TBH my views can be summed up in the following way:

Football fans should just grow up and start acting like the grown adults they are.

Only in an ideal world unfortunately.

What about the referees? They get 3x the abuse of the players get as they are getting from both sets of fans and the players/team staff! And they get paid peanuts but it's part of the job so they get on with it. Why can't the millionaire playboys?

If I were a professional footballer I'd take all the abuse they can give me, it's quite endearing to see a player take abuse in good humour. I remember Alan Main (former St Johnstone keeper) having to hear "Alan Main, alky dad!" being chanted for 90 minutes and he just turned and gave a "drink up gesture" then made a great save and held his hand to his ear as the fans when silent. Great banter.

As for your point about the City kid celebrating like Adebayor, why on earth would he feel the need to run 90 yards to rile Arsenal fans? I think the fans would just be confused and think "who is this kid?". And it would be equally stupid.

I know, I just can't help but imagine.


You've kinda got me there because hating the ref is universal and there's no way he can respond. There's no way he can gloat about making a good decision, although that would potentially be hilarious.


Technically that's incitement though, isn't it? You're calling one of them great banter, and the other is incitement but there's very little practical difference, other than how the fans respond to it. If those fans had got angry would he have been in trouble for inciting them?

I know there's a difference between banter and anger, I just think that the line being drawn is somewhat arbitrary and the punishment is based on the fans reactions rather than the player's actions. I guess essentially it's results based thinking.


I said if he had been abused like Ade was. It's an unlikely scenario but it was just to make a point. The size of their contract should have no bearing on how they are allowed to respond to fans given the same provocation.

No, because the fans were behind Main's goal making jokes about the man's alcoholic father. He didn't run the length of the pitch to get in their face. He only needed to turn around, in that case the fans were 100% wrong and if he had reacted it would have been fine (imo). Although he probably would have been punished by the SFA.



Again, a City academy kid isn't going to be abused by Arsenal fans for the reasons Adebayor was. Ex player, making comments about his former employers. So I think it's a moot point. If he was being abused racially then he would have a case.

Also, if Adebayor wants to celebrate a goal for his new employers why go wind up his old fans instead of celebrating with his new adoring public, who were much more handily located.

Ok then, make it racial abuse for example. Does it then make a difference how much they are paid? Should a 100k a week player shrug off racist abuse because he's rich whereas a £200 a week player can 'get away' with reacting?

Adebayor got some abuse because of the way he acted when he was at Arsenal primarily and then condoned it with his disrespectful performance - standing in the Arsenal half during warm-up, standing on Fabregas' ankle, raking RVP's face and the celebration after the goal.

Whilst at Arsenal, he was constantly saying one thing 'I am committed to Arsenal', whilst doing another - instucting his agent to get him a move to AC Milan, allegedly threatening to boycott training unless he was given a new contract, etc. He also believed he was a lot better than he was but was not backing this up with his performances, particularly last year. Then there is the Bendtner incident, 'i'm only on this pitch because you're so shit'.

When you combine the ways he behaved, i think the fans who have to pay £1000 a year for an Arsenal season ticket (plus the travelling costs and extras for away games) have the right to give him a piece of their mind (obv no racism). If he wanted respect, he should have shown some in the first place. His celebration shows what sort of a character he is and in my opinion he should get a 5 game ban - 3 for the RVP incident and 2 for the celebration.

Oh wow, this would be the best thing ever to happen to football. I can imagine Mike Riley knee sliding in front of the Liverpool fans after he awards Rooney a correct penalty decision.


As for the Adebayor saga, I really didn't give much thought to him running over to the fans. He was getting abused, he ran to celebrate in front of them. My first reaction was kind of, 'so what? they give it out, he gave it back'.


