true gentleman. The sickest part is that this was the 5th time cancer had struck him. I hope that he is at peace.

It takes a special kind of man to be respected by all football fans, regardless of which team they support or where they come from. He really will be missed.

You just can't value the type of commitment, honour and integrity Sir Bobby displayed throughout his life and career. There's many people in the world of football right now who would do well to learn a thing or two from him.


RIP.

Bye bye Alonso

FML!

gunna miss him, definatley won't be able to find a replacement as good as him


looking forward to the new season tho, liverpool definatley need to make a couple of new signings, a new striker would be nice and another midfielder.

Liverpool needs a Vinnie Jones-esque enforcer.

Have you seen Mascherano? Liverpool are fine in defense and thats not what Alonso's job was.

Maybe you mean Arsenal...

This is really disappointing.

I think Liverpool have known this was a certainty for a little while now... they've confirmed Aquilani from Roma for £20m.



edit - I had Alonso in my fantasy team. Time for a transfer.

Yes, I suppose Arsenal could benefit from some toughness.

I know this isn't BPL news, but Real Madrid are playing here in Toronto on Friday.

Jozy Altidore just signed with Hull City. Hope he gets some good playing time.

lol. Benitez and fantasy premier league don't mix. If its not carragher, gerrard or torres theres no point in buying them. Rotation kills the rest.

Not that Im one to talk, I've gone for an odd enough team, you know you're doing something wierd when it tells you, you have too many hull city players.

I was on a Fulham jag, partly because some of their players had such good value.

My fantasy team is pretty good, but i might have to change my strike force, i have Owen and Jo. i'm pretty sure Jo will bag a handfull of goals, and i think Owen will too, but it all depends on how often he gets played.

you guys all in the FCP league?

i've gone for solid depth over superstars this year with van persie, kenwynn jones and james beattie up top. i fully expect rvp to last all of 3 games before getting injured.

anyways, the football league starts tonight so time for some predictions:

in the championship: winners - West Brom. promoted - Sheffield Utd, Derby (playoffs). relegated: Barnsley, Plymouth, Scunthorpe.

league 1: winners - Leeds. promoted - Norwich, Brentford (playoffs). relegated: Exeter, Stockport, Carlisle, Walsall.

league 2: winners - Bury. promoted - Chesterfield, Rotherham, Northampton (playoffs). relegated: Accrington Stanley, Darlington.

i dont really follow the lower leagues, but i think sheffield wednesday might sneak a promotion this year, hoping my hometown doncaster make some noise

I went with some very homer-ish picks with Torres, Gerrard and Agger making my squad. However, I did go with 2 Man. U players and 2 Everton as well.

Edit- Also, I think I may be the only Liverpool fan around who doesn't hate the Alonso/Aquilani deals. Of course I like Alonso and think he fit beautifully, but we sold him at the peak of his value, got a younger, talented replacement for a solid price and still have money left over. I would rather have had Alonso stay, but assuming he wouldn't, I'm very happy with this outcome. Pluuuus, we kept Mascherano. I'm very, very excited for the upcoming season.

i don't hate the move, but i'd rather keep alonse. I don't really know much about aquilani but i've heard good things. I guess it will let gerrard play in the centre midfield role more now alonse has left, but like you said, keeping mascherano is a very big bonus to the team. I'm hoping Ryan Babel gets played more this season, he's shown some good stuff but hasn't been given the time to show what he can truly do imo.

This is definatley liverpools season, we can't go without a trophy again.

Gentlemen, start your engines! The pre-season opener tomorrow, can't wait... I've really missed football this summer, obviously with no Euros or World Cup it seems longer. Probably also because the last competitive match involved Utd bending over and letting Barca have their way with us, so it's been a long wait to get back out there and brush that off. It's relatively meaningless of course, but its still the two biggest teams in England playing against each other.


Eyes will be on Foster (who I'm sure Fergie has to pick this time, to replace VDS), but mainly on our midfield structure without Ronaldo. It's an important season for Fletcher, Anderson and Carrick (and Park), the emphasis is on them to dominate games even moreso now, and it'll be good to see Valencia in action too... It'll be nice to see him embarrass Mr Cole a few times tomorrow. Nani is in the last chance saloon this season, so he might get a game tomorrow to get an idea where his form is.

