Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Mar 09, 2014 6:53 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

Not sure where the bottling bit comes into it,

They just got beat at home in the FA Cup to a Championship side. The same side that turned them over in last years FA Cup Final. If you don't think that losing twice to Wigan Athletic is bottling then I don't know what the hell is.

but for me it proves what I have thought all season and that is there is no one outstanding side in the league....

Man City have an outstanding squad. But what they also have is a group of chancers running the club who think they are far smarter than they are. They think that because they appointed Pep Guadiola at Barca they know what they are doing. They think they can pluck out someone who'd won an Inter Toto Cup in 10 years in Europe and he's going to be a great appointment for a massive job.

So then when things are looking good everyone talks about how Barca will be scared of facing Citeh. Kompany talks of a quadruple being inevitable in the future. And then they get brushed aside by Barca and turned over again by Wigan.

I think European results have proved we are a country mile behind the best sides in Europe and no disrespect to Liverpool, but the fact they have gone from being a mid table side, to one which is in with a very good chance of winning the Premier League, shows that our standards continue to slip.

But they don't have a very good chance. They've just managed to inflate their expectations in March instead of August to November. Their expectations are still going to get burst though.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:45 pm  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

But they don't have a very good chance. They've just managed to inflate their expectations in March instead of August to November. Their expectations are still going to get burst though.

I think there will be plenty of Liverpool fans biting their tongues and saving this little nugget for the end of the season...

To say they don't have a very good chance at present is absolute nonsense - At the moment, of all the sides in the league, they are looking the most convincing and playing the best football.

I agree they will probably fall short, but the fact they have come from being almost mid table to serious title challengers just emphasises my original point that the sides at the top of the table are slipping backwards, allowing others to catch up - It also explains Arsenal's league improvement this season too. They are little better than the last few years, its just no one side has been good enough to run away from the chasing pack.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:08 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

I agree they will probably fall short, but the fact they have come from being almost mid table to serious title challengers just emphasises my original point that the sides at the top of the table are slipping backwards, allowing others to catch up - It also explains Arsenal's league improvement this season too. They are little better than the last few years, its just no one side has been good enough to run away from the chasing pack.

They weren't almost mid table last season, they were 7th.

Liverpool have pretty much overtaken Everton, Tottenham and Man United this season to join Arsenal in the race for 3rd place.

Man United have dropped like a stone because of the loss of Fergie. Everton have brought in a new manager, and Tottenham lost Bale, spent 100m on new players, sacked their manager and appointed the nearest idiot who insisted he get the job.

They have improved, but their main improvements are simply the improvements in Suarez and Sturridge and their successful partnership with the kid up front. They have benefited by not having any European commitments (they had 12 EL games last season).

They are not serious title candidates, just like Arsenal never were. They'll probably lose at Old Trafford next week just like they've lost away at every big side they've faced.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:47 pm  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

They weren't almost mid table last season, they were 7th.

..... How many teams are in the league??.... I reckon 7th made them more 'almost mid table' than almost top of the table??....

Also I loved your attempt at Mourinho-style bull$h!t psychology earlier, when you tried to build City up as some sort of under-achieving-should-be certainties-for the-title side, thus deflecting any criticism from Jose if they should take the title ahead of him, even though Chelsea's squad is as expensively assembled as City's....

I actually like Jose in a funny-little-foreigner sort of way, but I must admit the thought of Chelsea winning this year's title and having to put up with the guy proclaiming all his little horse nonsense again, could be a tad unbearable...

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sun Mar 09, 2014 11:48 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

:lol: ..... How many teams are in the league??.... I reckon 7th made them more 'almost mid table' than almost top of the table??....

You're making out that Liverpool have made a huge jump between "almost mid table" to "serious title challengers". I'm saying they simply haven't made that big a jump.

Dalglish got them to 8th in the league, but won the League Cup and reached the FA Cup final. He got sacked.

Rodgers then got Liverpool to 7th in the league, but did FA in any cups.

This season they have done FA in the cups again, but are presently 2nd in the league. That 2nd position is pretty much a false position because City have two games in hand on them. So they are joint 3rd and are most likely to be in a fight for 3rd or 4th than going for the title. But because they're suddenly 2nd in the league the scousers are getting extra giddy about it and making out that Rodgers is some managerial genius when the truth is that he's just done a decent job and accepted the good fortune of having Suarez and Sturridge in his side.