Deliberately kicking a fellow professional in the face however, shows the depth of the man in my opinion.

so for all of you that follow the prem, i implore you to do the predictions on our site. a kit selling site was interested in advertising with us, and I mentioned that we would love to have them sponsor our prem picking competition, and they are thinking about it. so if we can get a bunch of people to pick games for the next couple weeks, hopefully we can give away a free kit in each month following to whoever does the best over the month. def a huge value for those of you who would be picking. we should have our prediction post up tomorrow, I will let you know when it goes up.

i'd be keen, do we have to write an explanation for each pick, and when do they need to be in by?

No, you don't have to.



I'm gonna nail it this week, 10 perfect scores on the way!

I'll try and write some picks in the next few weeks.

Off topic I just got tickets to see TFC vs LA Galaxy with a debut for Julian Deguzman!! TFC TFC!!!

dude, that is so sick. should be a great game

if you want to get in on picks, do it here, no need for explanation unless you want to
http://www.constantlyoffside.com/Articles/...Predictions.php

Just caught my first premiership game on ESPN2 HD instead of the regular FoxSoccerChannel...much, much better than FSC's grainy picture.

Anyone watch the United - City match? What a game...

I thought Ferdinand had thrown it away, but Owen pops up with a super late winner. We totally deserved it though, and were easily the better side. Giggs and Fletcher had great performances.


Wow. Phew... GET IN!!!

Would have been the most one sided 3-3 ever if we didn't get that late winner Fletcher has really improved the last few seasons and Giggs was man of the match imo, hard to believe he is 35 and putting in performances like that on the wing.

The Scouse whinge if we had got a winner like that against them would have been of epic proportions.

aplus american soccer coverage, obv they dont show it. bummer.

so get your picks in for this week!

http://www.constantlyoffside.com/Articles/...Predictions.php

Giggs is world class

Yeah, after Ronaldo left it's good to be able to bring in fresh talent. Luckily, this Giggs chap seems to be an exciting young prospect. I think he'll do well at the club.

yeah, Giggs seems like he will probably be with the club for another decade. he seems to be off to a good start with the club.

deadline to get your picks in is less then 12 hours, do it now!

WIGAN!!!

Who's top of the league now anyway? I haven't checked.

Clue: Its not Chelsea or Liverpool

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/t...ity/8261689.stm

oops, meant to post this in the Fantasy thread.

GET IN

http://www.constantlyoffside.com/Articles/...Predictions.php

beat us if you can.

trust me, you can.

come on you slackers. it takes a whole ten mins and i know you are all watching the games anyway. get in so you can talk some trash on the site.

last chance to get your picks in before games start! gogogogogogo

I'll be in for next week.

Will ship to DinkDonk ASAP. But not in for October.

Hey, I just read your article talking about Ferguson complaining about referees, rather than his own team. You're right he does that, but with very good reason. It deflects criticism away from the team's performance in the press, which in turn can affect team confidence. He'd rather the papers talk about his opinions on referees than a bad performance or even a bad team selection. There's also the chance that it may help in the future to have decisions go his way (although this is laughably over-hyped, imo. People now have it in their heads that United are favoured by refs though, so there's nothing that can be done about that).

Please don't believe that he genuinely blames the ref if things go wrong. Of course, we don't see what happens behind the scenes at OT when the cameras arn't rolling, but I assure you he'll be laying into any player he thinks deserves it. He doesn't go back to training and tell them not to worry about their performance, because it was all the ref's fault.


This is why you'll never get your wish of seeing him not blaming outside influences if United drop points. It may not be pretty, it may even lack some class if you like, but it breeds success. Manchester United under SAF are living proof of that. There's also a case that his complaints about refs are much more highlighted than other managers. If you listen to most losing teams' managers being interviewed after games, the majority these days have some sort of complaint about the ref.


You said we've had 3 results this season that we didn't deserve. I've been racking my brains to think which 3 they are? I assume you mean the point against Sunderland and maybe the win against Arsenal? (which would be harsh, but ok). I can't think of the third.



One more point... about Burnley. They won't be anywhere near the top 10 come the end of the season I'm afraid. Anything above the bottom 3 will be a hugely succesful season for them.

Burnley to remain undefeated at home for the season? That, friends, would be a miracle indeed.

