Football Thread (formally Soccer Thread)

[R3DM@N]

yeah seen that henno crack up! hahahha

[Thetruereddevil]

CHICHARITO!!!

Fuck that was a long 83 minutes.....

[Spork]

Haha, god damn Toffees, just can't stick to it can they.

[Thetruereddevil]

21 shots to five, they spent like 4 minutes in our defensive third or something pathetic like that....

by no means our best performance but you gotta win those ones, and they did

[R3DM@N]

Good work Chelsea, Torres you scored - you can start your scoreless run again haha.
Altho i hope the floodgates open at the right end of the season

[Spork]

Torres scored, liverpool scored 5 (Maxi hattrick).. I'm thinking that Arsenal might even be able to scrape a win tonight..

[R3DM@N]

Agreed Spork, then we both take Man U by storm..then its game on!

[Spork]

inb4 redman jizzgasms all over the place.

Sturrige has been awesome so far, him and Wilshire are by far the best players on the pitch, funny how Bolton produced both of them.

Not even surprised by the result so far, usual Arsenal, I didn't know what I was seeing when I was watching the game after the Bolton goal, we actually looked dominant, and as if we could score in any one of our attempts and came within inches of doing so.

Oh yea, usual stuff Bolton should have had 800 red cards, ref is corrupt blah blah blah.

[Spork]

my arms, they are like gumbi.

^ lol.

I'm as much of a crackpot as Arsene. If I see that bloke at Arsenal next season... Well It will be another season of torture.

[SteddieEddie]

Oh dear Spork, that is a shame.

Strange end to the season this year

[maorifulla]

oh man poor arsenal

my dad will be shattered

[JuDgE MenTaL]

Just beat the Mancs at your place, you can do that, right? If the Toffee's can nearly hold them, you can beat them. Especially as they will have big Champions league games either side. Go Arsenal!

[Zenith]

Bolton are not that badly placed on the table, well done to them anyway.  
An tomorrow hopefully Blackburn can smash Man City.

Just looking at the games coming up, final round looks pretty meh.  Biggest games will be for Relegation, thou I guess an upset victory over the 3,4,5th place could decide a CL spot.

[R3DM@N]

Sturridge!!!! BL Arsenal :/ Just beat Man U haha.

Smash Man City!

[Thetruereddevil]

well well, that was a bit of a surprise....

BL arsenal

[Spork]

what surprise?

[Thetruereddevil]

what surprise?

Bolton backed up after their 5-0 drubbing to the mighty stoke...

[Spork]

Bolton backed up after their 5-0 drubbing to the mighty stoke...

Oh, right yea fair enough. I was definitely not surprised by Arsenal losing, although I was thinking it'd go for a draw so that mad professor bloke could say 'Oh but we are 16 games unbeaten!!!111'

[Wandarah]

Shut up Shut Up Shut Up Shut Up Shut Up Shut Up LA LA LA LA LA LAA FUCJK FUCKFUFKKCUFKCKC

[JuDgE MenTaL]

So, I take it Arsene will go? Not the first time you've watched as a title lead has slipped away. Who do you replace him with though? Mick McCarthy might be keen when Wolves go down



It's a terrible result for us, needed you to go hard against the Mancs on Sunday.

[SteddieEddie]

Yeah I was hoping the arse could help us out and beat manu but with the way they are going can't see it happening.

Still they way all the top 4 teams are playing the title is still wide open

[Wandarah]

Title lead? I don't think our title lead faded away. We've been chasing the majority of the season. The lead you talk about, that was, well...yours, wasn't it?

I don't think Arsene will go. God, it's a huge fucking subject - and frankly, you're a horrible twisted bastard so I refuse to discuss it. Hmmf.

[JuDgE MenTaL]

Title lead? I don't think our title lead faded away. We've been chasing the majority of the season. The lead you talk about, that was, well...yours, wasn't it?

I don't think Arsene will go. God, it's a huge $#@!ing subject - and frankly, you're a horrible twisted bastard so I refuse to discuss it. Hmmf.

haha fair call, I just meant you were in with a good shout this time (I'm sure you lead briefly earlier on though), yea we fell to bits for sure but usually our manager doesn't get the chance to ride the storm, although Carlo may yet do enough. I'm talking a few seasons ago when you were cruising and then choked and everyone said "yea but they're a young team, young team".
 
To give Arsenal credit, they've backed him well enough and he's spent no money (wehn compared to others *ahem*). I wish Chelsea would do more of that, I really do. I just think that his times up, he should be delivering, something. It even looks like it's getting to him far more than ever before.

[Wandarah]

This year was the year for me.

I think most Arse Fans knew chances for trophies would be tight for 2-4 years, when we dismantled the team and moved to Ashburton Grove. That has been done, and so from that perspective, while keeping the operating costs of the club in the black, and servicing the debt beyond the requirements AS WELL as continually qualifying for the Champions League with the team we've had is a stand out fucking job. We even challenged in 2007/2008, and have had two Carling Cup finals, a few CL semi's and some decent FA cup runs along the way - DESPITE the Manager acknowledging we probably didn't have the quality or depth in the first team to compete on all fronts. So much of that has been done with quite a few reserve team players making names, and careers (in or out of the club) for themselves.

All of that is excellent, and I seriously doubt many other managers could've done the same all things considered.

Last year though, the club made decent bucks from selling two of it's high-profile players. Some of that, I'm sure, went to service debt, and some of that went on a couple of new players. Despite the money not going to positions where most fans thought we needed to strengthen. We were still, for large amounts of the season playing Almunia in goal for instance, and that cost us points. We were, at one point too, playing without enough backup at Centreback, and the quality of the CB's themselves weren't up to scratch. We didn't and still don't have decent cover at DM, or even better, a super-quality DM. Many of those things have cost us.

Now, we're left with young players on high wages who have benefited from the belief and trust placed in them by the Manager. Some of those players clearly don't deserve that trust, and despite what he says in public - I'm sure (I hope) that he'll be working on getting those that have underperformed out of the club. Regardless, this really was the season where we should've done more - if anything though, we appear to have stalled, or gone backwards. Tactics are static, Defensive mistakes are rife - and the great 'mental strength' we hear so much about is clearly nowhere to be seen.

We've got a bunch of players who have been given everything too early, and now it'd seem some of them don't feel like they need to try - and frankly, if there isn't 3-4 of them gone this summer, that'll be the message management continues to send.

It must be absolutely gutting for him - but yeah, now change either in philosophy, or dare I whisper it, Manager is required. Me - I'd give him one more year. I said that last year though, too.

[Spork]

I am more than happy for AW to stay at the grove for the rest of his life, however not when he is so stubborn that he never changes his tactics.

Also, you did mention in Wandy, but we were playing with Campbell and Silvestre as a CB pair, with Gibbs on the left. Arsha up top and Denilson in the middle for many of our games, it is surprising that we finished in the top half of the table let alone top four, however we have done that many seasons in a row, and no one likes stagnation, so we NEED improvement.