Football The 2011/2012 Season Thread

[megadave]

What's messi's stats? I read that he's been involved in over 100 goals so that must be a pretty hefty percentage

 

[cHodAX]

Grasping for straws Cho?

See, if you read more you would know I have been posting about the reserves since I returned a couple of months ago.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

What's messi's stats? I read that he's been involved in over 100 goals so that must be a pretty hefty percentage

100 - Messi was involved in 100 of Barça’s 185 goals this season: he scored 72 goals and recorded 28 assists. So that's 54.1%.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Longest current unbeaten streaks in Europe's top 5 leagues: Juventus 37 games, Borussia Dortmund 28, Real Madrid 22, Everton 8, Bologna 7.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

There have been 99 penalties in the Premier League this season – 71 scored and 28 missed. 72% conversion ratio, which is a fair bit lower than the traditional ~80%.

 

[megadave]

it was terrible at the start of the season

 

[Billargh]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18042404

Get in there Pardew, definitely deserved.

 

[gohan]

biggest game of our history part 1 part 2 and 3 surely to follow soon

 

[Shagrat]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18042404

Get in there Pardew, definitely deserved.

totally agree, he's done a great job this season. One last push this weekend

 

[Gray]

Can't happen i'm sorry.

No way can we be letting fucking Liverpool top us now, not in the final fucking game of the season. Still i'm hoping Swansea knock shit out of them just incase.

 

[Deebs]

Can't happen i'm sorry.

No way can we be letting fucking Liverpool top us now, not in the final fucking game of the season. Still i'm hoping Swansea knock shit out of them just incase.

I will fix that for you, Lollerpool. Thanks.

 

[cHodAX]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-18033018

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has been given the go-ahead to build a £20m hotel near Old Trafford, despite objections from his former club. Mr Neville planned to build the 139-bed hotel and supporters club with proceeds from his testimonial match last year. Man Utd objected, claiming the scheme on the site of a former lard factory undermined the "holistic vision" of its "strategic plan" for the area. However, councillors in Trafford have approved the former right back's plans.

A club spokesman said it was "disappointed" with the result. Mr Neville said: "The hard work begins now to deliver this exciting project and development to the fans." When he announced the project, to be sited on the corner of Wharfside Way and Sir Matt Busby Way, he said he wanted to do "something special for the fans". Last year the football club's chief operating officer Michael Bolingbroke, said: "This is a very exciting project and the club wishes Gary every success with it."
But the club later lodged a major objection to the project in which it claimed: "MUFC have a strategic plan for the continuing enhancement of the area surrounding the stadium and this holistic vision includes hospitality, conference, retail and visitor facilities. "The provision of third party facilities such as those proposed could undermine this vision to the detriment of its deliverability." Building work is expected to start in January 2013 with the hotel open for the 2014-15 season.

God bless ya GNev, one in the eye for that greedy ginger yank midget!

 

[Bahumat]

Go get 'em Nev!

 

[cHodAX]

Go get 'em Nev!

Is going to be a proper supporters venue as well, not some corporate shite for the prawners.

 

[Billargh]

totally agree, he's done a great job this season. One last push this weekend

Regardless of whether we win or lose, we've had an incredible season! Everton's gonna be a solid game like, would be great if we could come away with some points. And Grey, believe it or not, we don't care about the Mersey rivalry, we've already hammered Sunderland this season!

 

[megadave]

United were named Premier Reserves League North champions a few weeks before the end of the season after coming back from 3-0 down to win 6-3 away to Newcastle last month.

Looks like the reserve league will be gone in a few years

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-u21s-league-to-replace-reserves-7622226.html

The Premier League is to re-launch the current reserve team competitions as a national under-21s league, to provide game time for elite young players who are languishing on the bench, The Independent has learned.

The League's 20 clubs have agreed that games in the new Premier League Reserve League will take place at weekends and may shadow those between the first teams where possible. But they will come after Premier League matches, allowing those players who have made the bench in the elite division, but gained little or no playing time, the opportunity to play in a high-quality second-string game. The new league seems likely to be fully established for the 2013/14 season, rather than this August – because the clubs are yet to agree on how many over-age players each side should be allowed to field, ensuring the league offers a means of older players returning to full fitness.