Quite a few teams have got off to a solid start (Sunderland, Stoke City and Wigan come immediately to mind, although Bolton and Birmingham seem capable of putting up the W's). Will Everton's good start last? Will Darren Bent be a season long beast? Can Aston Villa maintain the pace of the top 8-10?

Tottenham and Man City seem well prepared to battle for a top 4 spot all season long, which makes things quite exciting. It'll likely come down to the two front runners, however, when April/May rolls around, with Chelsea holding up.

Who knows, though...Good season so far.

oh i know he isnt blaming the refs, but it is annoying. and im kinda tired of hearing about it. especially from someone like him that could just say, we didnt deliver, we will get better. three points would be one from sunderland and two from Arsenal instead of the draw. i have nothing against united, just dont think theyve got it this year. i think both united and chelsea have benefitted from refs this year one way or another. and i agree kinda about burnley. i think they will pull a hull. but still, i can kinda see anyone ending up anywhere. a lot of parity towards the top.

hahaa. soccer.

?

Quiz question.

Who was the first Italian to play in the Premiership?

Try and answer without looking it up.

Without looking it up, I remember it was a striker who had a really big nose.. I can picture him, but I can't for the life of me remember his name. I can't remember who he signed for either, but it was a mid table type team. There was a fair amount of hype at the time, I recall, but he failed pretty miserably.


Ravanelli must have been one of the first 2 or 3 Italians to play in the Premiership too.

Toughie. My early Premiership knowledge isn't great but I'd be guessing at guys like;

Carbone - Wednesday?

Zola? But that seems obvious.

Emile Zola was French, silly.

I think it was a guy named Scoreggia

I think it was the guy who played for Nottingham Forest, Silenzi or something like that. I only remember as 442 had a feature about him being an Italian international. The key bit being on the lines, "If he was an Italian international then every other Italian footballer must have been injured".

ding ding ding. we have a winner.

next question.

which player has scored a hat trick in the premiership, championship, league 1, league 2, fa cup, league cup, football league trophy and international level?

That's the guy I was thinking of.



lol, I have no clue but whoever it is, that's a hell of a record.

Alan Shearer? Blackburn and Newcastle both had success on a league and international level, didn't they?

lol...looked it up and it's not Shearer. Allow me to give a hint: He was not selected in the FCP all-time Premiership draft (as far as I recall)


(my post was a joke, but no one's going to get it: Scoreggia is Italian for 'fart')

Teddy Sheringham?

I was giving this some thought driving home from work. It has to be someone who has had longevity or come up through the ranks (which is quite un common now). The names that were flowing through my head were names like,

Teddy Sheringham - I don't think he played as low as the league 2
Tony Cottee - He played in all the divisions but I can remember him scoring a hatrick for England
Bobby Zamora - Scored a shed load of goal for Brighton in the lower leagues
Les Ferdinand - Started at Brentford and definately scored a few hat tricks
Ian Wright - Started off at the very bottom, scored a hatrick for England against San Marino and did wind his way through a few clubs near the end.

But the player I'm going for is Rob Earnshaw, he scored a hatrick against Scotland (I watched it on the telly and was mortified that we got beat 4-0 by Wales) and scored loads of goal for Cardiff in the lower league and got a hatrick against Charlton in the Premier League. (Not sure about the cups though)

ding ding ding. we have another winner. earnshaw is a goal machine. fwiw, by all accounts Ferdinand was absolutely absymal at Brentford and it was a huge shock to all at the club when he became a prolific goal scorer.

next question:

which player has played in the Premiership, Championship, League 1 and League plus International, Champions League and UEFA Cup?

Its not Earnshaw.

Teddy Sheringham?



Looks like he's gotta be the answer to one of these sooner or later.

better late then never
http://www.constantlyoffside.com/Articles/...Predictions.php

Liverpool


Great goal by Bent today... nice assist by a balloon too.

i'm gutted, i had the balloon on the bench in my fantasy team - missed out on the assist points!

arsenal and utd for the title now.