I think we're gonna see Rooney have his best season for United, playing central rather than out wide. I don't think he ever responded that well to playing second fiddle to Ronaldo, so I see him up there challenging for POTY. I hope Fergie can get the most out of Berbatov this season too. Not sure how many subs you can make in the Community Shield but I'd like to see Macheda and/or Michael Owen get a run out.

get with the programme james, the season has already started with the Sheff Utd/Boro game on friday!

the Community (Charity) Shield is really only important if your team are in it and win it, other wise its just another preseason run out really. I agree on Rooney, i think he'll have a great season and go into the World Cup in good form and i also think Anderson will be much improved this season. I think we'll see a bit more of Welbeck and Gibson too and both are exciting youngsters. With all that said though, i actually think Chelsea are the team to beat this year. I think it'll be them and United battling it out for top spot and Arsenal/Liverpool battling for 3rd. I think Man City will finish 6th.

I'm actually a lot more confident for Newcastle after watching the West Brom match. Just need the transfer window to close so we dont lose more.
Also, we are the ONLY league club in England to have no brought in ONE player.

What happened with Barton? Rumours that he walked out the day before the game? I'm amazed he's still at your club actually, get rid of that loser.

qft. i am amazed that any club want him, horrible human being. i would hate it if he were at Arsenal or Brentford.

Not sure what happened. Hughton claims nothing and made a vague comment like "you have to get used to rumours at Newcastle"

Hes a scumbag, I'm also amazed hes still there, if Shearer gets in, hes out but lets not get into a list of things at Newcastle that amaze me, could be a while.

I don't feel like reading so when do we have to have our lineups filled out?

pretty obvious since you're in the wrong thread. You can join at any stage in the league but to get a fair start you want your team made before Friday.

heh oops, yeah it's early.. I'll use that as my excuse

The League Cup could well be heading back to Anfield!

Just found out that I'll be getting ESPN free with the package I have (which will replace the shitty Setanta). I've also just found out how effing great ESPN is... It's HD, for starters, but along with the Premiership games they'll also be showing Serie A and Bundesliga along with other European leagues too. And then there's UFC of course, and American sports like baseball, hockey and basketball. There's probably other little gems too!

Made my day

Predictionés


Aston Villa 1 - 0 Wigan (I see Villa edging a scrappy win. Having lost Bruce and Valencia in the summer, I think Wigan will struggle a lot this season. They lost Palacios (sp?) and Heskey earlier in the year and managed quite well, but another relatively successful season I fear is beyond them. I'm surprised O'Neil hasn't made a few more signings in the summer to be honest... seemed like they had the perfect opp to build on last season's league position, but they'll be up there in the top 8 still)

Blackburn 2 - 2 Man City (I think City will start off slow this year. Terrible pre-season and haven't gelled yet.. could be red cards in this game too)

Bolton 1 - 2 Sunderland (Expectations quite high at Sunderland this year and I see them getting off to a good start under Steve Bruce, who I rate highly. Darren Bent could be the difference between a bottom 5, and a mid-table finish this season)

Chelsea 4 - 0 Hull (Goes without saying... I fear for Hull this season, it could all be very embarrassing for them)

Everton 1 - 0 Arsenal (I really admire Wenger, but he's pushing his transfer policy of selling before buying to the limits... They've lost 2 big name players in Adebayor and Toure, for £40m, and spent £10m on one centre back from Ajax who might be something of a gamble in the Prem. Eduardo is back though and Arshavin will continue to improve on his great start since January. Still not sure if Lescott will be staying at Everton this season after his transfer request, but he'll be playing tomorrow for them anyway. Hard to call, but I think Everton can edge this)

Man Utd 2 - 1 Birmingham (We'll win, but I think it'll be much tighter than expected. Up against a newly promoted side under a wiley manager.. We also have a few defensive injuries, one away from an injury crisis actually)

Portsmouth 0 - 2 Fulham (Fulham to get off to a good start. Fulham were basically the pound for pound champions last season, finishing 7th. Hodgson is doing great work there, and made some excellent signings... I expect another very impressive season. Portsmouth are in disaster by the looks of things. They've lost Crouch and Johnson and seem to be in decline)