Also I loved your attempt at Mourinho-style bull$h!t psychology earlier, when you tried to build City up as some sort of under-achieving-should-be certainties-for the-title side, thus deflecting any criticism from Jose if they should take the title ahead of him, even though Chelsea's squad is as expensively assembled as City's....

For the money they have spent, with the side they have, 1 title, 1 FA Cup and a League Cup is an utterly pathetic return.

If anything my calling them out on being such bottlers because they keep getting beat by Wigan Pathetic clearly puts more pressure on me if they were to pip us for the title. I make no prediction on whether we'll win the league or not. I was just peed off this afternoon because the bottling Mancs went out of the FA Cup and have now virtually guaranteed Wenger the FA Cup. I wanted Man City to win the cup simply to stop Wenger getting it. But City bottled it again so I called them out as the bottlers they are.

I actually like Jose in a funny-little-foreigner sort of way, but I must admit the thought of Chelsea winning this year's title and having to put up with the guy proclaiming all his little horse nonsense again, could be a tad unbearable...

No team with Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto'o and Demba Ba as the three strikers should ever win a league title in England. Our strike force doesn't even come close to comparing to Citeh, Man Utd or Liverpool. Mintball was pretty much saying that Dzeko's not good enough for Citeh and will be out at the end of this season. Dzeko's record is pretty much the same as Eto'o's, our best performing striker.

I didn't like Jose's comments about the little horses. I thought he was totally out of order to be saying to one of the sponsors that we don't have any strikers and Falcao doesn't have a club. But the truth is that compared to nearly every other top side our strikers are complete donkeys.

I think our squad is pretty much top 3 or 4. I think our manager is number 1. Our strikeforce is worthy of a 7th or 8th place side. I think if we had Pellegrini or Moyes in charge this season, they'd have been fired already. If Mourinho had the Man City job they'd be already marching to the title. If Mourinho had the United job he'd probably be in the title chase while making huge changes that they need.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:09 pm  

Hard to believe that a Europa league spot is down to a fight between Hull City, Wigan Athletic (for a 2nd consecutive year), and Sheffield Utd, barring an Arsenal collapse in the league.

And is it possible that we might yet see an FA Cup Final without a Premier League team? Surely unthinkable, but then so have been most of Wigan's FA Cup results over the last 2 seasons.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Tue Mar 11, 2014 1:27 pm  

carl_spackler wrote:

Hard to believe that a Europa league spot is down to a fight between Hull City, Wigan Athletic (for a 2nd consecutive year), and Sheffield Utd, barring an Arsenal collapse in the league.

And is it possible that we might yet see an FA Cup Final without a Premier League team? Surely unthinkable, but then so have been most of Wigan's FA Cup results over the last 2 seasons.

What is more amazing is that Allam predicted Premier league football.............12 months later there they are.
He predicted Premier league survival...............Looking highly likely.
He predicted European football...............Looking at who's left you have to say there is high probability.

If he gave me 6 numbers I would be tempted to stick a couple of quid on it.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:32 pm  

Anakin Skywalker wrote:

What is more amazing is that Allam predicted Premier league football.............12 months later there they are.
He predicted Premier league survival...............Looking highly likely.
He predicted European football...............Looking at who's left you have to say there is high probability.

If he gave me 6 numbers I would be tempted to stick a couple of quid on it.

Only problem is, the Europa League is a unneeded distraction for clubs like Hull.... Even as a fan of a more established Premier League side (Everton), I'm not too thrilled at the possibility of qualifying for next season's competition - I think you'd probably find even Man United would prefer to finish 7th, if they aren't going to make the top 4.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:36 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

Only problem is, the Europa League is a unneeded distraction for clubs like Hull.... Even as a fan of a more established Premier League side (Everton), I'm not too thrilled at the possibility of qualifying for next season's competition - I think you'd probably find even Man United would prefer to finish 7th, if they aren't going to make the top 4.

Oh I get that my point was that he has been slated as a loon but he has pretty much got it spot on.
In fact it's almost a 'Prophet, Massiah or loon?' situation so unerring has he been with his predictions.
If I were a CTID member I would be worried that he has got that spot on as well.

I will say though that if it comes off then being able to offer Premier league footy and European footy surely makes it easier to attract players than just being able to offer Premier league footy.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:40 pm  

Anakin Skywalker wrote:

Oh I get that my point was that he has been slated as a loon but he has pretty much got it spot on.

He's been slated as a loon because he's acted like a tvvatish loon over the name of the club.