The new league aims to resolve a critical problem in the English game, of the best young talent getting minimal competitive football in squads packed with expensive acquisitions. "By the time I came through the non-league system I'd not received that much coaching but I had 250 games behind me," said England's caretaker manager and under-21 manager Stuart Pearce. "Too many of my players at under-21 level haven't had enough game time. Of that squad I may only have had eight or nine who played on the Saturday. Now that's a crying shame."

The Independent can reveal that a national under-18 league is also to be established for all Premier League and Football League clubs which attain Category 1 status – the highest grading under the new Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) – in another attempt to better develop young players.

It is unclear whether the under-21 league, which clubs with a Category 1 youth development grading under EPPP will join, will carry any commercial opportunities, though there may be some prospect of that if adequate interest is kindled in a competition which could give, for example, Chelsea's Josh McEachran or Liverpool's Raheem Sterling game time they might otherwise miss on a bench the day before.

The current Premier Reserve League is split into a northern and southern division but four clubs – Manchester City, QPR, Stoke and Tottenham – do not field sides, and the competition has certainly faded badly since Kevin Keegan dealt it a significant blow by removing Newcastle United in the mid-1990s. Its inadequacy for player development was highlighted in January when Andre Villas Boas, then Chelsea manager, suggested Premier League clubs should be allowed to field reserve sides in the Football League. The Football League called this "offensive", but Everton manager David Moyes has since disclosed that he was thwarted in his own plan to play an Everton 'B' team in the Football Conference in an attempt to upgrade competitive levels for his young players. Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has also said he is "looking closely" at the wisdom of continuing with the Reserve League in its current format.

There is also dissatisfaction among clubs with stronger youth set-ups at the standard of under-18s opposition. The success of last season's Under-19s European NextGen tournament, in which Internazionale defeated Liverpool's semi-final opponents Ajax in the final at Leyton Orient, has proved the value of elite opposition. Manchester City's intention to compete again next year is based on their belief that the experience of overseas travel to play and encounter different systems have been invaluable.

The new national under-18s league will provide better competition for top youth sides on a more regular basis. Damien Comolli, director of football at Liverpool – whose 6-0 home defeat to Ajax in the NextGen semi-final revealed a gulf in class – told the LFC Magazine last week that "we want to play against the best". He said: "From day one we have told the Premier League the principle of the best against the best, and playing and training with the best will get our backing. Recently, we played against Manchester United in the under-15s and it was technically a very good game with a high quality of football played."

In France, reserve teams may enter the professional pyramid and play as high as the fourth tier – England's League Two – and although that seems unworkable in England, the former France technical director Gerard Houllier is among those urging changes. "In England you lose a lot of players between 18 and 21," he said. "The two countries who are failing are England and Italy. I knew one or two players [when manager] at Aston Villa who did not have enough games to play at the top level. Between 18 and 20 there is nothing. In France when they don't play on a Saturday, they can play for the reserves the next day."

 

[cHodAX]

It's a good idea, hope it takes off.

 

[Shagrat]

yep seems sensible

 

[Shagrat]

also with the euros coming.

HOW THE FUCK DID YOU MISS THIS GASCOIGNE!!!!!!! still makes my blood boil, thanks to football focus for fucking reminding me AGAIN


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anlX9QIpT14

 

[Olgaline]

Funny thought, that the likes of Bendter can decide the title this year ;P

 

[Olgaline]

 

[Keitanz]

Looks like there's a high chance of Man Utd buying Kagawara this summer.. he's been to see a few of his games.

 

[Keitanz]

35 goals in 38 for Jordan Rhodes.. insane... would be a decent buy for a newly promoted Prem team..

 

[Aoami]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18033752

any fucking excuse

 

[Aoami]

Looks like there's a high chance of Man Utd buying Kagawara this summer.. he's been to see a few of his games.

probably means park is moving on then and united need a new asian to placate the 'locals'

 

[Embattle]

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896...sk-ferdinand-to-take-massive-pay-cut-as-talks-

 

[Bahumat]

Lovely goal by Ribery
http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/great-feet-franck-ribery-v-borussia-dortmund/

 

[Vladamir]

Well he won't be scoring any like that next weekend, he won't need half as much skill to get past Bosingwa aind Essien at centre half D:

 

[Keitanz]

I have such a bad feeling about the next 2 hours..

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Why? Your team have nothing to play for.