Stoke 1 - 2 Burnley (Game of the weekend! Good opener for another newly promoted side. And I think they can take advantage of it.. one of the new sides will surely win their first match and I reckon it'll be Burnley)

Tottenham 2 - 2 Liverpool (Interesting. I think it might be quite an open match, especially with both teams having injury worries... I thought Gerrard missing the England match was bs, but apparently he might actually be injured! The new signing Aquilani is also injured. Another tough one, but I'm going with a disappointing start for Liverpool, and Tottenham over-performing slightly on the first day in front of their home fans. I think Crouch is a good signing for Spurs too, like him or not, he performs in the Premiership)

Wolves 0 - 2 West Ham (Another newly promoted side will be looking to get off to a good start, but Wolves have had a bad pre-season and West Ham look more and more assured under Zola)




Yeah... I was bored. Let's see how badly wrong I get this, it's always difficult predicting the first games of the season though because there's usually a couple of weird results and it's hard to predict how new signings etc will affect things.

I think Arsenal is going to do better than people think this year. Sure they lost Adebayor and Toure, but they are getting Eduardo back and Van Persie will step up and Bendtner is going to come into his own. Past that there Midfield is still dynamite and I think Arshavin and Fabregas are going to cause teams fits, and with such a quality midfield the strikers are going to get great service.

So excited to start watching games.

What's better than people think? I think they'll finish 4th... I do agree with everything you said, Arshavin, RVP and Fabregas are total class and they play beautiful football, but they're undeniably lightweight in terms of tough tackling midfielders, or one midfield general to take control. The same goes for their defence, it lacks leadership and strength. To win the Premiership (or even finish above Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool), they need to add to their squad in these areas in my opinion. There was talk of Viera coming back to Arsenal, which would have been a great signing, but that didn't happen.

Viera still might come, and Gallas is still a hell of a player. I think they are giong to challenge for the title this year, I think they finish top 3 for sure and possibly 1 or 2.

hahaha i picked them to go the two ball, chelsea one and zee gunners second. once their midfield gets settled, goodness gracious they might not even need a back line. solid start too

The 1st weekend was pretty good, except Liverpool. I keep finding myself wanting Man City to do well, yet when chelsea bought a ton of players, i wanted them to fail miserably, kinda wierd lol.

I think if any team is going to break into the top 4 it will be spurs, not just because they beat liverpool but because their squad looks pretty good and seems well balanced, and their manager is awesome. Very disappointed in everton though, i expected them to scrape a win vs arsenal.

not sure if anyone saw the crystal palace "goal" in the championship? but i thought that was pretty funny! how could a referee and the linesman and all of the officials not see it? rediculous imo, if they don't get to replay the game its a joke.

Modric is a pretty good fkn player, I think he is gonna do well for spurs and they have 3 fairly good strikers. If they build that team around Modric and let him be the maestro that team can go far, but I think its gonna be them and Man City fighting for 5th.

Yea Modric was like the second person put into my fantasy team.

Rumours Benitez has quit Liverpool.


edit - I think it's not true, after a search. It started on Talksport, then Paddy Power suspended bets on Rafa leaving which fueled a quick rumour. Hmm, the internet.

that would be huge but with their midfield depth i'm not sure anyone else could do better.

on an unrelated note, the spl really isnt all that great. arsenal pretty much strolled to a 2-0 victory at celtic park yesterday - albeit with a couple of luckyish goals but they were pretty much dominant from about 10 minutes in

what a strike by blake...1-0 burnley

Yeah great.


fml

feels like our D misses Vidic a lot.

ks;jfalkjsdf;iasdf;jaklsdf, carrick gets his penalty try stuffed...

It was a decent penalty too, just a good save.


I think it's pretty obvious that we need some pace to worry Burnley defenders, so get Valencia on.. and obviously get the Berb on too, for me. I think he'd score, definately. Without a doubt. Yeah.

fail. sigh.

robbieblakaldo

weeeeeeeee

Yeh 2 fluke goals, the gulf in class was so obvious.

I'm aware the SPL is pish but aside from probably 6 clubs in England the Prem ain't all that! Cetic put up more of a fight than Everton anyway!

burnley

QFT on gulf being obvious but for Scotlands population the SPL is quite impressive.

Rumor is Ferguson is out at Man U.



Had to be done.

dink whats your name in the league? Just so I know who I have to spite sweat.